Melusine and Travels in Hyperreality
Sep. 20th, 2006 08:37 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
baleanopteraSee – I’ve tried to come up with a really compelling reason why people should read Melusine by Sarah Monette. And people really should – but my recommendation skill when it comes to books is sometimes limited to hounding people down and crying: Read this! Read this!
A small disclaimer first – this book has nothing to do with the Melusine from myth. At least I haven’t found a connection yet. The Melusine in the title is the city where most of the action takes place, and what a city it is. It seems huge, old and very decadent. The dust cover will tell you that the book features two main characters, but the way I see it the city itself – with old churches, creepy, gothic graveyards, catacombs and old palaces- is a character in itself. As I have a great love for old cities that have accumulated so much history, so that they have become a universe to themselves, that might be one of the reasons why I love this book.
It’s written in first person. That usually doesn’t work for me, but it does so here. Monette is so good with adapting the language to the character, that the first person narrative becomes dynamic and part of the characterisation. That said I love one of the characters, and have issues with the other. But I think the latter is meant to be slightly dislikeable, and cheers to Monette for daring that. She also manages that which I find essential to any fantasy book – she makes her world believable, and manages to tell the reader about the world through the characters instead of resorting to info-dumps. (Lynn Flewelling, I’m looking at you!) The fantasy elements in the book are also original – there are no elves, no medieval setting with knights, no sword fights. Instead it’s like Florence under the Medici gone mad and decadent.
Monette is also very good with shades of gray characters, with creating moods and with showing rather than telling. Sexuality is also very much present - both straight and gay, and yay! her for that. I’m a little scared of writing to much about the plot because I don’t want to give too much away – but it does involve magic, creepy graveyards, sex-magic, madness, scary ghosts and thievery.
It does lag a little bit in the end, but apparently it is part of a series so hopefully the next instalment will be back on track.
I have also read Umberto Eco: Faith in Fakes – travels in hyperreality. For instance:
The poor words with which natural human speech is provided cannot suffice to describe the Madonna Inn. To convey its external appearance, divided into a series of constructions, which you reach by a way of a filling station carved from Dolomitic rock, or through the restaurant, the bar, and the cafeteria, we can only venture some analogies. Let’s say that Albert Speer, while leafing through a book on Gaudi, swallowed an overgenerous dose of LSD and began building a nuptial catacomb for Liza Minnelli. But that doesn’t give you an idea. Let’s say Acrimboldi builds Sagrada Familia for Dolly Parton. Or: Carmen Miranda designs a Tiffany locale for the Jolly Hotel chain.
It’s a collection of essays written over several years and covers everything from soccer and sports, Superman and Tolkien, the house of William Randolph Hearts
But what I really like about Eco is that he doesn’t work with the terms high and low culture – but instead mixes everything up. Thereby a discussion if our age could be considered a new Middle Age becomes entwined with Tolkien’s Silmarillion. Soccer with religion (hey – he is Italian) and art with American fast food chains. And the mixes work! Also he is bitchy, so, so bitchy. Much love.
And here - have some music:
Imogen Heap : Angry Angel
Neko Case: Hold on, Hold on
A small disclaimer first – this book has nothing to do with the Melusine from myth. At least I haven’t found a connection yet. The Melusine in the title is the city where most of the action takes place, and what a city it is. It seems huge, old and very decadent. The dust cover will tell you that the book features two main characters, but the way I see it the city itself – with old churches, creepy, gothic graveyards, catacombs and old palaces- is a character in itself. As I have a great love for old cities that have accumulated so much history, so that they have become a universe to themselves, that might be one of the reasons why I love this book.
It’s written in first person. That usually doesn’t work for me, but it does so here. Monette is so good with adapting the language to the character, that the first person narrative becomes dynamic and part of the characterisation. That said I love one of the characters, and have issues with the other. But I think the latter is meant to be slightly dislikeable, and cheers to Monette for daring that. She also manages that which I find essential to any fantasy book – she makes her world believable, and manages to tell the reader about the world through the characters instead of resorting to info-dumps. (Lynn Flewelling, I’m looking at you!) The fantasy elements in the book are also original – there are no elves, no medieval setting with knights, no sword fights. Instead it’s like Florence under the Medici gone mad and decadent.
Monette is also very good with shades of gray characters, with creating moods and with showing rather than telling. Sexuality is also very much present - both straight and gay, and yay! her for that. I’m a little scared of writing to much about the plot because I don’t want to give too much away – but it does involve magic, creepy graveyards, sex-magic, madness, scary ghosts and thievery.
It does lag a little bit in the end, but apparently it is part of a series so hopefully the next instalment will be back on track.
I have also read Umberto Eco: Faith in Fakes – travels in hyperreality. For instance:
The poor words with which natural human speech is provided cannot suffice to describe the Madonna Inn. To convey its external appearance, divided into a series of constructions, which you reach by a way of a filling station carved from Dolomitic rock, or through the restaurant, the bar, and the cafeteria, we can only venture some analogies. Let’s say that Albert Speer, while leafing through a book on Gaudi, swallowed an overgenerous dose of LSD and began building a nuptial catacomb for Liza Minnelli. But that doesn’t give you an idea. Let’s say Acrimboldi builds Sagrada Familia for Dolly Parton. Or: Carmen Miranda designs a Tiffany locale for the Jolly Hotel chain.
It’s a collection of essays written over several years and covers everything from soccer and sports, Superman and Tolkien, the house of William Randolph Hearts
But what I really like about Eco is that he doesn’t work with the terms high and low culture – but instead mixes everything up. Thereby a discussion if our age could be considered a new Middle Age becomes entwined with Tolkien’s Silmarillion. Soccer with religion (hey – he is Italian) and art with American fast food chains. And the mixes work! Also he is bitchy, so, so bitchy. Much love.
And here - have some music:
Imogen Heap : Angry Angel
Neko Case: Hold on, Hold on
