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Re: a couple thoughts (Reply to this comment)
by panguitch,  in Books
Brooks! The irony.
Not much of a 'Great Literature' boy either, despite my years prostrate to the higher mind. The profs did manage to warp me partially though. I can't read such a 'tribute' without obsessing about the dialogue between the two texts. Which is one reason why I usually steer clear of them--I feel like I have to read both books at the same time and keep a notebook handy. Not exactly a good experience of Story. For instance, even though I'm long familiar with Canterbury Tales I've put off Hyperion because I'm afraid instead of enjoying it I'll have flashbacks of my Anglo-Saxon Lit prof. Which isn't necessarily a bad thing. His Chanticleer impersonation was entertaining, wispy white hair flopping while he pumped his arms and pushed cock-crows out of his pudgy body.
I guess we al have our inhibitions to overcome. Thanks for the comment.
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May 22 '03
9:41 am PDT
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a couple thoughts (Reply to this comment)
by voxpoptart
First of all, Michael Swanwick is an amazing novelist, although he tends (like Dan Simmons) to operate in tribute mode. As in, his most accessible novel is Jack Faust, a fascinating science-fiction update of Goerthe's Faust; and his deepest work, the complex and surrealistic and very weird Stations of the Tide, is still at core a re-working of Shakespeare's the Tempest. Personally, i'm not a Great Literature boy, and i prefer Swanwick's versions.
Secondly, this was a great review of what sounds like an interesting book. It's interesting what a comeback Tolkien has made. Five years ago, in a bookstore, i heard the following depressing conversation between two teens:
"Who is this... Tol-kee-en?"
"Ah, he's just some guy who makes his living ripping off Terry Brooks".
That one's not gonna be repeated anytime soon.
cheers,
-Brian
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May 21 '03
3:29 pm PDT
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