Birthday + recent reading
May. 14th, 2014 06:12 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
luzulaI had a birthday, and I am now 35. Thanks to everyone who congratulated me! I had a good birthday--my parents treated me to brunch at a restaurant, and my dad had digitized a bunch of old videos from my childhood and we watched them together. Also my mom gave me one of her woolen blankets that I had been coveting, and my sister gave me a big tomato plant that she'd cultivated herself. In the evening there was an end-of-term show for my flamenco class (sometimes they put up videos from the show on Youtube, and I'll post the link if they do). I am happy with how it went! Also at the show were all sorts of other dances, and I was mesmerized by the Tribal Fusion people (also I was drooling over their costumes). Here is a video of one of the teachers in that style.
And here's my recent reading:
Hellspark, by Janet Kagan
This is SF with a focus on linguistics and first contact with aliens. It was okay, but I found myself skimming a bit, because while I did want to know the answer to the linguistic puzzle, I didn't care that much about the characters. The main character is super-competent and speaks all the languages, and in the first scene we see her, she takes down three kidnappers! Also she has flaming red hair. But I never really got a sense of her personality. I did appreciate the diverse (invented) cultures of all the humans, though, and my favorite character was probably the computer Maggy.
Kalpa Imperial, by Angelica Gorodischer (read in translation from Spanish to English by Ursula K. Le Guin)
I loved the style of this--it's written in an oral storytelling mode which is by turns gently ironic and poetic. Basically it's lots of stories from an imaginary empire, over many thousands of years. There are emperors good, bad, and indifferent, and the empire is ever-changing, but also static. I guess what I didn't like is that in all those thousands of years, nobody ever thought of a social system that isn't feudalism? But I guess I'm not being fair to the book--it's hardly meant to be a political tract. Oh, and also, at the end there is a super-weird retelling of the Iliad. Huh.
And here's my recent reading:
Hellspark, by Janet Kagan
This is SF with a focus on linguistics and first contact with aliens. It was okay, but I found myself skimming a bit, because while I did want to know the answer to the linguistic puzzle, I didn't care that much about the characters. The main character is super-competent and speaks all the languages, and in the first scene we see her, she takes down three kidnappers! Also she has flaming red hair. But I never really got a sense of her personality. I did appreciate the diverse (invented) cultures of all the humans, though, and my favorite character was probably the computer Maggy.
Kalpa Imperial, by Angelica Gorodischer (read in translation from Spanish to English by Ursula K. Le Guin)
I loved the style of this--it's written in an oral storytelling mode which is by turns gently ironic and poetic. Basically it's lots of stories from an imaginary empire, over many thousands of years. There are emperors good, bad, and indifferent, and the empire is ever-changing, but also static. I guess what I didn't like is that in all those thousands of years, nobody ever thought of a social system that isn't feudalism? But I guess I'm not being fair to the book--it's hardly meant to be a political tract. Oh, and also, at the end there is a super-weird retelling of the Iliad. Huh.
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Date: 2014-05-14 07:09 pm (UTC)Also: I'm looking forward to seeing you dance (again). :)
How about chatting/skyping? I have now internet at my new place!
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Date: 2014-05-16 04:56 pm (UTC)