<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?><rss version="2.0" xmlns:content="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/content/" xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/" xmlns:atom="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom" xmlns:sy="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/syndication/" > <channel> <title> Comments on: Lord Dunsany Re-Read: A Dreamer’s Tales, Part 2 </title> <atom:link href="http://www.howardandrewjones.com/lord-dunsany-re-read/lord-dunsany-re-read-a-dreamers-tales-part-2/feed" rel="self" type="application/rss+xml" /> <link>http://www.howardandrewjones.com/lord-dunsany-re-read/lord-dunsany-re-read-a-dreamers-tales-part-2</link> <description></description> <lastBuildDate>Fri, 31 Oct 2014 15:32:16 +0000</lastBuildDate> <sy:updatePeriod> hourly </sy:updatePeriod> <sy:updateFrequency> 1 </sy:updateFrequency> <generator>https://wordpress.org/?v=6.7.2</generator> <item> <title> By: C. S. E. Cooney </title> <link>http://www.howardandrewjones.com/lord-dunsany-re-read/lord-dunsany-re-read-a-dreamers-tales-part-2#comment-222200</link> <dc:creator><![CDATA[C. S. E. Cooney]]></dc:creator> <pubDate>Fri, 31 Oct 2014 15:32:16 +0000</pubDate> <guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.howardandrewjones.com/?p=3260#comment-222200</guid> <description><![CDATA[Ah, the dogs! He does it again with cats a few stories in!]]></description> <content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Ah, the dogs! He does it again with cats a few stories in!</p> ]]></content:encoded> </item> <item> <title> By: Howard </title> <link>http://www.howardandrewjones.com/lord-dunsany-re-read/lord-dunsany-re-read-a-dreamers-tales-part-2#comment-207147</link> <dc:creator><![CDATA[Howard]]></dc:creator> <pubDate>Sun, 26 Oct 2014 17:09:59 +0000</pubDate> <guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.howardandrewjones.com/?p=3260#comment-207147</guid> <description><![CDATA[You're right about that whole ease with which Dunsany touches upon a dream. It's like he could more easily step into collective racial memory than almost any other writer I've ever read. A great number of his stories feel familiar while at the same time being completely original, as though we heard them one time in our youth, or that we dreamed some moment of them ourselves. And you and Claire are both right about the dogs. I loved that little aside. I think I'm repeating myself from last week, but Lord Dunsany had this in common with Jack Vance in that all kinds of wonderful moments or details are just casually dropped in with a couple of sentences, or even a phrase. I'm hard pressed to think of anyone else that does that so easily. Maybe Neil Gaiman? As though great ideas are just there for the plucking and they toss them out casually, easily.]]></description> <content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>You’re right about that whole ease with which Dunsany touches upon a dream. It’s like he could more easily step into collective racial memory than almost any other writer I’ve ever read. A great number of his stories feel familiar while at the same time being completely original, as though we heard them one time in our youth, or that we dreamed some moment of them ourselves.</p> <p>And you and Claire are both right about the dogs. I loved that little aside. I think I’m repeating myself from last week, but Lord Dunsany had this in common with Jack Vance in that all kinds of wonderful moments or details are just casually dropped in with a couple of sentences, or even a phrase. I’m hard pressed to think of anyone else that does that so easily. Maybe Neil Gaiman? As though great ideas are just there for the plucking and they toss them out casually, easily.</p> ]]></content:encoded> </item> <item> <title> By: Howard </title> <link>http://www.howardandrewjones.com/lord-dunsany-re-read/lord-dunsany-re-read-a-dreamers-tales-part-2#comment-207142</link> <dc:creator><![CDATA[Howard]]></dc:creator> <pubDate>Sun, 26 Oct 2014 17:06:38 +0000</pubDate> <guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.howardandrewjones.com/?p=3260#comment-207142</guid> <description><![CDATA[In reply to <a href="http://www.howardandrewjones.com/lord-dunsany-re-read/lord-dunsany-re-read-a-dreamers-tales-part-2#comment-205544">Joe H.</a>. I'm enjoying taking them just at a time like this. Interspersed with some of the hardboiled stuff I've been reading recently it makes a wonderful change of pace.]]></description> <content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>In reply to <a href="http://www.howardandrewjones.com/lord-dunsany-re-read/lord-dunsany-re-read-a-dreamers-tales-part-2#comment-205544">Joe H.</a>.</p> <p>I’m enjoying taking them just at a time like this. Interspersed with some of the hardboiled stuff I’ve been reading recently it makes a wonderful change of pace.