tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-46402097286283591732024-02-20T18:33:17.621-08:00Siobhan CarrollEnvironmental humanities scholar and SF writer living in PhiladelphiaSiobhan Carrollhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03312024658494049440noreply@blogger.comBlogger51125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4640209728628359173.post-92009961060201703442021-08-14T14:33:00.000-07:002021-08-14T14:33:12.176-07:00Dark (Season 3)<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1-95NA7DRK3YY5OS5OE3hcjU9tMaEvYRZjzdGAYlvsJJqhFxuPtU9CfrVqhYsFOQxQDyVy6VAzhiNi_VoC-lxHDNj64U9RzLO-ylAvg4dskvslxoXenDp2aSdrIBA2iiRSocn1acTWhma/s1590/dark-season-3-is-coming-to-netflix-on-june-27-just-in-time-f_f2f2.h960+%25281%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="960" data-original-width="1590" height="193" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1-95NA7DRK3YY5OS5OE3hcjU9tMaEvYRZjzdGAYlvsJJqhFxuPtU9CfrVqhYsFOQxQDyVy6VAzhiNi_VoC-lxHDNj64U9RzLO-ylAvg4dskvslxoXenDp2aSdrIBA2iiRSocn1acTWhma/s320/dark-season-3-is-coming-to-netflix-on-june-27-just-in-time-f_f2f2.h960+%25281%2529.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><span style="font-size: x-small;"><div style="text-align: center;">GORE-TEX jackets are the best for keeping out rain AND God-particles!</div><div style="text-align: center;">GORE-TEX: the brand to wear when you have Seen Some Shit.</div></span><p>I'm taking a break from shipwreck narratives to celebrate the final season of Netflix's <i><a href="https://www.netflix.com/title/80100172" target="_blank">Dark</a></i>, aka the German SF tv series that dares to ask: how many convoluted parallel universe plotlines can <i>you</i> remember?</p><p>Seriously, I can't remember the last time I watched a tv series less willing to pander to its audience's memory deficits. Admittedly, it's been a while since I last watched DARK, but still: I don't usually need to consult a Wikipedia entry to understand the dramatic reveals exploding across my tv screen. DARK SO 3 is that kind of show, and I am HERE FOR IT.</p><p>(Spoilers ahead, people.)</p><p>Series finales (and final seasons) can be tricky, and my hat's off to DARK's directors and writers for sticking the landing. The doomed romance of Jonas and Martha was resolved more-or-less happily, various plot threads were tied up, and two worlds were destroyed so that another could live on, oblivious to their existence. Half the characters on the show were eliminated in the Thanos-snap of multiverse collapse and that was okay, actually, because they were all tired of having to check their wiki entries too. Overall, the finale felt intellectually and emotionally satisfying, and it felt *right*, tonally and narratively, for the narrative that had preceded it.</p><p>Things I really liked in the final episode:</p><p>The amount of time that alt-Martha takes to make her decision. Part of me was irritated at the camera's lingering on her face, but that's because I'm a spoiled American viewer who's used to characters making monumental decisions at a speedy, plotty clip. Sacrificing yourself and your entire freaking universe shouldn't be easy, and DARK didn't make me feel that it was. </p><p>The actors. Can we just acknowledge that the caliber of acting on DARK is very high? There may have been some shaky child actors here and there, but for the most part every actor on the show has brought it. I look forward to seeing some of these actors again in other European tv and cinema. (I'd hope for Hollywood, but L.A. generally doesn't import actors unless they're already international stars or super, super hot.)</p><p>The final scene. I liked how short it was, and how it managed a bittersweet ending that played on viewers' awareness of the sacrifice that had been made to buy these oft-miserable, oft-murdered characters some ordinary happiness.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6iChm_MxnoVJbPmUi_uobF-92cdxUDaNCTsKWhI8I7hEHS4kOR6zFKckJ4oORehdKzCczv5NQ76LZMzH4ApThKLYLmEQtrTsWHPkpYXPpS47g4n-thf3F56pc1Iw3cfmBAqYXWgkl6CBm/s590/Dark-season-3-2540491.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="350" data-original-width="590" height="190" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6iChm_MxnoVJbPmUi_uobF-92cdxUDaNCTsKWhI8I7hEHS4kOR6zFKckJ4oORehdKzCczv5NQ76LZMzH4ApThKLYLmEQtrTsWHPkpYXPpS47g4n-thf3F56pc1Iw3cfmBAqYXWgkl6CBm/s320/Dark-season-3-2540491.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><span style="font-size: x-small;"><div style="text-align: center;">Yay! A happy (?) ending!</div></span><p>Now, about that scene. I liked that the show 'rewarded' Hannah the PsychoMom with a happy ending alongside the long-suffering Katharina. I'm not sure I agree with the finale's implication that 1) it was characters' <i>desires </i>that drove them to make bad choices, and 2) that a Hannah lacking an Ulrich-obsession would be a happier person. Uh... maybe? Torben better sleep with that one eye open, is all I'm saying.</p><p>I appreciated that the show stayed away from a Christian balancing of good and evil in its final episode. Some of the nicest characters snapped out of existence along with their morally-compromised brethren. (Charlotte! Elizabeth! I wish those genetically-impossible paradoxes had got more mom-daughter hangout time back in the 1980s. They could have bought matching scrunchies.) The universe that remains isn't morally <i>better </i>than the ones that were destroyed, just less time-twisty.</p><p>That said: if there was a single character I would have liked to have chance at redemption in the new universe, it was Ulrich. Ulrich was possibly the character viewers seemed to dislike the most in Season 1 (arrogant adulterer that he was), but between his brother being murdered, his son being kidnapped, and his conflicted relationship with authority, I was willing to give him some sympathy. Ulrich had some stuff to <i>sort out and -- </i>by SO 2 -- an attempted child murder to make up for! And he never got a chance. Poof went the universe. Oh well.</p><p>On a related note, I really enjoyed the police procedural elements of Season 1, and the spectacle of Ulrich, Charlotte and Egon working the same case across decades (and later, universes). I know Jonas and Martha were the protagonists, but I do wish the cop characters had managed to accomplish something with all their investigations <i>besides </i>triggering the apocalypse. </p><p>Re: the child murders: I want to honor the writers for making me feel sympathy for Noah (aka MurderPriest) in the final episodes. He and Ulrich ended up being parallels for each other in the end: two desperate fathers trying to save their child by killing someone else's kid. <i>Damn</i>.</p><p>One of the things DARK did very well is take on is the morality of time-travel. Basically, all DARK's time travelers become corrupted by the conditions of their own existence. When you know that someone is doomed to die tomorrow, and that you'll see them alive again next week, what's so wrong with murdering them in the present to shift your time travel plot along? Plus, you're probably destined to do it anyway. None of the time travelers we see start out evil, but boy, do they do some awful things! </p><p>Anyway, those are my thoughts on DARK. I think I'll remember this show for a long time, even if the precise details of who-killed-who slip my mind. </p>Siobhan Carrollhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03312024658494049440noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4640209728628359173.post-84941998236268987222021-07-30T06:29:00.003-07:002021-07-30T06:54:53.282-07:00Wreck of the Kent (Part 6): 'The ship is on fire'<p style="text-indent: 0px;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_HG2NjSxJkd9NViQ4U1WLNzU1KNKSITP04_KAj195qOOK69Q5K8uS4xKmGpUi58LYuqSOt7hyZW4bnF8V0GMDi2FA9ku6fag27QB45-B408c7xLG0X-juMlRJUdeUGeYqVjhLqeqmEESr/s1000/danby.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="598" data-original-width="1000" height="191" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_HG2NjSxJkd9NViQ4U1WLNzU1KNKSITP04_KAj195qOOK69Q5K8uS4xKmGpUi58LYuqSOt7hyZW4bnF8V0GMDi2FA9ku6fag27QB45-B408c7xLG0X-juMlRJUdeUGeYqVjhLqeqmEESr/s320/danby.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">"Ship on Fire" by James Francis Danby, 1875</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, serif; font-size: 16px;">For previous segments, see: </span><a href="https://voncarr-siobhan-carroll.blogspot.com/2021/06/the-wreck-of-kent-part-1-part-1.html" style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); color: #0a299c; font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, serif; font-size: 16px; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">Part 1</a><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, serif; font-size: 16px; text-align: left;"> (the bottle)</span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, serif; font-size: 16px;">, </span><a href="https://voncarr-siobhan-carroll.blogspot.com/2021/06/wreck-of-kent-part-2.html" style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); color: #0a299c; font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, serif; font-size: 16px; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">Part 2</a><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, serif; font-size: 16px; text-align: left;"> (the letters), </span><a href="http://voncarr-siobhan-carroll.blogspot.com/2021/06/the-wreck-of-kent-part-4-weather.html" style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); color: #0a299c; font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, serif; font-size: 16px; text-align: left; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">Part 3</a><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, serif; font-size: 16px; text-align: left;"> (the map), <a href="http://voncarr-siobhan-carroll.blogspot.com/2021/06/the-wreck-of-kent-part-4-weather.html" target="_blank">Part 4</a> (Weather Watching), or <a href="https://voncarr-siobhan-carroll.blogspot.com/2021/06/the-wreck-of-kent-part-5-disaster.html" target="_blank">Part 5 </a>(The Disaster)</span></span></div><p></p><p style="text-indent: 0px;"><span style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: 0.5in;">Duncan MacGregor had just stepped outside of his cabin when an officer rushed up to him. "<span style="color: #674ea7;">Pale as death, and wringing his hands, [he] said, </span>'<span style="color: #674ea7;">Sir, the ship is on fire in the after-hold</span>." Alarmed, Duncan headed to the hatch, where the streams of smoke and the chain of men carrying seawater in buckets told him the danger was real. When it became clear that the "<span style="color: #674ea7;">driblets of water poured down from the buckets were utterly useless</span>", the men tried to fight the flames with damp blankets. This too was ineffective, and so Captain Cobb gave the desperate order to "<span style="color: #674ea7;">scuttle the lower ports, and allow the sea to rush in</span>." This would start the process of sinking the ship in order to put out the flames: a dangerous maneuver, but the only chance they had. </span></p><p>Joanna and Elizabeth were stunned by the news of the <i>Kent</i>'s peril, but there was no time for denial. Elizabeth's cabin was becoming a waystation for refugees from the decks below. Lower-class women entered the cabin wailing, their "<span style="color: #674ea7;">children hanging round them." </span><span>Joanna tried to
find safe places to stow them all. As she placed yet
more toddlers into Elizabeth’s bed</span><span style="color: #674ea7;">, a<span style="color: #674ea7;">…[a] sweet little boy (the bandmaster’s
son) came to me and asked with such innocent simplicity, ‘Am I to die too? tell
me-- must I die?’ I held up his hands and repeated a short prayer after me,
commending his little soul into the hands of his Redeemer, and then he seemed
quite pleased and happy.</span><o:p></o:p></span></p><p><span style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: 0.5in;">
</span></p>As a Presbyterian, Joanna had, in theory, spent years preparing to die. But was she actually ready for the afterlife? She found herself relentlesslyreviewing the conduct of her life, feeling “<span style="color: #674ea7;">deeply conscious of my <u>great
deficiency in every point of virtue</u></span>” (48). But there was no time, now, to
correct anything. Joanna decided to focus on the work at hand, and trust in God’s
mercy for what would surely follow.<div><br /><div>On the lower
deck, it was dark, hot, and suffocating. Duncan encountered one of the mates
stumbling through the smoke, who gasped that he had just “<span style="color: #8e7cc3; text-indent: 0.5in;">fell over three dead
bodies</span><span 0.5in="">." Keenly aware of the danger posed to his
family, Duncan pressed onward. With the help of two fellow officers, he wrenched the portholes open and watched in awe and horror as “</span><span style="color: #674ea7; text-indent: 0.5in;">the sea
rushed in with extraordinary force, carrying away, in its resistless progress
to the hold, large chests, bulk-heads &c</span>” A few minutes later, they
were ordered to close the portholes again, for the ship appeared to be “settling” prior to going down.
Captain Cobb ordered the hatches closed, hoping "by the exclusion of the
external air to prolong our existence, the speedy termination of which appeared
certain.” </div><div><br /><div>Climbing back
to the upper deck, Duncan found it
crowded with “<span style="color: #674ea7;">six or seven hundred human beings many of whom, from previous
sea-sickness, were forced on the first alarm, to flee from below in a state of
absolute nakedness</span>." Few sights could have been more shocking to
a well-bred gentleman. One of the best-known novels of the late eighteen
century, <span style="background: white;">Jacques-Henri Bernardin de
Saint-Pierre’s </span><i>Paul et Virginie</i>
(1788), features a climax in which its virtuous heroine dies in a shipwreck
after refusing to take off her clothes for the swim to safety. The inhabitants
of the <i>Kent</i> were evidently less
scrupulous. Their disarray drove home the danger to the <i>Kent</i>'s previously ordered shipboard society. </div></div></div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNWvoUa-tJV0PVOE-BXMqkA8xbDu4aBouM3fRMaeLLc9LFzmIEqiIogenW3PIMLgg3aPPzfEBo1gN0pEX9wMf6qH3CISn1M-_6vXbp5d3XABo3SGdmGXl0DZSACR8fo2yXqUHjKODZWXET/s600/shipwreck-virginie-illustration-paul-et-virginie-12735153.jpg.webp" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="600" data-original-width="439" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNWvoUa-tJV0PVOE-BXMqkA8xbDu4aBouM3fRMaeLLc9LFzmIEqiIogenW3PIMLgg3aPPzfEBo1gN0pEX9wMf6qH3CISn1M-_6vXbp5d3XABo3SGdmGXl0DZSACR8fo2yXqUHjKODZWXET/s320/shipwreck-virginie-illustration-paul-et-virginie-12735153.jpg.webp" width="234" /></a><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Illustration to the shipwreck scene in <i style="text-align: left; text-indent: 48px;">Paul et Virginie</i><span style="text-align: left; text-indent: 48px;"> (1788), one of the many 18/19th C novels in which it was better to die than to disrobe.</span> </span></div><p>In Elizabeth’s cabin, the
<span style="color: black;">women had developed an organized response to the
fire. Margaret Fearon stood outside
the cabin door and “</span><span style="color: #674ea7;">with wonderful self possession watched the progress of the smoke</span><span style="color: black;">," providing encouraging updates to those inside. Joanna broke “</span><span style="color: #674ea7;">all the window</span><span style="color: black;">s” as the cabin filled
with smoke, and gave “</span><span style="color: #674ea7;">out oranges or anything I could find to quench the thirst
of the children.</span><span style="color: black;">” When he entered the cabin, Duncan was surprised by the
number of people crowded inside, and impressed by Joanna’s coordination of the
women and servants, which he thought displayed “</span><span style="color: #674ea7;">the greatness of Joanna's mind</span>." Joanna, however, felt that in fact it was “<span style="color: #674ea7;">insensibility</span>” that allowed her to rise to the occasion. The “<span style="color: #674ea7;">suddenness</span>” of the
news of the fire, “…<span style="color: #674ea7;">prevented my [fully comprehending] all that had happened</span>”
(48). It was no wonder, she later wrote, that the fire had made a deeper
impression on the refugees filling Elizabeth’s cabin, who “<span style="color: #674ea7;">were fully
acquainted with their danger, and had long pauses to realize it</span>” (48).
