10.31.06
Golden: Second Post (Characters)
This has begun intriguingly enough. A Repunzel with no hair is certainly different! I like the sorceress so far (although I wonder why the author chose to give her a name from another fairy-legend character, since it’s distracting and slightly confusing - is there supposed to be a connection?). Rapunzel herself is fairly unremarkable so far, but I do like her, which is good. The author is rather unsubtle about her father and such, but I like that he is included. I always wondered why her parents just gave her up without much protest. This makes a bit more sense so far.
This was a fairly unremarkable issue of Vogue. There were few things that really annoyed me (name-dropping columnists were about the worst offense), but also precious little to truly spark my interest. As I said last month, most of the trends this season absolutely do not appeal to me, so the spreads gushing about the new crazy pieces the designers are offering kind of bored me. The set of print dresses Kate Moss modelled had a few gems, but that was about it for largely the fashion review portion of the issue. None of the books reviewed sounded exciting either. The profiles of the CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund competition finalists were bland, but had some interesting pictures. I loved the gown from Jovovich-Hawk!
The forward of this book is funny. It includes a not-so-subtle plug for Tiffany tableware (they make lovely crystal) and a very subtle comment about how everyone should be polite enough to be worthy of it. I do like that that author allows that there are other valid systems of table manners, but that he likes his because it is elegant and easy.
This was a fascinating book. The story was wonderfully told. I wasn’t wild about the fact that the family told the whole Persephone story at the end of the book. If it had happened before, why did it happen again in exactly the same way? And if it happened before, why don’t the gods remember it? If it didn’t happen before, where did the story come from and why does it match so exactly? It just bugged me. Nevertheless, the story itself was very well done and interesting to read.
It is clear that Rogers appreciates Baum’s talent as a writer and a storyteller. She points out many of his books’ best qualities - the inventive characters, the pointed and perceptive comments they make about people and society and Baum’s wonderful way of speaking to his child audiences at their level rather than at them or from above them, just to name a few. She has trouble recognizing the merits in any of the later books (which aren’t as good, but are still decent), and her hatred of the 1939 movie seems a bit excessive for this book. It wasn’t the best note to end an otherwise very interesting book on. She should have come back to Baum at the end, since the book was about him!
This was a cute story and I enjoyed the ending. It reverted completely to the way everything was before, which felt odd for this series but made a point quite well for this book. I felt like there were fewer full and half page illustrations than usual. That may be my memory being faulty, but there did seem to be painfully few in this book (one half page illustration and three full page ones, one is on the cover illustration and frontispiece as well as in the text).