Darker than Your Wonderland, Chapters 10-12

Part 3 is here.

10: Seposita Stilus

It was that January that Scorpius suggested the Seposita Stilus charm. Rose hadn't known what it was, until he'd explained.

The charm would be cast on two pieces of paper, allowing each to see what the other said. He could write a message on one, and it would show up on the other. She could turn it over, write back, and that reply would show up on his copy. They'd be able to wipe the previous messages off before writing new ones.

Once he'd described it, Rose realised that she had heard of the charm before. It was something her older cousins had mentioned using to pass notes in class, and something her uncle George had experimented with, to sell in the shop. The way he'd talked of using it made her think of text messages, something she'd only recently learned about when her muggle grandmother had let Rose play with her mobile phone.

They'd tried it at once, writing messages to one another all through potions. It was almost pointless, since they were sitting right next to one another, and they nearly got detention when the professor realised how little attention they were paying, but it was fun, and quite addictive.

11: Summer

They used the Seposita Stilus a lot during that summer between their second and third years. They were both thirteen now, and their parents had decided that they were old enough to go out alone, so long as they knew where they were heading. Rose's parents never asked her whom she was intending to meet, and she assumed that Scorpius' didn't, either. They took it as a free invitation to see one another.

It was a golden summer. That was the year where every day was sunny, and lasted forever. The year she started calling him 'Skip'. The year they confided in each other that they'd never been kissed.

Rose thought it was probably herself who'd first suggested that they try kissing each other. Just once, for practice. They'd been out near the woods this time, and the sun was halfway to setting. The light had bronzed his hair and burnished hers.

She could still remember how it had felt, when she'd placed her hand on his cheek, and slowly drew him to her. They'd kissed, clumsily. His lips were soft, and her pulse thudded in her throat, until she wasn't sure if she was breathing any more.

They'd drawn away from one another, smiling shyly, then laughing.

"We're too young," Scorpius had said, and she'd agreed.

They were too young.

It was the last golden summer.

12: Aphelocoma

Rose's third year was the year that her younger brother, Hugo, started at Hogwarts. It was also the year that she met Aphelocoma Malfoy, Scorpius' sister.

The girl wasn't starting at Hogwarts that year; she'd just come to see her brother off. She watched Rose from beneath her father's arms, with heavy-lidded, ice-blue eyes. Her expression held a disdain that Rose had never seen on Scorpius' face.

Seeing this, Rose's father had asked, quietly, "are you still friends with that Malfoy boy?"

"I am," Rose had replied.

Her father looked between Rose and Aphelocoma, then nodded at Draco. Lowering his voice, he asked "does he treat you right? Is he nice to you?"

"Yes dad!"

With one last glance at the Malfoys, Rose's father had led her away to stand with her brother and cousins until the train was ready to leave.

"Be careful, Rose," he'd said to her. "This boy isn't his father, I know. But I never knew a Malfoy who didn't have ulterior motives, who didn't have other plans hidden inside their plans."

Seeing her face, he'd added, "I'm sure he's a lovely boy, Rose. I just don't want you to get hurt."

"I won't," she'd lied, though she hadn't known that at the time.

Rose and Scorpius were unable to find an empty carriage this year. However, the one they did find was occupied by only two other people, fifth years who spent the entire time focused on one another, so Rose and Scorpius were able to talk privately.

"Your sister seemed nice," Rose offered.

Scorpius grinned widely, a new expression for him. "That's new. She never seems nice to strangers."

Rose smiled back. She was three or four inches taller than Scorpius now, and beginning to look more like a young woman than a little girl. He still looked like a boy.

"What was your father whispering?" Scorpius asked.

"Oh," Rose began. "He asked if we were still friends. He wanted to know if you were nice to me."

"What did you tell him?"

"That you were."

"Why did he feel the need to ask?" Scorpius asked, frowning.

Rose decided to be honest. "I think it's because of the problems he had with your father at school," she said. "He thinks your father may not approve."

Scorpius didn't reply. Instead, he remained gazing at her, and, for some reason, his expression reminded her of the one she'd seen on his sister's face. She squirmed uncomfortably, and tried to go back to her book.

"Does your father not approve?" Scorpius asked, interrupting. His face was closed now, not open and vulnerable as it would have been if he'd asked the question a year, or even a few months, before.

Rose's ears went red, as she tried to think of how best to phrase it.

"I think he mostly tries not to think about it," she eventually said. Scorpius nodded, then picked up his book, and started reading. The conversation was over.

Rose noted that he hadn't denied her father's accusation.

Part 5 is here.

In Which We Discuss the Gunslinger

I have to admit, The Gunslinger is another one I didn't particularly like.  I didn't particularly dislike it either, and I'm glad to have read it, just so I can now discuss it when it comes up.

It's a western.  I'm not that big on westerns.  And I think Roland is a very stupid and annoying name.  I don't know why I think that.  I just don't like how it sounds.

The Gunslinger was published in June of 1982.  Stephen King was very prolific in that year.  The Gunslinger and The Dark Tower series as a whole do eventually connect the vast majority of King's work together, mostly through sharing characters.  The Dark Man, Randal Flagg, for instance, we have already seen in The Stand.

I also think Randal Flagg is a stupid name.  Probably why he doesn't appeal to me as a character or as a villain.  It makes me think of Randal from Recess, which is not really the intended effect.

I don't think The Dark Tower series is for me, but I'll plough on regardless.  James Smythe enjoyed it a lot more and has lots of intelligent things to say about it.

