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thebookbin · 2 years ago
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The Spear Cuts Through Water
Simon Jimenez
Publisher: Del Rey Genre: fantasy Year: 2022
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Do you ever pick up a book for casual reading, and then get hit directly in the face with the rawness of the human experience? It was just supposed to be a casual read, and now you're contemplating the entirety of the human condition?
The Spear Cuts Through Water is one of the best books I've ever read. It might even be the best. I don't even know right now, I need a minute to collect my thoughts.
What makes this book so great is not only what it's about, but how it's told. The book is almost epistolary in nature, but instead of written letters, it's framed by stories. You embody the narrator, as he is told grand stories about the Old Country by his sharp-tounged lola. When I say embody, I mean this framing is written in the second person. You are the narrator, and he is the immigrant son of a merchant with nine brothers and a grandjo that never dies. As you grow up, and listen to these stories and sometimes tell them yourself, you are invited to the Inverted Theater in your dreams, a place your lola spoke of so wistfully. A place where stories are told, time is fluid, and the dream-selves from everywhere and everywhen commune. As you sit to watch the tale unfold, the five-day odyssey across the Old Country, you do so in the company of thousands of other dreamers.
This book is not written in chapters, but is instead separated into the Five Days of the journey, as well as a Before and After section. But because it is also framed as a story being watched on a stage told by spirits, the spirits are a part of the story. When a character dies, usually their spirit will comment on their thoughts in their last moments—sometimes profound, painful, sometimes mundane. But you never really forget this is a story you are watching from the Inverted Theater, even as you become absorbed in the tale. It adds such an ethereal quality to the story, to hear the thoughts of the spirits about their lives as the story goes on... it's unreal. You really start to feel like you are in the Inverted Theater.
As far as main characters go, I really loved both Jun and Keema, although I will admit Keema was my favorite. Both men are complicated, flawed, even contradictory at times, but oh-so-compelling to read. Their relationship to the world and to each other was so profound to watch unravel. Keema, with his missing arm, branded as a man of poor fortune discriminated against his whole life, is the last of his people. Jun, son of the Prince, has committed untold horrors in the name of the Moon Throne, has had his eyes opened to the error of his ways by the Moon Herself. Together, they must help the escaped empress reclaim Her place in the sky.
As a staunch believer in populism, I really enjoyed Jimenez's perspective on religion and monarchy. Although this is a fantastical tale, it isn't necessarily religious. It takes the form of the familial stories that get passed down for generations. And yet the criticism is integral to the story. Even the "good" gods are harmful in all their actions. It's critical of power in all it's forms, and I enjoyed this, as most fantasy revolves around installing the "true king" or worshipping the "benevolent god" but Jiminez's narrative is focused on the People as a collective, and their wellbeing, and this I appreciated.
This book is very close to indescribable, and honestly, I could probably keep trying forever. But just know, you should read this book. It is just that fucking good.
storygraph | bookshop.org | local houston
★★★★★ holy fuck what did I just read I need a minute to compose myself stars
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higherentity · 3 months ago
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inkcurlsandknives · 1 year ago
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Working on a new short story. A sapphic retelling of a Filipino myth about dugong. Been dreaming of the Pacific and the sensation of floating on the surf, limbs tangling in seagrass. Kisses under coconut palms, swimming in the moonlight, the sound of the surf a lover's whisper
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inkliinng · 4 months ago
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Currently reading. (Amongst many others.)
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importantwomensbirthdays · 5 months ago
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Bapsi Sidhwa
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Bapsi Sidhwa was born in 1938 in what is now Karachi, Pakistan. Sidhwa is best known for her 1988 novel, Cracking India (also known as Ice Candy Man), which drew on her experiences as a child in Lahore during the 1947 partition of India. The novel brought her international fame, and is regarded as an essential book on the Indian partition. Sidhwa, who emigrated to the US in 1983, has also written about American culture and the immigrant experience, such as in her novel An American Brat. She has won several awards, including the Sitara-i-Imtiaz, Pakistan's highest honor in the arts. Sidhwa's other honors include the David Higham Award and the Lila Wallace-Reader’s Digest Writer’s Award.
