"But when his speakers assert power over time, they actually imagine power over space: the power of gold, beaten "to aery thinnesse," to reach across space; the power of a compass to organise sequence into a coherent spatial image; the power of lovers to reach beyond time into the celestial sphere. They try to fit time into the atemporal patterns of space"...
Lisa Gorton: John Donne's Use of Space


AS virtuous men pass mildly away,
And whisper to their souls to go,
Whilst some of their sad friends do say,
"Now his breath goes," and some say, "No."

So let us melt, and make no noise,
No tear-floods, nor sigh-tempests move ;
'Twere profanation of our joys
To tell the laity our love.

Moving of th' earth brings harms and fears ;
Men reckon what it did, and meant ;
But trepidation of the spheres,
Though greater far, is innocent.

Dull sublunary lovers' love
—Whose soul is sense—cannot admit
Of absence, 'cause it doth remove
The thing which elemented it.

But we by a love so much refined,
That ourselves know not what it is,
Inter-assurèd of the mind,
Care less, eyes, lips and hands to miss.

Our two souls therefore, which are one,
Though I must go, endure not yet
A breach, but an expansion,
Like gold to aery thinness beat.

If they be two, they are two so
As stiff twin compasses are two ;
Thy soul, the fix'd foot, makes no show
To move, but doth, if th' other do.

And though it in the centre sit,
Yet, when the other far doth roam,
It leans, and hearkens after it,
And grows erect, as that comes home.

Such wilt thou be to me, who must,
Like th' other foot, obliquely run ;
Thy firmness makes my circle just,
And makes me end where I begun.

"The image of time as a circle rests upon the belief that there is a world apart from time, and his logic is the illogical logic of faith and love. He ignores the time intervening between his ending and beginning, and the fact that a lover can return where but not when nor as he began. His circle cannot be printed; it must be drawn out."

guess. who. got. an. APARTMENT!?


(Benjamin Button? Pretty good for the first 75% or so, at which point the screenwriter apparently got writer's block and decided to go with insert-obligatory-plot-twist-here. The result is like me trying to argue about something I don't believe myself in an essay when the deadline is approaching. So go see Laputa instead.)

Note to self: it is not wise to eat 180g of Katjes berry candies. You will feel sick.

Also, half of a sock in one evening is now my official record.

Despite the fact that I hated Big Fish, won't read Time Traveller's Wife and can't watch violent films (like David Fincher's Seven), I can't wait to see The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, directed by David Fincher.

All I can say, it's a pretty good trailer.

I'll keep my fingers crossed.

Write under the bad news, I'm sick and missed a lecture.

Under the good news, it's likely the lecture would have been boring.

Under the bad news, there's no food for me as no-one expected me to stay home today.

Under the good news, I have yarn.



*When you're stylistically mimicking a book you wrote an essay on weeks after handing in the said essay, you really need to read more.

I just had a moment of sock-knitting-clarity and wrote an entry about it before going "..." and realizing that my post wouldn't probably make sense or be interesting to anyone but me. But I can tell you that suddenly understanding the sock gusset can get you pretty high (it might also be just coffee and lack of sleep. I prefer the first option).

Sick of your job? Looking for a new career? Why not apply here:
http://www.exec-appointments.com/jobs/viewAd.asp?id=124479

"We look for resourceful, adaptable, impactful people from the widest possible range of UK cultures and backgrounds."


(Sorry, still no real content here!)

In case I don't manage to do the traditional Year's Best -lists etc, let me just say that

1. There is a definite correlation between books read (very few) and stuff knitted (considerably more)

2. As I sometimes manage to forget my own age, you shouldn't take it for granted that I will remember what year it is either.

Also, I continue to encourage contact by email and apologise for every reply you did not/will not get through Facebook. Sorry!

And then double it.





( +1 )

And the snowflakes are the size of my fist!

Jos lämpömittari olis sillai jotenkin järkevästi luettavissa sisätiloista niin tietäisin että sulaako toi heti vai ei :p Mutta nyt voi vain arvailla.

After my Karen Joy Fowler reading binge, I once again hit a reader's block. This is most annoying as I'm in the possession of a gift card to the Akateeminen Bookstore.

After multiple tries to find something interesting just by browsing at the bookshop, I checked through the blogs and review sites I used to visit so often. I wanted to find out what the blogosphere proclaimed as the Next Big Thing, which books were on the Best of 2008 and Holiday Reads -lists.

