Thinking about H G Wells when reading The Amulet reminded me that when I was in my third year of Chemistry I took a subsidiary module in the history of science, and one of the essays I wrote was on the science fiction of H G Wells. I remember how excited I was to be given some "work" that involved reading novels!
I spent many happy hours up in the English section of the University library - it seemed like a different world to the basement area where the scientists and engineers were crammed in. Quite often you couldn't get a seat down there. Upstairs I had a favourite desk beside a huge window and a view over the campus. I remember a golden quality of light and a much quieter, studious air. I liked it so much I carried on working there after I finished the essay, lugging my chemistry books up from the basement.
It has to be said that the atmosphere was greatly helped by there being a lot less students in the arts sections: they were all in the bar complaining about how they had been given an increase to five taught hours this term, and wondering where to go skiing during reading week this year. Reading week! I should have known as soon as I found out about that little perk that I'd picked the wrong course.
I'm sure many will not agree with my perception of arts as somehow the soft option. But some new research got lot of coverage this week, purporting to show that candidates of similar ability got higher grades on arts subjects than sciences at A level. As someone who could have gone either way in my choice of studies I do feel that I would have found the arts easier going. But that probably says more about my natural inclinations - work does not seem like work if it is doing something you love, and although at times I found some areas of Chemistry interesting, I could never have said I loved it.
Friday, 4 July 2008
Wednesday, 2 July 2008
The Weirdstone of Brisingamen
I picked up a copy of The Weirdstone of Brisingamen by Alan Garner in a charity shop a few weeks ago, and was really looking forward to re-reading it. I remember reading it as a child, and certain scenes have lodged deep in my memory.
Coming to it fresh I was captivated by the writing of the first few chapters: the description of an old myth, and then the story of two children coming to stay in Cheshire. But as the book progressed I found it harder to stay engaged with passages of very visual description of how characters get from one point to another in space. I'm not a very visual person, and have to make an effort to visualise landscape. A lot of the book involves the characters finding their way from one place to another, and even with the help of the maps I had to make an effort not to skip parts.
The book also ends very abruptly; I felt a bit like I'd run into a brick wall, and could have done with some more reflection and closure.
The part I did find gripping was the part I remembered best: the escape from St Mary's Clyffe and through the mines and caverns underneath. There are parts of the description I remembered word for word, in particular the part where Peter gets stuck in the tunnel. I am slightly claustrophobic, and reading about when they have to decide to go on through a hole described as a rabbit hole still gives me chills. I can trace certain recurring dreams/nightmares of mine to this book, although of course I don't know whether they infulenced my fears or just stuck with me because they resonated with something already in my nature.
Other parts of the books felt very much like they were copied from Tolkein (for example the
dreamlike island interlude, where a mysterious golden lady gives them gifts). And although the combining of the fantasy world with our own is appealing, for me it suffered from comparison with Susan Cooper. I also had to laugh at some passages of fantasy-speak. The following I just had to read out loud to my husband.
"Along the crest of the Riddings the morthbrood watched Shape-shifter climb laboriously up from the farm. Grimnir sat a little apart from the bood, while over the top of the hill, in an old quarry, were mustered the svart-alfar.
'They are all there,' said the Morrigan. 'And they will not be drawn, though we think the threat of the mara will bring them out once the night is gone. On the move, we shall have them; but we must raise the fimbulwinter at daybreak."
I think The Owl Service is Garner's most acclaimed work. I've read this too, a long time ago, but remember finding the characters a bit unsatisfying. Maybe because they were teenagers and I read it too young. I'd like to read it again, and the sequal to Weirdstone, The Moon of Gomrath (also recently acquired at the School fete). Every book throws up others to read; I suppose that is always the way.
Coming to it fresh I was captivated by the writing of the first few chapters: the description of an old myth, and then the story of two children coming to stay in Cheshire. But as the book progressed I found it harder to stay engaged with passages of very visual description of how characters get from one point to another in space. I'm not a very visual person, and have to make an effort to visualise landscape. A lot of the book involves the characters finding their way from one place to another, and even with the help of the maps I had to make an effort not to skip parts.
The book also ends very abruptly; I felt a bit like I'd run into a brick wall, and could have done with some more reflection and closure.
The part I did find gripping was the part I remembered best: the escape from St Mary's Clyffe and through the mines and caverns underneath. There are parts of the description I remembered word for word, in particular the part where Peter gets stuck in the tunnel. I am slightly claustrophobic, and reading about when they have to decide to go on through a hole described as a rabbit hole still gives me chills. I can trace certain recurring dreams/nightmares of mine to this book, although of course I don't know whether they infulenced my fears or just stuck with me because they resonated with something already in my nature.
