Dept. of The End is Near

[kaffy_r]

2023 in the Headlights, 2022 (almost) in the Rearview Mirror

I haven't been online much over the last month, and I should at least poke my head in the door once or twice before 2022is bid adieu by its fans and foes alike.

Bob and I had a very quiet Christmas. We'd told each other that we wouldn't exchange presents, but in the end, we did. Some much needed handkerchiefs and a white shirt from him to me, a book, metal weed grinder, and tee-shirt with a Cordwainer Smith quote from "The Dead Lady of Clown Town" for him. I was really happy about having found the tee-shirt; both of us love Smith's works, but Bob's the one who for years has tried to re-read one book of Smith's every year. I approve.)

(Oh, the quote? "Go on! Go on. This is a war of love. Keep going," said by Joan, once d'Joan, to Elaine. If you haven't yet done so, I hope you have the chance to read the story, which is available here. By the way, if anyone out there loves Smith's works, I'd love to have a conversation about him. Yes, intermittently problematic; but also, yes, brilliant, loving, thoughtful and beautiful - weirdly, unforgettably so.)

Bob and I treated ourselves to a Christmas dinner at a Persian restaurant near us in Evanston. It was lovely, even though (or perhaps because) we were the only people there until the very end of our meal. It's not actually all that surprising, since it was one of those tremendously cold days caused across 60 percent of the country by the humongous bomb cyclone.

Thanks to Bob, we now have the entire Jan. 6 report, a huge number of the interview transcripts, and a report on Trump's taxes. He's showing me up, by reading all of them in-depth. I'll have to tackle that in the early days of the new year. 

Since then, I managed to finish the first draft of the story I'm writing for money. I got it done before one of the soft deadlines I was given, so I'm happy with that. We'll see how the draft revision process goes. I am waiting until Tuesday to contact the other editor to set up time to chat with her in person. I'll give her a call, but I held off this week because, well, this is the post-Christmas, pre-New Year's Eve limbo week. 

But enough about me. How've you all been? What are you planning to do (or not do) to welcome 2023?

Comments

[sovay]

and tee-shirt with a Cordwainer Smith quote from "The Dead Lady of Clown Town" for him.

Nice!

My yearbook quote (which the yearbook misspelled, but nonetheless) was the song from "The Ballad of Lost C'mell."

(I am glad your soft deadline didn't even have to feel you approaching.)

[kaffy_r]

song from "The Ballad of Lost C'mell."

The verse that opens the story? If so, I salute you; every time I read it, it sticks in my head for hours and sometimes days. It's doing that right now.

When I spent my one year in theater school, we often had to give readings; we could choose whatever we wanted. I had one reading that had to be four minutes in length, as I recall; I chose the first eight paragraphs of the first section of "The Ballad of Lost C'mell" after the preamble. I loved the language, and I loved Jestocost. (I also did a shorter reading from "The Return of the King" - the paragraphs describing what Sauron did when he became aware that the ring was inside Mount Doom. Fan much? Heh.)

[sovay]

The verse that opens the story? If so, I salute you; every time I read it, it sticks in my head for hours and sometimes days. It's doing that right now.

That one! And the same was true of me and Jestocost.

I love your choice of readings.

[kaffy_r]

Thanks. Even before I knew there was such a thing as organized fandom, I was a fan.

[ljgeoff]

It sounds like a good end to the year for you. And Yay! for meeting your deadline. :)

I've been home for two weeks and it's been wonderous. I'll be back on the floor at the big hospital in Marquette on January 2nd.

[kaffy_r]

I've seen some of the pictures you shared of Christmas, and night time sledding, and it looks as if you had a wonderful time with your family.

Happy New Year to you, and good luck on your first work days after 2023 starts; here's to time for you to recharge at the end of your shifts!

Cordwainer Smith's works

[peoppenheimer]

Cordwainer Smith is on my list of sff authors whose works are informed by philosophical reflection. I love his work, and I'm intrigued by the interplay between his life as an author of sff and the rest of his life. Glad you came through the blizzard intact. May 2023 be a year of peace, strength, and joy for Bob and you.

Re: Cordwainer Smith's works

[kaffy_r]

I agree. You can't create a universe with a monumental future history, as he did with The Instrumentality of Mankind, without such reflection. Of course, he had the ability to flesh that future history out in such an oddly intimate vision. Reading about Smith's stylistic decisions, and about the amazing life he led leading to those decisions, never fails to leave my jaw on the floor.

[bibliofile]

Sounds like an excellent holiday, akshually.

Ooh, a Persian restaurant? Yum.

[kaffy_r]

The Persian restaurant was the Evanston location for Reza's. We've liked the original Reza's on Clark St. in Andersonville, but this opened within the last year and I visited it once with a friend and liked it. And since the original Reza's has clashed with the Chicago health department in the very recent past, I figured the Evanston branch was worth a Christmas dinner.

