Reading Wednesday

[dhampyresa]

What did you finish reading

500 Ways To Tell A Better Story, by Chuck Wendig: It was offered as a free download on Wendig's blog a while back and I nabbed it then. I think all the content is available for free on his website, but I haven't checked. I liked it, it's a good mix of writing advice and publishing advice, not to mention editing advice, all of which will, I hope, help me with my own writing. I especially liked these this piece of advice about queries: "don't think about writing a query, pretend you're writing the back jacket", but by far my favourite of all the things he said was:

Write better today than you did yesterday and better tomorrow than you did today.

I kind of really needed the kick in the pants to get bcak to writing this book gave me, so props to Wendig.


The Gospel of Loki, by Joanne Harris: FUCKING FINALLY YES I have to admit that I was still dragging my feet, because of the issues I have with Harris' writing (I still can't tell how much is me bristling at differing characterisation of Norse characters and how much is not). To explain the nebulous issues, as best as I can: I'm bothered by Harris' characterisation of the female characters, they're all fairly one note as either "cloyingly sympathetic" "doe-eyed milksops" (especially Sigyn, urgh, I hate her Sigyn so much, no nuance at all), or manipulative scorned women types (I think the necklace incident with Freyja is even more slutshamey than the original myth, if such a thig is possible) or both (at one point, Skadi, of all people, is described as having "a soupy, soft, idiotic look". SKADI!). This was a lot less apparent in Runemarks because of Maddy being the main character (and what an awesome character she was), but started to bother me more than a little in Runelight (let's not talk about Sif. Let's just not). The time I took to finish this book is a testament to the fact that I very nearly ragequit it several times, because I just could not with the lack of depth of the characters.

That said! Back when I first started reading the book, I said "I still have my familiar problems with Harris' Runemarks series that this is a prequel too, but maybe that'll change by the end of this book." and guess what? It did! The above issues became a lot more bearable as the book went on, for various reasons: Sigyn in the cave was pretty terrifying in a Dolores Umbridge kind of way ("She adopted exactly the sam tone with me as she did with the snake, chiding us for 'not getting on' nd giving stern little lectures."), Idunn standing up to the rest of Aesir when they propose killing Loki after the Balder thing:

She looked at Odin and said: 'You can't.'
Heimdall gave a sneer. 'Why not?'
'Because he was one of us,' she said.

(ngl, I am friendshipping Loki and Idunn more than a bit, now) and of course, GULLVEIG-HEID. How much did I love the development with Heidi? A LOT. I really could have done without her sleeping with Loki, though, especially since there are still no queer characters anywhere in these books :( There was a great opportunity to have Loki sleep with men, that was even foreshadowed by this early line: "sex (although I was still confused by all the taboos surrounding this - no animals, no siblings, no men, no married women, no demons - frankly, it was amazing to me anyone had sex at all, with so many rules against it)" when Loki has slept with animals (Svadilfari), married women (Sif), demons (Angrboda) and he doesn't have siblings, so the absence of him having male lovers really stands out to me.

Things I loved: some really great Loki and Odin moments, like

I shrugged. 'Just remember I saved your life. You know you can rely on me.'
He smiled. 'I know I can,' he said.
And for a moment, I almost believed that neither of us was lying.

or

And don't go believing those stories about how I really cared for him, and how our tragic friendship became a kind of passion-play acted out over centuries. Take it from me, it wasn't. All right?

Which, sure, Loki, suuuuuuuure.

There were also some great moments of humour

'A prophecy? What did it say?'
'Cake.'

(I wish the prophecy had been about cake, instead of "Ragnarok is come at last".)

There were two moments where I had Journey into Mystery flashbacks ("Damn the Old Man. Damn them all." and "Damn him. Damn the lot of them"). Also the Loki-est thing this Loki has ever said, presented as a lesson (Book 4, Lesson 6):

So what's the worst that could happen?

On the whole, I liked the later parts of the book more than the early ones and I'm still happy I read the book.


What are you reading now

The Lightning Thief, by Rick Riordan: I am finally ready the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series! I'm only about two-and-a-half chapters in, though. I like it so far. Kindly Ones! Ball point swords! The SOCKS OF FATE!


What are you reading next

The rest of the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series, I think.

Also, you give have no idea how good reading things again feels. It is so so great.

Comments

[ericadawn16.livejournal.com]

I didn't even know there was a Marvel!Sigyn

That's because the original Marvel!Sigyn was...horrible, the usual dutiful wife who's treated like crap.
http://marvel.wikia.com/Sigyn_(Earth-616)

The Mythical Detective Loki Ragnarok is a Manga series but since the translations are out of print or only available as ebooks, I only know it from Hulu. It's free on there and some other sources.

I have never even heard of the Vinland Saga, but that does sound interesting. I noticed on Free Comic Book Day that there's a non-Marvel comic book series, too.
https://www.comixology.com/Loki-Ragnarok-and-Roll-1-of-4/digital-comic/69506

Well, Odin does mention the 8 years that Loki spent as a woman, including having children. I suppose he is only mentioned having relations with men as a woman, but then, the ancient Norse believed that unless you were unable to procreate, it was shameful to be on the receiving end of sexual acts as a man and they would rape those they'd conquered especially men.

If culture was a bit different, I'm sure it would have been mentioned because even as he insults everyone around him over them, he really doesn't seem to care about the rules as you said...maybe it was and it's been lost...
Everyone but the most rabid homophobic fangirls seem to accept his bisexuality/pansexuality.

Yay! I love how there's this panel of Young Avengers and Kate Bishop's like, Am I the only straight person on this team? and America Chavez is like, I've seen how you look at me. You're not that straight.

[dhampyresa.livejournal.com]

I think I'll never understand how anyone goes from "married Loki" to "dutiful wife", lmao. That's such a big leap in logic.

I think my local library might have had some of it at some point, so I might pick it up if I find it there.

...That is the weirdest thing, because I have had this exact same idea kicking around my head for ages. Granted, in mine Loki's rockband is him, Setesh, Coyote, Morrigan and Eris and they are fighting the Internet because reasons, but still.

Oh, I know that, I just mean that if you took out the Svadilfari thing (which you can, because rape is a valid interpretation of Sleipnir's conception and I refuse to take that into account as to anyone's sexuality), there isn't much to go on on the pansexual/genderqueer front.

Yeah, that's a problem with all mythologies: so much has been lost or added after the fact, it's sometimes hard to tell what's original.

That was one of my favourite panels! I hated that it took until the last too issues for Kate and America to actually talk to each other, though.