The Well of Lost Plots
(Thursday Next
#3
)by Jasper Fforde
fantasy, humour
copyright 2003
read in January 2017
rated 9/10: really, really good
Really, really good. And I don't say that just because the book was a Christmas present. Nor because I chose it myself. It is just a really, really good book.
There are terrible puns and clever literary references. There are clever literary puns. There
is
humour, adventure, suspense and a happy ending... sort of.Central to this book is a problem which was created in an earlier book. It causes more problems in this book, problems which are resolved. The original problem is still there, though with the certainty that it *will* be solved. Eventually. The problems are serious but not pushed too hard. I want the major problem to be resolved but I am willing to wait, for a book or two.
Then there is the central idea of this series: that there is a parallel world where books and their characters are created. Where the
y
exist, with lives of their own. Constrained largely by the need to be in the correct place when their book is being read.Is this series an entire, sustained *pataphor* ?! (Or, more correctly, is it an entire, sustained *!pataphor*...) A metaphor uses one object or idea to exemplify aspects of another. A pataphor treats the metaphor as being the real thing. I think...
This is a book which I immediately want to re-read. But I will hold off... for a few weeks. It is a book which needs to be read within easy reach of a reference work on literature. The internet, for example. Did David Copperfield really murder Dora Spenlow? How did Jane Eyre really end? Is Wuthering Heights really full of such bitter and twisted -- and weak and miserable -- characters? I need to know! I need to know -- while I am re-reading The Well of Lost Plots.
I enjoyed this book. I believe that I will enjoy it even more, on a second and more informed reading :-)
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A bit later: I'm reading Wuthering Heights. Boy! has Well of Lost Plots captured that lot nicely :-)
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Dr Nick Lethbridge / Consulting Dexitroboper
Agamedes Consulting / Problems? Solved.
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"Before your dreams can come true, you have to have those dreams" … Dr Joyce Brothers
Dr Nick Lethbridge / Consulting Dexitroboper
Agamedes Consulting / Problems? Solved.
====
"Before your dreams can come true, you have to have those dreams" … Dr Joyce Brothers
1 comment:
March 2017: Yes, I've re-read Well of Lost Plots. With the internet to hand, for checking references. Brilliant!
I've also remembered a problem with my initial review. A problem which I blame on hasty writing. And being on holiday. It's the key nastiness of the piece... UltraWord(tm). I failed to mention it...
BOOK Version 9 -- known as UltraWord(tm) -- is the soon-to-be-released upgrade of the standard Story Operating System. And BOOK v9 comes with several problems.
Remember the stories of books which were published online, sold as digital copies, subsequently changed?! That's BOOK v9. The ability for a central organisation to change -- after publication and after sales -- the content and meaning of a book. Very convenient for avoidance of potential lawsuits.
Remember 1984? With history be rewritten on the fly?
Remember the Kindle change? Was in apocryphal? It was certainly a warning:
A published book referred to "kindle". You can kindle a fire. You can kindle interest. A hare can kindle a litter of young. A Kindle is also an ebook reader sold by Amazon.
A non-Amazon publisher published the book online. Sold copies. And *then* decided that they did not like to give publicity to Amazon. So they changed every instance of the word "kindle" -- to "ebook reader".
The Boy Scout used ebook reading to ebook reader the campfire... The wild hare will make a soft nest of fur before she ebook readers.
What?!
And that is a part of the villainy at the core of Well of Lost Plots. Central, online publishing. With the ability to rewrite books -- after publication. Along with other related potential for literary wrongs.
Scary? Yes. Happening? At least in part.
A great topic for a book of literary references.
Sorry I forgot to mention it in my initial review.
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