Mette Ivie Harrison's Blog, page 73

Hannah Sage's CD Rhetorical

Here is the link for my daughter's all original CD:

http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/hannahsage

I am so proud of her and think she is absolutely brilliant.

Monday Book Recs--Michael Wallace's The Righteous

The Righteous is a murder mystery set in a polygamist/Mormon/southern Utah world of a fake branch of the LDS church known as "the church of the anointing."  The setting itself interested me, probably because I am a Mormon. But I've seen stories set in this world that I put down pretty easily. The problem is making too easy judgments about who is right and wrong, and what a "cult" is, and about male/female power dynamics and the wrongness of this way of life. I'm not trying to say polygamy is great. And just FYI, the mainstream LDS/Mormon church does not allow the practice of polygamy any longer. Nonetheless, for me as a mostly practicing Mormon, this is part of the heritage of being a Mormon. Trying to get your head around the complexities of the argument and at the same time to understand why people still live in this world today, is dark and fascinating to me.

After I read my Kindle sample of the book, I knew I had to buy it. And I was so, so glad that I did. I ripped right through it in one day. The character of Jacob feels so real to me, his doubts about the church seemed like they came right out of my head. And yet he continues to live the life, faking it until he makes it, which is part of what I do. It's never obvious if this is "right" or "wrong," and I loved that ambiguity. I also have to say that I loved the female characters in this book. The author is male, and I am sometimes dubious about men writing female characters, even some of my favorite male authors. In addition, this book begins in the head of Amanda, a character who dies at the end of the first chapter. I hate that! I kept reading it, realizing that all of this sympathy I felt for her was going to be wrenched away from me and I was going to have to identify with another character. To me, that is one reason why I dislike reading adult fiction of all kinds. I don't like head hopping. But like George R. R. Martin, Michael Wallace's writing was so well done that I immediately liked the next pov character, Jacob, and his sister Eliza. In fact, all of the female characters were done perfectly, all interesting in non-stereotypical female ways. They are polygamists, but they aren't stupid polygamists, which is part of the plot. But I don't want to give too much away.

There is a lot of talk in the Mormon community about when and whether we will ever have our own Shakespeares that write about the Mormon life. This isn't exactly mainstream Mormon life being depicted here, but all of the topics, conflict of faith and science, obedience and free will, male and female roles, power corrupting, were so well done that they can easily be transferred to other spheres. And there was a tiny hint of a speculative element in the ending, which I don't want to spoil. OK, if I were to have on quibble, it might be that the villains in this book are a bit too villainous. But as soon as I write that, I remember little bits that were offered here and there about one of the villains as a boy, and I realize they weren't wholely villainous, but the situation they are in so distorts reality that it allows them to become villains. So it works. I loved the idea of what happens to the Lost Boys, and the metaphor of the pride of lions. I can't wait to read the next book in the series.

This is the second book I've read that was published as an ebook and that was absolutely amazing. I am going to have to get over my prejudice against self-publishing. The ebook world seems to be making things completely different.

Friday Tri: How to Enter a Bike Shop

In order to do anything other than a basic finish-the-course race in triathlon, you will need to become familiar with your local specialty bike shop. I will admit that this can be intimidating. Everyone there knows the lingo. They wear weird clothes and they all seem to know each other. You walk in, people stare at you and you have no idea what to say. You feel like an idiot. Yeah, sorry. I can’t really solve that problem for you. You are going to feel like a bit of an idiot at first.

Most bike shops will have a register near the front of the store. They will also have an extensive set of bikes set up along the edges of the store. These bikes are not really meant to be tried out, but you can look at them and see what you may be buying. The problem is that you probably have no idea what kind of bike you want unless you spend hours of time researching bikes in magazines beforehand. And even then, you will still want the advice of the bike experts who are there.

