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Because I mentioned the existence of this thing in a tweet to Tanya Huff (whose Valor books are favorites in this household) , and she and another asked for it to be posted somewhere…I dragged it out of obscurity, corrected a couple of typos, wrote up a brief explanation of its origins and…posted it on the Paksworld website. Here’s what happened.
Years and years and years ago, a semi-prozine (I think it was OtherRealms, but my momory is not that clear since I started depending on computers, which then fail…) which is now defunct invited writers to contribute spoof reviews of their own work for an April Fools issue. I went the other mile, and wrote a faux-academic, pseudo-Freudian-feminist analysis of an element in the books many people had commented on: all those jacks.
So if you want to see the workings of the Lunar mind at its looniest, wander over to the Paksworld website and thence to the short-fiction section, where you will find “Jakes, Jacks, and Johns: An Analysis of Elizabeth Moon’s Use of Waste Technology as a Metaphor for Feminist Survivalist Philosophy.”
I had WAY too much fun writing it. Since I no longer have the copy of the magazine (if I ever find the Paksworld notebooks, I may find it with them, come to think of it) I’m not sure what year it was published. I think the mag was out of California and went out of print in the middle ’90s, but it could have been a little earlier or later. It has to be after 1990, because it references Surrender None, and that’s the book’s publication date.
Oh, what the heck. Here’s a direct link (but I still want people to wander over there too, OK?)
http://www.paksworld.com/story-jacksjakesjohns.html
My inability to find the correct references for its original publication highlights a problem everyone contemplating a writing career needs to keep in mind: record-keeping. Especially if you’re organizationally challenged, like me, do not keep essential records (like the data on publication) in fallible formats (such as computer files) or loose pieces of paper: carve them 2 inches deep in the most resistant stone you can find. The back of your future gravestone, maybe. (Yes, I’m joking. Sort of. )
Meanwhile–and hoping you’re all getting a good laugh out of the faux-scholarship–I’m back at polishing.
Comment by Scott Zrubek — January 16, 2012 @ 12:46 pm
A found a reference to the article and when/where it was published:
Electronic OtherRealms #30
The Parody Issue
Science Fiction and Fantasy in Chaos
Spring, 1991
Comment by Moira — January 16, 2012 @ 12:59 pm
And given my somewhat twisted sense of humor, there’s only one response to that:
Shee-it!
Thanks for the chortle, Elizabeth. 🙂
Comment by Kerry aka Trouble — January 16, 2012 @ 2:34 pm
Wow – did you sprain your tongue putting it so far into your cheek? Nicely done and thank you for sharing it with us.
Comment by elizabeth — January 16, 2012 @ 2:40 pm
Scott: Thank you! I’ll update the explanation when I have a little time.
Moira: Glad you enjoyed it.
Kerry: Thanks to Scott, we know when it was originally published. Spring ’91…my mother had died the previous fall, early October ’90. I was just coming out of the totally bleak stage of grieving. This may be the first bit of viable writing I did, and it’s probably the first time my sense of humor showed up again.
For anyone who finds it where Scott found it, there may be some minor differences. I found it lurking on an old floppy drive some years back, wrangled it from WordStar into Word (when I still had a Word that would sort of render WordStar) and don’t know if the file I found was a draft or the final. So I fixed some typos and made two overlong sentences into two each. But no other changes.
Comment by Jonathan Schor — January 16, 2012 @ 3:28 pm
Ordered the new book in MP3 format.
Quite funny review of your works.
Comment by RichardB — January 16, 2012 @ 4:17 pm
That was priceless!
I particularly liked the way you casually dropped in “(the North, of course, signifies the intellect)” in the way that these pseudo-intellectuals so often do smuggle in their own prejudices.
Comment by Daniel Glover — January 16, 2012 @ 7:28 pm
THIS is what you found when you went dumpster diving for more long snippets?! Thank you for sharing!
Comment by Mollie Marshall — January 17, 2012 @ 4:18 am
‘So many jacks, and so little shit’. No question here: lots of realism in the books and very high quality. Couldn’t have put it better!
Thanks for the much needed laugh.
Comment by pjm — January 17, 2012 @ 4:36 am
So many jacks – also queens, kings and aces. You have come up trumps again. Thanks again for your work.
The question arises though… I only recall coming across the words jacks (for toilets) and hauk for a short club) in your books. Do they come as a standard part somewhere in the English language universe that I am not connected to, or is there some other source for them?
Peter
Comment by Richard — January 17, 2012 @ 5:47 am
Wicked. I noticed a reference to Upper Boglund. Lund of course is just Scandinavian land, so null padding. At school, “the bog” was our (boys’) word for the jacks.
Comment by Rolv — January 17, 2012 @ 6:19 am
Brilliant!
Another twist on Boglund: “Bog” is Danish for book, and Lund is a Swedish University City, originally part of Denmark but conquered by Sweden in the 17th Century. the University was established not long after to safeguard Swedish rule.
So, obviously, “Boglund” refers to the way education is used to establish domination. Thus, combined with the fact that “north” always siginfies intellect, it becomes doubly significant that Boglund is no longer independent. herer, the author contends that Academia has surrendered its claims to autonomy and to free research, being reduced to a tool for whoever is in power.
Comment by Annabel (Mrs Redboots) — January 17, 2012 @ 2:14 pm
All I can say is: “No shit, Sherlock!”
Comment by Jonathan Schor — January 17, 2012 @ 3:12 pm
I am glad that Ms. Moon can laugh at herself. Life is good.
Comment by Genko — January 17, 2012 @ 7:01 pm
There was a lot of silliness in all that academic writing, wasn’t there? This is sooo like some of that self-important stuff I remember reading back then.
Comment by Kevin Steverson — January 17, 2012 @ 9:32 pm
Now that…..that was funnier than a Dwarf with a Yo-Yo…just sayin…
Comment by elizabeth — January 17, 2012 @ 11:48 pm
Annabel: A high-five for that comment!
Jonathan: If you’re as ridiculous as I am at times (and some friend’s voice in the distance is saying “What do you mean ‘At times?'”) laughing at yourself is mandatory.
Genko: I’ve now read quite a few academic papers on the internet. Yup…some are so pompous you want to trip them…but they usually do it to themselves.
Kevin: Thank you!