The Wolfe and the Weekend.
Oct. 19th, 2004 01:36 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
zotzI've just read this interview with Gene Wolfe. He's talking to Neal Gaiman about his upcoming second-half-of-long-novel, The Wizard.
All my books are bears in first draft. Certainly The Knight was. The first draft was terrible, and when I finished it I had an unworkable kludge. That's an engineer's mistake. A doctor can bury his; an engineer's sit out back and rust at him.
Mr Wolfe, of course, was an engineer before he was a full-time author. There hangs another story, but I suspect I've already told you it. I'm very much looking forward to reading The Wizard, because I've read and enjoyed the first half but don't think I understood it. That's the problem with Wolfe - after the first few you realise how much more there is than meets the eye.
This weekend I was down in London seeing Fiona. She wasn't very well, unfortunately. Worse than this, having managed to be unwell on a weekend when she had someone to bring her cups of tea and biscuits, she then completely refused to want cups of tea and biscuits. Shocking.
Saturday night was Siouxsie et many al, of course, and rather fun it was. It was a good concert and I enjoyed it, but it could have been a great concert if it hadn't been for one thing - Siouxsie. Now, I know that going to see a known prima donna and then getting annoyed at her being stroppy, storming off and badmouthing the venue management is probably a little daft, but that's what I did. So I more or less ignored her for the second half and concentrated on watching and listening to Budgie, Leonard Ito, Knox Chandler and (when he was onstage) the entirely unintroduced Martin McGarrick. I really enjoyed myself that way, as I've been a big fan of Budgie's for many years now. With Ito's percussion as well (and some more from the Millenium Orchestra members, but I wasn't well placed to tell when they were playing), it all moved along nicely.
The trip up and down was via Easyjet, and was very pleasant. On the way down, the head of the cabin crew had a distinct Scottish accent, especially when telling us how to put the lifejacket "over your heid". People laughed, which I thought was a bit strange - Edinburgh is still nominally part of Scotland, after all, and Scottish accents are probably to be expected. A moment later we got a reference to the lockers "above your heids" and people laughed again. Most odd. Finally, after take-off, we were told that anyone caught smoking would be asked to leave the aircraft. Fewer people laughed at that one, which I don't understand as arguably it was actually funny.
Oh well. Sarah wasn't flying, which was a shame. I wouldn't mind being able to tell her I'd had a chance to critique her piloting. Well, another chance, really, as I have actually flown with her once already.
A couple of weeks back, when various people were up from Londonshire, one of them (David) texted me something at home and the exchange read it to me over the landline. I've used the hackneyed "American Dalek with a cold" description, but it's not actually all that accurate. She's certainly a Dalek with a cold, but I can't place her accent. On reflection, I think she's probably not American. If anyone would like to aid my research by texting me some blatant filth, please feel free. My phone has a headset socket, so at some point I should arrange to record from it, and you can all text me blatant filth for the BT Dalek to read out to me.
All my books are bears in first draft. Certainly The Knight was. The first draft was terrible, and when I finished it I had an unworkable kludge. That's an engineer's mistake. A doctor can bury his; an engineer's sit out back and rust at him.
Mr Wolfe, of course, was an engineer before he was a full-time author. There hangs another story, but I suspect I've already told you it. I'm very much looking forward to reading The Wizard, because I've read and enjoyed the first half but don't think I understood it. That's the problem with Wolfe - after the first few you realise how much more there is than meets the eye.
This weekend I was down in London seeing Fiona. She wasn't very well, unfortunately. Worse than this, having managed to be unwell on a weekend when she had someone to bring her cups of tea and biscuits, she then completely refused to want cups of tea and biscuits. Shocking.
Saturday night was Siouxsie et many al, of course, and rather fun it was. It was a good concert and I enjoyed it, but it could have been a great concert if it hadn't been for one thing - Siouxsie. Now, I know that going to see a known prima donna and then getting annoyed at her being stroppy, storming off and badmouthing the venue management is probably a little daft, but that's what I did. So I more or less ignored her for the second half and concentrated on watching and listening to Budgie, Leonard Ito, Knox Chandler and (when he was onstage) the entirely unintroduced Martin McGarrick. I really enjoyed myself that way, as I've been a big fan of Budgie's for many years now. With Ito's percussion as well (and some more from the Millenium Orchestra members, but I wasn't well placed to tell when they were playing), it all moved along nicely.
The trip up and down was via Easyjet, and was very pleasant. On the way down, the head of the cabin crew had a distinct Scottish accent, especially when telling us how to put the lifejacket "over your heid". People laughed, which I thought was a bit strange - Edinburgh is still nominally part of Scotland, after all, and Scottish accents are probably to be expected. A moment later we got a reference to the lockers "above your heids" and people laughed again. Most odd. Finally, after take-off, we were told that anyone caught smoking would be asked to leave the aircraft. Fewer people laughed at that one, which I don't understand as arguably it was actually funny.
Oh well. Sarah wasn't flying, which was a shame. I wouldn't mind being able to tell her I'd had a chance to critique her piloting. Well, another chance, really, as I have actually flown with her once already.
A couple of weeks back, when various people were up from Londonshire, one of them (David) texted me something at home and the exchange read it to me over the landline. I've used the hackneyed "American Dalek with a cold" description, but it's not actually all that accurate. She's certainly a Dalek with a cold, but I can't place her accent. On reflection, I think she's probably not American. If anyone would like to aid my research by texting me some blatant filth, please feel free. My phone has a headset socket, so at some point I should arrange to record from it, and you can all text me blatant filth for the BT Dalek to read out to me.
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no subject
Date: 2004-10-19 12:02 am (UTC)It's probably the same woman as lives in my Dad's talking watch. He's partially sighted, and can't read his watch anymore, so Mum bought him a talking one, but the accent of the voice is something like trans-Pacific and he can't understand it!
anyone caught smoking would be asked to leave the aircraft
LOL!
no subject
Date: 2004-10-19 04:15 am (UTC)She does seem to have had a bee in her bonnet for years about the temperature onstage.
Budgie did seem to be enjoying himself immensely, which perhaps compensates for Siouxsie's griping.
no subject
Date: 2004-10-19 04:18 am (UTC)She was.
If she knew it was going to be that cold, though, why did she take her jacket off a few songs after coming onstage?
Budgie did seem to be enjoying himself immensely, which perhaps compensates for Siouxsie's griping.
For me, definitely.
no subject
Date: 2004-10-19 09:58 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-10-19 10:07 am (UTC)Why not just get someone to try sending your landline a text?
no subject
Date: 2004-10-19 05:42 pm (UTC)