Court
I love linguistic and language
It was a wonderful little collection that left me wanting more. I'm glad it included some indigenous languages of North America, but I was also hoping to see either American English or Canadian example, as well as one from South America.
I was a little surprised the entry of billabong omitted that we have an English word for the same concept: oxbow lake.
I love this video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8a3r-cG8Wic) “Why Rivers Curve”, at the end it mentions that many languages have a word for a river leaving these u-shaped lakes/ponds. In English it's an oxbow lake, but in Australia it's bilabong, and many different regions have their own word for the concept.
Huh... I feel like this took a sharp turn towards the end. Loved the characters. Stephanie seems like she's solid in her religion of Jehova's Witness, but at the end seems to have a deep attraction to the female ‘hippie' and seems to be displeased, near disgusted, at her proselytizing partner's mention of her intented. And then it just ends.
I wanted more...and was disappointed. I listened to LeVar Burton read this and he too admitted to being disappointed at the ending upon first reading, but he goes on to say that he read it two more times and felt more satisfied. He talked about liking his heroes to be big, but sometimes they're better than that; sometimes heroes are life sized.
Stephanie read as authentic to me, and perhaps to just have this (potential) struggle is enough. Burton spoke of it as taking the path of least resistance, but I think that it could be different, that she can make her own path.
3.5 rounded up because setting and characters were wonderful.
Self-help/life style books are a difficult genre for me as it's really hard to be told what to do and to change if it's in a way I don't like or agree with. So besides having agreeable advice Craig & Devon Hase tell it to me in ways I deeply appreciate and respect.
-framed as advice
Rather than things one must or should do
-they are transparent
They come off as authentic and discuss openly mistakes and difficulties and acknowledge their backgrounds. They cite credible sources for their claims.
-give examples and non examples; spelling out how a message is to be intended
Eg explanation of consent, explicitly saying that while yes we should be kind that we can also exclude those that do us harm
Loved these quotes which are spoilers:
“People have been leaving behind huge chucks of themselves after death for eons, Consuela – in their diaries and paintings and the notes in their cookbooks and the stories they tell their children. The eneural is the latest in a long line of media that help us capture some bit who we were when we were alive, and give it to the future. It's the birth of a new artform. One I already love.”She frowns skeptically. “That's it? My husband is art to you?”I don't back down. “Art makes life make sense.”“Art is a dead thing trying to tell the living how to live.”
And the absolute validity of her logic is sending waves of delight through my body. A soul can't be mechanically reproduced, goes Consuela's thinking. By definition, a soul is singular. So when they made the backup copy of the eneural, they didn't copy Václav's soul: merely everything else. In her eyes, she sent her husband to heaven by destroying the original eneural. In the meantime, she's donated the soulless backup to the Smithsonian, thus preserving his art on Earth forever.
Listened to LeVar Burton read this, can also be read at: https://crossedgenres.com/magazine/024-fantaisie-impromptu/
3.5, had stunning moments. I also might be ...genre fatigued? — or whatever is the word to describe the danger/side effect of reading (or listening to) a short story as part of a collection.
Had I listened or read this on it's own it would be a four; the spooky, creepy, building aspect of it would have felt more fresh.
