Short stories, January 2015 (I think?)

[cahn]

E. hates, hates to take baths. She will come up with any excuse she possibly can to avoid taking one. She will drag her feet. She will whine. Then, when she actually gets into the bath, she loves it and doesn't want to leave! Then -- usually only when I tell her she has to because it's bedtime -- she gets out of the bath and is instantly transformed back into Bath-Hating Kid.

So clearly this is a genetic trait, because this is exactly how I feel about reading short stories online. (Short stories in anthologies, on the other hand, are my jam. They're in a book, so it's like a book, but they are short, which is great for my infinitesimal attention span!) Whine! Grumble! ...oh, okay, fine, I quite enjoyed that.

FFA had some links to 2016-eligible stories (I think these all might be from January??) which I read. Here are some of my thoughts, and I want to hear yours too. (What I'd love is to have a sort of Hugo reading club to talk through potential nominations! I need someone else to collate a shortlist of stories because there's no way I'm wading through entire publications. If the FFA memers keep listing stories they like, I'll try to keep up with that, at least.)

Cat Pictures, Please (Naomi Kritzer) - This is a very cute story and I'm glad I read it, because cute. I do not consider it Hugo-worthy, and indeed rather reminds me of many of the nominees from last year: cute and fun to read, but fundamentally shallow: supercomputer tries to make individual people's lives better, because it has read about Asimov's First Law, where "better" turns out to be, arbitrarily, "what the computer thinks is better." Which could be spun as thoughtful (okay, if I were a supercomputer with access to all the data ever, my first thought would be to run really awesome and thorough studies correlating All the Things) or horrific (...a computer might well think the best use of my time was not to write all this crap on the interwebs), but ends up instead as a little didactic and a lot cute.

Folding Beijing (Hao Jingfang, trans. Ken Liu) - Like Three-Body Problem, I was not really sure I liked it for the first half but was invested by the end. I'm still not convinced as to what I think about it. It's an ambitious SF-nal concept of time-sharing a city, but I'm not quite sure it sticks the landing... but I don't know whether that's cultural or not.

Pocosin (Ursula Vernon) - This story suffered in that I had read Jackalope Wives the previous week, and I enjoyed Jackalope Wives more; I think it richly deserves the Nebula (and that in the absence of Puppies would have rightfully won the Hugo, as it did the "Alfie"). This one is a good story, but I was suffering a bit from Vernon overload, I think; she has a distinctive voice where a little goes a long way. Her writing is excellent, in any case: "This is the place where the old god came to die. He came in the shape of the least of all creatures, a possum."

I also think I'm not the right reader for this story... I think there is a specific feeling she is getting at here that I don't have enough experience with to get, and I bet that if I really understood that feeling that I would be head-over-heels for this story.

Three Cups of Grief (Aliette de Bodard): I liked this a lot better than her last year's Alfie-nominee The Breath of War, which a lot of people liked but which I found sort of irritating. I'm glad I gave her another chance, because this story was great and right now it's on my shortlist to nominate. It's got a lot of rich worldbuilding and characters and emotions and a beautifully-understated plot, and now I'm on board to read her novel.

Cloth Mother (Sarah Pauling): Now this story pushed all my buttons, to the extent that I am aware that I am probably not an unbiased reader when I say I really, really loved this story and will be nominating it for sure. It's SF! It has a plot! And at the same time it has things to say about what kids need, and what parenting means, it has an arc, and I teared up a little at the penultimate scene. I'm not 100% sure about the ending, but gosh, I still just really loved this story. I'm willing to believe other people might not love it nearly as much, though.

Back to grumbling about having to read stories. *grumble*

Comments

[thistleingrey]

Why is Clifford running away?
Because it's bath time.
Clifford hates to [something something--get into the tub?],
but he likes when mama soaps and scrubs him.
Now it's time for fun!
Clifford floats on a bar of soap.
Oh no! Puppy overboard!
Ducky comes to the rescue. Clifford is safe.
[something about getting out of the tub], but Clifford wants to stay and play.
He really loves bath time!

It's a board book that we got from the pediatrician's office, randomly, and Reason likes it for its self-contradictory encapsulation of her former approach to baths. That's from memory, obviously (the book is in a dark room with a sleeping child). I wonder whether something similar would be useful to E., since she's at an age when reasoning contributes to changes of opinion....

[cahn]

Heeeee. This is it exactly! And she loves Clifford; I might have to track this down. It might just encourage her, though :)

[snickfic]

YAY, short story discussion! Um, I suspect you have read my feelings on most of these already. :) In particular, while my brain agrees with your assessment of Cat Pictures Please, my heart is too charmed to care. And I did really, really adore Pocosin and will probably be nominating it. I'm curious about that particular feeling you thought you didn't get, though - would you be able to go into a little more detail?

