#and the author is so clever

[angst-fairy]

OOOO I have a series of unfortunate events, it's hilarious!!

Imagine how much better the world would be if the harry potter books were never written

[sparrowhawksshadow]

I think book 4 of the Masquerade series will be titled The Butcher Baru Cormorant. Here is my reasoning:

Every book title so far follows the same format of a name with strongly negative connotations: Traitor, Monster, Tyrant

“Butcher” in politics and history usually connotes excessive and shocking violence. However, book 3 uses it differently, in the question “How do you butcher an empire?” Meaning, how do you render it down into usable component parts? That is, how do you destroy an unjust system and use the pieces to nourish something better, rather than creating chaos and rot?

Part of Baru’s scheme for overthrowing Falcrest’s regime involves an alliance marriage which -- for complex cultural gender-politics reasons -- requires her to adopt a more masculine presentation: that is, she literally has to become butch-er

[yuseirra]

These gods basically feel like the beauty and the beast of Japanese mythology. Today, I even read a translated excerpt from Kojiki that mentions the two. Here's another summary of that lore as well

Sarutahiko is the god of Michihiraki, which literally means "Opening a path." He's supposed to lead everything in the best direction. Interesting, huh? But apparently, he has a very intimidating exterior, so only his to-be-wife, Ame-no-Uzume, was fearless enough to approach him at first. She seems to have found a liking for him immediately and charmed him into marrying her.

We have descriptions like: "Ame no Uzume, the deity of performing arts, charms Sarutahiko with her bright smiles into opening his heart."

it's very cute.

[just-trying-my-best-everyday]

I'm so tired of going "wow that's so dumb" while watching the adaptation of a really clever book.

[phoenixcatch7]

I was reading a fic - character gets isekai'd to a world they're pretty overpowered for - and the author described it as a like, invasive species, and that's what I shall be calling all my crossover fix it fics from now on lmao

[mqfx]

exclusive director's commentary since we're not getting an update tomorrow (sniffle.... the hiatus is real and it's hurting me)

this is from the current draft of a convo in ch12:

but it was slightly different in the earlier versions. the way i write mq, he only curses at his most emotional moments when he feels the least in control, so what he said before was, "what part of letting you fuck me was not clear?" which i think highlights the gap between his desires and how he presents it outwardly. it's vulgar because on some level he thinks it's dirty, yes (yay issues), but it's also kind of an overcompensation; if he makes it sound rude, if he says it forcefully, then he might be able to hide the real weight of it in his heart. if he hardens the words it might hide his vulnerability

but then i decided i liked the strategy of "so repressed he can't even say it in his thoughts" better in this case so the logic of it is left to subtext (well, also Word of God posting but mais oui)

critically, in both cases he's putting agency/action in feng xin's hands and disavows himself from it. there's a tension between the outward submission ("letting" someone take your reins, basically) and inward protection (of his purity/innocence) (yay celibacy). kinda like, "YOU are the one doing this, i'm not the one who's weak-willed! i'm blameless and also generous!" there's more i can say as to this kind of thinking in general being the root of.... certain erotic literary tropes..... but i don't wanna make too long-winded a post on this

lastly i want to point out, since it might have been too early in the game but remember in ch4, that bit with the cherries? fu yao feeds nan feng the cherry, nan feng spits the seed, and it makes a stain on fu yao's collar which he immediately cleans up? remember what i said cherries symbolized? mhm, think about that and connect it to the larger picture here

[kikuism]

i read poor things and really enjoyed it, such a fun time. now i'm even more curious about the movie and what i will think of it

[wyllzel]

i'm about 15% of my way thru the wicked novel but honestly... it very much insists upon itself 🫤 not very inclined to finish it...

[rxttenfish]

see, people will often talk about more complex meanings in narratives and what was actually being intended by the author, but the thing is, sometimes you read the entire damn thing and you legitimately cant tell if theyre trying to make some kind of comment or narrative choice, or if the author themself just fucked up and didnt realize what theyre doing.

