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- EARLY CHINESE TEXTS PAINTNG P (2)
- By Bush
- Finished on Jan 20, 2012
  
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EARLY CHINESE TEXTS PAINTNG P

A friend of mine gave me a copy of this book. I'm not sure it's something I would have bought for myself as I'm not a big fan or art criticism. But I found I really enjoyed this book. It's a collection of translations of mainly Song and Tang texts on painting and the nature of art and artists. While ... (continue)

A friend of mine gave me a copy of this book. I'm not sure it's something I would have bought for myself as I'm not a big fan or art criticism. But I found I really enjoyed this book. It's a collection of translations of mainly Song and Tang texts on painting and the nature of art and artists. While there was a lot of technical details about paintings and what makes paintings good there was also a nice ammount of social history. Rather than do a big review I will give some quotes as examples of the types of things being talked about.
The first thing that I loved was from a preface written by Wei Hung in 25ce to the shijing. He said, "The music of the epoch of good government is quiescent and therefore joyful, for the governing is harmonious. The music of the period of confusion is discontented and therefore wrathful, for the government is deteriorated. The music of the country running to ruin is complaining and mediating, for the people reached misery" (60 I just loved this so much. There in an early 1st century CE Chinese text you have a Confucian explaing why Punk happens!!!!!!
Even in the early texts from the 4th century there were a lot of people writing about the greatness of the past and how modern art is rubbish.
Chen Yen Yuan had a long passage on the importance of conservation and preservation of paintings and how you should handle them not to damage them. "One should never look at calligraphy and painting near a fire or candle. Also, one should never look at calligraphy in wind or sunlight, or when one has just been eating drinking spitting or blowing the nose without washing one's hands. .. All calligraphy and painting if unrolled from time to time may be kept free of insects and dampness.
This theme was returned to later when Chao Hsi-Ku talked about care and display of paintings. Of only having a few in a room and then rotating these. "the silk of antique paintings is so brittle that when touched even lightly, it will invariably be damaged and once ruined it can never be restored. The greatest precautions must be taken against stains left by wine or oil from food. One should, by all means, write thse instructions on a piece of paper and paste it between the windows as a notice to visitors. Only then should guest be brought into the room for viewing". (239) Tang Hou added to this saying "one should not look at paintings under the lamplight nor with wine by one's side after drinking to excess. Furthermore, do not show paintings to people without taste. To unroll a painting in an inappropriate manner is extremly harmful to it. As for the ignorant and decietful, they insist upon looking at paintings and thoughtlessly criticize their quality and style. They basically lack understanding of these works and carelessly judge their geniueness or spuriousness. This causes one to be short tempered" (259)
One part that was interesting mentioned how somebody became a great painted by listening to the criticism of ordinary people who saw his paintings. This was totally differnet to the idea of artist as genius and art not being something that ordinary people can understand. Though this was during the Tang and later in the Song and Yuan there were many who wrote that there were things that normal people or supposed scholars could not understand. A later painter was critical that when people found out that he was a painter they wanted him to paint very specific things but when he couldn't they became annoyed with him.
There was also a lot of talk about how it was important not just to capture the likeness of something but also the spirit. Thus painting became not just a physical activity but was another judge of how much of a sage the painter was in his ability to look beyond the surface of things. Portraits were supposed to not just show the appearance but describe the mind of the individual. "otherwise nobles and commoners would be alike in visage though their minds differ. The valued and the worthless, the honoured and the detested, how then would they be differentiated? Even though they would have formal likeness of what benefit would this be?" (230)
I did enjoy this book, particularly the Song part, as there were many names that had become familiar to me while I was writing my dissertation and it was nice to revist them and see what they had to say on other topics. I greatly enjoyed this book and will have to read lots more books on Chinese history again this year.