</p> ]]></content:encoded> </item> <item> <title> By: John Hocking </title> <link>http://www.howardandrewjones.com/lord-dunsany-re-read/lord-dunsany-re-read-a-dreamers-tales-part-2#comment-207087</link> <dc:creator><![CDATA[John Hocking]]></dc:creator> <pubDate>Sun, 26 Oct 2014 16:40:58 +0000</pubDate> <guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.howardandrewjones.com/?p=3260#comment-207087</guid> <description><![CDATA[Idle/Idol/Idyll Days on the Yann is a beautiful story. It seems, in a gentle, unpretentious fashion, to blur all diverse individual and cultural longing for, and appealing to, the divine with the universal human ability to dream. Everybody’s on the same river, and if you head down it far enough you come to the same sea. The story’s easy flow allows the author to unveil dozens of quiet asides about the world along the river, which touched my memory. I can recall dreams I had when I was much younger which my sleeping mind invested with a sense of being longer, of having a deeper history, than the few events I could remember upon awakening. This may be my personal take, but I never read a story that seemed to reflect that before. The Sword & the Idol is a very different tale, and it’s rueful, almost bitter, tone seems particularly intense following Idle Days on the Yann. It felt blunter and more clearly a fable, but the pleasure is in the details. As Claire noted, it was hard not to love the dogs, whose heroic self-mythology was injured when they were deprived of a showdown with the wolves.]]></description> <content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Idle/Idol/Idyll Days on the Yann is a beautiful story. It seems, in a gentle, unpretentious fashion, to blur all diverse individual and cultural longing for, and appealing to, the divine with the universal human ability to dream. Everybody’s on the same river, and if you head down it far enough you come to the same sea.<br /> The story’s easy flow allows the author to unveil dozens of quiet asides about the world along the river, which touched my memory. I can recall dreams I had when I was much younger which my sleeping mind invested with a sense of being longer, of having a deeper history, than the few events I could remember upon awakening. This may be my personal take, but I never read a story that seemed to reflect that before.</p> <p>The Sword & the Idol is a very different tale, and it’s rueful, almost bitter, tone seems particularly intense following Idle Days on the Yann. It felt blunter and more clearly a fable, but the pleasure is in the details. As Claire noted, it was hard not to love the dogs, whose heroic self-mythology was injured when they were deprived of a showdown with the wolves.</p> ]]></content:encoded> </item> <item> <title> By: Joe H. </title> <link>http://www.howardandrewjones.com/lord-dunsany-re-read/lord-dunsany-re-read-a-dreamers-tales-part-2#comment-205544</link> <dc:creator><![CDATA[Joe H.]]></dc:creator> <pubDate>Sun, 26 Oct 2014 04:15:43 +0000</pubDate> <guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.howardandrewjones.com/?p=3260#comment-205544</guid> <description><![CDATA[Yep, "Idle Days" is one that's always stuck with me -- gorgeous imagery and I just love that King James Bible-esque prose coupled with dreamlike strangeness. And yes, you're right, Dunsany is a heady draught and it's easy to overdose if you're not careful -- these days I find that one of the original collections, or maybe a Ballantine Adult Fantasy collection, is just about my maximum recommended single serving of Dunsany.]]></description> <content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Yep, “Idle Days” is one that’s always stuck with me — gorgeous imagery and I just love that King James Bible-esque prose coupled with dreamlike strangeness.</p> <p>And yes, you’re right, Dunsany is a heady draught and it’s easy to overdose if you’re not careful — these days I find that one of the original collections, or maybe a Ballantine Adult Fantasy collection, is just about my maximum recommended single serving of Dunsany.</p> ]]></content:encoded> </item> <item> <title> By: Howard </title> <link>http://www.howardandrewjones.com/lord-dunsany-re-read/lord-dunsany-re-read-a-dreamers-tales-part-2#comment-203499</link> <dc:creator><![CDATA[Howard]]></dc:creator> <pubDate>Sat, 25 Oct 2014 13:06:43 +0000</pubDate> <guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.howardandrewjones.com/?p=3260#comment-203499</guid> <description><![CDATA[In reply to <a href="http://www.howardandrewjones.com/lord-dunsany-re-read/lord-dunsany-re-read-a-dreamers-tales-part-2#comment-202387">Keith West</a>. That's a great story, Keith! I've never had the pleasure to venture any further east than France. Would love to do so some day.]]></description> <content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>In reply to <a href="http://www.howardandrewjones.com/lord-dunsany-re-read/lord-dunsany-re-read-a-dreamers-tales-part-2#comment-202387">Keith West</a>.