And she broke the chains and began to float away...
So, I've read three more books since Neverwhere and I am on my fourth, but I haven't written about any of them. It's time to remedy this.
Yes Means Yes! Visions of Female Sexual Power & A World Without Rape was a pretty kickass collection of essays which expresses so many different ways to look at the issue. It deals with a wide variety of viewpoints: all manner of queer, different genders (including transpeople) and ethnicities, the S&M community, etc. There are a lot of valid points, as well as some which I find a little bit silly. For example, having to ask every time you touch someone, no matter how well you know them, and even non-sexually seems like too much. So does asking for consent for every single step of the sexual process. ("Can I touch your right breast? Now, can I touch the left one?") That would annoy me very fast. There is something to be said about non-verbal communication, and also for speaking up for yourself when you don't like or feel comfortable with something. Perhaps I am uncannily skilled at putting out the "stay the hell away from me" vibes, but yeah... I liked Kate Harding's essay better when I re-read it in context with all the others.
Alias Grace by Margaret Atwood was an instant favorite for me. I think she could very well become my second-favorite fictional author (my first, of course, being Sarah Waters). Victorian fiction seems to hold some strange appeal for me. Atwood's language is beautiful and poetic. Her characterization is sensitive and intelligent. Her main character muses on simple tasks like sewing and the different patterns of quilts with such depth and color that it actually interests me. There are some elements of the plot which are a tiny bit predictable, but the telling of the story makes up for that a thousandfold. Definitely, definitely and highly recommended.
I have mixed feelings on What I Loved by Siri Hustvedt. The beginning of the book is very slow-moving and languorous, combining the mundanity of day-to-day life with a damn lot of pretention on art and literature. I stopped reading the book for a few weeks because of it, and picked it back up again when I had nothing better to do. After the drawn-out beginning, though, the book becomes grittingly real and painful and human. In Hustvedt's favor, I can truely say that her characters are the most human and believable in any work of literature I have ever read. If I didn't know better I would have thought it was actually an autobiography of the protagonist. But I don't know if it's a book I'd ever want to read again, or that I'd recommend reading for pleasure, because it left me feeling very, very sad.
Right now I am reading The Outlander by Gil Adamson. I am a little less than halfway through. The writing style is very pretty and dreamy, but so far the story has been a whole lot of nothing.
In other news, my new job assignment is going pretty well. There is a lot of independence in a kiosk, which I'm enjoying. I do miss my assistant manager Jayson, because he was with me since I started the job. When he moved to my last store, I moved with him. He sent me a really sweet e-mail today about how my seat was empty and he wanted me to come back. He also said I'd always be his honey. I wouldn't put up with being talked to like that from any other guy in the universe. But from him it's somehow endearing.
Yes Means Yes! Visions of Female Sexual Power & A World Without Rape was a pretty kickass collection of essays which expresses so many different ways to look at the issue. It deals with a wide variety of viewpoints: all manner of queer, different genders (including transpeople) and ethnicities, the S&M community, etc. There are a lot of valid points, as well as some which I find a little bit silly. For example, having to ask every time you touch someone, no matter how well you know them, and even non-sexually seems like too much. So does asking for consent for every single step of the sexual process. ("Can I touch your right breast? Now, can I touch the left one?") That would annoy me very fast. There is something to be said about non-verbal communication, and also for speaking up for yourself when you don't like or feel comfortable with something. Perhaps I am uncannily skilled at putting out the "stay the hell away from me" vibes, but yeah... I liked Kate Harding's essay better when I re-read it in context with all the others.
Alias Grace by Margaret Atwood was an instant favorite for me. I think she could very well become my second-favorite fictional author (my first, of course, being Sarah Waters). Victorian fiction seems to hold some strange appeal for me. Atwood's language is beautiful and poetic. Her characterization is sensitive and intelligent. Her main character muses on simple tasks like sewing and the different patterns of quilts with such depth and color that it actually interests me. There are some elements of the plot which are a tiny bit predictable, but the telling of the story makes up for that a thousandfold. Definitely, definitely and highly recommended.
I have mixed feelings on What I Loved by Siri Hustvedt. The beginning of the book is very slow-moving and languorous, combining the mundanity of day-to-day life with a damn lot of pretention on art and literature. I stopped reading the book for a few weeks because of it, and picked it back up again when I had nothing better to do. After the drawn-out beginning, though, the book becomes grittingly real and painful and human. In Hustvedt's favor, I can truely say that her characters are the most human and believable in any work of literature I have ever read. If I didn't know better I would have thought it was actually an autobiography of the protagonist. But I don't know if it's a book I'd ever want to read again, or that I'd recommend reading for pleasure, because it left me feeling very, very sad.
Right now I am reading The Outlander by Gil Adamson. I am a little less than halfway through. The writing style is very pretty and dreamy, but so far the story has been a whole lot of nothing.
In other news, my new job assignment is going pretty well. There is a lot of independence in a kiosk, which I'm enjoying. I do miss my assistant manager Jayson, because he was with me since I started the job. When he moved to my last store, I moved with him. He sent me a really sweet e-mail today about how my seat was empty and he wanted me to come back. He also said I'd always be his honey. I wouldn't put up with being talked to like that from any other guy in the universe. But from him it's somehow endearing.