Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea
Jan. 10th, 2010 07:24 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
nonionayI'm going to try to keep my GoodReads up to date, if for no other reason than to remind myself that I actually do get some reading done.
I just finished Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea, the second book for me to finish reading entirely on my new iPod. It's both an amazing and frustrating read. Amazing because every event and description is vibrantly drawn and usually mesmerizing. Frustrating, because there's a LOT of vibrantly drawn description.
I read it for Captain Nemo, since I want to write a short story featuring him. He's by far the best drawn character in the book, and if you want a look at how to define a character solely by their motivations, self-made environment and actions, then read this. His back story is only barely hinted at, his relationships with his crew mostly one-sided (he likes his crew, his crew likes him. That's all we know.) I was disappointed to learn that everything I know about Captain Nemo from movies and such, is pretty much all there is to know (however, I'm going to read The Mysterious Island next, which should add a little more.) However, he's mysterious and evocative and by leaving so much to the imagination, the reader is able to make a lot out of him. I definitely place him among my favorite characters ever, probably because like me, he's a hard and thoughtful person, but he's driven in bold ways by a level of passion I wish I had.
I wanna be a pirate roaming the seas with my band of bitter, bitter buddies being secretive and feeling better than everyone else!
However, worst ending ever! A lot of things are out of date in this book, of course (Dugongs=not ferocious. South Pole=not sailable to.) but worst of all is that Verne predates the memo that tells writers not to leave out the climax and instead just skip to the end and say, "And then I woke up in a fisherman's hut."
He also missed the memo that says, "If you're going to write a sequel that takes place sixteen years after the first book, don't say it takes place two years before the first book happened! Especially don't have your character die two years before their adventure that took place 'sixteen years ago.'"
Author contradictions mean I won't fret over putting Captain Nemo twenty or so years after he supposedly lived!
I just finished Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea, the second book for me to finish reading entirely on my new iPod. It's both an amazing and frustrating read. Amazing because every event and description is vibrantly drawn and usually mesmerizing. Frustrating, because there's a LOT of vibrantly drawn description.
I read it for Captain Nemo, since I want to write a short story featuring him. He's by far the best drawn character in the book, and if you want a look at how to define a character solely by their motivations, self-made environment and actions, then read this. His back story is only barely hinted at, his relationships with his crew mostly one-sided (he likes his crew, his crew likes him. That's all we know.) I was disappointed to learn that everything I know about Captain Nemo from movies and such, is pretty much all there is to know (however, I'm going to read The Mysterious Island next, which should add a little more.) However, he's mysterious and evocative and by leaving so much to the imagination, the reader is able to make a lot out of him. I definitely place him among my favorite characters ever, probably because like me, he's a hard and thoughtful person, but he's driven in bold ways by a level of passion I wish I had.
I wanna be a pirate roaming the seas with my band of bitter, bitter buddies being secretive and feeling better than everyone else!
However, worst ending ever! A lot of things are out of date in this book, of course (Dugongs=not ferocious. South Pole=not sailable to.) but worst of all is that Verne predates the memo that tells writers not to leave out the climax and instead just skip to the end and say, "And then I woke up in a fisherman's hut."
He also missed the memo that says, "If you're going to write a sequel that takes place sixteen years after the first book, don't say it takes place two years before the first book happened! Especially don't have your character die two years before their adventure that took place 'sixteen years ago.'"
Author contradictions mean I won't fret over putting Captain Nemo twenty or so years after he supposedly lived!
