handful_ofdust: (Default)
handful_ofdust ([personal profile] handful_ofdust) wrote2010-09-02 09:12 am

Quick Note to Self

The fun thing about today's 'Net-enabled hive-mind is that you can use other people's reactions to make decisions like: "Ah, I see that now Suzanne Collins' Mockingjay is out, the Powers That Be have dropped The Hunger Games to ten bucks as a cheap gateway drug. Are the other books worth it, after that? No? Okay: Hunger Games alone it will be."

Because I can easily make that choice, since an open-ended story that doesn't end on a total cliffhanger (Gemma Files, I'm lookin' at you!) allows for me to make up whatever eventual conclusion I want, without having to see the actual conclusion spelled out for me. Sort of like how I can still enjoy The Matrix (or, indeed, The Matrix: Reloaded, if I'm feeling silly).

In other news, I don't much care about the whole LJ/Facebook thing. I messed with my settings some and feel fairly secure, to the extent you can feel secure about anything. Dreamwidth remains not a place I want to frequent. Worst-case scenario, I'll go to Blogger for everything or stop blogging generally, which would probably be best for my output. Yet seems unlikely.;)

Anyhoo. Today the fridge supposedly arrives, so I must run to the CIBC and get a new debit card, because mine has finally worn down to the point where it won't work anymore. This caused much embarrassment at Starbuck's yesterday, a state of affairs I don't feel like repeating.

[identity profile] intertribal.livejournal.com 2010-09-02 03:00 pm (UTC)(link)
Yeah, I agree. YA has had the shit elevated out of it recently, and it probably does have something to do with the rise of fandom assoc. with YA things like HP, possibly Twilight. I've been hearing a lot of "YA is bolder/more imaginative than adult fic" too.

Slightly OT: I've read a couple good (old) YAs recently, but part of my issue is I pretty much went straight from "classic Victorian children's lit" to "classic adult lit" in my reading development. I read some L'Engle and Sleator, but not much. I think it's why I struggle with both YA and pulp-genre.

Usual issues: female character? Like, a badly written female character, I hope.

[identity profile] handful-ofdust.livejournal.com 2010-09-02 03:37 pm (UTC)(link)
I'm still looking for a good copy of Sleator's House of Stairs. Also Grinny, which no one seems to remember but me. Amusingly, it hit me like a punch that my husband's main association with Sleator's name is apparently Space Pig. What?!

Have you tried John Bellairs? There's some prime female characters in his early stuff, particularly Rose Rita Pottinger, though I'm also fond of Lewis, his sad, fat, well-read original POV character. Also the amAzing villainess Selenna Izzard, from The House with a Clock in its Walls.

[identity profile] intertribal.livejournal.com 2010-09-02 03:49 pm (UTC)(link)
Ahahaha, TBH Interstellar Pig is what my main association with Sleator is as well, because that's the one I was assigned in school. I know I read others, but I don't remember him all that well. And this is like one of the few YA authors I did read.

I have not tried John Bellairs, no. Although this is an awesome cover.

See, a lot of the stuff I did read that was more YA (maybe a little younger than YA, IDK) was like... scary short story compilations. Was obsessed with Goosebumps, with Terry Jones' Fairy Tales, with Jan Mark's Nothing To Be Afraid Of (this one story, "Nule," is the one that fucks everybody up).

[identity profile] handful-ofdust.livejournal.com 2010-09-02 04:22 pm (UTC)(link)
Wow! I didn't even know The Whistle, the Grave and the Ghost existed! Clearly, I need to check out the Bellairs section more often.
sovay: (PJ Harvey: crow)

[personal profile] sovay 2010-09-02 04:04 pm (UTC)(link)
I'm still looking for a good copy of Sleator's House of Stairs.

My fifth-grade teacher read us that entire book, in daily installments. I'm sure I can't even begin to calculate the damage to our developing psyches. It was kind of awesome.

[identity profile] handful-ofdust.livejournal.com 2010-09-02 04:21 pm (UTC)(link)
We had a perpetually drunk librarian (he told us he had narcolepsy, which was why he kept nodding out) who used to read us stories like "The Beast with Five Fingers". It gave me a horror of crawling severed limbs that continues to this day.

[identity profile] asakiyume.livejournal.com 2010-09-02 06:17 pm (UTC)(link)
Ahahahahahaha! I'm imagining the lot of you staggering out of class when he finally wrapped it up. "Why are you terrified of traffic lights, little Sonya?"

[identity profile] moon-custafer.livejournal.com 2010-09-02 07:54 pm (UTC)(link)
snerk!

[identity profile] asakiyume.livejournal.com 2010-09-02 05:59 pm (UTC)(link)
I LOVED House of Stairs I remember that COMPLETELY.