Subject: Mini Alert!
Author:
Posted on: 2013-08-04 00:51:00 UTC
Is "JK Rowlings" a mini-Aragog, or some other species of mini?
Subject: Mini Alert!
Author:
Posted on: 2013-08-04 00:51:00 UTC
Is "JK Rowlings" a mini-Aragog, or some other species of mini?
Inspired by this Dork Tower, I can't help but wonder what other authors' grocery lists look like. Here's a few that VM and I put together:
Tom Clancy:
Straightforward, but good. You could swear that the handwriting changes on every one of them, though...
J.R.R. Tolkien:
The list is written in three languages that he invented for the purpose. Once you get through the hundreds of pages of appendixes and supporting material, though, even a simple cantaloupe holds unfathomably deep meaning.
George R.R. Martin
The list looks wrong. While digging out your phone to call home and check, you drop the eggs. When you get to the correct aisle, it's already sold out. Your phone's battery dies. You get run over by a car on the way home.
Neal Stephenson
It's the size of a phone book. While you're at the grocery store until well after their closing time, by the time you're done, you understand the computerization of industrial agriculture, Sumerian mythology, and the evolution of the common cold.
Corey Doctorow
Corey leaves grocery lists lying around. You find yourself buying groceries in the hopes that he'll write more of them.
Add your own!
Dan Brown
The items on this list look quite interesting at first glance and it seems its author knows a lot about cooking - then you notice all of his lists follow the same format, half of the ingredients don't actually taste like he wrote they would, and the other half is just plain uncookable or not even edible.
My own - yes, I am like that.
You see pages upon pages of scribblings detailing meals ranging from simple to elaborate, but no actual grocery list. There are no ingredients nor instructions on the papers you have.
You also notice most of these meals are variations on each other, with either one method of preparation or key ingredient changed in each iteration.
Some of it appears to be strange modifications of other authors' dishes - odd attributes, food items that must certainly be toxic and are sometimes noted as such, the mention of a substance rendering the entire dish completely inedible, and so on.
(Specifically, the Dragonriders of Pern series.)
The list is arranged in several parts, and the ingredients are rather exotic. Dragonfruit, descaled for easy handling, features heavily throughout. As you think about it, you realize some of the ingredients may be more exotic than they really need to be, and they drive up the price a bit. However, the meal itself is amazingly rich and colorful, and you can't help but go back for seconds.
Oh, and there are some extra pages tacked on the end in different handwriting, but after reading through the first couple (which make for dishes that are respectively moderately tasty and cliched yet bewildering), you decide to give the rest a miss.
~Neshomeh
My feeling about the difference between Anne and Todd is that Anne was a compulsive worldbuilder. It feels like she had a burning need to add something Big And New to each new book, and I actually think some of the later ones suffered from it - Dolphins and Skies in particular.
Todd, on the other hand, doesn't seem to want to add anything new - he just wants to explore what seems to be the entire lifespan of a handful of characters. Which isn't a bad notion - it's just not what we expect from Pern. This isn't helped by the fact that he writes the blessed things out of order.
Then there's the fact that fire lizards seem to pop up every book despite the fact that no-one ever knows they exist...
hS
... was mostly the really awful science in Dragonsblood (redundancies in the DNA are good, dammit, that's what prevents us from dying any time one little thing goes wrong!), not to mention the Redwall-esque plot with its too-convenient link between past and present. I couldn't enjoy it at all because I was groaning too much. I liked Dragon's Kin all right, though; learning more about watch-whers was fun. I just never recovered from Dragonsblood enough to want to find out what else Todd got up to with Pern.
I definitely agree that Skies of Pern suffered for reaching too far for the next big reveal, and I've always disregarded dragon telekinesis in my headcanon. I was not convinced that was a thing that needed to happen.
I liked Dolphins, though. Perhaps mostly because I just like dolphins. And then I got to visit the Dolphin Research Center in the Florida Keys, which is where Anne did her research for the book, which was awesome even though I had a terrible cold the whole time. I met some of the actual dolphins the ones in the book were based on. ^_^
~Neshomeh
The only thing that would be more awesome is if you met the dragons the ones in the book were based on. ;)
I agree that Blood stuck out a lot - you might be pleased to know that it's the only one of his (I think) that abuses timing it so shamefully. They do a fair amount more (y'know, because it's common knowledge! That's why Lessa and Moreta had to discover it by accident!), but it's mostly the same as happened in... well, whenever it was they sent the hatchlings back to grow a new Weyr. My impulse is that it might even have been Dragonflight.
