Bits, bobs and BOOKS. Finally
Jan. 19th, 2008 04:12 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lady_schrapnellWell, I kind of knew it was going to be an unusual funeral last Saturday, when we finally managed to squeeze into the beautiful, small All Saints Church in Raheny to hear "As so many of you will have missed it while trying to get in, Jacinta will now sing the 'Ave Maria' again for us all." Not unusual in most churches in Ireland, perhaps, but in a Church of Ireland one? Decidedly. Much more importantly, it was one of the most moving funerals I've ever attended. Along this lines:
Still feeling all over the place, and have left gaps in LJ and blog reading which may have to remain gaps now, as I can't imagine I'd manage to wade through the read posts in order to get back to older unread ones (Bloglines - down to 450-some unread!). So if I've not replied to something I should have, please forgive the unintentional ignoring, which really is unintentional.
First two books of 2008 couldn't have been more dissimilar - well, given that they're both fiction, in English, and for children/teens - and yet could both be called historical fiction. The two are Philip Reeve's Starcross (2007) and Hilda Lewis' Harold Was My King (1968). Before putting the usual babbling about the two behind a cut, I want to quote from the letter to the dedicatee of Harold Was My King - presumably her grandson (after I'd looked up her dates,steepholm lifted my fog by pointing out that Daniel Lewis could hardly have been her son).
Will try to get in at least one more book talk before (HOPEFULLY) heading off to Bristol on Thursday. Last year's attempt to get there forsteepholm's birthday ended in sorrow (mine), A&E and vomiting (Older Daughter's), so I'm more nervous than normal even, which is saying a lot...
(Raymond Carver, "Late Fragment")And did you get what
you wanted from this life, even so?
I did.
And what did you want?
To call myself beloved, to feel myself
beloved on the earth.
Still feeling all over the place, and have left gaps in LJ and blog reading which may have to remain gaps now, as I can't imagine I'd manage to wade through the read posts in order to get back to older unread ones (Bloglines - down to 450-some unread!). So if I've not replied to something I should have, please forgive the unintentional ignoring, which really is unintentional.
First two books of 2008 couldn't have been more dissimilar - well, given that they're both fiction, in English, and for children/teens - and yet could both be called historical fiction. The two are Philip Reeve's Starcross (2007) and Hilda Lewis' Harold Was My King (1968). Before putting the usual babbling about the two behind a cut, I want to quote from the letter to the dedicatee of Harold Was My King - presumably her grandson (after I'd looked up her dates,
steepholm lifted my fog by pointing out that Daniel Lewis could hardly have been her son).In this tale the character of the Conqueror and his deeds are drawn largely from old manuscripts. Some of them were written by Normans, some by Englishmen; so you can understand that William will appear in a different light according to whether the writer is Norman or English.
[........]
One day you will, very likely, read the old chronicles for yourself and make up your own mind.
Well, I read that and was astonished. Some day I'm going to get my act together and do a looong post about subversiveness (or lack thereof) in kids' books and whether some of the books which are supposedly full of the 'think for yourselves' message are really pushing that or not, but for now, I'm just wondering if anyone can think of a recently-written kids' or YA historical which deals with a time when there was a clash of ideologies in a way which shows that there were two sides to the clash, and that personal bias will influence even supposedly 'factual' records. Not to mention the idea that children would read the primary sources for themselves! (And yes, it is just to this Daniel Lewis, but this is not a hand-inscribed message in the copy of the book given to him, but part of the printed book, and comes, actually, before the Foreword.) I've certainly read some great new historicals, but it's not criticism to say they're mostly not dealing with this type of cultural/ideological clash.
Regular readers might have guessed that I wouldn't manage to get through this without a mention of I, Coriander. I think my inability to do so is in part due to the fact that it actually frightened me somewhat, as well as (obviously) aggravating me a lot - inaccurate, misleading history, which demonized a group of people in such an extraordinary way, seems to me the last thing kids need these days. And that it was apparently completely accepted as well-researched and applicable to our times I found really worrying. But that rant's been ranted already.
Anyway, Harold Was My King is perhaps not the most riveting read ever, though I read and loved it as a child. Or maybe that's just my reading preference, which really isn't for long descriptions of battles and the like. It feels in many ways to me like Rosemary Sutcliff's Simon, which also has the even-handed presentation of the two sides, and shows in dense and often quite grim thoroughness the sheer tragedy of the period (1064 through the Battle of Hastings and about 10 years after for Harold - Civil War for Simon). There are sections which could almost match the Mordor ones for sheer relentless bleakness. But it ends on a hopeful note, as the central character is fairly well reconciled to the fact that there's no return to the days before William conquered, and is fully reconciled to his own personal fate. About which I'll say no more.
