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Author: Gin Jenny

The Problem of Susan, Neil Gaiman

Published 13 Jan 2009 by Gin Jenny

While I’m in a talking-about-C.S.-Lewis groove, I might as well review this short story.  I reread it yesterday because I was thinking a lot about C.S. Lewis and Aslan and God, and leaving Susan behind when everyone heads into Aslan’s country.  And here’s what I came out of it with: This story hurts my feelings.  On C.S. Lewis’s behalf, my feelings are hurt by this story. The main body of the story isn’t the problem.  I think the story is great actually.  It’s essentially a young reporter interviewing a professor of children’s literature, who (it’s very strongly implied) is the…

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Of Other Worlds, C.S. Lewis

Published 13 Jan 2009 by Gin Jenny

You know how you complain about your family members sometimes, when you’re in a bad mood with them?  And you’re all, My father’s this, my sister’s that, when you’re talking to your friends?  And it’s okay for your friend to say things like “That does sound frustrating” or “She’s being unreasonable”, but if your friend ever says “Wow, your sister’s a bitch”, you get really really angry and tell your friend to mind her own damn business? That’s my exact relationship with C.S. Lewis.  I can say bad things about him, but you had better not.  Or if you do,…

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Season of Mists, Neil Gaiman

Published 13 Jan 2009 by Gin Jenny

Aw, Season of Mists is great.  I like it so much.  It makes me nostalgic for Past Jenny, who was young and dumb and had yet to discover most of her now-favorite films and music and TV shows (including, of course, the other six volumes of Sandman).  Oh, wow, that’s really, really true.  I hadn’t discovered Joss Whedon yet, or The Office, or Doctor Who; I hadn’t yet seen any of my current five desert island DVDs (fifth series of Buffy, MirrorMask, Empire Records, Angels in America, and Before Sunrise); I didn’t know the Decembrists, the Shins, Neko Case –…

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C.S. Lewis, and another nice dream I had

Published 13 Jan 2009 by Gin Jenny

So last night I dreamed that I was reading this book of Neil Gaiman’s I’d never heard of before.  It wasn’t out yet, so the pages were black with white print, instead of white with black print.  After a while I realized that I had a large stack of these books with black pages, and they were all by Neil Gaiman.  IT WAS AMAZING. And I’m reading a book of C.S. Lewis’s essays, and he said this: [A reader] does not despise real woods because he has read of enchanted woods: the reading makes all real woods a little enchanted.…

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Year of the Griffin, Diana Wynne Jones

Published 13 Jan 2009 by Gin Jenny

I didn’t exactly mean to read this.  I am still intending to read all of Shakespeare’s plays, which I had forgotten about until just now.  I am in the middle of rereading the entire Sandman.  I have a whole bunch of books out of the library about sexual ethics and other interesting things – art controversies, STDs, Bohemians – and instead of reading any of those things, I’ve been reading Diana Wynne Jones.  Once I read The Dark Lord of Derkholm I yearned and yearned for Year of the Griffin and couldn’t concentrate on anything else. In Year of the…

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The Dark Lord of Derkholm, Diana Wynne Jones

Published 13 Jan 2009 by Gin Jenny

I love the hell out of this book.  I read it to my sister when we were younger.  It’s all about this world, and it’s a fantasy world, and a bad, wicked man called Mr. Chesney is using the entire world to give people from the real world tours.  And so the entire world has to do what he says: the elves have to pretend to be wicked, and the wizards have to be Dark Lords and be defeated by the tour groups dozens of times every year; and the cities have to get sacked.  And some wizards get tired…

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A Canticle for Leibowitz, Walter M. Miller, Jr.

Published 13 Jan 2009 by Gin Jenny

This review brought to you by: Indie Sister, the same girl responsible for my reading Neil Gaiman.  I am always wary of Indie Sister’s book suggestions.  Sometimes she says to read things like Coin-Locker Babies, which gave me terrible underwater nightmares, and which I have really tried hard to forget completely; and sometimes she says to read Neil Gaiman and gives me a massive huge new source of happiness. I checked out A Canticle for Leibowitz a month ago, and I only finished it last night.  I kept putting it off.  I’m not the hugest fan of science fiction that…

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Dream Country, Neil Gaiman

Published 13 Jan 2009 by Gin Jenny

Evidently the stress of writing a nice coherent plot in The Doll’s House proved temporarily too much for Neil Gaiman, and he took a break to write some single-issue self-contained stories.  And these are some damn good stories.  Except I don’t like “Façade”.  I remember not liking it so um, I sort of skipped it this time.  I know!  I could read “24 Hours” but not “Façade”?  I don’t know what’s wrong with me. No, actually, I know exactly why I did that.  Lately I’ve been getting ready for bed around eight, then lying in bed reading for several hours. …

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Possibly the nicest dream I have ever had

Published 13 Jan 2009 by Gin Jenny

I dreamed that I was at Barack Obama’s inauguration with the Endless.  IT WAS AWESOME.  It was so good that I turned off my alarm twice in order to carry on having the dream.  (I never turn off my alarm.)  I was very chummy with all of the Endless, except that Dream didn’t really want to chat.  This led me to wonder whether I was one of the Endless.  I didn’t see Despair or Desire, so I was probably one of those two, if I was anyone.  Destruction was ridiculously huge, but very friendly.  Destiny was surprisingly forthcoming with information…

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The Doll’s House, Neil Gaiman

Published 13 Jan 2009 by Gin Jenny

Ooh, this volume is spookier than I remember.  It’s a bit hard to explain the plot, which is intricately linked to other storylines, but in short, it’s about a girl called Rose, who is looking for her little brother.  A number of other people are milling around: G.K. Chesterton, a woman who’s been pregnant for several years, a serial killer with teeth in his eyes, women with enormous spider collections, and that makes it interesting.  Still, essentially it’s all about Rose.  She has multicolored hair and numerous connections to the previous volume.  She is also a vortex, which means that…

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