(no subject)
May. 15th, 2025 10:39 pmThe European Citizens initiative to an on conversion practices in the European Union needs more signatures before its deadline of saturday may 17. Please share and sign if you can.
May Day mayday
May. 4th, 2025 10:54 pmI've spent most of the past couple days having some sort of existential breakdown. This is because I've been wanting to post my art online not because I'm proud of my work (though I am -- itself very weird) or because I want to be able to live off of it (a man can always dream), but because I think it is good enough that other poeple would enjoy seeing it. I keep coming up with reasons to send pictures of my sketchbook to friends. I'm having positive feelings about myself/my skills/my place in the world and it is freaking me the fuck out. Where is this coming from? When's the other shoe gonna drop?! I don't even know where people post art on the internet in these AI-riddled times!
As I've been telling my friends: I'm clearly in my delulu era.
Anyway. I broke open my birthday present to myself, because it is finally relevant: my friend Jonathan is on his way to castle Dracula again. You can see it in the picture below:
French tradition/folklore holds that giving out lily-of-the-valley for May 1 brings good luck to both gifter and giftee.
No, I don't know how Miss Creant managed to hold up the plastic sprig like this without any thumbs.
As I've been telling my friends: I'm clearly in my delulu era.
Anyway. I broke open my birthday present to myself, because it is finally relevant: my friend Jonathan is on his way to castle Dracula again. You can see it in the picture below:
French tradition/folklore holds that giving out lily-of-the-valley for May 1 brings good luck to both gifter and giftee.
No, I don't know how Miss Creant managed to hold up the plastic sprig like this without any thumbs.
The Locke & Key horror graphic novel series is now apparently being posted on webtoon. Having read it in its original, non-scroll format, I can guarantee it has a good and satisfying ending clearly planned from the beginning.
The short pitch I would give for the series is:
I've read comics that when from a scroll to page format (Hooky, Colossale) but not the other way around, so I'm quite curious how that'll turn out. Curious to see if there'll be any changes to the art or story too.
The short pitch I would give for the series is:
Following the murder of their father, the Locke family moves to the ancestral family home in Lovecraft, Massachusetts. The children discover keys with magic powers all over the property and the youngest also discovers a new friend, imprisoned at the bottom of a well.
I've read comics that when from a scroll to page format (Hooky, Colossale) but not the other way around, so I'm quite curious how that'll turn out. Curious to see if there'll be any changes to the art or story too.
Thoughts on thoughts
Apr. 23rd, 2025 11:53 pmA story I am currently experiencing posits that scanning a person's brain is enough -- modulo computer code -- to upload them into the cloud.
But is it really?
I'm not talking about a soul or the golem's divine breath of life or anything on a metaphysical level. I'm talking on a purely physical level: is the brain the only part of us that thinks?
If my spinal chord can wrench my hand away from a hot stove, is that not thinking? No, seriously. What counts as thinking?
I think (hardy har har) this is not the line of questionning the story wants me to go down, but it's where I am, and I'm really curious what everyone else thinks?
I trying out the construction "story experiencing" as an alternative to "media consumption", because I hate the passivity and destruction implied by consumption. Would also welcome opinions on this.
But is it really?
I'm not talking about a soul or the golem's divine breath of life or anything on a metaphysical level. I'm talking on a purely physical level: is the brain the only part of us that thinks?
If my spinal chord can wrench my hand away from a hot stove, is that not thinking? No, seriously. What counts as thinking?
I think (hardy har har) this is not the line of questionning the story wants me to go down, but it's where I am, and I'm really curious what everyone else thinks?
I trying out the construction "story experiencing" as an alternative to "media consumption", because I hate the passivity and destruction implied by consumption. Would also welcome opinions on this.
(Frantz) Fanon
Apr. 19th, 2025 12:40 amTo be clear: The movie is simply titled "Fanon". It's just that that's also a word and I wanted this entry title to be not confusing.
I just saw this 2025 movie by Jean-Claude Barny. It's only come out in very few French theaters (for... some... reason...) but I hope it ends up getting a wider/international release.
It's really good! It covers Fanon's life from 1953 to his death in 1961. It's mostly about his work as part of the pro-Algerian independance resistance and anticolonialism/antiracism activism rather than his work as a psychiatrist. I didn't know he was so hands-on with the resistance.
Fanon's social status as a Black French citizen is really interesting, because the film makes the very deliberate to only show scenes in North Africa. Fanon is a Black man, which makes him a victim of anti-Black racism, but the main form of racism he lives within is racism directed towards people of Maghrebi/North African origin[1]. He's a Black man but he is also a French citizen, which gives him rights and protections many of his friends don't have -- he doesn't have to obey a curfew and can't get arrested by the army, for two relevant examples.
