WIP meme and reading
Jan. 28th, 2015 08:37 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ariadnes_stringOh, I can’t resist!
I thought I had very few of these, but then I actually looked at the relevant folders. Oops! Mostly from long-abandoned fandoms, though. These are among the resuscitate-able, perhaps.
1.
A bear lay in a clearing. It was quite a large bear, but ragged, even flea-bitten. It lay there for a long while, too exhausted to flick away the fly that landed on its nose.
Time passed. From the pines surrounding the clearing, a wolf emerged.
The bear held its breath. It reflected that if anyone could tell the difference between a real bear and a false bear, it would be a wolf. The bear felt woefully ill-equipped: no sword, no pistols, even its hands were sadly bound up in bear skin. It decided it would go out gallantly regardless, though it hated to think of Stephen finding its mangled corpse.
2.
Abdul often reflected that Thomas Nightingale was exactly what one would expect from someone who had come of age at an English public school in the previous century; an expert and athletic lover, but emotionally restrained to the point of constipation the rest of the time. Abdul didn’t mind; he wasn’t much for overt displays of affection himself. On rare occasions, however, Thomas would give way to what Abdul’s father, with perfect proletarian contempt, would have called the sticky sentimentality of the upper classes. Abdul was probably the only person who ever saw these episodes, and, of course, he could never muster his father’s disapproval; they always went straight to his heart. Thomas appeared to be experiencing one of them now.
3.
“Let’s go dancing,” Freddie said one evening as they sat dissecting the day in the BBC canteen.
“You dance?” Bel raised her eyebrows.
“Course I do.”
And he did. The local girls had seen to that before he'd even smoked his first cigarette, laughing and crashing around crowded front rooms, radio blasting. He’d been half a head shorter than the smallest of them, so he’d always been facing cleavage when he grasped them 'round the waist. Not that he minded.
What I’m Reading
The Angel of Losses, by Stephanie Feldman. Jewish-themed magical realism, I think. I’ve only read a bit of it so far, but it’s something I’m in the mood for.
What I’ve Just Finished
Savage Harvest: A Tale of Cannibals, Colonialism and Michael Rockefeller’s Tragic Quest for Primitive Art, by Carl Hoffman. [from my Goodreads review] Extremely interesting and enjoyable. Kind of like what Serial would be if it were about cannibal tribes in New Guinea--which is to say, very interested in how hard it is to recover the truth about the past, especially across intercultural taboos against sharing secrets. It's the story of the investigator as much as the investigation, which usually drives me crazy, but I bought into it here and was very engaged by Hoffman's own story. Hoffman also raises some interesting questions about the export of primitive art as a form of extraction of resources.
The Paying Guests, by Sarah Waters (audiobook). I got to the end of my binge-listening of Hardcore History’s WW1 podcasts, “Blueprint for Armageddon,” and so had no choice but to finish listening to this. [from my Goodreads review]: I wanted to like this so much more than I did. It's beautifully written (and gorgeously read by Juliet Stevenson in the audiobook), but I often felt more irked than entranced by it. I loved the historical details of the setting, and the way the characters were dealing with the aftermath of the war (and especially how those issues came back at the very end), but I think narratives about obsessive love just aren't my cup of tea. I loved The Little Stranger, and so was anxious to read this one; I should have remembered that The Little Stranger is the only Waters book I've ever managed more than a few pages of. I think part of Waters’ talent is for revising genre pieces. The Little Stranger is kind of a revision of The Turn of the Screw; The Paying Guests seems (in part) a revision of something like Dorothy Sayer’s Unnatural Death, but where the lesbians aren’t homicidal ice queens. A good idea, but still, the former worked better for me than the latter.
What I’m Reading Next
Oh goodness knows! I’m going to stop even including this question!
There are so many good movies around, but all I’ve managed to see is Paddington, which at least was totally adorable. Ben Whishaw’s vocal performance as the bear himself is ridiculously sweet, and the movie’s vision of London is a treat.
How ‘bout y’all?
I thought I had very few of these, but then I actually looked at the relevant folders. Oops! Mostly from long-abandoned fandoms, though. These are among the resuscitate-able, perhaps.
1.
A bear lay in a clearing. It was quite a large bear, but ragged, even flea-bitten. It lay there for a long while, too exhausted to flick away the fly that landed on its nose.
Time passed. From the pines surrounding the clearing, a wolf emerged.
The bear held its breath. It reflected that if anyone could tell the difference between a real bear and a false bear, it would be a wolf. The bear felt woefully ill-equipped: no sword, no pistols, even its hands were sadly bound up in bear skin. It decided it would go out gallantly regardless, though it hated to think of Stephen finding its mangled corpse.
2.
