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larryhammerPosting Wednesday, meet Reading Wednesday. Oh, you've met already? Must be a meme going round, then.
Finished since last report:
The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl volume 6. Was I disappointed to learn, after Spiderman left the scene with a "Stay thwippy, my friends," that this was said by a fake Spiderman? Yes, I was. Ryan North needs to write an issue of actual Spiderman just to introduce that as a canonical catchphrase. Was I disappointed by the other stories? No, I was not. North needs to keep writing this series for, well, not -ever, but as long as his invention holds out. Especially for the shorter stories he's best at.
The Adventures of Superhero Girl, Faith Erin Hicks, reprint of a webcomic. Went down quickly, but didn't leave much of an impression, aside from "coming of age is hard enough without also being a superhero."
The Blue Poetry Book, ed. Andrew Lang, who apparently published this as the potential start of an anthology series a la the colored fairy books. His taste isn't bad, but the last, oh, third or so was a bit of a slog, there being several ballads of the tedious battle sort (not to mention a gratuitous piece of blood libel).
Eight Treasures Trousseau (八宝妆), Yue Xia Die Ying (月下蝶影, literally Butterfly Shadow Beneath the Moon*), a "historical" romance set in an analog of the Han Dynasty, or possibly (as the female lead seems to think**) Tang Dynasty.*** Said female lead was a contemporary actress in a past life, now reincarnated with memories intact as the daughter of a mid-level noble being married by imperial fiat to a nephew of the Emperor -- apparently to make it harder for him to challenge the current Crown Prince for the throne when succession time comes, though just who is plotting what against whom is big part of the, well, plot. Underhanded imperial politics ahoy. I especially enjoy the moments where the female lead compares her current reality to the tropes of historical dramas she once acted in, and the slowly, carefully revealed network of family relationships and how they get used. I also appreciate that, for all her flaws, the lead treats this as a (full-time) acting job, one she is determined to handle professionally. One advantage of this over the fantasies: at "only" 108 chapters, it is Much Shorter. Content warnings: lead is 16 when she marries, though mentally older thanks to previous-life memories; offstage torture; offstage rape; imperial politics as usual.
In progress at the moment:
I'm still reading Way of Choices, but a bit more slowly, given the previous.
Also, as bedtime reading, Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage by The Byron. I've also been poking at various samples of travelogue poetry, of which this one caught hold the strongest -- for this is vivid writing braced with grandeur. The last time I read this, I was in Switzerland, where I read the descriptions of Lake Geneva while riding a train along its shore. No such consonance is available now, but I do have a little more historical knowledge to background some previously obscure passages. One thing that does strike me is that the manner of Don Juan was not a big stretch for the author of this stuff**** -- all he needed was a more ironic pose, instead of just world-weary. Am late in canto 3, at Lake Geneva in fact. Content warnings: high-Romantic Weltschmerz.
* Chinese romance writers have the BEST pen-names.
** She's glad it's not a Qing Dynasty analogue, given the status of women then.
*** So, roughly as related to actual history as Nirvana on Fire, if that helps. FWIW, literary references have been largely to older works (Han poets and The Book of Songs) but a Song Dynasty poem does get quoted.
**** I note that both works are structural messes, albeit for different reasons.
---L.
Subject quote from "Hymn before Sunrise, in the Vale of Chamouni," Samuel Coleridge -- speaking of high-Romantic stuff.
Finished since last report:
The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl volume 6. Was I disappointed to learn, after Spiderman left the scene with a "Stay thwippy, my friends," that this was said by a fake Spiderman? Yes, I was. Ryan North needs to write an issue of actual Spiderman just to introduce that as a canonical catchphrase. Was I disappointed by the other stories? No, I was not. North needs to keep writing this series for, well, not -ever, but as long as his invention holds out. Especially for the shorter stories he's best at.
The Adventures of Superhero Girl, Faith Erin Hicks, reprint of a webcomic. Went down quickly, but didn't leave much of an impression, aside from "coming of age is hard enough without also being a superhero."
The Blue Poetry Book, ed. Andrew Lang, who apparently published this as the potential start of an anthology series a la the colored fairy books. His taste isn't bad, but the last, oh, third or so was a bit of a slog, there being several ballads of the tedious battle sort (not to mention a gratuitous piece of blood libel).
Eight Treasures Trousseau (八宝妆), Yue Xia Die Ying (月下蝶影, literally Butterfly Shadow Beneath the Moon*), a "historical" romance set in an analog of the Han Dynasty, or possibly (as the female lead seems to think**) Tang Dynasty.*** Said female lead was a contemporary actress in a past life, now reincarnated with memories intact as the daughter of a mid-level noble being married by imperial fiat to a nephew of the Emperor -- apparently to make it harder for him to challenge the current Crown Prince for the throne when succession time comes, though just who is plotting what against whom is big part of the, well, plot. Underhanded imperial politics ahoy. I especially enjoy the moments where the female lead compares her current reality to the tropes of historical dramas she once acted in, and the slowly, carefully revealed network of family relationships and how they get used. I also appreciate that, for all her flaws, the lead treats this as a (full-time) acting job, one she is determined to handle professionally. One advantage of this over the fantasies: at "only" 108 chapters, it is Much Shorter. Content warnings: lead is 16 when she marries, though mentally older thanks to previous-life memories; offstage torture; offstage rape; imperial politics as usual.
In progress at the moment:
I'm still reading Way of Choices, but a bit more slowly, given the previous.
Also, as bedtime reading, Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage by The Byron. I've also been poking at various samples of travelogue poetry, of which this one caught hold the strongest -- for this is vivid writing braced with grandeur. The last time I read this, I was in Switzerland, where I read the descriptions of Lake Geneva while riding a train along its shore. No such consonance is available now, but I do have a little more historical knowledge to background some previously obscure passages. One thing that does strike me is that the manner of Don Juan was not a big stretch for the author of this stuff**** -- all he needed was a more ironic pose, instead of just world-weary. Am late in canto 3, at Lake Geneva in fact. Content warnings: high-Romantic Weltschmerz.
* Chinese romance writers have the BEST pen-names.
** She's glad it's not a Qing Dynasty analogue, given the status of women then.
*** So, roughly as related to actual history as Nirvana on Fire, if that helps. FWIW, literary references have been largely to older works (Han poets and The Book of Songs) but a Song Dynasty poem does get quoted.
**** I note that both works are structural messes, albeit for different reasons.
---L.
Subject quote from "Hymn before Sunrise, in the Vale of Chamouni," Samuel Coleridge -- speaking of high-Romantic stuff.
no subject
Date: 7 February 2018 07:11 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 7 February 2018 08:22 pm (UTC)That one, I had to do even more work than usual to pack up an ebook, as the series TOC hasn't been updated with all the chapters. (I have a Chrome plugin that can snork an .epub from a wordpress site like that, as well as the major translation portals, but it needs a complete list of links.)
no subject
Date: 7 February 2018 08:40 pm (UTC)Amen!