Gillian Polack's Blog, page 207
February 19, 2012
gillpolack @ 2012-02-19T21:19:00
I ought to work. I ought to blog. I ought to do a whole bunch of things. There are 60 articles I wanted to hoe into today, and a manuscript assessment that's due tomorrow first thing, and there are bills to pay and suddenly summer has hit and the weather is humid and I'm tired of it all. I shall watch the Dead Zone.
I have made this decision with great care and consideration. Maybe in a couple of hours I'll do some of the more urgent things on my list. Or maybe in a couple of hours I'll make a pot of tea. I should never have taken most of last Sunday off. One week is all it takes to come to expect such things as natural parts of life.
I have made this decision with great care and consideration. Maybe in a couple of hours I'll do some of the more urgent things on my list. Or maybe in a couple of hours I'll make a pot of tea. I should never have taken most of last Sunday off. One week is all it takes to come to expect such things as natural parts of life.
February 18, 2012
Angry Robot Time - Chuck Wendig, Blackbirds
I wanted to love Chuck Wendig's Blackbirds so very much. It's a dark novel about a woman who can see how people are going to die and who does not handle that knowledge very gracefully. Her life travels from tough to impossible to tough to impossible, in a dizzying seesaw. This novel is not at the dark end of Angry Robot books: it's at the very dark end.
The book has a great deal going for it. Although the beginning is a tad self-consciously literary, once it gets going the writing is careful and angry and unhappy. The narrative has a good plot arc and much tension of all the right kinds and is, as all the other reviewers say, an excellent book and the tale is well-told and the central character has a strong voice and a strong life. The trouble is that I don't like it. All of its good qualities register as technical reasons why I should like it, but I found it was hard to stay with and uncomfortable to read.
I suspect that the problem is with the narrative voice. It's told from the point of view of Miriam. She's a woman. I say that with doubt, because her language and her thought patterns were too often alien to me. The syntax doesn't feel right. So many metaphors and similes are car metaphors and similes, or the wrong body parts. For much of the novel I felt as if I was reading a man's narrative* in a woman's body and shaped around a woman's life. A whole heap of women may well use that syntax and hold that world view. They're not the women I tend to hang around with, and who reinforce my own tendency to focus on emotions just so and look at streets in a particular way, but all that reflects is the limits of my life. This is why I'm pretty sure my dislike of the book is personal and has absolutely nothing to do with the quality of the novel itself. Or with Chuck Wendig's writing.
Not all books are for all readers and this one was not for me. Miriam's voice didn't convince me that she wasn't male - what an odd reason to distrust a novel. The trouble is, though, that a reading experience is based on that trust. And there are no female characters with voices I recognise, to demonstrate to me that this was intentional, that Miriam is just someone who I haven't met yet. All the women are sharp in that same way. It's not a problem for the minor characters, but it means that Blackbirds and I didn't establish a good relationship.
I therefore suggest (very strongly) that you entirely ignore my review and read the first chapter and make your own decision. If you like the voice, then the book's a ripper. Brilliant, even. If you don't, then we shall ponder the matter together over drinks.
Also, even if you don't want to try the book (which you should - my reaction to it was very strongly personal and the whole way through I could see reasons why I ought to love it) you should look at the cover. I adore that cover. I want to steal it for my own and write a novel around it. Or I want the cover art for my wall.
*Just to be fair, I know many men who do not think in these terms. I only know a few who do, to be honest. It's just that I don't know any women who think like this. Or, if I do, they hide it from me (in which case, what is it about me?). And it's so far from my own way of seeing the world that I need to be convinced. And I wasn't. It might all be because of who I know and where I come from, though. Which is why I keep saying it's personal.
PS I forgot to give you the all-important link to the book, with that amazing cover and the release dates. Sorry! http://angryrobotbooks.com/our-authors/chuck-wendig/blackbirds-chuck-wendig/
The book has a great deal going for it. Although the beginning is a tad self-consciously literary, once it gets going the writing is careful and angry and unhappy. The narrative has a good plot arc and much tension of all the right kinds and is, as all the other reviewers say, an excellent book and the tale is well-told and the central character has a strong voice and a strong life. The trouble is that I don't like it. All of its good qualities register as technical reasons why I should like it, but I found it was hard to stay with and uncomfortable to read.
I suspect that the problem is with the narrative voice. It's told from the point of view of Miriam. She's a woman. I say that with doubt, because her language and her thought patterns were too often alien to me. The syntax doesn't feel right. So many metaphors and similes are car metaphors and similes, or the wrong body parts. For much of the novel I felt as if I was reading a man's narrative* in a woman's body and shaped around a woman's life. A whole heap of women may well use that syntax and hold that world view. They're not the women I tend to hang around with, and who reinforce my own tendency to focus on emotions just so and look at streets in a particular way, but all that reflects is the limits of my life. This is why I'm pretty sure my dislike of the book is personal and has absolutely nothing to do with the quality of the novel itself. Or with Chuck Wendig's writing.
