Since you were asking how people felt about Sirenia Digest 9 a couple days ago, I read both it and 8 last night. Some of my impressions;
I loved the concept of "The Cryomancer's Daughter." I loved the intimacy created by having one character speaking in italics and the other in quotes. It made me wonder if it was a ghost in the narrator's brain. Once again the main attractions were the moods created by words and imagery, which were very fine.
sovay's "The Depth Oracle" was great. It seems to render passionate love as a grotesque thing and then makes it beautiful. It's starting to seem like a pattern in her work--it's not shoved on you, it's always made real by distinct and interesting textures and characters. There does seem to be an underlying, repeated sort of three act thing; 1)Interesting characters and environment 2) Bizarre, frightening love 3) Love or damnation, or both at the same time. It subverts romanticism at the same it embraces it. Sort of Morrissey-esqe, in a way.
I loved the title of "Portrait of the Artist as a Young Ghoul." And the way its characters interacted was somehow to me the most easily engaging of any two characters in any of your other Sirenia Digest vignettes. Generally the relationships are so intimate that exchanged words are in a sort of harmony, and the dissonance comes entirely in a sort of interplay of textures. Whereas in "Portrait of the Artist as a Young Ghoul," there seems to be more tension in the way the characters communicate--they feel more removed from one another. So there was a different sort of excitement than usual. For some reason, the narrator seemed more innocent--and less resigned than I seem to remember Sirenia Digest characters usually being. Or maybe it's just because I had just read "The Cryomancer's Daughter."
Vince Locke's illustration for "Portrait of the Artist as a Young Ghoul" is the best Sirenia Digest original illustration so far, but maybe that's just because I dig pictures of cute naked dames.
I thought sovay's "The Boy Who Learned How To Shudder" was a nice piece of Science Fiction atmosphere that sort of revealed a fantastic story without telling it straight out. I liked it a lot, but I'm not sure I'm equipped to discuss it for some reason . . .
"Faces in Revolving Souls" was brilliant. I kept thinking about the Comic-Con because of the convention atmosphere you employed in the telling, and I was reminded of the Con-goers in their costumes and it seemed an apt metaphor. Far more apt than X-Men, which is another thing I thought of. Because unlike the X-Men, Comic-Con goers and the Posthumanists you describe are groups of people who choose to make themselves appear strange to others. It brings up the, what I think is, more compelling story, and one probably more germane as a metaphor for alternative sexualities; the conflict over whether or not the strange people are truly different on the inside or are really immature or insane. That's why I'm surprised you were unhappy with the ending, which I thought was so perfect. It painted the uncomfortable picture--by showing Sylvia's body rejecting the modifications, it's made clear that the real malady is fear of what's different and what fears from others can do to the outlook of an innocent girl like Sylvia.
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Date: 2006-09-08 08:18 am (UTC)I loved the concept of "The Cryomancer's Daughter." I loved the intimacy created by having one character speaking in italics and the other in quotes. It made me wonder if it was a ghost in the narrator's brain. Once again the main attractions were the moods created by words and imagery, which were very fine.
I loved the title of "Portrait of the Artist as a Young Ghoul." And the way its characters interacted was somehow to me the most easily engaging of any two characters in any of your other Sirenia Digest vignettes. Generally the relationships are so intimate that exchanged words are in a sort of harmony, and the dissonance comes entirely in a sort of interplay of textures. Whereas in "Portrait of the Artist as a Young Ghoul," there seems to be more tension in the way the characters communicate--they feel more removed from one another. So there was a different sort of excitement than usual. For some reason, the narrator seemed more innocent--and less resigned than I seem to remember Sirenia Digest characters usually being. Or maybe it's just because I had just read "The Cryomancer's Daughter."
Vince Locke's illustration for "Portrait of the Artist as a Young Ghoul" is the best Sirenia Digest original illustration so far, but maybe that's just because I dig pictures of cute naked dames.
I thought
"Faces in Revolving Souls" was brilliant. I kept thinking about the Comic-Con because of the convention atmosphere you employed in the telling, and I was reminded of the Con-goers in their costumes and it seemed an apt metaphor. Far more apt than X-Men, which is another thing I thought of. Because unlike the X-Men, Comic-Con goers and the Posthumanists you describe are groups of people who choose to make themselves appear strange to others. It brings up the, what I think is, more compelling story, and one probably more germane as a metaphor for alternative sexualities; the conflict over whether or not the strange people are truly different on the inside or are really immature or insane. That's why I'm surprised you were unhappy with the ending, which I thought was so perfect. It painted the uncomfortable picture--by showing Sylvia's body rejecting the modifications, it's made clear that the real malady is fear of what's different and what fears from others can do to the outlook of an innocent girl like Sylvia.
Anyway. Good Sirenia Digests.