She really needs to pick up a non-genre book...

I could make a cottage industry out of posting snarky rebuttals to the piffle Jo Walton spits out on the Tor blog. It's like she was specifically crafted in a lab to drive me insane. Last time, it was because she whinged about how she doesn't like to read the SF output of *superior* writers (ie: those not in the SF/F ghetto) because they don't understand the tropes. This time?

"Rosa sat so Martin could march, Martin marched so Barack could run, Barack ran so our children can fly."

Everybody seems to be quoting this without attribution, and I’d love to know who wrote it. The thing that struck me about it was how very science-fictional it felt. It’s got the ring to it of something from a future history book, or one of those oracular poems with deep special meanings you sometimes run across in fantasy. I hope everyone’s children can fly, but we’d better get working on the spaceships.

The comment I left:

I don't want to be really rude, but I can't remember a post of yours that didn't make me shake my head at least a little. This one's pretty severe.

The quote is not "science-fictional," neither does it have "the ring to it of something from a future history book, or one of those oracular poems with deep special meanings you sometimes run across in fantasy." It's a standard rhetorical trope, familiar to anyone who reads broadly and outside of the SF and Fantasy worlds.

It builds power and tension through repetition, similar to this quote from MLK:

Press on and keep pressing. If you can't fly, run; if you can't run, walk; if you can't walk-CRAWL.

If you've seen similar in SF and Fantasy, that's because it is a very old form with which you should be familiar. For example, if you thought the line I quoted above was *original* in Firefly, you really need to get out more.

N.B. I corrected a typo I had in my comment. Not trying to hide anything, but I see no reason to quote myself and leave it uncorrected.

Who knows: maybe y'all'll disagree with me and think she's really hit that thar nail on the head. Though I suspect my few readers are a bit more well-rounded than Jo, so it seems unlikely.

The Protocols of Pulp

Jaysus! And this is why so many SF writers *deserve* the goddamn ghetto they find themselves in.

The Time Traveler’s Wife isn’t the kind of book I normally read. It’s a bestseller (an "international bestseller" according to the cover of my edition), a romance, and it’s SF written by someone who doesn’t read SF and doesn’t know SF-writing protocols. I read it because people I knew really liked it, and because libraries exist to let people try books with no strings. I got my own copy because I knew I’d want to read it again. It’s a strange book, but really powerful.

(Emphasis mine.) Really, that's great. It wasn't written by a genre hack, using some formula that was hoary back when John W. Campbell had a no-aliens policy. So happy you decided to lower yourself to read SF that wasn't up to your usual standards.

Borders? You seem to be making smart choices lately. I wouldn't waste space stocking Jo Walton and her blindered ilk either.

Marley & Me trailer

There's video above, FeedReader.

Ah, Marley. I've known what I was doing with that lazy afternoon of 25 December for months. But I'm a dog lover. They're so much better than people.

If you love dogs and you've never read the book, I suggest you pick it up. There's a new edition coming out in a couple weeks. Here's a link. I bawled like a baby when I read it, as I imagine I will in the theater.

My Media Week Meme

Huh. I'm usually so careful. I always wear protection when I blog. I never get tagged. Oh well, best to go to the free clinic and get a shot. Fortunately this one'll be cleared up in a few days.

Mike at A Mike Life tagged me with this meme, so here goes:

Books:
I've got multiples in play as usual. Finally decided I should read H.G. Bissinger's Friday Night Lights, so that arrived the other day. Of course, TheWife pulled it off the stack first. I'll see if I can't pry it away by the weekend. I just finished volumes one and two of Mark Andreyko's Manhunter on a recommendation, and was pretty entertained. Plus, I've got to catch up on Y: The Last Man. All said though, I think the next book I'll pull and read is probably Carry On, Jeeves by Wodehouse.

TV:
Lots and not so lots. I'm a couple weeks behind on Breaking Bad, so I need to catch up on that. There are UConn games be watched, Gonzaga games to be watched, and...well...not much else on the tube right now. At some point this month there should be a production of Sondheim's Company on my PBS affiliate, so I'll have that, and there are still four more episodes of Cupid to rewatch along with Alan Sepinwall and the rest of the Strike Survival TV Club. And in a few months, fates allow, new television again, including BSG.

Music:
This is the easiest. Not much new for me right now. I've got Dean Gray's American Edit spinning in the car stereo, might switch over to Live'r Than You'll Ever Be from the Kleptones if the mood strikes me, and I've got a bunch of episodes of the Coverville podcast backed up on my 'puter at work.


Now that I've been infected, I've got to touch five others...
Michele
Michael
Jared (who really doesn't post often enough)
Kari
Tosy