Not all books are for all readers and this one was not for me. Miriam's voice didn't convince me that she wasn't male - what an odd reason to distrust a novel. The trouble is, though, that a reading experience is based on that trust. And there are no female characters with voices I recognise, to demonstrate to me that this was intentional, that Miriam is just someone who I haven't met yet. All the women are sharp in that same way. It's not a problem for the minor characters, but it means that Blackbirds and I didn't establish a good relationship.
I therefore suggest (very strongly) that you entirely ignore my review and read the first chapter and make your own decision. If you like the voice, then the book's a ripper. Brilliant, even. If you don't, then we shall ponder the matter together over drinks.
Also, even if you don't want to try the book (which you should - my reaction to it was very strongly personal and the whole way through I could see reasons why I ought to love it) you should look at the cover. I adore that cover. I want to steal it for my own and write a novel around it. Or I want the cover art for my wall.
*Just to be fair, I know many men who do not think in these terms. I only know a few who do, to be honest. It's just that I don't know any women who think like this. Or, if I do, they hide it from me (in which case, what is it about me?). And it's so far from my own way of seeing the world that I need to be convinced. And I wasn't. It might all be because of who I know and where I come from, though. Which is why I keep saying it's personal.
PS I forgot to give you the all-important link to the book, with that amazing cover and the release dates. Sorry! http://angryrobotbooks.com/our-authors/chuck-wendig/blackbirds-chuck-wendig/
gillpolack @ 2012-02-18T14:29:00
Right now, I'm thinking about textual transmission in the Middle Ages.
It used to be something I thought about a lot, but recently, other issues have displaced it. This gave me a space to think about modern technology and its effects on our textual transmission. I'm forever coming across people (including writers, oddly) who haven't read this or that book, but who know about it from a documentary or from youtube or from someone's blog or art and who are delighted to use that knowledge as evidence of learning.
We have always transmitted information about what we read. Talking about books or the characters and stories in books is solid cultural currency. We're doing it differently, now, though, and some of the insights given to me by my grail book (a review of which will appear on BiblioBuffet in due course) are worth considering for how they apply to our changing cultural currency.
I guess what I'm saying is that the balance is shifting between the written and the non-written, between the written-on-paper and the written-on-web, between the heard and the seen. This shift has been happening for a while. In fact, it is what drove me to be a Medievalist in the first place. I wanted to see it in a distant culture in order to understand it in my own.
It used to be something I thought about a lot, but recently, other issues have displaced it. This gave me a space to think about modern technology and its effects on our textual transmission. I'm forever coming across people (including writers, oddly) who haven't read this or that book, but who know about it from a documentary or from youtube or from someone's blog or art and who are delighted to use that knowledge as evidence of learning.
We have always transmitted information about what we read. Talking about books or the characters and stories in books is solid cultural currency. We're doing it differently, now, though, and some of the insights given to me by my grail book (a review of which will appear on BiblioBuffet in due course) are worth considering for how they apply to our changing cultural currency.
I guess what I'm saying is that the balance is shifting between the written and the non-written, between the written-on-paper and the written-on-web, between the heard and the seen. This shift has been happening for a while. In fact, it is what drove me to be a Medievalist in the first place. I wanted to see it in a distant culture in order to understand it in my own.
February 17, 2012
gillpolack @ 2012-02-18T00:41:00
I have a little insomnia. Too many storms in too rapid succession have left me vapid but unable to sleep. I decided to stop my mind's enthusiastic endeavour (it was working very hard to make me think I'm working too hard and have too much to do, neither of which are true) by writing my 2012 projects (the ones remaining, anyhow) on a piece of butcher's paper and sticking them to my door. That was magic.
Except then I started thinking about the projects. So now I'm doing a little bit of reading for a couple of the nearer deadlines. That should do the trick. Wear the brain out, so it can think no longer. Read about the Conte du Graal until quest visions take over my mind and lure it into dreams. It's either that or phone a friend, and I can't think that any friend would be happy with a phonecall at this hour.
Except then I started thinking about the projects. So now I'm doing a little bit of reading for a couple of the nearer deadlines. That should do the trick. Wear the brain out, so it can think no longer. Read about the Conte du Graal until quest visions take over my mind and lure it into dreams. It's either that or phone a friend, and I can't think that any friend would be happy with a phonecall at this hour.
gillpolack @ 2012-02-17T14:49:00
This is the week of the behind-the-scene negotiations. Some things move forward. Some things stall. Some things die in a ditch. Later this year, the things that are moving forward may (all going well) turn into Real Things and I'll be able to talk about them. Maybe even some of the things that stall will turn into Real Things. That'd be nice!
