September 20th, 2008
by
Liz Henry
The last few months I’ve been enjoying Catherynne M. Valente‘s Omikuji, a monthly snail mail short story & letter. It’s exciting to get real mail in a real envelope, sealed with red wax and stamped with a scrolly capital “C”. This month’s story is “How To Build a Ladder to the Sun in Six Simple Steps”. I particularly liked the bits about the Mechanical Counterpressure Stocking, and the poety bits about the sun and the small patch of earth under her bed suitable for beginning construction of the ladder.
For the tip of your ladder to blaze and crumble as you reach out, stretching your fingertips into the vacuum, your blood leaping to close the last distance. For the crush of a loop of fire catching you around the waist like a loving arm, pulling you in close, so close, closer than a child suckling at a great ruby breast. You can’t know what you will say as your heart atomizes to gold.
Last night I read Random Acts of Senseless Violence, in which a spoiled yet tough 12 year old rich white girl from Manhattan, Lola, starts a diary in a near future of riots and ruin, covering a year of her life as the U.S. situation deteriorates. Lola’s family slides into desperate poverty. Over the course of the book as Lola joins a gang and figures out how to survive in poverty and the rules of the street, her language changes in some interesting ways. By the last few pages of the book I felt sure the writer was deliberately pushing language far beyond a middle class comfort level on purpose to be extra perturbing; that was interesting. While you would be correct to be suspicious of this set up and the race and class issues that come up (sounds very special white snowflake doesn’t it? but it’s not!) I liked the way the story handled race & class & gender, and queerness, very much. It oh so much more than passes the Bechdel test – it is beautifully about girls’ relationships and the conversations rang very true to me. As the country deteriorates Lola comments on it more and more coldly, kind of like “They shot the new president again…” as she learns how to lasso a rat and bash a rapist’s head in and pick pockets on the subway and what to do in a riot and how the Boss Man who works your father to death is a bastard who should rot in hell, what to do when your scatty but sweet mom overdoses, how to back up your gang sisters in a fight — and about love & survival. I started the book in the evening and read past midnight to finish it; in the morning I was still upset. “Enjoy”! — if you like that sort of thing. I do.
![[Slashdot]](http://slashdot.org/favicon.ico)
![[Digg]](http://digg.com/favicon.ico)
![[Reddit]](http://reddit.com/favicon.ico)
![[del.icio.us]](http://images.del.icio.us/static/img/delicious.small.gif)
![[Facebook]](http://www.facebook.com/favicon.ico)
![[Technorati]](http://technorati.com/favicon.ico)
![[Google]](http://www.google.com/favicon.ico)
![[StumbleUpon]](http://www.stumbleupon.com/favicon.ico)
- More blogging by
Liz Henry at
http://liz-henry.blogspot.com
Previous:
Space General Lydia van Dyke --- Next:
Quick, whip out your bio/logic programming bars
Filed under assorted | Comments (2)
[...] about the sun and the small patch of earth under her bed suitable for beginning construction of the Go to Source >>Continue reading this [...]
I’d had Random Acts recced to me elsewhere, and I’m definitely going to have to pick it up now. Thanks for the review, Liz!