Mar. 6th, 2010

Genius...

Mar. 6th, 2010 02:08 pm
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    If you knew how much work went into it, you would not call it genius. - Michelangelo Buonarroti, 1474 - 1564


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One of my favourite authors of all time is Karin Lowachee, author of a brilliant series of books, Warchild, Burndive, and Cagebird. She has also published two short stories (that I know of), one in the anthology Mythspring and one in the anthology So Long Been Dreaming: Postcolonial Science Fiction & Fantasy.

And I happen to think So Long Been Dreaming: Postcolonial Science Fiction & Fantasy is one of the worst book titles I've ever come across. Really. For one thing, it's a mouthful. For another, it reeks of academic pretensions. (Maybe it was necessary, to get grant money?) You have to decode it to discover the theme of the anthology: Canadian SF with an ethnic slant.

The Karin Lowachee story is The Forgotten Ones. It's beautifully written. It isn't as heavy on plot as her other works, but it's full of mood and tension. It begins: "In the twilight, my brother Hava's eyes glow red."

A few other Expandcomments about it... )

Nalo Hopkinson is the co-editor of this anthology, but she doesn't actually have a story in it, which disappoints me. I've been wanting to read her work. She does have some interesting things to say in the introduction:
I ... was struggling with what seemed like the unholy marriage of race consciousness and science fiction sensibility.... To be a person of colour writing science fiction is to be under suspicion of having internalized one's colonization. I knew that I'd have to fight this battle at some point in my career, but I wasn't ready.

... What you hold in your hand is the result; stories that take the meme of colonizing the natives and, from the experience of the colonizee, critique it, pervert it, fuck with it, with irony, with anger, with humour, and also, with love and respect for the genre of science fiction that makes it possible to think about new ways of doing things.


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I was amused by Not for Prophet: A Review of The Bible, King James Version not so much for itself, but because of the ads littering the page for books like The White Stone: "We pray that A White Stone will bless you as it has blessed thousands of others throughout the world and that it will draw you closer in your walk with Jesus." or "Discover how to become the Proverbs 31 woman God created you to be".

Heh.

My own review of the Bible would be one of those six-word things: "Often unreadable; biased but contains good poetry."

Saturday...

Mar. 6th, 2010 11:34 pm
fajrdrako: (Default)


A busy, full, delightful day.

Brunched at the Bramasole on Bank Street with [livejournal.com profile] maaseru and [livejournal.com profile] maaseru. Then shopped at Value Village for another new sugar bowl, and found a biography of Eleanor of Acquitaine in French. Then took food to the Food Bank. Somehow fit in two sets of exercises, as I'd like to do every day. Then worked on my Apaplexy zine, and the covers for the next issue. Then went to Tasia's place for a birthday party for Peter, and a good time was had by all. I played scrabble with first Tasia and then Donna. They both beat me, but not by much, so it wasn't too embarrassing - they are both Scrabble Club members and play much more seriously than I do. We had a "bingo bongo", which means that Donna put down a bingo which I immediately followed by one of my own, the words being "loutish" and "leveret".

Talked to Beulah about the Dunnett gathering in Paris; we're both excited. She wants to go to the John Barrowman concert, too. If I can get tickets. I'm going to try.

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