[kolbietheaggrievedwriter]

I should be in bed (and I'm going now!), but I just binged a couple chapters of A Guide for Background Characters to Survive in a Manga and my god do I love a protagonist who will dip out the SECOND he spots trouble 🤣🤣

An enemy he trounced a while back showed up to take revenge via ambushing him and his class, and she was like "it won't be so easy this time" & he was like "you wanna bet?" & then turned invisible & ran away immediately 😭😭😭 The class wasn't even surprised! They're used to it by now lmao I stan this man. Major respect.

[fictionadventurer]

Top 5 books read this year, please?

The Unselected Journals of Emma M. Lion Vol. 1-7 by Beth Brower: These books are just so much fun. They sit perfectly in my sweet spot of historical light fiction, and there's so much humor and heart and so many good characters. Maybe they're not the best books I've read this year, but they may be the only ones tempting me to buy copies for my shelf.

Washington Square and Daisy Miller by Henry James: Two short, sad, delicately-drawn novellas that may have added another author to my list of favorite classic writers.

Team of Rivals by Doris Kearns Goodwin: This book started my obsession with Lincoln's Cabinet. I can't in good conscience put it lower (despite a minor qualm that prevents me from seeking out the full version). I'm also going to cheat and include Destiny of the Republic by Candace Millard, which provided me my other history niche of this year about President Garfield and his assassination. And My Dear President for all the fascinating letters offering new insight into the lives of American presidents and their wives.

The Heir of Redclyffe by Charlotte Yonge: Despite some serious issues with the story, this one had some of my favorite characters of the year, and they're going to stick with me for a long time.

Desire and The Good Comrade by Una Lucy Silsberrad: Maybe objectively not the best or even my favorites--I have problems with the plot of both--but I love how she writes Edwardian women trying to make their way in the world and their relationships with men who make them rethink the way they approach the world, and she's another entry on the list of favorite authors discovered this year.

[nordic-language-love]

This month's bonus book is super long and it seems the reason for that is because the author spends like a paragraph doing world-building or unnecessarily over-explaining reactions between each line of dialogue -_-

[fluentisonus]

also

[onewomancitadel]

I haven't even listened to the music but I do have a strange fondness for Charli XCX's new album cover

because the relative lack of artistic effort is inversely proportional to the fact that you know somebody did make it, because it's not actually something even worth machine generating (and text itself it really struggles with). Maybe all those postmodern artists actually knew what they were talking about, because I doubt machine is ever going to output an empty canvas.

Like, something lesser or resisting form is actually indicative of a human agent, contrary to maximalist Escher nightmares. It's sort of similar to how machine generated prose is always overwrought borderline purple prose and actually inefficient in construction. Writers who value minimalist prose can't be imitated. (To be fair, neither can any author really be meaningfully imitated, but I'm talking about style here; it's a total giveaway). I think it's interesting because inherent to the issue is the idea that there is 'one' way to produce art, which there isn't, which a lot of people greatly misunderstand - well, yeah there is, it involves a human agent (I'm even excluding animals here, sorry, I hear the objections and I'm not expanding) - but also what it tends to output means you can look at something like 'Brat' and pretty much definitively say a human did it. Because it's bad. And consequently I like it.

I probably should've just sent this thought to my best friend instead of writing a Tumblr post about it, so I'll just do that and send this post to her. Hahahaha.

[thequietabsolute]

— Friedrich Nietzsche, Ecce Homo [1888.]

[aeondeug]

something that sticks out to me with kaz is his fondness for stage magic type tricks and escape artistry. it reminds me of things like how the start of the adventures of cavalier and clay there's a big portion about how the one boy admires harry houdini and aspires to be like him. that to be able to be like him was the dream of every jewish boy on the block. or figures like hershel of ostropol who plays tricks and can't ever be truly caught and who succeeds via clever schemes.

kaz isn't filled with the aspirational dreams of being like harry houdini though. and he's not a fun folklore hero you'd find in a children's picture book. he's very grim and he's exceptionally brutal. he's very driven, yes, but his motivation is revenge.

this isn't really a complete thought. it's only a half thought. but it is one that i've been thinking of while reading this book. maybe it will develop into a more cogent and purposeful thing at some point.