It's a full life, if a trifle banal

An amazing Reader's Companion to Lois McMaster Bujold's A Civil Campaign, available for download here.

I've spent the past couple of days in the library reading through back issues of Foundation, looking for articles on and reviews of Bujold. (One article, a couple of reviews, some nice leads.) But I wanted to post about the single article I found about Blake's 7, which made me very happy. Titled "Spock, Avon, and the Decline of Optimism" [Foundation 25: 43-45], it had clearly been written as the fourth season was being transmitted, and it regretted the shift of SF TV and general - and B7 in particular - away from the optimistic humanism of Trek and into pessimistic nihilism:

"Consciously or not, the creators of Blake are not only reflecting, but reinforcing the sense of lost hope. Ultimately, all they give us to identify with is a senseof alienation that we can easily find in the objective world. After the dream, the nightmare - carefully designed to win viewers and successful too. Why exactly do so many viewers like it?"

I think I'd probably take issue with the idea that anything about Blake was "carefully designed" (AND YET STILL I LOVE MY MAD OLD SHOW), but what I chiefly thought on reading this was, "Blimey, you're really not going to like the final episode..."

And, to my thoroughgoing delight, in the very next issue [26: 79-80], there was a letter from the author of the article in which she was heartbroken about the ending: that was not what delighted me, but rather the fact that the letter was written in the mode of squee that I found tremendously touching in the middle of a quite serious journal, and which caused me to raise my hand and greet her as "Friend". ("[I]sn't Paul Darrow gorgeous?" she wrote. Yes, sister. Yes.)

I'm just about to give a set of my B7 videos to someone who has never seen it, knows nothing about it, and - particularly - doesn't know how it ends. Can't wait to see what happens.

On Foundation: there was so much material on Le Guin that I had to file these under 'another time' (BUT IF NOT NOW THEN WHEN?); however, I think my favourite was the review of Four Ways to Forgiveness which fretted that it read like a valediction and that Le Guin might be planning to retire. Don't worry, she has The Aeneid to rewrite first.

First of all, there are an amazing 135 prompts for the 2008 Bujold Fest! Take a look here. I'm sure you'll find something to tempt you. Story posting begins August 10th, and with a minimum word count of 500 words, you definitely have time. (Think: 500 words - that's a Five Things That Never Happened drabble series.) Thank you to sahiya for organizing and for collating that huge list of prompts.

Also, take a look at the beautiful new Blake's 7 fanfic archive Hip Deep in Heroes (great name). I had a play with it this morning and it's dead easy to use: go, post! (I gather that if you're familiar with the Doctor Who archive A Teaspoon and an Open Mind you'll find this similar to use.) Thank you to vandonovan and everyone else who has helped create this.

This year's ficathon is underway at bujold_fic. This is my entry, based on The Curse of Chalion. Written for philomytha, who asked for Cazaril at Gotorget.

( Not a Drop to Drink )

This is the very last story due for last year’s ficathon at bujold_fic. Written for nishatalitha, who has been extraordinarily patient and polite about the delay. nishatalitha asked for “pretty much anything with Cazaril in”, and later asked for something from Betriz’s POV, on falling in love with Cazaril.

Betriz, on Cazaril. After The Curse of Chalion.

( Beatitudes )

Five Things Gregor Vorbarra Didn't Do at Twenty by lightgetsin. Brilliant stuff.

I found a hardback of Falling Free by Lois McMaster Bujold (that's the one about the quaddies, the genetically-engineered humans with an extra pair of arms instead of legs). It was published in 2004 by the NESFA Press and seems to have been conceived as a tribute edition to her father (the book was already dedicated to him), with a foreward by her brother, and a reprint of an obituary. It's got a delightful artwork cover of a six-armed embrace. I don't know if it's rare or whether I got a bargain, but I'm really pleased with it. Oh, it's signed too.

A madness took me, and I agreed to organize a ficathon based on the works of Lois McMaster Bujold, at bujold_fic. You can read more here.

Sign-ups have already started; I'll be handing out assignments on 12 April, and the deadline for stories is 24 May. So you have Easter to mull your story over - come and give it a go!

forodwaith tagged me on the ( 5 questions book meme )

5. tag 5 people to do this: I feel a bit bad about tagging people so give it a go if it seems like a good meme, I'll be interested to read.