Putting Down the Masters

Severian is an apprentice torturer with a perfect memory who runs into trouble when he falls in love with one of his guild's 'clients', as they are euphemistically known.

I picked up Gene Wolfe's collected works which make up the "Book of the New Sun" with great excitement after very much enjoying his award-winning novella "Memorare". But I must admit to being gravely disappointed.

The book is touted as a classic work of science fantasy in particular and speculative fiction in general. And it is well-written and has many subtle quirks. The worldbuilding is grand in scale and the ideas are intriguing. But, for me, examining a society where torturers have a guild and executioners seen as some kind of artists, is bait, not meat.

I found the jargon invented for the world alienating, rather than immersive. The plot twists and turns like an out of control snake and while all of these diversions may serve some higher purpose, perhaps thematic, it didn't hold my interest.

And the primary thing that I loved in "Memorare" is absent in "The Shadow of the Torturer". Gene Wolfe's characters and their interactions were so true-to-life and real in "Memorare" but in the book, it always felt like I was separated from them by a wall of water. I don't 'get' Severian or anyone else he interacts with. Possibly with the exception of Severian's initial infatuation with Thecla, I found the romantic interludes dull. Everything in the story felt unfamiliar.

And maybe that's the point and what other people love about the book. Recently, I came across a study group which is month-by-month reading these books of Gene Wolfe. And I would take nothing away from him as a writer - his prose is incredible and he clearly is some people's cup-of-tea.

But he's not mine. All the same, it's been hard to put the book done - not because I was engaged, but because I felt guilty. Putting down literary classics that bored me (like Dickens) has never really bothered me but there's something about putting down a speculative fiction classic that bothers me. This is supposed to be my genre.

Then I remember how many books there are that I'll never get around to reading. How many classics there are and how many I do enjoy. It's alright if there are some authors (or in this case, books) that I don't enjoy and whose work I can't get through. Even if they are good.

Some Winning Stories

Oceanview Publishing is an independent publisher of mystery, thriller and suspense novels. In 2008, they launched their first short story contest and assembled a star-studded cast of judges. Now the judges have made their decision and the three winning stories have been posted. Enjoyable stories all, I preferred the winner and first of the winning finalists - they both had my favourite thing about a good short story, which is a killer ending. (I did find it interesting, though, that none of the stories really fit into the genres that the company focuses on. But then their parameters were pretty broad.)

The first-prize story, "Mississippi Pearl" by Joel Arnold, is the story of a family drama - the things that tie people together and the things that ripple down the years. The characters jump off the page, so vivid in their details, and the imagery is carefully appropriate.

After reading it, I needed a bit of a laugh to cheer me up and that's exactly what I got from "Me and the Bank" by K.G. McAbee. A clever little story that looks at those friendships you can't ignore and the assumptions that can lead you into trouble. The voice of the story wore a little on me about half-way through, but the ending was worth pressing through for.

The second winning finalist, "Heavenly Chorus" by Karen Pullen, seemed the weakest to me. It didn't seem as well-written as the others. I also didn't particularly like the change in tone from serious to silly. It struck me as a bit disrespectful. Also, the change in direction in the story at one point didn't seem properly motivated. However, it is a clever idea and some will enjoy this irreverent story.

Considering the overall quality of the stories, I do hope Oceanview turn the competition into an annual fixture.

An Old Tale, A New Story

I loved the Disney "My Little Mermaid" when I was a little girl. Not quite as much as I loved "Sleeping Beauty", but still. I could sing all the words to "Unda da Sea". But I also loved the dark, dismal original. I don't remember ever reading it (though I probably did). I remember hearing it. As a girl, my parents surrounded me with audio tapes to send me to sleep (the choice to give me the original fairy tales to lull me to sleep was possibly not the most well-thought through idea on their part). I remember the agony when the mermaid gets her wish and the horrid despair when she becomes just on the waves.

So when I read Alethea Kontis's story behind the story of "Blood and Water" on the editor of IGMS's blog it really resonated with me. I wanted to read the story -- but I didn't have a subscription to IGMS and, at the time, no way of getting one. So now that the story has become freely available on the IGMS website, of course I've read it. And I was not disappointed. Kontis answered all the questions she posed in the blog entry that had originally intrigued me and added a very unique twist to the old fairy tale.

The story starts off from the perspective of the "witch", a witch who seems at odds with herself over whether to grant the mermaid's witch but who ultimately gives in. And so begins the story of a mermaid who grows two legs but still isn't quite human. Picked up by a pirate ship, she has to come to terms with her new nature, confusing surroundings and the question of how to find her prince.

In Place of the Book I Left Behind

I'm not sure quite where I first came across Marie Brennan. I remember reading reviews of Midnight Never Come so perhaps that's where it started, though I normally discover authors through their short stories. What drew me into buying the book was that it combined two of my major obsessions as a tweenager: fairies and the Tudors. Plus I read the first chapter in a bookstore and I decided it sounded right on target. And so far so good. However, I have now gone and left my copy of the book on the other side of the world and in all likelihood will not see it for another six months. Grrr!

