Browsing Archive: March, 2010

Unknown countries (10): Discussion and conclusions

Posted by Ken Edwards on Tuesday, March 23, 2010, In : writing

This is an investigation of eight novels incorporating the fantastic, with a view to drawing some conclusions about the place of speculation in fiction.

Let’s recap what I am trying to do here. I wanted to consider eight books with non-naturalistic content. I chose eight I had never read before, because I wanted this to be an open-ended investigation, a kind of thinking online without preconceptions about what I was trying to achieve.

I also stated at the outset that part of ...

Mating season

Posted by Ken Edwards on Monday, March 15, 2010, In : Hastings

A wonderful, sunny spring morning - so I decided to check the seagull habitat on our roof before the mating season begins in earnest next month.

Herring gulls (on the endangered list in the UK) nest in profusion on the rooftops of Hastings Old Town, and our house does not escape. Each year we usually have two resident pairs: one nesting between the chimney pots of the bigger, higher chimney, and the other in the roof valley in the lee of the rear chimney. It's this latter that cause the probl...
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Unknown countries (9): The Prestige

Posted by Ken Edwards on Wednesday, March 3, 2010, In : writing

This is an investigation of eight novels incorporating the fantastic, with a view to drawing some conclusions about the place of speculation in fiction.

I need to be careful discussing Christopher Priest’s The Prestige (1995). This is one book where any detailed discussion of the plot risks spoiling a first-time read; it’s not so much a whodunnit as a howdunnit.

The novel concerns two 19^th century stage magicians, Rupert Angier and Alfred Borden, whose bitter rivalry has tragic co...