domino books

[metisket]

Real life and I have nothing further to say to each other (this week, I swear to God, RL is fired), so now turning to literature!

These books are excellent in themselves, but they also force you to read other books after them. You know the type. You set them down and must immediately run to the bookstore and buy another book to see what all that was about. I love/hate those books, because, let me tell you, the last thing I need right now is MORE UNREAD BOOKS.

Ah, well. :D



To Say Nothing of the Dog by Connie Willis


This is a story about time travel that somehow doesn't feel like sci-fi at all. Actually, it reminds me of Jasper Fforde, if you've read him (bless his heart). It takes place in future England, WWII England, and Victorian England. It is about how cats and obsessed rich ladies, between them, have the ability to destroy space-time.

I SUSPECTED AS MUCH.

The problem is that Lady Schrapnell wants to restore Coventry Cathedral to its pre-Nazi air raid condition, and she has the money, time, and absolute, screaming sense of entitlement necessary to send as many people as she likes to the past to find out just what that church looked like. And if she can't find replicas of the things she needs to restore it, well. They're right there in the past, aren't they?

"I've told her and told her, bringing anything from the past to the present would violate the laws of the space-time continuum, and do you know what she said? 'Laws are made to be broken.'"

The main characters are Ned Henry, who has not slept since 1940, and Verity Kindle, who is a historian, and fond of cats. Unfortunately for them, they spend a lot of time in the company of a Victorian relative of Lady Schrapnell's who exists to prove that whatever Lady Schrapnell's problem is, it's inherited. It's okay for the reader, though, because by that time, laughing at Ned's pain has become your favorite hobby anyway.

ilu Ned. Sorry about your life. <3

So you finish this book, and then feel compelled, COMPELLED to read Three Men in a Boat (To Say Nothing of the Dog) by Jerome K. Jerome, because there are references to it throughout and besides, Ned's a fan.

Ned is right to be a fan. Jerome K. Jerome was Victorian England's answer to today's amateur surfer guy who seems to be perpetually stoned. I mean, really, picture that guy in Victorian England. With two like-minded guys, cruising down the Thames.

XD



Mishima's Sword by Christopher Ross


The charm of this book is that, as with Hunter S. Thompson's book on the Hell's Angels, you start to suspect that the author is at least as strange as his subject, if not stranger.

Nominally, this is about Ross's trip to Japan to find the sword Yukio Mishima used to kill himself. There's a lot about Mishima, of course, and a lot about that which is wonderful, strange, and disturbing in Japan. There's also a lot about Ross.

Ross is a man who, if I recall correctly, ran away to Japan for no discernible reason without understanding a word of Japanese, and he stayed there for three years. The whys and wherefores of this are never really made clear. "Because I was upset" is not an explanation. Or maybe it is, but I mean, why Japan? That would be like me running away right this minute to Brazil. WHY, CHRISTOPHER ROSS? WHAT THE HELL?

But then, his life does seem to be nothing but a string of completely random events and weird encounters. My two favorite examples are (1) that time he conducted an interview in an S&M club, and (2) that time he got harassed by yakuza because his shady friend wasn't available to be harassed.

It's his blase reaction that really makes it. Getting dragged around town by yakuza, I mean, how annoying, right? Like when somebody cuts you off in traffic.

You'll feel compelled to read some Mishima. I'm not sure whether this a good compulsion or not. Certainly Patriotism has the dubious honor of being the most carefully thought-out story about disemboweling yourself that I've ever read. Interesting to realize that Mishima had thought it through to that extent, and it did not stop him from going off and doing it to himself later--with an audience.

Oh Mishima, you special, special snowflake.



Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World by Jack Weatherford


This book was written by a deeply academic man who was trying not to look like a squeeing fanboy. AND HE FAILED. :D

Basically, as far as Jack Weatherford is concerned, Genghis Khan would have been welcome to live forever and continue ruling the world to this very day. Because--you may not realize this--Genghis Khan was MADE OF AWESOME.

Jack Weatherford will tell you so with many reasoned arguments and also evidence! He is aware that other people, notably Marco Polo, have babbled at length about how awesome Khubilai Khan was. However, in the detached academic opinion of this book, Khubilai was nothing but a wuss of a city kid. He was a gold-grubbing mama's boy. He was as nothing compared to his grandfather, pshaw.

*points and laughs at Jack Weatherford*

It is a great historical book, in addition to the hilarious fanboy moments. It has all sorts of interesting information about Mongolia, and fun facts about most of the places Genghis Khan conquered, which was...yeah, like everywhere.

Fun fact! The Nizari Ismailis, a heretical Muslim sect of the 1200s, were best known for their willingness to do absolutely anything for their leader. This was at least in part because their leader kept them drugged to the eyeballs most of the time. The sum total of Ismaili foreign policy was to kill everyone who disagreed with them.

They were not very popular with their neighbors, surprise, surprise. The neighbors called them "the hashish users," or hashshashin. Hashshashin --> assassin.

:D :D :D Etymology, I love it. 

Anyway, original assassins or no, one of Genghis's grandsons stomped them in the end.

You must read Marco Polo's Travels after this, because it's only fair to hear from the Khubilai Khan fandom, too. Marco Polo, he's such a merchant, it's ridiculous. Every once in a while, though, he does notice humans instead of merchandise, and this never fails to be extremely funny. Quotes:

"She who has the most tokens and can show that she has had most lovers and that most men have lain with her is the most highly esteemed and the most acceptable as a wife.... Obviously the country is a fine one to visit for a lad from sixteen to twenty-four."

"The inhabitants [of Tabriz] are a mixed lot and good for very little."

"I have come to the point in our book at which I will tell you of the great achievements of the Great Khan now reigning. The title Khan means in our language 'Great Lord of Lords.' And certainly he has every right to this title; for everyone should know that this Great Khan is the mightiest man, whether in respect of subjects or of territory or of treasure, who is in the world today or who has ever been, from Adam our first parent down to the present moment. And I will make it quite clear to you in our book that this is the plain truth, so that everyone will be convinced that he is indeed the greatest lord the world has ever known."

...fanboy. I swear he mentions Khubilai's ankles at one point.



:D Happy Friday!

Comments

[branchandroot]

*deeply entertained*

[metisket]

:D Thank you! Books, so horribly addictive...