Piers Anthony & the Gentle Art of Verbal Self-Defense
So, here's a memory that takes me back -- during my research trip to UC Riverside, I read many issues of Star*line, the official newsletter (and poetry publication) of the Science Fiction Poetry Association. This association was founded by Suzette Haden Elgin, so, as one might imagine, I saw her editorial work and poems everywhere. Quite an interesting figure, too -- after raising a family of 5 kids, she went back to school to get a PhD in linguistics, and her efforts in speculative poetry all came towards the latter part of her career. Also wrote a fair number of SF novels, too.
Anyway, one of her side projects was a book called The Gentle Art of Verbal Self-defense (1980). What makes that title interesting is that, amazingly enough, I remember hearing about that book back in high school.
The connection is the SFF writer Piers Anthony. I used to really like Anthony -- A Spell for Chameleon was the first fantasy novel I ever read. All told, I read about 30 or 40 of his books, at least until my senior year of high school, when I became sophisticated enough as a reader to realize how unreadable his prose was. Anyway, he'd always end his books with a chatty Author's Note, and I simply thought these things were the cat's meow. Read 'em all. Well, I specifically remember one Author's Note in particular where -- you guessed it -- Anthony was talking about The Gentle Art of Verbal Self-defense, some mildly amusing & apologetic story about how he'd fallen asleep reading the book several nights in a row. Only now do I realize he must have bought the book because of Elgin's SF connections.
Always strange, the mental connections one forms, the ways and byways. In many ways, SFF is a small world.
Anyway, one of her side projects was a book called The Gentle Art of Verbal Self-defense (1980). What makes that title interesting is that, amazingly enough, I remember hearing about that book back in high school.
The connection is the SFF writer Piers Anthony. I used to really like Anthony -- A Spell for Chameleon was the first fantasy novel I ever read. All told, I read about 30 or 40 of his books, at least until my senior year of high school, when I became sophisticated enough as a reader to realize how unreadable his prose was. Anyway, he'd always end his books with a chatty Author's Note, and I simply thought these things were the cat's meow. Read 'em all. Well, I specifically remember one Author's Note in particular where -- you guessed it -- Anthony was talking about The Gentle Art of Verbal Self-defense, some mildly amusing & apologetic story about how he'd fallen asleep reading the book several nights in a row. Only now do I realize he must have bought the book because of Elgin's SF connections.
Always strange, the mental connections one forms, the ways and byways. In many ways, SFF is a small world.
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