Other parts of the store will include specialized bike clothing. To men in particular these outfits may seem ridiculous. There will be tight fitting tops for triathlon made almost entirely of lycra. They will feel like big swimsuits with a little pad between your legs. Then there are the even more ridiculous looking bike shorts that have what looks like a diaper of padding between your legs. And bike shorts that have built in suspenders to keep them in place. Yeah, you will want these. If you don’t get good bike shorts, you will end up in serious pain. I have been doing heavy biking for a lot of years and I don’t often wear bike shorts anymore, but that is because I have decided to leave the padding on my seat and have a specialized butterfly seat with a cut out center to relieve pressure. Real bikers have much harder seats and they laugh at me. You can choose between the diaper and the cushier seat.

The bike tops have tons of pockets in different places. This may look weird to you, but bikers, unlike runners, are expected to carry their own food and water during most races and training. They put water bottles on their bikes, of course, but also in the pockets in the back of their shirts. Biking tops will also have sleeves, which provide more coverage for those who will be outside in the sun for hours on end. This makes a lot of sense.
Other things you will see in a biking store include bike pumps, either in the large variety to keep at home or the small variety to put on a pack on your bike. Also you will find canister of air to pump up your tires. Please ask for help in burying these. Don’t be one of those bikers who get a flat and have no idea how to change it. When I was training for my Ironman, I ended up hiring a coach the last 3 months because I was nervous about my training. The first thing he did after he heard about what I had been doing to myself was tell me to take 3 days off. No training allowed. That was when I spent three days learning how to take tires off and on my bike, back and front. Learn how to do this and carry your own supplies on your bike.

There are a lot of things you can buy to make it possible to bike in colder weather. Wool socks, booties, and heavier waterproof coats. I admit, I don’t often go out when it is cold. I don’t often go outside at all. I’m afraid of traffic. I tend to train indoors on a trainer on my bike, one with a video of the courses I want to ride. But if you’re going outside in the winter, get the right gear. You should have special biking socks. They will help you not get blisters. There are some people who do Ironman with no socks, but I am not one of them.
A helmet is another thing you will need to buy. A good one will cost you about $100. You don’t need one of the aero helmets to start with (those are the ones that look like inverted ice cream cones and are smooth). A good helmet for everyday use will have lots of vents in it and will feel comfortable. Ask for help to get fitted for the proper helmet.
If you already have a bike, you can take it to a bike shop to get it fixed, but if it is a cheap bike that you have bought at a store like Walmart, they will not want to fix it. It will cost more to try than the bike cost new, and they still won’t be able to make it right. It will frustrate them. They are like artists being asked to paint with fingerpaints. They are used to more expensive materials and the proper results.

Which leads me to the bike. This is the biggest purchase that you will make to do triathlon. An entry level triathlon or road bike will put you back about $1500. When you enter the store, catch the eye of one of the people at the register or go to the back where there are people working on repairs. Tell them what you want and ask them for advice. They like to be asked for advice. Trust me. Most of them are not triathletes. They are cyclists. But nonetheless, there is some crossover and they will usually be willing to talk about things like aerobars and disc wheels (though those are more advanced). A road bike will work for a triathlon, and you can add on aerobars if you want. There is some difference in the set up of a tri bike. They are designed to make it so that you can run after you get off them, using less of your hamstrings which you will need for running. But honestly, they are so similar it may not make any difference to you.

I can’t tell you what bike you should buy. I’m not an expert at that. I can say that I like my Quintana Roo and I also like my Cervelo. I think that Trek is a good brand, as well. Don’t stint on the components like your gear wheels and your derailleurs. You can upgrade with better wheels later if you’d like. I started with a beginner bike and then after about 4 years of racing, moved up to a more expensive bike. My nice Cervelo P2 cost more than most of our cars. Our kids joke around that we have to lock our cars only when our bikes are in them. We are far more afraid that our bikes will be stolen than that our cars will be. Matt has a P3 now, which is even nicer than my P2 though he doesn’t have the nice wheel set up that I do. The people at the bike shop now know me quite well. They’ve gained respect for me as they’ve realized how many miles per year I put on my bike (several thousand) so I have to replace my chain often.