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— Feb 5, 2012 | Add your feedback
- The Windup Girl (144)
- By Paolo Bacigalupi
- Abandoned on Jan 26, 2012
  
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The Windup Girl

A friend of mine loaned this to me and I was very excited to read it. She loved it and it had been hailed as the next best thing since William Gibson, dystopia future and all kinds of goodness. Alas I gave up after about 3 chapters. I probably should have tried longer but have just got too many love ... (continue)

A friend of mine loaned this to me and I was very excited to read it. She loved it and it had been hailed as the next best thing since William Gibson, dystopia future and all kinds of goodness. Alas I gave up after about 3 chapters. I probably should have tried longer but have just got too many lovely books to read at the moment.
The biggest problem I had with the book was the lack of description. The first chapter was about someone in a futuristic factory where they made something called springs that didn't seem to work, but then it seemed like a dinosaur or something broke loose from the factory machinery and went on a rampage. There was just no way to picture what was happening. Too many new ideas with no explanation was a bit annoying. Then it was time to meet the "wind up" girl our female protagonist and the first scene with her proceeded with her getting humilated and raped (and coming!) by a woman in what was possibly a strip club/brothel (as I said bit of a problem with lack of description). It was like the author really wanted to write the traditional subserviant Japanese woman/Geisha ideal. But felt he couldn't get away with it today so made her a "new people" sex toy genetically grown non-human. Not an idea that's at all new to scifi and one that has been done much better. It just felt far too much like a sexual fantasy ideal. She was about as far away from Molly in neuromancer as I think you could get.
So I gave up. I do try to like modern scifi. It just never seems to appeal to me.

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— Jan 28, 2012 | Add your feedback
- Edge of the Orison (3)
- In the Traces of John Clare's "Journey Out of Essex"
- By Iain Sinclair
- Finished on Jan 27, 2012
  
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Edge of the Orison

I first heard of Ian Sinclair a few months ago when he did an event with Alan Moore at the Barbican. He did some readings and I liked his style. I borrowed this book from the library as I really like Moore's chapter on John Clare in Voice of the Fire and apparently Moore was one of the people in the ... (continue)

I first heard of Ian Sinclair a few months ago when he did an event with Alan Moore at the Barbican. He did some readings and I liked his style. I borrowed this book from the library as I really like Moore's chapter on John Clare in Voice of the Fire and apparently Moore was one of the people in the book so it seemed like a good place to start.
I have to say I did not get on that well with this book. I found the lack of structure really frustrating. It seemed to drift all over the place, sometimes about walking, family history, other history, Clare's life with no real reason behind any of it. When he was talking about historical things I did enjoy the book. There was a chapter about Shelly which I particularly liked. However, there was a lot I didn't care for. The walking chapters just seemed SO pretentious it hurt. It was like he was the subject of Pulp's common people. Recreating a walk of a madman on the run from a mental hospital and then staying in nice hotels just felt like cheating, and being outraged when you couldn't stay in the posh one cause you were too scruffy from walking even though they'd taken your credit card seemed absurd. He just came across as so annoying. He was like the opposite of Kerouac, instead of going around and digging all the things he saw and celebrating them, it just all came off as superior comdemnation. There was also a lot about his wife's family history, which while he attempted to link with Clare I don't think he managed very well and in the end I found those sections very dull.
I've got a copy of his book he wrote with Rachel Lictenstein about the disappearing cabalist in spitalfields which I'm looking forward to reading. But I can't see myself picking up any more of his books.

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— Feb 4, 2012 | Add your feedback
- Managra (2)
- (Doctor Who the Missing Adventures)
- By Stephen Marley
- Finished on Jan 21, 2012
  
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Managra

This was the first of the Missing adventures that I'd read that wasn't by Gareth Roberts and Oh dear it was not very good! There were lots of times that the Doctor and Sarah didn't act like themselves (Sarah wearing a plain black bikini? The Doctor knocking people unconcious with a yoyo?) The story, ... (continue)

This was the first of the Missing adventures that I'd read that wasn't by Gareth Roberts and Oh dear it was not very good! There were lots of times that the Doctor and Sarah didn't act like themselves (Sarah wearing a plain black bikini? The Doctor knocking people unconcious with a yoyo?) The story, I'd hoped would be a little like Leagure of Extraordinary Gentlemen with a bunch of 19th characters, but it was much more like a trailer for the movie. There was no real explanation for the strangeness of the world. It was just that way, with clones from previous ages and literature hanging around in different time periods. It reminded me of the role playing game Torg. The plot seemed to be that things were controlled by this evil play wright who had to be stopped before he took control of the vatican. I shall probably not be trying many more books in this series!