So anyways, to make it up to myself (and because I stumbled over her website today), I have decided to read the short fiction she's made available. The first story I read was "Calling Into Silence". It took me a little while to get into it because the story "felt" quite familiar. And I'm not really a nomadic-tribe-short-story kind of person. However, I liked the main character and there were some nice stylistic effects in the story. It wasn't a jump-up-and-bite-me or remember-forever sort of story, though it has a good pedigree.

"For the Fairest" and "Silence, Before the Horn" are both short retellings of old stories. Each with their own Marie Brennan twist. I preferred the humour of the former to the despair of the latter. Similarly, "A Thousand Souls" is another flash story that builds on an old legend. It also has a sad feel to it, but I'm not sure if it's as good as the two previously mentioned in this paragraph.

"Such as Dreams are Made Of" is the story of a building contractor, ruthless and ready to do battle with anyone who comes between him and his plans. However, when he finds himself assaulted by a man that no-one saw and the CCTV has no record of, he discovers he has opponents that not even he can exercise control over. This story of a contractor moving with the times opposed by those who want to retain fragments of the past is again a familiar one, but Marie Brennan's strong writing style and careful subversion of what the reader expects give the story its own flavour. Enjoyable, particularly the ending.

The theme through all the stories seems to be to take something familiar in a new direction. Which I suppose is what Midnight Never Come also does, though on a bigger scale. All in all, I'm not sure that I liked any of the short stories freely available as much as I'm enjoying the book and reading them has only made me more irritated with myself for leaving it behind. However, what I have also discovered on the website is that Marie Brennan has another series. So perhaps I'll give that a try... (or, at least, put them in my Amazon basket while I scrape together the pennies to buy them).

The Things One Discovers in Anthologies

In reading "The Mammoth Book of Extreme Fantasy" edited by Mike Ashley a few months ago, I discovered a story that I really enjoyed: "Cup and Table" by Tim Pratt. A dark story in an anthology of dark stories. Yet somehow I (not a major fan of all things scary and dark) enjoyed it. The characters were so well-rounded, the form of the story was so perfectly suited to its substance and the ending, ah, the ending, I just loved it.

So I've been following his LiveJournal since then. I've considered buying his Marla Mason books but while they sound excellent, I'm still not quite sure if I'd be able to finish a whole book of occultic material (whether fictional or not). I also considered subscribing to his 'zine Flytrap but it's just closed and I'm a starving student.

Today on his LiveJournal, he posted about his stories that are eligible for various awards. Now being the starving student that I am, pitching in the subscription for an Anticipation membership is probably not (okay, definitely not) going to happen and thus I won't be able to vote. But I thought I'd read and then blog about his stories. Which probably also won't help but it gives me a valid excuse to read them (and given that I really should use my time productively for the essays hanging over my head I need an excuse).

The first one I read was "The Dude who Collected Lovecraft" which he co-write with Nick Mamatas. Given all the allusions I did pick up in "Cup and Table", I imagine there are a whole bunch more allusions that I'm missing in this story seeing as I'm not much of a horror-reader and have never read Lovecraft. Despite my painful awareness that I was probably missing a whole lot, I thought it was well-written and it definitely gave me the chills (will have to listen to calming music before I go to bed). I particularly liked the way the authors evoked the different voices in the story. The ending didn't seem all that strong (but I may have missed the punchline not being familiar with the subgenre). I don't know what it's up against for the Stoker Awards but I'd give it a thumbs-up.

The second one was "The Frozen One" and I just loved it. Absolutely beautiful. Totally made up for how spooked-out I was feeling after the last one. Again (like in "Cup and Table"), the way the story was told was just right. And the voice was very distinctive: poignant somehow. I loved the way it was all mixed-up between sounding like a fantasy world and like ours. For example:

"This one bar they liked was called The Frozen One, because there was a giant block of magical ice right in the middle of the room—the bar had been built around it, because the owner realized having a giant block of magically unmelting ice meant he could keep his beer really cold for free."

I also got the allusions in this one, being more familiar with the Bible and, well, the other main allusion which I won't spell out here. But one of the things that kind of tickled me about the second allusion is that the research done was by game theorists, which is a branch of economics (which is what I do, mainly) and I remember reading about the research in a textbook . That might not seem an entirely appropriate reaction given what the allusion is but yeah...

The third I read was "The River Boy". Not quite as powerful as "The Frozen One" but poignant in its own way (I think poignant is a word I probably over-use in describing Pratt's work but oh well). It also had its own voice and style, being more like a myth or a fairy tale. A cute little touch was that the boy in the story has the same name as Pratt's own son - a touch that only added to the poignancy (yes, again, I kn0w).

Anyway, the last two stories made me feel quite sad (which is heaps better than scared) but what me saddest is what Pratt said in his post about the fact that stories published in small presses don't have much of a shot at the Hugos. Not only did that make me sad because I loved the stories but because Clarkesworld Magazine and Lone Star Stories are two of my favourite places on the web (and off) to read stories. So many of the stories that I've read in these two venues have talked to me and surprised me and made me feel so many things (not scared, I mostly avoid stories that look like they might go in that direction). I seldom go through the archives of online 'zines but I have dipped into both their archives. I've even seriously considered buying Realms (it's in my Amazon basket - admittedly, things sit in there for months while I try and justify buying them).

