#sincerely cockleburr

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Reading through the Tortall books in publication order is funny because you start with Alanna “the village healing woman taught me all she knew” going off to become a knight, and end with Numair “world’s most powerful mage” as young Arram Draper first learning magic at the Carthaki university. Because of the 40 intervening years and five(?) different series further developing the Tortall universe, the magic system is now SO much more complex.  Arram is learning an elementally-based, heavily theory-dependent form of magic where conceptual power is applied to physical objects or energy constructs. His teachers make him develop skills in non-magical areas like juggling, jewelry making, and gardening so eventually they can safely guide him through complicated applications of magic. In comparison, Alanna complains that Duke Roger is spending too much time on theory in order to prevent her and her peers from learning “actual magic” and becoming his rivals. And then she throws purple light at things until they explode or she passes out! We also learn from Arram’s misadventures that most of “magic” is creating methods of applying, storing, and accessing power so the user doesn’t drain their own life force and pass out or die. Alanna uses NONE of these techniques; instead, she pulls her magic directly out of her own life force, thinks about what she wants it to do, and hopes she reaches that goal before draining herself. She even (sometimes) factors in the impact of magically draining herself of energy while attempting tasks that require both magical and physical endurance (such as when deciding how much magic to spend warming herself when making her blizzard hike to claim the Dominion Jewel.)

For one thing, this makes Alanna insanely powerful. In In the Hand of The Goddess, she breaks open Roger’s magically locked door (presumably designed by Roger himself-- an immensely strong and well-trained sorcerer) by shoving her own magic into it until it MELTS. This builds an Alanna who decided magical theory was useless at age 12 because she has an immense access to magical potential energy, and who never learns the basic life-preserving models of magic usage that are taught in intro-level classes. She doesn’t have an interest in learning more sophisticated forms of magic, except in healing, which she cared about enough to learn non-magically. So when she heals, she uses magic as a guide or a supplement, rather than depending on it and then draining herself.  Since she isn’t attempting complex magic, most of the time the limitations of drawing directly from her own life force doesn’t impact her that much. The things she does magically all have much more efficient alternatives, but they require an understanding of magical theory and ability to store energy that Alanna never learned! If she wants to do larger spells, she just keeps feeding energy into it until it breaks or she does. 

The intervening series and Numair’s story makes Alanna’s simultaneously more and less believable. It now makes sense why everyone with even a slight understanding of Alanna’s type of Gift gets angry at times and tells her she’s using magic irresponsibly. (Before, we only understood Alanna’s side of the argument: “Well, I didn’t die and it worked, so calm down.” !!!) The fact that she never actually dies and only rarely is seriously harmed through her own magic use now requires some suspension of disbelief!

[enter-the-bogman]

“Does this mean that merpeople are atype of parasite? It looks like the human half takes over the fish's body. Maybe mer lay eggs inside young fish and wait for the mer child to take over the host fish's body. “ 

[Note: this is word for word what I commented in 2018 on Pinterest repost.]

did you know red snapper can live for over 50 years…. whatre they DOING down there ( this used to say 100 because i CAN NOT read )

[enter-the-bogman]

@tablevivant speaks truly

[enter-the-bogman]

I was ranting a bit about how the His Dark Materials show interacts with the children (Lyra, Pan, and Will) in ways that actually undermine the main thesis. Specifically I want to talk about how they completely undermined the emotional poignancy of the scene with Will and Pan’s intimate conversation, while Lyra pretends to sleep. Lyra never tells Will she heard what he said about her being the bravest person he knows, although “how often she remembered it in the days that followed” is the line used much later. This is such an important scene that clearly depicts Lyra and Will’s developing, not-yet-matured feelings, and specifically Lyra’s dawning recognition that she loves Will in a way she has never before (and may never again) love another person. Of course, she still must undergo a long trial and finally land with the Mulefa, where Mary explains falling in love to her. But this is the origin point.

