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queenofthorns assigned me the letter "L" for the 10-things-you-love meme. It took me quite a long time to come up with 10 things, and by the time I did, I had 11. Whoops. Here it is (in alphabetical order):
1. Languages - I think this one stems from my love of reading. Some of the earliest books I remember reading were translations, and it was always ingrained in me, even before we left the USSR, that I would need to know more than one language. They sound nice, each one with its own rhythm and style. Family and individuality. Communcation and my love of talking and writing also contribute, but there is, I think, an underlying unease about not knowing a language and not understanding what's said. It probably stems from immigrating - not understanding German, or Italian, and especially not English (and 2-5th graders are mean little bastards when you can't understand what they say). I don't ever want to be that helpless again.
2. Lannister, Jaime - Unlike the lovely QoT, I didn't need to wait until The Dungeon Scene to fall in love with Jaime. I'm a sucker for a guy loyal and genuinely interested in the welfare of his freak of a brother. I loved Jaime from A Game of Thrones, both for his arrogance and his loyalty, and most especially his temper. I felt horrible that he ordered Jory dead, don't get me wrong, but I appreciated just how much it frustrated him that he couldn't get Tyrion back, and that he couldn't keep his little brother safe at that moment. That Tyrion was, as far as Jaime knew, helpless in the grip of Ned Stark's wife (and my strong dislike of Catelyn certainly didn't hurt his case here) frustrated the hell out of him, and it's a credit to Martin's writing that he made the character, who was last seen tossing a kid out a window, sympathetic even through Ned Stark's black-and-white eyes. At least to me.
Hubris is probably his tragic flaw, or was, because I'm not sure that's what's going to get him in the end. If anything, it might be his loyalty, or his long-unused chivalry. It's the loyalty to the father who can't accept Jaime as anything other than his golden heir, the loyalty to his lying, cheating whore of a sister (which, thankfully, is waning), the loyalty to his brother, who has betrayed it and earned a title lower than even Kingslayer, and to his son who sits on a throne that isn't his. Jaime is tragic because, just like Ned Stark, he does what he thinks is right to protect the ones he loves. Unlike Ned, though, Jaime's morality is *ahem* slightly skewed, and his black-and-white blinders torn off by Aerys and his pyromancers.
I'm a sucker for anti-heroes. What can I say?
3. Lannister, Tyrion - Speaking of anti-heroes, here's the major one of the series. In some ways, it's rather obvious Tyrion is Martin's favorite character - the most witty, clever, and yet beaten down character in the series. Jon had his father's love and respect, along with Robb's, and Bran's, and Arya's, not to mention the majority of the Night's Watch. Daenerys had, however briefly, Drogo, and now has her dragons. What does Tyrion have? Well, two barely remembered weeks of happiness in the lifetime of misery. He gets stories of how his sweet sister twisted his penis when he was a baby, and accused of the murder of his nephew just because said sister had herself a teenage adventure in the tent of a maegi and can't think straight to remember that she has 2 little brothers. He gets shat on by his father (pun intended), and the disgust of the realm which he works his damnest to save and the family he does his utmost to serve.
And through his bitterness and lowest points he never loses his humor and his wits. He has a tragic flaw, of course, what is a hero without one? But he is still, despite murdering his father, one of the most worthy and honorable characters in the series.
4. Lavender - It's clean, soothing, and helps my migraines. I love the scent, as it can put me to sleep or revive my ability to think. Just breathing in lavender relaxes me, and it reminds me of undergrad evenings in my room, getting back massages from one of my housemates that allowed me to function during CS project all-nighters. It's odd that I miss that, but I do. There was a great deal of social that no longer happens now that I no longer live in a house with 5 people.
5. Left Hand of Darkness, The - It's the only Le Guin I've managed to read thus far (I have The Lathe of Heaven on my to-read queue, and I realise there are a lot of L's in this entry alone), so I couldn't in good conscience put her on the list. But really, this book rocks like a rocking thing. Because it's speculative fiction that focuses on characters and how two people can change a world. Because it's an incredible study of love and loyalty (and man I'm just fond of that word, aren't I?) and grief and the lengths one man may go to bring his world to the stars.
It's brilliant, and inspiring. I must admit that it took me a while to get into. I was intrigued by Estraven from the get-go, and more than a little annoyed with Ai for not listening to what he was saying. But when they get out on the ice and the rest of the world and the external pressures fade and it's them against the winter, it's just bloody gorgeous prose. And I just about bawled for both Estraven and Ai when Estraven is killed, and must have reread the last passage, where Ai meets Estraven's son, a dozen times or more. It's so evocative in its simplicity.
