Did you all see her put Paul repeatedly in his place? It was fabulous. I think she's going to make it clear that he's no longer head chef and never will be again (which is GOOD, because he needs to be taken down about twelve pegs)!
Nigella handshake, anyone?
and she's reached book 7. She messaged me to tell me "Thank you for reading me Everything's Eventual" (which I'd done about a year ago, trying to get her interested in all things King).
But then my brain connected two things I'd never connected before, and I want to hear your takes on it:
>!Dinky!< was >!rescued from Transcorp, right?!<
His existence in >!Algul Siento!< implies that >!he was "rescued" by the Crimson King’s agents!<.
Which means >!there’s more than one group of supernatural Big Bads in the Tower universe,!< right?
In discussion with a friend of mine this morning, we identified several things that make it obvious a writer or speaker's first language is not English:
- Phrasal verb mistakes
- Preposition mistakes
- Lack of articles
- Difficulty using the verbs "to do" and "to be"
- Syntax issues like order of words (subject-verb-object in statements, QASM or verb-subject-object in questions)
What else do you notice? What should non-native speakers focus on so they can sound more "natural" (a big concern for just about every non-native speaker I've read here)?
ETA: I am a native speaker. I'm just curious to see if we can make a list of "tells" for non-native speakers, who are always trying so hard to sound more like native speakers.
He is played for laughs, but there is something seriously wrong with this dude. Is it narcissism? Paranoia? Some of column A and some of column B? What’s going on with him?
Both of them were, in essence, desk workers, not field workers. And this is important because both of them had a desk-job mindset in field-work environments, which put them both at real risk.
I think this is because both of them were trying to do field work without any proper training. I think Syril (in addition to his other issues) was on the verge of "going native" on Ghorman, and Dedra was just not prepared for what field work really looks like or how it works. They were both used to desk jobs, where the only information they needed to deal with was in the form of other people's reports and documents.
Syril excelled at desk work, as we see once he was fired from his field-work supervisory role back on Pre-Mor and sent on to the Bureau of Standards. He got promoted there, apparently for being good at desk work. But then, once on Ghorman, he's assigned to field work - to infiltrate the rebellion and find the bad actors. Obviously, this does not work, and worse, he ends up identifying with the very people he's supposed to be investigating ("going native"), which he would not have done had he received proper fieldwork training.
Dedra, meanwhile, is very good at finding information, but any time she tries to do field work (the operation on Ferrix, the Ghorman massacre, and of course confronting/arresting Luthen) she botches it. She just can't break out of her desk-job mindset - that if she pushes the right dominoes, they'll all fall in an orderly fashion. She has apparently never heard the axiom "no plan survives contact with reality," and she makes this mistake over and over again.
How might this have played out differently if either or both of them was suited for the field, instead of the desk? But then again, would either of them had been the same character if they were suited for the field?
I've tried to add the "Self-Parody" trope to a page, but when the page saves it isn't creating a link. Is there something special I need to do with this particular trope name to make it link up?
So we've done best first lines and best last lines. How about the random line from a Stephen King story that lives in your head rent-free?
For me it will always be "Remember, hope is a good thing, Red, maybe the best of things, and no good thing ever dies."
How about you?
What is your favorite last line of a King story? it can be a short story, or a novel, or anything in between.
Mine is: She always knew the hay would be there.
Off the top of my head, I can think of two stories where a form of art that is not writing is important for at least one main character:
Duma Key and painting
The Life of Chuck and dance
Any others? I still have about 19 King books to read, so there may be ones I'm not aware of, but I'd love it if one of his main characters was a musician...
In my reading of King's work, I think todash space pops up in many of his stories. I submit for your consideration:
"The Jaunt" - teleportation could be happening through todash space.
"The Mist" - the monsters come into this world through a rift in todash space.
The void in Revival sure sounds like todash space to me, as does the portal in "N." and the Buick in From a Buick 8.
Many of the supernatural monsters in various stories, including his Lovecraftian horrors, could be argued to be coming from todash space (He Who Walks Behind the Rows in "Children of the Corn," It in IT, The Langoliers - hell, even the Wendigo in "Pet Sematary."
Thoughts?
I'm curious. What's the most memorable nonsense you've heard from a student who was assuming college would be just like high school?
I'll go first: They'll still get 50% of the points for assignments that haven't been turned in.