Caitlín R. Kiernan (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
greygirlbeast) wrote2008-09-04 10:38 am
greygirlbeast) wrote2008-09-04 10:38 am
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He had a Colt .45 and a deck of cards...
So, yeah, I think my unwillingness to become too deeply mired in human politics has reached the point that I have become functionally apolitical. For example, my first thought upon hearing that McCain had chosen Palin as his running mate was, "What the fuck is Michael Palin doing hanging out with war-mongering Republican assholes like McCain?" So, learning the Palin in question was actually a homophobic, anti-choice former beauty queen from Alaska, and not a former member of Monty Python, came as a huge relief.
Er...anyway. Yesterday. Yesterday was not a writing day. It was, instead, a reading day. Looking at the beginning of Chapter Five, and being rather uncertain What Happens Next, I needed to think. And I tend to think best when reading or when watching movies. So, I reread (Is that actually a word? LJ seems to think so.) chapters 20 and 22 of Danielewski's House of Leaves (2000), section 6 of Chapter 4 of Jackson's The Haunting of Hill House (1959), and Angela Carter's "The Tiger's Bride" (1979). Old favourites that I know so well reading them does not require too much of my attention, but which still manage to hit all the right buttons. And I found the idea I needed to begin Chapter 5 of The Red Tree today.
By the way, looking back over The Haunting of Hill House yesterday, I became angry all over again at the insistence of so many publishers, and the expectation by many readers, that novels must be great long things. The Haunting of Hill House is about 240 pages long, quite a bit shorter than, say, Daughter of Hounds (which is 431 pages long, in the tpb edition). Now, I do agree that a novel should be as long as a novel needs to be, but included within that maxim is the corollary that a novel should never be longer than it needs to be. Many novels today, especially bestsellers, are absurdly long (or at least the font size is increased to give that impression), and this follows largely from books being thought of as only another product marketed to consumers looking for their "best value." Longer books are better than shorter books, since a long hardback and a short hardback (or paperback) tend to cost about the same. Novels have been "supersized," as it were. Regardless, I suspect The Red Tree will be no more than 80,000 words at the most (Daughter of Hounds was, by comparison, 133,000+ words in length, but then, it needed to be). Books are not to be judged by page count any more than they are to be judged by their covers. And, as long as I'm titling at windmills and speaking of excessively thick books, if Laurell K. Hamilton is the idiot stepdaughter of Anne Rice, then Stephenie Meyer is, at best, Hamilton's parthenogenic hysterical pregnancy (and I think we've taken this metaphor as far as it can possibly go). Truly, it amazes me, some of the shit people send zipping to the top of the bestseller lists. Truly, crap floats.*
Oh, and I also read "A ceratosaurid [Dinosauria; Theropoda] from the Late Jurassic-Early Cretaceous of Uruguay" in JVP, but it really had no bearing on the novel.
As for last night, for dinner Spooky got pizza from Pizza Pie'er on Wickenden, because we had a Howards End build-team meeting at 7 pm. And afterwards, I had my first real rp in days, but, sadly, it was at Toxian City, where I'd sworn I'd never, ever go again. I really will be glad when the HE rp is up and running, and I can discover, once and for all, if I am capable of fixing all the things that are wrong with SL roleplay. Maybe I can't, but at least I can try. And if I can't, I can step away from the whole sorry mess knowing that I gave it my best.
A comment and question from a reader:
I liked The Five of Cups. You don't have any intention of re-releasing any other books (Murder of Angels, Threshold or The Dry Salvages) in hardback by any chance? or know where it might be possible to procure a copy of said magnificent books?
You have to forgive my disdain for The Five of Cups. I was 28 when I wrote it back in '92, and that was a long time and a lot of words ago, and neither the novel nor I have, in my estimation, aged well. All novelists are allowed to feel discomfort at their early efforts. It comes with the job. As for the other books, there has never been a hardback of Murder of Angels and probably never will be. There's not yet been a hb of Threshold, but there has been some talk of subpress doing a tenth-anniversary edition in 2011. And while The Dry Salvages is probably out of print for good, there will be a revised version released next year as a free ebook (to coincide with the release of A is for Alien).
* It occurs to me that i have to write a response to myself tomorrow, since the scatalogical generalization "crap floats" is obviously flawed.