It seems silly to call Starcross (sequel to Larklight, btw) a historical, given the strongly alternate 'alternate history' - and is steampunk really alternate history? I'm sure long discussions have been had on the subject, but I'm clueless. Anyway, this is grounded in Victorian Britain - though that includes much of outer space too! - most often by reference to the adventure literature of the period, but also with little touches like the footnote mentioning "Mother's dear friend, Miss Marian Evans", recently appointed as editor of the Westminster Review. I certainly wouldn't have spotted George Eliot in that as a child myself, but enjoyed it a lot nonetheless.
It would definitely be silly to compare Starcross to a 'straight' historical like Harold Was My King or Simon, as it's clearly not doing at all the same type of thing. And what it does, it does very cleverly*, wittily and entertainingly. But when I compared it to other books which I felt it *should* in some ways be sensibly comparable to (Rick Riordan's Percy Jackson books and even Skulduggery Pleasant), it seemed to fall down in one important (for me) regard: I couldn't possibly have cared less about the characters. Fun to read about, yes, but that's it. I actually care about Percy and his friends quite a bit, for all the books are more plot than character-driven.
* Except - with this, as with Larklight - I wanted to yell at Bloomsbury Press, which can't seem to rustle up the money for a decent copy-editor. I'm not a retired schoolteacher, and I certainly won't be throwing any croutons, but I'm outraged at the slack grammar nonetheless. (PR & David Wyatt acknowledge 'three lovely editrices', who've supposed saved them from this fate.) Okay, not outraged, but "You will return with Jack and I...." and "...surrounding Jack and I..." -- ouch.
Regular readers might have guessed that I wouldn't manage to get through this without a mention of I, Coriander. I think my inability to do so is in part due to the fact that it actually frightened me somewhat, as well as (obviously) aggravating me a lot - inaccurate, misleading history, which demonized a group of people in such an extraordinary way, seems to me the last thing kids need these days. And that it was apparently completely accepted as well-researched and applicable to our times I found really worrying. But that rant's been ranted already.
Anyway, Harold Was My King is perhaps not the most riveting read ever, though I read and loved it as a child. Or maybe that's just my reading preference, which really isn't for long descriptions of battles and the like. It feels in many ways to me like Rosemary Sutcliff's Simon, which also has the even-handed presentation of the two sides, and shows in dense and often quite grim thoroughness the sheer tragedy of the period (1064 through the Battle of Hastings and about 10 years after for Harold - Civil War for Simon). There are sections which could almost match the Mordor ones for sheer relentless bleakness. But it ends on a hopeful note, as the central character is fairly well reconciled to the fact that there's no return to the days before William conquered, and is fully reconciled to his own personal fate. About which I'll say no more.
It seems silly to call Starcross (sequel to Larklight, btw) a historical, given the strongly alternate 'alternate history' - and is steampunk really alternate history? I'm sure long discussions have been had on the subject, but I'm clueless. Anyway, this is grounded in Victorian Britain - though that includes much of outer space too! - most often by reference to the adventure literature of the period, but also with little touches like the footnote mentioning "Mother's dear friend, Miss Marian Evans", recently appointed as editor of the Westminster Review. I certainly wouldn't have spotted George Eliot in that as a child myself, but enjoyed it a lot nonetheless.
It would definitely be silly to compare Starcross to a 'straight' historical like Harold Was My King or Simon, as it's clearly not doing at all the same type of thing. And what it does, it does very cleverly*, wittily and entertainingly. But when I compared it to other books which I felt it *should* in some ways be sensibly comparable to (Rick Riordan's Percy Jackson books and even Skulduggery Pleasant), it seemed to fall down in one important (for me) regard: I couldn't possibly have cared less about the characters. Fun to read about, yes, but that's it. I actually care about Percy and his friends quite a bit, for all the books are more plot than character-driven.
* Except - with this, as with Larklight - I wanted to yell at Bloomsbury Press, which can't seem to rustle up the money for a decent copy-editor. I'm not a retired schoolteacher, and I certainly won't be throwing any croutons, but I'm outraged at the slack grammar nonetheless. (PR & David Wyatt acknowledge 'three lovely editrices', who've supposed saved them from this fate.) Okay, not outraged, but "You will return with Jack and I...." and "...surrounding Jack and I..." -- ouch.
Will try to get in at least one more book talk before (HOPEFULLY) heading off to Bristol on Thursday. Last year's attempt to get there for
steepholm's birthday ended in sorrow (mine), A&E and vomiting (Older Daughter's), so I'm more nervous than normal even, which is saying a lot...
