Eleanor Arnason's Blog, page 36

Occupy Maflow

This is a photo from an Equal Times article about an Italian factory that went out of business. The workers first occupied the plant and then turned it into a workers co-op. So far, it is surviving. The wonderful graffiti is on the exterior of the plant.

Lunch and a Bus Ride and Love

I had lunch with an old friend yesterday and had a long bus ride home after. The ride was good, because I wrote a poem about two young people, a Somali woman in traditional clothing and a Euro-American man in backpack and jeans, standing at a bus stop, obviously very much in love.They were an amazing sight, just standing facing each other, but with love shining out of them.

I have a long series of poems that I've written about bus trips and the people I see on buses.

But the lunch was not entirely comfortable, because I was thinking about the process of growing old. When I got home I said to Patrick, "Am I eroding? Have I changed from the person you first met?"

Patrick said, "To me you look the same as you did when we first met, and you were wearing the purple dress with white triangles."

I did in fact have a Marimekko dress, purple with a pattern of white triangles, and I was wearing it when Patrick and I first met in 1971.

So I wrote another, very short poem:

Love changes everything,
even the old.

Because we have, of course, changed, but it is love that changes us back.

Cat Picture

Courtesy of Google, of course. I like this one.

Facebook

Why do I quote so often from conversations I have on facebook? Well, it's easy. If I have already said something on facebook, why not just copy it over to my blog? And facebook is a conversation, which I find a lot easier than writing in isolation -- which is a funny thing to say, considering that I'm a writer.

Well, yes, I do write fiction in isolation. But I talk about my stories while I am writing them, and then bring them to my fiction writing workshop, and then send them out in the hope that they will be published and so reach readers.

Still and all, writing fiction is a pretty solitary activity. Somehow, I find it less difficult than writing non-fiction. And conversations have never been a problem for me. I like talking. I love doing panels at conventions, though it took years of work to get over my stage fright.

I'm not sure where this leads. It has struck me for years that writing fiction is an odd activity. I am driven by a need to communicate, but -- at the same time -- I am more comfortable communicating through fiction, wearing a mask, telling stories that are not true.

Elysium

A new big-budget science fiction summer movie is coming out, from the director who made District Nine. The blog motherboard says this is the year's most radical film.

I said, as part of a discussion on facebook:

There is always this problem with Hollywood movies. They will go only so far in their critiques. Matrix made me crazy because the science was so bad, but it told us we live in a dream while our masters use us as generators, feeding off our power. Well, yes, actually.

I liked V, though people who know the comic tell me the movie is awful. Still, we see those masks everywhere now.

I thought Avatar was visually stunning. It is an argument for Nature and aboriginal rights, though in a very stupid form. (White man saves blue natives.)

It's hard to get the funding and the distribution, if what you are saying is a genuine and strong attack on the system of which Hollywood is a part.

So what can we say about Hollywood movies? They are not going to be as direct as an IWW song. But they can be fun, and they can do things that people are able to use, like the V masks.

The struggles are too quickly won in Hollywood movies. It's hard to show years of hard work, which finally may result in change. And violence is not always the answer. More often, it is organizing. I also believe in ideas -- and a good understanding of what the problem actually is.

Slipstream

From a discussion of "slipstream" on facebook:

I seem to remember that Sterling came up with "slipstream." Nowadays people call it "interstitial," though I don't, because I can neither spell nor pronounce it. Both terms come from within the science fiction community and apply (I think) to works that push at the traditional boundaries of SF. The words have nothing to do with fiction written outside SF. There is a lovely Halldor Laxness novel about a woman who is turned into a salmon and frozen in a glacier for decades, then recovered and turned back into a living woman. Not slipstream or inter-whatever, because those terms have no meaning in re Icelandic fiction of the first half of the 20th century. Calvino isn't slipstream. Nor is Borges. Lem might be, because he knew (and disliked) traditional SF.

I think these terms do have meaning within SF and may be useful in the field.

I don't like the terms personally, but I am not a critic. I also have a firm position on my own fiction. If I write it, it's science fiction or fantasy, dead center in the field.

Quiz

A horror writer named Lisa Morton posted the following quiz on the blog of the Horror Writers Association L.A. Chapter as a way to determine if you are a real writer, a pro, rather than a hobbyist. According to Morton, you need to answer yes to at least eight questions in order to be a pro. I have printed her questions in bold and my answers in regular typeface.

1. Is your home/work place messy because that time you’d put into cleaning it is better spent writing?

No. I like neatness. I admit that my filing is backed up.

2. Do you routinely turn down evenings out with friends because you need to be home writing instead?

No. I don't like to go out in the evening. My friends know this and rarely ask me. When I do go, it's usually to attend my fiction writing group.

3. Do you turn off the television in order to write?

No. I don't own a TV.

4. Would you rather receive useful criticism than praise?

I'm 50-50 on this one. Useful criticism is useful. But I love praise.

