Book report
Jul. 22nd, 2005 04:20 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shewhomustI mentioned that I'd been reading A Crowd of Bone, and ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
nineweaving took me up on that, saying: I would love to hear your thoughts on it. Is it Northern enough?
So I've thought about that, and I've gathered together my nerve, and here's the answer:
I loved it, and it continues to hang around in my mind. All that follows should be taken in that light, because I am capable of becoming so entwined in why and how I liked something that I may forget to say that I did like it.
And the way I liked A Crowd of Bone is in the way I might like a visually ravishing film in a language I don't speak very well. It took me a while to tune my ear to the language, and to understand as much of it as I was able to understand. Even then, there were things that escaped me, words I didn't know or cultural references I didn't pick up. That's OK, I don't mind knowing that there is more there, for when I reread it. I've dipped my toe in the on-line interviews, but the one about Jack Daw's Pack wanted to tell me things I'd rather find out by reading the story, so I backed off: but I infer that some of what I don't understand is the richness of the folklore and language, some of it is Cloudish. That's good...
The only thing that bothered me at all was a nagging sense that I was enjoying this for the wrong reasons, in a slightly self-congratulatory way (I know what a riddle is. I recognise the harp of bones. Hang on, isn't that an Andy Goldsworthy?...) and that my awareness of the words - especially some repeated key terms - was coming between me and the story; but then, what are words, if not the thing that mediates between me and the story? So I relaxed to enjoy myself with a clear conscience!
Is it Northern enough? Now, there's a question: and the smart-alec reply would be that despite straying up as far as the Cheviot (Cold Law, was it?), its centre of gravity feels very Yorkshire, which from where I sit is south. But I think you andsovay use Northern in a technical sense which I don't know; rather than guess, I will say that it felt very English and slightly Arcadian: from Lark Rise to the hills above the Forest of Arden...
So clearly I need to go on from here to read Moonwise: will there be copies at Glasgow (I won't be there myself, but could try commissioning a friend...)?
And, since it seems appropriate, here's another lunar cycle.
nineweaving took me up on that, saying: I would love to hear your thoughts on it. Is it Northern enough?So I've thought about that, and I've gathered together my nerve, and here's the answer:
I loved it, and it continues to hang around in my mind. All that follows should be taken in that light, because I am capable of becoming so entwined in why and how I liked something that I may forget to say that I did like it.
And the way I liked A Crowd of Bone is in the way I might like a visually ravishing film in a language I don't speak very well. It took me a while to tune my ear to the language, and to understand as much of it as I was able to understand. Even then, there were things that escaped me, words I didn't know or cultural references I didn't pick up. That's OK, I don't mind knowing that there is more there, for when I reread it. I've dipped my toe in the on-line interviews, but the one about Jack Daw's Pack wanted to tell me things I'd rather find out by reading the story, so I backed off: but I infer that some of what I don't understand is the richness of the folklore and language, some of it is Cloudish. That's good...
The only thing that bothered me at all was a nagging sense that I was enjoying this for the wrong reasons, in a slightly self-congratulatory way (I know what a riddle is. I recognise the harp of bones. Hang on, isn't that an Andy Goldsworthy?...) and that my awareness of the words - especially some repeated key terms - was coming between me and the story; but then, what are words, if not the thing that mediates between me and the story? So I relaxed to enjoy myself with a clear conscience!
Is it Northern enough? Now, there's a question: and the smart-alec reply would be that despite straying up as far as the Cheviot (Cold Law, was it?), its centre of gravity feels very Yorkshire, which from where I sit is south. But I think you and
sovay use Northern in a technical sense which I don't know; rather than guess, I will say that it felt very English and slightly Arcadian: from Lark Rise to the hills above the Forest of Arden...So clearly I need to go on from here to read Moonwise: will there be copies at Glasgow (I won't be there myself, but could try commissioning a friend...)?
And, since it seems appropriate, here's another lunar cycle.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2005-07-22 10:41 pm (UTC)Let me gather my wits and get back to you.
Nine
no subject
Date: 2005-07-23 07:44 am (UTC)I am pink with pleasure.
Yes, it's meant to be a strange sort of narrative, like a film or a fugue: an immersive fantasy, in which the reader learns the element of Cloud or drowns. It infuriates some readers.
I love it that you recognised the Andy Goldsworthy. What he does is earth magic. But then I packed in a lot of Twelfth-cake trinkets for the reader to delight in finding. That to me is one of the joys of reading--but then I love riddles.
...its centre of gravity feels very Yorkshire...
Ah. Thank you. I was hoping I could pull that off. It was cheeky of me to try at all, being from away. Of course it's south of quite a lot of places: Lapland for one. Thule. This isn't the North of the Snow Queen; nor yet of the Highlands, though it borders on the Borders. And my feelng for it isn't technical, but very simple, a sensation like a colour or a chord:
"As we crossed the railway bridge over the Trent he would say, with great satisfaction: 'Now we're in the North of England.' ... The first taste of the iron-cold air, the first glimpse of the dry-stone walls, went to our heads like wine."--Gwen Raverat
Isn't all rather dark for Arcadia?
I hope there will be copies of Moonwise in Glasgow (I am nagging my small press); I will bring as many as I can possibly heft. And I hope you enjoy it.
Nine
no subject
Date: 2005-07-24 09:18 pm (UTC)"As we crossed the railway bridge over the Trent he would say, with great satisfaction: 'Now we're in the North of England.'
Over the Trent? Good grief! Everything's relative, as you suggest, but the idea that the north begins at the Trent...!
Isn't all rather dark for Arcadia?
Oh, et in Arcadia ego: it depends on your conception of Arcadia, but I don't have a problem with it.
I love it that you recognised the Andy Goldsworthy. What he does is earth magic.
Wait 'til you see what I've been doing today... (grins)
no subject
Date: 2005-07-24 10:42 pm (UTC)I know, I know. Merely the penumbra of the North--but think of the pilgrim's joyful anticipation. Nearly there!
All countries with a north, south, east, or west must have this problem with People From Away and relativity.
Oh, et in Arcadia ego: it depends on your conception of Arcadia, but I don't have a problem with it.
There's a skull in that garland of roses. Yes.
Wait 'til you see what I've been doing today... (grins)
Hints?
Nine
no subject
Date: 2005-07-25 09:46 pm (UTC)No need: go look (http://www.livejournal.com/users/shewhomust/22729.html).