[1] Tbh this is the main form I see racism in France take -- this isn't to say there are no other forms of racism in France, simply that the biggest racialised minority in France is people of North African descent.
I was wary of Josie, his wife, taking a completely passive role in the story. She never becomes an active character but she is still a person in her own right. I liked the scene where she quotes back more of the poem he was quoting back at Ramdane while Fanon is like ._.
One thing that really stuck out to be was how the French army was filmed. They were filmed like... Well, like Germans. As in, like how the German army is filmed in WW2 films. I don't know how else to put it? Maybe it's the thudding of the boots or the crispness of the uniforms or something but it was noticeable.
Besides the obvious warning for racism, both anti-Black and anti-North African (including one use of a slur directed at each), I should also point out that there is a somewhat graphic surgery scene at one point, an onscreen strangulation and at least two occasions of people being shot, as well as implied/offscreen torture, murder and bombings.
I just saw this 2025 movie by Jean-Claude Barny. It's only come out in very few French theaters (for... some... reason...) but I hope it ends up getting a wider/international release.
It's really good! It covers Fanon's life from 1953 to his death in 1961. It's mostly about his work as part of the pro-Algerian independance resistance and anticolonialism/antiracism activism rather than his work as a psychiatrist. I didn't know he was so hands-on with the resistance.
Fanon's social status as a Black French citizen is really interesting, because the film makes the very deliberate to only show scenes in North Africa. Fanon is a Black man, which makes him a victim of anti-Black racism, but the main form of racism he lives within is racism directed towards people of Maghrebi/North African origin[1]. He's a Black man but he is also a French citizen, which gives him rights and protections many of his friends don't have -- he doesn't have to obey a curfew and can't get arrested by the army, for two relevant examples.
[1] Tbh this is the main form I see racism in France take -- this isn't to say there are no other forms of racism in France, simply that the biggest racialised minority in France is people of North African descent.
I was wary of Josie, his wife, taking a completely passive role in the story. She never becomes an active character but she is still a person in her own right. I liked the scene where she quotes back more of the poem he was quoting back at Ramdane while Fanon is like ._.
One thing that really stuck out to be was how the French army was filmed. They were filmed like... Well, like Germans. As in, like how the German army is filmed in WW2 films. I don't know how else to put it? Maybe it's the thudding of the boots or the crispness of the uniforms or something but it was noticeable.
Besides the obvious warning for racism, both anti-Black and anti-North African (including one use of a slur directed at each), I should also point out that there is a somewhat graphic surgery scene at one point, an onscreen strangulation and at least two occasions of people being shot, as well as implied/offscreen torture, murder and bombings.
En vérité, je vous le dis
Apr. 18th, 2025 01:17 amThere are only two seasons in a year: soup season and salad season.
¯\(◉‿◉)/¯
Mar. 26th, 2025 11:11 pmI love having hot water, hot damn. This is a marked improvement from a week ago. My computer was also not working back then (unrelated) and now it is... Not not working. I'm writing this from my sickbed my phone.
I don't really know what else to say, so have so random thoughts.
In 2015, the grave of F. W. Murnau (of Nosferatu, eine Symphonie des Grauens fame) was desecrated, and his head stolen. Murnau died within a month of the premiere of Dracula (of Bela Lugosi fame). Bela Lugosi was buried in his Dracula costume.
JFK died on November 22 1963. Doctor Who premiered on November 23 1963. I can only conclude The Doctor is saving us from a zombie apocalypse. There is a suspiciously amount of Kennedys with holes in their brains.
I fucking love comics. I especially love knowing about how they work as medium and how that makes me appreciate them on an additional level. I wouldn't have enjoyed The Bone Orchard Mythos: Tenement as much if I wasn't also going "bruh the panelling!!!!!" to myself every so often, for example.
Tenement review, since I'm here: BRUH THE PANELLING!!!!! Also the landscapes????? Amazing, 10/10, no notes. The colouring was often very muddy, in a way I think sometimes did a disservice to the story. In other places (the landscapes, the masked people) the colouring was excellent. It maybe was mostly an issue with the faces? Idk. Very Lovecraftian horror. Not sure I understood everything that was going on, but I don't think I was supposed to. It's my favourite of the three Bone Orchard books out so far (then Ten Thousand Black Feathers, and last The Passageway -- this one felt very "we have Enys Men at home").
Enys Men is a 2022 horror movie I got interested in because, as far as I or anyone else seems to know, it is the first movie to have had promitional posters in Cornish (a language closely related to Breton). There is very little Cornish in the actual movie, but I don't regret seeing it. The best way to describe it is "haunting". I thought about it/its atmosphere for days afterwards.
