Sue Burke's Blog, page 31

I’ll be reading from “Francine” at the Spring Deep Dish Reading March 14

I’m joining an especially exciting lineup for the Spring Deep Dish Reading on Saturday, March 14, from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. at Volumes Bookcafe, 1474 N. Milwaukee Ave., Chicago. It’s organized by the Speculative Literature Foundation.

“Francine (Draft for the September Lecture)” is a short story by Maria Antònia Martí Escayol, a science fiction writer who lives in Barcelona, Spain. My translation of the story appears in World Science Fiction #1: Visions to Preserve the Biodiversity of the Future. This haunting tale investigates the death and posthumous life of Francine, daughter of René Descartes. It’s one of sixteen outstanding works in this anthology by some of the world’s finest authors.

The Deep Dish reading will also feature Dawn Bonanno, Steven H Silver, Evan Steuber, and Laura Kat Young. In addition, it will celebrate the release of Mary Anne Mohanraj’s new book, A Feast of Serendib: Recipes from Sri Lanka. Come and sample some delicious treats from the cookbook! I know Mary Anne, and she’s a great cook and passionate about her family’s homeland. Volumes Bookcafe also sells coffee, beer, wine, and baked goods, and Deep Dish is always a friendly event.

Since I can’t give you some of her chili-mango cashews over the internet, let me give you a taste of “Francine”:

The joy of the house was Francine. She was born in 1635, the same year in which France declared war on Spain, and Japan prohibited its merchants from traveling overseas. Her childhood took place amid the tree-lined streets and lawn-filled parks of the city, and the books and discussion circles of her home. Helena’s hospitality inspired an extensive group of intellectuals to form the Orbis de Deventer (for more information, consult historian Franklin Rudolf Ankersmit’s 2021 book by Goethe publishers).…

… A few months after her visit to the laboratory, the first symptoms of Francine’s illness, scarlet fever, made their appearance. According to the official account, the illness began on August 21st, and the girl died three weeks later on September 7th. According to Helena’s diary, the illness began in April, and the next day the girl lost her ability to speak, a little later consciousness, and she died five months later. Francine herself, in her notes from 1650, described the sensations she recalled of those initial moments:

“The warm glow of consciousness pulled me down into an insupportable interior heat. My body became a glass vial haunted by atoms teeming amid red ashes. Some atoms found a proper place inside myself and squeezed in harmoniously. Others simply remained suspended, colliding from time to time in senseless struggle. Some atoms were terrestrial, flat, and square; others aqueous, round, empty, wet, and spongy; or gaseous, long, and straight; or igneous, acute, and sharp. Their random movements traced out the destiny of my new world. A world where, for a long time, I would be merely a body without a head.”

I’m interviewed at Locus magazine

[image error]The March 2020 issue of Locus magazine has interviews with me, Nina Allan, and Gareth L. Powell. The issue also includes the Nebula Awards Ballot, notices of award winners, news, reviews, and columns. The magazine is available for purchase, but it isn’t free online.

However, you can listen for free to a podcast of my interview with Intralingo — many other fascinating interviews about world literature are also at that site. Host Lisa Carter and I talk about writing, science fiction, and my inspiration for Semiosis and Interference. One of the things I say:

“There’s something called ‘plant blindness,’ where you see a tree and every other tree is just the same tree. Well, no, it’s not. [I hope readers] begin to see the individuals that are around them and understand that their lives are difficult for them, but important for them too, because this is our environment. If all the plants die, we’re dead too.”

Links about language, literature, and me

A Community Read Conversation with Sue Burke: I’ll be at Longwood Gardens as part of its Community Read program on March 27 and 28. Semiosis is one of this year’s books. At the Longwood blog, I answer some questions about the book and my love for plants.

Lisa Carter is founder and creative director of Intralingo Inc., and she’s a leading professional in the translation world. She was kind enough to feature me in her Spotlight series, meant to promote authors and translators and their work. In this 22-minute video interview, we talk about language, including the challenges of creating languages for Semiosis and Interference that were alien “enough” but still comprehensible to the reader.

