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Wednesday meme
Doing this with nose to keyboard because July guck eye means no lenses.
What have you just finished reading?
The Minority Council. I see why Griffin may have wanted a break from Matthew. His city is observed in such minute detail that writing his books must take vast reserves of energy. Fortunately they give off vast energy in return, which allows them to be read happily in a heat wave.
More uncharitably, I might say that Griffin/ Webb likes to do a certain by-the-numbers kind of humour. Horatio Lyle has a lot of it, Magicals Anonymous a fair deal, Matthew almost none at all (except when the female characters start wise-cracking, which they all do, /and/ in the same voice and vocabulary, and thus become tiresome.) Thus she can't coast as much in writing Matthew.
She does coast, I think, when she ramps up the descriptives. All characters doing description (the Beggar King and Penny in this book) do it in the same voice as Matthew. It's fascinating and mesmerizing but no, really, they shouldn't all talk alike, even if you *can* write this in your sleep.
I'm still bemused that she can find so much to say about what, objectively, sound like really dull or really ugly parts of London. If I wanted to do similar urban magic with Toronto, I'd be very hard put to set it anywhere but downtown-- which is a) the common failing of people writing fantasy set in Toronto and b) an example of our local snobbery, which I possess to a t. Life is magic. What life is there in the six-lane strip-mall high-rise worlds outside the downtown core? or, come to that, in the luxury condo worlds and office towers inside it? Or in the yuppie gentrification of the desirable neighbourhoods all the length of Bloor St? Or... well, you see where this is going. No there here, basically. Griffin manages with similarly depressing chunks of London and for that alone I admire her.
What are you reading now?
Higashino Keigo, Kirin no Tsubasa, slowly. Always fascinating to see what Tokyoites themselves make of Tokyo. Higashino won me at once by wondering irascibly what kind of people would build the Shuto Expressway right over Nihonbashi, back in the giddy Olympics days, and what a blight the thing is in general. Put it anywhere you like, guys, but not right on top of the spot that was the official centre of Japan for the last three centuries. (All distances in Japan were reckoned from Nihonbashi, as time in the world is reckoned from Greenwich.)
Maureen Johnson, The Name of the Star. One of my book blogs has a scrolling list of other book blogs, one of the links clicked on randomly had a review of the sequel, my local library branch had a copy. Thus: more fantastic London. Maybe. Jack the Ripper tie-ins are something I can usually live without.
What will you read next?
(grimly) Depends how long it stays hot.
What have you just finished reading?
The Minority Council. I see why Griffin may have wanted a break from Matthew. His city is observed in such minute detail that writing his books must take vast reserves of energy. Fortunately they give off vast energy in return, which allows them to be read happily in a heat wave.
More uncharitably, I might say that Griffin/ Webb likes to do a certain by-the-numbers kind of humour. Horatio Lyle has a lot of it, Magicals Anonymous a fair deal, Matthew almost none at all (except when the female characters start wise-cracking, which they all do, /and/ in the same voice and vocabulary, and thus become tiresome.) Thus she can't coast as much in writing Matthew.
She does coast, I think, when she ramps up the descriptives. All characters doing description (the Beggar King and Penny in this book) do it in the same voice as Matthew. It's fascinating and mesmerizing but no, really, they shouldn't all talk alike, even if you *can* write this in your sleep.
I'm still bemused that she can find so much to say about what, objectively, sound like really dull or really ugly parts of London. If I wanted to do similar urban magic with Toronto, I'd be very hard put to set it anywhere but downtown-- which is a) the common failing of people writing fantasy set in Toronto and b) an example of our local snobbery, which I possess to a t. Life is magic. What life is there in the six-lane strip-mall high-rise worlds outside the downtown core? or, come to that, in the luxury condo worlds and office towers inside it? Or in the yuppie gentrification of the desirable neighbourhoods all the length of Bloor St? Or... well, you see where this is going. No there here, basically. Griffin manages with similarly depressing chunks of London and for that alone I admire her.
What are you reading now?
