Weekend of culture

...ugh, I think I'm starting to come down with some nasty respiratory bug. At the moment I feel like a zombie, only less lively.

( Some live theatre... )

( ...and a little night music )

...I need a "pensive" icon.

I've been reading quite a bit of Charles de Lint recently. He's one of my favorite authors, and probably the best writer (in terms of the actual craft of writing) among my favorites. He has this lyrical style and a real gift for making the magical elements in his book seem incredibly real. My favorite book of his is Forests of the Heart, which I'm currently rereading. It's set in his fictional Canadian city of Newford and centers around several main characters: a Mexican curandera, a sculptor with unrealized magical potential, a record store owner, an Irish punkette who likes old-style jazz and her morose brother, and various spirits and sinister beings. It centers around the Celtic legend of the Green Man, or Glasduine.

But his other Newford books - The Onion Girl, about an artist who is in a car accident and is paralyzed, but is able to be her old self again in the dreamworld she escapes to when she sleeps; Someplace to Be Flying, about a feud between the canid (dog/wolf) spirits and the corbae (crow) spirits that spills over into the mundane world; and several others - are also really good. It's also quite interesting the way he's built up the town of Newford, and so main characters who we've seen in one of his novels or short stories may reappear in a later novel or story in a supporting role (and vice versa).

But I think what I like best about Charles de Lint is that after reading one of his novels or short story collections, you feel like "y'know, magic could be real." And that's a nice feeling to have, even if it's only for a little while. It adds a bit of wonder to mundane everyday life, and what more can you ask of a good piece of fantasy?