Redemption '09, Book Thread, Classics
Feb. 27th, 2009 07:15 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
beccaelizabethRedemption ‘09
Book thread
Classics
Room really a lot smaller than the number of people trying to fit into it. There’s a lot of readers.
SFX Book club? Nobody there reads. It’s covering classics from Frankenstein onwards.
SF Masterworks series.
Zelazny, Lord of Light
Forever War, Ha~squiggle~?
How much do we forgive books that were fresh at the time of writing?
Moon is a Harsh Mistress, Heinlein
Best Heinlein… which some are saying isn’t saying much.
AI learning a sense of humor, moon as a penal colony liberated. Personality & life, politics & rebellion, perennial plots.
AI were good at what people are good at and bad at what people are bad at ie math; software engineer notes amusement at untruth.
Heinlein sexual politics, general argh
Moon has least, hence the good.
Genre missing women’s movement. [When predicting the future they missed a really big change.]
Modern:
Bujold, Vorkosigan – has own panel
Elizabeth Moon
SF people who don’t change meet tech that does… [er, people change too?]
Asimov & Aldiss: Not feminist much.
[When predicting a future and changing elements you have to be able to] recognise people but you’re always making an argument about what is social. [what is changeable]
There’s stuff you forgive when it’s new to you. Or as an alternative to [what else you have available]
Nostalgia books vs fresh reading.
Zelazny, October ??? [missed title at the time]
Classics definition: If you haven’t read it you don’t get references to it hence don’t get as much out of other texts.
Lewis space trilogy: silent planet, hideous strength. Parallels to Paradise Lost.
T Dicks Doctor Who = classic :-)
‘2001’ – don’t need to see it to see refs to it
Big Bang Theory, Middleman = Geek humor.
Asimov’s Robot stuff.
Three laws, constantly riffed on, by later writers
Or, if not referenced, you can write off the author as not knowing the basics.
Learning curve to get in to SF: Getting stuck on words. Cryonics, for example.
Heinlein & Clarke YA juveniles as intros to SF.
Monica Hughes YA SF.
John Christopher
Peter Dickinson.
Must reads:
Vernor Vinge
SF reprints and [lots of talkings]
Peter Hamilton
Neil Stephenson
Use the Amazon also read feature.
Books that pass the BE test (by women, about women, talking to women)
Elizabeth Moon, Lois McMaster Bujold, C J Cherryh
[yes, and if there’s any by any of them I don’t got yet its because my catalog got in a tangle *sigh*]
Acronyms are also offputting to new readers. FTL. EEG.
Sheri Tepper (?sp)
Has a theme. Loudly. ‘patriarchy-is-evil’
Gate to Women’s Country
Problem: wrote about how they removed the gay gene just to set up their world, assumed whole world all acts the same.
Erode difference to avoid thinking things through.
Prejudicial but with different prejudices.
Mary Gentle. Soft edge of F&SF.
Lots of modern urban fantasy.
Nichola Griffiths, Bechdel pass.
[this book: want the name of but missed at the time] Chinese America, gay coming out story.
[okay, so also missed most of the useful description]
Jeff Ryman (?) 253 gollancz
Child garden: purple photosynthesis.
Pretentious or awesome.
Charlie Stross
[repeated recs in various contexts through weekend]
Cory Doctorow, Little Brother
Not so much a rec as rec chorus in unison
Francine Prose After
Similar teens and security measures, criminalised / othered
Guy Gavrial Kay
Fantasy
With reservations. Doesn’t gel. Clumsy on re-read.
Soap in a different universe = boring.
HG Wells
Jules Verne
(BE hasn’t read since double figures)
Victorian writing style, difficult.
He was inventing what hadn’t been done, so all he does is set up his novelty.
Set up whole genres.
1898 Tomorrows Eve, Comte de Villier de Lyles Adam (sp???) French SF in Edison’s lab. 200 page conversation. Built a woman.
/panel
Yes that’s mostly a book list.
The conversation started out about the Classics with names I’d heard of, then headed straight for feminism, wandered through racism and homophobia, and did your basic recap of fandom and indeed English Lit issues since the 1970s. Good company but I think I wrote down less of it because of the preach/choir effect.
Back to Redemption '09 index
Book thread
Classics
Room really a lot smaller than the number of people trying to fit into it. There’s a lot of readers.
SFX Book club? Nobody there reads. It’s covering classics from Frankenstein onwards.
