Shot through the heart

[austin_dern]

I'd expected I would bleed this week, but not metaphorically. The first review of my textbook manuscript came, and its few critiques were overall deathly accurate. The most correct complaint: the writing style is all over the map. The exposition starts (wonderfully) at an upper-undergraduate or beginning-graduate student level; it's a bit tougher when it has to call in group theory and some subtler concepts in dynamical systems; and portions of the results are minimally rewritten journal papers and about as readable.

If I hadn't lost weeks to iBook repairs maybe it'd be smoother. Still, the manuscript needs fixing, and the iBook sails out of AppleCare Protection in five hours (in this time zone; 21 hours where it was bought, but I couldn't get to California in 21 hours).

Luckily some complaints are just nitpicking. The comment that the biographical footnotes are ``not always'' charming I can safely ignore (though I may trim wordier ones). Most tedious is a request for a longer still bibliography. There are still a few potential reviewers to go. It's going to be a fun month.

Trivia: The first voice of Popeye the Sailor in cartoons was that of William Costello, ``Red Pepper Sam,'' who had also played the voice of Gus the Gorilla on the Betty Boop radio show. Source: The Fleischer Story, Leslie Cabarga.

Currently Reading: Titan, John Varley. I think I'd like the ``explore the strange alien artifact orbiting Saturn that somehow isn't Iapetus'' story better if the characters could go three minutes without talking about their sex lives. Still, it's an easy enough read.

Comments

[chipuni.livejournal.com]

Ouch. I can appreciate.

Good luck with the rewrites.

[austin-dern.livejournal.com]

Thanks. Apart from expanding the bibliography it probably won't be too bad, since much as I like writing, I love rewriting. It's a compulsion.

and Nikolai Ivanovich Lobachevsky is his name

[chefmongoose.livejournal.com]

Glad you're somewhat enjoying Titan. Yes.. Varley's sex-obsessed in that Chalkerian vein, except more frequently. I'll be interested to see what you think when it all wraps up.

There was a Betty Boop Radio show? (o_O)

--Chiaroscuro

Re: and Nikolai Ivanovich Lobachevsky is his name

[austin-dern.livejournal.com]

Well ... the book was fine, although to be honest I doubt in three months I'll remember anything specific from it. The event of meeting the intelligence behind the world (I'm trying to be spoiler-neutral) was the most interesting part, and it happens so near the end it's not quite a big enough payoff, for me. I understand there are more books in the series, but I don't expect I'll go deliberately searching for them.

Everything had a radio show in the 1930s and 40s. They didn't quite have reruns yet.

Re: and Nikolai Ivanovich Lobachevsky is his name

[chefmongoose.livejournal.com]

Mmm. I remember little specific except, of course, the sex; though it's been more like 2 years since I've read it. And yes, I concur about that being the most interesting bit, the meeting of.. well, Gaia.

Wizard, the next book in the series, is one of the comparatively few books I've ever started in my life and not finished; I could see bad trends form early and knew it would follow a Matrix-like Suck Pattern. Best to enjoy the first on its own, as a stand-alone work.

--Chiaroscuro

Re: and Nikolai Ivanovich Lobachevsky is his name

[austin-dern.livejournal.com]

I think I'll settle at what I've read, then, if the sequel is that bad. There are rather few books that I haven't been able to finish -- admittedly, in some of those cases I just had to grow up a bit to appreciate good writing more -- but this doesn't give off the vibes of being too good for me to understand just yet. Really great stories tend to have sharp limits on the number of sex organs any character might have.

[c-eagle.livejournal.com]

Great review of the Bambi DVD, buddy! *flufflescritches*

[austin-dern.livejournal.com]

Oh, thanks. Happy to serve.