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A Book of Tongues: THUD
Aug. 6th, 2009 01:04 pmWords added: 1,090 thus far. I'm hovering on the verge of that final push through Chapter Eleven--baby, I can feel it. It's taking shape. The good part is that I've also stumbled across some really fun plot fillips for the tops of Chapters Twelve and Thirteen, things that'll make Morrow (our nominal protagonist) seem far more active and interesting. The bad part? Wordage, wordage, wordage.
In an interesting turn of events, however--because money arrived from a stipend I'd forgotten we qualified for, basically--I was able to secure a copy of The Red Tree, which indeed does rock. I think I probably like it best of all Caitlin R. Kiernan's long-form narratives thus far, with "The Dry Salvages" (yes, I know that's a novella), Low Red Moon and Daughter of Hounds following immediately after. Part of it has to do with her stepping away from her previously-established distrust of first-person narrative, instead embracing it here for the wonderful unreliability of seeing things through and around a restricted perspective, which is what I love most about using that technique. And maybe that's what also makes this particular book seem--emphasis on "seem", since it's not like I know her personally enough to have any real insight into whether or not this is objectively "true"--very resonant as the sort of semi-autobiographical fantasia I've done myself, a time or two: Cobble experiences and traits together to create a fictionalized version of myself, imprison it/her/whoever inside a narrative I can control, and "end" them. It's freeing as hell, done right, and I think that's where we're going, with this one. Of course, I'll be just as happy to be proven wrong; from tone and execution to date alone, I know I'm gonna love the denouement, no matter where we actually end up.
So: More coffee, and back into the fray. I still have a lot of shit to hook up, before I can feel like I've finally done enough of my part to justify going outside.
In an interesting turn of events, however--because money arrived from a stipend I'd forgotten we qualified for, basically--I was able to secure a copy of The Red Tree, which indeed does rock. I think I probably like it best of all Caitlin R. Kiernan's long-form narratives thus far, with "The Dry Salvages" (yes, I know that's a novella), Low Red Moon and Daughter of Hounds following immediately after. Part of it has to do with her stepping away from her previously-established distrust of first-person narrative, instead embracing it here for the wonderful unreliability of seeing things through and around a restricted perspective, which is what I love most about using that technique. And maybe that's what also makes this particular book seem--emphasis on "seem", since it's not like I know her personally enough to have any real insight into whether or not this is objectively "true"--very resonant as the sort of semi-autobiographical fantasia I've done myself, a time or two: Cobble experiences and traits together to create a fictionalized version of myself, imprison it/her/whoever inside a narrative I can control, and "end" them. It's freeing as hell, done right, and I think that's where we're going, with this one. Of course, I'll be just as happy to be proven wrong; from tone and execution to date alone, I know I'm gonna love the denouement, no matter where we actually end up.
So: More coffee, and back into the fray. I still have a lot of shit to hook up, before I can feel like I've finally done enough of my part to justify going outside.
