bookage and bright colors, etc.

[anotheranon]

Ever since I got back from Seattle, I've been like a magpie in my attraction to bright colors: vivid and so saturated that if you put it in the washer it will turn your socks [insert color here]. I fed it a bit this week by playing with peacock blue sari fabric but what's satisfying it now is my long-backordered copy of Moda a Firenze 1540-1580. I don't know whether it's the lush artwork within or imagining the original red of Eleanora of Toledo's surviving burial dress, but ... I want to make something with that kind of intense color. I keep flipping back to a blue green dress with gold sleeves (a color combo I've never seen described in Northern Europe for the same time period).....

Am also reading the first Pern book. I want desperately to like this book - it's been recommended to me by many and after whinging about the lack of Strong Female Characters in my fiction stack it's fair to argue that Lessa fits the SFC bill, but....maybe I'm just being too cynical, but the psychic link with dragons (dragons!) just reeks of new-age-huggy-cuddly fantasy cliches (dragons!) to me. Should I stick with it or not?

And it's amazing the things one learns on Teh Interwebs: cat hair does, indeed, felt. I've been threatening to take all of Spice's shedding and knit a "Spice sweater" for Kisia, but beads dyed with Kool Aid sound so much easier (because I can't knit) :P

Comments

[jlsjlsjls.livejournal.com]

I'd say McCaffrey was likely the pioneer with non-fairy-tale dragons in a fairly-well-thought-out social setting, and like all pioneers, she had to feel her way cautiously and slowly ... as in all series, later books move faster because it can be safely assumed that a reader knows the background. There are some impressive societal twists and discoveries in the books (remember, the Pern series are science fiction, not fantasy, despite surface appearances, and McCaffrey does use that well). I'd say try to stick with this first book to the end (ideally, I'd say read the first three, which formed a fairly complete trilogy). Or switch to McCaffrey's Harper Hall books instead (also set on Pern, but from a non-dragonrider POV ... when it comes to strong female characters, I'd rank that series' Menolly ahead of Lessa).