Ok, I respect Levi Grossman. However, I have to call bullshit on his article in the Wall Street Journal. Catherynne Valente (my hero) beat me to the punch here, and in fact brought Grossman's wrong-headed meandering to my attention. However, I still need to grouch a little bit.
Grossman seems to think there is some sort of vast intellectual conspiracy, which looks down upon contemporary literature and plot and calls it 'popular fiction', 'entertainment', 'escapist', and not at all literary. The crap he spews on the 'evils' of Modernist literature stands on its own.*
I'd spend more time on this, but I need to go home and write my book. Read his article, Valente's response, and if you have a few dozen hours to kill read Hal Duncan's blog. All of it. (I tried to skim through really fast and locate a few of Duncan's posts on genre and on literary fiction vs. popular fiction, but of course since I'm actually looking for them they are nowhere to be found. But, they are there, and they are excellent, so I encourage you to go on the hunt.)
Also, on a completely unrelated note, I want this book- Rhetorics of Fantasy by Farah Mendlesohn. Fuck yeah.
*All the words in quotes are mine, not his.
Showing posts with label Catherynne M. Valente. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Catherynne M. Valente. Show all posts
Friday, September 18, 2009
Thursday, September 10, 2009
Outer Alliance
So...I'm way late in doing this (the day everyone was supposed to post was actually the 1st...but we'll pretend) but I figured I'd join in the fun anyway.
*Deep Breath* (Wow, it's like coming out all over again!)
As a member of the Outer Alliance, I advocate for queer speculative fiction and those who create, publish and support it, whatever their sexual orientation and gender identity. I make sure this is reflected in my actions and my work.
The next step is supposed to be a link or an excerpt or something something something reflecting one's work in queer spec fic...but, um, yeah. What I want to post is still just a title and an idea in my head, and I've convinced myself that everything else I've written is crap (or just WAY too long to deal with...or on the computer without internet access!) so I refuse to post here. That said, I have the vague goal of getting the particular piece mentioned above written soon enough to submit it to Crossed Genres, which is doing a LGBTQ themed issue. We'll see if I can get my head together soon enough to pull that one off- and we'll see if it's even remotely good enough to get published.
Speaking of coming out- submitting my "I want to join" post on the Outer Alliance's page may have been the most intimidating thing I've ever done in my life. Calling myself a writer when I've never been published (I'm not counting my local junior college magazine- especially since they wouldn't take genre fiction), and calling myself a blogger when I have one reader (hello, Aeri) seems a wee bit pretentious and insubstantial. That, and the Outer Alliance's membership list is composed of a number of my personal heroes- Hal Duncan and Cat Valente, guys! There are so many heavy hitters on the list, and more sure to come...and here I am, saying "Oh, um, I'm really nobody, but can I listen in on the awesomeness going down here? I'll be quiet and good, I swear..." and hoping no one tags me for an impostor.
Oh dear...class starts in an hour and a half and I need to find lunch. I sort of like having a computer lab to hang out in for the four hours between my classes! I think I'll be able to blog a little more often now.
(FYI- The Monk by Matthew G. Lewis is one of the funniest freaking books I've ever read. Am I alone in this?)
*Deep Breath* (Wow, it's like coming out all over again!)
As a member of the Outer Alliance, I advocate for queer speculative fiction and those who create, publish and support it, whatever their sexual orientation and gender identity. I make sure this is reflected in my actions and my work.
The next step is supposed to be a link or an excerpt or something something something reflecting one's work in queer spec fic...but, um, yeah. What I want to post is still just a title and an idea in my head, and I've convinced myself that everything else I've written is crap (or just WAY too long to deal with...or on the computer without internet access!) so I refuse to post here. That said, I have the vague goal of getting the particular piece mentioned above written soon enough to submit it to Crossed Genres, which is doing a LGBTQ themed issue. We'll see if I can get my head together soon enough to pull that one off- and we'll see if it's even remotely good enough to get published.
Speaking of coming out- submitting my "I want to join" post on the Outer Alliance's page may have been the most intimidating thing I've ever done in my life. Calling myself a writer when I've never been published (I'm not counting my local junior college magazine- especially since they wouldn't take genre fiction), and calling myself a blogger when I have one reader (hello, Aeri) seems a wee bit pretentious and insubstantial. That, and the Outer Alliance's membership list is composed of a number of my personal heroes- Hal Duncan and Cat Valente, guys! There are so many heavy hitters on the list, and more sure to come...and here I am, saying "Oh, um, I'm really nobody, but can I listen in on the awesomeness going down here? I'll be quiet and good, I swear..." and hoping no one tags me for an impostor.