Er...anyway. Yesterday. Yesterday was not a writing day. It was, instead, a reading day. Looking at the beginning of Chapter Five, and being rather uncertain What Happens Next, I needed to think. And I tend to think best when reading or when watching movies. So, I reread (Is that actually a word? LJ seems to think so.) chapters 20 and 22 of Danielewski's House of Leaves (2000), section 6 of Chapter 4 of Jackson's The Haunting of Hill House (1959), and Angela Carter's "The Tiger's Bride" (1979). Old favourites that I know so well reading them does not require too much of my attention, but which still manage to hit all the right buttons. And I found the idea I needed to begin Chapter 5 of The Red Tree today.
By the way, looking back over The Haunting of Hill House yesterday, I became angry all over again at the insistence of so many publishers, and the expectation by many readers, that novels must be great long things. The Haunting of Hill House is about 240 pages long, quite a bit shorter than, say, Daughter of Hounds (which is 431 pages long, in the tpb edition). Now, I do agree that a novel should be as long as a novel needs to be, but included within that maxim is the corollary that a novel should never be longer than it needs to be. Many novels today, especially bestsellers, are absurdly long (or at least the font size is increased to give that impression), and this follows largely from books being thought of as only another product marketed to consumers looking for their "best value." Longer books are better than shorter books, since a long hardback and a short hardback (or paperback) tend to cost about the same. Novels have been "supersized," as it were. Regardless, I suspect The Red Tree will be no more than 80,000 words at the most (Daughter of Hounds was, by comparison, 133,000+ words in length, but then, it needed to be). Books are not to be judged by page count any more than they are to be judged by their covers. And, as long as I'm titling at windmills and speaking of excessively thick books, if Laurell K. Hamilton is the idiot stepdaughter of Anne Rice, then Stephenie Meyer is, at best, Hamilton's parthenogenic hysterical pregnancy (and I think we've taken this metaphor as far as it can possibly go). Truly, it amazes me, some of the shit people send zipping to the top of the bestseller lists. Truly, crap floats.*
Oh, and I also read "A ceratosaurid [Dinosauria; Theropoda] from the Late Jurassic-Early Cretaceous of Uruguay" in JVP, but it really had no bearing on the novel.
As for last night, for dinner Spooky got pizza from Pizza Pie'er on Wickenden, because we had a Howards End build-team meeting at 7 pm. And afterwards, I had my first real rp in days, but, sadly, it was at Toxian City, where I'd sworn I'd never, ever go again. I really will be glad when the HE rp is up and running, and I can discover, once and for all, if I am capable of fixing all the things that are wrong with SL roleplay. Maybe I can't, but at least I can try. And if I can't, I can step away from the whole sorry mess knowing that I gave it my best.
A comment and question from a reader:
I liked The Five of Cups. You don't have any intention of re-releasing any other books (Murder of Angels, Threshold or The Dry Salvages) in hardback by any chance? or know where it might be possible to procure a copy of said magnificent books?
You have to forgive my disdain for The Five of Cups. I was 28 when I wrote it back in '92, and that was a long time and a lot of words ago, and neither the novel nor I have, in my estimation, aged well. All novelists are allowed to feel discomfort at their early efforts. It comes with the job. As for the other books, there has never been a hardback of Murder of Angels and probably never will be. There's not yet been a hb of Threshold, but there has been some talk of subpress doing a tenth-anniversary edition in 2011. And while The Dry Salvages is probably out of print for good, there will be a revised version released next year as a free ebook (to coincide with the release of A is for Alien).
* It occurs to me that i have to write a response to myself tomorrow, since the scatalogical generalization "crap floats" is obviously flawed.
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And on old works: I just posted one of my, uh, efforts, from 1992. It's basically popcorn - but not entirely stale!
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And on old works: I just posted one of my, uh, efforts, from 1992. It's basically popcorn - but not entirely stale!
I just saw that! Neat, even if it did give me Dreaming flashbacks.
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Yes, please.
Also, I recently acquired a copy of the 20th-anniversary edition of Clive Barker's The Hellbound Heart, back when it was selling for Amazon's discounted new price, and not $300. It's aged well, it cost more than some hardcovers, and it's so short as to not be considered a novel by most people. It was as good a value for me personally as any other hardback I've purchased in the last year or so, and I've bought editions of novellas in hardback before and had the same thought. I wish publishers felt likewise.
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Indeed. If I recall...no, let me just look at the bookshelf..."The Hellbound Heart" was originally published as a novella, for an anthology called Night Visions, edited by George R. R. Martin (1986). Of course, after however many Hellraiser movies, I guess publishers can risk doing a stand-alone edition (which they first did in 1988, if Wikipedia is to be trusted).
