invalidating Dead Witnesses –

The Explosionist

– while grooving with Jenny D.’s scientifically-proven paranormality in The Explosionist, I kept wondering just why sleuths in the novel’s world hadn’t simply asked the [presumably good-and-dead] victim directly – or …, vicariously through incense [?] (”–these on the bones of this dead man” etc.). Then p.-268 read

“The basic idea,” Keith said, so earnestly it was almost comical, “is that many serious crimes–murder’s an obvious example–leave no witnesses aside from the perpetrator. So you want to get the dead to testify, but their words are often so vague as to be useless, not to mention that the 1921 decision in Scotland v. Blavatsky affirmed that recordings of the voices of the dead are inadmissible in court. They’re simply too easy to fake.”

and I am subsequently incurably interested in applications of the laws of the living to the dead.

Twi[L]ight Me on Fire, please –

Hold the Vampiric Phone, already --

Just now read Laurel Ann’s writeup on Regina Jeffers’ Darcy’s Hunger: a Vampire Retelling of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, and I am inclined to feel a little malicious. Only recently my fandom’s been strained when Pride and Prejudice and Zombies awoke in me an already festering disdain for Jane-in-the-Ass [see what I did there?] knockoffs and sequels [many, anyway; some I like].

I’d gotten an early copy of P&P&Z and enjoyed it–digging zombies–for what it was worth, but I am hardpressed to ever designate beyond “fun” and broach “good” – it isn’t; it’s leeching from established Janeite and horror markets and having good fun in the process, and that’s about it. P&P&Z was in the forefront of a monsterification trend, as genre-author fanboys-and-girls “horrify” [tr. verb def. 3] the regency, as if trying to find common ground between the Romantics and Stephanie Meyer.

 Mr. Darcy might be a little dark, but Byronic? I think the circumstance would be different for Regina Jeffers if she retold P&P in the style of–let’s say–Ann Radcliffe [The Mysteries of Darcypho], but–and I don’t mean to judge her prematurely–the preview at Austenprose leads me–Librarian with dwindling respect for sacred cows–to chalk her paperback as Harlequin and file it among volumes of the exact same thing.

– I know I’m being crass, and–if I think about it–I am not scoffing Jeffers’ writing (I am sure she is completely capable) or choice in book, – that isn’t the issue [although it may seem like it]; rather, I am more and more aggravated that Janeites continuously think this sort of thing Novel.

Godforbid, I am almost of the opinion that–if an author isn’t going to model Jane, rethink her in the manner of another contemporary [Radcliffe], exaggerate regency drama as horror [rather than make it horror just-because (P&P&Z would have been loads of fun and smart if the apocalypse were related to ill-feelings vis-a-vis the reverberations of the Fr. Revolution a generation prior)]–why not rename the characters and pawn his or wares as original.

/The Graphic Classroom/ in /Teacher Librarian/

I read through the grapevine that The Graphic Classroom was plugged in the school-library journal Teacher Librarian, reading: “Web 2.0: The growing popularity of blogs such as The Graphic Classroom, http://graphicclassroom.blogspot.com, has provided a way for people to easily share reviews and favorite web sites about age appropriate materials for young people.” — which makes me want to mention (I am sure I have before) that I am really pretty impressed with what Chris Wilson [editor] is achieving through his reviewsite. And although it is [for some ungodly reason] in the shadow of godawful reviewsites like No Flying, No Tights, I am watching for it to take off.

I think [I think] the issue may be that it is geared toward a niche audience, or maybe because it is a blog it is somehow less-worthy than NFNT’s messy code, which–maybe like Bookslut–earns it status as an eZine. The Graphic Classroom’s multiple talented authors are thorough reviewers (academic in length and structure), and Chris has some well-earned sway among some of the early-reader/ya graphic marketers: it might not be too hard (although it’d certainly be more time consuming) to wrangle authors and illustrators in and interviewed, reports on major industry events (we already do that, but they aren’t gathered in–say–their own corner of the site, but intermingled with the steady stream of reviews).

Using Bookslut as a model and looking through the TGC archives, there are enough reviews, op-eds, features and suchlike, including the obligatory links, Chris’s killer graduate study, archives organized by recommendations, and so on to situate and usurp a NFNT’s position in the YALSA Recommended Websites list. IMHO

[Lizzie] Borden Casket Company

Over and Under // Todd Tucker

Since the great American budget-cut swept through, I just frankly haven’t had the wherewithal to submit my list of volumes of young-adult slag to order. One snuck through–I remember listing it – at some point–which looks to take a solid second-tier following The Explosionist in my spare-time literating*.  I quote:

But in the building summer heat, violence quickly erupts–including an explosion, a murder, and the escape of two fugitives–and the young boys can no longer ignore that the world around them has forever changed. Through their secret observations of labor meetings, both boys feel the effects of the dissolution, and it tests their loyalty and friendship, as well as the town’s spirit.

* — this isn’t a word.

The Gratuitious Coconut of Blahggery

So, it’s been awhile. It’s been–I guess–a good long hiatus from the net, the reestablishment of autonomy, a fantastic woman (and stress in wresting her out of the ether), loads of work, and whatnot. The school’s back in August (don’t forget that I am a Seminole: a graduate student at FSU); I’ve survived a year in county employment (or that I am the Reference Assistant & Teen Coordinator at the Bradford County [I accidentally typoed "coconutty"] Public Library) on July 8th. Gratuitous. Anxious to be back.

