kateoftheangels

I love Polly Barton’s translations from the Japanese (top favorites include Asako Yuzuki’s Butter and Aoko Matsuda’s Where the Wild Ladies Are), so when I saw that she had recently come out with Fifty Sounds, a book about translation, of course I jumped on it.

However, as it turns out, Fifty Sounds is really more about language learning - about Barton’s experience of moving to Japan right after college to teach English, and learning Japanese from the ground up while completely immersed in the language - about moving from experiencing a culture as a complete outsider to a participant-observer, feeling confined by expectations (often specifically gendered expectations) that before had seemed distant from her.

(It is clearly intentional that Barton frequently translates works that grapple with expectations for women in Japan.)

It’s also a book organized around Japanese mimetic words, a class of words that is similar to English onomatopoeia (oink, boom), but far more expansive, both in the sense that the Japanese language has far more of these words than English, and in the sense that it has mimetic words for things other than sounds, like yochi-yochi, the word for a toddler’s tottering walk. (Or, Barton suggests, is it just that in English we don’t formally recognize the mimetic quality of certain words - like tottering?) Hence the fact that manga will sometimes have “sound effects” for things that are not sounds.

It’s also, just a little bit, a book about the weirdness of being an English speaker who has become obsessed with Japanese without the usual intermediate step of being obsessed with manga and anime.

What it isn’t really is a book about the act of translation, or a book with much detail at all about any of the books Barton has translated. (Barton does just occasionally bring up an example from something she’s translated - but without telling us which work the example comes from! Maddening.) The book that it is is also very interesting, but I did pine a little for the book that I thought it would be.

regshoe

From Cabin 'Boys' to Captains: 250 Years of Women at Sea by Jo Stanley (2015). Very various history of the many different things women have done on ships, particularly outside the Royal Navy on cruise ships, cargo ships and so on. A lot of it is about the later half of the period, the recent feminist context in which women are openly working to do a wider range of jobs and get paid and treated properly, often recent enough that Stanley got her information by talking to the people involved. Interesting, as learning about parts of the world one doesn't often think about can be interesting, but there's not much on the earlier period I most wanted to find out about, and much of what there is comes from Suzanne Stark's book which I'd just read. (Also Stanley is oddly insistent on referring to crossdressing sailors as 'boys', as if many of them didn't pass successfully for/as adult men for years at a time—and it's not like she doesn't acknowledge and describe these cases, so I don't know what that was about.)

Wakenhyrst by Michelle Paver (2019). A Gothic horror novel, of sorts, set in the Suffolk Fens in the Edwardian period. At the start of the book we learn, via a framing story taking place sixty years after the main events, of a horrible murder committed there by a hitherto-respectable local gentleman and witnessed only by his teenage daughter; we then go back in time and see events over the years leading up to the murder, via interspersed chapters of the daughter's third-person POV and the murderer's diary. As modern historical fiction goes it's good; it is hammering the message of Patriarchy Is Really Bad pretty hard but not as far as I could see unrealistically (though the handling of Ivy's character lets that down somewhat), and the diary sections in particular, barring a few lapses into modern vocabulary and sentence structure, were really a decent pastiche of actual Victwardian epistolary horror. I was increasingly irritated by the artificial drama of the prose, especially in the third-person sections; Paver is very fond of rather contrived dramatic chapter endings and of what you might call emphatic redundancy. She repeats the same information in a new sentence so you know it's really important.—which takes away from the power of what might sometimes have been a good single dramatic reveal. (I thought the repeated twists as to the identity of the intended victim(s) were especially weak, and the final twist right at the end was pathetic. Speaking of the former, I also thought it was rather obvious which pieces of information the opening framing story was carefully not giving us in order to preserve drama later on.) I do like a book that combines disparate influences in interesting ways, which this book does—fenland history and folklore, medieval mysticism and beliefs about demons, various pieces of the author's own family history and experiences—but, reading over her detailed explanation of them all in the afterword, it did strike me that she perhaps hadn't done enough fictionalising and recombining of them. (The medieval churchy bits in particular seem hardly to have been altered at all; why change one letter in a real saint's name and then repeat his story exactly as-is? Either make up a character properly or just use the real saint!) I was also very disappointed by

some spoilery details:

the way the eventual resolution of the story collapses almost all the supernatural elements down to nothing but patriarchal/religio-historical madness. Also, while we're doing spoilers, my mild-to-moderate dislike of the third-person prose got worse on the reveal near the end that it's intended to be Maud's own narrative; sure, it's the sixties now, but I don't believe a recluse with a 'cut-glass accent' raised and educated in a strict Edwardian household would use so many sentence fragments!

Hmm, I did like a lot about the book despite the weaknesses I'm complaining about here. It's just flawed and generally not very subtle.

