a movie, and books.
Saw Coraline tonight. It was beautifully made, and it reminded me of some of the things I liked about the book. The text never outright said it, but it was made clear all the same that the Other Mother was an old-time fairy, in a way that pushes my buttons delightfully. I forget how well the book pulled it off, but the movie at least did a really good job with the fairy-tale logic at the end.
Gaiman loves trying to write myth-and-fairy-tale logic. When he succeeds, it's gorgeous, and when he doesn't, he comes off as someone who's trying far too hard, and then he gets called a pretentious hack by the haters.
I think Coraline is one of the places where he succeeds.
So I haven't mentioned this before, but I've decided to try to do the 50books_poc challenge this year. It's what it sounds like: read fifty books (fiction, non-fiction, illustrated, cookbook, whatever) written by people of color. Because when I first heard about it, I sat back and thought, "I can't remember the last time I read a book other than manga written by someone who wasn't white." And...that's pretty stupid and sad.
I haven't decided yet whether I'll count manga--I know the point is to Expand Your Horizons, but I don't know if I can finish fifty prose books in a year. So just in case, the manga I've read so far this year:
Fruits Basket volumes 8 and 9, by Takaya Natsuki
Tokyo Babylon volumes 1 and 2, by CLAMP
Chrono Crusade volume 1, by Moriyama Daisuke
...that's not as many as I thought. I am slacking sadly.
I'm not entirely sure what else I'll read, so I'm taking recommendations. There are a few we have around the house that I might try--I think we have Things Fall Apart somewhere--and I've been meaning to read Dreams from My Father anyway. I'm also interested in Haruki Murakami, but not sure where to begin.
But to start, I picked up two Octavia Butler anthologies today: Lilith's Brood (Dawn, Adulthood Rites, and Imago) and Seed to Harvest (Wild Seed, Mind of My Mind, Clay's Ark, and Patternmaster). I've never read her books before, but I've heard nothing but good about them, so I'm pretty excited.
Notes for later:
--Write up my thoughts on Lockon's side of Lockon/Tieria and how I'm RPing it at polychromatic; how to avoid seeming like I'm pushing the pairing (here is me being paranoid about anonymous).
--Get started on Lockon/Tieria essay for ship_manifesto already.
--Talk myself out of applying for Sheryl on polychromatic, at least until I can balance the characters I already have there and on campfuckudie.
--Sit down and make a bunch of Macross Frontier icons.
--Do something productive...eventually.
Gaiman loves trying to write myth-and-fairy-tale logic. When he succeeds, it's gorgeous, and when he doesn't, he comes off as someone who's trying far too hard, and then he gets called a pretentious hack by the haters.
I think Coraline is one of the places where he succeeds.
So I haven't mentioned this before, but I've decided to try to do the 50books_poc challenge this year. It's what it sounds like: read fifty books (fiction, non-fiction, illustrated, cookbook, whatever) written by people of color. Because when I first heard about it, I sat back and thought, "I can't remember the last time I read a book other than manga written by someone who wasn't white." And...that's pretty stupid and sad.
I haven't decided yet whether I'll count manga--I know the point is to Expand Your Horizons, but I don't know if I can finish fifty prose books in a year. So just in case, the manga I've read so far this year:
Fruits Basket volumes 8 and 9, by Takaya Natsuki
Tokyo Babylon volumes 1 and 2, by CLAMP
Chrono Crusade volume 1, by Moriyama Daisuke
...that's not as many as I thought. I am slacking sadly.
I'm not entirely sure what else I'll read, so I'm taking recommendations. There are a few we have around the house that I might try--I think we have Things Fall Apart somewhere--and I've been meaning to read Dreams from My Father anyway. I'm also interested in Haruki Murakami, but not sure where to begin.
But to start, I picked up two Octavia Butler anthologies today: Lilith's Brood (Dawn, Adulthood Rites, and Imago) and Seed to Harvest (Wild Seed, Mind of My Mind, Clay's Ark, and Patternmaster). I've never read her books before, but I've heard nothing but good about them, so I'm pretty excited.
Notes for later:
--Write up my thoughts on Lockon's side of Lockon/Tieria and how I'm RPing it at polychromatic; how to avoid seeming like I'm pushing the pairing (here is me being paranoid about anonymous).
--Get started on Lockon/Tieria essay for ship_manifesto already.
--Talk myself out of applying for Sheryl on polychromatic, at least until I can balance the characters I already have there and on campfuckudie.
--Sit down and make a bunch of Macross Frontier icons.
--Do something productive...eventually.