The city is hidden superstition

[dolorosa_12]

This weekend — and week in general — has certainly been less busy than the last one! It was good to have two days devoted to the usual weekend things — trips to the gym and the swimming pool, wandering around the cathedral with takeaway coffee, reading, cooking, and household chores. On top of that, I managed to finish the first draft of my Yuletide assignment. It's definitely not ready to post, but the words are there, ready to be edited into their final form.

Last night Matthias and I went for dinner at this place, a former stately home-turned-expensive-hotel-and-wedding-venue. The restaurant is in the hotel's orangerie, meaning one wall is entirely glass windows, with views across the fields over the river and railway tracks and back into town, with the cathedral looming over everything. Last night, we also had a clear view of the fireworks, which was certainly better than watching them in the rain and paying £8 for the privilege. The restaurant is certainly the best one in town (if I'm stretching the definition of town to include the outlying villages), but is also the most expensive, so definitely something for special occasions.

I've read a lot this week, but mostly it's been rereads of stuff from my childhood collection. The only new-to-me book was something I've been trying to get my hands on for years: Travel Light by Naomi Mitchison, which was being recommended left and right a few years ago by professional SFF types as a formative work of their youth. It's out of print, I tried to order it from a secondhand seller only for them to refund me and say that the copy they had listed was in too poor condition to sell, and for a while I despaired of ever reading it, when I suddenly realised that I work for a massive network of university libraries and it would make sense to check if they had any copies available. Of course they did, and I finally got a copy of the book in my hands.

It's a weird, hard-to-describe little book — memorable more for the mood and emotions it evokes than the plot and characters, which are respectively meanderingly fairy tale-like, and folklorically flat and symbolic, with occasional flashes of psychological depth. We follow the heroine Halla as she is cast out into a forest in early childhood, raised by bears and dragons, contends with gold- and glory-hungry heroes, encounters gods and valkyries, and travels south through eastern Europe to medieval Byzantium, where she speaks with chariot horses and rats, corrupt religious and earthly rulers, and desperate petitioners seeking help at the heart of empire. It has its own internal logic, with the supernatural brushing up against everyday life in a way that causes little surprise or confusion for the characters, and is written with exquisite clarity and beauty, its effects rippling out long after its words have been read, like stones in clear water. I'm really glad to have been able to read it at last.

I'm at a loss as to what to read next, and will procrastinate on the decision by going upstairs to do yoga in the last lingering afternoon sun, and then cooking a bunch of different dishes from Yotam Ottolenghi and Sami Tamimi's Jerusalem cookbook for dinner.

Comments

[blackcatofmisery]

That restaraunt sounds so gorgeous. I love when those big, pretty houses become something more public-friendly. It's just a nice way to use what's already constructed, and it gives an old building new life. I recently found out there's something similar here in my state and really want to visit.

=^..^=~

[dolorosa_12]

It was great! And I totally agree with you — I like it when buildings and spaces are used and functional, and hotel and events venues are a good use of huge formerly residential buildings.

[luzula]

Oh, I love Travel Light! <3 <3 But is it really out of print? This edition looks like it's for sale.

Also, I wrote fic for it in Yuletide a while ago, if you're interested.

[dolorosa_12]

I had seen that edition, but had assumed for some reason that it was only available in the US. I can now see that although it's cheaper to get the paperback in the US, it's presumably not impossible to get it elsewhere, and the ebook would be available in all regions.

In any case, I was more keen to read it than own my own copy, and borrowing it from the library meant it was free.

I'll have a look at your fic, since I'm still not sure what original fiction to read next!

[regshoe]

I love Travel Light! Such a strange little book, beautiful and weird, and very much assured in its own internal logic, as you say—I love how it blends fairytaleishness of style and sensibility with sharp insight and its own not always very fairytaleish ideas and themes. I can second the recommendation for the lovely Yuletide fics luzula wrote me for it :D

[dolorosa_12]

I love how it blends fairytaleishness of style and sensibility with sharp insight and its own not always very fairytaleish ideas and themes.

That is it, exactly! It's such a clever little book.

I've already read luzula's fic and enjoyed it a lot!

[yarnofariadne]

The Old Hall looks lovely! That sounds like the best way to watch fireworks; we're currently under assault from someone setting them off in the alley, which began halfway through our D&D session, so THAT was fun.

Travel Light sounds like such an enchanting book.

[dolorosa_12]

Yikes, that does not sound like much fun at all!

Travel Light is great — I highly recommend it.

[el_staplador]

We watched them for free from the cathedral green. I dare say we'll end up inside the arena in years to come, but we got an adequate display from where we are. We haven't made it out to the Old Hall yet (that's something that's going to have to wait a bit too!) - our favourite restaurant so far is the Old Fire Engine House.

[dolorosa_12]

I'm glad you were able to get a good view of the fireworks from there. Our taxi driver (driving us home from the Old Hall) said that a lot of people were also watching the display from the market square, so from the sound of things it's possible to get a good view without having to pay.

Old Fire Engine House is so lovely inside! We took my in-laws there for dinner when they were visiting in February.

[isis]

I really enjoyed Travel Light!

[dolorosa_12]

It's great! I'm so glad I was able to read it at last.

[skygiants]

I also loved Travel Light! Naomi Mitchison has become one of those authors I hunt for every time I go to a used bookstore -- so far with limited results but I live in hope that over time this quest will yield more fruits.

[dolorosa_12]

Naomi Mitchison has become one of those authors I hunt for every time I go to a used bookstore -- so far with limited results but I live in hope that over time this quest will yield more fruits.

Given how many people seem to love her books — and how many of them seem to be out of print or hard to find — it's no wonder that they're rare indeed at secondhand bookshops! Good luck tracking more down!

[svgurl]

Congrats on getting the first draft of your Yuletide fic done! That is awesome! Also, the place you went to looks very pretty. :D

[dolorosa_12]

Thank you! It was lovely, and I'm glad we were able to go.

[lyr]

I am super impressed that you're already done with your first draft of your yuletide assignment! I haven't even really settled down to think about mine yet.

[dolorosa_12]

I find the writing easy but the editing hard, so I always like to get the words out as quickly as possible. It helps that my requester had a lot of good prompts that matched with what I wanted to write.