</p><p>>Duncan gave
his family the bad news in the bluntest possible terms. They were about to die by drowning, or by fire, in the
Atlantic Ocean, leaving their relatives to guess at their fate. </p>
<p>The family
had a hurried conversation about their final plans. Duncan and Elizabeth were “<span style="color: #674ea7;">determined to sink
in each other's arms</span>." Joanna, however, had heard of a plan to “<span style="color: #674ea7;">put the women out into
which boats remained, and give us whatever chance there was of safety in such a
tempestuous sea</span>”. Dangerous as such a course was, it was one
she was apparently prepared to risk. </p><p>Having decided on their respective
destinies, Duncan, anxious to spare his father and siblings “<span style="color: #674ea7;">terrible years of
anxiety</span>”, scrawled a short letter to his father. He obtained an
empty bottle, and “<span style="color: #674ea7;">corking it hard up</span>”, threw the message into the waves.
The bottle bobbed away from the burning ship, beginning its long, slow trek to
Barbados. </p><p>
As Duncan
watched the waves swallow his final message, a sailor perched near the top of
the foremast took off his hat and waved it wildly. “<span style="color: #674ea7;">A sail on the weather bow!</span>" For the first time since he’d received the news of the fire, Duncan felt a spark of hope. It was a small
spark: the other ship was far from them, and the fire had been “<span style="color: #674ea7;">making progress
for some hours</span>”, creeping ever closer to the gunpowder in the <i>Kent</i>’s magazine. Moreover, “<span style="color: #674ea7;">the sea was tremendously high – and as
no small vessel and few large ones could be expected… to take on board nearly
700 human beings.</span>”</p><p>Captain Cobb gave the order to hoist the <i>Kent</i>’s
flag of distress. The waterlogged ship began a slow trek toward the strange sail.<br /></p><div style="background-color: white; font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, serif; font-size: 16px;"><a href="http://voncarr-siobhan-carroll.blogspot.com/2021/06/the-wreck-of-kent-part-1-part-1.html" style="background: transparent; color: #0a299c; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">Part 1</a></div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, serif; font-size: 16px;"><a href="http://voncarr-siobhan-carroll.blogspot.com/2021/06/wreck-of-kent-part-2.html" style="background: transparent; color: #0a299c; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">Part 2</a></div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, serif; font-size: 16px;"><a href="http://voncarr-siobhan-carroll.blogspot.com/2021/06/wreck-of-kent-part-3.html" style="background: transparent; color: #0a299c; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">Part 3</a></div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, serif; font-size: 16px;"><a href="http://voncarr-siobhan-carroll.blogspot.com/2021/06/the-wreck-of-kent-part-4-weather.html" style="background: transparent; color: #0a299c; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">Part 4</a></div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, serif; font-size: 16px;"><a href="http://voncarr-siobhan-carroll.blogspot.com/2021/06/the-wreck-of-kent-part-5-disaster.html" target="_blank">Part 5</a></div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, serif; font-size: 16px;">Part 6</div><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;"></span></p><div style="background-color: white; font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, serif; font-size: 16px;">Part 7</div><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p>Siobhan Carrollhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03312024658494049440noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4640209728628359173.post-1220228538352883312021-06-21T13:01:00.002-07:002021-07-30T06:52:18.885-07:00The Wreck of the Kent (Part 5): The Disaster<p><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, serif; text-align: center;">For previous segments, see: </span><a href="https://voncarr-siobhan-carroll.blogspot.com/2021/06/the-wreck-of-kent-part-1-part-1.html" style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); color: #0a299c; font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, serif; text-align: center; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">Part 1</a><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, serif;"> (the bottle)</span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, serif; text-align: center;">, </span><a href="https://voncarr-siobhan-carroll.blogspot.com/2021/06/wreck-of-kent-part-2.html" style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); color: #0a299c; font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, serif; text-align: center; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">Part 2</a><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, serif;"> (the letters), </span><a href="http://voncarr-siobhan-carroll.blogspot.com/2021/06/the-wreck-of-kent-part-4-weather.html" style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); color: #0a299c; font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, serif; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">Part 3</a><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, serif;"> (the map), or <a href="http://voncarr-siobhan-carroll.blogspot.com/2021/06/the-wreck-of-kent-part-4-weather.html" target="_blank">Part 4</a> (Weather Watching).</span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;">Around noon on March 1, 1825, William Muir, the Kent’s
third officer, descended into the </span><i style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;">Kent</i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;">’s afterhold. In the report on the
disaster, the reason given is that Muir had heard the thud of loose cargo
below, in an area reserved for the soldiers’ alcohol. It is possible, of
course, that there was no loose cargo: that Muir and his companions were secretly
helping themselves to the spirits stored below.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">Why was there so much alcohol below? In a pre-germ
theory world, clean, reliable sources of water were hard to come by. Daily alcohol
rations helped keep the armies and navies (relatively) healthy as they moved around
the globe. The Royal Navy was famously issued a daily ration of “grog” – a mix
of rum and water (its effects give us the word “groggy”). Soldiers stationed in
India at this time could each expect to receive a pint of raw spirits per man
per day. Predictably, the alcohol ration contributed to discipline problems, including
on board the <i>Kent</i>. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiv8SIg_0oDm0dmacviHhhwsfOTPQWlx8k5Y9Ck6p84Ct4juef1oQE5zJAjmycvSlwdeBQXwKTRuCvg1NmTgmiszW-6Ka0s8_06hccBVDTNemhvkoLoNPlZsDHkRLvkVeAxDCxtsiRuHJeZ/s1200/grog_sailor_line.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="1200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiv8SIg_0oDm0dmacviHhhwsfOTPQWlx8k5Y9Ck6p84Ct4juef1oQE5zJAjmycvSlwdeBQXwKTRuCvg1NmTgmiszW-6Ka0s8_06hccBVDTNemhvkoLoNPlZsDHkRLvkVeAxDCxtsiRuHJeZ/s320/grog_sailor_line.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><figcaption style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">The Royal Navy's grog ration continued until 1970.</span></figcaption><figcaption style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></figcaption><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Whether he was one of those discipline problems or
not, Muir was about to make a grave mistake. Surrounded by casks of the
highly-hopped “India Pale Ale” brewed to survive East Indiaman voyages, he
caught hold of a barrel of rum that appeared damaged (or had just been tapped).
As the ship rolled under him, Muir dropped the lantern he had been carrying for
light. An open flame met high-proof rum, and the “</span><span style="color: #a64d79; font-size: 12pt;">whole place was instantly
ablaze</span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">.”</span></span><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">“<span style="color: #a64d79;">Fire</span>,” wrote Captain John Davie in 1804, “<span style="color: #a64d79;">is the most
dreadful catastrophe</span>” that can take place on board a ship. Fires grow
exponentially, and they are particularly dangerous in enclosed spaces, where the
CO and CO</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 8pt; line-height: 107%;">2</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">
in smoke is deadlier than flames. As Muir and the sailors tried to douse the
fire they’d accidentally started, thick, suffocating smoke began to spread
through the compartments below decks. Within a matter of minutes, “several of
the sick soldiers, one woman, and several children” would die of smoke
inhalation.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt;">News of the fire quickly spread around the ship. Joanna Dick was
told by a manservant that the ship was on fire, news that
Joanna found “</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="color: #a64d79;">so sudden and unlooked for, I could hardly take it in</span></span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt;">.” Soon
afterward, Joanna and Elizabeth shared this grim news with Mrs. Fearson, who
brought her two children to the cabin after being alarmed “b</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="color: #a64d79;">y a stove falling
over, which had nearly killed little Charlotte</span></span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt;">.” The <i>Kent</i> was on fire, and the
danger posed to the passengers was only increasing.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNN-pwvD2Hyk2DQKEeuoYFAwVLLjBCDDInjLWxz2J6F6DTOzFFKKUOCm-gRiBNmuu-CDkkUgtAuQahMwXqknezT57O8YgT6UItslDEpUJ1yJ-vi4CLdAh1V0UY5zpqcV90ky-Y-WugkdXR/s1280/kentfire.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="774" data-original-width="1280" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNN-pwvD2Hyk2DQKEeuoYFAwVLLjBCDDInjLWxz2J6F6DTOzFFKKUOCm-gRiBNmuu-CDkkUgtAuQahMwXqknezT57O8YgT6UItslDEpUJ1yJ-vi4CLdAh1V0UY5zpqcV90ky-Y-WugkdXR/s320/kentfire.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;"><figcaption style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">The Kent on Fire by William Daniell, 1825. National Maritime Museum.</span></figcaption></span><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;">David Pringle, one of the survivors of the disaster, records
spending the morning in the cabin he shared with friend Grant. The two young
men had been mocking each other’s efforts to stay upright in the storm-tossed
room. David was “<span style="color: #a64d79;">enjoying my laugh at [Grant’s] consternation, [when] on
turning my eyes to the deck I saw smoke issuing from the afterhold</span>.” Even
though he had heard that at sea “<span style="color: #a64d79;">the cry of Fire… Is almost synonymous with
death</span>” David did not at first realize “the danger of our situation.” The
“<span style="color: #a64d79;">number of troops on board</span>” made it easy to “<span style="color: #a64d79;">procure water</span>” from the sea and dump
it down the afterhatch. Soon, however, the desperate orders around him made
David realize how dire their situation really was. The ship was sinking in
addition to burning. In an era without radio, with no means of calling for
help, the people on board the <i>Kent</i> were almost certainly doomed.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span></p><div style="background-color: white; font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, serif; font-size: 16px;"><a href="http://voncarr-siobhan-carroll.blogspot.com/2021/06/the-wreck-of-kent-part-1-part-1.html" style="background: transparent; color: #0a299c; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">Part 1</a></div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, serif; font-size: 16px;"><a href="http://voncarr-siobhan-carroll.blogspot.com/2021/06/wreck-of-kent-part-2.html" style="background: transparent; color: #0a299c; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">Part 2</a></div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, serif; font-size: 16px;"><a href="http://voncarr-siobhan-carroll.blogspot.com/2021/06/wreck-of-kent-part-3.html" style="background: transparent; color: #0a299c; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">Part 3</a></div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, serif; font-size: 16px;"><a href="http://voncarr-siobhan-carroll.blogspot.com/2021/06/the-wreck-of-kent-part-4-weather.html" target="_blank">Part 4</a></div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, serif; font-size: 16px;">Part 5</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, serif; font-size: 16px;"><a href="https://voncarr-siobhan-carroll.blogspot.com/2021/07/wreck-of-kent-part-6-ship-is-on-fire.html" target="_blank">Part 6</a></div>Siobhan Carrollhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03312024658494049440noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4640209728628359173.post-55106781085742881742021-06-21T12:26:00.004-07:002021-07-30T06:52:46.428-07:00The Wreck of the Kent (Part 4): Weather Watching<div><span style="text-align: center;">For previous segments, see: </span><a href="https://voncarr-siobhan-carroll.blogspot.com/2021/06/the-wreck-of-kent-part-1-part-1.html" style="text-align: center;" target="_blank">Part 1</a> (the bottle)<span style="text-align: center;">, </span><a href="https://voncarr-siobhan-carroll.blogspot.com/2021/06/wreck-of-kent-part-2.html" style="text-align: center;" target="_blank">Part 2</a> (the letters) or <a href="http://voncarr-siobhan-carroll.blogspot.com/2021/06/the-wreck-of-kent-part-4-weather.html" target="_blank">Part 3</a> (the map).</div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZ8xXcGTQCuk0PubNLAgVOyTvTSNffG50t5c_nlNPdbvA8POmsHB9m5FtfX6fcwpOwGOp9N8NuN4FvMZl-8IcIqDwmz8g-KcUAprMV5OMU4avh7ZbMO4vSlN6U9mwp0N_rwFqtfcUqQvu9/s2026/1d0aea15-5c47-c712-642b-7f25211afa32.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2026" data-original-width="1686" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZ8xXcGTQCuk0PubNLAgVOyTvTSNffG50t5c_nlNPdbvA8POmsHB9m5FtfX6fcwpOwGOp9N8NuN4FvMZl-8IcIqDwmz8g-KcUAprMV5OMU4avh7ZbMO4vSlN6U9mwp0N_rwFqtfcUqQvu9/s320/1d0aea15-5c47-c712-642b-7f25211afa32.jpg" /></a></div><div><figcaption style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">"<i>Sad, Sloppy Weather"</i> by James Gillray (1808), Art Institute of Chicago</span></figcaption></div><div><br /></div>At the beginning of the 18thC, <a href="https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/R/bo3641379.html" target="_blank">when people wrote about weather they focused on meteors</a>. The word “meteor” in this context didn’t necessarily mean a rock falling from outer space (though it could be), but any strange aerial phenomenon: violent storms, fireball lightning, luminous mists, etc.. In previous centuries such phenomena were interpreted as omens. To study the weather at the beginning of the eighteenth century was to study meteors: to be, in short a <i>meteor</i>ologist.<p>
