The Last New School

It was Graham’s first day at his new school and he was determined to make this time different. It wasn’t just because he liked the new campus, which featured peaceful courtyards, classrooms with skylights, and a historical mural that decorated the entry hall from the main office all the way to the cafeteria. Even if this hadn’t been a place he wanted to stay, the truth was that he was tired.

Living up to expectations was too much work. He had to figure out a way to do just enough to qualify for staying here without excelling enough for his mother to be able to move him to a more “challenging” school. Since he excelled without intending to do so, this was going to be the most difficult project he had tackled, and he didn’t want to cheat. How does one manage to be above average without being so spectacular that nothing seems beyond his abilities? Graham wasn’t sure, but he was going to try to find out.

He had a plan, of course. On the first day, he would just observe. He wouldn’t talk or volunteer or even look too interested. Looking interested encouraged teachers to ask questions, and answering questions is where Graham always sabotaged himself. Even when he was trying to be dull, he accidentally bungled into being profound. Words he thought were just a papercut observation on the surface of the topic made his teachers stare at him in awe. So today, he would be silent.

Graham knew there was an easy way to do this. He could completely screw up, go silent and uncooperative like his sister Drew had done. But going silent and uncooperative hadn’t gotten Drew the life she had wanted. She hadn’t been allowed to study what she wanted where she wanted at the pace she wanted. No, she had been turned over to experimental psychologists who plied her with drugs, read her diaries(until she stopped writing them), and videotaped her every move in order to crack the mystery of her intellectual demise. Now she spent all of her time in a hospital gown just because she had longed to attend a school that had a prom.

Graham wasn’t as ambitious as Drew. He only wanted to slow down and stop being his mother’s pet monkey. He didn’t care if he couldn’t be “normal”, but he wanted to stop feeling abnormal. He found it so ironic that adults hung on his every word, but somehow never managed to hear what he was actually saying to him. It made him feel like he was losing his mind. Yes, it was definitely going to be a challenge to figure out how to fail while still succeeding, but there was no other choice.

The Specimen

 

The assistant George knew as soon as he identified that the deer was not Pudu puda OR Pudu mephistopheles that Dr. Buckland was going to take credit for the discovery.  It had been that way for years: George did the field work and Dr. Buckland would fearlessly display the specimen to the Royal Academy as his own work. 

Even though it probably meant the end of his partnership with one of Britain’s premier naturalists, George couldn’t feel an ounce of regret for replacing the exhibit animal with an entirely different specimen.

The Ruin of AX520

The Ruin of AX520

She was the most beautiful woman I had ever seen, but at the Academy she was called “The Beast.”  You’d think a name like that would be tacked on to someone with a nasty temper, but that’s not how it started at all.  It started when she discovered that the AX520 was dangerous.

The AX520 was the big money maker.  The University had been receiving substantial grants for the mutated gene for two decades.  While the geneticists were always a bit vague on what AX520 was supposed to do, Dr. Kern was very good at convincing donors that it was going to do something spectacular.  It wouldn’t cure cancer, but it might just end world hunger…or something like that.  His brilliance was so reknowned that anyone who accused his data of being nebulous and poorly documented was scathingly dismissed as either too dense or too jealous to acknowledge the great man’s success.  He was untouchable for two decades.

The Beast(she doesn’t get called by her real name anymore because everyone refuses to see her as human now) was the one who broke the rules.  She ran the tests that Dr. Kern had stalled.  He was constantly claiming that the gene was still being studied and wasn’t ready yet.  What was being studied wasn’t clearly stated.  The University left him be because the man could charm 6 million dollars out of his marks in just a few clandestine luncheons.  The University didn’t want to know what went on in those meetings. No one questioned the man who got the Kern Laboratory Complex built.

 The Beast didn’t care about that, and apparently she didn’t care about ruining her career either.  She created a shadow identity for her study until she was sure. When it was clear that AX520 was a monster, she released her data in the one journal that would run it.  Only a few geneticists were willing to stand by her until competitors from the Academy smelled blood. Within a year, the University was facing a lawsuit.  Dr. Kern talked his way through the scandal, but AX520 and its grants were finished.  The Beast had ruined it all.

