“Given the stress that is laid on spelling by prescriptivists, and the existence of so many dictionaries which provide standard spellings for English words, it is perhaps surprising that there should be any variation in spelling within standard varieties. But there is. Some of this variation is variation between varieties. More often, though, there us [...]
Posts filed in Ambiguity
The Dragon Waiting, by John M. Ford
First published in 1983,
this edition (365 pages, Gollancz Fantasy Masterworks) in 2002.
Winner of the World Fantasy Award in 1984.
In Wales, the boy Hywel rescues a wizard, and travels to the City — Byzantium — with him to become his apprentice.
In Byzantine Burgundy, an old imperial family arrives as governors, and their eldest son — Dimitrius [...]
Dogma
Watched Kevin Smith’s Dogma again, for the thrid time or so, last weekend. I was hardly as enthusiastic as I was the first time I watched it, but that was three years ago, so I take this simply as a sign that I have matured somewhat. And also of me having watched it before, of [...]
Beowulf
Beowulf, the movie adaptation of the Old English poem, was a fun experience, especially as it was the first movie I’ve watched in 3D.
I only knew of the content of the poem from John Gardner’s Grendel, which is told from (surprise) the monster’s point of view, and that one pretty much ended with Grendel’s death, [...]
‘Tis been a good day, so far…
First, I took my NwN Dwarven monk through a couple of levels. Which is always fun, as they get so many feats and special abilities, it’s a treat to play them. Then, just as I had cleared level 7 and killed Head Gaoler Aelfinn, I was roused by my flatmates who desired my company for [...]
2007-11-28 — Quote of the Day
“In the second century C.E., Loukianos of Samosato wrote, ‘Everyone’s writing history now, and I don’t want to be left out of the furore.’ Loukianos, who was also known as Lucian the Scoffer, then produced a fantasy story called True History.”
— John M. Ford,
in the “Historical Note” to The Dragon Waiting.
Slaughterhouse-5, by Kurt Vonnegut
Slaugtherhouse-5, or the Children’s Crusade. A Duty-Dance with Death.
By Kurt Vonnegut.
156 pages, Torstein Bugge Høverstad’s Norwegian translation from 1970.
First published in English in 1969.
How to describe Slaughterhouse-5? Some other random site that had a review of it simply raved on about it being the brilliant ramblings of a madman on LSD, but I feel that [...]
München
München has also been neglected for a while.
It portrays both the murder of half a dozen Israeli athletes in München during the 1972 Olympics, and Mossad’s retribution afterwards. The emphasis is on the latter, and follows a team of agents who are given a list of 12 names, of prominent Fatah members they are to [...]
Angel: After the Fall
This one took me somewhat by surprise. I’d heard that it was scheduled for release on 29 November, and then, last Thursday, Loki exclaims at me that this was some seriously good stuff. I, naturally, become flabbergasted, run home from downtown Trondheim (I was shopping for Christmas and November-Me presents when I got his message), [...]
2007-11-09 — Quote of the Day
“The papacy pushed its universal claims and international organization to their highest point and defeated the rival universal claims of the Holy Roman Empire, only to be defeated, in its turn, by the regionally based monarchies.
“Here was the turning point of internationalism in the Middel Ages. The distinguished philosopher-historian Arnold Toynbee saw it as the [...]
Ninja Scroll
My Exalted GM is always complaining that I don’t get into the spirit of the game enough (a spirit which can be summed up as “there is no such thing as over the top!”, and yes, they use that exclamation mark), so I thought I’d check out one of the movies that are recommended in [...]
A Midsummer Night’s Dream
A Midsummer Night’s Dream seemed like a really boring play, at least when compared to the splendid Othello (Iago for teh win! ), so I decided to skip reading it, and just go to the showing of the 1999 movie that was arranged as part of this course I’m taking.
The movie didn’t exactly make [...]
X-Men: The Last Stand
I hadn’t watched this one since it was in theaters, so it was about bloody time I got around to it again. I guess I might have been postponing it for the last year or so because I wasn’t too impressed with the movie the first time I watched it. I thought they’d crammed too [...]
Ultimate X-Men, issues 66-74 and Annual #2
Marvel finally published the seventh Ultimate X-Men hardcover, collecting “Date Night”, “Phoenix”, Magical”, “Breaking Point” and the second annual, “Why Xavier’s Cat Is Named Mystique”. The four normal “issue-collections” — “Date Night”, “Phoenix”, Magical” and “Breaking Point” — dealt with pretty much the same storylines. the Professor’s dealings with the Shi’ar; Jean’s relationship with Cyclops [...]
Ullr, the onion of war!
From Wikipedia’s kenning article:
Bárum Ullr, of alla
ímunlauks, á hauka
fjöllum Fyrisvalla
fræ Hákonar ævi;
nú hefr fólkstríðir Fróða
fáglýjaðra þýja
meldr í móður holdi
mellu dolgs of folginn
Simply based on meaning, i.e. without kennings, the passage runs: “Accursed King Harald! We carried gold in our arms during all of Hakon’s life; now the enemy of the people has hidden gold in [...]
Gudenes Fall
Gudenes Fall, by Cornelius Jakhelln.
2007, 428 pages.
Now, this might be a little weird. Gudenes Fall (The Fall of the Gods) is a book that most likely never will be translated into English, and yet, I choose to review it in English. But hey, my English is still worse than my Norwegian.
In the year 1000 AD, [...]
Movies Galore: A Summary
It’s nearly two months since my last movie review — a review, I might add, where I was unreasonably hard on the reviewed movie, as the fact that I’m in a foul mood shouldn’t really count against it. Anyway, since then I’ve watched a lot of movies: excellent movies, great movies, good movies, mediocre movies, [...]
2007-07-31 — Quote of the Day (This one goes out to my man Loki! ;D)
Di findes, der fnyser af klæ’er å overfladisk pynt, der synes d’er spilt tid og anstrængelse, æd ville tæ’ sig gåd od for ændre. Enkelte hevder sogar, æd de æd forskønne sid ytre peger på betænkelie personlihedstræk som forfænglihed, hovmod, fælskhed. Di ved ige vor fejl di tæ’r; som om loslid eller smægløs bekledning sko’ [...]
Romeo + Juliet
For long periods of my life, I’ve nurtured a completely irrational dislike for the actor Leonardo di Caprio, a dislike probably rooted in my background as a male kid in the late 90s, when “Leo” was the dream boy of every girl, and the envy of every boy. And, as is so very often the [...]
A silent prayer of thanks to the patriarchate and all male chauvinists
Oh, patriarchal social structure!
Oh, male chauvinists of the past!
I praise thee!
While thy general wisdom might leave something to be desired, and while I dislike thee quite strongly, thee have done me — and in fact the whole nation — a great service!
And while thy rancid ignorance and silly prejudices have also done us all great [...]
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