Micah Clarke by Arthur Conan Doyle (1889). Hey, ACD, look! People ARE reading your non-Holmes historical fiction! :) Anyway, some people on Tumblr were talking about this adventure novel set during the Monmouth rebellion (a Protestant/Whig uprising against James II in the southwest of England in 1685) and

ratuszarsenal said it was reminding him of Kidnapped, so of course I had to check it out. Narrated in first person by the title character talking to his grandchildren years later, the story follows Micah's decision to join the rising, the course it takes, various adventures he and his friends get into along the way and its eventual end. There are, loosely speaking, four main characters: Micah, a young man from Hampshire; Reuben Lockarby, his slightly bumbling BFF; Decimus Saxon, a morally dubious career mercenary who brings them the news of Monmouth's rising and then decides to join it; and Sir Gervas Jerome, a London fop fallen on hard times who also joins in for an adventure. I think this is one that wants thoughts in list form:

Having a group rather than a pair of main characters means there isn't one single central relationship like in Kidnapped. There is one sequence between Micah and Saxon early on which strongly recalls Alan/Davie, but I don't think Saxon and Alan really have that much in common (Alan shocks Davie by having a moral code very different to his own; Saxon shocks Micah by not having much of one at all), and while his memory lingers in a significant way at the end, Saxon isn't as important to Micah personally as Alan is to Davie. Sir Gervas also has some of Alan's comical vanity, but not the rest of his personality! On the whole I liked the dynamics between the four main characters, if none of them really grabbed me. They're a good complementary set.
There's not very much romance. Obviously Micah has married at some point in the time since the events he narrates, and he occasionally refers to 'your grandmother', but she's not a character in the story at all. Reuben falls in love with a side character and ultimately marries her, but it's mostly in the background.
I knew very little about the Monmouth rebellion before reading this (he was an illegitimate son of Charles II who decided that the accession of his unpopular Catholic uncle was a good chance to pretend to be legitimate and try to seize the throne), and it was interesting to learn more about this episode in the pre-Jacobite Stuart wrangles period. It is kind of eerie how closely the events as portrayed here recall those of the '45, with the sides swapped: a rising led by a charismatic but undependable prince who comes over from the continent; the ranks filled by admirably loyal peasants from one particular region, often motivated by religious belief; its defeat after an ill-judged and disastrous attempted night attack on the government army's camp; horrific cruelty by the government army towards both captive soldiers and random people from the surrounding countryside; show trials of the prisoners, hundreds of whom are executed or transported. One fairly important difference, of course, is that the Jacobite cause didn't go on to triumph three years later, and it is an interesting choice to set a historical novel during an unsuccessful rising by a cause that was to succeed so soon afterwards.
Is it a good adventure story? Yes, I think so; it doesn't stand out as one of the most memorable, but it's pretty solid.
A substantial part of this book's Wikipedia page is devoted to a debate over whether or not Oscar Wilde liked it. Good priorities there.
Apparently alchemy is real??

osprey_archer

John W. Crowley’s The Dean of American Letters: The Late Career of William Dean Howells is not so much focused on Howells’ later fiction as on how the literary public elevated him to the rank of Dean of American Letters (partly because the pun was irresistible, but he did wield a great deal of influence through his column at Harper’s), which ended up tanking his reputation during the post-Great War shredding of all things Victorian.

Although in his younger days Howells had been considered something of a troublemaker, his elevation to Dean marked him as not merely a member of, but the embodiment of the Establishment. So when the Establishment fell, it was open season on Howells. Younger writers derided his work as stuffy and sissified, often without having ever read his novels. They certainly had no awareness that he had championed shocking authors like Ibsen and Zola. (I don’t know if Ibsen is still shocking, but Zola will probably be shocking as long as there are novels.)

He also wrote his own “J’accuse” defending the Haymarket anarchists. They were sentenced to death on the grounds that their anarchist beliefs had incited the Haymarket bombing, even though none of them had actually been involved with the bombing. At the time, the Haymarket anarchists were so widely loathed that no one else in America was willing to go on record saying "we are hanging these men for their BELIEFS and that's FUCKED UP."

Aside from writers in translation like Ibsen and Zola (and Turgenev, and Tolstoy…), Howells also helped launch the careers of many American authors: Mark Twain, Stephen Crane, Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Sarah Orne Jewett, Paul Laurence Dunbar, and Charles W. Chesnutt, among others. But obviously not even Howells could read or appreciate every single deserving author, and some of them clearly held a grudge, notably Theodore Dreiser, who probably gotten off on the wrong foot by faking (!) an interview with Howells in the late 1890s. So beyond the basic generational conflict, there were some writers with personal axes to grind.

(Howells may have never read Dreiser, although Dreiser later claimed that he once ran into Howells in the offices at Harper’s, where Howells told him, “You know, I don’t like Sister Carrie,” and walked on. Brutal. Absolutely ice cold. Dreiser very much admired Howells, so you can see how an encounter like that would turn his love to hate, assuming of course that it actually happened.

I have never read Dreiser but nonetheless have a strongly negative opinion of his work: an American Thomas Hardy, writing grim boring slogs that no one reads except when it’s assigned in class. I’ve also escaped the misfortune of reading Thomas Hardy. It is actually quite fun to lambast authors whose work you haven’t read.)

