On the writing front, I tried something new after attending the Feminist Science Fiction symposium. Ursula Le Guin made a comment on plot and conflict and genre (which was echoed in a collection of her essays which I've re-read) pointing out how male-grounded science fiction and fantasy stories are. So I thought I'd try to write something that tried to explore her idea of a story as a carrying bag instead of a hunting or war story.
I think I came up with an 800 word prose-poem that uses metaphors borrowed from math theory (mostly) with a little bit of quantum physics thrown in. it works better read aloud, and it sounds a little like a Laurie Anderson song.
Writing it was fun, mostly because it showed me how I limit myself when I write within genre. I'm still thinking about the piece, because it seems derivative, trite, and indulgent. The tone is a little distant, but I want the manuscript to feel like a dream. Part of the indulgence is allowing myself to play with ambiguous homophones. I think the story's voice is strong, and part of me would like to bring it to the Wordos table, but it is so not a Wordos story that I'm thinking it would waste peoples' time.
And... surprise! It's an Orpheus story. I guess I should embrace Orpheus stories to see why I keep returning to them.
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