(no subject)

[oyceter]

Either I need to stop listening to certain CDs over and over and over at work, or I really need to a) get and b) teach myself Premiere. Because really, isn't Me First and the Gimme Gimme's version of It's Raining on Prom Night just call out for a Buffy Prom centered vid?

More thoughts on Otherland, no spoilers: One minor thing I really liked about Otherland was how the cast of characters was multiracial -- Renie and !Xabbu from Africa, Martine from France, people from Asia, Australia, etc. Too often when I read scifi (which, granted, isn't that often at all), it seems as though people just assume that America has conquered space. I remember mentioning something like this to one of my friends, how I liked the Ender series because they had worlds colonized by the Portuguese and the Chinese and the Japanese and Norweigians and why most scifi books didn't seem that multicultural... she said something back like how it was much more realistic to have American colonies everywhere in space because the country was so advanced technologically and whatnot. Rather got my gander up. But anyhow, I liked how Otherland didn't assume that the future would be comprised of one culture and one race. This is also why I like Octavia E. Butler too.

I also liked how much the book was intelligently informed by Tokien, something I probably never would have noticed (or thought about, since it would be hard to not notice Orlando repeatedly referring to LotR) if not for selenak's comments on the Memory, Sorrow, Thorn trilogy. I never even noticed until the end of the book how there were nine companions "chosen." Was trying to match people up with the Fellowship, but never quite got it straight... I also liked the influence of fairy tales and children's stories and myths, something Williams really got to play with thanks to the structure of his world.

More on Gaffney -- finished the book, which immediately got fuzzy ten pages after the last time I wrote! Well, not fuzzy per se, but definitely a lot less angsty and dark and disturbing than it was. Read reviews on Laurie Likes Books, and I think a lot of people had a problem with the hero, which is fully understandable. I personally loved the beginning because it didn't feel like a romance at all and had interesting ways of using sex scenes. But the writing was good, and I probably will be picking up more Gaffney in the future. I also found out apparently she's known for writing joy! Trust me to find the one exception... I did that with Laura Kinsale too, with the Prince of Midnight, which I also loved because it had an angsty and tortured heroine and a hero that acted much more like a typical heroine. Plus, it actually thought about love at first sight and what love was and why people loved each other. So I read her other books because I thought she did the tortured heroine bit, and turns out she normally does the hugely tortured hero! Tortured heroes are fine, but they don't really hit any of my kinks like tortured heroines, because really, how often is the hero not tortured and broody and/or sexually promiscuous? Besides, I sympathize a lot more with a tortured heroine rather than a heroine taking care of her tortured hero.

Still need to find the Alias premiere to dl... argh, almost done with season one, but can't get my hands on season 2!!

Links:
- gwyneira's review of To Have and To Hold

Comments

[onetwomany.livejournal.com]

The Alias premiere is up on the newsgroup - dunno if you're familiar with that, but there is a guide at www.timdoc.com, and elz did one up, and I have a simple one around too. It's easy once you get the hang of it, although you will probably have to pay for access.

Re cultures in space - interesting. I tend to raise an eyebrow at the US flags and US governmental structures and whatever that constantly features in SF, but it doesn't bother me that much. I guess most of the mainstream SF is written by Americans, and people write both what they know, and what they are comfortable writing. I guess that just happens because in many ways I'm use to seeing the US as the (entertainment) norm, and everything else (including what I'm use to here) as different.

Also, it's ironic to think that on a theoretical level, space offers possibilities for multiple, divergent ways of life and freedoms never before seen. And yet technology is expanding so slowly, and the problems involved so great, that there's a possibility that human society may well be more homogenous than ever before (through necessity and interaction) by the time we actually get up there (if we ever do...).

[oyceter]

Thanks for the tip... Hrm. Debating whether or not to shell out the 10 bucks...