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hussyknee · 6 months ago
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Litmus test for a believable brown immigrant OC: what is their family WhatsApp group like? If they're not in one, what was the political fallout of them leaving?
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demigod-of-the-agni · 1 year ago
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While I believe that everyone can write what they want, I think people should really take a step back before posting the stuff that they write. Because lads, the Pavitr tag is filled with the most questionable things I have ever seen. Even after filtering out most of the bothersome things, I still come across fics that are absolutely DRIPPING with racism and feminisation, and sometimes even misogyny and casteism??
I know most of the time it's unintentional, it's just a sentence or two, but by god, there are hundreds of these fics. hundreds. I and others like myself can't search through all of them - and a hundred lines of racism is still fuckin horrible
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mia-studyhaus · 15 days ago
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Book Review #14 - Say You'll Be My Jaan
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ཻུ۪۪📚𓍢ִ໋🌷͙֒❀˖°
“I love being there for you. In the big things. And the small things. And I love that you’re there for me too. You’re my home. My family.”
This wonderful strangers-to-friends-to-lovers tale spanning across stunning settings like Dallas, Nashville, and New York truly stood out for representing modern Indian dating/marriage. Covering themes like commitment, family pressure, generational trauma, loyalty and even work, Naina Kumar has depicted a realistic tale of two souls trying to learn what love means for them through a hilarious arranged marriage set-up. I really enjoyed the emphasis on “slow-burn” and vulnerability as it helped establish a proper connection that did not feel like infatuation. Cute tropes were used to build the chemistry between the leads and there was actually a solid development arc made by many of the main characters. I also liked how relational boundaries were explored — it made me think about my own life. The book’s pace could have been managed better at some parts but this was acceptable knowing that the story was a debut. As a South Asian myself, I was happy to see the light thrown on certain societal issues, especially those concerning women. I would recommend this book to romance fans (especially those who want a gradual pick-up in steam) and South Asian readers because I thought it was good representation. I would also love to read more books from this author and feel encouraged to discover other South Asian writers.
Target Age: 18+
Rating: 4/5 Stars
Edition: Paperback, 2024
Signing off till next time~
ཻུ۪۪📚𓍢ִ໋🌷͙֒❀˖°
Are you interested in reading this book? Tell me how you feel in the comments section below!
Follow @mia-studyhaus for more book reviews!
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rrcraft-and-lore · 3 months ago
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You can check out my episode of Anjali's podcast, Arcx, here!
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isobelleposts · 2 years ago
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A Reminder That We Are Human: ‘Human Acts’ by Han Kang Review
by Isobelle Cruz [May 21, 2023]
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I’ve been hesitant to open up my laptop lately, afraid that I had lost it in me to write a really good article, not in terms of how many likes I receive, but on how much I enjoy the process of making it. My recent works, I admit, have felt passionless and forced for the sake of keeping my blog alive. But this is different. I devoured “Human Acts” by Han Kang over the course of one weekend—my eyes rarely drifting from its pages.
I’d never encountered an interest in the author’s works before, but once I stepped foot in the bookstore, I was suddenly drawn to its cover; simple and clean, silencing the world that surrounded me into muffled echoes.
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“Gwangju Uprising” scene in Saedeuldo Sesangeul Teuneunguna at the Yeongwoo Theatre, 1988 [Image Source: Yeongwoo Mudae]
Her lips move, but no sound comes out. Yet Eun-sook knows exactly what she is saying. She recognizes the lines from the manuscript, where Mr. Seo had written them in with a pen. The manuscripts she’s typed up herself, and proofread three times. 
