Sunny, Clear, Cold…RANT!
I just ordered Elizabeth Bear’s New Amsterdam. I mean, a forensic sorceress? Dirigibles? The British Empire? I am so there. Yes, I’m paying full price for a hardback sight-unseen.
But come on. Dirigibles.
I just stripped out and replaced a lot of stuff in the fifth book. I can’t keep the Paradisse skyscraper-flinging self off-demon rescue-winged hellhound scene, though I wanted to with a fierce and fiery passion. So the bad news is that we’re back at about 38K. The GOOD news is that it’s moving, and I’ve finally gotten them to Chomo Lungma and the Temple. Where a betrayal awaits. Or maybe even two betrayals. Do I hear three? We’re going to find out why the human character has been dragged along and I’m going to get all three players (L., E., and J.) involved in a rumble. mmmmmh. It’s going to be GOOD.
We’re going to have to cut scene there and show up in Paradisse, and from there…it’s a toss-up. I like the idea of Antarctica. Though with climate change I’m not sure how much of it would be left. But are there any other candidates for the White-Walled City? Maybe in Peru somewhere. Gah. Don’t think about it, Lili. Just keep your head down and write.
Yesterday school was canceled, mostly because of ice. The DHM got through to work, going very slowly and carefully, and during the brightest and warmest part of the day (no real warmth to be had, though, it was about 32 degrees) I took the kids for a VERY short trip to Sunrise Bagels. It was nice to get out of the house. I like staying home, but I get cabin fever when I can’t leave.
I also found the revisions for Steelflower in my spambox this morning, after a very nice editor sent me a little email saying, “Um, did you get that yet?”
Which mystifies me. Spamboxen seem to have a mind of their own lately, swallowing things they have no right to even sniff. Just one of the varied mysteries of life.
Last night I popped out for a walk a bit late, since we must take shifts with childcare and the DHM had some errands to run. It was cold, but I had my fingerless chenille gloves and my cashmere scarf, plus my Ravenclaw scarf (yes, I am teh sad and LAME.) I believe Orion was out, or at least the constellation I’ve been calling Orion for years. And I managed to identify the Big Dipper too. I am dismal at astronomy despite my love for the sky. The cold was immense; I was glad to have a nice warm nest to retreat to and was ever so glad of my long dark coat, which kept me quite nicely warm. There were patches of ice everywhere, and quarter-melted snow had refozen so it crunched like tiny bones underfoot.
Oh, I almost forgot: I finished Barbara Ehrenreich’s Bait and Switch recently. It wasn’t as wrenching as Nickel and Dimed, (mostly I suspect because I’ve been that poor, so N & D hit home for me) but she makes an excellent point about how corporations treat jobseekers, and how our work culture has turned so poisonous that even white-collar workers who have done everything “right” can be taken advantage of, fleeced mercilessly, and driven to suicidal despair by corporate uncaring.
You’d think businesses would learn that workers (whether blue, white, or pink polka dot collared) are a necessary ingredient to their success. You can have the most profitable business in the world, but without employees, where are you? Screwed, that’s where. Yet corporations of a certain size view people as another disposable resource, largely because we’ve had years of rich Republicans smoothing their way and allowing them to behave improperly with no real consequences. I mean, let’s face it. The forty-hour work week didn’t come about because of the charity of magnates. It came about because people kicked and hollered until they got it. Same for the eight-hour day and child labor laws, not to mention mostly-equal opportunities for women and minorities.
I know unions have a reputation for being ridden with organized crime (On the Waterfront is one of my favorite movies, after all) but you have to admit that on the whole unions have done better for working folks (both blue and white collar) than the mercy of corporations has. And I wonder just how much of that “organized crime” reputation is bad PR from those corporations whose profits the union in impinging on a little by demanding decent treatment for workers–and how much of it is the deliberate miseducation or noneducation of workers in the corporate culture, meant to keep them docile, anti-union, and willing to put up with shovel-loads of crap?
To extend this theme, I suggest a few books: White-Collar Sweatshop by Andresky and Crittenden’s The Price of Motherhood, both of which detail a toxic corporate culture creeping into every workplace in America. Oh, and let’s not forget Eric Schlosser’s Fast Food Nation, which looks at the betrayal of schoolkids and nutrition by the grasping after the bottom line. Then, if you feel like a bit of Wal-Mart, try on some In Sam We Trust.
And in case that leaves a bad taste in your mouth, you can watch Office Space and laugh while some part of you thinks, “Christ, it really is this bad–it’s not satire, it’s a documentary…”
End rant. I really didn’t intend to get sidetracked, I just wanted to note that I’d read Bait and Switch and enjoyed Ehrenreich’s writing as well as being amazed by the crappy ways businesses of a certain size treat their employees. After reading about the corporate workplace I’m utterly glad to be writing and incidentally, utterly glad to be working in a small indie bookshop, where the pay isn’t all that but I get to cherrypick books I want and “bookstore family” is the way we refer to employees and a few cherished customers.
Take that, corporations! Yeah!
I should note that I’ve put in my wage slavery time like everyone else. I worked at a grocery store and at a sandwich chain. I’ve worked in major insurance companies and for temp agencies, not to mention for a nationwide bank. The list goes on and on. I’m here to tell you, each one of those jobs felt the same–like trying to retain a little bit of one’s soul against a gigantic monster determined to suck it out through any pore it could reach.
Ugh. Is it wrong of me to be really, really glad I don’t have to do that anymore?
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January 13th, 2007 at 5:36 pm
Dear Lilith,
Guess I’ll have to order New Amsterdam as well. If I hate it, I can always donate it to the library:-)