(no subject)
“What’s the good of Mercator’s North Poles and Equators,
Tropics, Zones, and Meridian Lines?”
So the Bellman would cry: and the crew would reply
“They are merely conventional signs!
When Lewis Carroll wrote this (in The Hunting of the Snark) he was making a sarcastic comment about C19th colonialism (really). But 'merely conventional signs' has also become a bit of a rallying cry for certain people with more relaxed attitudes to punctuation, while another part of the population writhes in horror. Now, I am not the most relaxed person ever. But I do think the 'merely conventional signs' attitude really has its pluses, and the reason I know this is because I was able to read the terrific Will Grayson, will grayson, by John Green and David Levithan, yesterday, with nary a wince, although half of the novel - including its gorgeous ending - is all in lower case. (I *think* it is the David Levithan half, alhough it's hard to tell.)
Sidebar: Gosh, David Levithan. That man knows how to write the most ridiculously, unbelievably silly grand romantic/friendship gesture in a way that makes it seem absolutely amazing. I won't spoil any of them; but if you haven't read Boy Meets Boy, Realm of Possibility, or Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist you're missing out. (I can't help thinking how weird it would be if you were actually dating him tho. I mean, either he's the same as the characters in his novel, gesture-wise, which would be amazing slash terrifying, or he's not, which would just sort of be a letdown.)
Anyway. Will Grayson, will grayson is really terrific, and if you are flexible about some of English's conventional signs, I think you will like it, especially if you like novels about romance, friendship being more important than romance, ridiculous gestures, mental illness, queerness that isn't about depression, being depressed and queer but not blaming either of those things on each other (seriously), betrayal, and musical theatre.
And I feel like making this Themed Book Rec Week, so here are two other recommendations:
Greg Rucka's recent run on Detective Comics with Batwoman and The Question. This is tough because there isn't a trade paperback for this yet! However, the second there is, you must all drop everything and run out and buy it. Although I really rolled my eyes at the idea of a book that was basically 'All the lesbians in DC comics in one convenient monthly book', the fact is that Rucka is just really good, the art for the first arc is un.fucking.believable, and this is a really fabulous run on a Batbook that surpassed a superhero comic's traditional weaknesses (sexism, racism, homophobia, being way inaccessible because of a squillion years of backstory) while simultaneously not being snobby or unsuperheroy or running down superheroes, just being a really, really good superhero book. With a classic Gotham-style backstory which didn't make me want to scream! And also, the most killer origin story which imma talk about under the cut for about 30 seconds.
Other people have said this but it bears repeating: the idea that in Gotham the Bat symbol has become meaningful to *other Gothamites*, so that someone can wear the bat for a reason that has nothing to do with Bruce Wayne and doesn't require him to give permission, is really meaningful to me. I think I feel this particularly because it's what Stephanie Brown set out to do when she became Spoiler - fix problems independently - but she did eventually get dragged into the Batfamily bullshit (I love the Batfamily, it's just that Bruce is suuuuch a Well Done Son Guy.) So anyway. I think that's great.
Finally, The Skeleton Woman by Renee. This is just a good novel, not chicklit, not literary fiction, just plain, enjoyable writing, set in Lower Hutt, about a woman who runs a second-hand bookshop and gets left with a baby on her doorstep. It's a bit of a problem novel (the woman has just gone into remission from cancer and this novel also features domestic violence, Maori women succeeding in the Pakeha sphere and being accused of being race traitors, infidelity, the inability of this woman to commit to her partner Olga because of her father's infidelity, etc etc etc.) But you know, it was basically a good fun read by a New Zealand writer who writes well about a lesbian in a way that is not all sensational nights-in-the-garden-of-sin-and-family-guilt. So if you like that kind of thing and I do, this book is for you!
This entry is crossposted from http://labellementeuse.dreamwidth.org/26719.html, go ahead and comment there if you prefer.
Tropics, Zones, and Meridian Lines?”
So the Bellman would cry: and the crew would reply
“They are merely conventional signs!
When Lewis Carroll wrote this (in The Hunting of the Snark) he was making a sarcastic comment about C19th colonialism (really). But 'merely conventional signs' has also become a bit of a rallying cry for certain people with more relaxed attitudes to punctuation, while another part of the population writhes in horror. Now, I am not the most relaxed person ever. But I do think the 'merely conventional signs' attitude really has its pluses, and the reason I know this is because I was able to read the terrific Will Grayson, will grayson, by John Green and David Levithan, yesterday, with nary a wince, although half of the novel - including its gorgeous ending - is all in lower case. (I *think* it is the David Levithan half, alhough it's hard to tell.)
Sidebar: Gosh, David Levithan. That man knows how to write the most ridiculously, unbelievably silly grand romantic/friendship gesture in a way that makes it seem absolutely amazing. I won't spoil any of them; but if you haven't read Boy Meets Boy, Realm of Possibility, or Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist you're missing out. (I can't help thinking how weird it would be if you were actually dating him tho. I mean, either he's the same as the characters in his novel, gesture-wise, which would be amazing slash terrifying, or he's not, which would just sort of be a letdown.)
Anyway. Will Grayson, will grayson is really terrific, and if you are flexible about some of English's conventional signs, I think you will like it, especially if you like novels about romance, friendship being more important than romance, ridiculous gestures, mental illness, queerness that isn't about depression, being depressed and queer but not blaming either of those things on each other (seriously), betrayal, and musical theatre.
And I feel like making this Themed Book Rec Week, so here are two other recommendations:
Greg Rucka's recent run on Detective Comics with Batwoman and The Question. This is tough because there isn't a trade paperback for this yet! However, the second there is, you must all drop everything and run out and buy it. Although I really rolled my eyes at the idea of a book that was basically 'All the lesbians in DC comics in one convenient monthly book', the fact is that Rucka is just really good, the art for the first arc is un.fucking.believable, and this is a really fabulous run on a Batbook that surpassed a superhero comic's traditional weaknesses (sexism, racism, homophobia, being way inaccessible because of a squillion years of backstory) while simultaneously not being snobby or unsuperheroy or running down superheroes, just being a really, really good superhero book. With a classic Gotham-style backstory which didn't make me want to scream! And also, the most killer origin story which imma talk about under the cut for about 30 seconds.
Other people have said this but it bears repeating: the idea that in Gotham the Bat symbol has become meaningful to *other Gothamites*, so that someone can wear the bat for a reason that has nothing to do with Bruce Wayne and doesn't require him to give permission, is really meaningful to me. I think I feel this particularly because it's what Stephanie Brown set out to do when she became Spoiler - fix problems independently - but she did eventually get dragged into the Batfamily bullshit (I love the Batfamily, it's just that Bruce is suuuuch a Well Done Son Guy.) So anyway. I think that's great.
Finally, The Skeleton Woman by Renee. This is just a good novel, not chicklit, not literary fiction, just plain, enjoyable writing, set in Lower Hutt, about a woman who runs a second-hand bookshop and gets left with a baby on her doorstep. It's a bit of a problem novel (the woman has just gone into remission from cancer and this novel also features domestic violence, Maori women succeeding in the Pakeha sphere and being accused of being race traitors, infidelity, the inability of this woman to commit to her partner Olga because of her father's infidelity, etc etc etc.) But you know, it was basically a good fun read by a New Zealand writer who writes well about a lesbian in a way that is not all sensational nights-in-the-garden-of-sin-and-family-guilt. So if you like that kind of thing and I do, this book is for you!
This entry is crossposted from http://labellementeuse.dreamwidth.org/26719.html, go ahead and comment there if you prefer.