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Jul. 2nd, 2011
Aiming for on again
Jul. 2nd, 2011 02:35 pmTwo bits of musical...offness, I guess. Last weekend my singing voice went just in time for music circles at 4th St. I bulled through a couple of them, but it was not really the best thing, and then I was froggy for the rest of the week. Last night when I reached for some range it was there, and so this is not a permanent thing, but it was unfortunate timing.
Then today I sat down to play the piano--it's been a few months since I did, since I'm deliberately trying not to make it One More Thing On The List--and...okay, I think pianists are going to get this and non-pianists it might be more opaque. I went to play my new BSG score, and...you know how your hands know how big an octave is? My hands knew that wrong. I have always known how big an octave is, "always" being nearly 25 years now, and I've never known it incorrectly before. There have been hiatuses in my playing that were much longer than a month or two, and they never resulted in this. At the end of the half-hour I spent playing, it had reapproximated, mostly, I think, but I'm kind of freaked out about this. It's like having every step be like missing the bottom step because you've forgotten how long your legs are. And as much as I am not making piano playing One More Thing On The List, I'm thinking I'm going to make a special effort the next little bit, just so that things don't go badly awry where I rely on them not to.
Then today I sat down to play the piano--it's been a few months since I did, since I'm deliberately trying not to make it One More Thing On The List--and...okay, I think pianists are going to get this and non-pianists it might be more opaque. I went to play my new BSG score, and...you know how your hands know how big an octave is? My hands knew that wrong. I have always known how big an octave is, "always" being nearly 25 years now, and I've never known it incorrectly before. There have been hiatuses in my playing that were much longer than a month or two, and they never resulted in this. At the end of the half-hour I spent playing, it had reapproximated, mostly, I think, but I'm kind of freaked out about this. It's like having every step be like missing the bottom step because you've forgotten how long your legs are. And as much as I am not making piano playing One More Thing On The List, I'm thinking I'm going to make a special effort the next little bit, just so that things don't go badly awry where I rely on them not to.
Seventh Sigma, by Steven Gould
Jul. 2nd, 2011 03:19 pmReview copy provided by Tor.
So I was rattling along through this book at a pretty good clip, thinking about the Heinlein parallels, which extend all the way through to the Kipling influence--the hero's name is Kim, for the love of Pete, this is not a coincidence--and with the exception of a couple of failures of tone, it was going pretty well. The present tense in descriptions of the "bugs" in contrast to the past tense of the rest of the book didn't work for me, but that wasn't very often; the more series tone failure was in stuff like, "Kimble shrugged and watched her walk. She was wearing tight pants and he'd reached an age where watching the opposite sex fascinated him." (Seriously, way to condescend to your audience. No young reader ever has to have "he liked looking at her ass" explained to them. Ever. I mean, really.) But the self-sufficient young narrator was working all right and the episodic plot seemed to be accumulating to the larger thing, and in fact it eventually did.
All right, kids. What one thing does a Heinlein-esque Juvenile need to be updated for the 21st century's view of SF?
If you said "the internet!" or "cell phones!" or "the Singularity!," alas, you are having too much fun here.
Apparently the correct answer is rape. Gratuitous rape. Rape for the purpose of demonstrating that Our Young Hero is a good guy; rape for the purpose of teaching him lessons. Sexual assault that upsets him more than it upsets, oh, I don't know, the actual victim. Who is a victim and requires Our Young Hero to Save Her and does not at any point do anything with agency. At all. We can't do anything without it, apparently. Not one. Damn. Thing.
I have said it before,, and I will probably have to say it again. I am so tired of this. Stop. Please, please, just stop. This is the wrong trend for us to have.
So I was rattling along through this book at a pretty good clip, thinking about the Heinlein parallels, which extend all the way through to the Kipling influence--the hero's name is Kim, for the love of Pete, this is not a coincidence--and with the exception of a couple of failures of tone, it was going pretty well. The present tense in descriptions of the "bugs" in contrast to the past tense of the rest of the book didn't work for me, but that wasn't very often; the more series tone failure was in stuff like, "Kimble shrugged and watched her walk. She was wearing tight pants and he'd reached an age where watching the opposite sex fascinated him." (Seriously, way to condescend to your audience. No young reader ever has to have "he liked looking at her ass" explained to them. Ever. I mean, really.) But the self-sufficient young narrator was working all right and the episodic plot seemed to be accumulating to the larger thing, and in fact it eventually did.
All right, kids. What one thing does a Heinlein-esque Juvenile need to be updated for the 21st century's view of SF?
If you said "the internet!" or "cell phones!" or "the Singularity!," alas, you are having too much fun here.
Apparently the correct answer is rape. Gratuitous rape. Rape for the purpose of demonstrating that Our Young Hero is a good guy; rape for the purpose of teaching him lessons. Sexual assault that upsets him more than it upsets, oh, I don't know, the actual victim. Who is a victim and requires Our Young Hero to Save Her and does not at any point do anything with agency. At all. We can't do anything without it, apparently. Not one. Damn. Thing.
I have said it before,, and I will probably have to say it again. I am so tired of this. Stop. Please, please, just stop. This is the wrong trend for us to have.