Most of you already know I own and operate Absolute Write, and the AW Water Cooler, a writer's community.

In my copious spare time, I've been working on learning the ins and outs of Vbulletins' features and updates without disrupting the AW boards, as much as possible.  The Water Cooler is friggin' huge, and disrupting 25,000 posters makes 'em all cranky.  Then they send me cranky emails.

That led me to (with the generous assistance of medievalist, and I'll likely be co-opting Hawkins to help, too) license and download a copy of Vbulletin onto my own personal site, to muck about with at my leisure . . . but, in the meantime, I was poking around readers communities - which are altogether a different group of folks, albeit often overlapping, with writer's communities, because we're starting the Official Stephen King reading project. (But that's a different post. . .)

On the official Stephen King message board, I discovered that their forums are closed for posting over the weekends, and after some ridiculous hour like 5pm, Eastern, on weekdays. And every new post has to be manually approved, before it appears.

Since I was specifically looking for a place to invite people to have a King reading-group discussion, without co-opting AW space (because I always have to be the boss, there, whether I want to or not -- well, it's a long story) BUT what happened is I got really cranky, because it seemed like a lame-ass way to run a community of readers or anyone else.  And there WASN'T anyplace good, that I could find.

Then I started thinking about the empty Vbulletin board, installed for me to tinker with . . .

The long and the short of it is this:
We've opened a new community for readers, Written In Stone, and you're invited.

Visit Medievalists

You can follow the link to join. The plan, I think, is that this be a place for outreach, education, and communication.  So if (for example) you've made it your summer project to learn Old English or Old Norse, you will likely find native speakers charming and hawt academic sorts of folks, willing to act as guides or at least who can help with the occasional question or suggestion.

Just by way of an update:

I'm here, just now. Flying home to Seattle on Monday, early.

I delivered this paper, this afternoon. It went pretty well -- or, at least, everyone was too polite to point and laugh.

Medievalist live-blogged the panel, here, with an excellent summary of the papers given during the session, one by Julie Hoffman who blogs pseudonymously (so I'm not going to out her) and one by Dr. Nokes of Unlocked Wordhoard.

Had an absolutely lovely late afternoon and evening yesterday imbibing on very good margaritas and getting to hang out with Sherwood Smith
( sartorias) who is  as marvelous and clever in person as she is on her LJ.  She's agreed to guest - edit a special edition of Coyote Wild, tentatively slated for late summer.  We're thinking a YA heroic-fantasy themed issue, with a mix of invitational, solicited stories, and  other stuff.

I'll update this, of course, as we get details ironed out.

But for now, suffice it to say I'm pretty much over the moon.

So which ones have you read?  I'm looking through the list, thinking "wheee!  I get to order more books!"

(Via jaylake)


Novels
Odyssey - McDevitt, Jack (Ace, Nov06)
The Accidental Time Machine - Haldeman, Joe (Ace, Aug07)
The Yiddish Policemen's Union - Chabon, Michael (HarperCollins, May07)
The New Moon's Arms - Hopkinson, Nalo (Warner Books, Feb07)
Ragamuffin - Buckell, Tobias (Tor, Jun07)

Novellas
"Kiosk" - Sterling, Bruce (F&SF, Jan07)
"Memorare" - Wolfe, Gene (F&SF, Apr07)
"Awakening" - Berman, Judith (Black Gate 10, Spr07)
"Stars Seen Through Stone" - Shepard, Lucius (F&SF, Jul07)
"The Helper and His Hero" - Hughes, Matt (F&SF, Feb07 & Mar07)
"Fountain of Age" - Kress, Nancy (Asimov's, Jul07)

Novelettes
"The Fiddler of Bayou Teche" - Sherman, Delia (Coyote Road, Trickster Tales, Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling, Ed., Viking Juvenile, Jul07)
"Pol Pot's Beautiful Daughter" - Ryman, Geoff (F&SF, Nov06)
"The Evolution of Trickster Stories Among the Dogs Of North Park After the Change" - Johnson, Kij (Coyote Road, Trickster Tales, Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling, Ed., Viking Juvenile, Jul07)
"Safeguard" - Kress, Nancy (Asimov's, Jan07)
"The Children's Crusade" - Bailey, Robin Wayne (Heroes in Training, Martin H. Greenberg and Jim C. Hines, Ed., DAW, Sep07)
"The Merchant and the Alchemist's Gate" - Chiang, Ted (F&SF, Sep07)
"Child, Maiden, Mother, Crone" - Bramlett, Terry (Jim Baen's Universe 7, June 2007)