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— Feb 1, 2012 | Add your feedback
- Panoramas of Lost London (1)
- Work, Wealth, Poverty and Change 1870-1945
- By Philip Davies
- Finished on Jan 23, 2012
  
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Panoramas of Lost London

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This book is a gorgeous collection of photographs from the London County Council of buildings that were going to be destroyed from the 1870s-1940s. Unlike a lot of books of photographs of London this one doesn't just focus on the poverty or the grandeur but it covers wealthy areas as well as slums, ... (continue)

This book is a gorgeous collection of photographs from the London County Council of buildings that were going to be destroyed from the 1870s-1940s. Unlike a lot of books of photographs of London this one doesn't just focus on the poverty or the grandeur but it covers wealthy areas as well as slums, places of work and industry. This makes for a much bigger impact. The photos are also stunningly well organised within the categories with streets next to each other geographically next to each other in the book. This gives a great sense of walking through London and seeing how it used to be. It also shows how poverty wasn't just confined to the East End but could be found throughout London.

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— Jan 23, 2012 | Add your feedback

- No Tomorrow (4)
- By Vivant Denon
- Finished on Jan 21, 2012
  
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No Tomorrow

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I found this nice little dual language version of this story when I was at the Wallace Collection. It's dual language, not facing pages but with the English translation first and then the French version. I read the English translation first, then the French and was quite surprised how after reading ... (continue)

I found this nice little dual language version of this story when I was at the Wallace Collection. It's dual language, not facing pages but with the English translation first and then the French version. I read the English translation first, then the French and was quite surprised how after reading the English the French was quite easy to follow along with and I didn't have to go back to the English and remember what was happening cause I'd gotten lost.
The story was a lovely tale of seduction in 18th century France. It was a lot like Dangerous Liasons but without the malice and the tragedy and the moral ending. Here was a story without a moral. It was just a very pleasant tale of a young man being seduced by his mistresses' friend, them having a very enjoyable time, and then going his own way once the woman's husband and lover return. It's sweet and light and the people act very much like people. You could actually see this happening in real life. And the fact that there are no dire consequencdes makes it even better.
The only thing I didn't much care for was the introduction at the begining. Thankfully I read it after I'd finished the story as in addition to giving backgroun on the author's life (though his reputation as the author is still somewhat doubtful) they go almost scene by scene through the story itself. Definitely best to avoid if you don't want spoilers!!

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— Jan 28, 2012 | Add your feedback
- Judgment Day (7)
- By Alan Moore
- Finished on Jan 21, 2012
  
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Judgment Day

This collection of superhero comics on the other hand I did not care for much at all. The only thing I found amusing was that the women superheros were complaining about the outfits of the new superheros, and quite rightly so! I thought it was supposed to be a court version of superheros like top te ... (continue)

This collection of superhero comics on the other hand I did not care for much at all. The only thing I found amusing was that the women superheros were complaining about the outfits of the new superheros, and quite rightly so! I thought it was supposed to be a court version of superheros like top ten was a police version. But instead the court plot took up only three fifths of the book and the rest was mostly filler. The characters seemed to be mostly copied from other superhero books, with a fake superman, womderwoman etc. The story itself about a magical artifact book that could change peoples lives was ok but not very original either. Definitely not one of Moore's best. I'm glad I just borrowed a copy from the library!

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— Jan 22, 2012 | Add your feedback
- Top Ten (37)
- The Forty-Niners (Top Ten)
- By Alan Moore
- Finished on Jan 17, 2012
  
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Top Ten

Forty-niners was basically a big gay romance. It featured the guy who'd end up the chief of the precinct and his partner of 50 or so years and looked at how they got together. There was also a sub plot of how the city of superheros got built and how the police started. But for me the most important ... (continue)

Forty-niners was basically a big gay romance. It featured the guy who'd end up the chief of the precinct and his partner of 50 or so years and looked at how they got together. There was also a sub plot of how the city of superheros got built and how the police started. But for me the most important thing was the relationship between the characters. The art style was also much more to my liking. It was much more muted colours and had a much more realistic feel. While I missed a lot of the cast from the rest of Top Ten it was very sweet and I liked it a great deal.

