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That's SWEET parts 1 and 2
Apr. 28th, 2007 09:47 pmPart 1:
Lately I've really enjoyed books by Patricia Briggs
I was poking around her website, and saw this statement randomly in the FAQ : "For those of you who are real trivia buffs, E.M. Hull was married to science fiction writer A.E. van Vogt" (E. M. Hull, as the surrounding paragraphs note, was the author of The Sheik, that movie that Rudolph Valentino so famously starred in. If you live in the Twin Cities, that's Rudolph's pointy-chinned face staring soulfully out at you in advertisements for the local restaurant of the same name.)
For extra bonus amusement points, this sentence should be connected to the statement made by Robin McKinley in her website FAQ about the relationship between The Blue Sword and The Sheik. Then be immensely amused (as I was) by how things loop in and out of the realms of popular and genre writing in cool ways.
My grampa on my dad's side owned some 1st ed. old SF books, including the first of the E. E. Smith Lensman books and a few A. E. van Vogt hardcovers. Plus an old Galaxy best of collection that totally ruined the Matrix movies for me, because wow is the Matrix full of old cold-war SF tropes.
Part 2:
I'm reading "The Queen's Men" with great enjoyment (it's due back in about 3 days, so I have to finish it soon), and they're at a bit where they're discussing the function of rhyme and meter in the plays that the troupe performed (and I'm having intermittent flashes to Christopher Stasheff's "Starship Troupers" series, but that's my own problem). So in the midst of an explanation of how "fourteeners", which are rhymed couplets where each line has fourteen syllables, are important to the comedy of the troupe and show their skill as actors (this is because it takes real chops to deliver these mouthfuls in a well paced way - it apparently creates a sensation in the knowledgeable audience of waiting for the other shoe to drop - like seeing a guy walking by reading a book, and then cutting to a shot of the banana peel on the sidewalk) - as I was saying some phrases ago, in the midst of this discussion the authors wrote the following:
"when one knight crosses the stage, some point of honour to pursue, the knight for whom he searches will be found within a minute or two." (pg 150)
And I had to stop, bemused, on the sidewalk where I was walking (there were no banana peels nearby, for the curious). I had to start counting syllables on my fingertips. Because with a bit of tweaking, that could have BEEN one of those fourteeners they're discussing.
And I started to wonder - were they reading so many of the things at this point that it came out as a fourteener, and they had to edit it to make it stop being one? Both first halves of phrases "when one knight crosses the stage" and "the knight for whom he searches" have 7 syllables, and the second halves of both phrases rhyme "pursue" and "or two".
Of course, as far as rhythm I'm not sure. I didn't get classical poetry training, and I'm not all that good at hearing the stresses on the feet. But I still laughed far too geekily.
Lately I've really enjoyed books by Patricia Briggs
I was poking around her website, and saw this statement randomly in the FAQ : "For those of you who are real trivia buffs, E.M. Hull was married to science fiction writer A.E. van Vogt" (E. M. Hull, as the surrounding paragraphs note, was the author of The Sheik, that movie that Rudolph Valentino so famously starred in. If you live in the Twin Cities, that's Rudolph's pointy-chinned face staring soulfully out at you in advertisements for the local restaurant of the same name.)
For extra bonus amusement points, this sentence should be connected to the statement made by Robin McKinley in her website FAQ about the relationship between The Blue Sword and The Sheik. Then be immensely amused (as I was) by how things loop in and out of the realms of popular and genre writing in cool ways.
My grampa on my dad's side owned some 1st ed. old SF books, including the first of the E. E. Smith Lensman books and a few A. E. van Vogt hardcovers. Plus an old Galaxy best of collection that totally ruined the Matrix movies for me, because wow is the Matrix full of old cold-war SF tropes.
Part 2:
I'm reading "The Queen's Men" with great enjoyment (it's due back in about 3 days, so I have to finish it soon), and they're at a bit where they're discussing the function of rhyme and meter in the plays that the troupe performed (and I'm having intermittent flashes to Christopher Stasheff's "Starship Troupers" series, but that's my own problem). So in the midst of an explanation of how "fourteeners", which are rhymed couplets where each line has fourteen syllables, are important to the comedy of the troupe and show their skill as actors (this is because it takes real chops to deliver these mouthfuls in a well paced way - it apparently creates a sensation in the knowledgeable audience of waiting for the other shoe to drop - like seeing a guy walking by reading a book, and then cutting to a shot of the banana peel on the sidewalk) - as I was saying some phrases ago, in the midst of this discussion the authors wrote the following:
"when one knight crosses the stage, some point of honour to pursue, the knight for whom he searches will be found within a minute or two." (pg 150)
And I had to stop, bemused, on the sidewalk where I was walking (there were no banana peels nearby, for the curious). I had to start counting syllables on my fingertips. Because with a bit of tweaking, that could have BEEN one of those fourteeners they're discussing.
And I started to wonder - were they reading so many of the things at this point that it came out as a fourteener, and they had to edit it to make it stop being one? Both first halves of phrases "when one knight crosses the stage" and "the knight for whom he searches" have 7 syllables, and the second halves of both phrases rhyme "pursue" and "or two".
Of course, as far as rhythm I'm not sure. I didn't get classical poetry training, and I'm not all that good at hearing the stresses on the feet. But I still laughed far too geekily.
