Reading Wednesday (Ish)

[dhampyresa]

Confession: For the past week or so, I have been getting home and then going to sleep pretty much right away, so I haven't read much of anything. Including DW/LJ, etc.

I have been planning my GB trip this August, by increments of about 10mn every day and did have a fairly hilarious moment where I had a map of Wales open in one window and a map of Brittany in the other and at one point got confused by which was which -- turns out Welsh and Breton placenames are even more similar than I thought!

I'm flying out August 3, btw. This is actually happening!


What did you finish reading

Surprisingly enough, after that little speech, a bunch of comics!

Here's a list (of finished arcs only), hopefully to be detailed when I am not falling asleep at my keyboard:
Year of Marvel: July
Lucifer v2 1-6
DC Comics Bomshells 1-36 (Year One)
Spider-Gwen v2 1-6
Toil and trouble 1-6
Captain Britain and the Mighty Defenders 1-2
The Spire 1-8

I'm done with reading ladybusiness . I was reading the community for media recs. I was not reading to be called a "shit garbage eater". Truthfully, I have/had other issues with the community -- and epecially the way the posters seem to consider it their private space LOL NO -- but that was the last straw. (Three strikes policy, go me! Enacting change and what not.)

I guess the above list of comics can join the following list of things I should talk about:
2015
Le Jardin des silences
Prince of Cats
Sandman Overture
Spider-Gwen v1
The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl v1
Magnus Chase and the Sword of Asgard
The Red Pyramid
Tumulte à Rome

2016 (finished)

Marie des dragons intégrale
volume 4 of Les aigles de Rome
Cixi de Troye
Plogoff
Star Wars Shattered Empire
Star Wars Princess Leia

I fail at booktalk.


What are you reading now

Contes et récits de l'histoire de Carthage by Jean Defrasne
Paris fais nous peur: 100 lieux du crime, de l'étrange et de l'irrationnel, by Claudine Hourcadette et Marc Lemonier

Le Déchronologue by Stéphane Beauverger: This book continues to be amazing. I read half a chapter, a whole chapter, another chapter. Given the non-linear nature of the book, that means I've gone through three completely different periods of the narrator's life.

During the first half-chapter, Villon, our narrator/protagonist has: made it to the Itza capital as a guset/prisoner, gone on THE WORST TRIP EVER (with hints that the siege of La Rochelle was even more fucked up than I thought it to be before) and learned some more about where the maravillias come from. Tbh, I thought the kid at the end was Arcadio-as-a-child due to timetravel fuckery at one point, but I guess not.

During the whole chapter, Villon had some serious talk with Sévère and Mendoza about fighting The Flying Dutchman SPOILER THE FLYING DUTCHMAN IS AN AIRCRAFT CARRIER. Also, he is absurdly in love with Sévère: "Mort de moi, je lui aurais confié ma vie, les mains liées et sa dague sur ma gorge!" ("Death of me [this is an expletive, fyi], I would have trusted her with my life, hands bound and her dagger at my throat.") Like, damn, Villon, rein it in. Also also, I really enjoy all aspects of the Villon and Mendoza relationship, be that at this point in the timeline, when Villon is ruling a floating city and Mendoza is his second-in-command despite being screamingly insane as a reslut of having crossed his own timestream or earlier when Mendoza helped Villon (and Arcadio) escape the Spanish jail in, iirc, Carthagena by conveniently losing his knife.

During the other half chapter: Villon meets Mendoza for the first time! By getting captured by Mendoza because Villon is a French pirate, Mendoza works for the Spanih crown and the year is 1640 in the Carabbeans. It's not entirely unlike Beaton's Nemesis comic.

In conclusion: This book continues to be insane in the best possible way.


Partial list of comics I am following and/or haven't caught up with, which I will add to as I remember them:
Lucifer
Scarlet Witch (maybe?)
The Wicked + the Divine (sort of. When I remember it exists)
Doctor Strange
Mockingbird
Vote Loki
Detective Comics
Han Solo
Stargate Atlantis Back to Pegasus
DC Bombshells
Contest of Champions
The Beauty
New Avengers
Grayson
Unbeatable Squirrel Girl
The Ultimates
Batman & Robin Eternal
Spider-Gwen
Switch


What are you reading next

More comics, probably. Right now I'm considering:
Black Panther
Monstress
Silk

Maybe something in French, idk.