A bit of a downer, but full of interesting tidbits about the publishing market in the years around 1900. For instance, serialization in a magazine prior to publication in book form was seen as a sign of quality, so Howells knew he was on the way down when no one would serialize The Kentons.

To end on a lighter note: I laughed at this gripe from an aspiring writer, who wrote to the Century magazine, “If you do not take some of my contributions, I shall have to resort to the humiliation of being discovered by William Dean Howells.”

sweetsorcery

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osprey_archer

A few weeks ago, scrolling through Tumblr, I was arrested by a quote:

“I can’t think what it’s like to be certain. I’m afraid that it’s impossible for me. There isn’t a place for me.”

His voice was tense, excited, full of passion. As he went on, it became louder, louder than the voice I was used to, but still very clear.

“Listen, Lewis. I could believe in all the rest. I could believe in the catholic church. I could believe in miracles. I could believe in the inquisition. I could believe in eternal damnation. If only I could believe in God.”

“But you can’t, I said, with his cry still in my ears.

“I can’t begin to,” he said, his tone quiet once more. “I can’t get as far as ‘help Thou mine unbelief.’”

We left the ridge of the Roman road, and began to cross the shining fields.

“The nearest I’ve got is this,” he said. “It has happened twice. It’s completely clear – and terrible. Each time has been on a night when I couldn’t sleep. I’ve had the absolute conviction – it’s much more real than anything one can see or touch – that God and His world exist. And everyone can enter and find their rest. Except me. I’m infinitely far away for ever. I am alone and apart and infinitesimally small – and I can’t come near.”

This comes from C. P. Snow’s The Light and the Dark, and of course I had to read it at once.

Now unfortunately this turns out to be one of those rare times when my book instincts have led me astray. The above excerpt electrified me, but the rest of the book was… it’s fine. It’s well-written. Our narrator (Lewis) is telling us the story of his friend Roy (the speaker in the above extract) and his struggles with recurring melancholia.

Roy hopes that if he can come to believe in God, that will cure his bouts of despair. When that doesn’t work, he decides to try the next best thing, “a feeble simulacrum of his search for God,” by attempting to embrace the Third Reich.

Given the kind of God Roy was looking for, based on his passionate declamation that “I could believe in the inquisition…in eternal damnation,” it strikes me the move from God to Hitler actually makes perfect sense. God the Fuhrer seems like just the sort of deity who would delight in damning people for the hell of it, too.

You might imagine that Roy’s flirtation with Nazism put me off the book, but in fact I had gotten annoyed with Roy much earlier, simply because I felt that the author was continually leaning over my shoulder breathing “Isn’t he dreamy?” Young, handsome, deeply and romantically sad; slender yet strong, intellectually brilliant, showered in honors to which he is indifferent; a notorious womanizer who had a brief gay love affair in his youth –

I did entertain the possibility that Snow may have meant us to read Roy as gay, adding an extra subtext to his despairing “There isn’t a place for me.” But upon reflection I think this briefly-alluded-to affair is simply meant to add to Roy’s aura of irresistible dreaminess. Women want him, men want to be him; but men also just want him. Don’t you, dear reader, also want…

“NO,” I said, heaping rejection like coals of fire on poor Roy’s head, like an angry god myself.

So in a way it was a bit of a relief when Roy started flirting with Nazism, as I felt released from any obligation to like this beautiful sad boy. Look how sad he is. How could you dislike anyone so sad and so beautiful at the same time? He does perhaps allow his sadness to lead him into excesses, but it’s just because he’s so darn SAD, don’t you understand? Well, look, I think we can all agree that “fanboy for the Third Reich” is simply an excess too far.

Unfortunately, now that I’d decided I was allowed to hate him, I began to find him far less annoying. It helps that when the war starts, he signs up to fly for the RAF, mostly because he knows the death rates for pilots is high, but at least he’s fighting for the right side even if he is also sighing re: the Nazis “If they had been just a little different, they would have been the last best hope.” Last best hope for WHAT, Roy? This is genuinely unclear to me, because he recoils whenever he has to interface with a specific example of Nazi doctrine, like their policies toward the Jews or their desire to conquer Europe, when considered as a concrete fact rather than in the abstract. (In the abstract he thinks unification is a good idea and, after all, it will never be accomplished peacefully.)

So he’s still fumbling about in basic political incoherence, but he nonetheless achieves a certain pathos in this section. Despite myself, I felt some of the tragedy of this beautiful sad full-grown man who is clearly always going to be spiritually a beloved boy in C. P. Snow’s heart.

Snow is actually quite a good writer, I think, but would have been even better if he could have gotten out of his own way. There’s no need to constantly point out Roy’s dreaminess. He’s put enough of it on the page that readers could notice it on their own, if they were only left alone.

osprey_archer

What I’ve Just Finished Reading

The evening before my birthday, I popped by Barnes and Nobles for a bit of pre-celebration, little realizing that I was going to find a book perfectly tailored to my interests: The Making of American Girl, a gorgeous coffee table book about the early years of Pleasant Company, with lengthy sections about the research and development process for each of the first six American Girls. (Founder Pleasant Rowland left the company after Josefina, which is why that serves as a stopping point.)