Page 101 of Human Acts
The book features the perspectives of seven characters, one of them being an editor in 1985. Eun-sook’s chapter shows her struggle against censorship and how the company overcomes this, still able to deliver the crossed-out lines of the censors through chilling imagery. Han Kang’s writing is delivered almost in the same feels as the play tackled in her book; quiet, slow, but enough to tell the story.
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Gym turned mortuary in May 1980. [Image Source: Robin Moyer, Korea JoongAng Daily]
Another perspective that drew my attention closer than the others was of The Boy’s Friend, Jeong-dae. The words of the dead were briefly featured in the book; faceless spirits hovering over their bodies and watching as others live on, unable to do anything but watch.
If I could escape the sight of our bodies, that festering flesh now fused into a single mass, like rotting carcass of some many-legged monster. If I could sleep, truly sleep, not this flickering haze of wakefulness. If I could plunge headlong down to the floor of my pitch-dark consciousness.
Page 56 of “Human Acts”
It was depressing, and made me conscious of the body I still have control over—a blessing that I often take for granted.
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Students on the streets of Gwangju, 1980 [Image Source: Lee Chang-seong, May 18 Memorial Foundation]
Is it possible to bear witness to the fact that of a foot-long wooden ruler being repeatedly thrust into my vagina, all the way to the back wall of my uterus? To a rifle butt bludgeoning my cervix? To the fact that, when the bleeding wouldn’t stop and I had gone into shock, they had to take me to the hospital for a blood transfusion?
Page 164 of Human Acts
Human Acts is flinchingly explicit and gory. It tells the stories of victims from different angles, some of which I would forget to consider if I had not opened this book.
It disturbs me to display these photos on here, but I believe that if words are not enough to deliver chills to the blinded eyes of people, photographs will.
The kids in the photo aren’t lying side by side because their corpses were lined up like that after they were killed. It’s because they were walking in a line.
Page 133 of Human Acts
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Whether you read this in the rain, or at the beach where life is supposed to be happy, a strike of pain will stay in the back of your chest, the images of agony haunting you even in bed. 
Human Acts truly opened my mind much more than the other books I’ve read that spit out facts and statistics, so much so, that I am driven away from what matters most—feeling and sympathizing with the victims. Most books I’ve encountered focus solely on hating the dictator that I finish them feeling sort of empty, that I am the same person as I was when I started the book. But that is not the case with Han Kang’s third novel. It reminded me that I am human, and how much my life should be valued.
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hollowwhisperings · 1 year ago
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that thing wherein you're reading something and just KNOW
"this person has completely forgotten that the characters here live in Japan/Korea/China/Russia"
and is, instead, writing like an American.
#to be fair: jp & cn authors are just as guilty of narrow imaginations#but those authors are also the original content creators in these instances#with american fans later consuming asian-based content & rewriting them as wholly american#british media is somewhat better about not being orientalist nowadays (south asians are the UK's largest ethnic minority group)#globalization#americanisms#not an american#fandom things#it is very weird to see walmart show up in any story set in east asia#there are the odd american franchise there (starbucks & mcdonalds & 7-11 have HUGE presences in east asia)#but for the most part?#halloween and christmas are imported holidays used almost entirely for marketing purposes#fresh fruit is eaten everyday (bc - japan especially - these places are tropical)#milk is rare except as a flavour#because the vast majority of east asians are lactose intolerant#eating cereal for breakfast is WEIRD#rice cookers!!!#at least one parent will be MIA for most of a kid's life bc work culture - JP especially - is HELL#coming out is a weird american invention#(unless YOU are a person's significant other it's VERY rude to go around asking/talking about someone else's love life)#“well-behaved” teens have very limited spare time bc of school & clubs & cram school#highschoolers are “1st/2nd/3rd years” not freshmen/sophomores“ (seniors is still used)#ages of maturity are also Different & the culture around youth-adult interactions is less policed#cops are still awful (& having even the mildest of criminal offenses renders you a social pariah FOR LIFE)#blue anime hair/irises are supposed to read as “black with a blue undertone” (unless it's aqua or something egregriously unnatural)#red anime hair/irises are supposed to read as “reddish-brown” (unless it is explicitly addressed as unnatural)#pink is also supposed to be “brown”#the reason why anime uses such fantastic colouring in the first place?#EVERYONE'S HAIR/EYES ARE BLACK OR BROWNA#even dyed hair ends up less “blond” & more “light brown”
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andromedasummer · 2 years ago
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one thing i love about my uni is even when the subject we are studying is about far away country or ultra specific phenomenon theres always a book in the syllabus, published by the university, by a member of that country and/or culture, by an expert on that special subject, who happened to attend my university too. who's lived in the same cities i have.
