Recent Reads
Oct. 3rd, 2024 01:16 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
firstroadI remembered how existing outside of IRL responsibilities works lately... throwing a party!
The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy
WELLLL I GET THE HYPE. I SEE IT I UNDERSTAND IT. I do feel like I need to read a book or five about Kerala during that time period before I have any fully-formed thoughts because I only have rudimentary knowledge about the Naxalites. BUT! I felt like I was constantly being stomped on, and I mean this in the best way possible. The way it went from the most beautiful descriptions that make your jaw drop to a more childhood-tinted view of the world & events to absolutely brutal happenings... It took me a much longer time to read than usual because there was just so much to take in! The obvious ways that the politics impact the central family and all the unwritten societal rules which not even a 'higher' class can protect you from killed meeeee. The main characters being like full Anglophiles (which I prefer to think of as Britaboos, because it's funnier) in contrast to the Communist movement was unexpected! I should have also expected Velutha's ultimate undoing, but somehow I didn't.
Wish I had an ebook version of this to paste passages from, but I am soooooooo happy I bought it physically. Loved the use of language. The insane levels of misogyny even from supposed communist men got a little chuckle out of me (not in a funny way. I assume whoever's reading this gets me). The insane levels of unhappiness, and then a sort of happiness despite what was going on, and then the short sentences that drive the point home truly took me for a ride I will forever remember... "Childhood tiptoed out" being written after [spoiler content] stabbed me and rolled me downhill. Every time "a viable, die-able age" was repeated. Caste playing way too big a role.
I have soooooooo many feelings and thoughts and no way to get them out orderly. Anyway, 50000/5, no notes.
The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett
Infinitely breezier in comparison. I SWEAR there was a Brazilian book with the same/similar premise but with male main characters which I had heard about before this was published, but I can't for the life of me find it. I think it had an orange cover? I would've loved to read that as well, just to be able to compare how the two books went about it (though obviously the class of Race works differently in Brazil and USA). I really liked this too! It actually explored a lot more than I expected it to, though I think part of its ambition was under-realised, especially when I also read the way different generations were handled in The God of Small Things... Not really a criticism, but I felt more like I was a fly on the wall, watching both of these women's and also their daughters' lives, rather than finding any new angle to see... anything, really. I wish duologies were more of a thing outside of genre fiction, because I think this would've benefited from having one book focused on Stella/Desiree and one on their daughters. Stella, and in particular Stella's grief, did not feel like it got the space it needed.
I did enjoy the lack of easy closure! Was fearing it'll end up wrapped neatly with a little bow, but it didn't. Lovely cast of characters.
Nona the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir
I actually now have more TLT thoughts as a whole than specific Nona thoughts. It just keeps not working for me! So I'm gonna let that out, and maybe hopefully another day I can say something specific to this book.
Well first of all I do not care for loyalty kink. Like every time they talked about necro/cav I fell asleep. Forced pairs by the invisible hand of the Universe can be fun for me (e.g. soulmates) but social pairs are stupid. Just don't be fantasy powerful and don't get fantasy married and don't fantasy consume the other idk what to tell you, go live in an interastral commune, problem solved. <~ I recognise this is a personal preference but also this is my personal whinge post so.
Second of all, as much as I find Catholicism conceptually and aesthetically sexy, especially when fantasyland takes most of the problems of IRL organised religion out of the equation, I simply do not get it. Emotionally. Like sorry when I think about it all that comes to mind is highschool history class blah blah filioque blah blah blah blah ecumenical council blah. Self-flagellation can be sexy I suppose? I love repression! But there's a flavour to it that just leaves me like.... huh? What????
I have not looked at it from either a theological or cultural perspective so I'm sure this is a wrong conclusion, but it feels like it comes with this kind of aggressively anxious self-policing which is in turn aggressively self-focused. Even when thinking about the infanticide there are lines like "She had cost too much to die." -- which I obviously recognise are not said with dead serious arrogance/that it's just a 'normal' expression of survivor's guilt, but it keeps redirecting the death of others to her. There are also of course the more overt things (the rigidity of Saying Correct Prayers before bed, the scifi-ied version of the Original Sin which Everyone Carries). I find the underlying philosophy profoundly self-centred and I do not mean this as an indictment, but I do think this creates a barrier between my understanding of the work and the work itself. When I say I do not understand it I more accurately mean I do not care to try to understand such a sentiment.
Third of all and I suppose more seriously, I no longer care about the problems of the Empire™️ from perspectives within said empire. This is hypocritical when I'm requesting FMA like every second exchange, but at least there some main characters are very directly on-page causing the evils of it with very on-page consequences to their hyperspecific actions. Big win for Nona in this regard, well kinda, though I also admit there were sections I was skimming in GtN and HtN, so who knows maybe I overlooked things. Oversimplifying this but so far out of every well known female-or-nongendered-focused scifi book/series I've tried (tlt, murderbot, ancillary justice, exordia) literally not a single one has worked for me even the littlest bit.
If I had read any of them like 10 years ago, or honestly maybe even 5ish? It could've and probably would've been an instant fave. Now, I'm like... okay first of all stop with the jokes because I hate happiness and I love misery and those jokes are not funny. Well except Ancillary Justice kisses to it for avoiding this. Not that I have much of a leg to stand on when it comes to discerning what's funny and what isn't but at least I don't even pretend that I know what comedic timing is.
I think this whole thing boils down to: I appreciate her sensibilities but I want her to have different preoccupations. Which. Too bad so sad I guess. Will I be reading Alecto when it comes out? Oh, hell, yeah. I suspect I am going to grit my teeth getting through it but I honestly do love the world and I enjoy Muir's writing style.
