It's a Jumble

  The winter solstice is past, Christmas and New Year’s are coming. In this brief breath before the major holidays, perhaps you’ll have time to sit with a hot drink and a short story or two. If so, here are some to consider.   Stories of Strangeness and Horror, Dark and Light “Two Motes in the Zuegma Dark” by Sagan Lee in Lightspeed Jules let go of Scarpe’s hand and walked carefully to one side of the platform. “Ever been up close?” “Only on TV.” “You haven’t seen it ‘til you’ve seen it,” Jules said, giddy with the cheesiness of the line. Without looking, he reached for the lever that was right where he knew it would be. It gave way with a satisfying thunk. They were blinded a second time as the hangar bay flooded with light.   A hot-shot pilot impresses his dates by taking them to see Big Blue, the giant battle-mech that he pilots. But things go unexpectedly awry on this particular date. Giant battle-mechs. Jellyfish in outer space! A first date that goe...

  I did it: I started in September, and I have now read the entirety of Dream of the Red Chamber/Story of the Stone , all five volumes as published in the Penguin Classic edition (translation of vol 1-3 by David Hawkes and vol 4-5 by John Minford), each volume ~400-500 pages and in tiny font, single-spaced.   It feels like waking from a dream.   And what a dream! This strange, mesmerizing, shape-shifter of novel. It starts out like a xianxia c-drama ! (why did no one tell me that?) A sentient stone spirit (made and then abandoned by the goddess Nu-wa) falls for a Crimson Pearl Flower and waters her with sweet dew until she becomes a fairy girl. She pledges to someday repay him with her tears. The flower and stone are then both reborn in the human world to meet one another and live out their fates. And here the story shifts, for long periods of time, to something like a 19 th century English novel of manners. The stone is reincarnated as boy named Bao-yu and the f...