Epic fantasy is epic

[yakalskovich]

Slowly getting hooked on 'Game of Thrones'. I like how they take time to tell the story, give you time to start caring about all those characters. My favourites so far are Tyrion Lannister, and Littlefinger, and I must admit to a certain predilection for Danaerys despite the fact there this feeling of "one trope too many" around her which so far prevents her from developing much non-tropical personality.

I find it slightly worrying that the entire series of books isn't even completely written yet. Eventually, Wikipedia assures me, people are certain that the three story lines (only starting out at where I am) of a power struggle in King's Landing, Danaerys beyond the sea, and Jon Snow up at the Wall will come together. But how can they if they aren't written yet?

What I like is how there are really alien elements in the familiarity of High Fantasy's perpetual middle ages, starting with the odd square things the priests (or whatever, Maesters?) wear on their shoulders at Jon Arryn's funeral rites at the very beginning, mediterrenean/oriental elements both in King's Landing and beyond the sea, and the steampunk/fallen former technical civilisation elements at the Wall. Suddenly, clockwork elevators and steel t-beam constructions, whoops! That tells us that many long winters ago/before the dragons came/ whatever, civilisation was much more advanced. The Wall itself -- what in blazes might have built it?

So many delightful answers that might be so many years in the coming. I don't know that I'll want to read the books (my to-be-read-pile has reached Pluto, who tells the books on top of the stack that he's a planet, never mind what those haters say), but I guess until somebody commits bad shark-jumping the way Supernatural has, I'll be along for the ride, show-wise.-



ETA: Ahahahahahahhhh, Guppy Sandhu as a barbarian warrior! I knew I know that face!!! That made me hoot with laughter, and totally killed my Suspension of Disbelief there, as bad as Caserta in Star Wards Episode 1... Now I scared the cats away with my raucous laughter.-

ETA2: Now with pictorial proof:

Comments

[idylchild.livejournal.com]

I wish they would cover more of the history of the White Walkers and the wildings. I am not far in the book, but I am told the detail is sensational.

[yakalskovich]

Well, as I said, I'm willing to give the books a chance when my current pile of unread books has dwindled down far enough so I can at least see the top...

[idylchild.livejournal.com]

LOL I hear you! The stack beside my bed is so large, I can no longer tell what is on the very bottom.

[yakalskovich]

I have several stacks, actually, distributed around the flat. Each by itself looks rather harmless, but they do sum up. And all those books are absolutely fascinating, of course, from the steampunk anthology to the wildest oddball historical conspiracy theory ever not involving any Knights Templar...

At least it doesn't look like this yet:

[idylchild.livejournal.com]

Oh that is brilliant and the princess head board the perfect touch!

My latest technique is to line the walls (saves on the cost of individual bookshelves)

[yakalskovich]

I don't know if the book-stack bed is a terrible sacrilege or a brilliant design idea. I have a metal grating bookshelf, myself, that was made by IKEA about ten years ago and got discontinued due to copyright issues. It is very lighweight and (dis)assembles easily with a little help from a rubber mallet. It has served me well and will take three rows of paperback books per shelf. Each shelf is a tad high (will accommodate an A4 ringbinder) which means that about 1/3 to 1/4 of the wall height is wasted, but it's still the most elegant system for storing books that I have so far encountered.

[idylchild.livejournal.com]

The great thing about the wall method (which I am sold on, btw) is that it is not only cheap, but infinitely expandable (until you get to the end of the wall).

One simply purchases boards (I used pine, but you can use maple or oak if you want to be fancy) and attach the runners on the inside. Using brackets you attach the big board to the wall and then simply fit the shelves in.

All of the lumber is pre-cut at Home Depot, but if you need it cut a certain length, the guys there will do it for you (they didn't even charge me!).

It's idiot-proof; you don't even have to know how to hammer a nail straight! I used screws.

[yakalskovich]

It does require solid walls, which I do not have; the walls here are drywalls made of plasterboard/sheetrock/whatchamacallit, and you need special dowels to hang anything on it. Using the wrong ones can result in catastrophe, as I learned to my great and personal damage when I moved in.


Warning on that link for bloody feet and great destruction of lovely Lomonossov china!!

[idylchild.livejournal.com]

OMG that is so awful!

