Cuckoo’s Egg
Filed Under Books
Patti’s been doing a regular Friday series, asking folks to blog about favorite books that aren’t “first-tier classics.” A worthy goal, encompassing a great many books. In fact, I had a tough time narrowing down the list properly, especially with Patti’s off-hand reference to “classics we can all name.” Who’s “we”? And how much meta-commentary can be used as padding?
I decided to eliminate books that won major awards of some sort, or that might reasonably appear on a college syllabus, or have been the basis of a film adaptation, or have “bestseller” plastered all over the cover. I also eliminated books published this millennium and authors previously mentioned (though I’ll also endorse On Stranger Tides as the best voodoo pirate puppeteer book ever penned, and you should also read Wintertide by Elizabeth Hand).
That still leaves a lot of worthy books. In the end, I decided to pick by cover.
C.J. Cherryh’s a prolific author, and she’s been lucky enough to have some fine Michael Whelan covers. (Let’s forget the Gates covers for the moment.) This has always been one of my favorite book covers, period. Absolutely adorable. Yeah, yeah, never judge a book by its cover. And it’s true, the infant on the cover matures, as infants are wont to do. But this is one of those rare and wonderful covers that works as art, marketing, and a representation of the story.
Cherryh’s novels often tackle themes of culture clashes and communication. In her recent Foreigner series, those questions have been explicit: her protagonist is a diplomat and linguist trained to take part in politics at the highest level. In Cuckoo’s Egg, it’s simultaneously more obvious and more subtle.
The book opens in a hospital, with the human baby on the cover handed over to Duun, described as general and lord and “another thing.” (Cherryh often defines alien concepts by talking around them.) It is clear that the human is the alien species, and that Duun is both outcast and venerated. The novel is devoted to Duun’s efforts to raise the boy—learning what a human requires, training his body and mind, and sheltering him from others for as long as possible—and Thorn’s efforts to discover why he is different, how he fits into the world, and how he should go about growing up.
The question of where the human came from, and how he came to be in Duun’s care, is not fully answered until the very end of the book. The answer works, an audaciously simple explanation in keeping with the characters involved, the backstory and recent history only hinted at. A tight focus on a few players keeps the story moving and allows Cherryh to sketch out a vibrant civilization in flux.
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Go California
Filed Under Politics
The California Supreme Court (dominated, incidentally, by Republicans) says discrimination is icky.
A few years ago, I was in the camp that believed that, in a perfect world, there would be a distinction between civil unions and marriages. You get your civil union (with all the legal benefits) from the state, after jumping through the applicable hoops. You get your marriage (with all the religious benefits) from your religious institution of choice, after jumping through the applicable hoops. Some people would have both. Some people would have only one.
I still think that would exist in a perfect world (e.g. one where we actually respect a separation between church and state). It might be workable in a less than completely perfect world (e.g. one in which things like civil unions exist as a meaningful analog to marriage), even if it gave bigots a semantic victory. But in a much less than perfect world (e.g. this one), it’s not a first step; it’s less than half a loaf. I am personally embarrassed that I ever thought it could be otherwise.
The California Supreme Court sums it up nicely:
Furthermore, because of the historic disparagement of gay persons, the retention of a distinction in nomenclature by which the term “marriage” is withheld only from the family relationship of same-sex couples is all the more likely to cause the new parallel institution that has been established for same-sex couples to be considered a mark of second-class citizenship.
Finally, in addition to the potential harm flowing from the lesser stature that is likely to be afforded to the family relationships of same-sex couples by designating them domestic partnerships, there exists a substantial risk that a judicial decision upholding the differential treatment of opposite-sex and same-sex couples would be understood as validating a more general proposition that our state by now has repudiated: that it is permissible, under the law, for society to treat gay individuals and same-sex couples differently from, and less favorably than, heterosexual individuals and opposite-sex couples.
Little Brother
Filed Under Books
A couple weeks ago, Patrick Nielsen Hayden announced the availability of Little Brother ARCs, and I was lucky enough to snap up a copy. (The early bird gets the worm; do your very important blog reading early in the day.) ARCs are fun, more because they’re different than because they’re free. (Especially when Cory Doctorow is the author in question, and free versions abound.) So now I’m part of the marketing plan outlined on the back cover.
I can has juicebox?
Filed Under LOL
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Cthulhu enjoys juicebox
Filed Under Knitting
Found in today’s Boing Boing reading, as opposed to Ravelry: the Beeb has copyright/trademark issues with knitting patterns. It actually sounds like there might be some interesting facets, even for non-lawyers, and when I have more mental energy I might read up on it a bit more deeply.
But mainly, I am amused by one commenter’s suggestion that trademark concerns could be bypassed by simply renaming the Ood pattern “Cthulhu enjoys juicebox.” I think the Ood are pretty dumb, but that line justifies their existence.
(Updated 5/13: No, apparently it’s not interesting, just a wide net of C&D letters.)
Typeracer
Filed Under Games
Test your typing skill with Typeracer.
I am pleased that, despite currently being on Larry’s wacko sloping they’re-making-up-this-ergonomic-crap keyboard, I got 49 wpm the first time around, and since then solidly in the 50s.
Except that last race, when I kicked ass at 74 wpm.
Yeah. I think I’m gonna stop now. Go out on a high note. Avoid pointless addiction.
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Coping with high fuel costs
Filed Under Economics
In response to rising oil prices, camel demand is soaring in India. Camel prices have trebled, now approaching $1,000 (about a quarter of the price of a tractor), and camels are no longer being slaughtered for meat.
“The slow process of alarm that passes for startlement in turtles”
Filed Under Story picks
“The River Boy” by Tim Pratt