... tob 3/13 cont ...notes earlier matches ... and notes to look up over weekend

re my fvr judgement, writ by Victor LaValle, for Annihilation by Jeff VanderMeer

www.themorningnews.org/tob/2015/dept-of-speculation-v-annihilation.php

commentator John Warner, re Offill:
In the end, it gets my highest compliment, which is a form of jealousy, where I begin to consider that maybe I too should try to write a novel in short, crystalline bursts because this is how all novels should be written. (I wised up to the stupidity of that notion pretty quickly because to write a novel that way only ups the degree of difficulty, and I find it difficult enough as it is.)  //rr. is it harder? for me wld be harder to write continuous prose narrative.  is this so diffrnt in style fr Girl, Interrupted ? vignettes.  and others .......  the book I have fr Ebbco year Memory Room.  and I liked those.  but first chp here no.  not bad, just: not me.  at all.  so.   /wonder if any cmmtrs here will talk re disliking. or, not loving.  -------------------- // 
If I wasn’t versed in Victor LaValle’s work—which is a kind of realism/speculative fiction hybrid—I would be shocked at this judgment. I had a hunch that he would be sympathetic to VanderMeer’s doings.  /me too. yay.  and I'm not versed, I've only had a look at Big Machine, but y know, it felt like I got the tune.

Kevin: /int in early yrs experienced his thoughts as lining up w mine so th I was int in his book. wh I enjoyed well enough.  and John seemed v nice, pleasant to read, and not to have my taste.  but this year so far pretty clearly enjoying John's cmmtry more. wonder, if I go back to read earlier tourn years, will I still align w Kevin especially?/ Without giving too much away, the main character in Annihilation is undergoing a transformation throughout the book //hmmm, is *she* the crawler?  wh now seems easy to guess. wld fit w LaValle "hesitate to call it a meeting". ok if so, still int.// and the patient manner in which VanderMeer reveals it to the reader is really wonderful and shocking. I turned the last page and immediately went out to purchase the second Southern Reach novel.  /cool. still as good??  ..see if cmmts here speak to ---------------------


177 comments
that is as of around ~ 2pm ? bit later
-Drew:  I don't think I could be more thrilled about a decision.     //okay!  I am into you now.  see, as pointed to yesterday, podcast by this Drew and C Hermelin who also comments here //
 Jeff's trilogy was far and away the best thing I read last year, for a very many reasons /:) that I can read or hear about on your podcast?/, so I'm glad to see Annihilation, the strongest opening entry of a trilogy in many a moon, make it on. It's so refreshing to see something as capital-w Weird as this book, and the trilogy as a whole, making a splash in mainstream culture and I think it's a testament to Jeff's talents as a writer. I've been a fan of his for many years, since City of Saints and Madmen, and had the pleasure of reading all three Southern Reach books in advance of their pub dates. It's the one series I've been pushing into people's hands more than any other, as though Area X was trying to colonize through me.   Words fail me; I'm just so thrilled.

-agree VanderMeers Book is perfect in that it's unsettling. You don't really know WHAT is wrong, but still you have the feeling that something is very wrong indeed. Lovecraft would have been proud. I'm happy by this decision
















dlcs .. saved re scott mcl hill wllm, last year tob. dlcs suggestn > ux matters.  /saved. more suggestns, all of int:
Related links on Delicious
    •    The Web’s Grain by Frank Chimero
    •    People Don't Read, They Scan
    •    Invisible animation — Medium
    •    The Biggest list of 35 FREE UX Books | user experience design, ux and usability blog - keepitusable






________________________________
....tob 3/13 Fri .. this weekend,
to look at:

For those who are interested, I recommend
Jeff VanderMeer’s long essay on the writing and publication of the Southern Reach trilogy.   <<<<< for sure 
recounts that the idea of publishing all three volumes in a year came from his acquiring editor at FSG Originals, Sean McDonald. It’s both original thinking and a throwback move rooted in consideration of an audience whom McDonald thinks would be frustrated by having to wait around for the subsequent installments. VanderMeer agreed, even though he hadn’t written the second and third volumes yet.



