Emilie's comments (member since Oct 12, 2008)

Emilie's comments from the Endicott Mythic Fiction group.

yes, ill be reading this too, michelle.

i didnt feel that there was much character development or complexity in this book. yes, i too felt surprised, was expecting so much from china mieville. wonder if his other books are different in this regard...

for me, this book was focused on adventures, ideas and being clever (wont give example of what i liked bc dont know where in book chapter 24 is) but continues as episodic adventure type stories with some cerebral word play and some original cool and sweet ideas (play on fantasy tropes)...but that, the characters themselves, no, i didnt feel that they were ever much more then one sentence kind of characters, which made it hard for me too, to get really into the story. the way i related to to it was more like, oh, these are a lot of interesting different things that china mieville likes, but not really relating much to characters...

Brittany, i agree with you about the villain. i felt very frustrated with her having no motivation for what she did.
i like the way the story has a dreamlike quality, a felt reality...

but i really got annoyed with mckillip for not developing this important character and giving us reasons for her actions, for me, this took a lot away from the book. yes, evil for evils sake doesnt feel right in a story that has layers and depth in other places. it ends up feeling like a plot device and so not making sense in a feeling kind of way...

i am happy that i read it though. there was a lot to like. i liked the parts that felt like a feverish dream...with reality and dream bleeding into each other, i felt these were the strongest moments. and i really liked the descriptions of the flowers and herblore.

Ellen, i agree with you about finding the relationship between the sisters interesting and liking the way they respected each others differences...

though, there were times when i felt mckillip was not being honest- i mean, its one thing to respect differences and be deeply loving-and its another to fall into a kind of enchanted love, and discover that your engaged sister loves the same man and to not even feel the littlest bit of jealousy or anger- this annoyed me a little, in the same way that it felt overly simplistic, the kind of smoothed over lets hide the flaws and not allow ambivalence that is how i felt the author presented the fairy...

so it was mixed for me...i loved to see their contrasts- and i loved to see them know and care and nurture each others differences- but i felt let down at times, when i felt that rois would naturally or humanly have more complex feelings about this situation....

I will be a little rose too.

Thanks Sidhe! (big grins!)

mmm...I think this way is good. I like it this way- I was only asking to be certain that this is how others saw it, because its early in the month and I wanted to talk about it now-
I am not that interested in dividing into chapters, because my memory doesn't work that way, though I don't mind it.

So-here there be monsters then-
I loved this book, as many of you have said too. I have a question about the ending. I got the feeling that the identity of the girl with the tattoo-darkened eyes was a mystery that would be revealed (as well as her relationship to the prince)...I got the sense that her identity had a relationship to the other nested stories and the other characters. and the one thing that disappointed me, was that I felt I didn't get a resolution to this mystery.

I'm concerned that maybe I missed something? So I'm wondering if her identity is revealed? And I'm wondering/hoping that her identity does matter to the author (because she matters to me) and I didn't miss anything and maybe this is revealed in the next book?
Any thoughts? Thanks!

So, is it okay to write about the book- I mean is this thread the
here-there-be-dragons-if-you-haven't-finished-the-book-yet-thread?

thanks for the link Lia!

when I read the Orphans Tales, it felt like the kind of book to be read aloud. something about the style of storytelling and so I imagined Catherynne Valente was reading it to me-so now i get the treat of making this a reality.

I recently read this book, (and I loved it!) and I'd like to be a part of the group discussion.

Yes- I am happy to know too, that I can now read The Orphan's Tales: In the Cities of Coin and Spice. I was thinking (maybe) of reading that as a way of reading The Orphan's Tales with the group.
Though I will take care if I do, not to confuse the them, when discussing, so as not to give anything away.

mmm...have to admit, i was once stuck, a few years ago, with nothing to read for several days and in the end, i read this book, over and again, sort of like the way gemma tells her tale.
i think this will always end, for me, in my loving or hating a book.

i really thought that gemma's sense of herself as briar rose really worked. i feel that in a way, she is briar rose. and that this belief is part of what keeps her alive and sane.
i think yolen portrays the way a "screen memory" can be a story/faery tale, and the way that we tell ourselves stories as ways to deal with the horrors in our lives. and the way that trauma is very associated with repetition in our minds.

