Damn it! You know what? I'm sick of this crap. I'm sick of being the guy who eats insects and gets the funny syphilis. As of this moment, it's over. I'm finished being everybody's butt monkey!

Xander ,'Lessons'


We're Literary 2: To Read Makes Our Speaking English Good  

There's more to life than watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer! No. Really, there is! Honestly! Here's a place for Buffistas to come and discuss what it is they're reading, their favorite authors and poets. "Geez. Crack a book sometime."


meara - Jun 01, 2004 2:30:50 pm PDT #2995 of 10002

Meara, did the font changes in this book make you crazy. or was it me?

To a certain extent, yeah. It threw me more the couple times she opened a new chapter from the POV of a new character--one we hadn't even heard of.

There's a LOT of cases where transpeople have been beaten, raped, killed. Hell, we had a rash of them last summer here in DC. It's really fucking depressing. The reality is bad enough--fiction needn't make it worse!


amyparker - Jun 01, 2004 2:46:59 pm PDT #2996 of 10002
You've got friends to have good times with. When you need to share the trauma of a badly-written book with someone, that's when you go to family.

For those of you who read Ursula K. LeGuin, which of her short stories -- short stories only -- would you say is her best, or her most still-relevant-today?

Nutty, I would suggest "Solitude", "Old Music and the Slave Women", or "Paradises Lost", all in The Birthday of the World, one of her recent collections.


hun_e - Jun 01, 2004 8:52:29 pm PDT #2997 of 10002
Meanwhile, back at the Hall of Justice...

I enjoyed Sunshine, though not as much as McKinley's other stuff. It reminded me a lot of her other stuff, like same plot, similar protagonist, different setting. If I had to pick I'd say Deerskin is my favourite, except when I re-read it, I always skip from where the queen dies to where Lissar is on her own. Just knowing what happens in that section is enough for me.


Dana - Jun 02, 2004 5:35:59 am PDT #2998 of 10002
I'm terrifically busy with my ennui.

That's the place I stalled out in the book the first time. I eventually managed to read past it, and I like the rest of the book, but boy, is that section horrific.

I wonder where my copy of The Outlaws of Sherwood is.


Consuela - Jun 02, 2004 7:09:21 am PDT #2999 of 10002
We are Buffistas. This isn't our first apocalypse. -- Pix

I love Outlaws of Sherwood, but I've been writing too long, and the pov issues make me cranky. Which is a disappointment, because I really do think it's a marvelous version of the tale.


Betsy HP - Jun 02, 2004 7:43:55 am PDT #3000 of 10002
If I only had a brain...

I didn't love the Orsinian stories, but I can't tell you why.


Katerina Bee - Jun 02, 2004 8:00:43 am PDT #3001 of 10002
Herding cats for fun

I have a big love for "Deerskin." I can hardly bear to read that bad section, but I always do. I sort of feel responsible to be with Lissar and witness her story throughout. This may be partly because of the cover art - the woman's face would be a dead ringer for my friend Alice (who passed away recently), were her hair and eyes black instead of white.


Micole - Jun 03, 2004 7:03:22 am PDT #3002 of 10002
I've been working on a song about the difference between analogy and metaphor.

Nutty, I'm atypical in that I much prefer Le Guin's later short fiction to her earlier, and I also hate "The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas." But I would recommend "Solitude," or one of the novellas in Four Ways to Forgiveness, for your purposes. Or maybe "The Matter of Seggri."

A lot of her recent work has been novella length, though, which maybe too long for your purposes?


Nutty - Jun 03, 2004 7:09:51 am PDT #3003 of 10002
"Mister Spock is on his fanny, sir. Reports heavy damage."

Right. Although the short story cycle and the novella are big issues in this editor's world -- he was like "So many people have never heard of the short story cycle!!" and I said, not a problem with my people! -- we just don't have the space. Or rather, we could have the space, except Melville's got a novella, and between Melville and Le Guin, in an American fiction anthology, I know who wins.

The Seggri story and Solitude are indeed two I pointed out to him, and the others Amy recommended.


Typo Boy - Jun 03, 2004 7:16:19 am PDT #3004 of 10002
Calli: My people have a saying. A man who trusts can never be betrayed, only mistaken.Avon: Life expectancy among your people must be extremely short.

Hmm - curious as to what you disliked about "Omelas".