As the century progressed, Britons enamored of new scientific theories obsessively watched the weather, often recording daily fluctuations in wind and temperature in “weather diaries.” Some did so because they were hoping to arrive at a better understanding of the rules governing weather, but many believed there was a strong relationship between the weather and their health. Rainy climates like Britain were thought to cause anxiety and sadness, so much so that depression was referred to as “the English disease” in Europe. Dr. George Cheyne, for example, argued in 1733 that England’s high suicide rate should be attributed to the “moisture” of its air and the “variableness” of its weather. </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqlatxJsf7dTqpZahgEBV75U_ivM0FSj4Kpa-46xYOPb5UiCZb0ITxszzhxyReDa1B3CuUCuVh5hhcDllRtSYu3goOL0_Lp_CSLW327PJJaiydrw-c0fPuIaMI21-PufjXiDboweIn1sjF/s976/1759.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="549" data-original-width="976" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqlatxJsf7dTqpZahgEBV75U_ivM0FSj4Kpa-46xYOPb5UiCZb0ITxszzhxyReDa1B3CuUCuVh5hhcDllRtSYu3goOL0_Lp_CSLW327PJJaiydrw-c0fPuIaMI21-PufjXiDboweIn1sjF/s320/1759.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><figcaption style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">A weather diary covering the years 1756 to 1761, from the BBC.</span></figcaption><br /><p>So far, this may sound fairly close to modern science: <a href="https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/seasonal-affective-disorder/symptoms-causes/syc-20364651" target="_blank">Seasonal Affective Disorder</a> is felt by many people around the world, while cloudy weather contributes to Vitamin D deficiencies and therefore to disorders like <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-017-16058-1">rickets</a><a href="http://ickets.">.</a> However, in an era in which people still subscribed to humoralism – the belief that the body was composed of four “humours” that determined one’s personality -- the weather could have more profound effects. In some weather diaries, as <a href="https://cola.unh.edu/person/jan-golinski" target="_blank">Jan Golinski</a> has observed, diarists recorded their emotions at different times in the day – even the fluctuations in their libido! – to keep track of weather's effect on their personality.</p><p>While usable weather forecasting would have to wait for the invention of the telegraph, 19thC Britons did what they could to stay abreast of changing weather conditions, by observing the weather themselves, or by using new technologies. My favorite 19thC weather forecasting device was the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tempest_prognosticator" target="_blank">Tempest Prognosticator</a> -- a weather forecasting device that used leeches to predict the approach of storms. According to its inventor, the blood-sucking worms would by prompted by a change in atmospheric conditions to climb up a tube and trigger the ringing of a bell.</p><p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLnKGmbcr0SQ6-P3FTRewi7xd6fe6XdFmEgA3cZuYSn07_2KYZR5oTikQj7wYpJLr_eFZrtEruyyKsWqsj7IAGLGlRyzmXjHY6iZvqjbZgNlPVBJ3IMyk3YvVRpHW3CElQeSMTRUHITYnV/s800/Tempest_Prognosticator.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="766" data-original-width="800" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLnKGmbcr0SQ6-P3FTRewi7xd6fe6XdFmEgA3cZuYSn07_2KYZR5oTikQj7wYpJLr_eFZrtEruyyKsWqsj7IAGLGlRyzmXjHY6iZvqjbZgNlPVBJ3IMyk3YvVRpHW3CElQeSMTRUHITYnV/s320/Tempest_Prognosticator.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><figcaption style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">A replica of the leech-driven Tempest Prognosticator. If you like the look of this device, you're probably not a leech.</span></figcaption> <br /><p>Weather – in particular air quality – continued to be seen as having an effect on health. In an era where the fastest form of travel was a sailing ship, it also had a significant effect on transportation. </p><p>
All of this is to say that, when the weather started to change, the passengers on board the <i>Kent </i>paid attention. At first, Joanna was not alarmed at entering the Bay of Biscay. Her party had been told that the bay “<span style="color: #a64d79;">might be crossed in two days with a favorable wind</span>”. Soon, however, she noticed that “<span style="color: #a64d79;">the roll of the vessel [had] increased considerably</span>”, making it harder for her to walk. When the ship’s company assembled on deck for a funeral, Joanna began to record the weather in detail, noting that the “<span style="color: #a64d79;">sky was of green misty appearance</span>” and that the wind “<span style="color: #a64d79;">felt mild and warm... being from the Southwest</span>”. Turning her attention to the funeral, Joanna watched as the first of two small coffins were lowered into the rising waves. They were for two “<span style="color: #a64d79;">infants [who] had died since we came on board</span>” – an unfortunately common occurrence on ocean voyages. As the first coffin disappeared, the child’s mother – one of the solder’s wives – started crying out in grief. Elizabeth, herself a new mother, was “<span style="color: #a64d79;">much affected</span>." Joanna tried to comfort her sister, but she sensed that the ship’s atmosphere had – literally and metaphorically – altered.</p><p>
For the next few days, the gale pounded the<i> Kent</i>. Elizabeth and Joanna discovered that it was safer for them to stay seated on the cabin floor. Nevertheless, when Duncan invited Joanna to view the sea, she accompanied him outside, creeping past a port hole through which the sea looked “<span style="color: #a64d79;">like a high wall over which the ship rose and fell</span>.” There were only a few sailors visible on the deck, and they were tied to their stations, to help them keep their footing. Joanna was less versed in meteorology than her male companion, but she had received a Regency gentlewoman’s training in social interaction. “<span style="color: #a64d79;">I usually studied the countenances of the sailors as my barometer</span>,” she noted gloomily, and “<span style="color: #a64d79;">certainly could gather no good omen from them that day</span>.”</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9EH-foiuDkHfhhqEj43DnKF9JoXWj9-H-LZ7X48KSXOuULuCg8ENpdnrFYcw5K6i-TN9_dUFdTHcem0RvQgnwCBXupF-EVSx8zK8u3_PVmFcVQkl7ml7DlTuG7z4SzRAR0TRgnkmlLVJR/s483/image+ship.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="262" data-original-width="483" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9EH-foiuDkHfhhqEj43DnKF9JoXWj9-H-LZ7X48KSXOuULuCg8ENpdnrFYcw5K6i-TN9_dUFdTHcem0RvQgnwCBXupF-EVSx8zK8u3_PVmFcVQkl7ml7DlTuG7z4SzRAR0TRgnkmlLVJR/s320/image+ship.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><figcaption style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>The Distress'd Situation of the ship Eliza in a Typhoon in the Gulph of Japan</i>. Likely by Spoilum, ca. 1798–1800.</span></figcaption><div><br /></div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, serif; font-size: 16px;"><a href="http://voncarr-siobhan-carroll.blogspot.com/2021/06/the-wreck-of-kent-part-1-part-1.html" style="background: transparent; color: #0a299c; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">Part 1</a></div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, serif; font-size: 16px;"><a href="http://voncarr-siobhan-carroll.blogspot.com/2021/06/wreck-of-kent-part-2.html" style="background: transparent; color: #0a299c; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">Part 2</a></div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, serif; font-size: 16px;"><a href="http://voncarr-siobhan-carroll.blogspot.com/2021/06/wreck-of-kent-part-3.html" target="_blank">Part 3</a></div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, serif; font-size: 16px;">Part 4</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, serif; font-size: 16px;"><a href="http://voncarr-siobhan-carroll.blogspot.com/2021/06/the-wreck-of-kent-part-5-disaster.html" target="_blank">Part 5</a></div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, serif; font-size: 16px;"><a href="https://voncarr-siobhan-carroll.blogspot.com/2021/07/wreck-of-kent-part-6-ship-is-on-fire.html" target="_blank">Part 6</a> </div><p><br /></p><p>
</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p>Siobhan Carrollhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03312024658494049440noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4640209728628359173.post-31929288502523731772021-06-14T14:37:00.005-07:002021-07-30T06:53:20.441-07:00Wreck of the Kent (Part 3): The Map<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">For previous segments, see: <a href="https://voncarr-siobhan-carroll.blogspot.com/2021/06/the-wreck-of-kent-part-1-part-1.html" target="_blank">Part 1</a> and <a href="https://voncarr-siobhan-carroll.blogspot.com/2021/06/wreck-of-kent-part-2.html" target="_blank">Part 2</a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhl7Mqzt4oOEGQeuhJTjEWE1s2TRAjpJbJffA1_lDQEgu4KVSuUtYVtuZBuFRMWYY1xsL8jGYcI5ADOx7SmaaK5OExKS6Na69WL4ejOCJavG8NHZW7RmWpmTNzWP6mKa2Omlew6M1fbyiDR/s2048/Kent+3+Arrows_New.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1448" data-original-width="2048" height="463" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhl7Mqzt4oOEGQeuhJTjEWE1s2TRAjpJbJffA1_lDQEgu4KVSuUtYVtuZBuFRMWYY1xsL8jGYcI5ADOx7SmaaK5OExKS6Na69WL4ejOCJavG8NHZW7RmWpmTNzWP6mKa2Omlew6M1fbyiDR/w655-h463/Kent+3+Arrows_New.png" width="655" /></a></div><div><br /></div>This GIS image, made by <a href="https://www.english.udel.edu/people/modonne?uid=modonne&Name=Megan%20O%27Donnell">Megan O'Donnell</a> from the <i>Kent</i>'s 1823 ship's log, shows the likely route of the <i>Kent </i>if all had gone well. It also features locations I'll be discussing in subsequent blog posts. Each point plotted on the <i>Kent</i>'s course represents an entry in the ship's log. <div><br /><div><div>Mapping out the ship's progress toward India in 1823 (the white line) emphasized just how challenging travel was in an era dependent on wind power. Some days there might be significant progress; some days almost none. As Joanna noted in her letter, having enough provisions on board would be crucial for the health of people on board. </div><div><br /></div><div>One of the crucial locations in the <i>Kent</i>'s story is the Bay of Biscay.</div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjGGmF7VQ7Stk6sF_TLlNmFgw1dZIn3t1cR13GyPI714Zs1ZmhDpGycdMBSp1MgcLKwqXweqgUJ04sqUZ8RStePS2tg7QZ0PKCAJbATufS5G_Ir9dJq30nOPY0QrckEROWv8n-u9XcvvbiX/s1000/Bay_of_Biscay_map.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="913" data-original-width="1000" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjGGmF7VQ7Stk6sF_TLlNmFgw1dZIn3t1cR13GyPI714Zs1ZmhDpGycdMBSp1MgcLKwqXweqgUJ04sqUZ8RStePS2tg7QZ0PKCAJbATufS5G_Ir9dJq30nOPY0QrckEROWv8n-u9XcvvbiX/s320/Bay_of_Biscay_map.png" width="320" /></a></div><div><br /></div>Encountered not long after the <i>Kent</i> left England, the Bay of Biscay is a region known for violent storms. Winds from North America blow uninterrupted across the Atlantic Ocean into Biscay, generating long waves that average around 20 feet high. Strong winds can make these waves still higher, leading to the conditions that, in 2016, triggered the abandonment of the <i>Modern Express</i>, a 33,000-ton cargo ship, in the face of a Bay of Biscay gale. </div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPAHvihr8BLsBsVBYkR6kvRnuVzupBSckGsuO6JRgYXTMN95fVG8Nep-DjgeGJjqd9MegUPfk3o7TtJ9kx8TEd6QLygSgwTT90BksERyJKp9hHOCvmKJRYfjVkA6me30FRn02I9MrMNSXN/s1024/bay+of+biscay+ship.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="576" data-original-width="1024" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPAHvihr8BLsBsVBYkR6kvRnuVzupBSckGsuO6JRgYXTMN95fVG8Nep-DjgeGJjqd9MegUPfk3o7TtJ9kx8TEd6QLygSgwTT90BksERyJKp9hHOCvmKJRYfjVkA6me30FRn02I9MrMNSXN/s320/bay+of+biscay+ship.jpg" width="320" /></a><figcaption><span style="font-size: x-small;">On 26 January 2016 the Modern Express -- a Panama-registered car carrier -- ran into problems in the Bay of Biscay. A mayday was issued and all aboard were rescued.</span></figcaption> </div><div><br /></div><div><div>In late February 1825, the 1332-ton Kent was unwittingly sailing into the path of a similar storm. </div><div><br /></div></div><div><div><br /></div></div><div><a href="http://voncarr-siobhan-carroll.blogspot.com/2021/06/the-wreck-of-kent-part-1-part-1.html" target="_blank">Part 1</a></div></div><div><a href="http://voncarr-siobhan-carroll.blogspot.com/2021/06/wreck-of-kent-part-2.html" target="_blank">Part 2</a></div><div>Part 3</div><div><a href="http://voncarr-siobhan-carroll.blogspot.com/2021/06/the-wreck-of-kent-part-4-weather.html" target="_blank">Part 4</a></div><div>Part 5</div><div><a href="https://voncarr-siobhan-carroll.blogspot.com/2021/07/wreck-of-kent-part-6-ship-is-on-fire.html">Part 6</a></div>Siobhan Carrollhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03312024658494049440noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4640209728628359173.post-51168059010913999412021-06-09T07:27:00.011-07:002021-06-21T12:38:58.396-07:00Wreck of the Kent (Part 2): The Letters<div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxyuBHZPgx_vAnsENIvDfQw7P8Ll5z4BvtfgYKCNURxbudYOcM13yS43r6_YJjRFb1jlNPMfwHxlR1iO2m4HXgj4LoMIouhxdlszjsmFxYj7zWCPUP37LnngruCjAVxAYh_o02Bgq_KulW/s950/destruction+of+Kent.JPG" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0px; text-align: center;"><br /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxyuBHZPgx_vAnsENIvDfQw7P8Ll5z4BvtfgYKCNURxbudYOcM13yS43r6_YJjRFb1jlNPMfwHxlR1iO2m4HXgj4LoMIouhxdlszjsmFxYj7zWCPUP37LnngruCjAVxAYh_o02Bgq_KulW/s950/destruction+of+Kent.JPG" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0px; text-align: center;"><img alt="" border="0" data-original-height="307" data-original-width="950" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxyuBHZPgx_vAnsENIvDfQw7P8Ll5z4BvtfgYKCNURxbudYOcM13yS43r6_YJjRFb1jlNPMfwHxlR1iO2m4HXgj4LoMIouhxdlszjsmFxYj7zWCPUP37LnngruCjAVxAYh_o02Bgq_KulW/s320/destruction+of+Kent.JPG" width="320" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxyuBHZPgx_vAnsENIvDfQw7P8Ll5z4BvtfgYKCNURxbudYOcM13yS43r6_YJjRFb1jlNPMfwHxlR1iO2m4HXgj4LoMIouhxdlszjsmFxYj7zWCPUP37LnngruCjAVxAYh_o02Bgq_KulW/s950/destruction+of+Kent.JPG" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0px; text-align: center;"><br /></a></div>
<p>In 1825, many Britons first read about the destruction of the<i> Kent </i>via newspapers like this one. The facts seemed clear enough: The ship had been transporting soldiers and their families to India and a significant number of children were among the dead. There were survivors too, who had brought their stories to shore, and who later published popular moral narratives about the disaster. </p>
<p>
All this writing gave me plenty of source material with which to reconstruct the <i>Kent'</i>s story, but also some challenges. I wanted to tell a compelling story about this event as well as relate an important history, but the kinds of things fiction writers want to know - <i>what did it feel like to be on this ship as it went down? what did that experience look, smell and taste like?</i> - are not usually documented in 19thC records. </p><p>