6. Legends - Any kind, really. From folklore of Koschei the Undying and Ivan the Simple (and Baba Yaga, naturally) to the Celtic cycles, to Greek, Roman, Sumerian, Norse, Japanese, Hindu, Egyptian, and I'm sure I've forgotten a few pantheons. I grew up with my dad telling me the latter and my mom telling me the former. I think it's the concise storytelling and what it says about human nature that really appeals. Kind of like balladry (which can be a subset, too) - storytelling skeleton where only the essentials remain over time.
7. Lilacs - Lilac is the first scent I remember clearly, even from Kiev. They were my late grandfather's favorite flower, and while I still lived in Ohio, every spring we'd cut a branch or two and put it at his gravesite. But even before he passed away, it wasn't spring until I smelled lilacs blooming. Then May seemed that much brighter and the sun more refreshing. My mom also loves lilacs - I can count on a vase of them if I go visit this month. They remind her of Kiev, blooming with tulips, poppies, and lilacs, and buckeye trees in the springtime. I know I shouldn't remember it, but I do recall wide boulevards of tall, shady, blooming trees.
8. Literature - Do I really need to explain this one, given the blather on books and characters above? Yes? Oh, well.
I love reading, I love books. One of my earliest memories is of my sister watching me read and counting the words per minute I could manage (and my comprehension) to see how I was improving. She taught me a mnemonic for remembering the colors of the rainbow (which is why I recall that moment, probably). My family sent 1000 books from Kiev ahead of us to the US because we couldn't bear to part with them. When there was nothing else to read, I read the New Testament while bored in Rome (that was also my introduction to comics...yeah).
My dad is probably most responsible for this love - even when I went through a TV-or-bust phase he made sure I kept reading. He's also responsible for my ability to tune the world out when I read, too.
I'm forever attempting to read all I can get my hands on - anything and everything in different languages, from different period and cultures. It fascinates me how Homer differs from Pushkin, and how Austen as a product of her era and society differs from Wilde or Dostoeyvsky. To read Dumas and Batman and see the similarities and differences, and know that some things never change, no matter how you color in the wide strokes. How fallen angels are treated by Marlowe and Gaiman, how Hell changes from Judaic writing to Dante.
Literature to me is forever a new experience, a new perspective. It teaches me about culture and poliltics and people, but also about myself.
9. Logan Echolls - See above about anti-heroes. Logan is, in some ways, the Jaime Lannister of Veronica Mars. It's amazing that I didn't draw that parallel earlier, really. And I think that's why I still enjoy watching him, despite my general decline in interest in Veronica herself. Logan still has motivations, and pain, raw energy. He's still has that prickly skin that hides the damaged human being beneath, and it's the marshmallow we're missing from Veronica this season.
10. Lord of the Rings Trilogy, The - Hoo-boy. I think this series probably woke me up from a long slumber in which I thought sci-fi/fantasy was something that happened on TV. I read this one before Narnia (but after Verne - my dad did love the classics), before anything in English, really, that wasn't dictated by my English classes and not on the spare library shelves. (Years later, I learned that I'd read Jane Yolen before Tolkien, but I didn't find out about that until after I finished Briar Rose.)
It wasn't a teen coming-of-age story. It wasn't some manner of work that was meant to be dissected unto each metaphor or simile. It was, and is, a combination of everything I love about literature - imagination, language, character and legendry in the making. It inspires by being every story - the buddy journey, the dark quest of the lone hero, the lost king returning to glory and bringing a golden age. It is the story of the fall of families and the heroic nature of ordinary, simple folk in extraordinary circumstances.
I'm not saying that LotR is without flaws - the marginalization of female characters, for example, the occasionally clunky prose. But for all that it has Eowyn and Faramir and their quest for love, Legolas and Gimli and the forging of true friendship, and Sam and Frodo - the faithful servant and his beloved master (and put those dirty thoughts away). It has Aragorn striving to win against the darkness not for his kingdom, nor for the rightness of his cause, but for the man he wants to be for the elf-chick he loves. It has Gandalf's stand against the Balrog in the mines of Moria and it has Gollum at Mount Doom.
It has the passing of an age, and it has dictated every passing age since it's inception - from Riddle-Master to Babylon 5.
And it has the Scouring of the Shire and the passing of the ring-bearers. Which, no matter how anti-climactic it may seem, is probably the most important part of the book. It reminds us that darkness can reach everywhere, and that some wounds can't be healed. That for some, there is no happily ever after in Bag End, with laughter and light. It is timeless and universal.
