Reviews again!
Mar. 29th, 2008 12:12 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
blodeueddMonday will be my last day teaching at the embassy. Tuesday, I start my new job! O.O
You should all read
The Lyre of Orpheus (Robertson Davies):
This book had me choking back laughter on the subway. Maybe that should be my new rating system?
Isn't the title evocative? That alone would have tempted me.
Properly the third book in a trilogy, it's not necessary to have read the first two to enjoy this one. Indeed, I haven't (yet), and this was my first foray into Davies's writing, but I thought that since I'd tackled some Atwood and Lawrence last year, I should continue boning up on my CanLit.
The story takes place in Toronto, in the world of academia, art and opera. The Cornish Foundation approves a grant for a doctoral student to complete and stage an unfinished 19th century opera. The story follows the endeavour, from conception through gestation to birth, along with other plots, such as the one about the professor writing the biography of the mysterious life of the man who left all the money that's allowing them to go through with the project. His life is, in fact, the subject of one of the other books in the trilogy, but I think that not knowing it adds to the suspence of this one, while one of the characters does a little detective work.
Most of all, though the plot itself was well drawn, I enjoyed the writing itself. It's humourous, witty and touching, seeming to skim along the surface while still exploring the depths.
Truly, how can one not love a book that contains the sentence, "Ottawa is not a place to which one goes at the end of November simply for pleasure"? (p. 260) Or this paragraph, which I fear I must share in its entirety:
The first general rehearsal took place in a dirty, ill-lit basement room in the Conservatory. It smelled of the economical lunches that had been consumed there for years by students; there was a pervasive atmosphere of bananas in their last stages of edibility, mingled with peanut butter. There was not much space, for there were three sets of timpani stored there, and in a corner an assembly of double-bass cases with nothing in them, like a conference of senators. (p. 362)
And then there's the whole dinner party scene, but I'd have to quote at least two pages at you, because the build-up is so good, so I'll let you read that one for yourselves. But it includes drunk academics arguing about Old English etymology! If that won't entice you, I don't know what will.
Final verdict: 9 barely supressed snickers out of 10
Also, if you haven't already, you should watch
Chunking Express:
This is a movie that I should have seen years ago, by all rights. I mean, Wong Kar-wai? Tony Leung? Faye Wong? How did I hold out for so long?! In fact, I recorded it from television at least once (probably twice >_<) but failed to ever watch it, for some reason. This is one of those cases where I feel really silly about it, because I was hooked five minutes in, long before Tony Leung (love that man!) and Faye Wong even show up.
My favourite line? "You're still an emotionally-charged towel." And he is speaking to an actual towel.
I don't really know what to say, other than that this film is sweet and funny and touching and subtly heart-wrenching.
Final verdict: 9/10
And just because I can't only be handing out gold stars today, some absolute silliness with screencaps. Click for PJB:
Princess Princess D:
It's live-action crack filled with pretty Japanese boys, some of them in dresses!
This is Saitou Takumi -- you may remember him as the slutty one in Boys Love -- and he's the student council president. Kind of like Touga, only hotter, and we don't get to see him seduce anyone. Shame, that. :D~
Oh god... how to even begin explaining?! And the two standing in the back are wielding whips. XD
This is based on an anime series, itself based on a manga series, neither of which I've seen or read. One website complained that the live-action version had changed the story too much and added shounen ai elements to it that hadn't been present in the original story, but HELLO? It's a story about an all-boys school where three students are chosen to dress up as girls and be "princesses" to give the horny student body someone to fantasize about -- HOW COULD IT NOT CONTAIN SHOUNEN AIOVER UNDER TONES?!? Or maybe they just meant that that particular pairing wasn't present in the original.
No matter, I still called this almost-kiss in the opening sequence as total fangirl bait, and I was right. There is no kissing at any point in the series -- the fanservice is more of the "finding homoerotic ways to wake up your friends" variety, such as:
(Yes, that's a boy in the pink pyjamas.)
Or "having the camera linger up close and personal while Mikoto brushes his teeth" -- but damn, he does have a really... pretty... mouth...
That episode should have been titled "Oral Fixation" because apart from the 30-second tooth-brushing shot, it features another character eating a banana, and a third guy sucking a lollipop (but he always does).
Or the "showering together" variety:
Because in Mikoto's world, real friends take the time to wrap a towel around their waist before molesting you in the shower. But this begs the question, why was Mikoto wearing a towel in the first place?
Oh, Japan. Don't ever change. XDDD
Final verdict: 6/10
You should all read
The Lyre of Orpheus (Robertson Davies):
This book had me choking back laughter on the subway. Maybe that should be my new rating system?
