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coalescent1. Back before we invaded Iraq, I remember quite frequently coming across the idea that one of the reasons we shouldn't do it is that it's wrong to decide that we know best and to interfere in the affairs of other countries, because Where Will It End? Now, I'm reading columns (from what I'm fairly confident are the same sources) that argue we have to try Saddam Hussein in an international court. We can't possibly leave him to be stand trial in Iraq, they say, because it would be like throwing him to a lynch mob. Do these viewpoints seem contradictory to anyone else?
2. Bob Dylan is not rated higher than Radiohead. Solo musical artists in general are not held to be better than groups. Similarly, a number of very fine TV series come from ensembles of writers; either true ensembles, or a group with an all-guiding hand looming above them. When it comes to written fiction, however, the single author is king. Shared-world fiction is almost universally looked down on, and it's a commonly-held view that writing in a collective couldn't work because you'd get a conflict of styles. So - why is it that when you come to novels, the vision of a single individual seems to be considered to be greater than anything that could come out of collaboration?
3. Thanks to one of my colleagues, I've borrowed a copy of Pride and Prejudice and started reading (I figured that since it was the only book I hadn't read in the Big Read top 5, I should probably get around to it). So far, I'm highly amused that a dislike of dancing is considered to be incontrovertible evidence that a man is a cad, such that nobody is surprised when the man who doesn't like to dance turns out to be a cad; and I'm desperately hoping that at least one of the characters will become vaguely likeable before the end of the novel. I'm fine with unsympathetic protagonists most of the time, but Christ is this hard going. I also don't know how it ends, so please don't tell me.
4. Happy Tolkien-mas, everyone! But I'm not going to see the film until 7pm tonight and I don't remember the book all that clearly (I deliberately haven't re-read), so if you could keep the juicy stuff behind LJ cuts for the first few days I'd be much obliged. :)
2. Bob Dylan is not rated higher than Radiohead. Solo musical artists in general are not held to be better than groups. Similarly, a number of very fine TV series come from ensembles of writers; either true ensembles, or a group with an all-guiding hand looming above them. When it comes to written fiction, however, the single author is king. Shared-world fiction is almost universally looked down on, and it's a commonly-held view that writing in a collective couldn't work because you'd get a conflict of styles. So - why is it that when you come to novels, the vision of a single individual seems to be considered to be greater than anything that could come out of collaboration?
3. Thanks to one of my colleagues, I've borrowed a copy of Pride and Prejudice and started reading (I figured that since it was the only book I hadn't read in the Big Read top 5, I should probably get around to it). So far, I'm highly amused that a dislike of dancing is considered to be incontrovertible evidence that a man is a cad, such that nobody is surprised when the man who doesn't like to dance turns out to be a cad; and I'm desperately hoping that at least one of the characters will become vaguely likeable before the end of the novel. I'm fine with unsympathetic protagonists most of the time, but Christ is this hard going. I also don't know how it ends, so please don't tell me.
4. Happy Tolkien-mas, everyone! But I'm not going to see the film until 7pm tonight and I don't remember the book all that clearly (I deliberately haven't re-read), so if you could keep the juicy stuff behind LJ cuts for the first few days I'd be much obliged. :)
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Madonna
Date: 2003-12-17 10:02 am (UTC)I really ought to buy some of the 80s stuff - Like A Virgin is supposed to be very good (and deeply personal) and the first album has a lot of innocent charm from the bits I have heard.
The trouble with Madonna is that it is difficult to seperate her music from everything else......
Re: Madonna
Date: 2003-12-17 11:33 am (UTC)Re: Madonna
Date: 2003-12-18 01:45 am (UTC)