learnedax | (no subject)

After having the DVD for years, I finally got around to watching Being John Malkovich. Charlie Kaufman is a messed up guy.

Also, read Dilvish, the Damned by Roger Zelazny, continuing through his oeuvre. It's an interesting set of short stories about the same character, somewhere between a continuous story and a bundle of vignettes, written over an eighteen-year period. Not all of the stories were written in chronological order, but by and large they were. The early stories have a pleasantly simplistic adventure style to them, which gradually gives way to a more verbose, philosophical style. The next in the set is really The Changing Land, verbose enough that it's a novel. The conceptual development hangs together fairly well, and the change in style over the course of the book is interesting, but we don't really get any development of the main characters. I find this a bit irksome, particularly as our hero is frequently bailed out by his powerful and flawless sidekick. If the latter's seemingly interesting story had been developed more, he might not have seemed like such a constant deus ex machina. I enjoyed the book throughout, but I think the later parts were rather weaker. I'm coming to the conclusion that Zelazny's work basically went from good to mediocre around 1977.

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I'm coming to the conclusion that Zelazny's work basically went from good to mediocre around 1977.

I could look them up, but I'm lazy. Amongst my favorites are A Night in the Lonesome October and Jack of Shadows. They're probably both pre-77.

I haven't gotten to either yet, but Jack of Shadows was next on my list, from the early 70s. Lonesome October I think is more recent, though.... yeah, 1992. So there's one I should check out from his later work.

When was The Stainless Steel Leach collection? That is some good, good stuff. I'm very fond of Lonesome October, but it is one of his very rare books that was late and good.

The short story"Stainless Steel Leech" was early 1963. It was reprinted in the collection Last Defender of Camelot in 1980 (which I own; I don't know this stuff off the top of my head). I'm also fond of Unicorn Variations another collection of his short stories.

Zelazny used to be one of my absolute favorite writers. Some I used to re-read often, but haven't in ages - almost all fiction has been pruned from the collection by now. Hearing you talk about it makes me nostalgic tho'... maybe I'll dig out Lord of Light...

Dilvish always seemed like a warm up, or a rehash, of Corwin's story. In fact, having read it in my youth I misremembered its existence, and attributed some of Dilvish's actions to Corwin, until I went back and re-read it some years ago.