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Language of Power (The Surprise)
Jun. 7th, 2005 12:35 pmThis evening, I was going to every store in the mall that seemed remotely likely, trying to buy a double-A battery. Mine had died during my lunch break, as I was trying to listen to _The Reverse of the Medal_. Carefully avoiding spoilers, the story had just reached the end of the trial, with the lawyer coughing and trying to tell Stephen *beep* *beep* [change batteries]. I had made it through the afternoon without knowing how the story ended, but I didn't want to go all the way home that way, with the end of the book uselessly in my pocket. The Radio Shack was at the wrong end of the mall from where I started looking, but I eventually found them, and waited rudely and impatiently, for someone to sell me a small packet of batteries. If they marked prices on the package, I would have put $3 on the counter and walked off, rather than waiting for the clerk to do elaborate sales and marketing to the people ahead of me in line. But having to wait for the later bus did me no harm, because I was listening to that glorious end of the story.
I can usually tell how many pages are left in a paper book, and that affects the run-up to the end of the story. It can be skewed a bit by sample chapters from other books, and publishers including 10 pages of ads, but an emotional crisis at the end of the book feels different from one at the end of a chapter. Audiobooks blur that datapoint. I expected O'Brian to end the book with the tremendously moving scene near the end, the one with all the sailors taking their hats off. Earlier books have ended as abruptly, and it's been ok. There we were, on the last cassette, with me in tears. It was a joyful surprise to hear the story continue, to feel that shock relax into laughter (with the interlude about the least diplomatic letter ever written) and the gradual sorting out of the political situation. Gradual in the sense of my understanding growing, over the course of 10 minutes or so. It was really elegantly done, and more impressive because of my expectations based on the last 10 books.
Now I think I ought to reread _Borders of Infinity_, and perhaps _Memory_, while waiting for _The Letter of Marque_.
I can usually tell how many pages are left in a paper book, and that affects the run-up to the end of the story. It can be skewed a bit by sample chapters from other books, and publishers including 10 pages of ads, but an emotional crisis at the end of the book feels different from one at the end of a chapter. Audiobooks blur that datapoint. I expected O'Brian to end the book with the tremendously moving scene near the end, the one with all the sailors taking their hats off. Earlier books have ended as abruptly, and it's been ok. There we were, on the last cassette, with me in tears. It was a joyful surprise to hear the story continue, to feel that shock relax into laughter (with the interlude about the least diplomatic letter ever written) and the gradual sorting out of the political situation. Gradual in the sense of my understanding growing, over the course of 10 minutes or so. It was really elegantly done, and more impressive because of my expectations based on the last 10 books.
Now I think I ought to reread _Borders of Infinity_, and perhaps _Memory_, while waiting for _The Letter of Marque_.
