Books and musing
So, Banned Books Week starts tomorrow, and here is an excellent post about it, with a whole passel of nifty icons to spread the love. Thank you unovis_lj for the link and the info!
I'm thinking that a copy of And Tango Makes Three needs to come and live at my house.
And, a book review/commentary thing I've been meaning to do for nearly a year now --
The Invention of Sodomy in Christian Theology, by Mark D. Jordan
This is a fascinating book, readable, thought-provoking and (from what I can tell) broadly researched. I found it particularly interesting in how he traces the theological developments that go along with (both cause and consequence, building on each other) the social and political -- even economic -- developments.
What it comes down to is that, essentially, the establishment -- with intent and for their own ends -- made up the idea of damnation-by-sex (and particularly sex between men) to make people afraid of it, and they did it by making it a damnable offence to even think or talk about it. A literally "unspeakable" crime. And what is 'unspeakable' cannot be rationally analyzed, or even properly defined. The line of reasoning has some pretty scary resonances with what is happening today with the concept of 'terrorism'.
It is somewhat densely written, and I suspect that my having a background in theology, philosophy and history gave me a useful context, but I found it compelling reading, and never got lost or confused even though I was reading it under airplane/airport conditions.
jblum -- this is the book I got while I was visiting, and I think you & kateorman will find it interesting too.
One of the things that made it particularly fascinating was that I read it in conjunction with The Spell Sword by Marion Zimmer Bradley, and A Companion to Wolves by Sarah Monette and Elizabeth Bear.
Spell Sword is one of those books that quite literally changed my life. When I first read it (in, um, fall of 1980, as junior in college) I had never encountered someone like Damon Ridenow in a book. I was blown away. Here was someone like me (emotionally, intellectually, spiritually -- gender really didn't enter into it, as I have never strongly identified as a girl, especially then) working out feelings and issues I totally got. I read that book twice in one night, and then scoured the countryside for everything else (Darkover and otherwise). All kinds of things came about as a result of reading that book, including my involvement in the SCA, meeting and connecting with dpaxson and kproche, and numerous others.
Anyway, I had not re-read it in many years. I had a copy I was giving jblum and I thought I would re-acquaint myself with it. It was a completely different reading experience. I could still recognize (and identify with) Damon, and appreciate his journey through the book, but I was nearly brought to a standstill (not in a good way) by the writing itself. It read like fanfic. Not very good fanfic. Technically, the book is fine; the grammar, spelling, plot-progression, language use, all of that is correct/ok. Not brilliant, but not wrong. There is no depth, no real exploration of emotional complexities. There is a lot of telling and not showing, and even in this one short book it become apparent that there isn't really a thought-out, consistent structure to the worldbuilding or the way 'laran/magic' worked. Not to mention that it is incredibly apparent that it was written in the mid-70s, with all kinds of mid-70's attitudes and assumptions peeping through. (That, actually, I could deal with.) And the biggest thing of all is that, while there are hints and precursors and pointers and indicators, the book never really goes there, there is no true emotional payoff/catharsis/whathaveyou (I'm kind of flailing for the words to explain what I mean here) in the text.
I was kind of horrified. This book changed my life and it's, um ... well, if I were to write that story, with those characters, even keeping the exact same plot-progression, it would be a Very Different Thing. I realized that here was a really good example of the fact that the experience of a story really is shaped by the reader reading it at least as much as by the words themselves. I got the payoff/etc I did the first time because I went there myself with the text as a launch-point.
I still love Damon (I even still love Andrew, mostly because Damon does :-)) and my copy of the book will certainly stay on my shelf, but it seems unlikely that I will re-read it (unless I choose to actually write the story I wish it were & still want to read :-) but then I will be mining it for things I want to use).
And
A Companion to Wolves takes the 'magical companion-critter' trope and both turns it kind of on its head and takes to the logical conclusions that (for example) Anne McCaffrey never did. In other words, this book goes there. Unflinchingly. I've read it three times now are there are parts that still make me curl up and go eeeeep. Because not only does it stays true to its premise and the world it is happening in, the text does not suddenly stop and duck out when the going gets intense. And I really, really like that.
