{"id":3715,"date":"2007-10-11T11:14:21","date_gmt":"2007-10-11T18:34:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.amptoons.com\/blog\/archives\/2007\/10\/11\/rave-review-for-mandolins-fiction\/"},"modified":"2007-10-11T11:14:21","modified_gmt":"2007-10-11T18:34:09","slug":"rave-review-for-mandolins-fiction","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/?p=3715","title":{"rendered":"Rave Review for Mandolin's Fiction"},"content":{"rendered":"

Not all “Alas” readers may realize that “Alas” co-blogger Mandolin is also a published science fiction and fantasy writer, under her other name “Rachel Swirsky.” The blog “Torque Control” has just published a substantial review of some of Mandolin’s short stories (including links to some of her stories). Here’s a bit of it, but please do go read the whole thing<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cScene From a Dystopia\u201d ((“Scene From a Dystopia<\/a>” (published in Subterranean<\/em> 4; pdf; story starts on page 5.)) is fanfic for a story that doesn\u2019t exist. Moreover it\u2019s an argument for fanfic as critique, as a particularly elegant act of criticism \u2014 or put another way, an argument for a marginal artistic form (in terms of the cultural value generally accorded to it, if not in sheer numbers), even as the surface of the story is an argument on behalf of marginal characters. By its ending, which challenges the reader\u2019s sympathies as much as, if not more than, that of \u201cThe Debt of the Innocent\u201d, \u201cScene From a Dystopia\u201d provokes some important thoughts about the choices and assumptions made by both readers and writers as they go about their business, the most important of which is probably, simply, notice<\/em>. Elsewhere<\/a>, Gene wondered why a character in a story was transsexual, then got called on it, and wondered why he wondered. \u201cScene From a Dystopia\u201d, I think, is among other things a reminder that it\u2019s natural to wonder. If \u201cstraight white male\u201d is the default, then anything else indicates that a choice has been made \u2014 or at least, it implies that a more conscious<\/em> choice has been made than the one made by Stanley\u2019s author. Even if the motive behind that choice is, perfectly validly, \u201cwhy not?\u201d, the choice is there. More<\/a><\/strong><\/em> <\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The review is also notable for the first, but I suspect not last, use of the word “Swirskyian” in the English language. :-P<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Not all “Alas” readers may realize that “Alas” co-blogger Mandolin is also a published science fiction and fantasy writer, under her other name “Rachel Swirsky.” The blog “Torque Control” has just published a substantial review of some of Mandolin’s short … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[53,92],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3715","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-mandolins-fiction-poems","category-whatever"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3715","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3715"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3715\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3715"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3715"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3715"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}