Gillian Polack's Blog, page 179
June 12, 2012
gillpolack @ 2012-06-12T21:51:00
Snurched from
![[info]](https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/hostedimages/1380938211i/3404272.gif)
:
The rules:
1. Go to page 77 (or 7th) of your current ms
2. Go to line 7
3. Copy down the next 7 lines – sentences or paragraphs – and post them as they’re written. No cheating.
Guilhem and Peire looked steadfastly at the carving of Christ docent. Peire loved that carving, while Guilhem loved the craft within it. Both of them did not love being here, in the abbey, waiting for an opinion from on high, or from Abbot Bernard, depending on whether God or Bernard felt like giving an opinion that day.
No-one knew what the abbot thought about the denizens of underground. They weren't even sure that today's pronouncement would be about the hill-dwellers. Guilhem wondered if he would be given another set of penalties – he had taken to
:The rules:
1. Go to page 77 (or 7th) of your current ms
2. Go to line 7
3. Copy down the next 7 lines – sentences or paragraphs – and post them as they’re written. No cheating.
Guilhem and Peire looked steadfastly at the carving of Christ docent. Peire loved that carving, while Guilhem loved the craft within it. Both of them did not love being here, in the abbey, waiting for an opinion from on high, or from Abbot Bernard, depending on whether God or Bernard felt like giving an opinion that day.
No-one knew what the abbot thought about the denizens of underground. They weren't even sure that today's pronouncement would be about the hill-dwellers. Guilhem wondered if he would be given another set of penalties – he had taken to
June 11, 2012
gillpolack @ 2012-06-12T16:15:00
I'm back from Melbourne. Continuum was grand and I'll do a proper report on it later. Right now I only have until lunch is ready, so I'll report on the thoughts that chased me on the drive home.
First of all, I was thinking how much there was a groundswell of opinion against us (Australians for the most part) being told how to think about racism. It appeared over and over at Continuum. The same thoughts. The same concerns. There's quite a lot of anger in fandom from people who have been told "This is the shape of your racism" as a first step to dealing with it. We want to deal with it, is the clear message I got from this convention. We don't want it to be labelled using US labels, however. The descriptions of racism that are being pushed right now don't fit Australia and actually reduce our capacity to address problems.
The problem is twofold. First, fans were so busy arguing against being told the shape of racism and finding out that the fit was bad, that they were spending less time and energy addressing bigotry. It's a very real problem (that the ideas being used to address major issues don't actually fit Australia and that the discourse assumes that there is a single international problem that follows the shape of US bigotry) but solving it means we have less energy to sort out how to identify privilege in our own society and what specific problems minorities encounter in Australia.
This is a new development. It's linked with the second issue. The kindly provision of labels and descriptions that don't quite match the situation here is being called "US imperialism." Now, it may be or it may not be. The fact taht this label was bandied about at the convention, however, means that we have a problem. Developing a new spurt of righteous anger doesn't actually help anyone. It side-steps the issues we need to address and the issues we're angry are being derailed. It provides excuses.
I suspect the first step is maybe for a whole bunch of us to take a step back. If non-Australians would kindly let us find out our own forms of racism and address them rather than telling us that we share their problems, that would be really good. If Australians would not use simple tags to explain the issues (which are also real, otherwise they wouldn't be derailing local discourse on the subject) that would be also really good.
The other thought that chased me home is how very stupid I've been. Not just me, but I will take ownership for my own stupidity. I thought I couldn't write novels with some kinds of protagonists because I didn't have any frameworks for them. Except that I do: frameworks've been staring me in my face, all my life. More on this (and what it's all about) when I've done some thinking. Much thinking. Also much learning.
I had other thoughts. Many of them. For some reason, however, they're all contentious. not that these ones weren't. I shall take myself to do my messages and teach Latin and the contentiousness will mellow. I was told the other day that I needed to be controversial because it would sell books, and I had very cogent reasons against arguing just for the sake of drawing attention to myself. I'll talk about some of the other thoughts that followed me home, therefore, when they're thoughts, not reaction.
I promise a proper con report soon, because it was indeed a porter con and a very good one. I just had much thinking time on the way home and wasn't quite ready to backtrack to the weekend. And now the gerund and the ablative absolute beckon!!
