review of Black Thorn, White Rose

Tehani Wessely of Australia reviews the new edition of Black Thorn, White Rose. She mostly likes the stories and overall gives the book a very good review, but this paragraph struck me:

"Fourteen years is a long time, and these stories first saw print in 1994. So much has changed in the world since then: the ways we perceive good and evil not the least, but also the things that have the power to shock us, to scare us, and to permit us to suspend our disbelief. Hence, there were stories in this anthology that felt old, dated, tired. It is possible to envisage them as fresh and groundbreaking when first published, but the intervening years, and many similar collections (including a number produced by the same editors, some of which I will review soon), have left this anthology feeling a little stale."

Dragonkat@LJ

Once I edit an anthology I rarely reread the stories in print. I've already read them a number of times during the editing process. So I'm not a good judge of this.

Is it true that an anthology series such as the adult fairy tale anthologies, all published in the mid-to late 90s can become dated? I'd think it would completely depend on each individual story. (this is for any fiction written after traumatic current events such as post Vietnam war, post 9/11, et al).

If the story is tied to a particular sensibility or for example, air travel is depicted more innocently than now in our time of terrorism fear does this necessarily date the story or merely make it a snapshot of time?

Because my head is a complete muddle of stuffiness and I'm feeling kind of wretched, I'm not sure if this makes sense, but I'd love some opinions.

Review of Ruby Slippers, Golden Tears

Bibliophile Stalker

Sick sick sick

I thought I was having an allergic attack at Robert's apt Friday afternoon when my nose started running but it turned out to be another damned cold. Two in two months and I think this one is a winner! I tried to get to sleep early for my 3:45 am Hour of the Wolf wake up call but couldn't, and by the time I was on the air I was sniffing away. At least my cough didn't begin then. I got home 8am and slept till 11:30 am.

Oddly (and happily) my taste buds aren't affected and I attended a seder with the best potato kugel and great leg of lamb and was again... trying to control my runny nose throughout dinner. I had to skip brunch today because I felt so lousy. Slept till noon, which I'm sure didn't hurt.

Theater tonight was an agony--trying not to cough by sucking the leftover fisherman's friends I had in my purse. I hope I didn't contaminate everyone in the theater. Saw Caryl Churchill's Top Girls, which has a great opening act with six women having dinner--among the dinner guests are some famous ones like Isabel Bird, world traveler and the female Pope who was only discovered to be female when she gave birth during a procession. The problem is that the opening act doesn't really match up with the other two acts, which takes place in the 70s and involves a London employment agency called Top Girls, a woman working her way up to management, her sister back home, and her niece. I saw this when it first came out vaguely remember being wowed by it. Not so much this time, although the actors were very good--Marisa Tomei, Mary Beth Hurt, and Martha Plimpton were the names I recognized.