Another Arisia Pic

-A pic of me at Arisia (along with leofwynn, doeeyedbunny, and buxom_bey), courtesy tikvah.

(I need to expand my range of facial expressions beyond "smug", I really do.)

Books: Dark Crystal

-My family had a copy of The World of the Dark Crystal (by Brian Froud) back when the movie came out. I think we wore it to bits. They released a slightly expanded edition for the 20th anniversary, which I snatched up, you betcha.

-The conceit of the book is that it's a translation of a text found at an archaeology site, along with pictures of artifacts found at the site, and assorted scholary commentary on both of the above. Back in '83, I probably thought this was an astoundingly clever gimmick. These days, I've seen it often enough that I can distinguish between when it's done well and when it isn't. Here, it's done . . . meh, it's done okay. They rely a little heavily on buzzwords ("The rock in which they are formed is nonfossiliferous and of unusual microcrystalline homogeneity." Sic.), and the "discovered" mythology lacks verisimilitude. (Like, they present a four-element cosmology right next to a five-element cosmology, both blithely swiped from obvious historic sources, and make no attempt to reconcile the two.)

-That said, the analysis of the symbolism of the movie is really quite good (despite being a batch of retcons), the art is all pretty, and I can see stuff in there I might steal myself someday for an RPG setting. If you liked the movie, this book is very recommended.