11. Loreena McKennitt - Other people spent their angsty teenage years listening to Nine Inch Nails, and I did too. But the memories I have of high school inevitably end in driving home with Loreena McKennitt in my CD player and my girl friends singing along with Book of Secrets or The Visit. She's got a haunting, melodic voice that draws you in and enchants. And the influence ranges the world over - from Celtic myths and Tennyson to the Trans-Siberian railroad and Morocco. She might very well be the musical equivalent of my reading obsession.
queenofthorns assigned me the letter "L" for the 10-things-you-love meme. It took me quite a long time to come up with 10 things, and by the time I did, I had 11. Whoops. Here it is (in alphabetical order):1. Languages - I think this one stems from my love of reading. Some of the earliest books I remember reading were translations, and it was always ingrained in me, even before we left the USSR, that I would need to know more than one language. They sound nice, each one with its own rhythm and style. Family and individuality. Communcation and my love of talking and writing also contribute, but there is, I think, an underlying unease about not knowing a language and not understanding what's said. It probably stems from immigrating - not understanding German, or Italian, and especially not English (and 2-5th graders are mean little bastards when you can't understand what they say). I don't ever want to be that helpless again.
2. Lannister, Jaime - Unlike the lovely QoT, I didn't need to wait until The Dungeon Scene to fall in love with Jaime. I'm a sucker for a guy loyal and genuinely interested in the welfare of his freak of a brother. I loved Jaime from A Game of Thrones, both for his arrogance and his loyalty, and most especially his temper. I felt horrible that he ordered Jory dead, don't get me wrong, but I appreciated just how much it frustrated him that he couldn't get Tyrion back, and that he couldn't keep his little brother safe at that moment. That Tyrion was, as far as Jaime knew, helpless in the grip of Ned Stark's wife (and my strong dislike of Catelyn certainly didn't hurt his case here) frustrated the hell out of him, and it's a credit to Martin's writing that he made the character, who was last seen tossing a kid out a window, sympathetic even through Ned Stark's black-and-white eyes. At least to me.
Hubris is probably his tragic flaw, or was, because I'm not sure that's what's going to get him in the end. If anything, it might be his loyalty, or his long-unused chivalry. It's the loyalty to the father who can't accept Jaime as anything other than his golden heir, the loyalty to his lying, cheating whore of a sister (which, thankfully, is waning), the loyalty to his brother, who has betrayed it and earned a title lower than even Kingslayer, and to his son who sits on a throne that isn't his. Jaime is tragic because, just like Ned Stark, he does what he thinks is right to protect the ones he loves. Unlike Ned, though, Jaime's morality is *ahem* slightly skewed, and his black-and-white blinders torn off by Aerys and his pyromancers.
I'm a sucker for anti-heroes. What can I say?
3. Lannister, Tyrion - Speaking of anti-heroes, here's the major one of the series. In some ways, it's rather obvious Tyrion is Martin's favorite character - the most witty, clever, and yet beaten down character in the series. Jon had his father's love and respect, along with Robb's, and Bran's, and Arya's, not to mention the majority of the Night's Watch. Daenerys had, however briefly, Drogo, and now has her dragons. What does Tyrion have? Well, two barely remembered weeks of happiness in the lifetime of misery. He gets stories of how his sweet sister twisted his penis when he was a baby, and accused of the murder of his nephew just because said sister had herself a teenage adventure in the tent of a maegi and can't think straight to remember that she has 2 little brothers. He gets shat on by his father (pun intended), and the disgust of the realm which he works his damnest to save and the family he does his utmost to serve.
And through his bitterness and lowest points he never loses his humor and his wits. He has a tragic flaw, of course, what is a hero without one? But he is still, despite murdering his father, one of the most worthy and honorable characters in the series.
4. Lavender - It's clean, soothing, and helps my migraines. I love the scent, as it can put me to sleep or revive my ability to think. Just breathing in lavender relaxes me, and it reminds me of undergrad evenings in my room, getting back massages from one of my housemates that allowed me to function during CS project all-nighters. It's odd that I miss that, but I do. There was a great deal of social that no longer happens now that I no longer live in a house with 5 people.
5. Left Hand of Darkness, The - It's the only Le Guin I've managed to read thus far (I have The Lathe of Heaven on my to-read queue, and I realise there are a lot of L's in this entry alone), so I couldn't in good conscience put her on the list. But really, this book rocks like a rocking thing. Because it's speculative fiction that focuses on characters and how two people can change a world. Because it's an incredible study of love and loyalty (and man I'm just fond of that word, aren't I?) and grief and the lengths one man may go to bring his world to the stars.
It's brilliant, and inspiring. I must admit that it took me a while to get into. I was intrigued by Estraven from the get-go, and more than a little annoyed with Ai for not listening to what he was saying. But when they get out on the ice and the rest of the world and the external pressures fade and it's them against the winter, it's just bloody gorgeous prose. And I just about bawled for both Estraven and Ai when Estraven is killed, and must have reread the last passage, where Ai meets Estraven's son, a dozen times or more. It's so evocative in its simplicity.