It can be a little difficult keeping the characters straight, but there is a list of principals at the front which helps. The story is very much from the one viewpoint character's perspective, so there are things (other people's perspectives and feelings) that we don't get that I would have liked. (And that is pretty much the main reason I am going to lobby for it as a Yuletide fandom -- I really want to get inside Skjaldwulf's head, and play with Vethulf/Skjaldwulf and how they deal with the complication that is Isolfr). I feel for Isolfr, but I love Skjaldwulf (and several of the other characters -- like Hrollief.)
One of the other things that is quite different about ACtW from Spell Sword is the attention paid to the craft of the writing. The world-building is careful, the language choices very deliberate (non-Germanic words used pretty much only when there wasn't a reasonable/graceful Germanic alternative, though not to the point of -- for me anyway -- pulling the reader out of the story), continuity and consistency made sure of. I have become more sensitive to that aspect of writing as I have done more of my own, and there were times when the deliberateness hovered right on the edge of 'too much' (in the way that a lot of Spell Sword had fallen into 'too little') but never tipped over far enough to irritate me -- and there are passages (Skjaldwulf's proto-saga of the battle while Isolfr is [spoiler redacted] for example) that I stopped and enjoyed for their poetry/craft/beauty as words.
Thinky-thoughts resulting from reading all three
Spell Sword is 'action-adventure' that raises some interesting possibilites and questions about cultures and assumptions (gender roles and relationships among them) that never quite get followed up on. In the Darkover canon as a whole same-sex relationships are touched on, alluded to, tiptoed around, _almost_ dealt with. For their time, this was actually a pretty big deal. Now it reads awkwardly to me. Damon is a wonderful, wounded/powerful complex character who doesn't get (in my opinion) nearly enough time onstage in overall canon -- he never gets to work out or really deal with the issues he raises; not where we get to see it, any way. Sometimes it is like there is a giant elephant in the room that the author herself is working hard not to see.
Isolfr is also a wonderful, wounded/powerful complex character who _does_ get to deal with (key) issues he raises.
The stories we tell are powerful. The stories we don't tell, but that lurk, growing large and fearful and more horrible for being known-but-unspoken are even more powerful. To the point where even telling them will not actually heal the damage they do, not at first, and maybe not for a long time.
Stories matter.
I'm thinking that a copy of And Tango Makes Three needs to come and live at my house.
And, a book review/commentary thing I've been meaning to do for nearly a year now --
The Invention of Sodomy in Christian Theology, by Mark D. Jordan
This is a fascinating book, readable, thought-provoking and (from what I can tell) broadly researched. I found it particularly interesting in how he traces the theological developments that go along with (both cause and consequence, building on each other) the social and political -- even economic -- developments.
What it comes down to is that, essentially, the establishment -- with intent and for their own ends -- made up the idea of damnation-by-sex (and particularly sex between men) to make people afraid of it, and they did it by making it a damnable offence to even think or talk about it. A literally "unspeakable" crime. And what is 'unspeakable' cannot be rationally analyzed, or even properly defined. The line of reasoning has some pretty scary resonances with what is happening today with the concept of 'terrorism'.
It is somewhat densely written, and I suspect that my having a background in theology, philosophy and history gave me a useful context, but I found it compelling reading, and never got lost or confused even though I was reading it under airplane/airport conditions.
jblum -- this is the book I got while I was visiting, and I think you & kateorman will find it interesting too.
One of the things that made it particularly fascinating was that I read it in conjunction with The Spell Sword by Marion Zimmer Bradley, and A Companion to Wolves by Sarah Monette and Elizabeth Bear.
Spell Sword is one of those books that quite literally changed my life. When I first read it (in, um, fall of 1980, as junior in college) I had never encountered someone like Damon Ridenow in a book. I was blown away. Here was someone like me (emotionally, intellectually, spiritually -- gender really didn't enter into it, as I have never strongly identified as a girl, especially then) working out feelings and issues I totally got. I read that book twice in one night, and then scoured the countryside for everything else (Darkover and otherwise). All kinds of things came about as a result of reading that book, including my involvement in the SCA, meeting and connecting with dpaxson and kproche, and numerous others.