Either it's been a bad year or I'm just too picky. The Booker winner I couldn't care less about (like all the winners since Life of Pi), Guardian's Books for Christmas had none of the qualities I want from a holiday read (I have to read quite enough pessimistic stories about motherhood and racial issues at the university, I do not need them during the vacations!) and I am pretty much allergic to dystopic SF that is apparently the main category of books reviewed in blogs. Finnish literature I have pretty much given up.

I miss Harry. I miss Lucy in the snow with Mr Tumnus. I miss snow in general. I miss the combination of adventure and comfort that a good fantasy novel can offer. I miss the witty language of Jonathan Strange and the feeling of discovery in The Left Hand of Darkness. I miss The Book Thief. I even miss Lyra, although after two tries I've still only read the first two books of the trilogy. So it should say something about how desperate I am that I tried Northern Lights on Friday...

The only reasonably good option I managed to find comes highly recommended by the Mumpsimus -blog, The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing. It does not have snow, but if the excerpts are anything to judge by, it does have true beauty of language. The comparisons to Book Thief make me hopeful, as it was certainly one of my best reads of this year*. And it's a YA novel that has reached an adult audience, like most of the books I listed above.

The main drawback -you guessed it- is that it's not available at Akateeminen. With some luck, the sequel will be, so if I read volume one first, then I can buy volume two with the gift certificate.

*Seriously, if you haven't read it, make it your no 1 Christmas wish. Only a very good writer can pull off a story narrated by Death that shows such humanity and sympathy.

#1: Inhokkivärini vaatetuksessa on niin kauan kuin muistan ollut violetti. Onpas tosi loogista, sanoo joku, vakionimimerkkini huomioon ottaen -se kun tulee orvokista, jonka taas yhdistän orvokinsiniseen. Eron näkee vaikka tässä: kiva väri vs. ei kiva väri.

Äitimokoma kuitenkin toi tuliaisiksi ei yhtä vaan jopa kaksi vaatetta, joissa on violettia. Toinen, beige-violetti tunika, sai hyväksynnän melko helposti koska siinä on myös muuta väriä (ja koska sen leikkaus hoikentaa. köh). Toinen, toppi-bolero yhdistelmä, vaikutti aluksi vaikeammin hyväksyttävältä, se kun on kokonaan violetti. Yhdessä en ole niitä vielä pitänyt, mutta yllätyin siitä miten kivalta topin väri näytti harmaan kanssa. Violetin vastustusrintama on siis murtumassa.

#2: Jos yhdistetään violetinsiedätyshoitoni toiseen vähintään yhtä yllättävään viimeaikaiseen innostukseeni, neulomiseen, saattaa tällainen lanka vielä päätyä minulle asusteeksi...

Shopping tips; all except for the last one are Finnish.

Törmään töissä (siis ihan oikeasti) jatkuvasti mielenkiintoisiin nettikauppoihin, ja vaarallistahan se tietenkin on. Lompakolle sii. Tässä muutamia joista olen ostanut/ostaisin jos voisin:

www.ilomieli.com
Ekovaatteita. Tuotetiedot ja kuvaukset parhaasta päästä, ja sympaattisuus kaupan päälle. Itse kuolaan laskoshameen (79€) ja pussukan (39€) perään.

www.skiidu.fi
Lisää ekologisuutta! Laukkuja ja kasseja. Täältä olen jo ehtinyt tilatakin, nopeaa oli toimitus. Hinnat kymmenen ja kahdenkymmenen euron välillä.

www.nitro-babe.com
Rock-henkisyyttä, tyttömäisyyttä. I’m in heaven. Tajuttoman ihania mekkoja, hameita, laukkuja sekä yhdet ylisöpöt kissakengät. Kivijalkakauppa Tampereella. Kuviin on selvästi panostettu ja pidän sivujen yleisilmeestä muutenkin. Täältäkin olen tilannut. Melko hintavaa, mutta aletuotteita kannattaa kytätä. Itse sain ihkun hameen kympillä.

www.bagiore.fi
Laukkuja, laukkuja ja laukkuja. Laukkuja on aivan liian helppo tilata netistä koska ei tarvitse miettiä kokoja. Täällä ”Candice” käsilaukku koitui turmiokseni. Toimitus nopea, laukku ihana, ja ostospussukka kaupan päälle.

www.brandos.fi
Valtava valikoima kenkiä. Jos uskaltaisin ostaa jalkineita netistä, ostaisin varmaan täältä.

www.nelly.com
Ruotsalainen yritys, jonka suomenkieliset sivut juuri avattu. Täytyy laittaa seurantaan. Ainakin merkkivalikoima on varsin laaja.