Oh dear...class starts in an hour and a half and I need to find lunch. I sort of like having a computer lab to hang out in for the four hours between my classes! I think I'll be able to blog a little more often now.
(FYI- The Monk by Matthew G. Lewis is one of the funniest freaking books I've ever read. Am I alone in this?)
Wednesday, August 12, 2009
WorldCon
WorldCon.
Montreal.
Canada. (Where it's not 102 degrees outside.)
Peadar O'Guilin.
Neil Gaiman.
Catherynne M. Valente.
Hugo Awards.
Panels on EVERYTHING.
Guess where I wasn't this weekend?
Montreal.
Canada. (Where it's not 102 degrees outside.)
Peadar O'Guilin.
Neil Gaiman.
Catherynne M. Valente.
Hugo Awards.
Panels on EVERYTHING.
Guess where I wasn't this weekend?
Friday, June 5, 2009
Latest Orders
Ummm... I'd do a "Latest Arrivals" post, but other than Gaiman's Mirrormask and Lorca's Selected Letters I can't actually think of anything I've brought home recently. So, instead, I've decided to post a quick list of those books I'm expecting to arrive soon! Also, no pictures this time, because I'm lazy.
First off is The City and the City by China Mieville. A murder mystery novel set in another one of Mieville's imaginative settings, this promises to be a great read on par with his earlier novel, Perdido Street Station.
I also got fed up with waiting for a copy to show up in any local bookstore and finally ordered Catherynne Valente's Palimpsest. I read a short story set in the same world as this novel and (as usual) fell in love with Valente's prose... which broke my will and forced me to bump this up on my reading list.
Another book I just had to have because of a short story- I read M. John Harrison's contribution to The New Weird anthology (edited by Ann and Jeff Vandermeer) and decided I had to have his novel, Viriconium. The book and the short story are, again, set in the same world. Roman culture meets high tech society. Sweet!
Kelly Link's Trampoline: An Anthology is also on the way. It contains stories by Christopher Barzak (see my blog on his book The Love We Share... here), Carol Emshwiller, Jeffrey Ford, Karen Joy Fowler, Christopher Rowe, and a number of other people. Link is a top-notch editor and writer, and several of the names in this anthology make me positively drool.
Speaking of Christopher Barzak, I've got his other book One for Sorrow in the mail. This one seems to be worlds away from his story collection, The Love We Share Without Knowing, and actually looks like it may have something in common with Steve Berman's YA gay ghost story, Vintage (which I have another blog on... here).
And... speaking of Steve Berman... Trysts: A Triskaidecollection or Queer and Weird Stories is also on the way. Again, I seem to be developing a fixation on a handful of certain authors. (No Hal Duncan in this week's shipment...Not even a short story. That's a first. Although I'm still stalking his blog.)
First off is The City and the City by China Mieville. A murder mystery novel set in another one of Mieville's imaginative settings, this promises to be a great read on par with his earlier novel, Perdido Street Station.
I also got fed up with waiting for a copy to show up in any local bookstore and finally ordered Catherynne Valente's Palimpsest. I read a short story set in the same world as this novel and (as usual) fell in love with Valente's prose... which broke my will and forced me to bump this up on my reading list.
Another book I just had to have because of a short story- I read M. John Harrison's contribution to The New Weird anthology (edited by Ann and Jeff Vandermeer) and decided I had to have his novel, Viriconium. The book and the short story are, again, set in the same world. Roman culture meets high tech society. Sweet!
Kelly Link's Trampoline: An Anthology is also on the way. It contains stories by Christopher Barzak (see my blog on his book The Love We Share... here), Carol Emshwiller, Jeffrey Ford, Karen Joy Fowler, Christopher Rowe, and a number of other people. Link is a top-notch editor and writer, and several of the names in this anthology make me positively drool.
Speaking of Christopher Barzak, I've got his other book One for Sorrow in the mail. This one seems to be worlds away from his story collection, The Love We Share Without Knowing, and actually looks like it may have something in common with Steve Berman's YA gay ghost story, Vintage (which I have another blog on... here).
