book review past due: time cat.

Time Cat
Lloyd Alexander

Gareth’s definitely not an ordinary cat. For one thing, he can talk. For another, he’s got the power to travel through time—

“Anywhere, any time, any country, any century,” Gareth tells Jason. And in the wink of a very special cat’s eye, they’re off. From ancient Egypt to Japan, the land of young Leonardo da Vinci to the town of a woman accused of witchcraft, Jason and Gareth are whisked from place to place and friend to foe.

Full of fun, excitement, and a good dose of history, here’s a fantastic tale that grabs the imagination and takes it far and wide, on the adventure of not one but nine amazing lifetimes.



Star Rating:


Review:
This is the book that time and time again makes me want to be a writer. There's something about the story that Alexander crafts... it certainly isn't the main characters, for they are simple (as, in a children's book, they should be). I think part of it is the history, and part of it is the magic. Alexander is known for his Black Cauldron series, but like any good writer, he continues to shine in other areas as well. Time Cat is no exception. Alexander plays with the idea that a cat does have nine lives, but these aren't lifetimes... they are nine different worlds wherein a cat can live. From Egypt, to Ireland, to Imperial China and back around again, each world that Gareth and Jason visit has a magic of its own

I find it difficult to describe why I love this book so much.  As you can probably see, I trip over my words trying to emphasize the magic I see in it.  I had a writing professor in college who once said that most of the fiction novels he forces himself to read these days, he finds deplorable, but there is one book he read once, about a fisher cat and a boy, and it's absurd and silly and useless, but whenever he finds it in a library, he picks it up, reads it again, and it makes him want to become a novelist.  Not because he thinks he could do better, but because it pulls all the right heartstrings.  That's the way I feel about Time Cat.

Admittedly, as I said, the main characters are flat.  I don't hold this against Alexander, or any author who writes children's books, because the simple fact is that children can only grasp so complex a character.  I believe this book is intended for 9-12 year-olds, not 21-year-olds like myself.  The author doesn't have to impress me with his debonair writing - his goal is to enchant children, and I think that Time Cat does that very successfully.

inspiration.

I just finished Mockingjay a couple of nights ago, even though rightfully I should have been doing homework instead of plowing my way through one of the most impressive series I've ever read.  I could fill this post with spoilers, but I'm not going to; I'd rather have people actually go read the trilogy.  I've actually been pushing it in the general direction of a lot of people.  Most of these people - to their own loss - have been ignoring me.

The writing style really struck me as I read the trilogy.  At first, I didn't like it.  It was first person.  It wasn't first person present, though, so I didn't hate it.  I got over my frustration with that pretty quickly, though.  I began to notice the setting and the characters.  The descriptions weren't too much, though.  They were enough.  Enough to spark my imagination.  Collins said "electric fence" and from there I created the interior of the coal-mining town that was District 12.  She described the clothes that Katniss was wearing, but only when it was important and related to Cinna.  It wasn't over-detailed, like some aspiring authors do, and it's wasn't brand specific (it couldn't be, of course).  Nobody could feel out-of-the-loop about her descriptions.  I think that's really important.

Her plot was mind blowing.  I keep saying "it's just a distopia book" and it is... but at the same time, it isn't.  I really want to go back and re-evaluate 'Tweens now.  I want to look at my characters and make sure they're flawed.  I want to describe more.  I want to pinpoint specific references to popular culture and eliminate them.

I want to make my stories very real.  Fantasy enough that the reader can step out of them, but real enough so they cannot forget.

your grammar is riddikulus!

I grew up in a great school district, one that always challenged me, and I am grateful for it.  I was able to be in an advanced reading program and math program while I was there, and it was awesome (okay, the math not so much...).  One thing I never truly learned in school (elementary, middle school, high school, even college) was grammar.

This is the point when you give me the O.o look.  I seem to be able to form complete sentences.  I only you fragments and run-ons for choice moments.  Capitalization greets the beginning of each sentence, while punctuation kisses it farewell.  Semi-colons are used properly, and I seem to be able to tell the difference between "there," "they're," and "their".  What's the big deal then?  What is this nonsense about not learning grammar?  See, I never said that I didn't learn grammar.  I said that I never learned it in school.

Where did I acquire my understanding of the construction of the English language, then?  In sooth, I gained enough from constant reading to be able to grasp elementary mechanics.  But that level of grammatical understanding wouldn't get me very far in the world.  I actually learned most of my grammar courtesy of FictionAlley.org.  Oh yes.  I said it.  I learned grammar by writing Harry Potter fanfiction.

FictionAlley is a specialised website, so if you want to submit something, you basically need to rock.  You need to have excellent grammar and perfect spelling, and you need to have a plot.  Believe it or not, they actually want you to be able to write... otherwise they kindly refer you over to FanFiction.net (the horror!).  But I am stubborn, and so I kept revising and revising until it was right.  So, in my freshman year of high school, I went from writing like this:

“Kris? Oh! There you are.” Kris’s new friend, Alyssa LeBonjou, a famous horse breeder and trainer from France, stepped into the stable and rolled her eyes “I should’ve looked here in the first place.”

