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You are viewing the most recent 20 entries July 4th, 2009fidelioscabinet @ : appy Fourth of July It's not possible to please everyone. debgeisler @ : Okay, we're not on the Esplanade... Hope yours is as wonderful! anghara @ : Well, waddayouknow?  Rare book, this. Out of print now for a decade. And only about 2000 copies were EVER printed... vassilissa, posting in 50books_poc @ : Angelica Gorodischer, Taslima Nasrin If I believed in schools handing out books and insisting people read them, which I don't, then this would be one of the books they should hand out and insist people read. It's just wonderful. "A storyteller is nothing less than a free man." I did find the ending a little bit too cute for my taste, but your mileage may vary. I also would have liked a slightly blunter interrogation of the concept of empire (it's there, but it's very subtle) but that's probably just me. It was, as I said, wonderful as it was. 20. Taslima Nasrin, Shame (original title: Lajja) This book was written about the ethnic and religious conflict between the Hindus and Muslims in Bangladesh in 1992. Her thesis is that it's not 'conflict' when one side's doing it to another side. This point of view did not make her popular with Muslim leaders, who declared a fatwa on her for the book. I think if I'd known that Taslima Nasrin was so emphatically anti-Islam I wouldn't have read the book, but Shame does not actually attack the religion itself, only fundamentalism of all kinds, and the actions of some Muslims. This is a very difficult book to read. It has two conflicting aims: to narrate a novel, and to bear careful and detailed witness to atrocity. The latter purpose often overwhelms the former, as the author bursts into long, horrifying lists of places that were looted and burned, people who were beaten, women who were raped. The translator, Kankabatti Datta, is, I think, translating out of his/her first language, not into it (as is best practice in translation.) As a result, this edition is rather stilted and purple; it also has more typoes than I'd like. Here's Dr Nasrin at her best: "Riots are not natural phenomena or disasters. Riots reflect the perversity of human nature." To make this intersectional for a moment, she reminds me how people say that a woman 'was raped', instead of 'somebody raped her' - as if it's a natural disaster that happened to her. The riots in Bangladesh are like that: they didn't happen, people did them. A warning, for people who like warnings: the protagonist graphically rapes a woman. Current Mood:  tiredtnh_particles @ : Fun with the CPSC Fireworks Safety Video Fun with the CPSC Fireworks Safety Video.... elisem @ : Looking for rides to and from Convergence tomorrow (Sunday) So... anybody? cristalia @ : Proof that critiquing, not being critiqued, is what teaches you good writing: ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} matociquala's first draft of "Shoggoths in Bloom", because she wants the draft for her Clarion people and I pack-rat everything, especially electronically. And what's fascinating is, by reading my maybe two pages of comments if you stick them together?I can tell exactly what I was working to assimilate in my own craft then. It's paragraph structure. Because all the things I pick up on in that story, all the issues or suggestions I have, all revolve around a paragraph as a unit of ideas and rendering that most efficiently. It's like I practically don't notice a thing if it's not about paragraph structure. They're not the comments I'd make if I was handed that draft today. Not because I'm too cool for the sentence level or something, but that's just not the thing I inherently notice right now. Given another piece by the same writer -- take "Wind-Up Boogeyman", for example, which is the last thing of Bear's I critted (and also coming out tomorrow on Shadow Unit, by the way): I spent that crit totally harping on questions of narrative closure -- the whole story as a unit of structure, and how themes peak and dip and spiral and then come back to themselves. Why? Not because what the author's doing that works or doesn't work for me totally changed; it's not about Bear's priorities in narrative. Because that's what I'm trying to learn right now. So when my brain goes trolling for items worth comment in other people's stuff, that's what it red-flags and surrounds with flashing neon lights. I will never say that being critiqued isn't useful. It shows you the things you have overlooked and suggests the fixes you might not have gotten yourself towards yet. There are several people who, crit-wise, I owe my life. But if I go and look back at other people critting me, I'll see the fingerprints of what they were learning. If I go and look back at what I said to others, this year and last year and the year before -- or now -- I'll see what I myself am learning. I'll see what I learned. Current Mood:  interestedCurrent Music: PJ Harvey -- Black-Hearted Love annafdd @ : A sunny day All, that is, apart from F, who came to sit beside me and, noticing how my attention wasn't on him 100%, put a white-socked paw on my chest and told me, "Meow." I tried scritching him, but even petting him with one hand while looking at the screen wasn't enough for him, eliciting more polite paws and determined "Meows." He's so lovely. If I hadn't had to meet Alex, I would have stayed far more than my contractual hour. Anyway, then I met Alex at Notting Hill, we had a good lunch at Pain Quotidien, walked through Portobello where I took a lot of lousy photos with the wrong setting, then caught a bus home. I am still