So, I realize this is a little late, but I really wanted to be able to get through the whole book (which I finally finished during class last Wednesday) and be able to let it sit in my mind for a while before spitting out any half-formed opinions I may have had. So, apart from the extreme length of the book and the ten thousand characters that I attempted to keep track of before I finally realized that they were not to be mentioned again anywhere, I really liked the book. It wasn't so overflowing with weird fantasy stuff that it made me roll my eyes. I was actually able to get into it and take it seriously. I also really liked the history aspect of it. It kind of reminded me of Harry Potter, sort of a parallel to all the books in the Hogwarts library that tell of magical history and theory. The footnotes were of particular interest to me, and I'm excited to be able to discuss them. I can see where people are coming from when they say that they might have been written by a woman, but I'm a bit more inclined to take on the view that they were written by somebody like Mr. Segundus; somebody close to the story, but not directly in the meat of it, like Norrell or Strange.
I'm sure I'll have more ideas as the discussions roll along, but for now, that's all I got.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
1 comment:
Erica's right to remind us that history is a vital theme in this novel, one we've barely touched on thus far. If nothing else, the footnotes seek to place the narrative in a historical context, and the narrative itself is rife with historical figures, Wellington and King George being only the most prominent of them. If this novel can be read as an alternate history -- as Clarke seems to read it -- then from what 21st-century vantage point is that history being written? How is 21st-century England in the JS&MN timeline different from our 21st-century England?
Post a Comment