LOVED this. Not only do I adore American Girl, but I had so much fun reading about the process of developing the characters and stories, seeing the swatch boards for materials for the characters’ dresses, etc. Now obviously some of the emphasis on material culture is because the books were designed in tandem with the dolls, but there’s inspiration here for any writer who wants to make their characters’ worlds feel rich and detailed.

Also I cackled with glee when I saw Rowland’s original postcard to Valerie Tripp (who wrote many American Girl books) outlining her American Girl idea, which included the phrase “Good illustrations.” Rowland knew what was what!

I also finished Craig L. Symonds’ Lincoln and His Admirals: Abraham Lincoln, the U.S. Navy, and the Civil War, which is a lively and well-written account of the naval side of the Civil War: the blockade, the river fighting on the Mississippi, the terrifying impact of the new iron-clad ships, the political impact when Captain Wilkes puckishly decided to kidnap a couple of would-be Confederate commissioners off a British mail packet…

I was fascinated to learn that, legally speaking, Wilkes would have been in a better position if he had seized the entire mail packet and sent it to a prize court. That would have been more defensible than merely absconding with a couple of passengers. Maritime law! Amazing!

What I’m Reading Now

After allowing it to languish for years on my TBR shelf, I’ve dusted off Margaret Drabble’s The Radiant Way. So far: the characters are assembling for a New Year’s Eve party to celebrate the dawn of 1980! It appears outwardly festive but inwardly roiling with emotional undercurrents.

What I Plan to Read Next

Back on my bullshit with William Dean Howells. I only meant to check out one of his books, but then there was a book about Howells on the shelf right next to it… I managed to cut myself off at two, though.

osprey_archer

When last we left Captain Hornblower, he had just attacked four French ships all by his lonesome, and been forced to strike his colors. Flying Colours begins soon after this battle, with Hornblower in French captivity. The French have taken a dim view of some of his escapades in A Ship of the Line, deciding that his perfectly legitimate ruse de guerre is in fact an act of piracy, for which Captain Hornblower and his first lieutenant Bush must be sent to Paris to be shot by firing squad!

This is especially unfortunate because Bush got his foot shot off in the last engagement, and the wound is barely half-healed. But no matter. The sneering French grandee packs Hornblower, Bush, and Hornblower’s coxswain Brown into a carriage to transport them to Paris. If Bush dies along the way, why, it will save the firing squad some trouble, that’s all.

I’m not entirely sure why the French have decided they need to try Bush as well as Hornblower, but I also don’t care because it’s clearly occurring for a very important purpose: C. S. Forester needs Bush along on this road trip from hell in order to make this the slashiest Hornblower novel since Lieutenant Hornblower.

Item: after they are shoved into the carriage, Hornblower takes Bush’s hand to comfort him, as the journey will no doubt be tortuous to his wound, and Bush grasps Hornblower’s hand and starts caressing it.

Item: when they stop at the hotel, there is only one bed. (Hornblower gets the bed, Bush sleeps on his stretcher, and Brown sleeps on a pallet on the floor. No matter. Let me have this.)

Item: unable to get a doctor on the second morning, Hornblower has to tend to Bush’s wounds himself. This is too gross to be romantic but it is extremely intimate.

Item: later on, while they are escaping France, they all have to huddle for warmth one night and Hornblower feels a “ridiculous pleasure” (direct quote) when he wakes up under Bush’s arm. HORNBLOWER PLEASE.

In the midst of all this, Hornblower and company end up spending a few months hiding in the house of a sympathetic French nobleman, and Hornblower seduces his widowed daughter-in-law Marie, as one does. I felt some concern that she was going to die tragically, as there’s a Marie(tte) in the Hornblower movies who shared a few characteristics with this character (French; in love with Hornblower; raised from peasant past by Revolution) who meets a sticky end. (I did a short rewrite, which I link here because it is a work of comic genius which makes me laugh every time I read it. Adieu, 'Ornblowaire!)

Now, book!Marie might still show up in the final three Hornblower books to die dramatically, but she made it through this one alive, at least. And she completely slayed Hornblower with this comment: “I don't think you will ever love anybody, or know what it is to do so.” I don’t think this is actually accurate (Lady Barbara! Bush???) but it does seem like the kind of thing that would lodge in Hornblower’s relentlessly, inaccurately self-analytical head and torment him forever, so good job serving up some ice cold vengeance, Marie.

osprey_archer

In between my birthday and the Fourth of July, the last four days have been busy! But as part of my birthday celebrations, I enjoyed a couple of birthday-themed picture books.

Carl’s Birthday, written and illustrated by Alexandra Day, which unfortunately stressed me out, because it follows a storyline that always stresses me out: someone is planning a party, and it looks like it’s going to be spoiled. In this case, Carl the rottweiler and his toddler friend Madeleine have been sent next door to take a nap while their mom sets up a surprise party for Carl… but Carl and Madeleine sneak back home to check out the presents, spread around a few toys, and take a bite out of the cake! Carl cunningly hides the defaced bit of cake with a large flower, and the party goes forward without a hitch, although I feel that surely even with the flower SOMEONE would have noticed that there was a chunk of cake missing.

