Is it guaranteed that a person who likes Dr. Who and Jane Eyre would also love The Eyre Affair? I mean, of course anyone with any taste at all would love Jasper's writing, but aside from that… I ask because when I suggested The Eyre Affair to a couple of friends several years ago, they didn't really like it.

I haven't seen any Dr. Who although I've absorbed a fair amount of background knowledge, but it seems to me that it has a similar kind of good old-fashioned sci-fi wackiness, and that a person who likes that kind of storytelling as well as great literature would enjoy the irreverent but loving style of the Thursday Next books. I don't know this person very well, though, and I want to be reasonably sure.

What do you fine folks think?



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/23/2010 03:51PM by MuseSusan.

I'm not too sure: I suspect that someone who like Jane Eyre and Douglas Adams would take to Mr. Ff quite easily.
I don't however think that the Dr. Who connection is a guarantee, even though I suspect that most of us here are fans of the Doctor.

I didn't like Dr Who before I read the Eyre Affair, but I do now. I had no idea the two were linked.

I don't think they're linked, but my impression is that Dr. Who has a very soft-sci-fi style, with plenty of weirdness and humor.

I keep saying I want to watch the show someday, so maybe I'll actually see if I can find it online right now!

It's not really soft sci-fi, but it's sci-fi where there fi is more important than the sci, which lets face it, can get in the way of a good fi. But not quite pseudo-sci-fi...

I think that yes, a lot of people who are Who afficionados are also Ffordeffans, but that may well be one of those cases where correlation is different from causation. Coz I know quite a lot fans of each that just don't get the other.

...But if they like the *old* Who...

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Part time Quantum Elephant hollower

Wondering why your friends didn't like it.

I read Jany Eyre before I read the Eyre Affair, to make sure I really understood the undercurrent of the book. I'm not sure it was necessary, but I'm not sorry I did it. I am glad that I was never forced to read it in school, as then I probably wouldn't have liked it at all. As it was, it was a good story, but not my favorite sort of thing to read.

I don't think liking Jane Eyre would be a prerequisite to liking the Eyre Affair. Actually, I think they are so different from each other that it makes no difference at all. If you are big fan of classics, and not much of a fan of silliness, I think the Eyre Affair might even be offensive. Some people just have no sense of humor.

I've tried watching a few Doctor shows, and just couldn't get into them. Part of it is my husband, who is the TV addict in our house, obviously wasn't interested in watching. I felt bad for making him watch something he didn't want to. But another part was not being familiar with the characters, and being thrown in the middle of the story. Being unable to start at the beginning, I just gave up.

But I am a big fan of the Eyre Affair! hmm. might have to go read it again soon.

Love the Eyre Affair and all things Fforde as to the rest of the adults in the household but none of us has any time for Dr Who. My husband and I are of the generation that would hide behind the sofa at the sound of the theme tune.

Well, after all this talk (plus numerous previous references to Dr. Who on this forum and others, and having absorbed a huge amount of the backstory just from hearing so much about it), I finally decided to jump in this past Friday. I figured I'd start with the first season of the "new" incarnation, so I watched an episode online, and the next thing I knew it was Monday morning, I hadn't gotten anything done that I needed to this weekend, and I am filled with a burning desire to get my hands on every single episode…

I'm sure I tried to warn you, are you still sure the two aren't linked?



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/09/2010 10:32AM by geg.

Is anyone surprised by that?

Welcome to the fold MS

Report to the cube for assimi... wait, wrong show.

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Part time Quantum Elephant hollower

resistance is futi... damn i've got BK's problem

MuseSusan will need a lot of money to get the around 800 episodes of Dr Who since 1963! Check amazon.uk for current availability, including audiobooks.

There is no accounting for taste.
I recently reread some Sci Fi I enjoyed as a teenager which I found totally banal 40 years later. Even I have changed.

My daughter enjoyed Jasper's Thursday Next novels but could not get along with Terry Pratchett's work.

As for Shades of Grey there was a comment on Good Reads
"Sorry folks, but I was really disappointed. This book was nothing but exposition. I suspect the next two books are quite good, but I doubt I'll read them. And I found the fact that it all takes place over 4 days very disturbing. It seems impossible. I understand setting up the constraints of this society, but this was too much. I don't know why more people didn't "go to the darkness." I did enjoy the last 50 pages or so. But like Simcha, what happened to the Dad? He just fell of the grid. And yes, thank goodness Jane remained interesting. Being a professor, I'm always interested in hearing the "other side" of an argument."

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Joint winner Colouring Competition 2007
and outright winner of the 3 time winner of the Ffestival Dodo Feeding competition.
Fforde Ffiesta Ffotos are here - [www.flickr.com]

Will I be burned at the stake if I say I don't actually like Jane Eyre....? I do love Dr Who though (apart from the whole McCoy abomination incarnation - let us never speak of that).

I'm always a little leery of assuming preferences. I was told if I liked Terry Pratchett, I'd also like Robert Rankin - but I don't.

I know people who love the True Blood series who simply can't stand the books and the same with Dexter - ok in both cases there is a fairly significant deviation in storyline, but the characters are still pretty close.

I am pleased to report that the person I wanted to send a gift to, thus prompting my initial question, did express great delight upon receiving a copy of The Eyre Affair, so it seems my guess was correct in this instance. In fact, the book turned out to be such a good choice for this person that she had already read it, but had loaned her copy out to someone and lost it, so her delight was due to the fact that she now had her own copy to read again.

Regarding Dr Who, in the last few months I've burned my way through all of the "New Who" seasons which I've absolutely adored, and am slowly working my way through the old episodes in whatever order I can get my hands on them. I have to agree with your assessment of McCoy's Doctor--I like a lot of the characterization, but both episodes I've seen involved such an absurd level of chessmaster-ness that I just wanted to slap him.

In his defense, at least he played the Doctor as an alien.

The Beeb seemed intent on killing off the series during his tenure and so there were some ropey scripts and fish-out-of-water guest stars.

As someone who remembers Dr Who from the start - my older brother used to watch it religiously - and who semi likes it (except for David Tennant - sorry BK - who just stood and shouted a lot) I think that it appeals to a particular audience. I like pterry and RR and some Tom Holt and Python, the Goons and ISIRTA, so I feel that we are dealing with audiences in very close conjunction but not overlapping - a sort of parallel universes scenario.

Whatever it is, those of us with particular tastes will appreciate that our standards are not those of the common throng.

:O (I can't hear you, lalalalalaaaa!)

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Part time Quantum Elephant hollower

Tennant is actually my favourite doctor ever. It's the eyes.

So sue me! :p