Having now read both Space Opera and The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of her Own Making, I understand what norabombay said about Catherynne Valente's writing.

There is an extremely strong narrative voice. The narrator is talking to you. The narrator is omniscient and has opinions.

I imagine that for people who are accustomed to only a nearly-invisible third person narrator, this is jarring. I was raised on enough old-fashioned books to be comfortable with this kind of narrator, so I don't find it excessively precious. I enjoy it.

I read Tess of the d'Urbervilles on Sunday.

I offer the following content notes:

Animal harm, relationship coercion, acquaintance rape, coerced birth, era-typical child death, religious guilt (Christian), patriarchal fuckery, marital cruelty, attempted murder, abandonment, religious evangelism (Christian), religious coercion, rampant hypocrisy, familial coercion, coercion by means of family, actual murder, execution. Plus a side dish of substance abuse and attempted suicide.

Tess needs, in this order:
* A comprehensive and livable benefits and employment assistance program
* Gap insurance for horses
* Healthcare for her dad
* A taser
* Public transportation
* A working knowledge of what date rape is ( Read more... )
* Plan B and a rape kit
* Legal aid
* Benefits for her family
* Substance abuse care for her dad
* A boyfriend who understands that a dirty weekend with a sex worker is not the same as rape
* No-fault divorce
* A large shipping box with an angry swan (as f_fa recommends)
* A job with modern safety and care standards
* Societal acceptance of atheism, paganism, and agnosticism
* A restraining order against Cousin Daterape
* A lawyer who has successfully defended self-defense vs. Mr. What Do You Mean, Restraining Order? manslaughter cases
* A younger sister who looks nothing like her

I shared the following review of Anathem with the denizens of the Mortal Instruments discussion list. Given that the target audience of that list is the same demographic as the target audience for Twilight (though I feel that Ms. Clare is a far better writer), I couldn't assume that the list was already familiar with Neal Stephenson.

---

I just finished up Anathem, by Neal Stephenson. This was a first-time read. I had fun reading it, and will read it again, but I wouldn't recommend it to absolutely everybody.

This is a typical Stephenson piece in many ways, and the author mentions the fun he had in building a consistent vocabulary for the world in the introduction. The paperback, with glossary and various addenda, comes up just short of 1000 pages. There would be footnotes citing the real science and philosophy that he used to build things, except this is a work of fiction and those don't have footnotes[1], and it would throw the reader out of the fictional world.

It is an alternate universe adventure, about a world where most of the world's philosophers, mathematicians, and scientists have settled themselves in enclaves roughly similar to cloistered monasteries. Fraa Erasmus, an Avout about twenty years old, last had contact with the Saecular world when he was about 10. His first Apert (the 10 days between periods of cloister the Avout have contact with the outside world) is coming up, he'd like to see his family again, he's trying to figure out girls (but not with much success, given that the suur he has a thing for is interested in somebody else), and what in the universe could possibly cause them to close the Starhenge for so long? Erasmus never intended to be an action hero saving the world, but he just might have to turn into one. (I mentioned the *alternate universe* part, right?)

Erasmus is a typical Stephenson hero: fantastically smart, but surrounded by people who are smarter and more driven than he is, and often seems to be pushed around by circumstances. Occasionally he struggles to captain his own fate, but ultimately gives in to the tide of the world (and the plot). Erasmus compares favorably to Daniel Waterhouse (from Stephenson's Baroque Cycle) and Lawrence Waterhouse (Cryptonomicon) despite having what I felt was nearly interchangeable personalities, because Erasmus is well-suited to this original universe rather than being an uncomfortably jammed in observer for the narrative to follow, brushing shoulders with the influential scientists of the day but stepping as lightly as a time-traveler so as not to change history. (If your only prior experience with Neal Stephenson is Snow Crash or Zodiac, both Hiro and Sangamon Taylor are more effective and driven than seems typical for the rest. They still don't quite know what to make of women despite being interested in them, though.)

Also in typical Stephenson style, there are lengthy bits where the characters get into philosophy, science, and math. Some of the lengthy asides have been summarized and stuffed into the back where you can read them or skip them at your pleasure. If you like Dan Brown but wish his books were longer and a bit more intellectual, you might like this. If you like the idea of ancient secrets, and philosophers and monks being kickass action heroes, but hate Dan Brown because his characters have occasionally had their brains replaced with sacks of gravel and the books encourage the conspiracy theorists, you might also like this.



[1]: Except for when it's written by Terry Pratchett, who can get away with it because he's Terry Pratchett and knows how to make them work. Neal Stephenson recognizes that he's not Terry Pratchett and doesn't even try.

Plotting to leave a polite note with the office stating "I will abide by the posted laundry room hours while they are in force. I disagree with these new hours and respectfully request that they be rescinded."

Monthly.

In other news, we have the happy/fun apartment inspections. This doesn't mean heavy-duty cleaning, thankfully, but it does mean some serious de-cluttering.

Laundry is in for drying.

O'Reilly Owl (regexp type) has now been hacked, in convenient LJ-icon size.

Am attempting to formulate what the hell to write back to an old friend, with whom both contact and the friendship have lapsed severely. She is in the habit of forwarding massive amounts of stuff, some of it cheerful and uplifting, some of it ... not so (the "Hi! This is a nasty spider bite! See how it progresses! Brown Recluse is dangerous! Watch out, m'kay?" scare-mail), and some of it ... well, there is an audience for the "OMG! Christian values have departed the society! DOOM!" e-mail. That audience is not me. I said as much in reply. I got back a snippy e-mail saying essentially the "Well, I would have thought that YOU would care while the RIGHTS OF OTHERS are being CHIPPED AWAY!"

Except that I have no problem with the secularization of government, feel that "holiday" and "season" are appropriate words for the $WINTERHOLIDAY season, especially if individual people are celebrating their own personal holidays and referring to them openly, and think that the removal of certain overt Christian themes from some bits of mass media (TV shows, like the e-mail was protesting) is more of a market response issue than a rights issue, especially given that people who've had the religion shoved in their face in the past tend to react all prickly-wise to it if it's presented as the Default Religion.

Do note if my assumption is incorrect, but I do believe that there are parts of the US where wearing a tiny, tasteful pentacle (less than dime sized) can get one targeted for assault and/or harassment, to say nothing of potential loss of job, demotion, discrimination, et cetera. I also believe that wearing a cross of similar size in most parts of the US is anywhere from unobjectionable to unremarkable to laudable. It's sad that people feel as if they can't express their religion openly without fear of being mocked. It's also sad that there are television channels where people like Pat Robertson run their mouths, and people listen to this. In summary: Stick = the eye of the public face of Christianity. Mote = the eye of major broadcast network television. Just sayin'.

Not sure how I want to express all of that-there sentiment to the woman, but I'm planning on expressing at least some of it.


I am again cursed with insufficient shelf space. I probably want a bigger apartment in the future, to save room for all my books. I like books. Books like me. I have a best friend. He likes books too.

I do intend to pass some books on the instant I get done with them, should I fail to like them or fail to want to keep them on hand. Only sensible thing to do with bad paperbacks, aside from chucking them at 3am noise polluters.