Beautiful illustrations, though. I’ll definitely check out Carl’s Christmas for Christmas. And it looks like there’s a Carl’s Halloween, too…

Becky’s Birthday, written and illustrated by Tasha Tudor. Becky has just turned ten, and she has the MOST delightful birthday, culminating in a picnic with her birthday cake floating down the creek in a flotilla of candles. Attempting to float a cake down a stream is 100% something that would stress me out in real life, but I felt confident that Tasha Tudor wouldn’t let us down, and indeed, the enchanting scene ends with the children all enjoying delicious cake.

pensnest

It's so nice to meet up with some fellow Campers once in a while. I had

rikes and

adelate here for a brief weekend visit in between BTS shows(!). We filled the time pretty well, pootling about in the city for an hour or so before dinner at The Kimchi, and on Saturday a visit to Blickling Hall, where there was an exhibition of textiles as well as the usual business that comes with a stately home. The kitchen garden was lovely, absolutely stuffed with squashes of various kinds, sending their tendrils out in all directions. Also, lots of bees, which is always good to see.

On Sunday morning

rikes and I went for a look around the castle for a couple of hours. It really is very well laid out and with information at about three levels, sorta Here is what you are looking at, Here is a bit more of the history, Here are details. And an occasional glimpse of a dry sense of humour. The view from the battlements is excellent (though it rather depends which way you are looking), and there are maps of what it would have looked like in the 12th century. Some of the street names endure.

They also showed me quite a few BTS videos, which I have to admit are fun. Also, I want to do flying yoga now. I can see the appeal of the fandom, too, which sounds wonderfully friendly. However, I think I'm too old to get into boybands, especially when they look *so* young (even though they are apparently mostly in their thirties, it doesn't show!), but also, the learning curve to catch up is one which I don't think I have the dedication for. I mean. They are learning Korean! So never mind.

Fellow fans, even if we don't share a fandom any more, are always welcome! I like showing off Norwich. Also, there is frequently cake.

kingstoken posting in

fancake

Fandom: Our Flag Means Death
Pairings/Characters: Izzy/Ed, Izzy/Ed/Stede
Rating: E
Length: 31,803 words
Creator Links: redshift
Theme: Unreliable narrator

Summary: Izzy has spent years at Edward's side. The occasional petal here and there, the intermittent rasp that makes itself a permanent home in the hollows of his throat, the cough that comes and goes; it's all worth it, to be the person Ed turns to. It's a price he pays willingly.

Now, though. Now, Izzy knows what love looks like on Edward Teach, and it is soft and sweet and open and nothing like what Izzy has ever been able to give. Izzy's place is at Edward's side, and it's killing him.

That's okay. He's always wanted to die for something that matters.

Reccer's Notes: Izzy has hanakaki disease, and I love how the author writes it likes it's an almost chronic illness. Izzy is an unreliable narrator in how he thinks about Ed and Stede and their motivations. We as the reader can tell by their actions that their intentions are not what Izzy probably thinks, but Izzy's thought's are very much coloured by the experience he is going through and he's not seeing things for how they truly are, and of course he refuses to talk to Ed about his feelings and what going on, which only makes everything worse.

One note, this is canon-divergent after season one.

Fanwork Links: AO3

sweetsorcery

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full_metal_ox posting in

fancake

Fandom: Navy Seal Copypasta (Internet meme): Navy Seal Copypasta - The Musical, by Copypasta Sings.
Pairings/Characters: Self-insert OC.
Rating: Teen and Up
Length: 287 words; 3:52
Content Notes: Unreality, stalking threats, death threats, Critical Research Failure (U.S. military), Lyrical Dissonance, macho edgelordship, profanity. The archived original 4chan forum discussion under the OP link gets even nastier.

Creator Links: Copypasta Sings:

copypastasings7991; the OP, for obvious reasons, remains ultra-classified.

Theme: Unreliable Narrator, Filk, Music, Non-AO3 Works, Social Media

Reccer's Notes: This trash-talking ßadass Boast by a Master of Gorilla (sic) Warfare and Top Army Sniper of the Navy SEALs has inspired a zillion adaptations and memetic mutations; dramatic readings have tended to the most gravelly depths-of-the-scrotum basso the speaker can muster.

Copypasta Sings takes it in a diametrically opposite direction, setting the lyrics to a sensitive singer-songwriter acoustic ballad.

Fanwork Links: Navy Seal Copypasta - The Musical: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NsZMbs5PC64

Current Music: Implicit in the subject.

sasheneskywalker posting in

fancake

Fandom: Batman - All Media Types
Pairings/Characters: Jason Todd/Bruce Wayne
Rating: Mature
Length: 11,401 words
Creator Links:

gatheringwool
Theme: unreliable narrator

Summary: Jason always knew everyone would flip out when they found out about him and Bruce.