MAYBE SOME COMICS IN FRENCH


Books that I have already:

• Pyramids of London by Andrea K Höst


• Prisoner (Echo's Wolf Book 1) (Werewolf Marines 2) by Lia Silver


• Taking Stock by Scott Bartlett


• February by Lisa Moore


• The Demigod Diaries by Rick Riordan


• The Skull Throne by Peter V. Brett


• Hostage by Sherwood Smith and Rachel Manija Brown


• Le Graal de l'Inframonde by Vanessa Callico and Diana Callico

Books that are out and that I haven't got: L'armée furieuse & Temps Glaciaires by Fred Vargas, Clariel: The Lost Abhorsen, by Garth Nix, Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie, Melting Stones and Battle Magic by Tamora Pierce, The Lions of Al-Rassan by Guy Gavriel Kay, The Beginning Place by Ursula Le Guin, Seraphina by Rachel Hartman, The True Meaning of Smekday by Adam Rex, the last two books of Kate Eliott's Spiritwalker trilogy, The Missing Queen by Samhita Arni, Throne of the Crescent Moon by Saladin Ahmed, whatever's out of the Craft Sequence series, Chroniques du Pays des Mères by Elisabeth Vonarburg, Lord of the Two Lands by Judith Tarr, Fortunate Fall by Raphael Carter, Barbara Hambly's vampire series, Sorcerer to the Crown by Zen Cho, The Sand-Reckoner by Gillian Bradshaw, The Idylls of the Queen by Phillys Ann Karr, Odd and the Frost Giants by Neil Gaiman, The Good Fairies of New York by Martin Millar, City of Blades by Robert Jackson Bennett, Slow Bullets by Alastair Reynolds, The Golem and the Jinni by Helene Wecker, The Library at Mount Char by Scott Hawkins and Untamed by Anna Cowan.

Books that aren't out yet (and when they're out): The Sleeping Life (Eferum, #2) by Andrea K. Höst (2015), Benjamin January #14 by Barbara Hambly (no idea), the Tris book by Tamora Pierce (2015), The House of Shattered Wings by Aliette de Bodard (caveat), Too Like the Lightning by Ada Palmer and whatever Jenny Dolfen's next project is.

Comments

[muccamukk]

I think they're on strike two for me, which is the Do Not Engage point. We'll see how obnoxious they are in the future (I probably should just quit, but I still like the links lists).

[dhampyresa]

Do Not Engage sounds like a good policy at this point, tbh.

[yuuago]

I was not reading to be called a "shit garbage eater"

JFC. Yeah, I... can't say I blame you for dropping it in such a case. Seriously, what the hell?

[dhampyresa]

To be fair, it wasn't me specifically, just long-term comics fans (at the end of the June 21 entry on HYDRA!Cap). AS YOU KNOW YUU-BOB, I am a long-term comics fan (either life-long or half a decade, depending on how you count). Also, I have issues with being told I should "better" my entertainment. I took it personally (I was polite in reply, if direct).

[yuuago]

Reading through it, and... it seems odd that the writer appears to assume that people "eat garbage" (ugh) rather than dropping storylines they don't like. I mean, you know I'm not a comics person, but I was under the impression that dropping something when it starts to suck, and picking it up again when it goes back to normal, is standard?

[dhampyresa]

BUT YUU THAT WOULD MAKE TOO MUCH SENSE and where would they get their sense of superiority from if they assumed that?

[rachelmanija]

I want to hear the dirt about ladybusiness!

(I have a grudge against them for saying that something I wrote contained a homophobic stereotype, which was that a gay character gets a knee injury after he makes out with his boyfriend, and then some other bad stuff happens to him. The context, not mentioned in their review, is that the knee injury occurs quite some time after the making out and has absolutely nothing to do with making out or being gay, and he continues making out post-injury with no negative repercussions. Also, every single major character in the book, gay, straight, or bi, has something bad happen to them at some point or another, including much more serious injuries and the deaths of loved ones, so he's not alone in that. I am normally open to political critique but that was really fishing.)

