11th Canadian Challenge - 14th review - Fresh Girls

As I hinted in my review of Dead Girls, there are strong links between that collection and Evelyn Lau's Fresh Girls and Other Stories.  However, there are no dead bodies piling up in Lau's stories, which is a bit of a relief (particularly as Toronto is currently finding out about the doings of a serial killer stalking the gay community, so it all hits far too close to home).  Indeed, there is really no violence directed against any of these young prostitutes, though one might argue that they are on the receiving end of emotional violence.  In the first two or three stories, a pimp seems to be involved, so there is certainly the potential for violence or abuse.  Nonetheless, it is almost refreshing to read stories about prostitutes that don't automatically devolve into violence against the women.

What is present in many of the stories, particularly "Roses" and "Marriage" is that in some cases the young women are dreaming that their johns will fall for them and save them from this life.  In "Fresh Girls," one of the women begins confronting the fact that there is always fresh meat and someone even younger just around the corner.  The shelf life of a typical prostitute is not all that long.  Thus, it is critical for them to develop regulars, even if they are pretty distasteful, such as the old man who is hoping that hiring his escort will solve his erectile dysfunction problems.

One avenue that some of the prostitutes go down is specializing in bondage, becoming dominatrices.  While there is still odd power imbalances (in that the men are still paying for these services), they still seem better off than run-of-the-mill prostitutes and they probably can maintain a career as a dominatrix longer.

It's hard to rate the stories just on their literary merit, aside from their adult content.  The stories are short and to the point.  Mostly the women strike me as sad cases, though it isn't always clear they view themselves as victims, particularly the dominatrices.  Maybe the saddest is the woman in "Glass" who punches out a window and then has to deal with cleaning up the mess.  She seems particularly unable to cope with her tenuous situation, but as I said, most of the women have generally come to the point where they don't like their careers, such as they are, very much, but they don't see any clear options out.  It is a very rare person, like Evelyn Lau herself, who finds a path out of the sex trade.  Anyway, the collection is a fast read and worth checking out for those who are drawn to the seedier side of urban fiction.

Back to boots

We had a decent stretch through the weekend where it was dry and relatively sunny and not even that cold.  I got lulled into the false complacency and didn't bother to check the weather on Monday morning.  Big mistake.  I got caught at work with just regular shoes as it snowed all afternoon.  It was a very powdery snow, but it still made a big mess of the sidewalk on the way home.  I actually had to shovel that evening and then again in the morning.  It has stopped for now though apparently it will probably snow again at some point today.  Tomorrow should be ok, then the bottom drops out again.  Friday is supposed to be something like -9 C!  And the following week we won't break freezing.  It does look like it will be a tough February.  Oh joy.

So perhaps I should just provide a few updates.  I've been going to a lot of theatre, most of which I appreciated more than actually enjoyed.  I have a few thoughts I should try to get down soon, but basically I am wondering why theatre has really stayed so conventional when art films and the art world more generally seems to want to keep moving in an avante-garde direction with some inevitable counter-currents.  I suspect at the end of the day it is because theatre doesn't exist without a paying audience and the audience today seems pretty conventional.  Anyway, more on that later.

I have not been very good about going to the gym.  I just really don't like going out there when it is cold.  I might go a bit more if we had a tunnel instead of the bridge over the railroad tracks, but fundamentally I just don't like shuffling through the snow.  It's probably going to be a perpetual problem (the whole point of getting the gym membership was to work out when I wasn't biking, i.e. during the winter!).  Anyway, I will see about going tonight as it is one of the last days left before it gets really cold.  I guess I would give myself a D on going to the gym.  A C+ for doing some exercise at home in the mornings.  Maybe a B for improving my diet at work, cutting out the sugary snacks I relied on in the morning and replacing this with fruit (and chewing gum).  It would be a B+ except I haven't been good about avoid temptations, such as co-workers leaving cookies around...  Definitely a lot of room for improvement.

I finally got back into the quilting and am getting fairly close to having the second panel ready.  It looks like this when the two parts are put together.

I did some calculations, and I think it is going to be on the small side.  I probably will need to put on extra wide borders.

Anyway, I have only put in a few hours rewriting my script for the Fringe, so I think I need to make that a much higher priority through the end of the week.  Hopefully I can report back soon that the next draft is ready.

Ursula Le Guin 1929-2018

I don't generally write too much about genre authors in the blog, though my reading through my teens was dominated by science fiction and some forays into fantasy.  I thought I should take the time to mark the passing of one of the giants of the field - Ursula Le Guin.  Generally, I would pair Ursula Le Guin with Roger Zelazny as innovators that did something quite new with the field, delving more into myth (in Zelazny's case) and getting more into the anthropological side of non-human societies (in Le Guin's case).  It's been decades since I read The Left Hand of Darkness, but I still remember what an amazing thing it was to conceive of a species who could change gender in response to environmental stress.  While it was a much slighter affair, Changing Planes has a more playful approach to world building.

I recently introduced my son to the Earthsea Trilogy (I think the other novels are still a bit beyond him).  Imagine my surprise when I learned that she had added another 3 novels to the original trilogy!  I haven't decided when I will try to tackle them, but maybe next year (perhaps slotting them in after DeLillo's Cosmopolis?).  I see that at some point in 2018, an illustrated omnibus edition of The Earthsea Saga (including The Daughter of Odren) is supposed to be coming out, though I may decide I don't really need this.

