Why don't I have a reading icon? Still?
Apr. 3rd, 2011 05:11 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
switchbladesisI just found out that Iain M. Banks's Consider Phlebas is available for both the Nook and Amazon Kindle for 99 cents. I haven't read it yet, but it's one of those books people periodically throttle me for not having read yet, so it's probably worth checking out.
Also, Barnes & Noble's Free Friday book, God's War, is still available for free. There's been a lot of low-grade buzz about it lately, and again-free. I'm not that far into it, but so far seems to be a light read with an original world.
This is all to say: If I've promised you my thoughts on Palimpsest any time soon, it might take a little while. I seem to have gotten distracted by other shiny things.
In other literary news: I refound the bookslut's blog the other day. It's amazing-I used to check it religiously my senior year in high school: it was one of those things I thought that I should be into, that I should read all of these books and be able to talk about them at length and know the temperament of every critic employed of the New York Times' book review (all four of them now). Literary fiction and I had a bad breakup my freshman year of college-it's gotten better over the years, we're friends now, and we get along for my parent's sake, but it's been at least six or seven years since I read Bookslut. It looks exactly the same, layout and all. Anyway, they do have good links in their blog section, especially about writers, writing, and trends in the literary world-so if that's your thing, check it out.
I went to a two-part lecture on the Munsingwear underwear advertisements (you know, these guys) from the early 20th century-pretty much talking about the changing social mores of the first decades of the twentieth century, but also a lot about the homoeroticism in a lot of these advertisements, and how much of that would have been coded as homoerotic by their contemporaries, and why these ads would include homoerotic content. Now, when I think vintage homoerotic underwear ads, I think my friendslist. So I've spent a ridiculous amount of time on the internet looking for more information on this to share with you guys, but mostly, I keep on finding the same ad over and over again: I think it's important to note that there were multiple series of them, stretching between the 1930's to the 1960's, and with various shades of homoeroticism. The best thing I could find was the author's book trailer, here and someone else's writeup of the same lecture I went to, here. Ah well, maybe one day they'll actually update their website with more information.
The other half of the lecture was on Gil Elvgren, the Norman Rockwell of cheesecake pin-ups, who is mostly notable for being the first famous cheesecake pin-up artist to have a boring personal life. He was the sort of pin-up artist you could safely introduce to your mother. You know, if that's what you look for in a pin-up artist.
In something that has nothing to do with reading whatsoever OMG NEW DOCTOR WHO TRAILER (stolen from zeitheist) OMG OMG OMG OMG
(eee!)
Other thoughts on other things (spoilers)!
The City & The City
I don't know if I can judge anything about the writing in this book, I'm too in love with the concept. There's just so much about how we work, about how we navigate our lives and psychology, that makes the whole idea of unseeing half of a city seem so possible. Just. . . change blindness, segregation, the confusion and arbitrariness between borders in a lot of divided cities, child psychology when it comes to social groupings-so much of it makes sense. It's nothing I've really thought of before, but now that I know of it, I'm surprised it's not a trope. And now I want to write City & The City fusions with everything. Or at least read them.
But I think in the end I was so fascinated with the world that I couldn't care about the plot. I vaguely remember how the murder was solved, the whodunit of it all, but I was still too focused on the way that breach worked to even care. Would I have been as interested in the novel if I already knew how the world worked? I don't know. Crime fiction isn't really my thing most of the time. This was a faster, lighter read than Perdido Street Station, but I feel like it was written to be serviceable more than anything else. Borlu's likable enough, but I don't know if I'm too interested to know more about him.
Then again, I'm really, really in love with the concept behind the book. The rest of it could have been absolutely horrible, and I would still be trying to shove it into every hand I could.
Downton Abbey
When I got to the end of the final episode, I had to look online to make sure that Netflix wasn't holding back anything. Nope. That's the cliffhanger we're stuck with until Fall 2011. Man, BBC, that's mean. 'Rocks fall, everybody dies' (which is pretty much the same thing as WWI when it comes to Europe) is no way to end a series.
Also, Barnes & Noble's Free Friday book, God's War, is still available for free. There's been a lot of low-grade buzz about it lately, and again-free. I'm not that far into it, but so far seems to be a light read with an original world.
This is all to say: If I've promised you my thoughts on Palimpsest any time soon, it might take a little while. I seem to have gotten distracted by other shiny things.
