Dept. of Good Things

[kaffy_r]

Stuff I'm Happy About

Since I think I've spent too many recent posts bitching and moaning about stuff, here are some random — very random — things about which I'm happy. 

I remembered, thanks to this neat piece at Tor.com, how much I adore Cordwainer Smith. He is, as the writer states, one of the Great Peculiars of SF&F. Anyone out there a reader of his work? 

In what is a first for me, or certainly for the first time in a long time, I started and completed a news feature story in the same day, without the nerves and trepidation which that task has lately engendered in me; what's more, I feel as if I've done a good job. 

After two days of undoubtedly necessary rain, we had a glorious fall day. 

I managed to confirm that my iPad and laptop bag, which I'd mistakenly left in a union meeting when I grabbed the wrong bag, was safe, and that I could swap the bags tomorrow. Relief!

I am not achy today, and that's good. 

Kitties!

And tomorrow is Friday. Hurrah!

Comments

[kerravonsen]

Anyone out there a reader of his work?

Oh YES.
Sense-of-wonder Times Infinity. Peculiar, yes, and odd, and darn strange, but in a poetic and wondrous way.

(later)
Okay, read the article now... and I'm thinking that, while Cordwainer Smith is a one-and-only, he isn't completely alone. The following names spring to mind: Terry Dowling, Samuel R. Delany, Alfred Bester, and Ray Bradbury.

[kaffy_r]

I can see Ray Bradbury and Samuel R. Delany being their own kind of Great Peculiars, although I continue to think Smith's Peculiar is a particularly peculiar type of Peculiar. I don't believe I've ever read Dowling, and only one of Bester's, a long time ago. I do like both Bradbury and Delany, so my mind must reach out for Peculiar.

Do you have any favorites amongst Smith's works?

[kerravonsen]

No surprise you haven't heard of Terry Dowling, he's Australian. His "Rynosseros" cycle has a style which I feel was heavily influenced by Smith. So you might call him a Cordwainer Smith imitator. But still original enough to be worth checking out.

The Bester novels that made me think of Cordwainer Smith are "The Demolished Man" and "Tyger! Tyger!" (which has a different title in the US, and I can't remember right now what it is). Not as Peculiar, but still unconventional in its style and worldbuilding.

Do you have any favorites amongst Smith's works?

It's hard to pick!

[kaffy_r]

Hmm. Dowling seems to be the kind of writer I might like. I may search for some, especially the Rynosseros works.

[shanghaied]

I was going to call Cordwainer Smith a master of the prettiest science fiction wordcraft after Bradbury and Wyndham, but I see another commenter already got part of the way there ahead of me :-) Still, it's true!

Some years ago, an olde-tyme sci-fi editor-publisher sent me a hardcover of The Rediscovery of Man collection as a thankyou for favours rendered. Back in '07 I was railroaded into lending it to the slimy cellardweller brother of a Necessity Friend. Guess who has never given it back and claims to have lost it? Graaah.

[kaffy_r]

And not only his wordcraft, which one Smith researcher said often appeared to be built the same way Chinese myths are built (not surprising, given his background), but his ideas.

Oh lord, losing that collection to a jerk definitely rates a "Graaah."

[lolmac]

Wow, I haven't read any Cordwainer Smith in ages. High time I did. I wonder if I could find it in audiobook form?

[kaffy_r]

Hi, fellow Cordwainer Smith reader! I don't know about audiobooks - the link in my comment that goes to the Cordwainer Smith page, (which I think is maintained by his daughter) might have answers to that question.

[liadt]

Kitties are good:)

And it's Friday now too!

[kaffy_r]

It is, and I am very, very happy!!

[eaweek.livejournal.com]

Thank goodness about your bag, yay for the two days of rain, and yay for being pain-free!

[kaffy_r]

And today is Friday, hurrah!

[flowsoffire.livejournal.com]

This sounds lovely :)

♥

[kaffy_r]

It is, rather. And as I said to eaweek, today is Friday, and I'm settling in for the weekend, and that's although lovely. I hope your weekend is off to a good start as well!

[flowsoffire.livejournal.com]

Yay :)

It is, thanks! *hugs*

[a-phoenixdragon.livejournal.com]

This made me smile!! What a lovely post!!

*Happy!Hugs!*

[kaffy_r]

See, this is why I like making happy posts!

*hugs back*

"great peculiars"

[apostle-of-eris.livejournal.com]

yes!
I'm in the process of turning someone on to Lafferty. We have Cordwainer Smith, R. A. Lafferty, Ursula K. LeGuin, Theodore Sturgeon, some of Neil Gaiman because no one else will have them. Sillys!

Re: "great peculiars"

[kaffy_r]

Lafferty was the first SF author I ever met, at my very first convention, Suncon, in 1977, at my very first room party, hosted in part by Sunden. I liked him.

Re: "great peculiars"

[apostle-of-eris.livejournal.com]

I eventually concluded that he was actually a pooka who was passing. Several people I've presented this conclusion to have taken it very matter-of-factly.
My own Lafferty at Suncon story has to be told in person.

Re: "great peculiars"

[kaffy_r]

You're not the only person who has mentioned the idea of Lafferty being a pooka. And I'll hold you to telling me your Suncon story.