Random Alaskaness

[sholio]

We have achieved "reading at midnight with the lights off" here at the Arctic Circle. That's exactly what I was doing last night at midnight -- lying in front of the window in the bedroom with all the lights in the house off, reading by the light of the sunset -- and that's what I'm off to do now, finishing up "The Yiddish Policeman's Union" by Michael Chabon. (Very entertaining alt-history book in which the displaced Jewish refugees of WWII were sent to a refugee territory in Alaska, and now in the modern day, Sitka is a city-state of 3 million people and Detective Meyer Landsman is a giant woobie. Oh, Landsman! *hugs him and goes to finish book*)

Comments

[alipeeps.livejournal.com]

Wow. That's cool.

See this is what is so fab about the internet - getting to know and chat to people from all over the world and get a little glimpse of what life is like in different places! :D

[sholio]

*g* I know! I love that part too!

[trystings.livejournal.com]

I love the long summernights. It's daylight here till around 11.00 pm. The only drawback is the number of extra hours of daylight I waste by putting off things like working in the backyard - I live in a continuous state of guilt during the summer. *g*.

Just out of curiosity and very much unrelated: did you ever read Grass by Sheri Tepper?

[sholio]

I have not! There's a Sheri Tepper book near the top of my "to read" pile right now, though -- *checks* "Shadow's End". I don't know about the other one.

[trystings.livejournal.com]

I read Grass a long time ago (fifteen years or so) and if I remember correctly the basic idea was somewhat similar to the Stargate universe (interplanetary travel through gates, etc.). I was curious if someone else in SGA fandom has read it. I should probably order a copy on Amazon first, see if it's as good as I remember, before randomly bringing it up in comments. *g*

The Yiddish Policemen's Union sounds interesting! I've been looking for something new to read.

[rydra_wong]

Ooh. I've been meaning to get hold of that book -- glad to hear you're enjoying it.

(And congratulations on your achievement of optimal nocturnal reading conditions *g*.)

[sholio]

I bogged down slightly in certain parts of the book, but enjoyed it overall. Apparently, it's been movie-optioned by the Coen brothers, which sounds like a good match to me; I'd love to see a Coen version of film-noir Alaska.

[flingslass.livejournal.com]

You're making me yawn. We're in winter here (it dropped to 6 degrees celcius last week. Brrr :D) Yeah right. I'm whinging about the cold to someone from Alaska. *snort*

[sholio]

Heh! It's not much warmer at night than that right now (despite the daylight - we just went for a walk and I had to put on a jacket), but it gets quite warm during the day.

[alasse-fae.livejournal.com]

Hehe we just had our book club discussion on The Yiddish Policemen's union last nite. I was partial to Berko myself...

[sholio]

I love Berko too. And Ester-Malke and Bina. They're a really neat bunch. :D

[greyias.livejournal.com]

So not only are you not burning up right now, but you get to read at midnight without artificial lighting? Some people have all the luck ;)

That book sounds interesting! Sounds like another to add to my ever-growing pile of reading recs.

[sholio]

It *is* an interesting book; there were times when I bogged down a bit (the writing style is very metaphor-heavy and that was sometimes hard to take) but I loved the characters enough to forge through the sticky spots.

[eretria.livejournal.com]

That is pretty damn cool. I'm reading the very same book right now. Halfway through right now.
I had my problems with Landsman's characterisation in the first couple of chapters, but now I'm very much with you.

[sholio]

Ha, neat coincidence! It seemed like everyone was recommending this book to me when it was first released, because I'm always on the lookout for Alaska-themed speculative fiction, but it's taken me this long to finally get around to reading it.

[iamrighthere.livejournal.com]

Chaban's book sounds great! I'll have to pick it up.

I have old pix of my mother feeding my infant brother at midnight in Fairbanks--with the sun shining outside. They don't call it the Land of the Midnight Sun for nothing. Perhaps this makes up for the darkness-at-noon scenarios in December? The New Yorker once published a cartoon of tipsy Inuits standing outside at dusk, singing that blues song "I Hate to See That Evening Sun Go Down"! You really should post some pix, you know.

[sholio]

The pictures aren't really *that* impressive, though! It's just daylight! *g* It only becomes interesting when you know what time of day it is...

[naye]

Ooh, sounds like an intriguing book! I already have one Alaska-themed novel in my to-read pile (because a friend of the family wrote it... though apparently it's pretty good), but this one sounds much cooler.

Also - reading at midnight? And here I was being all amazed by how I don't have to switch on any lights at night to find my way around the house at midnight! It's note exactly the same level of light. Man. I need to go up where there is actual midnight sun at some point in my life! As long as I can find that anti-mosquito suit to wear... *g*

[sholio]

We're not *quite* far enough north that the sun truly doesn't set, but we're close -- and it's definitely broad daylight at night right now. There's a small mountain about 80 miles up the highway where, from the top, the sun doesn't set for 3 or 4 days around the summer solstice. People from Fairbanks often drive up there on the Solstice just to have done it. *g*

[roga.livejournal.com]

Wow, that's just amazing. I think the longest day I've ever witnessed was in Scotland or the Netherlands, where it was still light out until around 10 or 10:30PM, and it felt totally surreal. How does that influence your sleeping patterns? And how short do days get in the winter?

Also, I've heard of that book, but I didn't know if it was recommended or not. Good to know you like it.

[sholio]

In the very darkest part of winter it gets light between 10-11 a.m. and is dark by 3 p.m. And it *does* influence a person's biological clock. I don't notice the effect all that much anymore because I'm used to it, but when I first moved back after living in Illinois for 4 years, I had a lot of trouble sleeping in the summer; I was pretty much sleep-deprived for my entire first summer back, not because I had trouble falling asleep but because I would wake up when the sun came up and *then* have trouble falling asleep -- which is a major problem when the sun comes up at 3 a.m.!

It's one of the things I really like about living here, though. In the summer, there's this amazing energy -- you just want to be outside a lot, walking the dogs or working in the garden at midnight. In the winter, it's the time for catching up on all of that, watching a lot of videos and sleeping late.

[aforestofsand.livejournal.com]

Mmmmm, don't you just love the summer? The sun sets around midnight right now where I live and rises again at three in the morning. It's my favorite thing about summer. :)

Btw, hi! I friended you a while ago because I like your fiction and you seem like a nice person, but I don't think I've ever commented before. So, hi. :)

[sholio]

Hi, and welcome! ^_^

Approximately where do you live, if you don't mind my asking? I'm just curious how far north you are.

[aforestofsand.livejournal.com]

Thank you!

Reykjavik, Iceland. 64°N, approximately. :)

[sholio]

64 latitude is just about where we are too (Fairbanks, Alaska). I've always wanted to go to Iceland ... some friends of mine have been, and they say that it's very beautiful and not too different from the sort of scenery that we're used to here.

[aforestofsand.livejournal.com]

I've always wanted to go to Alaska, actually. I saw a movie when I was little, something Disney-made, I think, about a boy and his husky who got lost in the wilderness or something like that. It looked just so beautiful. And a lot more trees than you'll ever see in Iceland.

Doesn't it get awfully cold in winter, though? We're pretty well protected by the gulf stream here, so it never really gets all that cold, but I can imagine it could be pretty chilly without that.

[sholio]

How cold it gets depends on where you are. I grew up down on the coast near Anchorage, where it didn't get very cold and sometimes would even rain in January, but we got a lot of snow. Here in Fairbanks, it's usually -40 in the months of December and January, but the summers are hot and we don't get much snow.