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Geek Luddite
Dec. 5th, 2009
08:29 pm - Book: Lace by Sherman Alexie / general Sherman Alexie squee
I have to say that Sherman Alexie is clearly the dude. He writes really really well in adult fiction, young adult fiction, and poetry. These are not the same animal. Most novels by poets are a bit weird and most poems by novelists are a bit staid or a bit rough or a bit flat or...something. I have just checked Lace, a collection of his poetry, out of the library and it impresses me a lot on technical grounds. It's also enjoyable. The two don't necessarily go together, especially in poetry, but here they do.
How freaking good do you have to be to write a poem in repeating full and half rhyme structure, a long, stanza-ed poem no less, and have me not notice that it rhymes until 2/3 of the way through?
The answer is, really freaking good.
Also, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian gave more exposure to Ellen Forney, a cartoonist whose work I've loved in the various "female cartoonist anthologies" that are practically the only place I've seen her work. The trend for good cartoonists to add stuff to books cannot go too far to please me (Jasper Fforde's book with the pages by some of my favorite folks from the web also pleased).
But back to why Sherman Alexie rocks: the movie made from one of his books doesn't even suck! How often does that happen? Smoke Signals, unlike most movies made from books, is actually quite good.
(Sorry for the disjointed. I am feverish. General intent: Sherman Alexie == very good.)
Nov. 28th, 2009
08:33 am - Avoiding Internet Slap Fights - a helpful thought
Are you reading something potentially contentious to which you have an inchoate response?
Will your inchoate response read as emotionally supportive to the person whose soapbox you're visiting?
If your answer to question one is yes, and your answer to question two is no, hit delete and move on.
Nov. 25th, 2009
12:34 pm - Book (finished) - James Tiptree, Jr.: The Double Life of Alice B. Sheldon
Now that I'm done reading this book (thank heavens, my mood should lift now that I'm not wallowing in the crushing horror that pressed down on the subject's psyche) I've got to point out at least one (to me) incomprehensible lacuna in this book, and, separately, my main dissatisfactions.
( endless rambling commences in 5, 4, 3, 2 ... )
Nov. 21st, 2009
11:16 am - Book (still reading) - James Tiptree, Jr.: The Double Life of Alice B. Sheldon
Oh boy, reading this book is depressing and unsettling. I have to read it in small-for-me bites, maybe 50 or 80 pages at a time.
Two discrete comments so far:
1)Thank all powers for Robin McKinley and Tamora Pierce and the George Perez run of Wonder Woman, the main reasons that my own period of adolescent gender dysphoria ended before puberty really got rocking and things got tough. All that Pyle Robin Hood and Bullfinch's Mythology and The Once and Future King and stuff had definitely given me a case of "if I want to be fierce and powerful I have to be a boy" which can indeed, when crossed with being bisexual, make you wonder just a bit about how to construct your gender. Poor Alice.
2)Does anyone else see a lot of parallels to Savage Beauty, the Nancy Milford biography of Edna St. Vincent Millay? The attraction to women, the struggle to reconcile artistic impulses with gender identity construction, the struggles with depression, the time period, the incredibly powerful mother figures... the husbands who have to be chosen for their ability to tolerate the mood swings and support the work and deal with the extramarital affairs. I'm sort of surprised that their paths never seem to have crossed, at least in this biography. I suppose Millay being from a not-rich New England family (and older by a bit - a decade or two?) they'd have moved in very different circles, but it still strikes me as a shame. They could have had an EXCELLENT affair.
Gratuitous third comment: I had that same Untermeyer edited poetry collection as a kid, I got it at a library discard sale.
Nov. 12th, 2009
03:31 pm - The goal is the action, not the result
I figured I ought to take the stress level from 28 job applications and do something useful with it. So I submitted a piece of poetry to a magazine. And then I realized, with something like horror, that it had been almost 10 years since I had submitted a short piece of writing. 10.
I used to manage at least once a year from middle school through my junior year of college. I thought nothing of sending a short story to the Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction when I was 15, or sending a poem to the blinkin' New Yorker when I was 12. I didn't expect to have them taken, it just didn't bother me to send them in. And around when I hit 20, I just stopped. (I'm not counting the novel here, I guess. Novels are in a different category than poetry or short fiction.)
So since my goal in life this year is to focus on my actions, not the results (which are, after all, often controlled by others) I guess that this is a good action. Still trying to wrap my head around that 10 year gap, though.
