Breakfast at Tiffany's

I think I'm a rarity in that I read Truman Capote's novella Breakfast at Tiffany's before watching the movie for the first time yesterday.

Upon finishing the novella, I wondered a bit why so many girls my age loved the movie version, calling it a romance. Now I understand!

As I watched the movie, I kept wondering if I had missed so many major plot points, because that happens to be a lot when I am reveling in an author's writing style, as I did with Capote's writing. Of course, what had really happened was a lot of changes made by the writers, most especially to the ending.

In the end, I liked the movie, although it was almost ruined entirely by Mickey Rooney's racist portrayal of Mr. Yunioshi.


Do you guys like the novella or the movie better? If you haven't read the novella, you totally should! Capote's writing is exquisite. What do you like about the movie?

Air by Geoff Ryman

At this point, I've forgotten a lot of what was discussed when my feminist science fiction book club met to discuss Geoff Ryman's Air.

I liked most of this book. Chung Mae was a compelling and competent protagonist, but still severely limited by a patriarchal society that was technologically lagging behind everybody else on the planet.

Air is like the Internet, but unstoppable and entering into your mind. It take Chung Mae's community, which barely has any telephones, by surprise. People die from shock. They are given another year to prepare. Chung Mae is illiterate, but the only person who knows how to manipulate the TV.

It won the Tiptree Award in 2005. The Award is supposed to recognize literature that pushes the boundaries of gender, but I am not seeing how that happened in this book. I would easily agree that the book is feminist, just like Sarah Hall's Daughters of the North, I am really not seeing what is happening that is gender-bendy. At book club, someone suggested that because Chung Mae's society is so patriarchal, it might be that women taking charge of the community was gender-bendy, but that's a pretty weak argument in my opinion.


Also, our book club spent the most amount of time talking about a specific thing that is spoiler, but also does not ruin the plot of the book. I'll still put it behind a cut just in case.

( Possible spoiler! )

I am convinced that Ryman is trying to make a huge point here, but none of us got it.
ETA: Read badgerbag's comments! She has a very thought-provoking reading that makes more sense to me!

He is going to be one of the two guests of honor at 2009's Wiscon, and I'm looking forward to having the opportunity to ask him.


Spoiler-event aside, I highly recommend this book! I loved his writing.

Demo

This is actually a collection of 12 short stories. In most of them, a character has a superpower, but Wood confronts them in a more realistic manner than X-Men. Power is important, and often subverted by those with powers. Every time I thought a story was settling into a cliche, I was shocked.

I liked Emmy's the best, although Kate's truly surprised me.

I like this more than I liked The New York Four, but not by a whole lot.


What I really enjoyed was Becky Cloonan's artwork, which changed in each story. Sometimes it was very manga-esque; sometimes it was reminiscient of Bryan Lee O'Malley's Scott Pilgrim. Always, it was superb and appropriate for the story.