Sweet Emulsion

Some comedian I can't recall once said that you know you are getting old/turning into your Dad when you see a stick and think "I'll keep that for stirring paint" or something along those lines. In my case it is a strip of plastic edging from when we had the kitchen refitted, but the idea is much the same. And it got a fair bit of use this weekend as I chose to recover from my cold by repainting the bathroom. Again.

Can anyone tell me what a normal level of decoration rotation should be?

We've been in this house thirteen years now and have so far done:

Kitchen, Bathroom, Lounge - four times each
Bedroom, Dining Room - three times
Stairs/Landing, Spare Room, Study - twice

Those totals seem a bit extreme to me, when compared with my nearest point of reference - my parents. They have been in their current house twenty years now and only got round to redoing each room for the first time since taking possession about two or three years ago. And only then because they had an extension built which meant some walls got moved around. In the one we lived in for eighteen years before that I can't remember any room being done more than twice.

I know it isn't constant, but it seems like we are always thinking about colours and how to do each room next. And I just can't say no to MrsB when she starts hinting that a freshen up is in order. I think she may be obsessed with change. And its not that I object to the actual slapping on of paint, it is just all the preparation, living with a room out of use and all the contents distributed everywhere else for a few days etc that gets me down.

And there are a couple of pots of Moroccan red waiting for the kitchen to get a fifth look this side of Christmas too...

Continuity and Conformity

Now just take a look at those books there. 8 volumes by David Wingrove making up his Chung Kuo series. All those paperbacks are UK first editions, so you'd think they might all look somewhat similar. But no, someone from the publisher's marketing department decided to change the design twice during the initial publication of the series so I get a mixed looking shelf.

While that is slightly annoying to the pedants out there I'm more concerned about what goes between the covers than what's on them. Not in the case of this series actually (it just made a nice picture to illustrate the point) but of fantasy and science fiction series in general.

When watching a tv series you kind of expect things to alter between episodes as there are generally a whole raft of writers each tackling their own episodes. They all get written in parallel without the benefit of seeing what has come before so mistakes slip in. What bugs me though is when things change between books in a series with only one author.

I'm not just talking minor changes either - the odd spelling change to a character name I can forgive - but wholescale re-writing of history. I'm currently listening to Terry Brooks' Shanarra series and there are numerous examples where he changed the history of the four lands in writing the prequel - which was the eighth book to come out. Fandom has the name Retroactive Continuity for this and I'm not keen on the concept. If you've established a coherent world I do think you should stick with it no matter where in that world's timeline you are working. OK, so it may mean having to reign in some of the wilder imaginings but at then the author also has the challenge of keeping the suspension of disbelief going.

The only example I approve of is RetCon - the memory loss drug in Torchwood which at least makes a joke of the whole thing.

I'll talk about another pet hate of mine in fantasy literature another time (not one that stops me readingit though!)...