Short Stories
"Unique Chicken Goes In Reverse" - Duncan, Andy (Eclipse 1: New Science Fiction And Fantasy, Jonathan Strahan, Ed., Night Shade Books, Oct07)
"Titanium Mike Saves the Day" - Levine, David D. (F&SF, Apr07)
"Captive Girl" - Pelland, Jennifer (Helix: A Speculative Fiction Quarterly, WS & LWE, Ed., Oct06 (Fall06 issue -- #2))
"Always" - Fowler, Karen Joy (Asimov's, May07 (Apr/May07 issue))
"Pride" - Turzillo, Mary (Fast Forward 1, Pyr, February 2007)
"The Story of Love" - Nazarian, Vera (Salt of the Air, Prime Books, Sep06)

Scripts
Children of Men - Cuaron, Alfonso & Sexton, Timothy J. and Arata, David and Fergus, Mark & Ostby, Hawk (Universal Studios, Dec06)
The Prestige - Nolan, Christopher and Nolan, Jonathon (Newmarket Films, Oct06 (Oct 20, 2006 -- based on the novel by Christopher Priest))
Pan's Labyrinth - del Toro, Guillermo (Time/Warner, Jan07)
V for Vendetta - Wachowski, Larry & Wachowski, Andy (Warner Films, Mar06 (released 3/17/2006 -- Written by the Wachowski Brothers, based on the graphic novel illustrated by David Lloyd and published by Vertigo/DC Comics))
World Enough and Time - Zicree, Marc Scott and Reeves, Michael (Star Trek: New Voyages, http://www.startreknewvoyages.com,

The new issue of Coyote Wild went up (I'm a little late blogging it, is all.)

Stories

• Truths on Loose Leaves - Toby Wallis
• Retinue - Adrian Simmons
• Distant Destinations - Michael McNichols
• Sandwich Street - Kurt Kirchmeier
• A Feast of Leftovers - Patricia Russo

Poetry

The WA state caucuses on Saturday were . . . interesting.  I went, of course, because the Dems are throwing out the primary results (we're a state that has both.)  I'm a precinct delegate for Clinton.  (Obama beat us something like 2:1)

I'm also confused. 

I have some sort of district events I'm supposed to show up for, in April.  Frankly, no one else at the caucus seemed to have a very clear idea about what was going on, either - and certainly none of it was particularly well-explained.

Dear lord, what have I gotten myself into? What arcane and mysterious things have I committed my April to?  I just wanted to vote.

Research is in order, I'm thinking.  

I've been reading the Cat/Monkey posts on matociquala with tremendous amusement, pretty much since she started posting them.

So it is that, since I caught my cat catching bugs and stashing them -- still alive, mind you -- in the clothes dryer ( that my housemate thoughtfully left open for her amusement) I've have various snippets of imaginary conversation running through my head.



*sigh*

Anyone else watch last night? 

Huckabee scares the hell out of me with his earnest, Baptist convictions.  Mitt Romney is a Ken doll.  Ron Paul and John McCain slashfic will start showing up any day, now (if it's not already out there.)

I'm liking Hillary Clinton better and better and I never, ever expected that.  She's specific, passionate, and articulate.

Barack Obama's body language fairly screams that he has a problem with her precisely because she's a her - and he came off looking petty, peevish, and small. 

Richardson probably isn't telegenic enough to get the kind of traction he's going to need to go all the way to the White House, but he talks a good line.

Edwards had a couple of really good moments, but otherwise seemed invisible.

*sigh*

And now a lovely and articulate summation of the tension between religion and politics, by Elizabeth Moon:

It's no secret that I love Christmas. One of the things I love most is the sense of continuity -- of human beings who love and laugh and hope and celebrate, year after year; century after century.

When the darkness seems deepest, and the nights are longest and coldest, there is hope, symbolized by a Yule log, or candles, or simple gifts to each other. Then the year tips, and the nights grow shorter and the sun returns, bringing hope and warmth and new crops.

That the story of the birth of a child in Bethlehem has inspired generation after generation of people to try to be kinder, truer human beings. That we're reminded each year at this time to love one another as we love ourselves. To be kind to our neighbors. That miracles happen in simple, humble ways and places, but extraordinary all the same.

That we all, at heart, look towards light and hope and being better people.

Merry Christmas, everyone. I'm humbled by your continued presence here, and I'm honored to know you even in small ways.

The Holly and the Ivy : Lyrics

Play Music !