</p> <p>That’s a great story, Keith! I’ve never had the pleasure to venture any further east than France. Would love to do so some day.</p> ]]></content:encoded> </item> <item> <title> By: Howard </title> <link>http://www.howardandrewjones.com/lord-dunsany-re-read/lord-dunsany-re-read-a-dreamers-tales-part-2#comment-203496</link> <dc:creator><![CDATA[Howard]]></dc:creator> <pubDate>Sat, 25 Oct 2014 13:05:21 +0000</pubDate> <guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.howardandrewjones.com/?p=3260#comment-203496</guid> <description><![CDATA[In reply to <a href="http://www.howardandrewjones.com/lord-dunsany-re-read/lord-dunsany-re-read-a-dreamers-tales-part-2#comment-201611">Fletcher Vredenburgh</a>. It's one of his longer pieces, but even still, Dunsany had this amazing ability to suggest entire scenes with just a few lines so that it feels much longer. I had completely forgotten about the haggling already, but you're right.]]></description> <content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>In reply to <a href="http://www.howardandrewjones.com/lord-dunsany-re-read/lord-dunsany-re-read-a-dreamers-tales-part-2#comment-201611">Fletcher Vredenburgh</a>.</p> <p>It’s one of his longer pieces, but even still, Dunsany had this amazing ability to suggest entire scenes with just a few lines so that it feels much longer. I had completely forgotten about the haggling already, but you’re right.</p> ]]></content:encoded> </item> <item> <title> By: Keith West </title> <link>http://www.howardandrewjones.com/lord-dunsany-re-read/lord-dunsany-re-read-a-dreamers-tales-part-2#comment-202387</link> <dc:creator><![CDATA[Keith West]]></dc:creator> <pubDate>Sat, 25 Oct 2014 04:26:46 +0000</pubDate> <guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.howardandrewjones.com/?p=3260#comment-202387</guid> <description><![CDATA[I liked both of them, but of the two, I prefer "Idle Days". I work in academia, and it's that time of the semester when I could really use a break. A leisurely boat ride down the Yann would be just the thing. There were aspects of the story that reminded me of our time in Kazakhstan (10 years ago this month) when we adopted our son. We stayed in Shemkent most of the time we were there. It was part of the Silk Road IIRC, and there were a number of ethnic groups in the city. Everyday brought something new and different. While the haggling I observed in the market wasn't as flamboyant as Dunsany describes, there was some.]]></description> <content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>I liked both of them, but of the two, I prefer “Idle Days”. I work in academia, and it’s that time of the semester when I could really use a break. A leisurely boat ride down the Yann would be just the thing. </p> <p>There were aspects of the story that reminded me of our time in Kazakhstan (10 years ago this month) when we adopted our son. We stayed in Shemkent most of the time we were there. It was part of the Silk Road IIRC, and there were a number of ethnic groups in the city. Everyday brought something new and different. While the haggling I observed in the market wasn’t as flamboyant as Dunsany describes, there was some.</p> ]]></content:encoded> </item> <item> <title> By: Fletcher Vredenburgh </title> <link>http://www.howardandrewjones.com/lord-dunsany-re-read/lord-dunsany-re-read-a-dreamers-tales-part-2#comment-201611</link> <dc:creator><![CDATA[Fletcher Vredenburgh]]></dc:creator> <pubDate>Fri, 24 Oct 2014 22:38:14 +0000</pubDate> <guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.howardandrewjones.com/?p=3260#comment-201611</guid> <description><![CDATA[Yeah, I'm giving “Idle Days on the Yann” two stars as well. I want to ride that boat in my own dreams and listen to the watch the birds fly out of the forests and listen to the Wanderers' songs. It's a beautifully told story. The haggling between the captain and the merchant is pure slapstick and definitely not something I was expecting from Dunsany. My favorite of all so far. I liked "The Sword and Idol's" dark take on manipulation, superstition and jealousy. Even harnessed to a plot the prose still soars.]]></description> <content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Yeah, I’m giving “Idle Days on the Yann” two stars as well. I want to ride that boat in my own dreams and listen to the watch the birds fly out of the forests and listen to the Wanderers’ songs. It’s a beautifully told story. The haggling between the captain and the merchant is pure slapstick and definitely not something I was expecting from Dunsany. My favorite of all so far.</p> <p>I liked “The Sword and Idol’s” dark take on manipulation, superstition and jealousy. Even harnessed to a plot the prose still soars.</p> ]]></content:encoded> </item> </channel> </rss>