Nov. 3rd, 2009
09:35 am - Book: A is for Alien
A is for Alien is a science fiction short story anthology from Subterranean by Caitlin R. Kiernan. I'm pretty sure that I read one of her horror novels sometime between 2003-2006, and I've had a sort of similar reaction to the short stories - beautifully done, and not the kind of horror that I enjoy.
( Couple of thoughts and comparisons... )
Oct. 28th, 2009
11:41 am - Ranty rant rant - This empathy is not free
I haven't figured out a way to extract this ranty-rant from its trailing illogical side tendrils, but I'll do my best. Since it's a) long, and b) of undoubtedly limited interest, it's all behind the cut. Format is almost purely philosophical - I'm all about the abstraction, so whatever real-world moments may have inspired this, I think I've kept them from intruding too much into the analysis.
( Read more... )
Oct. 21st, 2009
10:01 am - Self-indulgent kvetching
I am procrastinating my job hunt this morning and made the mistake of reading my latest yalsa-bk listserv email. For the last year I've mostly been deleting these emails unread.
It astonishes me to think back to library school and recall that I praised yalsa-bk and criticized pubyac because of how much philosophical conversation there was on yalsa-bk and how restricted to the practical as opposed to the ideological pubyac was.
Now, after working in public libraries for three years, I have actually gained benefit for myself and patrons through the pubyac community more often than the yalsa-bk one, though I suspect that yalsa-bk has more value to non-librarian book people.
But reading yalsa-bk always depresses me, and was one of the factors that began to convince me I could not have a future as a young adult librarian. The most vocal, frequent posters on that email list have ideological values vastly different than mine. The reification of "young adult" as a concept and category is disturbing to me. The many posters who feel that teens should only read books published specifically for teens dismay me. The spirit of Margaret Edwards, who saw service to young adults as a way to support them in their transition from restricted children's reading to unrestricted adult reading, seems to me to be honored in the breach more than in the observance.
Young adult library work seems to be in many ways a lightning rod for both external and self-created censorship. Luminaries in the field often seem to note that such and such a work is inappropriate for children, teens, or young adults, while others constantly want to extend the boundaries of young adult service upward - to people in their mid 20s! Pfah, pfeh, ptui.
Oct. 20th, 2009
12:17 pm - Books: The Dirt on Clean
The Dirt on Clean: an Unsanitized History by Katherine Ashenburg. Well, this is one of those delightful single-topic books of social history that have been trendy for several years now. I love 'em, and I'm not tired of 'em at all. This was a particularly well written, nicely paced sample of the genre. It moved along at a good clip, the transitions between sections didn't feel too jarring to me, and the layout really added something (a lot of little inset quotes from various sources, and some interestingly placed illustrations that broke up the text here and there). I think this would be a good book for fantasy writers to pick up (at least, those writing fantasy set in countries similar to Europe/post-colonial North America), particularly for its lovely list of works cited. Some are quite standard and others seem (to me at least) reasonably obscure and academic.
( Further, slightly unfocused, blather... )
Oct. 13th, 2009
12:39 pm - Books: The Water Mirror
This is translated from the German. Original text by Kai Meyer. I'm not sure if the translation affected the flow or POV - there were a lot of things that felt like tiny hiccups in POV to me, but I'm not sure if they were translation artifacts or elements of a different style in German fantasy? I think that I've read some other works translated from German before and that they struck me as intermittently odd in tone.
The world-building is outstanding in this fantasy. It's set in a not-medieval Venice that's under siege from an Egyptian army of mummies made from the dead of conquered territories. There are mirrors made of water and stone lions who fly and thieves and magic underwear. Both the magic and the world are fascinating.
The characters, unfortunately, don't rise much above stock. There's very little humor in the dialog or storytelling, and I think the shimmering decay of the setting would be nicely highlighted by some humor. We've got orphans, a boy thief, lords of Hell, mermaids with toothy mouths. That reminds me that the mermaid-on-land character is definitely the character development high point. Her story really moved me. I think that I was wanting this to be more Lloyd Alexander-ish than it is. That said, the setting and magic and conflict (Venetian chancellors vs. lords of Hell vs. Pharaohs + fueding magic craftsmen + orphans traded to the control of dubious magic powers) are more than engaging enough that I'll plan to pick up at least book 2 of the trilogy.