Other parts of the books felt very much like they were copied from Tolkein (for example the
dreamlike island interlude, where a mysterious golden lady gives them gifts). And although the combining of the fantasy world with our own is appealing, for me it suffered from comparison with Susan Cooper. I also had to laugh at some passages of fantasy-speak. The following I just had to read out loud to my husband.
"Along the crest of the Riddings the morthbrood watched Shape-shifter climb laboriously up from the farm. Grimnir sat a little apart from the bood, while over the top of the hill, in an old quarry, were mustered the svart-alfar.
'They are all there,' said the Morrigan. 'And they will not be drawn, though we think the threat of the mara will bring them out once the night is gone. On the move, we shall have them; but we must raise the fimbulwinter at daybreak."
I think The Owl Service is Garner's most acclaimed work. I've read this too, a long time ago, but remember finding the characters a bit unsatisfying. Maybe because they were teenagers and I read it too young. I'd like to read it again, and the sequal to Weirdstone, The Moon of Gomrath (also recently acquired at the School fete). Every book throws up others to read; I suppose that is always the way.
Tuesday, 1 July 2008
The Story of the Amulet
The Story of the Amulet is one of the books by E Nesbit I'm pretty sure I didn't read while I was a child. I picked it out recently because I read somewhere recently that her socialist beliefs were very apparent in the book. Which indeed is the case.
I would imagine the time travel aspect of the story would have had more impact when it was first written. As two of my son's crazes at the moment are the Back to the Future films, and Dr Who, you can imagine there is a fair amount of discussion at the moment in our house about time paradoxes. When reading the book I wondered how new the ideas would have been to readers at the time it was published. The Amulet came 10 years or so after HG Wells' The Time Machine, and there is a character in the book named Wells, presumably after HG, who was a friend of E Nesbit and fellow member of the fabian society. As far as I remember though, the time traveller in Wells' book goes forward, not backward, in time.
Some quick research shows there were other early examples of time travel novels (eg A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court by Mark Twain). I guess I am wondering how you judge a novel, when your opinion will change based on whether an idea/approach/genre is new to you. And also, once you find out more about the author and other contemporary works, your opinion might change again as to whether a book is exceptional or groundbreaking.
I am the sort of person who likes finding out more about how things are created or written or made, and in general this enhances my enjoyment of whatever it is. But I suppose if you discovered something was heavily copied from someone else's work that could make you rate it less highly. It's an interesting consideration when looking at children's books, in that children are perhaps more likely to be coming to an idea as being fresh and new, than an adult trying to judge the book on their behalf.
Lots to think about.
I also found that the children, and the way they interact is very believable and real. I have read that E Nesbit was one of the first authors to write about children in this way. But again as a modern reader we are so used to reading about children in this way that in itself, it does not seem remarkable.
To sum up my feelings about the book, at halfway through I would have said I didn't enjoy it as much as the other "magical companion" Nesbit books, but I did like the ending and felt it resolved in a very satisfactory way. I'd like to read The Treasure Seekers now, another one I don't remember reading, although I had a copy of The Wouldbegoods and read it more than once.
I would imagine the time travel aspect of the story would have had more impact when it was first written. As two of my son's crazes at the moment are the Back to the Future films, and Dr Who, you can imagine there is a fair amount of discussion at the moment in our house about time paradoxes. When reading the book I wondered how new the ideas would have been to readers at the time it was published. The Amulet came 10 years or so after HG Wells' The Time Machine, and there is a character in the book named Wells, presumably after HG, who was a friend of E Nesbit and fellow member of the fabian society. As far as I remember though, the time traveller in Wells' book goes forward, not backward, in time.
Some quick research shows there were other early examples of time travel novels (eg A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court by Mark Twain). I guess I am wondering how you judge a novel, when your opinion will change based on whether an idea/approach/genre is new to you. And also, once you find out more about the author and other contemporary works, your opinion might change again as to whether a book is exceptional or groundbreaking.
I am the sort of person who likes finding out more about how things are created or written or made, and in general this enhances my enjoyment of whatever it is. But I suppose if you discovered something was heavily copied from someone else's work that could make you rate it less highly. It's an interesting consideration when looking at children's books, in that children are perhaps more likely to be coming to an idea as being fresh and new, than an adult trying to judge the book on their behalf.
Lots to think about.
I also found that the children, and the way they interact is very believable and real. I have read that E Nesbit was one of the first authors to write about children in this way. But again as a modern reader we are so used to reading about children in this way that in itself, it does not seem remarkable.
To sum up my feelings about the book, at halfway through I would have said I didn't enjoy it as much as the other "magical companion" Nesbit books, but I did like the ending and felt it resolved in a very satisfactory way. I'd like to read The Treasure Seekers now, another one I don't remember reading, although I had a copy of The Wouldbegoods and read it more than once.
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