Man. I finished one.

[thebitterguy]

Finally put a book to bed this year (okay, a second, since I read Slaughterhouse Five for the first time a while back).

Neil Gaiman's Anansi Boys, which was enjoyable, if not a twist a minute. Good to see a fantasy novel that ain't all white folk (I'm looking at YOU, George Martin!).

Now I'm gonna polish off Fiona Patton's fantasy Istanbul book. Then, Elizabeth Bear's (hey, if you say her name three times, she shows up. Didja know that?) Hammered. Then more Vonnegut. Or something. Who knows?

Comments

[creativedv8tion.livejournal.com]

You'd never read Slaughterhouse Five before? What'd you think?

Hocus Pocus is a lot of fun.

[thebitterguy]

It was really neat. I have this Vonnegut sized hole in my reading history, which is unfortunate. Gotta rectify that.

[creativedv8tion.livejournal.com]

I've hardly read every Vonnegut book, but the handful or so I have are all very fun to read.

[uhlrik.livejournal.com]

Speaking of Slaughterhouse Five, I recently completed a silkscreen print about the firebombing of dresden. Correlation not equals causation, but I still found the correlation interesting.

[thebitterguy]

That's an interesting inspiration for an artistic piece.

[uhlrik.livejournal.com]

I think so. But then, maybe I count as biased.

[innocent-man.livejournal.com]

I recently played in a one-shot game of Mage: The Awakening that my brother ran. My character was an Acanthus mage who'd spent some time stuck in the Empty Room (from Mysterious Places) and had a great deal of expertise in the Time Arcanum.

His Shadow Name was Billy Pilgrim.

I tell you that because no one in the group had read Slaughterhouse Five, and it got pretty frustrating that nobody caught the allusion. :)

[thebitterguy]

It'e entirely possible they thought you named him after a band.

But that's too depressing to contemplate.

[uhlrik.livejournal.com]

It'd be necessary to shoot them in the head if that was the case.

[uhlrik.livejournal.com]

That's one of the inherent dangers of referring to cultural or historical items such as literature, fine art, music, movies et cetera. A lot of people just won't "get" the reference, even if the work being referred to is highly famous and influential.

[viktor-haag.livejournal.com]

Good to see a fantasy novel that ain't all white folk...

Hmm... this is not something I notice tremendously. Glass half-full: skin colour is not a point of distinction to me. Glass half-empty: as a UMCWG, it's pretty easy for me to think skin colour is not a point of distinction to me.

What about the books of Samuel Delaney, Glen Cook, Steven Erikson, and R Scott Bakker? I have a hunch they're strewn with various coloured bodies (in various states of health). At least, I always imagined them so. (I don't claim that these authors have anything more to recommend their place in a list than the fact that they're in my reading pile.)

But, here's a question: do you think Martin's setting-whiteness is more a factor of the "fantasy geographical region" in which he sets his stuff, or more a factor of his "inner white eye" that has a tendency to paint everyone the same colour he is? As a reader, I assumed that the reason most of his characters were white was because his setting was a Northern-Europe-kinda-thing. By contrast, it seemed to me that most of Bakker's characters had more of a Bitter Guy shade to them because his setting was more of a Mesopotamian-kinda-thing.

[thebitterguy]

Damn, V. You know how uncomfortable it is when someone takes something I say seriously.

I don't actually think Railroad's work is as blanche as I make it out to be; he does have one of his characters in a 'fantasy Mongolia' in book 1, after all (and note: While I own books 2 & 3, I've not yet read them, mea culpa, mea culpa). And since it's setup as a forested/northern Europe type of setting, it would certainly be very out of place if it was.

I haven't read any Delany, Erikson Cook or Bakker (these are suggestions, yes?).

It's just a thing with me that I notice race on occasion; I'm not one that requires a multicultural society, mind you. I found the whole 'token moor' thing that happened in Robin Hood for a few years inda pointless. I just appreciate it when it happens.