Rachel Manija Brown's Blog, page 124
January 21, 2019
Fandom Stocking Fic Recs & my own Fandom Stocking stories
I got four wonderful stories from Fandom Stocking!
The Comfort of Strangers, by Maplemood. Earthsea. Beautifully written, pitch-perfect canon AU where Penthe leaves Atuan with Ged and Tenar. In the dark, in the boat on the sea which flowed for miles uncounted and to worlds without number, Penthe remembered the chaos of the day when the Tombs collapsed in on themselves.
Helping Hands, by Sholio. The Punisher. Lovely sequel to "Lifeline;" definitely read if you enjoyed that. Karen helps Frank with a few things he can't easily do himself.
Missing Elements, by Opalmatrix. The Dispossessed. Sweet and also bittersweet, family and love and ethical dilemmas. On a family outing after his return, Shevek gets reacquainted with the Takver he remembers.
A Dance of Dust, by Anne Marie Darkholme. A delightful and clever fusion. Snippets from an X-Men (comicverse)-His Dark Materials Fusion featuring a young Kitty Pryde and Rachel Summers.
I wrote three shorts (under 1K words):
Like a Wheel. The Stand/Dark Tower. Ka turns like a wheel. Round and round he goes, through the doors and up the stairs and down the road, bootheels clacking on asphalt, leather soles sinking into sand.
Lean on Me. New Mutants. Dani finds comfort when she needs it the most.
Three Sins. The Secret History - Donna Tartt fused with Fullmetal Alchemist. We fled. The homunculi followed.
comments
The Comfort of Strangers, by Maplemood. Earthsea. Beautifully written, pitch-perfect canon AU where Penthe leaves Atuan with Ged and Tenar. In the dark, in the boat on the sea which flowed for miles uncounted and to worlds without number, Penthe remembered the chaos of the day when the Tombs collapsed in on themselves.
Helping Hands, by Sholio. The Punisher. Lovely sequel to "Lifeline;" definitely read if you enjoyed that. Karen helps Frank with a few things he can't easily do himself.
Missing Elements, by Opalmatrix. The Dispossessed. Sweet and also bittersweet, family and love and ethical dilemmas. On a family outing after his return, Shevek gets reacquainted with the Takver he remembers.
A Dance of Dust, by Anne Marie Darkholme. A delightful and clever fusion. Snippets from an X-Men (comicverse)-His Dark Materials Fusion featuring a young Kitty Pryde and Rachel Summers.
I wrote three shorts (under 1K words):
Like a Wheel. The Stand/Dark Tower. Ka turns like a wheel. Round and round he goes, through the doors and up the stairs and down the road, bootheels clacking on asphalt, leather soles sinking into sand.
Lean on Me. New Mutants. Dani finds comfort when she needs it the most.
Three Sins. The Secret History - Donna Tartt fused with Fullmetal Alchemist. We fled. The homunculi followed.
comments
Epic discussion of Mary Gentle's Ash
I have now discovered my true purpose in life: providing a space for a new reader to liveblog her reading of Ash. (Spoilers for entire book).
Which caused the general Ash discussion post to wake up. (Spoilers for entire book).
Come on in if you've read it!
comments
Which caused the general Ash discussion post to wake up. (Spoilers for entire book).
Come on in if you've read it!
comments
January 18, 2019
KatMari
I am continuing to be inspired by Marie Kondo. I hadn't started with the intention of a psychological journey, but it really has turned into one: a home that makes me happier, hopefully coupled with a life that makes me happier.
I don't see any contradiction between doing things to improve my own life and doing things to improve the world. When I'm happier, I'm more energetic and more outward-looking, and that means I'm capable of doing more activism and volunteering than when my energy is sucked up by my own problems.
The idea that improving your life in ways that are meaningful and helpful for you, whether that's going into therapy, getting rid of canned pineapple from 20111 and gifts you hate, or anything else, is somehow making the world worse because it's not spending 100% of your time contemplating the abyss, is counterproductive to the real work of activism.
It's such a toxic idea that leads to so much burnout and thus less leftist activism that I sometimes wonder if it's being deliberately encouraged. I know that sounds paranoid but we now know that sort of subtle and targeted spreading of ideas actually happens. Who is it who wants leftists to believe that it's morally wrong to take care of themselves?
