Greer Gilman's Blog, page 16

Fox at the virtual Uffizi

"Why is she haunting that baby?"

Nine

Diversions

Yesterday I took a long walk through certain half-deserted streets (no oyster shells) all the way to my place. Whence I returned with an enormous wooden jigsaw puzzle of the Primavera, and all my coloured pencils from their various marmalade jars.  I had brought crosswords not jigsaws at first, as there are two cats and a three-year-old here, but gaudior had the brilliant brain wave of using an underbed drawer as a portable hideable walled table. The walk (on a lovely spring day) was heartening, and I touched nothing with bare hands.

The puzzle will take weeks.








Fox holds passionate opinions on dinosaurs, championing Giganotasaurus over T. rex., which he appears to see as a Red Sox fan sees the Damned Yankees.  He makes prehistoric creatures from everything he picks up:  a Duplos digger (Gnashasaurus), a conical colander (a dread sea creature larger than Megaladon), and a pair of tongs (Pelican gulper).  He loves oceanography, cookery, and reading us books on all of the above, with marginalia and commentary. He knows his alphabet perfectly, and is beginning to sound out words.  ("What does that spell?") The two bits of print he can reliably read out are "Look! I'm a cook!" and "Colossal Fossils." So far he hasn't cooked us any late Cretaceous fossils, but can tell you exactly how to make My Favorite Guacamole ("snip the cilantro!"), and has invented what he calls an "orange souffle," which is essentially a wineless macedoine.  This week, his umbrella is a time machine.  It's nice to get out, I can tell you.  Though I may borrow it for a jaunt to Shakespeare's London, if I can budge the dial from the Jurassic.

I am fox-tending so that gaudior   can go talk to sad people—and those of you who haven't seen these might like to read their excellent posts on How to Handle A Plague. rushthatspeaks , another practical humanitarian, is looking to join a consortium making masks for hospitals.  Speaking of which, I love this story:

How Christian Siriano turned his fashion house into a mask factory.

Be well, stay safe, all of you.

Nine

National Emergency Archive

Go, Internet Archive!  Thank you, New Yorker for the tip.

To address our unprecedented global and immediate need for access to reading and research materials, as of today, March 24, 2020, the Internet Archive will suspend waitlists for the 1.4 million (and growing) books in our lending library by creating a National Emergency Library to serve the nation’s displaced learners. This suspension will run through June 30, 2020, or the end of the US national emergency, whichever is later.

Nine

"Cleanliness in all things!"

"I must do my ablutions according to the sterile principles laid down by Lord Lister.  Cleanliness in all things, even the humblest of tasks."

Peter Cook and Peter Sellers up to no good in The Wrong Box (1966):



Their earlier, less hygienic encounter is here.

I have discovered that it takes me 20 seconds to recite from "O for a muse of fire!" down to "...crouch for employment."

Stay well.

Nine

Quarantined in amber

Meet Oculudentavis khaungraae, the tiniest dinosaur. "Picture a hummingbird. With fangs."





CT scan of the skull:






I love the sun and moon aspects of this creature, like one of Titania's warriors.  Now there's a production I would love to see.





Nine

End Is Near Dept.

At my old-fashioned bank today, a teller handed me a promotional item, just in:  a little hand-sanitizer bottle dangling by its tail from a neat clip, for belt or purse.  In essence, it's a plague pomander, refillable with Purell or theriac or four thieves vinegar.  When did they order these?  How did they know?  And if they're sibyls, why didn't they tell the rest of us?

Nine

Update:  if I'm going to wear a plague pomander, I'd like this one:



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"... but I'd cringe at Bertilak's / Waving his curtal axe ..."

Wait, so this spring we're going to see Dev Patel as David Copperfield and Sir Gawain?  And Anya Taylor-Joy (the self-possessed girl in The Witch) as Emma?  Not sure what all of this says about the cultural moment, but hey, I'm there.  As far as I'm concerned, the only truly authentic Arthurian film ever made is Monty Python and the Holy Grail, but the trailer for The Green Knight does not look appalling.  As for David Copperfield?  Tilda Swinton as Betsey Trotwood.  'Nuf said.  And Emma?  They had me at Bill Nighy.  Who else could be Mr. Woodhouse?

Holy mackerel!  Blithe Spirit!  With Judy Dench taking my greatest-ever part, Madame Arcati!  (High school.  I did her in my mother's Chinese-red, New Look evening dress, and unbuckled galoshes.  I never did exorcise those salami sandwiches haunting my handbag.)

