cathrowan

Let's take it as a given that I should have sorted this out two months ago. That said, I'd be grateful for suggestions about finding accommodation in London (England). We plan to be there for a week at the end of August. We don't need anything fancy, and it does not have to be in central London so long as it's near some sort of transit. Any particular neighbourhoods I should look for, or avoid? Any other suggestions for a first-time visitor? oursin, cosmolinguist, got any advice for a clueless Canadian?

Arrived safely in Montreal. Looking forward to a great weekend of food, fun, and lots of talking about books.

This morning I made bacon and pancakes for breakfast. In-house cured bacon from the Budapest Deli. Pancakes fried in the bacon grease. (Extra-fluffy pancakes since I made them mostly subbing in yogurt for milk.) Real maple syrup. Yum!

Where have I been since September 2023? My friending binge last fall took place while I was simultaneously experiencing a hypomanic episode AND my first and so far only case of covid. Weakened impulse control plus major stressors = uncharacteristic behaviour by me. My family all survived the covid, I flew home to my partner and familiar surroundings, and after that I had a major depressive drop.

But now it's spring! Hello mood lift!

After the functional equivalent of four months of cold sleep, my brain has come back online and I am shovelling away at many many abandoned tasks.

I much appreciate all you lovely people who left me welcome comments. I'm going to push back against the embarrassment and answer them now.

Scored an invite code to bluesky. Let's see if I can break decades' habit of lurking and reply to posts once in a while.

When I find myself feeling smug about living in Canada instead of the US, I go read this again and acknowledge the date is less than 200 years ago.

"Black and Indigenous Peoples were once enslaved on the land that is now Canada. August 1 marks the actual day in 1834 that the Slavery Abolition Act of 1833 came into effect across the British Empire."

Emancipation Day

(Edited May 4, 2022)
OK, this is supposed to be a sticky post. I've had this journal for years, just for reading, and hope to be more active from now on. Please forgive some flailing as I figure out posting, formatting, etc.

I'm a civil servant by day, Renaissance dancer by night, and 24-hour bibliophile. Gafiated Canadian SF fan, proud recipient of 1 and 1/8 Aurora awards for fan organization.

My last name is distinctive, and I prefer to keep my personal and professional lives separate. If you figure it out (not hard) please just don't use it here.

I love reading, am not so good at outward communication. I may vanish at irregular intervals if I am in the middle of a depressive episode.

If I ask to subscribe, it's because I enjoy your writing. No hard feelings if you don't accept or reciprocate.

I live in Treaty Six territory.
My pronouns are she/her.
Trans women are women, trans men are men, human rights are for everyone.

Saturday 10 am panel at Scintillation 2.(Oct 12, 2019)

Herewith very sketchy notes with most of the book refs. Don't have time to Google complete citations so additions and corrections welcome.

WA= William Alexander (M)
JW= Jo Walton
GG= Greer Gilman
TNH= Teresa Nielsen Hayden
MAM= Mary Anne Mohanraj

I'm paraphrasing a lot. When I caught where panelists credited another person's writing/criticism, I've put it in quotes.
Book titles are on their own line with panelist's initials afterwards.

WA opened with a quote from Angela Carter about how stories are spoken, only recently begun writing them down.

TNH: Antiquarian collectors "folklore is too good for the folk"
GG: Folklorist to Cornish mummers as they paraded "You're doing it wrong, not not like what I said in the paper I wrote"

Stations of the Sun, Ronald Hutton (GG & JW)

Peasant Fires (JW)

Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God [American Lit canon] TNH & MAM

MAM: traditions and forethought "7 generations backwards, 7 generations forward"

MAM: during the panel ref'd to several Canadian writers, incl. Nalo Hopkinson and Sylvia Moreno-Garcia.

Discussion shifted to magic realism, Latin American gets bundled into that genre when it isn't always.

JW: we've all heard of magic realism, I'd like to promote the term Realist Magicism. [my paraphrase - may not be mechanical, but author knows the system behind it, doesn't need to explain it to the reader.]

WA: "magic realism is always driven by post-colonial tension"

JW: reading Angela Carter, she's doing it with gender

MAM: tension between frameworks, native inhabitants vs newcomers

Gods of Jade and Shadow (MAM?)

JW: My theory is that genre is defined by pacing. Can combine them using that understanding.

MAM: Two south asian epics Mababharata & Ramayama. Universal cultural referent. Can be remixed esp. in pop culture to where it become 2-D. On the other hand Sita Sings the Blues (film) does it brilliantly.

GG: Morris dancing. Cecil Sharp canon vs Mary Neal's freedom. "Fixed and stained" [as for a stained glass slide].
Protection becomes petrification.

JW: British isles tradition - share the story. Very different from some NA indigenous folklore where story is situational. Depends on landscape, events such as childbirth, private to certain families or interest groups.

Uhura's Song (MAM)
Trail of Lightning (MAM) Roanhorse has gotten pushback for making private stories public.

[I'm going to cut in here a rec for a brand new book by my friend Leslie Main Johnson, about first nations situational stories from northern inland BC. It's called Wisdom Engaged: Traditional knowledge for northern community wellbeing, Patterns of Northern Traditional Healing series. University of Alberta Press, July 2019.]

WA: "children need mirrors and windows" addition "and curtains" .

MAM: examples of hidden resistance and covert storytelling - Suzette Hayden Elgin women's language; Brazilian capoeira.

WA: Nisi Shawl & ? "are you a guest, tourist, or thief?"

JW: urban folklore, folklore of everyday life - that's another panel

Final remarks

TNH: remember folklore is bigger than you are

MAM: Martin Carthy said the only way to do folk music wrong is to not sing the song, so sing the song.

GG: folklore is always part of how we live in the world, one of the marks of use.

Left Hand of Darkness, Ursula Le Guin (MAM)

[Edited Oct 15 after I was able to ask Greer on Sunday night about a couple of details.]

While checking the junk folder to make sure nothing important got sorted in there, I find fake Facebook notices about "2 messages waiting to be read homogeneously" and "one message that must be read meaninglessly." Indeed.