Thought I was just another stranger in a Hopper painting

[sovay]

My poems "Phliasian Investigations" and "The Keystone Out of Your Arch" are now available in The Stellar Beacon: Coded. Neither has been previously reprinted from their original publications in Spelling the Hours: Poetry Celebrating the Forgotten Others of Science and Technology (ed. R.B. Lemberg, 2016) and Climbing Lightly through Forests: A Poetry Anthology Honoring Ursula K. Le Guin (ed. Lisa M. Bradley and R. B. Lemberg, 2021). The latter came out of grad school and Orsinia; the former is in slight argument with Mary Renault. They share an issue with an excellent essay by Jeannette Ng on marginalized identities in wuxia, a haunting short story by Alex Jennings, and an interrogative game by Richard Bellingham. Check it out! The price is reasonable and the illustrations very nicely chosen.

I was unnerved when the doorbell rang earlier this afternoon because our porch was full of contractors and I wasn't sure what had occasioned this departure from our previous modes of communication, i.e. conversing in passing in the driveway or shouting at one another through the front windows, but it was the mail delivering a Hanukkah present from boxofdelights. It is the same edition of Naomi Mitchison's To the Chapel Perilous (1955) that I bought in college and which I haven't been able to re-read for more than a decade because I lent it out and never saw it again. I loved it then and suspect I am better equipped to appreciate it now. It was reprinted by Green Knight Publishing, which I didn't until recently recognize also published Phyllis Ann Karr's The Arthurian Companion (2001) and The Follies of Sir Harald (2001), the second of which I own and the first of which I am desperately curious about; I believe they are the press that would have collected her short Arthurian fiction if they hadn't folded shortly afterward, which is a bummer to me personally because I do not have the resources to go around tracking down all of her out-of-print Kay fic. In any case, they introduced me to Naomi Mitchison and I am looking forward to renewing my acquaintance.

Last night spatch had occasion to remind me of the existence of Small Wonder (1985–89), a critically panned and yet apparently popular sitcom about a family with a robot child. I didn't recognize the name, but it turned out to have been one of the confusing shows I encountered at other people's houses as a child—almost any television not produced by Jim Henson or the Children's Television Workshop fell into this category, but in some cases I can remember enjoying the surrealism of American mainstream children's entertainment and in others I was just nonplussed as to its existence. (The Real Ghostbusters (1985–91) is an amusing edge case because the one episode I am confident of having seen was written by J. Michael Straczynski and I spent the entire half-hour objecting to its depiction of Ragnarök.) Small Wonder I found almost painfully offputting. It may just have been that bad, but conversation with Rob suggested the possibility that I may have been its anti-target audience in that much of its comedy seems to have derived from the robot doing human badly. It really is true that I do not interact with narratives primarily by finding where I fit into them, but in elementary school I was already being told by other children that I wasn't human: to my face, that I must be an alien or an automaton because no real person could read as fast as I did, because I didn't have the right reactions to jokes, because I found so much of my age-mates' behavior bewildering and/or cruel. I didn't believe them, but I didn't need stories that reinforced that mine were the wrong ways to be a person. Much more useful to me was something like Splash (1984), where the nonhumanness of the protagonist is not the whole of the joke or even necessarily a joke at all. Looking to the tidal clock of her shape-change, her English half echolalia from learning it off TV in an afternoon: "Six fun-filled days . . . And the moon is full."

My father used to tell stories of sharing plates of spaghetti with Hendrix, the Siamese cat with whom he lived in New York and who really did end his life as a barn cat upstate, last seen heroically freeze-framed like Newman and Redford in mid-air pursuit of an owl. When I made myself a liverwurst sandwich after we got back from the vet, nothing seemed more natural than to share a slice with Autolycus, who made his little porcupine noises into his bowl, growling over something exquisite.

Comments

[troisoiseaux]

I do not have the resources to go around tracking down all of her out-of-print Kay fic

I didn't realize Karr had written more about Kay than The Idylls of the Queen!

[sovay]

I didn't realize Karr had written more about Kay than The Idylls of the Queen!

He makes a cameo appearance in The Follies of Sir Harald and features centrally in "Two Bits of Embroidery," which I did manage to track down in Parke Godwin's Invitation to Camelot (1988). I have not succeeded in locating "Squire Kay in Love" in James Lowder's Legends of the Pendragon (2002). Frankly I would be shocked if he does not turn up in other Arthurian short fiction of Karr's, but I haven't been able to find any to be sure. She referred to him once as one of her personal archetypes. (Everyone has them.)

