Joey: Ok whoah-hey... Let me just stop you right there, ok? First, you lied, right? Then, you lied about lying, ok? Then you lied about lying about lying, ok? So before you lie about lying about lying about lying about... lying... (loses count and begins to count the number of 'lyings' in the air but gives up.)(yelling) Stop lying!
- Friends, "The One with Ross' Grant", 2003
Многие из вас читали книги Джорджа Мартина из серии "Песнь Льда и Огня". (Кто не читал - бросайте всё и читайте.) На сегодня эта серия состоит из 4 книг общим объемом более 4000 страниц печатного текста. Я эти книги обнаружил и прочел еще в 2004 году, тогда их было только три, и горжусь тем, что познакомил с этими книгами многих друзей и знакомых. Сейчас автор пишет (дописывает?) пятую книгу, уже три с половиной года, которая изначально должна была быть частью четвертой книги, но он решил ее выделить в отдельный том. За это время я успел внимательно и с расстановкой переслушать книги в аудиоварианте, что в данном случае не менее интересно, чем первое прочтение, ибо книги полны интересных деталей, которые по-моему невозможно вобрать в себя за одно прочтение даже внимательному читателю.
В интернете есть посвященный обсуждению этих книг форум: asoiaf.westeros.org. Туда я забредаю иногда, посмотреть что еще многочисленные поклонники книг вычитали-выдумали. Надо заметить, что и форум этот добавляет интереса книгам, ибо описываемые события действительно настолько обширны, подробны и разнообразны, что до многих важных идей, вторичных сюжетов и замаскированных линий я бы просто не догадался сам. В последнее время, однако, форум этот чахнет, ибо люди пережевали, как кажется, уже все возможное, и только новички иногда прибегают и выпаливают какую-нибудь блестящую идею, только что ими придуманную, а старички посмеиваются, мол, мы это уже обсудили раз десять-пятнадцать, четыре года назад. Большую часть обсуждения на сегодня составляют дискуссии на тему кто из героев кого круче, что мне кажется глуповатым и неинтересным. Поэтому проверяю редко, так, посмотреть, не появилось ли вдруг чего.
К чему я все это - сегодня появилась-таки любопытная запись. Некий вроде бы новичок читает первую книгу серии, "Игра престолов", и ведет на эту тему блог: http://blogoficeandfire.blogspot.com. Там он кратко и остроумно пересказывает прочитанные им главы вперемежку с саркастическими комментариями на тему. Язык у написателя подвешен неплохо, читается забавно, людям на форуме понравилось. Ну и я тоже посмотрел, потом вернулся дочитать, что же люди в форум думают на эту тему. И тут мне подумалось: я читаю в форуме, посвященном прочитанным мною дважды книгам, что пишут люди о прочитанном в блоге, ведущемся о прочитанных главах книг, которые они давно и по нескольку раз прочитали. Тут я вспомнил цитату из сериала "Friends", приведенную перед этой записью.
Здесь надо заметить, дорогие читатели, что вы только что сделали следующий шаг и прочитали о прочитанном мной на форуме прочитанных мною книг обсуждении обсуждения прочитанных новичком глав прочитанных книг, вами тоже прочитанных. Или не прочитанных, но тогда все бросайте и читайте.
Discuss this in forum (seriously, people, give it a shot)
20/03/2007: Who killed the Lord of Nazgul?
I always thought that it was Merry who killed the witch king by stabbing him with an elvish blade in the leg. Eowin just unwittingly took his glory by trying to swing her stupid sword at him exactly at the moment when he was already dying or dead. The movie glorified this misconception even further. Come on, the dude blew up Gandalf's staff! She didn't have a flying chance of doing him any harm whatsoever. I was challenged on this in a forum however, and I do not presently have my facts straight. Was it really an elvish blade? Am I making all this up?
People seem to be making a big deal out of the words that "no man will ever defeat him", hence the woman did, or something of the sort. This is a load of crap! This is not a tricky profecy, just a passer-by statement that the Nazgul is an awesome badass. Are those words even in the book or Peter Jackson made them up?
And while on the subject, how in hell did the Lord of Nazgul manage to blew up the Gandalf's fucking staff??? Granted, the Nazgul is twisted and magicked through the roof but he used to be just a man! Gandalf is a fucking Maia, an equal to Sauron!
