Victoria Janssen's Blog, page 55
August 7, 2011
"The Four Brothers," Sandburg
The Four Brothers
Notes for War Songs (November, 1917)
Make war songs out of these;
Make chants that repeat and weave.
Make rhythms up to the ragtime chatter of the machine guns;
Make slow-booming psalms up to the boom of the big guns.
Make a marching song of swinging arms and swinging legs,
Going along,
Going along,
On the roads from San Antonio to Athens, from Seattle to Bagdad—
The boys and men in winding lines of khaki, the circling squares of bayonet points.
Cowpunchers, cornhuskers...
August 5, 2011
Thoughts on Cowboys and Aliens
This post contains spoilers. Also ranting about stuff that irritated me, and getting far too intellectual, and probably getting incoherent along the way.
I saw Cowboys and Aliens earlier this week, and though on some levels I enjoyed it (beautifully choreographed violence, Daniel Craig's exceptional physique and the liberal display thereof) on many other, thoughtful, levels, I disliked it. Deep engagement is what I want in a movie, both visual and emotional, everything on a larger...
August 4, 2011
A Readercon View from Outside
Art in Paradise: Klingon-Free, an article about this year's Readercon at the Valley Advocate.
"The scene was small-scale in its charm, nothing but a corner of the Burlington Marriott with ballrooms, most of them host to panels discussing things that sounded more like grad school seminars than SF fan freakouts. They had names like "Animal or Alien: How Body Structure Shapes Mind"; "The Pseudo-Religiosity of Teleological SF"; and "Feeling Very Post-Slipstream.""
August 3, 2011
Critique From Outside Your Comfort Zone
Monday, I post about critiquing outside my comfort zone, about a critique I'd done for a close friend. Here's her side of the story.
But Mostly, I Just Remember Feeling Terror
by Lorrie Kim
I hadn't felt this kind of writing terror since I quit grad school. After a lifetime of clinging to the safety of nonfiction, I'd written a fan work with traces of fiction in it, a Tarot reading of the relationship between two characters from a series. My beta reader, a fellow fan, had suggested...
August 1, 2011
Critiquing Outside The Comfort Zone
Last week, a friend of mine asked me to do an unusual critique. I'm glad I took her up on it.
This friend, though not a fiction writer, is a professional in nonfiction and has worked as an editor. She's done reading for me in the past, and provided me with a lot of valuable insights. So, even though I doubted I had anything useful to say about her project, I decided to give it a try.
Her project was a gift for someone else. At their request, she had written essentially a literary...
July 31, 2011
"Oxford Revisited in War-Time," Tertius van Dyke
Oxford Revisited in War-Time
Beneath fair Magdalen's storied towers
I wander in a dream,
And hear the mellow chimes float out
O'er Cherwell's ice-bound stream.
Throstle and blackbird stiff with cold
Hop on the frozen grass;
Among the aged, upright oaks
The dun deer slowly pass.
The chapel organ rolls and swells,
And voices still praise God;
But ah! the thought of youthful friends
Who lie beneath the sod.
Now wounded men with gallant eyes
Go hobbling down the street,
And nurses from...
July 29, 2011
A Few More Readercon Reports
Most of these links are related to specific panel content.
Joshua of Glyphpress wishes all cons were like Readercon.
Kate Nepveu's report, includes her recollections of "The Dissonant Power of Alternative Voicing" and "Borders (if Any) Between Fan Fiction and Original Fiction." For "Paranormal Romance and Otherness" she noted "if your similar-to-our-world setting is diverse in lots of ways even before you put your mythical creatures in, then you're not displacing existing issues (of...
July 28, 2011
Remington Steele post
I had a new post up on The Criminal Element yesterday – Dynamic Duos: Remington Steele and Laura Holt.
July 27, 2011
Historical Mystery Series I Have Loved
My mystery-reading binge isn't quite as overwhelming as it was for a while, but I'm still in that mode, especially feeling a craving for historicals. I'm thinking of doing some rereads.
I recommend both of these series very highly.
Sarah Smith's pre- and post-WWI trilogy that starts with The Vanished Child (this is one series that definitely must be read in order). This would be my third re-read, I think, inspired by 1) not having read them in a while; 2) being in the mood for that...
July 26, 2011
Readercon 2011 Interviews
Eric Rosenfield interviewed Junot Diaz, Samuel R. Delany, Barry Malzberg, John Clute, Kelly Link, Neil Gaiman and Neil Clarke at this year's Readercon. Video interviews at his blog.