Today I logged into LJ for the first time in 11 days. During the summer I thought that I was going to use the computer more once the term started, but apparently I was wrong.

I also have space for a few more icons, so if anyone knows where to find good ones, feel free to tell me. Audrey Hepburn, maybe. I could use more of those. And Kirsten Dunst!

I saw Happy-Go-Lucky and Wall-E, liked the first more but would recommend the latter too. Love and Other Disasters wins both, though, so go see that first, if you can!

There are some presumptions that one makes almost unavoidably about writers and actors. After having seen Scarlett Johansson in Match Point, I expected her to play the ambitious sister is The Other Boleyn Girl, and I would hardly be the only person surprised if Rowling turned to psychological thrillers.

So perhaps you can imagine my surprise when Karen Joy Fowler, the writer of Jane Austen Book Club, turned out to have a background in SF & fantasy. The bestseller combination of book clubs and Jane Austen made me presume the author behind it had at best a resumé of Richard & Judy or Oprah titles, although more likely was that it was her first novel. So seeing her name revered on SF sites I could not leave it uninvestigated. It lead me to reading reviews of her books, and ultimately buying Sister Noon.

Sister Noon is a historical novel with some characteristics of speculative fiction, populated by many actual historical figures and is, indeed, centered around one such, called Mary Ellen Pleasant. The actual main character though is a middle-aged spinster called Lizzie, but Mrs. Pleasant still remains the mysterious driving force behind the story. Not only is the book full of beautiful language but also, remarkably, features one of the most unlikely (and yet very sympathetic) heroines I've encountered.

Luckily for me, Karen Joy Fowler's new novel had just come out when I finished Sister Noon, and that seemed equally distant in terms of genre from it as Sister Noon had seemed to be from Jane Austen Book Club.

Called Wit's End in US, Case of the Imaginary Detective in UK, the new book deals with the genre of detective novels. The main character Rima has lost her entire family and comes to stay with her godmother, a famous mystery writer Allison B. Early, creator of Maxwell Lane (whom I kept picturing as similar to 10th Doctor in appearance).
In parts the novel reminded me very strongly of Lumikko ja yhdeksän muuta, as both books have a slightly apathetic female main character who is a teacher and is dealing with loss while trying to solve the mysteries around a very famous writer. Both also portray a tightly-knit community that seems somewhat distant from reality. Admittedly Lumikko is much more plot-driven -the main characteristic of Imaginary Detective is that it's meandering -something that is has (to a degree) in common with Sister Noon. To me that's not necessarily a fault, and here it is not. For The Case of the Imaginary Detective is among other things about the nature of the reader-author relationship, about the fictional you vs. the real you, about stories and who owns them: to expect it to follow the conventions of a mystery novel would force it into a mould that it does not fit into. It all depends on what you expect. My expectations were probably influenced by me having just read Sister Noon, which is indeed the recommended order of reading these two books, in my opinion. Recommended they are, of that there is no doubt.

I have now started Fowler's first novel, Sarah Canary, and it is again something quite different. I am looking forward to another interesting reading experience.

The weather is grey and wet, but still, it’s Friday. The atmosphere at the office is sleepy and silently hopeful (Friday!). A day like a damp library book.

I’m about 40 pages short of finishing the first book of Hobb’s Liveship Traders series, and have been for a few weeks now. To me it’s a fact that establishes the trilogy as too inconsequential to be worth the effort.
I did manage to finish The Gamblers by Dostoevsky, although it took a while. My biggest problem with Russian literature (Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, and so on –not Nabokov) is still the style -all the interjections and sentences that seem to fade into nothing. My dad is of the opinion that it’s the (Finnish) translators’ doing.
I should have Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day waiting for me in the mailbox, unless the package is too big, that is, and I have to pick it up from the post office (I certainly hope not, in this weather). I saw the movie last Saturday (pretty good, pretty cute, Amy Adams over-acts) and am looking forward to reading the novel.
I read from complete-review.com about a Brideshead Revisited movie (must be bad, I must see it) and now I’m thinking whether I should read more Waugh. Or At Swim, Two Boys, finally.

I hope Susanna Clarke would write a sequel to JS&MN soon. Or Robin McKinley to Sunshine. I miss Regency England and vampires. All there seems to be these days is Stephenie Meyer. I couldn’t finish Twilight, for pretty much the same reasons that are stated here. Except that the writer doesn’t seem to know Meyer’s a Mormon.

