January 31, 2004
Little, Big - John Crowley
(Perennial, ISBN 0060937939)
John Crowley has gone on to perhaps greater things since writing Little, Big in the shape of the AEgypt series, but here is perhaps the most complete statement of his fictional vision that can be fitted into a single volume (though only just - my edition of the book is 538 pages of small print).
Little, Big is a multi-generational story about a family and their relationship with the fairies. Not twee, pretty fairies you understand, but powers with strange plans and desires of their own that shape the history of the family into a tale.
This shaping, and its various effects on those within the family, is the theme of the story. Whether life is a tale, and who is shaping it, is the theme to which Crowley has returned again and again. Although in that respect it is a post-modern novel, Crowley is not interested here in blurring the boundary between the fiction on the page and the one we inhabit, but only in looking at the reaction of his characters to finding themselves part of a Tale that is greater than they are.
The plot is much harder to describe. The main story focusses on Smoky Barnable, a young man who joins the Drinkwater family by marriage to Daily Alice. The book follows the couple through their lives, and into the lives of their children, as they live in a strangely protected bubble in the house called Edgewood, somewhere outside New York City. Meanwhile, civilization gradually crumbles, and a host of strange characters play through the book - from Ariel Hawksquill - a modern day wizard and practitioner of the Art of Memory, to Grandfather Trout - a fish with a sad story to tell.
To me, the book seems suffused with a sense of sadness. Everyone is burdened by the tale - at Smoky’s wedding, the guests all thank him for taking on the weight of it. Although protected, the family is constantly injured by the powers that protect it. The ending represents the culmination of the fairies plans, and provides an explanation of why the Tale is as it is, but it is hard not to feel sorry for the characters who have had to suffer through it, although they were always Somehow marked out for their fates from the start.
Tiredness
Seem to be feeling very tired this weekend which is making me a bit grumpy. I think it’s also that I haven’t really managed to accomplish much today - I’ve been trying to persuade Mozilla under Linux to run Flash animations, but without success. I’ve gone as far as to download v1.6 (over dialup mind) and install it, which is still not as trivial as it should be if non-geeks are ever to use the system. No joy - I suspect I have an old version of GLIBC++ or something, but I can’t be arsed to find out.
Installing 1.6 also means that my desktop shortcuts are broken, and it has decided that the default font size on some pages is tiny, tiny text, which is very annoying.
Fortunately, I had a brainwave this evening and decided to have a go with Konqueror. Once I’d figured out how to get it to find the plugins, it all worked straightaway. Awesome.
January 25, 2004
Couple of Links
Two pieces of software I’ve found useful recently:
- Bloglines - web-based RSS aggregator. I tried Newsmonster before and didn’t really get on with it, but this one seems like a good system. Having it on the web is really better than having a local aggregator because I can use it from home and work. Plus it also works on mailing lists, which is a boon as I read the Urth list about Gene Wolfe, which is quite high traffic, but only (to me) occasionally interesting.
- Doxygen - automatic documentation generator for C/C++ and other languages. Rather like Javadoc for Java. I’ve found this very useful at work, even on completely undocumented code it builds up useful information on where everything is defined, which files depend on which others etc. I’m adding doxygen comments to all my new code as I go along.
Running and Blogging
Today I went back to my “standard” circuit round the city. I didn’t manage to run last weekend because of meeting friends for lunch and feeling too tired afterwards. So today was a bit a of a struggle - probably more so to get out the door than to keep going once I’d started. Took just over an hour to get round.
Similarly I notice I don’t seem to be blogging very much either. I think it’s mainly because I’m having problems deciding what I want to do outside of work and so I don’t know what to focus my energy on. I’m also never sure how much personal information I want to put in. I didn’t mind talking about my job search because it was helpful to me to keep a record, and very little of that needed to be confidential. I also thought that it might possibly be helpful to other people.
January 11, 2004
Restaurants
A few impressions of places I’ve been to recently:
- Ishca - went with people from work for a Christmas do. The food was pretty good (although some people seemed to get very disappointing selections) but a bit cold. The main problem was that the restaurant space itself was freezing - I was okay because I had warm clothes to cycle in, but a lot of folks had a very uncomfortable evening. Hopefully this is something that is easily fixable, but check before you go!
- Ask - upmarket Pizza/Pasta chain, just opened in Cambridge. Very nice when we went. Food was good, although my pasta came cold (it had obviously been standing a while). The staff were very happy to fix the problem though, so overall I thought it was pretty good. The restaurant looks good too - it’s in what used to be Bottoms Up.
- Charlie Chan - was fine. Good food, service good. The only thing I would say is that it was a bit generic Chinese - but that may be because I came in a group and we had a set menu.
- Pasta Fresca - always good when I’ve been there. Family friendly, good service and good fresh pasta dishes.
- University Arms - another work do. We had a set menu again, so I can’t comment on the range or the price. What we had was pretty good - though the scallops in the first course were completely flavourless to me. The study in chocolate dessert defeated me, but it was really good.
I’ll try to do a few more of these as I go to places. I may try to write a bit more about Cambridge in general, and give some pointers to other local bloggers (there must be lots I would guess).
Another run round Cherry Hinton
Today I went out along the path that starts from the end of Brooklands (ie at the end of Mill Road) and followed my nose round past the new developements just off Coldhams Lane up to the Robin Hood pub.
I then went into the nature reserve across the road from there. That was some nice running - it’s wooded, and it was quite muddy today, but it has some nice little ups and downs to go over. I got a bit lost and ended up at the exit by Limekiln Road which I really didn’t want to run again - see last week.
So I doubled back, and ended up in a large chalk pit near to Limekiln Road. I had no idea it was there before, so I had a good run round and ended up scrambling up a very slippery bank at the end to run back through a field and then back into the nature reserve.
I ran back home via Cherry Hinton Hall park and then Birdwood Road and Perne Road. Total time about 42 minutes.
January 4, 2004
Today’s Run
Similar to last time (see the category archive if you want the whole story) except instead of keeping going along Worts Causeway, I turned right onto Limekiln Road to get back to Cherry Hinton. This was a BIG MISTAKE. Seriously, the road is really narrow and some sections have no verge at all so if cars come from both directions at once, they literally have to queue up to get round you. This is very un-nerving, and clearly the potential for being run over is enormous, so I’m not running that way again.
Back in Cherry Hinton I ran up the High Street until I could cut back to the path that runs along the back of Cherry Hinton Hall park - followed that back to Birdwood Road and from there back to Perne Road.
Total time about 52 minutes.
I also noticed for the first time some footpaths into a nature reserve in Cherry Hinton, so I may check those out next time. I’d quite like to go to the hash again but I don’t think this is a good week to start as I have two evening things with work this week.
January 3, 2004
Two interesting articles
Horribly behind the times as always, but I thought Ken Mcleod’s piece expressed both sides of my own conflicted views on Iraq in a clear and honest way. I narrowly come to the opposite conclusion as him, but it’s a tough call. Seymour Hersh’s piece is just interesting in that it’s a part of the story I hadn’t really thought about before - what tactics do you need to find independently operating terror cells?
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