And no, I am not throwing out all my books or any items that I actually need. I'm not taking Marie Kondo as a guru, just as a person who has some advice that I find useful and some that I don't. That being said, she never said you should - that's all rumor by wrong osmosis. I like living in a library. I don't like living in a junkyard.
I spoke to some friends about the problem of getting stuff that's still useful or might be wanted by someone who's not me to those people, and discovered that this is something on a lot of people's minds. My solution turned out to be to make use of those social networks of friends-of-friends.
One person has friends and family in El Salvador who can either use stuff themselves, or are involved in charities that can pass it on to people who genuinely want/need it. However, the cost of shipping packages is prohibitive. Her solution was to purchase a shipping container and fill it full of stuff. That's expensive, but she can afford it and it's enough of a saving to make the process worthwhile. Another person has a church which collects and distributes clothing, etc, to people in need.
My stuff is all going to the church, the shipping container, or Goodwill, in that order.
Click on cut for photos of tidying in process, and also a cute cat. ( Read more... )
comments
I don't see any contradiction between doing things to improve my own life and doing things to improve the world. When I'm happier, I'm more energetic and more outward-looking, and that means I'm capable of doing more activism and volunteering than when my energy is sucked up by my own problems.
The idea that improving your life in ways that are meaningful and helpful for you, whether that's going into therapy, getting rid of canned pineapple from 20111 and gifts you hate, or anything else, is somehow making the world worse because it's not spending 100% of your time contemplating the abyss, is counterproductive to the real work of activism.
It's such a toxic idea that leads to so much burnout and thus less leftist activism that I sometimes wonder if it's being deliberately encouraged. I know that sounds paranoid but we now know that sort of subtle and targeted spreading of ideas actually happens. Who is it who wants leftists to believe that it's morally wrong to take care of themselves?
And no, I am not throwing out all my books or any items that I actually need. I'm not taking Marie Kondo as a guru, just as a person who has some advice that I find useful and some that I don't. That being said, she never said you should - that's all rumor by wrong osmosis. I like living in a library. I don't like living in a junkyard.
I spoke to some friends about the problem of getting stuff that's still useful or might be wanted by someone who's not me to those people, and discovered that this is something on a lot of people's minds. My solution turned out to be to make use of those social networks of friends-of-friends.
One person has friends and family in El Salvador who can either use stuff themselves, or are involved in charities that can pass it on to people who genuinely want/need it. However, the cost of shipping packages is prohibitive. Her solution was to purchase a shipping container and fill it full of stuff. That's expensive, but she can afford it and it's enough of a saving to make the process worthwhile. Another person has a church which collects and distributes clothing, etc, to people in need.
My stuff is all going to the church, the shipping container, or Goodwill, in that order.
Click on cut for photos of tidying in process, and also a cute cat. ( Read more... )
comments
January 17, 2019
Lesbian Shifter Romance Anthology to Benefit OutRight Action International
Wanna read some F/F shifter stories for a good cause?
I don't have a story in this anthology - I really wanted to write one, but things intervened - but I did help put it together.![[personal profile]](https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/hostedimages/1491408111i/22407843.png)
sholio
and
ellenmillion
have stories here.
She found her fated mate ... and so did she!
Meet the shifter women who will do anything to claim their mates, and the women who love them. From sweet to sizzling, from dragons to wolves to moose, these eight standalone tales of lesbian shifter romance all have a guaranteed happily ever after!
All profits from this collection will be donated to OutRight Action International which works to protect the human rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and intersex people across the world.
( Read more... )
Her Wild Soulmate[image error]
[image error] [image error]
comments
I don't have a story in this anthology - I really wanted to write one, but things intervened - but I did help put it together.
sholio
and
ellenmillion
have stories here. She found her fated mate ... and so did she!
Meet the shifter women who will do anything to claim their mates, and the women who love them. From sweet to sizzling, from dragons to wolves to moose, these eight standalone tales of lesbian shifter romance all have a guaranteed happily ever after!
All profits from this collection will be donated to OutRight Action International which works to protect the human rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and intersex people across the world.
( Read more... )
Her Wild Soulmate[image error]
[image error] [image error]
comments
January 15, 2019
My Marie Kondo experience
Absolutely nothing to do with what she did or didn't say about books. I don't need help with books, as that's the one form of decluttering I already do regularly and in a way that satisfies me. This is about what I didn't already know and what I did find helpful, and how I used it as a jumping off point.