Abdul often reflected that Thomas Nightingale was exactly what one would expect from someone who had come of age at an English public school in the previous century; an expert and athletic lover, but emotionally restrained to the point of constipation the rest of the time. Abdul didn’t mind; he wasn’t much for overt displays of affection himself. On rare occasions, however, Thomas would give way to what Abdul’s father, with perfect proletarian contempt, would have called the sticky sentimentality of the upper classes. Abdul was probably the only person who ever saw these episodes, and, of course, he could never muster his father’s disapproval; they always went straight to his heart. Thomas appeared to be experiencing one of them now.
3.
“Let’s go dancing,” Freddie said one evening as they sat dissecting the day in the BBC canteen.
“You dance?” Bel raised her eyebrows.
“Course I do.”
And he did. The local girls had seen to that before he'd even smoked his first cigarette, laughing and crashing around crowded front rooms, radio blasting. He’d been half a head shorter than the smallest of them, so he’d always been facing cleavage when he grasped them 'round the waist. Not that he minded.
What I’m Reading
The Angel of Losses, by Stephanie Feldman. Jewish-themed magical realism, I think. I’ve only read a bit of it so far, but it’s something I’m in the mood for.
What I’ve Just Finished
Savage Harvest: A Tale of Cannibals, Colonialism and Michael Rockefeller’s Tragic Quest for Primitive Art, by Carl Hoffman. [from my Goodreads review] Extremely interesting and enjoyable. Kind of like what Serial would be if it were about cannibal tribes in New Guinea--which is to say, very interested in how hard it is to recover the truth about the past, especially across intercultural taboos against sharing secrets. It's the story of the investigator as much as the investigation, which usually drives me crazy, but I bought into it here and was very engaged by Hoffman's own story. Hoffman also raises some interesting questions about the export of primitive art as a form of extraction of resources.
The Paying Guests, by Sarah Waters (audiobook). I got to the end of my binge-listening of Hardcore History’s WW1 podcasts, “Blueprint for Armageddon,” and so had no choice but to finish listening to this. [from my Goodreads review]: I wanted to like this so much more than I did. It's beautifully written (and gorgeously read by Juliet Stevenson in the audiobook), but I often felt more irked than entranced by it. I loved the historical details of the setting, and the way the characters were dealing with the aftermath of the war (and especially how those issues came back at the very end), but I think narratives about obsessive love just aren't my cup of tea. I loved The Little Stranger, and so was anxious to read this one; I should have remembered that The Little Stranger is the only Waters book I've ever managed more than a few pages of. I think part of Waters’ talent is for revising genre pieces. The Little Stranger is kind of a revision of The Turn of the Screw; The Paying Guests seems (in part) a revision of something like Dorothy Sayer’s Unnatural Death, but where the lesbians aren’t homicidal ice queens. A good idea, but still, the former worked better for me than the latter.
What I’m Reading Next
Oh goodness knows! I’m going to stop even including this question!
There are so many good movies around, but all I’ve managed to see is Paddington, which at least was totally adorable. Ben Whishaw’s vocal performance as the bear himself is ridiculously sweet, and the movie’s vision of London is a treat.
How ‘bout y’all?
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Date: 2015-01-28 03:39 pm (UTC)(oh, hee, I just saw your tags, it must be! Yay! Consider this encouragement and a beta offer if you ever finish it.)
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Date: 2015-01-30 02:52 am (UTC)It's Aubrey-Maturin with psychic wolves, jumping off from the actual canonical wolf in Post Captain. There was a challenge going for this kind of thing a couple of years ago, and I started the fic, and then, between not being able to think of much of a plot, and my trepidation about writing wolf!sex, ground to a halt.
I like the few scenes of it that I've written, though, so every once in a while I drag it out and stare at it.
Thank you for the encouragement and the beta offer! I will think about trying to write more of it...
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Date: 2015-01-30 03:27 pm (UTC)(or for next year! Or whenever!)
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Date: 2015-01-30 05:42 pm (UTC)Still, maybe that's the incentive I need--thanks!
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Date: 2015-01-30 11:53 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2015-01-31 04:06 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2015-01-28 03:47 pm (UTC)Guess what!!!!! I finally finished a fucking book that wasn't for work! Mr. Jefferson and the Giant Moose: Natural History in Early America. It was quite quick and easy. I read it in one day while sick. You might enjoy it because the main premise is the response to the degeneracy theory. I like that the author includes writers as well as scientists when discussing the matter.
I'm also listening to Wild Ones by Jon Mooallem, which is quite interesting so far. I also listened to a lecture series on Science and Religion by a Johns Hopkins History of Science prof. You'd probably enjoy both.
Glad to hear you enjoyed Paddington. I've had huge problems absorbing any media lately, but I might be able to handle a kids' movie.
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Date: 2015-01-30 01:41 pm (UTC)Congratulations on finishing the book! It sounds really interesting!