I think a lot of the culture thing is like the internet, where the default mode is set on American or white. I mean, I do that, which is kind of strange when I think about it, because, hey, Chinese. I think a lot of it for me is what I read too -- I read Chinese veeeery slowly, so most of the books I read feature American/European (depending on time period) protagonists, and very rarely do you see people of other races. And then, generally, when they do have a token Asian character, which is really, really rare, I never quite know how to respond, because I can see that the author is trying, which is commendable, but I always have this nidgy feeling -- is it exoticism? Are the differences and the Asian traits overemphasized? And of course it's strange when we do it to ourselves: witness the popularity of nihonjinron (studies of Japaneseness, or why the Japanese people are so special) in Japan. So it was nice in Otherland to have characters that were influenced by their backgrounds, but who in the end felt to me like real people, not like the token black guy or the token Asian female, etc. I had the same feeling with Octavia E. Butler's book Dawn.

So... yeah, I am sensitive to these things. I tried reading Mary Jo Putney's China Bride and nearly threw the book against a wall because I was so frustrated. And it's just strange, because the US is so much the cultural norm -- to be stereotyped, will mention McDonald's, the movie industry, etc. And yet, how much of the population is that? 'm all for globalization, because I think too often believing one is special no matter what the reason is silly. I get too much "Oh we are so much better than the silly Americans" back at home. Makes you think that in the end, people just want to believe their own group is superiod, which comes as no surprise. But yeah, I am sometimes leery of "globalization" too often meaning "we get to influence your culture while you shall remain a mystery to us."

Ditto on the multiracial/multicultural aspect

[selenak.livejournal.com]

And in a way, it ties with Memory, Sorrow and Thorn because there Williams takes the trouble of creating different societies. In Otherland, you get the feeling he's really interested in the various countries his characters come from, too; they're credible in this regard, not just costumed prettily.

Re: Ditto on the multiracial/multicultural aspect

[oyceter]

True, except I see that more as world building than multiracial/multicultural. I mean, nowadays, really, what fantasy author doesn't build worlds with different cultures etc. thanks to Tolkien's different races and probably the influence of RPGs. With the real world in place, I feel as though it's harder to do, because you can't just make up a culture, you have to do the research and etc. Also, more political implications, naturally.

Hmm…now you’ve put me on my metal

[fresne.livejournal.com]

to come up with some tortured heroines. Let’s see have you read...

Redeeming Love by Francine Rivers
1850’s California. She’s a prostitute, with issues rather than a heart of gold. He’s religious, a virgin, and a farmer.

I believe Texas Star by Deana James
Old west Texas (surprising, eh?). She’s a rancher, whose abusive husband is alive, but in a wheelchair. There’s a reason her nickname is the Diamondback. She’s in her late thirties and has a teenaged daughter. Enter mysterious stranger. Equal issues for everyone.

Once an Angel by Teresa Medieros
Late 1800s New Zealand. The little princess was left to stew for about 10 years at that hellish academy for girls and she isn’t quite such a little princess anymore.

The Crystal Heart by Lisa Gregory
Despite one cringe worthy, yes, this book was written in the late 70s scene, interesting book. 1776, London to Boston. She’s a fashionable society jade. Painted face, hair up to there, gowns out to here. He’s a frumpy lawyer from those pesky colonies out to argue for taxation with representation.

As to the vast American Space Frontier – it does seem a bit of a failure of the imagination. Possibly because so much early Sci Fi focused on the Tech and not the cultural aspects. It’s really only now as the genre has matured (and we get farther away from the Cold War. Of course, space is American, grr, rattle the saber/ray gun, damn Ruskies) that you get a more multicultural focus. Of course, you still get a number in the, insert exotic clothes=multicultural variety and/or look what strange customs these strange people have, but as, I believe Sturgeon remarked, 90% of any genre isn’t very good.

Although, you make me curious to have someone familiar with India and the Middle East read some of Putney’s other 1850s England Colonial period novels for perspective. Then again I believe a character in one of her novels, for all that I quite enjoy them, refer to asbestos trousers, which hmmm 1812, I don’t think so.

Re: Hmm…now you’ve put me on my metal

[oyceter]

All Through the Night by Connie Brockway also has hugely tortured characters...

And thanks for the recs! I haven't actually read any of them, although I've heard about the Medieros one.

*nods* It's weird though, because sometimes I feel strange asking my Indian roommate about things like how authentic the Indian food in a certain restaurant is, like she's representative of her race/culture. Except... I really do want to know, because I know how weird it is to eat Americanized Chinese food.