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sovay ([personal profile] sovay) wrote2005-10-30 01:50 pm

And the rain sounds like a round of applause

Over at Jeff VanderMeer's blog, I have walked the plank. Go forth and read the rant, the review, and my five silly answers. It's all valid criticism, and I am very pleased.

. . . still better than ninety percent of the short story collections being published in genre this year.

Last night, I attended a terrific Halloween party. We started out at GPSCY, the grad student club, where I rarely go because it's killingly loud and frankly I don't like the place much; but I put in earplugs, stayed for an hour and a half (an hour and twenty minutes longer than my previous record), and observed the fascinating effects of black light on different costumes. It's embarrassing to realize that the lint on your top is glowing. But far more impressively, who knew that white garters fluoresce visibly underneath a black slip?* (Nothing, however, beats the gin and tonic that turned a luminous, poisonous green, like an irradiated luna moth. I always say, if you can read by the light of your drink, maybe you shouldn't drink it . . .) We were a 1930's starlet, Major "King" Kong, Humphrey Bogart, a Viking princess, a Chicago ganster circa 1920, a goddess in the dark, Munkustrap, a Ghostbuster, and a nonexistent sister: and it was good. We watched Rocky Horror in the rec room, to which no one else fortunately laid claim—I suppose they were all still at GPSCY—and although I was the only person in the room who knew even half of the callbacks, I don't think anyone minded. Tim Curry in a corset. Susan Sarandon in very little. Elbow sex! What's the problem here?

Someone dear to me gave me the naming of a star for my birthday. It's in Orion, which has always been my favorite of the constellations: sky-striding, autumnal and wintry. Last night was so brilliantly clear that I could see the colors in the stars as I walked back to my apartment. The stars don't know or care whose names we fix on them. But here on the ground, it's nice to look up and know.

I have to write the midterm that I will give my Latin students tomorrow. The first of my exams is this Friday. Watch me disappear.

*Because we were watching The Rocky Horror Picture Show later in the night, I attended in my usual dress: black half-slip, black camisole, fishnets, black jazz boots; and pomegranate in hand, because although no one ever asks (until this year, actually), I technically attend every showing as winter Persephone. There will, I hope, be photographs.

[identity profile] nineweaving.livejournal.com 2005-10-30 07:27 pm (UTC)(link)
Hey, you deserve a star.

I want to be a Messier object.

Nine
larryhammer: floral print origami penguin, facing left (Default)

[personal profile] larryhammer 2005-10-30 09:42 pm (UTC)(link)
Messiers are all spoken for, but we've got some New General Catalog objects available, in the upper thousands.

---L.

[identity profile] erzebet.livejournal.com 2005-10-30 07:49 pm (UTC)(link)
Jeff's review was wonderful, even the critical bits, which we all know have to be in there somewhere.

I'm dedicating my NaNo story to you, because you are a star. :)

[identity profile] erzebet.livejournal.com 2005-10-30 08:29 pm (UTC)(link)
Of course you can. Watch for yourself in the story, and in the skies.

[identity profile] time-shark.livejournal.com 2005-10-30 09:50 pm (UTC)(link)
As you can imagine, I thought the poetry deserved more mention. But, absolutely: kudos, well done, bravo! :)

[identity profile] fleurdelis28.livejournal.com 2005-10-31 02:51 am (UTC)(link)
I'll try to think up a charm to keep the Ferret of Inconvenience away from your exams.

[identity profile] kraada.livejournal.com 2005-10-31 04:45 am (UTC)(link)
And here I thought it was The Salmon of Doubt. But what do I know?
larryhammer: floral print origami penguin, facing left (Default)

[personal profile] larryhammer 2005-10-31 02:54 pm (UTC)(link)
No, no -- it's the Salmon of Correction. For going >whap< on people who make bad puns.

---L.

[identity profile] fleurdelis28.livejournal.com 2005-10-31 04:25 pm (UTC)(link)
It would be unspeakable awesome (if maybe not helpful) if in the middle of your exams, you bit your thumb and suddenly started spouting arcane Irish wisdom. Especially if you were asked, "Do you bite your thumb at us?" and responded, "No, professors, but I do bite my thumb."

Actually, we should find someone in an Irish degree program to do that and see if the professors noticed. If they made the connection and had any sense of humor, they'd probably give them extra credit for it.

[identity profile] schreibergasse.livejournal.com 2005-10-31 09:44 am (UTC)(link)
That rules hard. Though personally, I think that a glowing G&T would be immensely cool (didn't know they did that...) And I really need to see Rocky Horror. Perhaps whenever I get back to Yale...
Meantime, re costumes: Koehler? Original, but rather boring, annd I had to look him up online to be sure how to spell his name. Angie would be much more amusing. And I'd be much more likely to turn up as King Sigismund, holding the golden rose and trying to borrow money off everyone.

[identity profile] schreibergasse.livejournal.com 2005-11-02 07:24 pm (UTC)(link)
satis malum est grammaticum meum, in linguis et latinis et germanicis, sed eheu, nec rosam auream nec coronas carolinas et arpadicas teneo, nec divitias supergrammatici (si etiam debita eius non hebeo...)

[identity profile] coalescent.livejournal.com 2005-11-01 11:53 pm (UTC)(link)
Another review, this time by Rich Horton, from the latest Locus (pp58-9). I'm not going to type up the whole thing, but:
Sonya Taafe is a writer of some of the most intense and image-drenched prose around. Line by long, exquisite line her writing is desperate and involving. She made her first major impression on me as a poet--and she may be the best poet working in the sf genre right now. But she has also been publishing short stories all over the place, often on mythical or traditioanl fantastical themes but always individual and always centred on a central character's obsession. [...] Singing Innocence and Experience is an excellent introduction to Taffe's work. [...] I don't have the space to describe each story, but each is a heady brew. The poems as similarly striking. As I said, perhaps the stories cluster around too similar emotional poles, and perhaps at times they go on a bit too long, but they remain fascinating, and the collection is at once fine work and a promise of even better to come.
Sounds pretty good to me. :) His favourite stories were: 'Constellations, Conjunctions'; 'Featherweight'; 'Till Human Voices Wake Us'; and 'A Ceiling of Amber, a Pavement of Pearl'.

[identity profile] coalescent.livejournal.com 2005-11-02 07:55 pm (UTC)(link)
You're welcome. :)