Soundtrack Optional (July and August Reading)

[ase]

That took entirely too long.

JULY

The Yiddish Policeman's Union(Michael Chabon): Noir set in Sitka Province as the clock ticks down toward its reversion from a Jewish resettlement state to the governance of the United States. Meyer Landsman must fight his alcoholism and his superiors to solve the murder of a chess-playing heroin addict with

Comments

[kd5mdk]

she and Perscitia are both arguments that some dragons are seriously not cut out for military service.
That's why Perscitia is in the covert. The covert was a holding pen for dragons considered unfit for service, to keep them out of the countryside. Their rising to the defense of England could be likened to the French population volunteering for service in the Army after the Revolution.

I also think the Mary Sue parts were weakened by the fact that nobody cared how special and smart she was.

[ase]

I evidently need to expand my "Novik is doing things with stuff" meta. I am less concerned with why Perscitia is in the covert system than how Iskierka isn't (but oh, she's pushing).

I also think the Mary Sue parts were weakened by the fact that nobody cared how special and smart she was.

Weakened how? Less Mary Sue, or more so?

[kd5mdk]

Iskierka isn't in the covert because she's the only fire breathing dragon in English hands and they'll keep using her until they can't. They also haven't had enough time to determine she's incapable of military discipline, she hasn't been around that long. It's likely she would be sent there later, when England was less desperate (think 1813, our timeline) or when she had a longer track record of trouble.

Less Mary Sue, unless it pays off for her in the future. To me a key element of being a Mary Sue is that readers and characters have to like and respect them. It's not they that they're super capable, it's that their So Speshul no one can resist them. My and most character's reaction to her was annoyance.

[ase]

It's likely she would be sent there later, when England was less desperate (think 1813, our timeline) or when she had a longer track record of trouble.

That's my guess.

It's not they that they're super capable, it's that their So Speshul no one can resist them. My and most character's reaction to her was annoyance.

I shouldn't find Perscitia so funny. And yet I do! Possibly it's the cap between Sue-ness and actual characterization. Perscitia isn't That Special, but she thinks she ought to be. (Or possibly I am reading too much into the math and firebombs.) Her skill-set is going to Sue her any time soon, but it's also culturally undervalued: if she will not fight, she's a disappointment, no matter what else she can do. She ought to be in the dragon civilian middle class, but there is no real dragon civvie middle class in the books' "now", so instead she's stuck in the breeding grounds

[limnrix]

Yes, I rather enjoyed The Yiddish Policeman's Union (read some of it while in Sitka, in fact). Even though the only thing that makes it SF is the sort of homage to Man in the High Castle with the alternate history.

You've got to love the nonsensical parts of Snow Crash. It's classic.

[ase]

It's not science fiction, but it's certainly speculative fiction. If I liked spec fic and noir, I would have been fantastically happy. Noir tends to be so grim I have a hard time adjusting my expectations to suit.

You've got to love the nonsensical parts of Snow Crash. It's classic.

It makes no sense, except when it sort of does. It's like a drug in book form.

[limnrix]

Yes! I love books that are like that. Illuminatus! for example. It's the quality of "stickiness" or "mindfuck" that is understandable in terms of information theory and goes a long way toward convincing you that reality really does work in memes.

[ase]

Sometimes I like it; sometimes I'm so distracted by the nonsense bits I get bored. It's a balancing act Stephenson did a decent job with in Snow Crash, but I'm not seeking out lots of the same most of the time.

[charlie_ego]

Grr. Cannot join the Novik discussion, or even read it, because still on book 2! One day...

Been a while since I read Snow Crash, but I have the same question for everyone who reads it. Strapping an atom bomb on your back: coolest thing ever or most idiotic thing ever? (Bonus points if you can guess which demographic group in my impromptu survey answers which way.)

in a different era Stella and Stanley would be filing for divorce sometime before their kid turns five.

I didn't make the connection until just now, but recently I read a book studying divorced families vs. married families, where some of the married families were chosen specifically to be dysfunctional in sort of the same way Stella and Stanley are. I remember it saying that some couples do stay together because they feed on dysfunctionality (which seems like it might describe S&S), but it basically sucks for the kids. Poor baby Kowalski.

[ase]

I am sad that you're only on the second Novik book. They grow on you. (It possibly helps that I think they're increasingly books about Temeraire, dragons, and the coming dragon suffrage movement, narrated by a sort of secondary character. I really need to do a big meta post about the series.)

Strapping an atom bomb on your back: coolest thing ever or most idiotic thing ever?

I'm going to go for "qualified stupid": I've got to assume there's radiation leakage, and putting people at risk of you, oh, falling off a motorcycle and tripping the deadman switch is a special sort of selfish, but in a world where you don't care about your long term future? It's another strategy for living long enough to realize your short term solutions are really dumb.

(Bonus points if you can guess which demographic group in my impromptu survey answers which way.)Without knowing all the demographics surveyed... I'm going to guess the older and more female your pool is, the more idiotic they think Raven's stunt is. (With some people adding that they'd hit

[charlie_ego]

I did like the first book, even! I'm just sucking at keeping up with it, mostly because I don't know what my library has done with the second book and why it's taking them so long to get it to me... and I didn't like it enough to go buy it. Sigh. Maybe sitting in a bookstore is in order.

Hee-- you've hit on it exactly: without exception, everyone female I've asked (including me) has answered "that's idiotic!" and everyone male has been all, "Wait, how can you not think that is the coolest thing ever?!" (By not really answering either, you actually are somewhat qualitatively different.) Normally I'm not one for any sort of cultural gender distinctions-- I am a geek after all-- but apparently this brings it out in me.

Tennessee Williams completely wins at capturing my attention

...Yeah. Just when you think a character is hopeless, he pulls something and you realize that... you're not so different from the character. Hmm, I've never paid much attention to the stage directions, I should look at that.

[ase]

I don't know what's up with your library either - they're totally not doing their job. That's unfortunate, because Novik writes really enjoyable brain candy.

(By not really answering either, you actually are somewhat qualitatively different.)

I had advance warning. :-) If someone did that right now, I'd google them every couple of years to see if they'd earned their Darwin Award yet.

Hmm, I've never paid much attention to the stage directions, I should look at that.

The last play I read was very short on them. Trying to evoke what I'd see on stage from what was on paper was exhausting, and made difficult reading (Afghani women in Afghanistan) even less approachable.