Reading and small RL rant in Welsh
Nov. 5th, 2023 08:46 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
greenwoodsideKidnapped
Almost certainly as a result of followingmuccamukk's blog, I picked up RLS's Kidnapped and had a great time reading it – because of the characters, the adventure, and also because of googling things like drammach (oatmeal mixed with cold water: what to eat if you're on the run from redcoats and can't make a fire) to see if anyone had tried to make it and eat it in these latter days. They had.
I have a feeling there's a lot of clever stuff that could be said about how it works on more levels than 'merely' as an adventure story, but my brain really isn't up to it at the moment. Random strings:
Alan Breck as an imperialistic creation – the romance of the Celt, and why you can't leave them to govern themselves.
The sheer expansiveness of emotion and dress allowed to male characters. Sheesh. It's a long time since my days of faithfully reading the nineteenth century classics. I'd forgotten that men were allowed to cry in 19th century literature. But RLS may have been taking a kind of voyeur's pleasure in Alan's clothing: the blue coat, red waistcoat and lace; Victorian male dress looks pretty flamboyant in its effortfulness by today's standards, but a huge amount had changed between our author sitting down in Bournemouth to write about Scotland and the first years after the forty-five.
With enough coffee, chilli sauce and free time, I'd go on a mad RLS binge to catch up on all the stuff I've missed or only experienced through other media. I very much want to revisit The Master of Ballantrae. In my head, it's one-third brilliant, two-thirds batshit crazy.
Prophet
Other than that, I tried Prophet by Helen Macdonald and Sin Blaché and bounced off it – well, quite fast – but tried to stay with it for the first few chapters. First, I think the genres it was keying into weren't 'my' genres, and the use of lots of snappy dialogue without much emotional description/reactive clues isn't my favourite style – second, it's November and I'm shit at trying new things. A lot of the time I just want to sit in an armchair with a blanket, drink soup and whimper.
Spider Man: Across the Spider Verse
Watched Spider Man: Across the Spider Verse and loved the style of it and the fun the artists/writers were clearly having with all the different references they could bring in, but don't have much to say beyond that. Thought Miles's mother was a bit too perfect.
Beauty
Also read Beauty by Robin McKinley for escapist comfort, which it delivered, though, especially in terms of gender politics, I do prefer T Kingfisher's Bryony and Roses. The whole:
Beauty: I'm short and ugly and you can't possibly love me
Beast/Prince: Nonsense! You're beautiful.
Beauty: Well, thanks, that's sweet, but–
Beast/Prince: No, look in a mirror. See, you've now become magically (but also permanently) more beautiful. So don't worry about being a squat peasant with bad hair!
...doesn't really do it for me. Almost as little as the eighteenth century original, a work very much of its time, which includes the revelation that Beauty is of noble blood and thus a good match (and possibly the Beast's cousin because marrying a blue-blooded cousin is so much better than marrying a wealthy prole).
Still, the slow pace and the detail in McKinley's writing did absolutely suck me in, and I was as excited as a child at Christmas when it came to the bit where the saddlebags were revealed to be full of lots of gorgeous, expensive stuff. Sparkly!
RL Welsh
Cynhalodd tenant yn yr ystafell uchod barti neithiwr a barhaodd tan 4am. Aaargh. Heb gerddoriaeth, dim ond siarad yn uchel a symud o gwmpas gyda llawer o sŵn. Beth bynnag...aaaargh. Byddaf i'n cymryd wythnos yn dechrau'r 13eg o Dachwedd i ffwrdd o'r gwaith. Angen gorffwys. Hefyd angen amser i ysgrifennu cais am swyddd newydd yn lle arall. 'Daw eto haul ar fryn'– yn nghes fi, bydda i'n prynu lle mewn ardal dawel heb unrhyw un yn cwrdd â'i ffrindiau uwch fy mhen yn oriau mân y bore.
Almost certainly as a result of following
muccamukk's blog, I picked up RLS's Kidnapped and had a great time reading it – because of the characters, the adventure, and also because of googling things like drammach (oatmeal mixed with cold water: what to eat if you're on the run from redcoats and can't make a fire) to see if anyone had tried to make it and eat it in these latter days. They had. I have a feeling there's a lot of clever stuff that could be said about how it works on more levels than 'merely' as an adventure story, but my brain really isn't up to it at the moment. Random strings:
Alan Breck as an imperialistic creation – the romance of the Celt, and why you can't leave them to govern themselves.