(p.s. After I wrote this, we went for lunch and found the best confectionery in Helsinki. It's in the WTC building, opposite the pasta restaurant.)

Guess who's bored?

Christopher Moore: Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ’s Childhood Pal
Synopsis: The title really says it all.
Genre: Humoristic fantasy/historical fiction
Recommended for: Fans of Terry Pratchett who have run out of reading material. Anyone interested in Jesus Christ and historical settings.
Not recommended for: Christians without a sense of humour, people unfamiliar with the concept of fantasy.
Where to read: The story is gripping but not so demanding as to require one’s full concentration, so a very suitable book to be read on the beach (as long as the other sun worshippers don’t get too annoyed with sudden gasps of laughter).

Dodie Smith: I Capture the Castle (Finnish title: Linnanneidon lokikirja)
Synopsis: the diary of 17-year-old Cassandra living with her family in a crumbling castle in 1930s.
Genre: YA/ General fiction
Recommended for: Anyone who cries at the end of a movie. Maybe fans of Jane Eyre. Romantics, Anglophiles. Really, anyone who has been a girl, or been in love, can relate to this story.
Not recommended for: Cynical people with a short attention span. If you think “nothing happens” in Jane Austen’s books, then you might not have patience for this one either (although the writing style is very different).
Where to read: Ideally, at the summer cottage wearing an old cotton dress. If this is your kind of book, you’ll want to read it in one sitting, so reserve enough time.
Film adaption: pretty good, recommendable for fans of the book

Louis de Berniéres: Captain Corelli’s Mandolin (Kapteeni Corellin mandoliini)
Synopsis: Love story between a local girl and an Italian captain on the island of Cephalonia during the WWII Italian and German occupation. Another plotline follows an Italian soldier.
Genre: Historical fiction/General fiction/LGBT interest
Recommended for: Eager readers, anyone interested in more than a black-and-white view of history, romantics, readers of magical realism.
Not recommended for: people who hate sentimental fiction.
Where to read: On a vacation in the Mediterranean. This a thick book with a relatively wide cast of characters and writing that can be better enjoyed with concentration. Read in the evening at the hotel, or on the plane (with the risk of appearing teary-eyed in public).
Film adaption: very, very bad!

Monika Fagerholm: Ihanat naiset rannalla (Swedish: Underbara kvinnor vid vatten, English: Wonderful Women by the Sea/by the Water)
Synopsis: Middle-class life in 1960s. Childhood’s end. The story follows the life of two families, and especially their summers at a seaside resort.
Genre: General fiction
Recommended for: anyone interested in the women’s movement and life in the 1960s. Readers who can appreciate subtle undertones and like to interpret what they read. Also, if you are an English speaker and want to read a good Finnish novel, read Monika Fagerholm (I can highly recommend her other novels too, but am not sure whether they have been translated).
Not recommended for: inexperienced readers
Where to read: Ideally, alone on the pier.
Film adaption: don’t remember that much about it so can’t really say.

Caroline Graham: the Midsomer Murders books, eg. The Killings at Badger’s Drift (Kämmekkä kukkii kuolemaa) and A Ghost in the Machine
Synopsis: British detective stories set in small village(s)
Genre: Mystery/detective stories/crime fiction
Recommended for: Fans of traditional British detective stories such as Agatha Christie
Not recommended for: readers used to fast-paced, action-packed crime fiction. Although Midsomer Murders has more lust and blood that Hercule Poirot novels, they still rely heavily on the small village-setting and the little grey cells of Inspector Barnaby.
Where to read: pretty much everywhere.
Tv-series: recommendable

Gregory Maguire: Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West (Note! Huom! Has been recently translated! Finnish title: Noita)
Synopsis: Dorothy didn’t tell the whole story.
Genre: Fantasy/parallel novel/general fiction(/interpretation as political allegory possible)
Recommended for: Fans of alternative fiction, fans of Jeff Vandermeer, Wizard of Oz-enthusiasts, Harry Potter fans, history students
Not recommended for: I can’t really think of anything! Maybe if you haven’t read any kind of books with unexplained/supernatural elements, you might be put off with some scenes in this book. But really, most of the population is familiar with Harry Potter –and especially if you liked the last three Potter books (or at least 5 & 6), this is the obvious place to continue.
Musical adaption: Haven’t seen, I’m in Finland. Living in a country the size of a toenail sucks.