Recent reading
Oct. 19th, 2017 09:05 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
luzulaThe Golden Compass by Philip Pullman
Reread. I remember loving this back when I first read it, and I think it holds up pretty well--Lyra is a delightful main character and the plot is compelling. Huh, I didn't remember Asriel committing that horrible thing at the end--I vaguely thought of him as the good guy and Mrs. Coulter as the bad guy, but he's really not unequivocally good at all. I think I had just plain forgotten this, but I'm interested to see where that goes.
The worldbuilding is interesting, but I remembered it as kind of 19th-century-equivalent, which it clearly isn't, at least not technology-wise. I mean, they have nuclear power (atomcraft), and there's some sort of electronic warning system at Bolvangar. That's pretty advanced, and implies some sort of industrialization. And yet I think the reason I got the 19th-century impression is that there are servants! Who all have dog daemons! I got really hung up on this. People in general are shown as having all sort of different daemons implying different personalities, and yet the overarching fact that determines the personalities of ALL servants are their social class?! I mean, sure, dogs have all sorts of different personalities in reality, but it's the symbolism of the thing. I vaguely remember that these books are the anti-Narnia and they're going to depose God and have the Republic of Heaven and all in the end, but if the servants just stay like this I am going to be disappointed.
Fjällen, klimatet och människan by Leif Kullman (The Mountains, the Climate and Humans, only in Swedish)
Published in a magazine, though it's 130 pages so I'm counting it as a book. This was fascinating! It's a botanical history of the Swedish mountains since the last ice age, with special focus on the mountain-forest ecotone. I have strong feelings for these mountains--I remember hiking there for the first time when I was fifteen. It was like falling in love. I've spent a lot of time there since, and I know the flora intimately. And yet there was so much here that I didn't know, or hadn't put together the pieces that I did know. I mean, I knew that the beginning of the interglacial we're in was much warmer than it is now, such that elm and linden grew far up in northern Sweden. But I hadn't thought what that really meant for the mountains. The wide belts of mountain birch that we have now are apparently a pretty recent development, and during warmer periods pines dominated because it was drier. Also, there's been a lot of fairly recent research revealing that many plant species (including trees) survived on nunataks and on the Norwegian coast and spread rapidly from there as soon as the ice retreated. I mean, people thought before that spruce was a late-comer to Scandinavia after the ice age, but now fossils have been found that show it was there all along.
Er, possibly this was more detail than anyone other than me is interested in...
Reread. I remember loving this back when I first read it, and I think it holds up pretty well--Lyra is a delightful main character and the plot is compelling. Huh, I didn't remember Asriel committing that horrible thing at the end--I vaguely thought of him as the good guy and Mrs. Coulter as the bad guy, but he's really not unequivocally good at all. I think I had just plain forgotten this, but I'm interested to see where that goes.
The worldbuilding is interesting, but I remembered it as kind of 19th-century-equivalent, which it clearly isn't, at least not technology-wise. I mean, they have nuclear power (atomcraft), and there's some sort of electronic warning system at Bolvangar. That's pretty advanced, and implies some sort of industrialization. And yet I think the reason I got the 19th-century impression is that there are servants! Who all have dog daemons! I got really hung up on this. People in general are shown as having all sort of different daemons implying different personalities, and yet the overarching fact that determines the personalities of ALL servants are their social class?! I mean, sure, dogs have all sorts of different personalities in reality, but it's the symbolism of the thing. I vaguely remember that these books are the anti-Narnia and they're going to depose God and have the Republic of Heaven and all in the end, but if the servants just stay like this I am going to be disappointed.
