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Dec 01

She can make a fantastic omelet... just don't ask where she keeps the cheese.Click for full image

Alessandra Comments: Can’t quite decide if it’s a brilliant absurdist collage or a goofball collection of oddments. Egg cartons over the breasts? Seriously? And bags of candy on the shoulders and RAF wings over the head and… Yeah, goofball collection of oddments.
Published 2011

Actually, that cover IS a classical work of art!I would touch it without protective gloves.I've seen worse. Far, far, worse.Interesting, but I would still read it in public.Middlng: Neither awful nor awfully goodWould not like to be seen reading that!Awful... just awful...That belongs in a gold-lame picture frame!Gah... my eyes are burning! Feels so good!Good Show Sir! (Average: 7.33 out of 10)
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30 Responses to “In Other Worlds”

  1. Kathryn Says:

    I think her expression sums it up rather well.

  2. THX 1138 Says:

    And that’s why it’s not a good idea to make your own Halloween costumes.

  3. Muttley Says:

    Well, this is lit-crit from an author with a very broad range of output who for many years held that she didn’t write SF. The publisher didn’t know which way to jump.

    I wonder if there are any talking squids . . .

  4. SI Says:

    So, who is tilting their head to read the text?

  5. Jaouad Says:

    At a guess, this cover is a send-up. Where it falls down of course is the absolute *seriousness* of the people doing the sending up. ‘Oh we’ll have a cyborg woman to illustrate [name your trope]. But to make sure we’re not mistaken for, you know, a book about cyborg women, we use egg cartons, toys and candy to build her. How meta! We rule!’ This in itself makes it excellent GSS material.

    Or maybe there’s a story about edible androids inside.

  6. Phil Says:

    If I were the cover artist, I would have snuck in a space-squid somewhere. The poor lady on the cover needs something to cheer her up.

  7. Gery Says:

    Apparently the mood-selector lottery machine in her navel has selected ‘glum’!

  8. fred Says:

    My imagination says Ron Jeremy should be on that cover.

  9. A.R.Yngve Says:

    Wow… this is like the book-cover equivalent of “The Emperor’s New Clothes”.

    People who are afraid to seem “unhip” or “oppressive” will praise the cover, or pretend it’s “intellectual” and “analyze” its “message”…

    The rest of us can just relax and laugh. “She’s got no clothes on!” (By which I mean the poor cover model, not Margaret Atwood. Honest, Guv!)

  10. Victor Casados Says:

    Egg carton bra or top designed to accommodate 12 tiny breasts? YOU decide!

    Hyper-mammaryists – UNITE!

  11. Victor Casados Says:

    Or would that be “super-mammarysts”? “Supernumary-mammaryists”?

    *Typical American. Struggling with English. Film at 11.*

  12. Frank Says:

    ..”we even gift wrap..”

  13. Anti-Sceptic Says:

    The flowers look like they have seen something on the back end and are sniggering….can flowers snigger?

  14. Anti-Sceptic Says:

    Now that I think of it, the girl looks like she’s from a Daft Punk video…

  15. FeàrofMusiç Says:

    Yes, she’s staring at a man with the head of a bloodhound and a boombox on his shoulder. Dance Dogman, dance.

    There’s a tag I’m surprised Anti-Sceptic hasn’t proposed.’ Daft Punk girl’ tag.

  16. Dead Stuff With Big Teeth Says:

    What I don’t understand is, when I search the site for the word ‘cheese’, it returns this cover and only this cover. Go on, try it yourself.

  17. Tom Noir Says:

    Well now you wrote ‘cheese’ in the comments so it DEFINITELY will!

  18. Dead Stuff With Big Teeth Says:

    Oh, so if I write ‘cheese’ in the comments again, other covers will pop up? 🙂

  19. rev Says:

    You can cheese all the comments you like and nothing new will pop. GSS search ignores everything you write.
    Disappointing isn’t it? And oddly emasculating.

  20. Tom Noir Says:

    lol

  21. Tag Wizard Says:

    Cheese is in the image’s mouseover text.
    Cheeeeeeeeeeeeese

  22. Dead Stuff With Big Teeth Says:

    Ah, I hadn’t seen the cheese there. So to speak. Thanks again, Tag Wizard!

  23. Anna T. Says:

    Kathryn’s right about her facial expression. If I was in a situation like that . . .

    It’s like they grabbed all the random crap in the studio they could find and cobbled it together to make this “costume”.

  24. Tat Wood Says:

    Cate Blanchett stifles a sob and wonders where it all went wrong.

  25. anon Says:

    She-Robocop was not impressed with her dress uniform.

  26. anon Says:

    @Tag Wizard: These images have alt-text? Crap.

  27. GSS noob Says:

    Looks frighteningly like Conan O’Brien. Facially, anyway.

  28. Emster Says:

    Apologies to Count Basie…

    Egg crate covered bazooms
    Bits and bobs from church bazaar
    All thrown together on this cover
    Attempt at thought-provoking attire
    In Other Worlds, fun for GSS crew
    In Other Worlds, by Margaret Atwoo(d)

  29. GSS ex-noob Says:

    @Emster: Uou hep cat!

    Still think it looks a lot like Conan the Talk Show Host.

    As to all the apropos comments about Space Squids, I recall a great deal of pride and LOL when “The Girl-Thing Who Went Out For Sushi” won the Hugo. Literal people-turned-into-marine-life-shapes to work in Jupiter’s orbit. It was a very good, unexpectedly moving story, and was a literal response to Atwood’s clueless, dismissive remark

    Also it’s by Pat Cadigan, who is WAY more fun and less pretentious than Margaret Atwood. Can you imagine Atwood partying with a bunch of random readers? Never happen. Whereas Pat’s in her element and a real raconteur.

    This is Pat the same year I last partied with her:
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pat_Cadigan#/media/File:Pat_Cadigan_in_2018.jpg

    Looks like a fun gal, right?

  30. Emster Says:

    Girl Thing sounds like a story I’d really enjoy (as anyone looking at my bookshelf might guess), and I bet I’d also really enjoy hanging out with Pat too – that shirt is great.

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