Ordinary People

by Eleanor Arnason

Spanning thirty years, this volume collects six stories, one poem, and a WisCon Guest of Honor speech. In the richly ironic “Warlords of Saturn's Moons,” first published in 1974, a cigar-puffing woman writes space-opera while the drama of real-life inner-city Detroit goes on around her; “The Grammarian's Five Daughters” offers a playful explication of the uses of the parts of speech; “A Ceremony of Discontent” takes a humorous approach to a modern-day feminist problem; and Arnason's wise, earthy tales of Hwarhath serve up new myths explaining the origins of the world and morality (among other things). The work in this collection entertains with its wit, delights with its precision and imagination, and challenges and provokes with its bluntness. Ordinary People offers a small, potent taste of the oeuvre of an important feminist sf author. Reviews ”When I read Arnason, I am charmed, not only by the tales-as-tales but by a voice as unmistakable as that of Heinlein or Vance or measured and precise and stealthily funny and full of homely wisdom.” Russell Letson, Locus ”An Eleanor Arnason story collection is way overdue, and this is a very welcome book. I recommend it highly.” Rich Horton, Locus

Genres: Fantasy, Collections, Short Stories, LGBT, Science Fiction

130 pages, Paperback

First published May 31, 2005

About the author

Eleanor Atwood Arnason (born 1942) is an American author of science fiction novels and short stories. From 1949 to 1961, Arnason and her parents lived in "Idea House #2," a futuristic dwelling built by the Walker Art Center. Arnason's earliest published story appeared in New Worlds in 1972. Her work often depicts cultural change and conflict, usually from the viewpoint of characters who cannot or will not live by their own societies' rules.

Reviews

[Mitticus · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Grammarian's Five Daughters ★★ ★ ★
clever metalinguistic constructions generate a lovely fantasy tale.

A veces no puedes dar a tus hijas mejor regalo que las palabras -sustantivos, verbos y adverbios-. Deben leerlo.

...the shaman was still trying on adjectives, unable to decide if she, he, or it wanted to be feminine or masculine or androgynous.
"I can't marry someone who can't make up her mind," the third daughter said. "Subtlety is one thing. Uncertainty is another."

[Eleanor With Cats · Rating 5 out of 5]

Contents:
The Land of Ordinary People (poem)
The Grammarian's Five Daughters
A Ceremony of Discontent
The Warlord of Saturn's Moons
The Lovers
Origin Story
The Small Black Box of Morality
Writing Science Fiction during the Third World War (WisCon GoH speech 2004, plus an afterword written for this collection)

I didn't particularly get into the poem, and although The Warlord of Saturn's Moons is one of Arnason's most famous short stories, or at least her most anthologized, it only gifts me with a mild enjoyment. I like the WisCon speech a lot, but I read it in a different collection published later with a second afterword updating it even further.

The book is worth the entire price for The Grammarian's Five Daughters, a hilarious linguistic metaphor piece worthy of Borges coauthoring with Terry Pratchett. My favorite Arnason novel ever is Ring of Swords, so I'm glad to read more hwarhath stories. (Although what I'd love best is to read another novel!) The Lovers is more of a long story than a fable, and I really liked it.

The Small Black Box of Morality has the best final sentence ever.

[Merit · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read The Grammarian's Five Daughters . A delightfully clever short story.

[Carole · Rating 4 out of 5]

These are short stories, and I liked most of them. Some of them also appear in Hwarhath Stories.

[David · Rating 3 out of 5]

Contents:

The Land of Ordinary People (1985) (3 stars)
This is a poem dedicated to John Lennon.

The Grammarian's Five Daughters (1999) (3 stars)
This is a fairy tale for verbivores.

A Ceremony of Discontent (1981) (5 stars)
Vusai learns the costs of her choices.

The Warlord of Saturn's Moons (1974) (3 stars)
The life of a cigar-smoking author in Detroit as compared to her characters. "I’m far better off on Titan with my heroine, who is better able to deal with her problems than I am to deal with mine. A deadly shot, she has also learned strange psychic arts from Hindu mystics, which give her great strength, endurance, mental alertness, and a naturally pleasant body odor."

The Lovers (1994) (4 stars)
This story is told from the perspective of the hwarhath (the alien race in Ring of Swords).

Origin Story (2000) (3 stars)
This story is a hwarhath creation myth.

The Small Black Box of Morality (1996)
This story is another hwarhath myth.

Writing During World War Three (2004)
The author's Guest of Honor speech for WisCon 2004.