Books and space stations
Sep. 8th, 2003 11:03 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
selenakReal Life struck again, and will continue to do so till December, which probably will mean less postings. However, I managed to get some fannish things in between. First of all, I read Tad Williams' novel The War of the Flowers, which reminded me again why he's one of my favourite fantasy authors. (Incidentally, it's a one-volume effort, which for the saga-addicted Mr. Williams is a rarity.) He takes up stock motifs and topics of the genre and twists them into fascinating new realms. His Memory, Sorrow and Thorn trilogy is on one level one long argument with Tolkien, as ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
rozk once said, and on another simply a wonderful epic fantasy saga. (Which by the by also reverses or plays with not just the big issues but some of the more annoying smaller gender-related clichés - such as the virginal heroine, while the hero before landing in her arms by the end of the tale is allowed several adventures with sirens; whereas in the Memory, Sorrow and Thorn trilogy, it's the other way around.)
In the case of The War of the Flowers, the old and familiar topic he tackles is the Fairie realm, and the motif is the changeling child. Considering Neil Gaiman also used this very creatively in the Sandman saga, I had high expectations, and they were met. Williams' take on the Fairie and its inhabitants is as not-nice as it gets; they're compelling, but decidedly not cute. Best of all for yours truly, there is class warfare. What? You think goblins, ogres and sprites should be content to be ruled by aristocratic fairies? Bring on the revolution, I say.
I also managed to (re-)watch some more DS9 episodes. The fourth season starts with a change which was quite controversial at the time: the addition of Worf to the crew, and, since this needed to be justified as something other than a rating ploy, the falling out between Federation and Klingons. I remember having mixed feelings about the later at the time, only mollified when the Klingons became allies again. (TNG developing the Klingons from the one-dimensional enemies of TOS lore to a fascinating culture had been dear to me.) The former worked for me from the time I saw The Way of the Warrior onwards. It was a great season opener, and showcased everyone at their best, not just Worf.
My favourite bit of dialogue:
Garak (about root beer which Quark had just let him test): It's vile.
Quark: I know. Cloying, bubbly and sweet.
Garak: Like the Federation.
Quark: And you know what the worst part is? After a while, you get used to it. You even want it.
Garak: It's insidious.
Quark: Just like the Federation.
Plus there were sparks between Dax and Worf basically from the first time she sized him up. Which was alright with me. The Worf/Troi pairing of TNG's last season had definitely not worked for me, whereas Dax and Worf actually had things in common and were promising to be a challenge for each other.
The Visitor remains one of my favourite Trek episodes. As I mentioned in an earlier entry, it's pretty much a cliché not just in Star Trek but in most TV shows that people don't get along with their parents. If a relative of a regular shows up, you can be pretty sure an adversarial relationship exists; if it's a father (or a mother, thinking of Lwaxana), you can be sure of it. DS9 valiantly jumped into the breach and defends harmonious parent-child relationships single-handedly by showcasing one for seven years, between Benjamin Sisko, single father, and his son Jake, both regulars. Of course, if two people get along it's more difficult to get dramatic potential out of it. But a) there is so much conflict on DS9 anyway that one doesn't need father/son issues besides, and b) an episode like The Visitor shows it's possible to get drama out of it anyway. There is a touch of Arthur Miller here in the tale of Jake Sisko, literally haunted throughout his entire life by his father and his perceived failure to save him, and both Ciroc Lofton and later the superb Tony Todd as the adult Jake have a lot to do with making this episode as good as it is. Avery Brooks doesn't get to show up more often than Hamlet Senior's ghost, but makes the most of it; each of the father-son reunions had me misty-eyed, and Brooks' is excellent at conveying Sisko's dawning horror when he realises that Jake is basically throwing his life away for love of him.
(Sidenote: and I also like that the actors and the directors are not afraid of playing the relationship between the Siskos as physically affectionate - in this episode as well as throughout the entire show. They're not afraid of touching each other, hugging and kissing.)
