I think I may have enjoyed a Comic/Graphic Novel for the first time...

... and I can't put my finger on why.

I'm confused a little, not by the enjoyment - though it did surprise me, and I'm still not sure if enjoyed is quite the right term - but because I can't place what it was that kept me reading, or appreciating or... well, stopped me dismissing it as I have dismissed all other (sparse, and few though they may be) such works I've happened to browse. (As an aside I've never grokked or enjoyed superheroes much since - or before? - that either though cause/effect breakdown is not so clear).

I'm just not a particularly visually-minded person, never have been, and long ago I wrote off comics as "not for me" as a result. Not as childish (though I'm sure that figured somewhere at the time), nor as lesser art forms, but as not for me. I've never been shy of admitting this in conversation so to be honest I was a little surprised when Paul passed me the 4 Scott Pilgrim strips to borrow after the last game session I made, but thought I'd take a look since the offer was there.

So I packed 'em with my stuff at the end of the night. And I then forgot about them for a week, until the moment when I couldn't make it to that week's session for fear of spreading my lurgy (manflu!) ahead of people's holidays (and the Dark Heresy game I was attending over Easter). So that evening instead of gaming (the end of the current game and last session for a while) I curled up in bed far later than planned, and read book 1 cover to cover - despite being conscious of thinking "what the hell is the appeal supposed to be?" at every moment along the way and being aware of a general feeling of meh building in my mind.

Book 2 I read a couple of days later, again in one sitting, again far too late at night. I remember the overwhelming feeling was not meh, not cool!, not amusement, but rather "Oh, that's where that forum handle comes from".

But it was last night's reading of books 3 and 4, back to back, that... somehow left me feeling I actually want to know what happens next; I'm both interested and engaged. The humour grew on me, I can pinpoint that, but it wasn't laugh-out-loud funny to a degree that explains the interest alone.

Enh, it'll wear off and I suspect I'll have forgotten about it as/when the 5th volume is published or the optioned film comes out. I'm not likely to buy, go see, or even think about them, nor any other comic not offered to me on a platter. That said, it is never a bad thing to find doors not as shut as you thought if the other side is not perilous, eh?

But I just have this nagging "why?" y'know? I like to know, or perhaps more accurately be able to articulate, why something appeals to me - basically so I can find similar stuff. Call it a quirk. And for the moment the take-home sensation for me is a big ol' ... WTF?

Oh well.

I'm struggling

To come up with a positive post tonight, I mean.

There are a lot of things I could talk about - I've just watched Zidane: A 21st Century Portrait; I'm enjoying Pratchett's Making Money; Flight of the Conchords is proving every bit as promising as the trailers made it look.

But the latter two are still too nascent in my experience of them to deserve writing time and the former, whilst undoubtedly interesting, did not blow me away: it was fantastic in places, but as a whole it did not quite spark for me.

I guess I could note that last night I did laugh genuinely in mirth quite a lot - a combination of book, Conchords and BBC Three's airing of some series or other of Family Guy - which is everything I remember The Simpsons being back when it was fresh and funny on so many levels, and yet only watched in patches. Perhaps that's why it seems fresh, I've been exposed to enough to see its merits, but not too much to find it getting stale. Also - QI has been back for a few weeks and this is a true gem of British Broadcasting.

So funny stuff abounds, and this is good.

Recent Reading

I don't read nearly as much or as often as I'd like to these days for one reason or another - mainly ocular and mental tiredness. Some weeks I'm lucky if I manage to get through New Scientist before the next copy drops through my door; other, better, weeks see me making use of my 40 minute bus commute to read.

