When I read Thomas Hardy, I am always thinking about Hardy, and not about his characters.

When I had to read Thomas Hardy, I was thinking "Why am I an English major? And why was I born?"

Well, that's disappointing abut Petra. I really liked her in these 2 books.

Not sure if I'll read anymore. I tried reading u Pastwatch a long, long time ao, but just couldn't get into it.

OSC pissed Joe off a couple of months ago with some article - I never read it - about how he supported W and the war, etc et etc. Or summat.

Um, Mormon church -- quite homophobic.

I tried reading u Pastwatch a long, long time ao, but just couldn't get into it.

See, I rather liked it... sort of. That is to say, I really enjoyed the idea, but wasn't thrilled by the writing.

Fred it is, and misogynst too. But there are Mormons who oppose to homophobia. And Reid is not exactly a liberal Democrat (though not a far right one either). I'm not defending the "Latter Day Saints" - just not allowing it be used as either excuse or full explanation for loony views.

Oh, now I feel bad by dropping that into the thread and disappearing. I should say that I stopped reading Card before I became aware of his politics: his writing simply stopped working for me. The politics has made me less likely to pick him up again, but then I wasn't likely too, anyway.

To change the topic. I just finished reading a fantasy series by someone who is also a ficwriter, although I didn't know that when I started reading the series. This has caused some wonkiness in my brain, because now that I know this, I'm mapping two of the characters in her original novels onto the television characters--and frankly, one of them fits perfectly. Down to the name being kind of similar. Now, I've not read her fic in that universe, but I remember thinking there was an awful lot of unwritten backstory to these people when they showed up in the first novel. Apparently I was right.

Not really sure how I feel about this. This is, in fact, the second time I've witnessed it from a novelist who is also a fan. I find it a bit disconcerting; but on the other hand, if the story works regardless, it's okay.

Hmm.

Irish Breakfast tea:

Great essay here about the genre ghetto and reclaiming 'fantasy' as a label. [link]

I win the Conflicted Prize, though. Because I'm a feminist. And a James Ellroy fan. I hate how he writes women, like a lot. Had a hate-on all through L.A. Confidential(and one day one of my women will smack a man, just for parity's sake) But I happened upon an essay of his in some magazine and the descriptions knocked me back. I wanted to lie to myself about it, too, but that is a talent, if not a talent I'd trust with my panty drawer. And this is not like the Roth thing...I'm not gonna be able to even pick out one passage to say he's not a misogynist...maybe I could say that he doesn't think humanity, as a whole is worth the sweat it took to conceive us(Which, if I truly believed that, I'd kill myself, so it's not even a like-finding-like thing.) I don't even understand that, but there it is.

Fun essay. Although, I thought "magic realism" was the term for the stuff that Allende and Borges write. Wrote. Pick a tense.

Although, I thought "magic realism" was the term for the stuff that Allende and Borges write.

So far as I know, it is. But what makes it that and not fantasy? Because I'm not seeing any kind of definition that draws a valid difference between Marquez and, well, Charles de Lint.