Sunday afternoon, headachy

[cleolinda]

So I finally finished Carter Beats the Devil. I'd heard it was fantastic, and y'all may remember my interest in stage magic late last year, but... I read the opening section, liked it, and... just couldn't go any further. I just felt tired, I don't know. Sometimes I just develop strange aversions to things--"aversion" is too strong a word, even. It's just an inability to continue, or even to start. Usually this is in terms of writing, or books or movies--I meant to see this movie, I meant to read that book, I never got around to it. I've come to feel like that tends to happen for a reason: I'm just not ready for whatever it is yet. When the time's right, I'll come back to it. Apparently the time was right for Carter Beats the Devil, because I picked it back up yesterday afternoon, almost felt too tired to bother, and then proceeded to read straight from three in the afternoon to one in the morning.

A lot of times, a book will be so good that it will make me want to write. "I can do this!" I think to myself. Not in a bad way--"God, how did this get published? I could do this"--but in the most positive way possible, creativity sparking off example like flint on steel. Other times, a book will be so good that I sort of inwardly despair at ever being able to do anything like that. Carter is one of those books. To be fair, I think I was depressed mostly by the sheer amount of research that clearly went into the writing of it; I've been poking around my preferred era of history since I was thirteen, and I still don't think I could marshal what Glen David Gold says (in the afterword) that he put together in five years. I get the same feeling from The Crimson Petal and the White, as maddening as I find the ending--a kind of massively detailed verisimilitude I envy but despair of matching. But then there's Philip Pullman's Sally Lockhart books, which are infinitely shorter than either of those two, and tell just as good a story with more economy of historical detail. So... turning right back to the front of Carter Beats the Devil and reading it again probably isn't a good idea, is it?

(There were actually two points in Carter where I started gasping aloud. You know how in The Neverending Story--the movie, I mean--the boy is so relieved at some point [the sphinxes?] that he practically passes out? Yeah. That was me. I actually had to stop reading for a couple of minutes. That was the first part [page 586, paperback]. The second part was page 633. And while we're handing out page numbers, can someone tell me if the penultimate chapter is supposed to stop mid-sentence, or if my copy's just weirdly cut off?)

Meanwhile, I'm back on Black Ribbon, trying to hash out a new opening, and it's like shoveling coal. The ideas are good, but the execution is awful. I'm to the point where I'm just trying to get the roughest possible representation of what I want and then keep moving.


Nick Saban and Alabama win big over Western Carolina. And once again, I am a football orphan.

Damien Hirst skull sells for 100 million dollars. Jesus. Of course, it does involve 8,601 diamonds.

The World: In Cuba, a Politically Incorrect Love of the Frigidaire.

'Stache bash is one hairy contest.

'The Black Widow' snags Buffalo's wing-eating crown.

Man who lost pants and $41k gets it all back.

New Schizophrenia Drug Shows Promise in Trials.

Oh, Everyone Knows That (Except You): The path of "open secrets" to public knowledge.

"I think they come in peace... and sweatbands."

Gere touts new movie, urges Olympics boycott.

Heath Ledger and Michelle Williams split. It's just--read the entry title. I lol'd.

'No hope' for 'retoxing': Lohan unemployable.

Telluride Day 1: 'I'm Not There,' 'There Will Be Blood.'

Sci-fi fans warp into Atlanta for 20th Dragon*Con.

Director Named for the 'Descent' Sequel.

Trailer for the Long-Delayed 'One Missed Call' Remake.

Pics and Video from Shyamalan's New Flick are 'Happening.'

Premiere's Top 20 Plot Twists.

Pullman's next to feature Lee and Iorek.

Helena Bonham Carter to Film HBP Scenes in Spring, 2008. Meanwhile, HBC is pregnant again and... interestingly clothed.

Comments

[laughingacademy.livejournal.com]

Sometimes I just develop strange aversions to things--"aversion" is too strong a word, even. It's just an inability to continue, or even to start.

I’ve gone through this with every single volume of A Series of Unfortunate Events, and I can’t figure out why.

