Finals update: They are ongoing, and paaaaiiiinful. I am writing a paper about something called frailty. I have made all possible jokes concerning my own mental frailty, how the paper is contributing to my frailty, the similarity of the words FRAIL and FAIL and the significance of this linguistic fact for likely outcomes of my paper… not to mention some ‘jokes’ along these lines that, in retrospect, were certainly not possible. Uck.
I mentioned before how Jennifer Donnelly’s A NORTHERN LIGHT may have been inspired by Dreiser’s AN AMERICAN TRAGEDY, but just because that’s what got her to create the story I love, doesn’t mean I think it belongs in the book.
I have similar feelings about China Mieville’s UN LUN DUN. His first (and only to date) young adult novel — although he has a new adult novel coming out right about now — UN LUN DUN came about, according to an interview I read, because Mieville had an image of killer giraffes. And he knew that was fully awesome. And also, he knew you couldn’t write such a thing for adults.
Meanwhile, I love UN LUN DUN — I love its characters and its wordplay and its whimsy and its politics, which make it moving to me — but the giraffes, which I support in theory, are actually a tiny part of it. Although Mieville’s illustration of a killer giraffe is pretty cool, I think the whole species could have been cut from the book without much loss.
Which is just one of those little things that interests me about the writing process in general. And also, is the reason why our new category for crazy monster books is called “Vampires, zombies and killer giraffes.” This category is motivated by my desire to no longer have to tag every vampire book as being related to TWILIGHT just so they’re all collected in one place.
Also, speaking of crazy awesome monsters: Yes, I am excited about Diana Peterfreund’s book RAMPANT, which is about killer unicorns. And yes, I was made insanely happy by this link (from Oz and Ends): PINOCCHIO: VAMPIRE SLAYER.
How awesome?!
-->Feed me text
May 12, 2009 at 4:15 pm
http://dibblyfresh1.blogspot.com/2009/05/pass-it-on-or-what-makes-stacey-mcgill.html
I know I’m always tagging you guys in things–but here’s a meme. Here you go!
May 12, 2009 at 5:04 pm
All right, all RIGHT already, I’ll add it to my to-buy list!!
(And good luck with finals. In grad school we always said “An ‘A’ is good but ‘done’ is better.”
May 12, 2009 at 5:19 pm
I’m glad if I’m getting people to buy ULD; I loved it.
So true on the just get it done already issue. I spent a lot of time trying to come up with the best grad school slogans for myself that involved strange rhymes with DONE and FUN until even I was forced to admit that as procrastination excuses go, that’s pretty pathetic.
May 14, 2009 at 6:27 am
One of my best moments this year was when I learned that my thesis supervisor (who I had forced to read ULD) was discussing it with other students.
Mieville’s said somewhere that he’s “in this fucking business for the monsters”, which makes him (in my completely unbiased opinion) awesome. I’m nearly done reading his latest grown up book, and while there aren’t any genuine monsters, the sheer joy in wordplay is very much there.
May 14, 2009 at 11:39 am
I agree, Aishwarya, China Mieville is completely awesome. Elizabeth, I hadn’t read that interview quote about Un Lun Dun growing out of a killer giraffe image – it *is* strange that the giraffes don’t feature more, isn’t it?
We’ve sent a copy of Un Lun Dun travelling the world as a BookCrossing bookring, which means that we’ll get lots of reviews as people read the book… and eventually it will come back to us in a much-read state, with a stack of postcards. To read all the reviews (and postcards) so far, take a look at: http://www.bookcrossing.com/journal/7000590
May 14, 2009 at 1:39 pm
Aishwarya, I am so with you on the coolness of that quote/sentiment. I haven’t read City & City yet, but would like to this summer. (I more generally have adult fiction reading goals for the summer… we shall see.)
The Lost Book, thanks for that link… highly awesome. I like the comment from the first review, “At the end, you’ll be disappointed that it was only 520 pages.”
If any China Mieville fans happen to be in the Chicago area this June, he is speaking — not on science fiction, on “Imperialism and the Fallacy of International Law”; dude is kind of a renaissance man and also has a book that’s a Marxist take on international law — at a conference I have helped to organize.
May 14, 2009 at 5:21 pm
I feel like I should whisper this – I didn’t like Un Lun Dun. I liked a lot of the things in it, but as a novel it didn’t stick with me.
May 15, 2009 at 10:43 am
Dude, you’re allowed not to like it! Don’t forget you’re on a blog with an ongoing series called Books I Felt I Ought to Have Loved, But Really Didn’t.
I think one reason it’s stuck with me is that I find a lot of stuff toward the end — like when Deeba has to trust allies even though she’s been betrayed by some before — to be very moving. I don’t think this reaction is separable, for me, from my own experiences and feelings about political activism. Although obviously, the book speaks to a lot of other people without that experience, too (including the then-11-year-old cousin I gave it to).
May 15, 2009 at 10:54 am
Elizabeth, glad you liked AileenAdler’s review of Un Lun Dun. Aileen’s a fictional character – the hero of The Lost Book web series – and we’ve been having a lot of fun giving her books to read and BookCross!
Socialism 2009 sounds interesting and Mieville is a brilliant speaker; I wish I could be in Chigago in June…