Wednesday reading meme
What are you currently reading
The Lost World by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Ebook available at work. Enjoyin it considerably more than I'd expect to enjoy a book about a bunch of educated white dudes travelling to a savage and unknown lost land in South America, accompanied by natives who are either evil and vengeful or dim yet good because they are loyal to the privileged educated white dudes. Yet, cringeing every few pages for obvious reasons. It is making me want to rewatch the series from 15~ or so years back, though.
Legend of the White-Haired Demoness by Liang Yusheng. I'm reading the fantranslation available at spcnet.tv, and am going to be using the names it uses for my peace of mind, even though they aren't the same as I've seen them elsewhere, should it come up. Then fantranslation also has a lot of detailed footnotes.
This is the book the Tsui Hark's Bride With White Hair movies with Brigitte Lin and Leslie Cheung (and the upcoming movie with Fan Bing Bing and Huang Xiao Ming). There was also a TV series a year or two ago, but it doesn't appear to have English subtitles yet. Tragically. I'm assuming that anyone interested in what I have to say about a wuxia novel is familiar with it, but just in case: Very Gifted student of Wu Dang meets lady mountain bandit/heroine, adventures, crime fighting and very long makeouts under a waterfall ensue, followed by misunderstandings, betrayal, and prehensile hair. Among other things. The movies are fantabulous and if you like wuxia and haven't seen them, then shame on you.
I'm reading this on Kindle and since I have library books checked out, anything on Kindle is second priority and only really gets read in breaks at working and when I'm out and waiting for things. As such, I've only read one chapter. But it's a LONG chapter. Reading only it, I now understand why people can watch a 30-50 episode series adapting a wuxia novel, and still complain about plotlines being left out. You could probably get 3-4 episodes just out of this chapter, half of which doesn't even involve the main characters. The writing style is also very different from what I'm used to (thought not in a bad way at all) and I'm pretty sure my reading speed will increase once I've adjusted more.
That said, loving it so far.
-I was confused at first when the book started with secondary characters having adventures on a road trip.
-I was extra confused because I can't recall Geng Shao Nan from the movies (by name, at least0 and was wondering if I was completely remembering Our Hero's name wrong and he was a snobby showoff. Then Lian Ni Shang lopped off a couple of his fingers for being a snobby brat, andI was reassured.
-Speaking of Lian Ni Shang, I've already lost track of her kill count, and she only showed up about halfway through the chapter.
-No one is particularly phased by a female bandit/heroine with an organization of contacts and informants, or that she's considered very very dangerous. It's just this Thing that grown men quake in terror at her name and she can lop off bodyparts and kill a few people before anyone notices what she's doing.
-Though Geng Shaon Nan does spend some time being Shocked that someone so pretty is a deadly swordswoman.
-Lian Ni Shang also strolls around her headquarters with a minisquadron of swordsm=women for company. Hopefully they get names and personalities.
What did you recently finish reading?
Dangerous Women: The Perils of Muses and Femmes Fatales by Laure Adler & Elisa Lecosse. A coffeetable book that discusses the portrayal of women's sexuality and power in various forms of art. A good, light afternoon read (but definitely a NSFW one), but not one that goes into enough depth to be truly satisfying, and often ignores aspects of historical women's lives that (IMO) should be taken into account with the obvious feminist intention of the book in order to focus on sexuality, even when that focus serves to reinforce their negative portrayals.
The Summer Prince by Ayala Dawn Johnson. While I completely get why this book is getting near-universal gold stars with bloggers I follow, I have to admit to being left somewhat cold by it, despite interesting worldbuilding and good plot and characterization. Set in a matriarchal society in post-apocalyptic Brazil, The Summer Prince is the story of June, a young artist who befriends Enki, The Summer King, who is to be ritualistically executed after serving for a year. It's been rightly getting a lot of hype for being a non-US-ian, non-Sea Of White People post-apocalyptic YA in which queer relationships are normal and accepted without comment, and in which art and expression in multiple forms are explored, and people should read it for that. On the other hand, for the first half of the book, June's relationships with other women are pretty much universally negative (more than once I wondered if she just hated other women) and the 2 on-page queer relationships (June's mother and stepmother, and Enki and June's best friend, Gil) are things that cause June pain. The second half improves on both of these fronts, though June's relationships with men are vastly prioritized over her relationships with women from the first page to the last page, and I still don't get to have speculative fiction in which a matriarchal society is a good thing. (I don't even get to have "Wonder Woman" for that anymore.) I do still recommend it overall, though, and the ending makes me very interested in what happens next (possibly more than in what did happen in the book itself).
What do you think you'll read next?
More Legend of the White-Haired Demoness, library books.
