The fields we know

[louiselux]

I'm reading The King of Elfland's Daughter by Lord Dunsany. I swear if he uses the phrase 'the fields we know' one more time I'm going to start gnawing at the book cover or wring its neck or something equally unspeakable. Perhaps I got up too early...

In other news I have so much to write that I actually don't know where to start. Maybe I should just start with Gojyo and move on from there.

In other other news, I finally finished S2 of Supernatural. I have a lot of trouble liking the writers of this show, but I can nearly forgive them because of the giant ball of emo that is Dean Winchester, and his completely beautiful and desperate love for his brother.

Comments

[avierra.livejournal.com]

Haha! There are a few authors I can't read, with the best will in the world, and Lord Dunsany is one of them.

By all means, start with Gojyo. ;)

[louiselux.livejournal.com]

Well, I quite enjoy some of his phrases and imagery, like his explanation of how the witch's magic works when she makes the prince's special sword.

On the other hand, it's so heavy going I'm not sure I can plough through the whole thing.

[crystal-lilly.livejournal.com]

the fields that we know

[crystal-lilly.livejournal.com]

Feel free to kill me for that... *laugh*

Preferred method of death? Gojyo hotness of course!!

[louiselux.livejournal.com]

Ahhh, nooooo. *blocks ears*

[pandarus.livejournal.com]

Bwah!

I confess, I never got very far into that book - but that phrase did stick in my memory, and I was quite charmed to find it cropping up in the movie of 'Stardust' recently.

[louiselux.livejournal.com]

Oh, really? That is rather amusing especially because Neil Gaiman does a blurb for the The King Of Elfland's Daughter and says how much he loves it (carefully mentioning bewtwen the lines how it's utterly on crack).

[scribblemoose]

Starting with Gojyo is always good. In fact, don't feel you *have* to move on. ;)

[louiselux.livejournal.com]

Heee, okay!

[i-am-zan.livejournal.com]

D'you know I think I went through a phase reading really old books and that was one of them BUT!!! I cannot remember a thing about it! Maybe I should go dig it up again and have a quick glance.

Just as heavy going was Mallory's 'L'Morte d' Arthur' (spelling??) but there was some slash going on in my head whilst reading that (so many knights to choose from) that I remembered that more! ^_~ This was way before I'd even heard of slash...

but it's the 17th now and I go posteth my version of the Owl and the Pussycat (it's already the 17th hear ^_~...and I was so totally not pimping it...*whistles innocently!*)

[louiselux.livejournal.com]

Ahh, those knights. I've never read that but I think I should. :)

The King of Elfland's Daughter is unique, I think. It's very hard going, but sometimes he uses such lovely phrases that I can forgive him. The plot so far is: At the bequest of his father, Prince Averil goes to Elfland and brings back the Elf King's daughter, who is very strange and elflike and talks to goats and things. It takes him a day, but when he gets back years have passed. They have a child, Orion, and then one day the Elf King's daughter just gets too sad and blows away on the wind, and when Averil goes back to Elfland to find her, it's gone.

I haven't read any further yet, though.

[enigel]

Heh, is it the occasional shoddy plot or the screaming damsels? *g*

Sammy needs some love too. :(

[louiselux.livejournal.com]

Screaming damsels, definitely.

Sammy does need some love! Poor boy, he is strange and curious. I can see why fandom seems to love Dean so much though.

[rheasilvia.livejournal.com]

I have a lot of trouble liking the writers of this show, but I can nearly forgive them because of the giant ball of emo that is Dean Winchester, and his completely beautiful and desperate love for his brother.

Sister! :-) I feel the same way - it really isn't anywhere near to being a well-written show, and it regularly does things that make me want to hit the entire creative team repeatedly over the head with a very solid clue bat. But on a good day they hand out such generous servings of lovely, beautiful and well-done Dean angst (bound up in very well thought-out and developed characterization)...

[louiselux.livejournal.com]

t regularly does things that make me want to hit the entire creative team repeatedly over the head with a very solid clue bat.

Oh god, so much yes to that!!

That said, I love how Jensen Ackles plays Dean - so on the edge all the time- and how Jared is getting so much better at showing Sam to be so confused and resentful and also young. I really do get the sense of the age difference between them, even though it's not huge.

[rheasilvia.livejournal.com]

I really do get the sense of the age difference between them, even though it's not huge.

Oh, yes. And I think that a large part of that is not so much a question of age, but of the role Dean and Sam played in the Winchester family dynamics before Sam went off to Stanford. In many ways, Dean was more a parent to Sam than a brother; Dean was the one on whose shoulders Dad loaded an enormous amount of responsibility at a very early age, both for himself *and* Sam; and Sam seems to have always been and stayed in the position of the one who is looked after and taken care of, protected and - in some measure - sheltered. The child of the family, in other words.

Now, that dynamic doesn't work anymore and they're slowly learning to break through the old patterns and define new roles for themselves - and to see the other one in terms that have nothing to do with those old roles.

In Sam's case, yes, I also have the impression that he's growing up at the same time - because there are many occasions where I had the impression he truly hadn't ever seen Dean as a multi-faceted person before, plagued by doubts and fears and insecurities, and nowhere near as simple and shallow as the facade he puts up.

And now I have gushed at you about this for long enough - but you can probably see why I like the series in spite of its many undeniable faults. :-)

[despina-moon.livejournal.com]

Good grief, Lord Dunsany? You are a stronger woman than me.

[louiselux.livejournal.com]

Indeed. Although I fear Lord Dunsany is stronger than us all...

[moshesque.livejournal.com]

Mm, Gojyo sounds like a fun place to begin. :D I hope the fic goes well.

[eldanis.livejournal.com]

Ahh, I read that looooong ago, back when I was a rabid Tolkien fan (some deep dark hidden part of me still is, I'm afraid), and picked it up because it looked to be possibly along a similar vein. I think it mostly struck me as trying to be George MacDonald and failing, though I don't remember it being particularly difficult to get through, and what I mostly remember is that some of the imagery is rather lovely. One thing I do recall in particular is the princess being deeply shocked and saddened by seeing a human girl age from one year to the next - like she was fading.

I must concur with just about everyone else, though. Gojyo is lovely no matter the topic of conversation. Gojyo is always a good choice. :D

[lady-ganesh.livejournal.com]

You should always start with Gojyo.