Luckily, I found an ally in the <a href="https://www.rmg.co.uk/national-maritime-museum">National Maritime Museum</a>'s papers: <b>Joanna Dick</b>, a woman taking an unplanned voyage to India. Joanna's sister, <b>Elizabeth</b>, had just given birth and was suffering serious aftereffects, but, because she was an officer's wife, was expected to travel to India with her husband on schedule, despite her poor health. </p><p>Caring for her sister, Joanna worried about Elizabeth's weak pulse and deepening depression. At the last minute, Joanna made a drastic decision: she would travel with her sister to India to help care for her and her child. Joanna knew that this might mean she would never see her homeland or other relatives again. But, she explained in a letter to her aunt, she considered it her religious and familial duty to go. Besides, as a 32-year-old unmarried woman, there was nobody in Britain <span style="color: #741b47;">“requiring my stay.” </span></p><p>Soon afterward, Joanna accompanied her sister and the newborn baby on board the <i>Kent</i>, completely unaware of the disaster looming in their future. In the farewell letter she composed to her aunt, she tried to convey the vibrancy of the deck of a departing East Indiaman: </p><p></p><blockquote><span style="color: #741b47;"> "the crowds of soldiers with their wives and children – the stock of poultry, pigs, geese and turkeys, the confused collection of packages before everything finds its proper place – the provisions of all kinds for so great a number as 640 people for four months (having no intention of touching any port before reaching India), altogether astonishes one who never before witnessed anything of the kind." </span></blockquote><p></p><p>The ship was, she marveled, "<span style="color: #741b47;">like a small town on the waters</span>."</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjEz-DJviLeQlE95lfNDoPsiWkw-cIu4DStRf5tlf9goXv1rYPDOuZ61MqLCb6-bnV7gIL49-jlY15Wsd5ChSWZ2tVYH0rM7XiuMhZlYO4tFkaDp0nfJ-3EjDhNF0D7CMZLqRzrRZ9VEChy/s1200/NMM_NMMG_BHC0784-001+%25281%2529.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="946" data-original-width="1200" height="252" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjEz-DJviLeQlE95lfNDoPsiWkw-cIu4DStRf5tlf9goXv1rYPDOuZ61MqLCb6-bnV7gIL49-jlY15Wsd5ChSWZ2tVYH0rM7XiuMhZlYO4tFkaDp0nfJ-3EjDhNF0D7CMZLqRzrRZ9VEChy/w320-h252/NMM_NMMG_BHC0784-001+%25281%2529.jpg" title="A Departing East Indiaman" width="320" /></a><figcaption><span style="font-size: x-small;">"A Departing East Indiaman" by Hendrick Staets, 1630, National Maritime Museum</span></figcaption></div><div></div><div><br /></div>More than anything I read, Joanna's letter helped convey the scale of an East-Indiaman. For comparison, a Boeing 777 flying to Mumbai today could seat around 451 people in a 2-class configuration. The <i>Kent</i> housed 641 people plus cargo. A Boeing 777 is around 229 feet long and has a cabin that's about 20 feet wide; the Kent was 130 feet long and 43 feet wide. It was a 'small town' crammed into an even smaller space, in which people would have to live for months. <div><br /></div><div>(I think it was when I was figuring out the size of an East-Indiaman that it hit me just how devastating shipwrecks were in the Age of Sail. Terence Grocott calculates that there were roughly <b>2000 </b>shipwrecks a year<b> </b>worldwide from 1793 and 1816. Many of these ships would have been small<i>, </i>but many carried hundreds of people. As <a href="https://www.surrey.ac.uk/people/carl-thompson">Carl Thompson</a> notes in the introduction to <i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Romantic-Era-Shipwreck-Narratives-Radical-Recoveries/dp/1842331299">Romantic-Era Shipwreck Narratives</a></span></i>, an estimated “5,000 Britons [died] at sea each year” during this period. Imagine living in a world in which air travel had similar statistics.) </div><div><div><div><br /></div><div>Joanna's letters also conveyed the kind of social life that people of her class (she was the daughter of a Scottish baronet) experienced on board. Like many of the women depicted in Jane Austen's fiction, Joanna had a sense of humor as well as a keen eye for absurdity. Her description of a Regency dinner on board the ship during a storm -- with ropes laid down to keep plates in place and knives and forks flying everywhere -- was hilarious as well as informative.<br /><p>Joanna had an eye for the human stories as well. Soon after she arrived on the <i>Kent</i>, Captain Cobb discovered a stowaway on board: a solder's wife, who'd hidden herself after being told she couldn't accompany her husband to India. Caught, the stowaway was sent on shore <span style="color: #741b47;">“weeping to think she'd only caused her husband to be punished.” </span></p><p>Joanna was moved by the woman’s situation. Perhaps she felt a pang of guilt over the class dynamics that allowed her, an unmarried gentlewomen, to effortlessly take an unplanned space on the transport. She participated in some social maneuvering behind the scenes. David Pringle, her cousin and dinner companion, wrote a letter to the colonel pleading the stowaway’s case. The colonel <span style="color: #741b47;">“granted a pardon to the husband</span>” but would not sanction the woman’s return. Captain Cobb then interceded, <span style="color: #741b47;">“generously [promising] to maintain her at his own expense.” </span>The woman was <span style="color: #741b47;">“brought back with joy, to her husband</span>,” Joanna reported with satisfaction. </p><p>In some cases, Joanna's letters also provide rare details about the lives of marginalized people on board. She comments on the <span style="color: #741b47;">"fine little boys (taken at the Marine school, and most of them orphans,) who are employed in clearing out the gig boat"</span>. None of the other letters I'd read mentioned these boys, although the ship's logs from previous voyages give a sense of what their lives might have been like. On one of <i>Kent</i>'s earlier voyages, the captain had punished a sailor for sexual abusing of one of the ship's boys -- a moment at which an otherwise unrecorded history of exploitation enters the archive.
</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhIajSiWreap5Fik7_RZUKSOa3WM4g4zW-bdcXHspW2WkUiXy9nFzYnuEYVAjWoVbOLWNVpPOJqRiaIoAOUVkndHOGe6ybw9F1rWixhT0w3bG86vuQ3ShCTS-UN7sVMq5AegxMiXEDxGi1o/s2048/Photo+17-07-2018%252C+12+52+45.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1536" height="234" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhIajSiWreap5Fik7_RZUKSOa3WM4g4zW-bdcXHspW2WkUiXy9nFzYnuEYVAjWoVbOLWNVpPOJqRiaIoAOUVkndHOGe6ybw9F1rWixhT0w3bG86vuQ3ShCTS-UN7sVMq5AegxMiXEDxGi1o/w175-h234/Photo+17-07-2018%252C+12+52+45.jpg" title="Kent log book. The logs of previous voyages contain records of daily routines and punishments, giving another sense of what life on board would have been like." width="175" /></a></div><figcaption><span style="font-size: x-small;">Example of a page from one of the Kent's log books. The logs of previous voyages contain records of daily routines and punishments, giving another sense of what life was like on board for ordinary sailors. </span></figcaption> <p>As the <i>Kent</i>'s final voyage began, Joanna kept up her letter-writing to relatives back home, describing the ominous weather. From one of her final letters, we learn that dinner-time conversation<span style="color: #741b47;"> "turned much upon shipwrecks.</span>" Her sister's new baby slept soundly, but Elizabeth, Joanna's sister, <span style="color: #741b47;">"was alarmed with the creaking and shattering noises which she heard all night, and which kept her awake”</span>. In the morning, Joanna found her sister <span style="color: #741b47;">“rather depressed and thinking that something was coming over us.” </span><span>Unfortunately, Elizabeth was soon proved right. <a href="http://voncarr-siobhan-carroll.blogspot.com/2021/06/wreck-of-kent-part-3.html">[Next]</a></span></p><p><span><a href="http://voncarr-siobhan-carroll.blogspot.com/2021/06/the-wreck-of-kent-part-1-part-1.html" target="_blank">Part 1</a></span></p><p>Part 2</p><p><span><a href="http://voncarr-siobhan-carroll.blogspot.com/2021/06/wreck-of-kent-part-3.html">Part 3</a></span></p><p><a href="http://voncarr-siobhan-carroll.blogspot.com/2021/06/the-wreck-of-kent-part-4-weather.html" target="_blank">Part 4</a></p><p>
</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p></div></div></div>Siobhan Carrollhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03312024658494049440noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4640209728628359173.post-41500497762575106092021-06-09T06:25:00.007-07:002021-06-09T07:51:30.552-07:00The Wreck of the Kent (part 1)<div style="text-align: left;">If you're interested in maritime history, you may want to check out Bloomsbury's just-published <a href="https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/a-cultural-history-of-the-sea-9781474299107/">Cultural History of the Sea</a>. This 6 volume (!) history explores how human understanding of the sea has developed over 2,500 years of cultural and natural history. I was lucky enough to be asked to contribute an essay on Ocean Networks to the Nineteenth Century volume (Margaret Cohen is our fabulous editor). I focused on the 1825 shipwreck of the <i>Kent -- </i>one of the most famous shipwreck stories of the nineteenth century, and one of the most dramatic. Naturally my essay came in long -- over 17,000 words! -- and in cutting it down I had to sacrifice some interesting archival details. So, over the next few days I'm going to post about my research on the Kent and tell some of its story. Hopefully, you'll get a sense from this as to why this story became the 19thC icon that it did.</div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjcyjmLTptYYzj0-4j_3_EN0yvOpZ8Ej2Y_PkL_wfaXociHrS1dRIlgXTIjcKEzJlMdBsaZhUa1r-6mYoMEOcFDzsSc2JxZgADZm-NyRPV7Vew8od4S6PdWkfSwp4FRnBJRCksACeGHXtHL/s1280/l4414.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="963" data-original-width="1280" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjcyjmLTptYYzj0-4j_3_EN0yvOpZ8Ej2Y_PkL_wfaXociHrS1dRIlgXTIjcKEzJlMdBsaZhUa1r-6mYoMEOcFDzsSc2JxZgADZm-NyRPV7Vew8od4S6PdWkfSwp4FRnBJRCksACeGHXtHL/s320/l4414.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><h4><figcaption style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small; font-weight: normal;">Loss of the East Indiaman 'Kent' (1826) by Thomas Luny, Collection of the National Maritime Museum</span></figcaption></h4><div>I think I first read about the <i>Kent </i>bottle in a "Ripley's Believe it Or Not" cartoon about messages found in bottles. The cartoon, alas, turned out to be inaccurate, but the real story turned out to be more interesting than I'd imagined.</div><div><div><br /></div><div>First, here's a photo of an actual "message in a bottle." This is the actual, sea-stained letter that washed up on the beach of Bathsheba, Barbados in 1826. It's been placed in a picture frame and is held by the <a href="https://www.rmg.co.uk/national-maritime-museum">National Maritime Museum</a> at Greenwich. </div><div><div><i><br /></i></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiIntIxVUpox2X1y1EQzftAsYIy_XomfGv0nYL_GR31m-ukAv8OlqnjkS-ekMOS4rq_6ymTnd2ULXzYNincF352HEGfeZzyWfaGbgT6JrhI-KGG1y9Mt44ks_BioJxmuA10H16OmwidaQFZ/s2048/Photo+19-07-2018%252C+11+05+24.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1536" height="191" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiIntIxVUpox2X1y1EQzftAsYIy_XomfGv0nYL_GR31m-ukAv8OlqnjkS-ekMOS4rq_6ymTnd2ULXzYNincF352HEGfeZzyWfaGbgT6JrhI-KGG1y9Mt44ks_BioJxmuA10H16OmwidaQFZ/w143-h191/Photo+19-07-2018%252C+11+05+24.jpg" width="143" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div>The message reads:</div><div><br /></div></div><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><div><div><span style="color: #741b47;">"<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">The ship, ‘The
Kent,’ Indiaman, is on fire -- Elizabeth, Joanna, & myself commit our
spirits into the hands of our blessed Redeemer. His grace enables us to be
quite composed in the awful prospect of eternity</span></span></div></div><div><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; margin: 0in 0in 0in 0.5in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="color: #741b47; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">D.W.N. MacGregor</span></p></div><div><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; margin: 0in 0in 0in 0.5in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="color: #741b47; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">1<sup>st</sup>
March 1825</span></p></div><div><div><span style="color: #741b47;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;">Bay of Biscay."</span> </span></div></div></blockquote><div>
<div><i><br /></i></div><div>(I'll be trying to use burgundy text to indicate quotations taken from original documents.)</div><div><br /></div><div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEij5EueXa6ybkskjqpd6H61OsTs-wsPB5qXb8tk3hmuNFCI6OgSV9mb9ITPk92WhvBMkpsQZsuGSpgIucGueuVFw5ycUWd_OfZXZslSYgPvTmW_MEM5ke3TZG8FfkT_aUvns2bPo_TXOAv5/s1147/i023.webp" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1147" data-original-width="708" height="237" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEij5EueXa6ybkskjqpd6H61OsTs-wsPB5qXb8tk3hmuNFCI6OgSV9mb9ITPk92WhvBMkpsQZsuGSpgIucGueuVFw5ycUWd_OfZXZslSYgPvTmW_MEM5ke3TZG8FfkT_aUvns2bPo_TXOAv5/w147-h237/i023.webp" width="147" /></a></div><i><br /></i></div><div>In writing my essay, one of the first decisions I had to make was how to describe this letter's discovery. The note in the National Maritime Museum identifies J. Surles as the person who discovered the letter. But local accounts from Barbados claim that the letter was first discovered by a Black man (sometimes a "servant") who handed the letter to James Surles. Given how often Black people have been written out of history, I wanted to do what I could to write this man back in. <p>Having made that decision, it was surprising to me how much I could figure out about this person. For example, he was most likely alive during <a href="https://www.blackpast.org/global-african-history/bussa-rebellion-1816/">Bussa's Rebellion</a>, the uprising of enslaved people in 1816. The letter had been found in September. If this man was lucky enough to live to live until the end of the year, he would gain the right to own property and give evidence in court. If he lived
