http://marclaidlaw.com/2007/03/20/the-master-of-ballantrae/ "Mark How Far the Signal's Flung, Milady..." Fri, 23 Jul 2010 04:53:05 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0.1 http://marclaidlaw.com/2007/03/20/the-master-of-ballantrae/comment-page-1/#comment-4578 marc Mon, 13 Aug 2007 02:08:10 +0000 http://marclaidlaw.com/?p=62#comment-4578 I thought the "unnatural ambivalence" of the narrator was a deliberate attempt to depict a mind making accommodations for evil that it in no way deserves, without actually giving in to it. This is especially strong in the ocean passages. However, the things that cause you to dislike it are the things I enjoyed about it, and which I think would lead others to find it anything but a waste of time. It does exert a morbid fascination beyond the level of plot, which admittedly creaks a bit--doubtless one reason it remains a minor Stevenson. I found the atmosphere of the ending quite powerful even if the specifics of the plot were by modern standards somewhat ludicrous. So I continue to feel the book has merit...it's nice that you took the time to register how much you disliked it though. Books I find to be without merit generally don't get finished. I thought the “unnatural ambivalence” of the narrator was a deliberate attempt to depict a mind making accommodations for evil that it in no way deserves, without actually giving in to it. This is especially strong in the ocean passages. However, the things that cause you to dislike it are the things I enjoyed about it, and which I think would lead others to find it anything but a waste of time. It does exert a morbid fascination beyond the level of plot, which admittedly creaks a bit–doubtless one reason it remains a minor Stevenson. I found the atmosphere of the ending quite powerful even if the specifics of the plot were by modern standards somewhat ludicrous. So I continue to feel the book has merit…it’s nice that you took the time to register how much you disliked it though. Books I find to be without merit generally don’t get finished.

]]> http://marclaidlaw.com/2007/03/20/the-master-of-ballantrae/comment-page-1/#comment-4570 Bob Seaver Sun, 12 Aug 2007 18:20:37 +0000 http://marclaidlaw.com/?p=62#comment-4570 I'm stunned. Having just read this book by random selection from my complete works of Stevenson, I find it to be a complete waste of time. The eponymous "hero" is a wholly despicable person, for whom the narrator has an unnatural ambivalence that could come right out of Gide. In fact, the behavior of all of the other major characters in this book is so perverse that as I read I felt as if there must be some huge joke behind it all that would somehow come clear. It didn't, but some mobid fascination rather than any tension or excitement in the story itself kept me reading until the end. I cannot believe that this is regarded as a work of any merit whatsoever. I’m stunned. Having just read this book by random selection from my complete works of Stevenson, I find it to be a complete waste of time. The eponymous “hero” is a wholly despicable person, for whom the narrator has an unnatural ambivalence that could come right out of Gide. In fact, the behavior of all of the other major characters in this book is so perverse that as I read I felt as if there must be some huge joke behind it all that would somehow come clear. It didn’t, but some mobid fascination rather than any tension or excitement in the story itself kept me reading until the end. I cannot believe that this is regarded as a work of any merit whatsoever.

]]> http://marclaidlaw.com/2007/03/20/the-master-of-ballantrae/comment-page-1/#comment-848 GameSetLinks: From Green To Mutant League | Video Games Mon, 09 Apr 2007 21:10:25 +0000 http://marclaidlaw.com/?p=62#comment-848 [...] - This is not game-related in content at all, but Half-Life writer Marc Laidlaw just updated his weblog with a great book recommendation: “The finest Robert Louis Stevenson novel I hadn’t read, The Master of Ballantrae (1889) blends the high-seas piracy of Kidnapped! and Treasure Island, with Jekyll & Hyde’s dark doubled vision of humanity. It seems to have had a strong influence on Joseph Conrad’s The Secret Sharer (1909), of which I was vividly reminded during certain long discussions in a ship’s cabin during a storm. And toward the stripped-down end of the novel, it turns into a grim frontier adventure reminiscent of Antonia Bird’s sublime Ravenous.” So there. [...] [...] – This is not game-related in content at all, but Half-Life writer Marc Laidlaw just updated his weblog with a great book recommendation: “The finest Robert Louis Stevenson novel I hadn’t read, The Master of Ballantrae (1889) blends the high-seas piracy of Kidnapped! and Treasure Island, with Jekyll & Hyde’s dark doubled vision of humanity. It seems to have had a strong influence on Joseph Conrad’s The Secret Sharer (1909), of which I was vividly reminded during certain long discussions in a ship’s cabin during a storm. And toward the stripped-down end of the novel, it turns into a grim frontier adventure reminiscent of Antonia Bird’s sublime Ravenous.” So there. [...]

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