Well, here's one secret I don't have to keep any longer. This year's James Tiptree, Jr. Award has gone to The Drowning Girl: A Memoir and Kiini Ibura Salaam's collection, Ancient, Ancient.

I feel like the novel's been out forever, but, at the same time, I feel as if it's only just now being noticed. In truth, it's been out less than a year. It's just been a very goddamn long year, that's all. Actually, Spooky just pointed out that the novel was released one year ago tomorrow, March 6, 2012. That night, I had a reading at the Brown University Bookstore. Anyway, I think a one-year anniversary and winning the Tiptree is a good reason to revisit the book trailer:



Congratulations to Kiini, and to all the brilliant people on the Honors List, including matociquala, Roz Kaveney, and Karin Tidbeck. This is one of those awards I never dared imagine I'd win, so...wow. Looks like I'll be spending my birthday in Madison. Also, I love the bit the Tiptree folks posted about the book, so I'm shamelessly posting it here:

Caitlin R. Kiernan’s The Drowning Girl probably couldn’t have been written without its multifaceted consideration of gender roles and its extraordinary management of an unreliable narrator who doesn’t even trust herself. For India Morgan Phelps (aka Imp), the act of telling the story parallels the act of choosing a path or an identity as she makes her way through a maze of false memories and blurred realities. Using myth, art, and mental illness, this beautifully written novel explores the boundaries between reality and fantasy, sanity and insanity, and art and dream. It’s complex in its plot, metaphor, and style as well as in its thinking about one’s role as a woman and a daughter. In its characters, lesbian, straight, and transgender, old and young, this novel also recognizes the complexity of human beings.

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Yesterday, I wrote 1,345 words on Chapter Four of Red Delicious. It was much easier getting back into the novel than I thought it would be.

After dinner (from Mama Kim's!), we watched Luc Besson's The Fifth Element (1997). At this point, I've probably seen the film close to thirty-five times (nine in the theatre), and it remains are brilliant as ever. And no, it's not one of the "Best Worst" SF films ever. It's simply one of the best; the film's vision and execution are extraordinary. The fact that, some fifteen years after its release, the film remains so decisive among critics and fans – the love it/hate it thing – is a testament to its power. Anyway, later, a tiny bit of Rift, and some very good (but grim) RP with stsisyphus in The Secret World. Then I went to bed and read about Lewis Carroll and mathematics. Somehow, I slept somewhat more than eight hours last night, probably the first time I've done that in a year or so, and it's left me woozy.

The platypus says time's up. Gotta make the doughnuts.

Onward,
Aunt Beast