new commentators ~ in the box, in place of John & Kevin:  
>Elliott Holt is a Pushcart Prize-winning author whose celebrated first novel, You Are One of Them, was a New York Times Book Review Editor’s Choice. The list of awards it was longlisted for is too long to list. She is also a former ToB judge, and therefore, family.>Salon recently called Laura van den Berg “The Best Young Writer in America.” The ink on her debut novel  Find Me  is so new and it is also getting fabulous reviews. You should run out and get it now.


and to read: Annihilation.   also All the Birds, Singing. 
opening of Evth I Never Told You. 
maybe the openings of the two for Monday: Station 11.  Untamed State.

((  Elliott and Laura are taking over the commentary booth for Monday’s match between Emily St. John Mandel’s Station Eleven and Roxane Gay’s An Untamed State.  ))



http://fictionwritersreview.com/interview/the-i-is-an-eye-an-interview-with-laura-van-den-berg/
Elliott Holt turns the tables on friend and fellow author Laura van den Berg in this interview. The two return to FWR to talk about van den Berg's new collection, The Isle of Youth
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---nb
best of 2014 lists (maybe on short/long list for booker - reminded of,bkmrkd in Chrome:  
Ali Smith Talks About Her New Book, ‘How to Be Both’ - NYTimes |  how to reconcile, how to be tolerant of all the possibilities, to recognize how fine it is to be us & to be in the world   // nice.  plot line d n int me m, but good to remember her writing The Accident, wh won rooster and wh I wanted to win, I think.  and read. galley.  (and Hotel _World_ at Elliott Bay, I d n read but first knew of her fr?) / way she writes, it may not matter that synopsis of two chars d n draw me ~ George, a girl who appears a boy?  to the painter seeing her in front of his painting  //? am int in this, just in wh the sum I read meant/ to the painter ~ as a ghost or?  disembodied experience during his life? but 'he' is actually a girl disguising as boy so as to be received as artist ~ so, gender, and time jumps England and Renaissance Italy.  oh well contemp Engl okay; I was picturing hundred yrs ago.  'now' helps my int.  and smwh int can be read w either of the two char parts first ~ books printed one way or the other.  here in this NYT though, note only v short re actual plotline:   ' stories that fit over and around each other, one about the life of a young girl in contemporary England, and the other, incongruously but somehow not incongruously, about a fresco painter in Renaissance Italy.'  
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going back... match 1 ..
re Adam
-Brad McGinty: This work needed to do more in order to be good. And in order to do more it needed to be better. (see also: ouroboros).
I just got off the phone discussing whether the book actually has "rape" or not and found myself saying, "weeeellll, it's in the ouvre of rape but I'm not sure it's capital-r 'RRRRape.'" That's fucked up, but I stand by it.
This      disqus.com/by/BradMcGinty
{  last year: A number of factors have caused me to sit out most of this year.
1. These books are terrible (for the most part).
2. I am exceptionally busy this year at work.
3. As the proto-hipster, I think this thing might be too big now that people are actually here.  }




going back match re Doerr v

-Kerry:  I will say I have a definite favorite and a definite second favorite, Ferrante's and Klay's entries, respectively. Although I am judging Ferrante based on 2.7 books, which is hardly fair, but I will be incensed if the judges don't all advance it.
I doubt my judgment would be so vehement if I had only read Those Who Leave. Also, I wish My Brilliant Friend had been included in the ToB to challenge The Orphan Master's Son, except now I've been able to immerse myself in Ferrante's world for a couple, maybe three, weeks. 
In order is definitely the way to go. The characters are like my own childhood friends now.
-Caroline Pruett: I am so looking forward to reading all the Ferrante books in order. I haven't started yet b/c I wanted to start with the first & knew I wouldn't have time - but everything I've heard has me anticipating them very much.      And Klay is great, I mean, holy wow.

