peaches & cinnamon
I'm officially addicted to oven pancakes. Have I mentioned this before? I'm on to peach ones at the moment. Beautiful, peachy pancakes.
I get a two day weekend. I'm inordinately excited, considering most of the country gets a three day weekend. Two day weekends are so last year. What can I say, I'm behind the times.
I've now gone to New Seasons four days in a row. Today was because I realized I needed milk for my pancake. I feel very chic doing my marketing thusly.
I finished Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close. Read it.
Then I started reading Alice Munro's Runaway. I was distracted from the first story by the names.* I'm working on developing a theory about books & names. I don't know what I'm trying to prove, but this is my observation so far.
In some books, it feels like all the characters were named by one person: the author. While the author does in fact name all the characters, some books feel this way and some do not. Some feel like the characters were all named by different people: their parents. And they become real, breathing characters.
I guess it also comes down to this: in some books, the character and its name become as one. They are indistinguishable. In other books, they never quite meld.
(I will admit that this is perhaps not quite fair of me, to pick on writers for this. Maybe I just have unusually high standards for naming. I don't have to like the name, it just has to fit the character.)
Examples?
*We had Carla, Sylvia, Clark, Leon, Ruth and Joy. It just felt like she was trying too hard. Or maybe I just didn't like the story? Who knows.
I get a two day weekend. I'm inordinately excited, considering most of the country gets a three day weekend. Two day weekends are so last year. What can I say, I'm behind the times.
I've now gone to New Seasons four days in a row. Today was because I realized I needed milk for my pancake. I feel very chic doing my marketing thusly.
I finished Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close. Read it.
Then I started reading Alice Munro's Runaway. I was distracted from the first story by the names.* I'm working on developing a theory about books & names. I don't know what I'm trying to prove, but this is my observation so far.
In some books, it feels like all the characters were named by one person: the author. While the author does in fact name all the characters, some books feel this way and some do not. Some feel like the characters were all named by different people: their parents. And they become real, breathing characters.
I guess it also comes down to this: in some books, the character and its name become as one. They are indistinguishable. In other books, they never quite meld.
(I will admit that this is perhaps not quite fair of me, to pick on writers for this. Maybe I just have unusually high standards for naming. I don't have to like the name, it just has to fit the character.)
Examples?
*We had Carla, Sylvia, Clark, Leon, Ruth and Joy. It just felt like she was trying too hard. Or maybe I just didn't like the story? Who knows.
posted by Jess at 10:24 AM
4 Comments:
i understand about the name thing. i was trying to write something where the character was named Berlin, but i couldn't figure out who she really was. so she got put away for a while, or at least until i know more about who she is and why her name is Berlin.
Hey Jess, I have to give you the recipe for coconut custard pie when I get home (unless you're going to be in Western PA anytime soon). I made one yesterday and had forgotten how insanely easy they are.
Weren't you going to be in SF this weekend? Or did I miss something? Also, how about a recipe for oven pancake? Also, which Narnia book was it that had 'the woods between the worlds'?
I'm in SF next weekend - I leave for training on Tuesday. I'm contemplating bringing my laptop - it's very tempting.
I'll post with the oven pancake recipe. And yes, coconut custard recipe please!
Thanks for playing librarian, tuckova - I was busy getting paid to do it.
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