I am going to look for papers for you...
Loving Seska
I'll log off and go to bed if you'll log off and go to bed, OK?
Book: Yes, I'd forgotten you're moonlighting as a criminal mastermind now. Got your next heist planned? Simon: No. But I'm thinking about growing a big black mustache. I'm a traditionalist.
'War Stories'
Spike's Bitches 44: It's about the rules having changed.
[NAFDA] Spike-centric discussion. Lusty, lewd (only occasionally crude), risqué (and frisqué), bawdy (Oh, lawdy!), flirty ('cuz we're purty), raunchy talk inside. Caveat lector.
Shir - Sep 16, 2009 12:25:14 pm PDT #23418 of 30000
"And that's why God Almighty gave us fire insurance and the public defender".
Seska (the Watcher-in-Training) - Sep 16, 2009 12:25:30 pm PDT #23419 of 30000
"We're all stories, in the end. Just make it a good one, eh?"
Can we rain check the answer to that question to times I'll feel smarter?
Heh. Sure. If you can remind me that I was too tired to discuss the social model with you. Tomorrow I will want to hit myself over the head repeatedly for missing the opportunity.
Strix - Sep 16, 2009 12:26:00 pm PDT #23420 of 30000
A dress should be tight enough to show you're a woman but loose enough to flee from zombies. — Ginger
Yes, I have recs! Try "Gibbon's Decline and Fall" for an alien/gender/Eco twist; "Beauty" if you enjoy fairy tales and feminism; "The Family Tree" for eco/(redacted for spoilery.)
She gets a mite doomy and gender/Eco apocolypicty at times, but I enjoy her POV and imaginative force.
Seska (the Watcher-in-Training) - Sep 16, 2009 12:26:46 pm PDT #23421 of 30000
"We're all stories, in the end. Just make it a good one, eh?"
I'll log off and go to bed if you'll log off and go to bed, OK?
Just let me find this one paper I've had in mind, first... *grin*
N'night, Bitches.
Kathy A - Sep 16, 2009 12:27:10 pm PDT #23422 of 30000
We're very stretchy. - Connie Neil
Sheri Tepper's book The Family Tree is the only one of hers I've read, and (no spoilers here!!) I'll just say that about halfway through, you have to completely change your mindspace. Biggest "WTF?!?" (but in a good way) moment I ever had reading. Do NOT let yourself get spoiled about this book, because I loved that 180 turn I had to take.
I also liked an old SF romance I read back in the late '80s by Ann Maxwell (Elizabeth Lowell's SF penname) called Timeshadow Rider. I read it in one day, did not understand the climax of the book at all, reread it the next, and finally the light bulb went on over my head about 3/4 of the way through the second read. It involved a big mental shift to figure out the ending because it was so alien. Again, I loved that rethinking.
Shir - Sep 16, 2009 12:27:37 pm PDT #23423 of 30000
"And that's why God Almighty gave us fire insurance and the public defender".
Tomorrow I will want to hit myself over the head repeatedly for missing the opportunity.
Hey hey, we're both still alive, as far as I noticed. The future is ahead of us!
And thanks, Erin. Your post was duly marked.
§ ita § - Sep 16, 2009 12:27:57 pm PDT #23424 of 30000
Well not canonically, no, but this is transformative fiction.
if we can't begin to comprehend the truly alien, as Shir points out, then should we just give up on sci-fi altogether? Is it a pointless genre?
Sci fi doesn't have to be about aliens to be good sci fi. It can be about "just" the impact of technology on our culture.
I second the recommendation of Octavia Butler--she did a lot about the cost of alienness. I can't recommend anything of Sheri Tepper's beyond her YA stuff, which I don't think was remarkable in handling aliens. Her adult work I found shrilly one-note political.
Shir - Sep 16, 2009 12:30:02 pm PDT #23425 of 30000
"And that's why God Almighty gave us fire insurance and the public defender".
Staying true to my words, I'll say goodnight to you too, Bitches.
Don't talk so much while I'm away, OK? I have the feeling I'll wake up tomorrow to 152 new posts in discussion I hate to miss.
Cashmere - Sep 16, 2009 12:30:03 pm PDT #23426 of 30000
Now tagless for your comfort.
Williams Gibson's stuff mostly isn't about aliens but is damned good science fiction.
Kathy A - Sep 16, 2009 12:31:45 pm PDT #23427 of 30000
We're very stretchy. - Connie Neil
Her adult work I found shrilly one-note political.
This is why The Family Tree remains the only book of hers I've read. Really annoyingly strident in her political agenda. I have similar issues with James Tiptree, Jr.--she (Alice Sheldon was her real name) was blatantly anti-male in her writing, but she did write some beautiful short stories nonetheless.