“Hi Alyssa.” Kris stopped grooming her favorite horse, Sandrilene’s Wishing Star, more commonly known as Wish, to acknowledge the newcomer’s presence.

To writing a little more like this:

“That was an awesome story!” Peter squealed once they were out of the professor’s hearing range.

“You should write fiction,” agreed James.

“You should read my homework essays,” Sirius responded, grinning ear to ear.

Remus scowled. He had read Sirius’ essays many times, and most of them ended up with the subject being burnt to death or sold into Muggle slavery. “You should be worried about your grades at this point in life,” he pointed out.

Since then, I daresay, I have improved further, but both these pieces were written within 2 years of eachother:  the former in early 2003, and the latter in autumn of 2003.  I was always proud of my achievement, fueled by obsessive fan girl writing, even though I had to learn to edit harder to get rid of things like word overuse.  However, in trying to stay true to the canon, I became a character writer (because you have to know the characters inside and out or you get ripped apart in reviews).  Learning grammar in Potterverse, however, is the reason why much of my English is British-English.  I try to catch myself, but words like "colour" or "specialised" may be spelled incorrectly by American standards.  I don't mind so much, actually, because it's still correctly spelled somewhere.

So.  What about you folks?  Have you learned any important life lessons in nontraditional ways?  Miss something in school that you had to teach yourself?  Have you ever dared to tread the embarrassing paths of fanfiction?  Share your stories!

twi-hards and pott-heads.

With the movie of Eclipse fresh out of the oven, the time again comes when any level-headed, perfectly rational, life-treasuring human being pulls the covers over their eyes and hides from the rabid fans.  Or perhaps I'm a bit unfair.   You see, there are three kinds of Twilight fans.  Type One: Rabid, insane people who stalk Robert Pattinson and ask him to bite their children. These are the ones that call themselves "Twi-hard".  Type Two: Those who argue for hours and hours over who's better:  Jacob or Edward.  They will occasionally stop talking to their friends over the issue, but only for a few days, and not forever (for those who hate those of the opposite team forever and always, see "Type One".)  Type Three: Those who read the books, appreciate them, go to the midnight premieres most of the time, and keep up with the news.  Certain types are, naturally, a little easier to abide by.  For me, I know only Twos and Threes.  I get to read about Ones in the newspaper and online, though.

What makes these young adult book series' such a phenomenon?  Is it just because they are what they are:  book series' for young adults whose hormones aren't stable and therefore it's not about the books- it's about the hotness-scale of the characters?  Is it because the writing is the most brilliant thing this side of Mars?  Or is it all about telling a good story?  I think it's a mixture of all three (of course, many Twilight fans will tell you it's all about Edward).

I am biased:  I picked up Twilight once when I was a senior in high school and didn't like the writing style, so I put it back down.  There are a lot of people who have done the same as me, but there are also those who can (and will) argue that Stephanie Meyer's writing style is easy to read and superior to any other they know.  Hey, awesome.  I'm glad that it works for y'all.

I choose not to talk about my opinions of the characters, or Meyer's plot (which seems entirely dependent on Bella procrastinating on picking either Edward or Jacob).  I'm not suicidal, see, so I will leave the story itself alone.  From what I have heard, however, the screenplay is fantastically close to the actual books (the Harry Potter directors could stand to learn something) and that is a nice relief to the fans.  However, the film cast and crew probably doesn't want to be killed by rabid fans by being incompetent.

Is it worth our time and effort to throw ourselves into these fictional worlds?  I'm not just talking about the world of Twilight- goodness knows I've been waiting for my letter to Hogwarts for ten years, and there are many out there that would die for a chance to see Hobbiton or have tried to build their own lightsaber.  The real question isn't whether it's worth our time and effort, the real question is:  why do we do it?  No series outside of fantasy has as big of a following, as many obsessive fans.

Fantasy has always been escapism.  It is true that young adults seem to pick it up more whole-heartedly (and no wonder- adults obsessing over fictional characters are judged much more heavily than teenagers), but there are people who come home after work and sink into an armchair with that tattered copy of Prisoner of Azkaban that they just finished last night, and they open it up to page one again...  "Harry Potter was a highly unusual boy in many ways..."  It certainly isn't just the "geek" community who dives into the fandom.  It's amazing that as everyone is wishing they could fly a tie-fighter instead of punching in data, we are escaping into our fantasy worlds and binding ourselves together as a community.

Oh yes.  I said it.  Twi-hards, you are equal to those wanna-be Jedi.  Pott-heads, you are equal to those who do not simply walk into Mordor.  So even though I do not like Twilight personally, I respect Stephanie Meyer just as much as I respect J.K. Rowling.  They are both gods, in their own right- weaving worlds of wonder for all of us to enjoy.  Whether it is Narnia, or Middle Earth, Tatooine, Forks, Hogwarts, Discworld, the Calla... I can go on.  We all exist in them in our imaginations to escape our world.  Fanfiction is the inner reaches of our souls trying to control those worlds we love.  Roleplaying gives us a chance to live in those worlds, even if only for a moment.

