And those teenage hangups are hard to beat

[sovay]

I had forgotten the thread in Katherine Kincaid's Beloved Bondage (1993) that now reads like Christian inspirational romance, but then again that is an occupational hazard of narratives set in early imperial Rome. I've seen Ben-Hur (1959), and Quo Vadis (1951), and keep having to double-check about The Robe (1953). Now I want to re-read I, Claudius (1934), which thanks to the exigencies of my current life is in storage when it used to be one of the books I always unpacked first. In tenth grade, the majority of my friend group was reading Mercedes Lackey and I was reading Robert Graves. To each their id.

Comments

[tree_and_leaf]

To be fair, I think I, Claudius avoids the Christian inspie vibe!

[sovay]

To be fair, I think I, Claudius avoids the Christian inspie vibe!

Definitely not a danger! Claudius is part of the historical supporting cast of Beloved Bondage, hence my wanting to re-read Graves. (As you can tell Kincaid did, because all her sympathetic Romans are Republicans, Claudius included.)

[larryhammer]

To each their id.

Indeed.

(For me, it was Le Guin and McCaffrey.)

[sovay]

(For me, it was Le Guin and McCaffrey.)

I really started to fade off McCaffrey after The Dolphins of Pern (1994), but I still have the blue-eyed, satin-gold fire lizard named Sheyne Meydl I made for myself in ninth grade.

[larryhammer]

I faded hard after Nerilka's Story.

There was one memorable day when I was 16 when I read Dragonsong and Dragonsinger three times each. It pretty much burned me out on reading multiple books a day, and I dropped back to just one. It kinda amazes me that I've never tried to rewrite Menolly's story with or without the serial numbers still attached, the way I did Earthsea (ETA:) or the Kesh in my teens.

[sovay]

I faded hard after Nerilka's Story.

I remember nothing about that one except the cover and the revisiting, so I can believe it. I have it classed mentally somehow with The Coelura (1983), which may just mean "small hardcovers."

There was one memorable day when I was 16 when I read Dragonsong and Dragonsinger three times each. It pretty much burned me out on reading multiple books a day, and I dropped back to just one.

Did it burn you out on re-reading the books themselves?

I do not appear to have an upper limit of books I can read per day, if permitted the time. I will actually max out on media unless it is a rare event like a marathon. It's not good for the inside of my head.

It kinda amazes me that I've never tried to rewrite Menolly's story with or without the serial numbers still attached, the way I did Earthsea (ETA:) or the Kesh in my teens.

Speaking of I, Claudius.

That's really neat about the Kesh.

[larryhammer]

I do not appear to have an upper limit of books I can read per day, if permitted the time.

I don't anymore, but it was probably good for my grades that I no longer devoured two or three SFF paperbacks per diem, at least till I graduated high school.

That's really neat about the Kesh.

I've mentioned before that my first attempt at writing a fantasy novel, when I was 15, involved incompletely stripping the serial numbers off Tolkien (the most proximate source text being The Simarilion) by giving it a distinctly New World setting; and that my second attempt at 16 was based on The Farthest Shore with a plot inspired by The Police's "Wrapped Around Your Finger". I don't think I've mentioned that the third, when I was 17, started after a deep dive into Always Coming Home with secondary inspirations from "The Creation of Eä" (for a magic system) and Howard Jones's "Hide and Seek" (for a cosmology). None of these attempts did I ever write as much actual story as I did background material, but I came closest with that last.

Then college arrived, and I set fiction aside (aside from a creative writing class) for poetry, and didn't take it up again till grad school.

[selkie]

*shivers* Christian inspirational romance?

Edit because I hit something when the landscapers scared me: do you want the loan of mine? Mine are unpacked, and I won't even make you come down and get them. I'll pop them in the mail. (Apparently, a new-from-1961 edition of the very ones I have rattled around with for decades is worth something; these are not, but nor are they mildewed or anything.)

[sovay]

Christian inspirational romance?

You know, the standard early Christians in Rome: "She wished she could belive in a gentle, kind, compassionate god, instead of the cruel, capricious deities who were so difficult to please or understand . . . He could believe anything in her arms—even the lovely fable of eternity and the story of a Jewish carpenter's son-turned-king who promised happiness and a glorious future in another world. Would it not be wonderful if it were really true?" I really had forgotten about it, but I have more of an allergy these days. This is a romance novel whose hero turns out to be Caratacus in the last few pages. It leaves no stop unpulled.

(I appreciate the offer. I may just see if I can get mine out of storage. They are the red-covered Modern Library editions and I've nver read any other.)

[selkie]

You know this, but if the gods at hand had had no kindly faces, no one would have worshiped them, and everyone would be bumbling around the upper world instead of having a nice sea crossing. (Wait, did the Romans have the Sea? I will google. EITHER WAY, THOUGH.)

*googles book*

HOLY PANTS, PLEASE TELL ME THERE'S A JUDAH BEN HUR CAMEO

[sovay]

Wait, did the Romans have the Sea?

They had a lot of chthonic. You'd recognize it. There are even significant trees.

HOLY PANTS, PLEASE TELL ME THERE'S A JUDAH BEN HUR CAMEO

There is tragically not, but there is an important chariot race. The lead horse of the hero's team is Incitatus.

[gwynnega]

I have only read I, Claudius once, but I have large swathes of the TV series by heart.

[sovay]

I have only read I, Claudius once, but I have large swathes of the TV series by heart.

I literally carried the book around for a year in high school. It was completely off my radar despite almost two years of Latin; so was the TV serial, which I didn't see until after I had discovered the book (and its sequel, which was never as important to me—I can't imagine it is to most people). It remains in some ways a really weird book for me to fasten on to as strongly as I did, especially since even at the time I had moments of violent disagreement with Graves. But it gave me something I really needed or it wouldn't have become a talisman and I should really watch the TV version again, since I have not in decades. The box set of DVDs was one of the first home media things I ever owned for myself.

[madwriter]

To this day Derek Jacobi is still Claudius to me.

[sovay]

To this day Derek Jacobi is still Claudius to me.

It's how I first saw him.

[edit] I was reminded by other conversation that technically this is not true; I first saw him in the 1987 Hallmark The Secret Garden, which was also my introduction to Billie Whitelaw, Michael Hordern, and Colin Firth. I, Claudius was the first place I saw Jacobi to know him, however, and it was imprinting.

[madwriter]

"Imprinting" is a good way to think of it - there are several favorite stars of mine I saw before I watched the movie that finally made me notice them and made them a favorite star.

(First example that pops into my head: Liam Neeson, whom I'd seen in Shining Through but only hit me when I saw Schindler's List.)

[hyarrowen]

Chipping in to say that though it's been a long time since I read I, Claudius, like many, the TV series for me is a touchstone of series. It still makes me laugh how often it's referenced - Derek Jacobi playing Claudius in Branagh's Hamlet and most recently he reprised his role as Emperor in the Horrible Histories film Rotten Romans in a memorable cameo. :)

[sovay]

and most recently he reprised his role as Emperor in the Horrible Histories film Rotten Romans in a memorable cameo.

I very seriously considered trying to track that movie down just to see it! (Also it sounded fun.)

[madwriter]

Ooh, now I want to try to find that too.