People seem to be making a big deal out of the words that "no man will ever defeat him", hence the woman did, or something of the sort. This is a load of crap! This is not a tricky profecy, just a passer-by statement that the Nazgul is an awesome badass. Are those words even in the book or Peter Jackson made them up?
And while on the subject, how in hell did the Lord of Nazgul manage to blew up the Gandalf's fucking staff??? Granted, the Nazgul is twisted and magicked through the roof but he used to be just a man! Gandalf is a fucking Maia, an equal to Sauron!
Discuss this in forum (seriously, people, give it a shot)
17/01/2007: A Song of Ice and Fire on TV!
What the subject line said. A Song of Ice and Fire is liekly to be on TV. HBO has acquired the rights just a couple of days ago. This comes from the author, George R. R. Martin himself, here's the link to the entry in his LJ "Not A Blog". Publicly the news first appeared this morning in Variety. While not a 100% guarantee, this one has a very good chance of making it. Martin is a former TV writer himself (I think he wrote for the Twilight Zone among others). He seems to have a good business grip too, and is aware how things must be done.
The agreement is that the two authors of "Troy" and "Halo" respectively will write the scripts save for one in each season which Martin will write himself (something tells me it's gonna be prologues). Each book is supposed to take one season. HBO seems ideal too since that just has to be adult-oriented series.
Those of you poor souls that don't have a clue what I am talking about, A Song of Ice and Fire is the epic fantasy series by George R. R. Martin. It currently consists of four thousand-pages-long books with the fifth on its way. It is currently planned to amount seven volumes total. Stop everything you are doing and read it now.
The agreement is that the two authors of "Troy" and "Halo" respectively will write the scripts save for one in each season which Martin will write himself (something tells me it's gonna be prologues). Each book is supposed to take one season. HBO seems ideal too since that just has to be adult-oriented series.
Those of you poor souls that don't have a clue what I am talking about, A Song of Ice and Fire is the epic fantasy series by George R. R. Martin. It currently consists of four thousand-pages-long books with the fifth on its way. It is currently planned to amount seven volumes total. Stop everything you are doing and read it now.
Discuss this in forum (seriously, people, give it a shot)
03/01/2007: Encyclopedia of Arda
To those of you who kinda likes Lord of the Rings but never got to reading The Hobbit or Silmarillion, or doesn't know what the latter is, or what both are, to those who saw the movies and wanted to read books some time but never got to it either and now doesn't really know why he would want to read them in the first place, to those who saw some of the movies and fell asleep in the middle of the show because it felt too fucking long and unnecessarily detailed(busted! I know there are such people in my immediate surrounding), to those who read some of the books, liked them but never looked back and never understood what all the fuzz is all about, I present Encyclopedia of Arda!
This is a truly remarkable resource that contains an alphabetical cross-referenced index of every single thing, character, idea, name, rumour, fact, speculation and crackpot theory that concerns the world of Middle Earth and the unverse, Arda, in general. It has facts from the books and Tolkien letters, oral statements, it contains discussions, essays of the length and detail the reader wishes on everything! Those of you who thinks that it further adds to the weirdness of the whole tolkienism thing, you can't be more wrong. Just go there and try it! Remember that odd fellow from the beginning of the Fellowship, Tom Bombadil, that probably didn't seem too important? Wanna know who he is? Did you ever wonder who the fuck Gandalf and Saruman are, and what makes them special and different from people? Are they people at all? Go and find out, you won't know what hit you!
This is a truly remarkable resource that contains an alphabetical cross-referenced index of every single thing, character, idea, name, rumour, fact, speculation and crackpot theory that concerns the world of Middle Earth and the unverse, Arda, in general. It has facts from the books and Tolkien letters, oral statements, it contains discussions, essays of the length and detail the reader wishes on everything! Those of you who thinks that it further adds to the weirdness of the whole tolkienism thing, you can't be more wrong. Just go there and try it! Remember that odd fellow from the beginning of the Fellowship, Tom Bombadil, that probably didn't seem too important? Wanna know who he is? Did you ever wonder who the fuck Gandalf and Saruman are, and what makes them special and different from people? Are they people at all? Go and find out, you won't know what hit you!
