Lyudmila Ulitskaya -- some thoughts

(from squirrel-monkey.livejournal.com)

Last time my parents visited, they brought me Lyudmila Ulitskaya's DANIEL STEIN, INTERPRETER. I finally got around to reading it, and, eighty pages in, I have to say that it's a wonderfully dense and chewy book. There's a number of things about it that got me thinking very intently.

One, the structure. It's a fractured book that leaps from 1942 Poland to the modern day US, Israel, France…. And it is told in letters, diaries, graduation addresses, memoirs, audiotape transcripts etc. It weaves back and forth, from one narrator to the next, and this is an interesting thing: the protagonist of the book is almost always in the background, present in other people's stories as a figment of their memories, a footnote, a "and there was this strange little man on the train, he showed us some small icons". Very rarely he speaks directly or someone (usually a family member) speaks directly OF him. And this is what makes it work: people are not telling Daniel's story, they are telling their own. He's only relevant as perceived by them, as seen out of the corner of one's eye.

Two, this is a book that largely deals with Jewish identity. And there are quite interesting things there too. When Western writers and filmmakers speak of the Holocaust (much in the same way as what happens when they speak of any other injustice), Jewish survivors tend to be painted as meek victims, either bearing and surviving with quiet resignation or cowering somewhere in hiding. Basically, passive, surviving or being prosecuted. Ulitskaya actually writes abut Jewish guerillas in Russian and Polish forests, living in shelters dug in the ground. One of the protagonists is born in one such guerilla camp and spends the first month of her life in a sleeve cut off her mother's winter coat. Her mother, a fanatical communist, goes from prison to guerillas to war to labor camp with the same possessed dedication – and she is anything but a victim.

I think there's a temptation to take any persecuted group and construe them as completely helpless, as someone whose salvation can only be expected from without (Schindler's List etc). This is a mistake I see done again with (more recently) Muslim women, when those would-be saviors forget that those who they are saving might be in possession of some agency as well. Helpers, yes, I can get behind that. Saviors, however, have to be careful.

Anyway, Jewish identity. One of the characters talks about Jews as ethnicity vs Jews as a religious entity, practitioners of Judaism. Throughout European history, Jewish persecution was framed as a religious issue – even in the terrible late 19th-early 20th century in Russia, they were pressured to convert to Christianity to avoid persecution. And yet, during Pogroms it seems that sufficiently Jewish-looking individuals were persecuted all the same, whether they were wearing a cross or not. And of course during WWII the religious aspect became irrelevant – it was the ethnicity that became the final liability.

So Ulitskaya talks about it, about how "Jewishness" has always been defined from outside, either as a religious or an ethnic construct. "Jews are those who non-Jews THINK are Jews," says one of her characters. And it struck me that this is the core of all persecution and discrimination – the inability to define oneself. If you're defined by others, you are by that definition are not free. And it dovetailed nicely with things I've been babbling about at Wiscon, about multiculturalism being possible only when a minority is given a voice in the mainstream culture – ie, when a minority can add its self-perception to the outside, majority, construct of them. When they get to construct the consensus reality, so to speak.

Then there's religion. The protagonist is a Polish Jew who becomes a Catholic priest. Who is then denied citizenship in Israel because of his Catholicism and despite his ethnicity. Who is scorned because he worked for Gestapo during the war even though he became an interpreter there to help other Jews and was responsible for saving hundreds of lives. Who converted from atheism to Catholicism, thus annoying his secular and religious friends and relatives. So in addition to everything else, there's this complex interplay between religion and ethnicity and family obligations and all that dense dense stuff. As I said, I'm only 80 pages in, but I'm thinking about the things she's saying pretty much non-stop. Expect further updates and natterings.

Cats and their fetishes

Cats are weird. Aja, for example, has a shoe fetish. Yesterday, she started her day by guarding these:



And then spent about fifteen minutes rubbing her face in these:




Meanwhile, her sister Attila was stealthy:



Here's the closeup:



Oh, animals.

Well, this is a first

Apparently, THE ALCHEMY OF STONE just inspired its first piece of art:



Look how pretty! It made me incredibly happy, to have something I wrote to be a catalyst for another person's art.

More fashion!

