Sometimes I do wish I was back over where I could see cool stage productions and stuff. (Or get involved with them or something.) Like the upcoming adaptation by Gein Wong (&co.) of Larissa Lai‘s novel Salt Fish Girl. Say what you want about Wong’s “spoken word” performances (not my thing, but then, that’s true of most “spoken word” or whatever they call it), but this looks interesting:
And no, I haven’t read the book yet, but I did get my hands on it. I’m hoping to get at it sometime this semester, as I’m likely to be using another of her pieces (from the PoCo SF anthology edited by Nalo Hopkinson and Uppinder Mehan, titled So Long Been Dreaming) in my (somewhat cobbled together) course on multiculturalism in Canadian literature.
(This week, we’re revisiting Thomas King’s work, specifically “How Corporal Colin Sterling Saved Blossom, Alberta, and Most of the Rest of the World As Well,” and also turning to Nalo Hopkinson’s short story “Tan-Tan and Dry Bone.”)
(Via Nalo Hopkinson’s blog.)
Meh… Salt Fish Girl is so difficult to get hold of–I’ve wanted to read this for a while (sounds pretty amazing, and friends have raved and also taught it), but I guess after its first print run, the only ones available are about 80bucks used on amazon. For quickly out of print books, I wonder how complicated it is for the publisher to create a pdf-buy version.
SenNim,
You can get it at AbeBooks for a lower price sometimes. There’s one there right now for mid-$30 US, which isn’t too bad considering it’s OOP and very pricey in other places. (For the record, my copy cost me US$20 plus shipping, so maybe waiting around and checking regularly will allow you to get one for cheaper?)
Yup, that’s not too bad. Still, the part of me that wants the 10% cover price(or whatever) going back to the writer always lets out a little sigh, especially with stuff over 30US.
Yeah, I hear you. It sucks! What I wonder is whether Ms. Lai is hoping for a reprint. If it were me and a reprint were unlikely, I’d probably consider chucking it into the Commons under a Creative Commons license of some sort, so people at least could read it. But it’s not a choice everyone would make, I understand.
I’m glad you liked the trailer! I hope you can see the production one day. Just for context that spoken word video is work I did a lifetime ago (well 4 years ago really), it’s more music, prose and stage productions these days for me. And yes I wish people had easier access to the novel in other countries.
Gein,
I hope I can see it too. I’m glad you weren’t offended by the spoken word comment. I should have also offered the caveat that I’ve experimented with it myself, briefly, as in Track 4 of this gig from 1998, and on Track 8 here. (I’m actually still proud of the latter one.) So anyway, yeah…
I agree it’d be nice if Salt Fish Girl were available somehow… online, or something. It was no small matter for me to get a copy. Ah well, maybe with time…
I’m not what sure what the deal is on shipping to the US, but Amazon.ca seems to be selling as reprint for $16.
Oooh, that does seem to be the case! Thanks Hedley!