Just finished reading the webtoon Like Mother Like Daughter up to the s2 finale and I need to SCREAM
The Cinderella Boy webtoon is also very very good and I have reread season 1 multiple times. I feel like I ought to be taking notes on how the enemies-to-lovers was develloped.
I don't know why I seem to only be reading comics right now. I want to be reading books too, but I don't seem to want to read any specific books?
As I understand it, it is impossible to steal the relics of a Catholic saint. If a relic is moved, it is always with the saint's approval (if not God's), and the Church can only comply.
Joan of Arc heard the voices of the following three saints: Archangel Michael, Margaret of Antioch and Catherine of Alexandria. The first two are sauroctones (dragonslaying saints), the latter two virgin saints. The patron saints of France include both Michael and Joan. I don't want to use the word "nepotism", but...
The word "monachoparthenoi" is the term used to talk about saints assigned female as birth who later took on a male identity, often as a monk. Hagiographers have referred to them as using both male and female pronouns.
You can put maple syrup in tea and it's delicious, especially if you make chai.
This youtube short about making miso soup has the GENIUS idea to use a strainer to avoid clumps from the miso paste. This also works for matcha powder if you make matcha latte, btw.
You can put orange blossom flavouring in a glass of milk and it's nice.
Wish I wasn't so tired all the time. Wish I could Do Things. Gonna go cuddle kitty and sleep.
I don't really know what else to say, so have so random thoughts.
In 2015, the grave of F. W. Murnau (of Nosferatu, eine Symphonie des Grauens fame) was desecrated, and his head stolen. Murnau died within a month of the premiere of Dracula (of Bela Lugosi fame). Bela Lugosi was buried in his Dracula costume.
JFK died on November 22 1963. Doctor Who premiered on November 23 1963. I can only conclude The Doctor is saving us from a zombie apocalypse. There is a suspiciously amount of Kennedys with holes in their brains.
I fucking love comics. I especially love knowing about how they work as medium and how that makes me appreciate them on an additional level. I wouldn't have enjoyed The Bone Orchard Mythos: Tenement as much if I wasn't also going "bruh the panelling!!!!!" to myself every so often, for example.
Tenement review, since I'm here: BRUH THE PANELLING!!!!! Also the landscapes????? Amazing, 10/10, no notes. The colouring was often very muddy, in a way I think sometimes did a disservice to the story. In other places (the landscapes, the masked people) the colouring was excellent. It maybe was mostly an issue with the faces? Idk. Very Lovecraftian horror. Not sure I understood everything that was going on, but I don't think I was supposed to. It's my favourite of the three Bone Orchard books out so far (then Ten Thousand Black Feathers, and last The Passageway -- this one felt very "we have Enys Men at home").
Enys Men is a 2022 horror movie I got interested in because, as far as I or anyone else seems to know, it is the first movie to have had promitional posters in Cornish (a language closely related to Breton). There is very little Cornish in the actual movie, but I don't regret seeing it. The best way to describe it is "haunting". I thought about it/its atmosphere for days afterwards.
Just finished reading the webtoon Like Mother Like Daughter up to the s2 finale and I need to SCREAM
The Cinderella Boy webtoon is also very very good and I have reread season 1 multiple times. I feel like I ought to be taking notes on how the enemies-to-lovers was develloped.
I don't know why I seem to only be reading comics right now. I want to be reading books too, but I don't seem to want to read any specific books?
As I understand it, it is impossible to steal the relics of a Catholic saint. If a relic is moved, it is always with the saint's approval (if not God's), and the Church can only comply.
Joan of Arc heard the voices of the following three saints: Archangel Michael, Margaret of Antioch and Catherine of Alexandria. The first two are sauroctones (dragonslaying saints), the latter two virgin saints. The patron saints of France include both Michael and Joan. I don't want to use the word "nepotism", but...
The word "monachoparthenoi" is the term used to talk about saints assigned female as birth who later took on a male identity, often as a monk. Hagiographers have referred to them as using both male and female pronouns.
You can put maple syrup in tea and it's delicious, especially if you make chai.
This youtube short about making miso soup has the GENIUS idea to use a strainer to avoid clumps from the miso paste. This also works for matcha powder if you make matcha latte, btw.
You can put orange blossom flavouring in a glass of milk and it's nice.
Wish I wasn't so tired all the time. Wish I could Do Things. Gonna go cuddle kitty and sleep.
These are different things
Mar. 10th, 2025 09:10 pmI wish there was a shorter way to convey "I said I hated it, not that it was bad".
For example, I hated watching the movie Flow. I hated it so much it dealt me actual literal physical damage.