SF Masterworks series.
Zelazny, Lord of Light
Forever War, Ha~squiggle~?
How much do we forgive books that were fresh at the time of writing?
Moon is a Harsh Mistress, Heinlein
Best Heinlein… which some are saying isn’t saying much.
AI learning a sense of humor, moon as a penal colony liberated. Personality & life, politics & rebellion, perennial plots.
AI were good at what people are good at and bad at what people are bad at ie math; software engineer notes amusement at untruth.
Heinlein sexual politics, general argh
Moon has least, hence the good.
Genre missing women’s movement. [When predicting the future they missed a really big change.]
Modern:
Bujold, Vorkosigan – has own panel
Elizabeth Moon
SF people who don’t change meet tech that does… [er, people change too?]
Asimov & Aldiss: Not feminist much.
[When predicting a future and changing elements you have to be able to] recognise people but you’re always making an argument about what is social. [what is changeable]
There’s stuff you forgive when it’s new to you. Or as an alternative to [what else you have available]
Nostalgia books vs fresh reading.
Zelazny, October ??? [missed title at the time]
Classics definition: If you haven’t read it you don’t get references to it hence don’t get as much out of other texts.
Lewis space trilogy: silent planet, hideous strength. Parallels to Paradise Lost.
T Dicks Doctor Who = classic :-)
‘2001’ – don’t need to see it to see refs to it
Big Bang Theory, Middleman = Geek humor.
Asimov’s Robot stuff.
Three laws, constantly riffed on, by later writers
Or, if not referenced, you can write off the author as not knowing the basics.
Learning curve to get in to SF: Getting stuck on words. Cryonics, for example.
Heinlein & Clarke YA juveniles as intros to SF.
Monica Hughes YA SF.
John Christopher
Peter Dickinson.
Must reads:
Vernor Vinge
SF reprints and [lots of talkings]
Peter Hamilton
Neil Stephenson
Use the Amazon also read feature.
Books that pass the BE test (by women, about women, talking to women)
Elizabeth Moon, Lois McMaster Bujold, C J Cherryh
[yes, and if there’s any by any of them I don’t got yet its because my catalog got in a tangle *sigh*]
Acronyms are also offputting to new readers. FTL. EEG.
Sheri Tepper (?sp)
Has a theme. Loudly. ‘patriarchy-is-evil’
Gate to Women’s Country
Problem: wrote about how they removed the gay gene just to set up their world, assumed whole world all acts the same.
Erode difference to avoid thinking things through.
Prejudicial but with different prejudices.
Mary Gentle. Soft edge of F&SF.
Lots of modern urban fantasy.
Nichola Griffiths, Bechdel pass.
[this book: want the name of but missed at the time] Chinese America, gay coming out story.
[okay, so also missed most of the useful description]
Jeff Ryman (?) 253 gollancz
Child garden: purple photosynthesis.
Pretentious or awesome.
Charlie Stross
[repeated recs in various contexts through weekend]
Cory Doctorow, Little Brother
Not so much a rec as rec chorus in unison
Francine Prose After
Similar teens and security measures, criminalised / othered
Guy Gavrial Kay
Fantasy
With reservations. Doesn’t gel. Clumsy on re-read.
Soap in a different universe = boring.
HG Wells
Jules Verne
(BE hasn’t read since double figures)
Victorian writing style, difficult.
He was inventing what hadn’t been done, so all he does is set up his novelty.
Set up whole genres.
1898 Tomorrows Eve, Comte de Villier de Lyles Adam (sp???) French SF in Edison’s lab. 200 page conversation. Built a woman.
/panel
Yes that’s mostly a book list.
The conversation started out about the Classics with names I’d heard of, then headed straight for feminism, wandered through racism and homophobia, and did your basic recap of fandom and indeed English Lit issues since the 1970s. Good company but I think I wrote down less of it because of the preach/choir effect.
Back to Redemption '09 index
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no subject
Date: 2009-02-27 07:24 pm (UTC)I'll shut up about my obsessions and go away now...
no subject
Date: 2009-02-27 10:04 pm (UTC)thanks for author names, I add them to list
no subject
Date: 2009-02-27 10:14 pm (UTC)Robin McKinley, I've burbled about before - she does retellings of classic fairy tales as well as her own original works.
no subject
Date: 2009-03-06 06:09 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-03-06 09:24 pm (UTC)