First of all, I was thinking how much there was a groundswell of opinion against us (Australians for the most part) being told how to think about racism. It appeared over and over at Continuum. The same thoughts. The same concerns. There's quite a lot of anger in fandom from people who have been told "This is the shape of your racism" as a first step to dealing with it. We want to deal with it, is the clear message I got from this convention. We don't want it to be labelled using US labels, however. The descriptions of racism that are being pushed right now don't fit Australia and actually reduce our capacity to address problems.
The problem is twofold. First, fans were so busy arguing against being told the shape of racism and finding out that the fit was bad, that they were spending less time and energy addressing bigotry. It's a very real problem (that the ideas being used to address major issues don't actually fit Australia and that the discourse assumes that there is a single international problem that follows the shape of US bigotry) but solving it means we have less energy to sort out how to identify privilege in our own society and what specific problems minorities encounter in Australia.
This is a new development. It's linked with the second issue. The kindly provision of labels and descriptions that don't quite match the situation here is being called "US imperialism." Now, it may be or it may not be. The fact taht this label was bandied about at the convention, however, means that we have a problem. Developing a new spurt of righteous anger doesn't actually help anyone. It side-steps the issues we need to address and the issues we're angry are being derailed. It provides excuses.
I suspect the first step is maybe for a whole bunch of us to take a step back. If non-Australians would kindly let us find out our own forms of racism and address them rather than telling us that we share their problems, that would be really good. If Australians would not use simple tags to explain the issues (which are also real, otherwise they wouldn't be derailing local discourse on the subject) that would be also really good.
The other thought that chased me home is how very stupid I've been. Not just me, but I will take ownership for my own stupidity. I thought I couldn't write novels with some kinds of protagonists because I didn't have any frameworks for them. Except that I do: frameworks've been staring me in my face, all my life. More on this (and what it's all about) when I've done some thinking. Much thinking. Also much learning.
I had other thoughts. Many of them. For some reason, however, they're all contentious. not that these ones weren't. I shall take myself to do my messages and teach Latin and the contentiousness will mellow. I was told the other day that I needed to be controversial because it would sell books, and I had very cogent reasons against arguing just for the sake of drawing attention to myself. I'll talk about some of the other thoughts that followed me home, therefore, when they're thoughts, not reaction.
I promise a proper con report soon, because it was indeed a porter con and a very good one. I just had much thinking time on the way home and wasn't quite ready to backtrack to the weekend. And now the gerund and the ablative absolute beckon!!
June 7, 2012
gillpolack @ 2012-06-08T04:37:00
This is the kind of insomnia I like.
I haven't quite been awake all night, but it feels like it. I was supposed to sleep for another half hour, but my mind kept dreaming about things yet undone and how little time I had to finish them in. This was wrong of my mind, for I had allowed enough time for things this morning - my mind just didn't want to accept this. I didn't expect to be spending this extra time working on my dissertation, but that's what's happened. I have more urgent work I could do, but I just had a small breakthrough moment.
My supervisor has looked at the big, meaty chapter that was causing me such angst. His turnover was amazing - I said I wasn't going to be able to finish it until next week or the week after and then something clicked in my mind and I realised what was wrong with what I had done and I fixed it. And he likes it.
This is the scary chapter. The one where the whole dissertation could collapse. It rests on the previous chapters, and they're fine, so it wouldn't have been the end of the world if I had to go back to the drawing board with this. Except I don't.
I shall do my light edits to it now, and then go about the things I meant to do with my early hour of the morning. And for my reading at Continuum, I shall read from Ms Cellophane (because, you know, 22 days to go) but I shall also read a bit from the time travel novel, for anyone who has been curious about what a Medievalist would do with a time travel novel.
I haven't quite been awake all night, but it feels like it. I was supposed to sleep for another half hour, but my mind kept dreaming about things yet undone and how little time I had to finish them in. This was wrong of my mind, for I had allowed enough time for things this morning - my mind just didn't want to accept this. I didn't expect to be spending this extra time working on my dissertation, but that's what's happened. I have more urgent work I could do, but I just had a small breakthrough moment.
My supervisor has looked at the big, meaty chapter that was causing me such angst. His turnover was amazing - I said I wasn't going to be able to finish it until next week or the week after and then something clicked in my mind and I realised what was wrong with what I had done and I fixed it. And he likes it.
