I just want another chance to live
Last night, 
innie_darling and I went to see Junot Diaz at the New York Public Library. Since I am a "friend" of the library (i.e., I donated some money), I get discounted tickets for their events, and this was a steal at $15.
Diaz is an entertaining speaker, though both
innie_darling and I thought it was really weird that for all the talk about immigrant experiences and feeling unease in both English and Spanish etc., neither Diaz nor the host/interviewer mentioned that Diaz sounds like a native English speaker, while the host has a thick German(?) accent that made him difficult (for me) to understand. But because he's white, it went unremarked on. Diaz did have some interesting things to say about privilege and post-colonialism.
There was also some intriguing stuff about writing for other writers v. writing for readers, and leaving room in the story for readers to assemble it, and how writers need to be able to give up some control in order for that to happen, and how readers are often much more generous than other writers are - a reader wants to be taken for a ride, and is willing to go along (or not), and that should be respected, whereas other writers are mostly looking to critique. (He didn't seem too fond of the proliferation of MFA/writing programs and the type of writing they turn out.)
As an aside, the room was way bigger than I expected, and it was packed, and the audience seemed very engaged.
anyway, I enjoyed it, and would go again. In fact, I might be interested in seeing David Chang of Momofuku and some other chefs on May 22 (I also want to see Toni Morrison, but that event's been postponed). If you're interested, let me know.
And that seems like a good lead-in to What I'm Reading Wednesday:
What I've just read
Yesterday at lunch, I finished Ready Player One by Ernest Cline, which I enjoyed, though the characters are pretty thin and there is a lot of exposition that probably isn't really necessary. Also, it's a very white, very male book which ends up being lampshaded but then never explored.
Also, if you are dealing with an obsession with the 80s, I don't really think Rush is the band to pick as your musical representation of that. Which is a minor nitpick and I understand why it was chosen (more for plot reasons than musical reasons) but I think it was my own experience as a teenager in the 80s that made me really skeptical of that tidbit. Otoh, it was kind of weird to read a book whose obsessions were focused on the 80s and nostalgia for those years; usually it's only Boomer teenage years that get that treatment, or maybe that's my cynical GenX bias talking. *snerk* I guess my generation is now of an age to write books like this, though, where all the references are things I'm actually familiar with.
Anyway! The book is a lot of fun, even for someone like me, who played arcade games and Atari games and early computer games like Police Quest (and was somewhat obsessed with the Indiana Jones & the Last Crusade game in college) but who nowadays can basically only manage some tetris or bubblespinner and a lot of solitaire when I'm at the parents'. I get obsessive about games, which is why I don't play them, and also why I don't gamble. Nickel-dime card games are fine, but I honestly fear what I would do in a casino.
I also finished Quintana of Charyn, which I quite enjoyed, despite some WTFery on the plot end I still don't get how the angry spirits of dead babies made all the women in Charyn barren for 18 years, and while you can say she set up the business about Jasmina stealing the letters, it still felt like a plot contrivance so she could have Finnikin et al. show up to make sure Froi and Quintana got to be together.. All that aside, I liked it. It had some pretty hilarious moments amid the tragedy. I think the first book is probably the tightest, and the second the most thrilling (at least in terms of having a super high HSQ), but this was a nice ending (though I wouldn't mind a book about Lirah of the Serkers, or Celie's spyventures in Belegonia).
I also read Ophelia Unraveling by Carol Berg, which is a tiny chapbook of poems about Ophelia and the River (and by extension, Hamlet). It was really lovely.
Oh, and I reread Midnight Riot because I really want a new book to come out now, please and thank you.
What I'm reading now
This morning I started Graceling by Kristin Cashore - I'm 18% in (I don't know what that is in pages) and it's not terrible but it's not grabbing me. I feel like there's a lot of unnecessary stuff and also it's pretty dour. I mean, on the one hand, having a teenage girl protagonist be this dour seems pretty new to me? But also not a character type I gravitate to, so we'll see. It has to go back to the library in a week, so either I'll finish it or I won't. *hands*
What I'm reading next
I also have Justine Larbalestier's How to Ditch Your Fairy from the library, so that'll be next. after that, I don't know.
And while I was typing this entry, I got notice from the NYPL: On the heels of last month's news that Simon & Schuster would be the fifth of the big six publishers to agree to sell e-books to libraries, today Hachette joined as well. The participation of all the major publishers in selling e-books to libraries strengthens our ability to provide all New Yorkers with free and immediate access to the widest range of information. and a link to an Op-Ed in today's NY Times about ebooks in libraries.
Which also makes me think of this Avengers/Texts from Last Night graphic.
