Scary thing? I have no memory of her physicality. I not only couldn't tell you what she was wearing, I couldn't tell you what she looked like. I wouldn't have known her on the street the following day, that's how completely I blocked her out.

And unfortunately, based on her reaction to what you said, all I can do is picture her as Dworkin's equally evil twin.

My main gripe with Dworkin has always been that if someone tried a sense of humour implant on her, her system would almost certainly reject it.

My main gripe with Dworkin has always been that if someone tried a sense of humour implant on her, her system would almost certainly reject it.

I think like matter and anti-matter smacking into each other, such an attempt would cause wide-spread destruction.

I agree Deborah. And it's unfortunate - because some of what Dworkin has to say is actually worth thinking about. When the U.S. supported the Majadeen agains the Russians in Afghanistan she was one of the first to say "Yes, support the resistance against them - but not the fundamentalists. There are lot's of other groups opposing the Russians." And she was ignored , and Aghanistan ended up with the Taliban. On some subjects (admittedly not pornography or male sexuality in my opinion) I fnd her quite sensible.

Manoman (or womanowoman, or whatever), we are all in agreement here, and nice does it feel, yes indeed, and why in sweet hell am I talking like Yoda?

Yes to Plei, yesyesyes. There aren't enough anti-rejection drugs to make that transplant possible.

And yes to TB, and it's precisely what makes me nuts about Dworkin - she's such a sour fruitloop most of the time that the good stuff gets buried.

This discussion reminded me of an excellent essay over at Tomato Nation: Yes, You Are.

Also, Deb, are you on AIM?

Holli, give me a minute. I'm on a holy crusade and have been seething over in Bitches, but I'll climb on right now.

I missed the end of the last thread, and it is so quiet at work right now that I am catching up on old threads where I missed the last couple hundred posts.

Y'all were talking about Charles deLint back in December. Charles lives in Ottawa (as many readers will know) and I used to get up there a lot, back in the day when he worked occasionally in the local SF bookshop (now gone and sorely missed). I've also met him a number of times at signings and cons here in Toronto. He has always been extremely kind and polite and generous with his time even with the most barely-functioning fans. A number of times, he and MaryAnn have brought instruments and sat in at singalongs. So yeah, I'm a fan, of the writing, certainly, but of the two of them as people, for sure.

Holli, thanks SO MUCH for posting that Tomato Nation link! Sars rocks mightily, and I've been looking for that sort of article for yonks.

Did you ever read her article/essay about September 11? Made me cry.

ION, I read John Crowley's The Translator this weekend. I remember Micole reading it and not loving it, but I adored it. Ended up at the very end of the line getting onto a plane on Friday because I couldn't put it down.

It's about a young college student in 1961, befriending an exiled Russian poet at an unnamed midwestern college. It's about translation, and history, and love, and fate, and the Cuban missile crisis.

I thought the prose was just gorgeous, and the story heartbreaking. Interestingly structured, too, if you're into that sort of thing (like me). Prologue is set in 1959, novel starts in 1993, then it goes back to 1961 and pingpongs mostly between the late 1950s and 1961/62, with occasional visits back to 1993. God, it was beautiful.

I've read several other of Crowley's novels, including Little, Big, and Engine Summer, but this is very different.

Did you ever read her article/essay about September 11? Made me cry.

Yup. Me, too.