{"id":1506,"date":"2011-12-19T16:20:32","date_gmt":"2011-12-19T16:20:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.monkeyshines.co.uk\/blog\/?p=1506"},"modified":"2012-01-08T16:45:06","modified_gmt":"2012-01-08T16:45:06","slug":"book-battle-5-bibliomania","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/monkeyshines.co.uk\/blog\/book-battle-5-bibliomania\/","title":{"rendered":"Book Battle 5: Bibliomania"},"content":{"rendered":"

\nJust in time for Christmas, the return of a Monkeyshines “favourite” that precisely no-one has asked to see make a return! Yes, it’s a rather random, rather pointless, book battle<\/a>, where the books (rather than the books’ characters) struggle against my tortuous metaphors and each other, and the rounds are decided using a list of adjectives from my random word generator<\/a>. This time it’s a tag-team face-off between the books I’ve read since War and Peace<\/a><\/em>.
\nIn the red corner: Dune Messiah<\/em> and Children of Dune<\/em> by Frank Herbert;
\nand in the blue corner: The Finkler Question<\/em> by Howard Jacobson, and Cosmopolis<\/em> by Don DeLillo.\n<\/p>\n

\nRound 1: Whispering<\/b>
\nThe Finkler Question<\/em> and Dune Messiah<\/em> are first up, circling each other in the ring; The Finkler Question<\/em> throws itself against the ropes, to return with momentum at its opponent. But the whispering sands of Dune Messiah<\/em> solidify into an arm, which catches the lumbering Jewish novel in the neck.
\nVerdict: Dune Messiah<\/em> and Children of Dune<\/em><\/b>.\n<\/p>\n

\nRound 2: Homely<\/b>
\nThe Finkler Question<\/em>‘s prone form struggles to its corner while Dune Messiah<\/em> showboats, and manages to tag Cosmopolis<\/em>, which tries to catch its cocky rival unawares. The roar of the crowd tips off Dune Messiah<\/em>, however, and it hops over the scything move from Cosmopolis<\/em>. The novels, both far from homely, grapple in an unseemly manner before the referee breaks them apart.
\nVerdict: Draw<\/em><\/b>.\n<\/p>\n

\nRound 3: Adventurous<\/b>
\nOut of nowhere Cosmopolis<\/em> defies its weight disadvantage, and slams Dune Messiah<\/em> into a corner post, before springing backwards in readiness for the finishing blow… But, wait, Children of Dune<\/em> is stood on the post behind Cosmopolis<\/em>, and launches itself across the ring! Cosmopolis<\/em> senses the attack coming and sidesteps neatly, leaving a knee trailing to catch Children of Dune<\/em> in the midsection. The adventurous prose and the scope of the imagination in DeLillo’s modern novel have KO’d the more conventional sense of adventure in the Dune novels; it’s a good job the pedestrian The Finkler Question<\/em> wasn’t in the ring for this round, though.
\nVerdict: The Finkler Question<\/em> and Cosmopolis<\/em><\/b>.\n<\/p>\n

\nRound 4: Icy<\/b>
\nWell, the decent story of Frank Herbert’s sequels couldn’t match the superior prose of their opponents, particularly Cosmopolis<\/em>, and this bout is over after the third round. That’s quite a… WHAT?! Utopia<\/em> by Lincoln Child has cracked a chair across the noggin of The Finkler Question<\/em>, and it’s out cold! And The Atrocity Archives<\/em> by Charles Stross has hurdled the ropes to take on Cosmopolis<\/em>; the sci-fi genre isn’t going to let the Dune books take a pounding without fighting back. The bleak, icy humour of The Atrocity Archives<\/em>, bolstered by freezing winds from a portal to a dying universe, throws Cosmopolis<\/em> to the canvas!
\nVerdict: Utopia<\/em> and The Atrocity Archives<\/em><\/b>.\n<\/p>\n

\nRound 5: Zealous<\/b>
\nUtopia<\/em> has been bundled to the ground, still outside the ring, by the judges of the Booker prize. Cosmopolis<\/em> is up off the floor, and is looking to vanquish the remaining interloper. The fervour of The Atrocity Archives<\/em> allows it to get Cosmopolis<\/em> in a headlock; but the latter has plenty of fight left, and enough zeal to flip over, sending The Atrocity Archives<\/em> flying into a tangled mess in the ropes.
\nVerdict: Cosmopolis<\/em><\/b>.\n<\/p>\n

\nThe winner: Cosmopolis<\/em><\/b>. Being here, at a battle like this, we’re all winners. But the standout novel, from a pretty decent selection, is the rather strange, entirely absorbing, contribution from Don DeLillo.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Just in time for Christmas, the return of a Monkeyshines “favourite” that precisely no-one has asked to see make a return! Yes, it’s a rather random, rather pointless, book battle, where the books (rather than the books’ characters) struggle against my tortuous metaphors and each other, and the rounds are decided using a list of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[21],"class_list":["post-1506","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-books","tag-book-battle"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/monkeyshines.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1506","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/monkeyshines.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/monkeyshines.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/monkeyshines.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/monkeyshines.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1506"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/monkeyshines.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1506\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1534,"href":"https:\/\/monkeyshines.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1506\/revisions\/1534"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/monkeyshines.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1506"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/monkeyshines.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1506"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/monkeyshines.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1506"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}