Tough Guide is great fun, and while it does show up all the clichés of
fantasy, it does so form the inside, from the point of view of someone
who loves the genre, & who knows how the clichés can be used properly
as well as, um, cliché-ly. Of course, that's because it's written by a
master of the genre.
I'm clearly going to gave to track down some Miyazaki one of these
days, when I can find the time....
Thanks for that info...
Doug
On 16-Jan-05, at 3:26 PM, Alison Croggon wrote:
> Hi Martin
>
> The Tough's Guide isn't actually a novel, but a kind of encyclopaedic
> guide.
> It's a rather devastatingly witty satire on all the clichés of
> fantasy, and
> when I read it a few years ago I'd pinged quite a few. I think it's
> just
> been re-released; it used to be near impossible to get.
>
> I confess I have watched Grave of Fireflies only once, although we own
> it.
> But I really do recommend it, it's a stunningly beautiful film. It's
> astounding how much emotional charge can be generated by animated
> characters; it's something like what can happen in very good puppet
> shows.
> The Ghibli Studios thing, what Miyazaki does so superlatively, and what
> superlative puppeteers also manage, is to catch gesture and movement.
> There's a scene in My Friend Toto where a toddler is playing on the
> tree
> monster, falling over and giggling: when I first watched it, I stopped
> the
> dvd and replayed it, because I couldn't get over how accurately he was
> rendering the physical movements of a small child. Wonderful stuff.
>
> Best
>
> A
>
>
>
> Alison Croggon
>
> Blog: http://theatrenotes.blogspot.com
> Editor, Masthead: http://masthead.net.au
> Home page: http://alisoncroggon.com
>
>
Douglas Barbour
Department of English
University of Alberta
Edmonton Alberta T6G 2E5 Canada
(780) 436 3320
http://www.ualberta.ca/~dbarbour/dbhome.htm
The poet is ecstatic, having dreamt of this visit for weeks.
He takes Erato’s face, dribbling and wild, between his hands
and kisses her gently as if she were a runaway teenager.
Diana Hartog
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