I am so impressed with Victoria's Secret Fall preview. I love their clothing -- they make a ton of work-appropriate affordable separates and good quality blouses, but this collection just blew me away. Here is the whole thing.

I especially like this trench coat:















And I am definitely lusting after this jacket:








Even the harem pants, the trend I have despised from the very beginning, are made somehow tolerable:

















If I ever had to wander a post-apocalyptic desert, I would definitely wear those pants.

There are also several well-made tops and a beautifully cut shirt dress, but these are my favorites. Well done, VS! I definitely approve the continued transition towards more structured, well cut and well made clothes.

It's a TV kind of morning

Well, I've been working out every day pretty much since I got back from Wiscon. That means a lot of elliptical time ( at 1 hour/day), and since this is when I watch TV, I got to watch a lot of TV lately. Which prompted this note: Dear TV, please stop sucking. Also, since when are Jon and Kate cultural icons? Too many J&K references. And Speidi references. And I miss the days when you had to do something to become famous. Like, juggle or something.

And then there's The Fashion Show. Last night was hilarious: the Tarot reading (and the journey to the site of said reading) exposed our remaining designers as a naive, sheltered, and ultimately sweet lot. Isaac Mizrahi continued to be entertaining. I like how he manages to be simultaneously affected and sincere.

James-Paul continues to be uncomfortable about human body, you know, existing. He complained about his model having a curvature to her spine, which made it difficult for him to dress. You'd think he was talking about a Quasimodo-level hump. But no, a perfectly normal girl, who probably never lived in a belfry. She just had a spine that failed to be razor straight. I really feel that James-Paul would be a lot more at ease with the world if people were geometric planes. Poor kid. Also: what's with the droopy shoulder airbags?

So they designed outfits inspired by their Tarot readings. Reco took a welcome departure from stripperwear, and designed something quite nice (black pantsuit with white piping, jacket with ruffles. You know how I feel about ruffles.) But it was Anna all the way, with a very architectural floral dress in gorgeous white and red. She also won the mini challenge, which placed her little cami-and-shorts combo into Saks. Team Anna!

Merlin was kicked off this time. I suppose I would feel bad since his design was not the worst if he hasn't been so unpleasant throughout. Also, note to self: when kicked off a reality show, make sure to not dis the remaining competitors by implying that they are sellouts catering to the judges, and self is the only uncompromizing artist. Esp. after self designed something generic.

Daniella and Johnny were their usual blah. I think either of them should've went before Merlin, for lack of being in any way interesting. At this point, I'm fairly confident that Reco, Anna and James-Paul will be in the final four. The last slot is between Daniella and Johnny, and I really don't care which one of them it is. Oh, how I wish it was Angel.

Random stuff

(From squirrel-monkey.livejournal.com)

This is yet another reason why I love Painfully Hip: circus!
Just look at it! It makes me so happy.

This blog is an amazing confluence of vintage fashion, thrifting, gorgeous photography, links to other places with gorgeous photography (such as wardrobe remix, discount codes, and other random things. Just great great stuff.

Working on a new short story, after selling another one last week (cannot divulge details yet). Also, just finished dealing with difficulties of mail-ordering stuff from the US to be shipped to Russia (it's my mom's birthday tomorrow). Lessons learned: Lush offers AMAZING customer service, and all problems can be solved by a phone call to England.

The gift will be late, but my dad just informed me that that's ok: mom went to Indonesia for two weeks. With my sister. On one day's notice. Sounds like an awesome birthday, doesn't it?

Pretty new cover!

Second printing of THE ALCHEMY OF STONE will be available in November, with a great new cover. Cover here

The Fashion Show --girl cooties post

(from squirrel-monkey.livejournal.com)

Wow, our young designers were, as expected, perplexed by the task of designing flattering clothing for average women. James Paul, who I liked up until then, whined that he doesn't do average. ANother one was outraged at the very existence of people with 45 in hips. Thinly veiled contempt abounded, and Isaac Mizrahi awesomely called one designer sizist. Oh, Isaac Mizrahi. I love your Target dresses because they presuppose existence of breasts on people who would wear dresses.

