Dancing up the Milky Way

Finally! Finished! Hope Mirrlees's Lud-in-the-Mist.

And I feel...unsatisfied. Like watching a movie with so much promise, and then it gets better in the middle, but the climax is all rushed and potong stim.

Makes me want to read Clarke's Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell, really.

One review here. Which I agree with.

Right, right, let's start at the beginning.

Synopsis

The town of Lud-in-the-Mist is a thriving one, being the most important port in the country of Dorimare. However, despite the humdrum nature of its inhabitants, the town has a pretty odd history. The last Duke of the town - Duke Aubrey - was driven out by the merchants (or the middle class of the time) due to his high-handed ways. And one of the things the Duke did which the common people didn't agree with was his love of Fairies and all things Faerie. Also, towards the west of the town lie the Debatable Hills and the Elfin Marches - to go over the hills into Faerie would mean certain death, for none who have gone there have ever returned.

And then, just when life seems perfect in Lud, fairy fruit (drug-like fruits you'll never see in real life, which can either drive a person mad or make them see things differently from the rest - which isn't a big difference, really) begins to turn up among the citizens of Lud. The Mayor, Master Nathaniel Chanticleer, is responsible to stop this plague and get to the root of the problem. Trouble is, he isn't really all there himself...

I can't write synopses, meh.

Things I Liked

1. The whole mystery of Faerie and the fairies. They're never there exactly, just mentioned in passing. But you can feel the fear of the people of Lud towards these unknown creatures...

2. Mirrlees's writing is gorgeous. She writes descriptions really well wei. And somewhere in there, she even includes her own commentary on society, like this one here on the Law -

The men of the revolution, he said, had substituted law for fairy fruit. But whereas only the Duke and his priests had been allowed to partake of the fruit, the law was given freely to rich and poor alike. Again, fairy was delusion, so was the law. At any rate, it was a sort of magic, moulding reality into any shape it chose. But, whereas fairy magic and delusion were for the cozening and robbing of man, the magic of the law was to his intention and for his welfare.

3. The names! The names! Like Dreamsweet, and Moonlove Honeysuckle, and Endymion Leer, and Marigold Vigil - prettyyyy.

4. Loved the part where Willy Wisp made the girls dance.

5. The oaths, like By the Sun, Moon and Stars and the Golden Apples of the West, By my great-aunt's rump, or even Toasted Cheese!

Things I Didn't Like

1. Not. Enough. Faerie. Mirrlees's story kinda draws you in, and hints, and reels you right into it...and then she drops the little details bit by bit. NOT ENOUGH!!!

2. The fairies weren't explained properly - okay, part of their charm is their mystery. But I would've liked to know more about them...the short scenes in Faerie made me very happy, but they were waaaaaaay too short.

3. Duke Aubrey - I really, really wanted to know more about this guy. Mirrlees didn't give enough.

4. Women in here only have a few specific purposes:

a. faint
b. hyperventilate
c. be stupid and dim
d. run away to Fairyland and be saved by A Man

Then again, this was written way back in 1926...

5. The main characters aren't very likeable. I wanted to slap Master Nathaniel for the first half of the book, and was mildly amused with him in the second, and then I realised that he emo-ed over his son's disappearance to Faerie, but he didn't even care when his daughter went the same way. Yar, because he likes his son better - don't have to be so blatant about it kan? Sheesh.

This book is short. As in, 270 pages only. It's entertaining, and sweet, and it makes you dreamy, but it wasn't enough for me. You want more suspense, and more fairies and drama, go read Clarke. That one will be about...5 times Mirrlees's book - all 1000+ pages of it. Yum.

One thing though - Mirrlees has awesome chapter titles, like Panic and the Silent People* and The World-in-Law.

* I thought of Plath's Johnny Panic and the Bible of Dreams when I read the title - the chapter though, is completely different from what I expected.

My cover looks like this. They took the introduction by Neil Gaiman out of this edition; the older ones had it apparently. *gripe* Pretty cover, isn't it? Though it looks a bit suspect - sister was making fun of it the other day, going "OMG YOU READ PORN!!" when she realised that it was a naked fairy lady. Aaaand...I found quite a few typos in the book. Oh yes I did. "Marizpan" instead of "marzipan", to name one.

No pr0n in here. Trufax. I read the book, didn't I?

Hmm. And just the other day, while we were watching The Fellowship of the Ring, says she to me: "Why are they [Saruman's Uruk-hais] doing this?"

Me: "What?"

She: "Who's paying them?"

Me: "Saruman said so. So they have to hunt the hobbits."

She: "What for? Don't get paid oso."

*ponder*

Slavery hey.

And this is something bizarre - What Tolkien Officially Said about Elf Sex. Hur hur. With citations from canon included, okay.

One of the subtopics made me laugh - Interspecies Sex is Tragic. Tell that to a Holly/Artemis shipper. I dare you.

Epic-haired rabbit has epic hair. (I swear, Chin Lei, I actually jumped back from the comp when that pic loaded.)

And the Twilight sequel will be directed by none other thaaaaaan -

*dumdumdum*

Chris Weitz.

The irony. It is not dead.