From eve and morning and yon twelve-winded sky

[sovay]

Last night I went to the movies and became unstuck in time. This is an unnecessarily dramatic way of describing the odd emotional effect of seeing Once (2006) at the Embassy Cinema in Waltham, where I hadn't been since 2003.

It's a lovely short story of a film, sort of a folk-rock concept album; it resists the pull of the sentimental and winds up being bittersweet in a way that is genuine to life rather than tuned by Hollywood, and several of its songs are now stuck in my head. I had been invited to see it with Eric Van and his jack-of-all-trades friend David, who works in an art gallery and can quote extensively from A.E. Housman, and his godson Eddy, who was reading Mort and gave me the most laconic metal horns ever. We went for post-movie snacks at the Watch City Brewing Company and only left around 11:30 when the bar closed and threw us out. By this point, a random sample of the conversation would have included Alan Turing, Buckaroo Banzai, the Aeneid, Gerard Manley Hopkins, Breaker Morant, Babylon 5, the letters of J.R.R. Tolkien, and various facts of biochemistry, and the waiter kept giving us looks that suggested that a table at which no one had ordered anything more mind-altering than soda really shouldn't have been this enthusiastic; they drove me home, in the course of which the conversation somehow evolved into comparative linguistics, and we then spent another half-hour sitting in the car in front of my parents' house, utterly failing to end the conversation. That describes a whole swathe of my college experience right there.

And earlier in the evening, walking up and down Moody Street in search of the comics store (The Outer Limits, closed after 6:30) and the gaming store (Danger Planet, clearly not down the side street I had thought it was) I had used to visit, I stopped into the used book store that hadn't been there when I was at Brandeis. The clerk was a fair-haired Brandeis senior with a yarmulke, who I learned was an English major in creative writing, fantastic and nonfantastic stories both; because we were standing in the aisle of a surprisingly well-stocked science fiction and fantasy section, I asked after the Brandeis Official Readers' Guild. By way of answer, he explained that he had recently been its president. So I told him that I was one of the people who had been involved in its creation, and he asked for my name, and then he said, "Oh. Yes. We have your books in the library." And if science fiction and fantasy clubs have aetiologies, then he knew me also as one of the semi-legendary founders—he remembered that I had been the first Archmage of BORG*, which made me feel weirdly like Albert, and he asked how debka_notion was doing. (How are you doing?) And I was very pleased to hear that the library we put together is not only intact, it's multiplied and now has a permanent home and its books can apparently be taken out from the regular library, which is exactly what it was created for, and it was a little like walking accidentally through one's own ghost. I hadn't thought that student memory lasted more than four years. I hadn't expected to be remembered at Brandeis by anyone other than my professors. I bought Michael Frayn's Copenhagen and walked over to the movie theater.

I kept running into echoes. But it was unexpectedly wonderful.

In other good news, Paula Guran's Best New Romantic Fantasy 2 has been praised by Publisher's Weekly, including "The Depth Oracle." Thanks so much to greygirlbeast and lesser_celery for pointing this out to me!

And I have photographs from Readercon. Proving that we have souls after all, oldcharliebrown captured me and much of the Congerie on film.


rushthatspeaks discovers her natural prey, the nonfiction of John Crowley.


It will not escape her.


I actually think this isn't a bad picture of me; and I hate being photographed. I think that's The Lion Hunter I'm carrying. As spoils of con, both it and Flora Segunda were definite successes.

And I have con crud; I'm losing my voice. But this weekend was worth it.

*I am not responsible for this acronym. I suspect the word "guild" is my fault, but you will have to ask kraada or dasheiff about the rest.

Comments

[setsuled.livejournal.com]

It's a lovely short story of a film,

I've heard some conflicting things about Once, but mostly positive. You do make it sound good.

Archmage of BORG

Not only a Warbot, but a spellcaster, too. Somebody is ridiculously lucky with dice.

I actually think this isn't a bad picture of me

It's not; you're very pretty. And I wish more people would wear jackets like that.

[cucumberseed.livejournal.com]

I totally ran when I saw her in robot form. I did, however, kill myself, or my evil twin.

[sovay]

I've heard some conflicting things about Once, but mostly positive. You do make it sound good.

I don't know if it was the best film I've seen all year—I'm now trying to remember what I've seen all year—but I liked it very much, and it had the kind of casually sound character detail I really appreciate. If it's playing anywhere near you, it's worth seeing.