The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy
WELLLL I GET THE HYPE. I SEE IT I UNDERSTAND IT. I do feel like I need to read a book or five about Kerala during that time period before I have any fully-formed thoughts because I only have rudimentary knowledge about the Naxalites. BUT! I felt like I was constantly being stomped on, and I mean this in the best way possible. The way it went from the most beautiful descriptions that make your jaw drop to a more childhood-tinted view of the world & events to absolutely brutal happenings... It took me a much longer time to read than usual because there was just so much to take in! The obvious ways that the politics impact the central family and all the unwritten societal rules which not even a 'higher' class can protect you from killed meeeee. The main characters being like full Anglophiles (which I prefer to think of as Britaboos, because it's funnier) in contrast to the Communist movement was unexpected! I should have also expected Velutha's ultimate undoing, but somehow I didn't.
Wish I had an ebook version of this to paste passages from, but I am soooooooo happy I bought it physically. Loved the use of language. The insane levels of misogyny even from supposed communist men got a little chuckle out of me (not in a funny way. I assume whoever's reading this gets me). The insane levels of unhappiness, and then a sort of happiness despite what was going on, and then the short sentences that drive the point home truly took me for a ride I will forever remember... "Childhood tiptoed out" being written after [spoiler content] stabbed me and rolled me downhill. Every time "a viable, die-able age" was repeated. Caste playing way too big a role.
I have soooooooo many feelings and thoughts and no way to get them out orderly. Anyway, 50000/5, no notes.
The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett
Infinitely breezier in comparison. I SWEAR there was a Brazilian book with the same/similar premise but with male main characters which I had heard about before this was published, but I can't for the life of me find it. I think it had an orange cover? I would've loved to read that as well, just to be able to compare how the two books went about it (though obviously the class of Race works differently in Brazil and USA). I really liked this too! It actually explored a lot more than I expected it to, though I think part of its ambition was under-realised, especially when I also read the way different generations were handled in The God of Small Things... Not really a criticism, but I felt more like I was a fly on the wall, watching both of these women's and also their daughters' lives, rather than finding any new angle to see... anything, really. I wish duologies were more of a thing outside of genre fiction, because I think this would've benefited from having one book focused on Stella/Desiree and one on their daughters. Stella, and in particular Stella's grief, did not feel like it got the space it needed.
I did enjoy the lack of easy closure! Was fearing it'll end up wrapped neatly with a little bow, but it didn't. Lovely cast of characters.
Nona the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir
I actually now have more TLT thoughts as a whole than specific Nona thoughts. It just keeps not working for me! So I'm gonna let that out, and maybe hopefully another day I can say something specific to this book.
Well first of all I do not care for loyalty kink. Like every time they talked about necro/cav I fell asleep. Forced pairs by the invisible hand of the Universe can be fun for me (e.g. soulmates) but social pairs are stupid. Just don't be fantasy powerful and don't get fantasy married and don't fantasy consume the other idk what to tell you, go live in an interastral commune, problem solved. <~ I recognise this is a personal preference but also this is my personal whinge post so.
Second of all, as much as I find Catholicism conceptually and aesthetically sexy, especially when fantasyland takes most of the problems of IRL organised religion out of the equation, I simply do not get it. Emotionally. Like sorry when I think about it all that comes to mind is highschool history class blah blah filioque blah blah blah blah ecumenical council blah. Self-flagellation can be sexy I suppose? I love repression! But there's a flavour to it that just leaves me like.... huh? What????
I have not looked at it from either a theological or cultural perspective so I'm sure this is a wrong conclusion, but it feels like it comes with this kind of aggressively anxious self-policing which is in turn aggressively self-focused. Even when thinking about the infanticide there are lines like "She had cost too much to die." -- which I obviously recognise are not said with dead serious arrogance/that it's just a 'normal' expression of survivor's guilt, but it keeps redirecting the death of others to her. There are also of course the more overt things (the rigidity of Saying Correct Prayers before bed, the scifi-ied version of the Original Sin which Everyone Carries). I find the underlying philosophy profoundly self-centred and I do not mean this as an indictment, but I do think this creates a barrier between my understanding of the work and the work itself. When I say I do not understand it I more accurately mean I do not care to try to understand such a sentiment.
Third of all and I suppose more seriously, I no longer care about the problems of the Empire™️ from perspectives within said empire. This is hypocritical when I'm requesting FMA like every second exchange, but at least there some main characters are very directly on-page causing the evils of it with very on-page consequences to their hyperspecific actions. Big win for Nona in this regard, well kinda, though I also admit there were sections I was skimming in GtN and HtN, so who knows maybe I overlooked things. Oversimplifying this but so far out of every well known female-or-nongendered-focused scifi book/series I've tried (tlt, murderbot, ancillary justice, exordia) literally not a single one has worked for me even the littlest bit.
If I had read any of them like 10 years ago, or honestly maybe even 5ish? It could've and probably would've been an instant fave. Now, I'm like... okay first of all stop with the jokes because I hate happiness and I love misery and those jokes are not funny. Well except Ancillary Justice kisses to it for avoiding this. Not that I have much of a leg to stand on when it comes to discerning what's funny and what isn't but at least I don't even pretend that I know what comedic timing is.
I think this whole thing boils down to: I appreciate her sensibilities but I want her to have different preoccupations. Which. Too bad so sad I guess. Will I be reading Alecto when it comes out? Oh, hell, yeah. I suspect I am going to grit my teeth getting through it but I honestly do love the world and I enjoy Muir's writing style.