The main character is a cat who spends what feels like the entire movie being scared and/or unhappy. There are also multiple scenes of characters having their cherished possessions get lost and/or destroyed.
I never was not digging my nails into my arm from stress. The marks didn't fade for over 24 hours. Actual literal physical damage.
It is, however, a good movie. Part of why I hated it was how good it was, even. The little kitty is so little and so kitty ;_;
This obviously works in reverse, where me liking something doesn't mean it isn't bad. Though no example comes to mind at present, which either means I have never watched a single movie nor read a single book in my entire life or that I am less critical of things I enjoy. (To be honest I would rather have bad taste and enjoy things than the opposite.)
Anyway, I would like a concise way to convey the above, since it appears yo be a difficult concept for many people to grasp. Something as pithy as "depiction isn't endorsement". "Enjoyment is not quality", maybe?
For example, I hated watching the movie Flow. I hated it so much it dealt me actual literal physical damage.
The main character is a cat who spends what feels like the entire movie being scared and/or unhappy. There are also multiple scenes of characters having their cherished possessions get lost and/or destroyed.
I never was not digging my nails into my arm from stress. The marks didn't fade for over 24 hours. Actual literal physical damage.
It is, however, a good movie. Part of why I hated it was how good it was, even. The little kitty is so little and so kitty ;_;
This obviously works in reverse, where me liking something doesn't mean it isn't bad. Though no example comes to mind at present, which either means I have never watched a single movie nor read a single book in my entire life or that I am less critical of things I enjoy. (To be honest I would rather have bad taste and enjoy things than the opposite.)
Anyway, I would like a concise way to convey the above, since it appears yo be a difficult concept for many people to grasp. Something as pithy as "depiction isn't endorsement". "Enjoyment is not quality", maybe?
Books 2024
Feb. 9th, 2025 11:33 pmNon fiction comics in French
Comme un oiseau dans un bocal (Like a bird in a fishbowl), by Lou Lubie: This book is part fiction and part non-fiction. The fiction is in service of the non-fiction as it serves to illustrate it (pun unintended). Lubie has several books in this vein, including Racines (see below). This one is about high IQ/Giftedness (including the "what do we call this" issue). I learned about how Giftedness works in the brain. The parts about the lived experience of it are true to my own experiences, but obviously ymmv. It also has a really nice portrayal of a platonic male-female friendship.
L'œil de la Gorgone (Eye of the Gorgon), by Noémie Fachan: This book uses feminism as a lens to look at Greek mythology. Or maybe it uses Greek mythology as a lens to look at feminism. Or both. It's very interesting, either way! I'd never wondered why the fuck Athena was at the judgement of Paris and the book provides an "explanation". All three goddesses present are stand-ins for the three "acceptable" roles for men: Hera is the faithful wife, Aphrodite is the sexual object and Athena is daddy's little princess/the tomboy/not like the other girls. I'm not saying I agree with every interpretation -- I found Eurydice as a metaphor for the forgotten labour of women propping up male artists to be rather far-fetched, for example -- but if nothing else they are all very interesting. I also like that it's an intersectional, explicitly trans-inclusive feminism.
Racines (Roots), by Lou Lubie: This is another of Lubie's part fiction and part non-fiction books. This one is about Afro-textured hair. The fiction part is about Rose a white(-passing) Réunion Créole with afro-textured hair on the lighter side of brown. The non-fiction part is about afro-textured hair in data (eg: how much money + time specific hair styles are, stats on hair-based discrimination, etc). Rose's relationship with her hair ties into her relationship with her identity as white/white-passing Créole and with her feminity and with how other people perceive her. I found it really interesting and Rose's friendship with Sarah was touching.
I appear to not be very good atanything making words happen right now, so here's a list of everything else I've read in 2024 (and some from 2023) I have something I want to talk about. Poke me if anything catches your interest.
