You'd think with all the free time in these days of enforced lockdown I'd get some serious reading done; nope. I mean I am reading and I did actually finish two books - The Footsteps at the Lock and Hidden Moon - but I'm working really hard to finish the three others I've got going on - Doctor Zhivago, The Peninsular War, and The Siege. All are very good and very dense and I will finish them, but, man, oh, man, it's taking me a long time.
I was excited to get the latest issue of Tales from the Magician's Skull but I can't read it, at least not now. I'm amazed that I still can't read fantasy. It makes sense as it's about all I read for five or six years. Now, I can barely work up any enthusiasm for the genre, no matter how good it looks. It's getting to be a bit of a bummer. I've got books that I really want to read, but when I pick them up any interest just dries up like a puddle in the Sahara at high noon. I couldn't even finish a very good Tim Powers (one of my favorite authors) book I started during all this. I know I'll get back up on that horse someday, but right now it's way beyond the horizon.
We did just watch the Hulu series, Devs, from Alex Garland, starring, among a bunch of other good actors, Nick Offerman. Essentially, a tech mogul is attempting to determine if the universe is completely deterministic. I have all sorts of problems with the way the show discusses the question as if it's never been done before, and the end is not good. Nonetheless, the acting is very, very good, with Offerman and Jin Ha being my favorites. The whole show is, from the woodland campus and gilded quantum computing center to the fog-shrouded hills above San Francisco is beautiful. Within its own universe, it's a tense and riveting show. It's been hinted that Garland wants to do something entirely different with the same cast and I would definitely be up for that.
As for how I'll while away future days in captivity, it'll be more of the same. Some work on the computer followed by computer games and movies with sporadic bouts of reading. The luminous Mrs. V. has us trying to get various projects done and I'm sort of game for it.
Actually, I do sort of have my future reading goals laid out. Once I've finished Zhivago, I'm just going to go for the brass ring and pick up War and Peace. It looked so ridiculously long when I was a kid, but, seriously, when fantasy fans routinely read multi-volume thousand-page-a-book series, it's not much at all. Alongside that, I've got Dark Matter by Michelle Paver, a horror novel set on Svalbard, and Tim Willocks' South African-set Memo from Turner. It's not too lofty a goal, so just maybe I'll achieve it. Stranger things have happened.
Actually, I do sort of have my future reading goals laid out. Once I've finished Zhivago, I'm just going to go for the brass ring and pick up War and Peace. It looked so ridiculously long when I was a kid, but, seriously, when fantasy fans routinely read multi-volume thousand-page-a-book series, it's not much at all. Alongside that, I've got Dark Matter by Michelle Paver, a horror novel set on Svalbard, and Tim Willocks' South African-set Memo from Turner. It's not too lofty a goal, so just maybe I'll achieve it. Stranger things have happened.
I read War and Peace when I was a teenager and was disappointed to find out that I read an abridged version. I probably need to read the full edition sometime.
ReplyDeleteDuring Quarantine, I did a lot of rereading particularly Jack Vance's Dying Earth and Gene Wolfe's Book of the New Sun.
Man, that's a bummer. Vance and Wolfe, that's great. Have you read M.John Harrison's Viriconium trilogy? It's a great sidewise look at the Dying Earth setting.
DeleteNo, I haven't though I have the first book somewhere.
DeleteThat's the most straightforward. Each succeeding one gets more twisted around and strange.
DeleteVox ran an article on reading classics during quarantine, sorting them by difficulty, and it noted that War and Peace is very long but not super difficult. Which is true. It is also really, really good, although a book like that does require a commitment to invest the time.
ReplyDeleteI read the unabridged Maude translation. I also own an abridged Kropotkin translation that I will probably pick up at some point for a reread. I should pick up another fat Russian classic first though, and it has been a while (if only I didn't have a toddler at home during quarantine!).
I have the George Gibian translation because I'm a sucker for the Norton Critical Editions. I've done research on translations of many of the Russian classics and the main takeaway I've learned is not to get the Pevear and Volokhonsky ones.
DeleteHey, Fletch! I think taking a break from fantasy like you're doing is something that happens to every fantasy fan. I know it happens to me sometimes--there are times when I can't stand to read fantasy either. Usually in those times I turn to crime noir novels, or something totally bizarre like Gabriel Garcia Marquez's 100 YEARS OF SOLITUDE. Since I write fantasy, I'm hyper-critical of all fantasy, and reading outside my genre is essential for that reason and for many others. Sometimes I read a memoir of a real person and that's a refreshing change of pace. I loved Ron Perlman's auto-biography, and most recently Mark Lanegan's auto-bio. One of these days you'll feel the urge to read some more good fantasy, and at that point you'll discover all of the cool stuff you had missed. And THAT will be a blast. Cheers!
ReplyDeleteI normally read crime and horror alongside fantasy, but now I'm taking the time to dig into the Russians and other deep works. My dad was a huge reader of historical memoirs and diaries - I saved ones from two different Hessian officers from the sale pile. I've never been too fond of them myself, though Groucho's is pretty great and I want a copy of Harpo's - HARPO SPEAKS.
DeleteI know I'll be back to fantasy - if only to get to the books piled up by people I know (it's kind of embarrassing). There are so many things I've stacked up unread - the last two RScott Bakker books, the newest Black Company book, etc. - and I'd like to see them through one day. I will, and you're right, it'll be a blast.