Musings of the Obsessive Kind

No one writes quite like Tanith Lee. I've finished her brilliant "Gods are Thirsty" about a French revolutionary Camille Desmoulins, and as always I am struck by her dreamlike, intense writing style.

Behind the cut is one of my favorite parts of the book. It's a whole part of a chapter so it's behind the cut for length. Nontheless, it's really worth reading. This is near the end, when Camille is in prison, knows he will be condemned and has just found out that his wife has been arrested as well.

( One more doll for the guillotine. It isn't real, it's only play. After the blade comes down, we get up, entirely in one piece, and walk off. )

In the latest Veronica Mars fic round-up, I have three fics to recommend: Shuffle (Greatest Hits of 1966), an excellent and unusual post 2.22 story (if you are interested in ships, it's L/V), and The thing about Logan, a wondeful L/V fic that makes me so happy. There is also Bad Boys Break Fast, which is a delightful take on Logan cooking breakfast in 2.22.

Oh, and this morning? Chosen short shot of angst to get me going for the day? An ep from Season 1 of One Tree Hill, the horrid cheesefest that I can't help but be addicted to. CMM annoys the heck out of me, and I think Peyton and Brooke should be tied together and thrown off a boat, but I love me some Nathan/Haley (see Previous picspam and post on them). The show itself might be an evening version of daytime soap (OTH does not even try to transcend the teen genre or stand out the way Buffy or VM or Roswell), but the Nathan/Haley thing is what keeps me watching: they do have genuine chemistry and are awfully sweet together (I haven't seen most of S2, apparently the ship gets really messed with. Netflix is to the rescue, so we shall see). It starts out as a general cliche of a jerky rich jock and a grounded Miss Study but becomes a lot more fun (though no less cliche) as Nathan recieves enough angst for a small elephant and the whole thing is adorable. So I watched the bit where he comes into her roof after almost keeling over and tells her how much she means to him blah blah. Cheese, I love you.

I am reading Tanith Lee's The Gods are Thirsty, a novel about Camille Desmoulins and it's excellent. It has this unique, poetic writing style I love. She switches narrative persons with each chapter yet somehow it works. This has nothing in common with The Silver Metal Lover, the other book of hers I read except for the style. I think I am going to read much much more of her, now. aliterati, not much on Robespierre so far (Camille does mention something about following him to Hell. I think he means moral Hell as otherwise his chornology doesn't work), but you'd love the bit where he mentioned that Robespierre loved roses, and so Saint-Just used to bring them to him by the armful, "like a young bride."

Because it should be recced, mimesh, did a humongous Hayden Christensen picspam. Go here.

And I've finished Creezy. It's not bad but it's flawed. ( Creezy thoughts )

Next movie on the list to watch is Musa: The Warrior, a Korean period action film. I am not sure what it's about but it looks beautiful and stars Zhang Ziyi.

( A multitude of Musa pics )

And more Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna stills came out ( KANK goodness behind cut )

ETA: More KANK pics ( KANK yourself out )

In the latest Veronica Mars fic round-up, I have three fics to recommend: Shuffle (Greatest Hits of 1966), an excellent and unusual post 2.22 story (if you are interested in ships, it's L/V), and The thing about Logan, a wondeful L/V fic that makes me so happy. There is also Bad Boys Break Fast, which is a delightful take on Logan cooking breakfast in 2.22.

Oh, and this morning? Chosen short shot of angst to get me going for the day? An ep from Season 1 of One Tree Hill, the horrid cheesefest that I can't help but be addicted to. CMM annoys the heck out of me, and I think Peyton and Brooke should be tied together and thrown off a boat, but I love me some Nathan/Haley (see Previous picspam and post on them). The show itself might be an evening version of daytime soap (OTH does not even try to transcend the teen genre or stand out the way Buffy or VM or Roswell), but the Nathan/Haley thing is what keeps me watching: they do have genuine chemistry and are awfully sweet together (I haven't seen most of S2, apparently the ship gets really messed with. Netflix is to the rescue, so we shall see). It starts out as a general cliche of a jerky rich jock and a grounded Miss Study but becomes a lot more fun (though no less cliche) as Nathan recieves enough angst for a small elephant and the whole thing is adorable. So I watched the bit where he comes into her roof after almost keeling over and tells her how much she means to him blah blah. Cheese, I love you.

I am reading Tanith Lee's The Gods are Thirsty, a novel about Camille Desmoulins and it's excellent. It has this unique, poetic writing style I love. She switches narrative persons with each chapter yet somehow it works. This has nothing in common with The Silver Metal Lover, the other book of hers I read except for the style. I think I am going to read much much more of her, now. aliterati, not much on Robespierre so far (Camille does mention something about following him to Hell. I think he means moral Hell as otherwise his chornology doesn't work), but you'd love the bit where he mentioned that Robespierre loved roses, and so Saint-Just used to bring them to him by the armful, "like a young bride."

Because it should be recced, mimesh, did a humongous Hayden Christensen picspam. Go here.

And I've finished Creezy. It's not bad but it's flawed. ( Creezy thoughts )

Next movie on the list to watch is Musa: The Warrior, a Korean period action film. I am not sure what it's about but it looks beautiful and stars Zhang Ziyi.

( A multitude of Musa pics )

And more Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna stills came out ( KANK goodness behind cut )

ETA: More KANK pics ( KANK yourself out )

And here comes my latest in the series of posts of no interest to anyone except aliterati

Combining French Revolution and tackiness in staggering fashion, I present to you revolutionary figures with magnetic hair. Yes indeed. Have you always wondered what Robespierre would look like bald? or Danton with a handlebar mustache? Now you can find out, courtesy of Ebay.

Robespierre

Danton

Mirabeau

Saint-Just

Marat

Camille Desmoulins

Lucile Desmoulins

In case you are interested in what they really looked like, ( Portraits behind the cut )

And because I am on the French revolution kick, here is a portrait of Andre Chenier. Andre Chenier was a poet, executed during the Reign of Terror (here is an Encyclopedia Britannica article on him) I do love his widely quoted statement: "What is virtue? Reason put into practice. Talent? Reason expressed with brilliance. Soul? Reason delicately put forth. And genius is sublime reason."

Here are his poems in French. I don't read French well at all, so here are translations into Russian Charlotte Corday, Young Captive (it's the third poem on the list). Interestingly, both Pushkin and Tsvetayeva, very major Russian poets were very taken with Chenier, I think probably as an idea of the poet-revolutionary. They wrote poems about him, Pushkin's poem and Tsvetayava's poem are on line. They are, of course, in Russian. I am sure there are English translations of those as well as of Chenier's own poems, but I couldn't find those on-line. There has also been an opera about the guy.

( Andre Chenier portrait )

Just for crumpeteer Lavoisier ( Portrait )

( Oh heck, a lot of protraits of other French revolutionaries and not-so-revolutionaries )