Katherine Nabity's Blog, page 159
October 27, 2016
Mini #RIPXI Reviews ~ Revenge & The Accidental Alchemist
Revenge by Yoko Ogawa
Translated by Stephen Snyder
Picador, 1998, 2013 (translation), trade paperback
Revenge has been on my Want To Read list for ages, but I was only recently reminded of it by a post at Outlandish Lit. A readathon and a trip to the library converged and here I am. I finally read Revenge! And I’m kind of sad that I didn’t read it before.
Revenge is a surprisingly thin book. Eleven tales are told in only 162 pages. The eleven stories, though, are really one interconnected puzzle of narrative. It was, perhaps, the perfect 24-hour readathon book. The chapters were short; I could put it down every-so-often to do some social media things, but the stories were compelling enough that I didn’t want to stay away for long. While it isn’t full-out supernatural there is definitely a delicious Japanese horror sensibility to Revenge.
The Accidental Alchemist by Gigi Pandian
Midnight Ink, 2015, Kindle ebook
This cozy-ish mystery begins so promisingly with an animated gargoyle named Dorian Robert-Houdin. His “father” was historical magician Jean Eugene Robert-Houdin. Obviously, this caught my interest. The mystery set-up is also promising: a murder and theft—and Zoe Faust has only lived in her fixer-upper for a day! Unfortunately, solving the mystery ends up somewhat overly complex with a lot of repetitive scenes. In the end, the confluence of events really wasn’t very satisfying.
October 24, 2016
Magic Monday ~ ‘Twas the week before Halloween…
I like Mondays. I also like magic. I figured I’d combine the two and make a Monday feature that is truly me: a little bit of magic and a look at the week ahead.
I was trying to find a trick appropriate for the week before Halloween. But instead I found a trick with a duck. I can’t resist magic tricks with ducks.
It’s Monday, What Am I Reading?
This week I’ll be finishing a couple books I started during the readathon. While Holmes on the Range is definitely and #RIPXI book, it’s not at all spooky. But honestly, with temps here in the 90s, I may not get back into a Halloween mood until Thanksgiving.
October 23, 2016
#ROW80 ~ Sunday Update, 10/23
Add 3125 words per week on Wicked Witch, Retired.
Update Round 4, Week 3
I’d like to say I was motivated by wanting Saturday off for the readathon, but really I hit a couple of scenes on Mon-Thurs that came together well. Most of that writing occurred in the morning. Friday was rough. I’ll probably rewrite what I wrote on Friday.
Monday: 772
Tuesday: 761
Wednesday: 764
Thursday: 1,050
Friday: 757
Total added to the manuscript this week: 4,104 words
Research Link of the Week
Usage of the word geas. (Usage over time isn’t really notable to my story. I just found it interesting.)
Playlist
Didn’t have anything going on other than the quiet of morning (which means traffic, the light rail, birds, and the graffiti team painting over walls) and the usual TV shows.
A Round of Words in 80 Days on Facebook
October 21, 2016
Dewey’s 24-hour #Readathon ~ October 2016
Pre-Readathon
I never make it through 24 hours, so I’m not going to worry about that. I may be up at 5am or I may not be. My plan is to jump in when convenient and read as much as I can. I have egg salad sandwiches and pizza rolls planned as well as lots of other tasty goodies.
My Stack
Revenge by Yoko Ogawa
Holmes on the Range by Steve Hockensmith
The Amazing Adventures of the Escapist: Volume 1 (in case I need a graphic novel break)
Barnum!: In Secret Service to the USA (in case I need a graphic novel break, pt. 2)
Bunnicula by James Howe & Deborah Howe (in case I need a vampire bunny break)
Angel Killer by Andrew Mayne (in case I need an ebook)
The Seer of Shadows by Avi (in case I need an audio book)
Probably some pieces of spooky short fiction!
(I’m really bad at sticking to lists…)
October 20, 2016
#RIPXI ~ Pits, Pendulums, and Extraordinary Tales
“The Pit and the Pendulum” by Edgar Allan Poe
“The Pit and the Pendulum” was another of the Troll Communications adaptations stocked in my grade-school library. The Haunted Closet has a great bunch of scans from it.
While “Masque of the Red Death” has some clear allegorical content, “The Pit and the Pendulum” is a pretty straight-forward tale. Our first-person narrator is a heretic (of some sort) and sentenced to death by the Spanish Inquisition. Except, since an auto da fé has recently taken place, his punishment is actually to be tortured until he dies or until the next scheduled “sacrifice” by fire. Our narrator is put in a very dark room with a pit in the center. When he fails to fall in, he’s tied down with a gradually lowering razor sharp pendulum. When he manages to escape, the walls of his cell become glowing hot and begin to move inward, forcing him toward the pit. Each torture is more phantasmagorical than the last, each requiring more complex machines and architecture. Our narrator is then rescued at the last moment by a General Lasalle, placing this Spanish Inquisition in the early 1800s.