The holly and the ivy,
When they are both full grown
Of all the trees that are in the wood
The holly bears the crown
O the rising of the sun
And the running of the deer
The playing of the merry organ
Sweet singing of the choir

The holly bears a blossom
As white as lily flower
And Mary bore sweet Jesus Christ
To be our sweet Saviour
O the rising of the sun
And the running of the deer
The playing of the merry organ
Sweet singing of the choir

The holly bears a berry
As red as any blood
And Mary bore sweet Jesus Christ
To do poor sinners good
O the rising of the sun
And the running of the deer
The playing of the merry organ
Sweet singing of the choir

The holly bears a prickle
As sharp as any thorn;
And Mary bore sweet Jesus Christ
On Christmas Day in the morn.
O the rising of the sun
And the running of the deer
The playing of the merry organ
Sweet singing of the choir

The holly bears a bark
As bitter as any gall;
And Mary bore sweet Jesus Christ
For to redeem us all.
O the rising of the sun
And the running of the deer
The playing of the merry organ
Sweet singing of the choir

The holly and the ivy
Now both are full well grown,
Of all the trees that are in the wood,
The holly bears the crown.
O the rising of the sun
And the running of the deer
The playing of the merry organ
Sweet singing of the choir

Go forth!  Read!  Let me know what you think!

This is, I think, my favorite issue to date.  We're going monthly as of the January 15th issue - so someone remind me to update our information with ralan.com and duotrope...

I'm still futzing around with author bios and so on, today - I'm enduring a headcold that's mercifully starting to clear a bit, so I'm in better shape to do the coding today than I've been the last few days.

Via some of the smart, charming, good-looking people who populate my F-list:

The Christmas Campaign:

"Why a Christmas Campaign?

"In recent years some media pundits and 'culture warriors' have waged a vocal campaign against a so-called 'War on Christmas.' Targeting department stores, local governments and school systems for replacing Christmas with 'Happy Holidays' or 'Seasons Greetings,' Bill O'Reilly and John Gibson of Fox News have led the charge against what they call a 'secular progressive agenda' determined to drive religion out of the public square. William Donohue of the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights warns of 'cultural fascists' bent on destroying Christmas.

"The real assault on Christmas, however, is an excessive consumer culture that has turned a holy season into a celebration of commercialism and materialism. By focusing our attention on shopping malls and the consumerism that accompanies Christmas, this misguided campaign further distracts us from the real message of the holiday..."

___________________

Dismaying news from Terry Pratchett:

AN EMBUGGERANCE

"Folks,

I would have liked to keep this one quiet for a little while, but because of upcoming conventions and of course the need to keep my publishers informed, it seems to me unfair to withhold the news.  I have been diagnosed with a very rare form of early onset Alzheimer's, which lay behind this year's phantom 'stroke'. . ."

___________________

The History of LOLCats

"Historian Ben Burrns brings us through this history of LOLCats. Did you know that 26% of all emails contain a LOLcat photo?"
___________________

The Poet who could smell vowels:

"'In French we write the same vowel four different ways in terrain, plein, matin, chien. Now when this vowel is written ain, I see it in pale yellow like an incompletely baked brick; when it is written ein, it strikes me as a network of purplish veins; when it is written in, I no longer know at all what colour sensation it evokes in my mind, and am inclined to believe that it evokes none.'

"When Saussure associates ain with an incompletely baked brick, it is hard not to think of the prototypical baked good, and one of the two most common French words to contain ain. Although pain (bread) is not mentioned, it too is a pale yellow when incompletely baked. When ein strikes him as a network of veins, this time the word used to identify the visual association is present – veines – though while the letters ein are there, in this word they are not pronounced with the vowel he is discussing. If in evokes nothing, could that have to do with in- being a negative prefix? Or with in being the stressed vowel of his given name, Mongin, which he never used?

"He continued:

"'So it does not seem to be the vowel as such – as it exists for the ear, that is – that calls forth a certain corresponding visual sensation. On the other hand, neither is it seeing a certain letter or group of letters that calls forth this sensation. Rather it is the vowel as it is contained in this written expression, it is the imaginary being formed by this first association of ideas which, through another association, appears to me as endowed with a certain consistency and a certain colour, sometimes also a certain shape and a certain smell.'"

___________________

Arctic summers ice-free 'by 2013'

"Scientists in the US have presented one of the most dramatic forecasts yet for the disappearance of Arctic sea ice.

Their latest modelling studies indicate northern polar waters could be ice-free in summers within just 5-6 years."

___________________

 

It's a strange, frightening, and marvelous world we live in, and these are interesting times.

I am undone. I've spent entirely too much time on this site, mostly to watch a new online gaming community form, because the dynamics are utterly fascinating.

