This may come as a shock to you, Harry, but I don't have an ax with me

[sovay]

Today has been marked mostly by hours of pre-holiday errands and a vision-troubling level of headache, which may somewhat foreshorten this post. The evening has been marked by reading four books starring Harry Dresden. I believe I have hurt myself.

Between the weird casual chauvinism and the general air of having been written by a yak that wanted to be Raymond Chandler (I am insulting either Chandler or yaks), I was not impressed with Storm Front (2000). There was a reason I didn't read these books at the time. rushthatspeaks had promised me a character I would love, however, and so I persevered. Fortunately, the library was missing the next three volumes and by the time of Death Masks (2003), Butcher's style had improved to the point where it was no longer actively contributing to my headache and Rush was quite right about the character; I warmed to him instantly, even though he was more of a cameo. And then there was a lot of confused vampirism and I got to Dead Beat (2005). Rush—

"If I tell you this," I said quietly, "it could be bad for you."

"Bad how?"

"It could force you to keep secrets that people would kill you for knowing. It could change the way you think and feel. It could really screw up your life."

"Screw up my life?" He stared at me for a second and then said, deadpan, "I'm a five-foot-three, thirty-seven-year-old, single Jewish medical examiner who needs to pick up his lederhosen from the cleaners so that he can play in a one-man polka band at Oktoberfest tomorrow." He pushed up his glasses with his forefinger, folded his arms and said, "Do your worst."

Waldo Butters is also brilliant enough that he thinks of forensic science as something anyone can pick up if they don't mind the technical terms, geeky enough to forget how terrified he is of zombies when given the chance to research them, and he has mildly mad science hair ("[it] gave him a perpetual look of surprise that stopped just short of being a perpetual look of recent electrocution"). Apparently I have some kind of type.

I don't think I will be eagerly scouring the bookstores for the rest of this series, but someone should tell me whether they're the sort of thing worth persisting with just for love of supporting characters. It is quite likely that I will keep an eye out for a secondhand copy of Dead Beat, even if the Latin is consistently ungrammatical and the mysterious book should really have been called Das Lied des Erlkönigs. The Tyrannosaur was pretty crowningly awesome.

And now I am going to shower, because I don't feel well at all.

Comments

[sovay]

No one is ever allowed to name anyone Harry every again. There aren't enough empire-waisted gowns to go round once you count in the other wizard named Harry.

Given the inception dates of both series, the naming of Harry Dresden can't be accidental. Also he uses fire a lot and I can't quite tell whether it's supposd to be ironic.

Better days for you, with less visual headache nonsense, please.

Today: fewer visual disturbances, more nausea. I haven't a clue what is going on.

[strange-selkie.livejournal.com]

Okay, then I'll ask for less nausea, too! How about none?

My wife thinks Harry's a dumbunny. Not that wizard Harry OR that wizard Harry; the other Harry, the one in the empire-waist gown. I'm so sad over this. /Harry discourse/threadjack

Clearly they need to invent something akin to a pocket neurologist for times like this. Oh, and do I need to see Arsenic and Old Lace ?

[sovay]

Okay, then I'll ask for less nausea, too! How about none?

We could deal with that!

I'm so sad over this. /Harry discourse/threadjack

Unless she's done something spectacularly stupid I haven't read yet, I don't think your Harry is a dumbunny.

("The Route Has Just Come for the Blues" has just come on the radio, so the universe agrees with me.)

Clearly they need to invent something akin to a pocket neurologist for times like this.

"Is that a doctor in your pocket or are you just happy to see the painkillers"?

Oh, and do I need to see Arsenic and Old Lace?

Yes. It really was one of my formative movies. I am reluctant to describe the plot, except that it looks as though it's going to belong to a certain genre of romantic comedy and then it screwballs off into something astonishingly twisted, which it mostly keeps you from noticing because it's directed by Frank Capra. There are a few lines that were famously bowdlerized for the Hays Code, but seriously, there's a hell of weird in there. It almost certainly imprinted me on Peter Lorre for life.

[strange-selkie.livejournal.com]

What radio station has "The Route Has Just Come for the Blues"? WPWR, for all the smooth sounds of the Peninsular Campaign you remember, now with limited commercial interruption from the Excelsior Saddle Carbine Corp?

[sovay]

What radio station has "The Route Has Just Come for the Blues"?

Er . . . whatever the local Boston folk is?

I blame you.

[strange-selkie.livejournal.com]

I will ask the Great Disc Jockey in the Sky to drop a few migraine-quelling chart-toppers, then...?

(Seriously, how cool. I INTERNET PUFFYHEART the version of the song you sent me. And then later on, the route gets to come for the blues; the Sherbourne Novella is apparently a ships' graveyard for folk song jokes.)

[sovay]

And then later on, the route gets to come for the blues; the Sherbourne Novella is apparently a ships' graveyard for folk song jokes.

Watch me complain!

[rysmiel.livejournal.com]

Dresden porcelain as a thing worked by potters struck me as an intentional allusion, fwiw. (Some day I shall write the story about a little boy called Harry Wizard who is spirited away to a secret school for potters. The only real problem with this story is that it really wants jonsinger to be the headmaster of said school, and nobody would find jonsinger credible in fiction.)

[ap-aelfwine.livejournal.com]

Dresden porcelain as a thing worked by potters struck me as an intentional allusion, fwiw.

Good point!

And FWIW I'd love to read that story about the secret school for potters.