Higashino Keigo, Kirin no Tsubasa, slowly. Always fascinating to see what Tokyoites themselves make of Tokyo. Higashino won me at once by wondering irascibly what kind of people would build the Shuto Expressway right over Nihonbashi, back in the giddy Olympics days, and what a blight the thing is in general. Put it anywhere you like, guys, but not right on top of the spot that was the official centre of Japan for the last three centuries. (All distances in Japan were reckoned from Nihonbashi, as time in the world is reckoned from Greenwich.)
Maureen Johnson, The Name of the Star. One of my book blogs has a scrolling list of other book blogs, one of the links clicked on randomly had a review of the sequel, my local library branch had a copy. Thus: more fantastic London. Maybe. Jack the Ripper tie-ins are something I can usually live without.
What will you read next?
(grimly) Depends how long it stays hot.
no subject
I think the key with the dull/ugly bits is that London goes back so far and so much STUFF has happened there, that you can serve up some interesting history no matter where you go. And if all else fails, (or you aren't writing about London) you can always recite the demographics of a place to illustrate that it's filled with human life. Of course it's never as fun as describing, like, Belgravia. But it provides it own kind of contrast.
I feel like the problem with Griffin's humor is that I just don't find her funny. At all. Which is fine, not everyone is good at being hilarious, but I do feel like everyone is TRYING (too hard sometimes) to be witty and whatever in her books, and I just want to say, oh honey, give it a rest, there are lots of great books that aren't funny.
I *did* like the Iron Man joke in A Madness of Angels, though. XD
If I were to be more charitable, I'd argue that her books are the wrong atmosphere and narrator for that kind of thing. At least the ones that I've read. The books (though not the plot) would have to be totally different for humor to really work all that well in-context.
(If I were to be more uncharitable, I'd argue she's not funny because among her strengths is not the sort of insight, or the point of view on life, that is needed for good comedy. But I've only read the Swift books, and Stray Souls. Perhaps I'm wrong in the larger context.)
no subject
I suppose I should reread all the things! again, but, again, my impression is that Aaronovitch has more Past qua definable Past in his books than Griffin. Aaronovitch has definavle historical personages interfering. Griffin has more, I suppose, 'weight of past history piling up and causing temporal bends in certain areas.'
Didn't even notice the Iron Man joke. Probably wouldn't have got it if I had. -_-
I feel Griffin doesn't do comedy as such-- certainly not like the fundamentally comic view of Peter. (Must try to analyze some day why Rivers strikes me as fundamentally comic-- ie Shakespearian genial comic-- in spite of the horrific things that happen. Peter's voice only?) She does a form of narrative wit, only it doesn't strike me as witty. Try a Horatio Lyle to see what I mean. 'Oh look here is Horatio being exasperated and long-suffering again.' I mean yes she was a teenager when she wrote them but the same tone reoccurs in Magicals Anonymous.
Well and-- the whole thing with Matthew's PA. Intended humourous but over the top and done to death. And then I thought, 'Oh! that was intended to underscore what the PA does at the end.' For that it worked very well, but still--- I think Griffin thought the perky unbelievableness was funny just on its own.
no subject
I think Griffin is just ... really young. I didn't know her background before I read her books, but once I wikipedia'd her, it all made sense. I mean, I am hugely impressed by her sheer talent, but I can tell that she's still quite immature. I feel that she hasn't had much life experience -- I always feel like she has a lot of sympathy for but not much empathy with her characters, especially the more downtrodden ones. (And the non-white ones. I can't say anything for other non-whites, but her portrayal of Sharon Li was singularly unimpressive.)
I don't really find any of her stuff funny, mostly I find it manic. Which can be charming in its own way! I enjoyed it in the Swift books, but I was disappointed to see her reusing it in Stray Souls. But I would hypothesize that it's like you said, once someone's found a thing that works, they stick to it. She's been published like this for so many books already, why risk changing it up?
no subject
no subject
I mean sure Sharon could be fifth gen, but as long as she looks Chinese, she would STILL have feelings about her perceived ethnicity, because *everyone around her* would have feelings about it, simply because she isn't white. She would not fall for "ethnicity is a social construct" because you can only believe that if you haven't lived it.
(Aaronovitch handles multiculturalism REALLY WELL without ever pulling out the anvil, for which I greatly admire him.)
no subject
I guess I wanted some other explanation than simple authorial fail. Used to do that with Rowling as well... -_-