However many thing make a post

[flemmings]

1. kintail and nekonexus came to visit with their little eeensie weensie utterly ADORABLE ball of KEWT (cough) their six month old Pomeranian yesterday. I discover that puppies are like floor babies. (Yes you know what a floor baby is. One that crawls but does not pull to stand or cruise along furniture.) They're Hoovers. Before either visits you must vacuum or sweep mightily because they'll find anything on the floor-- Oh look dust ball! Oh look scrap of paper! Oh look ancient cracker crumb! Oh look chip of rock salt!-- and put it in their mouths.

2. To discover what Christopher Chant is like grown up, I reread Charmed Life, a book I thought I knew well. Have forgotten much. See why Sabina was so appalled at Chrestomanci's approach to gifted but intransigent children. Does he ever give a reason for not doing what he says not to do? Does he ever even define precisely what he says not to do? He does not. Naturally he fails resoundingly with Gwendolen.

3. Yesterday reread The Pinhoe Egg which I like, though Cat is going to have a terrible time as Chrestomanci. DWJ thought Cat was on the autism spectrum, and I can kind of see why. He's still basically a nicer person than Christopher. Last night I read House of Many Ways, whose basic conceit appeals to me greatly (your solution to urban sprawl: multi-dimensional monster houses built on bungalow lots) even if I'm not a great fan of Howl or the books he appears in. DWJ's recurring tropes are Appalling Relatives and the Family They Betray, and Appalling Men and the Women Who Love Them (Howl and Christopher, IMHO.) Saturday's reading was bingo! for both.

4. The budding days of spring bring not lawn sales but lawn freebies. I can't resist those boxes of books, though god knows I should learn to. But the Easter weekend gave me a hardback copy of Kafka on the Shore (in English) and Contraception and Abortion from the Ancient World to the Renaissance. Yesterday morning was The Lion's Roar: an Introduction to Tantra and yesterday afternoon was Me Talk Pretty Some Day. While I can romp through two DWJs in a day, my track record with those weighty tomes on Mindfulness and Buddhism and Buddhist Mindfulness is pathetic, so I have no hopes for anything but the Sederis. Doubtless I shall read all of them some day... but am tempted to reread Deep Secret and The Merlin Conspiracy first. Jeanne revisits the English oughties, having revisited the Japanese ones last month with all those 100 Demons rereads.

5. Of course I had to wait till spring and warm(er) temps before discovering the joys of soccer socks. Knee length and more on my long legs, padded in the sole, perfect for cold weather days. Also invariably white, a problem, but no matter.

6. *Go away* little canvasser, go away recorded Jack Layton phone spam. I voted in the advance polls-- for your party, as it happens-- but you make me regret the decision.

7. April reading

House of Many Ways
The Pinhoe Egg
Charmed Life
Conrad's Fate
Enchanted Glass
Tiger's Blood

Comments

[nekonexus.livejournal.com]

Walking through Koreatown raised the greatest chorus of squees yet. Whatever the Korean equivalent of kawaii is - it was said repeatedly and with much enthusiasm as we encountered a group of young women on the sidewalk.

We also got a "bellissimo" from an older couple. ^_^

[flemmings.livejournal.com]

That's my corner of TO. Korean and Italian in equal proportions.

[nekonexus.livejournal.com]

Oh, and I forget to mention the porch full of what appeared to be relaxing-with-a-beer construction workers who noticed her. One of them kept saying "it's a little fox" like a broken record. ^_^

[avalonjones.livejournal.com]

Pom puppies are freakin' adorable!

[mvrdrk.livejournal.com]

What size soccer socks? They come in a million colors.

[flemmings.livejournal.com]

8-12, and at the dollar store-- where I get *all* my socks-- they're only in white. ^_^

[i-am-zan.livejournal.com]

Awww ... one's days should be filled with some cuteness I say. ^_^

[mikeneko.livejournal.com]

To discover what Christopher Chant is like grown up, I reread Charmed Life, a book I thought I knew well. Have forgotten much. See why Sabina was so appalled at Chrestomanci's approach to gifted but intransigent children. Does he ever give a reason for not doing what he says not to do? Does he ever even define precisely what he says not to do? He does not. Naturally he fails resoundingly with Gwendolen.

I'm pretty sure it wasn't possible to succeed with Gwendolyn, given that she led a conscience-free existence, and I don't believe anyone was trying, given what Chrestomanci says toward the end. They'd a good idea of what she'd already done to Cat; they just couldn't figure out what role Cat was playing in all of it. The whole book's from Cat's POV--to him adults are incomprehensible, fearful creatures; he never, ever asks questions in preference to creeping off silently, stage left.

[flemmings.livejournal.com]

They had a good idea that G was using Cat's lives to get her magic, but that doesn't make her a conscienceless being per se-- especially when there was a good chance Cat was co-operating with her. They should at least have explained the reason for the rules and seen if she twigged to that. Instead Chrestomanci comes all over 'Because I say so' and 'You don't count', which naturally provokes Gwendolyn into further excesses.

One should at least try to figure out if you're dealing with a hopeless sociopath or a kid stuck at the three year old level-- especially when the person is still a child.

[mikeneko.livejournal.com]

Hmm. Chrestomanci and his distant wandering about is not exactly a favorite character of mine. (That is, the feigned obliviousness is funny in the book, and it's also amusing to poodle around with in a fanfic way, but I reckon it'd be hell to live with that sort of thing IRL.)

But I don't know that there's evidence that they didn't attempt some other sort of Gwendolyn intervention. There's no way to know. Cat is an unreliable narrative POV. A REALLY unreliable one. Just how skewed his view of the world is doesn't start to become clear until Janet shows up. Cat takes no interest in her situation until she forces him to see how helping her helps him as well. (Cat's a self-involved little beast; some of that can be laid at Gwendolyn's door, but some portion is all on him.) Then Janet begins to interact sensibly with the other characters, to ask perfectly normal questions, to point out oddities, and Cat is ~horrified.~ Her biggest mistake was to trust his assessment of anything.

I'm thrilled whenever a writer successfully sells me a false narrative bill of goods. I know that sort of thing ticks other people off, which I suspect is an underlying reason why some people really dislike this book.

[tammylee.livejournal.com]

I giggled out loud reading your description of the pom pup. My personal trainer has one and he's CONSTANTLY putting things in his mouth. XD

[franzeska]

OH MY GOD CUTE. Err, I mean, I like pomeranian puppies too. *cough*

I'm finally running a yuletide-esque rare fandoms exchange this summer for anime/manga/Asian stuff and so on. No pressure, but if you're interested, details are at parallelsfic.