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Sep. 16th, 2020 05:14 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
thingexplainerhello. back again after a while. i was still here but had no motivation to post. let's try this again.
What I Just Finished Reading
The Dark Forest, by Liu Cixin
Read this back in early August. I liked it more than I liked Three-Body Problem, and I think it was the amount of theorizing on interstellar sociology. And a much more traditional type of story shape as well. I mostly don't agree with the interstellar sociology conclusions, but I can see where they come from and reading the interviews that Liu has been getting recent flak on fits together in my head. The hard sci-finess of it wore on me and I didn't realize until I was done, but it is quite a cynical way of looking at cultures. Also, the misogyny... the misogyny.
Vagabonds, by Hao Jingfang
Finished this last week, and I liked it a lot. It's very clearly a story about how two cultures that are vastly different can see each other, interact with each other, attempt to influence each other, etc. One is closer to a socialist/academic's dream and the other is extremely capitalist, but critiques of both systems arise from the experiences of the main character and her friends, who were born on Mars (socialist) and spent a significant amount of their lives on Earth (capitalist). I keep thinking about how there are people in both cultures who want their own to behave more like the other, but due to the shape of society and the ways in which it is entrenched within cultural attitudes, it's nearly impossible to make that change happen. Relevant, I think, in both directions.
What I'm Currently Reading
Station Eleven, by Emily St. John Mandel
Book club chose this on my suggestion (with the warning that it features a pandemic). I attempted to start reading it several months ago and promptly quit after the first part. I think I'm good now, though.
Comics?
New Iron Man, huh. Bunny slippers! New redhead. Lots of cars? It meets a very low bar of "better than Slott, at least" but I can only take it issue by issue. Cap hasn't been enjoyable in recent memory, unfortunately. And there's a number you can call to reach Tony Stark now, courtesy of the latest Thor issue. Last one, Tony guest stars in Aero, which was cute and fun and like the most average team-up you can imagine.
What I'm Reading Next
Just got The Memory Police, by Yoko Ogawa off of hold. I also have Broken Stars, edited/translated by Ken Liu, which I should get to first.
What I Just Finished Reading
The Dark Forest, by Liu Cixin
Read this back in early August. I liked it more than I liked Three-Body Problem, and I think it was the amount of theorizing on interstellar sociology. And a much more traditional type of story shape as well. I mostly don't agree with the interstellar sociology conclusions, but I can see where they come from and reading the interviews that Liu has been getting recent flak on fits together in my head. The hard sci-finess of it wore on me and I didn't realize until I was done, but it is quite a cynical way of looking at cultures. Also, the misogyny... the misogyny.
Vagabonds, by Hao Jingfang
Finished this last week, and I liked it a lot. It's very clearly a story about how two cultures that are vastly different can see each other, interact with each other, attempt to influence each other, etc. One is closer to a socialist/academic's dream and the other is extremely capitalist, but critiques of both systems arise from the experiences of the main character and her friends, who were born on Mars (socialist) and spent a significant amount of their lives on Earth (capitalist). I keep thinking about how there are people in both cultures who want their own to behave more like the other, but due to the shape of society and the ways in which it is entrenched within cultural attitudes, it's nearly impossible to make that change happen. Relevant, I think, in both directions.
What I'm Currently Reading
Station Eleven, by Emily St. John Mandel
Book club chose this on my suggestion (with the warning that it features a pandemic). I attempted to start reading it several months ago and promptly quit after the first part. I think I'm good now, though.
Comics?
New Iron Man, huh. Bunny slippers! New redhead. Lots of cars? It meets a very low bar of "better than Slott, at least" but I can only take it issue by issue. Cap hasn't been enjoyable in recent memory, unfortunately. And there's a number you can call to reach Tony Stark now, courtesy of the latest Thor issue. Last one, Tony guest stars in Aero, which was cute and fun and like the most average team-up you can imagine.
What I'm Reading Next
Just got The Memory Police, by Yoko Ogawa off of hold. I also have Broken Stars, edited/translated by Ken Liu, which I should get to first.
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Date: 2020-09-17 04:13 am (UTC)