Friday, January 11th, 2002 - Starlight Stew
So, as I'm finishing up reading the last of the Starlight anthology series (that is currently available; also note that I read them out of order) I'm reminded of the comment I made in my reading log about the first one I read (Starlight 2, I believe). I called it "surprisingly uneven". Now, I'm noticing a pattern. These books have about 10 different stories in them, each by a different author. In each book, I have thought at least 2 stories were brilliant, 2 good, 2 readable but eh, 2 kinda bad and 2 that I couldn't even read all the way through, they were so bad. It finally occured to me, reading this last book, that this is ok. This is not just ok, it's very daring on the part of the editor, and in a good way. Not everyone has my taste in books or stories. The stories I find brilliant in these anthos are probably the very ones someone else reading them would find unreadable. And vice versa. The fact that these anthologies try to encompass such a large swath of styles and tastes is impressive. It's easy - and safe - to do an anthology of, say, cat stories; cat stories will be unquestionably loved by a certain demographic and you can market your anthology to those people and be reasonably sure of a certain amount of success. But to include in your anthology such a blending, such a wide sample of different stories that probably no one is going to like every last one of them . . . well, that's kinda cool. If nothing else, it's reminding me that we all have different criteria for what makes a good story. It's all so very, very subjective. This doesn't mean that I'm going to go around saying that the stories I found unreadable are good stories. Hell no. They suck. Let someone who enjoyed those stories defend them. But, well, I recognize (or try to, this ain't easy) that it's only my opinion, my criteria, my taste in stories talking, and that it's perfectly valid for someone else to say they're good. Even trickier is vice versa, of course. The stories I love in these anthos I would probably defend pretty viciously if they were attacked. That's ok, too. Anyway, I'm going to be so late for work. Have a good weekend, everybody!	Exercise log: Writing log: Little by little, I'm working on my short story, which I think I'll refer to as the "mommy" story. Current Publications: "How to Suck" reprinted in From Porn to Poetry: Clean Sheets Celebrates the Erotic Mind I'm currently reading: Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson Starlight 1 edited by Patrick Nielsen Hayden The Strange Adventures of Rangergirl by Tim Pratt Books on Tape (usually while exercising): Fierce Invalids from Hot Climates by Tom Robbins.
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