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I'm in print again! This time, it's "Cloud" in the November/December issue of Asimov's Science Fiction.
I'm afraid the cover is a little misleading. "Cloud" is not a hard-science tale of survival featuring an astronaut descending through the atmosphere of a gas giant, reliant only on quick wits and a vacuum suit. Alas. After seeing the artwork, I can't help feeling a little guilty about that. Maybe I should write that cover story someday.
Nevertheless, I am proud of the story. It wasn't easy creating a world that exists on the surface of an enormous cloud with New York City at its apex. In fact, it took me a couple of years to write--or, rather, to discover exactly why I was writing a tale of World-as-Cloud. But it came out well, I think, and now readers have the opportunity to make up their own minds about it.
And today's diagram . . .
I've mentioned before that a common development in recent-ish literature is the fantasy novel where the hero/heroine one by one acquires a surrogate family. If you doubt this is a real thing, just take a look at Phil and Kaja Foglio's ongoing online graphic novel Girl Genius (you can find it here) and count the number of allies currently surrounding her.
I did something similar with The Iron Dragon's Mother. (I could hardly avoid it, given that it has a substrate of commentary on what fantasy is and should be.) But I flipped it by using the myth of Inanna as a structural model for the second half of the novel. When the goddess Inanna descended to the underworld, she had to lose, one by one, her armor, her sources of power, her clothing, and, ultimately, her life. Only then could she rise again.
This chart (a timeline reading from top to bottom) catalogs everything that Cat has lost and gained, in order to make sure I hadn't forgotten anything. Because it's only when she's lost everything, including her new name, that she can find a proper resolution to the novel.
Mind you, when that resolution arrived it came as a surprise to me. But given all that Caitlin had paid for it, it was the only one that made sense.
And as always . . .
I'm on the road again. If you're going to be at Capclave this weekend, be sure o say hello.
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7 comments:
Huh. So poor Caitlin was modelled on Inanna, "Goddess of love, beauty, sex, desire, fertility, war, justice, and political power": https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inanna
Well, that fits. But then, who's the *real* goddess, who puts Cat to work at the sewing machine, late in the book?
OK, worked out that Innana = Ishtar (±). Prettier name, the latter.
Cool image of Ishtar, from an Akkadian seal sometime around 2350-2150 BC:
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ishtar_on_an_Akkadian_seal.jpg#/media/File:Ishtar_on_an_Akkadian_seal.jpg
And the Song of Songs! Although poor Cat misses out on this aspect of being human. Maybe on her next outing?
Novelists are unlikely to run out of classical inspirations, are they? "Sumerian love poems involving Inanna and Dumuzid .. ." I'm too lazy to look it up, but Cat's brother's part-time lover was Dum-something, wasn't she? Coincidence?
Ishtar as Queen of the Night!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burney_Relief
NB her "bird of prey" = DRAGON! scales & talons. Plus the wings, of course.
Inspiration for the old Silverberg story of a somewhat similar name & theme??
If the BM's idea of the plaque's original paint job is anywhere near correct ... Well!
Definitely a busty babe!
And here's a cool Akkadian poem, DESCENT OF THE GODDESS ISHTAR INTO THE LOWER WORLD
http://www.ancienttexts.org/library/mesopotamian/ishtar.html
"Gatekeeper, ho, open thy gate!
Open thy gate that I may enter!
If thou openest not the gate to let me enter,
I will break the door, I will wrench the lock,
I will smash the door-posts, I will force the doors.
I will bring up the dead to eat the living.
And the dead will outnumber the living."
Writing poetry on clay tablets (and then firing them) does encourage brevity!
I don't know if you saw this prior, but not a bad model for Cat breaking into Lys. Hey, steal from the best! Or oldest?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ys -- French spelling for Lys, "a mythical city that was built on the coast of Brittany and later swallowed by the ocean."
"If thou openest not the gate to let me enter,
I will break the door, I will wrench the lock,
I will smash the door-posts, I will force the doors.
I will bring up the dead to eat the living.
And the dead will outnumber the living."
It might have been more in character, for Cat to raise this ruckus with Raven at her side -- Raven with her Browning Hi-Power (or whatever).
Were you a fan of, umm, the Famous Dead Fan Artist who drew "Cheech Wizard" for National Lampoon, back when we were both a LOT younger? Vaughn Bode, and I can't find the exact one online. But if you beg, I can dust off my antique copy & photograph it. . .
Anyway, the HAT is challenged by a boastful oriental martial-arts expert. {SPOILER ALERT} Cheech pulls out his pistol & blows away the fool. "Welcome to the West, gooko." Heh.
Ol' VB was quite the tit-man!
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