delphipsmith (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
delphipsmith) wrote2009-02-08 08:48 pm
delphipsmith) wrote2009-02-08 08:48 pm
Entry tags:
::: City of Dreaming Books (Moers)
Giant saurian goes in search of the author of a mysteriously potent piece of writing and uncovers a strange subterranean city and helps to set right an old crime. Overall: disappointing. Mostly things happen TO Optimus Yarnspinner (best thing about the book were the names -- in the original German his name was Hildegunst von Mythenmetz !), but he isn't very active on his own behalf. He runs away from things, gets rescued, etc., all passive, and some scenes seemed to go on a bit long. And all the strange little creatures seemed unnecessary; why do we need ones that look like pigs and ones that look like vultures, etc. It seems partially a caste system; some creatures are always in a particular profession. But that's not consistent. And I was unimpressed with the very ending which I guess was intended as a twist but instead came across as arrogant. I did have great fun trying to figure out the authorial anagrams (Wamilli Swordthrow = William Shakespeare, Asdrel Chickens = Charles Dickens, etc).
The little creatures that memorize an author's entire oeuvre were kind of neat; that and the way they're referred to by the name of their author rather than by their own name reminded me of the memorizers at the end of Fahrenheit 451. Speaking of which, I just found out that that was originally a short story entitled "Bright Phoenix," which I now must find. Also, according to Bradbury, the novel wasn't about censorship but rather about the way in which television destroys interest in reading and leads to a perception of knowledge as composed of "factoids", partial information devoid of context. He must be SO depressed today. The fact that the Bookholm has no mass media is surely not an accident -- the closest thing are the "timber time" readings, where people listen to someone reading their latest work. The largest "mass media event," the symphony, turns out to be evil as it's used to hypnotize the listeners into doing things; perhaps a reference to the mass media of television "hypnotizing" people? Perhaps an implication that reading is something best done one-on-one with a book, not as a common shared experience? Hm.
The little creatures that memorize an author's entire oeuvre were kind of neat; that and the way they're referred to by the name of their author rather than by their own name reminded me of the memorizers at the end of Fahrenheit 451. Speaking of which, I just found out that that was originally a short story entitled "Bright Phoenix," which I now must find. Also, according to Bradbury, the novel wasn't about censorship but rather about the way in which television destroys interest in reading and leads to a perception of knowledge as composed of "factoids", partial information devoid of context. He must be SO depressed today. The fact that the Bookholm has no mass media is surely not an accident -- the closest thing are the "timber time" readings, where people listen to someone reading their latest work. The largest "mass media event," the symphony, turns out to be evil as it's used to hypnotize the listeners into doing things; perhaps a reference to the mass media of television "hypnotizing" people? Perhaps an implication that reading is something best done one-on-one with a book, not as a common shared experience? Hm.