"My hands are full of snow."

[greygirlbeast]

Here we go with the higgledy-piggledy again. It's a coolish day here in Providence, but sunny. After the anticlimax of Hurricane Earl, summer collapsed like a leaky balloon. Now it's sweater weather again

Comments

[sovay]

It has required the constant consulting of texts, on subjects as diverse as pop culture, bog mummies, Arabian mythology, Irish and French geography, owls, early 20th-Century occultism, X-ray microtomography, the chemical composition of claw sheaths, weird fiction in the 1980s, rogue taxidermy, social constructionism, and Parisian ossuaries.

Sounds lovely.

I feel like they're all living out a tragedy they're never allowed to recognize as such.

That's a beautifully worded diagnosis.

I prefer my literature of ideas with people, thank you.

[greygirlbeast]

I prefer my literature of ideas with people, thank you.

Pretty much, yeah. And it's weird. I am enjoying The Diamond Age, but I can't escape the feeling that something's missing.

[greygirlbeast]

Harlan has said that science fiction is about how the future affects people.

Which I think is a good and functional definition.

[octopuspoop]

In response to your worries about 'A is for Alien', I have to say it was some of the best SF I have read, and I feel it is because you put emotion first. I found your work in that book to be some of your best, and I hope you see a future in writing a novel, or at least most short stores similar. "Riding the White Bull", "Zero Summer", and "Bradbury Weather" were my favorites, but all of the stories were beyond excellent in both the world development and emotional development.

Sometimes I feel you have started to make your own genre and I hope you feel encouraged enough to continue exploring because it is such a breath of fresh air.

My thoughts as to why it isn't selling as well may be because you are not known for your SF and it doesn't seem like something most of your readers, ones that I have had contact with, are interested in. You have done Dark Fantasy/ Horror so well that some may be scared to venture into something they aren't familiar with. I could be completely wrong, but it is my observation from my cave.

[greygirlbeast]

In response to your worries about 'A is for Alien', I have to say it was some of the best SF I have read, and I feel it is because you put emotion first. I found your work in that book to be some of your best, and I hope you see a future in writing a novel, or at least most short stores similar. "Riding the White Bull", "Zero Summer", and "Bradbury Weather" were my favorites, but all of the stories were beyond excellent in both the world development and emotional development.

Thank you, and I probably already have enough sf for a second sf collection. Just not sure how much enthusiasm I have for such a volume right now.

Sometimes I feel you have started to make your own genre

That's about the best compliment I can imagine getting.

My thoughts as to why it isn't selling as well may be because you are not known for your SF and it doesn't seem like something most of your readers, ones that I have had contact with, are interested in. You have done Dark Fantasy/ Horror so well that some may be scared to venture into something they

[greygirlbeast]

Often when I read Stephenson, I feel the omission you describe, that his characters are indifferent toward their mindless drudgery of existence, and they follow their paths as pawns lacking anything better to do, their lives predestined.

I think that pretty close to what I'm trying to describe. And it's weird, because I genuinely am enjoying the narrative. I just feel the book missed a chance to be a far better novel by not allowing its characters to be people.

Many of your own characters also experience the drudgery and recognize the futility of fighting their fates, but you seize that oppression and wring from it every emotion and metaphor. You mop the floor with the tears and self-pity of those who surrender. Meanwhile, your strong characters rally themselves with the adage "I can fuck plenty with the future," and then they act, win or lose.

Wow. Gotta ponder this (not a bad thing).

This is progressively more so in his later novels, whereas you got the manipulative plot tropes worked out of your system early, and now for

[greygirlbeast]

Think of the great writers from the days before even the typewriter, putting quill to paper. The economics of their situation forced them to think through each sentence, each clause and every phrase. Such deliberation cannot help but improve the quality of the resultant writing.

I see your point here, though, ironically, the method I employ is peculiarly dependent on using a word processing programme. I'm not sure I can explain. But think of Scrabble tiles...

Perhaps here is the 'problem' in selling your SF. Dark fantasy has a long and respected history of literate writing that SF lacks. Connoisseurs of fantasy and horror stop just short of demanding lyrical prose steeped in the metaphysical. The same cannot be said of SF fandom through the 20th century. Something else to ponder

[miakodadreams]

...it's mostly interesting because I've known a lot of people who are very resistant to the idea that rp involves this sort of therapeutic vicariousness. But I think it's where the true value of rp lies, in allowing us to explore secret parts of ourselves. Now, admittedly, it can also allow us to view the world through alien eyes, through minds not our own, and try to become people we aren't. But the best we can ever manage in those situations it to try, because all our characters will always only be splinters of us.Well said. Do you do tabletop RP, as well? I've not tried anything like Insilico, but I'm curious how the two forms compare, in your opinion. The closest I've come to online RP was a short stint in WoW and Ultima Online -- both good venues for cracking skulls with friends, but a joke as far as RP goes (at least on our servers

[greygirlbeast]

Well said. Do you do tabletop RP, as well? I've not tried anything like Insilico, but I'm curious how the two forms compare, in your opinion. The closest I've come to online RP was a short stint in WoW and Ultima Online -- both good venues for cracking skulls with friends, but a joke as far as RP goes (at least on our servers).It's hard to write a short reply to a question I feel like deserves an essay

[miakodadreams]

Hm, Insilico sounds intriguing. I have too many offline games grasping for my attention at the moment, or I'd be tempted to look into it. It does sound like an excellent method if you can find the right players, though.

We've been lucky with our groups over the last decade or so, in that the games have been fairly high-trust between players and driven by narrative rather than mechanics. We tend to play more urban fantasy and horror than traditional fantasy, and honestly we end up building as much of the world and setting as the GM, these days. It's an interesting exercise when the whole session feels like good improv -- we use customized character-quirk cards as our resolution tool, so you have to narrate the results. It doesn't feel like you're breaking the story to look up stats and roll your shiny magpie dice, which is nice. Especially compared to good old D&D.