Andrew

This book has long been a favorite of mine. I've read it twice in print, listened to it once as an audiobook, and just finished it again, this time on my Kindle. This is a book that I've continued to come back to because the world is super interesting and the characters are wonderful. Has some of the content become a bit dated? Definitely. But the storytelling brilliance contained between the front and back covers of this book is mesmerizing.

Easily my least favorite of the Witcher books, even if it has some terrific Witcher moments in it. There are a lot of monsters, plenty of magic, and enough Geralt-Dandelion banter for any Witcher fan. Unfortunately, I felt that the narrative was a huge mess, lacked forward momentum, and felt almost wholly aimless and random. Also, the last 25% of the book just WOULDN'T END and I ended up skimming some of it.

I think the profound effect Lewis has had on my mind is keenly comparable to the way Lewis viewed George MacDonald. I'm certain that Lewis and I exist on different wavelengths on many things, and yet each time I read one of his works I find myself moved and hoping he's right. What if Hell really is only closed from the inside? Lewis is quick to make clear that this book is one of his “supposeales,” and even clearer that he intends this book wholly as a work of fiction, not one of those “I saw heaven/hell” books; in fact, Lewis has a short but funny exchange with author George MacDonald about people who have “visions” of heaven/hell and then write books about their “experience.” So, to sum it all up, I don't really buy Lewis's viewpoint (or George MacDonald's, for that matter), but I find so much of it beautiful.

After all, as Lewis's fictional George MacDonald explains, trying to understand eternity while living within time is like looking through the wrong end of a telescope.

There are five main parts to this book:

(1) an introduction to the work as a whole, which gives historical context to the act of language creation and Tolkien's involvement in it;

(2) the actual essay A Secret Vice, wherein Tolkien explains his great love and mild embarrassment over his hobby;

(3) Essay on Phonetic Symbolism, wherein Tolkien operates in full linguist mode, trying to wrestle with why some sounds seem better suited to certain concepts (“smash” words for hitting things: smash, clash, thrash, bash; or the “gl-“ words for appearances: glow, glitter, glisten, glower; or how in various languages the word for “cut” has an “s,” “c,” or “k,” sound in it);

(4) the epilogue, Coda: The Reception and Legacy of Tolkien's Invented Languages, wherein the editors of this volume contextualize invented languages today, looking back at Tolkien's work, and how Tolkien's fiction jump started the language-creation act in modern fiction;

and (5) the appendixes (what is a Tolkien book without appendixes?), wherein the authors give the text of the various manuscripts from Tolkien's various drafts of the two essays in this volume. This section is particularly interesting because we can see something of his method and the way his mind worked out an essay, speech, or lecture.

The Monsters and the Critics, and other essays

A Secret Vice

Somehow, when I first read The Witcher, I ended up skipping this book. This time around, I grabbed it and read it from front to back. It's a great book, even if it's not as good as The Last Wish. But the ending is...oh man! So good, so compelling. Geralt of Rivia is one of my favorite fantasy characters ever.

This little pamphlet contains three essays and one short story: (1) Why I Write [essay], (2) The Lion and the Unicorn [essay], (3) A Hanging [story], and (4) Politics and the English Language [essay]. The common theme between the pieces is the way language is used to convey political ideas. To quote the final page of the book: “...to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind” (p120).

Why I Write is largely concerned with Orwell's political motivations: “Every line of serious work that I have written since 1936 has been written, directly or indirectly, against totalitarianism and for democratic socialism [emphasis author's]” (p8). For some (those who have only read Animal Farm or 1984), learning that Orwell was a self-proclaimed socialist will raise many questions, but it's simply a misunderstanding: Orwell wanted the state to do it's job by providing a good quality of life to its people, keeping them out from under the boot of the rich, and then to otherwise leave them alone.

The Lion and the Unicorn is the most difficult essay to get through (I, admittedly, DNF'd it) and concerns the political climate of Europe at the time of writing (1941) and the hope that Europe would move away from its totalitarian, capitalistic, unplanned economy, and move toward a more socialistic, planned economy, which sought to better the lives of its citizens rather than investors and businessfolk.

A Hanging is a short story about a group of British officials who oversee the execution of a brown-skinned prisoner (in some British-occupied country), and the way the whole thing is rather annoying and unpleasant to them, not because it is barbarous but old-hat. The story ends with the unnamed narrator asking if such executions are justifiable for any reason.

Politics and the English Language is the real meat of this book though (although considerably shorter than The Lion and the Unicorn), and was the reason I picked up this little volume. Here, Orwell gives his brilliant explanation of why imprecise language is an enemy of commonfolk: “in my opinion” may be more polite than “I think,” but is less precise, and needlessly wordy. In one hilarious stretch, he rewrites a passage from Ecclesiastes in the style of what he considers Modern English Prose.

