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Messages - Alia

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61
Bach. Because I should really, really get down to marking my students' mock exams. They've been asking for the results for a week now (the exam was exactly 10 days ago, but as everyone in the profession knows, students always assume that teachers have no life of their own and their idea of free time is alternatively writing and marking their students' tests and homework.)

62
Writing / Re: Mark Lawrence Critiques First Pages
« on: December 01, 2015, 08:20:39 pm »
We had something like this in one of our magazines, back at the end of the last millenium ;-) People would send their stories (these were stories mostly) to the magazine and one well-known writer would read them and publish his comments in the next issue. This went like "A.B. from C. - your story is this or that". And since he was a very good writer, his comments were witty and fun to read, even if you never sent him anything.

63
General Misc. / Re: Video Game Thread! What are you playing?
« on: December 01, 2015, 08:17:34 pm »
The only game that I've played a lot and enjoyed were Heroes of Might and Magic. When I met my then-not-yet husband, we used to spend some time together, playing Heroes II on "hot-seat". And then, when I fell down with chicken pox (which at the age of 21 is a real nightmare), he lent me Heroes III, which helped me keep my sanity while locked for 3 weeks at my room and smelling like Soviet distillery (in case you don't know, the best topical treatment for chicken pox in adults is salicylic spirit - don't try it with kids, though). And then we bought ourselves a new computer so that I could play Heroes V.
But then I graduated, got to (up to three) jobs at the same time, so I quit playing computer games. Although last weekend my husband dearest got out a copy of Heroes three and we started playing it, for the old times' sake mostly.

64
Literature / Re: Karl Edward Wagner’s ‘Kane’ series
« on: December 01, 2015, 09:08:12 am »
Well, Wagner also wrote one Conan novel ("The Road of Kings"), which managed to include a bit of social commentary, as well as horror elements, in a classic Conan setting. Basically, it's a story of a revolution, which (as usual) eats its own children.
Anyway, if you start with "Darkness Weaves", the setting may seem Conanesque at first, as the publisher wanted a typical sword&sorcery - but the main character is certainly different. And the first appearance of Kane is a reference to the classic "it was a dark and stormy night", which made me laugh when I read it.

As for Conan - I read quite a lot of Howard when I was a teen (the same time as Kane, I guess). In translation, naturally. And then, when Howard became public domain, I downloaded some stories from Project Gutenberg. My, he was a really awful writer - meaning the language that he used.

65
Literature / Re: Karl Edward Wagner’s ‘Kane’ series
« on: November 24, 2015, 07:18:44 pm »
Madness, you're great! Yes, it seems they have finally appeared on Amazon (when I finally gave up any hope on getting them legally), although a few stories will be missing from this set. Now I just need to convince my husband dearest that I really need to spend those 30+ bucks on books that I already know and have in translation ;-)
And, contrary to you, I love screen reading.
Anyway, I highly recommend "Kane" once more, it is really worth reading.

Oh, and I also started reading William Blake because of a motto in one "Kane" book.

66
Literature / Re: Karl Edward Wagner’s ‘Kane’ series
« on: November 24, 2015, 03:03:09 pm »
Because it's just half of the set, "complete novels". The other half is "Midnight Sun", which is "complete stories". And that one starts from USD95. So together they wouldn't be that much cheaper than the new edition. And anyway, if I wanted to buy anything from abroad, I would have to pay for "International Signed-for", which further increases costs. You see, parcels sent from abroad too often happen to get missing on the way here. True story.

