cabinet of curiosities

[freckles_and_doubt]

My browser currently has an open tab entitled "When Hollywood Sucks, or, Hungry Girls, Lost Boys, and Vampirism in the Age of Reagan." Occasionally my life ain't 'alf bad. (Although that last student essay absolutely was. Apparently it's not enough to wantonly plagiarise most of your essay, in bizarrely fragmented bits, from a critical piece only vaguely related to the topic, you also have to randomly scatter it with entirely erroneous page references for a completely different article you don't seem to have read. Honestly).

Apparently all you lot don't also read my Twitter feed, which means the happy occasional link I fling out there for general delectation passes you sadly by. (By "all you lot" I possibly mean Jo, actually). I am absolutely going to sign up for Delicious one of these days, honest I am, but in the meantime, just for you, the latest random happenstance which has brought me linkery joy. (Ecited to add: "one of these days" apparently means right now. Who knew. Go me. Delicious link in left-hand sidebar, under "Extemporanea Elsewhere").

• This is a rather seriously good discussion of relationships in Buffy, although by "seriously good" I may actually mean "Jennifer Crusie gets the Spike chivalric lover bit in the same terms I do." Whatever. Worth a read.
  
  
• Space Nazis! No, seriously, Space Nazis. I really want this film to be made.
  
  
• James Blue Cat has posted the first quarter of his kids' fantasy The Cabinet of Curiosities on his blog, further chapters to follow. It's a very happy-making piece of writing that pushes a lot of kids' fantasy geek buttons with wanton deliberation. pumeza, you may enjoy playing spot-the-reference. It's also very nicely written - tight, focused, pacey, quirky, should make kids as happy as geeks. By a bizarre freak of happenstance I'm currently reading Robin Jarvis's The Woven Path, a kids' fantasy also featuring a strange magical museum full of references, and Cabinet is making me realise how badly written Jarvis's is. Honestly, I suspect I'm going to chuck The Woven Path before finishing it, it has a line in staggeringly awful sentences and clumsily unnatural action which is reminding me forcibly of some of my students. (Which is sad, because I adored Deathscent). I shake my tiny fists impotently at the Cosmic Wossnames for the fact that some twit published Jarvis and no-one wants to publish James. Sigh.

I suddenly recollect that there are at least two parcels waiting for me at the post office, and by some miracle there aren't actually students scratching feebly at my door. *flees while the getting's good*

Comments

[pumeza.livejournal.com]

Aww... that Buffy essay is just marvellous. What a lovely exploration of why I fell so hard for Buffy/Spike. And reading it is SO much more pleasant than running backwards to catch the deadline that zoomed past me a few hours ago. Off to peruse the Cabinet of Curiousities now...

[pumeza.livejournal.com]

Hmm. I have the Oz flying monkeys, and the lamppost (with plenty of other Lewis echoes - the Professor?), and the selfish giant and the Stanton family bench and the ?snozzcumbers? and an owl service; and of course there must always be trains and alleyways and spaces that are bigger on the inside. The (apocryphal) lashings of ginger beer. A conclave of witches, and some rescue mice, and I should know the winged ship but I don't, and at this point I give up. I want more, though. Enough to be sad if I've already read a quarter of it.

[extemporanea.livejournal.com]

Plume moths from Susan Cooper. Borrowers. Ugly-Wuglies from Nesbit. The ship has the head and tail of a winged serpent, I think it might be the Dawn Treader. The flying monkey with his mobile phone games cracks me up, as does the mouse sergeant's dialogue. Later we get the Box of Delights. It's all very satisfying.

Oh, should mention that the whole thing is in PDF on Lulu for free download, follow the link from James's page. I'm going to acquire an actual hard copy the instant I've tamed my ravening credit card.

[pumeza.livejournal.com]

I haven't read Susan Cooper since adolescence, and my sister got the book; I'd forgotten all about the plume moths. Must...stay... away... from credit card...

[extemporanea.livejournal.com]

You could always borrow my copy... ;>. Should I bring it along this evening? By which of course I mean tomorrow evening. Darn days of the week, blurring like that.

[pumeza.livejournal.com]

Hooray! Yes please :-). You don't also happen to have The Little Grey Men, do you?

[extemporanea.livejournal.com]

I have a couple of the Little Grey Men ones, yes. Shall add them to the stack :>.

[schedule5.livejournal.com]

Have added you to my network on delicious :). Damn, just upped the WABbing quotient.