User: apsik Date: 2007-10-05 10:47 (UTC) Subject: (no subject) Keyword: wash =D

*grins* Now things are a little clearer :]

I'll check out all the links a little later - I don't want to distract the poor 'puter from downloading the new Spn... :] it's nearly here! *spazzes*

I ask your readers to ignore your ill-informed comments about Mervyn Peake. Titus Alone was published in 1959; Peake died in 1968. These facts are well known and easily checked. Perhaps your readers will now reconsider your dismissal of that book, especially when they are informed that "Peake planned to make it a series of seven books" is also your invention.
Happy reading -- Peter

User: penny7b Date: 2007-10-08 04:28 (UTC) Subject: Re: Gormenghast

My apologies. I got my information from the foreword of my Gormenghast single volume, and I assumed that it would be correct.

Still, my comments about how different the final book is from the other two still stand.

Also: series of 5, not 7.

If you, or anyone else, would like a more thorough review, try this one on David Louis Edelman's site.

Finally, please try to be polite on my lj. If you can't I'll have to delete your posts.

User: brisbanite Date: 2007-10-08 08:05 (UTC) Subject: Re: Gormenghast

Nasty nasty little trolls. Plus looking at Wikipedia, the timing would suggest that Peake was in the early stages of, if not actually suffering, a nervous breakdown at the time he wrote the book. Plus every adaptation bar one (by the ABC ironically) has omitted that book, so I personally will stick with Miss Penny's opinion.

User: penny7b Date: 2007-10-08 09:59 (UTC) Subject: Re: Gormenghast

Wow. There's an ABC adaptation? I didn't even know that. Cool.

Perhaps you could tell us which single-volume edition you are getting this strange information from. I have one with introductions by Quentin Crisp (actually an article written in 1946!) and Anthony Burgess, but no foreword in which Peake's death is said to have taken place before Titus Alone was published, or that mentions any number (five or seven) of projected volumes. Nor, for that matter, can I find any talking animals in Titus Alone. There's a character called Cheeta, but she is most definitely human (and feminine).
Peter
PS Edelman writes entertainingly -- and more appreciatively of Titus Alone than you do -- but he can hardly be considered a reliable source of biographical information on Peake.

User: penny7b Date: 2007-10-08 09:34 (UTC) Subject: Re: Gormenghast

Unfortunately I'm in India at the moment, and understandably my library isn't exactly within easy reach. So unfortunately I can't check who wrote the foreword. But you're right, I may be mis-remembering some details.

But given that this is hardly a literary review website, I think I should be forgiven for being a little lax and irreverent in my recommendations to a friend who simply enjoys some of the same books I do. And I stand by that recommendation. The user who originally asked me about Gormenghast, will probably really like the first two books, given what I know about her tastes and character. But I don't think she'll enjoy Titus Alone.

P.S.
"Edelman writes entertainingly -- and more appreciatively of Titus Alone than you do..."
Which is why I provided the link. I didn't write appreciatively of Titus Alone because I didn't really appreciate it.
"-- but he can hardly be considered a reliable source of biographical information on Peake."
Which I didn't claim he was. You'll find my post directed readers to link if they would 'like a more thorough review' of Titus Alone.

But if you know a reliable online resource for biographical information on Peake, by all means, please post a link. I'm sure we've peaked the interest of a few readers. (Forgive the pun ;)

Lucky you to be in India!
Look, I had no idea that I was intruding on a private conversation between you and your friend. I thought this site was posted for public viewing (which is how I came across it).
To give your friend a fair chance, let's agree then that (1) Peake lived on for nine years after the third Titus book was published; (2) there are no talking animals in it (though he does speculate on what a mule and a camel might have been thinking of each other); and the series is unfinished, without any definite number of volumes ever having been specified.
In the first two books, Titus grows up in a castle whose inhabitants are so cut off that they do not believe in the existence of a world beyond the walls. In the third, however, Peake takes Titus over the horizon to discover the rest of the world. To do this, he abandons the traditional form of narrative that he had been using (mirroring the tradition-centred and ritual-bound society of Gormenghast) to attempt a very different, stark style that mirrors the harsh world that Titus encounters. (As a visitor to a culture quite different from your own, you might sympathize with this decision.)
Many readers would have preferred more Gormenghast, but Peake was not one to pander to such sentiment, as Quentin Crisp realized way back in 1946. Nonetheless, they should not let their disappointment blind them to Peake's skill in this third book. He remained a stylist to the last.
This said, Peake would probably have appreciated your dismissal of Titus Alone (errors of fact excepted). In his radio play about an artist, he showed quite clearly that he preferred a work of art to shock. 'Did you hear what they said?' exclaims the artist. 'They find my mural “soothing”. Oh God, it used to live when it was hated. When people mocked it and spat at it.'
For biographical information on Peake, I'd go to published books. On the net, the Wiki page seems pretty good. And the Literary Encyclopedia (http://www.litencyc.com/) is reliable.
As I said, happy reading!
Peter
PS
I know you didn't propose Edelman as a source of biographical information, but he seems to have been your source for the "5 or 7" volumes -- I know of no other.

User: penny7b Date: 2007-10-09 09:52 (UTC) Subject: Re: Gormenghast

"Look, I had no idea that I was intruding on a private conversation between you and your friend. I thought this site was posted for public viewing (which is how I came across it)."

Not a worry. I'm a little curious how you did come across this post, since my lj is hardly a high traffic news site. But I don't have any problems with strangers reading and commenting on my posts. I've made one or two new acquaintances that way.
But it is a good idea when reading anything, particularly on the web, to keep in mind why it was written and what the intended audience is. In this case, I use this livejournal (note the [username].livejournal.com url) to keep in touched with my friends and loved ones who aren't always in convenient geographical locations. Some of them don't have lj accounts, so that's why I keep it unlocked.
Despite that, I have no objections at all to other people reading and commenting, so long as everyone can keep within the spirit of the original posts.

As for my friend reading Titus Alone, she's an intelligent person and I'm sure she can read these comments, and any other material she chooses, and make up her own mind. I wouldn't be friends with her if she were any other way. ;-)

PS. No, the series of books comes from the fabled foreword in my single volume back home. Edelman just reminded me how many books it was. I really will have to re-read that foreword when I get home, if only for my own curiosity. ^_^

"I'm a little curious how you did come across this post"
A Google alert.
"the series of books comes from the fabled foreword in my single volume back home."
I think "fabled" in the right word for it. I look forward to hearing what you discover in it.
Happy reading!
Peter