Subversion...

"Do you want me to tell you something really subversive? Love is everything it's cracked up to be. That's why people are so cynical about it.... It really is worth fighting for, being brave for, risking everything for. And the trouble is, if you don't risk anything, you risk even more." - Erica Jong

Another sad story....

I hate appalling refugee cases. Not just the really flagrant cases like Maher Arar, but cases like this one look heartbreaking to me. I don't even approve of national borders, especially when people are imprisoned or suffering because of them. No one thinks Iran is a particularly good place to live right now; but the really scary thing is that this family is being held by Americans, who ought to be the good guys, who ought to be our friends, and who ought to believe in justice. Who would, or should, be horrified if other Americans were being held in such conditions.

Imagine there's no countries...

Karin Lowachee at Ad Astra...

The guests of honour at Ad Astra, the science fiction convention in Toronto, didn't interest me this year. But Karin Lowachee did, and she was going to be doing a reading. That made it worth going to the con, for me. She is the best new author I've discovered in years.

Her books, if you don't know them (and haven't heard me enthuse about them yet) are Warchild, Burndive, and Cagebird, all set in the same universe - I call it the Macedon universe, because of the ship on which much of the action is set, though I haven't heard other people call it that. Psychology, adolescence, and boys warped by war - I can't think of an easy way to describe these books in a few words, so I won't try. Brilliant, flawed, more than worth reading and rereading. I'll try to make my comments on the talk spoiler-free, so don't worry about what you'll learn here if you haven't read them.

So... ( Highlights of her talk... )