Allegory of Vice

[ellenkushner]

...at Galapagos went very well last night - I think: I was reading (from p. 185 of The Privilege of the Sword), and the stage light was in my eyes so I couldn't see the hall, even when I shaded them. But it seemed to me that Cat Valente, rosefox, agent Shana Cohen, Delia and a number of other glamorous local literati were writhing in a suitable attempt to create a 3-D pyramid of "Man’s heedless quest for Pleasure, of appetites temporal and carnal. See how in their striving each man treads upon the other? And how the Pleasures reach out mindlessly to tempt us?” And they didn't even fall down til the script told them to! I'm withtamago, who suggested we make this a regular thing: "now I'm imagining competitive allegories springing up at cons all over the world. It sure beats cheerleading competitions," sez she, and I say, Go for it!

And my love for Schaffer the Dark Lord just grows and grows. I called him "the Cole Porter of Rap" and he made me write it down and sign it.

All praise to 2muchexposition & her Tor posse for putting together such a swell event.

Comments

[jonquil.livejournal.com]

I am halfway through The Privilege of the Sword, and it is the book I have always wanted to read. Thank you very much.

[ellen-kushner.livejournal.com]

Ooo- thank *you*!

[lutin.livejournal.com]

...and he made me write it down and sign it.

With a fancy quill pen, I hope ;o)

[ellen-kushner.livejournal.com]

Darn - I should travel more fully equipped! (Of course, for a "Cole Porter" quote, maybe a snappy old manual typewriter would have been even more appropriate - and considering such a keyboard was the visual theme of the evening, from the swoonily wonderful cover of Jeff VanderMeer's new novel, SHRIEK, which we were all celebrating, too bad there wasn't one there to do the deed!)

[adelynne.livejournal.com]

Cat Valente can also be known to LJ-types as yuki_onna, fyi. :)

And I would have loved to see that allegory given form!

[abostick59.livejournal.com]

Ah, but did the episode end with a swordfight?

[ellen-kushner.livejournal.com]

Alas, no - one of the things I realized was that, for a General Public crowd, the scene has to be short & sweet - as it was, I started reading a bit too early in the chapter, so had to cut it off right at the Fall of the Allegory. For something like Wiscon, however (ahem! ahem!) I think running it all the way to the swordfight would be most cool. And HPilinovsky has already volunteered for the role of Sabina-on-the-half-shell, should she be required . . . .

[aurenfaie.livejournal.com]

I just finished TPOTS-- I didn't want to finish it, but I couldn't stop reading! Anyway, I loved that scene, especially when Alec said to Alcuin, "What were you doing lurking in allegories and biting me?" Oh! I'm so sad it's over.

[aurenfaie.livejournal.com]

Minus the "and," because I apparently can't type.

[ellen-kushner.livejournal.com]

Maybe not, but you've sure got one hell of an Icon! (blushes)

[meritahut.livejournal.com]

Oh! I'm so sad it's over.

My reaction entirely! It's odd how some books are a good read, some are merely satisfying, and for some, it's utterly tragic when they're done and there are no more pages.

This is when we trap the author in a deep dark dungeon (with a laptop and internet access) and force her to write more.

[ellen-kushner.livejournal.com]

"No! No!" wailed the beautiful author piteously; "I will never succumb to your vile demands!"


Well . . . . maybe.

[meritahut.livejournal.com]

Preparing dungeon now. Will have to strip out the panelling, pull up the wall-to-wall carpeting, get rid of the billiards table, and grow twirling mustachios. I should be able to get rats, dripping-water sound-effects CD, and a cackling wizened fellow prisoner wholesale. No pre-installed leg and wrist irons, though--that stuff plays havoc with the dry wall. We wicked readers will have to put you on the honour system not to stroll out into the rose garden before completing at least five, six hundred pages (If we can still see the floor in the living room, clearly we do not have enough books).