Jay Lake: Writer

[books] The Selected Works of T. S. Spivet by Reif Larsen

On my way to Omaha at the beginning of the week, I finished reading The Selected Works of T. S. Spivet, by Reif Larsen (Penguin, May, 2009) [ Powell's | Amazon ]. This book is physically gorgeous, utterly charming, has a compelling voice, and ultimately let me down. I’d grade the first 4/5 of the book a solid 9/10, and the last 1/5 about 5/10.

This is sort of a mashup of Griffin & Sabine and The Lovely Bones. The book relies heavily on marginalia, illustrations and assorted extratextual material to advance the story. They are lovely, very well-executed, and a real pleasure to play around with.

Likewise the point of view character T.S. Spivet, a boy of (almost) 12 who is spectacularly unreliable as a narrator. He’s got dreadful OCD, is driven by horrible guilt over a family tragedy which even he himself cannot acknowledge, and has an IQ off the Richter scale combined with an emotional naivete which is heart-breaking. A sort of uber-Mary Sue for f/sf fans, at the least. He’s compulsively readable in a sort of train-wreck way, and many of T.S.’s (or Larsen’s) insights are jaw dropping.

The narrative unfolds with an eerie, origami beauty. Bad things get worse, illustrations grow more arcane and complex, life happens to this poor kid. There are hints of the fantastic near the beginning, mere whiffs; then the book gets considerable more bizarre in the last chapters, sliding right off the rails of even the notional naturalisticism with which it began into some full blown fantasy. Which it then utterly fails to pay off.

This is why the book reminded me so much of The Lovely Bones. There’s an editorial seam near the end of that book, readily visible to a reader with much experience in fantasy protocols, where the ending promised in both the title and much of the early foreshadowing vanishes in favor of a very popularized, Hollywood ending. I can hear the editorial board saying, “It’s a great book, but cut that fantasy crap out and give us a real ending people can understand.” (Which, given the underlying premise of The Lovely Bones, seems bizarre.)

Likewise with The Selected Works of T. S. Spivet. I don’t know if Larsen wrote it with a more fantastic ending and had his mind changed for him editorially, or if he just swerved back to the middle of the road and chickened out on the promise of the book. The ending is emotionally satisfying, but essentially trivial and abandons much of the arc of the story to achieve its resolution.

I still say this one’s worth the read, especially for confirmed bibliophiles — it’s one of the most compelling books-as-artifacts to come across my desk since the first edition of City of Saints and Madmen — as well as for anyone who enjoys deeply interior narrative from the unreliable perspective. Rather like reading Little, Big, the joy of this book is the journey, because the destination is almost tragically disappointing. But what a journey this is. And what a book it could have been.

Tags: Books, klog, reviews

Posted: 1:22 pm Thu April 30 2009 | Comments(1) |

[art] Your Thursday moment of zen

Your Thursday moment of zen.

ETA: @hanov3r on Twitter provides the following translation of the Chinese text: “Souvenir for visiting Xi’An”

ETA2: Via tweetbrain.com, @fangchin suggests: “Souvenir for visiting Xi’An” is too literally translated. I would do “For a fond memory of your Xi’An trip”.

Tags: Art, China, Personal, Photos, zen

Posted: 10:21 am Thu April 30 2009 | Comments(0) |

[calendula] She gets a cover credit

gets her first cover mention! Her story “Eastlick” is in the current issue of Black Static, retrieved from the PO box this morning.

A nice way to restart things after yesterday’s mess.

Tags: Calendula, stories

Posted: 10:08 am Thu April 30 2009 | Comments(0) |

[links] Link salad wakes up in San Francisco

Here’s the voting poll for the panda caption contest — Vote early, vote often, tell all your friends. Usual disclaimers apply.

This week’s Publisher’s Weekly reviews — Including both Green [ Powell's | Amazon ] and ‘s Push of the Sky.

on getting started writing science fiction

Renewed Challenge to the Dinosaur Killer — Centauri Dreams on the K-T extinction event.

‘Swine flu’ name won’t be changed in Israel — Umm. I’m all for cultural relativism, but, um. (Thanks to .)

