the day the saucers came

Mon, 29 Jun 2009 23:44:58 GMT

This week is IT Home Learning at my school; because of the threats of the H1N1 influenza strain in Singapore (the numbers of infected keep rising every day), Hwa Chong's administrators have decided that this week, in order to avoid the hassle and disruption of quarantine, the kids will stay home and do online lessons. Yesterday was Day 1, and it was a bit rocky; all of my lessons are located on Facebook groups, and as of 8 a.m., not all my students had even signed up for an account yet. Then some of the guys weren't reading the instructions carefully enough and asked lots of questions that they could have easily gotten the answers to if they'd paid closer attention. Then a website/software platform wasn't working well, and so part of the lessons had to be shunted to Facebook. Lots of little things. Then I had to go in and check on my students' work. All of this meant about a 12-hour workday; I am not doing that again.

Anyway, one of the assignments that my Secondary One students had to do was to browse some poetry sites and then blog about a poem with some particularly figurative language in it and also talk about why they liked it. They picked lots of good ones, some I hadn't read before, and on the whole did a pretty good job.

In the spirit of that assignment, I offer one of my favorite poems: "The Day the Saucers Came" by Neil Gaiman. This was published in Neil's most recent collection Fragile Things, and as I'm presenting the poem for free, the sensible thing would be to go out and get the collection so you can read the rest of the remarkable short stories and poems in the book.


"The Day the Saucers Came"
by Neil Gaiman

That day, the saucers landed. Hundreds of them, golden,
Silent, coming down from the sky like great snowflakes,
And the people of Earth stood and
          stared as they descended,
Waiting, dry-mouthed, to find what waited inside for us
And none of us knowing if we would be here tomorrow
But you didn’t notice it because

That day, the day the saucers came, by some coincidence,
Was the day that the graves gave up their dead
And the zombies pushed up through soft earth
or erupted, shambling and dull-eyed, unstoppable,
Came towards us, the living, and we screamed and ran,
But you did not notice this because

On the saucer day, which was the zombie day, it was
Ragnarok also, and the television screens showed us
A ship built of dead-men’s nails, a serpent, a wolf,
All bigger than the mind could hold,
          and the cameraman could
Not get far enough away, and then the Gods came out
But you did not see them coming because

On the saucer-zombie-battling-gods
          day the floodgates broke
And each of us was engulfed by genies and sprites
Offering us wishes and wonders and eternities
And charm and cleverness and true
          brave hearts and pots of gold
While giants feefofummed across
          the land, and killer bees,
But you had no idea of any of this because

That day, the saucer day, the zombie day,
The Ragnarok and fairies day, the
          day the great winds came
And snows, and the cities turned to crystal, the day
All plants died, plastics dissolved, the day the
Computers turned, the screens telling
          us we would obey, the day
Angels, drunk and muddled, stumbled from the bars,
And all the bells of London were sounded, the day
Animals spoke to us in Assyrian, the Yeti day,
The fluttering capes and arrival of
          the Time Machine day,
You didn’t notice any of this because
you were sitting in your room, not doing anything
not even reading, not really, just
looking at your telephone,
wondering if I was going to call.


This poem is a treasure trove of geeksquee for the science fiction and fantasy fan. References are made to an incredible number of genre tropes that have now passed into popular culture, and what's remarkable is that the combination of all these separate apocalypses (any one of which could lead to an end-of-the-world scenario) builds in its absurdity not to a climax, but to a scene of domestic mundanity. All of these bizarre and frightening things are happening, inextricably all at once, but the "you" of the poem is oblivious, caught up in waiting for the narrator to call.

I asked Neil yesterday if the text of this poem was online anywhere, and he pointed me to a remarkable presentation of it, illustrated by Finnish artist Jouni Koponen and hosted by Infinite Canvas (which seems to be down at present; the link is to the cached version of the page, which works fine). Koponen has laid the poem out almost like a comic, with separate sequential panels, the art of which cleverly incorporates the element of each panel before it. Afterward, Koponen teamed up with Cat Mihos from NeverWear (blogged by Neil here) to produce a gorgeous poster that replicates the Infinite Canvas presentation, and it still seems to be available in the NeverWear store if you would like a copy of your own.

And if you would like to watch and hear Neil reading the poem himself, check out this video from a Tokyo signing event in September 2007:

what did we do today, brain?