[phoebesmum.livejournal.com]

Carter Beats the Devil is the last good book that I read. That was in 2002, or thereabouts. It is time that someone wrote another good book. I'm still reading, but nothing since then has made me go 'wow!', or even made me want to continue to the end, really. I read now more out of habit than inclination.

Your copy clearly has more pages than mine (I assume it's an A-format, whereas mine is a UK B-format), so I do not know what your Good Bits were, but I can tell you that the penultimate chapter ends 'And now, the very moment he stood, pulling Phoebe up with him, he felt that when you had lived enough of your life, there was no difference between the two' - which is a full sentencem so you may be missing a line or two.

[cleolinda.livejournal.com]

Dude! Mine ends at "he felt"! DAMMIT.

[cleolinda.livejournal.com]

Oh, and the good bits were when we find out who was actually playing the Devil in Carter's final show, and finding out "She never died" means something entirely different after that. *trying to be vague*

[elisa0984.livejournal.com]

I think the Hirst skull was purchased by an investor group with the obvious intent on reselling later. So there's not some insane multi billionaire with zero taste who plunked down the cash for this but it's rather irksome that its worth has been measured by its resale value rather than whatever artistic merit the piece had. And the diamonds. Heaven help the bling.

[quenbolyn.livejournal.com]

I've had a copy of Carter Beats the Devil hanging around my bookshelves for several months, and I haven't read past the front cover.

Maybe once summer winds up I'll give it another - or a first - try.

[wmetoile.livejournal.com]

Dude, I watched the Alabama game. Spent most of yesterday watching football on a friend's enormous HD TV, and it was fairly hilarious switching back and forth between Alabama and the primetime Cal-Tennessee matchup. The difference in picture quality was ridickerous.

[stagemanager.livejournal.com]

I've read Carter Beats the Devil twice -- once shortly after it came out, and again last August (2006, to be clear).

I don't ever read books a second time -- but CBtD is just. That. Good.

If the above comment didn't clear up the dangling sentence, I can check my copy (when I find it) -- but I surely don't recall any half-sentences like that.

Also, the author has another book coming out :::checks::: hmmm, last month. Well, it's called Sunnyside, if you're interested.

And you know he's married to Alice Sebold (The Lovely Bones), right?

[cleolinda.livejournal.com]

Yeah, he thanks Sebold in the afterword. : )

[kvschwartz.livejournal.com]

Which 20 movies did they pick? I can't get that link to work.

[edda.livejournal.com]

Carter Beats the Devil (which I also started but never finished) is sort of an obligatory good book, meaning you know you'll like it, but you know this so well that you sort of despair. Sometimes you'd rather find a delightful book almost by accident and enjoy it without trudging forward trying to summon up happy anticipation. I was the same was with The Amazing Adventures Of Kavalier And Clay, which I ended up loving.

[flamingtoilet.livejournal.com]

HBC is obviously taking clothing hints from Natalie Portman.

[bunnymonkey.livejournal.com]

Oh man, I had that same feeling after finishing Carter. "There is just no way I can do this." But then I wrote that thing for Gunpoint, so... (Not that it was some great thing -- in fact, it was the most problematic thing I did for GP -- but it was an actual thing.)

And now I want to swing by B&N to pick up a copy. (Because people keep TAKING mine.)

Come visit me!

Understood

[deadwoodmt.livejournal.com]

I'm like that too, with books and movies. I'll start to read/watch whatever it is and just not do it. Then later I'll come back and do it all in one sitting and enjoy it the entire time.

I've also read books and seen pieces of art that made me wish that my skills lay less in grammar and more in actual WRITING or drawing. :( extra frowny face for that one. :(

Carter Beats the Devil, huh? I may have to look it up.

And, OMG! Clueless wonder time, but I followed your link on HBC, and I had NO CLUE she had children with Mr. Burton. *hangs head as a bad fan* I guess I just don't follow up on "celebrity gossip" enough.

[blackdiamants.livejournal.com]

Oh, bless you, Helena. Bless you.