Library, Monday

[intotheout]

Tip was still trying to work out what big flaw in her writing she was going to try to destroy for this week's creative writing assignment. Maybe she should do something that didn't involve robots?

But robots were cool.

She found a couple writing manuals in the stacks and flipped through those for awhile. One was a whole big thing about birds, which she guessed worked as a metaphor, but it still seemed kind of weird to Tip. Another one had a whole big thing about how adverbs were the devil.

Tip was starting to think that professional writers were kind of full of crap.

[open!]

Comments

[justice_undone]

"Science fiction?" Breq asked.

[intotheout]

"It's a genre. Like, stuff that might happen in the future but isn't real yet. When I was little, before we knew there were aliens out there, stories about space travel was mostly going to be science fiction. And then fantasy is about stuff that's impossible in the real world, which in mine would be, like, magic and dragons and things. But -- yeah, it's kind of hard to think of anything as proper fantasy or sci-fi living here."

[justice_undone]

"But they must be about more than space travel," Breq said. "Or magic and dragons. Isn't there a story?"

[intotheout]

"Of course. It's usually going to use the space or dragons or whatever as an allegory for things that happen on baseline Earths. Like war or race relations or, I don't know, trauma recovery or something."

[justice_undone]

"So what stories do you like?" Breq asked. Although not her main interest, not like songs, she had come across quite a few stories too during her life.

[intotheout]

Tip shrugged. "It kinda changes depending on my mood. Like, sometimes I really want something sort of quiet with a really strong sense of place and sometimes I like things that are actiony and sometimes I just want to read something sweet and funny. Do you have a favorite?"

[justice_undone]

"I haven't thought much about it," Breq said after considering the question. "Where I'm from romantic love stories are very popular, especially in a historical setting. I've never paid much attention."

[intotheout]

"You didn't do a lot of reading back home," Tip guessed. "Too focussed on music, or was it just not your thing?"

[justice_undone]

"Yes. although I did read some poetry. It's generally more appreciated. The stories like that are more popular as entertainments."

She couldn't help recalling the poetry Lieutenant Awn had received from her sister. They had been of the kind one might expect from a teenager, but Awn had treasured them, not for their quality but as a reminder from her young sister, whose education she helped to pay for.

[intotheout]

"Pretty much no one reads poetry where I'm from. They'll listen to it, like at a slam or in hip hop, but reading it is the realm of, like, uber-geekdom."

[justice_undone]

"...uber-geekdom?"

[intotheout]

"Like . . . extra obsessed with something most people don't bother with. You have to be really into it to be into it, you know?"

[justice_undone]

"Oh! I understand."

Almost very culture had people like that. A similar thing had jokingly been said about her - as Justice of Toren - which had been funny because ships weren't generally expected to take such serious interest in things like music.

"Like collecting songs?"

[intotheout]

"Yeah, kinda. Though loads of people are into music without being totally obsessed with it. I think the people who are super into music call themselves 'audiophiles'."

[justice_undone]

"I see." Breq considered this. "Is there a reason there is very little poetry written here?"

[intotheout]

Tip shrugged. "It's just not really in fashion, I guess. It can be kind of . . . impenetrable."

[justice_undone]

"It can?" Breq asked. "In that case, isn't that true of every kind of art?"

[intotheout]

"Oh yeah, totally. There's lots of people who say they don't 'get' visual art, too. But I think with poetry, there's this idea that, like, none of it is accessible, you know? At least with painting, you might not get abstract stuff, but portraits are pretty easy. Or with music, there's lots of complexity that most people never hear, but they can still sing along with the lyrics and dance to the beat. With poetry, in my culture at least, you don't really get that."

[justice_undone]

"But lyrics are poetry?" Breq said. "And I have read a lot of poetry that the only reason it might be inaccessible is because it was pointless."

She wasn't arguing, just being curious about the reasoning.

[intotheout]

"A lot of people I know would say that lyrics don't count. Like, okay, so some of the best poets in, like, fifty years back home are hip hop artists, right? But almost everyone says that doesn't count, because they're rapping about growing up poor or being in gangs instead of writing about pretty trees or whatever. It's this whole racist, classist thing. The only stuff that's real poetry is the stuff you read and don't understand."

[justice_undone]

"If your definition of poetry includes that you shouldn't understand it, then of course you would," Breq observed. "Or it wouldn't be poetry."