Book the First
Feb. 8th, 2005 01:15 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ellyssianBook #1: Time and the Gods by Lord Dunsany
And I consider myself a fast reader? One book in more than a month? What gives?
Dunsany does not write this to be quickly devoured - his writing should be savored, sampled delicately, a short story a night, left to linger and to ponder upon. I took my time with this one, the earliest Dunsany I've read thus far.
If I had any questions about where Lovecraft lets his Dunsany influence shine through, they're gone now. I could picture Lovecraft writing "Iranon" - amongst several other of his works - immediately after reading this volume.
I've seen it written that Dunsany was the first to create a fictional world with a fictional pantheon, and that alone would make this a must-read for anyone who enjoys such works as have followed his over the years.
I am sure many would deride him for his overly flowery and descriptive prose, of which some of those many would cry "purple!" but those who do so are perhaps blissfully unaware that purple is the color of majesty. They are welcome to their stick-figure monochrome scratchings; certainly the sixth-grade reading level that is so common these days will drop even further over time, and such color will be unnecessary when one can merely switch the television on and allow it to provide them with all they truly need and desire.
The short stories in this volume read somewhat like a collection of fables, and somewhat like a canonical religious text (which, of course, often read like a collection of fables.) One particularly striking tale involved an set of isolated islands - a veritable paradise - who had peace and prosperity, but felt they might be lacking, as the gods had thus far not noticed them. An expedition was sent to find the gods and bring them back to the islands. They succeeded in the first point, but neglected to follow through on the latter portion of their charter - for they witnessed the gods leading one kingdom of man against another, seemingly for the amusement of the gods. Unfortunately for those of the peaceable, prosperous island kingdoms, the gods found the expedition's footprints the next morning...
Cross-posted to my journal and![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif)
50bookchallenge
And I consider myself a fast reader? One book in more than a month? What gives?
Dunsany does not write this to be quickly devoured - his writing should be savored, sampled delicately, a short story a night, left to linger and to ponder upon. I took my time with this one, the earliest Dunsany I've read thus far.
If I had any questions about where Lovecraft lets his Dunsany influence shine through, they're gone now. I could picture Lovecraft writing "Iranon" - amongst several other of his works - immediately after reading this volume.
I've seen it written that Dunsany was the first to create a fictional world with a fictional pantheon, and that alone would make this a must-read for anyone who enjoys such works as have followed his over the years.
I am sure many would deride him for his overly flowery and descriptive prose, of which some of those many would cry "purple!" but those who do so are perhaps blissfully unaware that purple is the color of majesty. They are welcome to their stick-figure monochrome scratchings; certainly the sixth-grade reading level that is so common these days will drop even further over time, and such color will be unnecessary when one can merely switch the television on and allow it to provide them with all they truly need and desire.
The short stories in this volume read somewhat like a collection of fables, and somewhat like a canonical religious text (which, of course, often read like a collection of fables.) One particularly striking tale involved an set of isolated islands - a veritable paradise - who had peace and prosperity, but felt they might be lacking, as the gods had thus far not noticed them. An expedition was sent to find the gods and bring them back to the islands. They succeeded in the first point, but neglected to follow through on the latter portion of their charter - for they witnessed the gods leading one kingdom of man against another, seemingly for the amusement of the gods. Unfortunately for those of the peaceable, prosperous island kingdoms, the gods found the expedition's footprints the next morning...
Cross-posted to my journal and
50bookchallenge