This instalment of The Dalek Game is for Sara Gruen’s Water for Elephants, which was a very charming, carnivalesque toffee-apple of a book, with a glitter that was missing from the movie.
The novel was also originally a NaNoWriMo piece. Now, every November writing circles tend to have a vigorous debate on whether NaNoWriMo is a good or a bad thing – for literature, for publishing, for one’s own writing. These debates miss the point. It is essentially the world’s largest and most extreme parlour game, and as such is a Good Thing and everyone should be forced to participate.
In other news: Tonight I went to the most beautiful birthday party: open-air backyard night time cinema, cushions on the lawn, candles in hanging bottles, reading lamps, carpets, armchairs, old oil paintings hung on the fences, long whatnots set with glass bottles and striped straws, big glass jars of peach tea and lemon-lime&bitters with fruit floating in them, little brown paper popcorn bags stamped with Shayna’s little wolf and boy stamps, big bowls of flavoured popcorns (cinnamon, salt, hazlenut praline) with old teacups to serve… It was like – oh, Alice in Wonderland and a midnight feast and a carnival. Happy birthday Shayna, it was amazing!
November 20, 2011 at 12:18 am
Ooh, what a pretty elephant! (I love elephants, especially Asian ones)
November 26, 2011 at 11:31 am
Thank you!
November 20, 2011 at 12:27 am
This is wonderful, Daleks and elephants a great combination!
I really don’t understand all the NaNo backlash, except to say some people don’t like games, or maybe they don’t like fun. Maybe they want everything to be difficult and sulky. Bah!
And, I wanted to thank you so for the Amanda Plummer article! Exactly my point, which I want to expand upon, so thanks for the extra resource… :)
November 26, 2011 at 11:31 am
So glad it was useful!
November 21, 2011 at 6:14 pm
Sounds like a fabulous party. Good use for teacups, I’ll remember that. The teas sound delightful. All of it really, atmosphere. Very gezellig, as we would say in Dutch, with no real translation
November 26, 2011 at 11:32 am
Oh, it was amazing!
November 22, 2011 at 6:20 pm
Another memorable drawing! My daughter came up with ‘The Dalek who was afraid of the dark’, and my best so far has been ‘The Dalek who came in from the cold’. You have provided us with hours of innocent amusement…….
November 26, 2011 at 11:32 am
Thank you, Tig Lang! So glad you’re playing :)