Earth's tilt

[entelein]

Oh, hurrah! The light was strong and developed this morning at 6:45AM, meaning that the slight lean I've had is slowly correcting itself. I had the winter blues, see, stooping me over with its flatness and dreary cold. There hasn't been much snow to assuage this seeping chill, and so the weather's felt a little more raw and unrewarding.

But oh, outside already, at 8:15AM, I can see across the floor and through the windows, the sun hitting the ornate facades of the building across the street. The financial district is still grimy and shadowed with salt and grime, but if you squint, you can imagine the whole place rain-washed and new. The kind of a clean where the pavement shines, and the damp, kinetic energy of Lake Michigan tingles your skin and hits your nose. I was taking the garbage out this morning when I realized something had profoundly changed over the last week: there were birds, chirping and chattering up a storm. It was a light, airy cacophany. It was welcomed.

I started reading Eragon on the train today. It's ... well, the prose is sort of terrible, but I am curious to read on and see what all the kerfuffle was about. I think I need to sit down with myself someday and figure out exactly what it is that makes this particular book lacking in style. Generally, I know it has something to do with telling too much, and not showing. It's very self-indulgent writing, isn't it, when someone tells you all the time what a character meant when he snorted abruptly, or turned on his heel? Are we so stupid as readers that we need to be told this, in every instance? Or have it re-phrased for us in the next paragraph, as if we were goldfish with no capacity for memory?

Part of me, the little devil's advocate that almost always turns up useless, says, "Well, this is not exactly adult fiction. This book was in the Young Adult section."

To the tiny demonic voice I reply, "That's no excuse. Kids are a lot smarter than we ever give them credit for. How are they ever to learn nuance and brevity if they only read stuff that is designed to spoon-feed their emotions? They will grow up to be bossy know-it-alls. They will learn that blather is a weapon. They will never delight in zen, in a moment bare of explanation."

Ah, well. I'm on page 23. Jury's still out.

This paragraph did make me laugh, though. Because I'm 12:

"Get ready," he whispered, his whole body vibrating. The tip of his sword moved in small circles. It had taken many plots and much pain to bring himself to this moment. It would not do to lose control now.

Comments

[coffeejedi.livejournal.com]

rofl!

[pencat.livejournal.com]

*giggle*

[lakilika.livejournal.com]

That's hot.

[omnie.livejournal.com]

(I have a 12-year-old brother who's a voracious reader of fantasy books, so lately I've been borrowing and reading the ones that he recommends. There's some surprisingly good stuff written for that target audience, which I missed out on when I was his age because I didn't gravitate towards the fantasy genre.) So, yeah, I really didn't like Eragon. Even for a kid's book, there are really much better ones out there. It's incredibly derivative, the prose, like you said, is nothing special, and there's just nothing particularly good about it. Ok, so it was written by a teenager, and that is certainly an accomplishment that he should be proud of, but, when a book is published for the general public, it needs to be judged on its own merit, just like all the other books out there, and it doesn't remotely hold up. (heh, it's just that I get annoyed when people imply that I should like the book because it was written by a 17-year-old. Good for him, but that doesn't make it a good book.)

[entelein.livejournal.com]

Good for him, but that doesn't make it a good book

Yes.

[melange428.livejournal.com]

What makes Eragon a piece of crap is not that it was written by a 14 year old (that's part of it, though) but that it is completely ripped off from everything Paolini had ever read up to that point. Try picking out what he stole from Star Wars! What he stole from Dragonlance! It goes on and on. The sequel is almost unimaginably worse.

If you want good YA fantasy, I could recommend a list the length of my arm. Eragon wouldn't be anywhere near it.

[entelein.livejournal.com]

You know, I actually DID think to myself the other day (SERIOUSLY), "I need Melissa to recommend me some good YA stuff."

Cos the Chicago Public Library's Children's section looks to be pretty well-stocked, but I am so, so lost as where to even start.

[gupfee.livejournal.com]

OK, working my way backwards through my friends list, I actually posted in your other entry before I saw this one.

I just want to clarify my previous comments--I don't think it's a very good book, but it's not my opinion that counts, as it's my daughter's book and one of the ones she asked to be read out loud to her. (Hubby read Eragon, I got stuck with Eldest.) She liked it just fine, but then again she hasn't read any Tolkien yet.

And maybe I am cutting Eragon a slight more bit of slack, because it was one of the only books we had with us when we went to India two years ago. That book saved me from terminal boredom when we were stuck at a train station out in the middle of the jungle for many hours waiting for a train because my damn FIL mis-read the schedule. So I was happy to tear through it in almost one sitting. :)

[entelein.livejournal.com]

I can understand the slack. But oh, there is so much other well-written (and engaging and totally accessible) fiction out there! Aie! ;)

No, seriously, I am not attempting to disparage those who like it. It's just ... I dunno. 509 pages of this. I don't know if I can do it.

[gupfee.livejournal.com]

Don't even bother with Eldest if you think Eragon is a tough slog. I have nothing kind to say about the sequel. :)

[ubersaurus.livejournal.com]

Eh, I read the Artemis Fowl books, and those are "young adult". And highly amusing too-the thinly veiled racism from the fairy folk towards humans was never actually called out by anyone in the book, but you could tell that it was a focus of sorts.