Isn’t the better question, why don’t we do it?
Whoever you are. No matter how cool you are. Your facebook needs this.
‘Picasso’ by Gertrude Stein (New Year’s Resolution, Book Twenty-Three)
At first it seemed to me that Gertrude Stein was writing like Hemingway. She’s actually writing very specifically like Hemingway did in A Moveable Feast. Especially the bits featuring… Gertrude Stein. Only with more commas (more about that later).
A Moveable Feast is a great read for content, but the writing itself is c–p. We pretend it’s not because we want so much to like it. Sort of like The Old Man and the Sea. When all either of them really are is better than the most execrable of Hemingway’s later work (I’m looking at you, Across the River and Into the Trees).
A friend once told me that Stein’s Making of Americans reads like Henry James, but with two out of three punctuation marks removed and replaced with ‘and.’ Well, Picasso reads like bad Hemingway, but with triple the number of commas and every third comma placed randomly within a sentence. This can make things difficult to understand, as you ask yourself, now, is she creating a new dependent or independent clause that will change the meaning of this sentence or is she just having fun with commas? And if you don’t know what I mean about commas changing the meaning of a sentence, check out the book Eats Shoots and Leaves.
No one in their right mind would read Stein on Picasso in order to understand Picasso. No, you read it in order to read Stein. Just like you don’t read Heidegger on Nietzsche to get anything like a better understanding of Nietzsche.
But… I did get a couple of insights.
She writes very briefly (little more than acknowledgement) of his blue period, but that talks about a slightly later ‘harlequin and rose’ period. She also says this period appeared twice! I had always thought of his clowns appearing in his blue period and don’t know what to make of this claim.
She eschews personal psychology (nothing, for example, about the melancholy of his blue period), but is obsessive about a sort of cultural psychology, with Picasso, in her estimation, being heavily defined by his ‘Spanish-ness.’ But this does lead her to make a remark about the influence of calligraphy on Picasso. You can see something of calligraphy in his ability to create images and complete shapes through a few broad strokes. And, thought she gets some facts and history wrong, she is clearly trying to show the influence of the non-representational religious art and the use of Arabic calligraphy in Muslim Spain.
Finally, and to close on something positive to say, I was pulled up short by one bit. I was dismissive of her attempts to connect his to a certain ‘Russian-ness’ and talk about a Russian period, but then I saw a reproduction of Picasso’s FEMME AU SOURIRE. It wasn’t Russian in the sense that Stein was talking about (or else she completely misreads whatever the Russian character might be), but that 1929 painting really does resemble something from the pre-Stalin, post-Revolution, Russian avant-garde!
The Gathering Storm (New Year’s Resolution, Book Twenty-Two)
While perhaps as smooth as it could have been, the transition from Robert Jordan to Brandon Sanderson that occurs in The Gathering Storm is nothing less than jarring. It feels like a new series. Sanderson reintroduces the characters and it feels almost like he doesn’t know them. On the plus side, Rand Al’Thor is already less irritating.
But purely as a piece of genre fiction… well, it’s better. It flows better. I cruised through it faster than some shorter books earlier in the series because it felt like less of a slog. Not were loose ends wrapped up, about one third of the way through, Sanderson began to show the reader he was going to start advancing things significantly. Much more propulsive of a read. And, dare I say it? Yes, I must. Sex is handled better. Women are handled better. He can’t undo some of the irritating lovestruckness of Jordan’s depictions (he wrote badly about love from each side’s point of view), but he can make the women a bit less focused on being all swoony-like and make the men less juvenile when they’re thinking about their love interests (always heterosexual love interests; don’t remember any gay relationships in the series). A somewhat long awaited pairing took place and when it finally happened, it struck me that almost no one in this series has premarital sex (except the main hero, Rand, who actually has a little harem of three lovers). This pairing was between two mature individuals: one a sort of sorceress (Aes Sedai they’re called) who’s possibly a couple of centuries old and the other a grizzled warrior probably in his late fifties or possibly early sixties. They decide to put off marriage until, you know, the apocalypse is resolved in favor of the good guys. And they don’t have sex. Okay, I’m catholic so I sort of respect that but, with the world on the edge of extinction, I think a little premarital hanky panky between two mature adults is not a major sin. Frankly, the additional capacity for sanity that generally accompanies getting laid once in a while can only help things if two people are critical players in the battle to defeat ultimate evil. While there is a touch of grit, this is more romantic, high fantasy than the modern style of Game of Thrones.
There is a sort of denouement at the end, as one would hope for the end of a book. But it’s anti-climatic. The real climax was only sort of decently described battle (if it had been better described, it would have been: a fight between witches, also involving flying dragons – they’re not called dragons, but that’s what they are). The ending however, was Rand laughing and learning to chill out a bit. And, like the cleansing of saidin, it was rushed and didn’t seem like enough had been built up to this moment to make it feel sufficiently cathartic.