And... speaking of Steve Berman... Trysts: A Triskaidecollection or Queer and Weird Stories is also on the way. Again, I seem to be developing a fixation on a handful of certain authors. (No Hal Duncan in this week's shipment...Not even a short story. That's a first. Although I'm still stalking his blog.)
Sunday, April 12, 2009
Upcoming Releases- 2009
So instead of reading or writing or really doing anything remotely productive, I spent the evening browsing Amazon and checking out upcoming releases by my favorite writers. I already have Anne Bishop's new book The Shadow Queen (which I'm not as pleased with as I had hoped, unfortunately) which snuck under my radar until I stumbled across a copy at Barnes & Noble. To keep this from happening again, I decided to compile a list here for books I'm gonna have to order A.S.A.P!
First off is Jeff Vandermeer's Booklife: Strategies and Survival Tips for the 21st Century Writer. Though I normally avoid books on writing like the plague on society they are, I think I'll have to break my own rules and check this one out. Vandermeer's non-fiction is, strangely enough, the reason I started reading him in the first place, and this book looks like it's going to deal with issues that actually are important for modern day writers including, as Amazon.com claims, "personal space versus public space, deadlines, and networking, [and] the benefits of interacting with readers through new technologies". This one is due out in October, so I've got a while to wait before I can get my hands on a copy.
China Mieville's new novel, The City & The City, is coming out this May. I'm fighting the urge to pre-order it...at least until it gets a little closer to the release date and my willpower breaks. I'm a little behind on my Mieville books, but this one looks pretty intriguing and I just might have to bump a few things down on my reading list to make room for it.
I was hoping to get a copy of Catherynne M. Valente's Palimpsest at one of my local bookstores, but once again I forgot how weak the fantasy sections in my Hastings and Barnes & Noble are. I'll be buying this one off of Amazon before long, I fear.
Neil Gaiman has another children's book (Crazy Hair) due out at the end of May. I already have a copy of his other new children's book, The Blueberry Girl, and I love it. Charles Vess' artwork is unbelievably beautiful in The Blueberry Girl, and I'm sure Dave McKean's illustrations in Crazy Hair will be as odd and wonderful as they always are.
Oddly enough (for me), I'm greatly tempted to read Drood by Dan Simmons. Like books on writing, I tend to avoid fiction about writers, but I think Simmons may be on to something with his novel about Charles Dickens and his last, unfinished manuscript, The Mystery of Edwin Drood. Besides, this is one giant sucker of a freaking novel, which hopefully translates into plenty of reading entertainment for me!
I'm also looking out for a copy of Steve Berman's Mr. October's Naughty Bedside Reader, which doesn't have a release date yet, sadly. Like Valente, I'll probably have to order this one off Amazon, since my local bookstores don't know who he is, either (ugh! I need to have a chat with the people who pick stock. Whoever these Robert Jordan and R.A. Salvatore guys are, they need to quit taking up so much room on the store fantasy shelves!).
First off is Jeff Vandermeer's Booklife: Strategies and Survival Tips for the 21st Century Writer. Though I normally avoid books on writing like the plague on society they are, I think I'll have to break my own rules and check this one out. Vandermeer's non-fiction is, strangely enough, the reason I started reading him in the first place, and this book looks like it's going to deal with issues that actually are important for modern day writers including, as Amazon.com claims, "personal space versus public space, deadlines, and networking, [and] the benefits of interacting with readers through new technologies". This one is due out in October, so I've got a while to wait before I can get my hands on a copy.
China Mieville's new novel, The City & The City, is coming out this May. I'm fighting the urge to pre-order it...at least until it gets a little closer to the release date and my willpower breaks. I'm a little behind on my Mieville books, but this one looks pretty intriguing and I just might have to bump a few things down on my reading list to make room for it.
I was hoping to get a copy of Catherynne M. Valente's Palimpsest at one of my local bookstores, but once again I forgot how weak the fantasy sections in my Hastings and Barnes & Noble are. I'll be buying this one off of Amazon before long, I fear.
Neil Gaiman has another children's book (Crazy Hair) due out at the end of May. I already have a copy of his other new children's book, The Blueberry Girl, and I love it. Charles Vess' artwork is unbelievably beautiful in The Blueberry Girl, and I'm sure Dave McKean's illustrations in Crazy Hair will be as odd and wonderful as they always are.