[dhampyresa]

WHAT that's Yuki from Stranger, right? Because that is reaching if so. I thought he was a great example of a gay character not defined by being gay (I'm still stuck on OMG JAPANESE AIRCRAFT CARRIER myself).


YES OKAY I WILL DISH THE DIRT (fair warning that this is obviously going to be hella biased.)


Strike One was basically what I'm going to call "petty bullshit" because it is, well, petty bullshit, but it was petty bullshit that annoyed me.

There's at least one poster there who suscribe to the "we can ALL agree that the Star Wars prequels are complete trash" school of thinking. Now, I know a lot of people dislike the prequels and that's their right, but no, fuck you, we cannot all agree. YOU WILL PRY REVENGE OF THE SITH OUT OF MY COLD DEAD BURNING ALIVE HANDS

They don't always reply to comments. It started to grate after about the third time I try to interact meaningfully with the content of a post and was met with crickets.

Did you know, Rachel, that it is pushing back against heteronormativity to display a man and a woman kissing in a book? True story. (The quote: "I especially feel that if you take the friends reading, then this book actually pushes back against heteronormativity, because here are a man and a woman and they are even a bit intimate, but hey guess what, BIG NOPE.")

I dislike mixing fic-fandom and RL. The way ladybusiness mixes RL activism (by which I mean links to articles about RL issues) with book reviews and fanwork recs makes me really uncomfortable. My issue, not theirs, obviously, but this was exacerbated by their Hugo nom -- they don't act to the standard I'd expect of an award-nominated zine, either (see also: editing issues).

Also, my reaction to anyone using "queer" as a noun is a major side-eye.


Strike Two was this post which linked to an article from 2014 with "➝ Anti-Semitism continues to be a horrific problem in France, and I've seen very few outlets actually discussing it." (BECAUSE IT'S FROM 2014 FFS THAT WOULD BE WHY) which stayed uncorrected even after I pointed it out in the comments. Credit where credit's due, it's now fixed, but it took over a month and a half (check the comment timestamps) and direct contact with one of the editors (not justira, spindilly).


Strike Three was the June 21 entry on HYDRA!Cap, which is the entry that accuses long-term comics fans of "have been eating garbage via terrible comics storylines for so long (decades???) that they just shrug and wipe their mouth instead of spitting it out and dropping the comics like the hot pile they are and demanding better" (the original wording said 'shit' instead of 'garbage' and didn't have the next sentence).

I am a long-term comics fan, either life-long (comics as the medium) or half a decade (US floppies as they come out), so I posted a comment in reply that said, in its entirety:

So where does the line between "garbage eaters" and "fellow fans" get drawn?

(As an aside, I think it's rather hypocritical of you to claim both that "I've only been here three years so I am very new" and "I know enough about the culture because I've been here three years". You can't have it both ways.)

The aside is a reference to a conversation renay was having with muccamukk in the comments. Both the quotes are word for word.

This comment was screened by spindilly. Apparently, I was not obeying the commenting policy, which. Hum. I didn't call anyone a garbage eater?

I then engaged in a discussion via PM with spindilly. I won't quote from a private conversation, but I will say that (a) spindilly listened to what I had to say, (b) I brought up the fact that the only time before renay's post that anti-Semitism was mentionned on ladybusiness was justira's badly outdated link (mentionned above) and that this made them look really bad (this evidently got back to justira who fixed the issue) and (c) I've currently been left hanging on at least one issue. It's been over two weeks. I'm no longer expecting a reply.

As you can see the comments on that post are currently closed and there's been no mention of why or even that the post was edited at all (shit -> garbage).

Oh, and then renay posted this gem on twitter. I am very sorry renay was triggered by the comments on her post, including mine. HOWEVER. I find it supremely disingenuous to:
- Complain about call-out culture when the June 21 post is one giant call-out post
- Complain about agressive snark when YOU HAVE JUST INSULTED PEOPLE TO THEIR FACES (what if someone is triggered by being called a shit/garbage eater and/or told the comics they read are garbage, what then, huh?)
Look. You can't insult people and then be surprised when people are insulted. (Or, to put another way, don't dish it out if you can't take it.)

