variously literary, to no specific plan

[freckles_and_doubt]

Random Sunday is random! I still have no brain, and am unequal to the task of composing any of my planned blog posts on (a) the manifest seductions of verbiage, (b) Tron, or (c) ex-Zimbabwean rootlessness, although they're marinating quietly in my back-brain and I'll get round to them eventually. Instead, I shall round up various items of a Literary or Cinematic Nature which have recently affected me, just because.

• The nice thing about randomly lending people books is that they randomly lend you books. tngr_spacecadet brought my Sookie Stackhouse collection back this morning, and incidentally dumped off a couple of supernatural Victorian novels, including Gail Carriger's Soulless, which I unrepentantly devoured this afternoon in default of marking the pile of Frankenstein class tests I should have been marking. (I currently do not love my job, so the weekends, are mine, goddammit, and work can bloody well wait). Soulless features some rather acutely-observed Victorian social comedy, a pleasingly strong-minded and matter-of-fact heroine, interesting world-building, unexpected Queen Victorias to the social situation, and rather enjoyable interludes of sweaty groping with werewolves in carriages and corsets and what have you. It's well written rather than being brilliantly written, but is often very funny and was bloody good fun to read. Recommended. Shall acquire my own copy forthwith, and any sequels.
  
  
• Justice has been done! China Miéville's The City and the City won the Hugo for Best Novel, unusually a tie (with Paolo Bacigalupi's The Windup Girl, which didn't grab me as hard but which will make pumeza happy).
  
  
• Finally finished Season 5 of Doctor Who. I really, really like this Doctor. He doesn't inspire me with the girly heart-throbbings that the Tenth did, but he's becoming very interesting very fast. I am, however, faintly disappointed in Steven Moffat, who appears to have sacrificed his Blink-style elegance in favour of the kind of overblown grandiosity of concept favoured by Russell Davies. "The Lodger" was a lovely episode full of lovely people who almost but not quite distracted one from the gaping plot holes. The two-part finale made me very happy for its cunning Pandorica occupant, its Rory-redemption (and dammit, now I want a spinoff series covering his adventures over the last 2000 years) and for some actually intelligent use of time-travel, but the gathering of the Doctor's enemies was a generally pointless and self-indulgent concept which didn't give enough narrative pay-off to justify it. And the wedding scene was cute, but predictable and a bit flabby. I'm ... slightly miffed, actually. It's still all much better, plot-wise, than the previous Davies-seasons, but I had very high expectations of Steven Moffat, and he's turned out more of a Davies-disciple than I'm strictly happy with in my role as a pervy plot-fondler.
  
  
• The latest Microfiction bits are up. This month's theme: "Spanner". Mine here. I think in this one a week of academicating (or, possibly, reading Miéville) has unduly predisposed me to a dense and convoluted writing style, but it felt necessary. Also, the word limit killed me this time round. Will post the longer version as well, sometime, just for comparison, because I actually think it's better.
  
  
• The STNG episode which finally attacks homosexuality head-on, if somewhat laterally (and, yes, both together) made me very happy. (The one with poor Riker's doomed love affair with the androgyne). The Star Trek universe is so generally liberal, the lack of awareness of anything other than heterosexuality was beginning to be a serious gap and was narking my Proudly South African sensibilities. (Although it's also subtly annoying me that, while there are clearly women in leadership roles all over the show, since the departure of Tasha they're all very traditional nurturing female roles - doctor and counsellor. This is possibly why I'm really enjoying Ensign Ro's kick-butt spikiness).

As of tomorrow I'm taking notes in a two-day workshop, so will be generally un-available on Teh Internets unless I use Winona and manage to pirate a wireless connection to Seekritly Browse while I should be minute-taking. Wish me luck...

Comments

Offer of readables

[confluence.myopenid.com (from livejournal.com)]

Ooh! Do you want my brand new, barely-read copy of Soulless? I started reading it, didn't care for it at all, and put it aside vaguely intending to give it away to a good home at some point. I dunno, it's not badly written, but the humour and wit just fell totally flat for me.

I can also pass on the first two books in an urban fantasy series (The Black Sun's Daughter) which I got because they're pseudonymously written by Daniel Abraham, but which are not grabbing me either. (They are entirely unlike his more traditional fantasy books, which he says is exactly what the pseudonym is for, so this is my own fault.)

Re: Offer of readables

[extemporanea.livejournal.com]

Since I have just wishlisted Soulless on Loot, I would be extremely more than happy to give your sadly rejected copy a good home. You need to come and rifle through my pile of Accidental Duplicates in return :>. Currently full of McKillips and the Lovecraft biography by Michel Houellebecq.

Re: Offer of readables

[confluence.myopenid.com (from livejournal.com)]

Sweet! Maybe we can do a drive-by book exchange this week sometime. :)

[herne-kzn.livejournal.com]

Hmm. Queen Vic, hawt werewolf love, corsets. I must possess it.

[extemporanea.livejournal.com]

I cannot tell a lie, Queen Victoria only turns up once and fairly late in the day, but it's a fairly epic intrusion :>. Other than that, definite corsets and hawt werewolf love. Also, effeminate dandy vampires, silver-tipped umbrellas, simpering society sisters, evil seekrit societies, entirely inexplicable octopi, possibly undue levels of nekkidness, and a best friend with terrible taste in hats. It's a romance, basically. Your average magical Victorian government agency werewolf vampire conspiracy theory romance. It's a blast. Shall I send you a copy for your birthday? I have a notional copy allocation free since Confluence gave me her copy. Give me your address!

[herne-kzn.livejournal.com]

>inexplicable octopi
>terrible taste in hats
So it's EBZ?

Thank you muchly. I've emailed you.

[bumpycat.livejournal.com]

I really really like The Windup Girl. There's a prequel short story I stumbled across, which made me buy the novel in the first place. It's such a beautifully imagined dystopia.

[extemporanea.livejournal.com]

I read the first couple of chapters of several of the Hugo nominee novels, in something of a hurry; Wind-Up Girl was one that interested me without really grabbing me as hard as the Miéville or Valente or even the Cheri Priest did. I think it's something to do with language: Bacigalupi writes well and vividly, but both Miéville and Valente actually seduce me. I can see, though, that I wouldn't have done justice to the world-building in a couple of chapters; I do plan to go back and read the whole thing sometime. When I'm not involved with werewolves and corsets...