Convergence of literary complaints

[featherynscale]

I just finished some early nineties political thriller about an advanced race and the fabulous scientific discoveries they left behind, and how all the governments on earth fall all over each other guns blazing to make sure they're the only ones that make out with the neat old stuff. It actually wasn't as bad as I make it out to be in that summary, but I found it all so very hard to swallow.

In one bit, there was a bit about snake venom, and a minor character is killed off by a single bite from a coral snake that has been dropped down his shirt. Now, as it happens, I know some things about coral snakes. They're apparently in the cobra family, and do have some fairly serious venom power - a good venom injection can do for a good-sized human. However, they've got virtually no fangs at all - they have to essentially chew through a few layers of skin before they can get any venom in you to begin with. So a single bite is highly unlikely to do anybody, unless it happens to get a lucky hit somewhere the skin is really really thin. Like, say, the inside of your mouth. Or something. So I was willing to believe in the cat people and their advanced electromagnetic technology for most of the book, but after the bit about the coral snake, I wasn't buying any of it anymore.

I must have spent too much time talking about books with triadruid. That's the sort of objection he'd make - "They got their facts wrong!" Usually, all I require is internal consistency, that once an author has established that coral snakes kill with a bite, that he not later go back and have a character survive seven bites miraculously.

Ah well. Perhaps I'll wander over to the library tomorrow today and see if I can pick up some other reading material. I'm also reading Titus Groan on the recommendation of greektoomey. It's slow going, but richly, fascinatingly horrible. I'm glad I picked it up, but I require some lighter fare to balance out.

Comments

[teross50.livejournal.com]

HHHHHHMMMMMMmmmmm ???? It bites LOL I have that problem watching ER at times You know they have gotten a fact wrong Or they do not Deliver Babies in Er as a rule They run like scared rabbits straight up to OB whenever possible ER docs are not expert at everything Sometimes I have to be told "Shut Up!!! It's just TV " Just go with the flow Sometimes it is just abut entertainment Hey if ya going to the library and you have ot already read it Try Temple of MY Familia by Alice Walker Great fiction With what I consider great stories of past lives and why the Patriarchy really fears the mystic power of women One of my favorite books

[triadruid.livejournal.com]

Speaking of spectacularly awful literature books, I was able to pull up the title of that Gimbutas-inspired travesty I was declaiming the other day: Circles of Stone, by Joan Dahr Lambert. Thankfully it seems to be the only thing she ever got published, and that was in 1999.

Only a good read if you feel your aggression level dropping and depression starting to sink back in, of course. Yech; I'd forgotten the three protagonists were all named 'Zena'.

[featherynscale.livejournal.com]

*makes vague stabby motions toward eyes*

Nope, still too aggressive :-P

[kimjerosky.livejournal.com]

Right now I'm reading Practical Jung: Nuts and Bolts of Jungian Psychotherapy and How to Cook Without a Book. The latter is pretty much what qualifies as "brain candy" for me these days, at least until the newest Harry Potter book hits the shelves! I just haven't ingested any fiction lately, other than an attempt to wade through the Robert Jordan saga. I think I made it to 4 or 5 before I was overwhelmed by burnout and had to put them down for a bit. The only problem I had with Jordan was/is that he's a bit too accurate about human nature and people seem to never take in the big picture or learn from their mistakes. I get enough of that at work. I need to lighten up...

[triadruid.livejournal.com]

The only problem I had with Jordan was/is that he's a bit too accurate about human nature and people seem to never take in the big picture or learn from their mistakes.

Y'know, I noticed this too, and it was part of what I like about the series... but then I remember that I did slow down in my reading of them once I actually started working in the field. Now that I've a bureaucrat, I can start back up again without fear (and maybe that's why I can't manage the Gormenghast books...it's all bureaucracy!).

[featherynscale.livejournal.com]

So you recognize yourself among the horrors therein? Well done :)

Personally, I'm only 70 pages in, and I feel as if I've been skewered a few times already, myself.

[greektoomey.livejournal.com]

it's all bureaucracy!

Not all. It's also intrigue, and social climbing, and MADNESS! And murder, and fire, and REVOLUTION!

Also, cats as missiles. Must remember that.

[featherynscale.livejournal.com]

We actually had a copy of How to Cook Without a Book around here somewhere - I was about halfway through it, and now I can't find the damned thing.

It's true what you say about Jordan, but I apparently don't let that stop me... I burn through his stuff, and have already read all of the Wheel of Time stuff - this last one, the prequel, I think I bought the day it came out, and finished it within two days. triadruid had to literally pry it out of my hands on one occasion.

[greektoomey.livejournal.com]

I first read Titus Groan when I was a teenager, and I had to try about three times, I think, before I was able to get past the first 100 pages. Once I managed to slog my way into the story, I was enthralled, and the density of Peake's weriting style just seemed to melt away.

How far have you got already?

[featherynscale.livejournal.com]

Not far. Nannie Slagg has just been assigned the care of Titus. The cheif difficulty I seem to be having with this is that I do most of my reading in bed before going to sleep - this requires more concentration than all that. If I were to read it in bed, I'd never be able to key my brain down enough for sleeping. So it may take me several years. I'm 2/3 of the way to your stopping point though, and I think I'll make it yet.