Spain has a tradition of tertulias, which are informal social gatherings, usually in bars, often to discuss art or literature. When I was living in Madrid, Spain, the Tertulia Madrileña de Literatura Fantástica (Madrid Tertulia for Speculative Fiction, called TerMa for short) was meeting, and I had the pleasure to take part. TerMa became an engine for science fiction, fantasy, and horror from its founding in 1991 and for the next two decades. Now a half-hour documentary revisits those exciting times. Available on YouTube, La TerMa, semblanza de una época interviews the people whose literary lives were changed. I say a few words, too. In Spanish.

On YouTube, Linguistics in SFF Recommendations by Kalanadi, a book reviewer, has a v-blog about language, xenolinguistics, interspecies communication. “This is my favorite topic in science fiction by far” she says. “I’ve been asked occasionally for a recommendations video about this, so today I attempt to deliver.” Among the recommendations is Semiosis.

Author Karen Hugg interviews me for her blog.

Steven J. Wright reviews Interference.

The Nerd Cantina interviews me for its podcast.

Finally, on YouTube, you can listen to this Clarkesworld Magazine podcast of my novellette, “Who Won the Battle of Arsia Mons?” The story was published in the November 2017 issue of Clarkesworld Magazine and is read by Kate Baker.

Non-gendered writing: one translation challenge

[image error]Gender in language poses problems — but different problems in different languages require different, sometimes creative solutions.

I coordinated the translation team for the anthology Castles in Spain, published in 2016. Its ten stories represent the work of Spain’s most important authors as the genre consolidated around the turn of the millennium and took a leap into vibrant, world-class writing.

One challenge came with “The Star” by Elia Barceló, an award-winning, dream-like story. Its characters include some ethereal beings who have no fixed gender. Elia achieved that indeterminancy using certain grammatical aspects of Spanish. For example, possessive pronouns agree with the thing being possessed, not with the possessor. So “her house” and “his house” would both be su casa. Other kinds of pronoun use likewise doesn’t necessarily identify the gender of the person involved.

Here’s the opening paragraph of the story in Spanish and then an over-literal translation. I’ve used “he,” “him,” and “his” to emphasize the pronouns’ presence, although in Spanish those pronouns do not reveal the gender of the characters.

Estábamos todos allí. Lana, como una muñeca rubia colgada de sus cuerdas, con una incongruente faldita roja y el hilo de saliva brillando en su cara pálida; Lon, sus ojos inmensos y oscuros en un rostro casi inexistente; Sadie, moviendo vertiginosamente sus alas, lo que le hacía oscilar a unos centímetros del suelo, mientras masticaba en un gesto de robótica eficiencia esa sustancia verde que tanto le gusta; Tras, encogiendo hasta casi la desaparición su frágil cuerpecillo, su deseo clavado en el cielo, y yo, número cinco, el cierre de la estrella, temblando como un carámbano de luz, focalizando el anhelo. Todos allí, esperando.

We were all there. Lana, like a blond doll hanging from his strings, with an inconsistent little red skirt and a thread of saliva shining on his pale face; Lon, his immense and dark eyes in a nearly non-existent face; Sadie, dizzily moving his wings, which made him oscillate a few centimeters from the ground, while he chewed in a robot motion that green substance he likes so much; Tras, shrinking almost to disappearance his fragile little body, his desire fixed on the sky; and I, number five, like the close of the star, trembling like an icicle of light, focusing the longing. All of us there, waiting.

Among the problems to solve: how to make it gender-neutral while keeping the beauty of the original prose. (Its beauty is lost in the over-literal translation.) I worked closely with translator Nur-Huda El Masri and copy-editor Charlie Sangster, and this is what we came up with:

We were all there. Lana, like a blond doll hanging from puppet’s strings, with a ridiculous red skirt and a thread of saliva glistening on a pale face; Lon, with eyes huge and dark in a nearly non-existent face; Sadie, fluttering a pair of wings dizzily, hovering a few centimetres off the ground while chewing that beloved green stuff with robotic efficiency; Tras, reduced to a tiny, almost vanishing fragile frame and desire fixed on the sky; and I, the fifth, the brooch that binds the star, atremble like an icicle of light, there to illuminate yearning. All of us, waiting.

Any work can be translated in a wide variety of ways, all of them correct. Often something is lost — but often something is found, too. This was our solution to this gender-free problem, and I think it worked.