And it's text-based, so it doesn't annoy the crap out of me the way the graphics games do.

Got the contract today for the Bear story. *big grin*

Have a Sherwood Smith story I'm sending a contract out for immediately, now that I'm home again.  *'nuther big grin*


And seriously considering going to monthly publication, as of January's issue.

Here's an random tidbit sort of a thing:  I realized when the October issue went live that there wouldn't be another issue until January, with the current quarterly publication schedule . . . and I was really disappointed. 

Part of what I love about periodicals is the way they reflect the current season, and I really wanted to do a winter issue.  I'd recently bought a couple of really terrific winter-themed stories, (not specifically holiday stories, but wintertime stories, still.)  So I started thinking about a special issue. 

Then I sorta thought, "well . . . what the hell.  Why not?" 

So we're doing it.

So cheers, everyone, and happy holidays!

Cooking, and sauced, all at once!

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone.  How's your day going?

There seems to be a strong desire expressed in the comments to talk about all of Beowulf -- the introduction, too -- and to discuss the poem as a poem, rather than simply looking at the narrative elements. We can certainly do that, and still discuss the elements that lead me to choosing this text as part of the longer series I've been writing on the Magical Other.

This will be interesting for me, too. *G* I haven't looked at seriously or taught Beowulf in something like twenty years, and that was an Intro to Lit survey class. There's a good deal of scholarship, translating, thinking, and writing that's happened around the poem, since, as well.

So.  Beowulf Basics from Michael Drout, a scholar, and a nice guy I got to meet  briefly at Kalamazoo last year.

Without further ado, then, we begin.

I shall be cribbing rather heavily from people who know this stuff a good deal better than I do. Should it prove fun, and people are hanging around and interested in talking about it, certainly I can fire off some emails to invite some people who, y'know, do this stuff for real. Our own ellen_fremedon , frex, is certainly more qualified to talk about the language itself, than am I -- if we can get her to think about anything but curling, anyhoo.  I want to point you to her comment on the previous post:

"Huh, I just noticed something-- that án, "one," in line 100 takes line stress and alliteration. That's very rare for pronouns (or determiners, or closed-class words in general), but it sets up an interesting parallelism with a line from Scyld's funeral, fifty lines earlier--

Nalæs hi hine læssan lacum teodan,
þeodgestreonum, þon þa dydon
þe hine æt frumsceafte forð onsendon
ænne ofer yðe umborwesende.

By no means did they provide him less in offerings,
treasures of the people, than those did,
who in the beginning had sent him forth
alone over the waves, when he was a child.

Stressed like that, the þa reads less as "than those ones did" and more like "than they *coughcough* did. You know, them. We're all Christians here, so don't make me spell it out, okay?" That's the only case in all OE literature of pronominal þa taking primary line stress-- I don't know how often it happens with án, but I'm guessing very rarely.

At any rate, the stresses make both words so semantically marked that I think there is definitely a neat parallelism going on-- not quite equating the nameless benefactors who sent Scyld with the lineage of Cain, but emphasizing the othering of all of them within the Christian framework of the poem."

Michael Drout also has an excellent series of posts about dating the manuscript. Which, actually, is a Big Problem. In part because, while the characters don't seem to be Christian, the poet almost certainly is - which introduces some interesting tension both within and without the text. 

Dating Beowulf, part 1
Dating Beowulf, part 2
Dating Beowulf, part 3
Dating Beowulf, part 4

Drout writes,  ". . . the dating of Beowulf is such an emotionally charged problem that friendships have been lost and beer spilled over it (and see the latest issue of Speculum, which I'll talk more about later). At the end of this post I'll speculate as to why this is, but here I thought I would try (as a useful exercise for myself, if for no one else) to lay out the problem as fairly as I can. I'll disclose right up front that I still haven't made up my mind about the date or, rather, that I've made up my mind several times and changed it just as often.

"We start with the manuscript, the unique copy of Beowulf that is known by its library shelfmark, London, British Library, Cotton Vitellius A. xv (the "Cotton Vitelllius" part means that it comes from the collection of Sir Robert Cotton and that in his library it was in the bookcase that had the bust of the Roman emperor Vitellius on it. The "A.xv" means it was on the first shelf down, the 15th manuscript over). From examining the handwriting of the manuscript and comparing it to other manuscripts that we do know the date of (some charters and writs and wills have dates on them, other manuscripts mention things happening and we know these dates), we can determine that the manuscript was copied somewhere around the year 1000 (say, between 975 and 1025). Thus the very youngest Beowulf can be is 1025, because the poem can't be written after the manuscript. A date this late would mean that the person who copied part of Beowulf (because in fact two scribes were involved) would have been the author, not just the scribe. I'll discuss this theory more below."

