Xander: Am I right, Giles? Giles: I'm almost certain you're not. Though, to be fair, I haven't been listening.

'Sleeper'


Literary Buffistas 3: Don't Parse the Blurb, Dear.

There's more to life than watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer! No. Really, there is! Honestly! Here's a place for Buffistas to come and discuss what it is they're reading, their favorite authors and poets. "Geez. Crack a book sometime."


vw bug - Mar 09, 2007 5:51:38 am PST #2068 of 28175
Mostly lurking...

In reading that story, I also learned the word flaner, with a circumflex over the a, meaning to walk without a specific destination, just sort of absorbing the atmosphere. I haven't found a comparable word in English, yet.

Interesting. I'm lazy and don't often look up words I don't know. I usually just put them into context, which, yes, lazy. So, that's interesting to know.


Ginger - Mar 09, 2007 5:53:11 am PST #2069 of 28175
"It didn't taste good. It tasted soooo horrible. It tasted like....a vodka martini." - Matilda

William Wilson is predictable now because the doppelganger plot has been done a brazillion times since then. It's like Shakespeare is full of cliches.

Are you reading "Mask of the Red Death" or "The Fall of the House of Usher"?


vw bug - Mar 09, 2007 5:54:17 am PST #2070 of 28175
Mostly lurking...

Are you reading "Mask of the Red Death" or "The Fall of the House of Usher"?

Nope. Neither of those. Should I?


Ginger - Mar 09, 2007 5:56:58 am PST #2071 of 28175
"It didn't taste good. It tasted soooo horrible. It tasted like....a vodka martini." - Matilda

"Mast of the Red Death" is an allegory that still seems fresh to me, and "The Fall of the House of Usher" is cheesy fun. It's where all the overwrought Vincent Price horror movies came from.


vw bug - Mar 09, 2007 5:57:45 am PST #2072 of 28175
Mostly lurking...

Ah...will make note and read tonight before I return the book to the library.


Topic!Cindy - Mar 09, 2007 5:58:01 am PST #2073 of 28175
What is even happening?

In reading that story, I also learned the word flaner, with a circumflex over the a, meaning to walk without a specific destination, just sort of absorbing the atmosphere. I haven't found a comparable word in English, yet.

Amble? Not quite it, I guess.

Meander? Wander? Stroll? Ramble? Roam? Traipse? Saunter?

eta...

Rove?


Amy - Mar 09, 2007 6:02:37 am PST #2074 of 28175
Because books.

Meander is good!

I love words. Where is it they have, like, thirty different words for snow?


Dana - Mar 09, 2007 6:05:23 am PST #2075 of 28175
I'm terrifically busy with my ennui.

You could also read the Dupin stories, since Poe is often credited with inventing the modern detective story and many of its plots. "Murders in the Rue Morgue" is a locked-room mystery, "The Purloined Letter" is about hiding a clue in plain sight, etc.


Topic!Cindy - Mar 09, 2007 6:09:04 am PST #2076 of 28175
What is even happening?

I think the urban legend is about the Inuit, but the original number (whatever it was) was a gross exaggeration. I still like the the truthiness of it -- that a people will have a lot of specific terms for something that looms importantly in their collective experience. I riffed on that for my Nana's eulogy -- pre-Google -- so I unknowingly perpetuated the urban legend. Go me.


Amy - Mar 09, 2007 6:14:35 am PST #2077 of 28175
Because books.

The snow words thing is an urban legend?! My naivete is so sad.