Lazy Lazy Days
Aug. 13th, 2006 10:53 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
hrjWell, what have I done with my free weekend. Month's accounts? Check. Research and answer e-mail questions? Check. Sleep in? Check. Catch up with week's housecleaning? Well, three outa four ain't bad. I did a really good job on the "sleep in" one, although it wasn't as useful as it would have been if I hadn't added "stay up late".
Café review: I've been meaning to check out Rudy's Can't Fail Café for quite some time. It's on the corner opposite the gorgeous old Emeryville town hall, kitty-corner from Pixar and a block over from my favorite bakery, so I've had many chances to contemplate it but was always a bit daunted by the number of people hanging around waiting to be seated. As it turns out, there's a lot more seating inside than it looks like there would be from outside, so the wait isn't that long -- especially for a single person willing to sit at the counter. Next time I'll wait for a table outside, though, since the music inside is a bit loud and the shrieking children echo a bit much. The café seems to be a favorite with the stroller-pushing crowd. The menu is exactly what I look for in a weekend brunch place: a nice variety of egg based dishes, including several items in the eggs benedict family, interesting omelets, and an insert with specials, implying some regular variation in the menu. I picked a Mediterranean omelet (onions, sun-dried tomatoes, goat cheese, spinach) with the usual accompaniment of oj and mocha. The mocha was too sweet and syrupy -- I suppose some people like it on that end, but I'm more fond of the Starbucks end of the scale for mocha balance. The omelet seems to default to whites only -- I hadn't asked for it specifically and hadn't noticed any mention about it on the menu. Not a problem, but a bit odd. And the omelet filling was simply stuck inside the cooked egg, rather than being incorporated in any way. This meant that trying to get a bite of egg and filling was quite an exercise. The entrée was filled out with fresh hashbrowns and toast. It didn't look like all that much food, but I ended up feeling uncomfortably full even though I lingered over the meal with a newspaper. Conclusion: I'll give it a second try -- probably with one of the eggs benedict variants -- and hope for a different experience.
Book review: One of my deep dark secrets is that I have something of a fixation on Jane Austen's "Pride and Prejudice". Not sure why (other than it being a well-written classic) -- it's one of those stories that is the literary equivalent of mac-and-cheese for me. It's comfort food that I can go back to almost any time and enjoy as much as the first time. (Burnett's "A Little Princess" is another book in the same category -- that should shock some people.) Lately, as Austen has been enjoying a new fashionability, there have been a number of novels reviving her characters or, in one case, Austen herself. I've been enjoying Stephanie Barron's Jane Austen mystery series, although I don't know enough about the author's life and character to know whether historical damage is being done. I'm a bit more undecided about Carrie Bebris's Mr & Mrs Darcy mystery series, mostly because I find the supernatural elements out of place -- as if two entirely different mystery series had been grafted together arbitrarily.
I imagine that a woman reading P&P -- or watching any of the various film versions of it -- is intended to identify primarily with Elizabeth. She's a surprisingly modern-thinking woman, which makes her more accessible than some other protagonists of the day. And the plot is pretty much the quintessential 'Regency romance' story with the spunky but socially disadvantaged heroine first disdaining then captivating the wealthy, handsome, and independent hero who -- while he must overcome various social obstacles -- is in the happy position of not really having to please anyone but himself. Now me -- I end up identifying primarily with Darcy, for a variety of reasons which needn't concern us here. So when I spotted Janet Aylmer's novel "Darcy's Story", intended as a retelling of P&P from his point of view, there wasn't much question of buying it or not. Alas, the book fails to hold to its promise. Or rather, it fulfills exactly that promise and nothing more. The book reads like the first draft working notes for a novel telling Darcy's side of the story. All the scenes that intersect with the original novel have been carefully laid out (complete with word-for-word matches of dialogue), and the author has meticulously worked out what Darcy's movements must or could have been in his "off stage" time in the original novel. The events and interactions are set out in clear and competent prose. But there's no there there.
The book feels like an academic exercise in point of view, but the author neither adds much in the way of original insights, scenes, or character development, nor manages to capture Austen's descriptive style in a way that could make the new angle as rich as the original work. I was never caught up and sucked in. And more damningly, I came out of the end of the book feeling that it was little more than a work of moral plagiarism (if not technical -- due to the age of the original). If you're going to re-write an existing classic with a new twist, you should leave the reader feeling that they would also have enjoyed reading something of yours that was entirely original -- otherwise you're just writing hack fan-fic. (Note that this is not intended to imply that all fan-fic is hackwork. Barbara Hambly's "Ishmael" is an excellent example of what a talented writer can do with fan-fic.) And in the end, Aylmer hasn't demonstrated to me that she has an interesting book's worth of talent.
Café review: I've been meaning to check out Rudy's Can't Fail Café for quite some time. It's on the corner opposite the gorgeous old Emeryville town hall, kitty-corner from Pixar and a block over from my favorite bakery, so I've had many chances to contemplate it but was always a bit daunted by the number of people hanging around waiting to be seated. As it turns out, there's a lot more seating inside than it looks like there would be from outside, so the wait isn't that long -- especially for a single person willing to sit at the counter. Next time I'll wait for a table outside, though, since the music inside is a bit loud and the shrieking children echo a bit much. The café seems to be a favorite with the stroller-pushing crowd. The menu is exactly what I look for in a weekend brunch place: a nice variety of egg based dishes, including several items in the eggs benedict family, interesting omelets, and an insert with specials, implying some regular variation in the menu. I picked a Mediterranean omelet (onions, sun-dried tomatoes, goat cheese, spinach) with the usual accompaniment of oj and mocha. The mocha was too sweet and syrupy -- I suppose some people like it on that end, but I'm more fond of the Starbucks end of the scale for mocha balance. The omelet seems to default to whites only -- I hadn't asked for it specifically and hadn't noticed any mention about it on the menu. Not a problem, but a bit odd. And the omelet filling was simply stuck inside the cooked egg, rather than being incorporated in any way. This meant that trying to get a bite of egg and filling was quite an exercise. The entrée was filled out with fresh hashbrowns and toast. It didn't look like all that much food, but I ended up feeling uncomfortably full even though I lingered over the meal with a newspaper. Conclusion: I'll give it a second try -- probably with one of the eggs benedict variants -- and hope for a different experience.
