Tuesday, August 23, 2016

Song of Rhiannon; Faulkner and Film; The Girls

"The Song of Rhiannon" is the third book in the Mabinogion series by Evangeline Walton. Manawydden, King Bran's brother and the last surviving child of Llyr, has no desire to return home and see his cousin on the throne, so he accepts Prince Pryderi's invitation to come home to Dyved with him. Once there he starts a romance with Pryderi's mother, Rhiannon. Pryderi and his wife Cigfa and Manawydden and Rhiannon live peaceably until one night a strange storm wipes out all of Dyved, leaving only the four of them living. They set out to find a new home, trying their hand at various occupations, having to leave town when they upset too many people. It had a happy ending, though, which was nice after the sadness of the second book.
"Faulkner and Film" mostly put me in the mood to read more Faulkner :) It was an interesting collection of essays from the 2010 Yoknapatawpha Conference, which is held annually in July. One day I'll get to go. At any rate, several of Faulkner's novels have been made into (mostly terrible) films, and he worked as a screenwriter in Hollywood for almost a decade. God, he was so brilliant. It's amazing to me that fifty some years after his death we still find things to discuss about his writing and his impact on culture.
And finally, "The Girls" by Emma Cline. There's been huge buzz about this book, Cline got a seven figure advance for her debut novel. So I was expecting brilliance. Instead what I got was...well, it wasn't bad. It was so *earnest*. I don't know how else to say it, she just seemed to be trying way too hard. And the similes! Oh my word, every sentence. "His mouth hung open like the trunk of a car". "Her hair was skanky like a hedgehog" (I'm paraphrasing, because I don't have the book right in front of me). She compared everything to *something*. After awhile I was just rolling my eyes.
The story itself was interesting enough: about a young girl who finds herself in a Manson like cult. Right off the bat, though, the protagonist claims that from the minute we're born, women are at a disadvantage merely by being women. That during the teenage years boys are busy learning how to be themselves while girls are busy learning how to be attractive to boys. She clearly doesn't like men (the main character, Evie, not Cline. I don't know how Cline feels about them). She talks about being leered at by older men when she was a teenager and being groped, touching inappropriately, and wearily explains that it's just the fate of being female, we all go through it. Um, no we don't. I've had some truly wonderful male friends, especially back when I was a teenager. So that definitely put me off. It was a bit disappointing. I probably would have enjoyed it more if it hadn't been hyped up so much. Oh well.

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