This is the scary chapter. The one where the whole dissertation could collapse. It rests on the previous chapters, and they're fine, so it wouldn't have been the end of the world if I had to go back to the drawing board with this. Except I don't.
I shall do my light edits to it now, and then go about the things I meant to do with my early hour of the morning. And for my reading at Continuum, I shall read from Ms Cellophane (because, you know, 22 days to go) but I shall also read a bit from the time travel novel, for anyone who has been curious about what a Medievalist would do with a time travel novel.
June 6, 2012
gillpolack @ 2012-06-07T14:37:00
You'd think, after all these weeks, that I'd stop finding things done by the burglar, but I found something else today.
I hadn't actually emptied out the whole of my teaching box for food history. I did that today because Donna's borrowing the box and it will be much more useful to her without the wherewithal for cooking snails or serving Pernod or heating food at the table (an Eastern European method from pre-electricity). A couple of things are missing from the box, but nothing of value sufficient to bug the insurance company. The 1930s perfume was tipped over but fortunately the lid was tight.
Besides, the presence of something that shouldn't be there that's about equal in value to the missing things makes everything even. All I'd be doing is asking the insurance company to replace one item with two worth about the same amount.
One single Medieval reproduction for teaching had obviously fallen out of the bag it was in and into my teaching box when the thief had the box open. I knew he'd opened it, for the tin of spices was on the chair looking unloved. Some of the spices were in the bottom of the box, so I'll give the whole thing a big tidy when the box returns home. The big thing is that I have the brooch.
I need to investigate my toy box soon (full of folkthings and toys and replicas of historical board games), for that is another place I haven't yet ventured. I don't think the thief even noticed it, as it's in an old sewing machine box under the table, but you never know.
I predict excitement in my future. All this exploration suggests it. Today's quiet catching-up turning into "I still have the brooch!" also suggests it.
I'm coming to believe that this is nothing new. I'm not fated for a tranquil existence. There is a giant wrongness in this, for all the novels I read tell me how dull life is for the single woman over 50. Dull, unfulfilled, wasting time and space...but tranquil.
For those helping me count, it's 23 days until Ms Cellophane is available on iTunes.
I hadn't actually emptied out the whole of my teaching box for food history. I did that today because Donna's borrowing the box and it will be much more useful to her without the wherewithal for cooking snails or serving Pernod or heating food at the table (an Eastern European method from pre-electricity). A couple of things are missing from the box, but nothing of value sufficient to bug the insurance company. The 1930s perfume was tipped over but fortunately the lid was tight.
Besides, the presence of something that shouldn't be there that's about equal in value to the missing things makes everything even. All I'd be doing is asking the insurance company to replace one item with two worth about the same amount.
One single Medieval reproduction for teaching had obviously fallen out of the bag it was in and into my teaching box when the thief had the box open. I knew he'd opened it, for the tin of spices was on the chair looking unloved. Some of the spices were in the bottom of the box, so I'll give the whole thing a big tidy when the box returns home. The big thing is that I have the brooch.
I need to investigate my toy box soon (full of folkthings and toys and replicas of historical board games), for that is another place I haven't yet ventured. I don't think the thief even noticed it, as it's in an old sewing machine box under the table, but you never know.
I predict excitement in my future. All this exploration suggests it. Today's quiet catching-up turning into "I still have the brooch!" also suggests it.
I'm coming to believe that this is nothing new. I'm not fated for a tranquil existence. There is a giant wrongness in this, for all the novels I read tell me how dull life is for the single woman over 50. Dull, unfulfilled, wasting time and space...but tranquil.
For those helping me count, it's 23 days until Ms Cellophane is available on iTunes.
gillpolack @ 2012-06-07T12:17:00
My words are written. The rest of the day suddenly looks almost possible. I can't gloat yet, but I only have ten things left to do from my impossibly long list. I shall report back at about 10 pm, at which stage (if all goes well) the list should be reduced to almost zero.
Right now, however, I'm due a break.
Right now, however, I'm due a break.
gillpolack @ 2012-06-06T23:34:00
I've caught up on so many things, almost despite myself. Now, if I can write 3000 new words and finish with all the words that are written but a mess, and teach, and go to the library... then I'll be all caught up and will stay that way until next Wednesday. I shall do just another half hour (or maybe an hour, if I feel energetic) tonight and reduce tomorrow to a reasonable size.
