(no subject)

[katallison]

For the third week in a row I did not manage to see Angel--damn, I wish it wasn't on Wednesday night--and hence I cannot really follow the reviews that all the cool kids are posting. I'm not anti- the show or anything, and I'll doubtless catch up on the episodes at some point, if for no other reason than to be able to fully enjoy others' vidding thereof.

I also am not joining in the "What's my brand?" meme, largely because I already have a pretty good idea of how my stories come across to others. The pithiest summary thereof, and one I cherish, came in some comments that cesperanza posted a while back about "End of the Road" -- "a great novel but really shitty escapism." So, that's my brand: "Kat Allison, bringing you really shitty escapism since 1997!" Heee.

Of course, if anyone wants to tell me otherwise -- "Kat, your stories make me think of ... a basketful of puppies on Christmas morning! A coneful of sticky cotton candy clutched by a sweet-faced child on a hot summer day! The giant squid at the aquarium!" -- well, that would be cool. Weird, but cool.

I am in the middle of a two-day training on how to use Access, so that I can take over some of the databases at work. As usual, I'm led to reflect on what a mistake it is (generally) to let software experts be in charge of training. Teaching beginners how to understand and use complex systems is an entirely distinct kind of skill from *creating* such systems, and it's one that (I say immodestly) I'm pretty good at; a couple of times yesterday I cut in and decoded the expert's explanations into terms that Hapless Lady two rows back could make sense of. Sometimes I think I should be looking into this kind of training as my next career path, for the day when I finally reach my limit with the 18-year-olds and the University administration.

Ah well, duty bellows, and off into the raw damp drizzly morning I go.

Comments

[jackiekjono.livejournal.com]

We've burned them to DVD. Come over anytime.

Last night's ep. included a particularly good one-liner about UC Santa Cruz that had Lapillus and I rolling on the floor. We thought of you.

[katallison.livejournal.com]

Count me in as taking you up on this very kind offer, Jackie, as soon as I have time, and thank you so much!

(And hey, a UCSC joke? Woo-hoo! Were banana slugs involved?) (Probably not, that'd be a bit too arcane...)

[jackiekjono.livejournal.com]

The banana slugs were implied.

[astolat]

...The giant squid at the aquarium!

Well, actually... long, complicated, many-branched, with a bite... :-)

[katallison.livejournal.com]

And with the tentacles! Man, wouldn't tentacles be cool? I could type, eat chips, and change channels all at once!

(Thanks for kind words, btw!)

[flambeau.livejournal.com]

I think I've said this before, but you're kind of like the second law of slash thermodynamics. The universe moves on and falls apart, "in any irreversible process, entropy always increases," as my Collins points out, and there you are, chronicling it.

[katallison.livejournal.com]

Woo! Now I can revise the brand to "Really shitty escapism plus! Slash-o-riffic entropy!"

And in response to *your* query -- it's hard to sum up my response to your writing, because it's changed quite a bit over time (well, your writing, I meant, but perhaps my response also) -- but the bedrock for me is always elegant, in the traditional or Jane-Austen sense of the word, as well as the mathematical or scientific: form perfectly fitting function, every detail absolutely fitting with every other detail and with the guiding purpose, devoid of flab or windy excess or gaudy ornamentation, informed by taste and intelligence, apt, proportionate, exciting in the onlooker the sense of "This is perfect, it could be no other way." Elegant in the way a cat is elegant, or a perfectly-designed engine. And like a cat, perfect in its composure, its poise, its suppleness and agility.

Really Shitty Escapism

[planetalyx.livejournal.com]

(giggle giggle)

[destina.livejournal.com]

You know how, during a storm, when there are very dark grey clouds in the sky, and then suddenly there's a bit of sunlight, but it's filtered? All the colors around seem more intense against the grey of the storm -- the greens of trees and grass, the red and purple of flowers, the blue paint on a house -- all of these are more vivid in this filtered, intense light. And you have this feeling of deep beauty, set against the power of gathering storms, with turbulence all around, and pockets of light and shadow. You know that very visceral sensation I'm talking about?