In other literary news: I refound the bookslut's blog the other day. It's amazing-I used to check it religiously my senior year in high school: it was one of those things I thought that I should be into, that I should read all of these books and be able to talk about them at length and know the temperament of every critic employed of the New York Times' book review (all four of them now). Literary fiction and I had a bad breakup my freshman year of college-it's gotten better over the years, we're friends now, and we get along for my parent's sake, but it's been at least six or seven years since I read Bookslut. It looks exactly the same, layout and all. Anyway, they do have good links in their blog section, especially about writers, writing, and trends in the literary world-so if that's your thing, check it out.
I went to a two-part lecture on the Munsingwear underwear advertisements (you know, these guys) from the early 20th century-pretty much talking about the changing social mores of the first decades of the twentieth century, but also a lot about the homoeroticism in a lot of these advertisements, and how much of that would have been coded as homoerotic by their contemporaries, and why these ads would include homoerotic content. Now, when I think vintage homoerotic underwear ads, I think my friendslist. So I've spent a ridiculous amount of time on the internet looking for more information on this to share with you guys, but mostly, I keep on finding the same ad over and over again: I think it's important to note that there were multiple series of them, stretching between the 1930's to the 1960's, and with various shades of homoeroticism. The best thing I could find was the author's book trailer, here and someone else's writeup of the same lecture I went to, here. Ah well, maybe one day they'll actually update their website with more information.
The other half of the lecture was on Gil Elvgren, the Norman Rockwell of cheesecake pin-ups, who is mostly notable for being the first famous cheesecake pin-up artist to have a boring personal life. He was the sort of pin-up artist you could safely introduce to your mother. You know, if that's what you look for in a pin-up artist.
In something that has nothing to do with reading whatsoever OMG NEW DOCTOR WHO TRAILER (stolen from zeitheist) OMG OMG OMG OMG
(eee!)
Other thoughts on other things (spoilers)!
The City & The City
I don't know if I can judge anything about the writing in this book, I'm too in love with the concept. There's just so much about how we work, about how we navigate our lives and psychology, that makes the whole idea of unseeing half of a city seem so possible. Just. . . change blindness, segregation, the confusion and arbitrariness between borders in a lot of divided cities, child psychology when it comes to social groupings-so much of it makes sense. It's nothing I've really thought of before, but now that I know of it, I'm surprised it's not a trope. And now I want to write City & The City fusions with everything. Or at least read them.
But I think in the end I was so fascinated with the world that I couldn't care about the plot. I vaguely remember how the murder was solved, the whodunit of it all, but I was still too focused on the way that breach worked to even care. Would I have been as interested in the novel if I already knew how the world worked? I don't know. Crime fiction isn't really my thing most of the time. This was a faster, lighter read than Perdido Street Station, but I feel like it was written to be serviceable more than anything else. Borlu's likable enough, but I don't know if I'm too interested to know more about him.
Then again, I'm really, really in love with the concept behind the book. The rest of it could have been absolutely horrible, and I would still be trying to shove it into every hand I could.
Downton Abbey
When I got to the end of the final episode, I had to look online to make sure that Netflix wasn't holding back anything. Nope. That's the cliffhanger we're stuck with until Fall 2011. Man, BBC, that's mean. 'Rocks fall, everybody dies' (which is pretty much the same thing as WWI when it comes to Europe) is no way to end a series.
I'm really excited about the next one. OMG, who's going to die off? Who's going to come back? Will Sybil wear more pants?
I'm intrigued by Mary-I don't really like her, and I don't think I'm supposed to most of the time. But she's a complex character in the midst of a lot of stereotypes, and by far the most unpredictable. And-I don't know, the way she views herself, the way she constantly tells everyone to ignore who she's pretending to be . . . and yet still pretends to be that person, and seems incapable of figuring out that sometimes her actions have consequences, even if she doesn't mean for them to. Maybe she's finally getting that, a little. But I hope she backslides, at least a little.
It's also interesting-she seems to be the most directionless, too. Everyone else has a clear goal in mind, but for the first time, she seems to have a little bit of agency (even if it is just who she should marry) and doesn't seem to know what to do with it. She seems to admire her aunt, but doesn't really know how to become like her. Other than that, she seems to be rebelling whenever possible, but then trying to take responsibility when things go wrong.>
But! OMG! Next season! It looks like Professor McGonagol and Harriet Jones are going to team up! EVERYONE ELSE SHOULD RUN IN FEAR OR BOW TO THEIR WHIMS.
But! OMG! Next season! It looks like Professor McGonagol and Harriet Jones are going to team up! EVERYONE ELSE SHOULD RUN IN FEAR OR BOW TO THEIR WHIMS.