Really, “The Pit and the Pendulum” is more like the “torture porn” movies of the the early 2000s. Now, I have nothing against those kind of movies, I even enjoy them on a certain level. Indeed, I enjoy “The Pit and the Pendulum” as well. There is a certain satisfaction to characters attempting to use ingenuity to extricate themselves from hopeless situations.
Extraordinary Tales (2013)
Directed by Raul Garcia
Narrations by Christopher Lee, Bela Lugosi, Julian Sands, Guillermo del Toro, Roger Corman, Stephen Hughes, and Cornelia Funke.
Extraordinary Tales is an animated anthology of five Poe stories, each animated in a different style with different narrators. The wrap-around involves the spirit of Poe still on earth as a raven as Death tries to woo him.
Some of the adaptations are more successful than others.
The first tale is “The Fall of the House of Usher” narrated by Christopher Lee. This was one of Lee’s last pieces of work and I can’t think of too many people more up to the task. The angular animated caricatures and rich, dark colors are pretty wonderful.
My personal favorite is the mostly black and white animation of “The Tell-Tale Heart,” visually inspired by the art of Alberto Breccia. The slick animation is a great contrast to the hiss-and-pop recording of Bela Lugosi as our narrator.
Being a fan of Julian Sands, I wanted to like “The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar” more than I did. The narration was fine. The animation style is evocative of EC horror comics, but the color palate seemed off to me. Plus, there’s not too much story to “M. Valdemar.” It is a curious choice for adaptation.
I didn’t care for the animation style of “The Pit and the Pendulum” at all. While shooting for realism, the presumably computer generated characters felt unsubstantial and somewhat fell into uncanny valley. The being said, Guillermo del Toro was a great selection for narrator.
I’m sort of torn by “The Masque of the Red Death.” The animation is like vivid water color paintings brought to life, but it actually lacked narration. Other than a couple words spoken by Prince Prospero (voiced by Roger Corman), the story is told in images and music only. “Masque” is an incredibly visual story and is well-“told” in this format, but I did miss the beauty of Poe’s language.
Through out this anthology is music written by Sergio de la Puente. It’s a soundtrack worthy of any Halloween or writing playlist.
October 19, 2016
#RIPIX – A Perilous Trio of Short Stories
I’ve been really enjoying the October Reading Club‘s esoteric picks:
“The Chromatic Ghosts of Thomas” by Ellis Parker Butler (1907) – Thomas is a cat. But how many stories have asked, if a cat has nine lives, does a cat have nine…ghosts?
Our cat Thomas was very sensitive. I never knew such a sensitive cat as Thomas was. The slightest harsh word seemed to hurt his feelings and put him into a fit of the dumps.
“A Ghost of the Sierras” by Bret Harte (1878) – A Western ghost story, written during the era.
…he continued for some moments to dwell on the terrible possibility of a state of affairs in which a gentleman could no longer settle a dispute with an enemy without being subjected to succeeding spiritual embarrassment.
But not forgetting contemporary stories away from the Club:
“Cruel Sistah” by Nisi Shawl (2005) – Remember the “The Ensouled Violin”? Nisi Shawl’s “Cruel Sistah” is a great take on that tradition.
His thing now was gimbris, elegant North African ancestors of the cigar-box banjos he’d built two years ago when he was just beginning, just a kid. … The basic structure looked good, but it was kind of plain. It needed some sort of decoration. An inlay, ivory or mother of pearl or something.
October 17, 2016
What Am I Reading This Week? Hopefully, Lots!
This Saturday is Dewey’s 24-Hour Readathon! It is one of my favorite blogging/bookernet events because, well, reading!
What I’m Reading Pre-Readathon
I should be able to finish The Accidental Alchemist by Saturday. I also have “The Pit and the Pendulum” to read for Season of the Witch and the last story in Joyce Carol Oates’ Wild Nights! for Deal Me In. Ideally, I’d like to blog about the last two before Saturday, but we’ll see. My blogging schedule and I are only passingly familiar lately.
My Readathon Stack
I took books back to the library last week, which means, despite my #readMyOwnDamnBooks efforts, I also checked out books from the library…
Julianne at Outlandish Lit reminded me that Revenge has been a book on my TBR list for ages. Between it and Holmes on the Range, I should be set for fiction. For graphic novel breaks, I checked out The Amazing Adventures of the Escapist: Volume 1 and Barnum!: In Secret Service to the USA. And lastly, I checked out an audio book, Bill Nye’s Undeniable, just in case my eyes need a break.
It’s Monday! What Are You Reading, hosted by Book Date!
October 16, 2016
#ROW80 ~ Sunday Update, 10/16
Add 3125 words per week on Wicked Witch, Retired.
Update Round 4, Week 2
Between PMS and election stress fatigue, I pretty much checked out during the latter part of the week. While I like to keep to a six day work week, I wrote this morning in order to hit my goal. Yesterday and today involved a little rewriting too.
Monday: 759
Tuesday: 758
Wednesday: 552
Thursday: 203
Friday: 20
Saturday: 433
Sunday: 404
Total added this week: 3129 words.
