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December 09, 2005
media consumption
Ben and I have been watching Lost on DVD. It's a bit melodramatic, with silly orchestration. It's also insanely addictive. It kind of reminds me of Twin Peaks.
I finished "Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell" this week. Then I came across this online seminar on the book. Apparently Neil Gaiman called the book "unquestionably the finest English novel of the fantastic written in the last seventy years." (Emphasis on English, as in "British," I think.)
It was definitely a fun and clever book, easy to read and occasionally incisive. Author Susanna Clarke didn't do anything new or beautiful with the language, however. She wove her threads together well and tied everything up neatly at the end, but she would have much improved her book by trimming 200 or so extraneous pages. Not every clever thought an author has should necessarily survive into the final draft of a book.
Now I've got a few back issues of the Wall Street Journal to catch up on before I start "Middlesex."
Posted by Courtney_Sherwood at December 9, 2005 09:53 PM
Comments
I had never watched "Lost" when it aired(it conflicts with "Veronica Mars"), but after watching the Saturday morning kids show "Flight 29 Down", I thought I'd give it a try. I got so addicted to Lost over dvd this fall that I found myself trying to catch up to season two by reading online episode synopsis (es?). I completely concur with the similarities with "Twin Peaks". I picked up "Middlesex" at Powells on my way out of Portland. I really enjoyed the stories it wove, and am thinking of re-reading "The Virgin Suicides" after the holidays.
Posted by: Susan at December 12, 2005 06:43 AM
I think we're going to wait for season two to come out on DVD, unless they decide to re-run the episodes at some point. Then we'll hop in and become regular TV watchers next year.
I've never read "The Virgin Suicides." I need to pick that one up at some point, I guess.
Posted by: Courtney at December 12, 2005 11:11 AM
Josh and I are addicted to Lost. We read blogs, we listen to podcast, we have viewing parties. I'm really sad now cause we have a month of reruns to not look forward to after the season was finally getting good.
Season 1, I loved. Season 2, I didn't love until this latest episode. The focus of the second season was so different compared to last year (just getting to know the background of characters) that I was getting frustrated. They finally show the old fashioned background on "What Kate Did" and then they send us into a month of reruns.
Man, my life is boring!
Posted by: Kathy at December 12, 2005 08:55 PM