Hard Times

I finished the book the night before last. Then I got into another debate in English class over it--the class was divided the same way that it usually is, too--everyone vs. me. W00t.

Anyway, I'm of the opinion that Hard Times was the same sort of situation as A Tale of Two Cities. Dickens had a good idea, and then went and completely botched it. Everyone else liked the book.

Now, I know that the writing styles differed a lot then compared to what they are now (I mean, it's evident even in Tolkien's and Lewis' writings), but Austen and Dickens don't even match up with the other authors of their era. I quite enjoy Alexandre Dumas' books, as well as Sir Walter Scott's ones. I just don't like Austen's and Dickens'. I was trying to think of why that might be the case, and I have to confess that I still don't have a stable conclusion. I said in my last post that Austen's writing style seems almost childishly simplistic. Dickens' is more complicated, yet it still isn't good, in my opinion. With almost all other authors and books, the events of the book unfold in vivid images in my mind. Including other books from that era. With every single one of Dickens' books, though, those images have been pretty much in black and white. Even if it's sunny out in the novel, it seems overcast. Everything is written in a way that just conveys despair, regardless of whether or not they're happy in the novel. I have absolutely no idea how he does it, but somehow he manages it. I can't put a Dickens' novel into images in colour. I just [i]cannot[/i]. I hate it. And because I know it's exclusive to his books, I don't like him for it. Besides the fact that he picks (in my opinion) boring topics, for the most part. Hard Times and A Tale of Two Cities could've been good, executed properly (for instance, of Matthew Stover or Robert Jordan had written them), but Dickens' method was just bleh. Naturally, I had a hard time defending myself in our English-class debate, since we each got an equal allotment of time--regardless of whose side we were on. So I had a lot less time to defend my opinions than they did to attack. <_<

Anyway, following through with the Kitty of Doom's idea about blogging about Star Crystal, I shall. Go me.

Jhoran is somewhat easier to roleplay than Adanil was, since he's not a lowly farmer, but in his current situation, it's actually kind of difficult to post as him, since he's in really bad shape, and by all rights shouldn't even be running around. I mean, he's got something like three concussions, a broken arm, multiple other broken bones, and numerous cuts and scrapes. And he's running around on an island intent on luring out a giant tentacled monster so that it can be killed. At least he's not trying to assassinate a Sea Dragon anymore....

But it's also interesting trying to tie Jhoran to Adanil, without making it seem like I'm too lazy to come up with new character ideas. I've been debating with myself as to whether or not to implement an idea pertaining to the two of them (and possibly several other of Jhoran's ancestors). It could be cool, or it might totally flop and ruin Jhoran's character. Tough choice.

Aaaaand since somehow Adobe Photoshop got erased from the computer, I reinstalled GIMP. It was already installed, but the version on my profile was in Slovak, and my Slovak vocabulary pertaining to such things is rather limited. So I reinstalled it, making sure that it was in English.

And then I made a banner for the first time in something like six months. As it's my signature on the forum, I don't think it's necessary to post it here, but I'm somewhat pleased at how it turned out, seeing as how it's been a long time since I've used GIMP, not to mention that I'm rather downgrading from the more advanced features that Photoshop had. I miss all of the text effects that Photoshop had. >_<