M pointed out that the Apple Jack brandy mentioned a few
entries back sounds a lot like Scumble,
a drink that is found in Terry Pratchett’s Discworld
series. Having finished only the first book, I don’t think I
came across scumble, but maybe I did. It was a hazy semester
in college, that.
I propose a new list: Favorite food and drink encountered in
story-factional or fictional. Top of the list would be the
memorably described posset
in the children’s book The
Wolves of Willoughby Chase by Joan Aiken and Pat
Marriot. Also, Proust’s madelines should bear
mentioning. And can we just talk a second about the feasting
in The Odyssey? That book made me very hungry.
Speaking of literary favorites and Madelines, somehow it
escaped my attention that author Madeline
l’Engle passed away this September, at the age of
88. I adored her fiction as a kid and had a subscription to
the geek-tastic Omni
Magazine just because I’d read something of hers in
it. (Course, I LOVED Omni for so many other
reasons…). L’Engle was outspoken on many subjects like
feminism and war and the environment, in a time when it was not
terribly fashionable. Are there women sci fi authors doing
the same today? Is that even a valid question-does it really
matter?
It is especially sad to me that there are so many sci-fi
"classics" authors out there who have passed away, are on the decline
or just not writing anymore. Of course, the ridiculously
prolific Ray Bradbury is still turning them out. Something
about "prying a typewriter from my cold, dead hands" sounds about
right. Ah, anyway. Go not gently into that dark
night. And thanks for the good stories, Madeline.
1 comment on “Scumbles and a Swiftly Tilting Planet”
LeGuin is still, I believe, alive and kicking. Her Left Hand of Darkness is a brilliant landmark in feminist literature at all, especially SF. Earthsea is also, particularly if you read the later ones as well as the originals, very powerful and gynocylogically oriented.
As for newer authors, honestly, I can’t think of too many who fit into that category. Pat Cadigan for certain. Maybe Joan Vinge – although I much prefer her ex-husband Vernor’s writing. And the incomparable Joss Whedon, while having testicles, still self-identifies as a feminist, and it definitely shows in his writings, be they TV, movie, and comic book.
Here, have some extra commas: ,,,,,,,