review of Grendel; work-related stuff
Feb. 5th, 2007 05:08 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
edenfallingIt is disgustingly cold here in Ithaca. When I walked to work at 6:45 this morning, it was 3 degrees Fahrenheit, and it barely reached 13 degrees in midafternoon. It's also windy. Needless to say, I am not happy about this!
Anyway, my first day of full time went pretty well, and I think I should have the opening routine down after another few times. It's mostly a matter of logistical timing and working out a rhythm. I have a closing rhythm down to an art -- I could damn near close the store in my sleep -- but opening, while mostly a reverse of closing, has its own quirks.
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I finished Grendel last night, and while I'm glad to have read it, it's not a book I feel a need to save or read again. For one thing, I vehemently disagree with the dragon, and with Grendel's nihilistic despair. So what if everything is winding down to nothing! While we're here, we're here, and there isn't any need to look for a deeper meaning. Life is, amen, the end.
Also, the book is clearly an experiment in writing styles, playing with narrative voices, epic poetry formats, playscripts, etc. It's interesting, but it keeps Grendel's 'voice' from full coherence, and I like narrative voice to reflect character, so that's a flaw for me. (In other words, there were sections of the book that I liked a lot, for various reasons, but I don't think they all make a coherent whole. Which may be part of the point -- the indifference of the universe, and the failure of all human explanations thereof -- but again, I don't agree with that point.)
Anyway, my first day of full time went pretty well, and I think I should have the opening routine down after another few times. It's mostly a matter of logistical timing and working out a rhythm. I have a closing rhythm down to an art -- I could damn near close the store in my sleep -- but opening, while mostly a reverse of closing, has its own quirks.
---------------
I finished Grendel last night, and while I'm glad to have read it, it's not a book I feel a need to save or read again. For one thing, I vehemently disagree with the dragon, and with Grendel's nihilistic despair. So what if everything is winding down to nothing! While we're here, we're here, and there isn't any need to look for a deeper meaning. Life is, amen, the end.
Also, the book is clearly an experiment in writing styles, playing with narrative voices, epic poetry formats, playscripts, etc. It's interesting, but it keeps Grendel's 'voice' from full coherence, and I like narrative voice to reflect character, so that's a flaw for me. (In other words, there were sections of the book that I liked a lot, for various reasons, but I don't think they all make a coherent whole. Which may be part of the point -- the indifference of the universe, and the failure of all human explanations thereof -- but again, I don't agree with that point.)
