(no subject)

[pearwaldorf]

The cat STILL has fleas after an apartment bombing, shampoo, AND application of Frontline. My fury knows no bounds.

Went to Powell's and found not only a collection of 25 short stories by Lord Dunsany, but a copy of Robert Fagles's translation of the Odyssey. For 9.95! Much happiness.

Have idea for story/poem based upon a line in Peter S. Beagle's introduction to the Ballantine editions of Lord of the Rings. Let's see if it actually goes anywhere.

Comments

[strebor.livejournal.com]

if frontline doesn't work, next time try Advantage. my cats had it bad (really, really bad) because of a hot spell, and we nuked them with advantage, and both are flea free as of now.

hello, allow me to intrude for one moment.

[monsterwalking.livejournal.com]

hi there, i found you by scrolling through the damnedportlander friends list.

two thoughts-

1. your layout is lovely!

2. (i believe this is addressed in the comment above mine, but i can't remember what the name of the product i used was) those drops you get from the vet and place on the nape of your cats necks really do the trick. for fleas, i mean. my cats had an awful flea problem a few years ago, and i finally took them to the vet and got the drops. really, it was the best thing ever! they've been flea free ever since. not too expensive, if i remember right, i think i got a 6 months supply for about $40. my cats are indoor cats, so one dosage did the trick, as they weren't dragging more in with them.

anyway, fleas are awful, and i just had to comment and let you know that there is an end in sight!

[noog.livejournal.com]

It makes me happy that someone else has heard of Lord Dunsany. I love his use of language, and I hated Stardust by Neil Gaiman because it lifted so heavily from Dunsany's works a)without citing the references, b)without the same ability Dunsany brought to his writing. What collection of stories did you get?

[sonatine.livejournal.com]

It's called The Hashish Man, and it's put out by Manic D Press. Heretofore, I'd only encountered The King of Elfland's Daughter and it's a much more diverse collection of his work, where you can definitely see why Lovecraft would be influenced by him, as well as Tolkien and others.

Actually, Neil has something in the acknowledgements of my edition of Stardust where he cites Cabell, C.S. Lewis, and Dunsany as influences. But yes, to the layman, Dunsany's presence in the text wouldn't be obvious at all beyond a few vague references to "the fields we know".

I'm not quite sure what you mean by "without the same ability Dunsany brought to his writing." I think Gaiman is an extraordinarily talented storyteller (do keep in mind that I adore this man and will irrationally defend him to the death ^.^) and has probably done more than any author I know in bringing Dunsany to the attention of masses again. Of course, this is within my limited knowledge of author recommendations, so I could be totally off.

(And to be perfectly honest, I've tried to read through The King of Elfland's Daughter four times and the prose just kicks my ass every time. It's really horrible, and probably invalidates everything I just said above.)

[noog.livejournal.com]

The Hashish Man is actually the first thing I read by Dunsany, and still my favorite. I think "Charon," the very first story in the collection, is the best of the bunch.

And I can see where the prose of The King of Elfland's Daughter might be a bit cloying. Have you read the other novel Del Rey has released, The Charwoman's Shadow? I think it's a bit more accessible.

I've never been a big fan of Gaiman's, to be honest; except for Good Omens, the book he wrote with Terry Pratchett, nothing I've read by him really captivates me. C'est la vie, I suppose.