Turn your back for a day...

[intertext]

And look at all the posts on my flist! Yikes. So many things I want to respond to, but I've got work to do, and I hardly have time to write a post at all.

I want to say something about sartorias's lovely post, The Physical Book". She writes about how one gets attached to particular copies of books. Also about the pleasures of beautiful books and of "pre-owned" books with inscriptions and margin jottings. My gorgeous Folio Society copy of Emma just arrived and I've been having a pleasurable squee about it for days, but there are also so many shabby and beloved books in my own library that I could comment about if I had the time. (Oh, by the way, Sherwood - I'm absolutely LOVING Inda - thank you for writing it!!)

I've been so much enjoying anghara's posts about Japan. They fill me with travel lust again (though I have to confess I've been wondering - Irish pub, Italian restaurant, Chinese restaurant... um are you ever going to eat Japanese food?)

Then there's egretplume very thought-provoking post about student writing, and how creative writing instructors are being told to keep an eye out for "disturbing" writing in the wake of the Virginia Tech shootings. Yikes. There a lot there that I really need to think about and want to respond to, so I've del.icio.us -ed it for another day. I may also send it out to my colleagues in the English dept.

beable's annoyed rant about how in the opinion of some women should not work late in the office without arranging for a male escort aroused my sympathetic ire. OMGWTF. Next, we'll be told that if we work late and walk home without an escort we "deserve" to be assaulted. grrr.

wordweaverlynn asks the fascinating question Is Fantasy Inherently Conservative?. Wooh. Need to think about that one before I jump in and join the 101 comments already there.

The always erudite oursin writes about academic writing and the pleasures to be found therein, despite the opinions of some that it is impenetrable and unreadable.

And finally, the lovely superfoo shares the pleasures of her first apartment!

Of course, there were many others, too, and if I didn't comment it doesn't mean I didn't read or didn't enjoy your posts. I have the greatest flist, evah!

Comments

[egretplume.livejournal.com]

I should be working and not on LJ at all this week, but I'm some kind of LJ addict. Thanks for the kind mention :)

What is fantasy inherently?

[beable]

I like the discussion taking place in wordweaverlynn's thread about fantasy, largely because I can see people discussing one of the same issues that I have always had with defining what fantasy is. I have the same problem as murnkey - that at some level I feel like all fiction is by definition fantasy, especially when you get genres or books where the definition is blurry.

Is Like Water for Chocolate fantasy? Would some of the Harlan Ellison short stories that move away from science fiction but also don't, technically speaking, have any real fantastical or magical elements still be considered fantasy?

I find the expectation that there is a firm divide between science fiction and fantasy equally difficult, especially when I am looking for books at the bookstore. Take Darkover for instance. While mostly I see people refer to the later books as science fiction (space travel, earth colonies, the magic mostly treated as science) I have heard people argue that the pre-Terran books like Hawkmistress of Stormqueen should be considered fantasy. Isn't the laran still scientifically based even if the characters don't understand it? Can we just call it both science fiction and fantasy or does that break the point of trying to define genres?

[anghara.livejournal.com]

I've been so much enjoying anghara's posts about Japan. They fill me with travel lust again (though I have to confess I've been wondering - Irish pub, Italian restaurant, Chinese restaurant... um are you ever going to eat Japanese food?)

Good question, and simple answer. I am allergic to seafood and Japanese cuisine appears to be a little heavy on it and also it's sometimes hard to tell if something IS seafoody or not. So I stick to things I know are safe for me to eat.

charlieallery just said, "But I had Japanese food on the plane when I came in! Does that count?"

[sartorias.livejournal.com]

Yes--all kinds of good posts coming through, eh?

Emma in Folio Society? Oooooh!

V. glad you are enjoying Inda--oh, you have no idea how glad.