Sauntering Vaguely Downward

A number of people on my list have done this questionnaire and I’ve enjoyed reading their answers, so here are mine.

1. Did you have a cell mobile phone prior to your thirties? Did they exist?
   Yes, I did. But if you wanna talk old tech, let’s spare a moment to remember pagers. I still remember the excitement of getting a pager, and being able to beep my friends. Persons of a certain age: remember the codes? 911 for “OMGWTFBBQ, call me NOW!”, 411 for “info to share. Also, call me NOW!” Hahaha.
   
   
2. Did you have cable when you were a little kid? When did you first get cable?
   No, I didn’t have cable as a child. I don’t think I ever set up a cable television account myself. My flatmates did when I was at university, and I paid my share of the bill.
   
   
3. Do you know what 8-track tapes are and did you ever own an 8-track tape player?
   Yes, I know what they are. No, I never owned one.
   
   
4. Did you own cassette tapes and walkman or tape player in high school and college university?
   Yes. I remember the thrill of making and receiving mix tapes. It took a lot of effort to make a mix tape. My friends and I used to spend inordinate amounts of time decorating the covers and writing out the track lists for one another.
   
   I still own a mixtape that was given to me by one of my close high school friends. It was called "Superfuzz Bigmix". My friend committed suicide fifteen years ago. I hadn’t spoken to him for years. I will never listen to the mixtape again. I will never throw it away, either.
   
   
5. When did you get your first DVD player?
   Er, I’m not sure. My first DVD player was probably integrated with a computer/laptop rather than being a standalone device to be used with a television screen.
   
   
6. Did you learn how to type on a typewriter? Did you own a typewriter growing up?
   Yes to both of these. I took a typing course at the local community college when I was in high school, and I can genuinely say that it was one of the best things I did for myself in preparation for academic and working life. My parents bought me a word processor when I was in high school so I could save my work on disks, too.
   
   
7. What was the first computer you owned?
   The first computer I ever owned was a Mac.I bought it when I was in grad school. I didn’t own a computer at all when I was at university; I either went to the library to check my e-mail (pine!) or chat (ytalk!), or I typed things out on my word processor. Occasionally I borrowed my flatmates’ computers. Mostly to play Super Pong when I was procrastinating.
   
   
8. What age were you when you first got email?
   My first e-mail account was through the university.
   
   
9. What age were you when you first encountered the internet? Was it around when you were a kid?
   I first encountered the internet through friends in high school, who were into various BBSs.
   
   
10. What age were you year was it when you started using Facebook, Twitter, and Dreamwidth, and Livejournal started?
    I am getting tired of this “what age were you” business and thus I have altered the question.
    
    Facebook: I joined in 2006, I think? I don’t know why FB doesn’t make this information easy to find. Oh wait, I remember, because FB sucks. I mostly don’t use FB.
    
    Twitter: I joined in December 2007. I stopped using Twitter in July 2017, though I haven’t deleted my account.
    
    Dreamwidth: I joined in April 2009 and still use it every day.
    
    LJ: I joined in July 2001 and still use it every day. Daaaaaang.I do love my journaling community.
    
    
11. What was your first cell mobile phone? How old were you when you got it? Do you even own one?
    My first mobile was one of those Nokia candybar things. They were excellent. I still fondly remember not having to charge my phone more than once a week. I was older than when I got my pager. :P And yes, I “even” own one, still. It’s a Samsung Galaxy model.
    
    Mobiles have become pretty essential tools. It would be difficult to obtain or maintain a job without one.
    
    
12. Have you ever owned a smartphone?
    Obviously; see above. I would be just as agitated about not being able to find my phone as I would be if I couldn’t find my wallet or my keys.
    
    
13. What was the first printer like and the paper that you used when you got your very first computer? Could it print photos -- the first printer you worked on or owned?
    There is a pretty big technological gulf between the first printer I ever used, which was through a computer course when I was still in primary school and was a dot matrix printer, and the first printer I ever owned, which was a colour inkjet printer and could print photos.
    
    
14. When you were in college university, freshman and sophomore years, did you type on a computer or type-writer?
    When I was at university, I typed on the aforementioned word processor when I was in my dorm/flat, and on a computer when I went to the library.
    
    
15. What age were you when streaming came out? You can pick decade - aka 20s, 30s, teens…
    That’s very generous of you, thank you, meme. Although your question is distressingly vague, as it doesn’t specify what type of streaming. I will therefore choose to rhapsodise over Napster. Napster, for those who never encountered it before it got decisively shut down, was a file-sharing service. It was most definitely operating on the fringes of legality, but I discovered so much great music through sharing MP3s on it, and frankly, I spent more money on music (CDs and LPs) during its brief three-year reign than I have at any other time in my life. I like Spotify, which is its modern, legal equivalent, but because I pay a monthly subscription, it doesn’t engender the same thrill as I used to get from going out to the record shop and hunting up the latest industrial/electronic thing I’d ferreted out on Napster.
    