I did buy relatively recently two of her short fiction collections for the Kindle, but I haven't gotten that far through them.  One is called The Found and the Lost and is comprised of novellas, including Vaster Than Empires and More Slow, which I just need to sit down and read.  The other is called The Unreal and the Real.  At a minimum, I should read "The Wild Girls" and "The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas."  I'm fairly sure I read her earlier collections The Wind's Twelve Quarters and The Compass Rose, but that would have been a long time ago.

In addition to the Earthsea Trilogy, The Left Hand of Darkness and Changing Planes, I read The Lathe of Heaven.  I probably read The Dispossessed, but I am not certain.  I think I probably did not read The Word for World is Forest.  I know I did not read Malafrena nor Orsinian Tales.  Most of her novels and stories are now collected into 3 LOA volumes.  I'm not in any huge hurry, so perhaps in a few years I'll see if I can pick these up and then go through the Hainish cycle in the proper order.  Always Coming Home was also recommended as another one of her anthropological tales, but probably one to read when in the right frame of mind, i.e. not as a typical subway commute book.

Sick Again

This has been a particularly challenging late fall/winter.  I don't know why I have gotten sick again, aside from perhaps being exposed to vast numbers of people at work (more than in my previous job).  Of course, there are times I push myself too hard and don't sleep properly...  Just this past Sunday, I went to see Lear at Harbourfront and was having the most trouble keeping my coughing to a minimum (at scene breaks and so forth).  I had planned to go out again to the TorQ concert, but in the end, just stayed home and tried to get some rest.  That didn't prevent me from waking up in the middle of the night and reading to the end of Mitford's The Pursuit of Love.

I dragged myself to work Monday, but it was pretty evident by the afternoon that I was really sick.  I stayed home Tuesday and did sleep in most of the day.  I feel a little bit better, but still not great.  I think I do need to try to make it to work Wed.  Now whether I really should go see A Delicate Balance at Soulpepper after work is a different matter.  It may already be too late to switch the ticket, but I'll just see how I feel in the morning.

It wasn't all that long ago, last week, that I was thinking how you don't really appreciate it when you are well, and now I have come down with another frigging cold.  So frustrating!

Small-town Toronto

While it doesn't happen to me all the time, from time to time I do run into someone I know outside the work setting.  In one case, it is the mother of one of my daughter's friends.  They live about a block away and 2-3 times a month we end up on the same bus in the morning.  It doesn't happen nearly as often in the spring/summer/fall, as I am usually riding my bike. Of course, if I am over at Withrow Park or at some school event, then it is hardly surprising if I run into people I know from the neighbourhood, and that doesn't really count.

Last Thurs. I ran into one of the city planners I know on the subway, and we had a bit of a chat.  Then Sat., I was over at Danforth Tech and saw a former co-worker.  He seemed pretty happy (and glad to be in a new job).  And periodically I run into other people I know.  I'm sure it would happen more if I didn't move around as often (and simply knew more people from school, for example).  And I am quite sure this happens far, far more often in Charlottetown or St. John or St. John's, but it is still always amusing to me when it happens.

Minor Achievements for the Week

I have gotten slightly better about not only writing about my frustrations, even though they are often top of my mind.  Anyway, I have been doing reasonably well at sticking to a new routine of crunches and push-ups every day.  The number of push ups is pretty laughable, but I am sure it will get better.  Crunches are generally not a problem.  I really didn't want to, as the weather was much colder than forecast, but I did go to the gym last night.  There is a small chance I will go tonight, after a parents' night at the middle school, but most likely it will be Sat. afternoon.  I'm eating a bit better and exercising a bit more, but there is such a long way to go to lose enough weight to feel like I've finally turned the corner.  That is frankly depressing.  (I won't even list a number I'd like to lose, since that would be even more depressing.)

At any rate, I also got the sewing machine ready and sewed another strip of the quilt.  There was a fairly long layoff over the winter break.  I'm closing in on the 2nd panel.  Unfortunately, as I mentioned, there will be more ripping and resewing of the 3rd and 4th panels, but this will still come together.

I finished a memo for work, though there are some other work-related things I have been putting off until essentially the last minute.

The main goal for the weekend will be to make another pass through Final Exam and try to tighten and improve the script (and start getting the next batch of actors -- I have one definite and two probable so far).  I'll check back next week to update on my progress on that.

Missing in Action

I have been somewhat absent from the blog lately.  I am saving up a number of posts, including a review of Evelyn Lau's Fresh Girls and some thoughts on Trollope's The Way We Live Now.  I've basically either been reading (making the final push on the Trollope) or working on a special project at work, which has been particularly interesting to me.  I have not gone to the gym often enough (it didn't help that it got very cold again) nor have I been keeping up with the sewing.  I suppose I will get back track relatively soon.  At least I hope so.

The other thing I have been doing is exploring the music on Apple Music, but also on Naxos Jazz.  It turns out the Fantasy/Prestige titles, which used to be on eMusic, have ended up on Naxos Jazz.  (Though the titles that are in the public domain in Europe usually end up on some of the other streaming sites.)  Anyway, it truly is like being a kid in a candy store, and I have been listening to quite a lot of music while doing these other things.  (I'm trying not to drive myself crazy trying to listen to everything, as it is impossible.)  I think in the end, I will end up subscribing to Apple Music, though at that point I will have to cancel eMusic.