Much as I enjoy your discussion, it grated when you concluded a feminist discussion with a comment about listening to Galactica Suburbia while cleaning your house. This reminds me very much of how a certain Labour Party member (and later elected politician) gave his wife (a strong feminist) a book on Germain Greer and an ironing board for her birthday. All day at work, there were times of quiet work interspersed with outbursts from the lady in question, denouncing the gift of the ironing board and the irony of gifting both together.

cheers Nalini

I very much enjoyed your discussion.

FishpondWorld has just provided me with a copy of The Courier’s New Bicycle. It’s looking like a good candidate for the Galactic Suburbia award to me. Fortunately for my household, there are leftovers in the fridge. Ta.

First of all: Hi! I was introduced to the podcast by lauredhel at “Hoyden About Town” a few months ago, although have only been listening since I got a new phone and discovered you’d moved to podbean (my old phone did not want to play with your old podcast). I have been gradually listening my way forwards and backwards since then. I’m picking up recs and generally enjoying the discussions - so, thanks! The Yarn podcast coincided with the start of my holidays and a bit of a spending spree at my local indie bookshop, and so I figured I’d give the book a go.

My impression of it was somewhere between Tansy’s and Alisa’s. I did not go in with particular expectations, so I wasn’t disappointed in the same way Alisa was (and although I do a lot of craft-y and yarn-y things myself, it has never formed the basis of any significant community for me). Like Tansy, I enjoyed the writing and the vocab and the world-building.

But the whole thing was a bit too empty for me. I felt like I was being told things that had happened without ever getting to the point or the climax of the story. Yes, yes, ripping a thread from Bunny was a climax. But it didn’t feel particularly climactic to me, perhaps because nothing really seemed to happen as a result of it. And I never sympathised with Tane, which didn’t help with the general feeling of emptiness.

A couple of comments on your comments. First, I can’t remember whether it was Tansy or Alisa (it’s now been a couple of days since I listened to the podcast) who said that she would have expected someone to be finding a bit more pleasure in the fashion that was going on. I did get a sense that Tane did take pleasure in his work _now_. However, I agree that his attitude towards women’s clothes is a bit off.

Someone said that there was no single pleasant character in the book. I disagree. I liked Pheff (Tane’s present assistant). But he was a bit one dimensional.

Also, rather than being a particularly twisty twist, I thought the fact that Tane was Bunny’s son was obvious - ok, not from the start, but from a significant number of pages before the denouement. What I did _not_ understand was why Tane’s father had stolen him to keep him in the slubs, why Tane was allowed to live after he ripped the thread from Bunny, and how he got to where he is in the “present”. I actually think that those details could potentially have made a much more interesting story (or at least, would have helped flesh it out a bit).

Finally, for the record, I totally agree with Tansy (I think?) about the abhorrent use of the only apparently trans* character as something of a villain. I don’t think this was done maliciously, but at the very least, it uses trans*-ness (or something very like it) as a plot twist. Can we please stop doing that? Kthx.

I would be interested in reading Grey, to see what else Armstrong does with the world-building and language and vocab, so Alex, please add me to your random list for the draw.

Thanks again to all three of you for the podcasts generally.

I just listened to the Joanna Russ episode. I have not read any of her work, but I’ve ordered, _How to Suppress Women’s Writing_, and will be borrowing, _The Female Man_, from the library, so you do have an influence on what people read.

I do not know if you ladies read much Urban Fantasy, but one of my favorite books of the year is, _My Life As a White Trash Zombie_, by Diana Rowland. The protagonist is a young woman considered by all, including her self, to be a white trash loser. The book is based on the ironic premise that her life only turns around after she becomes a zombie. It is a fun, crass, romp of a good story, but it also deals with her liberating herself from an abusive home, and I thought that it did so with a great deal of humanity and compassion. I recommend it, for what that’s worth.

Thanks again,

Josh

Thanks for cheering up our comment thread. Keep on oracling.

Tansy

Oh, and to say that I’ve been trying to be an oracle of sorts of Doctor Who for Alisa on twitter now and again.