Mon, 29 Jun 2009 21:01:00 GMT

• 10:07 Finished with Distances: A Novella by Vandana Singh. Elegant far-future SF where maths mix with art. Dense and fulfilling prose. #
• 15:24 I've been working solidly for 8 hours at my laptop, just a 10 min lunch break. I thought home learning was supposed to make things easier! #
• 15:43 For my Raleigh peeps: RT @whedonesque: Can't Stop the Serentiy in Raleigh NC, Sunday, Monday. tinyurl.com/n4vhwb #
• 16:42 Finally finished reading Facebook notes and thread entries. Now checking student blogs. #
• 20:44 Finished with Bone, Volume 3: Eyes of the Storm by Jeff Smith #
• 21:00 @rsdevin My gag reflex kicks in whenever I even smell durian, thanks to some, er, adverse reactions when I previously ate it. #
• 21:47 Took a dinner break, but I'm still evaluating student work. It's ridiculous that it's taking me all day to do this. #
• 22:03 RT @timpratt: Chapter 1 of Bone Shop is ALIVE (along with some author notes). Read, spread the word, donate if you like. is.gd/1i59u #

what did we do today, brain?

Sun, 28 Jun 2009 21:01:06 GMT

• 09:28 On page 98 of 154 of Distances: A Novella by Vandana Singh #
• 09:34 RT @sfwa RT @JohnPicacio: Congrats to @paolobacigalupi, winner of two Locus Awards (Best Collection and Best Novelette)! Way to go, man! #
• 09:44 Yay Neil! RT @CherylMorgan: Congrats to @neilhimself for yet another Graveyard Book win at the Locus Awards. Coraline graphic novel won too. #
• 09:44 Locus Award winners can be found here: is.gd/1gs0l. Congrats to everyone! #
• 11:31 Very much hoping @persiankiwi has not been arrested. #iranelection #
• 12:43 New blog entry, "Reader Request Week #3 (MUCH Belated): Interracial Relationships": is.gd/1gAcj #
• 15:58 @feliciaday Happy Birthday! Your 30s are an awesome decade in which to be. #
• 21:03 Ugh, one of my neighbors is eating durian. Why must you submit me to such a fruity funk? Why? #
• 21:19 @sinboy Blech, no way, dude. I've had it three times in six years, and I could safely go without eating it ever again. #
• 21:23 On page 123 of 154 of Distances: A Novella by Vandana Singh #

reader request week #3 (MUCH belated): interracial relationships

Sun, 28 Jun 2009 04:31:58 GMT

Over a year ago, I put out a call for reader requests, questions that LundBlog readers were keen to get the answers to. For whatever reason, I stopped after one entry. I don't even remember now why. It was a lame move, and I've felt bad about it all this time. Well, I have the rest of this week before going back to school, so I want to try to knock these out. My apologies for the tardiness of these entries, and my everlasting thanks for your patience.

From shvetufae here:

I'm in an interracial relationship, too, so I'd love to hear your thoughts on that. :)

I started this entry a few days ago, and I'm still thinking about how to approach the topic. Discussions of race are a potential minefield and I have to be careful to avoid talk that can lead to something like RaceFail '09 (although I was only peripherally aware of this controversy, as it happened during some particularly busy and stressful periods earlier in the school year). I try to be empathetic as a general rule, but I'm also naturally clumsy, both physically and verbally, so there's a good chance I'll bumble this up and get called out as a racist.

But Shveta asked, and she's a very nice person, so I'll attempt nonetheless. (For more eloquently written discussions of race, two blogs I heartily recommend are The Angry Black Woman and SeeLight.)

Race isn't something I normally think about when I think about my relationship. When I look at my awesome wife, I still think of her as this cool geeky woman that I met at Clarion, who saw some redeeming qualities in me and decided I was somehow worth her time. When I look at Janet, I don't see A Chinese Woman, I just see Janet. This doesn't mean that I'm unaware of her race, or of the fact that we're of two different races, but there are enough things that we have in common that race just doesn't become an issue.

I don't know if this has anything at all to do with the Caucasian Man / Asian Woman dynamic (more informed people will be more able to answer this), rather than another combination, but I think it has more to do with what we both geek out over, and our common pop-cultural childhoods. Despite the fact that we grew up on opposite sides of the Earth, we both watched similar cartoons when we were kids, listened to similar music, discovered similar writers in science fiction and fantasy, and cultivated a similar curiosity about the world around us.

Janet is Peranakan (pronounced piranha-khan), an ethnic subset that has an important tradition in Singapore; again, this does not define Janet any more than the fact that she loves 80s music, but it does inform her life in one important way, being that Peranakan families are matriarchal. Janet's extended family (and now mine) is full of strong-minded and independent women, and this is one of the many things that attracted me to her in the first place. When I was growing up, my two role models for women were my mother and Phylicia Rashād; both are strong, intelligent, capable women who showed me through their actions and behavior (my mother in person, and Rashād on The Cosby Show) that women are in no way inferior to men. It's said that boys look for women who are like their mothers, and this was certainly true in my case.

If there have been conflicts between Janet and me, other than the typical male/female ones, they have been cultural rather than racial. Especially during the first year that I lived in Singapore. It wouldn't have so much to do with the fact that Janet is Chinese as it is that she's Singaporean. Singapore has its own distinctive culture apart from China or Malaysia, and some of the social mores here sometimes butt up against my Western sensibilities, things like kissing Janet goodbye at the train station, or complaining about people burning joss paper or spitting in public, or the inconsistent and conflicting attitudes regarding sex (which I also recently commented on at SHAMblog).

