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An open letter to John M. Ford
Dear Mr Ford--
Would it really have pained you deeply to have told a story where, just for once, it's crystal clear who is doing what to whom and for what reasons? As it is, apart from all the War of the Roses politics (as incomprehensible and ragamuffin as Claudine says it is) I'm almost as confused by this mysterious 'she' as I am by French Judge Dee's incomprehensible 'elle.' In the latter case I can at least hazard that 'excellence' is a feminine noun, 'votre excellence' is the same, and so even if the excellence in question is a male person, when 'votre excellence' does something, it will be 'elle' who does it.
No such out exists with you. Your characters may be darkly hinting at Margaret of Anjou or possibly Elizabeth Woodville or maybe even Cecily Neville. Having read you before, I am not sanguine of finding out who it actually is. You are the Ima Ichiko of English, and in your case, sir, I fancy all the information is *not* there when one goes back to reread.
I do however congratulate you on writing a female character who feels like she was written by a woman. This is an official Neat Trick and one I'm not sure I've ever encountered before.
MJJ
(I go to buy a scrolly mouse for the old compy. Guy at store has two computers running, one with a gigantic monitor, one with a flat screen. Remembering my brightness/ contrast woes I ask him 'Are LCDs actually darker than CRTs?' 'Yup,' he says. Good. Damn accepted wisdom: that's why I can't read the writing on post secret postcards and people's icons any more.)
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I've never read John M. Ford's books, but I've always had the impression he was one of those writers who - I was going to write "don't really expect readers to 'get it'", but a more accurate characterization is probably "habitually overshoot the level of subtlety required to avoid cheesy obviousness".
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Thank you. I've been looking for that defining formulation for years. Alas that one writer's notion of what's cheesily obvious/ flat-footed over-explanation is some reader's not enough information.
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^__^ But it sounds like this is something I would like to go back to one day! *files away for future ref*
*sigh* - so many books and never mind not enough time hah~ none at all. ^__^
Enjoy the rest of your weekend dear.
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I wouldn't read Ford in anyone's summertime but ours, and not ours once we get to July. Wait for whatever passes for winter in your end of the world. (And truly, how did a Singaporean survive 'there' when even a Canuck gets chilly?)
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Tewkesbury (http://www.paisleyninja.com/gallery2/main.php?g2_itemId=2711), the Yorkist side assembled at Tewkesbury (http://www.paisleyninja.com/gallery2/main.php?g2_itemId=2717) ... at St.Albans, second from right (http://www.paisleyninja.com/gallery2/main.php?g2_itemId=2682) ....and also at Blore Heath (http://www.paisleyninja.com/gallery2/main.php?g2_itemId=2744) where this (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Blore_Heath) happened!
15th C Re-enactment was how I met hubby! ^_^ Sorry for the ramble ...but any excuse ... any excuse.
I was rubbish in winter, perpetually cold, in half a dozen layers, rubbish in summer when the pollen and the midges got me! The only season I truly loved and more than just survived was autumn. I made sure that one season more than made up for the misery of the others. Spring I used to still find cold ... brrrr but still pretty for the daffodils and bluebells beginning to colour the countryside.
these days it gets to 26 or 27 degrees in the evening and I think it a little breezy! But its nice then!
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Shudders.