Tarr-y, Tarr-y night
Mar. 7th, 2003 10:58 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
magidYesterday evening I went to a talk by Judith Tarr. She spoke about history and the writing of fiction, from historical fiction to alternate history, and everything in between. It was interesting to hear her take on things, including the utility of advanced degrees in writing fiction, and balancing trying to think like a non-20th century person with writing for an audience. I suppose I shall now have to read some of her books :-). Side note: she's deaf, but she spoke very clearly. I was impressed.
The room that the talk was in was wonderful, a snazzy room in a Harvard building I'd not been in before, one that originally had been someone's house. I kept thinking MissDimple would really enjoy seeing it. The walls were mostly wood, except for some panels that were pressed something (not tin) with a complicated swirly pattern of greenery in it. There were two fireplaces, each tiled with beautiful hexagonal tiles. There were two patterns for the tiles: one was fancy intertwined greenery, while the other was a beautiful peacock. There was a skylight, far above, since along three sides of the room were balconies with arches allowing people to look down. The windows on the main level of the room were old glass, all wiggly and interesting.
I hadn't known that Broadway Market is temporarily closed. They're redoing the interior, which is a good thing, I suppose (I thought the old one was fine), but a nuisance when I thought I'd pick something up (even overpriced as it would be) on my way home. Ah, well.
The way Bush talked about Saddam, saying it was Saddam's choice whether there would be war or not, made me think of a batterer, telling his wife that it was her fault if she got hit.
Yesterday my work phone died. Sure, I still had a dial tone, but none of the buttons worked. It was rather strange. Happily, there was another phone available, so I switched them. Still, I hadn't realized they would die in that sort of way before.
I hadn't realized that, untreated, one kind of strep can turn into flesh-eating bacteria. Ew.
Penguin update: the penguins swimming in circles have stopped their persistent migrating (apparently making it half the length of their natural migration), and are now nesting. Their keeper discovered that they like Johnny Mathis (?)...
salutory: keeping healthy by greeting people
A couple of times in the last day or so, something has been momentarily weird with my vision. I think it's the left eye, and somehow things look slightly different, in a way I don't have words for, like the difference between vision through glasses and vision through contacts: it's different, but hard to describe just how.
L
The room that the talk was in was wonderful, a snazzy room in a Harvard building I'd not been in before, one that originally had been someone's house. I kept thinking MissDimple would really enjoy seeing it. The walls were mostly wood, except for some panels that were pressed something (not tin) with a complicated swirly pattern of greenery in it. There were two fireplaces, each tiled with beautiful hexagonal tiles. There were two patterns for the tiles: one was fancy intertwined greenery, while the other was a beautiful peacock. There was a skylight, far above, since along three sides of the room were balconies with arches allowing people to look down. The windows on the main level of the room were old glass, all wiggly and interesting.
I hadn't known that Broadway Market is temporarily closed. They're redoing the interior, which is a good thing, I suppose (I thought the old one was fine), but a nuisance when I thought I'd pick something up (even overpriced as it would be) on my way home. Ah, well.
The way Bush talked about Saddam, saying it was Saddam's choice whether there would be war or not, made me think of a batterer, telling his wife that it was her fault if she got hit.
Yesterday my work phone died. Sure, I still had a dial tone, but none of the buttons worked. It was rather strange. Happily, there was another phone available, so I switched them. Still, I hadn't realized they would die in that sort of way before.
I hadn't realized that, untreated, one kind of strep can turn into flesh-eating bacteria. Ew.
Penguin update: the penguins swimming in circles have stopped their persistent migrating (apparently making it half the length of their natural migration), and are now nesting. Their keeper discovered that they like Johnny Mathis (?)...
salutory: keeping healthy by greeting people
A couple of times in the last day or so, something has been momentarily weird with my vision. I think it's the left eye, and somehow things look slightly different, in a way I don't have words for, like the difference between vision through glasses and vision through contacts: it's different, but hard to describe just how.
L
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ACK
Date: 2003-03-07 09:26 am (UTC)Re: ACK
Date: 2003-03-07 09:48 am (UTC)I don't remember reading anything by her, though part of me suspects I read one, once. I have the Avaryan trilogy, but couldn't get into it when I last tried. Is it worth it?
ΒΈ
Re: ACK
Date: 2003-03-09 09:44 am (UTC)Why did you go to a talk by her when you were not familiar with, or at least been able to get through, some of her books? Not criticizing, just curious.
Re: ACK
Date: 2003-03-09 09:52 am (UTC)A friend of mine who loves her stuff invited me along to this talk, which was being given to Harvard grad students (except for the two of us my friend asked), mostly in medieval history/lit. I figured that I just hadn't read the right stuff of hers yet, and it was an interesting topic, so worth going to. I guess I feel like she's someone whose stuff I respect (ie, it's not just mind candy), even if I haven't really read, so I thought she might have interesting things to say.
Re: ACK
Date: 2003-03-09 11:47 am (UTC)