The show weakens this powerful moment by having Lyra immediately tell Will that she heard the conversation, and then destroys it by causing her to bring up Roger. Will’s words were, “she’s the best friend I’ve ever had,” and Lyra responds, “I had a best friend once, and I let him down.” Absolutely driving a wedge between herself and Will via Roger’s ghost (who, incidentally, has not even APPEARED yet in-story!) Lyra should be just beginning to recognize ways in which she can be self-centered and is still emotionally immature, and has certainly not yet reached a point where she can even fully acknowledge her involvement in Roger’s death, much less confront her guilt. She undergoes that crucible during her time kidnapped and drugged by Mrs. Coulter, and comes out on the other side frightened, but prepared to do what she can to make amends. 

All this to say, let Lyra be a child. Let her be childish. Let her be selfish, let her be stubborn, let her be confused, let her try to make the right choices. Let her fail and let her succeed. That’s the whole point.

[enter-the-bogman]

I MISS MY POT HOLDER LOOM DESPERATELY!!!!!!!

[enter-the-bogman]

"trans jewish culture is" ACTUALLY seeing people falsely equating trans "or" intersex identities wholesale to the Talmudic genders and feeling like your head is going to explode, or your heart. Dear it is not simple. The six* gender system was NOT replaced by assimilation to "the Greco-Roman binary"... because that doesn't exist. They didn't use a binary either! The six gender ideas were deeply influenced by MANY empires the ancient Judeans lived alongside, were occupied by, lived within... for example, the NAME of the gender "androginos" is directly drawn from the Latin "androgynous" which did (as far as my understanding goes) describe a specific idea of gender/sex. At the same time, the androginos Adam/primal androgyne Adam story can be connected to the (iirc) Zoroastrian creation story...

[enter-the-bogman]

Tag 9 people you want to get to know better!

Tagged by: @scummyflowers

Currently reading: Nona the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir

Favorite color: Blue! Of all kinds. Sky blue is my favorite, especially when paired with dark cranberry.

Last song: “Juliet Naked” by Belle and Sebastian

Last movie: Labyrinth! LOVE the Muppets and David Bowie In Tight Pants. Also THE FUCKING PLOT. HOLY SHIT will I talk your ear off about the Themes Of This Movie. I watched it with @sharky-baity this past weekend because somehow they’d never seen it. 

Currently working on: Student teaching! Planning lessons and learning how to not clam up in front of a bunch of middle schoolers during direct instruction is the main thing right now. Also, ostensibly this Jewish/Trans studies paper but I’m so goddamn tired from student teaching and have no time. But it is there and I should be doing it!

Tagging: @sharky-baity @diogenesclubbing @tablevivant @snandtnurtle @wizardliker @eloquial @cassiopeia721 @bankingconspiracy @septemberskies-fireflies 

[enter-the-bogman]

I have done SO MUCH today. As before, I can hang out on my own in my apartment and DEEPLY enjoy it

I have: - Cooked cream of wheat for breakfast, cleaned all dishes. INcluding dishes from around the day before. - Prepped dried chickpeas. Discovered a love of soaked chickpeas as a snack. Used self control and did not eat an entire pound of softened chickpeas. Prepped a meal (which I will make tomorrow) - swept, mopped, and hand-scrubbed the bathroom floor. washed the bathmats. - swept and mopped the kitchen floor. Washed kitchen mat. Took out trash. - Vacuumed the living room and common area. this included moving all the furniture around to access all the carpet. - Vacuumed my bedroom - folded laundry - Went to the grocery store. Spent $97 on groceries(!) mostly fresh fruits/veggies - Put groceries away - Made instant ramen and also instant mac and cheese (for two different meals, not at the same time. I am proud of most of the things I've done today, good nutrition is not one of them)

[enter-the-bogman]

@kedreeva Thank you! That's super interesting and very useful. I'd always been taught that we're not supposed to eat fertilized eggs, not that it has to do with eating blood. However, I've never actually studied those tractates or wherever the prohibition is defined, so it's possible that there has been some error in dissemination. But that's how traditions work.

I'll have to do some research to determine whether the prohibition is actually about blood or fertilization, and whether the blood spot or blastoderm is more important. In some cases, it's important to continue honoring prohibitions because they are traditional, even when current science suggests the problem is baseless (for example the prohibition against eating fish and meat in the same course, which was thought by Medieval rabbis to cause leprosy, is still held by many!)

So if the important thing is simply honoring the practice of checking for blood spots, that's what I'll continue to do. HOWEVER if the prohibition is specifically against eating fertilized eggs, I now know how to actually identify them and will tell others what to look for!

