Reading Wednesday
Jun. 3rd, 2020 06:02 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
allekhaI am used to my (almost entirely JP fanartist) twitter timeline being mostly divorced from news here in the US, but to my surprise, yesterday one of the artists I follow was talking about BLM and the protests, and retweeting a video from a Nigerian/Japanese woman who grew up in Japan explaining in Japanese/talking about her experiences. And then they followed it up with 'BTW, Japan has problems like this, too' and talking about how foreign children drop out of Japanese schools at higher rates and it's not a 「日本に生まれてよかった」 situation for them. IDK why exactly it surprised me so much - I guess it's just not a conversation I've seen in Japanese before, only in English, or maybe it was all of this being mixed in with their cute YOI fanart - but if what's happening here can help spark conversations about racial equality in other countries, too, that can only be a good thing. (I have donated and am currently 70/30 on going to the upcoming protest downtown. Not much else for someone like me to say about it.)
In other news, my advisor approves of my new plans, so I just need to write things up and we'll send it to the rest of the committee for final approval so I can do the thing, whee.
I injured my foot somehow - maybe sitting on it weird, maybe that online dance class I did (by a figure skating choreographer - Satton and other Real Skaters I like were there! And doing it better than me haha) so I haven't been walking that much. Went out yesterday since I needed it. Wearing a jacket, too, since we had a cold spell, though today the weather has been lovely. Wish there were still more flowers blooming, though.
Read:: I finished The Interior Life. I enjoyed it up through the end, although I had two main issues with it:
- The (free! so I feel bad for complaining) PDF has a noticeable number of typos, particularly with regards to commas; there's one chapter in particular where a lot of extra commas get randomly dropped into sentences.
- The other-world romances are not well-written. Both of the female main characters get instant-love-instant-confession-let's-have-sex-immediately romances, one with the main villain - though I guess there might be evil magic involved in that one. The other character's relationship is temporarily broken up by... it's supposed to be an argument, but this is seriously the sum total of what happens: the guy overhears her saying this to some other woman while they're talking about their lovers:
"I suppose they come in all sorts," Marianella summed up. "Are we ready to serve out? Tama, get that kettle, would you. Now, mine, he has a frightful temper sometimes, but he's neat and tidy, and he always picks up his clothes, so I think I'll keep him."
...and apparently this is such a dire insult that he needs to ditch his beloved immediately, no conversation needed, and not talk to her for months. I read this part multiple times because I couldn't make heads or tails of his reaction.
The real-world main character's romance with her husband is written a lot better - he's initially presented as the boring choice she made because he was there, but she seems to find new appreciation for him and remember why she loves him, and both end up defending their spouse to another character.
In general, I liked the fantasy worldbuilding, the use of fonts for the two and then three different perspectives, and also how the real-world MC interacts with that fantasy world. Things like her re-playing scenes she's made up in her head, sometimes drawing on her characters for strength, imagining talking with them - and also how that fantasy world inspires her to change her life, from planting a garden to redoing her living room to (not on-page, but certainly in her future) joining the SCA like the author. She just takes so much pleasure and comfort in having her own secret world.
Reading: Not reading any book-books at the moment, though I'm back to working my way through an old manga in Japanese.
In other news, my advisor approves of my new plans, so I just need to write things up and we'll send it to the rest of the committee for final approval so I can do the thing, whee.
I injured my foot somehow - maybe sitting on it weird, maybe that online dance class I did (by a figure skating choreographer - Satton and other Real Skaters I like were there! And doing it better than me haha) so I haven't been walking that much. Went out yesterday since I needed it. Wearing a jacket, too, since we had a cold spell, though today the weather has been lovely. Wish there were still more flowers blooming, though.
Read:: I finished The Interior Life. I enjoyed it up through the end, although I had two main issues with it:
- The (free! so I feel bad for complaining) PDF has a noticeable number of typos, particularly with regards to commas; there's one chapter in particular where a lot of extra commas get randomly dropped into sentences.
- The other-world romances are not well-written. Both of the female main characters get instant-love-instant-confession-let's-have-sex-immediately romances, one with the main villain - though I guess there might be evil magic involved in that one. The other character's relationship is temporarily broken up by... it's supposed to be an argument, but this is seriously the sum total of what happens: the guy overhears her saying this to some other woman while they're talking about their lovers:
"I suppose they come in all sorts," Marianella summed up. "Are we ready to serve out? Tama, get that kettle, would you. Now, mine, he has a frightful temper sometimes, but he's neat and tidy, and he always picks up his clothes, so I think I'll keep him."
...and apparently this is such a dire insult that he needs to ditch his beloved immediately, no conversation needed, and not talk to her for months. I read this part multiple times because I couldn't make heads or tails of his reaction.
The real-world main character's romance with her husband is written a lot better - he's initially presented as the boring choice she made because he was there, but she seems to find new appreciation for him and remember why she loves him, and both end up defending their spouse to another character.
In general, I liked the fantasy worldbuilding, the use of fonts for the two and then three different perspectives, and also how the real-world MC interacts with that fantasy world. Things like her re-playing scenes she's made up in her head, sometimes drawing on her characters for strength, imagining talking with them - and also how that fantasy world inspires her to change her life, from planting a garden to redoing her living room to (not on-page, but certainly in her future) joining the SCA like the author. She just takes so much pleasure and comfort in having her own secret world.
Reading: Not reading any book-books at the moment, though I'm back to working my way through an old manga in Japanese.