until 1833, he would witness the abolition of slavery throughout the British Empire. In getting this one detail about a black man discovering the letter, I suddenly had a sense not only of this person's probable past but also his potential future.<br /></p></div></div></div><div> Likewise, I had a glimpse into the future of the man who wrote the letter in a bottle: Duncan MacGregor. He'd survived to write the bestselling narrative of the <i>Kent</i>'s sinking. Perhaps more importantly, my grad assistant on this project -- <a href="http://csff-anglia.co.uk/tag/powder-thompson/">Powder Thompson</a> at the Anglia Ruskin Center for Science Fiction -- sent me copies of letters written by other people on the ship. The letters of Joanna Dick, a young woman making an unplanned trip to India, became a very important source for me in reconstructing the story of the <i>Kent</i>. </div><div><br /></div><div><a href="http://voncarr-siobhan-carroll.blogspot.com/2021/06/wreck-of-kent-part-2.html" target="_blank">Part 2</a></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /><i><br /></i></div></div>Siobhan Carrollhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03312024658494049440noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4640209728628359173.post-81684140120005784322021-03-12T07:25:00.004-08:002021-03-12T07:25:39.481-08:00Banjo Welcomes You all to Friday.<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhEYOnJ_pjP9KW18K1A-n3zFaTcy7DJsF8ltkrksQUY1v0uiVVTG93uDH1l8_8ReCnvQQt7XCKWIh_4Esm02B0k4FGORnmLYW2D4E-X_ZkCHdhcf7bLzowgfJveLVwumKdhxTzA56jjT7M/s2048/Banjo.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1536" data-original-width="2048" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhEYOnJ_pjP9KW18K1A-n3zFaTcy7DJsF8ltkrksQUY1v0uiVVTG93uDH1l8_8ReCnvQQt7XCKWIh_4Esm02B0k4FGORnmLYW2D4E-X_ZkCHdhcf7bLzowgfJveLVwumKdhxTzA56jjT7M/s320/Banjo.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>(This is a mood.)<br /> <p></p>Siobhan Carrollhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03312024658494049440noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4640209728628359173.post-80667270318017724762020-08-02T09:31:00.000-07:002020-08-02T09:36:56.987-07:00More on the Retro Hugos*Update.* I've learned more about the awards since my previous post. From what I understand, the way to change the Retros is to:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-weight: normal;">1) attend a Worldcon business meeting; </span><span style="font-weight: normal;">2) make a motion to abolish the Retro Hugos; </span><span style="font-weight: normal;">3) for those who support the proposal below, to make a motion to establish an alternative award.</span></blockquote>
Objections to changing the Retro Hugo (based on comments I've received):<br />
<ul>
<li><b>the name "Hugo" cannot be attached to a juried award</b></li>
<span style="color: #0b5394;">I think this is something the Worldcon should reconsider, but in this case it doesn't matter. Dead authors don't care about winning 'Hugos'. Call it something else, e.g. the 'Retro' award.</span>
<li><b>the Retro Hugo award isn't scheduled to be given out next year anyway</b></li>
<span style="color: #0b5394;">Great. That gives us time to implement changes.</span>
</ul>
<div>
You know what I haven't heard? Anyone arguing that the current award should remain untouched. Rich Horton has a<a href="https://www.facebook.com/rich.horton.16"> Facebook post</a> that's attracting comments from the fans who make an effort to read and vote conscientiously for the Retro. They're frustrated too. </div>
<div>
<br /></div>
Here's the thing: if you got those dedicated Retro fans in a room (virtual or otherwise), they would have a great conversation about 'who could have won in 1947'. But <b>a conversation between a small group of qualified people is best supported with a panel</b>, not with an award voted on by the general membership. Worldcon could always host a 'who might have won' discussion panel in 'Retro Hugo' years instead.<br />
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
As a reminder, here was my proposal for an alternate award.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: "ubuntu" , sans-serif; font-size: large; font-style: italic; text-align: center;">My suggestion would be to focus on the award’s goal of introducing fans to lesser-known works and teaching us something about SF history. I’d suggest the following format changes:</span></div>
<div>
<span style="color: #073763;"><br style="background-color: white; font-family: Ubuntu, sans-serif; font-size: x-large; font-style: italic; text-align: center;" /></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: "ubuntu" , sans-serif; font-size: large; font-style: italic; text-align: center;">1) make it a juried award, </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: "ubuntu" , sans-serif; font-size: large; font-style: italic; text-align: center;">with the jury consisting of academics and critics who’ve done historical recovery work; </span></div>
<div>
<span style="color: #073763;"><br style="background-color: white; font-family: Ubuntu, sans-serif; font-size: x-large; font-style: italic; text-align: center;" /></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: "ubuntu" , sans-serif; font-size: large; font-style: italic; text-align: center;">2) reduce the slate from 12 or so awards to 1 or 2, which would allow for more fan engagement with the work(s) in question; </span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: "ubuntu" , sans-serif; font-size: large; font-style: italic; text-align: center;"></span><br style="background-color: white; color: #414141; font-family: Ubuntu, sans-serif; font-size: x-large; font-style: italic; text-align: center;" />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: "ubuntu" , sans-serif; font-size: large; font-style: italic; text-align: center;">3) make its guiding question not, ‘what works might have won in a given year’ but <b>‘Which lesser-known SF works from the years of eligibility most speak to the genre and the SF community in 2022?’"</b></span></div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
The main response has been</div>
<div>
<ul>
<li><b>1 or 2 categories is too few!</b></li>
</ul>
<div>
<span style="color: #0b5394;"><b>Less is more</b>. The fewer texts there are to read / watch, the more people can participate. That's the theory behind the 'One Book, One City' reading movements you see across the U.S., and in essence, it's what I'm proposing: "One Classic, One Con." Except that 'classic' in this case would be a lesser-known work selected by a jury.</span></div>
</div>
<div>
<ul>
<li><b>What if the texts of 1947 don't lend themselves to discussion?</b></li>
</ul>
</div>
<div>
<span style="color: #0b5394;">If we're re-imagining this award, we can do away with the year-focused format. Instead, a 3 person jury could solicit reading suggestions for pre-1953 works of interest in the year 2022. The jury could focus on a keyword: e.g. "pandemic," or "race", to help it whittle down the possibilities. You could also rotate the form being looked at each year, depending on the expertise of your jury members: novel, short story, television episode, or film.</span></div>
<div>
<ul>
<li><b>Other admin suggestions:</b></li>
</ul>
<div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
1) announce the winner months before Worldcon, so that people have time to read and think about the text;<br />
2) have the jury write up and post share its selection rationale before Worldcon;<br />
3) have a 'Retro discussion' panel at Worldcon that includes jury members and current Hugo Finalists whose work connects to the theme. </blockquote>
</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Note that involvement doesn't need to end there. Ask the Hugo Fan Writers to comment on the text, the Hugo Fan Artists if they'd like to illustrate something from the story, etc. Invite participation that goes beyond just talking about the text in question. </div>
</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
That would be my suggestion for an alternate award. Regardless of whether another award is established, <b>the Retro Hugo as it stands has got to go. </b></div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
<br /></div>
Siobhan Carrollhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03312024658494049440noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4640209728628359173.post-77539468646620893182020-08-01T11:22:00.000-07:002020-08-02T08:43:23.609-07:00Retro Hugos'I sent out an email today with a proposal for changing the Retro Hugo awards. If you've been following the Hugo discussions on Twitter, you have some idea of why. Edited excerpt below.<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<br />
<span style="color: #073763;">"I think the Retro Hugos offer a wonderful opportunity to
recover and better advertise the many excellent SF works that have been
overlooked in our history. Unfortunately, it’s not clear to me that the awards
have been working this way. At best, they often go to the same old names,
reinforcing a ‘canon’ of SF already described in many anthologies and
histories. At worst, ...the Retro Hugo awards come across as hostile to the works and
people represented in that year’s Hugos. That’s not the goal of the Retro
Hugos, and it’s not the goal of Worldcon.</span></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="color: #073763;"><o:p> </o:p>...my suggestions would be to focus on the award’s goal of introducing fans to lesser-known works and teaching us something about SF history. I’d suggest the following format changes: </span><br />
<span style="color: #073763;">1) make it a juried award, </span><span style="color: #073763;">with the jury consisting of academics and critics who’ve done historical recovery work; </span><br />
<span style="color: #073763;">2) reduce the slate from 12 or so awards to 1 or 2, which would
allow for more fan engagement with the work(s) in question; </span><br />
<span style="color: #073763;"></span><br />
<span style="color: #073763;">3) make its guiding question not,
‘what works might have won in a given year’ but <b>‘Which lesser-known SF
works from the years of eligibility most speak to the genre and the SF community in
2022?’"</b></span>
<span style="color: #073763;">
</span><br />
</blockquote>
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
That's my suggestion. Thanks for listening.</div>
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />Siobhan Carrollhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03312024658494049440noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4640209728628359173.post-76417667029890147262020-05-21T14:04:00.001-07:002020-05-21T14:04:32.332-07:00Bread! It does a body good.<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6SzbG0VoMAfz3UmaxaaJyaI2Bu8U6wcP2TaCQCGmD9gQ9n5fIg7TCK8qME_qe4TL2_akCyOHFbECfljNJwBf3fSnoXN0wiAuCb-xmV9m_lbODIX-mp_VoDLnkDA4oDQ63te0ZOvX1DrzZ/s1600/bread.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1200" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6SzbG0VoMAfz3UmaxaaJyaI2Bu8U6wcP2TaCQCGmD9gQ9n5fIg7TCK8qME_qe4TL2_akCyOHFbECfljNJwBf3fSnoXN0wiAuCb-xmV9m_lbODIX-mp_VoDLnkDA4oDQ63te0ZOvX1DrzZ/s320/bread.jpg" width="240" /></a></div>
<span style="background-color: rgba(245 , 248 , 250 , 0.04); color: #14171a; font-family: , , "blinkmacsystemfont" , "segoe ui" , "roboto" , "ubuntu" , "helvetica neue" , sans-serif; font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: rgba(245 , 248 , 250 , 0.04); color: #14171a; font-family: , , "blinkmacsystemfont" , "segoe ui" , "roboto" , "ubuntu" , "helvetica neue" , sans-serif; font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: rgba(245 , 248 , 250 , 0.04); color: #14171a; font-family: , , "blinkmacsystemfont" , "segoe ui" , "roboto" , "ubuntu" , "helvetica neue" , sans-serif; font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;">Last time this sourdough olive bread didn’t have much flavor, so this time I went crazy and chucked a bunch of extra ingredients in. That’s how you bake, right? </span><span style="color: #14171a; font-family: , , "blinkmacsystemfont" , "segoe ui" , "roboto" , "ubuntu" , "helvetica neue" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;">‘What could go wrong?’ she asked, shortly before a Sourdough Kaiju destroyed the city.</span></span><br />
<span style="color: #14171a; font-family: , , "blinkmacsystemfont" , "segoe ui" , "roboto" , "ubuntu" , "helvetica neue" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="color: #14171a; font-family: , , "blinkmacsystemfont" , "segoe ui" , "roboto" , "ubuntu" , "helvetica neue" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;">In all seriousness, I'm starting to get more... comfortable(?) baking sourdough and today's not very monstrous concoction is proof of that. Behold!</span></span><br />
<span style="color: #14171a; font-family: , , "blinkmacsystemfont" , "segoe ui" , "roboto" , "ubuntu" , "helvetica neue" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEijciqf4zX5a7tfTvj8vpKS4rlyZeXWkMWYtCTgYM0IJ07yEKMeZ7-vlPuBTyRj4Co6bv59PZXAxeVCz_p4_bSl48MoxeUGonOamUKEdmd-trzoPM7onfle9RzzUb-y_aFtFgcjT0lDYCGH/s1600/rsults.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1287" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEijciqf4zX5a7tfTvj8vpKS4rlyZeXWkMWYtCTgYM0IJ07yEKMeZ7-vlPuBTyRj4Co6bv59PZXAxeVCz_p4_bSl48MoxeUGonOamUKEdmd-trzoPM7onfle9RzzUb-y_aFtFgcjT0lDYCGH/s320/rsults.jpg" width="257" /></a></div>
<span style="color: #14171a; font-family: , , "blinkmacsystemfont" , "segoe ui" , "roboto" , "ubuntu" , "helvetica neue" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="color: #14171a; font-family: , , "blinkmacsystemfont" , "segoe ui" , "roboto" , "ubuntu" , "helvetica neue" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;">It's edible, too!</span></span>Siobhan Carrollhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03312024658494049440noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4640209728628359173.post-58533703436844632472020-04-18T10:24:00.002-07:002020-04-18T10:24:15.090-07:00wow!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKy056TVLQM0yb31XDxuF84xaWdRvUaJJtSlV_WVdVBeGzwrOUwezBkh3FqGMPGf48fVEq44tXiJxZNawBFOWuXzHRpun7mMyi1GhM5NfqJ9bCDDA097UrCAHeAT_yJV0v1f3FPFzoF2PB/s1600/for+he+can+creep.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="225" data-original-width="225" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKy056TVLQM0yb31XDxuF84xaWdRvUaJJtSlV_WVdVBeGzwrOUwezBkh3FqGMPGf48fVEq44tXiJxZNawBFOWuXzHRpun7mMyi1GhM5NfqJ9bCDDA097UrCAHeAT_yJV0v1f3FPFzoF2PB/s320/for+he+can+creep.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
"For He Can Creep" is a finalist for both the <a href="https://nebulas.sfwa.org/">Nebula </a>and the <a href="http://www.thehugoawards.org/">Hugo</a> awards in the novelette category!!!<br />
<br />
<b>Thank you</b> everyone who nominated it for these awards! It's an enormous honor and a great feeling in this time of uncertainty to know that people enjoyed this story.<br />
<br />
I'm a bit over-awed to be sharing these ballots with some truly wonderful authors. Some of them you hopefully know well, (e.g. the marvelous <a href="http://nkjemisin.com/">N.K. Jemisin </a>, the far-sighted<a href="https://sarahpinsker.com/"> Sarah Pinsker</a> and the ever-thoughtful <a href="https://smallbeerpress.com/category/authors/ted-chiang-authors/">Ted Chiang</a>). Others may not yet be on your radar but should be (e.g. <a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07H796G2Z/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?_encoding=UTF8&btkr=1">P. Djèlí Clark </a>, <a href="http://www.acwise.net/">A.C. Wise</a>, and <a href="https://www.npr.org/2019/09/14/755172071/youll-want-to-open-every-one-of-the-ten-thousand-doors-of-january">Alix Harrow</a>). I certainly haven't read all the fiction on the awards list myself, so I'm looking forward to some great Quarantine reading.<br />
<br />
BUT IN THE MEANTIME thank you again everyone who voted for the nominees! I hope to see some of you virtually at the Nebula and Hugo online gatherings!