Last week was one such, when I read a book that entertained me greatly and then touched me profoundly when the tone changed suddenly at the end. The book in question? the late Harry Thompson's Penguins Stopped Play, chronicling his lifelong love of amateur cricket. Not having read or heard of The Captain Scott Invitational XI before despite a previous book by another of its founders, I found the whole thing charming. I found the humour spot on, the eccentricities engaging and the personalities interesting. Being the cricket nut that I am (though a little beach/park cricket aside I have never played; perhaps another point of resonance, as neither had the author before the team was set up) the subject matter was otherwise familiar and compelling and I actively looked forward to my commute and the occasion it afforded me to lose myself in the Scotties' exploits. I found myself cheering the split from the Layabouts despite the potential loss of humour, and really enjoying the reporting of the matches once everyone was wont to try. But perhaps more enjoyable were Thompson's descriptions of the locations: he really sold me on Buenos Aires as somewhere to visit (though doubtless I will forget or find somewhere more appealing by the time I ever have the time and finance to think of a proper holiday), and his verve for doing more than just the cricket whilst the Scotties were touring was admirable and inspiring.

The core of the team came over as so likable that by the end when he talks first of the death of one of his teammates, and then of his own diagnosis with cancer, I was genuinely moved. If I were less lazy, more rich and had more time where I felt free (as opposed to time when I am technically free but don't feel it - of which I have a lot), and if it were not the end of summer and thus the worst time to inquire, I would be sorely tempted to follow the instinct that caught me in that moment (and indeed which made me google for the website) and look up the team - to some end or other but alas...

The other book I read recently that struck me deeply was Cormac McCarthy's The Road. I found this work to be one of the single best pieces of descriptive writing I have ever come across, and it is the only book I have ever read which immediately made me think: fuck, I want to film this! Not that I will mind, though hopefully someone with cinematic talent will.

Yes the characters are bland and the plot is thin, but the evocative descriptions and the associated prose more than make up for it and it had quite an impact. So much so I palmed it off on others, which I very rarely do.

Everything and Nothing

There have been a multitude of topics that I have wanted to write about of late, but I have managed to actually commit words on none but the actual play for the game I am running. And even there I am now a week behind.

The simple excuse? Tiredness. But I've always been tired; everything I have ever written (well, almost) has been written through tiredness. The difference this time is work, and specifically the type of work; I am processing XML files for a publishing firm, and this means that my days are spent looking endlessly at black text on a white background and adding, subtracting, or altering the contents as required. This is not only as dull as the muffled ring of a tuneless bell but it is killing for my eyes; thus whilst I love writing with a passion - even if I only ever manage to do it distractedly - it is possibly the last thing I want to do in my evenings and weekends (well, that and another hobby of mine: reading!). Images on screens are fine - I don't see any during the day and there is significant difference from text - but reading and writing are out. I swear I only managed to get the last summary of the WFRP game written up before the following session out of sheer bloody mindedness and because others, too, get discernible value from it.

In the last month I have started, planned and canned (or put on indefinite hold) posts about Life on Mars, my submission to the next generation of peer pressure in buying an Xbox360 (in intention, primarily, to beat drunken Scotsmen at cricket!) and the climactic stages of the cricket world cup, along with England's pathetic failures and coming transitions. What I most want to write is a piece on how violence is oft over-used in media - be it book, film or game. Not a decrying of violence, explosions and action, not a "videogames ate my baby!" nor "terminator films breed nazi killing machines!" but a viewpoint on how violence and combat are often the least interesting resolutions to dramatic conflict. Not that they are bad: that they are (very often) boring compared with some alternatives. I still plan this, and I might put the long weekend next weekend to good use yet.

My mind has been kept active thinking about things to write instead of writing them (and the idea loss as a result has been staggering), but mostly it has been shutting down all day. Trained monkey, reporting for duty!

On the plus side, this past weekend was top notch. Out with work folks on Thursday for a few more than planned, friend down from Up North on the Friday for a catch up, natter and beers, then a weekend just outside Bicester with nothing planned but lost of gaming. I wasn't even deterred by the fact it was Star Trek-inspired! I even (finally) saw a couple of episodes of Firefly; although I found the pilot episode a long way short of inspiring, it hinted at why everyone I know raves about it, and the actual episode we viewed thereafter had its moments. Visually it did not work for me; otherwise... it sorta did. Enough to make me seriously consider trying to blag the DVDs of someone long enough to watch it all, anyway.