That said, I have a few confessions to make:

• I dressed up as Obi-Wan Kenobi for Halloween when I was a senior in high school.


• I own a time turner.


• I have every single Harry Potter book, including Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, Quiddich Through the Ages, and Tales of Beedle the Bard.


• I own half of the New Jedi Order series.


• I have read Attack of the Clones by R.A. Salvatore 5 times.


• I own the special extended versions of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone and Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets.


• I am dressing up as Luna Lovegood (see image above) this Halloween.


• I have read the Harry Potter series all the way through twice, and I have read Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban at least 10 times (I stopped counting).


• I have music from A Very Potter Musical on my Zen.


• I own the Lord of the Rings trivia game... and rock at it.


• I learned proper English grammar by writing Harry Potter fanfiction.


• I online-roleplayed in the Potterverse for two years (until there were no more decent forums).


• I once spent a whole week pouring through my Harry Potter books to prove that Draco and Hermione were a more feasible couple than Draco and Harry, even though I don't ship Draco/Hermione.


• I own soundtracks to Lord of the Rings:  Return of the King, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, and a collectors edition of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone.


• I've taken the online Harry Potter Sorting Tests enough to know that I don't fit in one house, I'm split between two (Ravenclaw and Slytherin) but if I was actually at Hogwarts, I'd be sorted into Ravenclaw.


• I have a toy lightsaber... and nobody else can touch it. *shifty eyes*


• I own the videogames: Knights of the Old Republic, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, The Force Unleashed, Lord of the Rings:  The Two Towers, Lord of the Rings:  Return of the King, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets.


• I dominate at Harry Potter Scene It.


• I go to every single Harry Potter premiere I can get to.


• I went to 2am showings of Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith.


• I spend the entire time watching the Harry Potter movies pointing out all the discrepancies from the books.  Somehow, this amuses my friends.

That is all I can think of at the moment.  What about y'all - do you have a list of "guilty secrets" that ties you to your favourite fictional worlds?  A cardboard cut-out of Edward Cullen, perhaps?  Arwen's pendant?  How many times have you walked into your closet, hoping you'd come out in Narnia?  I'd love to know about it!

never believe it's not so

Magic.

What is magic?

I ask this because in my line of interest - fantasy novels - magic is a helpful if not vital ingredient. Yet, the real world we live in discourages imagination. Perhaps it is just a fad of the times, but realism is valued and anything outside of a mature view of the world is labelled as a derogatory trait.

Example: Children in kindergarten are the greatest targets for psychologists and pharmaceutical companies. At five-years-old, a healthy child will not want to sit still, will create a universe out of wooden blocks and plastic dinosaurs, and will have deeply intellectual conversations about crayon colours with his imaginary friend. A teacher, spotting these bizarre actions, is expected to remedy them by informing a school councilor, who will approach the parents with the sad news that their child has ADHD, or even being as bold as to say the child is mentally retarded. I don't have clear memories of my childhood, perhaps because my brain is scattered with a thousand fictional childhoods of other people, but I do remember enough to know that while I enjoyed story time and learning to write letters was a hoot, it was sure a lot more interesting to pretend that plastic animals were drowning in the water table and I was a magnificent goddess who had to save them all.

I had a discussion with a friend yesterday whom I think is brilliant, and she mentioned when she was in second grade, her teacher informed her father that she was mentally retarded. I looked at her and I surpressed a laugh. This girl is soon to be sixteen, is in honors classes, has written a three-hundred page novel and more short stories than I can count on all my digits, and is - besides being in high school - holding three jobs and volunteering two days a week at a community theatre. In kindergarten, my parents were highly advised to put my little brother on riddlin, and they chose not to, and today he's seventeen, a junior in high school, and has straight A's (this semester anyway). I cannot help but wonder if movements such as "catching mental illnesses in children before it's too late" have contributed to the deterioration of imagination - and with it, magic - in modern society.

That brings me back around to the question- what is magic?

To the technologically run world, science is magic. Medicine. Technology itself. I can't count how many people I've talked to at Staples who look at me delightedly when the copiers spit out their copies, as though there were faeries inside the thing.

The type or magic I deal in is imagination. Mere humans conjuring windstorms, freezing time. Where did such concepts come from? Who first theorised that which we now call magic? Did it once exist? Or is it a product of imagination? And most importantly, could it exist? And if it could, could it exist in the present, in an ancient time, the distant future, or all the above?

People would look at me sideways, but human nature is to question and things such as dragons and magic... they have been surfacing in literature since the medieval era if not before. One can't help but wonder if that's too much of a coincidence.

Then again, if this world of faltering imagination, is it ever fair to question?

{ listening to: clickity clackety keys || mood: working }