saturday hangovers!

I know, I know, I intended to sleep in this morning, but I appear to have a surplus of energy and didn't sleep all that well anyway. The little burst of juice normally comes whenever I've finished a big project; it's one of the ways I know I'm actually done. So, up: tea.

I've neglected to point to some really interesting stuff this week, which I will remedy Right This Instant. (The bullets are causing fits, so the return of the numbered list.)

1. I hope you all read the fabulous Moorish Girl every day and know already about the fabulous Randa Jarrar who posts there on Fridays. I just read her lovely story "The Lunatics' Eclipse" at the Ploughshares site, a dreamy love story about the moon and circuses and ants. I suggest you follow suit.

2. The excellent Las Vegas blog Nowhere pays a visit to the Holy Grilled Cheese. Bookmarked. (Via Boing Boing.)

3. So, there's this Jennifer Howard column about fantasy and science fiction and the Good Vs. Evil model, which somehow also manages to blame Susanna Clarke for not writing The Lord of the Rings and to show that Howard basically knows NOTHING about SF. A sentence, plucked from context: Maybe the times are just too strange for realism. I would submit that all times are too strange for realism. (Now, now, I like a good realistic story as much as the next person, it's just I hardly find them that don't have a splash of something unreal to liven them up. Prepare the stakes!) And just to back up the whole "doesn't know what she's talking about" assertion above, another little taste, a whole paragraph this time: Like most former refuges in the modern world, fantasy literature no longer offers a secure retreat. Nor does it offer a reliable moral proxy for real-world troubles. The fight between Good and Evil increasingly resembles our own tangled inner conflicts; the battle for Middle Earth has become a struggle for self-knowledge. Conviction has vanished, and only its epic trappings remain. Whoa. Deep. Also, bullshit.

4. The Guardian runs Julie Burchill's top ten books for teens and there's some really excellent stuff on there, including the must-spoken-of-lately Phillip Pullman's Dark Materials books. (Via Sarah Weinman.)

5. Justine comes up with a new title for the second book in her Magic or Madness trilogy. Also, totally unconvincingly clames not to be a chin-stroking villain.

6. Imaginary friends study summarized and linked at Boing Boing. Read Ben Rice's Pobby and Dingan for more!

7. Names of ancient cities at MeFi.

8. The Rake admits not finishing The Quick and the Dead -- blashphemy! -- and links to an excellent Boston Phoenix review of Joy Williams' latest, Honored Guest. I can't wait.

9. Ms. Karen Joy Fowler makes the Richard and Judy list. Otherwise known as the best news of the week. Yay!

Now, more tea.