Currently in Earphones: Quantum of Solace soundtrack by David Arnold
So I've finally started reading The King in Yellow by Robert Chambers, and found a little passage that rather eloquently sums up where things went wrong in a long-past affair of mine...
"Whether because I am so cowardly about giving pain to others, or whether it was that I have a little of the gloomy Puritan in me, I do not know, but I shrank from disclaiming responsibility for that thoughtless kiss...Others who habitually do their duty and find a sullen satisfaction in making themselves and everyone else unhappy, might have withstood it. I did not. I dared not."
- The Yellow Sign
But back to the literary side of things, I only allowed myself to start reading Chambers when I had finished the collection of Elric stories I had bought a few weeks ago. Elric seems to me to be the Linkin Park of Swords of Sorcery, though a bit more refined. The moody, brooding character (both excellent words to use if you were playing a drinking game with any of Moorcock's stories featuring him) channels the teen crack-cocaine blend of angst, alienation, and cool. I now have a list of sci-fi/fantasy books that, had I read them in High School, I probably would have thought them to be the COOLEST THINGS EVAR. The Elric stories fit this description to a "t," and yet, coming to them now and having sampled far more in terms of authors and genres, I find them only entertaining/interesting/passable.
That's not to say that there's nothing to like. I particularly enjoyed the four part Stormbringer and what's essentially the origin story, The Dreaming City. And as I've said before, it was a wise decision on Moorcock's part to include the character of Moonlgum as a friend and foil to Elric. I don't think I could have endured endless stories of Elric moping about by his lonesome without a lighthearted character to balance him out (Although, at the end of Sad Giant's Shield Moonglum seems to totally break character for a scene, which threw off my appreciation a bit). I do recommend the Elric stories to all who enjoy a bit of fantasy, but you'll probably be more disposed to them if you were ever a teenage boy (or perhaps girl, if you were really gloomy).
Anywho, I'm off to read more Chambers.
Enough, More Later.
- James
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