Capital-R Romantic Libraries

[Posted @ S-is-For-Somewhere.com]

I was busy aggregating Vic’s feed through my mobile when I read in reference to a collection of essays on Romantic Libraries. – re-reading this sentence informs my rebel aesthetics that this isn’t at all interesting and warrants no reckoning (except that maybe of the Almighty [praise be, praise be]. But, ah …, screw it. I am anxious to mine this jazz to put into context my current library-centered existence – especially a now democratic dissemination of lit. and the aesthete of having read tomes, although canon is losing its grip.

Incredible amounts of sleep. Ineffective.

[This Post was ported from my new site-in-progress: S-is-For-Somewhere.com]

In another ironic twist in my endeavor to visually[-and-verbally!] restructure my – ah … – public thoughts (I suppose), I have only complicated the matter through beginning a new journal in a spare black moleskine collecting dust. I am still learning to manage (and establish a sense of regularity of content) to a new hub (that’d be here – S-is-For-Somewhere.com), my personaltwittering, MySpacing, WordPress, creative writing, the virtual presence of my library’s ‘Youth & Teen Services 2.0′ stuff, facebook – and making it all gel.

This is like an overload of outformation, this sort of dizzying wordy clusterflock geared through self-promotion (even if in the guise of lackluster SMS iReporting – this is a ruse [this is a ruse!])

Incredible amounts of sleep. Ineffective. Twelve hour shift tomorrrow, inc. detour to Inksmiths.

Subsequently, because anything I write [even "privately"] is meant to be read (I reserve bandwidth from the thought police), an old-fashioned journal – I wonder if “diary” and “diuretic” are etymologically related – is no different, except that the reception is delayed by years. I worried that by the time I come around to the journal I will have exhausted my vocabulary. But I am encouraged vis-a-vis the Orwell Prize’s redistribution of GO’s diaries through daily feeds, because even twentieth century writers – it seems – were prone to blahggery -

13.1.39

Two eggs (135 since 26.10.38.)

In the cleft of the rock on the N. side of one of the hills near hear° are growing a plant like angelica, a fleshy plant with round leaves & quantities of moss. Evidently these can only grow in places where the sun does not reach them at any time.

Moving Time // S is For Somewhere

Intending to address the derth of content by pointing you to my new website-in-progress called “S-is-For-Somewhere.” I am still in the layout and code-buggery phase, but hopefully by the end of the week I will begin writing there semi-regularly. Essentially, because I exist at the Blogering Hole and vis-a-vis Bradford County Public Library virtual presence, twitter, and so on ad nauseum, I really wanted a master hub I could use as both a portfolio website and general hangout. I’m screwing around with a widget I am trying to install that will create a snazzy flash gallery to replace (or at least supplement) my Facebook, Flickr, and Myspace – for instance. 

I also wanted somewhere I could throw-up (blaaaaaahrg) my occasional short stories, some essays I’ve written, and so on. 

I know some of you RSS me, and I’ll probably have my journal postings there dumped into here for a short while, but the RSS feed is setup over at S-is-For-Somewhere for anyone wanting an early start.

Slamming Canon & American Gods

Jon Evans slams on American Gods - and it smarts. I suppose a lot of readers are seduced more by the prestige of having read something canonized rather than its story. As a librarian I have seen this trend sort of diminish – in books; no one in Bradford County gives a lick about the Great Gatsby – good for them, it is boring. But as comics are legitimized, academics tag this stuff with a canon (Spiegelman, Moore, Eisner, ad infinitum) – much of which I don’t really care for. There is an existing manga canon among thirteen-year-olds I can’t really put my finger on. Hmm. 

Neil Gaiman sort of exists in this post-modernist canon, definitely in comics. I thought American Gods was great, but I couldn’t get through the first chapter of Neverwhere, and I sort of realized during Anansi Boys that I love the idea of his writing more than the writing itself. I loved The Graveyard Book, and I thought The Dream Hunters was just breathtaking. But he’s not flawless. Neil occupies this space of imagination I don’t think others do, though, and his storytelling can be magical.

What Jane Could Never have Guessed

Partly to prepare for Gainesville’s next JASNA get-together (but mostly to stimulate this sort of writerly lull in me), I am going to take a note from the Reading Jane Austen blog (whose link I haven’t around right yet) and intermittently write on eReading P&P. It won’t likely be very aesthete, because I find myself a very unenthused academic – but it should be loads of short-bit fun.

So I am less than a full-day into my 2GIPod-Touch (dubbed Bad Apple) and I am swooning. I find her convenient and intuitive, and I am taken with the Stanza & eReader apps – neither of which can compare to the Kindle – but with catalogues of free classics (including everything on Project Gutenburg) I should be one hunky-dory dorian. I fully intend to exploit this power by secreting in this all my lit. trash I am at that moment embarrassed to admit reading.

I am also pleased with the Pandora app, which is smart internet radio – I drummed in Tom Waits, and after guaging which Tom Waits songs I preferred, it throws my way Alvin Youngblood-Hart’s Illinois Blues - and, all in all, I am finding myself hardpressed to tear myself away. 

Jane could never have guessed that her novels would be read in a palm-sized screen. eReader allows for highlights and notes, but hasn’t the access to the free Project Gutenburg text – so I am torn.