Fannish meet-up + recent reading

[luzula]

I hosted a meet-up for the Danish fen last weekend, and it was excellent! exeterlinden, kabal42, nora_charles, oneiriad, and blnchflr came to visit, and we watched tons of vids (see Kabal's list), ate lots of food, went on hikes, and generally hung out and had fun together. I am so glad they came!

Recent reading:

King's Shield by Sherwood Smith (#3 in the Inda series)
More epic brick fantasy, nom nom. Still good! There's a fanfic-like sort of pleasure in long book series, because just as with fanfic, you get more about the same characters. I liked that we get to see the enemy's side during the war, and that they are internally fractured and have sympathetic characters just as the "good" side does. Also, there's more pining.

Irish Journal by Heinrich Böll (originally in German, read in English)
For my book club at work. This is a travel journal by a German author in the early 1950's. I enjoyed it--it's well written, and it putters along with little vignettes that kept my interest. One bit that stuck in my mind was when an Irishman in a pub told the author that Hitler wasn't so bad, and then there's an extended metaphor about pulling teeth, ending up with the Irishman saying "please, no more, I can't stand it!", and the author thinking he's learned to be good at political dentistry. Although the book doesn't actually tell you what the author says--it's one of those "leave it to the imagination" things.

Comments

[seascribble]

So fen is the accepted plural for "humans who are fannish about a thing?" I wondered that was I was setting up the Boston Fannish Brunch, but went with fan-people.

(sorry, that has nothing to do with your book reviews)

[luzula]

Well, you can also say "fans", which is maybe more common? But I kind of like "fen" (irregular plurals are fun). Fanlore says "fen" is more common in SF fandom.

[jesse_the_k]

Only thing better than irreguar plurals are congregate nouns:

Established: murder of crows, school of fish, gaggle of geese
And
Goofy: clutch of cars, wheeze of runners, toddle of one-year -olds

[oneiriad]

I'm so glad we came. Your forest is gorgeous - if a bit too steep for me without proper boots. Sorry about that :-(

[luzula]

I have a language book listing a great many of those, and it tells me that it's a gaggle of geese when they're on the water (and presumably the ground) and a skein of geese when they're flying. I also like "a smack of jellyfish".

[jesse_the_k]

English! I am so lucky it's my native tongue!

Also: Many Danish fen. I'm watching Borgen now and I want to visit Denmark again!

[luzula]

No problem! Sorry I failed to think about the, uh, potential pitfalls.

Also, do report your opinion on the Mitchison book. : )

[blnchflr]

It was such a good meet-up, thank you for being such a welcoming host!

I love and use fen as a plural, too.

[luzula]

I was so glad you all wanted to come! : ) Also I was glad we could make it happen before I have to move somewhere else, where there might have been less space.

[noracharles]

Thank you very much for having us.

[luzula]

It was my pleasure. : )

[ride-4ever.livejournal.com]

Yay fannish meetups! (I'm organizing one for Toronto in December.)

[luzula]

Excellent! Fannish meet-ups are such a joy.