Brown Girl in the Ring

FYI: Brown Girl in the Ring is a Jamaican children's ring game said to be a "precursor to courtship," where the girl goes in the middle, does her best dance move, then points to a partner.

I don't know if it's just the fact that I can into novels more or what, but this and The Chrysalids were the two favourite things we read this term. I read this book over the Xmas holiday and absolutely loved it. It was much stranger to me than The Chrysalids, but I loved it. I loved the strong female characters and the power they held, from Ti-Jeanne to her Mami and the fact that Ti-Jeanne got to have the ultimate revenge against Rudy. The twist of Rudy being her grandfather blew me away, and the fact that Crazy Betty turned out to be her mother!?!? I also liked how the gang of ruffians metamorphosed throughout the story.

This story was amazing - the character twists, voodoo-future-organ stealin'-evil-duppy madness of it all made it a great read. It didn't feel science-fiction-y to me, I must say, other than it was set in the future somewhat.

Also on the random side:
Here's the "Brown Girl in the Ring" song by Boney M in 1978...


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Invaders

I had too much on my mind when I sat down to read this one. I got the whole bit about three stories in one, invasion back in the Inca times, and more modern times (and on an NFL field no less) but it didn't really do much for me. I'll leave you with this John Kessel Site and this all important How To Prepare for an Alien Invasion (maybe THAT's what has happened at the Legislature...that would explain a lot.) Sorry folks, but that's about all for this one.

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Aunt Parnetta's Electric Blisters

Favourite lines:
"Even that ferge's whate" p. 818

"Hawly gizard" p. 817

Interesting they made the "whate" ferge a "hog" to Parnetta, that white pig in her kitchen was the symbol for the white man I'm guessing and she couldn't be living under the same roof as that.

We See Things Differently

This one didn't do too much for me, really. Like several of the other stories we've read this term, I don't get the "Sci-Fi" aspect of it, just that it might be in the future or some other sort of alternate reality where the US "gets what it deserves" as many would say. I thought it was kind of interesting how the author set the story up with Sayyid (aka religious zealot dude) up as a reporter from his part of the world coming to America, where right now, it is the opposite, so many reporters from the West are going "over there" to report on what is happening. I think maybe I'm just having a hard time with these last three stories because my mind is in an alternate reality right now, one I'd rather not be contemplating.

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Kirinyaga

I always struggle with the decision of whether or not I should read any type of story review before I read these stories. I'm glad I did this time, though, as the reviewer explained what he thought about the habitat, which left me free to just read the story without getting hung up on the details of what the habitat actually was. This is what reviewer Steven Silver has to say about Resnick's Kirinyaga habitat:

One aspect of the habitat which Resnick never explained was what, exactly, it was. Kirinyaga (and similar habitats) seem to have been terraformed asteroids, although at other times they almost seemed like the interior of a large space station. In point of fact, the exact physicality of the habitat doesn't matter. It, along with the zebras, lions and antelopes which populate it are simply the background of the fables of modern culture Resnick is portraying. One thing the habitat definitely is, is a European construction. The entire time Koriba is teaching his people the ways of the Kikuyu and to shun the European, they are living on an European artifact. Koriba is relying on his Oxbridge education and using an European computer. When these contradictions are pointed out to Koriba, he replies that the Kikuyu as a whole must be shielded. Koriba, therefore, comes across as something of an hypocrite. He has been contaminated by the Europeans, so he must make sure the other Kikuyu are not contaminated, whether or not they see their interaction in those terms.

This was an extreme story about a people who wanted to retain their own culture/way of life in, what appears to be, a reconstruction of the place from where they originated. It's interesting that they seem to be controlled by the Maintenance yet fiercely independent in preserving their own culture. It seems like Koriba was going too far, with the whole infanticide issue but if their goal was to totally maintain the Kirinyaga way of life, it seemed like it was something that had to have been done, no matter how gruesome the rest of the world made it. I don't know if the Maintenance people were the ones who originally invaded their orginial Kirinyaga and Euro-ized it then felt guilty and created the new pseudo-Kirinyaga to compensate or what. It was hard to decipher Kirinyaga's origins (the new Kirinyaga).

I think this story really spoke to the desperation of people attempting to keep their culture when it is being lost. I enjoyed this one as well.


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America

Hardened Anamari had an opinion about all of the Norteamericanos, until Sam showed up, actually wanting to help her and her people. It actually irritated her that he wanted to help after so many didn't care about them. Quite an interesting twist that he ended up giving her the "gift" that would not only save, but empower her people. I really liked how this story turned out with the native peoples becoming the Americans and the colonisers the Europeans (here is some info on the Quetzalcoatl, or feathered serpent).

I'm guessing this one falls into more of the "alternate reality" or "alternate histories" categories because I didn't notice many other sci-fi elements in this story. So far, it's a really great week; I've enjoyed both stories.

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Here's a little background info on the author...

The New Atlantis

In an almost complete subversion of everything the world is today, an illegally married couple, Belle and Simon, try to preserve some of what life was before things changed. I immediately took to Belle and Simon, the epitomic "opposites attract" couple, she, a left-brained artist, and he a right-brained mathematician, two illegally married rebels. It was kind of sad that Simon got taken to the "Federal Hospital" near the end, only having twelve days with Belle and with his friends as they tried to come up with a way to harness sun energy. Their discovery was hope for them in their dark world, though likely futile considering what they were up against. I read the ending as Belle going off to die, with nothing to live for after Simon had been taken again. It felt like it was the only thing she was able to make a choice about and therefore, decided to make it.

I don't remember the "Earth" issues being as prevalent back in the 70s when this story was written, though I know they existed and people were working on them and talking about them, but it just wasn't as "in your face" as it is today. People weren't as aware of the damage to the Earth and weren't as involved in trying to preserve it. I'm guessing Le Guin must've had a particular interest in this area to be able to write a reality like this in the 70s, to be able to imagine that which, unfortunately, is quite a bit closer to reality now in our day and age. You can only rape the Earth for so long.

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