Comments | hamsterwoman: Hugos and assorted memes

hamsterwoman

Hugos and assorted memes

Apr 14, 2020 11:10

I kind of like this cadence of alternating between quarantine life posts and fannishness, so I'm going to keep doing that. (Usually I like mixing RL and fandom things, but RL and escapism are not mixing particularly well around now...)

Hugo nominations came out, and even though I'm VERY burnt out on Hugo homework after last year, I did nominate, ( Read more... )

character meme, hugo homework, top 5 meme, icon meme

Comments 25

meathiel April 14 2020, 18:26:34 UTC

I actually bought a Niffler a few weeks ago. That is - Saskia got us two and it's still at her place. I'll hopefully get it this week but then it has to be quarantined first. 😉

hamsterwoman April 14 2020, 18:56:00 UTC

Aww, quarantined Niffler! :D I hope it gets to you soon and then can actually be released from quarantine, hee. (I actually kind of regret not getting it. I admired it when it was $20, which definitely felt like too much, but then I think it was on sale after Christmas, and I should've at least checked how much it was then. If it was under the post-Christmas gift sales, I would have totally gotten it...)

jaelle_n_gilla April 14 2020, 19:35:43 UTC

Ooooh, Niffler! So cute :-) But, yeah, definitely one I wouldn't want to look after.

hamsterwoman April 14 2020, 19:44:57 UTC

It was my favorite part of the movie :) But, yeah, I want to appreciate it through a movie screen, not in person! :P

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jaelle_n_gilla April 14 2020, 19:46:28 UTC

I would love to have any telepathic animal, really. The horse Cloud from that one scifi story I read... oh the brain. *sigh*
I'd gladly bring up and care for one of the Dragons of Pern, or the talking foxes from Rivers of London. Or the telepathic dog from "A Boy and his Dog". I loved that story.

I may have to track down some of your comfort books. I don't know most of them.

hamsterwoman April 14 2020, 23:36:05 UTC

Yeah, telepathic pets would in general be very cool. I also like Mercedes Lackey's Valdemar Companions for that reason -- even though I personally have no use for a horse :)

Monday Starts on Saturday is originally a Russian book. I'm not sure if it exists in German translation, or how good it is if it does, but Andrew Bromfield's English translation is pretty good!

And, of course, Taltos is part of the Dragaera series I'm always trying to get people to pick up :P

I really do love Dave Barry's humour, but with the caveat that I do think humour is very culturally specific, so not sure if he would be as funny to an audience not coming at it from a foundation of American humour, if you know what I mean.

I think you know the others :)

Anyway, if you do end up picking up one of those, I hope you enjoy it! :D

jaelle_n_gilla April 15 2020, 06:12:45 UTC

I found Monday starts on Saturday on Amazon.de in English and bought it. We'll see :)

I had a look into Dave Barry's Travel Guide and found the start funny already. Culturally, we get a lot of American influence, so I'm fine so long as they don't reference too much to obscure history or lesser known politics. But then, I make it through St. Mary's and that's a lot of English history I have to google to be able to get it :)

hamsterwoman April 15 2020, 15:12:26 UTC

Ooh! I'm definitely very curious to know how 'Monday' works for you! Please keep me posted :) (One of my favorite things about the book is a skewering of Soviet academia bureaucracy, but I think that it's the kind of bureaucracy that would be readily recognizable to anyone who's interacted with a large institution, so I'm hoping you would enjoy that as well.)

And glad to hear that Dave Barry's humor seems to be working for you! (Travel Guide is my favorite of his, actually :)

bearshorty April 14 2020, 20:09:21 UTC

No pets for me at all, even fictional ones! As a child I was dismayed how many of my favorite characters had a pet dog. I was afraid of dogs so that was never an option for me. Although Mouse would probably be fine since he is intelligent enough not to be scared of him.

As for character- Severus Snape, since you made me nostalgic with your Harry Potter write up in this post

hamsterwoman April 15 2020, 01:57:44 UTC

No pets for me at all, even fictional ones! As a child I was dismayed how many of my favorite characters had a pet dog.

Oh how interesting! As a kid who pined for a dog, I was always jealous of the protagonists who got to have them, and always gave characters pet dogs in my own writing :P Well, at this point I've concluded that I don't want a real dog at all, so it feels disingenuous to opt for a fictional one (who presumably would still need the same amount of care.)

Although Mouse is smart enough that he can take care of himself, so I would make an exception for him (except as stated above).