-But "completely predictable plot"??? Drew, are you seriously telling me nothing about the plot came as a surprise to you? If so you are a far smarter person than me.     //whose cmmt is this? look for via Drew's disqus for this day, then view in discussn /wh seems to only show discussn up to the pnt of the cmmt one is viewing. will work in this instance, but is there not an easy way to then see the responses to that cmmt?
-Drew: I'm not patting myself on the back in any way, just being totally honest: absolutely nothing about this plot [ATLWCS]  surprised me in the slightest.

//I like Drew. championing Annihilation, wh is my fvr.  and this is how I (presumptively) feel re Doerr.  so, check out his site-podcst shares w other cmmtr here C D Hermelin
///after lkg at their sites, seeing pics rather than just encountering these ppl as text, felt less liking.  but now 3/31 have gotten back to appreciating their cmmts.  do listen to podcast, especially for VanderMeer on it (and critical of the comments on tob? says aliceunderskies in her cmmt on last day 3/31). also listen for tob wrap up. 




-Drew:  Jeff's story was spawned from a dream, actually, so I can see how that sensation would take hold in Annihilation... but the world-building, the phrase-by-phrase writing, the examination of "more things in Heaven & Earth, Horatio..."

one comment thread of suggestions here for ~ speculative fiction  fantasy scifi.
incl Little Big -Rosencrans Baldwin:  You might enjoy Little, Big. One of those books that people go into raptures about, in my experience. Good if you like Tom McCarthy novels (Remainder, C) /huh I liked Remainder but wh is similarity? I guess maybe the voice ~ hmm no/but wish they were more sylvan. -S-k-s:  Little Big!  a futuristic tale and the fae and some of my all-time favorite gorgeous writing.
no mention of Graham Joyce though my other ebbco 2002 intr'd. The Toothfairy. 
also: The Troll  by .. scandinavian ...  Finnnish   y:
........................ Troll: A Love Story [Johanna Sinisalo]  www.amazon.com/Troll-Love-Story-Johanna-Sinisal    -Viola: his is more than an intriguing fantasy where we meet a realistic little troll. There are stories within stories in this one, and some interesting exploration on primal power dynamics in relationships. [Pessi is based on Finnish folklore and seems to resemble something between a cat and a monkey. Yet is intelligent and human-like.  Pessi perceives Angel as his alpha male.] The ending is more than a little unsettling and stayed with me long after I read it.
//oh. Grove 2004.  so I got this at SemCoop then.
no bks ~ in Engl transl ~ since?  seems not.    en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johanna_Sinisalo        Ennen päivänlaskua ei voi, (Not before sundown, 2000)  
The name of the book as well as the names of it chapters are taken from a Finnish song Päivänsäde ja Menninkäinen which says "Kas, menninkäinen ennen päivänlaskua ei voi milloinkaan olla päällä maan" (translated "A troll cannot ever stay above the ground before sundown").


suggestions of int: 

-Have you read anything by Connie Willis? If not, try The Doomsday Book or To Say Nothing of the Dog.
-I love the Jerome K. Jerome reference of the latter, so I may start there.  // Three Men in a Boat (To Say Nothing of the Dog) // :) //, published in 1889, is a humorous account by English writer Jerome K. Jerome of a boating holiday on the Thames between Kingston and Oxford. 


-Bill Hughes:   American Gods     As She Climbed Across the Table   Agree with Sophronisba about To Say Nothing of the Dog    Blood Music (Greg Bear)    Calculating God (Robert J. Sawyer)       The Mote in God's Eye     The Rosie Project    Rendezvous With Rama     Redshirts (John Scalzi)    Gods Behaving Badly (Marie Phillips)  That should get you started...

