#but I’ll also internally feel exasperation when he says 15 is ‘basically an adult’

[scratxhed-cd]

The spiderverse brainrot only worsens so:

- Rio telling Miles “it’s not your life it’s my life and your fathers and your abuelos who put you in this position that I’d give anything to be in” hits home when ur a first gen student from immigrant parents

- Miles’ teenage frustration being so irritating (looking at it from his parents POV), so understandable (from his own POV) And just so “relatable teenager energy” (from my memories of growing up/watching my siblings grow up)

- Miles’ family being his source of strength since the first movie

- Miles only finding the resolve in Into the Spiderverse to take his leap of faith as Spider-Man after his dad shared a very heartfelt message to him through his dorm door which beautifully sets up Miles telling Rio (in earth 42 but still) that he is strong because of his family, it’s always been family

- the queer symbolism of it all, from Miles’ fear in Across the Spiderverse (“I was scared that if I told you, you wouldn’t love me the same”) to back in Into the Spiderverse when he asks his dad if he really does hate Spider-Man after learning he must become the new Spider-Man

- the hints of the Morales’ Latino/Puerto Rican background !!!

- the Spanish! The Spanglish! Rio’s affection toward Miles! “Que dios te bendinga”, the relatives telling Miles how big he’s gotten, the way they say it, love it all

- Miles having a rough time speaking Spanish not only because he spends less time at home, but also because he has no friends to practice with

- Miles admitting he has no friends in his universe besides Ganke, who doesn’t appear to want to be very involved in Mike’s life as Spider-Man. While understandable, I think, it really does further emphasize just how lonely Miles is since he’s lying to his parents and the one person who does know his secret can’t relate to him

- the loneliness being sadder when you think about how easily Miles talks to people and how he seemed to have been more established at his old school

- and finally, rewatching Into the Spiderverse after seeing Across the Spiderverse and thinking about how Miles was just a kid when this all started

[georgeoliver]

Reading & books in 2016

I read (at least) ten books in 2016. When I was younger I used to read all the time, but when the time came to make the step from children's and young adult books, to grown-up books, I seemed to tail off. Certainly when I was at university, reading the whole time for my degree, reading wasn't the most attractive way to spend my down time.

Since finishing university, I've drifted in and out of reading more or less – often it depends a lot on the book I'm reading at the time, and I often leave gaps between books – but last year, I set myself a target to read 10 books in 2016. (I say I read at least 10, because I only set the target midway through the year, so I couldn't remember exactly what I might have read.) I was inspired by Emmie (whose own magnificent blog is here) who read 40 books last year…

Anyway, these were the 10 books I read:

The Invincibles

This is a book I got because I'm a member of Arsenal football club (football neeerd). It's about the season when Arsenal (2003-2004) went unbeaten. Well written, but most appealing to Arsenal fans who want to lose themselves in the good old days…

Middlemarch

This should probably count as several books… I got this a couple of years back, had a go at it, gave up after the first volume (yes, that's right, it was originally published in volumes: 8 of them). On this second reading I was more determined though, and got all the way through eventually. I did enjoy it in the end, it's just quite dense, due to its treatment of several plot lines at once, and the slightly alien/more stilted 19th century English. I really appreciated the depth of it, and how it dealt with complicated themes like idealism, the role of women and of course, love and marriage. I'd recommend it, but don't expect Pride & Prejudice, it's a good deal less light-hearted than that. The Garths (such Hufflepuffs..) and the Farebrothers were my favourite characters.

Harry Potter and the Cursed Child

Perhaps not technically a book, as it's a script? Emmie and I bought it in Frankfurt, and read it together over the course of the holiday. I'm sure watching the play would be much more rewarding – the script is pretty bare bones, and low-quality fan fiction-esque.. Still, I do always enjoy more Harry Potter stuff. I am currently listening to the “Witch, Please” podcast, and feeling a strong urge to re-read all the books (like, actually physically read them, rather than just vaguely listen to Stephen Fry reading them).

