#I've been itching to do some compare and contrast of the two and this is the strangest intersection of the two

[batmanisagatewaydrug]

reading roundup: May 2024

you guyssssss you guys you guys you guys I've been reading so much this month :)

sometimes my brain gets the itch to just DEVOUR books and it's really been on me, probably thanks to the burst of energy + free time that comes with the semester ending and summer getting started! the days are longer, the last of my season depression has been kicked to the curb, and I can spend hours reading on the porch every evening. the ideal!

right now, as the month ends, I'm feeling a particular hankering towards nonfiction and juicy new summer novels; I reblogged a Lit Hub roundup of new books the other day that got my brain buzzinggggg with excitement for the coming months. we'll see if that ends up manifesting in the June roundup, but for now, here's what kept me busy in May:

Paris Daillencourt is About to Crumble (Alexis Hall, 2022) - this month I read two romance novels picked by my beautiful patreonites; I did a compare/contrast between the two over on Patreon and I'll leave the majority of my thoughts there, but suffice to say that I am not a fan of Paris. definitely the weakest of the three Alexis Hall novels, and a real disappointment since I found the other two delightful. the story is straightforward enough and has some potential for sure, but Paris as a protagonist is a sodden mess who I found just insufferable. thumbs down from me, gang.

Chef's Kiss (TJ Alexander, 2022) - hi, it's the other romance novel. this one is a lot goofier than Paris Daillencourt, which is fitting since it's BA Test Kitchen rpf starring a bisexual Claire Saffitz and a nonbinary Brad Leone. it's frustrating because the story is definitely stronger than the one in Paris but the romance is piteously undercooked, although I was at least fine with the protag and her love interest getting together - they were boring but unobjectionable, unlike Paris and his love interest who I really thought would have been better off as friends. now that I'm thinking about it, you might get a perfect queer cooking show romance novel if you somehow mashed the two of them together. they're both, like, so close to working, but ultimately fall flat.

Delicious in Dungeon Vol. 4-6 (Ryoko Kui, 2018) - I don't even know what to say except that I'm still loving everything about Dungeon Meshi. the craft and thought that Kui puts into every facet of the world, from the big picture politics between fantasy races to the individual thoughts and feelings of each character, shows so much love for the world without ever being overbearing; it never feels like exposition is being hammered down my throat so much as little details are being tastefully arranged to be enjoyed at whatever speed and to whatever extent the reader likes. the world is getting bigger with each chapter and I'm looking forward to exploring more, especially now that Falin's hottie monster form and that good good catgirl have entered the chat.

Earthdivers Vol. 2: Ice Age (Stephen Graham Jones, Riccardo Burchielli, Patricio Depeche, Emily Schnall, Joana Lafuente, 2024) - once again I've done the worst thing that you can do as a comics fan, which is get invested in a series that's just starting out and is still releasing individual issues. the third trade paperback won't be out until December, so I guess I'm either going to have to go on hiatus with Earthdivers or start chasing down new releases on comic pirating sites, which feels shitty - that's how I read Batman comics that are the same age as me, not new stuff from authors I actually want to support! but Earthdivers might just be worth it. the second installment takes us to a wildly different setting than the first, Columbus-killing collection, dropping fearsome mother Tawny in a prehistoric North America. but while the setting changes, the series is still grappling with the question of what its protagonists are willing to sacrifice and who they're willing to become to change the past and save the world. we're starting to see bigger hints about how much history can be altered and catching some clues about the series' antagonist (???); I gotta know what happens next.

Prairie Fires: The American Dreams of Laura Ingalls Wilder (Caroline Fraser, 2017) - here it is, the book that got nonfic so powerfully on the brain! this is a riveting history whether you grew up on Little House on the Prairie or not (I didn't), tracking Laura Ingalls Wilder from an impoverished girl constantly imperiled by life on the prairie to a beloved icon of American propaganda. for me, personally, this hefty book really picks up when it gets to the endlessly complicated and frequently nasty relationship that Wilder had with her daughter when said daughter was grown; Rose Wilder Lane is a FASCINATING figure in her own right and I'm kind of obsessed with what a shithead grifter girlboss she was. fascinating stuff all around.

The Brides of High Hill (Nghi Vo, 2024) - Vo's series of Singing Hills novellas has always woven from one genre to another, exploring new types of stories just as our protagonist, the cleric Chih, explores new lands. this installation takes us straight into a gothic horror that pulls out all the stops: an isolated manor, an enigmatic madman roaming the grounds, the strangling snares of social conventions, and a blushing bride who isn't exactly what she seems. I read it in one sitting, it's delicious.

