Monday, November 07, 2005

Great animation

Not Hallowe'eney, or dancey, but slightly monsterey and definitely good.

Had The Mighty Evans bringing her London ways to Cornwall this weekend, adapting admirably to the, um, gentler pace of life down here with only the occasional murmur along the lines of "Why are the queues here so slooooooow!?"

And, after having made an ill-advised late-night trip to the bathroom.

"There were one, two, three, four FIVE SLUGS IN THERE!"

Which unfortunately was hard to take seriously, as it sounded a bit like something from Sesame Street. She had a point though. And she barely screamed at my driving at all, which was impressive.

Am I the only person who didn't know the inspiration for the wardrobe from "The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe" actually came from a Nesbit short story called The Aunt and Amabel? And therefore, in continuity terms, might well be the same wardrobe? Intertextual crossover children's literature ahoy!

Neither did I know that Puddleglum was a reference to the Aeneid (see further down in the same article). Fortunately the editing process on the Cabinet begins in earnest this week, so I get to fold all this stuff back in (what with Marsh-Wiggles and Wardrobes and indeed some Nesbit creations making cameo appearances). Just talked to m'colleague Alex who's also on his first kid's book (though his is now with a publisher, well done) and he's on his fifth edit. Crikey.

While I'm doing random stuff, I was delighted to see that Michael Swanwick's seminal genre-skewering fantasy novel The Iron Dragon's Daughter has finally been reprinted in the SF Masterworks series. I'm bad at synopsising novels, so I'll just say that if you like Neil Gaiman's stuff, you'll love this, as it includes all the worn-thin trappings of fantasy (dragons, elves, magic swords) and twists them into something rich and dark and strange. Funny too, in a bleak, icy sort of way.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

I hate slugs. Not only are they gross and icky, but if you put salt on them to kill 'em then instead of the slug getting bored and going away you are left with an ickier mess that doesnt leave and you mum wont come round and clear it up so it just sits there being gross until you pluck up the courage to go near it.

Or is that just me.

Dave said...

Chickens, I believe, eat slugs. So why not keep some fowl in the bathroom?

Full of hilarious opportunities...

Smat said...

I had one crawl up my shoe and almost made it onto my foot before I noticed. Smat's "Death to the Slug" dance still causes great hilarity round here.

Matt said...

They may have looked funnily at you as you would perhaps have been without your rather marvellous hat, which is currently still at my place. I shall transfer carefully into the custodial protection of Mr Henry in the hope that he will shepherd it home safely to you at some point.

V fab to see you on the weekend!

Anonymous said...

Three slugs in the bathroom?!

Were they looking for the Spiiiidah...

Nic said...

I have slugs in my bathroom (and I am in a flat on the 4th floor!). I found an article about this. Apparently they will keep your shower clean: http://www.abc.net.au/rn/science/earth/stories/s23877.htm