V. Good

[julieandrews]

I read a very good short story yesterday called "Jo's Hair" by Susan Palwick. Found it in New Magics, an anthology edited by Patrick Nielsen Hayden.

Not sure why it struck me particularly, especially as I'm told I haven't even read the full version of Little Women. But it did strike me enough that I wanted to tell people, and have a record of it.

So, there you are.

And you know what? You know what? That wasn't even a freaking fantasy or science fiction story now that I think about it. What the frell?!

Comments

[tomomi.livejournal.com]

You haven't read all of Little Women? And you were on at Jun about not having read A Wrinkle in Time?

[julieandrews.livejournal.com]

Remember I thought I had? And then you said I hadn't. Is there like two parts or something like that? I read to the end of the book I had!

[shweta-narayan.livejournal.com]

I love that story.

And it's certainly speculative given the POV :) I think it belongs to the thread of feminist SF that speculates by pulling apart reader-presuppositions and turning around something the reader knows and has accepted, rather than using overtly skiffy tropes. (So like, KJF's What We Didn't Seee, Emshwiller's recent Strange Horizons story, etc)

[julieandrews.livejournal.com]

Karen's plays on a known sf story though...

Haven't read the Emshwiller story. I need to read Strange Horizons more regularly.

[shweta-narayan.livejournal.com]

The Emshwiller plays on a known SF trope. The Palwick's playing on a non-spec story, but in a way you could not in a non-spec story (the POV). All of them do so with feminist sensibilities.

[elsmi.livejournal.com]

FYI, she has a collection called The Fate of Mice.

If you're anything like us around here, you want it. "Jo's Hair" is fantastic, but it still definitely is not my favorite!

[julieandrews.livejournal.com]

I hate how libraries aren't big on collections! Anthologies, sure, but not collections. It can be very frustrating.

We (and by 'we', I mean the library) do have 2 books by her and a vampire anthology her name turned up in.

One of them clearly says 'science fiction' as a subject, but it got put in with the regular fiction. And the vampire anthology's in the nonfiction in the 800's.

Hate that. Grr.

I'll see if I can ILL that collection. Or, like, y'know, buy it. :)

[julieandrews.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the rec. I read this and it was every bit as awesome as promised. How could I have never heard of her before?!

[elsmi.livejournal.com]

Yay! Isn't it, though?