Superfreaks: Kink, Pleasure, and the Pursuit of Happiness (Arielle Greenberg, 2023) - a poppin' primer for anybody who wants to learn more about the world of kink and what the fuck is going on out there. at one point I did catch myself thinking that I was a little underwhelmed and that Greenberg wasn't really putting forth anything that radical, but then I realized that speaking extremely candidly about and validating interest in basically any kink or fetish imaginable, and yes I do mean straight up any of them, is actually A Lot for many people to handle. so, yeah, good book, check it out for a friendly and enthusiastic intro to the wide world of kink.

Sex Criminals Vol. 2: Two Worlds, One Cop (Matt Fraction and Chip Zdarsky, 2015) - the first volume of Sex Criminals left me feeling a little meh, but I decided to keep going because Matt Fraction's Hawkeye run was lifechanging and I know this series is pretty widely acclaimed, so I want to see where we're going with this. (plus it's free via the library, so what do I have to lose?) this volume really sold me on the series and particularly on Jon, who I was pretty lukewarm on initially. he really stole the spotlight in this one, and I like the way that the story is ratcheting up the stakes.

The Stone Sky (N.K. Jemisin, 2017) - GOOOOOOOOOD what a book! what a trilogy! in a series shaped by empires and natural disasters, the story ultimately ends with a quit confrontation of clashing ideologies, a young daughter determined to end the world and a mother equally determined that one of her children should live. and that shit hurts! I read the series a couple of times when I was younger but I was never before able to fully appreciate the work Jemisin does in crafting Essun and Nassun, showing us the way cruelty and fear have shaped both of them into the people they ultimately are and the choices they make. absolutely masterful, a legend.

From Here to Eternity: Traveling the World in Search of the Good Death (Caitlin Doughty, 2017) - this was another reread, and while N.K. Jemisin was blowing my mind, Caitlin Doughty was giving me a warm hug. I don't know what to tell you, reading about the ways that people all over the world care for their dead and take comfort in their memories makes me feel all warm and fuzzy. death can be really beautiful and comforting, if you're not a coward.

The Big Reveal: An Illustrated Manifesto of Drag (Sasha Velour, 2023) - listen, I'm not really a Drag Race girlie. I first heard about this book when Velour was a guest on Nicole Byers' podcast, and while I was very charmed by her I was not expecting to be blown away by her book. it's just a little cash-in for a Ru girl, right? all she needs to do is slap together some cool pictures of her in drag and a few platitudes about being yourself and boom bang, that's a book. but readers, I owe Sasha Velour an apology: this book was so much cooler and smarter than it needed to be! Velour brings an impressive eye to forces of colonialism and capitalism that shape art and conceptions of queerness, and keeps this framework firmly in place while keeping the tone of the book bubbly and lighthearted. she also goes out of her way to spotlight a huge variety of drag performers and gender nonconforming figures throughout history, celebrating all the different means of expression that make up the tapestry of contemporary queerness. a great read, and one that I've already shelled out for. a friend and I are working on a documentary exploring the nuances of queer style, and I know I'm gonna want to pull heavily from Velour's thoughts and the history she's curated.

[penname-artist]

Oooh these are really neat takes, man! It's fun to review past favorites in the franchise. I'm curious though since you listed the main films, do you have any overall thoughts of any of the Maters Tall Tales shorts, the Radiator Springs shorts, or the new Cars on the Road series?

As well (just in my own little lane here lol) I hope you don't mind this, but I was really curious about your Dusty thoughts here, and the takes on it piqued my interest, and I have been absolutely itching to make some of that debate-y, topic delving content again. So I just wanted to like, add some takes on top of your takes and kind of paint up Dusty as a character.

And...side note this is really, really long.

Like seriously, get a snack. Stretch a little and get cozy somewhere. Or like, use the bathroom. I uh. I went ham on this one...it's late, and I had time to lol

So Dusty, right? He's been a particularly interesting character for me to see people's reactions to, mostly because of the fact that a lot of people are very 50/50 on responses; either they love him, or they could not care less about him. Both valid of course, but I always find it so interesting how the two sides divide, almost entirely one side or the other with very few in between. You could argue it's because "eh" isn't the same as "hated" but then again, this is the whole WoC fandom I'm talking about, people here rarely seem to full on hate very specific characters.

Except Dipper but she's another can of worms

So what's there to say on the divide?