Kern’s supporters couldn’t keep her from talking, and the University couldn’t outright dismiss her, so they did the next best thing: they made her into the Beast, a bumbling, ugly-minded creature who callously destroyed the best thing the University had going for it.  She was the traitor in the lab, and no one would work with her.  They cut off her access to the labs and invented classes like Scientific Inventory Practices for her to teach.  Students took her class simply to harass her for trying to bring down the great man.

When I was writing my doctorate, I stumbled across her study.  It was more than science.  It was art. It was sublime and perfect and honest.  She was the most beautiful woman I had ever seen.  Everyone else deliberately blinded themselves to avoid looking at her.

A-Z BOOK SURVEY

Author you’ve read the most books from:
L.M. Montomery; I probably read everything she wrote when I was a teenager.

Best Sequel Ever:

Adventures of Huckleberry Finn: Mark Twain took Adventures of Tom Sawyer, a beloved children's book, and converted his audience's favorite characters into a scathing criticism of American society. It was probably one of the most subversive acts in American literature

Currently Reading:

Under the Sea-Wind by Rachel Carson and Glen Cook's Black Company series



Drink of Choice While Reading:

Diet cola

E-reader or Physical Book?

I prefer physical books, but recently I've caved to the convenience of e-books.

Fictional Character You Probably Would Have Actually Dated In High School:

I don't think I thought much about which characters I wanted to date. I've always been more focused on which ones I wanted to be. In high school, I wanted to be Emily of New Moon, but in reality I probably was more like Judy Blume's Sheila the Great.


Glad You Gave This Book A Chance:

Moby-Dick When you major in American Literature, you're supposed to pretend to be excited to read this massive book about whaling, but the reality is that many students freak out and try to skim their way through it. I did that the first time it was assigned to me, but the second time I made myself seriously read it, and it is one of the most profound, beautiful books ever written, and yes, the whaling chapters do have a purpose.




Hidden Gem Book:

The Family Nobody Wanted by Helen Doss; this was the autobiography of a woman who adopted 12 children



Important Moment in your Reading Life:

When I realized that The Giving Tree was not an insult to my reading skills. Someone gave it to me when I was 11 and I initially refused to read it because I thought it was a baby book. That book taught me that simplicity in writing does not mean simplicity in writing skill.



Just Finished:

She Is the Darkness by Glen Cook



Kinds of Books You Won’t Read: There isn't much I won't at least try to read, but I try to stay away from political propaganda books.



Longest Book You’ve Read: Since it depends on the edition and I don't want to spend six hours trying to figure this out, I'm going to say that I'm pretty sure it was probably Atlas Shrugged.





Major book hangover because of: I'm not sure I understand this question. Team of Rivals had me pretty muddled.



Number of Bookcases You Own: Eight, but most of the books are in boxes right now.


One Book You Have Read Multiple Times:
Winter of Our Discontent by John Steinbeck; maybe I should have called this my hidden gem. It's my favorite of Steinbeck's books, and yet it doesn't get discussed nearly as much as GoW or OM&M.


Preferred Place To Read:
In bed.


Quote that inspires you/gives you all the feels from a book you’ve read:

"He who troubleth his own house shall inherit the wind." from the play, "Inherit the Wind" (and also the bible, I guess)



Reading Regret:

The Painted Bird by Jerzy Kosinski There are descriptions in there that still give me shudders, and I read the book twenty years ago.

Series You Started And Need To Finish(all books are out in series):

The Black Company



Three of your All-Time Favorite Books:

Other than books I've already mentioned, three of my favorite books are The Poisonwood Bible by Kingsolver, O Pioneers by Willa Cather, and Beloved by Morrison.


Unapologetic Fangirl For:

Mark Twain, Zora Neal Hurston and American literature from 1835-1950 in general



Very Excited For This Release More Than All The Others:

Dan Swenson's Orision I've been waiting years for this book to come out. Literally. And yes, I am using literally the way it's supposed to be used.

Worst Bookish Habit:
Overanalyzing the books to the point were I ruin them for other readers.


X Marks The Spot: Start at the top left of your shelf and pick the 27th book:

Uncommon Fruits Worthy of Attention

Your latest book purchase:

Waiting for the Barbarians and Water Sleeps

ZZZ-snatcher book (last book that kept you up WAY late):

She Is Darkness