I will say I was pretty unenthused by Folding Beijing. The writing in that one was so stiff and the story so slow to get going that I didn't finish, even though the basic premise seemed really intriguing. So I'm afraid I couldn't comment on the landing. :\

I do hope that the ffa thing is ongoing. I'm going to try and help make it so, anyway, although obviously it's not the ideal mode of discussion for a lot of people.

[snickfic]

And now I have read "Cloth Mother," and oh dear, I loved that. I loved it. Maizie is such a vibrant character, but I love how the story is just as much Vita's as Maizie's. And this background specter of whatever horrible thing happened to push humanity to these extremes was a great backdrop.

Thanks for reccing! Presumably I would have gotten to this one eventually, but now I don't have to. :)

[cahn]

YAY so glad you love this one too :) :)

I do love stories in which apocalypse is the *backdrop*, as you say :)

[cahn]

my heart is too charmed to care.

I totally, totally get that! I have all kinds of stories and books I feel that way about :)

Yeah, I didn't want to go into too much detail in the post because I feel like discussion of the themes thoroughly spoils Pocosin, which is all about the themes -- anyway, I felt like the story was very concerned with a sort of bone-deep weariness that can be associated with death, and possibly also with depression. The possum god reminds me a bit of my husband's grandmother, who lived relatively healthily to the age of 102 and could possibly have lived longer but who decided she was tired and didn't want to live any longer, and she died less than a month after deciding that. Maggie also reminds me a bit of when I had thyroid-induced depression, but that was long enough ago that the story doesn't hit me as strongly as it might have then.

Reading Pocosin, I was also reminded of when I had my miscarriage last year, and was emotionally very raw, and I noticed that I could recognize grief, when a story was being written from that same mindset that I was in at the time; there were a couple of incidents where I would read a story and think, "That author knows what it's like. That author is grieving," and then the Author's Notes or whatever would indicate that it had been written at a time of personal loss. I get the same feeling that Vernon is writing from an emotional place, but it's a different emotional place than one I can viscerally recognize. I don't know if that makes a whole lot of sense.

...huh. I may nominate this one anyway, clearly I had a lot to say about it :)

Man, I am trying to read Ken Liu's novel right now, and it's such a slog!

Yeah, for some reason it's hard for me (mentally) to comment at FFA -- I think I just like namespace -- but I'm really glad they're doing it.

...somehow I missed your short story post! *goes to check out some of your links*

[snickfic]

I get the same feeling that Vernon is writing from an emotional place, but it's a different emotional place than one I can viscerally recognize. I don't know if that makes a whole lot of sense.

No, that makes sense! It's interesting, because being "tired to death" isn't really a state that I would say I have personal experience with, either? But for some reason the story really worked for me anyway. OTOH I've definitely read other stories that were clearly aiming for emotional states that I couldn't relate to.

Man, I am trying to read Ken Liu's novel right now, and it's such a slog!

Aw. :( I saw him at WorldCon, and he was a super engaging panelist! But then all his translation work that I've read has been some degree of stiff and awkward, prose-wise.

[cahn]

I remember really liking "Paper Menagerie"! But Grace of Kings seems stiff in the same way that I found Three-Body Problem to be stiff. I imagine part of it is a specific cultural milieu? Sigh.

[morbane]

Ooh, people reading stories. I am a bit baffled as to where one goes looking for the eligible stories. And daunted. But. I am enjoying other people cherry-picking them for me.

On balance, although it was competent writing, I was not wowed by Cat Pictures, Please. It had a few interesting elements that kind of encircled each other without really engaging - the cat pictures didn't really relate to the AI's goals, the AI's goals didn't really relate to the AI's own question of identity, and it really begged the question of how an AI decided what was best for a human, which was a pity, because I thought it was set up to address that, and instead we got a somewhat moralizing message about how you can't dictate how other people deal with their own sexuality. (But really you ought to be able to! (?))

I liked Cloth Mother. I think some of its worldbuilding could have been a little more explicit. I liked the ideas about Mazie coming to mother herself, and a lot of the ideas around the turtle were fascinating. I am not sure if it fits my ideas of award-winning, but it was reasonably strong writing.

[cahn]

Yeah, I think people are generally going to Strange Horizons, Clarkesworld (which I might actually start reading, it seems to have generally reasonably strong writing), Apex, and Tor, because they're available free online.

we got a somewhat moralizing message about how you can't dictate how other people deal with their own sexuality. (But really you ought to be able to! (?))

I know! This is more disturbing the more I think about it. On the other hand, I did think the AI constantly demanding cat pictures was really cute.

