elanya

I don't usually remember my dreams, so it seems significant to me that over the past couple of nights (since I was in Boston.... i.e. since I left home), al the ones I have remembered have been unpleasant. Some are the kind that aren't scary, just horrible in other ways. People I know and like acting in horrible, uncharacteristic ways. Some have more traditionally creepy things. In one, I was with someone I knew (but I don't remember who now), shopping or a witch dress (a costume, I think...?), but it was really disturbing, as though all the places we were going were filled with malevolent spitrits of some kind. I don't understand. I really can't reemember having nightmares of any kind for at least a few years, and never so many together. At least, these were not, individually, as disturbing as some I have had in the past (he one about the kitten, for instance), but together, they are making me uneasy."

In other news, I started re-reading George R.R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire series last night. And I'm rememberig why my initial impression was not as favourable as a lot of other people's. I first bought A Game of Thrones on a whim, to read on the plane to England for the first timein 2001. I stopped reading after Daenerys's wedding chapter, thinking to myself "......No, indeed :p". I shortly afterwards lost the book, and didn't get another copy until everyone else I knew was raving about it. I bought it at the airport to read on my way home, because it seemed like good closure.

Now, I have to say that I really enjoy the series. I really like a lot of the characters, and the richness of the plot(s) has got me really engrossed at this point. But damn. It seems like such a chore to go back through the frist book... the first stuff written. And here comes my familiar rant. I *hate* his grammar. In places it is truly atrocious. Mostly in places where he slips into what I call "Gramdpa Simpson" mode. Suddenly, you are reading, just for a sentence or two, here and there, the conversational style of a half senile old man trying to tell a story. Example, his description of Ice:

Theon Greyjoy brought forth the sword. "Ice", that sword was called. It was as wide across as a man's hand, and taller even than Robb. The blade was Valyrian steel, spell-forged and dark as smoke. Nothing held an edge like Valyrian steel.

Okay, realy, it is the second line that variable makes me wince, or makes my eye twitch. There are other examples speckled throughout the first book. I don't remember them being as prevalent in the others, but I guess I'll find out.

My other issue is his use of what I've dubbed "Fantasy grammar". Sometimes, he rearranges things to make them seem from an older time, or... well I don't know. My famous, most hated example of this is the cringeworthy line, "Almost a man grown." Especially because half the time, it is being said in an extremely whiny voice. Gods, do I loathe that line!

The thing that I am enjoying the most about reading rhe first book is reading it again with the Knowledge of how people change, or what I found out they really meant, in the later books. The thing that intrigues me the most is that, so far, it never gives Ned's opinion of what was going on between Rhaegar and his sister. Whenever Robert brings it up, he just remember an undisclosed promise he made to her before she died.... Part of it was that she insisted on being buried back ome, and not where Robert wanted her buried. But now I wonder oif that was all. The other thing was to have another look at Jamie's reaction to being caught with Cersei, and how it is *her* he looks at when he states with loathing, "the things I do for love." Well, that's only half a spoiler, anyway, and not a major one :p

Anyway, that's all I've got. I'm going to take a shower, and if there is time, go in and see Dr. Dudley. Probably there won't be, since he leaves at 11-ish, but I need a shower and an excuse to leave the house as it is.