( Non-fiction )

It is fairly self-evident that in reading sff the reader is required to accept certain things which are not in conformity with the quotidien world they live in. And that some people find it entirely too much to have to pay this extra sixpence-worth (as EM Forster described it in Aspects of the Novel) of suspension of disbelief.

But I was thinking ( Read more... )

Litfic

( Charles Elton, Mr Toppit )

Feels like a while since I've done one of these, partly because there was a period of reading anhedonia, and then the weeks of viruseyness during which all I could do was reread.

New books, omitting those upon which I already posted:

Mary Gentle Ilario: The Lion's Eye - am inclined to hold off discussion of this until I've read The Stone Golem, ( Read more... )

Really, really creepy article in today's Guardian Women's Page on women gearing up for Their Big Day, i.e. wedding.

Okay, given my own marriage issues (I didn't even play weddings or lust for bride dolls as a child), perhaps I am never going to Get It on this kind of thing, but how spooky is it to make all this insane effort for something that is ( Read more... )

Weird: having two notifications from ABEbooks of a v rare Charlotte Yonge that I've been looking for and had on my wanted list for ages, arrive on consecutive days: and not the same copy with the same dealer through some weird duplication effect.

And both at a really, really, reasonable, no need to take thought and calculate how much I'm prepared ( Read more... )

This is going back at least to the Christmas/New Year break, and some of these things have faded a bit.

Sff:

( George Alec Effinger, When Gravity Fails )

Somewhat appositely, given matociquala's post yesterday and the rather similar meditation on badgerbag's blog, an article in today's Guardian on fictional female heroes.

I think this omits quite a lot of fondly remembered female figures, and rather disses on the stories in girls' comics (hello? the Silent Three? and other adventurous protags?). Were active heroines ( Read more... )

Litfic:

( A couple of novels by May Sinclair )

( Mark Gatiss, The Vesuvius Club )