I just finished the first story in Blackbird House and it did what Alice Hoffman stories used to always do -- bring me to tears.
I think I'm going to have to reread before I go to the next one.
You do well to flee, townspeople! I will pillage your lands and dwellings! I will burn your crops and make merry sport with your more attractive daughters! Ha ha ha! Mark my words! Ooh! Ale! I smell delicious ale!
Olaf the Troll ,'Showtime'
We're Literary 2: To Read Makes Our Speaking English Good
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."
sumi - Aug 27, 2004 8:45:42 am PDT #5667 of 10002
Art Crawl!!!
Steph L. - Aug 27, 2004 11:21:39 am PDT #5668 of 10002
this mess was yours / now your mess is mine
This is why I love the library:
I was picking up some stuff at the library today, when I noticed the librarian had a stack of kids' books that had been returned, which she was checking in.
On the top was From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler, which prompted me to say "Oh, I love that book!" She replied with "I know! Have you seen the movie?" I told her I had no idea that it had been made into a movie, and she said oh yes, it had, with Lauren Bacall.
I said I'd have to look for it, and she said "Do you want me to see if it's in the library system?" I said sure, and lo and behold, it was not only in the library system, but in that very branch. And so I have it at home, waiting to be watched.
So cool.
JZ - Aug 27, 2004 11:46:29 am PDT #5669 of 10002
See? I gave everybody here an opportunity to tell me what a bad person I am and nobody did, because I fuckin' rule.
t not really here
told her I had no idea that it had been made into a movie, and she said oh yes, it had, with Lauren Bacall.
t MSCL likes carrots And Devon Gummersall!
t now really not really here
erikaj - Aug 27, 2004 3:06:42 pm PDT #5670 of 10002
Always Anti-fascist!
That was Angela's first best friend, Sharon?
DavidS - Aug 27, 2004 3:08:06 pm PDT #5671 of 10002
"Look, son, if it's good enough for Shirley Bassey, it's good enough for you."
That was Angela's first best friend, Sharon?
Dude, it's Krakow.
erikaj - Aug 27, 2004 4:03:50 pm PDT #5672 of 10002
Always Anti-fascist!
OK, the girl Devon's the other one.
DavidS - Aug 27, 2004 5:55:20 pm PDT #5673 of 10002
"Look, son, if it's good enough for Shirley Bassey, it's good enough for you."
OK, the girl Devon's the other one.
Now I'm doubting myself. You're talking about Rayanne, yes?
sumi - Aug 27, 2004 5:57:02 pm PDT #5674 of 10002
Art Crawl!!!
No! Sharon.
DavidS - Aug 27, 2004 5:59:16 pm PDT #5675 of 10002
"Look, son, if it's good enough for Shirley Bassey, it's good enough for you."
Few. My laziness lost and I looked it up on IMDB.
Devon Gummersall is Krakow.
Devon Odessa is Sharon.
Matt the Bruins fan - Aug 29, 2004 5:50:10 am PDT #5676 of 10002
"I remember when they eventually introduced that drug kingpin who murdered people and smuggled drugs inside snakes and I was like 'Finally. A normal person.'” —RahvinDragand
In my continuing obsession with The King in Yellow, I found out that some literary scholars think Chambers may have based the idea for a scandalous work decried by authorities and the Church on J.K. Huysmans' A Rebours (Against the Grain), which I've just purchased. At any rate, it is definitely the "poisonous yellow book" that Oscar Wilde mentioned in The Picture of Dorian Gray. No rumored supernatural properties, but apparently it was so decadent and shocking in its day that people had to be protected from it. Who knew my fascination with the macabre would lead to voluntarily reading classics of French literature?
Also, I found out that the closest real world analog to The King in Yellow is Seress' haunting 1933 song "Szomoru Vasarnap," which was known as the Hungarian Suicide song and banned after scads of listeners took it to heart and threw themselves into the Danube. (The composer's lady love was among their number, leaving behind the song's title on a suicide note.) The composer himself jumped to his death in 1968, though in his case it seems that it was due less to the song's haunting power and more to his failure to follow it up with a similar success in the subsequent decades.
I'm unable to appreciate the full effect (not being conversant in Hungarian), but I recently bought what's supposedly the most evocative English rendition, Billie Holliday's "Gloomy Sunday."