THE CHILD GARDEN by Geoff Ryman
Nancy Lebovitz
I just read it--it's incredible, but there's so much going on in it
that it's hard to think of a starting point.
Good news--the book is out as a $14 trade paperback.
Vague spoilers:
Might the world really look like a Picasso painting to a baby? (I'm betting
on a fractured Impressionist painting, but it's just a guess.)
How does the book manage to be so full of various strange stuff while
seeming rather slow-paced?
Is Milena an Ayn Rand character in a somewhat more realistic world?
Is Ryman a Catholic? Is Milena a saint/Christ figure?
Hoping that this gets things started and leads to better questions....
--
Nancy Lebovitz (nan...@universe.digex.net)
October '96 calligraphic button catalogue available by email!
Jo Walton
In article <5n76v0$6...@universe.digex.net>
nan...@universe.digex.net "Nancy Lebovitz" writes:
> I just read it--it's incredible, but there's so much going on in it
> that it's hard to think of a starting point.
>
> Good news--the book is out as a $14 trade paperback.
Good for Orb. Does it have a good cover? I can think of people for whom
this would make a good present.
> Vague spoilers:
These are sort of background spoilers rather than real plot spoilers, by
which I mean I don't really think they'll spoil it much
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> Might the world really look like a Picasso painting to a baby? (I'm betting
> on a fractured Impressionist painting, but it's just a guess.)
I have no idea how they know, but one of the many books on bringing up
small children I read (when I was pregnant and panicking that I knew
nothing about how to do it help help :) said that they don't generally
focus for a few weeks (Sasha did) and don't have perspective for months.
> How does the book manage to be so full of various strange stuff while
> seeming rather slow-paced?
In the first few pages there's the idea that everyone dies of old age in
their thirties because of a cancer-curing virus, the idea that everyone
is purple with photosynthetic skin, the idea that everyone learns everything
through viruses because life is too short to learn any other way - the
genetically engineered polar bear opera-writer doesn't appear until almost
the end of the first chapter IIRC. This is a book so full of ideas and
strange stuff that it's amazing it can lie still on the shelf. But it's
really and also a character novel. The pacing is indeed unusual in some
way that it's hard to put a finger in.
> Is Milena an Ayn Rand character in a somewhat more realistic world?
I haven't read any Ayn Rand. (And as the only reason I'm even slightly
tempted to would be to be better informed during flame-wars, I don't
think I'm likely to at present. :)
> Is Ryman a Catholic? Is Milena a saint/Christ figure?
I don't know the answer to either of those questions. I didn't see her
as a Christ figure or as messianic, even with that weirdly apocolyptic
ending.
> Hoping that this gets things started and leads to better questions....
It's a book it's hard to say much about other than "Wow".
I really liked Rolfa and the polar bear family. I really liked the way
people had relationships with other people that were just like the sort
of relationships people have in real life rather than the sort they have
in literature. Examples would be Milena and Rolfa's mother, and Milena
and the girl whose spoon she melts, I've forgotten her name, dammit, and
the book's packed - when did you last read a novel with friendships like
that?
--
Jo - - I kissed a kif at Kefk - - J...@kenjo.demon.co.uk
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Blood of Kings Poems at http://www.kenjo.demon.co.uk/
1 of Browning's, 1 of EBB's, 9 of Graydon's, 17 of mine
...and a cheerful song about the end of the world
Nancy Lebovitz
In article <865631...@kenjo.demon.co.uk>,
Jo Walton <J...@kenjo.demon.co.uk> wrote:
>In article <5n76v0$6...@universe.digex.net>
> nan...@universe.digex.net "Nancy Lebovitz" writes:
>
>> I just read it--it's incredible, but there's so much going on in it
>> that it's hard to think of a starting point.
>>
>> Good news--the book is out as a $14 trade paperback.
>
>Good for Orb. Does it have a good cover? I can think of people for whom
>this would make a good present.
I didn't notice the cover--probably a bad sign.
>
>> Vague spoilers:
>
>These are sort of background spoilers rather than real plot spoilers, by
>which I mean I don't really think they'll spoil it much
>>
Yes, but some books are much better if they're totally surprising--
I'm glad that I didn't know much of anything about _The Child Garden_
before I read it. The little I did know (that the main character married
a polar bear) wasn't especially accurate.
Yo! All you people who bought the book because Jo recommended it--
*I'm* recommending that you read it, so that we can at least have
a few more people in on the discussion.
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>> Might the world really look like a Picasso painting to a baby? (I'm betting
>> on a fractured Impressionist painting, but it's just a guess.)
>
>I have no idea how they know, but one of the many books on bringing up
>small children I read (when I was pregnant and panicking that I knew
>nothing about how to do it help help :) said that they don't generally
>focus for a few weeks (Sasha did) and don't have perspective for months.
>
I'd heard that babies need to learn to see, but that doesn't give
a lot of information about what the world looks like to them as
they're learning.
>> How does the book manage to be so full of various strange stuff while
>> seeming rather slow-paced?
>
>In the first few pages there's the idea that everyone dies of old age in
>their thirties because of a cancer-curing virus, the idea that everyone
>is purple with photosynthetic skin, the idea that everyone learns everything
>through viruses because life is too short to learn any other way - the
All granted--but that's just the intro--most of the book isn't written
like that.
>genetically engineered polar bear opera-writer doesn't appear until almost
>the end of the first chapter IIRC. This is a book so full of ideas and
>strange stuff that it's amazing it can lie still on the shelf. But it's
>really and also a character novel. The pacing is indeed unusual in some
>way that it's hard to put a finger in.
I suspect it's something about the rhythm--but that's what I always
suspect when writing has a strong feature which I can't explain
easily.
>> Is Milena an Ayn Rand character in a somewhat more realistic world?
>
>I haven't read any Ayn Rand. (And as the only reason I'm even slightly
>tempted to would be to be better informed during flame-wars, I don't
>think I'm likely to at present. :)
>
On reflection, Milena is specifically like Howard Roark of _The
Fountainhead_ and/or Kira from _We the Living_--someone who's haunted
by a vocation, very determined to do the work, and who doesn't
fit in well with the people around them..
The main character in Pollack's _Unquenchable Fire_ is a related
type--she *knows* there's something wrong/missing with what is
completely obvious to everyone else. On the other hand, she's
more irritable and irritating than heroic. I'm pretty fond of her.
The weatherwoman in Spirad's _News at Eleven_ (_Pictures at Eleven_?)
is one of the purest examples of a competence/career driven character
I've read.
>> Is Ryman a Catholic? Is Milena a saint/Christ figure?
>
>I don't know the answer to either of those questions. I didn't see her
>as a Christ figure or as messianic, even with that weirdly apocolyptic
>ending.
She ended up dying for the sake of everyone else, though I grant
that she didn't do it on purpose.
>> Hoping that this gets things started and leads to better questions....
>
>It's a book it's hard to say much about other than "Wow".
Indeed, though multiple readings might help.
>
>I really liked Rolfa and the polar bear family. I really liked the way
>people had relationships with other people that were just like the sort
>of relationships people have in real life rather than the sort they have
>in literature. Examples would be Milena and Rolfa's mother, and Milena
>and the girl whose spoon she melts, I've forgotten her name, dammit, and
>the book's packed - when did you last read a novel with friendships like
>that?
>
And also the way what seems to be the most important thing at a
given time fades into the past for a while. And how what seemed to
be the case gets changed by new information.