Oddly enough (for me), I'm greatly tempted to read Drood by Dan Simmons. Like books on writing, I tend to avoid fiction about writers, but I think Simmons may be on to something with his novel about Charles Dickens and his last, unfinished manuscript, The Mystery of Edwin Drood. Besides, this is one giant sucker of a freaking novel, which hopefully translates into plenty of reading entertainment for me!
I'm also looking out for a copy of Steve Berman's Mr. October's Naughty Bedside Reader, which doesn't have a release date yet, sadly. Like Valente, I'll probably have to order this one off Amazon, since my local bookstores don't know who he is, either (ugh! I need to have a chat with the people who pick stock. Whoever these Robert Jordan and R.A. Salvatore guys are, they need to quit taking up so much room on the store fantasy shelves!).
Sunday, March 22, 2009
Reading List
Just Finished:
Pirate Freedom by Gene Wolfe
By 'just finished' I mean I read the last page less than two hours ago. This book was my first Gene Wolfe experience, and while I wasn't exactly overwhelmed, I was intrigued enough that I think I'll pick up one of his more renowned books before too long.
Reading at Work:
The Involuntary Human by David Gerrold
This is my lunch-break book, partially because it's a collection of shorter works ranging from Star Trek screenplays, novel excerpts, short stories, and quotes from the character Solomon Short. It's been great fun!
A Canticle for Leibowitz by Walter M. Miller, Jr.
Is there anything about this book I can say that hasn't already been said? I'm reading a third printing of the first edition, priced at $100, which means I can only read it when I'm sitting with a customer back in our locked collectibles room, where it's located. I am in love.
About to Start:
The Best of Lady Churchill's Rosebud Wristlet edited by Kelly Link and Gavin J. Grant
This is a collection including Jeffrey Ford, Margaret Muirhead, Kelly Link, and a large number of other writers all previously published in the lit magazine Lady Churchill's Rosebud Wristlet.
The Orphan's Tales: In the Cities of Coin and Spice by Catherynne M. Valente
First off, Valente gets a gold star for being mentioned in three blogs in a row. Secondly, this is the sequel to The Orphan's Tale: In the Night Garden, and if it's anything like the first, I'm in for a hell of a ride!
Impatiently Awaiting:
Logorrhea: Good Words Make Good Stories edited by John Kilma
This anthology contains works by Jay Lake, Hal Duncan, Michael Moorcock, Marly Youmans and Jeff Vandermeer, among a number of other great writers (it's just that the ones listed are the reasons I ordered the book).
Pirate Freedom by Gene Wolfe
By 'just finished' I mean I read the last page less than two hours ago. This book was my first Gene Wolfe experience, and while I wasn't exactly overwhelmed, I was intrigued enough that I think I'll pick up one of his more renowned books before too long.
Reading at Work:
The Involuntary Human by David Gerrold
This is my lunch-break book, partially because it's a collection of shorter works ranging from Star Trek screenplays, novel excerpts, short stories, and quotes from the character Solomon Short. It's been great fun!
A Canticle for Leibowitz by Walter M. Miller, Jr.
Is there anything about this book I can say that hasn't already been said? I'm reading a third printing of the first edition, priced at $100, which means I can only read it when I'm sitting with a customer back in our locked collectibles room, where it's located. I am in love.
About to Start:
The Best of Lady Churchill's Rosebud Wristlet edited by Kelly Link and Gavin J. Grant
This is a collection including Jeffrey Ford, Margaret Muirhead, Kelly Link, and a large number of other writers all previously published in the lit magazine Lady Churchill's Rosebud Wristlet.
The Orphan's Tales: In the Cities of Coin and Spice by Catherynne M. Valente
First off, Valente gets a gold star for being mentioned in three blogs in a row. Secondly, this is the sequel to The Orphan's Tale: In the Night Garden, and if it's anything like the first, I'm in for a hell of a ride!
Impatiently Awaiting:
Logorrhea: Good Words Make Good Stories edited by John Kilma
This anthology contains works by Jay Lake, Hal Duncan, Michael Moorcock, Marly Youmans and Jeff Vandermeer, among a number of other great writers (it's just that the ones listed are the reasons I ordered the book).
Saturday, March 21, 2009
Top Reads 2008
I was digging around Half Price a few days ago with my friends, pulling out old favorites and recent good reads (and, of course, new eye-catching titles) when I came across a copy of The Book Thief. I handed it over to one of my friends and told her that it was probably one of my favorite books from last year, probably in my top five. That got me to thinking, though...What have I read recently (as in the year 2008) that really moved me? That was so good, every time I see another copy of it, I'm tempted to buy it and send it to someone else who needs to read it? My coworker and I read Hal Duncan's Vellum at the same time, and a number of our other coworkers heard us talking (very animatedly) about it and started reading it, too. Now everytime we get a customer named 'Seamus' or 'Renard' or 'Carter', we twitter a bit, exchange significant looks, and in general scare the living hell out of said customer.