He just always assumed it would be more along the lines of Jason, you dirty whore you. Not whatever the hell this was.

Reccer's Notes: The best example of the "unreliable narrator" tag I've ever seen. Bruce's actions are unequivocally terrible, but because the fic is told from Jason's perspective and Jason genuinely doesn't believe there's anything wrong with their relationship you start questioning your own judgment too. Chilling. Absolutely amazing, but chilling.

Content Notes: discussion of past underage sex (adult with a child), rape/non-con, sexual abuse, incest

Fanwork Links: (you kept me like a secret) i kept you like an oath

vysila

I meant to post photos from the garden tour immediately after, but clearly failed with that. Ooops. I got sidetracked into a new project or two. Firstly, I am trying to focus on being more active and perhaps improving my health numbers a bit. Finally uncovered my various leftover exercise equipment pieces and so have been walking twice daily and doing a bit of strength training. Not that I expect much from these mild efforts, but at my age, I figure anything I do will help. I appreciate especially getting out to walk - my street will do in a pinch but getting out to a park is way more enjoyable. I am finding more local parks.

Secondly, now that I've been in the house for some months I am thinking that it could be better organized for my needs, so I am going through and sorting/organizing and moving things, and yes, decluttering is part of that. Laugh if you will, after all my previous decluttering, but it is a constant maintenance thing. Otherwise things can really pile up, especially after Prime Days, where I bought a number of small but useful things. Still waiting on a couple to arrive.

The kids and I are planning some events for this summer. I particularly want to ride the light rail where it floats over Lake Mercer. It's a one of a kind ride! And also, a whale watching boat tour. I'd also like to go to the Pacific shore for a weekend, of course visit Mt. Rainier, see the replica Stonehenge and at some point see Snoqualmie Falls and up to Leavenworth, the Bavarian village. Their work schedule may mean I have to go on my own for some of these outings, but remain hopeful we can manage a few of these together. Fingers crossed there will still be gas available to take little trips like this.

Met some lovely neighbors who care for a small tribe of feral cats here in the neighborhood so of course I volunteered to help them out with supplies and some money. I've only seen two of the cats - one a Siamese looking male (intact) and a calico female. I'm told there are also two tuxedo females. All three females have been spayed. Since Kayden is hostile to other cats I can't offer food or housing in my own yard, so this is the next best thing.

I was hopeful we were actually going to get summer going last week, when it got quite warm, but it has since cooled down quite a bit and mostly been overcast. I know this is

susandennis's ideal weather but if I have to wear sweats and flannels in July, it is too damned cold! I know, it sounds like a dream come true to those of you stuck in this horrible heat dome so I'll not complain anymore. I wish relief to all of you suffering so, especially those in Europe who don't have ways to ease the pain of excessive heat.

All right, on to the garden tour. It was a wonderful day. The weather cooperated and my DIL and I had a great time. She does love her gardens. We did take a lunch break but sadly the tea room I found only does high tea by reservation on Saturday, so we missed out on that. But we found a nice little sidewalk cafe to grab sandwiches instead.

There were two standout gardens. The first one we saw was an incredibly peaceful and beautiful Japanese garden, complete with three ponds, fountains and an amazing variety of plants. It's a small suburban lot but because of the meandering paths felt a lot larger. This was far and away my favorite garden, very cool, densely shaded and very very restful. The couple has been building this yard for over 40 years and sadly, they will be selling next year because the house and garden are simply too much for them now.

The long and winding path through the Japanese garden

One of the garden ponds

Just look at this gorgeous tree, with the branches draping vertically. It masks the fence facing the street.

A dry creek bed

A boulder wall dividing the garden from the neighbor on the high side of the hill.

There were all kinds of adorable sculptures and glass art pieces throughout the garden. I could not resist these two metal cats!

The second garden I loved was 180 degrees different. It was funky and fun and silly. Another small suburban lot, this time flat ground, but the owners' brought their personal flair to it completely. Nearly all the planters are recycled - rusty old bicycles with their baskets overflowing with flowers; an old toilet; a wringer washing machine, an old cookstove and something like 20 old bathtubs. These folks brought a very delightful sense of humor to their yard.

Entrance to the funky and fun garden!

One bathtub of many!

The eyeball corner

A blue toilet!

The patio area

An overview of the yard.

The other three gardens were nice, with beautiful plantings, but lacked the vision and creativity of these two.

And finally, to round things off, here is my personal garden - my son and his wife, enjoying a brisket dinner (I cooked my very first brisket - and it was tasty!).

Current Mood: content

regshoe

Cross-post from Tumblr here, where I was tagged by

verecunda. :)

The last book I read: Wakenhyrst by Michelle Paver. An interesting book, not sure it totally works but a lot of good stuff in there.

A book I’d recommend: I don't hear much about Naomi Mitchison round here, and I think more people should read her. 'What if Rosemary Sutcliff was a Scottish socialist?' would be far too over-simplified a way to put it; Mitchison is absurd in both prolificness and range and so far everything I've tried from her has succeeded at something different. I started with Travel Light, a fantasy sort-of fairytale deconstruction, and would recommend you do so too.