So I'm not quite sure how to end this post. So I'll end it by linking the title and the point. I discovered short fiction by buying some anthologies at the bookstore. Some of the anthologies had sections about the authors which mentioned their websites. I visited their websites, signed up for their blogs and then discovered the online short fiction venues. And one day when I've graduated from student to proper academic I will have the money to donate money to online short fiction venues and get memberships to organisations that allow me to vote for the authors and venues I've fallen in love with. Which is part of the reason I believe in short fiction and science fiction and web 'zines no much how much doom and gloom I've read in blogs. I used to be just someone who dipped in and on out of sci-fi and fantasy but now I know there's a whole world more of it out there. (And now that I've managed to make this post neither scary nor sad I will stop).

Modernisation and Development

Back in the bad old days, development and modernisation were seen as pretty much synonymous. Becoming developed meant, well, becoming more like the West. These days the two ideas have detached themselves and come to mean different things. To some people, anyway.

One of the interesting things about reading a book like "The Sociology of Modernisation and Development" (by David Harrison) is realising just how wide the gap between economics and other social sciences really is. Sure, economists like Rostow were involved in modernisation theory and economists associated with the Economic Commission to Latin America (ECLA) with dependency theory, the two early schools of thought in development theory. But do economists even realise this?

Economics seems by far the most ahistorical of the social sciences. Sociologists seem to always be looking over their shoulders, seeing where they've come from to work out where they might be going. Trying to read a sociology book or article without some exposure to the background is, in a phrase, not so fun.

Economics is quite different. When taught, economic theory is presented as immutable: it all started with Adam Smith and now is sitting on your table. Homo economicus (rational as he is) has always existed and always will. He determines the course of history and will chart the waters of the future. (If this paragraph seems gender-biased, you must be from one of the softer social sciences.)

While economic reasoning and rationality certainly are important, a neglect of the historical aspect can be dangerous. Sociologists seem far less likely to observe something twice. They know what previous theorists have said, what debates and ground have been covered and don't need to revisit the territory. Economists sometimes seem to run in circles, repeating the same mistakes, particularly in development, ad nauseum.

Take for example, the view of development as "being more like the West". Isn't that just what the Washington Consensus (and post-Washington Consensus) was all about? "This is how the West got rich and this is how everyone else will do it". Well, the West isn't looking so hot right now so perhaps that particular brand of advice will be meted out in smaller doses. But if the US and EU get back on their gargantuan feet anytime soon, it may not be long till its more of the same. Developing countries may want to take advantage of the window while it's still open.

The Networks We Don't See

Moises Naim's book "Illicit" is an eye-opener. A spine-chilling eye-opener. The book surveys the depth to which criminal networks have become embedded in our society. Just as globalisation has opened up the world to all sorts of legal cross-border flows, so too has it opened it up to illegal flows of drugs, arms, sex slaves, you name it.

And these are flows do not originate from the hierarchical mafioso a la "The Godfather". Rather as technology has involved, so too has the organisation of the criminal underworld. Yes, there are still very powerful groups and individuals but they are now organised in a networked way, making them that much harder to detect and crack down on.

Another evolution in the world of crime has been the specialisation in function, rather than a specific type of illicit trade. Drugs, arms, people trafficking are no longer distinct strands; instead they have run together where the same set of traffickers could be smuggling all manner of goods across borders. One of the main reasons why some degree of cognisance has been taken of how out of control contraband trade is the link between terrorists and criminals.

One of the areas most replete with grey areas is that of high-finance. As cross-border flows of contraband have grown, so too has the amount of money that needs laundering. While front businesses may still be part of the process, elaborate layers of financial products are also used making it that much easier to get money clean.

An expected boon may come in the form of the current financial crisis as one of the major groups of beneficiaries of financial deregulation have been the criminals. Certainly, as the book points out government aided and abetted as they sometimes are by civil society groups and big business are woefully losing the battle. Naim points to two reasons for this. First, the structure of law enforcement has not evolved in the dynamic way criminal networks have. Second, too much effort has been placed on the supply-side rather than the demand-side of efforts to curb illicit trade.

And this brings us to the crux of the matter. As Naim points out, it is not the glee of doing something morally questionable that motivates criminals, but profit. And as long as there is demand for the product and gains to be made from getting goods from where they're cheap to where they command a high price, efforts to squash the trafficking of illegal goods will prove ineffectual.

Naim's book combines the easy-to-read style and anecdotal evidence of a journalist to a well-thought through academic argument. He explores the structure of criminal networks and the agencies that work against them, analyses the motivators for illegal trade and how these point to improved strategies for combating it, and also looks at how various political theories may blind policy-makers to the extent of the problem. His book certainly is a wake-up call worth paying attention to.