| Tuesday February 18th 2003 Valentine's Day was fabulous, and spent in LA's company of course. We've started hard negotiations about the exact day that will be best for her to move. Logically speaking August makes a lot of sense, since she might start school in September and this way she can work on her current job as long as possible. Personally I'd like her here a lot sooner than that - I think she's of the same mind - so we'll see what sort of compromise comes out of this. I had a nice compliment today; someone at work said 'Wow, you're daring' when they saw I was reading Foucault's Pendulum by Umberto Eco. While I was feeling good about that, it brought back memories of my school days, when I might have - just might have - purposely chosen to read certain books in order to impress. Moby Dick in seventh grade; War and Peace in eighth grade; Shogun in ninth grade ... Not that I didn't read every word of every page, enjoyed reading them, and still remember the storylines. But I have to admit the 'impressiveness' factor weighed in when I was choosing what to read. Did I sell out, in some intellectual sense? I'm pleading not guilty. If it had been strictly to impress, I never would have got past page 10 of any of them. I wouldn't have read more of the classics, more Tolstoy, or the rest of Clavell's Asian Saga, if I hadn't been genuinely captivated. It isn't too often I stray outside the sci-fi and fantasy genres, but once in a while I need a break. Foucault's Pendulum is the first of three diversions I've picked out; I'm following that with Outlander (some sort of Scottish historical romance) and The Lightbearer (Roman historical fiction). Historical fiction is my next more favourite genre, and there's as much or more ideas to be garnered from real world settings as from works within my genre when I'm working on my own novel and stories. I think the worst sci-fi/fantasy work must be by authors who read nothing else and are simply regurgitating. When you're stuck in the midst of largely repetitive surroundings, you have to look outside the box for original inspiration. To hit my earlier point again: if I really were reading simply to impress, would I have selected these as my favourite genres? Not a chance. Not that there isn't an immense amount to be said in defence of sci-fi/fantasy against the ivory tower argument that they're merely fairytales for adults ... but I'll save that argument for another day. |