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"Goddamn it, I paid $10 (or $20, or whatever) for this, I'm gonna get my money's worth, even if it makes my stomach explode"
That's part of it, yes.
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The Anti-Hillary. To imagine that the female vote could be pursued so cheaply shows the utter contempt in which the Republican party holds the intelligence of American women. (Rob McCain of a decent night's sleep and give him a monk's habit and he could - I swear - pass for Palpatine.) The only thing more frightening is the fact that Palin's state actually borders my country. (See The Babe in action here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yn7UzxXv8p4 )
"All novelists are allowed to feel discomfort at their early efforts."
Question - How do you feel when you look back on SILK? (- a beloved favorite of mine which, for obscure reasons, I relate closely with Janis Jopline's "Big Brother and the Holding Company" on the nostalgia scale).
Peace.
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To imagine that the female vote could be pursued so cheaply shows the utter contempt in which the Republican party holds the intelligence of American women.
The question that presents itself now, of course, is how American women will respond.
Rob McCain of a decent night's sleep and give him a monk's habit and he could - I swear - pass for Palpatine.
Snork.
Question - How do you feel when you look back on SILK? (- a beloved favorite of mine which, for obscure reasons, I relate closely with Janis Jopline's "Big Brother and the Holding Company" on the nostalgia scale).
That's not an easy question to answer. I think I mostly see it as an interesting, if flawed, necessary step to escaping the genre weaknesses that marred The Five of Cups.
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What's interesting though is that I've noticed several times that the two almost seem to be referred to as a couple, as in married. Weird with a capital W.
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What's interesting though is that I've noticed several times that the two almost seem to be referred to as a couple, as in married.
Geezer & Gidget 2008, yo.
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You know what else bothers me about her? She seems to think that she is some kind of reformer. The kind of person who does the right thing no mater what people think. But from what I've gathered so far she is confusing this with doing whatever she wants no mater what people think. Mother Hydra help us if they win and McCain croaks. She will make herself the queen of the United States of Christendom.
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Even knowing I might suffer more than most, should such a nightmare scenario come to pass, I cannot help but feel, given the circumstances, Americans, as a whole, get the leaders they deserve.
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Yay! Yay! Yay!
And a big HA! to the Stephenie Meyers comment. My sister would appreciate it, as she's feeling stupid for not writing & publishing that story when she was 12.
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The whole Meyers phenomenon makes me even more cynical about publishing...and about readers. I did try to read the first novel, as did Spooky, at the request of my agent. But it was genuinely unreadable. By us, at least. Clearly, others feel differently.
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But i think i will give the movie a chance....like when it's out on dvd to rent for saturday night double feature...with lots of drink
But i have a soft spot for Kristen Stewart, after playing very well next to Jodie Foster...and for being in a less-than-a-year-after-the-danish-original-and-therefor-totally-unneeded remake of Catch that kid
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Seriously. I think he needs to take his name back.
if Laurell K. Hamilton is the idiot stepdaughter of Anne Rice, then Stephenie Meyer is, at best, Hamilton's parthenogenic hysterical pregnancy (and I think we've taken this metaphor as far as it can possibly go).
Maybe, but what an image to go out on!
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Maybe, but what an image to go out on!
You're only encouraging me, you know.
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Dude. I tried to read Twilight. There are whole synapses that will never speak to me again.
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I tried to read Twilight. There are whole synapses that will never speak to me again.
We should start a support group for those maimed by that book...
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On the bright side, she's demonstrated exactly the story you have to write if you want to make a million dollars.
One helpless damsel in distress + perfect, lovesick and slightly possessive hero = best seller list.
Come on, you know you want to!
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Come on, you know you want to!
Well, maybe if the "damsel" turns out to be a boy, and the hero is actual a lesbian passing for a guy, with lots of Shakespearian refs thrown in, and maybe a few tentacles...
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did we already have Lovecraft/zombie? Do the great ones send mindless braineaters?
Soundtrack this time: Brahms
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Not since using a Madonna casette to de-ice my windshield has the higher purpose to an artist's puzzling success been made so clear to me.
The only thing of lower quality that WAL-Mart sells is their vegetables.
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Not since using a Madonna casette to de-ice my windshield has the higher purpose to an artist's puzzling success been made so clear to me.
*snork*
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I'm still giggling at that! *LOL*
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I'm just waiting around until he drops the 10,000 lb weight on McCain's head Monty Python-style. No one expects the Spanish Inquisition.