The sheer expansiveness of emotion and dress allowed to male characters. Sheesh. It's a long time since my days of faithfully reading the nineteenth century classics. I'd forgotten that men were allowed to cry in 19th century literature. But RLS may have been taking a kind of voyeur's pleasure in Alan's clothing: the blue coat, red waistcoat and lace; Victorian male dress looks pretty flamboyant in its effortfulness by today's standards, but a huge amount had changed between our author sitting down in Bournemouth to write about Scotland and the first years after the forty-five.
Keep your breath to cool your porridgeis an idiom I'd love to find an excuse to use. Possibly at work, though it would almost certainly get me added to a blacklist somewhere if I'm not on one already.
With enough coffee, chilli sauce and free time, I'd go on a mad RLS binge to catch up on all the stuff I've missed or only experienced through other media. I very much want to revisit The Master of Ballantrae. In my head, it's one-third brilliant, two-thirds batshit crazy.
Prophet
Other than that, I tried Prophet by Helen Macdonald and Sin Blaché and bounced off it – well, quite fast – but tried to stay with it for the first few chapters. First, I think the genres it was keying into weren't 'my' genres, and the use of lots of snappy dialogue without much emotional description/reactive clues isn't my favourite style – second, it's November and I'm shit at trying new things. A lot of the time I just want to sit in an armchair with a blanket, drink soup and whimper.
Spider Man: Across the Spider Verse
Watched Spider Man: Across the Spider Verse and loved the style of it and the fun the artists/writers were clearly having with all the different references they could bring in, but don't have much to say beyond that. Thought Miles's mother was a bit too perfect.
Beauty
Also read Beauty by Robin McKinley for escapist comfort, which it delivered, though, especially in terms of gender politics, I do prefer T Kingfisher's Bryony and Roses. The whole:
Beauty: I'm short and ugly and you can't possibly love me
Beast/Prince: Nonsense! You're beautiful.
Beauty: Well, thanks, that's sweet, but–
Beast/Prince: No, look in a mirror. See, you've now become magically (but also permanently) more beautiful. So don't worry about being a squat peasant with bad hair!
...doesn't really do it for me. Almost as little as the eighteenth century original, a work very much of its time, which includes the revelation that Beauty is of noble blood and thus a good match (and possibly the Beast's cousin because marrying a blue-blooded cousin is so much better than marrying a wealthy prole).
Still, the slow pace and the detail in McKinley's writing did absolutely suck me in, and I was as excited as a child at Christmas when it came to the bit where the saddlebags were revealed to be full of lots of gorgeous, expensive stuff. Sparkly!
RL Welsh
Cynhalodd tenant yn yr ystafell uchod barti neithiwr a barhaodd tan 4am. Aaargh. Heb gerddoriaeth, dim ond siarad yn uchel a symud o gwmpas gyda llawer o sŵn. Beth bynnag...aaaargh. Byddaf i'n cymryd wythnos yn dechrau'r 13eg o Dachwedd i ffwrdd o'r gwaith. Angen gorffwys. Hefyd angen amser i ysgrifennu cais am swyddd newydd yn lle arall. 'Daw eto haul ar fryn'– yn nghes fi, bydda i'n prynu lle mewn ardal dawel heb unrhyw un yn cwrdd â'i ffrindiau uwch fy mhen yn oriau mân y bore.
no subject
Date: 2023-11-05 09:06 pm (UTC)If you're taking more RLS suggestions, and speaking of OTPs, I recommend "New Arabian Nights"!
it's November and I'm shit at trying new things. A lot of the time I just want to sit in an armchair with a blanket, drink soup and whimper.
This is me all the time, to be honest! XD
Also, I can'tread Welsh, but RL rants (and "aaargh") are pretty much universal, so *hugs and support*
ETA: I approve of your music! <3
no subject
Date: 2023-11-07 06:01 am (UTC)Definitely the kind of phrase you hear lawyers betting each other to slip into their speeches.
If you're taking more RLS suggestions, and speaking of OTPs, I recommend "New Arabian Nights"!
Thanks, always happy to take recs. : )
Also, I can't read Welsh, but RL rants (and "aaargh") are pretty much universal, so *hugs and support*
Thank you; really appreciated. A saying that's a bit of a cliché in Welsh to the extent you can buy it on t-shirts and slate coasters is 'daw eto haul ar fryn' -- there'll be sunshine again on the hill i.e. things will improve.
ETA: I approve of your music! <3
You are one of the few people in the world that does! 😂 Merci.
no subject
Date: 2024-03-20 01:41 pm (UTC)https://www.loveandlemons.com/overnight-oats-recipe/
no subject
Date: 2024-03-23 09:14 pm (UTC)Drammach today leads to more drammach tomorrow and possibly eventually to whisky to dull the pain.