*nods* I actually liked the worldbuilding being somewhat non-explicit, but then again it's also a problem I have when I write fic, so there it is :)

It's interesting how people have different ideas on award-winning! I myself have a strong bias towards hard SF for the Hugo, and tend to discount fantasy to a certain extent when thinking about what "should" win the Hugo. (I don't have any such bias towards the Nebula, and indeed tend to think of it as a more "literary" award. Not that I can vote for those, though!)

[snickfic]

Yeah, I enjoyed Cat Pictures Please more than you, I think, but I definitely felt like it kept walking a very thin line with all three of the people the AI helps, not just the gay pastor. It was hard to know how to take that. The "If only humans would let me help them" message I ended up chalking up to the alien perspective of the AI, who I think all the way through maybe should/could be read as a little creepier than it seems on the surface.

IDK. I definitely can see people going a lot of ways on that one.

I am a bit baffled as to where one goes looking for the eligible stories.

I assume you're aware of the links in the ffa threads, yeah?

[morbane]

True! I've been very selectively active on ffa lately, but that's a good resource.

[skygiants]

Someone else who wants to do a short story club!

I think it's potentially a very valuable idea. I ... will probably come back to this post after having actually read the stories.

[cahn]

Yes, that's me too! I want someone to do the hard work of curating the stories, and I'll show up and talk about them :)

I would love to know what you think of the stories! I'll hopefully be doing some more posts like this, too, with more stories and such.

[luzula]

I often tend to shy from reading short stories, as well. When I read about new characters there's most often a period before the story convinces me to be invested in what's happening to them, whether I'm reading a book or short story. And if it's a short story, that period is a larger portion of the whole reading experience. With fanfic it is of course different because then I'm already invested in the characters.

But I will consider checking out the ones you rec. : )

[cahn]

I think you specifically would really like "Pocosin" and "Jackalope Wives." (Have you read Digger?) I think you'd also quite like "Three Cups of Grief." It's harder for me to tell about what kind of people would like "Cloth Mother" since I had such a strong positive reaction to it, ironically.

[likeadeuce]

Oh I relate to the feeling about reluctance to start short fiction so much (well, really, to start anything that seems like little pieces adding up to an endless project. The word 'longread' re: web journalism makes me react in the same way. But I do want to find stories to nominate for Hugo next year - I think 'Jackalope Wives' was one of only 2 or 3 things I nominated last year. Need to do better!

[cahn]

Oh, I'm glad, I thought it was just me :) But yeah, I'm kind of... bitter at the Puppies for making me have to do what seems like a very long slog, even if the individual parts are enjoyable.

Well, hey, this is the first year I'm eligible to nominate, so you're already doing way better than I am :)

[likeadeuce]

For the 2014 awards, I bought a supporting membership after the nominations came out, with the intention of reading all the short fiction nominees -- which I did, including last year's puppy noms, which did NOT impress me. I discovered some great stuff and voted on the merits/felt pretty good about it.

When nomination time came around I realized I'd totally failed to keep up w/ short fiction (except for the place I was, at the time, reading slush, though I stopped doing that in the fall). Anyway my brain was too full of rejected stories at that point plus I didn't want to nominate all from one magazine that I'd been affiliated with though in retrospect I feel less compunction about that. I did read a lot of eligible novels & nominated my faves, though none of them made the shortlist.

When this year's nominees came out, I was pretty reluctant to shell out the membership fee to be part of THAT, but I decided to do it primarily to support Ms Marvel on the comics slate and because the best novel race looked interesting. I then just could not bring myself to slog through the fiction nominees to determine which ones might be there on merit so I no awarded a bunch of categories and still feel pretty torn about it.

Not sure about what to do for next year because on the one hand I agree in theory I should nominate a full slate but in practice I'm not sure i've read ANY eligible SF yet (aside from comics).

Not sure about

[cahn]

*nods* I did slog through most of the fiction nominees. (I gave up on Wright after reading his short story, which was extremely poor editing on top of pretty darn crappy writing, and I don't get paid enough to read that kind of crap -- and I didn't read the Kevin J. Anderson, having felt like I've read enough of his Star Wars novels to have a pretty good idea of what his writing's like.) Spoiler: you... did not miss a thing by No Awarding all the fiction categories. You should not feel torn at all. (Well, Best Novel was interesting, although I also ended up No Awarding it for various possibly-not-very-good reasons, and with more deliberation might not have done so.)

Well, that's why I'm making these posts about stories, half to keep a record for myself (since there's no way I'll keep track of Hugo-eligible stories otherwise) and half because i figured it was worth reccing stories to other people who might be in the same boat of "what the heck do I nominate?"