After reading two books that at first glance not really belong to the category of intellectually noteworthy literature I must concede that both horror and fantasy have qualities that lie beyond the obvious. I may be a little late to come to that conclusion but both Stephen King's "Rose Madder" (Horror) and Patricia McKillips "The forgotten beasts of Eld" (Fantasy) are books that deeply moved me. Where King's novel is rich in action and suspense, as you can expect it from this master, McKillip's book builds up slowly and in a way never seems to gain real momentum, we stand somehow remote from the course of action. The tension exists on a deeper level. Now what's interesting in both books is that they contain deep insights into human relationships, especially the classic "scenes of a marriage" topics are taken up from new - or should I say "current" angles. The genres more or less are only the medium of transportation and sometimes even obscure the classical relationship dramas that are underlying. So far, no big news, the more I come to think of it, this technique must be in use for ages - think of fairy tales - and I am the last to notice it thanks to my ignorance during some lessons at school.
That said, the aforementioned books definitely belong to the category "worth reading" since they are outstanding both in terms of technical execution, plot and message. Hmm, I might have saved some lines in order to make that point...
On another note, my visit to a Chapters book store in Calgary didn't really pay off. Sure you go off with some books you kinda fancied for some time but not finding so many good books in seemingly broad selection made me really think. This store served more like a decoration for the integrated Starbucks coffee shop than as a repository for interesting literature or even discoveries. The lack of competent sales agents, being replaced by Mac-based kiosks added to it. I direly miss the McNally bookstore on 8th Ave.
And just to make it a true rant, no, the HMV media store (yes, they do have DVDs, video games and other time killers) also does not live up to the expectation. I don't expect a long tail selection but even the head of the curve wasn't properly represented. And don't you dare and try buying classical music...
Btw there might even be some older people to whom the headline of this post should sound familiar.
Posted by tilman.haerdle at January 16, 2009 10:59 AM