How to avoid me at Capricon

I’m going to Capricon this weekend, February 14 to 16, a science fiction convention held annually in the Chicagoland area since 1981. We’ll be at the Westin Chicago North Shore, discussing and debating topics about books, movies, television, anime, space exploration, and science, with special tracks for children and teens. This year’s theme is the Tropics of Capricon. Specifically, as the con describes it:

The tropics is a band around the globe from 23 degrees north to 23 degrees south. This region includes 40% of the world’s population and is underrepresented in science fiction and fantasy. These areas will also be disproportionately affected by global warming. For example, entire island nations like the Maldives and Tuvalu are in danger of being wiped out by rising sea levels.

The word tropics evokes sun-drenched beaches, bustling marketplaces, and lush rain forests. The tropics can be a setting for escape and exploration, or for colonialism and dystopia. Will the future of the region be filled with glittering cities, or a wasteland ravaged by climate change? What does it mean for a science fiction and fantasy setting to be tropical? Come with us as we explore the nexus between geography and culture for science fiction and fantasy settings.

I’ll participate in two panels:

Real Tropical Killers, Friday, 2:30 p.m.

A jungle is a war zone. Jaguars and snakes and other animals will try to kill you, but there’s so much more danger. Many plants will also try to kill you or each other, animals hunt each other, disease lurks, and the climate might get you, too. In our fiction, we can invent all kinds of perils, or we can just incorporate all the threats that menace us in real life. Panelists: Jonathan Brazee, Patricia Sayre McCoy, Shelly Loke, Sue Burke, and Mari Brighe.

Lessons I Learned as a First-Time Novelist, Friday, 8:30 p.m.

From finding a publisher, working with an editor, to marketing your book and everything in-between, our panelists discuss what it’s like to publish your first novel. Panelists: Mark Huston, Sue Burke, John O’Neill, Clifford Johns, Tracy Townsend, and Jon R. Osborne.

I’ll also be autographing at the Autograph Table on Saturday, 11:30 a.m. to 12:15 p.m. Come by and say hi! You don’t have to bring something to sign, and there probably won’t be a line.

How much does a dragon weigh?

[image error]I’ve been thinking about writing a fantasy story in which the main character picks up a sickly young dragon and carries it home. Would that be possible? How much does a dragon weigh?

Google’s answers refer mostly to Dungeons & Dragons, where the dragons weigh tons, and that’s not my fantasy universe. I want a fantasyland closer to our consensus reality (the “real world” to Muggles). Dragons fly, and birds fly, so perhaps we could extrapolate dragon weight from bird weight.

Canada geese have a sort of dragon-like shape — and like dragons, they can be nasty. If geese could spit fire at us, I’m sure they would. Very roughly (for easy math) a Canada goose is 3 feet long from beak to tail, has a 5 foot wingspan, and weighs 10 pounds. A dragon 30 feet long with a 50 foot wingspan would weigh 100 pounds.

That’s not very much. It would be far easier to carry around a dog-sized dragon than to carry around an actual dog. The hard part would be avoiding the dragon’s fiery breath.

Even a dragon the length of a city block, about 300 feet, with a wingspan equal to the height of a 50-story building would weigh only 1000 pounds. A dairy cow weighs more. World champion weightlifters could pick up a skyscraper-sized dragon.

So … dragons are lightweights. That’s useful to know.

My award-eligible works in 2019

A lot of exciting literature was published last year. I’m eager to see what gets nominated for awards and I have some ideas about what I want to nominate.

As for myself, I have only two works eligible for an award nomination for 2019:

Interference, a science fiction novel, published by Tor Books. This is the sequel to Semiosis.

“In the Weeds”, a science fiction short story (2700 words), in the anthology Dying Earths: Sixteen Stories from the Ends of Times,, published by SFFWorld.com.

Do not feel obliged to consider them, of course. I’m posting this for the record — but I hope to encourage you to think about what you found outstanding in 2019. What deserves notice and recognition?

What god believes in you?

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Nike, the goddess of victory. Sculpture from a bronze vessel, probably made in a Greek city of southern Italy, c. 490 BCE, in the British Museum.

You may sometimes be asked about your religious faith — that is: What god do you believe in? That’s a good question, but I’d like to propose a different one: What god believes in you?

It may be that the gods get a choice, too. Your choice and divine choice may or may not coincide. Whether you want it or not, Allah may be showering you with mercy and compassion. Jesus may have saved your soul. A variety of other gods may be trying hard to show you truth and enlightenment.

