So… tell me, those of you with opinions, should I read the Outlander series? This comes up again because two of my friends mentioned it in emails in response to my book announcement. I read the first one lo many years ago, and frankly hated it; I mean, it was a gripping read and I tore through it, but then I felt kind of sick, between the beating and the homophobia and not really liking any of the characters (except the one I think I was supposed to despise). But people seem to love them, and perhaps there are redeeming qualities in the sequels?
I'm not sure I have the time, actually, and when I do I'd rather (thank you![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
yunitsa) have a nice angsty Lymond reread, but I thought I'd ask.
Speaking of books, I filled in the most recent of the holes I'd left in Louise Penny's series, The Beautiful Mystery, and ah, if I thought the others were good this one was transcendent. Okay, it takes place in a monastery full of Gregorian chants, but that does not a lovely book make on its own. What does is being able to describe what music does to people, in ways both sublime and ridiculous (Gamache gets into a conversation about chickens, thinks of Foghorn Leghorn, and gets "Camptown Races" stuck in his head, amongst men with gorgeous voices singing the most beautiful music in the world). Also, having read the books before and after, it was good to finally witness the horrible yawning abyss that had swallowed a major character in between. In a way, I mean.
Also have watched the latest OUAT (see my tumblr post about epiphytes) and aha, the secret: it really truly IS commedia dell'arte, at least in having one of those plots where everyone's related to each other. (This is a comment many OUAT viewers have made after many different episodes, thinking each time that finally the family tree has acquired so many twisted branches it can't possibly survive any longer. And somehow it keeps on getting worse.)
(A family tree with epiphytes. I am tempted to expand on the metaphor, but I have better things to do.)
I'm not sure I have the time, actually, and when I do I'd rather (thank you
yunitsa) have a nice angsty Lymond reread, but I thought I'd ask.Speaking of books, I filled in the most recent of the holes I'd left in Louise Penny's series, The Beautiful Mystery, and ah, if I thought the others were good this one was transcendent. Okay, it takes place in a monastery full of Gregorian chants, but that does not a lovely book make on its own. What does is being able to describe what music does to people, in ways both sublime and ridiculous (Gamache gets into a conversation about chickens, thinks of Foghorn Leghorn, and gets "Camptown Races" stuck in his head, amongst men with gorgeous voices singing the most beautiful music in the world). Also, having read the books before and after, it was good to finally witness the horrible yawning abyss that had swallowed a major character in between. In a way, I mean.
Also have watched the latest OUAT (see my tumblr post about epiphytes) and aha, the secret: it really truly IS commedia dell'arte, at least in having one of those plots where everyone's related to each other. (This is a comment many OUAT viewers have made after many different episodes, thinking each time that finally the family tree has acquired so many twisted branches it can't possibly survive any longer. And somehow it keeps on getting worse.)
(A family tree with epiphytes. I am tempted to expand on the metaphor, but I have better things to do.)
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Date: 2013-11-19 01:10 am (UTC)From:no subject
Date: 2013-11-19 03:02 am (UTC)From:I liked some of the Outlander books, to varying degrees, but some of them are awful. (The one that was mostly their Atlantic voyage? UGH UGH UGH.) The Lord John books are straight(heh) historical mystery (that is, no time-travel element, although I think a few of them have a little hint of what could be, but isn't necessarily, mystical) with a homosexual protagonist. There are relationships, but they are not romances.
Also,
Also, Diana Gabaldon's cousin is an acquaintance of mine.