I just discovered that she wrote an essay entitled "Kay and Morgan and Me" for an Arthurian issue of the fanzine Niekas in 1989 wherein she talks a little about her priorities in Arthuriana. I am sorry she never finished her novel about Morgan le Fay; it seems to have been forestalled by Marion Zimmer Bradley's The Mists of Avalon. On the other hand, she seems to have a moral objection to retellings building on retellings and I don't understand what the hell else the entire body of Arthurian literature—Malory included—even is. Also she just dislikes Mary Stewart and she is within her rights to, but I wouldn't go back to Mark Twain as a source for Arthuriana if you paid me in Mercian gold, and that is the virtue of a polyphonic tradition.

(The same issue includes a review of Karr's The King Arthur Companion: "Throughout the book the entries often show the author's lively partisan feelings." That is exactly why I am desperately curious about it, thank you!)

[troisoiseaux]

Ooh, interesting. I recently acquired a copy of Cherith Baldry's Exiled from Camelot and noticed Karr got a shout-out in the acknowledgements, so it looks like she was out there being a one-woman Kay promotion machine for a while.

(Congrats on the poetry, btw!)

[sovay]

I recently acquired a copy of Cherith Baldry's Exiled from Camelot and noticed Karr got a shout-out in the acknowledgements, so it looks like she was out there being a one-woman Kay promotion machine for a while.

She's certainly the most Kay-focused of the professional writers of Arthuriana I know about. That said, I had forgotten but approve of Mitchison offering her support in passing: "When she got back Lienors was there, turning in a piece about Sir Kay. The Camelot Chronicle carried on a minor war with him, ever since he had snapped the head off one of their reporters who was snooping round the kitchens. It was bad luck for Sir Kay, who tried to be a good administrator and keep down Court expenditure and insisted on a reasonable degree of general honesty. But he was tactless, and the newspapers teased him so that he would go down to posterity as a stupid and unsympathetic character."

What are your thoughts on the Baldry? I have physically seen the book, but feel as though I have dodged a bit of a bullet by not actually reading it.

(Congrats on the poetry, btw!)

(Thank you!)

[troisoiseaux]

I loved that line from Mitchison, especially as a nod at— like, the role of newspapers in the modern myth-making of What Sticks In the Public Consciousness (and Goes Down in the Historical Record)?

I haven't started Exiled from Camelot yet! (I should have packed it to read over winter break, but alas.) I'm looking forward to it, though, mostly because I read a lot of Baldry's pseudonymous Warrior Cats books as a kid and look forward to her bringing that kind of energy to Arthuriana.

[sovay]

I loved that line from Mitchison, especially as a nod at— like, the role of newspapers in the modern myth-making of What Sticks In the Public Consciousness (and Goes Down in the Historical Record)?

Yes. The ways that stories are shaped, which may or may not follow the contours of the history beneath them.

I'm looking forward to it, though, mostly because I read a lot of Baldry's pseudonymous Warrior Cats books as a kid and look forward to her bringing that kind of energy to Arthuriana.

Fair! Reviews by skygiants and osprey_archer just suggested there was so much whump and I am more of the audience for Kay the trash fire than Kay the cinnamon roll.

[minoanmiss]

*reads this with a complex pattern of positive feelings* I remember "Small Wonder"-- I'm not sure I could have articulated this at the time, but I think my reasons for not liking it overlap considerably with yours.

I'm not an Arthurian scholar by any stretch but my favorite Arthuriana is John Masefield's poetry cycle.

[sovay]

*reads this with a complex pattern of positive feelings*

*hugs*

I remember "Small Wonder"-- I'm not sure I could have articulated this at the time, but I think my reasons for not liking it overlap considerably with yours.

I don't know that I could have articulated it at the time, either. I just remembered how much I didn't like it.

I'm not an Arthurian scholar by any stretch but my favorite Arthuriana is John Masefield's poetry cycle.

I don't think I've read that! Tell me about it? (Link?)

[minoanmiss]

Alas, there's no webpage of them. There is a book:

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2883606-arthurian-poets

And I have a packet I made by photocopying them all (which is of course currently in a box ahahah)

They are flinty and feel ancient and I really love them.

[sovay]

Alas, there's no webpage of them. There is a book

Fortunately, I like books!

They are flinty and feel ancient

That sounds great. I will try to track them down.

[thistleingrey]

that I must be an alien or an automaton because no real person could

*fistbumps you very gently* Similar comments here, though I didn't have enough sense to dislike those until much later; they just were.

Mark Twain didn't do much more than read Malory and do some daydreaming--that's not where I'd pin anything, either, heh.

[sovay]

Similar comments here, though I didn't have enough sense to dislike those until much later; they just were.

*reciprocal gentle fistbump*

Mark Twain didn't do much more than read Malory and do some daydreaming--that's not where I'd pin anything, either, heh.

Thank you! You, on Arthuriana, I trust.

