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Jan. 5th, 2007 01:34 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rymenhildHello, everyone. I am in the Philadelphia area today; tomorrow I am going to New York, and Tuesday flying out to England. I almost wish I were staying home for another week or so to catch my breath, but I love everything I'm doing, so I can't complain.
Meanwhile, I have reviews and recommendations!
Courtesy of nostre Chaucer: Margery Kempe goes to the MLA. (For those of you who aren't graduate students in English, the MLA (Modern Language Association annual conference) is the pit of alligators into which new English PhDs and near-PhDs descend in search of tenure-track jobs.)
And thys creatur knewe litel of thes wyse clerkes wyth whom sche travilid and she askid what maner ffolk thei weren. Oon the men was named Genderstudyes and the othir man was named Medievaliste and the woman was named Americaniste-but-really-Faulknerstudyes. And thei were from Bigresearchuniversitee.
You've surpassed yourself this time, oh Chaucer Blogger. There are going to be T-shirts based on this entry, aren't there?
In other news, I have fallen in love with Catherynne M. Valente's The Orphan's Tales, Vol. 1: In the Night Garden. Valente (who goes by![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
yuki_onna on LJ) has structured her book on the model of the Arabian Nights, with storytellers telling stories inside stories told by other storytellers. It should not be a surprise to anyone who knows me that I'm a sucker for reviving older literary forms, especially when the authors who revive them do so with full knowledge of how those forms support their broader goals. Valente uses the nested-stories model to give every single character agency. Every time we're encouraged to think that certain figures are villainous, we discover stories told by the "villains" that recast them as heroic. Conversely, characters we first meet as heroes might just turn out to have been engaged in genocide all along. Each new story forces the reader to rethink the meaning of the previous stories and to rethink the possibilities of "story" in general.
Valente draws a wide, wide world, full of beautiful (and/or hideous) cities and peoples. My favorite may be the Anointed City of Al-a-Nur. Al-a-Nur has one tower for each of the twelve faiths that claim it as their holy city, and one more for the Papess who governs all twelve religions in an ecumenical manner. Disputes between faiths are settled through the play of the sacred game Lo Shen; the representative of each faith moves Towers and Papesses about on the board until at last the winner kills the loser's God.
I can't possibly list all the delights in the vast, beautiful Orphan's Tales. Go read the book, all of you.
Meanwhile, I have reviews and recommendations!
Courtesy of nostre Chaucer: Margery Kempe goes to the MLA. (For those of you who aren't graduate students in English, the MLA (Modern Language Association annual conference) is the pit of alligators into which new English PhDs and near-PhDs descend in search of tenure-track jobs.)
And thys creatur knewe litel of thes wyse clerkes wyth whom sche travilid and she askid what maner ffolk thei weren. Oon the men was named Genderstudyes and the othir man was named Medievaliste and the woman was named Americaniste-but-really-Faulknerstudyes. And thei were from Bigresearchuniversitee.
You've surpassed yourself this time, oh Chaucer Blogger. There are going to be T-shirts based on this entry, aren't there?
In other news, I have fallen in love with Catherynne M. Valente's The Orphan's Tales, Vol. 1: In the Night Garden. Valente (who goes by
yuki_onna on LJ) has structured her book on the model of the Arabian Nights, with storytellers telling stories inside stories told by other storytellers. It should not be a surprise to anyone who knows me that I'm a sucker for reviving older literary forms, especially when the authors who revive them do so with full knowledge of how those forms support their broader goals. Valente uses the nested-stories model to give every single character agency. Every time we're encouraged to think that certain figures are villainous, we discover stories told by the "villains" that recast them as heroic. Conversely, characters we first meet as heroes might just turn out to have been engaged in genocide all along. Each new story forces the reader to rethink the meaning of the previous stories and to rethink the possibilities of "story" in general.Valente draws a wide, wide world, full of beautiful (and/or hideous) cities and peoples. My favorite may be the Anointed City of Al-a-Nur. Al-a-Nur has one tower for each of the twelve faiths that claim it as their holy city, and one more for the Papess who governs all twelve religions in an ecumenical manner. Disputes between faiths are settled through the play of the sacred game Lo Shen; the representative of each faith moves Towers and Papesses about on the board until at last the winner kills the loser's God.
I can't possibly list all the delights in the vast, beautiful Orphan's Tales. Go read the book, all of you.
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Date: 2007-01-05 05:29 pm (UTC)And sche seyde to Ower Lord, “A, Lord, wherfor sholde I feere thes folke? For thei aren lyk the harlem globetrotteres of self-mortificacioun.”
Oh, the best part is the interview, though. The C-blogger has an amazing talent for mocking up other authors' voices: jealous as I may be, I must give props where due. But if this is a grad student, where does she or he find the time?
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Date: 2007-01-05 06:44 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-01-05 06:48 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-01-05 06:50 pm (UTC)(Please let this day improve. Please.)