Noun Used As A Verb, Film At Eleven

[handful_ofdust]

Re yuki-onna, talking about how the ending of Watchmen doesn't work for her because she's been "Neuromancered"...WTF does that even mean, exactly? I read Neuromancer, but about a million years ago, and it occurs to me that perhaps it was exactly as not-so-impressive to me, in the end, as Watchmen was to her. But seriously: There's something "innate" in a received-wisdom sense that I'm supposed to be getting from the reference about how best to end a book, right? And...I'm just not gettin' it, sorry.

I should probably be asking her, I suppose, rather than the universe at large. But I get the feeling I'd just get slapped for being dumb, and I'm not all too into that right now.

Comments

[xterminal.livejournal.com]

Dunno. I loathed Neuromancer; it's one of the books that turned me off science fiction forevermore, really (or at least until I find someone who actually writes the stuff once again where characters overcomes the technogeekery).

There's something "innate" in a received-wisdom sense that I'm supposed to be getting from the reference about how best to end a book, right?

I don't think so, but then, as noted above, I may well be (probably am) bringing my own baggage to the table. As we all do, natch.

[handful-ofdust.livejournal.com]

I always sort of hand-waved the technobabble as a form of magic, which helped me get to the characters quicker--and yeah, they're a bit Frank Miller, but they're there. Still, to each their own, which should probably be the default refrain of this post.;)

[sovay]

(or at least until I find someone who actually writes the stuff once again where characters overcomes the technogeekery).

How do you classify writers like Le Guin? Or does she register for you as science fantasy, since the feasibility of the technology is not the point?

I recommend Caitlín R. Kiernan on general principle, but I would be curious to see how you react to her short novel The Dry Salvages (2004) and her newest collection A Is for Alien (2009), which are her forays into science fiction and in my opinion very successful ones. There is not a lot of technogeekery in them.

[xterminal.livejournal.com]

There is not a lot of technogeekery in them.

Which is why I can read both LeGuin and Kiernan with no problem. (Though I must say I've barely scratched the LeGuinian surface, twenty years after first picking up The Dispossessed.) My review of The Dry Salvages can't be TOO far down the pile on Amazon.

Still, though, in each case, I much prefer their fantasy. My favorite LeGuin book will likely always be Very Far Away from Anywhere Else, my favorite Kiernan Candles for Elizabeth...

[sovay]

My favorite LeGuin book will likely always be Very Far Away from Anywhere Else, my favorite Kiernan Candles for Elizabeth...

Okay, the obvious question: why those?

[handful-ofdust.livejournal.com]

I love The Dry Salvages, personally. But that may be because it reads somewhat like an attempt to make a version of Event Horizon which actually works.

[sovay]

But that may be because it reads somewhat like an attempt to make a version of Event Horizon which actually works.

I shall not now see Event Horizon . . .

[handful-ofdust.livejournal.com]

It's been called Hellraiser in space, somewhat unfairly. And somewhat not.