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Larcwen
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Country: Canada
Gender: Female
Interests: Writing, reading, Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter, er, I don't know...
Occupation: Student
Message: message me
Member Since:
1/24/2005
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| The Princess and the GoblinI've just finished reading George MacDonald's children's book, The Princess and the Goblin. I've never read any MacDonald before and never really knew anything about him, except that J.R.R. Tolkien liked this book when he was a child. It's interesting trying to see the ways in which this novel may have effected Tolkien's writing. There seem to be echoes of it in The Hobbit, in my humble opinion.
I liked it. It read just like an old-fashioned children's story ought to, complete with a narrator who comments on the story and the characters and even has conversations with an anonymous reader. On the other hand, it is a product of the 19th century, so sometimes the characters come off just a bit too sweet. However, I was pleased that, though the story was grounded on moral and religious concerns, it did not come off in an overly didactic manner.
What may have been most interesting was the role of women in the novel. I won't give anything away, but it was very nice to see a princess who actually does something, rather than just being a moral exemplar (though she is that too). Between her and her great-great grandmother and one of the other character's mothers, women actually play quite a large role in the story. I really was pleased with that.
I raided my university's collection of MacDonald's books, so in the near future, I'd like to work my way through some of his fairytales and two of his adult fantasy novels, Phantastes and Lilith. It'll be interesting to see how they differ from this one.
Also, I was most interested to find that my copy of the book had been slightly marked in pencil by some previous reader, with dashes and lines and very brief notes like: "fate", "reality", "faith", and "evolution". I wonder why he or she made those notes and what they were for and what his or her reasons were for reading the book in the first place. The book came out of the collection of children's literature housed in the Education Library, so it could have been a prospective teacher or something. Not sure. Very curious. | | |
| A Humble Request for Book RecommendationsYes, I am in search of book recommendations today. As some of you may already know, I'm going to England in July, which will involve two very, very long transatlantic plane trips. I've come to the conclusion that there are only two ways I will get through them without becoming bored into a state of catatonia: a) if I somehow manage to sleep through them (oh! it would be bliss to fall asleep and wake up at Heathrow, but somehow I think that's unlikely. I don't sleep well on planes) or b) if I have an incredibly good book to read (or books plural, since one flight will be eight hours long!). So, I humbly ask you for the titles of very, very good and/or very fast-paced books. Books that will suck me in and not let go, books that will not allow me to ponder the fact that I am however many thousands of metres in the air, books that won't make me realize that Ack! there are still five hours left of this flight!
Any suggestions?
(I am playing around with the idea of packing some of the Harry Potter books for the trip, because they are always quick, absorbing reads even when being reread - also, they're British, which seems fitting.) | | |
| Heh. I'm going to teach for the first time tomorrow. Twenty-odd university students. This all seems very surreal. (Just some basic essay-writing, thesis-crafting stuff, but still.) | | |
| I suppose I ought to have mentioned it earlier, but, as 3:45 last Friday, I finished my last exam and am therefore finished my undergraduate degree. I'm free, free, free! I'm still waiting on one of my marks, but so far they've all been really good this year, which is nice.
I'm going to try to catch up on some reading over the next little bit, while also preparing for my teaching assistantship (which starts in the middle of May). | | |
| Mr. SnowyWell, as of last Friday morning, all the snow in our yard was gone. Right. Then, overnight on Friday, it snowed. Ugh. The one good thing that came out of it was that I made a snowman for the first time in several years. You see, the snow was just the right consistency and stickiness for snowmen (and snowballs, for that matter). So, I made a snowman, whom Dad dubbed "Mr. Snowy". Not the best snowman the world has ever seen, I must say. Apparently it's more difficult to roll nice round balls of snow than I had thought. Also, by the end of the first day, the snowman had already melted enough to fall apart a bit (his head fell right off, but I fixed him). Anyway, now the real fun is watching how Mr. Snowy melts. He's lost about half his head, I'd say, and has a big piece of his side missing, but so far, he remains intact.
Also last weekend, the temperatures took a big dive and we had rain, freezing rain, and yet more snow. The temperatures still haven't recovered. Today it's supposed to get just a bit above zero. But by the weekend maybe we'll have nice weather again.
I finished my last essay and handed it in and wrote Final #2 yesterday, which I think went really well. Tomorrow I have my last final (which the professor said would be "easy as pie") and then I'll be finished my degree! Woo! Man, that's sort of surreal though.... | | |
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