A book I couldn’t put down: This does not happen to me very often! The first time I read Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell was a memorable exception.

A book I’ve read twice or more: I have read The Longest Journey five times and find something new to love about it every time. ♥

A book on my TBR: *checks TBR* ...Melmoth the Wanderer by Charles Maturin has been on there for a while, because I wanted to find out what Raffles and/or Hornung and/or Wilde meant by that multi-layered reference. Next time I want a nice old brick, maybe.

A book I’ve put down: I don't do this very often either! But my last DNF was not that long ago, and it was Fen, Bog & Swamp by Annie Proulx. An ecological-political history of wetlands by the author of 'Brokeback Mountain' sounded so promising! But it was sloppy, which I really can't tolerate in non-fiction (and because it was non-fiction there wasn't the 'but I want to find out what happens' factor, which often keeps me reading fiction even when it's not very good). Maybe one day I will read 'Brokeback Mountain' and see if she's better at fiction.

A book on my wishlist: Is that different to my TBR? Or is it more a book I specifically want to acquire a copy of? In that case, the edition of Kidnapped with illustrations by Lynd Ward, because I love that Alan so much.

A favourite book from childhood: The Chronicles of Ancient Darkness series by Michelle Paver. I was obsessed with the detailed and vivid Stone Age wildwood setting (and glad that the would-be canon het couple never explicitly happened).

A book I’d give to a friend: Well, that would depend on what the friend's tastes are!... maybe I would go back to my rec from above and choose the Mitchison I thought best suited the friend's tastes, because she can suit such a wide range of them.

A book of poetry or lyrics I own: I don't think I actually own any books of poetry, embarrassingly enough. I suppose the long fragments of narrative poems in the History of Middle-earth come closest.

A non-fiction book I own: On the other hand I own lots of non-fiction books. King of Dust by Alex Woodcock, about Romanesque architecture in West Country churches, is a recent very good example in a subject outside my usual territory.

What I’m planning on reading next: I've just started Micah Clarke by Arthur Conan Doyle (thank you,

chiropteracupola). After that, I have Rachel Ray by Anthony Trollope and Murder before Evensong by Richard Coles on order from the library, so I suppose one of those!

osprey_archer

What I’ve Just Finished Reading

Zhenya Gay and Jan Gay’s The Shire Colt. A bit of a disappointment really, because the illustrations of the shire colt (which surely one could reasonably expect to be cute?) are not nearly as cute as the cat illustrations in Sakimura.

Also Jacqueline Woodson’s Lena, in which two girls run away from their sexually abusive father. (The book doesn’t go into detail, but the basic gist is clear.) I think Woodson’s earlier books fall more clearly into the Problem Novel mode than her more recent work, but there’s always a vitality and individuality to her characters that Problem Novels characters don’t always have - they are people who happen to be having a problem rather than Emblematic Problems.

What I’m Reading Now

Still meandering through Lincoln and His Admirals. Lincoln just visited the US Navy, milling around outside of Norfolk, and was like “How about we try to take Norfolk?”, and the Navy went in and took it, which suggests rather disturbingly that they could have knocked Norfolk over at any time but just didn’t bother to try before.

What I Plan to Read Next

Tomorrow is my birthday, so I have laid in a stock of birthday picture books!

runpunkrun posting in

fancake

Our theme for July is unreliable narrator!

An unreliable narrator is one you just can't trust—or shouldn't—whether you know it or not. They may be lying (to the text or to themselves), purposely withholding information, or just not in a position to fully appreciate the situation they're in because of a limited perspective, such as with child, animal, or object narrators.

The tag for this round is: theme: unreliable narrator

If you're just joining us, be sure to check out our policy on content notes. Content notes aren't required, but they're nice to include in your recs, especially if a fanwork has untagged content that readers may wish to know about in advance. For this particular theme, consider including notes for things like gaslighting or unreality (like Tumblr's fake Martin Scorsese movie, Goncharov).

( Rules! )

( Posting Template! )

( Promote this round! )

Reblog on Tumblr | Reskeet on Bluesky | Retoot on Mastodon

pensnest

Do you remember the boob rabbits? An unsuccessful attempt at mail-ordered breast wrangling.

Well, I have found something miraculous, and I must share:it is truly the most comfortable bra I have ever owned. Happily I purchased three. They come from Conturve, which keeps popping up on my Instagram—I have a regrettable habit of clicking on Instagram ads, though I mostly refrain from actual purchasing. Anyway. I am a 40C or 38D or 42B, and the bra I got using the size charts fits beautifully, is very shapely, and I really don't notice it once it is on. Designed in England, made in China. So. Information for those in need.