Hippocratic Oath, with its emphasis on the Bashir/O'Brien relationship, shows how Bashir has changed since the first episodes of the show. His disagreement with O'Brien ever the treatment of Jem'Hadar (i.e. enemy) soldiers isn't some eager young puppy's know-it-all-mistake; it's a different philosophical/ethical stand, and the episode refuses to pass judgement as to whether Bashir or O'Brien are correct. That's my favourite Trek show. No easy answers.
rozk once said, and on another simply a wonderful epic fantasy saga. (Which by the by also reverses or plays with not just the big issues but some of the more annoying smaller gender-related clichés - such as the virginal heroine, while the hero before landing in her arms by the end of the tale is allowed several adventures with sirens; whereas in the Memory, Sorrow and Thorn trilogy, it's the other way around.) In the case of The War of the Flowers, the old and familiar topic he tackles is the Fairie realm, and the motif is the changeling child. Considering Neil Gaiman also used this very creatively in the Sandman saga, I had high expectations, and they were met. Williams' take on the Fairie and its inhabitants is as not-nice as it gets; they're compelling, but decidedly not cute. Best of all for yours truly, there is class warfare. What? You think goblins, ogres and sprites should be content to be ruled by aristocratic fairies? Bring on the revolution, I say.
I also managed to (re-)watch some more DS9 episodes. The fourth season starts with a change which was quite controversial at the time: the addition of Worf to the crew, and, since this needed to be justified as something other than a rating ploy, the falling out between Federation and Klingons. I remember having mixed feelings about the later at the time, only mollified when the Klingons became allies again. (TNG developing the Klingons from the one-dimensional enemies of TOS lore to a fascinating culture had been dear to me.) The former worked for me from the time I saw The Way of the Warrior onwards. It was a great season opener, and showcased everyone at their best, not just Worf.
My favourite bit of dialogue:
Garak (about root beer which Quark had just let him test): It's vile.
Quark: I know. Cloying, bubbly and sweet.
Garak: Like the Federation.
Quark: And you know what the worst part is? After a while, you get used to it. You even want it.
Garak: It's insidious.
Quark: Just like the Federation.
Plus there were sparks between Dax and Worf basically from the first time she sized him up. Which was alright with me. The Worf/Troi pairing of TNG's last season had definitely not worked for me, whereas Dax and Worf actually had things in common and were promising to be a challenge for each other.
The Visitor remains one of my favourite Trek episodes. As I mentioned in an earlier entry, it's pretty much a cliché not just in Star Trek but in most TV shows that people don't get along with their parents. If a relative of a regular shows up, you can be pretty sure an adversarial relationship exists; if it's a father (or a mother, thinking of Lwaxana), you can be sure of it. DS9 valiantly jumped into the breach and defends harmonious parent-child relationships single-handedly by showcasing one for seven years, between Benjamin Sisko, single father, and his son Jake, both regulars. Of course, if two people get along it's more difficult to get dramatic potential out of it. But a) there is so much conflict on DS9 anyway that one doesn't need father/son issues besides, and b) an episode like The Visitor shows it's possible to get drama out of it anyway. There is a touch of Arthur Miller here in the tale of Jake Sisko, literally haunted throughout his entire life by his father and his perceived failure to save him, and both Ciroc Lofton and later the superb Tony Todd as the adult Jake have a lot to do with making this episode as good as it is. Avery Brooks doesn't get to show up more often than Hamlet Senior's ghost, but makes the most of it; each of the father-son reunions had me misty-eyed, and Brooks' is excellent at conveying Sisko's dawning horror when he realises that Jake is basically throwing his life away for love of him.
(Sidenote: and I also like that the actors and the directors are not afraid of playing the relationship between the Siskos as physically affectionate - in this episode as well as throughout the entire show. They're not afraid of touching each other, hugging and kissing.)
Hippocratic Oath, with its emphasis on the Bashir/O'Brien relationship, shows how Bashir has changed since the first episodes of the show. His disagreement with O'Brien ever the treatment of Jem'Hadar (i.e. enemy) soldiers isn't some eager young puppy's know-it-all-mistake; it's a different philosophical/ethical stand, and the episode refuses to pass judgement as to whether Bashir or O'Brien are correct. That's my favourite Trek show. No easy answers.