Well, that's how your writing feels to me.

[katallison.livejournal.com]

Wow, Des -- I feel very pink-cheeked and speechless and full of the not-worthiness. I know exactly the sensation, and the specific weather, you describe, and it's among my favorite things in the world.

And -- to answer *your* inquiry about how you strike this reader -- the analogy that comes to mind (I tend to work via analogies) is the Bach Cello Suites, as played by Casals, perhaps; rich, sonorous, powerfully moving and emotional but with a sense always of a controlling intelligence at work; autumnal; melancholy and joyful by turns. Or, maybe, the Bach Cello Suites listened to on an October evening, with a nice savory stew simmering on the stove, a cold dark wind blowing outside and a warm hearth within.

[barkley.livejournal.com]

Really shitty escapism? Sigh. I guess now's as good as any time to start reading in fandoms that just aren't mine. *g*

[tracy-rowan.livejournal.com]

Kat, your stories make me think of a man standing alone on a cold, snowy plain at sunrise. He's thinking longingly of a basket of puppies on Christmas morning but his mind will keep reverting to that giant squid.

He suffers.

[katallison.livejournal.com]

:::SPLORF:::

OK, hon, the bill for the new keyboard will be coming your way in the mail. Along with the charges for mental anguish and humiliation occasioned by causing me to make loud snarfing noises in earshot of my co-workers, and inability to explain the cause of said noises.

(Although come to think of it I'm probably wasting the postage, that evil bee-yotch Araminta has never ponied up for all the keyboards *she* caused me to destroy either.)

[tracy-rowan.livejournal.com]

I live to make people spew on their computer systems.

[laurashapiro.livejournal.com]

I'd love to say all the complimentary-yet-true things your writing evokes for me, but destina has done it much more beautifully than I would. So I'll go with an apt quote.

This is the sensation your stories create in me:

"Love is a snowmobile racing across the tundra. Suddenly it flips over, pinning you underneath. At night, the ice weasels come."
-- Matt Groening

[katallison.livejournal.com]

OK, (a) huge smooches of gratitude to you, and (b) now I really want the story where Fraser quotes this to Ray, who then freaks out -- "Ice weasels? Ice weasels?!?!? Fraser, what the hell is your deal??" -- and only realizes a minute or two into the rant that Fraser has introduced the L-word, which causes him a brief interlude of entirely different freak-out, after which he jumps Fraser and flips over the snowmobile, figuratively speaking, and to hell with the ice weasels.

(I'm not saying I'm gonna write it, just that somebody should.)

And thanks again, sweetie.

[cesperanza.livejournal.com]

a) didn't Resonant do a story with the memorable line, "Weasels! Weasels! The U.N. stole my bus tickets!" (She did! but it's a TS story, so never mind.)

b) That sounds like a story I'd write, though. "Ice weasels? Ice weasels?!?!?"

c) Should I go into advertising? Think of the possibilities! "A great breakfast cereal, but a really shitty floor wax!" "A great motor oil but a really shitty dessert topping!" "A great hockey puck but a really shitty taco!"

[laurashapiro.livejournal.com]

You should *definitely* write this story. Make it a drabble, even, so you don't have to suffer. But it should exist.

[laurashapiro.livejournal.com]

I love the idea. And Ces should write it, and I've told her so. (:

[rliz.livejournal.com]

Really shitty escapism has kind of always been my bread and butter-- the warm spreading delight of, you know, th' pop-culture expectation of happy endings was a huge and silent revelation when I first picked up media fandom-- so I don't think I really *noticed* the r-s-e quality of your stories.

What I did notice. Elegant and confident narration; skillful, deep emotion ("Xeriscape" made me cry like a little girl); a beautiful eye for character.