6. Legends - Any kind, really. From folklore of Koschei the Undying and Ivan the Simple (and Baba Yaga, naturally) to the Celtic cycles, to Greek, Roman, Sumerian, Norse, Japanese, Hindu, Egyptian, and I'm sure I've forgotten a few pantheons. I grew up with my dad telling me the latter and my mom telling me the former. I think it's the concise storytelling and what it says about human nature that really appeals. Kind of like balladry (which can be a subset, too) - storytelling skeleton where only the essentials remain over time.
7. Lilacs - Lilac is the first scent I remember clearly, even from Kiev. They were my late grandfather's favorite flower, and while I still lived in Ohio, every spring we'd cut a branch or two and put it at his gravesite. But even before he passed away, it wasn't spring until I smelled lilacs blooming. Then May seemed that much brighter and the sun more refreshing. My mom also loves lilacs - I can count on a vase of them if I go visit this month. They remind her of Kiev, blooming with tulips, poppies, and lilacs, and buckeye trees in the springtime. I know I shouldn't remember it, but I do recall wide boulevards of tall, shady, blooming trees.
8. Literature - Do I really need to explain this one, given the blather on books and characters above? Yes? Oh, well.
I love reading, I love books. One of my earliest memories is of my sister watching me read and counting the words per minute I could manage (and my comprehension) to see how I was improving. She taught me a mnemonic for remembering the colors of the rainbow (which is why I recall that moment, probably). My family sent 1000 books from Kiev ahead of us to the US because we couldn't bear to part with them. When there was nothing else to read, I read the New Testament while bored in Rome (that was also my introduction to comics...yeah).
My dad is probably most responsible for this love - even when I went through a TV-or-bust phase he made sure I kept reading. He's also responsible for my ability to tune the world out when I read, too.
I'm forever attempting to read all I can get my hands on - anything and everything in different languages, from different period and cultures. It fascinates me how Homer differs from Pushkin, and how Austen as a product of her era and society differs from Wilde or Dostoeyvsky. To read Dumas and Batman and see the similarities and differences, and know that some things never change, no matter how you color in the wide strokes. How fallen angels are treated by Marlowe and Gaiman, how Hell changes from Judaic writing to Dante.
Literature to me is forever a new experience, a new perspective. It teaches me about culture and poliltics and people, but also about myself.
9. Logan Echolls - See above about anti-heroes. Logan is, in some ways, the Jaime Lannister of Veronica Mars. It's amazing that I didn't draw that parallel earlier, really. And I think that's why I still enjoy watching him, despite my general decline in interest in Veronica herself. Logan still has motivations, and pain, raw energy. He's still has that prickly skin that hides the damaged human being beneath, and it's the marshmallow we're missing from Veronica this season.
10. Lord of the Rings Trilogy, The - Hoo-boy. I think this series probably woke me up from a long slumber in which I thought sci-fi/fantasy was something that happened on TV. I read this one before Narnia (but after Verne - my dad did love the classics), before anything in English, really, that wasn't dictated by my English classes and not on the spare library shelves. (Years later, I learned that I'd read Jane Yolen before Tolkien, but I didn't find out about that until after I finished Briar Rose.)
It wasn't a teen coming-of-age story. It wasn't some manner of work that was meant to be dissected unto each metaphor or simile. It was, and is, a combination of everything I love about literature - imagination, language, character and legendry in the making. It inspires by being every story - the buddy journey, the dark quest of the lone hero, the lost king returning to glory and bringing a golden age. It is the story of the fall of families and the heroic nature of ordinary, simple folk in extraordinary circumstances.
I'm not saying that LotR is without flaws - the marginalization of female characters, for example, the occasionally clunky prose. But for all that it has Eowyn and Faramir and their quest for love, Legolas and Gimli and the forging of true friendship, and Sam and Frodo - the faithful servant and his beloved master (and put those dirty thoughts away). It has Aragorn striving to win against the darkness not for his kingdom, nor for the rightness of his cause, but for the man he wants to be for the elf-chick he loves. It has Gandalf's stand against the Balrog in the mines of Moria and it has Gollum at Mount Doom.
It has the passing of an age, and it has dictated every passing age since it's inception - from Riddle-Master to Babylon 5.
And it has the Scouring of the Shire and the passing of the ring-bearers. Which, no matter how anti-climactic it may seem, is probably the most important part of the book. It reminds us that darkness can reach everywhere, and that some wounds can't be healed. That for some, there is no happily ever after in Bag End, with laughter and light. It is timeless and universal.
11. Loreena McKennitt - Other people spent their angsty teenage years listening to Nine Inch Nails, and I did too. But the memories I have of high school inevitably end in driving home with Loreena McKennitt in my CD player and my girl friends singing along with Book of Secrets or The Visit. She's got a haunting, melodic voice that draws you in and enchants. And the influence ranges the world over - from Celtic myths and Tennyson to the Trans-Siberian railroad and Morocco. She might very well be the musical equivalent of my reading obsession.
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