Saturday Milwaukee report

[mrissa]

So:

Stopped being dizzy in time to go to the Kite Festival on the shore of Lake Michigan.

Benefitted from markgritter figuring out why the internet connection was so insanely slow to his laptop.

Finished the Gwyneth Jones novel I was reading and started the second Libba Bray book, which is overwrought in a way that's really working for me at the moment.

Showed markgritter's parents Galaxy Quest. Teared up at the end as usual. I'm wondering if I have the mental pathways to some more-optimistic science fiction from here; we'll see. The emotional lineage will probably not be visible to anyone who doesn't know me very, very well; but then what's new with that.

Still have no idea what Charlie Parker has to do with the necklace I'm wearing, but we'll get there eventually.

Am hoping that Ista will feel more settled this evening, because last night was Not Much Fun. For her, either, I'm sure: Where are we? Why are we here? What was that? Is that a bad noise? Where are we? etc. etc. etc.

Comments

[kizmet-42.livejournal.com]

It's nice to know I'm not the only one who cries at the end of that movie.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Last time I mentioned that, people kept popping their heads up to say, "Me, too." I think it hits a certain group of us pretty hard.

Be excellent to each other!

[barondave.livejournal.com]

I'm one of the few who really appreciate Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure and Bill and Ted's Bogus Journey. While I don't exactly tear up at the end, they definitely fit in the "more-optimistic science fiction" genre. You have to suspend as much disbelief as with Galaxy Quest, possibly more, but they're fun. I've flixed them, and have both at the moment, and don't regret it. Party on, dudes!

Re: Be excellent to each other!

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

They do, however, feel to me like an older kind of fun than GQ, like the kind of optimistic SF you could get out of their emotional arc is the kind we got before I was born. Which is not to say anything bad -- I like the kind of optimistic SF we got before I was born. Just different.

Off-Topic

[eldritch00.livejournal.com]

While doing a Google search, I came upon this 2001 blog entry of yours (http://www.marissalingen.com/081001.html) where you said:

I started Hammerfall and A Century of Spies: Intelligence in the Twentieth Century (the latter is research for part of the Not The Moose Book).

How was the Richelson book? And what was your "Not The Moose Book"? Thanks!

Re: Off-Topic

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

I don't remember that book specifically six years later -- it blended in with the rest of the research on that general topic.

The "Not The Moose Book" was the working silliness-title that eventually became Thermionic Night, Copper Mountain, and Midnight Sun Rising, the first of which is on an editor's desk, the second of which is rough-drafted, and the third of which is only partially completed.

Re: Off-Topic

[eldritch00.livejournal.com]

the rest of the research on that general topic

Oh my. I'm hoping this means there's a strong espionage element to those novels. I like spy fiction a great deal as well as the fantastic genres, so it's always nice to look forward to books that blend them (like, say, Tim Powers's Declare).

But even if I'm wrong about that assumption, I nevertheless still wish you all the best with those books. Cheers, and thanks for the response!

Re: Off-Topic

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

When I give a thumbnail description of these books, it's "Finnish mythology, early Cold War-era British spies, and vacuum-tube computing." Thanks for the good wishes!

Re: Off-Topic

[eldritch00.livejournal.com]

That's a fantastic description. Even if I'm only familiar with the middle term of that statement, the combination itself is enough to entice me!

Re: Off-Topic

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Good to hear, thanks!