Non-fiction prose in English
The Sad Bastard Cookbook: Food You Can Make So You Don't Die, by Zilla Novikov & Rachel A. Rosen
Indistractable: How to Control Your Attention and Choose Your Life, by Julie Li & Nir Eyal
The Age of Magical Overthinking: Notes on Modern Irrationality, by Amanda Montell
Non-fiction comics in English
Ducks: Two Years in the Oil Sands, by Kate Beaton
Fiction comics in French
Colossale, by Rutile & Diane Truc
Cosmoknights, by Hannah Templer
Klezmer, by Joann Sfar
Sword of Ages, by Gabriel Rodríguez
Tengen Hero Wars T01, by Sakanoichi Kubaru & Hiromoto Yasu
The following Lovecraft adaptations: Celui qui hantait les ténèbres, L'Appel de Cthulhu, La couleur tombée du ciel & Les montagnes hallucinées Tomes 1&2, by Gou Tanabe
Fiction comics in English
A Heartfelt Andante, by Na Yoonhee
By Chance or Providence, by Becky Cloonan
Concubine Walkthrough, by Bongbong
Delicious in Dungeon, by Ryoko Kui
Empress Cesia Wears Knickerbockers, by Jeogyeom & Saedeul
For My Derelict Favorite (Season 1 & 2), by Kim Seonyu & Kimyong (Illustrator)
Rewriting the Villainess, by Hong-Hye
Shiori Experience, by Machida Kazuya & Yuko Osada
Strong Female Protagonist, by Brennan Lee Mulligan & Molly Knox Ostertag
Fiction prose in English
Apostles of Mercy, by Lindsay Ellis
Beholder, by Ryan La Sala
Camp Damascus, by Chuck Tingle
The Cautious Traveller's Guide to the Wastelands , by Sarah Brooks
Emily Wilde's Encyclopaedia of Faeries & Emily Wilde's Map of the Otherlands, by Heather Fawcett
The Enceladus South Pole Base Named after V.I. Lenin, by Zohar Jacobs
Family Business, by Jonathan Sims
The Fandom & The Fandom Rising, by Anna Day
If Found, Return to Hell, by Em X. Liu
Introduction to 2181 Overture, Second Edition, by Gu Shi
Once Upon a Con series (Geekerella, The Princess and the Fangirl & Bookish and the Beast), by Ashley Poston
Rose House, by Arkady Martine
The Scholomance series (A Deadly Education, The Last Graduate & The Golden Enclaves), by Naomi Novik
Seeds of Mercury, by Wang Jinkang
Some Desperate Glory, by Emily Tesh
There Is No Antimemetics Division, by qntm
The V*mpire, by P.H. Lee
The Writing Retreat, by Julia Bartz
Why Don't We Just Kill the Kid In the Omelas Hole, by Isabel J. Kim
Prose fiction in French
I apparently didn't read any prose fiction books in French this year, which feels wrong but fuck me if I can remember finishing any. I've definitely started and bought some but finished? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ I spent too long dragging myself through Chloé Delaume's Les Sorcières de la République -- which I ended up giving up on when ereader died. I also did a lot of reading of the Hugo shortlists and that was all in English (either written in English or translated into English from Chinese).
Comme un oiseau dans un bocal (Like a bird in a fishbowl), by Lou Lubie: This book is part fiction and part non-fiction. The fiction is in service of the non-fiction as it serves to illustrate it (pun unintended). Lubie has several books in this vein, including Racines (see below). This one is about high IQ/Giftedness (including the "what do we call this" issue). I learned about how Giftedness works in the brain. The parts about the lived experience of it are true to my own experiences, but obviously ymmv. It also has a really nice portrayal of a platonic male-female friendship.
L'œil de la Gorgone (Eye of the Gorgon), by Noémie Fachan: This book uses feminism as a lens to look at Greek mythology. Or maybe it uses Greek mythology as a lens to look at feminism. Or both. It's very interesting, either way! I'd never wondered why the fuck Athena was at the judgement of Paris and the book provides an "explanation". All three goddesses present are stand-ins for the three "acceptable" roles for men: Hera is the faithful wife, Aphrodite is the sexual object and Athena is daddy's little princess/the tomboy/not like the other girls. I'm not saying I agree with every interpretation -- I found Eurydice as a metaphor for the forgotten labour of women propping up male artists to be rather far-fetched, for example -- but if nothing else they are all very interesting. I also like that it's an intersectional, explicitly trans-inclusive feminism.
Racines (Roots), by Lou Lubie: This is another of Lubie's part fiction and part non-fiction books. This one is about Afro-textured hair. The fiction part is about Rose a white(-passing) Réunion Créole with afro-textured hair on the lighter side of brown. The non-fiction part is about afro-textured hair in data (eg: how much money + time specific hair styles are, stats on hair-based discrimination, etc). Rose's relationship with her hair ties into her relationship with her identity as white/white-passing Créole and with her feminity and with how other people perceive her. I found it really interesting and Rose's friendship with Sarah was touching.