The Poisonwood Bible

I really enjoyed this book, for a couple of reasons. One, because it gave me an interesting insight into Belgium (my current abode's) relationship with what is now DR Congo, and two, because to such a great degree it reminded me of living in Ghana. The book is centred on the wife and four daughters of a Baptist missionary sent to rural Congo at the end of the 1950s, and although I did not live in anywhere near the same conditions as described in the book, the sensations, and the uneasy relationship painted between African and white European culture was eerily familiar. It was really well written too, dealing with all these huge themes of colonialism, racism, Christianity & faith, through a simple and compelling personal story.  It's one of my mum's favourite books too, if you needed further recommendation.

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time

When I went home saw this on the shelf, I decided it was time to read it, having heard good things about it before. I knew the basic premise, but I had no idea where the book was going, and thought it told an interesting internal story, through a fairly simple external story (sort of like Inside Out). I remember reading it on the sleeper train back from Budapest, and I also remember quite how visceral some of the passages felt, as Christopher describes how and what he is feeling.

The Handmaid's Tale

This is a book I've seen for years sitting on my parents' bookshelf, and this is not what I was expecting. The cover images and the title had always led me to believe it was set in the past, one of those sort of historical novels that get churned out. So to be presented with a dystopian novel was a surprise, and I enjoyed it. “Mystery books”, where you have to work out what has happened in the past/the present situation, based on the limited information the narrator gives you do always feel a little exasperating to me. I just want to know the world we dealing with, or at least not have it hidden from me in such an obvious way, but it didn't bother me too much in this book.

Pride and Prejudice

Now, this one I read because Emmie's family was shocked I had never read it before (her grandfather reads it every year at Christmas), and I felt like I was failing as a British person. I found it very funny and clever at many points, particularly enjoying Mr. Bennet's detachment, (although Emmie made me accept that he wasn't actually a very good parent, he's still an entertaining character), Mr. Collins' complete over-the-topness and Lizzie being rude to Lady Catherine. I also enjoyed dick-ish Darcy at the start.

It struck me that A LOT of the book is to do with class, social climbing and pretension, and I felt as though – while that might explain part of the book's international popularity – this meant a lot of it might only be fully understandable to British readers, who are still submerged in a lot of the same social expectations on show in the book. Maybe I'm wrong though..

Rivers of London and Moon over Soho

I got the first three of this “Rivers of London” series for my birthday, and I admittedly picked the second one as my 10th book, because I knew it was easy to read, and I could meet my 10 book target in the last couple of weeks of the year.. Essentially it's a magical police series, although I do feel it's also targeted at people who really know and love London (which is not me). So I let a lot of that capital scenery-porn pass me by, and enjoy the magical world being built up. I always enjoy seeing how authors choose to set up their magical systems, and this one strikes me as more of a Pratchett-esque one, wherein magic has “real world” consequences – equal and opposite reactions – and so is presented in more of a science-y way. I always think of the Pratchett quote about your brain being pushed out your ears if you get magic wrong: in Rivers of London, even when you get it right, it destroys the technology in the vicinity..

Through the Narrow Gate

This is the only autobiographical novel on this list, again touching on religion as a major theme. It's about the author's experience being a Nun in the 1960s, just as Vatican II was taking place, and reforms are starting to trickle through. Most of it is a deeply personal account however, and as a Quaker I found it interesting to argue about the views she was being taught, and the absolute nature of the rules she had to follow. Some of it seemed downright inhumane, and there was this duality in these passages, as the author writing many years later clearly shared some of this disbelief, while she had to write herself as she was, largely accepting of the treatment she received. An intriguing book, if you want to know what the inner life of a nun is like.

So that was my 2016 in books! My target for 2017 is 12-15 books, and so far I have read less than one, that one being, The Uses and Abuses of History, which I think might be left over from one of my historiography courses at University. It's interesting, just dense, I'll get there eventually.