And this coming week will be good, too; it's a two day working week for me (today just gone, and tomorrow). Wednesday and Thursday will be spent in Bristol and going to two gigs in two nights with a good friend, then there is a four day weekend as I have Friday off as well, and next Monday is a Bank Holiday. Hurrah! Hopefully some shenanigans involving shooting aliens (and Scotsmen, and possibly even Lawyers) in the face can be found, along with some time to write, and work on where Splitting Heirs is going... Oh, and book gown hire for my PhD graduation; bloody swindle of a price!

Afterthoughts on A Feast for Crows [ASoIaF book 4]

Cross-posted from here.

I've just finished reading this last night. All in all book four has managed to solidify my thoughts about Martin some more and formulate some thoughts I'd been carrying around for a while with regards to his works. First off - I've said before that this book would make or break whether I read on and to answer that: I shall. Why? Because I love the pitch. I love the subject matter and there are enough interesting set-ups to make me want to keep going.

However I have come to realise that whilst I love Martin's subject, schemes and ideas, I really don't rate him as a writer and I feel he has an overblown sense of his own wordliness. There is an awful lot of chaff that could, IMO, be cut from the books and find him to be dull when delivering the Big Reveal and, frankly, chose some awful viewpoint characters for this book.

Most notable on these fronts was the whole Brienne tract. It was largely dull, told us basically nothing we didn't know already, and ended up with her (apparently, at least) being put to death having advanced nothing apart from delivering the reader news that minor character #574 (a random number; Beric Dondarrion) was actually dead for good this time. In his place... it had been obvious since before this book began that Catelyn Stark was alive (for want of a better word) so that wasn't a shock.

Cersei was also just... dull. I find stupid people who think they're really clever to be tedious in life, and so in fiction. Yes, there was interest in how the twins drifted apart into enmity but all of that interest came from Jaime's viewpoint, not Cersei's and I really don't think it was written all that well. I was a little surprised at how Cersei ended up gaoled though, I'll grant Martin that, but after all the scheming it felt like a let down to me: some guy we have no insight into made a move that has little rationale and no background. Sure, it'll almost certainly become clearer come future books but frankly a couple of years wait for that means it'll be cold by the time its brought forward.

The better stuff: Dorne was good. I liked the powerplays there and it really established a sense of what might happen next time out. Ditto, to an extent, the Ironmen - though from Martin's map their whole conquest makes little sense in terms of the numbers of people they could marshall [come one, they're just a few small islands!]. Dramatic license, though, so that's cool.

Jaime was interesting. I hated his chapters in previous works but he has become a character with depth and interest, though the writing hasn't really borne out why too well. The culmination at Riverrun was a highlight - and, perhaps, Martin's best reveal. I didn't see Jaime keeping his vow, but he managed it in a believable way, and Martin managed to have the Blackfish escape as a possible setup for bigger and better things in future.

Petyr Baelish is an interesting character too, and this seems to be the key point of interest for me now - someone who not only thinks he is clever but actually appears to be so. To no small part the fact we only see him through others' eyes is an advantage; I wish Cersei had been the same, then her obvious stupidity would have been bearable. Petyr is the only reason Sansa/Alayne is a tolerable viewpoint - she's been dull from book one and continues to be.

Anyhow, I think that's that for now. Feel free to tear my thoughts apart if you've read it.

Mayor Clarkson?

Now this is interesting, if by interesting I mean amusing. Jeremy Clarkson, him of Top Gear fame with the big head and big mouth has been suggested as a possible Tory candidate for Mayor of London. OK, so this came out last year - and Clarkson himself wrote a column on it last August - but it only reached my ears on Monday when I was out chatting with a friend.

