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Mar. 5th, 2005
Spring Break
Mar. 5th, 2005 05:17 pmNext week is Spring Break here; since I have no classes on Friday or Monday, effectively I'm off for about a week and a half. I've picked up a copy of Sid Meier's Pirates!, prompted by the enthusiasm of - um, somebody on my FL (was that you, ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
tygerr? Edit: no, it was jeriendhal), and I hope to give it a try during this off period.
I've finished Shippey's book on Tolkien, as well as a collection of critical essays (Terry Pratchett: Guilty of Literature) on Pterry and the Leonardo biography I was reading. I don't have anything in particular to say about Shippey. The essays on Pratchett were a bit uneven; some were written from philosophical stances that I find uncomfortable or simply alien, and I couldn't get much from them. There were a number of interesting or amusing bits, though. Among other things, one author pointed out that Pratchett's mythical Llamedos (the home of Imp y Celyn) is an homage to Dylan Thomas' equally mythical Llareggub; a clue to this may be found by reading both names backwards...
I found Leonardo: The Man and the Artist to be a rather sad book. Leonardo attempted so much, left so much undone, that I find myself seeing him as a figure of failed promise. What he did achieve, what has survived, is marvellous - I have seen the restored Last Supper with my own eyes, and it is awe-inspiring - and, judging from the records, what has not survived was comparably brilliant. But there were so many works he never finished, whether because he was distracted by other tasks, because he went unpaid, or because his patrons fell from power or influence, that I can only shake my head. (The conversation between Gimli and Legolas on the works of men, in The Return of the King, seems sadly apropos.)
tygerr? Edit: no, it was jeriendhal), and I hope to give it a try during this off period.I've finished Shippey's book on Tolkien, as well as a collection of critical essays (Terry Pratchett: Guilty of Literature) on Pterry and the Leonardo biography I was reading. I don't have anything in particular to say about Shippey. The essays on Pratchett were a bit uneven; some were written from philosophical stances that I find uncomfortable or simply alien, and I couldn't get much from them. There were a number of interesting or amusing bits, though. Among other things, one author pointed out that Pratchett's mythical Llamedos (the home of Imp y Celyn) is an homage to Dylan Thomas' equally mythical Llareggub; a clue to this may be found by reading both names backwards...
I found Leonardo: The Man and the Artist to be a rather sad book. Leonardo attempted so much, left so much undone, that I find myself seeing him as a figure of failed promise. What he did achieve, what has survived, is marvellous - I have seen the restored Last Supper with my own eyes, and it is awe-inspiring - and, judging from the records, what has not survived was comparably brilliant. But there were so many works he never finished, whether because he was distracted by other tasks, because he went unpaid, or because his patrons fell from power or influence, that I can only shake my head. (The conversation between Gimli and Legolas on the works of men, in The Return of the King, seems sadly apropos.)