Living with Janet in her home country has afforded me a much wider perspective than if I had stayed in the US. Not that I felt stunted in any way by my experiences or upbringing, as my parents did much to open my eyes to the wider world and lots of different cultures. But there's something about living for an extended period in a country and culture different from the one in which you grew up; it forces you to leave your comfort zone and explore something big and new that encompasses your life, and I recommend it to anyone.

It is interesting to note that many people, both in Singapore and in the US, have mentioned that our biracial daughter (arriving in mid-October) will be beautiful. I'm not sure if this a comment on how outstandingly good-looking Janet and I are, or of the prevailing societal notion that biracial children are somehow more attractive, but I do nonetheless appreciate the compliment on behalf of my forthcoming daughter. For whatever reason, she's going to be beautiful to me because she shares half her chromosomes with the most beautiful woman I know.

So, like I said, a bit bumbling and not that organized, but there you go. Hope I wasn't too offensive.

what did we do today, brain?

Sat, 27 Jun 2009 21:00:54 GMT

• 05:55 @Nnedi The Buddha predicted that after 5,000 years, no one would be practicing the Dharma anymore, that the pull of distraction would be... #
• 05:56 @Nnedi ...too strong. The knowledge and writing might be there, but no one to teach it. Adds some urgency to the whole enlightenment thing. #
• 05:59 @thexmedic I heartily approve of NIN-related procrastination. #
• 06:00 The Allergy Fairy visited again early this morning. You know what I miss? Uninterrupted sleep. #
• 06:02 RT @io9: Michael Jackson's Science Fictional Life io9.com/5302714 #michaeljackson #
• 06:07 @jentropy Heh. No Benadryl in the house, alas. #
• 06:20 Dammit, someone keeps hacking my website and Two Cranes site. Really getting tired of this. #
• 06:36 @JeremiahTolbert Putting junk code on the index pages, so that it either looks like a phishing site or malware. #
• 07:49 Air is incredibly hazy this morning. Anyone know if Indonesia is burning again? No wonder my allergies suck today. #
• 14:04 Just got a haircut. Feels like my head is 10 pounds lighter. Ahhh... #
• 14:19 RT @amandapalmer: decided on "billie jean" for fitting last-minute michael jackson tribute last night. bit.ly/71Yby #
• 15:12 Shit. Someone just deleted the entire Two Cranes site. What the hell? #
• 16:00 Okay, looks like www.TwoCranesPress.com is back up again. Hackers can suck it. #
• 19:58 Pizza has arrived. Time to watch "Bender's Game." #
• 22:07 @Nnedi Have fun! #
• 23:41 I chime in on an inappropriate Burger King advert campaign in Singapore (thanx to @interrociter for the link). is.gd/1g5XD #

what did we do today, brain?

Fri, 26 Jun 2009 21:00:57 GMT

• 06:07 @akanthos The website seems to be loading fine, tho it's a bit slow. #
• 06:41 Up early, thanks once again to the Allergy Fairy. Tho it's a good thing, practice for when I go back to school next week. #
• 06:42 @akanthos Still? It's been getting hacked a lot lately for some reason, but Janet should have fixed it. #
• 06:44 RT @timpratt: I'm launching "Bone Shop," a donation supported serialized novella. First chapter goes up June 29th! bit.ly/LKhyY #
• 07:22 RT @BarackObama: These stories show why affordable health care for every American can't wait: bit.ly/13Bm5M #healthcare09 #
• 07:26 @mjberryman This is true. :) #
• 07:39 RT @whedonesque: How to Meet and Woo a Nerdy Girl. tinyurl.com/mg4swx #
• 07:42 Time to get cleaned up and dressed. Accompanying Janet to OB/GYN appointment this morning for detailed scan. #
• 07:45 On page 42 of 154 of Distances: A Novella by Vandana Singh #
• 15:00 RT @wilw: Looks like Ebert isn't done with Transformers 2. Beginning to think one of them gave him the bad touch. is.gd/1dQs4 #
• 15:04 RT @papertyger: don't forget why we do it: bit.ly/gLnSM #writing #
• 15:08 Just got back from being out this morning and afternoon. Think I need a nap about now. #
• 16:10 RT @bemanic: Anyone with an iPhone or iPod Touch, Hero of Sparta is on sale for $0.99! bit.ly/f7G9i #
• 22:37 Just confirmed: b/c of H1N1 cases in S'pore, Hwa Chong students next week doing IT Home Learning for first week of Term 3. W00t! #
• 22:53 @akanthos ExACTly. Students stay home, I stay home. Still have to work, but, as you say, much relaxed dress code. :) #
• 22:55 Dharma class tonight was incredible. Did you know the Buddha's teachings only have a 5000-year lifespan? After that, it's the dark eon. #