Just trying not to be washed overboard

[sovay]

I'm still not entirely sure I'm over Readercon. My head has been full of fragments for days. I am not writing anything substantive; it makes me feel fidgety and pointless. I met rushthatspeaks this afternoon at the Diesel; they showed me the cheeriest and most cracktastic path through Hatoful Boyfriend, which if I tell you is a pigeon dating game will not really explain anything. It was amazing. I'm still not sleeping. I don't expect any longer to become so tired, I simply fall over into a restorative sleep for hours, but it would be nice.

1. Courtesy of derspatchel: Don't Walk on Fish. "Hey, scatterbrain, don't cripple your friends!" is an endlessly applicable suggestion.

2. The Library of America is reprinting nine classic science fiction novels of the 1950's. I grew up with seven of these in the house, I think—mostly in the original editions. One of them I didn't read and Rush informs me I really need to. There are some terrific essays in here. Will someone just dramatize Leiber's The Big Time (1957) already?

3. Tom Lehrer on The Frost Report (1966) explains the decimal system.

4. The Guardian profiles M. John Harrison. I haven't seen a copy of Empty Space (2012), but it should be on shelves by now. I still need to read Nova Swing (2006).

5. I will dig through the boxes of my books in the garage and re-read Margaret Mahy's The Tricksters (1986). I wish I had known Sally Ride had a partner of twenty-seven years before she was a widow.

Comments

[ap-aelfwine.livejournal.com]

I'm sorry for the lack of sleep and fidgetyness and feeling of pointlessness. Tiny W, is there any bribe I could offer you to leave her alone for a while?

A pigeon dating game? Even in Japan, that's got to be unusual.

I hope you can sleep soon.

"Hey, scatterbrain, don't cripple your friends!" is an endlessly applicable suggestion.

Indeed it is. In the unlikely event I ever run a dig again, I might have to put some of these up.

2.

Excellent. Some classics there, some of which I need to read as well. Should/may I ask which one you did not read?

4.

Interesting. Bookmarking for reading later, I am.

I wish I had known Sally Ride had a partner of twenty-seven years before she was a widow.

I as well.

[sovay]

A pigeon dating game? Even in Japan, that's got to be unusual.

It's a lot weirder than that makes it sound.

Some classics there, some of which I need to read as well. Should/may I ask which one you did not read?

I haven't read Heinlein's Double Star (1956), which is the one rushthatspeaks recommends. I've read A Case of Conscience (1958), but remember almost nothing about it; I can't remember if I read The Space Merchants (1952) or The Long Tomorrow (1955) or if I only saw them around the house. I don't think I read The Shrinking Man (1956), but I might be confusing it with memories of not seeing the movie.

The one I really want to re-read is Budrys' Who? (1958), because I remember it as the kind of science fiction which could very easily not be: the central character's identity is in question because he has been rebuilt as a nuclear-powered cyborg following—supposedly—a terrible accident, but if you shifted its Cold War politics back about fifty years and gave him plastic surgery, you'd have the same knot of paranoia and spycraft. I remember liking it, but I suspect I was too young to pick up most of the nuances. Fortunately, it seems it won't be hard for me to find a copy at all.