this is me, procrastinating

[truepenny]

Have a meeting with my dissertation director this afternoon. *frets*

Still can't decide what to read at Minicon. *wrings hands*

Wikipedia's entry on Jew. Judaism 101 FAQ at Jew. Because hate is ugly.

heres_luck has a fascinating entry on her 10 most important books. Which comes out of a conversation she and Mirrorthaw and I were having and has me sitting here trying to figure out my own list.

These are in no particular order.

1. L. Frank Baum, Dorothy and the Wizard in Oz.

2. Stephen Booth, King Lear, Macbeth, Indefinition, and Tragedy.

3. Joan D. Vinge, Psion.

4. Ellen Kushner, Swordspoint.

5. J. R. R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings.

6. Emily Brontë, Wuthering Heights.

7. William Shakespeare, Hamlet.

8. Donald Johanson and Maitland Edey, Lucy: The Beginnings of Humankind.

9. Mark Doty, My Alexandria.

10. Peter S. Beagle, The Last Unicorn.

1. L. Frank Baum, Dorothy and the Wizard in Oz.

I realize this ought to be The Wizard of Oz, since it's standing in for the whole series, but for The Wizard of Oz, my associations are actually with the movie, and it was never one of the books I reread. Dorothy and the Wizard has the terrifying vegetable empire, the gargoyles and the dragonets, Eureka the Pink Kitten, and the Wizard himself, whom I love dearly when he isn't being Oz the Great and Terrible.

A lot of my imaginative geology began to lay down sediment with the Oz books, which my father began reading to me when I was four or five. The Scarecrow, the Shaggy Man (and his brother), Mr. Yoop, the Gnome King, the Woozy, Polychrome the Rainbow's Daughter, the Glass Cat ("you can see 'em work!"), the Sawhorse, Tik-Tok ... Now it's important to me that the protagonists of the books are girls: Dorothy, Betsy, and Trot (the boys--Inga, Ojo, and especially Button-Bright--being notably more passive and helpless). But I don't think I noticed that as a child.

The Oz books are not books that make the transition from child-reader to adult-reader particularly well, so they aren't books that I reread the way I do, for example, Diana Wynne Jones. But they are the first books I clearly remember being read to me, and if I were going to offer any explanation for why I became a fantasy writer, they might be it.

2. Stephen Booth, King Lear, Macbeth, Indefinition, and Tragedy.

This is how I want to write literary criticism.

3. Joan D. Vinge, Psion.

This is the book that introduced me to the concept of the anti-hero, which is pretty powerful stuff at the age of thirteen.

4. Ellen Kushner, Swordspoint.

The first time I fell in love with a book for its prose style rather than its plot. I think I must have read it four times before I figured out what the plot was. Also my first exposure to gay characters in literature.

5. J. R. R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings.

You all knew this was coming, right?

Tolkien is important to me for several reasons. Some of them are obvious: any modern American fantasy writer who tells you Tolkien means nothing to them is wrong. They may not be lying, but they're wrong all the same. Even if they've never read him.

But aside from the ground-breaking genre stuff and aside from all the things Tolkien makes look effortless that I wish I could do only one-quarter as well, The Lord of the Rings matters to me because of the ending, which for the longest time I hated. When I was a child I didn't understand why Frodo couldn't live happily ever after the way he deserved to. And when I did understand, it made me think about stories and happiness and choices in a completely different way. That's important.

6. Emily Brontë, Wuthering Heights.

I think this is the book that made me understand, all the way down, what literary criticism is for. It's not for showing off or playing Obscurer-Than-Thou, and it's not for saying This is a really good book and you should read it (although that's important, too). It's for teaching a reader how to take a book apart, see all the working parts and how they mesh together, and then reassemble the book and watch it run, purring, a self-satisfied engine. I know Wuthering Heights is the book that convinced me it was okay to analyse my reading, that knowing how the magic trick worked didn't make it not be magic. In fact, for me the reverse is true. The more I know about how the trick works, the more I appreciate the magician's skill.

7. William Shakespeare, Hamlet.

At the moment, I'm feeling rather unenamored of Shakespeare, but that's not his fault. So consider this a sort of locum tenens. I can't think of a single reason Shakespeare is important to me (except that the bloody Albatross is somehow All His Fault), but I know that he is.

8. Donald Johanson and Maitland Edey, Lucy: The Beginnings of Humankind.

This book taught me that I could enjoy reading nonfiction, which for years and years I thought I couldn't.

9. Mark Doty, My Alexandria.

Same as #8, except insert "contemporary poetry" for "nonfiction." My reading retrenched violently when I was a teenager; I read nothing that wasn't genre fiction except for books assigned for school. I'm not sure why that happened or why I was so incredibly defensive of that self-imposed boundary. I'm just glad I've snapped out of it.

10. Peter S. Beagle, The Last Unicorn.

This gets my vote for Book I Most Wish I'd Written. Another one that took me a really long time to figure out why the ending had to be the way it was. I can't articulate exactly why it's important to me, but I know that it is.

Comments

re: Wuthering Heights

[pbprincess.livejournal.com]

The mechanics of it do make such lovely sense, don't they? And when it's put back together again, I still like it to read more than almost any other novel that I admire mechanically. (Foe by Coetzee and Oranges are Not the Only Fruit by Wintersen are nice for this too, I remember but haven't read in a while)

[oracne.livejournal.com]

I won't be at Minicon, but if you have a reading at WisCon, I will go.

[papersky.livejournal.com]

I think you should read some of your forthcoming novel, and furthermore, since I'm the only one who cares about not hearing bits of novels, I think you should read the Boneprince bit. That would be great out loud.

Now you tell me what to read. I've just had Zorinth print out three things, one bit from each.

[truepenny.livejournal.com]

I'd love to hear you read from Lyflode.

And I could do the Boneprince section. It's about the right length. And I guess we can all find out if I can actually do that narrative voice aloud.

[heresluck]

I like the way that even though there is so little overlap between our lists, many of yours are books I love. Coincidence? I think not.

Also, you better do a reading at WisCon, because I owe you dozens of reading-attendances, and if I don't start making up the difference soon I will have to follow you around when you eventually inevitably do a book tour, and then who will feed the diva cat at lunchtime?

[valancy.livejournal.com]

This is a bit random, but I was thinking I seem to recall your mentioning some good writers' communities online, yes? Are there any you like, that have nice info on publishing, or even writers' angst, etc? thanks for any info. :)

[truepenny.livejournal.com]

Um, no, that wasn't me. This is pretty much it as far as my online presence goes.

I know a bunch of people who like the Online Writer's Workshop, fwiw.

[rinue.livejournal.com]

Thanks anyhow. :-D

[(Anonymous)]

Wonderful list!

Gideon Strauss
http://gideonstrauss.com