What do you mean you hatched an egg you bought at the SUPER MARKET

Ohohoho

So there's this company in the UK, right. They brand themselves on producing fancy free range eggs and as part of that they have breed information written on the carton.

I did some snooping and found that every miracle news story of a supermarket egg hatching in the UK traced back to duck eggs, specifically the Braddock White duck eggs produced by this one company for the supermarket Waitrose.

And one day my mum brings them home and says "I bought these to eat but aren't they the ones that hatch?"

And it's spring and I'm hatching a ton this year so in they went.

On candling we had three fertile eggs! That's a fertility of 50% - the same as shipped eggs from a breeder!

Hatch day comes and we get 2 ducklings, Curie and Becquerel. Sadly, Curie contracts duck septicaemia from an infected navel and doesn't make it, but Becquerel is a healthy bird and growing like a weed.

I had put 4 breeder eggs in a week after them in case just one hatched, so Becque now has two Khaki Campbell cross friends called Tsuki and Hoshi so she isn't lonely.

And as of today's 7am Quacking - Becque is a female! Which means she's capable of laying eggs and therefore I have pirated a duck.

[enter-the-bogman]

One of the problems with the His Dark Materials show being their insistence on slamming symbolism in with a sledgehammer, when a huge strength of the books are their nuance and elegance. The reader is not told what to think, but is prompted and moved to think creatively for themself and come to their own conclusions. Which is, importantly, a MAJOR part of the thesis! Pursuit of knowledge and development of understanding is what makes PEOPLE exist. 

Specifically, children being whole entire people who must mature by developing understanding of the world beyond that which they have been taught-- the show absolutely misses that in a variety of ways. For one thing, this is seen through the lack of attention payed to Pantelaimon. Lyra’s relationship with Pan is at least as important (if not more important!) as Lyra’s relationship with Will. I can tell you nothing about show!Lyra’s relationship with Pantelaimon (and with that of herself embodied within Pan), because no attention has been put there. Lyra’s betrayal and its repercussions are not going to have any impact if the centrality and importance of Lyra and Pan has not been established. And as the show has been setting up the Book of Dust, that relationship may become even more central in the future. (I have some more thoughts on how this has reduced impact of certain scenes already, which I may share in a different post.)

 A lot of the time which isn’t spent diving into who Lyra and Pan are is spent with Marissa and the Monkey. While everything they’re doing with those characters was definitely interesting at the beginning, it’s start to become a bit repetitive, not to mention over-the-top. Yes, Marissa apparently has self-hatred issues. Yes, she clearly is at war with that of herself embodied in the Monkey. But paying such close and repeated attention there is missing the point. A huge point of the story is that it’s NOT about Lyra’s parents, in the end. It’s about Lyra and Pan, and has always been about them. In fact, a major part of Marissa’s redemption(?) is she first understands and then convinces Asriel that their role must be in support of their daughter’s much more important role. 

[enter-the-bogman]

I completely missed the whole vanilla extract meme so my exposure has been the original Let’s Bake A Cake poll (I put baking powder because I’m a team player) and everyone sobbing about how awful the whole vanilla extract thing was.

[enter-the-bogman]

I met my professor today and he asked me what my pronouns were, so I told him they/them and he said, “Okay! I might fuck up but I will do my best,” and I automatically responded, “oh don’t worry about it, it’s fine!” because after the whole School Placement Shitshow I am so on my guard, and he went “No it isn’t fine! It’s important!” and that was refreshing! As a reminder to myself: I am NO LONGER prioritizing cis comfort! If someone says, “I’m sorry” I will tell them, “I accept your apology” NOT “It’s fine”. This is good for me, this is good for them, this is good for all of us.

[enter-the-bogman]

I mostly agree with this review. The writing was beautiful, but to the point of becoming flowery and purple prose at times. Even so, it is worth reading.

A TRUE strength of this book was the discussion and depiction of subjugation and colonization through violence, specifically systemic rape. However, in that context I believe the book was done a disservice by being categorized as YA. Not to say that teenagers can’t or shouldn’t read books with those themes and ideas, of course-- fiction is an excellent way to be introduced to and first discuss such topics. But not all high fantasy star-crossed romances are YA. Creating it as adult fiction would have allowed Strange the Dreamer to be more overt and really discuss the complex outcomes of systemic rape rather than drawing a picture around it.

