ashnistrike (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
ashnistrike) wrote2006-11-17 06:32 am
ashnistrike) wrote2006-11-17 06:32 am
Entry tags:
Names of the Mind, Treasure Island
I'm posting from the Psychonomics hotel in Houston, because I can and because I don't have any 8 AM talks for once. The ability to sleep in is mitigated by the likely inability to eat lunch until 3:45 PM. I got in too late to catch the poster session tonight, but had dinner with the current students in my graduate lab. We went to a restaurant with an aquarium in the middle, and memory-geeked over seafood.
The next classics review would be Treasure Island. I don't have nearly as much to say about this as I did about Frankenstein. I enjoyed it--as a recent Evil Editor comment said, "you had me at 'pirate treasure.'" But...
I'd previously read and enjoyed one of Stevenson's adult shorts, "The Bottle Imp," which I had in an anthology. I'd appreciated it particularly due to the lack of idiot plot--the characters all acted in intelligent and reasonable ways even under weird and disturbing circumstances. Treasure Island mostly follows this pattern, except (big except) that the whole danger hinges on everyone behaving stupidly until they are safely stuck on a ship full of pirates, at which point they redevelop brains in order to get themselves out of the fix. Once the brains reappear, it reminds me of a Heinlein juvenile. I realize, of course, that this is backwards, and it's interesting to see where the tropes originally came from.
Also, one must be able to deal with the complete lack of girls.
Long John Silver, however, is a terrific villain. He keeps his wits about him and knows that evil doesn't need to be either stupid or ugly.
Next up ought to be Gilgamesh, but since I try to avoid taking library books on planes I've got my own copy of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn instead. So far my reactions are a battle between delighted laughter and severe queasiness. More on that after I finish the book. And after that, I'm not reading Gilgamesh, because I'm really going to need something with girls in.
The next classics review would be Treasure Island. I don't have nearly as much to say about this as I did about Frankenstein. I enjoyed it--as a recent Evil Editor comment said, "you had me at 'pirate treasure.'" But...
I'd previously read and enjoyed one of Stevenson's adult shorts, "The Bottle Imp," which I had in an anthology. I'd appreciated it particularly due to the lack of idiot plot--the characters all acted in intelligent and reasonable ways even under weird and disturbing circumstances. Treasure Island mostly follows this pattern, except (big except) that the whole danger hinges on everyone behaving stupidly until they are safely stuck on a ship full of pirates, at which point they redevelop brains in order to get themselves out of the fix. Once the brains reappear, it reminds me of a Heinlein juvenile. I realize, of course, that this is backwards, and it's interesting to see where the tropes originally came from.
Also, one must be able to deal with the complete lack of girls.
Long John Silver, however, is a terrific villain. He keeps his wits about him and knows that evil doesn't need to be either stupid or ugly.
Next up ought to be Gilgamesh, but since I try to avoid taking library books on planes I've got my own copy of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn instead. So far my reactions are a battle between delighted laughter and severe queasiness. More on that after I finish the book. And after that, I'm not reading Gilgamesh, because I'm really going to need something with girls in.
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Hey, I don't know if he's in attendance, but if you're feeling kindly disposed, look up Richard J. Harris (from Kansas State University, not to be confused with the Richard Harris from Arizona) and say "hello" for me. He was my mentor, and the person who took me to my first psychonomics conference in San Antonio (must have been way back in '84 or '85).
Sigh. I'm going to have to console myself that I'm heading off to Philcon in a few hours. Psychonomics... just awesome. Have a wonderful time!
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The cats are being strange, amazing pests - Lightfoot's whining, Sadira's alternating between running around like a lunatic, being really cuddly, and chewing on everything in sight. Oh, well.
See you Sunday.
-Nameseeker