Some possibly relevant context is that I'm not a naturally good housekeeper, I'm untidy and disorganized in that way (except for books and other things I actively collect), and also that due to being sick for years, I have a large backlog of cleaning/decluttering I haven't done. My apartment doesn't look like the Howard Hughes residence, but it is cluttered and my natural tendency to lose things is exacerbated by that. Skip if you're sick of people discussing her, decluttering, or related matters. ( Read more... )
comments
Some possibly relevant context is that I'm not a naturally good housekeeper, I'm untidy and disorganized in that way (except for books and other things I actively collect), and also that due to being sick for years, I have a large backlog of cleaning/decluttering I haven't done. My apartment doesn't look like the Howard Hughes residence, but it is cluttered and my natural tendency to lose things is exacerbated by that. Skip if you're sick of people discussing her, decluttering, or related matters. ( Read more... )
comments
January 14, 2019
Lost Books
I recently read Talisman, a graphic novel about Marcie, who has a book she loves as a child, loses it, forgets what it's called, and goes on a quest first to find and then to recreate it, which ends up changing her entire life.
I had multiple books like that. Children tend not to register author names or titles, and I travelled and moved often, including between the US and India, so I might lose a small-press book only published in India and never find it again. Some I have managed to rediscover, while some remain lost.
I have ascertained that Dariba the Good Little Rakshasa, about a kid demon who keeps getting in trouble because he's nice when he's supposed to be wicked, exists but seems unavailable. My most recent rediscovery was Mystery of the Witches Bridge; the beginning of the review explains how it was rediscovered. It was as much of a delight as when I'd first read it.
I used to read a children's magazine, Chandamama, which had a serialized fantasy story which I read in scraps and pieces, as I often missed issues and then found old ones in a friend's house, and so it felt beautiful and dreamlike. It had beautiful illustrations in a classic Indian style. When Lucy reads the story "for the refreshment of the spirit" in The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, and can then only remember that there was a king and a hill and a cup and a sword, and she'd give anything to be able to read it again, I think of my lost serial: there was a princess and a flying chariot and a Goddess and a lotus and a kingdom in the air, and I'd give anything to be able to read it again.
Another that haunted me was a book of fairytales from many lands. I think they may have been adapted by different authors as they had very different styles. They were more adult than usual. A tale from France had a rose who turned into a man; he raped a woman, felt guilty, and became a rose again. A Scandinavian tale had a young man tending a red bull for three sisters; there was one who was beautiful and seemed kind, but when she parted her hair he saw a third eye in the center of her forehead. He and the bull fled into a blizzard, and I think it was ambiguous whether they survived or not. Another tale, I think from either Africa or New Guinea, had a man and a woman in a boat on the ocean, and they ate yams in three colors, white and purple and black.
No one has ever been able to find this book. I found a fairytale that's similar to the one with the bull, but it's not quite the same story. I sometimes wonder if I dreamed it. But think it was real.
Did you have a lost book? If you found it, did it capture the same magic you felt as a child, or was it disappointing? Did it change your life?
comments
I had multiple books like that. Children tend not to register author names or titles, and I travelled and moved often, including between the US and India, so I might lose a small-press book only published in India and never find it again. Some I have managed to rediscover, while some remain lost.
I have ascertained that Dariba the Good Little Rakshasa, about a kid demon who keeps getting in trouble because he's nice when he's supposed to be wicked, exists but seems unavailable. My most recent rediscovery was Mystery of the Witches Bridge; the beginning of the review explains how it was rediscovered. It was as much of a delight as when I'd first read it.
I used to read a children's magazine, Chandamama, which had a serialized fantasy story which I read in scraps and pieces, as I often missed issues and then found old ones in a friend's house, and so it felt beautiful and dreamlike. It had beautiful illustrations in a classic Indian style. When Lucy reads the story "for the refreshment of the spirit" in The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, and can then only remember that there was a king and a hill and a cup and a sword, and she'd give anything to be able to read it again, I think of my lost serial: there was a princess and a flying chariot and a Goddess and a lotus and a kingdom in the air, and I'd give anything to be able to read it again.