*

Weather is much pleasanter this week, the kind of temperatures that can be dealt with by a summer dress or T-shirt and shorts, and by judicious use of curtains and window-opening. It appears there is more ridiculously hot weather ahead, but I shall count my blessings while I have them. I have harvested the first few delicious little courgettes, sweetcorns are burgeoning on their stalks, we have eaten a dozen or so mange tout pods, and there will be raspberries in tonight's fruit salad. Oh, and there are some tomatoes as well, including I think one I grew from the seeds of a fancy tomato I got at the local market. Though the beans are doing very little—only two appear to have germinated. Is it too late to sow more?

*

Air conditioning at the gym appears to be about par for Bannatynes, ie crap. I could hardly breathe in yesterday's Killer Yoga class, but happily, this morning's Tough Yoga was much more doable, and I could not actually wring out my headscarf afterwards.

*

It makes me happy when I see members of the Firefly cast working together. We are currently watching Resident Alien (Alan Tudyk is *so* good), in which Nathan Fillion plays #42.

*

Apparently our neighbour has just bought an electric car, and is coming round to have a look at our charger. Splendid. They are becoming increasingly common among chorus members, too.

mific posting in

fancake

Fandom: Heated Rivalry
Characters/Pairings: Shane Hollander/Ilya Rozanov
Rating: Gen
Length: 2917
Content Notes: no AO3 warnings apply
Creator Links: glittercity on AO3
Themes: Just like canon, LGBTQ+ canon characters, Hurt/comfort, Humor, In vino veritas

Summary: “Ilya?” Shane said in that same dreamy, loopy voice as that morning. Ilya exhaled in a rush.
“Shane,” he said, and wanted to sag against the glass with relief. “What happened? Is something wrong?”
“Not! Any moooooooore.”
Ilya swallowed. Shane hadn’t gotten any quieter in the past seven hours.
“Why are you calling me? You need to be resting,” he said, and it sounded softer than he’d meant it to.
“I forgot to tell you something. Important.”
“You should not be telling me anything, you should be—”
“My cottage has really good water pressure,” Shane announced.
Ilya stared out the window while a small plane taxied past.
“What?”
——————
Shane's cottage has a lot of amenities, and he needs to tell Ilya about all of them.

Reccer's Notes: This is a lovely, funny fic giving us more of "loopy on the good drugs" Shane from canon, after he takes the hit on the ice and is briefly in the hospital. Shane high on pain meds is adorable and Glittercity gives us more, as Shane tries to impress on Ilya how wonderful his cottage is, in the hope of persuading him to visit. Short, sweet and a favourite.

Fanwork Links: The same number of stars everywhere, and there's a podfic by jennisaisquoi

full_metal_ox posting in

fancake

Fandom: Master Li and Number Ten Ox - Barry Hughart
Pairings/Characters: Gen; Master Li, Number Ten Ox
Rating: General Audiences
Length: 322
Content Notes: No AO3 Warnings Apply
Creator Links: (AO3)

Gryphonrhi; (Dreamwidth)

rhi; (Tumblr)

gryphonrhi

Theme: Just Like Canon, Book Fandoms, Old Fandoms, Small Fandoms

Summary: On the possible origin of a proverb…

Author’s Notes: For Sleeps With Coyotes.
Disclaimers: Barry Hughart wrote these wonderful characters. I'm only borrowing them briefly. No infringement intended, no moneys made. Written for Sleeps With Coyotes; she'd had a lousy day.
Rated: G.

…Master Li & Number Ten Ox are from The Bridge of Birds, The Story of the Stone, and Eight Skilled Gentlemen, or, in omnibus (and illustrated by Kaja Foglio), The Chronicles of Master Li and Number Ten Ox. The omnibus is consistently on my 'top ten books' list, and I cannot recommend them highly enough, although finding them is a quest in and of itself.
Yes, there is a cloud dragon in Chinese myth. No, actually, I'm not sure they have silver scales.

Really. Go read the books. ;->

Reccer's Notes: This gorgeous illo-op of a vignette, written for the prompt “silver”, could easily serve as a prologue to one of Master Li and Number Ten Ox’s picaresque Wuxia detective adventures in an Ancient China That Never Was; Gryphonrhi nails the fairytale logic and Ox’s earnest and eloquent narrative voice.

Fanwork Links: Broken Silver Linings, by

Gryphonrhi for Sleeps With Coyotes: https://archiveofourown.org/works/62486

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kateoftheangels

Reading

Book Review: Fifty Sounds

Recent reading

Book Review: The Dean of American Letters

Mānawatia a Matariki!

Book Review: The Light and the Dark

Wednesday Reading Meme

Book Review: Flying Colours

Picture Book Monday: Birthday Edition

the man with the suit and the face

OFMD: bloom & wilt by redshift

Panic Update, no Time for Anything Else

Navy Seal Copypasta (Internet meme): Navy Seal Copypasta - The Musical, by Copypasta Sings.

Batman: (you kept me like a secret) i kept you like an oath by gatheringwool

Belated Update!

Another book meme

Wednesday Reading Meme

Round 188: Unreliable Narrator

these are my salad days

Heated Rivalry: The same number of stars everywhere by Glittercity

Master Li and Number Ten Ox: Broken Silver Linings, by Gryphonrhi.

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October 2025

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