Citing historical events the poem seems to refer to, Drout identifies @ the year 515 as (most probably) the earliest possible date for the work. 500 years is a lot of territory.

"Tolkien was sure that Beowulf came from the "Age of Bede."

Support: The eighth century is seen as a high point of culture and development for Anglo-Saxon England. One strand of the argument (though it is not often stated explicitly any more) is that before the 8th century England was not developed enough to produce a complex written work like Beowulf and after the 8th century it had fallen to a lower level of development due to the destruction of the Viking raids of the 9th century."

Translating the thing, too, proves challenging.

You'll note that the differences begin with the translated versions of the opening word of the poem, Hwaet. This word, literally translated into modern English, means What, but  its Old English meaning is somewhat different. In Old English, when stories were told orally by a storyteller, the word Hwaet was used to get the audience's attention at the beginning of the story in the way that a phrase like Listen to this! might be used today. Translators know that just using the word What wouldn't make much sense to modern readers, so the four translators above have chosen words which they hope will convey a similar meaning. 

Immediately after Hwaet, the word Gardena is also problematic. Gardena is the name of the people who are the subjects of the poem: literally the word is translated as  Spear (Gar) -- Dane (dana). Some translations -- like those by Heaney and Liuzza in the boxes above -- use the literal translation, Spear-Dane, but others give modernized equivalents, such as Danish (in Raffel's translation) and the throne of Denmark (in Alexander's version). 

You'll also observe that each translator has made a different decision about how to translate the word æþelingas -- which, like many translators, I've translated literally as princes but which really has no modern equivalent. Liuzza refers to noble lords and Raffel to ancient kings, while Heaney calls them kings and  princes. Alexander, however, chooses to stay with the original word and calls them athelings -- a literal translation that leaves it to the reader to imagine what this might actually mean.

Beowulf Aloud

The Lesslie Hall translation is available as a free e-book from Project Gutenberg.

The Francis Gummere translation.

An online translation by Dr. David Breeden.

There's a good deal of enthusiasm about the Seamus Heaney translation, among the commenters. There are some reasonable objections to studying that translation as any kind of accurate representation, too, though:

"...the translation by Seamus Heaney is of course very well known already, and though it is not as literal of a translation as perhaps it should be, I think it may be a good introduction to the poem - but only as a first introduction.  Heaney is himself a poet, and so his translation is partially a translation of Beowulf, but also, in a sense, it is Heaney's own poem about Beowulf. More literal but still readable translations I would recommend are those of Howell D. Chickering, Jr., Louis Rodrigues and Roy Liuzza."

Via Unlocked Wordhoard, a new translation that looks quite promising and lovely -- as well as accurate -- from Dr. Sung-Il Lee:

What! Have we not heard of the glory
Of the Spear-Danes' kings in olden days --
How the princes performed deeds of valor?
Not a few times Scyld Scefing seized
The seats of banquet from many a tribe,
Mighty opponents, and terrified the earls.
Since the time when he was found a deserted infant,
He grew up in tender care, soared to the sky,
And prospered with unparalleled honor, till
All neighboring nations over the sea came
To obey and pay tribute to him: a good king he was!

So we have a gallimaufry of issues, all of which offer clues about the poem's age and authorship;: Christian vs pagan tension, linguistic oddities and anachronisms, possible historical events related in the text, and translation choices and vagaries.

I plan to discuss Cath Maige Tuired, in terms of other and the tension between salvation and destruction, later (if you want to read ahead) -- but we'll warm up with Beowulf and Grendel, I think, because almost everyone has already read Beowulf, read parts of it, seen one of the film adaptations, or at the very least is somewhat familiar with the tale.

DISCLAMER: I'm not an Anglo-Saxonist. There's a ton I'm sure I'm missing, because my grasp of Anglo-Saxon is, umm, inadequate.

From Resources for the Study of Beowulf Website:

"Beowulf is both the first English literary masterpiece and one of the earliest European epics written in the vernacular, or native language, instead of literary Latin. The story survives in one fragile manuscript copied by two scribes near the end of the 10th or the first quarter of the 11th century. Until quite recently, most scholars thought that this surprisingly complex and poignant poem was written in the 8th century or earlier, but Kevin Kiernan stirred up controversy in 1981 by asserting that the work was composed in the 11th century, and that the manuscript itself may have even been the author's working copy."