The last piece of advice I have for buying a bike is to pay the extra money if you have to to get your bike properly fit. It is worth every penny. They will know how to move the seat precisely to get the most power out of your legs. They will measure everything. They will be able to tell you what size of frame to buy for you. If you are in between frame sizes, they can tell you what are the advantages of each one. I have to special order my bike frames because I use a very small one, 47, that looks almost like a child sized bike. I also have 650 cc wheels which are smaller than usual. If you end up buying a bike online (which I don’t recommend), then yes, pay $200 for a bike fit. Please don’t go into your bike store, get advice there for free and then go buy a bike on-line. If you keep doing that, the bike store will go out of business and you won’t have anyone to go to for help with bike fits, advice, and personal attention and repairs.

Writing Thursday: Wrong Direction

Another question from LTUE: How do I know if I've gone off in the wrong direction?

Short answer: Ha!

Long answer: Ha! This is the magic that every writer wishes they had. We all want to know how to tell that. We want to know how long the book is going to be, and what the climax will be, how many copies it will sell, who the protagonist is, who the romantic interest should be, which editor wants it, and which house will promote it the best. You can't know these things. You have to live them. No one has a crystal ball, and the truth is, if they did, they still couldn't answer this question. You are the only one who has the answer. Only *you* can know if your writing has veered off into the wrong direction. Yes, you can have editors or agents or a writing group who can help give you advice, but like all advice, it is subject to you deciding if it is good or not, and the way to do that is to see if it resonates with you.

I will admit that as a writer, I feel like I have a better sense now of when I am veering off in the wrong direction than I used to have. But then I will be writing something and realize how terrible it is and how I've veered off in the wrong direction again, and I will laugh for thinking that I have ever learned anything about writing. Every book is different because *I* want it to be different. I would be bored writing the same book again, which goes in the same direction as the last one. And what the new direction is, well how could even I know that in advance, since I'm creating the whole world and all the directions in it as I go? That is both the terror and the magic in writing. It is all up to you.

I may not like the direction you've headed in, but my opinion is only my opinion. When I write critiques of people's manuscripts, in the end, my job is to figure out where they want to go, not where I want the book to go, and to help the writer get there. But that's not at all the same thing as heading off in the wrong direction. That's just the details. If you've truly headed off in the wrong direction, I suspect one of two things will probably happen:

1. You will discover that you have no more interest in writing this book and that you wake up in the morning dreading writing it and eventually find something else to write. Or start over again and find out the place where you stopped being interested in the book anymore.

2. You will feel sick while you are writing the book and as if you are having your teeth drilled. You may be one of those people who continue to work on something--dammit!--until it is done. But if you hate it, guess who is going to like it? No one.

I have no more advice on how to tell if it's wrong than that, but I'm only telling you to listen to yourself and your own instincts. Did you think I would tell you anything else? It's you who wanted to be a writer, you who have had all the good ideas you've had to date. You are going to have to learn to trust yourself. And also to hate yourself. That's what we writers do.

Writing Wednesday: Perfection

Last week on American Idol, one of the hopefuls was cut. Afterwards, she said, "I don't know what the judges want. I sang every song perfectly." I shook my head when I heard that because I am not a musician, but every musician I know is acutely aware of every mistake in every performance. There are no perfect performances. Every writer I know hates reading from published books because we still want to edit it one last time. That's what art is.

Gender Masquerades #7: Bones

A friend pointed out to me recently that there is no reverse gendered form of the word "tomboy." Try to think of one. The problem is that any word describing a male as having feminine aspects has very negative connotations. Because being feminine is negative in our culture. Being masculine, on the other hand, is positive. You may get women who seem disapproving if a girl is a tomboy too late in life. But at a young age, there is nothing wrong with it, and a lot of people see it as a positive attribute.

So, on to my critique of gender in "Bones." Temperance Brennan is, in my opinion, one of the most interesting female character ever on television. She reminds me in some way of Margaret Hoolihan from Mash after Frank left the show and she became a real character. She is a scientist, brilliant, and she is a successful writer, too. In fact, Brennan can do pretty much anything she wants to do. She outthinks bad guys, can run really fast. She isn't quite physically at the level of Jennifer Garner's character in Alias, or Buffy, but she doesn't stretch the imagination to its limit, either. She isn't emotional (except for this recent season while she has been pregnant). She seems almost clinically detached, even from her father and her brother. She is not the typical female character in any way.

