I'm alive!

(Despite all blog-evidence to the contrary.)

Nothing terribly exciting to report, though. Except that I did willfully, intentionally, and with malice aforethought skip a class this morning. But I had a good reason. Well, sort of . . .

One of my required music classes is Skills, and every couple of weeks there's an audit (a mini-test on rhythm or sight-singing). And I had a singing audit today, but as I spent most of my weekend studying for a music history test Monday (and the rest reading The Dark is Rising), I couldn't work on my singing stuff in advance. So I was going to do it Tuesday and Wednesday . . .

But then Tuesday I had Legacy for a couple of hours (which *never* happens), and Wednesday I forgot. Until I got home, and realized I hadn't opened Ottman (the sight-singing book) once all week.

So this morning I willfully, intentionally, etc. skipped Linguistics to practice for my audit. (Which wasn't so bad, since the Linguistics professor gives meandering disorganized lectures, and the class feels interminable.) And the audit went fine (I only had to do half, which helped; the Skills professor always saves the audit till the *end* of class, and then gives second and third chances to all the kids who crash and burn because they've practiced less than *I* have. Resulting in half the audit left for next time.)

So there you go: story of my week. Oh, except I left out the part where I thought I hadn't studied enough for the music history test, and was genuinely worried, and then it was easy. Multiple choice and stuff. Kind of disappointing, really.

The Dark is Rising was interesting, though, so I didn't waste the whole weekend. (I probably spent more time on it than on music history, actually . . .) It's a series of five books, and the title of the second book is also the title of the series. I read three of them Saturday and Sunday, and am finishing up the last one (sort of a prequel) now.

I've been vaguely meaning to read them for years--young adult fantasy classics, Newberry Awards, that sort of thing. I actually picked one up at the library maybe ten years ago, and read a couple of pages. I was fascinated, but had a vague impression that they were probaby "bad," so I never read them.

But the impression of that scene lingered . . . I remembered that the main character was British (possibly Welsh); that there was some sort of epic mysterious conflict between good and evil; and that there was a magical book which the kid could read, despite it being in an ancient lost language, because he was destined to help in this epic conflict. And there was a general atmosphere of grandeur and mystery.

Then, a couple of weeks ago, I saw the movie trailer. The kid, Will, was American; there was no sign of a magical book anywhere; and there were lots of silly-looking effects and random super-powers. (Will has telekinesis. "Cool," he says to his mentor. "Can I fly?").

Yeah, not what I remembered. So I thought maybe my two pages had given me an inaccurate idea of the book, or the intervening ten years had muddled my memory . . or that someone had done a worthy book a terrible disservice. Wouldn't be the first time.

So I read the books. And it turns out my two pages ten years ago gave me a better idea of the story's tone than anything in the trailer. Of course, trailers can be misleading . . . but a bit of poking around online suggests that the people behind this movie didn't bother to read the whole first book, much less the whole series--much less get in touch with its living author. And they don't mind saying so. Apparently they're quite happy to be making "Potteragon of the Rings and the Lost Signs," and don't care that they're destroying a high-fantasy quest with its own atmosphere, a unique and unusual brand of magic, and the gravitas of the oldest Celtic and Arthurian myths just around every corner.

The books aren't perfect (more on that later), but they've got a lot going for them (especially "the Dark is Rising" and "The Grey King").

And for Susan Cooper's sake, I sincerely hope the movie doesn't make enough for sequels.