67
Literature / Re: Karl Edward Wagner’s ‘Kane’ series
« on: November 24, 2015, 09:58:53 am »
You mean, has anyone here read "Kane"? The answer is - me. It's one of my favourite fantasy books ever, and I mean ever. I first read it when I was a teen, in an absolutely atrocious translation, and it still got me hooked. I bought the books (which was rare, at that time I used the library - my parents did not have much money or space in the flat), kept them ever since. Recently I got hold of English originals, read them again, this time with all my literary background that had accumulated ever since, and boy, while I remembered all the stories very well, I discovered a lot more in them.
First of all, Wagner thought of himself more as a horror writer, so "Kane" is not your simple sword&sorcery - and if a novel starts with a motto from Lovecraft, you know what to expect (as a teen I did not, as I hadn't read Lovecraft then). And then there is a story which is set in a place that is basically a fantasy version of WWI on Western front. In addition, he was trained as a psychiatrist, so his characters have a lot more psychological depth than average in this genre.
And the main character is an evil bastard. A likeable evil bastard, sometimes, but evil nonetheless. If he fights greater evil, he does not do it to save mankind or anything - it's just that the other side interferes with his plans.

However, if you want to read it, there is just one little problem - it's damn hard to get the books legally, unless you want to pay $175 for this edition: http://centipedepress.com/horror/kane.html (BTW, I would love to lay my hands on it but I'm not even sure whether they send overseas and how much would it cost, if possible).

68
General Misc. / Re: Neat language things
« on: October 27, 2015, 07:48:18 am »
Virtually every language had a moment like this, when someone (usually some high council on language or a group of influential intellectuals) decided that there are simply too many borrowings from this or that language. But the one that really went through with it is probably Czech. In the 19th century Czech intellectuals in a sense recreated the language and also wanted to rid it of (perceived) Germanisms, so for example they have hudba for "music" and divadlo for "theatre".
And while most languages have similar names for chemical elements (most taken from Greek), like oxygen, hydrogen, nitrogen, etc., Polish has totally different names because of a group of scientists at the turn of 18th century decided that Greek-based names are foreign and Polish people need to have their own brand Polish names. Which for the next 200 years made chemistry lessons more difficult to generations of high school students, as Polish names of elements basically have nothing in common with their symbols.

69
Philosophy & Science / Re: Placebos and Nocebos?
« on: October 24, 2015, 11:55:35 am »
Digging out the topic again, this time because of a new study which shows that placebo effects seem to have increased over the years in clinical trials - but only in the USA: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26307858
And a discussion of the study: https://www.sciencebasedmedicine.org/are-placebos-getting-stronger/

70
Writing / Re: Two Sentence Scary Stories
« on: October 20, 2015, 10:30:09 am »
There's one I read somewhere and still remember. "Baby shoes for sale. Never used."

71
Literature / Re: What you want to read this year - Totals and specifics
« on: October 17, 2015, 01:35:04 pm »
Webinars  are the best but I'm impressed you do it during staff meeting :)

Well, there are almost 70 of us, so I just find a nice quiet corner and get my kindle out. It would be more difficult with a paper book, though.

And another huge Morgan fan here, I certainly recommend Land Fit for Heroes - although I guess it would be even better to read the Takeshi Kovacs series first, which is hard s-f.

72
Literature / Re: Sci Fi series as good as The Second Apocalypse?
« on: October 11, 2015, 12:21:24 pm »
Banks has been my favourite writer for years, I love all his work, both sci-fi and mainstream. I'm not sure if I would compare him to Bakker myself, but he's definitely worth reading.

73
Literature / Re: What you want to read this year - Totals and specifics
« on: October 05, 2015, 07:15:26 pm »
Finally got to reading "The Republic of Thieves". But considering how little time I seem to have right now (between my two jobs) it might take me until Christmas :-(
That is, unless we get more of utterly boring and lenghty staff meetings. That is the time that I secretly devote to reading.

74
At the moment old Tom Waits songs. Seems to correspond very well with my mood.
"Bloody moon rising with
A plague and a flood..."

75
Literature / Re: What you want to read this year - Totals and specifics
« on: September 25, 2015, 03:57:44 pm »
Ok guys - I'll update everyone's postings tonight.

You can mark my Corwin cycle as read, somehow never got to mentioning it here.

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