***
This entry at DW: http://musesfool.dreamwidth.org/565321.html.
people have commented there.
innie_darling and I went to see Junot Diaz at the New York Public Library. Since I am a "friend" of the library (i.e., I donated some money), I get discounted tickets for their events, and this was a steal at $15.
Diaz is an entertaining speaker, though both
innie_darling and I thought it was really weird that for all the talk about immigrant experiences and feeling unease in both English and Spanish etc., neither Diaz nor the host/interviewer mentioned that Diaz sounds like a native English speaker, while the host has a thick German(?) accent that made him difficult (for me) to understand. But because he's white, it went unremarked on. Diaz did have some interesting things to say about privilege and post-colonialism.
There was also some intriguing stuff about writing for other writers v. writing for readers, and leaving room in the story for readers to assemble it, and how writers need to be able to give up some control in order for that to happen, and how readers are often much more generous than other writers are - a reader wants to be taken for a ride, and is willing to go along (or not), and that should be respected, whereas other writers are mostly looking to critique. (He didn't seem too fond of the proliferation of MFA/writing programs and the type of writing they turn out.)
As an aside, the room was way bigger than I expected, and it was packed, and the audience seemed very engaged.
anyway, I enjoyed it, and would go again. In fact, I might be interested in seeing David Chang of Momofuku and some other chefs on May 22 (I also want to see Toni Morrison, but that event's been postponed). If you're interested, let me know.
And that seems like a good lead-in to What I'm Reading Wednesday:
What I've just read
Yesterday at lunch, I finished Ready Player One by Ernest Cline, which I enjoyed, though the characters are pretty thin and there is a lot of exposition that probably isn't really necessary. Also, it's a very white, very male book which ends up being lampshaded but then never explored.
Also, if you are dealing with an obsession with the 80s, I don't really think Rush is the band to pick as your musical representation of that. Which is a minor nitpick and I understand why it was chosen (more for plot reasons than musical reasons) but I think it was my own experience as a teenager in the 80s that made me really skeptical of that tidbit. Otoh, it was kind of weird to read a book whose obsessions were focused on the 80s and nostalgia for those years; usually it's only Boomer teenage years that get that treatment, or maybe that's my cynical GenX bias talking. *snerk* I guess my generation is now of an age to write books like this, though, where all the references are things I'm actually familiar with.
Anyway! The book is a lot of fun, even for someone like me, who played arcade games and Atari games and early computer games like Police Quest (and was somewhat obsessed with the Indiana Jones & the Last Crusade game in college) but who nowadays can basically only manage some tetris or bubblespinner and a lot of solitaire when I'm at the parents'. I get obsessive about games, which is why I don't play them, and also why I don't gamble. Nickel-dime card games are fine, but I honestly fear what I would do in a casino.
I also finished Quintana of Charyn, which I quite enjoyed, despite some WTFery on the plot end I still don't get how the angry spirits of dead babies made all the women in Charyn barren for 18 years, and while you can say she set up the business about Jasmina stealing the letters, it still felt like a plot contrivance so she could have Finnikin et al. show up to make sure Froi and Quintana got to be together.. All that aside, I liked it. It had some pretty hilarious moments amid the tragedy. I think the first book is probably the tightest, and the second the most thrilling (at least in terms of having a super high HSQ), but this was a nice ending (though I wouldn't mind a book about Lirah of the Serkers, or Celie's spyventures in Belegonia).
I also read Ophelia Unraveling by Carol Berg, which is a tiny chapbook of poems about Ophelia and the River (and by extension, Hamlet). It was really lovely.
Oh, and I reread Midnight Riot because I really want a new book to come out now, please and thank you.
What I'm reading now
This morning I started Graceling by Kristin Cashore - I'm 18% in (I don't know what that is in pages) and it's not terrible but it's not grabbing me. I feel like there's a lot of unnecessary stuff and also it's pretty dour. I mean, on the one hand, having a teenage girl protagonist be this dour seems pretty new to me? But also not a character type I gravitate to, so we'll see. It has to go back to the library in a week, so either I'll finish it or I won't. *hands*
What I'm reading next
I also have Justine Larbalestier's How to Ditch Your Fairy from the library, so that'll be next. after that, I don't know.
And while I was typing this entry, I got notice from the NYPL: On the heels of last month's news that Simon & Schuster would be the fifth of the big six publishers to agree to sell e-books to libraries, today Hachette joined as well. The participation of all the major publishers in selling e-books to libraries strengthens our ability to provide all New Yorkers with free and immediate access to the widest range of information. and a link to an Op-Ed in today's NY Times about ebooks in libraries.
Which also makes me think of this Avengers/Texts from Last Night graphic.
***
This entry at DW: http://musesfool.dreamwidth.org/565321.html.
people have commented there.