[cmcmck]

We're planning to have a quiet night at home as Hogmanay isn't a thing in England like it is in his native country.

[kaffy_r]

I think because Nova Scotia had a lot of Scottish settlers as colonizers, Hogmanay was less foreign an idea than it is for a lot of North Americans. However, the tradition of first footing on New Year's Day is less well known. I've always remembered it because it played an important part in a Nova Scotian children's book that I had.

And have a happy, quiet New Year's Eve!

[carbonel]

My recently married nephew's wife is originally from Iran, and she took us to a Persian restaurant in Chicago proper (IIRC) when were all together. It was quite good, and an unfamiliar blend of spices and ingredients. (Don't remember the name, alas.)

One of the major things I'm planning to do in 2023 is extensively document my job. That's because (ta-da!) I'll be retiring in October. I'll keep the copyediting parts of my job as a freelancer, but the rest will go to my replacement, who has tentatively accepted the position. That doesn't quite count as welcoming, but it's been much on my mind.

[kaffy_r]

Was Reza's the name of the restaurant your nephew's wife took you to? It's on Clark in Andersonville, if that's any help.

Good luck on the documentation project and hurrah for even partial retirement. Happy New Year's!

[carbonel]

No, not Reza's. Reza's was a favorite of my mother's before my nephew met Kiandokht, so I had been to Reza's a few times, but Kian recommended a different place.

[kaffy_r]

I'm intrigued. I really enjoy that cuisine and would be happy to experience it outside of Reza's.

[carbonel]

I have heard back from Kian, who happens to be visiting my brother.

The restaurant we went to is called Kabobi Grill, and it's on Kedzie.

She says there is another restaurant across the street from Kabobi that is called Noon O Kabob, and that one is also really good.

[kaffy_r]

And now I have two more restaurants to try out. Thanks!

[kerravonsen]

Oh Cordwainer Smith is so amazing; bizarrely beautiful, poetically weird, oddly gentle.

[kaffy_r]

bizarrely beautiful, poetically weird, oddly gentle

What an excellent way to describe Smith and his work; thank you!

[radiantfracture]

I love the quote.

Cordwainer Smith is one of those authors I have been meaning to read for decades now -- I think because I read somewhere (not sure where now, but maybe in something like /In the Chinks of the World Machine/ -- or something more recent? -- anyway, that Smith did interesting things with gender. (Pause to regain breath.) Am I right about that?

Happy New Year!

[kaffy_r]

First, I salute you for your sentence construction; I adore lengthy sentences.

Second, I'm such a Smith stan that I hesitate to squee at you, lest you think I'm, well ... a squeeeing stan. But I'll forge on at least a little.

Short answer to your direct question: he did address gender in many ways, and at least one or two of those ways are now problematic. One of his stories, "The Crime and Glory of Commander Suzdal," has, at and as its core, homophobia and transphobia. Even there, however, there is a sense (to me at least) that he was using the story to work toward an understanding for himself of aspects of gender and sexuality that he wanted to grasp. (This very good 2016 column in tor.com is about him. I took part in the comment section, speaking to the very valid reaction of one person to that story.)

There are other stories, such as "Norstrilia" where the transphobia seems to have disappeared. And in so very many of his stories, women are the explorers, the political powers, and the changers of worlds.

His Instrumentality of Mankind partakes of myth and religion (in the latter part of his all too short life, he was a devout, if unorthodox, Episcopalian.) His amazing life, including the possibility that he was a psychiatric patient who almost convinced his therapist that his imaginary world was real, is part of everything that makes him strange and wonderful. His daughter, who runs a website about him, says she now thinks this might be true.

As for me, I will read and reread Smith. He is unlike any other author I've ever read. I read him when I was very young, and imprinted on him a bit like a baby bird.

Others have been equally taken with him, and have dived deep into analysis of his stories, such as this one.

Augh. Too much, I'm sure. Squeeing Cordwainer Smith/Paul Linebarger stan, that's me.

[maruad]

So far all I have planned is to catch up on Dreamwidth entries I haven't read. This one for example.

My best to the both of you and all of yours.

[kaffy_r]

Hello there, and thanks for the good wish! Right now we're dealing with COVID (Bob has it in spades, and although I'm still testing negative, we expect that to change shortly. Sigh.

[maruad]

I hope the covid isn't too bad. Fingers crossed. Good thoughts being thunk.

[kaffy_r]

Hi there - we're both managing, and yes, I tested positive a couple of days ago. I'm glad I had four shots and Bob had three; it would be much worse, I' m sure of that.

[maruad]

It would be worse, I am certain. I had brain fog for close to 6 months after my experience. Hopefully you guys will skip that one.