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Dame Ioreth
Tol Eressea
Jul 24 2014, 3:53pm
Post #26 of 39
(544 views)
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The thing I loved best about Stewart's Merlin Trilogy
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is it seemed so... real. Plausible. Not "magical" or "fantasy" but "gosh this really could have happened!" She used more than the Arthur legend, she created the characters as flesh and blood. You get to know Merlin as a "real person". That is the kind of character development I love - the kind that makes me think I could sit down at my kitchen table and have a conversation with this person because I "know" them so well.
I've always been more fascinated by Merlin than Arthur. (Arthur made me want to smack him sometimes, no matter what version of the tale I was reading.) The way Stewart creates Merlin from the boy to the man made me want to know more. I wish she had written more of the Merlin story instead of wandering off after Arthur in the last two books.
Where there's life there's hope, and need of vittles.
― J.R.R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings
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Annael
Immortal
Jul 24 2014, 4:09pm
Post #27 of 39
(541 views)
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philosophy is like gardening or quilting
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once you get started, you get sucked right in . . . if you read X, then you soon realize you need to read Y and Z but also go back to M which means you really should read K and probably D and before you know it, you're reading Heraclitus and working your way forward through the entire pantheon of philosophers!
For example, after Heidegger I suggest reading Hans-Georg Gadamer. Who might take you back to Dilthey (and Kant again) and Schleiermacher and then to Giambattista Vico and the NeoPlatonists . . . or forward to Rorty, Ricoeur, and Derrida . . .
And a single read never suffices, does it? I could spend the next 30 years reading philosophy & not get "caught up" ever. But it's fun!
To be sane we must recognize our beliefs as fictions.
- James Hillman, Healing Fiction
* * * * * * * * * *
NARF and member of Deplorable Cultus since 1967
(This post was edited by Annael on Jul 24 2014, 4:10pm)
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Meneldor
Valinor
Jul 24 2014, 10:05pm
Post #29 of 39
(528 views)
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by Bernard Cornwell. It's good action/adventure stuff, but it's also more of the same. Meh.
They that go down to the sea in ships, that do business in great waters; These see the works of the Lord, and His wonders in the deep.
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Arandiel
Grey Havens
Jul 24 2014, 10:13pm
Post #30 of 39
(536 views)
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and got The Burning Glass from the library - a fun read!
So, thanks to Magpie for the suggestion and you, Lily, for, well, y'know!
Walk to Rivendell: There and Back Again Challenge - traveling through Middle Earth with thirteen rowdy Dwarves, one grumpy Wizard, and a beleaguered Hobbit
Join us, Thursdays on Main!
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cats16
Half-elven
Jul 24 2014, 11:49pm
Post #31 of 39
(528 views)
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Well said. The first step is Kant, and that's all I can say with certainty right now. If only my copy of Plato's Republic had been in one piece, I would still be in ancient Greek philosophy! 
*writes down a couple of names unfamiliar to me* Ok, I'll be doing some research on some of your suggestions. A couple of the names don't ring a bell.
I think it's fun--for me, that is--because it isn't something being handed down to me. I am seeking out each text in my own way, and discovering it all naturally. Independent scholarship is sometimes the best kind!
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DaughterofLaketown
Gondor
Jul 24 2014, 11:55pm
Post #32 of 39
(523 views)
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I have good memories of the first two of the series
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They were very magical and she had a gift with words.
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entmaiden
Forum Admin
/ Moderator
Jul 25 2014, 1:40am
Post #33 of 39
(518 views)
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But I have a 3-hour flight this weekend, each way, so with those six hours I'm hoping to get a good start. So we'll talk next week!
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Misto
Lorien
Jul 25 2014, 11:27am
Post #34 of 39
(520 views)
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I'm on the serious side these days
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Working my way through Solzhenitsyn's Gulag Archipelago.
Considering the topic I didn't expect it to be quite to witty. Works to the book's advantage, as far as I'm concerned. Can you say I "enjoy" it? Maybe not, but I do enjoy the way it is written.
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Lily Fairbairn
Half-elven
Jul 25 2014, 1:11pm
Post #35 of 39
(513 views)
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Thank you both very much! 
Where now the horse and the rider? Where is the horn that was blowing?
Where is the helm and the hauberk, and the bright hair flowing?
Where is the hand on the harpstring, and the red fire glowing?
Where is the spring and the harvest and the tall corn growing?
They have passed like rain on the mountain, like a wind in the meadow;
The days have gone down in the West behind the hills into shadow....
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Old Toby
Grey Havens
Jul 25 2014, 3:11pm
Post #36 of 39
(505 views)
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It's amazing how well Stewart combines the 'magical' with the 'real', and I am never left feeling that this is a simple fantasy story, but more like a historical novel! (Thank you Sir Walter Scott for the kick-start!) And I, too, feel like Merlin is a very real person, not some other-worldly conjurer who is set apart from the rest of humanity. It's his very humanity that draws me to him.
"Age is always advancing and I'm fairly sure it's up to no good." Harry Dresden (Jim Butcher)
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dernwyn
Forum Admin
/ Moderator
Jul 25 2014, 4:40pm
Post #37 of 39
(502 views)
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check out all the other books in that series!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"I desired dragons with a profound desire"
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Arandiel
Grey Havens
Jul 25 2014, 5:01pm
Post #38 of 39
(495 views)
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As soon as I get the chance, for sure!//
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Walk to Rivendell: There and Back Again Challenge - traveling through Middle Earth with thirteen rowdy Dwarves, one grumpy Wizard, and a beleaguered Hobbit
Join us, Thursdays on Main!
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Meneldor
Valinor
Jul 25 2014, 8:55pm
Post #39 of 39
(493 views)
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by Julian Stockwin. Kydd and his friends deal with the fallout from his social blunders in the previous book. This one didn't go the way I expected, and that's a good thing.
They that go down to the sea in ships, that do business in great waters; These see the works of the Lord, and His wonders in the deep.
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