We're starting here, because it's one of our earliest English-language texts, and well worth puzzling through in the original, if you never have. Seeing the bones and fossils of language we still use is simply remarkable.




You can find one translation of Beowulf in hypertext, here. The introduction makes an excellent point, which I'll reiterate:

"Old English has a different kind of grammar from Modern. Old English is like Latin or Russian, or many other languages whose grammar is expressed by inflection: that is, affixes on a root word can stand in for function words like pronouns, so that a noun like "stow" will indicate its grammatical place in a sentence or clause by a series of endings: "... nis Þaet heoru stow!" (That is not a pleasant place!); or "He het þa þa stowe Dominus videt" (He named that place Dominus videt; or "on manegum stowum" (in many places). In an Old English sentence, especially in the poetry, syntax (the order of words) much more fluid than in Modern. Spelling will seem inconsistent, even random, in our terms; the alphabet contains some unfamiliar letters derived from runes."

Also well worth a look is this, from DigitalMedievalist. You can hear the first lines read aloud. Or from Michael Drout, podcasts! In Old English!
(God how I love the intertubes.)

And what a story this is, right? Think about it; Beowulf is perhaps the oldest English-language epic narrative we have, and the story still has legs: There's a brand new Beowulf movie currently in release, co-written by Neil Gaiman, and in spite of the simultaneous revulsion and fascination at the fact that they saw fit to cast Angelina Jolie as Grendel's mother -- and write in a make-out scene between Grendel's mom and Beowulf (what WERE they thinking?) -- how cool is that?

Enough background. Let's talk about the cool stuff -- let's talk about the story. There's an online version, here, we'll work from.

We're going to skip the boring prologue which is all mostly history and genealogy anyway, and go straight to Chapter one. 

Pardon my skepticism about a Meadhall full of ale-swilling, fur-clad, warrior-fellas having what sounds like a sort of Revival Meeting. That's what the text says, though, so thats where we start: Hrothgar, the wise and victorious ruler, builds Heorot, the noblest of meadhalls -- and starts collecting young kinsmen:

Þá wæs Hróðgáre herespéd gyfen		Then was to Hrothgar success in warcraft given,
wíges weorðmynd þæt him his winemágas	65	honour in war, so that his retainers
georne hýrdon oðð þæt séo geogoð gewéox		eagerly served him until the young war-band grew
magodriht micel· him on mód bearn		into a mighty battalion; it came into his mind
þæt healreced hátan wolde		that a hall-house, he wished to command,
medoærn micel men gewyrcean		a grand mead-hall, be built by men
þone yldo bearn aéfre gefrúnon	70	which the sons of men should hear of forever,
ond þaér on innan eall gedaélan		and there within share out all
geongum ond ealdum swylc him god sealde		to young and old, such as God gave him,
búton folcscare ond feorum gumena·		except the common land and the lives of men;
ða ic wíde gefrægn weorc gebannan		Then, I heard, widely was the work commissioned
manigre maégþe geond þisne middangeard·	75	from many peoples throughout this middle-earth,
folcstede frætwan. Him on fyrste gelomp		to furnish this hall of the folk. For him in time it came to pass,
aédre mid yldum þæt hit wearð ealgearo		early, through the men, that it was fully finished,
healærna maést· scóp him Heort naman		the best of royal halls; he named it Heorot,

Other is a dangerous thing to be. Those who are other offer an enormous threat to the established order; this is neatly illustrated by the introduction of Grendel in the text.  From the end of chapter one, where we meet Grendel:

Swá ðá drihtguman      dréamum lifdon		So the lord's men      lived in joys,
éadiglice      oð ðæt án ongan	100	happily,      until one began
fyrene fremman      féond on helle·		to execute atrocities,      a fiend in hell;
wæs se grimma gaést      Grendel háten		this ghastly demon was      named Grendel,
maére mearcstapa      sé þe móras héold		infamous stalker in the marches,      he who held the moors,
fen ond fæsten·      fífelcynnes eard		fen and desolate strong-hold;      the land of marsh-monsters,
wonsaélí wer      weardode hwíle	105	the wretched creature      ruled for a time
siþðan him scyppend      forscrifen hæfde		since him the Creator      had condemned
in Caines cynne      þone cwealm gewræc		with the kin of Cain;      that killing avenged
éce drihten      þæs þe hé Ábel slóg·		the eternal Lord,      in which he slew Abel;
ne gefeah hé þaére faéhðe      ac hé hine feor forwræc		this feud he did not enjoy,      for He drove him far away,
metod for þý máne      mancynne fram·	110	the Ruler, for this crime,      from mankind;
þanon untýdras      ealle onwócon		thence unspeakable offspring      all awoke:
eotenas ond ylfe      ond orcnéäs		ogres and elves      and spirits from the underworld;
swylce gígantas      þá wið gode wunnon		also giants,      who strove with God
lange þráge·      hé him ðæs léan forgeald.		for an interminable season;      He gave them their reward for that.