Her one constant relationship is with Angela, and there is never a hint of jealousy between them. Brennan is smarty, tough, witty, funny, sexually assured, physically attractive, tolerant, logical, well-read, sometimes geeky, cool under pressure, and has an iron stomach when it comes to looking at dead bodies. My one complaint about her is that sometimes she seems too beautiful. There is an unconsciousness about this which I find disingenous. She would have to spend lots of time doing makeup and going shopping to look the way she does, not to mention the time on her hair. But this is all passed over as if it never happens or as if it is perfectly natural for someone with her other character traits. It doesn't quite fit for me, but on the other hand, I wouldn't want her to be unattractive, either, and fall back into the stereotype of smart woman=ugly.

In many ways, Brennan is a man. She has all the positive male attributes and many of the negative ones (with her detachment and lack of emotionality). Except for the fact that the producers have done such a careful job of making her physically look like a woman, I'd say this was a gender masquerade. But I think there is something actually more subtle going on here. As if the writers and producers are drawing attention to the gender masquerade that is going on in the real world, they refuse to show her become anything less than feminine physically, though she is masculine in all other ways. And, the point seems to be, what is wrong with that?

There seems to be an equal weight given to Angela's form of femininity, which is quite obviously more female coded, with her ability to do art and to talk to Brennan about social situations and love. But Angela is also a computer geek and I frequently have to shake my head at the "magic" she works with computer programming. Brennan is the star of the show and Angela is the sidekick. Angela gets married and has a baby first, but I'm not convinced that there is any difference in evaluation between the two. Brennan follows Angela's lead, and proves that even a masculine woman can still be married and have children. I could argue whether or not they are still trying to prove that Brennan is "really" a woman with this digression, but I think there is an argument on the other side that Brennan is every bit as much a woman as Angela is, though her brand of womanhood is completely different. (I still laugh at the "dancing phalanges" episode earlier on in the show.)

I toyed with the idea for a while that the show was playing with gender reversal in the romance between Bones and Booth. I'm not sure that it holds up under scrutiny. This is partly true because of the above point about "tom-boy." It's hard to make Booth strong and not masculine. He becomes a weaker character when you give him more feminine traits, at least the way that our society thinks of things as "weak" and "strong." Yes, Booth is more emotional. He's religious and sometimes seems irrational compared to Bones. But I'm not convinced he is any less masculine for these traits. If anything, he is more masculine, and the show is actually deconstructing masculinity by placing his traits up against Brennan's.

Religiousity and irrationality--are they feminine? Not the way Booth uses them. He's emotional, but rarely teary. He gets angry more often than Bones does, certainly, but anger is a very masculine coded emotion. And I laugh every time I see his belt buckle. It might as well say "PENIS" on it. Yup, he has one. Yup, he's definitely a man's man. One of the only moments of vulnerability we see in Booth is when he proposes to Hannah and gets rejected, and when he admits his feelings for Bones and is rejected. Still very masculine moments, in my opinion. Also, occasionally, when Booth's son is brought up, but it doesn't happen very often after the first season. Parker is gone from the picture, as if to assure us that Booth is still very much a man.

So what is going on here? I think this is mostly a show in which we have one really interesting female character defying gender conventions but without any expectations that all female characters have to defy such conventions in order to be valued. Bones is unique, yes. Weird at times. Unconventional certainly. Does she have to have a happy ending with a male character and become a mother? Well, I'm not sure the show is saying that. It's true they are allowing who to do that, but I'm not convinced there is a sense that Bones had to end up here to have value as a human being. This is her life, but it isn't the only life. She was happy and productive before. She met a unique person who made her want something else with him. Yeah, so Angela has that, too. Do all women have to be married to be happy? Maybe the show is saying that, but if so, then I think there is the equal emphasis on all men having to be married to be happy. A heterosexual bias, certainly, but not necessarily a gendered one.

