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May 28, 2005
Saturday morning musings ...
By two o'clock yesterday I could have rollerbladed up and down the hallways outside the courtrooms. The judges, like everyone else, wanted out early at the start of the Memorial Day weekend so they pretty much cleared their calendars for the afternoon.
Of course, I15 out of the So. Cal basin was bumper-to-bumper for the all points desert ... river rats, Vegas bound ... I'm just hoping like hell most of the partiers stay out that way because my in-custody paperwork is bad enough after a long weekend, let alone the one that officially kicks off the summer season. Sheesh, let the Needles DA office handle this stuff!
This morning is soft and gray, typical LA basin June gloom a few days early. I've got my flag out, we are going to meet with our realtor in a couple of hours and later I have grad annoucements to mail and yet more paperwork for Frisco State U to fill out.
The last several mornings I've been having fun with a site I just added to my blogroll, 100 words or Les Nesman. Each day the host puts a one-word theme or a photograph and challenges the regular contributers and commenters to write a piece of fiction around the theme with the proviso that it is exactly 100 words. I am delighted to see how varied all the stories are and across several genres even within the same theme. Yesterday's issue was a bit different, it was actually to write specifically within the sci-fi genre (but nada to anything to do with aliens). Again, the stories ranged wide.
Personally, I've always been more attracted to character-driven sci-fi rather than tech-driven. I'll take Heinlein's Time Enough for Love over Delany's Dhalgren in a heartbeat.
Zenna Henderson. Does anybody read her anymore? I got to thinking about her with the death of Eddie Albert, who had starred in Escape to Witch Mountain. Henderson's name is no where to be found in the credits, but many have pointed out the film so closely resembles her books that anyone at all familiar with The People would easily believe the film is based on her work.
Tucked away, I still have the paperbacks of her work I bought in the 70's, now yellowed but still beloved. The short stories have great depth and dignity in their simplicity. The characters are alien but accessible, with all the yearnings, flaws and honor of the humans they resemble and yet, these people are ones you'd love to meet, to live with, to swap stories with. This year a full collection of her work was published. I've just ordered it and look forward to being reacquainted with her definitive style.
No, she's not Samuel Delany. But then I prefer Shaker or Mission-style furniture rather than Baroque.
Posted by Darleen at May 28, 2005 08:31 AM