And to loose the dish!

There are companies in the West that carry it (and definitely look in Helsinki, even in the flea markets where lots of Russians sell their valuables).

http://www.ekaterinas.com/

[yakalskovich]

My mother went on a cruise of the Baltic with her best friend last summer and finally got me replacement Lomonossov saucers from that shop in Helsinki, and then went on to St. Petersburg and bought more Lomonossov for me, as we both like fine china, and she could feel my pain when the saucers broke, leaving me with only the cups which I couldn't possibly and sensibly use on their own.

Then, she pretended she hadn't had time to look, and then, she dumped it all on me with a big grin last Christmas night, and I was OMG so happy to have saucers again, and a little plate for sweets I hadn't had before, and teapots and everything...

[idylchild.livejournal.com]

Moms are the best!! <3

[yakalskovich]

And my mum is a very special specimen at that!

My friend the Nazgul promised a rhubarb cake for tomorrow; I should set out tea table with the Lomonossov china I now have again and take a nice picture to show off here. There is a little cream jug that goes with it that looks really tiny but will hold enormous amounts of milk/cream/baileys/whatever you put in your tea....

[idylchild.livejournal.com]

Now I am very envious!

When I lived in Germany (when I was a child), I loved Sundays because of all of the yummy cakes we had around 4 pm.

In fact, I recall that all of the food in Germany was really good.

We are simple dinners (lunch was our hot meal when we came home from school) of sliced bread with tomatoes and onions or smoked meat or some such. So many of my culinary tastes were formed during that period!

But Sunday cakes were my ab-so-lute favorite! :)

[yakalskovich]

Yes, Sunday coffee time with cake! Only the Nazgul and I mostly make it teatime because we prefer tea to coffee most of the time.

And the Nazgul's rhubarb cake is special; she covers it with a layer of vanilla pudding. Absolutely delightful.-

[idylchild.livejournal.com]

And the Nazgul's rhubarb cake is special; she covers it with a layer of vanilla pudding

*melts*

That sounds mouthwatering!

Please to be issuing international invitations for tea time tomorrow??

[yakalskovich]

If you can make it to Munich for teatime tomorrow, yes, of course...

[idylchild.livejournal.com]

I collect the Kalevala plates from Arabia. If one ever fell, I would be devastated!

[yakalskovich]

I have a few plain Arabia plates, and some Moomin mugs. I went to the Arabia factory shop once when I was in Helsinki (it has its own tram that goes to 'Arabia' and says so on the sign, which is sort of amusing), and could have bought the place up; the only thing that kept me from it was the fact that my money ran out long before my wishes did...

I bought a long sharp cooking knife there, too, which was then confiscated by airport security, but as it was long before 9/11, I wasn't arrested and questioned, but got the knife packed in cardboard and was made to check it in, so I still have it.

[idylchild.livejournal.com]

The Arabia factory shop is something of a national monument in Finland, along with Fazer chocolates. :)

I love the old Arabia porcelain! One day when I am fabulously wealthy, I will own a cabinet of it.

Of course the Finns were all trying to get British china through customs without paying taxes...

[idylchild.livejournal.com]

I have moomi cups and plates and dolls.

And of course all of the books.

[yakalskovich]

I have the books in Finnish, two big illustrated A4 volumes. My favourite muumin character is Nuuskamuikkunen, the one with the hat (don't know what he's called in the English translation...)

[idylchild.livejournal.com]

My favorite is little My! She's such a terrorist.

I never had any idea what was going on in the tv show, but I watched it religiously when I was there because of Moomin puffing past on his little cloud.

[yakalskovich]

Yep, Pikkumyy is my second favourite, actually. I have this card a Finnish friend once gave me, with both of them on it, hung up in a place of honour in my kitchen.

[idylchild.livejournal.com]

Pikkumyy! <3 I have this one in my kitchen (small):



And then a friend at the Renvall Institute gave me a drawing with all of the characters that I have framed upstairs.

[yakalskovich]

Oh that is cute!

A Finnish friend and I once whiled away a long drive through Sweden, Denmark and half of Germany (in a car that would start howling like a lawnmower if it went faster than 118 km/h) by debating which muumin character all the people we knew would be...