Whitby - the town where the dead live
Apr. 29th, 2012 08:35 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
bethnoirJust had a dream which has made me wake up feeling happy and excited. That's worth remembering I think.
The chronology was all mixed up, as if I was reading a book with flashbacks, but I will tidy it up a bit. Lovely Mr Bethnoir and I drove from Cornwall to Whitby with a huge piece of dark furniture on the roof. I don't know if it was a piano, writing desk or something else, but it was beautiful mahogany wood and I was worried it would fall off the roof rack. We stopped just before the Tamar Bridge out of Cornwall to adjust the stretchy octopus' holding it on.
The rest of the journey was unremarkable. We reached our accommodation, a big old Georgian house, converted inside into an open plan downstairs with doors out to the garden and patio. My family were there, ones I'm unlikely to see again. The sense of homecoming was so warm, I can still feel it now.
As we visited various places, we met up with other family members. At the beach, which had pale, greyish sand and a sluggish dark sea, there was a broken horse coach, with 4 dead horses next to it, we tried not to look. There, we saw my aunt who lives in Australia and some of her family, they were off to hike somewhere. At the graveyard, for which there was a tour led by a skeleton, showing us the ghosts, we saw my father, although he opted to stay there and I was worried when it began to snow.
My grandmother was cooking some bacon in our house and had a row with my mother about it, but we ate food together, out on the patio, where the flowers bloomed. There were plans to visit other places, a bookshop, I don't recall the rest, it was a happy holiday where the dead and the living could see each other, but I didn't get to see the Abbey, I think that was a trip planned for later on.
I never did find out what the piece of furniture was, but it was important that we take it.
Good to have a dream about departed loved ones which leaves me happy. I expect it was inspired by thinking about Whitby Goth Festival, which I might get to one day and looking at goth gigs near me. I want to go to the Sunday of
this festival
but I don't expect I'll be able to, as I have no companion to take.
No matter. I'm reading a book called "The Flesh of the Gods" about the ritual use of hallucinogens. Haven't read any anthropology books for ages, forgotten how much I love them. I finished the other book, here's my review
Perdido Street Station by China Miéville
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Balancing a novel set in complex alien world with descriptions of it, and plot and characterization which makes that book readable is a difficult enterprise. China Mieville has so many ideas, such a broad and fantastic imagination that at times, he seems to get bogged down in explaining whichever new race he's invented to the detriment of the flow of the story.
I think he gets the mix about right in this book. Although there were times when I wanted him to just get on with the narrative, generally the wonder of the new world was exciting and interesting. What is possible and normal in this world worked, the political events didn't jar and the characters had redeeming features which made me root for them despite their faults. As in other book of his I've read, he doesn't mind making his characters experience suffering and pain and there isn't much hope of a happy ending, but at least it does end satisfactorily, which is better than Kraken.
Overall I enjoyed my immersion in his imagination and I'll go back there again.
View all my reviews
The rain here never stops and the wind is blowing wildly, looks like another day in. Hope your weekends are going well.
The chronology was all mixed up, as if I was reading a book with flashbacks, but I will tidy it up a bit. Lovely Mr Bethnoir and I drove from Cornwall to Whitby with a huge piece of dark furniture on the roof. I don't know if it was a piano, writing desk or something else, but it was beautiful mahogany wood and I was worried it would fall off the roof rack. We stopped just before the Tamar Bridge out of Cornwall to adjust the stretchy octopus' holding it on.
The rest of the journey was unremarkable. We reached our accommodation, a big old Georgian house, converted inside into an open plan downstairs with doors out to the garden and patio. My family were there, ones I'm unlikely to see again. The sense of homecoming was so warm, I can still feel it now.
As we visited various places, we met up with other family members. At the beach, which had pale, greyish sand and a sluggish dark sea, there was a broken horse coach, with 4 dead horses next to it, we tried not to look. There, we saw my aunt who lives in Australia and some of her family, they were off to hike somewhere. At the graveyard, for which there was a tour led by a skeleton, showing us the ghosts, we saw my father, although he opted to stay there and I was worried when it began to snow.
My grandmother was cooking some bacon in our house and had a row with my mother about it, but we ate food together, out on the patio, where the flowers bloomed. There were plans to visit other places, a bookshop, I don't recall the rest, it was a happy holiday where the dead and the living could see each other, but I didn't get to see the Abbey, I think that was a trip planned for later on.
I never did find out what the piece of furniture was, but it was important that we take it.
Good to have a dream about departed loved ones which leaves me happy. I expect it was inspired by thinking about Whitby Goth Festival, which I might get to one day and looking at goth gigs near me. I want to go to the Sunday of
this festival
but I don't expect I'll be able to, as I have no companion to take.
No matter. I'm reading a book called "The Flesh of the Gods" about the ritual use of hallucinogens. Haven't read any anthropology books for ages, forgotten how much I love them. I finished the other book, here's my review
Perdido Street Station by China MiévilleMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
Balancing a novel set in complex alien world with descriptions of it, and plot and characterization which makes that book readable is a difficult enterprise. China Mieville has so many ideas, such a broad and fantastic imagination that at times, he seems to get bogged down in explaining whichever new race he's invented to the detriment of the flow of the story.
I think he gets the mix about right in this book. Although there were times when I wanted him to just get on with the narrative, generally the wonder of the new world was exciting and interesting. What is possible and normal in this world worked, the political events didn't jar and the characters had redeeming features which made me root for them despite their faults. As in other book of his I've read, he doesn't mind making his characters experience suffering and pain and there isn't much hope of a happy ending, but at least it does end satisfactorily, which is better than Kraken.
Overall I enjoyed my immersion in his imagination and I'll go back there again.
View all my reviews
The rain here never stops and the wind is blowing wildly, looks like another day in. Hope your weekends are going well.
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no subject
Date: 2012-04-29 03:42 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-04-29 05:09 pm (UTC)One day I will go there, it'll be like a pilgrimage at this rate.
no subject
Date: 2012-04-30 01:57 pm (UTC)I would dearly love to travel more around the sites of the UK - I just have to try to prise JB off of the sofa so it would be a joint experience. I want to see the Margate Shell Grotto - very interesting history to that :-)
http://shellgrotto.co.uk/
no subject
Date: 2012-04-30 05:47 pm (UTC)Funny how some images stay with you, isn't it?
no subject
Date: 2012-05-01 01:22 pm (UTC)I have a small folly of my own - tumbled down and needing refurbishment in my own back garden. The shells inside were inspired by the shell grotto fad that grew over 100 years ago directly linked to Margate one. The girl who helped put the shells on the wall is still alive today and tells me she had a great time putting the shells on the cement with fish glue.
The Margate Grotto seems to be from times ancient (or maybe secret) enough to warrant not having any history on it, until found in the Victorian times. It's a shame that they can't get a good carbon date - I would be fascinated to know :-)
no subject
Date: 2012-04-29 04:32 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-04-29 05:10 pm (UTC)