an informal poll

[rushthatspeaks]

I have, as I know I've mentioned several times here before, an ongoing project in which I try to write about things that I really, really love, because critics don't do that often enough.

I've also not been writing much here lately, partly because I am focused on writing fiction, and partly because I am feeling fairly boring (not bored, there is a difference), but also because I am reviewing things elsewhere. And my principal elsewhere-place has an anonymity policy, so I can't link those.

The difficulty with writing about things I love is that it is, well, difficult. And feeling boring makes it hard to start.

So here's a brief list of things that are really foundational to me, books and films without which I would literally not be the same person. Let me know what it would be most interesting for me to write about, and I will let people's interest, hopefully, push me into writing about some of it.

These are in no order.


Non-fiction:

Lipstick Traces: A Secret History of the Twentieth Century, Greil Marcus
The Pursuit of the Millennium, Norman Cohn
The Motion of Light in Water, Samuel R. Delany
The Language of the Night, Ursula K. LeGuin
To Write Like A Woman: Essays in Feminism and Science Fiction, Joanna Russ

Fiction:

Always Coming Home, Ursula K. LeGuin
The Dark Is Rising, Susan Cooper
Moonwise, Greer Gilman
Engine Summer, John Crowley
the works of Elizabeth Enright, collectively
the works of H.P. Lovecraft, collectively
The Folk of the Air, Peter S. Beagle
The Door into Shadow, Diane Duane
On Strike Against God, Joanna Russ
The Female Man, Joanna Russ
the works of M. John Harrison, collectively

Comics:

Kabuki, David Mack
Hothead Paisan: Homicidal Lesbian Terrorist, Diane DiMassa
Berserk, Kentaro Miura
old-school Elfquest, by which I mean I am ignoring the fact that they even have a webcomic la la la I can't hear you, Wendy and Richard Pini

Film, TV, Anime:

Basquiat, dir. Julian Schnabel
Orlando, dir. Sally Potter
The Adventures of Baron Munchausen, dir. Terry Gilliam
Prospero's Books, dir. Peter Greenaway
The Pillow Book, dir. Peter Greenaway
Revolutionary Girl Utena, dir. Kunihiko Ikuhara
Twin Peaks, dir. David Lynch
The Passion of Joan of Arc, dir. Carl Dreyer


Things which would be on this list, but which I have already discussed elsewhere and am not at this time going to talk about again: Perelandra, C.S. Lewis; Tehanu, Ursula K. LeGuin; Burning Your Boats, Angela Carter; I'll Stand By You: The Collected Letters of Sylvia Townsend Warner and Valentine Ackland; Johanna d'Arc of Mongolia, dir. Ulrike Ottinger; Fire and Hemlock, Diana Wynne Jones; The Neverending Story, Michael Ende; The Lord of the Rings; The Muppet Show.

Comments

[starlady]

Secret History of the C20!

[rydra_wong]

Oooh. Too many things I want to choose. Trying to narrow it down: The Motion of Light in Water? To Write Like A Woman? The work of M. John Harrison? Hothead Paisan?

M. John Harrison would probably be my top pick, if I had to choose one. Extremely formative for me too.

[rydra_wong]

(If I don't try to narrow it down, I'd add The Language of the Night, The Female Man, Lovecraft, and I'd be fascinated to know your thoughts on Twin Peaks.)

Heya!

[redbird]

A lot of good choices, but how about Lipstick Traces (which I have never read) and Always Coming Home, which is a piece of my foundation as well, in ways that I find hard to explain. I doubt I could live in the Valley of the Na, but it matters to be able to think that people will have done so, under the hill of probability.

(And that's a comment you'll understand, and maybe nobody else reading this.)

[dorothean]

I'd love to read your thoughts about any of the Joanna Russ works. I've read The Female Man and To Write Like a Woman but never even heard of On Strike Against God.

[grrlpup]

Elizabeth Enright! Especially the Melendy quartet and any of her adult stories or more obscure stuff.

And Hothead Paisan! I've been thinking about Hothead a lot lately (and absently calling my cat Chicken).

[lnhammer]

For a long while, which was basically my late teens through my late twenties, I reread Always Coming Home once a year. I would be interested in hearing how it is a foundational text for someone else.

---L.

[(Anonymous)]

An excellent list! My votes by category are Lipstick Traces, Engine Summer, Hothead Paisan, and Prospero's Books. (The Pillow Book, on the other hand, is my second least favorite of Greenaway's good films, if that makes any sense.)