Moreover, all the comments I saw on the post were polite and nobody called her a shit eater: there was a photo of a Cap cosplay with a "Not HYDRA" sheet taped to the shield, the aforementionned comment chain with muccamukk, an anonymous comment linking to various feminist-y critical of comics places and my own.

Basically, I'm not down with double-standards.

In addition, both renay and spindilly seem to consider ladybusiness a personal space of theirs on the internet and NO. Just no. I refuse to consider it as such and if they do, then clearly we have very different views of what 'community' means. (I guess this should go under strike 1/petty bullshit, lol.)


This is long, but you did ask. I hope it makes sense.

[rachelmanija]

Wow, thank you. That was very entertaining, in a slightly tragic way. And no, that was not too long at all!

I had missed all that because I had stopped reading ladybusiness by then. Not because of what they said about my book, but because of that same sort of really misleading reporting to make stuff they like look politically good (a man and a woman kissing is non-heteronormative because you are headcanoning them as just friends. Uh-huh.) or accusing things they dislike of being politically bad on highly sketchy or misleading evidence. PEOPLE. It's okay to just say you enjoyed or didn't enjoy something! You don't have to pretend all you love is politically correct ad all you dislike is politically bad!

(It was actually Paco, Yuki's boyfriend. And yes, it is true that Paco got shot in the knee at some point after a scene in which he makes out with Yuki. But the injury had nothing to do with the making out or being gay (direct cause accidental friendly fire, indirect cause attack by giant rattlesnakes), there's more making out post-injury, and every single major character suffers some sort of physical injury, loss of a loved one, or psychological trauma by the end, so it would be weird if only the straight characters got causes for angst. Also, it would mean the straight characters had more dramatic plotlines. "Where are the trans characters?" is (for instance) a legit critique. "A gay character had the exact same sort of bad things happen to him that happen to all the straight characters" is not. In my obviously biased opinion.)

[dhampyresa]

PEOPLE. It's okay to just say you enjoyed or didn't enjoy something! You don't have to pretend all you love is politically correct ad all you dislike is politically bad!

Right? RIGHT? From a persuasive standpoint it's even a very bad idea, because it means people no longer believe you when you say XYZ about a work. I mean, if you're trying to get me to read a book and one of your arguments is that it fights back against heteronormativity and the last time you used that argument it was because a man and a woman kissed? I'm not going to believe the book is non-heteronormative.

Also, I have spent years and years and years feeling guilty about the ~quality~ of my entertainment and so now my attitude is basically FUCK THAT. It's fair enough saying why you did/didn't enjoy a work, but the moment you start implying that makes you better than people who had the opposite reaction, you start acting like an asshole.


Oh yeah, I remember that incident! It has fuckall to do with him being gay, though. I think there's a big difference between "bad stuff happens to this character because he's gay" and "bad stuff happens to this character, who is gay" and the book definitely falls into the later.

[saturnofthemoon]

They seriously called you that? I know they delete comments but that's just awful. I'm unsubscribing, they haven't posted anything I've found interesting in ages anyway.

[dhampyresa]

Not me personally merely ~long-term comics fans~ (at the end of the June 21 entry on HYDRA!Cap).

[yhlee]

I don't follow ladybusiness but I'm sorry you had a suck experience. :/ May I ask what transpired? (Ignore this if you'd rather not talk about it, obvs.)

Also, I figured out where I put my copy of the Defrasne so with luck I can resume reading that soon. Hannibal FTW!

[dhampyresa]

Short version: the June 21 entry on HYDRA!Cap. Long version can be found in reply to rachelmanija above.

YAY :D

[yhlee]

Yikes, I'm sorry. I do not personally subscribe to the purity-test mode of reading/consuming media, and while it's fine if someone decides that's how they want to go, I am not fine with people dictating that everyone has to interact with media that way.

[dhampyresa]

Sympathy appreciated, thanks.

[http://users.livejournal.com/la_marquise_de_/]

I'm sending you lots of good wishes. A very sad day for France and I am thinking of you.
I've just been reading about Valtesse de la Bigne, the late 19th century courtesan. Such an interesting woman!

[dhampyresa.livejournal.com]

Thak you.

I've never heard of her! She does sound fascinating.

[http://users.livejournal.com/la_marquise_de_/]

I've been interested in the Paris courtesans for years, since I first read a biography of Marie Duplessis.

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