The cover, while a good representation of the novel's world and the characters, is done in a very very quiet palette. I didn't pick it up on the first three times I looked at this book, until I saw the much brighter covers for the sequels. I've got mixed reactions to it - it's accurate to the story's world and tone, but I just don't have a strong response to it when it's on a shelf - and the sad faces of the girls make me not like them as characters. I should add that it's a middle grade fantasy and that I don't seem to be an ideal reader of middle grade fantasy, so that might be part of the problem. I'm not sure. Maybe having established the world in book one the author will let the characters get a bit livelier in book two. I did like the self-awareness of the Flowing Queen - her style of argument could be a lot of fun.
Oct. 6th, 2009
11:07 am - Books: We Never Talk About My Brother
Well, reading anything by Peter S. Beagle usually leaves me in a state of deep calm, which is something I need quite a bit of at the moment.
( inchoate but pleased blather )
Sep. 24th, 2009
06:07 am - Music - Richard Thompson
Well, I'm going to see Richard Thompson again :)
Or should I say "we"? J. and I are going for our anniversary. He's playing with Loudon Wainwright III at the Flynn Center in Burlington on October 3rd.
In usual me fashion, I put off buying tickets for WAAAAY too long, and then had a nightmare that they'd all sold out and woke up to rush to the computer at way-too-early in the morning.
So we're going to be a couple rows back in the side balcony. There was no chunk of 2 seats together in the main floor top-price area.
And now I'm going back to bed for a while.
Sep. 16th, 2009
09:42 am - Today is a poetry day
There are some moods that are conducive to despair and raging when they meet the practical. It's particularly odd, because the same mood on a day when the only task is to walk along the ocean front, sip tea, write in a journal, can be almost a pleasant thing, almost a particular sharp-edged gift. I only know that this mood is not a gift because of one thing: it detests company, it detests engagement in the world of men.
So today I'm comforting myself with Gerard Manley Hopkins. It's a sharp kind of comfort, but oftentimes effective... somewhere between
"Not, I'll not, carrion comfort, Despair, not feast on thee" and "Ah, as the heart grows older / It will come to such sights colder / By and by, nor spare a sigh / Though worlds of wanwood leafmeal lie."
On the pleasantly engaged side, you see, there's always remembering that I only ever heard of Gerard Manley Hopkins through the offices of some realistic fiction Dorothy Canfield Fisher award nominee as a kid and David Telfair's novel Cherton.
Sep. 12th, 2009
03:39 pm - Moving, books
Vermont showed us a delightful face for the first week of our arrival, treating us to warm breezy days with clear skies, cool but not cold nights, and plenty of sunlight on beaches and the lake. We had friends in from out of town, relatives who helped us move, and got to eat tasty food. September is a season of markets, fairs, and street festivals as best as I can tell, and our favorite musician of all time (Richard Thompson) will be playing Burlington in just three weeks or so.
Books-wise, I'm still in a phase of re-reading comforting and /or familiar things or types-of-things. I brought home the first volume of Roger Zelazny's collected short stories (yay!), tore through a re-read of some more Georgette Heyer (A Lady of Quality, I think).
Then I surprised myself a bit and picked up a book by Muriel Spark. It had no book jacket and sat flat and black on the "staff recommends" table. The title was "Loitering with Intent" which was too good a title to pass by. So far I love it. It reminded me that I do read literary fiction. (I'm always announcing, in just the pompous tone used by readers of literary fiction reviewed in the New Yorker, that I "only read genre", but it isn't actually true.)
So I thought about it and here are some literary fiction authors I've read and valued, since I'm always claiming to read only f/sf, horror, mystery, romance, etc.
( list of literary authors/works I liked )
Aug. 29th, 2009
12:43 am - Moving, tra-la, tra-la
I am moving to Vermont this weekend. We are ludicrously underpacked and undercleaned, but such is life.
I won't have phone or internet hookup for a week after we move due to cabling delays, so I'll be spottily accessible from the 29th of August to the 9th of September.
Hope you all have a nice week.
Aug. 18th, 2009
02:22 am - Books and or cleaning
Bookland has been quiet as I still am mostly rereading. I read the Queen of Attolia and the King of Attolia for the 3rd or 4th time this weekend (The King of Attolia is one of the all time perfect novels, in my opinion, but only if you've read The Thief and The Queen of Attolia - which are, respectively, good and very good, but not perfect. Hence my difficulty in describing The King of Attolia's perfection - conditionally perfect?)
And I'm still reading Nana, because my desire for shojo manga apparently continues unabated.
I'm poking at The Lady in Red, a newish nonfiction book about a marriage and court cases and adultery in the late 1700s, but I'm not sure I'm up for another historical adultery book. That would make three this year.