Have you seen Sally Potter's debut The Gold Diggers? <http://sallypotter.com/films/the-gold-diggers/> I'd love to read your thoughts on that.

[heavenscalyx]

Ooh, either of the Russes, Hothead, or, as you might guess from my username and icon, Utena, would be delightful. I love reading people's takes on all of them.

[thistleingrey]

I'd be interested in your thoughts on Dreyer's Passion. I saw it during the season that my former chorus performed Voices of Light, which means repeatedly and somewhat disjointedly, though most of the group did watch it once through as well.

[ambyr]

I would be interested in thoughts on The Door into Shadow.

[jinian]

The Door Into Shadow and Orlando.

my random picks

[yhlee]

The Female Man, now that I've read it (I am selfish). Revolutionary Girl Utena. Berserk, which I keep meaning to read, because the TV Tropes pages on it sound awesome.

[roadrunnertwice]

Folk of the Air! I felt like that book got mis-shelved from a parallel dimension; would love some parallax on it.

[rinue]

I always want to hear about Twin Peaks and Gilliam's Munchausen, for they are foundational to me also. And I'm interested to hear your thoughts on To Write Like A Woman: Essays in Feminism and Science Fiction, Joanna Russ

[(Anonymous)]

Utena! Because I loved it, and was annoyed by it, and don't understand it, and don't know how much of it actually makes sense... And based on your comment on the Narnia-Utena fic about Lucifer and Lilith, I think that you have made a sense out of it that I did not, and want to know what it is.

[skygiants]

omg please write about old-school Elfquest! How am I the only person who wants to hear about that? How is it possible that I am the only person here who at the age of eleven was involved in planning to create a musical version of Elfquest set to the music of N'Sync? SURELY THERE MUST BE OTHERS.

[rachelmanija]

The Door into Shadow, Diane Duane. Has never gotten serious attention, unlike many of your other candidates.

The Language of the Night, Ursula K. LeGuin. My single favorite book on books and writing.

[cyphomandra]

Ooh. Elizabeth Enright, if I had to pick just one, but Twin Peaks and The language of the night would not be far behind. And I don't think I appreciate films necessarily all that well (more of a theatre person) but I always enjoy reading work by people who do.

[hunningham]

Several of these (Russ, Le Guin, Delaney, Beagle) are already on my list of best-ever love-to-pieces books, so I'm bookmarking your post as a list of books to investigate further.

If I have to pick one thing for you to review I'd say Prospero's Books. I saw it years and years ago, and was not enamoured. Would love to hear you talk about where you love it.

[gallian.livejournal.com]

Also in no order

Either or both of the leguin (I love her work but got stuck and never finished the last book I picked up despite actually liking it. Get me started again?)
Utena (I suspect I've actually heard this one before in college but would love to hear it again now that I've actually broken my record of never finishing any anime, seen all of it, and digested it enough to have my own ideas.)

[cucumberseed.livejournal.com]

Ooh, Joanna Russ, Twin Peaks, Elfquest.

Not in any order or necessarily together like that. Though if you can get them to hang together...

[teenybuffalo.livejournal.com]

Well, this makes me remember the thing where Joanna Russ turned out to be a huge Buffy fan and while someone was trying to interview her about her own work she kept talking about Spike and Angel and shipping.

[citation needed, but I'm not looking for it because I like this story too much to disprove it]

I guess it would be too good to be true if Joanna Russ turned out to write Twin Peaks/Elfquest crossover fanfic, but

[cucumberseed.livejournal.com]

Yessss.

[juliansinger.livejournal.com]

That was at a WisCon. Transcript, or rather, excerpts.

[teenybuffalo.livejournal.com]

Awesome, thank you!

[stfg.livejournal.com]

My preference would be to hear about the books I have previously read, which would be Always Coming Home, The Dark is Rising, or Light by M John Harrison. Of the things I have not read, I would be interested in the non-fiction of Delaney, Russ and LeGuin and the fiction of Greer Gilman, Peter Beagle, Diane Duanne, Johanna Russ and M. John Harrison.

But really, I read anything you write with interest and don't find you at all boring. I have several times been motivated to seek out things I had never heard of until you wrote about them. :)

[nineweaving.livejournal.com]

Oh gosh. All of them? One by one? Please?

Elizabeth Enright, because I've never seen an appreciation of her.

Orlando

Prospero's Books

Engine Summer, because you're Rush That Speaks.

Any of the non-fiction.

