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Reading and (not) writing
Jun. 4th, 2015 10:08 pmWriting: not at all. :(
Reading: Looking about for something undemanding, I picked up the no-magic-here fantasy Mistress Masham's Repose, by T H White, which, with its wildly Wicked Guardians harks back to nineteenth-century satires of Gothic literature and also is in the line which later produced in The Hundred and One Dalmations, and Joan Aiken's Dido Twite (etc) books. It's not exactly a "children's book" - it's more like one of those clever fairy-tales told to amuse sophisticated Louis XIV court circles, peppered with Bloomsbury/Cambridge-y injokes, very arch, mildly satirical, mildly upper-class liberal in tone - some good side-shots at colonialism and at bossy do-goodery.) Overall - clever, well-written, nice central conceit.
It jarred, though, when White carried on with the suave, delicately humorous "we all know these things" tone when making reference to a seventeenth-century treason trial (with all that implies :( ).
Oh, for goodness' sake! How large is "too large", Dreamwidth?
This entry truncated, in mounting frustration with this shoddy (DW) site. The rest of it is on LJ.
( Why I didn't like the joke about the trial )
Reading: Looking about for something undemanding, I picked up the no-magic-here fantasy Mistress Masham's Repose, by T H White, which, with its wildly Wicked Guardians harks back to nineteenth-century satires of Gothic literature and also is in the line which later produced in The Hundred and One Dalmations, and Joan Aiken's Dido Twite (etc) books. It's not exactly a "children's book" - it's more like one of those clever fairy-tales told to amuse sophisticated Louis XIV court circles, peppered with Bloomsbury/Cambridge-y injokes, very arch, mildly satirical, mildly upper-class liberal in tone - some good side-shots at colonialism and at bossy do-goodery.) Overall - clever, well-written, nice central conceit.
It jarred, though, when White carried on with the suave, delicately humorous "we all know these things" tone when making reference to a seventeenth-century treason trial (with all that implies :( ).
Oh, for goodness' sake! How large is "too large", Dreamwidth?
This entry truncated, in mounting frustration with this shoddy (DW) site. The rest of it is on LJ.
( Why I didn't like the joke about the trial )