Siobhan Carrollhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03312024658494049440noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4640209728628359173.post-84861719872768912752020-01-01T08:25:00.001-08:002020-01-01T08:33:30.131-08:00Favourite Pleasure Reads of the 2019. Part 1: Fiction<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgI2xVDPcyELYnTa50yIO6ZXNOCmEMfJpFtcMuXYR6bYleFrlcCuz6hIbE2Z3YMnraHFJDJ4A7QhsotapYoOhBTr_0_6U6XBt_ltGbIY_Atz3vANc9xghJvH1KqXOvrIUQf_fDBddBHnNUb/s1600/eve.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1000" data-original-width="621" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgI2xVDPcyELYnTa50yIO6ZXNOCmEMfJpFtcMuXYR6bYleFrlcCuz6hIbE2Z3YMnraHFJDJ4A7QhsotapYoOhBTr_0_6U6XBt_ltGbIY_Atz3vANc9xghJvH1KqXOvrIUQf_fDBddBHnNUb/s320/eve.jpg" width="198" /></a></div>
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This year was a hard reading year for me. I started keeping track of the books I read for pleasure in 2012, at the suggestion
of the late David Hartwell. In 2012 I read 68 texts, not including academic
works and re-reads. In contrast, in 2019 I read a disappointing total of 35
books for pleasure. I suspect I read a *few* more than that which I forgot to
record, but any which way, one of my resolutions for the new year is to read
more.</div>
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<o:p></o:p></div>
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Fiction-wise, my favorites of the year were mostly Gothic novels:<o:p></o:p></div>
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<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Little-Eve-Catriona-Ward-author/dp/029760967X/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=Little+Eve+by+Catriona+Ward&qid=1577895346&sr=8-1">Little Eve by Catriona Ward</a><o:p></o:p></div>
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Dear Hollywood screenwriters looking for great material:
pick up this book. Ward brilliantly weaves together multiple timelines in this Gothic
tale about a religious cult in a remote part of Scotland. Decades
after the cult’s murderous implosion, the lone survivor begins writing letters
to a detective. Ward’s novel merges the atmosphere of THE LONEY with the
psychological intensity of Tana French’s IN THE WOODS in a narrative that unfolds in
a Hitchcockian series of plot twists. Seriously, this novel should be more widely known than it is. A must read.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<a href="https://www.yidio.com/movie/the-changeling/136705?utm_source=Bing&utm_medium=search&t_source=64&utm_campaign=1994&msclkid=d04b70e0ee38177c78de2eec2813ddfa"><br /></a></div>
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<a href="https://www.yidio.com/movie/the-changeling/136705?utm_source=Bing&utm_medium=search&t_source=64&utm_campaign=1994&msclkid=d04b70e0ee38177c78de2eec2813ddfa">The Changeling by Victor LaValle</a><o:p></o:p></div>
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LaValle’s beautiful dark fairy tale tied with LITTLE EVE as
my absolute favourite read of the year. Beautifully written and compelling,
LaValle has a knack for blending realism with the fantastic without making the “realist”
parts of the story seem fabulist. It's also a tale of race in America, and the conflicts that arise between African-American and white immigrant communities, but it's processed at the level of a very particular (and fantastic) set of family relationships. Wonderfully done.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Affinity-Sarah-Waters/dp/1573228737/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=Affinity+by+Sarah+Waters&qid=1577895517&sr=8-1">Affinity by Sarah Waters</a><o:p></o:p></div>
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Somehow I’d never come across this Waters title, even though
FINGERSMITH and THE LITTLE STRANGER are two of my favourite novels. A lonely Victorian lady visits a women’s prison and develops a relationship
with a spiritualist imprisoned there. Heart-breaking complications ensue. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<a href="https://www.amazon.com/There-novel-Tommy-Orange/dp/0525520376">There There by Tommy Orange</a><o:p></o:p></div>
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Unlike the other titles on this list, Tommy Orange’s THERE
THERE is *not* a Gothic novel in the way most people think of that word.
However, the Gothic theme of a traumatic past continuing to haunt the present
is also here in Orange’s brilliant series of intertwined short stories about a
collection of Native Americans living in Oakland, California. Orange’s tale is
alternatively funny and tragic and it offers a refreshing perspective on the indigenous
experience in a particular part of the United States. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Power-Naomi-Alderman/dp/0316547603/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=The+Power+by+Naomi+Alderman&qid=1577895578&s=books&sr=1-1">The Power by Naomi Alderman</a><o:p></o:p></div>
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Alderman’s SF novel about a world in which women suddenly
gain the power to wield electrical forces is a discussion-provoking read that
would teach well alongside THE HANDMAID’S TALE. I enjoyed it.</div>
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<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Best-Horror-Year-Eleven/dp/1597809721/ref=pd_sbs_14_1/139-0990164-8637265?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=1597809721&pd_rd_r=256b0e93-c0bb-4b6c-a935-ebbd1a5b956b&pd_rd_w=h0BGB&pd_rd_wg=jl40K&pf_rd_p=7c0dad87-8a25-4c4f-9349-026039ea6cb3&pf_rd_r=JVGSE4R0MFC7M6EBJHRT&psc=1&refRID=JVGSE4R0MFC7M6EBJHRT">The Best Horror of the Year, Vol. 11. ed. Ellen Datlow</a><o:p></o:p></div>
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I’ve always been a fan of Datlow’s anthologies and her “Best
Horror” series is one I’ve followed for years. I found this year’s to be exceptionally
strong, with great work appearing by Thomas Olde Heuvelt, Kristi
DeMeester, Michael Wehunt, and Damien Angelica Walters, among others. Full
disclosure: I have a story in this year’s anthology. Setting that aside, and
looking at the anthology as a reader, I found it to be one of Datlow’s
strongest, in part because of its mixture of high concept horror (e.g. Hill’s
and Davidson’s stories) and subtler, more “literary” pieces (e.g. Shearman and Holmes’s
stories). Right at the border there is arguably my favorite piece in the
anthology, Adam Troy Castro’s “Red Rain,” which translates the post-9-11 image
of the ‘falling man’ into surreal apocalypse. <o:p></o:p></div>
<br />
<br />
<div>
Non-fiction recs will be in the next post.</div>
Siobhan Carrollhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03312024658494049440noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4640209728628359173.post-34267129342523522632019-12-11T18:20:00.000-08:002019-12-11T18:34:08.183-08:00Eligibility Post 2019<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqiDCKpq23D6HERZZBOxMMaI9ail9Iu1-a2EX3_9vm0_CVabnHQnAAaw3jPRAM5ZVgBbIgRRG72xt7a09XaAPKbQaWAXudE7p3NYdpMQazrE8xVJEqtgv82lxBd8WjE1y_udG11pKuOsuN/s1600/tenor.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="278" data-original-width="498" height="178" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqiDCKpq23D6HERZZBOxMMaI9ail9Iu1-a2EX3_9vm0_CVabnHQnAAaw3jPRAM5ZVgBbIgRRG72xt7a09XaAPKbQaWAXudE7p3NYdpMQazrE8xVJEqtgv82lxBd8WjE1y_udG11pKuOsuN/s320/tenor.gif" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
For those who are interested, I have 3 original stories out in 2019.<br />
<br />
<h3>
<b><span style="color: #0b5394;">New Fiction</span></b></h3>
<ul>
<li><b>"<a href="https://www.tor.com/2019/07/10/for-he-can-creep-siobhan-carroll/">For He Can Creep</a>," </b>my novelette about Christopher Smart's cat Jeoffry, is over at<a href="https://www.tor.com/category/all-fiction/"> tor.com</a>. </li>
I owe Scott Andrews of BCS fame many thanks for giving me a Hexagon-shaped space in which to write this one, and Mike, Claire and Carlos for being willing to ignore me chortling through different cat voices in my section of the room.</ul>
<ul>
<li><b>"The Air, The Ocean, the Earth, the Deep" </b>is collected in<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Echoes-Saga-Anthology-Ghost-Stories/dp/1534413472"> Echoes</a>, Ellen Datlow's brilliant anthology of ghost stories. I owe Ellen for prompting me to write this short story, and Emily Davis and Amelia Wilson for making me reflect on immigration detention centers long before the current crisis.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li><b>"The Airwalker Comes to the City in Green"</b> is a surreal science fiction adventure and also my first novelette to appear in <a href="https://www.asimovs.com/current-issue/">Asimov's</a>, which I'm very excited about. I'm grateful to Shelia Williams for taking this one and to the Sycamore Hill group for their feedback on an early draft. I'm also grateful (as always) for the brilliant feedback of my "Sparklepony" critique group.</li>
</ul>
<h3>
<b><span style="color: #0b5394;">Reprints</span></b></h3>
<div>
While they aren't eligible for anything, I'm glad to see these stories making the rounds again:</div>
<div>
<ul>
<li><b>"Haunt" </b>was included in Ellen Datlow's truly excellent <i><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Best-Horror-Year-Eleven/dp/1597809721/ref=pd_sbs_14_t_0/131-0194984-3357840?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=1597809721&pd_rd_r=0dac3d5d-43b7-4f5d-af54-acf9323293b3&pd_rd_w=yg19u&pd_rd_wg=A30R0&pf_rd_p=5cfcfe89-300f-47d2-b1ad-a4e27203a02a&pf_rd_r=9HA8NQFR5S1WYSWEXTWA&psc=1&refRID=9HA8NQFR5S1WYSWEXTWA">Best
Horror of the Year</a></i><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Best-Horror-Year-Eleven/dp/1597809721/ref=pd_sbs_14_t_0/131-0194984-3357840?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=1597809721&pd_rd_r=0dac3d5d-43b7-4f5d-af54-acf9323293b3&pd_rd_w=yg19u&pd_rd_wg=A30R0&pf_rd_p=5cfcfe89-300f-47d2-b1ad-a4e27203a02a&pf_rd_r=9HA8NQFR5S1WYSWEXTWA&psc=1&refRID=9HA8NQFR5S1WYSWEXTWA">, <i>Volume 11</i></a>. </li>
<br />One of the pleasures of getting an author's copy of these anthologies is reading everyone else's great work. If you're a horror fan, make sure to check out Adam Troy-Castro's "Red Rain," Thomas Olde Heuvelt's "You know How the Story Goes" and Carly Holmes's "Sleep." There were a lot of great stories in this volume, but those are three that stood out for me.</ul>
</div>
<ul>
<li>I was immensely flattered to have<b> <a href="http://www.nightmare-magazine.com/fiction/nesters/">"Nesters"</a></b> reprinted in Ellen Datlow's <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Best-Horror-Year-Essential-Fiction/dp/1597809837/ref=pd_sbs_14_6/131-0194984-3357840?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=1597809837&pd_rd_r=f42154eb-d21c-4e23-ab94-d670c4aeac95&pd_rd_w=TpALz&pd_rd_wg=0AD8K&pf_rd_p=5873ae95-9063-4a23-9b7e-eafa738c2269&pf_rd_r=45HC37GE827ZJ5351R2T&psc=1&refRID=45HC37GE827ZJ5351R2T">Best of the Best </a>anthology.</li>
<br />
Again, if you're a horror fan, add this anthology to your Christmas reading list. There are *a lot* of stories here that I consider "new" classics. If I'm limiting myself to a few standouts, they'd be Suzy McKee Charnas's "Lowland Sea," Adam Golaski's "The Man from the Peak," Nathan Ballingrud's "Wild Acre," Livia Llewellyn's "Allocthon," and Carole Johnstone's "Better You Believe." (Okay, that's more than a few, but it's a great anthology. For those of you who are aspiring horror writers, I can't imagine a better guide to the variety of modern horror stories than this collection.)</ul>
<ul>
<li>Speaking of <b><a href="http://www.nightmare-magazine.com/fiction/nesters/">"Nesters,"</a> </b>it was just reprinted in the always interesting <a href="http://www.nightmare-magazine.com/">Nightmare Magazine</a> alongside a story by Dan Stintzi. Again, more Christmas reading for you horror fans!</li>
</ul>
Siobhan Carrollhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03312024658494049440noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4640209728628359173.post-90377203977131114172019-11-11T15:40:00.001-08:002019-11-11T15:40:17.514-08:00<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhuCuKvwySFRZzvPxf-O_jx7csErYVhwtz_TAZGyHtpxX3GKfcRiEkeDVC5JWDT_K6MEgCCIHeK8lSDpU1DVYXBkHorXTKUcPeODVnqEI4umjdDOuDbZr4GyoLt3k9nmKgWmWHvj2GsVRx4/s1600/ASF_NovDec2019_400x570+%25281%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="570" data-original-width="400" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhuCuKvwySFRZzvPxf-O_jx7csErYVhwtz_TAZGyHtpxX3GKfcRiEkeDVC5JWDT_K6MEgCCIHeK8lSDpU1DVYXBkHorXTKUcPeODVnqEI4umjdDOuDbZr4GyoLt3k9nmKgWmWHvj2GsVRx4/s320/ASF_NovDec2019_400x570+%25281%2529.jpg" width="224" /></a></div>
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
My story "The Airwalker Comes to the City in Green" is out in this month's <a href="https://www.asimovs.com/" target="_blank">Asimov's</a>.</div>
<br />Siobhan Carrollhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03312024658494049440noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4640209728628359173.post-34984773544368444642019-09-10T14:32:00.001-07:002019-09-10T14:32:21.815-07:00Cool Things from Museums and Archives Part 1000Where do academics get their ideas from? Exhibit A: a mask owned by Freud while he was writing "The Uncanny."<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHFXAkJC0XAayAuVFVeIrVl7HPJqxbnpVBAN-rYTw6atmHlOQzB5kfsurLUa4iUXzf__nt42xVtgYkZkvVNLKiNqeS1NWeeLwgCYMq09VAA5tLYANImcrQ6Jv5f6-IfkdgvWVPfXgvrhLv/s1600/2019-08-05+14.40.10.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1200" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHFXAkJC0XAayAuVFVeIrVl7HPJqxbnpVBAN-rYTw6atmHlOQzB5kfsurLUa4iUXzf__nt42xVtgYkZkvVNLKiNqeS1NWeeLwgCYMq09VAA5tLYANImcrQ6Jv5f6-IfkdgvWVPfXgvrhLv/s320/2019-08-05+14.40.10.jpg" width="240" /></a></div>
<br />Siobhan Carrollhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03312024658494049440noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4640209728628359173.post-88848713074027593562019-09-10T14:00:00.001-07:002019-09-10T14:00:56.210-07:00ECHOES anthology out!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjvM95ptM8mb568ZJ8qM3j_0BIVzv-naips96u82Zzr-B8VXxxy0ygTfCq5I0OvU6e7SwDR-I1H5kGS-cYBY-LGHz_xtn2tE2Rwu8TjpGy88gRHRPfdFYRfUC3sEd7ibuegFgDkMHEHbYFZ/s1600/2019-08-20+14.32.03.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1200" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjvM95ptM8mb568ZJ8qM3j_0BIVzv-naips96u82Zzr-B8VXxxy0ygTfCq5I0OvU6e7SwDR-I1H5kGS-cYBY-LGHz_xtn2tE2Rwu8TjpGy88gRHRPfdFYRfUC3sEd7ibuegFgDkMHEHbYFZ/s320/2019-08-20+14.32.03.jpg" width="240" /></a></div>
<br />
My author's copy of Ellen Datlow's mega-anthology of ghost stories arrived. I'll be updating this page with reviews as I work my way through it!Siobhan Carrollhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03312024658494049440noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4640209728628359173.post-10338002033465288052019-08-17T14:34:00.001-07:002019-08-17T14:34:22.979-07:00TV recommendations: DARK<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgoJOZcJ-h2xrY7uM294EkwSU_1Az1puJZPgXPuSSLhBxY00skIiJ-N8EtuVdQSfBcJi8yjYA8bQVJg7XRRedrB_yRyaAX7svArAOdCijkkoy8fUBOOdkA8MGulmbIBDpUOhN7nu34aBFDz/s1600/dark.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="183" data-original-width="275" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgoJOZcJ-h2xrY7uM294EkwSU_1Az1puJZPgXPuSSLhBxY00skIiJ-N8EtuVdQSfBcJi8yjYA8bQVJg7XRRedrB_yRyaAX7svArAOdCijkkoy8fUBOOdkA8MGulmbIBDpUOhN7nu34aBFDz/s1600/dark.jpg" /></a></div>
Forget Peak TV. Let's hear it for Bananas TV!<br />
<br />
FYI, that phrase derives from an enthused but bewildered review of DARK's second season finale, which accurately observes that "The second season of “Dark” ends with far more questions than answers, but for the love of all that is unholy, some of those answers are completely and utterly bananas."<br />