Cleaning: my apartment looks oddly naked without the 400+ lbs of books that I have mailed to my mother's basement. I found our wedding invites (designed and silk screened by the awesome Hope Larson) while packing up stuff and the framed matted one is on my desk next to another print of hers. I found the shoebox o'journals and had to resist the temptation to read vast swathes of them. And now it is extremely late so I should most likely sleep.
But first I am going to have some organic whole wheat sourdough toast and read a few more pages of the Lives of Christopher Chant, because re-reading is the order of the day (and night and morning).
Aug. 8th, 2009
09:44 pm - Signs you are too tired and/or need glasses
I was skimming through the Penguin Young Readers "Coming Soon" section and somehow, horribly, I misread the information on
"Sunshine and Showers: A Flower Fairies Handbook" as being by Clive Barker, and not Cicely Mary Barker.
I leave it as an exercise to the reader to imagine just exactly what kind of book Clive Barker would ever write, in this or any parallel world, that would end up titled "Sunshine and Showers: A Flower Fairies Handbook."
The mind definitely boggles. At least, mine did.
Jul. 29th, 2009
10:46 pm - Happy stupid thing.
I swear I won't go on about this all the time, but I'm very happy. I ran 5 miles for the first time today.
Technically, I walked .8 miles or so at an increasing speed, ran for 3 miles or so, jogged for half a mile at a decreasing speed, and then walked for half a mile or so, but whatever. I did it for 5 miles total.
This is a first for me and I'm happy about it. I've been working up to it sorta-casually over 2 years and pretty focusedly over 6 months.
That is all.
Jul. 24th, 2009
10:28 pm - Moving... so I'm thinking about books. It's called avoidance, right?
Moving is stressing me out. I will be delighted to be back in Vermont this fall, but at the same time I feel that it's much harder to be your adult self in the same environment you grew up in - different vectors act against you in social groups that knew you when.
So my brain is a bit busy and all I want to do is sit around re-reading The King of Attolia and the Miles Vorkosigan books. Things I've read before that are well written and emotionally twisty enough to keep me engaged again and again, but which have no chance of ever making me go "no, what, horrible, can't be, makes no sense, grr" and throwing them against the wall.
In this kind of mood, only books by authors who are absolutely safe, known quantities have any appeal. Preferably books I've read before. I think I've read The Pinhoe Egg three times this summer. I'd have read Conrad's Fate as many times, but it got packed up and shipped to my mother's basement a few weeks ago, so its total stands at two for the summer. I re-read all of the Dalemark Quartet a few months back in one long go.
Nonfiction books quickly try my patience, though I did have the immense and unexpected pleasure of actually being able to recommend Hourani's History of the Arab Peoples to someone last week as a genuine Readers' Advisory recommendation. I was so happy I did a little dance. The cultural history of impotence I'm reading is pretty amusing but the book on tricksters struck me as bad and pretentious and got quickly returned to the library.
Also I felt full of joy when I saw a picture book called "Flying!" by Kevin Luthardt at the library because it is a) a brightly colored and happy and about a little boy who thinks about flying and there are birds and a loving daddy, plus, b) the little boy and his dad are not-white.
There is a severe and tragic shortage of picture books where the main characters are not-white AND the book itself is bright and cheerful. I like The Moon Ring by DuBurke for this too. Because about 94% (by unscientific make-up-a-numberness) of the non-white-kid picture books in my library are all full of dark saturated blah blah colors, even if they are not sad stories. Hellooooooo, small children of all skin tones do like brightly colored stories, I believe. Even this book I'm praising is honestly a bit flattened in color tone for my taste. I don't get it. How about not just bright colors, but shiny happy saturated colors? Something as bright as a Jan Thomas book like Rhyming Dust Bunnies. (I looooove Jan Thomas books. They make me laugh so hard.)
Jul. 17th, 2009
09:30 am - Summer Reading Program is eating my brain
Hrm. I think that I am naturally very very introverted, so perhaps my choice of career (Librarian) which involves tons and tons of programming and outreach, has a negative effect on my social life.
After 8 hours of going up to every passerby to be like "hi, what can I find you/tell me about what you love in stories/do you have a summer reading program sign up/ would you like to read to a dog this Saturday/yes I can find you every vampire book with a love story in our out of this building (no, really, I swear I can, I just can't give you one now because they are ALL checked out because I do this 8 times a week and the list repeats)" I come home and I just want to stare at TrueBlood on the screen or go running.
I am really good at outreach. I've built volunteering, program offerings, program attendance by percentages that have multiple hundreds in them. But sometimes I just get a bit tired.
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