Italics don't bother me, but I'm glad I'm not the only one who notices things like that.
Anya: We should drop a piano on her. It always works for that creepy cartoon rabbit when he's running from that nice man with the speech impediment. Giles: Yes, or perhaps we could paint a convincing fake tunnel on the side of a mountain.
'Touched'
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."
Susan W. - Apr 25, 2005 7:18:43 pm PDT #7479 of 10002
Good Trouble and Righteous Fights
Typo Boy - Apr 25, 2005 7:43:55 pm PDT #7480 of 10002
Calli: My people have a saying. A man who trusts can never be betrayed, only mistaken.Avon: Life expectancy among your people must be extremely short.
I hate italics longer than 3/4 of a page too. (Am I being too generous. I usually can stand it for that long - even with bad eyes; beyond that headaches start.)
Matt the Bruins fan - Apr 25, 2005 8:57:13 pm PDT #7481 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
Calli, I think The Viscount of Adrilankha was actually a single book that was broken into a trilogy for publication.
Mind, you, it would have been chapbook sized if Brust could drop the damn stylized Mojo-Jojoesque passages wherein it takes six paragraphs for someone to express a sentence's worth of information.
§ ita § - Apr 25, 2005 9:02:51 pm PDT #7482 of 10002
Well not canonically, no, but this is transformative fiction.
Ya know, that style annoyed me a lot more before, in the recent ones, he had sections without it. It was suddenly a lot more of a cultural note than an overwhelming affectation (though no doubt he thinks it's cute).
Jim - Apr 26, 2005 1:23:30 am PDT #7483 of 10002
Ficht nicht mit Der Raketemensch!
Even if (like me) you think Perdido St Station is less a novel than the greatest piece of D&D scenario design in history, and that Mieville has read the Robert Asprin Sanctuary books once too often, it's worth a look. And the (sort of) sequel The Scar is one of the best fantasy novels I've read in years. I didn't get on with George RR Martin. If I want to read about murderous incestuous nobles without any redeeming features struggling for power, I'll read I Claudius or The Civilisation of the Renaissance in Italy - they have jokes!
erikaj - Apr 26, 2005 5:07:21 am PDT #7484 of 10002
Always Anti-fascist!
But, Sumi, isn't MB just FG? I definitely think so. "Fortress of Solitude" is even better though. (/Lethem likes Brooklyn carrots) Can't say I notice type much, unless it's too small.
Lilty Cash - Apr 27, 2005 9:10:39 am PDT #7485 of 10002
"You see? THAT's what they want. Love, and a bit with a dog."
Has anyone ever been so bugged by a book's typeface that they can't read it?
Jodi Picoult has changed font with the narrative voice for her last two books, and it's driven me batty.
Calli - Apr 27, 2005 9:13:58 am PDT #7486 of 10002
I must obey the inscrutable exhortations of my soul—Calvin and Hobbs
Oh, ugh. [Adds "Jodi Picoult" to the list of authors to avoid.]
Lilty Cash - Apr 27, 2005 9:19:23 am PDT #7487 of 10002
"You see? THAT's what they want. Love, and a bit with a dog."
It pisses me off on many levels. (Besides the eye wonkiness, shouldn't you be able to establish narrative voice with something other than font? Because, really, if you just want to put the character's name at the beginning of the chapter, it's cool with me.)
Amy - Apr 27, 2005 10:29:04 am PDT #7488 of 10002
Because books.
shouldn't you be able to establish narrative voice with something other than font?
In My Sister's Keeper, it might have been the production department/her editor's idea, not hers. (Although obviously I don't know that for sure.) Everyone narrated in first person, and there were at least six narrators. Trying to remember it, though, I thought she did include the narrator's name at the start of each chapter anyway.