I appear to not be very good at
Non-fiction prose in English
The Sad Bastard Cookbook: Food You Can Make So You Don't Die, by Zilla Novikov & Rachel A. Rosen
Indistractable: How to Control Your Attention and Choose Your Life, by Julie Li & Nir Eyal
The Age of Magical Overthinking: Notes on Modern Irrationality, by Amanda Montell
Non-fiction comics in English
Ducks: Two Years in the Oil Sands, by Kate Beaton
Fiction comics in French
Colossale, by Rutile & Diane Truc
Cosmoknights, by Hannah Templer
Klezmer, by Joann Sfar
Sword of Ages, by Gabriel Rodríguez
Tengen Hero Wars T01, by Sakanoichi Kubaru & Hiromoto Yasu
The following Lovecraft adaptations: Celui qui hantait les ténèbres, L'Appel de Cthulhu, La couleur tombée du ciel & Les montagnes hallucinées Tomes 1&2, by Gou Tanabe
Fiction comics in English
A Heartfelt Andante, by Na Yoonhee
By Chance or Providence, by Becky Cloonan
Concubine Walkthrough, by Bongbong
Delicious in Dungeon, by Ryoko Kui
Empress Cesia Wears Knickerbockers, by Jeogyeom & Saedeul
For My Derelict Favorite (Season 1 & 2), by Kim Seonyu & Kimyong (Illustrator)
Rewriting the Villainess, by Hong-Hye
Shiori Experience, by Machida Kazuya & Yuko Osada
Strong Female Protagonist, by Brennan Lee Mulligan & Molly Knox Ostertag
Fiction prose in English
Apostles of Mercy, by Lindsay Ellis
Beholder, by Ryan La Sala
Camp Damascus, by Chuck Tingle
The Cautious Traveller's Guide to the Wastelands , by Sarah Brooks
Emily Wilde's Encyclopaedia of Faeries & Emily Wilde's Map of the Otherlands, by Heather Fawcett
The Enceladus South Pole Base Named after V.I. Lenin, by Zohar Jacobs
Family Business, by Jonathan Sims
The Fandom & The Fandom Rising, by Anna Day
If Found, Return to Hell, by Em X. Liu
Introduction to 2181 Overture, Second Edition, by Gu Shi
Once Upon a Con series (Geekerella, The Princess and the Fangirl & Bookish and the Beast), by Ashley Poston
Rose House, by Arkady Martine
The Scholomance series (A Deadly Education, The Last Graduate & The Golden Enclaves), by Naomi Novik
Seeds of Mercury, by Wang Jinkang
Some Desperate Glory, by Emily Tesh
There Is No Antimemetics Division, by qntm
The V*mpire, by P.H. Lee
The Writing Retreat, by Julia Bartz
Why Don't We Just Kill the Kid In the Omelas Hole, by Isabel J. Kim
Prose fiction in French
I apparently didn't read any prose fiction books in French this year, which feels wrong but fuck me if I can remember finishing any. I've definitely started and bought some but finished? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ I spent too long dragging myself through Chloé Delaume's Les Sorcières de la République -- which I ended up giving up on when ereader died. I also did a lot of reading of the Hugo shortlists and that was all in English (either written in English or translated into English from Chinese).
Every once in a while I try audiobooks again and find out, all over again, that they are not for me. This is very odd, because I love podcasts and I love books.
One of the things I like about podcasts is that I canstare at a blank page in my sketchbook draw while listening to them. This is, you may notice, something that ought to also apply to audiobooks! And yet.
I have so many books I want to read -- and that's the thing. I want to read, not listen to them. Part of it is that I can read much, much faster than I can listen (even with speeding up, I'd needsomething around x5 to match reading speed), part of it is that I tend to zone out when only one person is speaking (I cannot do mono-voice podcasts either) and in HUGE part because listening just takes up a different part of my brain than eye-reading does. It literally feels different in my head: listening is an acute spot on the right side while reading is more diffuse towards the back.
I managed to put this into words when I was reading Lou Lubie's Racines (Roots). It has a few sentences of in Réunion Creole and Réunion Créole is close enough to French that it's mostly understandable if you sound out the words (the book has translation footnotes, I just like to practice reading Créole lol). So I stopped reading and sounded the words out in my head, which felt like shifting gears in a car, and suddenly I was listening to myself reading outloud in my head instead of eye-reading, if that makes sense.
Does eye-reading feel like ear-reading to you? Do you prefer one over the other?
One of the things I like about podcasts is that I can
I have so many books I want to read -- and that's the thing. I want to read, not listen to them. Part of it is that I can read much, much faster than I can listen (even with speeding up, I'd needsomething around x5 to match reading speed), part of it is that I tend to zone out when only one person is speaking (I cannot do mono-voice podcasts either) and in HUGE part because listening just takes up a different part of my brain than eye-reading does. It literally feels different in my head: listening is an acute spot on the right side while reading is more diffuse towards the back.
I managed to put this into words when I was reading Lou Lubie's Racines (Roots). It has a few sentences of in Réunion Creole and Réunion Créole is close enough to French that it's mostly understandable if you sound out the words (the book has translation footnotes, I just like to practice reading Créole lol). So I stopped reading and sounded the words out in my head, which felt like shifting gears in a car, and suddenly I was listening to myself reading outloud in my head instead of eye-reading, if that makes sense.