Fjällen, klimatet och människan by Leif Kullman (The Mountains, the Climate and Humans, only in Swedish)
Published in a magazine, though it's 130 pages so I'm counting it as a book. This was fascinating! It's a botanical history of the Swedish mountains since the last ice age, with special focus on the mountain-forest ecotone. I have strong feelings for these mountains--I remember hiking there for the first time when I was fifteen. It was like falling in love. I've spent a lot of time there since, and I know the flora intimately. And yet there was so much here that I didn't know, or hadn't put together the pieces that I did know. I mean, I knew that the beginning of the interglacial we're in was much warmer than it is now, such that elm and linden grew far up in northern Sweden. But I hadn't thought what that really meant for the mountains. The wide belts of mountain birch that we have now are apparently a pretty recent development, and during warmer periods pines dominated because it was drier. Also, there's been a lot of fairly recent research revealing that many plant species (including trees) survived on nunataks and on the Norwegian coast and spread rapidly from there as soon as the ice retreated. I mean, people thought before that spruce was a late-comer to Scandinavia after the ice age, but now fossils have been found that show it was there all along.
Er, possibly this was more detail than anyone other than me is interested in...
(no subject)
Date: 2017-10-19 08:56 pm (UTC)Anyhoo, I was a little O_o with the first book and was kinda side-eyeing the second book. Finished that one, started the third novel out of stubbornness more than anything. And then, there was a scene that had me openly BAWLING and I ended up hate reading the rest of it, LOL!
Flashforward 15 years later and Daemons AUs is one of my fave tropes. #IDEK #Istillhaventforgiventhisseriestho
(no subject)
Date: 2017-10-20 06:09 pm (UTC)You mean, like, all SF/F? Why? *curious*
Nobody ever did write a daemon AU for dS, or did they? I guess I thought about it--pretty much the obvious thing to do was to make Dief Fraser's daemon, but I had no idea what to do with it other than that.
(no subject)
Date: 2017-10-23 05:07 pm (UTC)Short version: I read very little SF/F during the time where I could've gotten imprinted on it. Have tried to read several novels by different ppl throughout the years, only to DNF the bulk of it. So, for me to get super interested in a SF/F book, there has to something that really hooks me. It does happen, but v. rarely.
THAT SAID, I do enjoy SF/F visual media. *hands*
Gods, it's been years since I was in that fandom, but I do seem to remember that someone did write a daemon AU for dS. Most probably in a ficlet and not a longer work like that of the big bang.
(no subject)
Date: 2017-10-19 09:27 pm (UTC)*waves both hands just because*
Hi, Luz. I've been on long-term hiatus, but I seem to be sort of back. Hi. :-)
I need to get my icons ported over to DW. I need botanical icons. NEED. Clearly. *g*
(no subject)
Date: 2017-10-19 11:32 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2017-10-20 06:12 pm (UTC)How have you been doing? Or if you don't want to answer that here, do make a post and let us know.
Ha, I always have a botanical icon. *g*
(no subject)
Date: 2017-10-19 11:33 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2017-10-20 06:14 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2017-10-20 01:21 am (UTC)I walk the long way into campus each morning, and I like to say Hello to my favorite trees. It's a friendly way to start the day. :)
(no subject)
Date: 2017-10-20 06:15 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2017-10-22 02:02 am (UTC)I am also quite fond of Jacaranda trees. We don't have any on campus, but they're very common in town. They're native to South America rather than here, but like the sycamores and oaks they're a tree that I grew up with. They too can get quite big. They have bazillions of tiny leaves that grow on long stems with smaller cross-stems, so the whole tree looks like a giant bouquet of green ostrich feathers. And their flowers are periwinkle blue. Sigh. So pretty.
Hee. I got rambly there. ;)
(no subject)
Date: 2017-10-29 09:56 am (UTC)Oooh, lovely. It's so strange to me to see oaks with that leaf shape--our oaks don't have pointy ends to the lobes. I remember when I was in California I was fascinated with the madrone trees, I thought they were very exotic and beautiful.
I've been trying to think what my favorite trees are, but I can't decide! I like them all in different ways. For climbing definitely the beech. In the north I love the really old gnarled pine trees which are increasingly rare (because they get cut down). But really I find all tree species in Sweden beautiful in their own way. Okay, I don't like spruce plantations, but old spruce trees can be really lovely, so that's more the manner in which they grow.
(no subject)
Date: 2017-10-20 03:48 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2017-10-20 06:20 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2017-10-20 05:33 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2017-10-20 06:21 pm (UTC)