Actually, it's not interesting: I, frankly, care little for London or who is mayor of it as I avoid that city altogether for the most part and whomever is mayor affects me little-to-none. However I do have time for Clarkson for various reasons, mostly because I find him funny and occasionally pertinent and well observed. Clarkson may give off the air of an ignorant brute and he makes no effort to hide his very un-PC views - paid, as he is, by the Sunday Times to espouse them in print. I don't read the Sunday Times but I have, of late, been reading the first of the books compiled from his column, The World According to Clarkson, as I trundle to and from Bicester on the bus every Wednesday. These columns cover the early years of this decade and while those that were topical are dated most are just Mr Clarkson running his mouth off. And therein lies the charm - he shows wit, humour, astuteness, but also bullheadedness, chauvinism and myopia. In short - he shows humanity; it has dispelled my view of him as ignorant or bigoted.

But most of all the book has made me laugh, even on the bus, and its format makes it a perfect companion in this type of short journey. I shall be seeking later volumes, given the opportunity.

And in other, completely unrelated, news: I walked down to town today in shoes I hadn't worn for a couple of years or so. Gave myself a blasted blister and am currently hobbling about like a one-legged man. Joy of joys!

A Song of Ice and Fire: the TV Show?

So I learned yesterday that one of the epics of recent fantasy literature is to be made into a television show. George R. R. Martin's dense humanocentric political saga A Song of Ice and Fire has been picked up by HBO with a view to televising the whole work - which has yet to be completed. Four of the (planned) seven books are published to date, with the plots not expected to be wound up finally until 2011; given the fickle nature of TV audiences, the likelihood is that however much the intent is there to serialise the whole work it will get cancelled before it gets that far.

At this point I am currently reading the fourth book. I have, on balance, enjoyed the series to date as it hits enough of my sweet spots to remain interesting: political machinations, humanocentric, actions with consequences and the spotlight on characters more than events. The caveat is that as each book has gone by it seems there is less of interest - not because any of the above have dissolved away but because the original cast of spotlight characters have largely been killed and replaced as protagonists with others of varying degrees of interest and, whilst still being about the characters more than events the books have seemed more and more ponderous. The newer viewpoint characters tend to engender less sympathy or empathy and, having had so many spotlights burn out, I find a reluctance to commit interest in their stories because they are likely to end prematurely. Yes, the series is about events bigger than any one character and the infighting and machinations are what makes the saga interesting on the one hand but lack of investiture in those who serve as a window on the world is an interest killer when it happens on such a grand scale. I also have issues with the age of a number of the protagonists which produces cognitive dissonance with the tone of their "voice" or thoughts in the writing and impairs my suspension of disbelief over some of the happenings.

All of that might suggest I'm underwhelmed by the idea of ASoIaF spawning a visual rendition: I'm not. In fact I'm very interested (else why write this?), and I can certainly see it working well. I am hugely glad that it has been picked up for television and not for film, as the small screen is a far better medium for the level of complexity and scale. The huge cast of significant characters would not lend itself to film, but is little problem in TV where each can have an episode here or there or, because total running time is longer for a series than a motion picture, cutting between them can be done without making it nauseating or underwhelming. The chances are that for TV purposes the characters will all be aged a little, removing a lot of the issues I have with their ages and actions, and the internalised thoughts (often the most jarring reading in the books, IMO) should disappear with (hopefully) good interpretation of the external dialogue and context used to give those insights instead. I also think that given the turnover in protagonists television, which is to me a much less personal medium (inspiring less investiture in the protagonists than literature encourages), will give a better dispassionate depiction of the characters: their dying when having previously been your view on events will be less jarring than I find it in the books.

Of course being, as I am, outside the US and, as it is, that the rights have only just been picked up in the first place it is debatable whether this oeuvre will ever reach my screen. Even if it does it is a long way away and plenty more information will trickle out between now and then which will guide he ultimate decision of whether to watch or not. I am cautiously optimistic, though. My reticence to go back and re-read books of this type (a good memory, short patience and not enough energy to read as many books for the first time as I would like to make re-reading something an exceptional event for me) means that this show, should it arrive will be a fresh insight and not undermined by devotion to the source material, even if my memory might find points of disagreement with the results.

I await with interest; I believe that is the first time I've genuinely felt that about a forthcoming TV show since the first series of 24.