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— Jan 22, 2012 | Add your feedback
- Top Ten, Vol. 2 (50)
- By Alan Moore
- Finished on Jan 16, 2012
  
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Top Ten, Vol. 2

Top ten book 2 continued the nice character development of book 1. It was short but it seemed to wrap up several of the stories really nicely and set up the two next books that were in different time periods or settings. I think Top ten definitely feels more like a cop show than a superhero comic. T ... (continue)

Top ten book 2 continued the nice character development of book 1. It was short but it seemed to wrap up several of the stories really nicely and set up the two next books that were in different time periods or settings. I think Top ten definitely feels more like a cop show than a superhero comic. There aren't really any big fights, at least there aren't any distracting ones and there's a lot more plots to do with the existance of life, unorthodox relationships and prejudice. The last section of book 2 had me in tears as it was so sweet.

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— Jan 22, 2012 | Add your feedback
- The Book of Ghosts (1)
- Tales from the Terrific Register
- By Cate Ludlow
- Finished on Jan 21, 2012
  
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The Book of Ghosts

I have to admit I was a tiny bit disappointed in this collection. As it was named the book of ghosts I was expecting it all to be ghost stories, however only maybe a third of the stories had to do with ghosts, the others mentioned, people coming back from the dead, being buried alive, fortelling som ... (continue)

I have to admit I was a tiny bit disappointed in this collection. As it was named the book of ghosts I was expecting it all to be ghost stories, however only maybe a third of the stories had to do with ghosts, the others mentioned, people coming back from the dead, being buried alive, fortelling someone's death and a few other supernatural things. I think it would have been more appropriate to call it the book of the dead.
But that said the stories were all still very nice. There were many people who were visited by their friends or loved ones after death as a result of a pact. I liked these stories as the ghosts weren't scary and the people not terrified. There were also a fair number of stories about people visiting haunted places, where the ghosts were unfamiliar to them and subsequently terrifying (even when nothing supernatural had actually taken place.
I'm very much liking this series of reproductions from the Terrific register though and am definitely going to collect and read all of them this year.

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— Jan 24, 2012 | Add your feedback

- The Plotters (2)
- (Doctor Who)
- By Gareth Roberts
- Finished on Jan 17, 2012
  
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The Plotters

This was the first book I've read by Gareth Roberts that wasn't fourth doctor and Romana II. It was a first doctor adventure with Vicky, Babara and Ian. While I didn't love it as much as the Romana books it was still very good. It felt like a proper first doctor historical adventure, with a lot of h ... (continue)

This was the first book I've read by Gareth Roberts that wasn't fourth doctor and Romana II. It was a first doctor adventure with Vicky, Babara and Ian. While I didn't love it as much as the Romana books it was still very good. It felt like a proper first doctor historical adventure, with a lot of humour thrown in for good measure. Roberts included a very good disclaimer at the begining that said it was not intended to be historically accurate and recommended a proper history book on the subject of Guy Fawkes if you wanted to know what actually happened. But intended it to be historically accurate in the way the Romans was. And I have to say he succeeded very well.
Like the Romans there were no space aliens hiding in the period trying to take over the world. All the plotting came from actual humans who lived during the period, Guy Fawkes and his fellow plotters and Robert Cecil. There were amusing sub plots where Vicky had to dress as a boy, and quite naturally ended up being fancied by King James I. (A plot that probably wouldn't have happened in the original first doctor adventures but worked very well). It included the idea that the Catholics were being set up by Cecil to further his anti-Catholic policies. There were secret tunnels, cross dressing, taverns, poor people and all sorts of adventure. I enjoyed is so much I'm thinking I should try some of the EDA that Gareth Roberts wrote. As so far I've been very impressed.

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— Jan 22, 2012 | Add your feedback
Pebble in the sky
- Pebble in the sky (58)
- By Isaac Asimov
- Finished on Jan 14, 2012
  
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Pebble in the sky

I quite enjoyed this book, unfortunately the ending was a bit of a let down. It was a lovely story of unexplained time travel where a person was put billions of years into the future where Earth was radioactive and isolated from a large galactic empire of regular humans. They were controlled by this ... (continue)

I quite enjoyed this book, unfortunately the ending was a bit of a let down. It was a lovely story of unexplained time travel where a person was put billions of years into the future where Earth was radioactive and isolated from a large galactic empire of regular humans. They were controlled by this weired religion that had them as the original birthplace of mankind. They were mutated and killed everyone when they reached 60 as the Earth could only support so much life. The plot was heading towards quite an apocalypse at the end and then all the action happened somewhere else which was quite disappointing. Still it was an interesting setting and had some interesting ideas. Definitely didn't love it as much as the last Asimov I read but enjoyed it nonetheless.