Anyway, I had not re-read it in many years. I had a copy I was giving jblum and I thought I would re-acquaint myself with it. It was a completely different reading experience. I could still recognize (and identify with) Damon, and appreciate his journey through the book, but I was nearly brought to a standstill (not in a good way) by the writing itself. It read like fanfic. Not very good fanfic. Technically, the book is fine; the grammar, spelling, plot-progression, language use, all of that is correct/ok. Not brilliant, but not wrong. There is no depth, no real exploration of emotional complexities. There is a lot of telling and not showing, and even in this one short book it become apparent that there isn't really a thought-out, consistent structure to the worldbuilding or the way 'laran/magic' worked. Not to mention that it is incredibly apparent that it was written in the mid-70s, with all kinds of mid-70's attitudes and assumptions peeping through. (That, actually, I could deal with.) And the biggest thing of all is that, while there are hints and precursors and pointers and indicators, the book never really goes there, there is no true emotional payoff/catharsis/whathaveyou (I'm kind of flailing for the words to explain what I mean here) in the text.
I was kind of horrified. This book changed my life and it's, um ... well, if I were to write that story, with those characters, even keeping the exact same plot-progression, it would be a Very Different Thing. I realized that here was a really good example of the fact that the experience of a story really is shaped by the reader reading it at least as much as by the words themselves. I got the payoff/etc I did the first time because I went there myself with the text as a launch-point.
I still love Damon (I even still love Andrew, mostly because Damon does :-)) and my copy of the book will certainly stay on my shelf, but it seems unlikely that I will re-read it (unless I choose to actually write the story I wish it were & still want to read :-) but then I will be mining it for things I want to use).
And
A Companion to Wolves takes the 'magical companion-critter' trope and both turns it kind of on its head and takes to the logical conclusions that (for example) Anne McCaffrey never did. In other words, this book goes there. Unflinchingly. I've read it three times now are there are parts that still make me curl up and go eeeeep. Because not only does it stays true to its premise and the world it is happening in, the text does not suddenly stop and duck out when the going gets intense. And I really, really like that.
It can be a little difficult keeping the characters straight, but there is a list of principals at the front which helps. The story is very much from the one viewpoint character's perspective, so there are things (other people's perspectives and feelings) that we don't get that I would have liked. (And that is pretty much the main reason I am going to lobby for it as a Yuletide fandom -- I really want to get inside Skjaldwulf's head, and play with Vethulf/Skjaldwulf and how they deal with the complication that is Isolfr). I feel for Isolfr, but I love Skjaldwulf (and several of the other characters -- like Hrollief.)
One of the other things that is quite different about ACtW from Spell Sword is the attention paid to the craft of the writing. The world-building is careful, the language choices very deliberate (non-Germanic words used pretty much only when there wasn't a reasonable/graceful Germanic alternative, though not to the point of -- for me anyway -- pulling the reader out of the story), continuity and consistency made sure of. I have become more sensitive to that aspect of writing as I have done more of my own, and there were times when the deliberateness hovered right on the edge of 'too much' (in the way that a lot of Spell Sword had fallen into 'too little') but never tipped over far enough to irritate me -- and there are passages (Skjaldwulf's proto-saga of the battle while Isolfr is [spoiler redacted] for example) that I stopped and enjoyed for their poetry/craft/beauty as words.
Thinky-thoughts resulting from reading all three
Spell Sword is 'action-adventure' that raises some interesting possibilites and questions about cultures and assumptions (gender roles and relationships among them) that never quite get followed up on. In the Darkover canon as a whole same-sex relationships are touched on, alluded to, tiptoed around, _almost_ dealt with. For their time, this was actually a pretty big deal. Now it reads awkwardly to me. Damon is a wonderful, wounded/powerful complex character who doesn't get (in my opinion) nearly enough time onstage in overall canon -- he never gets to work out or really deal with the issues he raises; not where we get to see it, any way. Sometimes it is like there is a giant elephant in the room that the author herself is working hard not to see.
Isolfr is also a wonderful, wounded/powerful complex character who _does_ get to deal with (key) issues he raises.
The stories we tell are powerful. The stories we don't tell, but that lurk, growing large and fearful and more horrible for being known-but-unspoken are even more powerful. To the point where even telling them will not actually heal the damage they do, not at first, and maybe not for a long time.
Stories matter.