Dragon telekinesis? What dragon telekinesis? There can't be any such thing - no way would the Pernese have not noticed that any dragon which has something annoying crawling towards it can just move it out of the way. Nope, it was... you see, swamp gas, reflecting the light from Venus...
hS
Here's one (or possibly some) of mine:
Gerald Morris
The items contain everything you need to make a possibly mythological, possibly almost historically accurate feast. You learn more than you expected to, and laugh and cry all the way through. At the end of the list is a note providing even more details, and an explanation of where most things on the list originally came from. You come away smiling and full of good food.
And someone needs to write Terry Pratchett's list.
~DF
Let's see...
Terry Pratchett
The ingredients all look conventional at first glance - at second glance, you see he's got physically improbable items listed right after comically shaped vegetables, and you're laughing so hard you don't realize until you're nearly done that the ingredients also spell out heavy social commentary.
(Meh. Somebody else should take a crack at it, I don't think that quite hits it.)
James Joyce
Even if you could read the list through all the words you're pretty sure he made up and the strange not-quite-rhythm he's got going, you're pretty sure you don't want to know where you have to go to get all this stuff. And then you realize what the list is actually for, and you wind up too depressed to go to the store anyway.
Kim Stanley Robinson
Most of the ingredients on the list don't exist yet, but they're so realistic, you're sure someone will invent them by the time you get to the store, if we could just figure out how.
(And then you realize that someone has to start the industrial revolution so that we can actually get to the store, and it might as well be you, and I'm losing track of this metaphor aren't I.)
Tamora Pierce
The list looks pretty traditional at first, but then you realize that most of the ingredients are clever alternatives to the usual commodities; when you're done, you find normal grocery lists disappointingly conventional.
Guy Kay
His lists look suspiciously like history lessons, but there's a flavor of Tolkien, somewhere, there, deep in the wording, and the language isn't quite of this world. And then, when you reach for the jars, you realize that the list is in your head. Again.
The Brothers Grimm
Everyone keeps talking about how clever and delicious their meals are, but you've been staring at the list for ten minutes wondering why there appears to be blood spattered all over it, and where the goblins came from...
(Dann reminded me of some of the ones we had earlier.)
Shakespeare
It's all in iambic pentameter. And you could swear that he's making half these words up as he goes along to fit the meter.
C. S. Lewis
It looks like all the ingredients for a delicious meal, and it's only as you're finishing and clearing up that you realize the whole thing was actually an allegory...
---
Also, I think Doc's take on Lahaye & Jenkins may be one of my favorites on the thread, but that can be blamed on Slacktivist's awesome takedown of the series. If you haven't read it, it's a most excellent (and utterly hilarious, and occasionally heartbreaking) blog series, some of the best matter-of-fact critiquing of bad (awful) (no, seriously, utterly terrible) literature (and theology - don't even get me started on the bad theology) I've ever seen. Because it's gone on so long, the index is the best place to start: First, Second, Third, Fourth, Fifth, and Sixth. The series is ongoing, but after 300 you're on your own - they're pretty easy to find in the tags, and he's slowed down with them a bit lately.
Techno-Dann's Tolkien and hermione of vulcan's Susanne Collins are great. Just so spot-on. :D
Um... I'm not very good at this stuff, but I'll give it a go.
SHANNON HALE: Enthralling, filled with charismatic and unusual items and, interestingly enough, emitting luminous green sparkles. It's written in epically spidery handwriting. Every time you get to the end, you realize you've forgotten everything that was on it and you have to read it again.
MY OWN GROCERY LIST: The writing tends to wander on and off the lines, and it uses a disproportional number of adverbs. It gets as far as "superbly creamy milk... painfully sweet sugar... flawlessly smooth eggs..." and then is left to fester on the kitchen table for all eternity.
Iain M. Banks:
The list is full of invented words. punny names and weird capitalisation. Part of it is written from the future to the past. You need to read it at least three times to understand it.
H.P. Lovecraft
The list starts off innocuously enough. However, as you get the ingredients, you start to notice something is horribly wrong with the list, as the ingredients are all weird items that seem to point at something sinister that is lurking beneath the surface. Eventually, you get to the end of the grocery list, and are confronted with a horror that then ends up becoming some variation on "indescribable".
William Shakespeare
The list uses language so archaic you need to reference a different page just to know what the hell the first page is referring to.
David Eddings
The list is full of ingredients for a popular and very tasty meal, but it's written in a very snarky tone and often dips into archaic English.
Robert Jordan:
The list has three pages, with pretty standard ingredients for the kind of meal you are shopping for. Two hours later, when you inexplicably find yourself on the 8th page you are wondering if all these ingredients are really necessary. There are many sub-lists built around various recipes that seem to have varying levels of relevance to the larger meal. After spending the afternoon reading, you make it to the 12th page and find that the handwriting is different. The good news is that the last three pages are full of spices that work really well with the ingredients from the previous pages. In the end, you will have one massive feast featuring every ingredient on the list, no matter how irrelevant it seemed at the time. That is...if you can even make it through the list.
I would add to Rowling that everyone wants to borrow her list.
