mostly about The Brotherhood of the Wolf

papersky gets more mileage out of playing Civ than anyone else on the planet. I am in awe.

Computer, in the normal annoying way of technology, mysteriously resolved its own issues between horrifying MH and myself yesterday morning with its absolutely stellar impression of a dying duck, and pretending nothing had ever been wrong when MH went to take it apart last night. We are both baffled as a bathroom geyser.

(And, btw, if anyone can explain that line from Busman's Honeymoon to me, I will be eternally grateful.)

Last night, we watched The Brotherhood of the Wolf with heres_luck. I discovered that my ability to understand spoken French has not entirely atrophied; I caught a couple stupid errors in the subtitles, which is always good for the geek!ego.

And then I had a revelation ( dissertation nonsense and spoilers for The Brotherhood of the Wolf here )

Which boils down to: if you want to understand what Seneca and Senecan tragedy is like, watch The Brotherhood of the Wolf.

I'm very pleased by this; I was all bouncy at MH last night. And that shows that no matter how much I whinge about my dissertation, I'm still interested in it. V. good.

Another important insight from The Brotherhood of the Wolf? Not all French actors look like Gerard Depardieu.

in which I succumb to a meme

First lines of ten favorite books (which turned out to be a smorgasboard of mystery, fantasy, children's literature, and sometimes all three):

The primroses were over.
--Richard Adams, Watership Down

Snow was falling on Riverside, great white feather-puffs that veiled the cracks in the facades of its ruined houses, slowly softening the harsh contours of jagged roof and fallen beams.
--Ellen Kushner, Swordspoint

Harriet Vane sat at her writing-table and stared out into Mecklenburg Square.
--Dorothy L. Sayers, Gaudy Night

It was a dull autumn day and Jill Pole was crying behind the gym.
--C. S. Lewis, The Silver Chair

Although the label on the hair shampoo said Paris and had a picture of a beautiful girl with the Eiffel Tower behind her bare shoulder, it was forced to tell the truth in tiny print under the picture.
--Margaret Mahy, The Changeover

"Aunt Bee," said Jane, breathing heavily into her soup, "was Noah a cleverer back-room boy than Ulysses, or was Ulysses a cleverer back-room boy than Noah?"
--Josephine Tey, Brat Farrar

The unicorn lived in a lilac wood, and she lived all alone.
--Peter S. Beagle, The Last Unicorn

Polly sighed and laid her book face down on her bed.
--Diana Wynne Jones, Fire and Hemlock

The Mole had been working very hard all the morning, spring cleaning his little home.
--Kenneth Grahame, The Wind in the Willows

Ever since his arrival at the Hotel Algonquin, Hamlet had spent most of his time sleeping.
--Val Schaffer, Algonquin Cat

Secondary World Vulgarities

Or, Problems Tolkien Never Had to Deal With

This is venting, but it might also be interesting. I hope. It's about making up language--not Sindarin-style, but in terms of, how can characters curse when they live in a world that doesn't permit of, e.g., Jesus H. Bald-headed Christ. Oh, yeah, and there's going to be strong language. And a lot of it, including some remarkably vulgar and offensive terms.

I think, therefore, I'm going to stick this behind a cut-tag, so if you read it, ( it's by choice. )

And now, having demonstrated the appalling extent of my vocabulary, I'm going to bed.