Maybe, you think, hey, maybe now he won’t be such a raging a–hole all the time! But we’ve been down this road before, haven’t we? He cleansed the poison from male half of the One Power (magic) two books back (0r maybe three; I lose track, because, seriously, this is book twelve – Churchill’s history of the English speaking peoples didn’t require this many pages) and we all thought that maybe now he’d stop being such a little b—h. But now. He not only didn’t stop being a little b—h, he didn’t even stop vomiting when he used magic.
What I’m saying is, I’ll believe it when I see it. Maybe Sanderson realized how irritating Rand had become and is trying to get this fixed to so it will be more fun to read, but I’m withholding judgement.
I would also like to report that my aunt is now reading my posts about fantasy and sci fi. This is important because ninety percent of my readers are my aunt and my mother.
Near White Sands, New Mexico
Midweek Staff Meeting – Dinosaurs Of Tibet
Just Eric Clapton’s Guitar Work From The Beatles’ ‘While My Guiter Gently Weeps’
Queen of Sorcery (New Year’s Resolution, Book Twenty-One)
My Aunt Anna told me that she won’t read this. She sort of skips over whatever I write about science fiction or fantasy. In one sense, I can understand. I mean, it’s a somewhat hermetic world, as genre writing tends to be. But, I still like to think I’ve got something worthwhile to say, even if the subject leaves something to desired (some would say).
Queen of Sorcery is very similar to its predecessor. A little longer, at just a touch over three hundred pages, but, overall, as economical as Pawn. Yes. Economical is the word. Most of the traits of the characters are described as being ethnic or cultural traits. Skip over most of the deeper psychology; he’s sneaky because he’s a Drasnian. Again, economy. There were several battles, but only described in semi-graphic detail, and that was done to create a bit of emotional catharsis for the young hero, Garion. Economy of writing.
There is a one mystery, though I think I’ve figured it out, but Eddings isn’t trying to leave something nagging at the back of the reader’s mind after he or she has put the book down, besides, obviously, a desire to make the reader want to read the next book. He is trying, though, to offer some solid craftsmanship.
Economy of prose. I’ll have to think about that. Something to be learned from the late (great?) David Eddings for a budding fantasy writer. An antidote to Robert Jordan and George R.R. Martin (there’s no antidote to J.R.R. Tolkien; he’s on another level, I think we can agree).
A bit of geekdom, especially for fans of Brandon Sanderson. Eddings has created a reasonably unique system of magic for his world. Sanderson, of course, is famous for finishing off Jordan’s Wheel of Time sequence, but also because he specializes in developing original and interesting systems of magic (one reason why he must have seemed like an obvious pick to finish off what the late Jordan wasn’t quite able to complete). Eddings, back when magic in novels was more like magic from Dungeons & Dragons, tried to do something a little more precise (though closely related to magic in the writings of Ursula K. LeGuin, who is not a genre writer, truly, but sui generis).
A Poet Asks, ‘Am I Poet Enough?’
Gareth Bale Should Only Go To Madrid If Cristiano Ronaldo Leaves
Caveat: I am a Tottenham fan and don’t want to see Bale leave the Spurs at all.
That said, it does not make sense for Bale to leave for Real Madrid so long as Cristiano Ronaldo is there.
Both players need to have the team formation built around them and the roles of the other players determined in light of supporting their attacking moves and compensating for their defensive deficiencies.
At Madrid, Ronaldo is a one touch, penalty predator who charges into the box from wide, similar, in truth, to Robert Pires in his prime. He doesn’t track back and doesn’t stay wide, so needs a fast, powerful fullback behind him who can cover the entire left side of the field on his own, because Ronaldo does not adhere to any tactical role except for getting on the end of crosses and through balls in order to score.
It’s easy to say, ‘just put Bale on the opposite wing from Ronaldo, no problem.’ But it’s actually a huge problem. With two wide players roaming the field at will, it opens up huge gaps, particularly on the wings, with opposing fullbacks and wide players doubling up on both Madrid fullbacks, who will be isolated by the unconstrained nature of Ronaldo and Bale. Central midfielders can help cover, but that then opens up gaps down the middle.
One anarchic player, if he or she is of sufficient genius to make it worthwhile… well, accommodations can be made for genius, but it is not possible make that allowance for two players without completely disrupting the team’s shape.
Bale, if he transferred, would either quickly be marginalized (brought in for games when Ronaldo was being rested) or else put in a constrained role that did not play to his strengths. Either way, the swashbuckling attacker who is taking the world be storm, would sink beneath the waters.
If Ronaldo were to leave Madrid, absolutely, Bale could go. He could be plugged in, playing as close a like for like as you are likely to see for the departed Portuguese winger-cum-striker, with little tactical tinkering necessary. But until that happens, Bale needs to stay where the team will be built to emphasize his strengths and accommodate his weaknesses. Right now, Madrid is built to accommodate someone else.
Jack Vance Died
I feel bad. Jack Vance was an important (if not always very good) science fiction and fantasy writer, but, honestly, I thought he’d died years ago.
the coffee philosopher 