Comments on: Acquisitions http://www.logophile.org/blog/2006/12/07/acquisitions/ blog of a logophile (not "logos", but "λόγος") Thu, 08 Jan 2009 17:16:18 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.7 hourly 1 By: tikitu (S. borealis) http://www.logophile.org/blog/2006/12/07/acquisitions/comment-page-1/#comment-5149 tikitu (S. borealis) Fri, 08 Dec 2006 10:51:40 +0000 http://www.logophile.org/blog/?p=234#comment-5149 <p>I have to say, the rest sadly <em>doesn't</em> really measure up. Most of it is nostalgia for 40's and 50's America and Golden Age science fiction, and I just don't identify. But "HoW" itself is wonderful, you were right. And your memory is pretty good -- I don't have it on hand now, but I certainly recall the phrase. It's followed by an exchange of winks, also beautifully described.</p> <p>(Contra: I'll have to reread it, but at one point I remember having the impression that he was switching tenses something horrible. From the story notes I gather that he usually writes his stories over a very few days, and prefers not to edit them thereafter. Sometimes it shows, alas.)</p> <p>Guitar: cool! Razor: I presume you're going to be <em>fighting</em> with it, not anything foolish like shaving.</p> I have to say, the rest sadly doesn’t really measure up. Most of it is nostalgia for 40’s and 50’s America and Golden Age science fiction, and I just don’t identify. But “HoW” itself is wonderful, you were right. And your memory is pretty good — I don’t have it on hand now, but I certainly recall the phrase. It’s followed by an exchange of winks, also beautifully described.

(Contra: I’ll have to reread it, but at one point I remember having the impression that he was switching tenses something horrible. From the story notes I gather that he usually writes his stories over a very few days, and prefers not to edit them thereafter. Sometimes it shows, alas.)

Guitar: cool! Razor: I presume you’re going to be fighting with it, not anything foolish like shaving.

]]> By: S. australis http://www.logophile.org/blog/2006/12/07/acquisitions/comment-page-1/#comment-5148 S. australis Thu, 07 Dec 2006 21:34:52 +0000 http://www.logophile.org/blog/?p=234#comment-5148 <p>An impressive crop! I should state that I've only read the Heart of Whitenesse short story rather than the whole book, so I hope the rest of it measures up. Yes, the style is perhaps a little overwrought and the changes in tone jar a little, but perhaps it's necessary to carry off quite such an audacious conceit. It would be a bit rich for anything longer than a short story, but there are beautifully turned phrases which persist even years after I last read it -- "a man making steaming water into a ditch with a great bull pizzle of an accoutrement" (hope I got that right).</p> <p>My weekly acquisitions are a guitar and a cut-throat razor.</p> An impressive crop! I should state that I’ve only read the Heart of Whitenesse short story rather than the whole book, so I hope the rest of it measures up. Yes, the style is perhaps a little overwrought and the changes in tone jar a little, but perhaps it’s necessary to carry off quite such an audacious conceit. It would be a bit rich for anything longer than a short story, but there are beautifully turned phrases which persist even years after I last read it — “a man making steaming water into a ditch with a great bull pizzle of an accoutrement” (hope I got that right).

My weekly acquisitions are a guitar and a cut-throat razor.

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