Book review: One of my deep dark secrets is that I have something of a fixation on Jane Austen's "Pride and Prejudice". Not sure why (other than it being a well-written classic) -- it's one of those stories that is the literary equivalent of mac-and-cheese for me. It's comfort food that I can go back to almost any time and enjoy as much as the first time. (Burnett's "A Little Princess" is another book in the same category -- that should shock some people.) Lately, as Austen has been enjoying a new fashionability, there have been a number of novels reviving her characters or, in one case, Austen herself. I've been enjoying Stephanie Barron's Jane Austen mystery series, although I don't know enough about the author's life and character to know whether historical damage is being done. I'm a bit more undecided about Carrie Bebris's Mr & Mrs Darcy mystery series, mostly because I find the supernatural elements out of place -- as if two entirely different mystery series had been grafted together arbitrarily.
I imagine that a woman reading P&P -- or watching any of the various film versions of it -- is intended to identify primarily with Elizabeth. She's a surprisingly modern-thinking woman, which makes her more accessible than some other protagonists of the day. And the plot is pretty much the quintessential 'Regency romance' story with the spunky but socially disadvantaged heroine first disdaining then captivating the wealthy, handsome, and independent hero who -- while he must overcome various social obstacles -- is in the happy position of not really having to please anyone but himself. Now me -- I end up identifying primarily with Darcy, for a variety of reasons which needn't concern us here. So when I spotted Janet Aylmer's novel "Darcy's Story", intended as a retelling of P&P from his point of view, there wasn't much question of buying it or not. Alas, the book fails to hold to its promise. Or rather, it fulfills exactly that promise and nothing more. The book reads like the first draft working notes for a novel telling Darcy's side of the story. All the scenes that intersect with the original novel have been carefully laid out (complete with word-for-word matches of dialogue), and the author has meticulously worked out what Darcy's movements must or could have been in his "off stage" time in the original novel. The events and interactions are set out in clear and competent prose. But there's no there there.
The book feels like an academic exercise in point of view, but the author neither adds much in the way of original insights, scenes, or character development, nor manages to capture Austen's descriptive style in a way that could make the new angle as rich as the original work. I was never caught up and sucked in. And more damningly, I came out of the end of the book feeling that it was little more than a work of moral plagiarism (if not technical -- due to the age of the original). If you're going to re-write an existing classic with a new twist, you should leave the reader feeling that they would also have enjoyed reading something of yours that was entirely original -- otherwise you're just writing hack fan-fic. (Note that this is not intended to imply that all fan-fic is hackwork. Barbara Hambly's "Ishmael" is an excellent example of what a talented writer can do with fan-fic.) And in the end, Aylmer hasn't demonstrated to me that she has an interesting book's worth of talent.
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no subject
Date: 2006-08-14 06:39 am (UTC)The Darcy book was, IMO, just plain silly - although I'm sure it was a fun (and as it turns out, lucrative) literary exercise. I think you are dead-on about that...
no subject
Date: 2006-08-14 02:50 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-08-14 05:04 pm (UTC)Mind you, I'd read Barbara Hambly's Shopping List - she's one of the finest writers I know and I am full of admiration for her.
Pride and Prejudice is one of my all-time favorite books, too. I can't quite say why - it's romantic, but it's also funny, and moving along nicely, and full of unexpectedness,
I've only recently realised that Romance readers are supposed to identify with the heroine. I don't read like that. I read in over-the-shoulder mode, which is a mode I dream in, too - and I want to _meet_ characters, not _be_ them.
no subject
Date: 2006-08-15 02:15 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-08-15 02:24 am (UTC)Once upon a time (as I recall the story -- which I heard the particulars of third or fourth hand), Barbara Hambly's agent asked if she had any ideas for a Star Trek novel (since the relevant publisher was looking for established authors willing to churn them out), and on a lark she handed said agent a fan-fic Star Trek/Here Come the Brides time-traveling cross-over story she'd written for fun. (The cross-over was inspired to some extent by certain shared actors in the two series.) Next thing she heard it was on the publishing schedule. Nobody else in the publishing process had recognized the HCTB setting and characters and it hadn't occurred to her to have to point it out. Much angst over rights violations; apologies all round; and the novel never got a second printing. A very delightful story -- especially if you're familiar with and fond of both tv shows -- and an example of what good fan-fic can look like.
no subject
Date: 2006-08-16 04:15 pm (UTC)How you get so rude and reckless
Don't you be so crude and feckless
You've been drinking brew for breakfast
Rudie Can't Fail
I know that my life makes you nervous
But I tell you I can't live in service
Like a doctor born for a purpose
Rudie Can't fail
Break: (changes to a slow bluesy rhythm)
I went to the market to realize my soul
What I need I just don't have
First they cursed then they press me till I hurt(they say)
Rudy Can't fail
Then it gets odder. Really a great piece of music, though, from arguably one of the greatest rock albums of all time. The Clash used to be called "The Only Band That Mattered."
no subject
Date: 2006-08-17 11:53 pm (UTC)As for the omelet - it specifies on the menu that it is made of egg whites, which is one reason i've never order it.
There were other things i liked better when they had their old chef, but i guess he took the recipes with him. I really like the tables in the front room with the embedded stuff in them.