Sneevish

[resonant]

There are a pair of little characters in Finn Family Moomintroll who talk sort of inside-out. When a character named Sniff gets angry at them, another character tells them, "Piff is sneevish. Nake no totice." Sneevish seems like the perfect description of the mood I'm in right now.

My idiot cousin has enrolled her cat in some sort of online contest. She's sending out thrice-daily e-mails about his progress. Today I hit Reply and said, "Hey, can you take me off the list for this?" She replied, "Sure thing, but did you go vote for my kitty?"

I am irritable and out of sorts. I'm not reading porn. I'm not clicking on art links. I'm not even tempted by the "post a sentence from your WIPs" meme. I wonder if I'm turning into one of those mundanes who'd really rather spend the evening reading The Turn of the Screw than reading even a very good iteration of "Harry and Snape screw." (I actually have never read The Turn of the Screw before, but the library book is sitting over there on the coffee table, beckoning me. It doesn't know that I know better than to read scary stuff when I'm the only adult in the house.)

On the plus side, tomorrow I get to spend the morning waiting in line for madrigal dinner tickets. It's hard to overstate the pleasure of spending an entire Sunday morning and afternoon all alooooooone, far from a phone, with nothing but an uncomfortable high-school chair, two library books, an iPod, and a cup of coffee (assuming I remember to make the coffee), while the spouse gets the kidlet to feed, dress, be-church, and feed again. I've been to this madrigal dinner so many times I could just about step in for one of the altos, but I'm still enthusiastic about the ticket-buying process.

Comments

[cathexys.livejournal.com]

oh, i envy you the alone time. my husband never takes the kids by himself...at most he'll take one for a treat, so that i tend to be stuck with the screaming and unhappy other half :-)

i hope you enjoy Turn of the Screw. I absolutely adore it, and I think it's one of those texts that actually gains in analysis. There are some brilliant readings out there, and it's such a great example to illustrate utter uncertainty :D

Enjoy your evening!!!

[resonant8.livejournal.com]

Oh, we negotiated alone time very early in our parenthood experience.

The spouse is a fellow introvert, so he understands that when I say "I need time alone," I don't mean the way I need chocolate; I mean the way I need oxygen.

[yahtzee63.livejournal.com]

I read "The Turn of the Screw" just last year, thinking I was the last adult human to have done so. I found it VERY interesting, actually. Give it a try!

[randomblade.livejournal.com]

Moomins!!!

[resonant8.livejournal.com]

I adore them. I need to get hold of a scanner and make myself a Moomin icon.

[randomblade.livejournal.com]

they are among the coolest creatures ever to be invented. Yes I want a doom icon of the comet heading for moominland. Dammit. I will have to wait 'till after my exams to do it, though.

[sparrohawk.livejournal.com]

Oddly, when I saw the title of your post, I was convinced it would be about Snape/Peeves. :)

[resonant8.livejournal.com]

[very big eyes]

[rivier.livejournal.com]

Another vote for Turn of the Screw. It's an excellent story, and the interpretative possibilities are endlessly debatable.

Not really the scariest thing I've ever read either - in the conventional sense of don't-read-alone-in-a-creepy-house. There are things in it that will make you shiver, but maybe not as you might expect. I'll be intrigued to know what you think of it.

As to not feeling the love, I think there's a lot of it about. I feel like I'm coming out of a fugue state that's been running for several weeks now. Sometimes, you have to just conserve your energies for the many things that are unavoidable, and the few things you really want to do, and let the things you're doing out of habit and custom slide away for a while. You can always pick them up later on down the track.

[kupukello.livejournal.com]

O.O

You've actually read Finn Family Moomintroll??!! (And that solved one mystery of how the books have been translated *GRIN* Nake no totice). Well, except the name, which is actually 'Magician's hat', but maybe they just had to have the 'Finn' there :D

I so envy you for your Sunday. Every sententece I'm going to hear today will start with a 'MOM! :(

[flambeau.livejournal.com]

solved one mystery of how the books have been translated

Yes! I was just poking my head into the comments to say that hey, I'd always wondered how they did that. That's cute, that is.

Nån komslar! viskade Tofslan. Tyst som en musla!

[resonant8.livejournal.com]

Is there any way to explain how it's done in the original language to someone who doesn't understand the original language?

