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a dragon, a bridge and some reading
Jul. 10th, 2015 02:54 pmI dreamed last night that I had agreed to write a story (not Narnia - SF, I think) and it was due in two days, and I was thinking, 'Oh yes, two days, I'd probably better start', and then thought 'Two days! Panic!' and woke myself up. Which I suppose is just plain anticipation-anxiety for the NFE. I finished writing a letter-to-the-writer, anyway.
But putting that aside for some inconsequential chat:
How about a dragon that switches from being male to being female? Okay, it's the plain old ordinary lizard kind of dragon, and it changes very young, I think (I couldn't be absolutely certain from the article,apart from in the lab) but still it's "the first case of sex reversal seen in a terrestrial vertebrate in the wild". So pretty impressive. :)
On the human-made side of things, I really like that the Forth Bridge has been named as a world heritage site. I have a fondness for nineteenth-century bridges. No, maybe all bridges? But the nineteenth-century engineering was something else again - just heroic! Gritty, mathematical, groundbreaking in every single sense, and also playing mudpies/fort-building on a scale not seen since the pharaohs.
In the world of reading, I've been rereading Kim, and debating with a couple of friends whether it is or isn't absolutely drenched in fairytale atmosphere. (I'm on the yes side. Opinions? or opinions about Kipling himself, if you like. He's a writer who breaks all the classifications, I think.)
I've also been rereading, off and on, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, over at the NFFR site - where very interesting theories have emerged about Time and Winter, and much else.
In terms of future reading, a new Chalion-world novel - no, I see it's a novella - has emerged, with demon! Well, there's an excerpt available for present reading, but in its entirety, it's future reading. I hope it's good; I thought that The Hallowed Hunt was a bit over-reaching itself. (I was also narked by a character death which I just didn't want.)
But putting that aside for some inconsequential chat:
How about a dragon that switches from being male to being female? Okay, it's the plain old ordinary lizard kind of dragon, and it changes very young, I think (I couldn't be absolutely certain from the article,apart from in the lab) but still it's "the first case of sex reversal seen in a terrestrial vertebrate in the wild". So pretty impressive. :)
On the human-made side of things, I really like that the Forth Bridge has been named as a world heritage site. I have a fondness for nineteenth-century bridges. No, maybe all bridges? But the nineteenth-century engineering was something else again - just heroic! Gritty, mathematical, groundbreaking in every single sense, and also playing mudpies/fort-building on a scale not seen since the pharaohs.
In the world of reading, I've been rereading Kim, and debating with a couple of friends whether it is or isn't absolutely drenched in fairytale atmosphere. (I'm on the yes side. Opinions? or opinions about Kipling himself, if you like. He's a writer who breaks all the classifications, I think.)
I've also been rereading, off and on, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, over at the NFFR site - where very interesting theories have emerged about Time and Winter, and much else.
In terms of future reading, a new Chalion-world novel - no, I see it's a novella - has emerged, with demon! Well, there's an excerpt available for present reading, but in its entirety, it's future reading. I hope it's good; I thought that The Hallowed Hunt was a bit over-reaching itself. (I was also narked by a character death which I just didn't want.)