What would also be nice is less thunder on the right, the left and centre. I am willing to give my weather superpower to anyone who wants it, as long as they take the aches and blurred vision as well.
What would also be nice is less thunder on the right, the left and centre. I am willing to give my weather superpower to anyone who wants it, as long as they take the aches and blurred vision as well.
February 16, 2012
gillpolack @ 2012-02-17T00:53:00
I'm going to stop being dull and boring and go to sleep. The good news is that I've done all but two of the things I had to do today. The better news is that I've caught up bits of my backlog (from when my email died and when I actually counted the articles I had to read for the Beast). I actually read half a book purely for fun today (about a Torres Strait pearlfisher) and it suddenly dawned on me that I totally love what I do and I get squillions of wonderful books through my life, but right now I don't often have a choice in what I read, just in the order in which I read them. That won't improve until I submit this doctorate, I suspect. And now you know why I'm dull and boring...
gillpolack @ 2012-02-16T11:48:00
Until lunchtime, I am reading articles about and by Hayden White. This is dissertation stuff. I have a vain hope of finishing this project, one day. It's time for me to introduce the fiction of my PhD to the theory of it. So far the introduction has gone well -- history is polite but cautious, fiction is cheeky and never-mind but shows an inclination to be friends.
This introduction has side effects in real life. Emails that should have arrived last week start entering my inbox; I get phonecalls from strange women asking for Metatech (metahistory's cousin?).
My amusement for the morning comes from discovering something I once knew but had forgotten. Hayden White was a Medievalist, initially. How could I have forgotten this? And what is it about Medieval Studies that turns scholars into rabid discussers of discourse and analysers of narrative?
This introduction has side effects in real life. Emails that should have arrived last week start entering my inbox; I get phonecalls from strange women asking for Metatech (metahistory's cousin?).
My amusement for the morning comes from discovering something I once knew but had forgotten. Hayden White was a Medievalist, initially. How could I have forgotten this? And what is it about Medieval Studies that turns scholars into rabid discussers of discourse and analysers of narrative?
February 15, 2012
gillpolack @ 2012-02-15T18:39:00
My list for today contains 24 things and all but 8 are crossed out. Also, I did one whacking great thing before teaching and forgot to put it on the list at all. I'm thinking of taking bets on the remaining items. I want to give up and eat dinner and then waste the rest of the evening...
gillpolack @ 2012-02-15T13:00:00
Somehow we spent half of class today discussing how the Federal electoral system worked and the other half talking about manuscripts. We made minim puns (sort of) and looked at the progression of the English language over centuries. We also did some writing, but not a lot.
I love my Wednesday writing class, but they do test my knowledge! Fortunately, in my misspent youth, I was a scrutineer (very low level student politics has a lot to answer for - high level student politics might have even more to answer for, but I didn't get involved) and when I moved to Canberra I discovered the tally room and the joys of watching the national vote count happen live. It's not as exciting these days, now that the numbers aren't flipped over manually and the pollies don't rub shoulders with all the journos and with us hoi polloi, and the queues are miles long to get into the tally room, so I haven't been recently. Anyhow, this seamy past meant that I could explain how the Senate ticket works and how the House of Reps people are voted in and how we get our Prime Minister. I could explain donkey votes, too.
And poems were written. They ended up being contemplative, concerning what a country would be like where one had the option not to vote.
I love my Wednesday writing class, but they do test my knowledge! Fortunately, in my misspent youth, I was a scrutineer (very low level student politics has a lot to answer for - high level student politics might have even more to answer for, but I didn't get involved) and when I moved to Canberra I discovered the tally room and the joys of watching the national vote count happen live. It's not as exciting these days, now that the numbers aren't flipped over manually and the pollies don't rub shoulders with all the journos and with us hoi polloi, and the queues are miles long to get into the tally room, so I haven't been recently. Anyhow, this seamy past meant that I could explain how the Senate ticket works and how the House of Reps people are voted in and how we get our Prime Minister. I could explain donkey votes, too.
And poems were written. They ended up being contemplative, concerning what a country would be like where one had the option not to vote.
February 14, 2012
gillpolack @ 2012-02-14T13:29:00
Purim and International Women's Day collide this year. This means I have a religious obligation to get drunk on International Women's Day. If anyone wants to join me, there will also be a Gillianish retelling of the story of Esther, and pastizzi and sweets (two kinds of food!). For interstate friends, first in gets the futon, after that there is L-space and after that there is, alas, nothing except cold corridor. Come! Visit!