And I wish more people would wear jackets like that.

Thank you. I am very fond of the jacket. I bought it when I started teaching, but that was mostly just an excuse.

[cucumberseed.livejournal.com]

Yay, I get to put a face to the name of rushthatspeaks. This is good. I saw so many people that I'm certain were on one of my flists, but didn't recognize them.

And congrats on "The Depth Oracle," that story has much crossed over into comfort reading for me, and I have to find the folder where I keep all my old Sirenia Digests so I can read it again. Otherwise, the evening is bound to belong to X Com: Terror from the Deep.

[sovay]

I saw so many people that I'm certain were on one of my flists, but didn't recognize them.

This is why you need to come back to Boston . . .

And congrats on "The Depth Oracle," that story has much crossed over into comfort reading for me, and I have to find the folder where I keep all my old Sirenia Digests so I can read it again.

You have no idea how happy that makes me. Thank you!

[debka-notion.livejournal.com]

I'm doing well, overall- hot, but generally happy (there was a chance at debate about the importance of halakha, which generally gets me excited).

I'm very pleased that you met said individual- and that BORG has somehow managed to interface with the regular library- that's something that's new since I left too. I know that while I was at Brandeis, there was still some sense of certain bits of BORG history, if you can call it such. Some organizations maintain some longer sense of history- you get the stories from the folks who were seniors your freshman year or so. After that, well, all bets are off, unless they keep some sort of record. (I've heard of clubs that do.)

[sovay]

I'm doing well, overall- hot, but generally happy (there was a chance at debate about the importance of halakha, which generally gets me excited).

Yay. Did the debate come to pass?

After that, well, all bets are off, unless they keep some sort of record. (I've heard of clubs that do.)

Yeah. I had just thought that by now all bets would have been off. Maybe it only feels longer than it's been.

I can see BORG keeping permanent records, but I'm not sure what they'd read like . . .

[debka-notion.livejournal.com]

It followed a talk by my friend's father, about what the Conservative movement is, in his opinion, and how to deal with certain sorts of questions/issues- without giving any real answers to the latter question. And yes, a significant quantity of debate happened- during the talk, right after the talk, and again at dinner tonight.

I think that you can work it out to get stories transmitted orally (if they're sufficiently amusing, and there are a couple that I think are) for about 7 years, I think? Stories I'd have heard from seniors as a frosh, then told to frosh my senior year- that would be 7ish years between subject and latest hearer, no?

I thought about starting to write the beginnings of such records at one point, but no one gave me stories besides the few I'd been told prior, so- I never started it. I suppose we could put something together and bequeath it as a sort of mathom to the current BORGlings... The idea sort of amuses me.

[muchabstracted.livejournal.com]

At the synagogue this past weekend, I ran into the most recent editor emeritus of Where the Children Play; which was not quite as surreal, since I was not a semi-legendary founder, but was similarly random.

[sovay]

which was not quite as surreal, since I was not a semi-legendary founder, but was similarly random.

It still counts.

[kythiaranos.livejournal.com]

How soon will Year's Best Romantic Fantasy 2 hit the shelves? I looked for it last night after reading the PW review, but no sign of it.

[sovay]

How soon will Year's Best Romantic Fantasy 2 hit the shelves?

Er. I hope very soon; I had thought it was out already. You may wish to ask oldcharliebrown.

[schreibergasse.livejournal.com]

I hadn't thought that student memory lasted more than four years.

Ooh yeah. OOOOH yeah. What between collective memory, and the listserve, and Alumni Who Would Not Leave, we at WARP grew up on tales of K-Wayne, and Rich Flynn; we ourselves had to explain to later generations why Scott was a gourd. Most of them myths in the classic sense: stories that explained the origins of customs like Coffee, or the "The Smack" game, or what the K-Wayne factor was.
I hope that later generations now tell the story of "Laura del Borgo, the budget surplus and the beginning of laser tag," or the one explaining why they say "Hey, wanna see my corset?" while playing Give Me the Brain.

[sovay]

What between collective memory, and the listserve, and Alumni Who Would Not Leave, we at WARP grew up on tales of K-Wayne, and Rich Flynn; we ourselves had to explain to later generations why Scott was a gourd.

That's magnificent. I'm not we left quite as rich an oral tradition behind; I am cheerfully envious.