Calling all kids, or Fowl play
As promised earlier this week, I've started Eoin Colfer's first Artemis Fowl novel, Artemis Fowl. Though the news may be old hat to young readers, the novel is a delightful blend of police procedural, science fiction and fantasy.Here's my favorite bit so far, with a question to follow:
"Holly Short was lying in bed, silently fuming. Nothing unusual about this. Leprechauns in general were not known for their geniality. But Holly was in an exceptionally bad mood, even for a fairy. Technically she was an elf, fairy being a general term. She was a leprechaun, too, but that was just a job."
© Peter Rozovsky 2007
Technorati tags:
Irish crime fiction
Eoin Colfer
Artemis Fowl
Labels: Artemis Fowl, Eoin Colfer, Ireland
posted by Peter Rozovsky at 9:50 PM
7 Comments:
I can't answer the general question, but I remember reading that and thinking "so leprechaun is a job, not a race or ethnicity? I'll be darned!"
The kicker is that the "leprechaun is a job line," as funny as it is, is no mere throwaway. There is an amusing explanation for it, but you'll have to read the book to find it.
By the way, I tried to post another comment on yout Golden Gloves post, but I got a message that no comments were permitted? Is there a technical problem?
It may have run into my "close comments after X days" instruction; it's a spam-fighting tool. I'll double-check, thanks.
Yeah, that's what it was. I re-opened them for your (and subsequent others) comments.
OK, thanks. I'll drop back in. Is it ironic that a time-driven tool barred from posting a baseball comment? Baseball, it has been often (and wrongly) said is the only sport that has never been governed by a clock.
I don't think children and adults read the books in the same way. But it's great that my children and I can enjoy the same books. Your quote there has made me want to re-read Artemis, and I just haven't got the time!
Thanks for the comment. I'm sure children and adults don't read the same stories the same way. It would be interesting to talk to some young Artemis readers now, then again in a few years to hear what they have to say.
I was really thinking about one specific feature of Artemis Fowl when I posted my comment: the media-savvy fun Eoin Colfer has with some hoary old features of genre fiction, TV and movies. Another such feature is a scene in which Holly Short's hard-bitten commander gives her a bit of grudging admiration. It would be easy to assume that this is a bit of fun that kids might not recognize. But children may be more media-savvy than I think, so who knows?
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