The Lost World by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Ebook available at work. Enjoyin it considerably more than I'd expect to enjoy a book about a bunch of educated white dudes travelling to a savage and unknown lost land in South America, accompanied by natives who are either evil and vengeful or dim yet good because they are loyal to the privileged educated white dudes. Yet, cringeing every few pages for obvious reasons. It is making me want to rewatch the series from 15~ or so years back, though.
Legend of the White-Haired Demoness by Liang Yusheng. I'm reading the fantranslation available at spcnet.tv, and am going to be using the names it uses for my peace of mind, even though they aren't the same as I've seen them elsewhere, should it come up. Then fantranslation also has a lot of detailed footnotes.
This is the book the Tsui Hark's Bride With White Hair movies with Brigitte Lin and Leslie Cheung (and the upcoming movie with Fan Bing Bing and Huang Xiao Ming). There was also a TV series a year or two ago, but it doesn't appear to have English subtitles yet. Tragically. I'm assuming that anyone interested in what I have to say about a wuxia novel is familiar with it, but just in case: Very Gifted student of Wu Dang meets lady mountain bandit/heroine, adventures, crime fighting and very long makeouts under a waterfall ensue, followed by misunderstandings, betrayal, and prehensile hair. Among other things. The movies are fantabulous and if you like wuxia and haven't seen them, then shame on you.
I'm reading this on Kindle and since I have library books checked out, anything on Kindle is second priority and only really gets read in breaks at working and when I'm out and waiting for things. As such, I've only read one chapter. But it's a LONG chapter. Reading only it, I now understand why people can watch a 30-50 episode series adapting a wuxia novel, and still complain about plotlines being left out. You could probably get 3-4 episodes just out of this chapter, half of which doesn't even involve the main characters. The writing style is also very different from what I'm used to (thought not in a bad way at all) and I'm pretty sure my reading speed will increase once I've adjusted more.
That said, loving it so far.
-I was confused at first when the book started with secondary characters having adventures on a road trip.
-I was extra confused because I can't recall Geng Shao Nan from the movies (by name, at least0 and was wondering if I was completely remembering Our Hero's name wrong and he was a snobby showoff. Then Lian Ni Shang lopped off a couple of his fingers for being a snobby brat, andI was reassured.
-Speaking of Lian Ni Shang, I've already lost track of her kill count, and she only showed up about halfway through the chapter.
-No one is particularly phased by a female bandit/heroine with an organization of contacts and informants, or that she's considered very very dangerous. It's just this Thing that grown men quake in terror at her name and she can lop off bodyparts and kill a few people before anyone notices what she's doing.
-Though Geng Shaon Nan does spend some time being Shocked that someone so pretty is a deadly swordswoman.
-Lian Ni Shang also strolls around her headquarters with a minisquadron of swordsm=women for company. Hopefully they get names and personalities.
What did you recently finish reading?
Dangerous Women: The Perils of Muses and Femmes Fatales by Laure Adler & Elisa Lecosse. A coffeetable book that discusses the portrayal of women's sexuality and power in various forms of art. A good, light afternoon read (but definitely a NSFW one), but not one that goes into enough depth to be truly satisfying, and often ignores aspects of historical women's lives that (IMO) should be taken into account with the obvious feminist intention of the book in order to focus on sexuality, even when that focus serves to reinforce their negative portrayals.
The Summer Prince by Ayala Dawn Johnson. While I completely get why this book is getting near-universal gold stars with bloggers I follow, I have to admit to being left somewhat cold by it, despite interesting worldbuilding and good plot and characterization. Set in a matriarchal society in post-apocalyptic Brazil, The Summer Prince is the story of June, a young artist who befriends Enki, The Summer King, who is to be ritualistically executed after serving for a year. It's been rightly getting a lot of hype for being a non-US-ian, non-Sea Of White People post-apocalyptic YA in which queer relationships are normal and accepted without comment, and in which art and expression in multiple forms are explored, and people should read it for that. On the other hand, for the first half of the book, June's relationships with other women are pretty much universally negative (more than once I wondered if she just hated other women) and the 2 on-page queer relationships (June's mother and stepmother, and Enki and June's best friend, Gil) are things that cause June pain. The second half improves on both of these fronts, though June's relationships with men are vastly prioritized over her relationships with women from the first page to the last page, and I still don't get to have speculative fiction in which a matriarchal society is a good thing. (I don't even get to have "Wonder Woman" for that anymore.) I do still recommend it overall, though, and the ending makes me very interested in what happens next (possibly more than in what did happen in the book itself).
What do you think you'll read next?
More Legend of the White-Haired Demoness, library books.