Alternate Worlds

So I finished the Diana Wynne Jones book. As I hoped, it was the one set at a SpecFi con. (If those in the know say Scifi 'skiffy', do they say SpecFi, 'specfee'? Might it quickly slur into "specky"? I prefer the hard 'i' myself.)

The book was okay, although oddly insulting to fat people, for no discernable plot reason. (Remind me to post my list of Things I Learned from SpecFi. Fat people are evil or absurd or both. Dark people are evil and light people are good, except for the token Person of Colour on the good side.)

And it seems we should add DWG to the list of fantasy authors who think trannies are Just Fascinating. In this case, some of the Weird at the con are trannies. As in, one says "She's so maternal since she changed sex." They're just wallpaper, of course, not actualy characters or anything.

And the best part of the story, the trip to Babylon, is stuck in at the end in a sort of afterword by one of the characters.

But but but, much excitement, my former co-conspirator gave me a present when I got back from the trip of food and water -- So Long Been Dreaming: Postcolonial Science Fiction & Fantasy. Co-edited by Nalo Hopkinson. What could be better? (Well, she could've had a story in the anthology. That would've been better. Though I respect editors who don't seem to be creating anthologies as vanity opportunities.)

I've only read the first story so far. I thought its tech premise was quite interesting, although I wanted to see its implications developed further. (Convicts' minds are downloaded into clones of the rich and powerful in order to reproduce said upper classes on another world.)

In fact, it read sort of like the opening chapter of a novel, which, while it meant the story just seemed to stop, might also mean there will *be* a novel. The author, Nisi Shawl, has also written an article called "Transracial Writing for the Sincere," which, since it sounds like it addresses one of the main weaknesses I feel in my writing, I am going to have a look for.

And it looks like Larissa Lai (author of Salt Fish Girl)'s story, "Rachel" is a retake on Blade Runner.

My only wish is that the editors had written a longer introduction or epilogue. I know it's an anthology, not a book of specfi theory, but Hopkinson's intro points tantalizingly to some great ideas and then... just ends. (Science fiction as mostly a narrative of colonialism. This was something I kind of Meditated on in an unpublished comic, but she says it more directly.)

I wish there was an accompanying volume of interviews or theory for boring academic types like me.

* * * * * *

I had a rotten migraine last night. The first one in a long time. Not sure if it was caused by watching the execrable "Taboo" on video last night. It was a bad, bad, bad 'suspense' flick with Tara, of Buffy fame, and of all people, as an alcoholic party girl. Or something. Anyway, I woke up from dreams of trying to figure out how to stop a headache, with a headache. I took some ibuprofen, but it wasn't working, so I went to the next strategy, which was to take a very, very hot shower. For some reason it seems to help.

So that was me having a shower at 1 am. Sorry about the noise, but my head hurt.


--rf