We're given a highly-charged picture of Grendel as a representative of other, in his introduction: He's a descendant of Cain, the original outcast. That's nearly as other as other can be. Grendel is physically outside the community (which has recently known a good bit of strife, warfare, which the reader is reminded of with the reference to Hrothgar's original hall burned, probably by a feuding relative); he's kin to Cain who was cast out by God and family for fratricide, (read pagan -- giant pagan); and Grendel is already crabby with the inhabitants of Heorot because they party so loud, singing about Genesis (which not-so-accidentally contains the story of Cain and Abel) and such. We're told he envies and hates them for their happiness. Poor Grendel. He's alienated from the compatriots of Heorot, alienated from God, and quite literally cast out into the dark and the wilderness.

Other is dangerous to everyone else, and dangerous to the poor soul judged to be other -- there's this strange tension, too, though; the outsider quite often brings salvation, as well.

It takes Beowulf - who is also from away - to save Heorot from the Grendel the monster, "maére mearcstapa."

Back with more on our guy Beowulf, in a bit.

Umm, okay -- it's been up for a couple of days, and I'm late with this post.  But still . . .

October 17, 2007

The new Coyote Wild is live!

Coyote Wild is pleased to announce our new issue:

Fiction:

• Elephants Never Forget - Jennifer Brinn

You don't have to be a swashbuckler to be a hero.

• The Greatest Adventure of All - Ian McHugh

"For in that sleep of death what dreams may come,
When we have shuffled off this mortal coil,
Must give us pause . . ."

• Elvis and Gretel in the Woods beyond the Railroad Tracks - Matt Betts

• Engendered Species - Greg Story

• Mirror, Mirror - Lee Ann Sontheimer Murphy

• Nightmare at the Nursing Home - Jenny Schwartz

• Pearl of Great Price - James Steimle

• Sea Child - Aliette de Bodard

• Toxicity - Erica Naone

• Photomancer - Bartholomew von Klick

• Uluru - Jennifer Linnaea

Nonfiction:

A Chainsaw-Wielding Yankee in King Arthur's Demonic Court - Richard Scott Nokes

A concise and excellent examination about what we're still learning about ourselves through those once and future stories that echo of Camelot.

Poetry:

• What You Should Call Us - Elizabeth Barrette..

You'll hear the gentle ching of harness bells, the muffled thud of hoofbeats and the shouts of Traveler children, long after the last line.

• The Fruit Vendor - J.C. Runolfson

Simple. Timeless. Unblemished.

• Frances Glessner Lee,
  Mother of Forensic Pathology
  - Lisa M. Bradley

I'm really, really delighted with the quality of the pieces, and couldn't be more pleased with the Fall issue.

Hope you like it, too.

best,
Mac

Part I is here on the LJ, as a crosspost from the other blog:

There's this thing about specfic that allows us as writers and readers, both, to thoroughly examine themes of other, in ways that other literary traditions simply don't flex to accommodate. When you turn the idea of other on its head the way specfic can, you get some pretty interesting and disturbing stuff -- like Ursula Le Guin's Hugo-winning "The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas." (Available in The Wind's Twelve Quarters.)

The rest of it is here.

_______________________________________________

Part II, wherein Mac returns to the Magical Negro discussion (and shamelessly swipes parts of it):

Other is a term to describe the phenomenon of the outsider, particularly in fiction, who represents some kind of threat to the community -- but often, also serves as the agent for the community's salvation/redemption.

Familiar examples of other from stuff you've read or seen: Queer characters, like Tara in BtVS; Brown characters, especially as the highly-refined Magical Negro; Women, in almost anything pre-1900; Gypsies in any fiction I've ever seen them appear in; Fairies, in pretty much any fiction that takes them seriously -- but especially in medieval texts.

When we left off, last, I'd just started discussing the Eileen Joy essay, found here.

Again, the rest of it is here.