    Sure, my house is probably less cluttered than it would be if I’d kept up that rate of buying music in hard copy, but I’m not sure I’m as culturally or aurally satisfied. :P
    
    
16. What age were you when you got your first MP3 Player? Do you even own one?
    I don’t remember how old I was, but my first MP3 player had 32MB of storage. I could fit six songs on it, on average. I used it at the gym. I think I probably still “even” have a slightly better MP3 player stuffed away in a drawer somewhere, but I use my phone to listen to music these days, including at the gym.
    
    
17. Did you own a record player, cassette player, CD player or MP3 player as a kid or teen?
    I owned the first three during childhood/teen years. I don’t currently have a record player and that does bother me as I still have a nice LP collection with some rare stuff in it.
    
    
18. At what ageWhen did you start blogging on the internet?
    I first started blogging on the internet a couple of years prior to joining LiveJournal, so let’s say 1999. But the LJ model was what really got me into it, and I have never stopped since.
    
    
19. E-book reader -- when did these come out? What age?
    I imagine “when did they come out” is easily Googled, meme. The “Age of Information” I’m guessing. Sorry, I’m getting a bit snide now.
    
    Anyway, I have only ever owned one e-book reader and that was a Kindle. I used it loads for about 18 months in 2008-2009, I think, and then it died and I never replaced it, because argh, Amazon. Also see: raising small children. I'm pleased, however, that in the past year I've managed to muster enough energy to start reading full-length novels and non-fiction books again, although obviously I still read dead tree editions.
    
    
20. How do you listen to music? On what devices?
    I listen to music through Spotify on my phone and either Spotify or YouTube on my computers and laptop.

If you haven't done so yet, I encourage you to answer the questions, either in the comments here or on your own journal, please.

Just Finished
Okay, I must admit, I got kind of stuck with Otter Country. It was all the internal eye-rolling at the overwrought Nice Middle-Class White Lady Deepening Her Connection with Nature stuff. I couldn’t take it after I realised I had another 220 pages of it left. So I did some fun re-reading to cleanse my palate and rejuvenate my interest. In rapid succession, I consumed Douglas Adams’ The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul and Margaret Atwood’s Morning in the Burned House.

In Progress
I then started Michael Ondaatje’s The Cat’s Table and got completely sucked into the autobiographical narrative. It’s an account of his crossing, by cruise ship, from Sri Lanka to England when he was eleven. His prodigious powers of observation (and diary-keeping) made it an absorbing nostalgic indulgence, written at the request of his children. The navel-gazing and bite-sized, evocative, anecdotal layout of the chapters is exactly to my taste (see: my love for DW and LJ)..

Up Next
Miriam Darlington’s Otter Country. I’ll give it one more try. I always get the sense she’s just on the brink of using the phrase “spirit animal”. If she does, I’m letting it go.

After that, it’s David Mitchell’s Cloud Atlas. I got this for the bloke’s birthday, thinking it was The Bone Clocks. It turns out he’s already read it. Fortunately, his brother got him The Bone Clocks!

I’m finally beginning to tackle the pile on my bedside table that’s mostly been gathering dust for the past year. I managed to finish less than ten fiction books in 2014, and only have strong memories of two: Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie and Spirits Abroad by Zen Cho, both of which I loved. This is mostly because my attention span is shot to hell by the combined pressures of house maintenance, toddler care and an extremely full schedule at work. The latter is temporarily off and although I do now have an infant to look after, that actually affords me some time to practice my now-rusty reading skills. It’s better to pick up a book in the middle of the night than to refresh the Economist or the Guardian on my phone and get worked up about the latest injustice. So! Here we go.

Just Finished
John Scalzi’s Lock In. Now that was good fun and a very quick read. I enjoyed the crime-solving process. Then there were the added bonuses. The gender of the protagonist is never specified and doesn’t matter. Likewise, their (non-white) race is only mentioned once as part of a tangential plot point. It is heavily implied, though( minor spoiler ). Racial diversity is evidenced through the use of names rather than physical descriptions. There are plenty of female characters in professional positions of authority. All of this is presented deftly and integrates smoothly with the plotline and the wry, witty dialogue.

I enjoyed this offering more than Redshirts, which is the only other book of his oeuvre that I’ve read.