Monday Book Recs--A Talent for War by Jack McDevitt

This isn't a new book, but I loved it. I started reading this book expecting classic space opera. There are lots of war scenes with cool space explosions and intrigue. Lots of gadgets and explanations of time warp and other spacey things that made me feel like I was really smart, even being able to grasp what was being talked about. But often books that offer no more than cool stuff leave me pretty, well, cold. This book about Alex Benedict was not like that at all.

In the end, it was really more of a cross between Mile Vorkosigan as Lord Auditor and Indiana Jones in space. Alex Benedict is a lover of antiquities. When this love of antiquities and the death of an uncle lead him to begin investigating the cause of the current war between humans and THE ALIENS, he ends up finding some first-person accounts of events and also a lot of accounts that don't add up. The deeper he goes, the more people start to chase after him, human and alien both. The climax is appropriately surprising and satisfying. The ending was bitter sweet and just perfect, the kind of thing a linguist like me delights in. (I'm not a classicist, but I did take some Greek and Latin in my time.)

In the end, my favorite parts were about the philosophers quoted at chapter headings, and comparing them to Socrates and Demosthenes and others. I guess this appeals to my retelling nature. I think in the end all authors are doing retellings and some are just more honest about it than others. McDevitt is honest about where he is stealing from, and the what ifs he is playing with. The aliens are left very alien. They are telepathic, but not all powerful. There's lots of room for other books in this series, and I can't wait to see more romance develop between the two leads.

Friday Tri: How to Enter a Running Store

The first time I walked into a running store, I was a little nervous. I've seen people walking into a running store for the first time on numerous occasions since then and I see the same nervousness in their eyes. So, let me help you.

When you enter a running store, you will see racks of sporty clothes, running shorts, bra and shirts. You may have to walk through these in order to get to the back of the store, where the actual running shoes are located. You may also see other running paraphernelia such as water bottles, water bottle holders, sports gels and other foods, watches and GPS, heart rate monitors, sunglasses, and nipple guards and sunscreen. Do not get distracted. Walk toward the running shoes. These are the foundation of your running experience. Everything else is more advanced. You are a beginner. The shoes are what you need. You will understand these other tools as you grow in the force.

As you enter a good running store, you may also wait at the door for a few moments, as if in confusion. If the store is especially busy, you may have to walk yourself over to the shoes. I find that if I go during the day, I will usually be greeted by a salesperson. Do not be discouraged by this. I hate salespeople in many situations. When you go car shopping, you cannot avoid a salesperson if you want to drive a car. In a shoe store, I suppose it might feel the same way. You might worry that a salesperson will pressure you and you think you are perfectly capable of looking through the shoes yourself and finding the pair you want and asking for your size. Please do not do this. You don't know what shoes you want. You don't know what size you need. You know nothing. You must allow yourself to be handled by the experts.

A good running store will likely have someone who can put you on a computerized analysis of both your stride and your arch. I have a high arch and so does my husband. We both wear neutral shoes. But the perfect shoes for me are not going to be the perfect shoes for you. A good running store will also explain to you how many sizes up from your regular shoe size you should buy, based on what you are planning to do, how many miles per day or week, what race you are training for. The longer your race, the larger the shoe you should buy to compensate for the swelling in your feet.

Warning! I am not an expert in this. When people who are friends ask me what shoe they should buy, I shake my head. They need to go to a local running store to get the right shoe, not to me. Don't buy on-line. Even if you know what you think you want to get, don't do it. Support your local running store, who is a leader behind most local races. And you never know when they will surprise you. After having bought the same shoe for about four years, a running store expert recommended a new shoe for me and I have absolutely loved it for the last several months. There is new stuff coming out all the time. No one who isn't in the business can keep track of it all. So go let yourself be pampered.