Does eye-reading feel like ear-reading to you? Do you prefer one over the other?
Best non fiction book in French 2025
Jan. 23rd, 2025 11:13 pmI only read three non-fiction books in French during 2025, two prescriptive and one descriptive.
The descriptive was Bleu: histoire d'une couleur, (Blue: history of a colour) by Michel Pastoureau. This was super fascinating! It uses the colour blue specifically to examine the social/cultural place of colours throughout history in Europe (and France specifically). I spoke about it here. Pastoureau is a historian focusing on symbolism and has written books on other colours, various animals, striped clothing, etc. I'm planning on reading more of his work.
The prescriptive works were Agir et penser comme un chat, (Act and think like a cat) by Stéphane Garnier and Et maintenant, on mange quoi?, (Now what do we eat?) by Christophe Brusset.
I did not get from the cat book what I wanted which was the answer to the question "is this a parody or not?". It's basic, boilerplate self-help advice -- be yourself, enjoy the present, be confident, etc -- dressed up in "be more like a cat".
Et maintenant, on mange quoi? is a follow-up to a previous book by the author -- that I haven't read -- about the ways the food industry cuts corners at the expense of the consumers and their health. This book is about how to avoid these cut corners and eat better. It was interesting, but I don't think I got any practical advice I wasn't already using, ie buy ingredients rather than pre-prepared foods, local is preferable to not and check ingredient lists. It brought up that most berry jams are made of elderberries because they are mild tasting, highly colouring and cheaper than other berries. This is irrelevant to me because I get all my jams from my dad, made from blackberries we pick ourselves. Still interesting to know.
The descriptive was Bleu: histoire d'une couleur, (Blue: history of a colour) by Michel Pastoureau. This was super fascinating! It uses the colour blue specifically to examine the social/cultural place of colours throughout history in Europe (and France specifically). I spoke about it here. Pastoureau is a historian focusing on symbolism and has written books on other colours, various animals, striped clothing, etc. I'm planning on reading more of his work.
The prescriptive works were Agir et penser comme un chat, (Act and think like a cat) by Stéphane Garnier and Et maintenant, on mange quoi?, (Now what do we eat?) by Christophe Brusset.
I did not get from the cat book what I wanted which was the answer to the question "is this a parody or not?". It's basic, boilerplate self-help advice -- be yourself, enjoy the present, be confident, etc -- dressed up in "be more like a cat".
Et maintenant, on mange quoi? is a follow-up to a previous book by the author -- that I haven't read -- about the ways the food industry cuts corners at the expense of the consumers and their health. This book is about how to avoid these cut corners and eat better. It was interesting, but I don't think I got any practical advice I wasn't already using, ie buy ingredients rather than pre-prepared foods, local is preferable to not and check ingredient lists. It brought up that most berry jams are made of elderberries because they are mild tasting, highly colouring and cheaper than other berries. This is irrelevant to me because I get all my jams from my dad, made from blackberries we pick ourselves. Still interesting to know.
I'm Blue (Da Ba Dee)
Jan. 18th, 2025 12:04 amI'm working on writing up my best books of 2024 entry but I got carried away talking about Bleu: histoire d'une couleur (Blue: history of a colour) by Michel Pastoureau, so I'm moving it to its own entry.
Pastoureau is a historian focusing on symbolism so this was super fascinating! It uses the colour blue specifically to examine the social/cultural place of colours throughout history in Europe, mostly France, but there is at least one transatlantic trip to talk about blue jeans.
Blue is picked because it's a relatively "new" colour as a standalone rather than a type of black, green or purple. Many languages don't have a blue/green distinction, for example -- I wrote about how this shows up in Brezhoneg/Breton here. The comments have discussion about other languages.
The history of colours is particularly hard to study, because textiles decay, dyes and paints change colours over time and languages evolve both through time and place. All this without mentioning that the quality and colour of the light itself affects how a colour appears: the same object might look very different under candle light and sunlight.
The main take away of the book iswe live in a society that colours are not physical phenomenon, but social ones. Yes, there is the physical reality of what one person's eyes perceive, but how they interpret and communicate that reality is completely context dependant.
I will now proceed to list a bunch of facts I learned reading this book:
- In the Middle Ages, there was a debate on the metaphysical nature of colour: is it a property of the object itself and thus matter and thus sinful or is it a property of light and thus divine? The Catholic church went with "divine", in the end. Interestingly, centuries later, the Reformation went with "sinful" -- though I don't know that the earlier debate was explicitly referenced rather than a wholesale rejection of Catholicism's whole deal.
