Irresolution
I'm a bad person. I went to WisCon 31 this year without having ever knowingly read anything by either Guest of Honor.
I'd met Kelly Link before and I was vaguely aware of the kinds of writing she does, but it was all second hand.
I don't think I'd even heard of Laurie Marks before this WisCon.
I decided to atone for this in the wake of the convention. No, not by actually reading any of their writing; at least, not yet.
Instead I'm reading works by the Guests of Honor for next year. Specifically, I read China Mountain Zhang by
Maureen McHugh over the last week. (Before that I was reading a collection of Philip K. Dick short work from the 50s.)
I can see why this novel was nominated for awards (the Hugo and Nebula) and nominated for and won awards (Locus Best First Novel,
James Tiptree Jr Memorial Award) and I can see why people gush about it. I see all that. What I don't see is why it ends
where it does and that is probably because it felt incomplete rather than ambiguous to me in the same way that I find
Catcher in the Rye to be an incomplete story.
That's not bad, mind you. Other people will probably feel that enough is resolved for them to have a warm fuzzy feeling
about the characters in the story. For me, I want a sequel or an epilogue or something. Because I can't imagine what
happens next in their lives. Maybe this represents an insufficient understanding on my part of their nature, their
motives, their universe. It felt like too few pages; when I reached the last one, I turned back to make sure I hadn't missed
something, that some pages weren't missing from my copy.
It's a fascinating world viewed through genuinely sympathetic and sharply expressed characters. It's a complex
interweaving of desires balanced against fears. It's a book which makes me crave a sequel in the same universe.
Aside from the disquieting sense of incompletion, which I admit may be a deliberate part of the presentation of the
story, it's a book I'd recommend to just about anyone. It's got socialists and gamblers and prostitutes and Martian
colonists and a protagonist who is pushed by his situation into fulfilling a greater portion of his potential than
he might otherwise have done so I read it as a maturation story and a stirring from inertia story.
I'll be trying to get my hands on something by the other Guest of Honor, L. Timmel Duchamp, soon, and catching up
on the Kelly Link we have in the house (because I keep buying it for Vy) and finding some Laurie Marks but first, first,
I need to glut myself on my (not so secret) crush on the worlds Ed Greenwood made, The Forgotten Realms. I have
a backlog of current and out of print D&D books about it to read, as well as a slew of downloaded gratis PDFs provided by
the otherwise thoroughly detestable Hasbro through their Wizards of the Coast orifice. No link love for them. You know
where to find them.
posted at 08:53 PDT (-0700)
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And Upon This Rock, I Shall Build My House
My photo-set of our trip through the Midwest via House on the Rock and the Mustard Museum
culminating in WisCon 31 is now complete or at least as complete as it's going to get.
Again I lament of the lack of flash, the lack of resolution and, even more so, my lack of skill.
I didn't even upload all the ones I took because some of the images were even crappier than the ones there
[which is why there are no images of the Mustard Museum, or any number of other notable sights].
posted at 08:10 PDT (-0700)
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Steal of a Meal
Vy and I both enjoy food.
Which is a ridiculous thing to say. What healthy animal doesn't like food?
I mean to say: Vy and I seek out good food.
Again, ridiculous, but getting closer. For food to be good in our nomenclature,
it must manifest some qualities.
- deliciousness
- free of known allergens
- compatible with our Won't Eat Mammals stance
- compatible with our low-carbohydrate, high-protein desires
- compatible with our locally grown, little preservative stance
Which sounds pompous and elaborate and cumbersome in words, but which tends to work
pretty smoothly in practice. We can generally glance at a menu and have a pretty good
idea if we'll be able to find something we like. Since we have markedly different
appetites and flavor requirements, it helps for us to go to a restaurant with a variety
of dishes and even styles.
Last night we went to what is probably our favorite restaurant, Nibblers.
Not only is it good food, it's a nice brisk walk away so I can feel virtuous and
wholesome as I anticipate gorging myself on cheese. It's an accidental find from
when we first moved into the neighborhood and were looking for a video store and
decided to treat ourselves to a meal out. It's in a plaza with a barbecue place
[great for me, not so much for Vy], an Italian place [not so great for either of us],
and a Thai place [usually ideal for us but it was closed at the time]. So we stopped
in to what we thought was a cafe, judging by the outside seating area.
We were wrong.
It is a delicious Epicurean indulgence.
Last night, we went back for our third visit and we took with us our friends
Annaliese and David because we wanted a chance to share this restaurant
with people we really like and who we thought would enjoy it as much as we do.
A thing which Nibblers does which we enjoy is have a theme to the food for any
given month. This month was Japanese cuisine, which is one of our favorites and
when I say our I think I can safely draw David and Annaliese into my bloc.
David & I started with coffees, the almond mocha kiss. Then we all had wine
flights, three different themed wines. Vy had the Aromatics, Annaliese the
Elegance, I forget which one David had, and I had the Spanish Sips.
Mine was the only flight to include any reds but there about 37 other flight
choices and many of them were red-specific or red-heavy.
We had the on-table snack of shrimp chips, or at least Annaliese and I
did.
We had a pair of salads which were butter lettuce with balls of
cheese rolled in nuts on them and a fruity vinaigrette dressing.
Then we had creamed spinach which was really spinach, in a cream sauce, with
caramelized onions, so it was not only attractive and edible, but deliciously
so, and stir fried mixed vegetables which had carrots and purple carrots and
they reminded us of perfectly grilled veggies.
Then the entrees of the meal:
- rolled chicken stuffed with garlic and fruit, with a tomato sauce
- corn and masa pancake with avocado slices
- squash blossom and fiddlehead quesadilla
- shaft blue and amaretto fondue with apple, carrots and slices of focaccia
Dessert was a chocolate gelatto [locally made by an Italian who got off the
boat 12 yeas ago and is very particular about the Right Way to make it], and
a ginger cake, and a plate of four artesian cheeses, chosen by the chef.
He chose:
- a Cahill porter cheddar, made in Ireland, with a process where after the
curds have begun to form, the throw them all in a vat of beer and let them
sit for a time and then take them back out and put them in the mold to squish
and shape the cheese
- a cheese from Galicia named San Simon which is crafted with a tear drop
shop and is said to be as 'sweet as a kiss' and [according to the chef] is
the inspiration for Hershey Kisses being the shape they are and bearing the
name they possess
- the Andante Acapella, a goat cheese produced by a local dairy, ran
as a one-woman show by a retired biochemistry professor, which has the name it does as
it's 'unaccompanied' by any other flavors, it's simply a delicious goat
cheese flavor
- a bleu cheese of some kind but of which all details have fled
my mind.
Paired with each cheese was an appropriate tidbit: pressed walnut
paste, oatcake, apple slices, and so on.
Price per person, after tip? $40. That is a steal of a price for a meal this delicious.
Then we walked back home and because our taste in video games is as refined as our taste in food,
we played some four player Gauntlet: Dark Legacy to burn off all of those calories with frantic
running away from acid barrels and explosive barrels.
posted at 08:01 PDT (-0700)
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