Paddington was lovely, especially if you have any nostalgia for the books. Most kids movies put me right to sleep, but this one I stayed awake for--the whole thing!
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Date: 2015-01-28 07:28 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2015-01-30 05:22 pm (UTC)That sounds like such an interesting panel--who else was on it? There's an interesting review along those lines on goodreads, but it only lists The Yiddish Policeman's Union (which I love) and The Golem and the Jinni (which I like okay, but didn't love) as examples.
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Date: 2015-02-02 03:21 pm (UTC)Jewish Folklore in Fantasy and Science Fiction
THE GOLEM AND THE JINNI is a recent example. William Tenn and Avram Davidson have written classic examples. Discuss how Jewish Folklore has been used in the genre.
Todd Dashoff (mod), Gil Cnaan, Berakha Lana Guggenheim, Hildy Silverman, Stephanie Feldman, Gary Ehrlich
The panel started off with a rant from Cnaan about how every fantasy TV show does the one Jewish episode with a Golem storyline, and they all botch it terribly. That was pretty much where the panel exhausted itself of Golems, which was a good plan. I find real Jewish Golem stories really compelling, but I agreed with the panelists that there's so much great fantasy and folklore in Jewish traditions that to limit it to just telling the Golem story over and over again is stupid.
They talked about how little good fantasy there is that uses Kabbalah, but Ted Chiang's Kabbalah story "72 Letters" was mentioned, along with Richard Dansky's "39th Labor of Reb Palache".
They talked about dybbuks, which of course led to Silverberg's classic "The Dybbuks of Mazel Tov IV" and then to a broader discussion of the anthology "Wandering Stars" it appears in.
People mentioned the deep Chasidish inspirations in Avram Davidson's fantasies. Someone mentioned the queer Jewish kingdom in Shira Glassman's novels. Chabon was mentioned. Benjamin Rosenbaum was mentioned.
And NOBODY MENTIONED WHY IS THERE NO JEWISH NARNIA and it was glorious. Because that shit is tired.
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Date: 2015-02-05 10:31 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2015-01-28 07:55 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2015-01-30 05:29 pm (UTC)It's supposed to be a sequel to a Nightingale-Dr. Walid pre-series fic I wrote, but, as usual, I can't quite get the plotting to work. It has a double time line, for one thing, with h/c in one part, and first-time shenanigans in the other. Maybe it'll will get clearer at some point!
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Date: 2015-01-29 12:17 am (UTC)I have heard these good Paddington reviews! Maybe I'll go this weekend. I was a major Paddington fan as a very small bird, so I was worried it would desecrate my memories, but it sounds like not. Plus Ben Whishaw!
I'm actually going to read The Paying Guests next - my library hold finally came in - but I've been toying with Americanah for the past few days and also trying to finish The Code of the Woosters which is THOROUGHLY delightful.
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Date: 2015-01-30 05:39 pm (UTC)I quite like the parts of #1 I have written, but I can't figure out a decent plot, and I cringe at the wolf!sex I'd have to write...Still...
I adored Paddington when I was a kid, and the movie just rekindled the love. It does have a silly taxidermy plot added on, but it's not too bad. The Brown family is adorable, and Peter Capaldi is their neighbor. And Ben Whishaw is perfect. I would see it again!
I'll be interested to hear what you think of The Paying Guests. I think audiobook might not have been the best mode for it--it requires some rushing/skimming to enjoy. I've been wanting to read Americah for a while--I hear it's great!
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Date: 2015-02-04 07:42 pm (UTC)Oh no, you didn't like The Paying Guests that much? Man, I loved it. I thought it was amazing. I guess I do like tales of obsessive love. What irked you about it? Also, unlike you, I've loved all her books that I've read. Haven't read The Little Stranger yet.
I've heard of Hardcore History and I really want to try it out. This reminds me to do that.
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Date: 2015-02-05 10:39 pm (UTC)I wanted to like The Paying Guests so much--everyone I know has loved it. I'm not sure what irked me--partly that it was so drawn out, and partly that I only have so much patience for "I can't live without you" plots. I couldn't really buy the ending, either. But I am clearly in the minority re: all of that! (The Little Stranger is the book of hers that no one likes, so I should have known!)
I bet you'll like Hardcore History--he's great at explaining military history, and he has a lot to say about historiography, too. "Ghosts of the Ostfront" is fabulous, but you have to pay for it at this point. The WWI one, "Blueprint for Armageddon" is fantastic--explains things about the war that have always puzzled me--and it in front of the paywall at the moment.
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Date: 2015-02-06 03:24 pm (UTC)Haha, The Paying Guests didn't seem drawn out at all to me. I can see why the ending might bother you, but I loved it.
Too bad The Hour had to end. :(