Obsidian Wings

May the Fourth Be With You Book List

by Doctor Science

-- a day late.

Many of my friends on livejournal/dreamwidth are in the habit of posting "what I've been reading" book lists on Wednesdays. Meanwhile, one of the nicer online things that has happened to me in the past year or so has been becoming part of the community at File770, where books are constantly being discussed.

So I've decided to try collecting my File770 book reports over the course of the week, and then posting them here (only lightly edited, but with links & cover images) on Wednesday. But then of course yesterday a work panic-panic project come up, so the first installment was delayed. But only a day!

My policy is to write reviews/summaries without spoilers. Where I make spoilery comments, I'll put them through a simple "rotate-13" substitution cipher, which you can decode either at a website or using a rot13 script with your browser (I use this one).

This week: Matt Ruff, Hugh Howey, Mishell Baker.

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I think I've already filled out one slot for next year's Hugo ballot: Lovecraft Country by Matt Ruff. It's a novel about black science fiction fans in the 1950s who encounter eldritch, Lovecraftian horrors -- embedded in the non-eldritch horrors of the Jim Crow era.

There's an entire library's worth of stories where there's a world of magic hidden just below the surface in ours, unnoticed by mundanes. "Lovecraft Country" makes explicit how the Black American experience has been like that, hidden in plain sight from white Americans.

I found the book particularly striking because I can recognize many of Ruff's sources: not just Sundown Towns by James Loewen and The Negro Motorist Green Book, which are in his Acknowledgements, but also The Warmth of Other Suns by Isabel Wilkerson and Family Properties by Beryl Satter.

My only quibble: jura n jbzna jnxrf hc ba "oybbq-fyvpxrq furrgf", ure svefg gubhtug vf *abg* gb cnavp va srne bs ivbyrapr, vg'f "Tbqqnzzvg, rneyl *ntnva*!" naq gb fgevc gur orq sbe gur gbb-snzvyvne pbyq-jngre fbnx.

Aside from that, the book is freakin' brilliant.

Also, the characters are great.

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I bought Hugh Howey's Beacon 23 because the library didn't have a copy, and I read the first chapter and it looked interesting.
Mr Dr Science got to it first, and said it completely broke his suspension of disbelief because the beacons ner arrqrq gb cebgrpg fuvcf tbvat 20p sebz ehaavat vagb nfgrebvqf. Vs zrer znggre vf n ceboyrz, tnf naq qhfg jvyy or ovt qnatref; vs tenivgl vf gur ceboyrz, lbh qba'g jbeel nobhg guvatf zhpu fznyyre guna Whcvgre.
He didn't think the story was worth overcoming the world-building, so now the library has our copy.

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We both read Mishell Baker's Borderline, and thought it was really good. Generally speaking, I (and Mr Dr Science even more so) find characters who do bad things and "act crazy" tiresome. We really liked Borderline's characters, though, because they're all literally, medically psychotic. It turns out that when "psychotic" is a sloppy metaphor, it's annoying; when it's an exploration of mental illness, it works for us.

I'm not really sure "Borderline" sticks the landing, but that may be because it's first of a series so it has to set things up.

"Borderline" is set in Hollywood (Baker lives in L.A.), and I couldn't help noticing how much of the behavior of the literally psychotic characters overlaps with that of many people in The Industry. Things like dualistic thinking, emotional over-reaction, extreme self-centeredness, etc. Does Hollywood attract more than its fair share of people with mental illness? Or are psychotic-seeming behaviors cultivated in H'wood by neurotypical people? Probably both.

Trump!

by Ugh

Well, there we have it.  Barring something completely unforeseen and unprecedented - or at least more so than to date - Donald Freaking Trump will be the GOP nominee for the 2016 United States of America Presidential Election/Leader of the Free World Rumpus.  The frowny faces on journalists this morning is due to having their Christmas in July present of a contested convention taken away by America's Favorite Dad, Ted Cruz.  Pout.  

I like this article by Jonathan Chait regarding the current and possible future state of the GOP, if any.  I have to say I'm a little confused* as to the number of people, which I assume will decrease by the day as the prospect of President Hillary approaches, on the right who are running around saying they would never vote for Trump.  What is it about his policy platform, such as it is, that is so anathema in a way that Ted Cruz's or Ricky Rubio's wasn't?  I guess because it really isn't about policy, it's about what Chait says in this paragraph:

Virtually the entire Republican apparatus will follow Trump sooner or later, because without the voters, they have no power. And those voters have revealed things about the nature of the party that many Republicans prefer to deny. Whatever abstract arguments for conservative policy — and these arguments exist, and a great many people subscribe to them earnestly — on the ground, Republican politics boils down to ethno-nationalistic passions ungoverned by reason. Once a figure has been accepted as a friendly member of their tribe, there is no level of absurdity to which he can stoop that would discredit him. And since reason cannot penetrate the crude tribalism that animates Republicans, it follows that nothing President Obama could have proposed on economic stimulus, health care, or deficits could have avoided the paroxysms of rage that faced him.

Crubio were willing to toe the line on "conservative policy" - such as it is - but stoked conservative ressentiment in the modern, under the table, you know what I really mean, wink wink nudge nudge say no more! kind of style.  Trump was (is) full-throated all ressentiment, all the time.  Shout it from the rooftops!  Why are we hiding what we all know to be true about "those people" and the decline and fall of the US of A!  It's Barry Goldwater's 1964 campaign in the age of social media, meth, and open carry.  

Whee.

UPDATE!:  Kasich is a quitter too.  It's all over except for the rending of garments.  

*Kind of in the same way I was when the pro-lifers freaked out when Trump said women should be punished when they have an abortion.  I mean, is it murder or not?  Make up your mind.

Maytime

by Doctor Science

This is the nest of an American Phoebe, on the back wall of our single-story house outside the master bedroom:

There are at least 4 nestlings -- it's possible there's another one behind the ivy leaf. I took this picture May 1; they're still there this evening, May 2, but I expect them to leave the nest very soon -- those wings look well-feathered. We're gradually ripping the English Ivy off the house -- it's very invasive and basically eats buildings. I want to plant some Boston Ivy, but hopefully keep it under better control. We'll leave this particular bit of English Ivy for last, though, to keep the Phoebe happy.

Birds I'm pretty sure are nesting in (or have territories that include) our property: Phoebe, American Robin (in the ornamental crabapple, I think), House Finch, Goldfinch, Chickadee (Carolina/Black-capped Hybrid with a *weird* song), Tufted Titmouse, White-Breasted Nuthatch, Downy Woodpecker, Red-Bellied Woodpecker, Pileated Woodpecker, Blue Jay, Baltimore Oriole (just came in a few days ago, singing up a storm), Wood Thrush (first heard this evening), Red-Tailed Hawk, Great Horned Owl (neither is nesting on our property, but we belong to them), Eastern Towhee. Not sure yet about Blue-Winged Warbler, Blue-Gray Gnatcatcher, Wood Peewee.

Most of the garden needs to be re-done, or done for the first time -- I don't know whose bright idea it was to put in hostas and lilies, but they are both prime deer food. A good deal of the "garden" area is almost bare of soil, the rest needs a lot of amending, and my compost pile isn't nearly there yet. What would those of you who garden recommend to improve rocky clay soils, USDA Zone 6b (lower end -- 7a is creeping up on us)? On the bare areas, is there a "green manure" I can plant now and put into the soil in the fall? As you can may be able to tell from the bird list, we're in the woods, a mixture of mature trees and more recent growth. We're also on a hillside with a LOT of rocks.