_______________________________________________

Part III, wherein Mac answers some of the commenters, and ventures a bit further afield:


Okay -- from Eileen Joy's comment: I think you will see that I am: first, arguing that "queer" can never divorce itself from "woman," which will always--on a cultural level, anyway--be the foundation of "queer" [in the eyes of, say, the most hetero-normative communities]; and second, arguing, mainly following Elizabeth Grosz [a feminist, I might add] that, evolutionary-biological-wise, we are, all of us "hetero-queer"

Right -- that's all well and good, as far as it goes. The problem is, it doesn't go far enough. So let's push the idea a bit, eh? The idea that the concept of queer cannot be divorced from the perception of woman, and therefore fear of queerness = misogyny, has been around very nearly as long as I've been alive, at least. It goes in sort of chicken-and-egg circles, though, unless you can introduce something new into the equation.

To find something new there, we're going to have to make some extrapolations, and maybe even a leap or two. That is, we have to get to the "So what?" part and apply the raw idea in a way that it has relevance. We can do that. And maybe we can do that without the academic-speak wanking that mostly just serves, frankly, to obfuscate the discussion.

Eileen points out that one way to push the idea is to assert, as feminist Elizabeth Grosz does, the "hetero-queer" spectrum "produced through endlessly transmogrifying yet partially dimorphically fixed chains of sexual difference" which is a start -- but not all that helpful, honestly, in terms of defending the relevance of the assertion that "queer" cannot be divorced from "woman."

Once again, you can follow the link for the rest (so far.)

From Krylyr:

1) Your webzine, Coyote Wild, lauched earlier this year. It's featured some amazing stories from people like Elizabeth Bear, Sherwood Smith, Jennifer Pelland, Yoon Ha Lee, Emily Mah, B. Gordon, and my personal favorite: Chris Azure. What made you decide to start up a magazine and were/are you intimidated by other online markets?

Honestly, it was sort of one of those drunken late-night bright ideas. "Hey! Let's start an e-zine!"

I read a lot of the online markets, and love the idea of electronic publishing, in terms of what it can do to enhance storytelling, poetry, and nonfiction. As I get more comfortable with the coding, I'm hoping to be able to do more experimenting with the format, as well, to explore some of the possibilities of a digital medium.

I'm not intimidated by the other online markets, mostly because I don't see us being in competition with each other. Coyote Wild isn't a David, looking to bring down Goliath (Or Strange Horizons, or Abyss and Apex, or IGMS, or Helix, or . . .) And we're not really playing in the same ballpark, in terms of payscale or clicks, for that matter.

I love that really good stories can be free, and authors can still get paid. It seems intimately close to the tradition of singing for one's supper, I suppose -- and everyone wins. If you read a story you really love for free, and then see a book with that writer's name on it, you're more likely to buy the book.

My goals for the first year were pretty simple: Publish on time, increase readership with every issue, pay writers for their words. So far, so good.

2) How has being the senior editor at Coyote Wild changed you as a writer?

I have a new appreciation for what loses the reader inside the first paragraph, and what makes a story compelling enough that you keep reading even if you're not lovin' the prose or the premise. I understand gotta better than I ever did. Understanding it, unfortunately, isn't quite the same as applying it . . .

3) This year, you're going back to Viable Paradise as staff. If you were at Viable Paradise as an instructor, what course would you teach?

Wow. That's an awfully hard one.

The best fit, I think, would be something about diction and tone in revisions, and bringing our words into a frame where they all pull the direction the story goes, instead of letting them have their way with us.

4) Which writer do you feel like has had the most influence on you? Is it the same one who you'd most like to be associated with? (If there's a particular editor you'd like to be associated with, you can do that, too.)

A ton of writers have had an enormous influence on me. Ursula Le Guin. Connie Willis. Stephen King. Samuel Clemens. Virginia Woolf. I could sort of go on at length, actually.

As to who I'd most like to be associated with? Hmm. I don't know, honestly. That's another really hard question. This is going to sound sort of hokey, I'm afraid -- but I think I most want to be associated with my fellow-VPXers. There are some amazing writers in our class, and I very much look forward to a day ten or fifteen years from now when we're still running into each other at cons, and signing books, or talking about each others stories we just read.

I have enormous respect and appreciation for editors. Ellen Datlow, TNH and PNH, Gardner Dozois...

5) The movie of your life is being made, complete with your dream cast. Who plays you, and four of your closest friends (and/or VP alums)?

Bwahahhahah! Let's make a VPX movie, instead. Okay, cast list (hardly cutting edge, because I'm at least ten years behind in my movie-watching habits):

TNH:



Jim Macdonald:


Laura Mixon:



Hawkins:


John Hawkes-Reed:


Bart:


I'm utterly and completely drawing a blank when it comes to casting myself, though. Ideas?

I'll leave it to you guys to cast the rest. I've got deadlines. *g*