Next up is Creepshow.  It was released as a graphic novel, with script by Stephen King, but first it was a movie, screenplay also by Stephen King.  Since the comic is expensive and the movie is not, I'm going to watch it rather than read it.

In Which We Discuss the Running Man

A lot of people have sited this as one of their favourite Stephen King  novels.  I can't say I'll be joining them.

Running Man  was a pretty quick read.  Two days, if I recall correctly.  I didn't dislike the book, but reading it more than thirty years after it was published, it did not compare well to more modern books.  Chart Throb  and Dead Famous did the reality TV parody in a way I preferred.  I feel like Play or Die did the hunting human plot better.

I think a big reason why I preferred Play or Die was that it was set in a world closer to mine.  I had a better idea of the options available to the main character, so I could better evaluate her decisions and therefore her resourcefulness and intelligence.  I didn't feel like I could do that with with the Running Man.

Weirdly, wikipedia keeps saying that Running Man is similar to Battle Royale and Hunger Games.  No it isn't, not more so than any other novel.

I've never seen the movie, but I gather it's very different from the book.  James Smythe has, and continues with his excellent Guardian articles here.

Unusually, The Running Man doesn't appear to have any links with other Stephen King novels.

In Which We Discuss Books I Read in my 26th Year, Week 7/52

Tiger Lily I found because I was looking for a specific Peter Pan quote I've always identified with.

“Tink was not all bad: or, rather, she was all bad just now, but, on the other hand, sometimes she was all good. Fairies have to be one thing or the other, because being so small they unfortunately have room for one feeling only at a time. They are, however, allowed to change, only it must be a complete change.”

While looking for that, I wound up on this page, which has a number of quotes from Jodi Lynn Anderson's Tiger Lily.  It looked interesting.  One thing that always fascinated me about Peter Pan was the fact that every women in the original book was in love with him, and he had no way of understanding that.  It seemed like Tiger Lily explored that theme.  Plus, it's written from Tink's point of view, and who can not like that?

The book was pretty good.  Peter Pan was aged up to make the relationship a bit more believable, and I did like Tink as the narrator, and seeing more of Tiger Lily.  I didn't find it as magical as I might have ten years ago, though.

Speaking of ten years ago, Horrorscope is another book I first read as a teenager.  I don't know why I like it so much.  I guess I do like the conceit of someone murdering people in the order of their starsigns, and the amount of research into horoscope theory that's been done (yes, horoscope theory is a real thing).  I like the characters.  It's good comfort reading.

Player of Games I read at the last minute for a bookclub.  I've been meaning to read some Iain M. Banks for quite a while, so it seemed like a good opportunity.  I read it in two days.  It was okay.  A bit farfetched and unlikely. 

Pyramids is another book I first read as a teenager.  I got it as an audio-book.  It has so much in common with Small Gods that it seemed a natural choice, especially since I'm not particularly fussed about reading the Discworld books in order.  I know the series well enough that I can place relevant events in context.

Finally, A Wonderlandiful World is the third part of the Ever After High novels.  I watched the webisodes because they were on Netflix, and then I started reading the books.  They use some very clever language tricks and puns, especially in those novel when the narrator is infected with something from Wonderland and Maddie appeals to the reader themselves (yes you) in a nod to Peter Pan.  This book managed to make me like Lizzie Hearts, who I'd always found slightly irritating before.  It also brought out my soft spot for Duchess.  It's hard not to, considering her story, even if she is a cow.

In Which We Discuss Hundreds of Books

A while ago, the Guardian published Information is Beautiful's David McCandless' infographic which collected together various '100 Book' lists. It includes the 100 most borrowed library books, Pulitzer Prize winners, Oprah's bookclub, and a few others - you can see the full data used here.

The infographic itself looks like this, and you can see it fullsized here.

In Which We Discuss Eating Animals You Can Talk To

There are quite a few stories out there with characters who can speak to animals, but very few then go to deal with the dilemma of eating them.  Off the top of my head, I can think of three.

Eliezer Yudkowsky's Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality is an excellent, novel-length Harry Potter fanfic which imagines that Lily was kind to Petunia, and as a direct result, Petunia married a scientist and was more loving towards Harry.  Harry Potter-Evans-Verres is a scientifically-minded rationalist who does lots and lots of interesting things at Hogwarts, and I very highly recommend giving it a read.  However, what we are concerned with here is what he does when he finds out about Parselmouth, and hears of other spells that can give animals cognisance.  He diligently researches exactly which foods are likely to have come from sentient creatures and avoids those he isn't sure of.

In Jinian Footseer, Jinian, who can talk to animals, doesn't eat anything explicitly mentioned as not being vegetarian in the first book.  In the second and third, she does explicitly eat meat.

In The Fairy Godmother, part of Mercedes Lackey's 500 Kingdoms series, Elaina drinks dragon blood and begins to understand all animal speech.  After listening to the chickens for five minutes she decides it's okay to eat them because they're stupid.

In Which We Discuss Cujo

Cujo was Stephen King's twelfth novel, published in 1981.  It's the one he doesn't remember writing, due to his alcoholism.  It recalls the events of the Dead Zone, and Sheriff George Bannerman plays a large role in this one.

I read this years ago, when I was nineteen or so, and it's better than I remember it being. It links quite strongly into The Dead Zone which I hadn't read the last time I read Cujo.  Specific characters are mentioned, and it's set in Castle Rock.

James Smythe has a very interesting post on Cujo as a metaphor for addiction.  I'm lazy and have a cold, so I'm not going to write anything that detailed.