On the evening of Tuesday, 5 April 2011, the New York Review of Science Fiction Readings Series returned to its usual schedule (after a snow-caused cancellation and a Sunday duet of readings) with a pair of readings by “two Jewish fantasy writers from Brooklyn” (who are also tech writers), Lev Grossman and Barbara Krasnoff, at the Series’ current venue, the SoHo Gallery for Digital Art on Sullivan Street.
SGDA proprietor John Ordover briefly welcomed the crowd and plugged Thursday evening’s performance by the musical improv group the Complaint Chorus, “I Love/Hate New York!”, before turning the podium over to the Series’ executive curator, Jim Freund, host of WBAI-FM’s Hour of the Wolf radio program on sf and fantasy (now broadcasting and streaming every Thursday morning from 1:30 to 3:00AM on WBAI, 99.5 FM). Freund greeted the audience, welcoming them to the Series’ second 20th season, and announcing upcoming readings. Of significant note were next Tuesday’s (12 April’s) celebration of Carol Emshwiller’s 90th birthday, and, on 3 May, a Tribute to Theodore Sturgeon. (Contrary to the famed Law, presumably 90% of it will not be crap.) He concluded by introducing Barbara Krasnoff, whose short fiction has appeared in Apex, Amazing Stories, Space & Time Magazine, Weird Tales, and Lady Churchill’s Rosebud Wristlet, adding sweetly that she is “the meaning of my life.”
Barbara’s story, “Red Dybbuk,” which will be appearing in the upcoming anthology Subversion, was, she said, partly based on family history. At times cute and charming, at times disturbing, it centered on Marilyn, a Boomer mother, who watches her college-student daughter, Annie, suddenly become a fired-up radical political activist after, as she slowly discovers, being possessed by the spirit of her late Yiddish-spouting, Old Left great-grandmother (that is, Marilyn’s bobbe… making the tale literally a bobbe-myseh). (On a personal note, this writer still has his father’s anti-Franco and “Free the Scottsboro Boys” buttons, and his own anti-Vietnam War pins.)
After a short break, Freund introduced the evening’s second reader. Lev Grossman is the author of three sf/fantasy novels (Warp, Codex, and The Magicians), a critic, and a senior writer at Time Magazine (he wrote their “Person of the Year” cover story on Mark Zuckerberg). Grossman read from Chapter 4 of The Magician King, the forthcoming sequel to his best-seller The Magician, “a darker, screwed-up” take on the education of a young wizard, playing off Harry Potter (and, though he didn’t say, Narnia). Whereas the first book focused on the character Quentin Coldwater, the protagonist here is Julia, a minor character in The Magicians, who had failed the entrance exam to Brakebills, the college of magic in upstate New York. Grossman related that he was fascinated by the Rowling character Dudley Dursley, cut off from the world of magic, and that he was the inspiration for Julia. Somehow, Julia is split in half, or doubled, living two parallel lives, with two sets of memories (in one she is attending the school). Grossman’s selection was often wry and humorous, evoking laughter from the audience. Afterward, this writer asked him if the duality had been influenced by his being an identical twin. He responded that he tried not to write consciously about twins, but… (His brother, by the way, is also a writer.)
The audience of 50 included Richard Bowes, Sam Butler, Amy Goldschlager, Harold Garber, Gina Gagliano, Leanna Renee Hieber, Ellen Kushner, Gordon Linzner, Donna Minkowitz, Ama Patterson, Eric Rosenfield, Stephen H. Segal, and Terence Taylor. After the ceremonial folding-up of chairs, the readers and a number of audience members adjourned, as customary, to Milady’s, a nearby pub.
Note: While the Series retains its free admission policy, the suggested donation is now $7. (The funds cover the courtesy of treating the readers and curators to dinner, and help deflect expenses of running the Series.)