Anyway, that's part of the joy of finding a really good new book, right? You share it with people you love and you know will love the book almost as much as you (because you always have first rights to fangasming, since you discovered it, right?). Well, these books made the cut out of the massive stack of things I read in 2008 to be listed as my top five. Not all of them are new- or even from this decade (Delany's for example), but all are excellent reads which I've pushed to customers at my job or to my friends and coworkers. My copy of Vellum is starting to look a bit tattered from being loaned out...maybe I should keep the next copy I buy...
The Orphan's Tales: In the Night Garden by Catherynne M. Valente (I have a link to one of her interviews on my last blog)
The Motion of Light in Water: Sex and Science Fiction Writing in the East Village by Samuel R. Delany (It's the only non-fiction book to make this list, and yet somehow it's still about SF. Go figure.)
The Book Thief by Markus Zusak (Ok, ok, it's a YA novel...don't judge me! Get the book and judge it!)
Vellum and Ink by Hal Duncan (I'm counting these on one line because they're a...duology. I guess)
Perdido Street Station by China Mieville (This is another I keep talking up to customers. I plan on re-reading it sometime soon, too)
Anyway, that's part of the joy of finding a really good new book, right? You share it with people you love and you know will love the book almost as much as you (because you always have first rights to fangasming, since you discovered it, right?). Well, these books made the cut out of the massive stack of things I read in 2008 to be listed as my top five. Not all of them are new- or even from this decade (Delany's for example), but all are excellent reads which I've pushed to customers at my job or to my friends and coworkers. My copy of Vellum is starting to look a bit tattered from being loaned out...maybe I should keep the next copy I buy...
The Orphan's Tales: In the Night Garden by Catherynne M. Valente (I have a link to one of her interviews on my last blog)
The Motion of Light in Water: Sex and Science Fiction Writing in the East Village by Samuel R. Delany (It's the only non-fiction book to make this list, and yet somehow it's still about SF. Go figure.)
The Book Thief by Markus Zusak (Ok, ok, it's a YA novel...don't judge me! Get the book and judge it!)
Vellum and Ink by Hal Duncan (I'm counting these on one line because they're a...duology. I guess)
Perdido Street Station by China Mieville (This is another I keep talking up to customers. I plan on re-reading it sometime soon, too)
Friday, March 20, 2009
Interview with Valente and a Gaiman Essay
I've been playing around on the internet this afternoon instead of writing like I told myself I would do (or even reading...that half-read copy of Gene Wolfe's Pirate Freedom is giving me heartbroken puppy-dog eyes from my bedside table...), but I suppose something good came of it- I found a Bat Segundo Show podcast interviewing Catherynne M. Valente, the author of The Orphan's Tales and Palimpsest (I've read the first volume of the first and can't wait to get my hands on the others). It's 45 minutes long, but she's extraordinarily well-spoken and engaging and the interview is totally worth sitting down for. I found myself nodding in assent with most of her points, and her descriptions of her new book Palimpsest have me positively drooling with excitement. If her uncanny ability to structure her stories in fascinating, captivating ways holds true (and by all accounts, it does) then her new book is going to be absolutely amazing. I don't know how long I'll be able to hold out before I order one...maybe after I'm finished with Wolfe.
Valente's interview isn't the only treasure I dug up today, either. Neil Gaiman offers a collection of essays on his website, and I found one- on the 'genders' of various books and the development of his very 'male' novel American Gods- to be particularly interesting.
It must be a Gene Wolfe kind of day, because Gaiman closes out his essay with a quote from Wolfe on how writers really write- "You never learn how to write a novel. You just learn how to write the novel that you're writing."
Valente's interview isn't the only treasure I dug up today, either. Neil Gaiman offers a collection of essays on his website, and I found one- on the 'genders' of various books and the development of his very 'male' novel American Gods- to be particularly interesting.
It must be a Gene Wolfe kind of day, because Gaiman closes out his essay with a quote from Wolfe on how writers really write- "You never learn how to write a novel. You just learn how to write the novel that you're writing."
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