<br />
Yes. And thank God and/or Time for that!<br />
<br />
DARK is a German-language Netflix show set in Winden, a small town plagued by child disappearances, massive bird die-offs, and fraught interpersonal relationships. And boy, don't those interpersonal relationships get more fraught when we learn what's been going on over the last 90 or so years!<br />
<br />
DARK is definitely the kind of show that will appeal to those who like their SF dark and twisty. Watch it with the German subtitles if you can (because the dubbing leaves something to be desired) and be prepared to binge watch, because 1) it's gripping and 2) it'll make it much easier to keep all these relationships straight. You see, (spoiler drum-roll) Winden has a time travel problem. A passage in a local cave system is capable of sweeping visitors back decades, where they invariably get themselves into all kind of paradoxical trouble that, in turn, creates problems for the present. The multiple timelines make it hard to keep track of which character you're watching (since the characters are played by different actors at different ages), so this is a show that definitely benefits from a sustained watch. Overall, this Broadchurch-meets-grimdark-Dr.Who show is well worth checking out, though if you're looking for a show to gently ease you into time travel paradoxes, you might want to start with something kinder and gentler. Maybe the original Dr. Who will suffice?Siobhan Carrollhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03312024658494049440noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4640209728628359173.post-65832111486238518322015-01-01T13:44:00.002-08:002015-01-01T13:45:29.302-08:00<span style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.6000003814697px;">I had 3 stories out in 2014:</span><br style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.6000003814697px;" /><br style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.6000003814697px;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.6000003814697px;">My intricate court politics story, "<a data-cke-saved-href="http://www.beneath-ceaseless-skies.com/stories/the-year-of-silent-birds/" href="http://www.beneath-ceaseless-skies.com/stories/the-year-of-silent-birds/" lj-cmd="LJLink2">The Year of Silent Birds</a>," at BCS.</span><br style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.6000003814697px;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.6000003814697px;">"</span><a data-cke-saved-href="http://aescifi.ca/index.php/fiction/35-short-stories/2602-lines-on-a-pamphlet-found-near-the-museum" href="http://aescifi.ca/index.php/fiction/35-short-stories/2602-lines-on-a-pamphlet-found-near-the-museum" lj-cmd="LJLink2" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.6000003814697px;">Lines on a Pamphlet Found Near the Museum</a><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.6000003814697px;">," at AE.</span><br style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.6000003814697px;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.6000003814697px;">An arctic horror tale, "Wendigo Nights" in<i> Fearful Symmetries</i>.</span><br style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.6000003814697px;" /><br style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.6000003814697px;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.6000003814697px;">Thanks to everyone who gave feedback on drafts.</span>Siobhan Carrollhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03312024658494049440noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4640209728628359173.post-19230223069492186392014-12-31T13:43:00.000-08:002014-12-31T13:56:31.771-08:00Favourite Books of 2014: Non Fiction<a data-cke-saved-href="http://www.amazon.com/Bury-My-Heart-Wounded-Knee-ebook/dp/B009KY5OGC/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1420058514&sr=8-1&keywords=bury+my+heart+at+wounded+knee" href="http://www.amazon.com/Bury-My-Heart-Wounded-Knee-ebook/dp/B009KY5OGC/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1420058514&sr=8-1&keywords=bury+my+heart+at+wounded+knee" lj-cmd="LJLink2" style="font-family: ProximaNovaRegular, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; letter-spacing: 0.159999996423721px; line-height: 22.3999996185303px;">Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee</a><br />
<br style="color: #242f33; font-family: ProximaNovaRegular, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; letter-spacing: 0.159999996423721px; line-height: 22.3999996185303px;" />
<span style="color: #242f33; font-family: ProximaNovaRegular, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.159999996423721px; line-height: 22.3999996185303px;">Finally read this one, and wow. A profoundly affecting "Indian" history of westward expansion. Yes, there are certain archaeological claims it makes that have since been called into question, but this book remains a painfully eye-opening account of the "Indian Wars' of 1860-1890. It inspired me to start looking into the history of western Canadian settlement, which I knew little about and had never thought to particularly question.</span></span><br />
<br style="color: #242f33; font-family: ProximaNovaRegular, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; letter-spacing: 0.159999996423721px; line-height: 22.3999996185303px;" />
<a data-cke-saved-href="http://www.amazon.com/Going-Clear-Scientology-Hollywood-Prison-ebook/dp/B00A9ET54E/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1420058793&sr=8-1&keywords=going+clear" href="http://www.amazon.com/Going-Clear-Scientology-Hollywood-Prison-ebook/dp/B00A9ET54E/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1420058793&sr=8-1&keywords=going+clear" lj-cmd="LJLink2" style="font-family: ProximaNovaRegular, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; letter-spacing: 0.159999996423721px; line-height: 22.3999996185303px;">Going Clear: Scientology, Hollywood, and the Prison of Belief</a><br />
<br style="color: #242f33; font-family: ProximaNovaRegular, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; letter-spacing: 0.159999996423721px; line-height: 22.3999996185303px;" />
<span style="color: #242f33; font-family: ProximaNovaRegular, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.159999996423721px; line-height: 22.3999996185303px;">Although Hubbard's name gets tossed around a lot in SF studies I'd never read an account of his rise to cult-leader status, let alone the disturbing aftermath as scientology transitioned into a "religion." Structured around the conversion & rejection of a prominent Hollywood scientologist, this book is worth reading on multiple levels: as a fascinating cultural history, as a profile of indoctrination, and of abusive personalities. Also, Tom Cruise.</span></span><br />
<br style="color: #242f33; font-family: ProximaNovaRegular, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; letter-spacing: 0.159999996423721px; line-height: 22.3999996185303px;" />
<a data-cke-saved-href="http://www.amazon.com/Nothing-Envy-Lives-North-Korea-ebook/dp/B002ZB26AO/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1420059241&sr=8-1&keywords=nothing+to+envy" href="http://www.amazon.com/Nothing-Envy-Lives-North-Korea-ebook/dp/B002ZB26AO/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1420059241&sr=8-1&keywords=nothing+to+envy" lj-cmd="LJLink2" style="font-family: ProximaNovaRegular, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; letter-spacing: 0.159999996423721px; line-height: 22.3999996185303px;">Nothing to Envy: Everyday Lives in North Korea</a><br />
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A sometimes charming, mostly terrifying account of the lives of ordinary North Koreans who later defected to South Korea. I found myself rooting, retroactively, for the young starcrossed lovers to escape and the elderly Party loyalist to see the light and escape before her family starved to death. A fascinating - and horrifying - insight into life in a truly Orwellian society.<br /><br>
<a data-cke-saved-href="http://www.amazon.com/Black-Count-revolution-betrayal-Cristo-ebook/dp/B007OLYPA4/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1420059482&sr=8-1&keywords=black+count" href="http://www.amazon.com/Black-Count-revolution-betrayal-Cristo-ebook/dp/B007OLYPA4/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1420059482&sr=8-1&keywords=black+count" lj-cmd="LJLink2" style="font-family: ProximaNovaRegular, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; letter-spacing: 0.159999996423721px; line-height: 22.3999996185303px;">The Black Count</a><br />
<br style="color: #242f33; font-family: ProximaNovaRegular, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; letter-spacing: 0.159999996423721px; line-height: 22.3999996185303px;" />Born on Haiti, Alex Dumas, the mixed-race former slave, rose to become a French aristocrat and military hero before running foul of Napoleon. His adventurous life was later used by his son, Alexandre Dumas, as the inspiration for characters and events in THE COUNT OF MONTE CRISTO and THE THREE MUSKETEERS. An adventurous look at Romantic era race relations in Europe - a story American cinema and history tends to ignore.<br />
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<a data-cke-saved-href="http://www.amazon.com/Emperor-All-Maladies-Biography-Cancer/dp/1439170916/ref=sr_1_sc_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1420061270&sr=8-1-spell&keywords=the+emperor+of+alll+malladies" href="http://www.amazon.com/Emperor-All-Maladies-Biography-Cancer/dp/1439170916/ref=sr_1_sc_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1420061270&sr=8-1-spell&keywords=the+emperor+of+alll+malladies" lj-cmd="LJLink2" style="font-family: ProximaNovaRegular, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; letter-spacing: 0.159999996423721px; line-height: 22.3999996185303px;">The Emperor of all Maladies</a><br />
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I put off reading this book for a long time because, quite frankly, I thought this history of cancer and its treatment would strike too close to home. But Bannerjee's history of the evolution of cancer treatment is highly readable and provides a grim insight into the failures as well as successes of medical research. It also is clearly written and helped me get a better grasp on the language of 'precancer,' 'clinical trial' and 'chemotherapy' actually means.<br />
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Honorable Mention:<br />
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<a data-cke-saved-href="http://www.amazon.com/Capital-Twenty-First-Century-Thomas-Piketty-ebook/dp/B00I2WNYJW/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1420061544&sr=8-1&keywords=capital+in+the+twenty-first+century" href="http://www.amazon.com/Capital-Twenty-First-Century-Thomas-Piketty-ebook/dp/B00I2WNYJW/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1420061544&sr=8-1&keywords=capital+in+the+twenty-first+century" lj-cmd="LJLink2" style="font-family: ProximaNovaRegular, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; letter-spacing: 0.159999996423721px; line-height: 22.3999996185303px;">Capital in the Twenty First Century</a><br />
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Probably one of the most important books of the year, but - frankly - not the most readable, Pekkety's empiricist history of capitalism from the 18thC onward buries ''trickle down' economics and provides a grim, number-driven picture of our century's rising inequality. The first and last chapters are the most important, so if you want to know what people are talking about, go read those.Siobhan Carrollhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03312024658494049440noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4640209728628359173.post-7867713232644324842014-12-31T12:39:00.003-08:002014-12-31T12:39:50.802-08:00Favourite Books of 2014: Fiction<span style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.6000003814697px;">This year I read 76 books for pleasure: non fiction and fiction with a generous helping of SF and New York literary-awards type books. Here are my favourites.</span><br style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.6000003814697px;" /><br style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.6000003814697px;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.6000003814697px;">(Note: not all of these are new books; some of them are books I just got around to reading for the first time in 2014.)</span><br style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.6000003814697px;" /><br />
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<b style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.6000003814697px;">FICTION</b></div>
<br style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.6000003814697px;" /><a data-cke-saved-href="http://www.amazon.com/Station-Eleven-Emily-John-Mandel-ebook/dp/B00J1IQUYM/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1420056035&sr=8-1&keywords=station+11" href="http://www.amazon.com/Station-Eleven-Emily-John-Mandel-ebook/dp/B00J1IQUYM/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1420056035&sr=8-1&keywords=station+11" lj-cmd="LJLink2" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.6000003814697px;">Station 11</a><br style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.6000003814697px;" /><br style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.6000003814697px;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.6000003814697px;">I picked up this 'literary apocalypse' novel expecting another THE ROAD. What I got was something I'd never read before: a beautiful apocalypse. STATION 11 interrogates art, human connection, and the meaning of life in a matter-of-fact post apocalyptic setting. I can describe the plot in trite catchphrases (it's SLINGS AND ARROWS meets THE STAND!) -- but what's great about this book is hard to put into words. Let's just say it's about a famous Shakespearean actor who dies onstage, and a lethal flu epidemic, and a new generation using art to survive in a brave new world. If you're a writer, you should read this book.</span><br style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.6000003814697px;" /><br style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.6000003814697px;" /><a data-cke-saved-href="http://www.amazon.com/Paying-Guests-Sarah-Waters-ebook/dp/B00INIQUOQ/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1420056281&sr=8-1&keywords=the+paying+guests" href="http://www.amazon.com/Paying-Guests-Sarah-Waters-ebook/dp/B00INIQUOQ/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1420056281&sr=8-1&keywords=the+paying+guests" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.6000003814697px;">The Paying Guests</a><br style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.6000003814697px;" /><br style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.6000003814697px;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.6000003814697px;">Of all the "literary" books I read this year, this one was my favourite. It's a character study of a woman out of step with her times, who discovers she's not as brave or ethical as she believed herself to be. Also, it's a page-turner about illicit love and murder. And it's beautifully written.