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Jun. 18th, 2010 05:47 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lady_t_220Off to Sarah's in a bit. Babyitting tonight. Must rememer to take notebook and pen and resist the temptation to take a book instead. Must try and crack the shell of this damn story!
Currently reading The End Of Mr Y which I picked up because the cover looked really good, only it's proven itself to be not quite what it advertised itself as.
Well, no, I mean when the plot is actually happening it's good, but there are long passages of introspective dialogue about quantum theory, and I can't help but think "You're hiding in a monastary from ex CIA agents with parasitic children in their heads who want to kill you for the incredibly rare book you found by chance that belonged to your mysteriously missing former mentor that contains a recipe for some nonsense that allows you to travel through other people's consciousness on an alternate plane in which you encountered the mouse version of Apollo, you literally just rebuffed the slightly hopeless and needy sexual advances of a former priest who's just saved your life and is currently pining away in his love for you in a deeply pathetic way, now is not the time for either of you to randomly start discussing quarks!"
Because "I am attracted to you but cannot in good conscience sleep with you in this monestary because let's face it that would be weird and I'm probably going to die soon and kind of don't want to piss off any potential higher deity on the offchance... so, particle physics then..." does not seem like a smooth topical progression to me.
Aside from it being painfully impressed with its own intelligence, the story part of it would be really good if it stopped pondering quantum physics and actually settled on being a contemporary fantasy adventure. But then that might be my own bias. I tend to avoid books that demand I listen to them contemplate the nature of the universe at large. I just want something to entertain me in the hours between doing other stuff. This falls on the horizon of that genre of book which I fear would tut at me for being so lowbrow. Which is a shame because contemplations of the nature of the universe, thought experiments and the impact of thought upon god and god upon thought, are capable of being explored in much less 'beat you over the head with quotes from Heidegger' than this is turning out to be. Consider American Gods, which covered some of the same ground in a much more subtle manner.
Which I suppose is the essence of my criticism. I don't mind being made to consder a greater principal in the course of a narrative, I think that's ultimately a worthy motivation for writing a novel, so long as it's not at the expense of the story itself. If you have to stop, backtrack and write three pages explaining the basics of quantum mechanics in the middle of a scene in order to get your point across, you're doing it wrong.
It was ponderous getting started, then hit a really good run of plot, then wandered off namedropping philosophers like a party of lecturers at the University of Wooloomooloo for a while. I'm hoping it picks up again soon.
Currently reading The End Of Mr Y which I picked up because the cover looked really good, only it's proven itself to be not quite what it advertised itself as.
Well, no, I mean when the plot is actually happening it's good, but there are long passages of introspective dialogue about quantum theory, and I can't help but think "You're hiding in a monastary from ex CIA agents with parasitic children in their heads who want to kill you for the incredibly rare book you found by chance that belonged to your mysteriously missing former mentor that contains a recipe for some nonsense that allows you to travel through other people's consciousness on an alternate plane in which you encountered the mouse version of Apollo, you literally just rebuffed the slightly hopeless and needy sexual advances of a former priest who's just saved your life and is currently pining away in his love for you in a deeply pathetic way, now is not the time for either of you to randomly start discussing quarks!"
Because "I am attracted to you but cannot in good conscience sleep with you in this monestary because let's face it that would be weird and I'm probably going to die soon and kind of don't want to piss off any potential higher deity on the offchance... so, particle physics then..." does not seem like a smooth topical progression to me.
Aside from it being painfully impressed with its own intelligence, the story part of it would be really good if it stopped pondering quantum physics and actually settled on being a contemporary fantasy adventure. But then that might be my own bias. I tend to avoid books that demand I listen to them contemplate the nature of the universe at large. I just want something to entertain me in the hours between doing other stuff. This falls on the horizon of that genre of book which I fear would tut at me for being so lowbrow. Which is a shame because contemplations of the nature of the universe, thought experiments and the impact of thought upon god and god upon thought, are capable of being explored in much less 'beat you over the head with quotes from Heidegger' than this is turning out to be. Consider American Gods, which covered some of the same ground in a much more subtle manner.
Which I suppose is the essence of my criticism. I don't mind being made to consder a greater principal in the course of a narrative, I think that's ultimately a worthy motivation for writing a novel, so long as it's not at the expense of the story itself. If you have to stop, backtrack and write three pages explaining the basics of quantum mechanics in the middle of a scene in order to get your point across, you're doing it wrong.
It was ponderous getting started, then hit a really good run of plot, then wandered off namedropping philosophers like a party of lecturers at the University of Wooloomooloo for a while. I'm hoping it picks up again soon.
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no subject
Date: 2010-06-18 05:18 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-06-18 10:15 pm (UTC)If I wanted to read about multiverses I'd read a book about multiverses, I really just want to read about crazy magic homeopathy that whirls you through other people's brains in a Being John Malkovitch sort of a way.
no subject
Date: 2010-06-18 06:56 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-06-18 10:16 pm (UTC)It's a shame really, the plot bits are actually quite good when you wade through the twaddle.