i think too, that yolen found a pretty good balance in the book, as far as a book that incorporates the holocaust, balancing the present stories, and the sort of curiosity and friendship of exploring a new country focusing on aspects like the food as well as focusing on rebecca's work as a writer, and her falling in love (showing possibility of hope, of life continuing for the family, even with the painful knowledge, thus showing that there is a path that involves remembering and honoring pain and what was lost and honoring/recognising the people, like gemma, who lived through this, by truly seeing them, by listening to and feeling their stories, but not succumbing to the devastation, and so, giving us hope....) and all as a way to bring light into the book, and i think the light that is a possibility in listening to holocaust stories.

im wondering of others disagree that there can be any light? i think that a lot of survivors are terrified of and yet sort of at the same wish to be known, to have their stories and experiences known, to feel that we (we who have not experienced the tortures of the holocaust) can handle it, and will still love and accept them.

i think, too, that these kinds of dark themes fit perfectly into faery tale retellings, but am wondering why others do not? (this is not intended as criticism, i am honestly interested and think it would be interesting to see both sides of this, esp. in a group like endicott, which feels like the people are pretty respectful to each other.)

for me, they fit bc original faery tales themselves were very dark. they were ways to help explore the darkness, the dark themes in life, through allegory as a way to help us find a way through. the "cleaned up" versions didnt really come about until the victorians decided to make them them into nursery tales.
is the feeling that they belong in the nursery?

christine, you wrote that you sometimes felt impatient with gemma, and i was wondering what specifically made you feel impatient?
was it the way she kept telling the same story over and again?

i am wondering too, why do you stay away from holocaust stories, christine? is it bc you dont want to feel the overwhelming sadness? or bc you feel authors "use" the holocaust to invest weight and substance into otherwise empty stories? or some other reason?

christine, i too used to listen to my grandmother and her sister tell stories, beautiful tragic stories, and though i was very little when they died, i too wish that i had written them down.

me too.

you might all know this already, but i didnt when i read the wild wood the first time, and i found it really interesting, so i thought id share:
the wild wood is part of the "faerielands" series. the artist brian froud made four paintings and many drawings of faery and gave them to four fiction writers to write novellas inspired by his imagery.
the four faerielands books are: the wild wood by charles de lint, the wood wife by t. windling, something rich and strange by patricia mckillip, and hannahs garden by midori synder.

the journal of mythic arts reproduced some of frouds art for the faerielands series here:
http://www.endicott-studio.com/wtrm/wrMa...

and brian frouds site is:
http://www.worldoffroud.com/index.html

hi christopher,
i am really touched by your responses; your love for your own work, your clear commitment to your writing, and to your own personal values.

i had some terrible experiences with meeting/speaking to writers and artists i so admired, only to find out that they had no sense of themselves, and treated others with cruelty.

so, i want to thank you for showing me that it doesnt have to be that way.
and i want to thank odette, baobhan, and kim too; for their idea to ask you to do this q and a with us.

i havent yet read your book, but now i really want to. i do have a question anyway.
i wanted to ask more about your process as a writer. and specifically the aspect of transformation of personal nightmares within fiction. i hope that is okay.
in reference to your answer to odette's question,
you wrote that part of your intentions in composing this book were to take the specter and write about him until you could let him go.
i am really interested in the potential in art for transforming the things that haunt us.
i am wondering if you could say more about this.

do you feel that the most important element was that you explored the image/boy and so gave him more substance and too, stopped running from him...and let him and what he represented go where it wanted to go? or that you gave him someone to connect to, and so, something hopeful and intimate? do you think its the mythic elements that allow for the transfiguring of your nightmare? or specifically the ghost imagery and so living on? or all of these combined.
i guess, what im asking too, is if you were to write another book with the idea that one aspect of book being your intention of releasing another specter from the past, or teaching another writer to do such a thing
what do you believe is important to pay attention to (what did you pay attention to) in order to not only write a compelling story, but one that would help put this haunt to rest?
i hope this question is okay. i understand if you dont wish to answer it, as its not so specifically related to this book, but more to your own writing about the book, and my own interest in both your thoughtful insightful answers and my own interest in transforming nightmares from my own past through my fiction. thank you very much for your time.

yes, me too.

thank you Baobhan.

i adore your avatar. (smile)

hi,
i am new to writing/interacting at goodreads, and i am wondering how i know when i am the one to choose a book? could someone please explain to me how to figure this out?

and, rora, i am very excited that you picked BRiar Rose, by Jane YOlen, i love this book, and am happy to have a reason to re-read it.

and, i am confused. did someone pick One for Sorrow for January? that looks interesting too. thanks. emilie