tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5424364424049242300.post8641035170785609221..comments2023-06-21T18:53:11.897+10:00Comments on Pykk: save the ravenUmbagollahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14556344092820711893noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5424364424049242300.post-35013187688013148262011-02-18T14:16:56.935+11:002011-02-18T14:16:56.935+11:00It's better even than I remember.It's better even than I remember.zmkchttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08972549292961948240noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5424364424049242300.post-8125062983648402362011-02-10T15:11:24.633+11:002011-02-10T15:11:24.633+11:00I agree, they're not comparable. Peake absolut...I agree, they're not comparable. Peake absolutely wipes and scrubs the floor with him. It was the contrast between those two sets of houses around their two castles that hit me when I read that first page of Dragon King -- one set so shiny-neat, one so ramshackle and dark -- in fact the shadowed irregularity that Lawhead gives to his evil raven, Peake gives to his whole setting, and the pristine snowy polish in Peake goes to Steerpike, who gets to fill the role of a dynamic villain, Milton's Satan.<br /><br />(I'm only guessing that the Lawhead raven is evil, because I haven't read past that point in the book, but I'm going on the assumption that it's probably a spy for the wicked Whoever, who probably wants to rule the world, or the kingdom, or destroy everything with an army of the undead, or of dragons, or eat the princess. I might be wrong. Maybe it just symbolises Villainy and Dirt and Trouble.)<br /><br />I'm looking up Return of the Native on Project Gutenberg. Oh nice. "Overhead the hollow stretch of whitish cloud shutting out the sky was as a tent which had the whole heath for its floor. The heaven being spread with this pallid screen and the earth with the darkest vegetation, their meeting-line at the horizon was clearly marked. In such contrast the heath wore the appearance of an instalment of night which had taken up its place before its astronomical hour was come: darkness had to a great extent arrived hereon, while day stood distinct in the sky. Looking upwards, a furze-cutter would have been inclined to continue work; looking down, he would have decided to finish his faggot and go home. The distant rims of the world and of the firmament seemed to be a division in time no less than a division in matter. The face of the heath by its mere complexion added half an hour to evening; it could in like manner retard the dawn, sadden noon, anticipate the frowning of storms scarcely generated, and intensify the opacity of a moonless midnight to a cause of shaking and dread ..."Umbagollahhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14556344092820711893noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5424364424049242300.post-30021837003197391892011-02-10T07:13:36.885+11:002011-02-10T07:13:36.885+11:00I don't think Gormenghast and that other thing...I don't think Gormenghast and that other thing are comparable though - it's like looking at Midsomer Murders within the context of King Lear. And Midsomer Murders type entetainments do deal more in coziness than anything else. It's the scenic cuteness viewers/readers are tuning in/turning the page for. I realised that when I once recorded a Midsomer Murders and found, when I discovered the end was missing on the tape, that I didn't care at all. I'd got what I wanted - flowery hanging baskets, people riding about on bicycles with wicker baskets et cetera et cetera. <br />Re preambles, I haven't read Return of the Native in decades, but I seem to remember that that had a wonderful almost cinematic preamble, starting with the novelistic equivalent of a long shot over Egdon Heath, slowly moving in to a single figure in the landscape. I haven't got a copy of the book, so I can't check, but I recall liking it very much.zmkchttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08972549292961948240noreply@blogger.com