The Homeless Moon

[calico_reaction]

Comments

[talkstowolves]

I believe Andrews' story took place in an alternate North America, actually.

[calico_reaction]

I thought that at first too, but changed my mind over the course of the story. I should probably ask the author to clarify and correct my review, if necessary. :)

[talkstowolves]

What made you change your interpretation?

[calico_reaction]

I can't say for sure, but I think it had to do with the line about the setting being the birthplace of gunpowder, which made me go, "Wait, the US isn't the birthplace of gunpowder, China is!" and then I started thinking of the story with China being the big world power instead of the US, and it just made more sense, especially in light of the yellow-Chinese-Buddhist majority and the discussion that came from that.

[jsridler]

Thanks for giving the ol' Chapbook a whirl. Hope you enjoy the new one, too!

[calico_reaction]

I've read the new one, I'm just waiting to post the review so I can process it some. I'm not fond of posting more than one review a day (though I've done it before). :)

[psychox]

"The fact it takes place in China instead of the US is more of a way to provide a kind of objectivity as well as a bite of satire."

How does that work? I am curious.

Also, is the shooter Chinese? And does this, possibly, have anything to do with the fact that the Virginia Tech shooter was a Korean American?

[psychox]

Nevermind. I read it myself, and I figured it out

[psychox]

I'm still not sure what to say about the substitution of China in place of Korea though. On one hand, it might be more "sensitive" to do it that way. It makes the situation more general, suggesting that these type of race relations are not restricted to white-American and Korean-American. On the other hand, why do a lot of Western writers always choose China or Japan over other countries in Asia when they write about Asia? Especially in this case when there seems more reason not to

[calico_reaction]

I think part of the commentary of the story is to address current US fears of China, considering we're in debt to them and they seem to be poised to be the next major power.

[zhai]

Hey Shara -- thanks indeed for the review, always appreciated. :) All bumps to our intrepid little sailing vessel are valuable ones.

Thanks also to psychox for the deep reading of Scott's story. That story is frequently called out in the reviews we've received as not fitting in with the chapbook, and we did learn from last year's feedback and had a much tighter thematic element this year, but it's great to see such a thoughtful treatment of his story, which I think is more nuanced than a quick read reveals

[calico_reaction]

*laughs

[boonofdoom]

I did the cover. Both the covers, in fact, though it maybe means more for the first one, for which I did actually draw that spider bot and take the photo and do the heavy photoshopping required to make it look all woodcut grainy. I guess I mostly didn't take credit for it in order to preserve the illusion of collective-ness among the four others without whose great effort neither chapbook would have come off.

Anyway, thanks very much for this review, and for the nice things you had to say about my story even though I didn't quite manage to make the ending live up to your critique suggestions! :)

And thank you, psychox, for your thoughts on Scott's story, which I think deserves to be discussed.

[calico_reaction]

I think the cover art deserves credit. People will wonder! :) Great job, btw.

And I refused to go back and look at my original critique. I don't WANT to remember what I suggested, that way, I don't taint this particular reading of the story!