I returned, and saw under the sun, that the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, neither yet bread to the wise, nor yet riches to men of understanding, nor yet favour to men of skill; but time and chance happeneth to them all.

Objective consideration of contemporary phenomena compels the conclusion that success or failure in competitive activities exhibits no tendency to be commensurate with innate capacity, but that a considerable element of the unpredictable must invariably be taken into account. (p110)

Lewis could be devilishly clever when he wanted, and that may be apparent no more clearly than in this book. I marathon-read this book in two days, but I'd recommend taking it a bit slower than I did. Unfortunately, Mr Screwtape's tongue drips with honey and the way Mr Lewis writes him is joyous to read; but it is all the same exhausting to read, and, apparently, exhausting to write, if CSL's words on the matter are taken seriously. I did not read the “short story” which follows, “Screwtape Proposes a Toast,” although I did start it; I was simply too tired of Mr Screwtape to continue. His wickedness had worn me thin.

C.S. Lewis's writing and wit, however, shall never wear thin. At least, not for me.

I wish the essays had focused more on technique, and at times they didn't even really feel to be about writing at all; nevertheless, I enjoyed this book quite a bit. It just wasn't quite what I wanted (so the problem was me, not it).

But one useful thing I did learn is that ideas are like cats:

You treat ideas like cats: you make them follow you. If you try to approach a cat and pick it up, hell, it won't let you do it. You've got to say, “Well, to hell with you.” And the cat says, “Wait a minute. He's not behaving the way most humans do.” Then the cat follows you out of curiosity: “Well, what's wrong with you that you don't love me?”

are

1) I am reading so many books right now, I'm not sure how many I'm reading (some have been on the back burner for months).

2) This book was awesome. Not only does it trace Tolkien's actual interactions with the OED text as a writer/contributor, but it then includes an extended appendix of word studies of Tolkien's vocabulary. If you've ever wondered why the Hobbit's call anything they simply must keep but have no use for a “mathom,” then this is the book to turn to.

Currently writing a paper on the film Brokeback Mountain and its relation to the western genre. My teacher recommended I read the short story and screenplay, which was a good call. I'm glad to have found this book at the local library, since it has both the story, screenplay, and even three essays (one each from the story's author, and the screenwriters).

I think the film is overall more effective than the short story, but it's a fine little piece of fiction, I guess. The screenplay (partially written by the screenwriter of Lonesome Dove) is great though.

I read 90% of the first chapter (“Fiction”) and the Appendix. I did not read the remaining sections (“Personal Essay and Memoir,” “Magazine Writing,” “Poetry,” and “Playwriting”). Overall, I think this is a good reference work, but it drones on far longer than it needs to. But I definitely learned some stuff!

Meh. 66% of this book is really good, but the last 33% is awful. Throw in 1% of the usual and random Stephen King shenanigans and you end up with a book that's entire passable, largely enjoyable, occasionally a lot of fun, and dreadful to experience.

Overall, I had a good time, but probably won't read it again.

I did not like this book. It is, from my understanding of it, one of the most self-important and ideologically confused books I've ever encountered. It's funny at times, maybe thought-provoking, but ultimately doomsaying. Certainly, aspects of this book mimic aspects of our world (especially the near-worship of capitalism and the men who make it work (Ford bless us)), but overall much of it just feels silly. Maybe I'm not smart enough; or maybe I'm just too young and liberal. Here's hoping 1984 is better.

This book is simultaneously a must-read and a slog. When it soars, it's the best writing book I've picked up; when it slows down, it's like trudging through waist-high mud. But Zinsser's prose is clear, consistent, and easy to skim. I found in the slower chapters that I could normally read the first and last sentence of each paragraph and get what I needed. This tells me two things: (1) if those particular chapters were more relevant to me (they were focused on particular kinds of non-fiction writing), they would be wellsprings of information; (2) Zinsser so carefully used topic-sentence conclusion-sentence in his writing that his paragraphs can sing with just two sentences. It's startling writing, and refreshing to read. It also wakes you up to your own tics and shortcomings. Terrific book!at first, I wrote “a bit of a slog,” but then remembered Zinnser's advice: if something's a slog, say it's a slog; don't hedge your opinion behind weak phrases.

Grace Lin is going to end up one of my favorite fantasy authors (not even sure if she would consider herself a fantasy author). This and Where the Mountain Meets the Moon are just splendid children's books, and, I think, must-reads for anyone who enjoys fantastic stories based on folktales and myth.