mjj (flemmings) wrote,
mjj
flemmings

No health within us and nothing to read

In my current state of slightly uncomfortable loose-endishness, all I seem to want to do is read Sherlock Holmes pastiche. There's certainly enough of it around. Alas, what remains to me now is a series that might be called Mrs Hudson Knows Best, and the inevitable had-to-happen: a Canadian writes Holmes and at once puts him on a steamer bound for Canada with a bunch of Irish refugees who are probably (horror!) the dreaded Fenians. That the Fenian threat ended by the early '80s is neither here nor there. We are going to see Holmes in the middle of bitter winter Ottawa, god help us.

I ought to lap up Jeanne Larsen's Silk Road like cream. In fact I've been trying to read it since 1996, which is apparently when I bought it, in Tokyo (vaguely vaguely, a 2nd hand English bookstore in Ebisu), from someone who evidently bought it in Malaysia, going by the bookseller's stamp on the title page. I should lap it up even more now when I understand the pastiches that she's using (Ming storytellers, Buddhist chronicles, Daoist tales) plus the varying version of events these sources give to supplement the first-person narration (oral tradition in action, playing with texts, meta meta yum) plus the delight of a Karin-like gallimaufry of duelling Great Western Mothers, Jade Emperors, Guan-yin, petty bureaucrats in the Heavenly order, and uppity pearl spirits. I still find it a slog, alas.
Tags: china, karin_mangaka, reading, reading_11, rl_11
Subscribe

  • (no subject)

    Tablet's Chrome's latest Neat Trick is to show my regular webpages (Environment Canada for weather, Guardian for news) in phone format, so no more at…

  • (no subject)

    My oldest cousin just turned 80. If you think it's terribly strange to be seventy, try ten years older than that. Started Saiyuki RB 3 and in very…

  • (no subject)

    There are three kanji that essentially mean 'child' or 'infant' and because I constantly confuse them I made a note of them on the little papers…

  • Post a new comment

    Error

    Anonymous comments are disabled in this journal

    switch
    default userpic

    Your reply will be screened

    Your IP address will be recorded 

    Help
  • 4 comments