Assignment Four
Read The Sun, The Moon, and The Stars and Misery.
Misery (Stephen King 1987) is finished. I learned lots about writing, like plot, horror, climaxes, etc. King is in his element. No unnecessary gore, even though what he did describe made me anxious and turned my tummy a bit.
Chapter size was hilarious and all over the place. Some were pages long, others were only a paragraph.
Minor irritation was the story Paul was writing. Found it very difficult to stay in the story trying to read the manuscript with handwritten n’s, t’s and e’s. Although I couldn't care less about Misery herself, the examples of the manuscript and subsequent re-write of the first
chapter was interesting. I did smile when I saw underlining of words and used my newfound knowledge that it meant italics.
King confused me several times mentioning results of actions that had not been written about. Made me think I had missed something. He would then go back and tell about it a few paragraphs or chapters later. Irritating, but, fortunately, I got over it.
I found Misery to be a satisfying read, even though horror has not been my genre to read since I was in my teens (King, Straub, Koontz, and Saul were my favorites then).
Muse was the hole in the paper?
The Sun, The Moon and The Stars (Steven Brust 1987) is also finished. First of all, hat’s off to Uncle Jim for making this a reading assignment. I would have never read this book in a million years. Just goes to show – you can’t judge a book by its cover. You also cannot judge a book by its synopsis, dust jacket or introduction.
1) The front of the book says it is “a series of fantasy novels retelling classic tales" – the only fantasy tale I noted was related in sub-section 5 of each chapter about the Gypsies. At first, that was the only thing that kept me reading. By the end, I was far more interested in the story of the painter and what he was learning.
2) the sub-section headings confused me until I realized they were names of works of art.
3) Uncle Jim is right, art is art. The lessons learned by the painter apply equally to the writer, the photographer, the singer, and any other artist.
A few favorite quotes:
Page 144: “There are some paintings I’ve seen where I’ve said, ‘Well, it isn’t very good, but I like it. … There are lots and lots of paintings that make me go, ‘Well, it’s very good, but I don’t like it.’” Inspiration if I ever heard it.
Page 178: “Any art causes more pain than pleasure for the artist.” I have only begun to see the tip of the iceberg on the truth of this statement.