Anything else that isn't on my radar?

Nine

Contrariwiser

Boskone 57 (gosh) this weekend, and I will be wandering in a labyrinth of fantastically carved panelling.


Turning Tropes Upside Down
Friday, 3:00 PM
Kaitlin R. Branch (M), Ellen Asher, Sarah Jean Horwitz, David Marshall, Greer Gilman

So much of what we write, read, and watch is full of cliches and overfamiliar tropes. While you can't fully escape them, you can work to reduce their coverage and impact within the story. Let's talk about what a trope is and isn't, then discuss how to turn those tropes upside down in order to create some truly compelling characters.


Fantastic Female Villains
Greer Gilman (M), Sara Codair, Gerald L. Coleman, Walter Jon Williams
Sunday, 12:00 PM

Where are the female villains in today’s stories? Although we often speak of female characters, how about strong female villains? Let’s look beyond the popular revenge-seeking rape victim … sometimes women are just plain mean!

Since they asked me to moderate, I took the liberty of rewriting the description.

Hell’s Belles

The archetypal image of a female villain is either the Snow Queen or the Wicked Witch.  She’s defined by her seductiveness or by its absence.  If she’s a glamorpuss, either she’s a man-eater, jealous of her innocent rivals; or she’s a mirror-gazer, like Cruella de Vil or Snow White’s stepmother.  If she’s a hag, she doesn’t give a damn about what men think of her—or maybe she just eats men, like Shelob or Grendel’s Dam.  Must female evildoers always be glamorous or hags?  Can’t we see a genderqueer mastermind or a hardass with a poet’s soul?
So let’s look at some 21st-century female villains in today's popular culture—film, TV, graphic novels, as well as written SF.  How are today’s artists re-envisioning women as villains?


When the Magic Goes Away
Sunday, 2:00 PM
Bob Devney (M), Gene Doucette, Silvia Moreno-Garcia, Greer Gilman, Trisha J. Wooldridge

Once the land was rich with magic: mystery, glamour, and glory. Elves filled the forest, dragons flew the skies, heroes went adventuring, sorcerers were spellbinding. And then, the Old Magic slipped away, fading like a dream. The gates to Faerie closed, and the last ships sailed into the West ... The bittersweet memory remains, but what does this fateful Fall mean for the people left behind? How do you find beauty and meaning in a world without enchantment? Let's look at stories that have treated this topic, and the possibilities created once the magic is gone.

Hope to see some of you there!

Nine

Curated

Bliss!  That tiered tower of cakes and sandwiches is known is England as a "curate."  Either for the under-clergyman who meekly handed it round, or for the sustenance he took from it.   Cakes and slippers were his portion.

The picture doesn't do B. justice.

Nine

Contrariwise

Arisia's this weekend!  My schedule is tiny but delectable, like a Lady Apple:  three sweet-sharp bites.

What Makes Reading a Pleasure?
Saturday 10:00 AM
James Hailer (m), Lena G., Greer Gilman, Danny Miller, Meredith Schwartz

Fiction readers are a minority—only about one in five Americans, on average, reads for pleasure, and of those, some say they prefer non-fiction and never read novels or stories. Reading’s prime Nemesis is television (not the Internet!)—as reading goes down, television viewing goes up. What makes an avid reader so passionate about the written word? What is distinctive about the pleasure of reading—and how do we get more people (of all ages) to share in it?


Shakespeare and Fantasy
Sunday 11:30 AM
Shoshana Traum (m), Greer Gilman, Dan “Grim” Marsh, Rebecca Maxfield, Anne E.G. Nydam

Let’s talk about Shakespeare’s fantastic worlds and characters—the witches of Macbeth, the spirits and spells of The Tempest, the fairies of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and more. We’ll share what we love about them, examine the huge range of ways they’ve been interpreted and presented, and talk about what more we want of these magical ideas in productions, adaptations, or fanfic.


Libraries of the Future
Sunday, 2:30 PM
Cate Schneiderman (m), Michael A. Burstein, Greer Gilman, Danny Miller, Meredith Schwartz

SF predicted ebooks and electronic media many decades ago. Along with the vision of a paperless future came the occasional view of a futuristic library with no books, and often only AI or holographic librarians. In 2020, libraries still have books (and librarians), but they’re circulating increasing numbers of ebooks, audiobooks, DVDs and other media. What is the greatest value libraries have to offer, and what will they look like fifty or a hundred years from now?

Looking forward to hearing lots of panels and sings!

Nine