Another that haunted me was a book of fairytales from many lands. I think they may have been adapted by different authors as they had very different styles. They were more adult than usual. A tale from France had a rose who turned into a man; he raped a woman, felt guilty, and became a rose again. A Scandinavian tale had a young man tending a red bull for three sisters; there was one who was beautiful and seemed kind, but when she parted her hair he saw a third eye in the center of her forehead. He and the bull fled into a blizzard, and I think it was ambiguous whether they survived or not. Another tale, I think from either Africa or New Guinea, had a man and a woman in a boat on the ocean, and they ate yams in three colors, white and purple and black.
No one has ever been able to find this book. I found a fairytale that's similar to the one with the bull, but it's not quite the same story. I sometimes wonder if I dreamed it. But think it was real.
Did you have a lost book? If you found it, did it capture the same magic you felt as a child, or was it disappointing? Did it change your life?
comments
January 12, 2019
A Very Serious Query Of Great Importance
If there was a cocktail called a Madonna's Rabbi, what would be in it?
(I realize that perhaps this requires some context. The context was that a surgeon whom I had been referred to for a surgical consult pressured me to see Madonna's rabbi, on the theory that studying the Kabbalah would fix me because my symptoms were all in my head and studying the Kabbalah with Madonna's rabbi had fixed the surgeon's extremely TMI physical symptom caused by his even more TMI marital problems. This was additionally surreal as I initially thought he'd said Madonna's rabbit, then realized that rabbits cannot study Kabbalah. I have bad luck with doctors. Anyway, when this came up in conversation I thought it sounded like a cocktail.)
comments
(I realize that perhaps this requires some context. The context was that a surgeon whom I had been referred to for a surgical consult pressured me to see Madonna's rabbi, on the theory that studying the Kabbalah would fix me because my symptoms were all in my head and studying the Kabbalah with Madonna's rabbi had fixed the surgeon's extremely TMI physical symptom caused by his even more TMI marital problems. This was additionally surreal as I initially thought he'd said Madonna's rabbit, then realized that rabbits cannot study Kabbalah. I have bad luck with doctors. Anyway, when this came up in conversation I thought it sounded like a cocktail.)
comments
The Expert System’s Brother, by Adrian Tchaikovsky
A well-executed but somewhat standard science fiction novella on the old trope of “person from seemingly magical/primitive society gets exiled from it, discovers it’s actually a terraforming project gone wrong.” (This isn’t spoilery – readers will pick up on the overall premise, if not the exact details, way before the protagonist does.)
It’s an enjoyable read but there’s nothing really special here other than some nice flourishes involving Tchaikovsky’s favorite thing, bugs. The ancient technology is executed via bugs, the plot revolves around marking people as outcasts in a way that I think was inspired by how ants can tell that another ant is from a different colony, and there are some fucking creepy descriptions of the native bug life. Contains some unsettling body horror in addition to bugs, bugs, and more bugs.
Though this is short and so seemingly a good gateway drug, it doesn't really show off Tchaikovsky's strengths. Unless someone has a different shorter work they'd suggest, I'd start with one of his full-length novels instead.
comments
It’s an enjoyable read but there’s nothing really special here other than some nice flourishes involving Tchaikovsky’s favorite thing, bugs. The ancient technology is executed via bugs, the plot revolves around marking people as outcasts in a way that I think was inspired by how ants can tell that another ant is from a different colony, and there are some fucking creepy descriptions of the native bug life. Contains some unsettling body horror in addition to bugs, bugs, and more bugs.
Though this is short and so seemingly a good gateway drug, it doesn't really show off Tchaikovsky's strengths. Unless someone has a different shorter work they'd suggest, I'd start with one of his full-length novels instead.
comments
January 11, 2019
Ash: A Secret History, by Mary Gentle (Read-along)
cahn
is reading for the first time, I'm enjoying the live blog which started here, with spoilers decodable at rot13.com: https://rachelmanija.dreamwidth.org/2242114.html?thread=25025346#cmt25025346I put up this post so she can liveblog without either being spoiled or having to code everything. Please don't spoil her for future events. If you haven't read the book yet, be aware that there will be spoilers in comments.
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Spoiler Discussion Post: Ash: A Secret History, by Mary Gentle
I was delighted to see that way more people had read Ash than I had expected. My review elided most of the plot and character discussion because nearly everything about both is spoilery. So, if anyone wants, let's discuss Ash!
Massive spoilers below and in comments. I'm not doing another review, more some notes and providing a discussion space.( Read more... )
comments
Massive spoilers below and in comments. I'm not doing another review, more some notes and providing a discussion space.( Read more... )
comments