In Progress
Ann Leckie’s Ancillary Sword. I had more difficulty getting into this during the first sixty or seventy pages than I did the first book in the series. Perhaps it’s because Breq’s motivation - the overriding sense of anger - is subsumed somewhat by her* need to play her cards close to her chest, as the political game she’s now playing requires. Even though it’s not spelled out as explicitly as in the first book, the sense of her non-human-ness feels stronger, as well. I found myself wishing for an occasional switch of point of view to a character I have more ease in sympathising with - Seivarden, for instance. Now that I’m nearly a third of the way through**, this desire has abated and I’m fully immersed in the action. I try to slow myself down to savour Leckie’s loaded dialogue and meticulous world-building, but it’s getting very exciting.

* I use the pronoun in the same gender-neutral manner as in the books.
** I wrote most of this entry yesterday. The baby had a very disturbed night, so I’m now twenty pages from the end.

Up next
Ben Aaronovitch’s Foxglove Summer. I missed out on Broken Homes (see: 2014: the lost year) but I’ll acquire it if I enjoy this offering sufficiently.

I have thus far failed to explore all three of the authors I mentioned at the end of my last post (Octavia Butler, Seanan McGuire and Ben Aaronovitch). I’m afraid this is because I got completely sucked into the Vorkosigan saga and have not been able to put it down since I started. (I can hear the gleeful cackles from the peanut gallery. Shush. I’ll get to that in a minute.) Also, I still haven’t moved from Cambridge to Birmingham so the dead-tree edition ban continues, barring me from obtaining Octavia Butler’s works.

In chronological order, here’s what I’ve read since the last post (DW/LJ).

Lauren Beukes Moxyland (near-future dystopian cyberpunk, author recommended by ceb)

I must say I’m glad I read Zoo City, her second effort, first. Moxyland was a bit like Cory Doctorow’s Little Brother (which was better overall): trying too hard to be cool. The cyberpunk world, technologies and the self-absorbed twenty-something characters are underdeveloped and unconvincing. The invented jargon serves to confuse rather than enlighten an already muddled plot, and the ending, while successfully tying off some of the loose ends, left me cold. If the revolution falls this flat, I expect no one will even notice that it’s happening.

Verdict: Forgettable. Read Zoo City. I hope this indicates the author is on an upward trajectory and that her third effort will be better.

Ben Aaronovitch Rivers of London (urban fantasy detective novel, author recommended by pbristow and imyril)

Ah now, this was a breath of fresh air after Moxyland! The endearing bimbling of half-Nigerian, half-English PC Peter Grant into an alt!London full of magic, accompanied by his mentor, Thomas Nightingale, and his fellow PC, Lesley May, is peppered with wonderful historical anecdotes and wry humour. Nightingale balances a more mature perspective against the youthful Grant’s, while May* provides a healthy dose of skepticism and the rigour of proper investigative procedure against Grant’s intuitive leaps. Together, they work toward a solution to a set of grisly murders, with near-fatal consequences to themselves. A delight to read, with a full cast of multicultural characters.

*Side note: Why do so few of the reviews mention her? Grumble.

Verdict: Wonderful! Yes! More like this, please.

Ben Aaronovitch Moon Over Soho (urban fantasy detective novel)

RoL broke my determination to switch authors. I had to get the sequel right away and read it. Unfortunately, it wasn’t as good as its predecessor. I suspect this is due in large part to the temporary shelving of both Nightingale and May. Although both novels are told from PC Grant’s perspective, I found him much less appealing without the tempering influences of the other two. The mystery is not quite as engaging, lacking the sense of discovery in the first novel and becoming a bit heavy-handed in its “acceptance of otherness” message (applied to fantastical creatures rather than human race or culture). Still, I liked it, and the little teaser at the end gave me hope that the next installment will restore the balance of characters and plotline.

Verdict: Mildly disappointing sequel, but still engaging enough to make me anticipate the third installment.

Lois McMaster Bujold Cordelia’s Honor (space opera, comprised of two novels, “Shards of Honor” and “Barrayar”, recommended by lots of people)

I admit it: I fell in love with this pretty much instantaneously. Cordelia Naismith! What a wonderful heroine. I was not at all put off by the heavy dose of romance that starts things off. In fact, I think it’s necessary to offset the horrors of the feudal political machinations in the story. I love the societies LMB creates in Beta Colony and Barrayar. I love their contrasts and complexities. Each has advantages and freedoms that the other lacks. Neither is better. On Beta Colony, for instance, all persons are encouraged the full range of sexual expression and experimentation from puberty, but you need to pay and qualify for a licence to have a child, and the barriers to having more than two are nigh insurmountable. On Barrayar, Victorian mores reign, but you can have as many children as you like. I love way these cultures are embodied, expressed and flexed by Cordelia Naismith and Aral Vorkosigan. I loved reading about them so much that I nearly missed my Tube stop on three separate journeys.