On the one side, you have people that love Dusty's sheer charisma, sort of this naive, selfless passion for things, and a kind of dorkability that fans love to toy with. He's small-town, which I guess gives him this natural desire to want to go out of his way to help other folks (ie Bulldog, Mayday) when he sees them in need. Now this does - and has - gotten him into a LOT of trouble, but the fact he has made these sacrifices and promises and tried his damnedest to ensure them even if it doesn't benefit (or worse, breaks) him, makes me believe these types of actions are truly genuine ones. He makes actions with good intentions, he's just...also a knucklehead, who has selective hearing and mule stubbornness in his model genes, apparently.

The other side of the divide is the ones who perceived those aforementioned traits more along the lines of the Mary Sue tropes; opportunity basically falls in his lap and he stubbornly does it his own way until it works, or he breaks and causes hell, then it works, and he doesn't have much residual "what have we learned from this" or time for reflection. He is undeniably one-sided for a main protagonist, and his flaws stretch pretty far margins for the damage they do, and yet don't seem to get him much further than a broken body and an eventual pat on the back (er...no, I guess it's still "back"-).

In all fairness, both sides have fair points. His intentions are well tuned but his flaws are vast and relatively without major consequence, which makes for an ill-fitted and not very fulfilling ending to his two stories.

I actually was gonna make a post comparing Dusty with Lightning, given they have both some similar qualities and some polar opposite takes, but I scrapped the idea simply because I didn't want to compare characters that, altogether, are more different than they are alike. But for the sake of this like...analysis thingy, I do kinda wanna compare and contrast these two stories, so, humor me for a moment lol!

One thing I always find interesting about the argument (or, preference really, who argues about these things-) over Dusty lovers and Dusty eh-ers, is their additional 'love vs eh' opinions as they surround Lightning. Most people I've seen that really really like one character aren't super into the other one, for whatever reasonings, usually it's different, sometimes it's just small preferences etc. But I do find it interesting, because he's in a similar, yet altogether opposite position:

From the getgo, Lightning has been possibly one of Pixar's least initially likable main characters. His biggest flaw, across the franchise, has been his insistence on blaming others around him over himself. You see this a LOT actually: first film, he kinda was just mad at everybody for making him stay and do community stuff, etc; in Cars 2, his big thing was accusing Mater of being too silly; in Cars 3 when he keeps waffling over how he wants to train, and then blaming Cruz when his plan goes wrong. He has actually gotten WAY better about this, though! Across the films and especially into the new Disney+ series, his behaviour around other people (er cars) has improved massively. He actively notices when he's getting salty over shit and makes effort to owe up to it. Which is HUGE!

But this is also why I get a little confused when people say they love and root for Lightning tons, but don't seem to give much credit towards Dusty's predicament, which is...sorta in line, but not??

Lightning was a somebody, who learned to appreciate being humble and living for the moment. Dusty was a nobody, who wanted to prove himself and just get out there, away from the monotony of farm life and live a life he wanted to live.

Lightning's beginnings as a character are intentionally unlikable: he's selfish, crabby, a little snobbish at times and rude, until he learns the ways of the humbler life and really starts making connections; Dusty begins as sort of a kid that never got to leave home, overly excited about this "big dream" he'd never really done but really wanted to do, and evolved into two pieces: the piece of him that fell in love with what he did now, and the piece of him that fought with having to give it up.

Which brings me to like, the one redeeming quality of Dusty in particular that I always personally liked seeing depicted is how they handle grief. (but also, I'm a sadist, and characters breaking character for the sake of stakes is just. So hot. God damn.)

In Lightning's situation, it is not that he can't do it at all, it's that he can't do it well enough anymore. He has done it for long enough that another crowd of newbies has overrun him, and his "time as a racer" is somewhat faded out and closed.

Dusty is still pretty much in his prime when his gearbox fails him. Maybe the age Lightning was during Cars 2, somewhere around there. He has canonically only been racing for three years, and now that entire dream has all but ripped itself away from him. He acts like a dick a lot in the movie because of the fact this whole overarching theme is grief, it's sitting in a doctor's office knowing you basically just got diagnosed with a disability and it feels like your entire life is just. Over.

And I dunno, I just really resonated with that one, personally. Trauma is...ugly. And it'll fuck you over for a lifetime. And it's a mess to get through, and the stages of grief are more like a muddled up tangled spiral of emotions you can't keep contained.

Lightning went through it too, it's partly why he has his main flaw as well. Stress and loss make monsters out of people sometimes. And that's kinda the main reason I always like, rooted for Dusty in the films. He had this chance to do something, but then he lost it, and he had to learn how to be okay with that.