I so love your reviews. And this is a beautiful sequel to your 365 never-reads: books and other media inseparable from your rushness.

Bliss.

Nine

[nineweaving.livejournal.com]

Could you make one tag for books-of-rushness? And include those earlier reviews? It would be lovely to have them under one heading.

Thank you!

Nine

[ethelmay.livejournal.com]

Elizabeth Enright is a foundational author for me as well.

[eub.livejournal.com]

And for me an author whom I've never read with an analytical distance, so I'd be fascinated to hear about that.

On the other hand, Russ is an author I've read but haven't clicked with emotionally, so I would like to hear that together.

[teenybuffalo.livejournal.com]

I'm excited at the prospect of you talking about these things.

Top of my picks:

The Motion of Light in Water by Samuel R. Delany, the work of M. John Harrison (my own special interest is in the Viriconium series), Engine Summer by John Crowley, and Hothead Paisan by Diane DiMassa, because these are all things I enjoyed to some extent but didn't entirely appreciate or Get Into Deeply.

There was something there that eluded me but didn't elude other people, so I'd like to hear someone who appreciated these works talk about them.

[sovay]

I vote for Lipstick Traces, The Folk of the Air, Elfquest, and The Pillow Book.

I do not think you are boring.

[athenais.livejournal.com]

Delany, Crowley, Russ!

[pameladean]

I understand that it is not helpful to say ALL OF THEM, but it was my first impulse.

The Delany, Russ, and Leguin under non-fiction; under fiction, Always Coming Home, because I could not love it; and The Door into Shadow, because I could.

P.

[jry.livejournal.com]

I'm tempted to ask for all the ones I'm not familiar with, and will happily read whatever you decide to write.

Motion of Light in Water is a frequent reread for me and I'd welcome further insights.
I bounced off of Always Coming Home despite being a huge fan of LeGuin. Make me want to try again.
Engine Summer. Duh.
I found The Adventures of Baron Munchausen puzzling.
I came late to Twin Peaks and haven't sought out any commentary so if some were to appear in my friendlist that would be swell.

[negothick.livejournal.com]

Selfishly, I wish you would write about any of the above for a wider (non-LJ) audience. Other than Crowley and Russ, few of your listed writers have had attention in the Journal of the Fantastic in the Arts or Extrapolation. I realize that the academic mode is different from the apercu or belles-lettres approach you're taking, but even so. . .

[papersky.livejournal.com]

I suppose it's a "wider" audience in some sense, but far more people can see something that's online than something that isn't.

[negothick.livejournal.com]

True--though articles published in academic venues do get archived in libraries and are at least accessible through library databases. I often see informal posts on LJ that show a deeper understanding of the material than the articles I am asked to vet for JFA or Gothic Studies.

[oracne.livejournal.com]

Moonwise!
Hothead Paisan!
Elfquest!
The Passion of Joan of Arc, dir. Carl Dreyer - this is the silent one? I would love to hear your thoughts on that. I saw it once with live choir.

[juliansinger.livejournal.com]

Oh geez.

Door Into Shadow, Utena, The Folk of the Air.

(Also you are not boring.)

[gwynnega]

The Joanna Russ books, The Motion of Light in Water, and The Passion of Joan of Arc!

[landofnowhere]

The Dark is Rising, please!

I have not actually read anything else from the list (I own /Moonwise/, did not make it very far in when I tried to read it some years ago, and intend to try again sometime), but would welcome reasons I should.

I have also seen Utena once, and would find burbling about it to be fascinating.

[thomasyan.livejournal.com]

The items I think I would enjoy the most reading about from you are: Dark is Rising, Berserk, and Utena.

[ashnistrike.livejournal.com]

I look forward to your reviews regardless of whether I have read/watched a thing, and regardless of whether I will ever read/watch the thing--they are always entertaining and insightful and not the least bit boring. That said, I would love to hear your take on the Duane and Lovecraft and Utena, and suspect that S would particularly like to hear you talk about Moonwise.

[schreibergasse.livejournal.com]

sovay, wasn't Emily R. writing her dissertation on more-or-less this topic?

Anyway. For me, the list would have to include Sayers's Gaudy Night.

[nightspore.livejournal.com]

Moonwise. Engine Summer. Passion of Joan of Arc.

[papersky.livejournal.com]

Moonwise, but also all the other fiction and nonfiction as it moves you.

[tilivenn.livejournal.com]

I'd love to see your thoughts on Elfquest!