Or you might have attracted the attention of lesser-known gods.

The Roman god Fascinus represented the divine phallus and can protect you from the evil eye and other forms of malicious enchantment. The Roman Empire fell, but gods are eternal, so Fascinus may be hovering around you, facing potential bad luck and nullifying it before it can do you harm. (Don’t ask how.)

The Maya gods of the underworld try to bring you death. Ahalpuh, for example, will cause infection and pus. However, the Maya underworld gods are lesser gods. They were defeated, and their powers were curtailed. They may come for you, but you have the power to thwart their plans.

Other gods can bring you fertility, war, safe travel, victory, greed, earthquakes, or even tempt you to suicide. If you feel that presence, please call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline, 1-800-273-8255. This is another lesser god that you can successfully defy.

Our world has a lot of gods. Which one(s) would be attracted to you, whether you would welcome their attention or not — and why? This question may be not just about their belief in you, but in your own beliefs about yourself.

Goodreads review: “The Last Human” by Zack Jordan

The Last Human by Zack Jordan

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Full disclosure: I received an advance copy from the publisher to see if I’d like to write a blurb for the cover. It sounded like a fun book, and it was, so here’s my blurb: “Brimming with sly humor, intelligence, and big ideas.”

Let me say a bit more about the novel. You can read the summary at Goodreads or elsewhere, and it’s accurate. A young human finds out why she’s the last of her kind, which leads her on a long, strange adventure to learn what she can do about it.

I especially enjoyed the way this book treats “intelligence” and the relationship between different levels of intelligence. Our young human has an AI assistant who isn’t as smart as she is, and she must also deal with beings, machines, and AIs who are infinitely smarter than she is. Every one of them wants something: perhaps to be as helpful as possible, perhaps to solve its own problems, perhaps to outsmart and control the lesser beings around it, or perhaps just to keep things working properly.

This is a new take on the technological singularity proposed by Vernor Vinge and others about what will happen when artificial super-intelligence advances beyond human understanding and control. In this book, it’s not the end of civilization, which Elon Musk has feared. Instead, it takes a turn that Zack Jordan makes logical, terrifying, and comforting at the same time. And he tells it in a way that from time to time might make you laugh.

View all my reviews

Fires in Australia, and one small way to help

Via Sherwood Smith, I’ve learned that Australian author Gillian Polack has been evacuated due to the fires.

What can you do to help? Gillian says this:

“What you can do that takes no money at all is suggest to people that they buy things i.e. keep income going even as the world falls to pieces. I counted ten Australian spec fic writers and artists affected by this yesterday and it’s about 100 people, so buying books or art from people who live in or near bushfire zones would help. Find your favourite writers (or writers who have lost everything — Mirren Hogan and Sulari Gentill are the ones on this list so far — Sulari Gentill is a particularly good writer and she is from Batlow — the whole town was wiped out yesterday by a 150 km front of fire).

“Suggesting that people buy books or art gives Australian creators income to come home to and a way of getting financially through a period when (to use local dialect, so this does not mean what it means in the US) bugger all can be done, workwise. Reading our books, finding favourite works on etsy, checking out publishers (IFWG, Shooting Star, and Twelfth Planet Press are the three small publishers whose writers are most affected so far) is a way of bringing money into an economy that is suddenly wrecked and a way of keeping friends of friends able to buy food. (I’ve been thinking about this a lot — community is what’s getting Australia through every day, so community from the rest of the world will help the good end of the impossible).”

As encouragement, here’s my Goodreads review of her book Lang[dot]doc 1305:

Langue[dot]doc 1305 by Gillian Polack

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

It’s a simple plan: A university team will travel back in time to 1305 France, hide out in a cave, take scientific measurements of the environment and ecology for nine months, then come back. The members will avoid contact with natives and make no changes in the course of history.

What could go wrong?

Even if the team had boasted of the discipline and leadership of a NASA project, a lot could have gone wrong. Instead, the team is made up of bickering and contrarian academics with an active disdain for history and the lone historian on the team.

Meanwhile, the local townsfolk have noticed the strange people living “under the hill” and can’t decide if they’re fairies, demons, or simply bothersome and probably dangerous.

As the months go on, everyone gets too frustrated in one way or another, and things go very wrong.

The book offers quiet humor, a deep understanding of academia and the Middle Ages, and characters to remember.