The next thing you should know is that a good pair of running shoes will cost you $100+. Don't go to a running store unless you are prepared to spend that much. Don't start running unless you can invest in shoes. If you can't afford that (and believe me, I have been there) you are better off walking. Do not run without the proper shoes. You will injure yourself and hate running and then you will blame me and tell everyone you know how running is terrible and convince them not to try, too. It's not because you're old that running hurts. It's because you don't have the right shoes and you're not starting slowly and small enough. Or it's because you have an injury.

OK, after you have found the perfect shoes--which are, by the way, the shoes that simply feel the best. Good running shoes don't need to be broken in. They are ready to run in the first day. If they don't feel right, take them back. Note: a good running store will let you exchange them. They probably can't sell them again, except as clearance, but they want your business and they will make you happy. If they don't, they're not a good running store. Now, you need to get proper running socks. You will pay about $5 a pair for good running socks. They will have NO cotton in them. If you don't know what the socks have, ask the running store experts. They will steer you away from cotton socks because they tend to cause blisters when wet.

With running shoes, and socks, you are ready to begin. You can wear any old sweat pants and T-shirt you want. As you get faster, you will sweat more. Yes, that is a funny reality. The best runners sweat more than the worse runners because they need to in order to get rid of the body heat they create while running. Cotton T-shirts are lousy when wet, but until you are running at full speed for more than 40 minutes, a cotton T-shirt is probably fine. All the other stuff is for when you have been at it for more than a year or so. You'll get to know the store employees by name and they'll start giving you information as you need it. Or ask, if you're curious.

A good pair of running shoes lasts for 400-500 miles, they say. My experience has been that I need two pair of shoes, one slightly older that I use for shorter runs, and one new pair that I take out for runs longer than 20 miles when I'm going to need a lot of support. I also have a pair that I've retired from running that I use to walk around running errands. Do not use your good running shoes except for running. Believe me, they will still be in good shape once they're no longer useful for running. But save them. It will save your legs and your feet. If you end up with a lot of running shoes you can't use, you can donate them. Most stores have a bin for the homeless. No one wants to run in shoes that have a useless cushion, but you can walk on them just fine.

I once was in a running store when a guy came in and refused to be helped. He then looked around at the running shoes, complained loudly that there was "no selection" here and walked out. The selection at the store was enormous, over 100 pairs of shoes. My guess was that he wanted a selection of cheaper shoes. Good running stores don't stock cheap shoes because they won't create runners, only people who complain about running. So please, don't be that guy.
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Next week: How to enter a specialty bike shop

Thursday Quotes: Susan Beth Pfeffer's Life As We Knew It

This is the last entry:

March 20:
"My birthday.
I'm 17 and I'm alive and we have food. . .
Because it was my birthday, Mom let me decide what we were going to have. I found a box of macaroni and cheese. It was as close to pizza as we could get. . . .
The electricity comes and goes, so we don't know when we'll be able to depend on it. We have firewood for a while yet, and Matt is getting stronger (he walked up 10 stairs today and only Mom's insistence kept him from climbing them all). There's plenty of snow outside, so we're okay for water. . .
But today isn't a day to worry about the future. Whatever will happen will happen. Today is a day to celebrate. Tomorrow there will be more daylight than night. Tomorrow I'll wake up and find my mother and my brothers by my side. All still alive. All still loving me.
A while ago Jonny asked me why I was still keeping a journal, who I was writing it for. I've asked myself that a lot, especially in the really bad times.
Sometimes I've thought I'm keeping it for people 200 years from now, so they can see what our lives were like.
Sometimes I've thought I'm keeping it for that day when people no longer exist but butterflies can read.
But today, when I'm 17 and warm and well fed, I'm keeping this journal for myself so I can always remember life as we knew it, life as we know it, for a time when I am no longer in the sunroom."

It gives me chills just reading that again. Such a great book!

WIFYR

I will be teaching at Writing and Illustrating for Young Readers June 18-22. Go here for more info. It's a week of intense classes and critiquing and loads of fun. I sold Mira, Mirror about ten years ago from meeting Tracey Gates of Viking at this same conference as a student. Loads of other success stories on the site.