The other thing I shall do tomorrow is turn off my alarm. It's the last day I don't have an early start in...I don't want to count how long. Just thinking about that requires a cup of tea. A very big cup of tea. I am so not an early bird! Three in the morning is far healthier than six or seven.
The other thing I shall do tomorrow is turn off my alarm. It's the last day I don't have an early start in...I don't want to count how long. Just thinking about that requires a cup of tea. A very big cup of tea. I am so not an early bird! Three in the morning is far healthier than six or seven.
gillpolack @ 2012-06-06T17:56:00
I'm grumpy again. I've located the source of pain, and it will fade. What I need is time and rest.
I have made a pile of papers to work through today and tomorrow, so that I can let the work flow around the grump rather than letting the grump rule. I probably should have cancelled on a whole lot more things these last few weeks, given the amount of time I spent at the hospital and etc, but the chance to earn enough money to get through the worst of winter (which I will have done by the end of term) and the wonderousness of the things I was/am working on meant I didn't. I should skip Continuum, but it's about time I had fun and besides, I need to let the chemicals from the new heater dissipate (they turned out to be the icing on cake after last week's reaction to anaesthetic) and I'd rather feed chocolate to friends and colleagues than stay here, being miserable about allergies.
Tomorrow night I'm going to eat hot chips with students and teach the last world-building class. This means I have only until then to feel sorry for myself, for I defy anyone to be miserable while eating hot chips and teaching world-building to bright and dedicated students. It's Medieval world-building, too, which means I get to prevent the idiot mistakes so many of us complain about so very often. Functional castles! Operational societies! Sophisticated cultures! We talked about castles a lot last week, and discussed the difference between an architectural blueprint of a 'typical' castle and an actual castle built for a specific purpose at a specific location.
I think the teaching has been important to getting me through these last few months, to be honest. Every time I hit class, I perk up, because the students are interesting and the subject is fascinating. We talked last night about prepositions that take accusative and I was chipper as anything. My students are confident enough (being adults) to correct me when I get daft, and alert enough to care. I just need to factor more rest time until my body has recovered from recent events.
At Continuum, my rest time will be mainly in the bar, I suspect. It's not that I'm a drinker, really, but I have fiends who are and I love meeting new people. And I shall have (reasonably) early nights, because I don't love late night public transport. And I shan't be grumpy!!
I have made a pile of papers to work through today and tomorrow, so that I can let the work flow around the grump rather than letting the grump rule. I probably should have cancelled on a whole lot more things these last few weeks, given the amount of time I spent at the hospital and etc, but the chance to earn enough money to get through the worst of winter (which I will have done by the end of term) and the wonderousness of the things I was/am working on meant I didn't. I should skip Continuum, but it's about time I had fun and besides, I need to let the chemicals from the new heater dissipate (they turned out to be the icing on cake after last week's reaction to anaesthetic) and I'd rather feed chocolate to friends and colleagues than stay here, being miserable about allergies.
Tomorrow night I'm going to eat hot chips with students and teach the last world-building class. This means I have only until then to feel sorry for myself, for I defy anyone to be miserable while eating hot chips and teaching world-building to bright and dedicated students. It's Medieval world-building, too, which means I get to prevent the idiot mistakes so many of us complain about so very often. Functional castles! Operational societies! Sophisticated cultures! We talked about castles a lot last week, and discussed the difference between an architectural blueprint of a 'typical' castle and an actual castle built for a specific purpose at a specific location.
I think the teaching has been important to getting me through these last few months, to be honest. Every time I hit class, I perk up, because the students are interesting and the subject is fascinating. We talked last night about prepositions that take accusative and I was chipper as anything. My students are confident enough (being adults) to correct me when I get daft, and alert enough to care. I just need to factor more rest time until my body has recovered from recent events.
At Continuum, my rest time will be mainly in the bar, I suspect. It's not that I'm a drinker, really, but I have fiends who are and I love meeting new people. And I shall have (reasonably) early nights, because I don't love late night public transport. And I shan't be grumpy!!
June 5, 2012
gillpolack @ 2012-06-06T13:14:00
I was just terribly, terribly meta today. I don't have to work on being pretentious, I am simply that way, by nature. To give you the merest instance: I asked my class to write poems on the transit of Venus this morning while looking at sunbeams emanating from a sun being transitted by Venus.
