I’m in the midst of rereading The Darkangel by Meredith Ann Pierce. It’s the first proper fantasy novel I remember falling in love with–right around age 8. (I always read far above my grade level.) Although I read this book countless times growing up, it’s been many years since the last time I picked it up; it’s out of print, so you really have to hunt to find a copy. Nowadays, The Darkangel would probably be considered Young Adult, and it is written somewhat like a fairy tale with both sci-fi and fantasy elements.
There are two things that have struck me most in reading it again now. The first is surprise that I read this book at such a young age. It is by no means extraordinarily sophisticated, but even for the way I devoured books as a kid, I’m amazed I latched onto it as much as I did. Some of the themes, and most certainly some of the vocabulary, had to have gone way over my head.
But the second (and more interesting) thing that has struck me is just how influential this book turned out to be in retrospect. In it, I see elements of the types of novels I grew to love as I got older, as well as themes and story elements that have informed my own stories. I did not remember the book that way; I’m only seeing it now when something like a quarter of a century has passed since the last time I read it. There are allusions to old mythology and folklore; there are elements of sci-fi in a predominantly fantasy setting; there is a young heroine who takes matters into her own hands and tries to help those worse off than herself. Is it any wonder that I love Divergent or The Hunger Games? There are vampires who are more human than monster; there are terrifying creatures of night who feel and suffer as we all do; is it any wonder I love Anne Rice’s Vampire Chronicles or anything by Stephen King?
This whole affair has made me want to dig out other books from my youth and see what other stories informed the reader and writer I’ve become–apart from the most obvious ones, of course. I’d been wanting to reread The Darkangel for a long, long time, but I never expected the journey to be this fascinating.
It is sad and ludicrous in this digital age how many albums, books, TV shows, and movies are just not available legally in any way. It’s infuriating. 🎵📚📺🎥
Those who are trying so hard to drag us back into the past are also the ones who are awfully desperate to keep us from learning what things were like back then. 🤔
I just discovered, hidden away deep in Settings, that you can assign keyboard commands for Shortcuts on iPadOS, and now nothing will ever be the same. I’m not sure how i missed this. 🎉
It’d been a while, so I just updated my Toolbox page with the tools I’m using these days for various things. I’m testing a couple of new things at present that may be added soon. I hope you’ll find these useful.
“There is a cult of ignorance in the United States, and there always has been. The strain of anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that ‘my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge.'"–Isaac Asimov
I am absolutely heartbroken at the news that we have lost Anne Rice. Her work has been a fixture in my life for more than thirty years, and she is one of my most important influences. I can’t believe it. The world will not be the same. 💔📚
We discussed our complicated feelings about Masters of the Universe: Revelation in the most recent episode of Masters Cast. Check it out wherever you get your podcasts. ⚔️
My musical awakening came a little earlier than it does for most people, whose taste in tunes tend to settle in during their teen years. For a long while, I have been wanting to make a purely nostalgic playlist. I wanted it to take me back to the days of my youth, when turning on the radio in the mid 1980s meant that I knew (and generally loved) most of the music on the airwaves. It was a time when “pop” was less of a genre and more about whatever happened to be popular at the moment. It was a time when WHAM
!, Bon Jovi, Sting, and Guns and Roses were all battling it out at the top of the charts. It was a glorious time, full of variety and talented artists.
Those of a certain age or musical persuasion will understand. Music, inherently, is incredibly subjective. I’m not here to judge anyone else’s taste, only to celebrate mine. If you have a similar love for the decade that shaped me, you might enjoy my 80s Radio FM playlist on AppleMusic. It’s intended to be listened to on shuffle. With over 21 hours of music and nearly 300 songs, I wanted to recreate flipping on the radio in the 1980s—you never know what you’re going to get, but it’s all going to be something good.
Depending on your own taste, you may find some glaring omissions in this list. I deliberately left off some songs that I really didn’t care for, and also included some that are here more for the nostalgia than the artistic merit. AppleMusic makes it easy to use a playlist like mine as a basis for your own custom version, so feel free to do that if you find it lacking in some area you would prefer.
Carving jack-o'-lanterns is one of my favorite Halloween traditions. 🎃
Next up? It’s the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown and Garfield’s Halloween Adventure
👻🧡🖤🧡👻
I now have a profile on BingeBooks.com, and you can follow me there. I really like BingeBooks, both as an author and a reader. Other similar sites have always felt like work to me. BingeBooks is fun! 📚