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Mormegil

Mormegil@bookwyrm.social

Joined 4 months, 3 weeks ago

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Mormegil's books

Currently Reading

2025 Reading Goal

66% complete! Mormegil has read 16 of 24 books.

James Baldwin: The devil finds work (1990, Dell)

Baldwin’s personal reflections on movies gathered here in a book-length essay are also a probing …

"The language of the camera is the language of our dreams."

"It is said that the camera cannot lie, but rarely do we allow it to do anything else, since the camera sees what you point it at: the camera sees what you want it so see."

This is my second time reading this. It is an essential text for me, in learning how to interpret the screen, and more than that. It has not lost an ounce of relevance. Personally I don't think you have to have seen the films, though they can provide some context (I went and watched 'In the Heat of the Night') after reading the first time. The point is not Baldwin's analysis of the films themselves but what his analysis reveals, which (if I can take a shot at it) is the extremely complex relationship between black and white Americans, and how this relationship is distorted, or not, on the screen. That most of the …

reviewed The Fires of Heaven by Robert Jordan (The Wheel of Time, #5)

Robert Jordan: The Fires of Heaven (Hardcover, 1993, TOR)

Cover Description: In this sequel to the phenomenal New York Times bestseller The Shadow Rising, …

Unforgiveably Long

"Men always believe they are in control of everything around them," Aviendha replied. "When they find out they are not, they think they have failed, instead of learning a simple truth women already know." (p383).

I wish I had something more profound to say. There were some fun scenes, but nothing approaching truly profound, and they are buried in some of the most tedious and unattractive prose I have ever read. I have a feeling that fans tend to remember the good moments and forget just how long it takes to reach them and how brief they are.

Jordan's characters hang in my mind and are manipulated by him like dolls (or action figures, if you prefer). When they fight they get bashed together. When they kiss they get smooshed together. And the thrills they delivered never reached above the heights that a child's action set play can deliver to …

James Baldwin: Notes of a Native Son (1984, Beacon Press)

Since its original publication in 1955, this first nonfiction collection of essays by James Baldwin …

Baldwin's Blues

Reading James Baldwin is like listening to the blues, and yet more. He is able to take the pain of his subject (which is frequently himself) and make you laugh and cry at the same time. Beautiful prose, sharp satire, unflinching honesty, dry wit, long suffering compassion.

"One had, in short, to come into contact with an alien culture in order to understand that culture was not a community basket weaving project, nor yet an act of God; was something neither desireable nor undesireable in itself, being inevitable, being nothing more or less than the recorded and visible effects on a body of people of the vicissitudes with which they have been forced to deal. And their great men are revealed as simply another of these vicissitudes, even if, quite against their will, the brief battle of their great men with them has left them richer."

  • From Equal in Paris.
C. S. Lewis: The Weight of Glory (Paperback, 2001, HarperOne)

Selected from sermons delivered by C. S. Lewis during World War II, these nine addresses …

Still refreshing and convicting

C.S. Lewis, unlike so many Christian writers, never loses sight of what these earth shattering truths are like to live with day to day. I think everyone should read "Transposition" at least once. I will be referring back to and re-reading these for the rest of my life -- this side of glory.

Louis is a Trumpeter Swan without a voice, a swan of great character not at …

Ko hoh!

A beautiful and amusing little miracle of a book. E.B. White could warm the coldest heart. The only word that hasn't aged well is "Indian."

If you aren't tickled by a swan staying at the ritz then I don't know what to tell you.

G. K. Chesterton: The Napoleon of Notting Hill (1991)

A witty and surreal novel of the future.

In a rather dull stuck-in-a-rut future, a …

Notting Hill Forever

"Lord! What a strange world in which a man cannot remain unique even by taking the trouble to go mad!"

Will be chewing on this one for awhile. Quite a strange read, like some kind of absurd dream. Yet it is absurdly relevant over a hundred years later. My first Chesterton and not my last.

reviewed Charlotte's Web by E.B. White

E.B. White: Charlotte's Web (2006, HarperCollins)

This beloved book by E. B. White, author of Stuart Little and The Trumpet of …

A terrific, radiant, humble masterpiece

E.B. White proves that great writing can eschew all pretensions of greatness. A beautifully crafted tale about friendship (and writing) that exudes love and kindness from every page. This was my second time reading this as an adult, and I don't think it will be my last. Much like his "Elements of Style," this is a book I return to when I get lost in the sea of ambitious and clever fiction. Going to read it to my kids as much as they can stand it.

My blog post about writing lessons gleaned form Charlotte's Web: write.as/hdansin/the-elements-of-miracle