And he almost fucking was until they botched a kiddie ending but THATS another can of worms for...probably another post

I'm done!! I'm done! Look, I'm finished! So say thank you and I'll be on my way, that's all you gotta say-

No but seriously I apologize for the obscene length of this ramble, I saw a little flicker of inspiration in mine heart and I chased it down the rabbit hole like the madman I am known to be.

Hopefully you enjoyed this though, I really just wanted to get to ramble about the cool comparisons and developments of my childhood favorite talking vehicles. All in good fun, no harm or argument intended! I will now recede into my coffin until the dawn, recharging for the next spiel about...whatever the hell I get on about next...

Someone else feel free to add to this too by the way, here's my passing the "free coupon for one long ramble about your favorite things" ticket. Be fwee fwom youwr howwible mental prisons!

So I randomly felt like quickly sharing my thoughts on all three Cars movies and both Planes movies. Quick disclaimer, no matter how I feel about certain things it's totally cool if you feel different and I respect that.

Cars:

I love Cars. This was my childhood movie that I watched over and over and over again since I was a young child. I love the characters, the plot, and I think the animation holds up really well. I also am glad to see it with adult eyes cause there's a lot of nuance and stuff that I of course didn't get as a child. Recently on a whim I needed to unwind from stress and I put on Cars (just like my parents used to do for me as a kid, lol), and it genuinely did make me feel better and woke up a part of me that had laid dormant for years. Cars is a film that almost makes me wanna take a long drive on Route 66...until I remember I'm not any good at road tripping, lol.

Cars 2:

I have a distinct memory in my mind of being a child in the theater watching Cars 2, turning to my dad and saying 'can we go now?'. I didn't watch it all the way through until recently and I can thoroughly say that I don't despise it, but I'm also not its biggest fan. It's actually something of a guilty pleasure for me now. Sometimes I'll just put it on in the background while I do things. It also makes me contemplate the inner workings of this world more than the writers themselves probably thought about, like how the heck do different makes and models come about, what is the impact of climate change on a world of vehicles, but that's probably its own post. But yeah, I accept it for what it is and even enjoy some parts of it.

Cars 3:

So confession, it took me over 6 years to work up the courage to watch this one. I don't know why I was so worried, but I finally did it. And I loved it. I really think they ended on a good note. I'll admit the first part was probably the weakest in my eyes, but I really enjoyed the tribute to Doc Hudson and I actually teared up and I was happy to learn more about his past. I liked the torch passing narrative as well. I think my biggest complaint is that I wish we could've seen more of Lightning and his friends. (I may be biased because somehow Cal Weathers worked his way into my heart).

Planes:

Planes took longer to stick in my brain than Cars did. I remember going to see it actually, the local air and space museum did a showing of it and I went to watch it with my family. My parents didn't like it much but I remember being happy with it. Upon rewatching, there's things I like, but there's a part of me wishing it was something more. I can't fully explain it. Also I find Dusty's attitude off-putting to me personally (particularly his feeling of being entitled to being trained by Skipper and essentially demanding that Skipper tell him about his clearly traumatic past strikes me as kinda callous). But I still enjoy putting it on in the background and enjoy thinking about the world itself, much like Cars 2. Also fun fact, Skipper is one of my favorite kinds of planes.

Planes Fire & Rescue:

I'm sorry but I have much less patience for this film, but like I said above, I respect those who do. I will say, I appreciate them highlighting some of the realities of firefighting (like how the general public doesn't hear about a lot of fires that are dealt with). But other than that, I don't have much positive to say about it. The characters for the most part feel underdeveloped and I can't say I'm particularly endeared to a majority of them (Blade is the exception for me, tbh). And Dipper in particular needs to chill the hell out, her behavior is pretty inappropriate and creepy while being played off as jokes. Beyond that, my aforementioned issues with Dusty remain in this movie. Honestly, he doesn't strike me as capable of doing this job and he actively creates a situation that nearly gets Blade killed. I could spend awhile talking about it, but I'd honestly rather not. To end on a positive note, I think the married RV couple are adorable and I like them.

So that's all my thoughts. I enjoy both franchises and tend to overthink the hell out of them (if I overthink something it's usually cause I enjoy it). Hopefully I didn't piss too many people in the fandom off, lol.

[seasaltmemories]

On a scale of Kyousougiga to Penguindrum, how interwoven into the narrative is the weird incest subtext in your surreal, fantastical family drama from the early 2010s?