- The liturgical colours of the Catholic do not include blue. I was shocked to read this because I had never thought of it and the colour blue is so strongly tied to Mary, but it is true. The reason blue is tied to Mary is that it was extremely expensive and God's mom deserves the best.
- Goethe should turn on his location. I just want to talk. (He disapproves of blue walls. I have a blue wall in my bedroom.)
- The word "indigo" comes from the fact bricks of dried extract from the indigo plant were used in Europe as dyes -- and thought to be rocks from India.
- In the Middle Ages, pale blue was closer to pink than dark blue. Colours were grouped by saturation, not hue.
- In the Renaissance, blue was a warm colour. (The book has dates throughout, as much as possible. I'm not very good at remembering them.)
- Red dyers and blue dyers were different jobs and never shall the twain meet. There was a practical consideration for this: one needs hot water to work, the other cold. There was also a cultural aspect to this division as northern France focused on red dyes and southern on blue.
- Which lead to a trend in the late 13th century in northern France churches where the devil was depicted in blue, such as this stained glass window:
Pastoureau is a historian focusing on symbolism so this was super fascinating! It uses the colour blue specifically to examine the social/cultural place of colours throughout history in Europe, mostly France, but there is at least one transatlantic trip to talk about blue jeans.
Blue is picked because it's a relatively "new" colour as a standalone rather than a type of black, green or purple. Many languages don't have a blue/green distinction, for example -- I wrote about how this shows up in Brezhoneg/Breton here. The comments have discussion about other languages.
The history of colours is particularly hard to study, because textiles decay, dyes and paints change colours over time and languages evolve both through time and place. All this without mentioning that the quality and colour of the light itself affects how a colour appears: the same object might look very different under candle light and sunlight.
The main take away of the book is
I will now proceed to list a bunch of facts I learned reading this book:
- In the Middle Ages, there was a debate on the metaphysical nature of colour: is it a property of the object itself and thus matter and thus sinful or is it a property of light and thus divine? The Catholic church went with "divine", in the end. Interestingly, centuries later, the Reformation went with "sinful" -- though I don't know that the earlier debate was explicitly referenced rather than a wholesale rejection of Catholicism's whole deal.
- The liturgical colours of the Catholic do not include blue. I was shocked to read this because I had never thought of it and the colour blue is so strongly tied to Mary, but it is true. The reason blue is tied to Mary is that it was extremely expensive and God's mom deserves the best.
- Goethe should turn on his location. I just want to talk. (He disapproves of blue walls. I have a blue wall in my bedroom.)
- The word "indigo" comes from the fact bricks of dried extract from the indigo plant were used in Europe as dyes -- and thought to be rocks from India.
- In the Middle Ages, pale blue was closer to pink than dark blue. Colours were grouped by saturation, not hue.
- In the Renaissance, blue was a warm colour. (The book has dates throughout, as much as possible. I'm not very good at remembering them.)
- Red dyers and blue dyers were different jobs and never shall the twain meet. There was a practical consideration for this: one needs hot water to work, the other cold. There was also a cultural aspect to this division as northern France focused on red dyes and southern on blue.
- Which lead to a trend in the late 13th century in northern France churches where the devil was depicted in blue, such as this stained glass window:
Happy 2025 to all who celebrate!
Jan. 3rd, 2025 01:32 amI feel like I spent most of 2024 not being a person and I probably was lying in bed more than I wasn't. Hopefully 2025 will be better!
Lil dinos!
Dec. 1st, 2024 12:59 amIt turns out ![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
schneefink and I both independently bought papercaluypso's tinysaurs washi tape, because it's very cute.
Is being possessed by little dinosaurs why lately I've been so angry I want to bite things? Probably not!
schneefink and I both independently bought papercaluypso's tinysaurs washi tape, because it's very cute.Is being possessed by little dinosaurs why lately I've been so angry I want to bite things? Probably not!
Io Saturnalia!
Nov. 23rd, 2024 11:08 pmBoth Plato's Fire and Flaroh Illustrations currently have their shops open. They're both independent artists selling Ancient Mediterranean inspired works, the first one jewelry, the second prints and stationery.
I particularly like (looking at) Plato's Fire Minoan octopus necklace and Sappho's garden violet garland statement earrings as well as Flaroh's Roman gods stickers.
I particularly like (looking at) Plato's Fire Minoan octopus necklace and Sappho's garden violet garland statement earrings as well as Flaroh's Roman gods stickers.
Ominous airquotes
Nov. 13th, 2024 02:03 amThe aesthetic reminds me of Stromae's Ta fête and, to a lesser extent, Fils de joie.
Hope the tour comes to my neck of the woods.
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