Isn't the title evocative? That alone would have tempted me.
Properly the third book in a trilogy, it's not necessary to have read the first two to enjoy this one. Indeed, I haven't (yet), and this was my first foray into Davies's writing, but I thought that since I'd tackled some Atwood and Lawrence last year, I should continue boning up on my CanLit.
The story takes place in Toronto, in the world of academia, art and opera. The Cornish Foundation approves a grant for a doctoral student to complete and stage an unfinished 19th century opera. The story follows the endeavour, from conception through gestation to birth, along with other plots, such as the one about the professor writing the biography of the mysterious life of the man who left all the money that's allowing them to go through with the project. His life is, in fact, the subject of one of the other books in the trilogy, but I think that not knowing it adds to the suspence of this one, while one of the characters does a little detective work.
Most of all, though the plot itself was well drawn, I enjoyed the writing itself. It's humourous, witty and touching, seeming to skim along the surface while still exploring the depths.
Truly, how can one not love a book that contains the sentence, "Ottawa is not a place to which one goes at the end of November simply for pleasure"? (p. 260) Or this paragraph, which I fear I must share in its entirety:
The first general rehearsal took place in a dirty, ill-lit basement room in the Conservatory. It smelled of the economical lunches that had been consumed there for years by students; there was a pervasive atmosphere of bananas in their last stages of edibility, mingled with peanut butter. There was not much space, for there were three sets of timpani stored there, and in a corner an assembly of double-bass cases with nothing in them, like a conference of senators. (p. 362)
And then there's the whole dinner party scene, but I'd have to quote at least two pages at you, because the build-up is so good, so I'll let you read that one for yourselves. But it includes drunk academics arguing about Old English etymology! If that won't entice you, I don't know what will.
Final verdict: 9 barely supressed snickers out of 10
Also, if you haven't already, you should watch
Chunking Express:
This is a movie that I should have seen years ago, by all rights. I mean, Wong Kar-wai? Tony Leung? Faye Wong? How did I hold out for so long?! In fact, I recorded it from television at least once (probably twice >_<) but failed to ever watch it, for some reason. This is one of those cases where I feel really silly about it, because I was hooked five minutes in, long before Tony Leung (love that man!) and Faye Wong even show up.
My favourite line? "You're still an emotionally-charged towel." And he is speaking to an actual towel.
I don't really know what to say, other than that this film is sweet and funny and touching and subtly heart-wrenching.
Final verdict: 9/10
And just because I can't only be handing out gold stars today, some absolute silliness with screencaps. Click for PJB:
Princess Princess D:
It's live-action crack filled with pretty Japanese boys, some of them in dresses!
This is Saitou Takumi -- you may remember him as the slutty one in Boys Love -- and he's the student council president. Kind of like Touga, only hotter, and we don't get to see him seduce anyone. Shame, that. :D~
Oh god... how to even begin explaining?! And the two standing in the back are wielding whips. XD
This is based on an anime series, itself based on a manga series, neither of which I've seen or read. One website complained that the live-action version had changed the story too much and added shounen ai elements to it that hadn't been present in the original story, but HELLO? It's a story about an all-boys school where three students are chosen to dress up as girls and be "princesses" to give the horny student body someone to fantasize about -- HOW COULD IT NOT CONTAIN SHOUNEN AI
No matter, I still called this almost-kiss in the opening sequence as total fangirl bait, and I was right. There is no kissing at any point in the series -- the fanservice is more of the "finding homoerotic ways to wake up your friends" variety, such as:
(Yes, that's a boy in the pink pyjamas.)
Or "having the camera linger up close and personal while Mikoto brushes his teeth" -- but damn, he does have a really... pretty... mouth...
That episode should have been titled "Oral Fixation" because apart from the 30-second tooth-brushing shot, it features another character eating a banana, and a third guy sucking a lollipop (but he always does).
Or the "showering together" variety:
Because in Mikoto's world, real friends take the time to wrap a towel around their waist before molesting you in the shower. But this begs the question, why was Mikoto wearing a towel in the first place?
Oh, Japan. Don't ever change. XDDD
Final verdict: 6/10
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2008-03-29 11:38 am (UTC)Secondly, where do I get this Princess Princess D show? I need a good chuckle. :P
no subject
Date: 2008-03-29 11:41 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-03-30 12:21 am (UTC)I found torrents to download it, but it doesn't seem anyone's fansubbed eps. 9 and 10, so I watched those raw.