[thistleingrey]

Thank you! You, on Arthuriana, I trust.

Eep--I think my grasp is incomplete and outdated, but thank you.

[gwynnega]

Congratulations on the poetry publication! That looks like a great issue.

I enjoyed hearing about Autolycus's liverwurst-inspired porcupine noises.

[sovay]

Congratulations on the poetry publication! That looks like a great issue.

Thank you! I like the magazine. I believe it started strictly game-focused and is branching out.

I enjoyed hearing about Autolycus's liverwurst-inspired porcupine noises.

I'm so glad. They are very nice to hear.

[sara]

I remember entirely sympathizing with the robot in that show.

[sovay]

I remember entirely sympathizing with the robot in that show.

Your sympathies sound correctly placed to me.

[alexxkay]

in elementary school I was already being told by other children that I wasn't human: to my face, that I must be an alien

Have you read Daniel Pinkwater's _Alan Mendelsohn, the Boy From Mars_? It was a foundational text of my own youth, one of Pinkwater's best.

[sovay]

Have you read Daniel Pinkwater's _Alan Mendelsohn, the Boy From Mars_?

Yes, but not until adulthood. My foundational Pinkwater was Lizard Music, followed by The Snarkout Boys and the Avocado of Death.

[alexxkay]

Those would round out my top three :-)

Well, of his YA. His even-younger books also include my greatly-beloved Larry and Two Bad Bears series. And perhaps the most distilled version of his aesthetic philosophy, The Big Orange Splot.

[mrissa]

the one episode I am confident of having seen was written by J. Michael Straczynski and I spent the entire half-hour objecting to its depiction of Ragnarök.

This is one of the clearest depictions of the modern experience I have ever read.

I also was told that I was a machine and an alien.

[sovay]

This is one of the clearest depictions of the modern experience I have ever read.

Thank you.

I also was told that I was a machine and an alien.

*hugs* if useful, solidarity if not.

[asakiyume]

A cat in pursuit of an owl! That is a brave cat.

Yeah, similar childhood (although without any special reading abilities). "You're WEIRD" was the thing I recall hearing.

My dad was telling me last visit that when I was a child, my elementary school had recommended my parents send me to a child psychiatrist because I talked to myself. Fortunately for me, my otherwise very compliant parents had a friend who fiercely mocked that kind of normative policing of children's behaviors, and so they let me be. I remember talking to myself: I narrated the story games I was playing out loud. Later I transitioned to keeping the narration in my head. That's all it was.

So yeah: I'm with you on media presenting acceptance of variation and oddness rather than mocking it.

[sovay]

A cat in pursuit of an owl! That is a brave cat.

I always imagined that he caught it and steered it away over the horizon, never to seen again by human eye.

Yeah, similar childhood (although without any special reading abilities). "You're WEIRD" was the thing I recall hearing.

That, too. I was explaining to spatch that even if I thought the other children were stupid and wrong for saying the things they did, it still wasn't fun.

Fortunately for me, my otherwise very compliant parents had a friend who fiercely mocked that kind of normative policing of children's behaviors, and so they let me be. I remember talking to myself: I narrated the story games I was playing out loud. Later I transitioned to keeping the narration in my head. That's all it was.

One of my pre-school teachers once famously approached my parents with concern because she thought I didn't know what species I was: I had been curled up on a mat during naptime, she had said seriously to me something like "You know you're really a girl, not a cat, don't you?" and I had naturally replied, "Mrrow?" My parents said not to worry about it. Good for yours. I believe telling stories out loud is one of the most normal things a human being can do. (My other pre-school teacher was great and did not clutch pearls over imaginative play.)

I did have a child psychiatrist in elementary school; I called her the talking doctor. I believe she has long since retired, but I have good memories of her. It wasn't her job to make me a normative child. She was trying to help me survive my own neurology and other children.

So yeah: I'm with you on media presenting acceptance of variation and oddness rather than mocking it.

I'm still waiting to meet a conventionally defined normal person. It's been years.

[asakiyume]

I did have a child psychiatrist in elementary school ... I have good memories of her. --I'm glad to know that people like her were in the profession. I remember talking to some kindly teachers about some bullying; I guess they sort of were playing a similar role for me in those moments.

[dramaticirony]

I can't remember anything about the show Small Wonder itself, but I do know that both the show and Vicki the robot were name checked in the song Roboticus, a nerdcore braggadocio rap by the surreal synthpop band Zombies! Organize!!

Random true fact: although the band broke up in 2012, their Twitter account is one of the few followed by the Paris Review.

[sovay]

but I do know that both the show and Vicki the robot were name checked in the song Roboticus, a nerdcore braggadocio rap by the surreal synthpop band Zombies! Organize!!

I love this sentence, as well as the following one.