I've always wondered about the names, too. Why do the Hemulen and the Snork get 'the' in their names?

[flambeau.livejournal.com]

In the original text, the little critters add an extra syllable into or after what would otherwise be the final syllable of a word - not every word, but frequently enough to confuse a listener. :) Piff is sneevish is Sniffsla argsla in the original; normally that would be Sniff arg, and also there'd be a verb in there, but the Hemul is going for the fractured grammar style of communication across language barriers.

And I say the Hemul, because the Hemulen is grammatically incorrect; he's called the Hemul (the -en ending is how Swedish marks the definite article) because he is a Hemul, that's his species, just as the Snork is a Snork. (What's his sister called in translation?) And the Moomintroll is, of course, a Moomintroll. *g*

[flambeau.livejournal.com]

PS#1: Sniff arg means Sniff angry; I suppose if they'd gone the added-syllable route it might have been Sniffsy angersy.

PS#2: I'm comfort-rereading all your dS stuff, and after posting this I'll hit the back button and return to Juncture. Thanks for having so much good st8uff.

[resonant8.livejournal.com]

Huh. In English, Snufkin calls the Hemulen "Hemul," but I thought it was a nickname. So Hemuls and Snorks don't have individual names? Or Snufkin and Sniff don't have species names because they're the only ones of their kind?

The Snork's sister is called the Snork Maiden in English, which seems to me to suit her personality. What's she called in the original?

I'm comfort-rereading all your dS stuff, and after posting this I'll hit the back button and return to Juncture.

[beaming at you]

[flambeau.livejournal.com]

It would seem that they don't have individual names, no. We know that there are many more hemuls, and presumably they have some way of distinguishing, but...

Snufkin, btw, is Snusmumriken in the original, with an -en ending, so he should be the Snufkin. Sniff, though, is just Sniff. We never hear of any other snufkins; his father was a joxer. er. The Joxer, I suppose. No resemblance whatever to the Xena one. They seem to be one of a kind.

The Snork Maiden is Snorkfröken in the original - which does mean the snork maiden. (Or Miss Snork, but that doesn't really... no.)

[resonant8.livejournal.com]

I read it as a kid and loved it, so when I had a kid of my own, I went looking for it. (I figured she'd probably just give me a blank look, but she loves it, too.)

[kupukello.livejournal.com]

Moomin books are my favourites too, so just in case you didn't know, there are a lot more (http://www.schildts.fi/mumin/tove_eng.html) than that one, all about the same characters :D Unfortunately Tove Jansson died a couple of years ago, so there won't be new Moomin books.

[lobelia321.livejournal.com]

The Turn of the Screw than reading even a very good iteration of "Harry and Snape screw."
*bursts out laughing*
Oh my.

I've had phases like that. Published literature can be too mindblowing. I've always been lured back into the slashy fold, though. In one way or another. But it is very good to take a break. I can get over-invested in the online life.

Oh, and the joys of kidlessness!!

[lobelia321.livejournal.com]

Oh, and those little moomin critters! But they're naughty,too, and irritating. They steal!!

[resonant8.livejournal.com]

"It was so pleasant to sleep in the pittle lockets."

[taimsesasta.livejournal.com]

Is this a Tove Jansson book, by chance?
If so, I have to squee right along with you... :)

[resonant8.livejournal.com]

Yes! I love it!

[taimsesasta.livejournal.com]

Yay!

I hear you,

[lynnzo.livejournal.com]

There are times when slash, even good slash, gets to feeling "same old, same old," and I turn away from it for a bit. It's usually a sign that I'm getting stale on the fandoms I'm reading, but sometimes it's also a reaction to the porn element...sometimes you're just not in the mood for smut. I agree with lobelia...something always brings me back into the fold eventually, even when people think I've vanished for good. Take a break.

[mikosquirrel.livejournal.com]

Them Moomins am the bestestest ever. Yay!

[resonant8.livejournal.com]

You know, I read one of the books as a kid, and for years I would describe it to people and they'd look at me as if I had a paper head. Until I got to the point where I thought I had imagined it. I was so happy to find it again.

[mikosquirrel.livejournal.com]

I have a tendency to buy them for Christmas presents, particularly for Americans who haven't read them yet.

[hedgiewan.livejournal.com]

If you like the spoonerisms of the Moomins, you might also like Zilch the Torysteller (http://www.torysteller.com/).