 en.wikipedia.org/wiki/As_She_Climbed_Across_the_Table   /oh by Jonathan Lethem.  1997.    
//huh, via Lethem > (was married to) Shelley Jackson:   en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shelley_Jackson    1963) is a writer and artist known for her cross-genre experiments, including her groundbreaking work of hyperfiction, Patchwork Girl (1995). //right I recall ref to this in re hypertext fiction. int:    http://www.eastgate.com/storyspace/spaces.html
Jackson's first novel, Half Life, was released by HarperCollins in 2006. The story of a disenchanted conjoined twin amed Nora Olney who plots to have her other twin murdered, Half Life suggests  an alternate history in which the atomic bomb resulted in a genetic preponderance of conjoined twins, who eventually become a minority subculture. The novel received mixed-to-positive reviews; Newsweek called it "brilliant and funny" and The New York Times, while praising Jackson's ambition as "truly glorious," added that "All this razzle-dazzle, all the allusions, [and] the narrative loop-de-loops [get] a bit busy." 

-I think Jo Walton's Among Others might actually get you really excited about all the old authors.   //ah this is the one I read in cnnx w Sudie (on her Kindle? must hv bn, y think so) who got it bcs lkd up recommends, got list fr NPR ~ Nancy Pearl ?  y that is her name!  www.npr.org/2012/11/27/165482333/librarian-nancy-pearls-picks-for-the-omnivorous-reader   oh yes this list also incl'd Heft  wh is my fvr of recent yrs (most of all?)





-Kerry : I am happy with the decision both because it matches my predicted result and because it is the result I prefer.
I thought Annihilation was more a book of ideas than Dept. Of Speculation. The prose of the latter was overshadowed by the quotes. I think Offill proved the danger of inviting readers to compare one's own writing with that of those who wrote themselves into the canon. Even more, though, I didn't think she expanded, either technically or substantively, on realist literature that has already grooved the same track.
I generally go for quiet novels that turn on the relatively mundane rather than the fantastical, but Annihilation was extremely well-executed and the fantastical elements felt necessary to VanderMeer's project. Our essential ignorance in the face of the universe and our fellows and the corresponding search for a sliver of Truth (or even truth) was captured beautifully. At least, it was beautiful to me.

-the writing in Annihilation made me want to pick up the other two books in the trilogy,  and to me that is the mark of a good author, someone who makes me want to read more of what he/she has to offer.


C.D. Hermelin  /has podcast along w Drew here/: Vandermeer's novel is really wonderful. Back when the shortlist had the trilogy, I thought Annihilation might go further than Area X Omnibus - although he might have gotten points for ambition.
-The real make-or-break moment for me was the encounter with the creature. It's really, really hard to make a monster reveal fresh, and Vandermeer pulls it off. To give the effect of something truly alien is a hell of a skill.


 -Caroline Pruett [D of Sp]: which, as the judge argues, doesn't really answer the novel's most interesting concerns or the things that make it unique.

D of Sp comp'd to ~ of some int to me:
www.amazon.com/Bluets-Maggie-Nelson/dp/1933517409
Maggie Nelson is a poet, critic, scholar, and nonfiction writer. She is the author of five books of nonfiction, including The Argonauts, a work of autobiography/theory forthcoming from Graywolf Press in May 2015; a landmark work of cultural, art, and literary criticism titled The Art of Cruelty: A Reckoning (Norton, 2011), which was featured on the front cover of the Sunday Book Review of the New York Times as well as named a New York Times Notable Book of the Year; the cult classic Bluets (Wave Books, 2009), named by Bookforum as one of the best books of the past two decades; a memoir about her family, media spectacle, and sexual violence titled The Red Parts (Free Press, 2007); and a critical study of painting and poetry titled Women, the New York School, and Other True Abstractions (University of Iowa, 2007; winner, the Susanne M. Glassock Award for Interdisciplinary Scholarship). Her books of poetry include Something Bright, Then Holes (Soft Skull Press, 2007), Jane: A Murder (Soft Skull, 2005; finalist, the PEN/Martha Albrand Award for the Art of the Memoir), The Latest Winter (Hanging Loose Press, 2003), and Shiner (Hanging Loose, 2001).
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