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— Jan 15, 2012 | Add your feedback
- Doctor Who - The Brilliant Book 2012 (3)
- The Official Guide to the Hit TV Series
- By Tom MacRae, Gareth Roberts, Jason Arnopp, …
- Finished on Jan 13, 2012
  
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Doctor Who - The Brilliant Book 2012

The Brilliant book of Doctor Who is really just a Doctor Who annual for grown ups. Last years was annual sized and I thought it was amusing that this years was smaller. I mean they're really not fooling anyone so why pretend? It was a great review of this season. Episode by episode with behind the s ... (continue)

The Brilliant book of Doctor Who is really just a Doctor Who annual for grown ups. Last years was annual sized and I thought it was amusing that this years was smaller. I mean they're really not fooling anyone so why pretend? It was a great review of this season. Episode by episode with behind the scenes, lots of additional flavour text (Vestra's was BRILLIANT! She totally needs her own Spin-off the poster referenced Jago and Litefoot AND Blake's 7!!!!) It was also nice to see the inclusion of fan art from the interwebs. The bits of background are nice and it is a great round up of my favourite season in new who.
There are interviews with the cast and Moffatt. Whenever I read an interview with Moffatt he comes across sounding like a bit of an asshole. I love what he does with the show but I still think he is a bit of an idiot. The rest of the interviews are all great. I love that Alex thinks the Doctor and River should be kissing lots more now, and that she hangs out with his future selves and not just 11.

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— Jan 14, 2012 | Add your feedback
- X'ed Out (34)
- By Charles Burns
- Finished on Jan 13, 2012
  
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X'ed Out

The size and length of this book made it seem very much like a European stlye comic book. It was large and hardcover and quite short. It was the story of a drug addict freaking out with flashbacks to his life before and hints of how things went down hill. It was nice but it was far too short. This i ... (continue)

The size and length of this book made it seem very much like a European stlye comic book. It was large and hardcover and quite short. It was the story of a drug addict freaking out with flashbacks to his life before and hints of how things went down hill. It was nice but it was far too short. This is the first part of the a new series and the next one will be released in September. It reminded me why I tend to read things that have already been finished as I'm not very patient and want all the story at once. But I did enjoy this and am looking forward to the next part.

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— Jan 14, 2012 | Add your feedback
- Voices from ancient Egypt (3)
- an anthology of Middle Kingdom writings
- By R. B. Parkinson
- Finished on Jan 15, 2012
  
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Voices from ancient Egypt

Bill bought this book at the British Museum and when he finished it he suggested I read it as he thought I'd like it as it had lots of intresting things to say about writing and social history. I read it and really liked it. The texts were all aranged by different subjects, intellectual setting of c ... (continue)

Bill bought this book at the British Museum and when he finished it he suggested I read it as he thought I'd like it as it had lots of intresting things to say about writing and social history. I read it and really liked it. The texts were all aranged by different subjects, intellectual setting of cosmos and state, the king, the life of the land, religious life and the other life. It was mostly translations of papri with some inscriptions. The book was mostly primary sources with some explanations of the texts giving them context and when they were written.
I found it interesting that a book seprated out the religious writing from the writing about death and the afterlife as this is what most people tend to think of when they think of Egyptian religion. But the book focused much more on the lives of more ordinary people. There were letters from husbands to their dead wifes and vice versa. The letter from the wife to her dead husband asked him to heal the servant girl who was ill and being haunted by ghosts and evil spirits. It was all very fascinating.
The section on the life of the land was also really interesting. My favourite text was why it was good to be a scribe and the problems of all the other professions. But there was also insight into lives of people. There was a very fussy man who was giving lots of instructions on how his household should be run while he was away on business and what they were doing right and much more on what they were doing wrong. There was some great graffti from soliders on campaings, and it was amusing to see insults that followed standard formulas but in reverse. It really gave a good glimpse of society during the period.
I would recommend this book to people who've already read a bit about Egyptian history but are interested in finding out more details.

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— Jan 22, 2012 | Add your feedback