It’s not that wingnuts are ignorant; it’s that they know so much that isn’t so — The Edge of the American West on rampant historical illiteracy among conservatives. (Rep. Bachmann blaming Carter for the last outbreak of swine flu, when it happened during the Ford administration, for a trivial example.) I’ve long observed that in order to be a conservative in America today you have to cling tenaciously to some blatant counterfactuals. That’s a very bad intellectual habit to get into. Once you’ve learned to ignore reality in favor of your “gut”, it gets easier to keep making shit up and calling your crap “true facts.”

?otD: If this is Thursday, this must be Nebraska, right?

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4/30/2009
Body movement: 60 minute suburban walk
This morning’s weigh-in: n/a (traveling)
Currently reading: The Confidence-Man: His Masquerade by Herman Melville, Julian Comstock by Robert Charles Wilson

Tags: Books, Green, health, Links, Personal, Politics, Process, Religion, reviews, Science, Writing

Posted: 7:28 am Thu April 30 2009 | Comments(1) |

[writing] Pinion editorial revisions day 5

Somehow during all the chaos of yesterday [ jlake.com | LiveJournal ] I found the mental focus to work on Pinion for about an hour and half. Amazingly, I’m still on (or actually, head of) schedule, though i did not start the restitching as hope for.

Tags: Books, Calendula, Pinion, Writing

Posted: 5:27 am Thu April 30 2009 | Comments(0) |

[calendula] Strange days indeed

Very early this morning I got an email from , detailing the beginning of her emergency room saga. Various emails, phone calls and hop-to-its later, I headed for work (in Omaha) all packed and ready to bug out to San Francisco two days early. When I found out they were giving her morphine, I pulled the trigger on rebooking my flight. Spent almost the entire day traveling unexpectedly.

Meanwhile, discussing this with my spiritual advisor , he mentioned that today was the anniversary date of my original ER admission for my cancer saga. The overlay of that with my intense concern for created an emotional turmoil which lasted most of the day, thankfully dissipating before I reached San Francisco.

Flights were troublesome, first leg delayed so I had to sprint for the connection, connecting flight held over an hour for maintenance issues, but I made it. She’s home safe and well, though with no ultimate diagnosis. We’re both going to be off work tomorrow, so she can take care of herself and I can take care of her.

Tags: Calendula, California, Cancer, Omaha, Personal, Travel, work

Posted: 7:58 pm Wed April 29 2009 | Comments(1) |

[contests] Time to vote for the caption contest

Here’s the voting poll for the panda caption contest. Vote early, vote often, tell all your friends. Usual disclaimers apply.

Tags: China, Contests, Photos, Polls

Posted: 7:20 am Wed April 29 2009 | Comments(0) |

[polls] Voting poll for the panda caption contest

The voting poll for the caption contest announced here: [ jlake.com | LiveJournal ] Prize will be a hardback of Green [ Powell's | Amazon ] (when it’s available) or another of my books of the winner’s choice. Have fun!

Note some answers truncated by poll code length limitations. See the original posts for full text.

Tags: Books, China, Contests, Green, Photos, Polls

Posted: 7:18 am Wed April 29 2009 | Comments(7) |

[links] Link salad for a hump day

Centauri Dreams on exomoons

Alpine Swiss ban nude hiking — (Thanks to .)

Adaptation and the Art of Change — Tom Morris on HuffPo.

Following swine flu online

How Many People Know Coke’s “Secret Formula”? — Freakonomics on trivial corporate dishonesty.

?otD: Why do the owls cry under the dark of the moon?

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4/29/2009
Body movement: 60 minute suburban walk
This morning’s weigh-in: n/a (traveling)
Currently reading: The Confidence-Man: His Masquerade by Herman Melville

Tags: Culture, Funny, health, Links, Personal, Science

Posted: 3:45 am Wed April 29 2009 | Comments(0) |

[photos] Your Wednesday moment of zen

Your Wednesday moment of zen

Tags: cars, China, Photos, zen

Posted: 3:27 am Wed April 29 2009 | Comments(2) |