And the way she knew she was really married was when she and her husband finally combined their libraries, with all the attendant angst.
Gunn: The final score can't be rigged. I don't care how many players you grease, that last shot always comes up a question mark. But here's the thing. You never know when you're taking it. It could be when you're duking it out with the Legion of Doom, or just crossing the street deciding where to have brunch. So you just treat it like it was up to you—the world in balance—'cause you never know when it is.
'Underneath'
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."
Connie Neil - Feb 21, 2006 1:12:20 pm PST #9927 of 10002
brillig
Java cat - Feb 21, 2006 4:57:09 pm PST #9928 of 10002
Not javachik
Oh, that reminds me! I was thinking the other day about a book that was discussed here a while ago. Actually, I think someone just linked to a review on someone else's website. Anyway, the book was clearly awful (possibly self-published) and involved a protagonist who embodied nearly every current bad fantasy/romance cliche: he was a telepathic alien elf pirate, or something, and the review was fantastically snarky and funny. Is this ringing a bell for anyone?
Yes! I think but am not positive that it came up in a discussion about What Makes A Mary Sue A Mary Sue - the elf pirate's girlfriend was a red-haired Mary Sue, IIRC. It was a couple of years ago, I think, in this thread.
I haven't read here in over a year - it's fun to read the book recs.
Never Let Me Go, by Kazuo Ishiguro, is my favorite from 2005. It's beautifully written and the whole story doesn't really hit you until you've finished it.
meara - Feb 21, 2006 5:18:21 pm PST #9929 of 10002
Hee. KristinT and I were just discussing ExLibris on Monday!
billytea - Feb 21, 2006 5:32:09 pm PST #9930 of 10002
You were a wrong baby who grew up wrong. The wrong kind of wrong. It's better you hear it from a friend.
Hee. KristinT and I were just discussing ExLibris on Monday!
Namedropper.
Kate P. - Feb 21, 2006 5:40:43 pm PST #9931 of 10002
That's the pain / That cuts a straight line down through the heart / We call it love
Yes! I think but am not positive that it came up in a discussion about What Makes A Mary Sue A Mary Sue
Okay, so I'm not crazy! I'll try searching the old thread. Thanks, Java cat!
Hey, anyone want to give me some good manga recs? I just read Fullmetal Alchemist (for my Young Adult Literature class, which is pretty much the awesomest class ever) and now I want to explore further.
Volans - Feb 21, 2006 11:12:27 pm PST #9932 of 10002
move out and draw fire
So, any short story fans? What makes a short story good? Is a mysterious/ambiguous/unresolved ending desireable?
Anne W. - Feb 22, 2006 2:00:55 am PST #9933 of 10002
The lost sheep grow teeth, forsake their lambs, and lie with the lions.
I like short stories from time to time, and I wouldn't say that desireable is the term I'd use for mysterious/unresolved/ambiguous ending. I think that a short story can support such an ending much better than a longer work can; in a longer work, that kind of ending can feel like a cheat, given the investment we've put into reading the story. Conversely, a resolved ending to a short story can seem pat and contrived, especially if the events leading to the resolution have to be crammed in to a too-short space.
I'm going to have to think about why I like the short stories I do and come back to this one.
§ ita § - Feb 22, 2006 3:57:42 am PST #9934 of 10002
Well not canonically, no, but this is transformative fiction.
Is a mysterious/ambiguous/unresolved ending desireable?
That sounds way too much like formula for me. It can work, in good hands. But it doesn't need to be there.
I agree with Anne that those endings work better in short stories. A novel, unless mightily well done, will leave me thinking "I've been here how long, and I don't know what happened!"
Fred Pete - Feb 22, 2006 3:59:49 am PST #9935 of 10002
Ann, that's a ferret.
I agree with Anne. The m/u/a/ ending can work very well in a short story. Especially since the short story doesn't have to say what happened next. Examples:
"When I was a child, something happened that changed everything." The story is "what happened," the consequences left for the reader to decipher.
In the SF area, "Scientist makes discovery." While it's obvious that the discovery will change things, we don't see what those changes are. You might want to check out Isaac Asimov's "The Dead Past" as an example.
DebetEsse - Feb 22, 2006 4:03:26 am PST #9936 of 10002
Woe to the fucking wicked.
I was just thinking "Well, I finished Son of a Witch, but that conversation's already happened." and then this opening showed up.
OMG, incomplete ending that blows a lot. I've seen it work a few times in longer works, but there needs to be a sense of an ending, if not the ending, although I think that that holds for short stories, too. I can deal with and even like the ambiguity of an open ending, but there does need to be an "ending" with the "open"