Football

Just so you know, it's not just the British journalists that have no sense of proportion. This is from AS, a Spanish football paper.

"For the same reason that there are albinos in Africa, snakes with two heads and Japanese over two metres tall, England beat Spain at Wembley. It was anomaly, a caprice of fate." - Spanish journalist Luis Nieto in the opening paragraph of his match report in Spanish football daily AS.

It's such a wonderful mix of batshit.

Writer's Block: Tea for two

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Cheating, utterly cheating and going with my dear, beloved Three Musketeers. An off day, obviously, as I am not capable of fighting against the Cardinal's Guards, although I'd totally be up for a fencing lesson.

Partly I just want to know what it was like to be one of them for a day.

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That answer may somewhat give away my answer to this.
Book Meme - Day 14 - Favourite book by your favourite writer

Because, although, yes, I have read 'The Count of Monte Cristo' more often, that's because I own that, while The Three Musketeers at home is my Mum's copy, it's still my favourite.

I think it's mostly the characters who are grand and large and fantastical, while being utterly human with flaws and graces. They're so horribly real, wonderfully real.

It's also an interesting book as from the start, it's made quite clear that heroic != good, good != kind, and that it's possible to be just as brave as our heroes and still oppose them (see Rochefort).

The structure is also quite clever because there is no villain (I do wish various adaptations would remember it, the Gene Kelly one certainly did). Yes, the Cardinal opposes the Musketeers, but that's just because he happens to oppose the King. And you know, it's quite clear he's actually a better ruler than the King.

Everyone gets a character, from one shot minor characters, to the servants (why yes, it's a grand adventure with servants with emotions and drives of their own), to the antagonists. It's such a wonderfully immersive experience.

Then you have the ending, the most gloriously bittersweet ending, where the four inseparables part because that's what life does, nothing lasts forever.

I love this book.

( The Other Days )

All of this makes me quite sad to have missed the new Musketeer movie in the cinema, although I have been informed that, with the honourable exception of the sword fights, it's ever so very terrible. Except I still want to watch it, if only for Porthos (Ray Stevenson!!) or because they appear to actually be giving Aramis face time.