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I'm currently reading "The Historian" by Elizabeth Kostova, and aaaauuuuuugh!! Holy fuck, there's a difference between making the reader feel that they're smarter than the characters and making the reader feel like the characters are numb as fucking hakes. When I get the next step in the puzzle 127 pages before the characters do, that MIGHT be overdoing it a bit.
Granted it was 127 pages of telling us how beautiful the country is and how handsome all the people in it are (except for evil people, who are ugly) (is this why the person who loaned this book to me feels the book is 'beautiful'? Because somehow it doesn't strike me quite the same way. The book is not beautiful to me just because the character is apparently in love with the world.) and also a long detour into telling us about a medieval manuscript and why it's terribly important and then giving us the actual text of that manuscript, which takes up less space. And you invented that manuscript for this book, it's part of the fiction! Do you just wish to give an academic verisimilitude? Because here's a clue - this is fiction. Even people who like reading academic texts don't necessarily want fake ones inserted in the middle of their fiction.
Do-do is a very dull girl, lately - all I do is rant about houses and this damned book. The sooner I can finish it and move on to something I like, the better. A pox on coworkers forcing books upon me! And the worst thing is, I had to work with this particular coworker all day, yesterday, and all I wanted to do was talk about how much I hate the book she made me read. So I thought of anything else I could talk about, and was ridiculously chatty all day.
Must go find a new fuse for the van. It blew while I was driving, yesterday and let me tell you it's hard to drive in a snowstorm with no wipers or front heater blower. I was relatively pleased with the fact that it took me no time to diagnose the problem as a fuse; I pretty much knew instantly what was wrong, but then I didn't know where to find the fuse box... panel? ...so it didn't do me much good at the time. Eor has now yanked the bad one, and told me where to put the new one, so I can run down to the parts store and get it this morning - and it's not snowing, today, so I can see while I drive.
(Yesterday I had to take a cab to work, was 15 minutes late and didn't get to eat proper breakfast. I was not a happy camper. All cereal and no eggs gives me a tummy ache.)
Granted it was 127 pages of telling us how beautiful the country is and how handsome all the people in it are (except for evil people, who are ugly) (is this why the person who loaned this book to me feels the book is 'beautiful'? Because somehow it doesn't strike me quite the same way. The book is not beautiful to me just because the character is apparently in love with the world.) and also a long detour into telling us about a medieval manuscript and why it's terribly important and then giving us the actual text of that manuscript, which takes up less space. And you invented that manuscript for this book, it's part of the fiction! Do you just wish to give an academic verisimilitude? Because here's a clue - this is fiction. Even people who like reading academic texts don't necessarily want fake ones inserted in the middle of their fiction.
Do-do is a very dull girl, lately - all I do is rant about houses and this damned book. The sooner I can finish it and move on to something I like, the better. A pox on coworkers forcing books upon me! And the worst thing is, I had to work with this particular coworker all day, yesterday, and all I wanted to do was talk about how much I hate the book she made me read. So I thought of anything else I could talk about, and was ridiculously chatty all day.
Must go find a new fuse for the van. It blew while I was driving, yesterday and let me tell you it's hard to drive in a snowstorm with no wipers or front heater blower. I was relatively pleased with the fact that it took me no time to diagnose the problem as a fuse; I pretty much knew instantly what was wrong, but then I didn't know where to find the fuse box... panel? ...so it didn't do me much good at the time. Eor has now yanked the bad one, and told me where to put the new one, so I can run down to the parts store and get it this morning - and it's not snowing, today, so I can see while I drive.
(Yesterday I had to take a cab to work, was 15 minutes late and didn't get to eat proper breakfast. I was not a happy camper. All cereal and no eggs gives me a tummy ache.)
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