Dewey’s 24-hour Readathon is next Saturday so I’m shooting for my usual goal in one day less. I also really need to get some writing done in the mornings. It doesn’t work too well if I start writing at 10pm.
Research Links of the Week
Wikipedia: Gyroscope
YouTube: The Mighty Cheese
Playlist
With sample tracks!
Poe, Haunted (2000), track
Type O Negative, Bloody Kisses (1993), October Rust (1996), track
Jane’s Addiction, The Great Escape Artist (2011), track
Machines of Loving Grace, Gilt (1995), Concentration (1993), track
Godsmack, Godsmack (1998), track
A Round of Words in 80 Days on Facebook
October 15, 2016
Catch-Up: Deal Me A Witchy Horror
“The Dunwich Horror” by H.P. Lovecraft
I’m still not a fan of the cosmicism of Cthulhu mythos, but I’m slowly gaining some appreciation for Lovecraft. Partly, this might be because I’ve been reading some of Lovecraft’s influences. His tales make more sense to me in the context of Ambrose Bierce and Arthur Machen—I just read The Great God Pan not too long ago!
The tale is slowly told, but less dry than some of Lovecraft’s stories. It’s told from an aspect of history. Within the story the events are the Dunwich Horror of 1928, as though a few years past…and seemingly leaving room for the Dunwich Horror of 1929…1930… And indeed the horror lives on. The horror genre is filled with mystical books, tentacled beasts, and backwater towns filled with inbred families. But the Horror also brought to mind a scene from one of my favorite science fiction movies:
Even the odd sound track evokes Lovecraft’s whippoorwills.
Hosted by Jay @ Bibliophilopolis
What is Deal Me In?
“The Ghost to His Ladye Love” by W.S. Gilbert
Card picked: Three of Spades
From: Masterpieces of Terror and the Unknown, edited by Marvin Kaye
Not a story this week, but a poem. W.S. is the Gilbert of Gilbert & Sullivan fame. Published in 1869, this poem is full of Halloween trappings:
Fair Phantom, come! The moon’s awake.
The owl hoots gaily from its brake.
The blithesome bat’s a-wing.
Come, soar to yonder silent clouds;
The ether teems with peoples shrouds:
We’ll fly the lightsome spectre crowds,
Thou cloudy, clammy thing!
It’s a fun, rather sweet poem; the type of thing I would expect Gomez Addams to send to Morticia as a Valentine.*
As with many poems written by Gilbert, “The Ghost to His Ladye Love” found a second life in one of Gilbert & Sullivan’s musicals:
* Fun fact: My first date with Eric was on Halloween. We’ll be celebrating our 19th anniversary this year!
October 13, 2016
Mini Reviews ~ All Sorts of Peril
From the Dust Returned
by Ray Bradbury
William Marrow, 2001, Hardback
In 1946, Charles Addams (of Addams Family fame) illustrated “Homecoming,” a story Ray Bradbury sold to Mademoiselle magazine. This *almost* began a continuing collaboration between the two. Both got busy on other projects, though Bradbury occasionally added stories to the history of the Elliot family, residents of October Country. Where Addams’ family is “creepy” and “kooky,” Bradbury’s is more in the realm of uncanny and maybe even evil. Many of the stories are told through the eyes of Timothy, the normal and unfortunate one of the family. While strong on atmosphere, the plot of the book is rough, stitching together a collection of short stories.
A Vampire Quintet
by Eugie Foster
Self-published, 2013, Kindle edition
Simply, five pretty darn good vampire tales by one of my favorite authors. The settings are diverse, from a fairy tale land to a cyberpunk cityscape, and all present a new little twist to vampire mythos. A shock to no one, my favorite was “Ascendancy of Blood,” a retelling of Sleeping Beauty.
Ghostbusters
(2016)
Directed by Paul Feig
Starring Kristen Wiig, Melissa McCarthy, Kate McKinnon, Leslie Jones
The 1984 Ghostbusters is one of my favorite films; the only way that the new Ghostbusters could possibly “ruin my childhood” would be if it were so superior that I’d have to have a new favorite Ghostbusters. And that’s win-win, you know? Alas, the new Ghostbusters isn’t that good.
The best thing: This movie is about four grown women and in no way involves weight loss, marriage, or motherhood. These female characters get to be geeky about science, tech, and history. I’ll admit it, that’s cool to see in a movie.
Mixed things: Most of the comedy was what I expected—not very funny to me—but I was really surprised by how much I liked Leslie Jones’ character. Patty is pretty funny. I loved all the actor cameos, and not just from the 1984 cast. You don’t need Michael Kenneth Williams to play a DHS heavy, but it doesn’t hurt. I thought the ghosts looked great. I don’t think the up-ing of tech and action did anything good for the film. The derivative bits were very flat.
All in all, I wish this were a better movie. I wish it would have been so good that its critics had nothing to criticize. As it is, the fact that the characters are female isn’t what makes the movie not very good.
