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December 19, 2005

in which I am exempted from a meme

Beth got tagged for the Seven Meme (the one I started, she said grumpily, and never got credit for), and then instead of tagging other people to do it, she exempted them. Including me. Which is kind of weird, as I've never actually been tagged, and now find myself untagged.

Memes are a great way to procrastinate, hence I am fond of them. However, Hannah is in the middle of something big and I have to get back to her.


7 x 7


random & not inclusive


seven things I'm good at

storytelling. writing. research. textile art. languages. linguistics. mothering.

seven things I'm terrible at

cleaning. laundry. math. music theory. puzzles. word games.

seven things I'd like to be very good at

Italian. American Sign Language. textile art. drawing. photography. singing harmony.

seven favorite modern novels

The Magician's Assistant. Welcome to Temptation. Possession. Niccolo Rising. The Time-Traveler's Wife. Gone Baby Gone.

seven favorite movies

When Harry Met Sally. Reds. Bull Durham. Groundhog Day. Last of the Mohicans (Daniel Day-Lewis version). Mansfield Park. Sense & Sensibility (1996)

seven favorite television shows

Farscape. ER. HomeFront. My So-Called Life. Deadwood. Battlestar Galactica. NewsRadio.

seven role models

Eleanor Roosevelt. Margaret Sanger. Noam Chomsky. Jean-Hervé Bradol. Francois Marie Arouet (Voltaire). Barbara Jordan. Galileo (Eppure, si muove).


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analyzing humor in fiction



I've been thinking about how to go about this, and it occurs to me that I might try to do it the same way I analyzed sex scenes. So I'm going to compile a list of scenes from novels that made me laugh, or that were supposed to make me laugh and didn't. Then I'll try to see what elements they have in common -- drawing in part on the model set up by Scott Adams for cartoons.

My purpose here is not to look at novels that are primarily comedic in approach, but at comedy used in small ways to achieve a certain effect. The first scene that comes to mind is from Russo's Straight Man, so I'll put that on the list. If you would like to suggest a short(ish) scene from a novel for its comedic effect (or lack of effect) please put that in the comments.

I expect it will take some time to put this all together. Probably in January I'll start posting on the subject.

On another topic entirely: there's a great post over at Booksquare about publishers who don't realize the importance of readers.

Posted by at 1:25 PM | | Comments (3) | TrackBacks (0)