If I hadn't kicked up clouds of fallen leaves on the way to the bus, I possibly could have kept up the pretence of high seriousness for longer, but the leaves were deep and tempting and just asking for play. So I'm not meta any more, I'm a child who jumps in piles of leaves on main roads.
If I hadn't kicked up clouds of fallen leaves on the way to the bus, I possibly could have kept up the pretence of high seriousness for longer, but the leaves were deep and tempting and just asking for play. So I'm not meta any more, I'm a child who jumps in piles of leaves on main roads.
June 4, 2012
Paul S Kemp - The Hammer and the Blade
It's time and past to introduce another Angry Robot book.
Sometimes we need an old-fashioned read. Sword and sorcery, the type with thieves and tomb-robbing and demonic bargains and mutterings in the dark. I needed one recently, for pretty obvious reasons, and I found it in Paul S Kemp's The Hammer and the Blade. I enjoyed it, but I find myself struggling to talk about it now. Part of this is because any book read at a bad time gets subsumed a little by that badness, which is what happened to a couple of Pyr books, and why I wrote about the reader's role in reading for BiblioBuffet - a reader is never a neutral party in books. I read it after the worst, but it was still a lovely bit of escapism just when I needed it, and that colours my thinking about it.
The Hammer and the Blade is pretty much according to formula, but it's a good formula with a solid audience and Kemp handles it well and with enough individuality to make it easy to turn the pages and say to oneself, "Oh no, he's not going to do that, is he?" And there's enough humour and enough cliff-hangeriness* to make every page worth turning.
This book was manna in my difficult weeks. It was one of the first books I read when I could see words properly again and think a little more clearly and it just fitted my needs at that moment. If you don’t like sword and sorcery or dungeons or thieves or twisted humour, then this book probably isn't for you, but I'd give it a go anyhow, just to see.
*This is a word we needed to have, so I invented it. Just now.
Sometimes we need an old-fashioned read. Sword and sorcery, the type with thieves and tomb-robbing and demonic bargains and mutterings in the dark. I needed one recently, for pretty obvious reasons, and I found it in Paul S Kemp's The Hammer and the Blade. I enjoyed it, but I find myself struggling to talk about it now. Part of this is because any book read at a bad time gets subsumed a little by that badness, which is what happened to a couple of Pyr books, and why I wrote about the reader's role in reading for BiblioBuffet - a reader is never a neutral party in books. I read it after the worst, but it was still a lovely bit of escapism just when I needed it, and that colours my thinking about it.
The Hammer and the Blade is pretty much according to formula, but it's a good formula with a solid audience and Kemp handles it well and with enough individuality to make it easy to turn the pages and say to oneself, "Oh no, he's not going to do that, is he?" And there's enough humour and enough cliff-hangeriness* to make every page worth turning.
This book was manna in my difficult weeks. It was one of the first books I read when I could see words properly again and think a little more clearly and it just fitted my needs at that moment. If you don’t like sword and sorcery or dungeons or thieves or twisted humour, then this book probably isn't for you, but I'd give it a go anyhow, just to see.
*This is a word we needed to have, so I invented it. Just now.
gillpolack @ 2012-06-05T12:01:00
The wind is valiantly trying to blow the rain and cloud aside so that Canberra can see the transit of Venus. I don't think it's going to succeed. In fact, I think the transit of Venus is going to go down on the very long list of astronomical events I've tried to see, but failed.
I ought to have other news for today, but I don't. It turns out that one's body needs more than a couple of days to sort itself out after anaesthetics. Who'd have thought! In other words, I'm working, but slowly and with many cups of tea.
I had other news, but I'm still so happy to be able to be able to feed much chocolate to people who ask (nicely!) at Continuum, that all other news escapes me. No doubt I'll blog later, when I remember...
I ought to have other news for today, but I don't. It turns out that one's body needs more than a couple of days to sort itself out after anaesthetics. Who'd have thought! In other words, I'm working, but slowly and with many cups of tea.
I had other news, but I'm still so happy to be able to be able to feed much chocolate to people who ask (nicely!) at Continuum, that all other news escapes me. No doubt I'll blog later, when I remember...
