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What Are You Reading Wednesday is early
Jan. 8th, 2019 04:13 pmBecause ... er, because I don't wanna do anything *more* useful.
Currently Reading:
Fiction: At Swim Two Boys, making headway again; 'Seascape' by Karis Walsh (e-ARC)
Academic: Performing Emotions in Early Europe (review copy)
Lit Mag: Meanjin 77.3
That's only a slight change from last week - the addition of Seascape, which is a contemporary f/f romance via Netgalley. It's... good, but I'm thinking I should possibly take a break from romances for a while. All the normativity is getting to me, so, maybe I shouldn't be reading a genre *defined* by one-love-for-life narrative arcs, hey?
Recently Finished:
No hard copies finished lately. I did, however, listen to the Lightspeed Magazine podcast of Seanan McGuire's Under the Sea of Stars, a historical fantasy about a Victorian lady adventurer, fae creatures, and the Boulton Strid.
I quote the opening:
I've actually not yet read any Seanan McGuire, and now I see why that surprises everyone! This story is definitely My Jam.
Up Next: Once I knock through Seascape, I think I'll take one of the not-romances off my Netgalley shelf. Maybe Once Upon a River.
Other media/links of note:
Howard helped plot mass sackings: I was too young in 98 to remember this, but the basics appear to be a government loan to cover redundancy costs of sacking union employees and bringing in cheaper labour from Dubai. The cabinet documents have just been released.
From Meanjin, Sue Rabbitt Roff Ern and Ned Sun and Sid, which is an article about 'The Anglo-Australian School of Faux Naive Fusionism', with the incredibly weak conclusion that the likes of Sidney Nolan in their landscape painting 'prepared' white Australia to appreciate indigenous art in the late 20th century. I am not interested in the article's thesis at all, but I AM delighted by the individual anecdotes it reveals, particularly those pertaining to the complicated triad of Sidney Nolan and John and Sunday Reed, and their deeply convoluted love-and-art lives. I am tickled by the idea of Sunday Reed spearheading a new art movement by seducing Sidney Nolan into painting landscapes.
Electric Literature, C.I. Fautsch My Gender Is Nick Cave. I couldn't figure out what the bottom line on this was, where it was going, if there *was* a resolution, but I liked the journey.
Captain Awkward Letter #1163, I'm screamingly jealous of my sister's fiancé'. This is just a really great example of Captain Awkward's advice at her finest. She has a knack for untangling things, telling people when they're the ones who need to shape up, and setting sensible parameters.
Buzzfeed, Anne Helen Peterson, How Millenials Became the Burnout Generation. Hey, I'm in this picture and I don't like it!
Electric Literature, Vikki Warner, Where are all the memoirs about women and work?
Also from Meanjin, Fikret Pajalic, Teeth, a memoir piece about Bosnia, Australia, and teeth. It's an odd piece, but I really like how the motif of teeth is used to link the narrative of war and exile.
Music notes: Look, I listened to 'The Steward of Gondor/Edge of Night' 40+ times in a two day period, that's all I've got, musically.
Currently Reading:
Fiction: At Swim Two Boys, making headway again; 'Seascape' by Karis Walsh (e-ARC)
Academic: Performing Emotions in Early Europe (review copy)
Lit Mag: Meanjin 77.3
That's only a slight change from last week - the addition of Seascape, which is a contemporary f/f romance via Netgalley. It's... good, but I'm thinking I should possibly take a break from romances for a while. All the normativity is getting to me, so, maybe I shouldn't be reading a genre *defined* by one-love-for-life narrative arcs, hey?
Recently Finished:
No hard copies finished lately. I did, however, listen to the Lightspeed Magazine podcast of Seanan McGuire's Under the Sea of Stars, a historical fantasy about a Victorian lady adventurer, fae creatures, and the Boulton Strid.
I quote the opening:
We have traveled here, to this most innocuous of country landscapes, to make good on a promise made by my grandfather, Carlton Whitmore, to a girl he loved in his youth. How foolish that sounds, writ down so! But it is true. Grandfather met her on the banks of the Bolton Strid, where she stood naked and confused, water drying on her skin. His notes state that she knew no modesty, and that “she was pale as the belly of a deep-river fish, one which had never seen the sun, and like them, she glittered in the light, covered as she was in an innumerable quantity of tiny scales, which were soft as skin when I touched her.”
His notes continue in this vein for several pages, and verge upon something which a proper young woman, however scientifically minded, should not willingly touch. I have often wondered whether that strange girl from the Strid might be more properly termed my grandmother, for my mother was pale as thin milk, and I burn in seconds in direct sun. More damning for my grandfather and his claims to have been faithful to his wife, Mother sometimes seemed to glitter in the light, as if she were covered with innumerable tiny scales.
I've actually not yet read any Seanan McGuire, and now I see why that surprises everyone! This story is definitely My Jam.
Up Next: Once I knock through Seascape, I think I'll take one of the not-romances off my Netgalley shelf. Maybe Once Upon a River.
Other media/links of note:
Howard helped plot mass sackings: I was too young in 98 to remember this, but the basics appear to be a government loan to cover redundancy costs of sacking union employees and bringing in cheaper labour from Dubai. The cabinet documents have just been released.
From Meanjin, Sue Rabbitt Roff Ern and Ned Sun and Sid, which is an article about 'The Anglo-Australian School of Faux Naive Fusionism', with the incredibly weak conclusion that the likes of Sidney Nolan in their landscape painting 'prepared' white Australia to appreciate indigenous art in the late 20th century. I am not interested in the article's thesis at all, but I AM delighted by the individual anecdotes it reveals, particularly those pertaining to the complicated triad of Sidney Nolan and John and Sunday Reed, and their deeply convoluted love-and-art lives. I am tickled by the idea of Sunday Reed spearheading a new art movement by seducing Sidney Nolan into painting landscapes.
Electric Literature, C.I. Fautsch My Gender Is Nick Cave. I couldn't figure out what the bottom line on this was, where it was going, if there *was* a resolution, but I liked the journey.
Captain Awkward Letter #1163, I'm screamingly jealous of my sister's fiancé'. This is just a really great example of Captain Awkward's advice at her finest. She has a knack for untangling things, telling people when they're the ones who need to shape up, and setting sensible parameters.
Buzzfeed, Anne Helen Peterson, How Millenials Became the Burnout Generation. Hey, I'm in this picture and I don't like it!
Electric Literature, Vikki Warner, Where are all the memoirs about women and work?
Also from Meanjin, Fikret Pajalic, Teeth, a memoir piece about Bosnia, Australia, and teeth. It's an odd piece, but I really like how the motif of teeth is used to link the narrative of war and exile.
Music notes: Look, I listened to 'The Steward of Gondor/Edge of Night' 40+ times in a two day period, that's all I've got, musically.