</span><br style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.6000003814697px;" /><br style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.6000003814697px;" /><a data-cke-saved-href="http://www.amazon.com/Fools-Assassin-Fitz-Fool-Book-ebook/dp/B00HBQUF8S/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1420056557&sr=8-1&keywords=fool%27s+assassin" href="http://www.amazon.com/Fools-Assassin-Fitz-Fool-Book-ebook/dp/B00HBQUF8S/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1420056557&sr=8-1&keywords=fool%27s+assassin" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.6000003814697px;">Fool's Assassin</a><br style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.6000003814697px;" /><br style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.6000003814697px;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.6000003814697px;">Robin Hobb's latest may win no grand literary awards, but it was one of the most enjoyable books I read this year. Hobb sets her novels in a high fantasy world, but it's the domestic details that grip the reader and anchor the plot. I don't know how she does it. Note: if you've never read Hobb's novels before *don't* start with this one. Go back and read ASSASSIN'S APPRENTICE, or even ROYAL ASSASSIN first.</span><br style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.6000003814697px;" /><br style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.6000003814697px;" /><a data-cke-saved-href="http://www.amazon.com/Annihilation-Novel-Southern-Reach-Trilogy-ebook/dp/B00EGJ32A6/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1420057066&sr=8-1&keywords=annihilation" href="http://www.amazon.com/Annihilation-Novel-Southern-Reach-Trilogy-ebook/dp/B00EGJ32A6/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1420057066&sr=8-1&keywords=annihilation" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.6000003814697px;">Annihilation</a><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.6000003814697px;">/</span><a data-cke-saved-href="http://www.amazon.com/Authority-Novel-Southern-Reach-Trilogy-ebook/dp/B00GET18P2/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1420057085&sr=8-1&keywords=authority" href="http://www.amazon.com/Authority-Novel-Southern-Reach-Trilogy-ebook/dp/B00GET18P2/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1420057085&sr=8-1&keywords=authority" lj-cmd="LJLink2" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.6000003814697px;">Authority</a><br style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.6000003814697px;" /><br style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.6000003814697px;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.6000003814697px;">I haven't read the last book in Vandermere's Southern Reach trilogy, otherwise I might have three titles heading this entry. An "environmental disaster" (or was it?) has produced a mysterious zone of biological weirdness called Area X. Governments send expeditions to investigate it. Things go horribly wrong. </span><br style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.6000003814697px;" /><br style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.6000003814697px;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.6000003814697px;">ANNIHILATION won my love for situating me inside the deteriorating consciousness of a biologist trying to preserve her sanity on a bizarrre jungle expedition. (Scientific explorers going mad! Love!) </span><br style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.6000003814697px;" /><br style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.6000003814697px;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.6000003814697px;">AUTHORITY transfers that creepiness into bureaucracy, plunging its pov character into a 'jungle' of a new workplace. </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.6000003814697px;">(Uncanny workplaces! Love!)</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.6000003814697px;"> It also features one of the creepiest scenes I read in any book this year.</span><br style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.6000003814697px;" /><br style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.6000003814697px;" /><a data-cke-saved-href="http://www.amazon.com/Charles-Jessold-Considered-as-Murderer-ebook/dp/B004I6DFRW/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1420057149&sr=8-1&keywords=Charles+Jessold%2C+Considered+as+a+Murderer" href="http://www.amazon.com/Charles-Jessold-Considered-as-Murderer-ebook/dp/B004I6DFRW/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1420057149&sr=8-1&keywords=Charles+Jessold%2C+Considered+as+a+Murderer" lj-cmd="LJLink2" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.6000003814697px;">Charles Jessold, Considered as a Murderer</a><br style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.6000003814697px;" /><br style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.6000003814697px;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.6000003814697px;">This is a clever puzzle box of a novel -- perhaps too clever to be widely successful. Still, if you enjoy trying to outhink unreliable narrators, you should check it out. The plot: Charles Jessold was a brilliant young composer who killed two people and then himself. A music critic narrates the story of his own very peripheral relationship with the doomed genius. It's a dull tale - at first. Then we get another version. And another. And things get darker and more twisted every time.</span><br style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.6000003814697px;" /><br style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.6000003814697px;" /><a data-cke-saved-href="http://www.amazon.com/Secret-History-Donna-Tartt-ebook/dp/B005PRJT9Q/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1420057593&sr=8-1&keywords=the+secret+history" href="http://www.amazon.com/Secret-History-Donna-Tartt-ebook/dp/B005PRJT9Q/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1420057593&sr=8-1&keywords=the+secret+history" lj-cmd="LJLink2" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.6000003814697px;"><span style="line-height: 19.6000003814697px;">The Secret History</span></a><br style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.6000003814697px;" /><br style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.6000003814697px;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.6000003814697px;">Finally got around to reading this study in murder, intimate friendships, and what people will do to belong to a group. As with many books of this type the real character of interest is the narrator, a young man from a lower class background determined to fit in with an elite group of students at a private college. And it has a great opening line: "The snow in the mountains was melting and Bunny had been dead for several weeks before we came to understand the gravity of our situation."</span><br style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.6000003814697px;" /><br style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.6000003814697px;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.6000003814697px;">Honorable Mention: </span><br />
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<a data-cke-saved-href="http://www.amazon.com/Life-After-Kate-Atkinson-ebook/dp/B008TUQ60G/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1420057898&sr=8-1&keywords=life+after+life" href="http://www.amazon.com/Life-After-Kate-Atkinson-ebook/dp/B008TUQ60G/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1420057898&sr=8-1&keywords=life+after+life" lj-cmd="LJLink2" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.6000003814697px;">Life after Life</a><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.6000003814697px;">. A child is born, dies, restarts her life, is born, dies, restarts... This must have been a very hard novel to write. Atkinson doesn't completely pull it off, imo, but the result is a highly unusual and very readable novel.</span>Siobhan Carrollhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03312024658494049440noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4640209728628359173.post-39109166216743809962014-12-31T11:50:00.000-08:002014-12-31T11:50:31.093-08:00Longest NightOne of my favourite photos from the Vancouver solstice festival. I've always loved the Sun Yat-Sen garden, and this was a spectacular way to view it:<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjY_Vf6bcbdHHJB_q9NfIEW7P3sJGdc2rRp-RZlJqbuCgqkn3DDaPEgRNAq3fkrVK36t58W2hsOObL1o2ef0xYWyM4Z0m0Pl1lR07sLt0A32FTsNbMv4o8xBqugE5rbB-peGs9npLm8FyKs/s1600/IMG_0384.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjY_Vf6bcbdHHJB_q9NfIEW7P3sJGdc2rRp-RZlJqbuCgqkn3DDaPEgRNAq3fkrVK36t58W2hsOObL1o2ef0xYWyM4Z0m0Pl1lR07sLt0A32FTsNbMv4o8xBqugE5rbB-peGs9npLm8FyKs/s1600/IMG_0384.JPG" height="320" width="240" /></a></div>
<br />Siobhan Carrollhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03312024658494049440noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4640209728628359173.post-58243327350468990312013-12-21T11:15:00.001-08:002014-12-31T11:36:25.160-08:00<span class="userContent" data-ft="{"tn":"K"}">It's official! I'm delighted to report that my book, _An Empire of Air and Water: Uncolonizable Space in the British Imagination, 1750-1850_, will be published by U. of Pennsylvania Press. Thanks again to *everyone* who offered feedback and advice!</span>Siobhan Carrollhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03312024658494049440noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4640209728628359173.post-42712589917779038102013-12-10T09:45:00.003-08:002013-12-10T09:45:58.934-08:00Best Books of the Year (so far)Looking for book recommendations? My list of the best contemporary books I've read for fun this year:<br /><br />1) <a href="http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_1?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=tell+the+wolves" rel="nofollow">Tell the Wolves I'm Home</a> by Carol Rifka Brunt (fiction) - A young teenager deals with death of uncle. And it's bloody, bloody brilliant.<br /><br />2) <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Flight-Behavior-Novel-Barbara-Kingsolver/dp/0062124277/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1386697107&sr=8-1&keywords=flight+behavior" rel="nofollow">Flight Behavior</a>
by Barbara Kingsolver (fiction) - Housewife discovers butterfly
migration and then herself. Some of the best characterization I read
this year.<br /><br />3) <a href="http://www.blogger.com/null" rel="nofollow">Far from the Tree</a>
by Andrew Solomon (non-fiction) - Dry but compelling overview of
parents whose children belong to a different identity category from them
(autistic, deaf, musical prodigies, deaf, criminal etc.)<br /><br />4) <a href="http://www.amazon.com/The-Last-Policeman-A-Novel/dp/1594746745/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1386697166&sr=8-1&keywords=the+last+policeman" rel="nofollow">The Last Policeman/Countdown City</a>
by Ben Winters (SF/mystery) - Detective ignores apocalypse, focuses on
solving crimes. Tackles some big philosophical issues in a convincing
genre pairing. Mystery lovers - check this one out.<br /><br />5) <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Are-All-Completely-Beside-Ourselves/dp/0399162097/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1386697200&sr=8-1&keywords=We+are+All+Completely+Beside+Ourselves" rel="nofollow">We are All Completely Beside Ourselves</a> by Karen Joy Fowler (fiction) - Young woman grapples with fallout after being raised to think of a chimp as her sister.<br /><br />6) <a href="http://www.amazon.com/The-Scorpio-Races-Maggie-Stiefvater/dp/0545224918/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1386697228&sr=8-1&keywords=The+Scorpio+Races" rel="nofollow">The Scorpio Races</a>
by Maggie Stiefvater (YA fantasy) - For once, a YA novel that both made
me root for its romance and seriously worry about the fate of the
heroine. Also, it has terrifying carnivorous horses.<br /><br />7) <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Ancillary-Justice-Ann-Leckie/dp/031624662X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1386697252&sr=8-1&keywords=Ancillary+Justice" rel="nofollow">Ancillary Justice</a> by Ann Leckie (SF) - Tight plot, interesting lead.<br /><br />8) <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Fun-Home-A-Family-Tragicomic/dp/0618871713/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1386697292&sr=8-1&keywords=Fun+Home" rel="nofollow">Fun Home</a>
by Alison Bechdel (memoir/graphic novel) - Bechdel describes her
belated discovery of her dead father's secret homosexual life in graphic
novel form.<br /><br />9) <a href="http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_1?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=on%20saudi%20arabia&sprefix=on+sau%2Caps&rh=i%3Aaps%2Ck%3Aon%20saudi%20arabia" rel="nofollow">On Saudi Arabia</a> by Karen Elliott House (non-fiction) - Good overview of contemporary Saudi and its issues.<br /><br />10) <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Wild-Found-Pacific-Crest-Vintage/dp/0307476073/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1386697357&sr=8-1&keywords=wild" rel="nofollow">Wild</a> by Cheryl Strayed (memoir) - It almost convinced me to hike the PCT, and that's saying something.Siobhan Carrollhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03312024658494049440noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4640209728628359173.post-42455013882472486682013-02-21T19:35:00.001-08:002013-02-21T19:35:27.222-08:00Back from BoskoneOn my way back from Boskone where, yes, I had a lovely time. <span class="ljuser i-ljuser " lj:user="matociquala"><a href="http://matociquala.livejournal.com/profile"><img class="i-ljuser-userhead ContextualPopup" height="16" posted_in="null" src="http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif?v=101.4" username="matociquala" width="16" /></a><a class="i-ljuser-username" href="http://matociquala.livejournal.com/"><b><span style="color: #000050;">matociquala</span></b></a></span>
introduced me and Fran Wilde to "Drink," a bartender's bar in which they make
pale fruity things called Bohemians, which I'll be hankering after for a long
time. Other things I'll be hankering after for a while included the Boskone art
show, which had some of the strongest pieces I've seen so far at cons. But alas,
the budget would not let me buy.<br /><br />I didn't end up attending that many
panels, but those I did proved interesting. Jim Kelly gave an intriguing talk on
the Virtual Utopia, which gave me some ideas for my upcoming lecture on <i>The
Matrix.</i> And the "gamechanger" panel added to my reading list, as I knew it
would. Other than that, I mainly hung out in the lobby and caught up with
familiar faces, including some of the ICFA brigade and <span class="ljuser i-ljuser " lj:user="mindstalk"><a href="http://mindstalk.livejournal.com/profile"><img class="i-ljuser-userhead ContextualPopup" height="16" posted_in="null" src="http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif?v=101.4" username="mindstalk" width="16" /></a><a class="i-ljuser-username" href="http://mindstalk.livejournal.com/"><b><span style="color: #000050;">mindstalk</span></b></a></span>, who I had
yet to meet in his new Boston habitat.<br /><br />On Sunday we were kidnapped by
James D. Macdonald and Debra Doyle and taken indoor skydiving, which is, btw,
AWESOME, and does not come with the same terrifying quantity of space and ground
found in the other kind of skydiving. I thoroughly approve.<br /><br />My
observations re: indoor skydiving are limited to the fact that a) it's harder
than it looks and b) I'd like to do it again. Actually, I'll add that the thing
that constantly surprises me about skydiving is the nothing-beneath-you part.
The hindpart of my brain equates flying with swimming, but there's a significant
difference between feeling yourself supported by water and the
what-the-hell-is-THAT sensation of being supported by wind. Wind's much less
stable, and it's also full of light and noise and NOTHING, and to someone who's
a confident swimmer, it's very odd.<br /><br />Now: back to work.Siobhan Carrollhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03312024658494049440noreply@blogger.com0