And, Snape meme, coming up! :D

1 How I feel about this characterI definitely think he is one of the most interesting characters in the series, though not one of my very favorites. There are a lot of fairly black-and-white characters in the books, so having someone who a) did pretty awful things in his youth, but b) has spent a lot of time atoning for them, very bravely and at great personal sacrifice, but c) is still not actually a nice ( ... )

monkiainen April 15 2020, 08:59:38 UTC

Because I just finished reading The Wise Man's Fear, I'll give you Kvothe for the character meme ;)

hamsterwoman April 15 2020, 21:50:04 UTC

I hope you liked Wise Man's Fear! (Despite some did-we-really-have-to? episodes, like the whole thing with Felurian, I actually liked this book even more than book 1.)

So, Kvothe:

1 How I feel about this character
He's a fun protagonist! I like guile hero protagonists without an off switch like him, and I enjoy the way he is telling his own story. I don't love him as a character -- he's not even in my top 5 for the fandom -- but he's a great plot driver and a fun narrator. (NOT a big fan of Kote, though.)

2 All the people I ship romantically with this characterNot Denna :P Or any of his canonical entanglements, actually. Denna and Felurian are the worst for me, because the romantic stuff with them brings to a halt the things I enjoy about the book. For the others, well, I liked the Adem lady whose name I'm blanking on, and was OK with that dalliance, but didn't think it was necessary, either. And the thing being set up with Devi, oy. I actually REALLY like Devi, and liked her dynamic with Kvothe until this point, and I'm ( ... )

monkiainen April 16 2020, 10:35:11 UTC

Yes, I liked it a lot! Here's to hoping Rothfuss actually finishes the third book sometime in the near future...

I agree with you that the whole Felurian thing could have been skipped completely - or Kvothe could have just accidentally wandered to the fairy land, got himself a magnificent cape and leave without the whole "romancing the fairy queen(?)" bit. I'm not a big fan of Denna, either - she's too flaky for my tastes. I get that this is also supposed to be some sort of Kvothe's coming-of-age story, but there are better ways to do it.

Haha, Kvothe/Elodin would be something! ;)

hamsterwoman April 16 2020, 17:13:27 UTC

Here's to hoping Rothfuss actually finishes the third book sometime in the near future...

I'm definitely not holding my breath, but I'll happily read it when it comes out -- I love the magical system in this world so much, and the prose is generally a really good time.

I'm not a big fan of Denna, either - she's too flaky for my tastes. I get that this is also supposed to be some sort of Kvothe's coming-of-age story, but there are better ways to do it.

Yeah, I do feel like the book doesn't necessarily want you to accept Kvothe's romanticized view of Denna either -- there's Bast saying how he met her and she was nothing special. But at the same time, the book does spend so much time wallowing in Kvothe's infatuation with her that I was pretty sick of her.

itsnotmymind April 15 2020, 11:54:06 UTC

Zoë from Firefly

hamsterwoman April 16 2020, 02:22:16 UTC

1 How I feel about this character
I love her! She is not my favorite, but up there at the #3-4 slot (and I love a lot of the characters in Firefly a lot). Also, Gina Torres is gorgeous, especially as Zoe.

2 All the people I ship romantically with this character
Well, Wash is obviously the OTP. But I also like the idea of post-Serenity-the-movie Zoe/Jayne, with the idea that Jayne is really into her and she's obviously not serious about it, but potentially considering whether Jayne may not be a simple way to ease back into things.

3 My non-romantic OTP for this character
Mal, for sure.

4 My unpopular opinion about this character
Are there unpopular opinions about Zoe? Zoe is awesome, and I think all sane people realize this. Maybe the fact that I think Zoe is more beautiful than Inara? I think they're both gorgeous, but Zoe has the edge.

5 One thing I wish would happen / had happened with this character in canon.I mostly wish Wash's death hadn't happened, as beautiful as the "she'll fly true" scene at the end of the movie is ( ... )

itsnotmymind April 16 2020, 11:52:02 UTC

Zoe/Jayne had never occurred to me. Have to think about that.

I like the idea of Zoe having a child!

hamsterwoman April 16 2020, 17:10:30 UTC

Jayne is kind of my fandom bicycle in Firefly, so I could see him with pretty much anyone except River (she is too young and too damaged) and Wash (he is besotted with Zoe, end of story), and, like, Book in the sense that if I shipped Book with anyone, it would be definitely Jayne, but I don't. And, like, Jayne's clearly perving on Zoe even while she's married ("I say Zoe gets naked."), which she seems unbothered by, and I think he'd be pretty likely to try his luck with her sooner than anyone sensible would. And it would be uncomplicated, and may actually be good for her.

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