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bookaddict24-7 · 2 years ago
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AUTHOR FEATURE:
﹒Mohsin Hamid﹒
Five Books Written By this Author:
Exit West
The Reluctant Fundamentalist
How to Get Filthy Rich in Rising Asia
Moth Smoke
The Last White Man
___
Happy reading!
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tearsofrefugees · 17 days ago
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deathsmallcaps · 1 year ago
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I tried reading this urban fantasy called Jane Yellowrock or something like that, and she was basically a base-cougar shapeshifter. Like she could spend a lot of time as a cougar comfortably, and it matched her body mass pretty much. When she was little, she had a bobcat or something. Oh, and being shapeshifted gave her twilight-werewolf-kind-of-immortality, though that might’ve just been a her thing. She spent like a century in cat form.
Transforming into other animals was harder. When she needed more mass, I think she ate? And/or used a stone or log lying around and absorbed its mass. It’s been a while. When she turned smaller, she converted her extra mass into a stone and generally tried to get that stone back, because it was magically easier to reintegrate.
She had to keep a body part from the animal to shift into it I think. And she always shifted into that specific individual. And I think she was kind of getting swallowed by the part of her that spent a ton of time as a cat.
I was trying to think about the ole "what would shapeshifters do with their extra mass when they turn into something smaller" and I thought "maybe they just convert it all to energy" and then I thought "uh my guy that's a lot of fucking energy"
#this is vaguely remembered#the series got racist after a while so I stopped reading#tbh it was very hand-wavey Indigenous inspired stuff#like Mercy Thompson but way worse#but I stuck around for a bit because I hoped it would get better#it didn’t#anyways if this kind of stuff interests you#probably the best to check out is Kate Daniels and Mercy Thompson.#they do try a lot more than this series does#but it’s a low bar. Kate Daniels is Eastern European (sorry I don’t remember more)/#Ancient Human probably from the Middle East (her dad is complicated)#and that series does decently with her cultural background and the side character’s backgrounds as far as I could tell#I don’t remember her name but there’s a funny girl white tiger shifter who is South Asian American#and because (?) her tiger form is the type to often have vision problems she has to wear THICKASS glasses and prefers to hang out as a human#(shifters in that world were people across the globe who had been carrying the gene since the last age where magic was around. so her#parents aren’t magic I’m pretty sure. magic and science get turns being in charge every 10k years in that world lol and the time came for#magics turn) and anyway she gets romanced by a hot (jaguar or wolf?) guy in her side story. it was fun#aha! just relooked it’s up. Dali Harimau is actually Indonesian American and likes to drive fast and crash hard & her bf is Jim the Jaguar#then there’s Mercy Thompson. she’s a bit of a stereotype - half Coyote-spirit but raised by her white mom so she doesn’t have a ton of#knowledge about her Dad’s culture really. she did kind of get mentored by an older brother type but he was usually off doing his own thing#but the author does kind of try#tbh she does a lot better with fae and werewolf stuff probably because it’s “easier’’ to work with (note the quotes) but it’s still very#fun to read more me. lots of murder and mystery.#funnily enough Mercy also likes cars. she’s a mechanic when she’s not solving magical bullshit
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dorkery · 11 months ago
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Ahhhh lads
Sometimes, sometimes, you have to remember not to accidentally be racist when calling someone an idiot
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