5. Do you plan vacations around writing opportunities (either research or networking potential)?

No. Though the places I see on vacation may turn up in later fiction.

6. Would you rather be chatting about the business of writing with another writer than exchanging small talk with a good friend?

Yes. I don't like small talk one bit. My friends are mostly writers of fiction, poets, critics, journalists, reviewers, serious readers and so on. Any conversation is likely to be about writing, though not necessarily writing as a business.

7. Have you ever taken a day job that paid less money because it would give you more time/energy/material to write?

Yes.

8. Are you willing to give up the nice home you know you could have if you devoted that time you spend writing to a more lucrative career?

No. Living in a garret has never appealed to me.

9. Have you done all these things for at least five years?

No.

10. Are you willing to live knowing that you will likely never meet your ambitions, but you hold to those ambitions nonetheless?

Probably not. A sane person has ambitions that are achievable. When you are young, you may not know what you can achieve. At my age, you ought to have some idea. I would like to have more money and more fame, but I'm not going to bend myself out a shape trying to get either. At this point, my main ambition is to continue writing and have a pleasant old age.
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A lot of writers have posted their answers to this quiz. Everyone I've read has failed the quiz. Neil Gaiman claims that he answered no to every question.

Movies

When I was fooling around yesterday, doing nothing much, I checked up on Sharknado. It got good reviews on Rotten Tomatoes -- the reviewers said it was awful, but in a wonderful way. It's getting a limited theater release. Apparently some theaters are doing it as a double feature with Snakes on a Plane. This sounds great, but there are limits to my sense of humor. Most likely I would walk out almost at once. But as a concept...

Snakenado...

Sharks on a Plane...

Diversacon Report

This was written over several days and posted at facebook. Diversacon is a small local con with interesting programming, full of people I really like.

I stayed at Diversacon only a few hours -- to have lunch with friends, attend one panel and be on another. Then I went home and bought The Hostage Prince by Jane Yolen and Adam Stemple via nook. I've read one chapter. So far, so good. I will now settle down and read more. Tomorrow I have two panels, so will be back at the con. I enjoy this business of dropping in to conventions, then going back to my own home to watch a DVD or read.
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I spent six or seven hours at Diversacon yesterday. Very pleasant, though I didn't get a chance to talk to everyone I wanted to. I was on two panels and attended a couple more and spoke with a number of people, including the GoH Jack McDivitt. A very enjoyable, quiet convention.

Then I came home and watched a DVD. Today I feel tired and slow, due mostly to a poor night's sleep. But slow is not bad. I will hang around home and do a little reading and watch a DVD tonight.
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Nice things at Diversacon, other than seeing nice people... Russell Letson said he had been thinking of reviewing Big Mama Stories, but discovered three other Locus reviewers had already signed up to review it. My friend Ruth Berman told me her favorite Big Mama Story was the Brer Rabbit one. "The others are fun, but that has heart." It's the story I like the best, but what makes me happy is the various reviews I've seen have all picked different stories as their favorite.

I am talking rather too much about Big Mama Stories, but I am always a bit worried after something I have written comes out. Is it any good? Will people like it? I have said for years that a writer needs a cast iron ego. Unfortunately, I don't have one. I just have the ability to keep trucking, in spite of my doubts. In addition, I really like the Big Mama stories -- I guess because they are in many ways silly, the way tall tales are. Silliness can be a lot of fun. It also can go badly wrong. Serious is easier to pull off. As the man said, "Dying is easy. Comedy is difficult."

For me the master of silly is probably P.G. Wodehouse -- a wonderful stylist with almost perfect pacing, and I have never been able to find any content in his work, except for silliness and style.

Day Dreams

I'm day dreaming this morning about what I would do if I had more money. I have more dental work coming up, due to aging fillings and crowns. My glasses are expensive, in part because I have a complicated prescription and in part because I like nice frames.

I'd like to be able to hire a maid service to come in once or twice a month to give the home -- especially the bathrooms and kitchen -- a really good cleaning.

I would like a built-in floor to ceiling bookcase, because we have run out of space for books and objets. I know exactly where I would put the bookcase.

I would like money to go to Iceland, because I want to write more stories about Iceland. I would also like to go to Scotland -- Glasgow, to see the architecture of Charles Rennie Mackintosh, and Edinburgh, because it's supposed to be lovely. I'm also interested in Bolivia and Ecuador.

So... Teeth, glasses, a bookcase, a maid service and a few trips, not long ones.

I will get the dental work, because I have to. I won't need new lenses for at least a year, and new frames for two years. I think I can afford the maid service.

As for travel -- the truth is, I am kind of a stick in the mud. Travel is a mixed good to me. I love the new sights and the memories. I don't like the disruption, and I don't like planes, though I make an exception for Icelandair. So I will probably go to Iceland, but I'm not sure about the other places.

As far as the bookcases go, maybe I will settle for buying one that isn't built in. I have been thinking of one of these.
They are available from Design Within Reach and I think they look interesting.