On another note, I wanted to give shoutouts to places that do not despise their customer base -- most of these are independent and women-owned. Quite a few offer environmentally friendly options. These tend to be a little pricier than Forever21 and Target, but I would rather save money for an occasional custom-made high-quality piece by an indie designer. And I do believe in acknowledging people who do a great job.

So, for clothing I like:

Ruche -- indie, woman-owner. Available organic clothing and great affordable accessories. Downside: most clothing have limited size options.

ModCloth -- same as above, with slightly higher prices on average and an occasional vintage item. Great shoes.


Econica -- one-woman custom made organic clothing. Can be pricey, but oh so worth it. I have one of her wrap shirts in bamboo/cotton jersey, and it is so comfortable and beautiful.


Dinwiddies -- a female designer, very offbeat, uses a lot of reclaimed fabrics, does custom work. Very quirky, but if you are me, it is also AWESOME.


Ledthread -- another offbeat designer with a strong esthetic. Her specialty are obi belts and tunic dresses. A little on the pricey side, I only have one belt from her. But it is gorgeous and a statement piece that gets a lot of mileage.

Vintage clothing:

I am partial to Greasy Waitress, Artifactory, The Vintage Closet and Gossamer Wings Studio. But really, there's tons of vintage on Etsy. I really like vintage because it is so environmentally friendly, cheap, and you can get amazing pieces.

Other things: of course I adore Sock Dreams for their excellent selection of socks, gloves and petticoats (yes, really) and their larger-person friendly attitude and free shipping. Can't beat that.

For beauty products, Global Goddess is my newest love -- especially their amla hair treatment. It is a miracle in a bottle. And of course Lush cannot be beat for anything bath-related, and Heaven and Earth Essentials carry and amazing line of artisan soaps.

New Stories

I have two new stories online this month. First, in Apex Magazine, there's "Mind of a Pig", and in Clarkesworld Magazine -- "Herding Vegetable Sheep". Both are science fiction, and I hope you like them!

Catherynne Valente's brilliant new book, PALIMPSEST, is now available (AMAZON)

I was fortunate enough to get an early peek, and this was my reaction back then: "Gorgeously written and deliriously imaginative, PALIMPSEST is the book for those who love old maps and grow wistful at the sound of a night train. A modern masterpiece in Valente's unique voice and singular sensibility."

I hope everyone will love it as much as I did.

The Lottery ends Monday

Hurry, and win fabulous prizes -- manuscript critiques, Tuckerizations, books and other fun things here. I donated several things, including a BPAL sampler.

The Lottery benefits Shirley Jackson awards.

Valentine's Day

Not that I particularly care, but I do have a guest blog post about gift-shopping -- mostly plugging some of my fave online places. With a distinctly geeky flavor.

Enjoy!

Almost Christmas!

A surprise from AV Club -- scroll down to Jason Heller's picks.

Otherwise, things are quiet. End of the year is a good time to take quiet stock and watch tons of TV.

Has it been this long?

In any case, here's an interesting feature on BN.com about New Weird, and The Alchemy of Stone is mentioned: look!

Updates

This one is rather in depth discussion of The Secret History of Moscow. Thanks, Bill!

Year's Best Fantasy and Horror edited by Datlow, Link, and Grant is out. I received Honorable mentions for:

Torsion (Nemo)
Clockmaker's Daughter (Horrors Beyond 2)
Seas of the World (Sybil's Garage)
Zombie Lenin (Fantasy Anthology, reprinted in Fantasy Magazine)

From the front matter: "Ekaterina Sedia's short fiction has popped up in magazines such as Analog and Baen's Universe and she is, as well, the editor of several anthologies, including Paper Cities (Sense Five Press).
Her recommended second novel, The Secret History of Moscow (Prime) is set in a murky mythic Russian underworld (as opposed to the criminal underworld more familiar from pop culture) in which myths and legends are juxtaposed with hard-nosed denizens of modern-day Moscow."

So, awesome. I'm especially happy about Moscow rec.

My story, "A Short Encyclopedia of Lunar Seas", is now live at Endicot's Journal of Mythic Arts farewell issue, along with many other deserving folks. Genevieve's "The Red Shoes" is great, you all should read it. And then watch the ballet weird-ass movie by the same name. Go on, it's on Youtube. It will scar you.

