Patty’s Comments (group member since Mar 03, 2009)

Patty’s comments from the fiction files redux group.

Wow, Adrian. I had completely forgotten about Erskine Caldwell!

Would never have guessed there was a Graham Greene connection. I will have to think that over. Maybe after I've read more of Crews, I'll be able to see that connection. I have only read part of A Feast of Snakes (there was an excerpt in the Grit Lit anthology that I read earlier this year)

JP and I are still planning to be there, for sure.

Will bring the KO to you this summer, then, JE! I really liked it. I picked it up at one of the used bookstores in Phoenix that Dan took us to. They had another book, the Gypsy's Curse, and I didn't buy it. I'm thinking about sending Dan back over there to buy it for me if they still have it.

I wouldn't have thought of Bukowski, aside from underworld themes, are there other similarities, do you think?

{Side note: Speaking of underworld themes, I have been meaning to send you a note, JE, to see what you know about the 1970s national table tennis team, the Seattle Sockeyes.]

Fledgling was the second of her works that I read, the first was a short story. I must have liked it well enough (since I continued to seek out her work), but it isn't my favorite. I also read another vampire story around the same time (Carlos Fuentes's Vlad), which sort of made Fledgling more interesting to me, too.

I love her work as a whole. As to how this fits in, I'm not sure what you mean, but maybe you hadn't seen my comment above about themes that are common to a lot of her work? I think she had a very interesting project. For a nice sampling of her other sci-fi sub genres, I would recommend the short story collection "Bloodchild and other stories".

Neil and Robert have also read a lot of Butler! I still have 1 trilogy to read, the first book of which is next to my bed and waiting for me.

None of her other stories/novels involve vampires. There is a pretty wide variety - Kindred is more historical/time-travelly, there are speculative novels & shorts, and there is also crazy space/alien/future stuff. She pretty much runs the gambit of sci-fi.

Some of the themes in Fledgling reoccur in a lot of her other works, especially the themes of inter/co-dependence, questions & ethical issues surrounding pleasure, and also frequently things to do with sustainability of life (although I don't remember that being a strong theme in Fledgling, please remind me!). Those are common themes that stand out to me, at least.

I'm currently reading The Knockout Artist, by Harry Crews. I have also read a short of his, but I don't remember the title. Have any of you read his books? Neil? Martha? Hugh? The feeling I'm getting from this one is sort of a cross between Flannery O'Connor & Thomas Pynchon.

For convenience, the link to the Fledgling thread that Elizabeth started is:

https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

I am not going to reread the book, but I look forward to the discussion! :D

That sounds good, JE.

Jean-Paul and I are going to be in the area June 30-July 15. We are hoping to coax Lara in to coming over to go touring & visiting with us.

Let us know which dates work at the cabin, and maybe a dorkapalooza can materialize after all. If not, we'll definitely make a plan to see you!

Not enough people who can definitely commit, too many different schedules to try to work around.

Hi All,

I hate to be the bringer of down, but I don't think we are going to be able to get this thing off the ground this year. There are a bunch of things going on that are making it too difficult to coordinate in a way that would work for enough people.

What if we skipped it this year? Would people consider a Dorkapalooza reunion tour in 2017?

Love
Patty

You can't hijack chaos, Dan!

What a bone-chilling story Adrian! So much pressure.

And hey, I don't think it's true that only Mo has taken your recommendations. Wasn't it you that recommended the Harry Fannin novels to me?

I guess I don't think there are books that are universally important for everyone to read. And if I only had one year left, I would probably mostly read escapist stuff, as a way to take a break from thinking about myself and life and big existential ideas, whereas my reading selections without knowing my expiration date are often based on big ideas that I want new ways to think about. So I guess you've asked a trick question, Dan!

More ideas for stories to read, plus a fairly enjoyable read of its own, this guy is reading and writing about a new story every day for a year. https://story366blog.wordpress.com/

By my count we have fewer than 10 people planning on coming this year. Dan/JE, shall we search for places that sleep 12?

Glad you did, Lara!

Group: How many people can we expect to come this year?

July 4 is the big US holiday, so I was actually thinking we'd start looking for places that are available starting the following weekend, which is the 9th. If you want to go to France, Lara, that would be right up against it.

As always, a lot depends on when places are available, but we will start hunting asap to see what's possible.

That would be so amazing, Martyn! It does look like we are going to shoot for someplace in Washington, probably earlier in July than we've met in years past.

Martha, have you read Madam Lazarus, by Maile Meloy? Oh man, it just gutted me. I couldn't stop crying! I need to look for some of her other books.