At many times during reading I felt that the prose took away from the meat of the book. What could have been said beautifully once would be repeated and repeated in the same paragraph to the point that it felt overwrought and dramatic. Multiple consecutive sentences were used frequently to say the same thing differently, and any one of those lines would have worked on its own. It exhausted what was most poignant and thought provoking, and felt as if the author did not entirely trust herself or her readers.

@fantasybooktournament​

Strange the Dreamer mini Review 2.5-3 stars

This books (main/only) strength is the beautiful writing. The characters felt fairly flat, and the plot was so predictable that it felt like the assumption was that from the beginning the reader knew exactly were it was going and was just along for the descriptions.

It feels kinda harsh to say that this book is all vibes, but that's pretty much what it was. I waited like a week to write my initial review back when I read it in 2018, and honestly I had already forgotten most of what had happened. I do remember liking it more than Daughter of Smoke and Bone, but that was a low bar.

If you're not a plot based reader/the vibes of a book are really important to you, I think this does a good job at that. I'm a plot based reader, and I will also say that I read it at the start of falling out of love with YA fantasy, so your mileage may vary.

thank you!!

[enter-the-bogman]

I’m groaning over returning to old habits when I return home. I’m getting into loops of how I can’t do this work, I have to try, I don’t do it, and the dread of my parents returning home and learning I’ve gotten nowhere. I can do the work itself. I don’t know what’s getting in my way, other than thought loops and dread. I resent both of my parents’ comments about medication: that I’m a challenging person to be around when I’m not on it and that I’m worrisome. Their perception that I need it is what galls. That, and the implication that I’m not an enjoyable or safe person to be around without it. Especially in contrast with the whole everything I’ve been working towards in the past two years. I didn’t develop strategies that support the way I like to function in the world by believing I was dysfunctional without medication-- quite the opposite! 

I developed these methods when I challenged the idea that I was wrong in the world, and started looking at everything with the perspective that not everything has to be an ultimate struggle against my most intimately felt nature! That’s a losing battle, I know, because I don’t feel success until it comes with joy, and I will never feel joy in fruitless struggle. Pulling against myself is disheartening and blocking. I find a fierce and delighted pride in my success because it has centered finding ways I enjoy living and working.

[enter-the-bogman]

would like to take a moment to recognize that I have accidentally boiled myself down to the essentials via tumblr post. This Is Truly All I Am

[enter-the-bogman]

sherlock holmes ask game:

7. Favourite Watson portrayal?

18. Favourite piece of Sherlock Holmes related trivia?

YEEEEEEEE THANK YOU MOSS!

7. That is the most difficult question in the world. I'm honestly adoring the characterization of @contact-guy's ongoing Watson's Sketchbook series. He's a very quiet and perceptive Watson (aside from all the pining!) and I can REALLY see him writing in the way the books are penned. I think often the "man of action" trait can overshadow how he must also be a very thoughtful and creative person. This Watson has strong attention to detail, and exemplifies the phrase "still waters run deep." He also would have the inclination to write himself out of the stories (or disguise his own presence) in the way they're written. I'm also currently revisiting @plaidadder's Missing Pages series (for probably the fourth or fifth time!) and I'm so obsessed with Watson's EMOTIONAL JOURNEY in that series! He's such a good person, and he tries so hard to do right by everyone. He's also just got so many admirable traits which of course respond to what we can put together about Watson from the books, but which Watson tends to disguise in his own writing. And of "officially released" adaptations, I have to go with Edward Hardwicke. While I believe that of the Granada duo, David Burke's is THE Watson from the books, Hardwicke's changes add so much speculative depth to the relationship between Holmes and Watson. I particularly appreciate that he loves Holmes deeply, but will not sacrifice himself for him.

8. Hm... I feel like I don't know as much SHERLOCK HOLMES trivia as I do ACD trivia. The stories about him are wild. The man was a trivia generating machine. One of my favorites is that he almost refused his knighthood because he assumed it was about the Holmes stories, and not for the serious history (imperialist revisionism) work he WANTED to be famous for!