tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6644918126688721788.post2850203552828302040..comments2024-03-28T07:13:10.797+00:00Comments on TONE DEAF: Keeping the sand at bayRoderick Robinsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16828395545197001637noreply@blogger.comBlogger6125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6644918126688721788.post-33242917519839097662013-10-20T07:29:53.285+01:002013-10-20T07:29:53.285+01:00Beth: Your news is quite agonising; in fact neithe...Beth: Your news is quite agonising; in fact neither your comment nor Rouchswalwe's showed up in my inbox. I feel like Sir Edward Grey ("The lamps are going out all over Europe. We shall not see them lit again in our time") although I hope my experience is limited only to his first sentence. I shall now rush away to The Cassandra Pages and leave something tiny, equivalent to a Yeti track in the Himalayas.<br /><br />RW (zS): I agree, reading would be impossible. As I mentioned to Lucy I made notes - it is one way of rising above the gogglebox.Roderick Robinsonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16828395545197001637noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6644918126688721788.post-49136022185284046152013-10-19T23:36:59.139+01:002013-10-19T23:36:59.139+01:00The Buick dealership waiting room was horrid (noti...The Buick dealership waiting room was horrid (notice past tense). I'd be forced to sit with TV-addicted patrons. Try reading over tawdry talk shows. Ugh.Rouchswalwehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01393987883437907945noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6644918126688721788.post-12947252719866198662013-10-19T18:39:53.367+01:002013-10-19T18:39:53.367+01:00Yes! I love hearing about Lucy's water-colour ...Yes! I love hearing about Lucy's water-colour chart. Dear Roderick, I'm sorry, I've been reading posts lately on my tablet and every time I leave you or anyone else a comment it disappears. But I have been here, though it appears otherwise!Bethhttp://www.cassandrapages.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6644918126688721788.post-33419304170920486622013-10-19T07:12:29.591+01:002013-10-19T07:12:29.591+01:00Sir Hugh: Not being a Hardy fan (blame O-level Eng...Sir Hugh: Not being a Hardy fan (blame O-level English in 1951) I wasn't even aware of that title. I am impressed by your discoveries about suspense. My memories of The Trumpet Major (the set book in 1951) are so dim I can neither confirm nor deny this. Only the supreme irritation I felt about the three characters he'd gathered together for his eternal-triangle story.<br /><br />I appreciate your comments about Second Hand. As I mentioned before the trick is to pick a short passage that I hope has some intrinsic interest but which does not give away significant aspects of the plot. Eventually though I suspect I shall be forced to reveal the big transition in Francine's life. Or will I?<br /><br />Lucy: My compliments on the inference your question poses. Yes I do have a tiny note-book, strangely named Guide Dogs, a gift from VR who received it as an even stranger gift from her mother. It was used in the car showroom although memory also played a part.<br /><br />Every so often I like to compile a post from four or five separate minor personal incidents. I am quite good at recognising their relevance as they occur but I have the devil's own job recalling them if I don't use some sort of mnemonic. Hence the booklet.<br /><br />The water-colour chart experience sounds too good to let languish here in Tone Deaf comments. Admittedly it presents you with one of two literary options: transmutation or acute selectivity, but you have shown in the past you are capable of both, perhaps the two in combination. If as you say it was "quite rewarding" (ah, a long, long essay could be written about the British relationship with that qualifier) for you I'm sure it would be for us. During a rainy afternoon, perhaps.Roderick Robinsonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16828395545197001637noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6644918126688721788.post-58209097206626437922013-10-18T09:20:34.603+01:002013-10-18T09:20:34.603+01:00Did you have any kind of note-taking facility for ...Did you have any kind of note-taking facility for these observations? If not I'm quite impressed at the exercise of memory. I once spent a longish period waiting in the car studying a bi-lingual colour chart of watercolour paints which was all there was. It was quite rewarding.Lucyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09764296105901909328noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6644918126688721788.post-76095389565288008662013-10-18T08:31:40.386+01:002013-10-18T08:31:40.386+01:00As one of the Robinson clan, on Tuesday I spent ti...As one of the Robinson clan, on Tuesday I spent time in two different hospital waiting rooms and read through a fair amount of Thomas Hardy’s A Pair of blue Eyes downloaded onto to my iPad Mini, which for all practical purposes is the same as a Kindle.<br /><br />Hardy handles suspense well, frequently leaving you with a cliffhanger, (literally, in one instance in this story), and not only in major dramatic moments, but also matters of minor plot development. This extract sounds like one of those pivotal moments where Hardy would have left the reader for a while to pick up another part of the story. The detail in the extracts you are showing is well observed - the kind of stuff that makes the reading worthwhile for that content as much as the plot and any deeper message promoted by the book.Sir Hughhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17908756392825206914noreply@blogger.com