German Rights

The super-awesome agent Jennifer Jackson sold the German rights for The Secret History of Moscow to Klett-Cotta. Fun fact: Cotta was the original publisher of Goethe and Schiller, and has been operating since 1659. Yeah, I'm happy.

Updatery with BPAL

Shared Worlds experience was great -- there will be a more detailed report when I guest-blog for Ecstatic Days. For now, let me just say that I have two dragon pictures on my refrigerator, and Jeff VanderMeer is very fun to hang out with. Also, any town that has a sushi restaurant and a beer place with 50+ beers on tap is a pretty good town in my book.

In regards to the ongoing discussion of people being happy/unhappy with Prime, I think it would be helpful to see who had a POD book vs offset, as well as when those dealings had happened. Prime is my publisher and I have been quite happy with them -- I got a strong impression that Sean is working on getting to the next level, from mostly POD to offset books, distributed in bookstores and libraries, with advances and other things writers enjoy seeing. That of course does not negate the experiences of others, but I would be curious to see how the switch to bookstore distribution and offset printing affected writer happiness. Also, in my experience, Prime/Sean was very willing to negotiate with me regarding the contract -- there were several clauses I modified and they approved, including specifying a minimum print run and a time limit on some subsidiary rights.

I have a short story at Voyages Extraordinaires. It involves amber.

Finally, BPAL. As Amal correctly pointed out, I have not been reviewing recent scents, which is really an unforgivable lapse. So, without further ado:

Irrelevant and Disturbing Surreal Crawdad Dream, Forum Only

( An irrelevant, disturbing, and surreal scent: red currant, green tea, red musk, Hawaiian ginger, benzoin, vanilla, coriander, squash blossom, and blueberry. )

This is a very fruity scent in the bottle. Red currant is not as prominent on me as I would normally expect; instead, green tea and musk take the front stage when wet and on the initial drydown. About after ten minutes, the drydown settles into a sweeter smell, with benzoin, coriander, and blueberry blending into something very sweet yet spicy. Then tea comes back, reinforced by ginger, and the last two stages never settle -- every time I smell it, there is a different note in the foreground. Very complex and interesting scent.

Chaos Theory IV: Edge of Chaos (CXLII)

(Random scent, one of a kind)

In the bottle: tea! Not just any tea, but orange pekoe. Very tsrong, sharp, almost astringent. Wet: same, with addition of woods. On dry down, it goes through a very short (mercifully) stage where the astringency of the smell is very unpleasant, but then it settles into a very mellow and warm concoction of tea and ho wood (same wood as in Habu, for those keeping score). Orange pekoe mellows into something much lighter -- the final tea note is almost green. It is not the kind of smell that I would choose based on description, but it makes me shockingly happy and it works.

Mead Moon

(Golden mead, fermented with gruit, nutmeg, clove, cinnamon, ginger root, sweet-briar, rosemary, and lemon.)

Ah, perfect lazy scent. Mostly honey with some fine spiciness from clove and nutmeg. Sweet-briar is very prominent on drydown, and lemon thankfully never shows up. Just lovely.

L'Estate

(Nepalese amber, vanilla infused amber, golden musk, sandalwood, golden lily, sunflower, and honey myrtle.)

This is very different from what I expected -- lily is rather more noticeable in the beginning, and as a result the whole thing is a lot more floral than I expected. Thankfully, lily is one of the few florals I like, and amber and musk gave it added depth and sweetness. Soon after, the floral notes retreated, leaving mostly amber and vanilla -- it's such a perfect scent, so sweet and very deep. Sandalwood grounds the lot with just a hint of resinous spice. I will be wearing this a lot this summer. (Note: I did also get the bath oil and the room spray, and both are just as lovely.)

You know how some of you were complaining that TPB of The Secret History of Moscow was too affordable? Fear no more! There will be a hardcover limited edition (750 copies) extra-fancy, numbered and signed; I am considering including a free rat with each copy.

Now, who will be releasing this expensive marvel? Find out soonish!

Also, fantasybookcritic.blogspot.com reviewed The Alchemy of Stone. I think he liked it.

I am a meme

Clockwork Phoenix is out! Buy a copy, it's really good.

Also, I am a meme. No, really. It was all Matt Staggs' idea.

OMG!

PW gave The Alchemy of Stone a starred review