Goodbyeeeee
Aug. 30th, 2007 07:33 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jadesfireThe day got better once I'd handed the dratted dissertation in, and it's starting to be a relief to have it done. Plus I find it very hard to feel down when I'm walking through central London. It's dirty, smelly, too crowded with people and cars, and it's my city, it's alive, it's buzzing, and I love it to bits. Goodge Street has got some great cheap cafes (Jacket Potatoes for £1! You can't get that in Oxford...) and some fun charity and clothes shops, that I'm going to have to go back and explore. If there's anyone else out there who's sad enough to own the 'More Abba Gold' album, the song 'I am the City' pretty much sums the whole thing up. I can't get 100 yards without feeling better.
I managed to finish "The Fourth Bear" by Jasper Fforde, which was just as vaguely disappointing as last time I read it. He has the most wonderful ideas, gloriously imaginative, and he tells a great joke, but the style is all over the place. Sometimes he seems to be channelling Pratchett, while other bits sound like bad fanfic. Plus the copy editing was appalling, which really bugs me, as it's just unecessary. The plot was clever, but seriously over-crowded. Jack Spratt of the Nursery Crime department is chasing down the escaped Psychopath the Gingerbreadman, while dealing with his own marital and disciplinary problems, cucumber growers and the mysterious Fourth Bear.
My main problem with the writing was that the characters are really hard to engage with, the way you engage with Vimes or Granny Weatherwax. Jack, his sidekicks and his family just don't come alive for me, and there are some parts of 'non-plot' dialogue which are clearly supposed to flesh them out, but really come across as contrived and clunky. The whole thing needed a really good prod with a red pencil, to even out the bumpier parts and bring it into focus. Some of the sub-plots could have been happily left to the next book, rather than cram them all in at once. As I said, I love the idea, which is quite possibly the result of genius, but the execution leaves me rather flat. Only Ashley, the alien who speaks in binary, really has a full character in the supporting cast.
So this is it, I'm off! After weeks of boring you all with whining about the dissertation and being smug about the holiday, I'm taking myself, my other half, the last Harry Potter (for which I remain miraculously unspoiled), a large notebook and lots of pens, and am heading for Menorca. I'm back on the 8th, so have fun without me and I'll see you all in a week!
*waves*
I managed to finish "The Fourth Bear" by Jasper Fforde, which was just as vaguely disappointing as last time I read it. He has the most wonderful ideas, gloriously imaginative, and he tells a great joke, but the style is all over the place. Sometimes he seems to be channelling Pratchett, while other bits sound like bad fanfic. Plus the copy editing was appalling, which really bugs me, as it's just unecessary. The plot was clever, but seriously over-crowded. Jack Spratt of the Nursery Crime department is chasing down the escaped Psychopath the Gingerbreadman, while dealing with his own marital and disciplinary problems, cucumber growers and the mysterious Fourth Bear.
My main problem with the writing was that the characters are really hard to engage with, the way you engage with Vimes or Granny Weatherwax. Jack, his sidekicks and his family just don't come alive for me, and there are some parts of 'non-plot' dialogue which are clearly supposed to flesh them out, but really come across as contrived and clunky. The whole thing needed a really good prod with a red pencil, to even out the bumpier parts and bring it into focus. Some of the sub-plots could have been happily left to the next book, rather than cram them all in at once. As I said, I love the idea, which is quite possibly the result of genius, but the execution leaves me rather flat. Only Ashley, the alien who speaks in binary, really has a full character in the supporting cast.
So this is it, I'm off! After weeks of boring you all with whining about the dissertation and being smug about the holiday, I'm taking myself, my other half, the last Harry Potter (for which I remain miraculously unspoiled), a large notebook and lots of pens, and am heading for Menorca. I'm back on the 8th, so have fun without me and I'll see you all in a week!
*waves*
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
(no subject)
Date: 2007-08-30 06:50 pm (UTC)Have a safe trip and a good time, Jades!
(no subject)
Date: 2007-08-30 06:50 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2007-08-30 07:03 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2007-08-30 07:10 pm (UTC)I just finished that book! I did enjoy it but alot of the characters do come across as flat. Especially Mary Mary and the MP (who's name escapes me right now)
(no subject)
Date: 2007-08-30 07:27 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2007-08-30 07:46 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2007-08-30 09:14 pm (UTC)