suffering with a damn cold and my throat still hurts, but a lot less than it used to. Last night I managed to sleep fairly well by falling asleep in front of the Tv on the sofa, let's see how it goes tonight. markbernstein, posting in hugo_recommend @ : "Moon" for 2009 Dramatic Presentation Long Form The plot is, by sf standards, basic. Sam Bell is the only human resident of a moon-based automated mining station. He's only a couple of weeks from the end of his three year contract, when there's an accident. And then . . . well, anything more would be a spoiler. Thanks to a smart script by Nathan Parker (especially noteworthy these days for having the courage to leave some things up to the viewer to figure out), solid direction by Duncan Jones, and a truly outstanding performance by Sam Rockwell, Moon succeeds almost completely. Does the science work? I honestly don't know enough to say for sure, but I was able to suspend disbelief while watching. There are a couple of fairly minor questions that remain unanswered. But overall, I recommend searching it out. wolfette @ : Ice Age 3 (3D) Fun movie - and an excellent illustration of how the 3D process has improved to the point where it's no longer 'just a gimmick'. (yes, it's still a gimmick but the story is seamless and the effects not intrusive at all). Current Mood:  impressedkaligrrrl, posting in seattle @ : Walking for homeless pets. Help them reach 15 squillion!  Current Mood: hopeful finnishsphinx, posting in cm_slash @ : Fic: Limited Weekend, Chapter 4 Fandom: Criminal Minds Pair: Spencer Reid / Derek Morgan, Aaron Hotchner Rating: PG Disclaimer: Not mine, etc. Feedback: Always Welcome Limited Weekend, Chapter 4 Limited Weekend, Chapter 1 Limited Weekend, Chapter 2 Limited Weekend, Chapter 3 (NC-17) Criminal Minds Main List Current Mood: cranky serenejournal @ : Too funny someotherguy to help me investigate the sound. He looks around for a while and solves the mystery.Spartacus is *hiccuping*. The guinea pig has the hiccups, probably brought on by the massive quantities of raw carrot he just ate, and it's freakin' hilarious. meganbmoore, posting in 50books_poc @ : #27: Not Quite A Husband by Sherry Thomas She’s a female doctor in the 1890s who’s also an extreme introvert. He’s a renown mathematician with an odd yet secret family background. Together, they utterly fail at life. Separately, they only really do much better due to being rather good at their individual callings. And for a little over the first third of the book, I was madly in love. And then we learned a part of their shared past that doesn’t sit well with me. Four years ago, Bryony Asquith proposed marriage out of the blue to her neighbor, Leo Marsden. Probably, she was in love with him at the time, but, due to her childhood, so closed off from her feelings and unfamiliar with anything resembling normal relationships that she had no idea. Leo accepted, due to having been in love with Bryony since about birth. Due to his own family life and his obsessive (but unnecessary) need to prove himself his father’s son, however, he never thought to actually mention that, or wonder if Bryony realized it. This leads to his making a mistake just before their marriage that Bryony (rather understandably) allowed to fester and used to shut herself off from him, until she finally asked for an annulment and left England to practice overseas. Three years later, Leo tracks her down in India with a message from her sister that their father is dying, and persuades her to return to England with him, just in time for the two to get caught up in the siege of Malakand. I love stories about characters who are extreme introverts and find it difficult to function in society or interact well with people, much less form lasting attachments, but they’re rarely pulled off in a way that convinces me.* Here, it’s pulled off with both leads. Leo (who, IMO, is a more interesting and likable hero than Thomas’s previous heroes) interacts normally with most people, but these interactions seem to largely be form and manners, not any real connection and understanding, and while his relationships with his various family members are loving, they are also strained and conflicted, and formed of unconventional circumstances. Bryony, on the other hand, is almost completely cut of from humanity as a whole, despite seeming to have a near obsessive need to save people, and anything most of us would call normal human interactions and relationships are alien to her. Initially, the book is written in a detached, almost terse style that I loved because I thought it fit Bryony’s view of the world and her relationship with Leo perfectly, but others might have problems with. Later, as their relationship begins to mature and we get to the “ZOMG! Uprisings! Danger!” part of the book, the writing gets more “traditional” as Bryony comes out of her shell. ( spoilers of the problematic variety ) Still, despite the problematic parts, Thomas is consistently moving closer to an author I just plain really, really enjoy, and further from an author who has some parts I love, and some parts that make me want to rage. *There are many reasons Claymore is my favorite shounen manga. (Except for when Fullmetal Alchemist is. I’m fickle that way.) That most of the cast is made up of people who have been trained their entire life to reject meaningful relationships and feelings and interactions and to not depend on anyone and are only really allowed one close friend so that they can have the security that someone will kill them if they ever turn into a murderous monster is but one of those reasons. Tags: a: thomas sherry, romance |