And my version of Rick Riordan:
Nothing is simply what it is - everything on the list has some connection to ancient mythology, and it's enthralling to see how much of our culture is based on ancient traditions. It's written from the point of view of a snarky teenager, which makes it so entertaining that you remember the list even after you're done shopping.
Suzanne Collins:
You start the list, and everything's in perfect sequence, right next to each other in the store so you're racing through. Through it all, you learn about unethical food practices. Then the list starts to become less clear- though it's still moving quickly, you find yourself squinting at the items, not sure whether you're getting the right thing. You might have repeated something. Then the list becomes nigh-incomprehensible, and you feel like giving up on trying to understand. Depending on who you are, you either stick it through or give up. Maybe after you're done shopping you go try to rewrite the end, so you can use that instead. You feel disappointed, because it was so good at first.
Stephenie Meyer:
She feels the need to describe everything in unnecessary detail, and you feel like there are things missing, despite the list being incredibly long. You get the sense that there are some unethical food practices she supports and promotes.
(whoever wrote Fifty Shades of Grey, can't remember at the moment):
She borrowed Stephenie Meyer's list, but changed some of the names of things and the unethical practices take up even more space, if possible.
All I've got for now.
Douglas Adams-
has completely ridiculous items that you probably shouldn't buy, but somehow is sill worthwhile.
JK Rowlings-
Promises to be a good buy, Is a good buy, but then you suddenly realise you've forgotten something.
Rick Riordan-
Keeps going on and on, but you need to get it all.
Is "JK Rowlings" a mini-Aragog, or some other species of mini?
Author-minis take on the mini from the continuum they wrote, like Stephanie from the Twilight continuum or Tolkein from the Lord of the Rings continuum. I imagine they'd be a lot more imperious than the average misspelling, especially to other minis, since they created the world the other minis are from and in many cases the species that they resemble, but there's nothing showing the disposition and other specifics of author-minis that I can find.
"...but there's nothing showing the disposition and other specifics of author-minis that I can find."
Challenge accepted.
Hi, Outhra. How are you? How's the Agent Ariel backstory going? (In other words: I have a working computer--okay, a netbook--again. Involve me! :D )
Now where do I find an author mini in a mission...*starts searching*
~DF
I was in a place without readily available Internet for eight days or so, so I've not rewritten it in that time, but I've got more down than I had when I last sent you an update. Still not finished, though. All of the endings I could come up with seemed either rushed, sort of corny, or give someone information that they would have no way of knowing in order to work, so I tabled it for a while.
On the plus side, I watched several episodes of Supernatural while I was gone, and now I understand Ariel's home canon a bit better. Plus, I am now motivated to find and watch more of the show, because I wandered in during the middle of a season involving the Leviathans with practically no previous experience to build on, and I need some context. I liked what I saw, though, and I would probably be watching the rest of the season right now if my Netflix wasn't out again.
I don't see what you mean...
If it's not why it was a mini-Aragog, but rather 'what is a mini-Aragog?' that you're confused about, try the wiki page on minis.
~DF
I think you meant this link. http://ppc.wikia.com/wiki/Mini
Thank you for correcting that, although I can't quite understand how it ended up wrong in the first place. Perhaps because I typed out the 'www.'? Or maybe it's just some typing error I haven't caught yet?
Either way, thank you. *leaves in slight embarrassment* *sidles back in and hands over the Swiss Bleepolate of gratitude* *sidles back out to continue customizing new TARDIS Tumblr theme in giddy joy*
~DF
It's J.K. Rowling, without an S.
Joseph Heller
You may only use the shopping list if you're hungry. However, if you can read it, that only shows you're not too distracted by hunger to concentrate on reading, which means you aren't hungry at all and you may not use the shopping list.
Herman Melville
The shopping list is a long description of the history of grocery stores, and how people conducted shopping during the nineteenth century. The food only shows up at the very end.
Thomas Mann
The list is so long that you wind up strangling most of the early food items because you can't bear to hear them talk anymore about how hard life is outside the grocery store.
Stephen King
Each shopping list contains subtle nods to all the others, until eventually, the readership understands that all the lists are really taking place during a single, massive shopping trip. The Man in Black flees across the bakery section, and the Gunslinger follows.
J. Robert King
Leaves so many unfinished shopping instructions on the first list that Wizards of the Coast asks him to write an extra shopping list that explains all the inconsistencies and fills in the missing information.
Anthony Burgess
Instead of putting groceries in your cart, you smash them on the ground or throw them at other shoppers. The speaker system only plays classical.
Tim LaHaye and Jerry Jenkins
For some reason, you're shopping on an airplane. Most food items have been crossed off and replaced with phone numbers. The children all go missing, but no one seems to notice or care. You start to shop from the Antichrist's shopping list instead because it has better food.