( Further thoughts are a bit spoilery )

Lois McMaster Bujold Young Miles (military space opera, comprised of two novels, “The Warrior’s Apprentice” and “The Vor Game”, recommended by lots of people)

The first of the two novels is all about wielding the power of an amazing ability to meet a situation and blag it. Miles is the son of Cordelia and Aral, born with brittle bones and barely 4’9” tall in a society that values physical strength and shuns deformity. ( Reason for this: mild spoiler. )

He has, however, both a brilliant mind and a remarkable gift of gab. He is a manipulator. A situation that he can’t talk himself out of, rare in itself, will usually end up going his way because of the loyalty his reckless personal risk-taking inspires in his associates. He manages, by dint of scraping people out of gutters and giving them second chances, to make himself a pirate captain. In space. Seriously. How was I not going to love this book?

The book introduces a dizzying array of cultures besides Barrayar and Beta Colony (both descended from Earth), including the Oserans and the Felicians. These are not quite as well developed as in Cordelia’s Honor, which delves deeply into Barrayar and Beta Colony through the two main characters. However, the tantalising glimpses given by the peripheral players in “The Warrior’s Apprentice” hooked me deeper into the series, if such an action could be deemed necessary. Miles’ internal dialogue is priceless and his eagle-eyed companions keep him from getting too enraptured with his successes - or sunk by his failures.

I resented the time I had to spend not reading this book.

The Vor Game’s pace proved less whirlwind than the first novel’s, maturing to match Miles’ development as he finishes his military training. A good portion of it is set in Barrayar rather than interstellar space. Barrayar being a rather sombre place, this made the tone less rambunctious. Once Miles manages to wriggle away from his minders (as usual) and off-planet, things pick up. They heat up a good deal more when he manages to land himself smack in the middle of his companions from the previous novel, an interplanetary struggle for control over a wormhole hub and a woman’s insane lust for power. Watching him attempt to sort all this out is both highly amusing and suspenseful.

Verdict: I’m trying not to rush through the entire Vorkosigan saga before the end of my pregnancy, when I expect I’ll be able to do little other than lie in bed read. I imagine, however, that there is a world of high-quality fanfic out there for me to explore when I do.

Currently reading: LMB Cetaganda (another Miles Vorkosigan, yes yes, I know, so much for not rushing), Thomas Levenson Newton and the Counterfeiter, and David Lodge’s Nice Work in dead-tree format. The last was a leaving present for the bloke from his Cambridge research group. It’s about a failed Cambridge academic who ends up taking a job in the fictional English town of Rummidge -- which happens to be positioned in the same place as Birmingham. Hrmmmph!

My friend foxfinial has been getting a lot of undeserved flak for pointing out that some aspects of the dialogue at Eastercon were overtly misinformed and racist. Eastercon, for the uninitiated (which I certainly was before last weekend), is the annual British National Science Fiction convention.

I participated in Eastercon this year as a panelist and a speaker on the Friday. Now, I was fortunate enough to have been invited by a friend and colleague, purplecthulhu, who did a wonderful job making me feel both welcome and comfortable. He helped keep me included in the dialogue during the panel on the space race. I did some of this myself, mind, but I can't deny that it was a boon to have him checking to be sure that each time a topic was introduced, I got to have my say if I wanted, and to prevent me from being put on the spot by the more experienced members of the panel and the audience. This is not an action to be dismissed lightly when there are four people on the panel and you are the only person who is female and not white. purplecthulhu, I salute you.

Despite seeing positive responses to my talk on Twitter under the #eastercon hashtag, I can't ignore that the majority of the audience was male and white. And while I hope that being a "hardcore science bug" who loves her job, as one person labelled me, left the impression that women can indeed be dedicated, enthusiastic engineers and scientists, I have trouble believing that it's an impression that will have a lasting impact.

Why? Because I don't find that most science fiction speaks to me. I received two free books at Eastercon. I got about halfway through both of them, but have little motivation to finish because they didn't engage me. The main characters are male, angst-ridden and on journeys that involve a lot of interaction with other male authority figures. The women, if they are present, are either brawny sidekicks or romantic interests. Even if they're described as clever or technically adept, they never display it through dialogue or the mechanisms of the plot. And did I mention that everybody's white? At the very least, that's what the front covers would have you believe, and when you read the character descriptions - pale skin and white-blonde hair predominating - the image becomes indelible.

So I'm afraid that despite my willing participation in Eastercon and my enthusiasm for the future of space exploration and science, I am not willing to state categorically that science fiction and its fandoms are free of problematic racist and sexist associations that are being propagated by publisher's choices. Attacking people like foxfinial is not going to fix the problem. Pointing out that something is racist is not, in fact, worse than being racist. If you write science fiction, change your choices of main characters, the cultures in which you place them and the journeys you send them on. If you read science fiction, select, review and praise those books. Only then will the perception of science fiction become diverse and inclusive. Because it actually will be.