Assorted musings
The day did not start off well as I slammed my toe into a furniture leg shortly after getting up this morning and thought I broke it (the toe, that is). There was quite a sickening crack when it happened and the pain just bloomed. I've had it wrapped all day and kept up the Tylenol, tried to take it easy, etcetera. I just unwrapped it to have a look and wow, is it purple! If not broken, it came pretty close.
Fortunately, as long as the painkillers were active it didn't interfere with my writing, so my word count is healthy even if my toe is not.
I learned a new word this week on the NaNoWriMo forums: "squick." While there seem to be a number of theories about the possibly unsavoury origins of the word, I am mainly enamored with its use as follows, from the Double-Tongued Dictionary: squick v. to disturb, unsettle, make uneasy; to cause disgust or revulsion; to gross (someone) out; to freak (someone) out. Also noun, something which causes disgust, revulsion, or uneasiness, or the disgust, revulsion, or uneasiness itself. Also squick (someone) out.
In the past two days I've started reading two books: Saturday by Ian McEwan and Tanglewreck by Jeanette Winterson. Perhaps it's an odd thing to do to even attempt to compare them, since one is serious "literary" fiction, and one is YA speculative fiction. But I must say that it is going to be an epic struggle to continue reading Saturday; by page 18 all that has happened is the main character wakes up in the middle of the night, opens his window, and thinks about things. I'm beginning to feel rather trapped with this character--the way a creature with one leg trapped in a hunter's snare must make the decision whether to gnaw its own leg off in order to get away. The writing is pretentious and the character, whom I expect is supposed to appear remarkably self-aware, comes across as being tediously self-absorbed instead. On the other hand, Tanglewreck is wonderfully written and delightful.
Well, there. I went ahead and compared them anyway. Sometimes I just can't control myself.
2 Comments:
I must say, I am no Ian McEwan fan. I've heard people rave about him but I found the one book I read by him to be horrific, and not even that well-written to be honest. "Pretentious" sums it up. What I particularly didn't like about the book I read by him (The Comfort of Strangers) was that the female character was annoyingly unrealistic. Grrrrr! The days of Kingsley Amis are over, Ian.
Your NaNo word count is impressive! You're almost there!
Helen, it heartens me to no end to know that you didn't like McEwan either. Perhaps it's not just my genetic inability to appreciate "literary" works after all. You're much more well-read than I am, and if you don't like him, I feel much less inadequate! ;-)
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