Rachel Manija Brown's Blog, page 135
July 26, 2018
"No Reservations: Narnia" in the New Yorker, and also some thoughts on risk, joy, and food
The New Yorker article.
I'm still heartbroken but after years of occasionally wondering if Anthony Bourdain had been sent that story so often that he wanted to throw things at it, it was great to learn that not only had that not happened, but he read it and actually enjoyed it! I never did get to meet him but I read his books and he read my story: close enough for comfort.
Food, like sex, is the most ephemeral of pleasures. You can return to the same restaurant or cook the same dish again and again, but you can only ever eat that particular one once. Maybe the taco should replace the cherry blossom as the symbol of transience. Or maybe a scoop of sakura ice cream in the summer.
And, like sex, we're taught to fear food. To be embarrassed about food. We're told that eating what we like will kill us. That it'll make us fat (the horror!) and ruin our health (if we're not perfectly healthy, mentally and physically, it's shameful and our own fault). To protect ourselves from blame and, I suppose, to live forever, we must not eat for comfort or companionship or simple enjoyment, but must carefully calculate every bite based on medical recommendations that change every year, but mostly, based on social pressure and shame.
I'm not talking about allergies or other known-to-the-individual actual health issues, but of blanket prohibitions on endless lists of arbitrary ingredients, and a general culture of blame which, ignoring actual causes of poor health like lack of medical care, poverty, racism, and sexism, attaches itself to the eating choices of individuals.
Barring recent terminal diagnoses, none of us know how long we'll live or how we'll die. I would be very surprised if Tony Bourdain and Jonathan Gold, my all-time favorite writer on Los Angeles, didn't often get told that their habit of eating anything that looked interesting and fit into their mouths would shorten their lives and they should stop. (If either of them had been women, I'd be 100% sure of it.) But any connection between their deaths and their love of food is tenuous at best, and most likely nonexistent. What food actually brought them, I think, was happiness, connection, and meaningful lives that made the world a better place.
Everyone takes the risks they're comfortable with, but it's complicated because we can't ever know exactly what the risks are. Stress and unhappiness are bad for us too; will the stress of dieting and the loss of pleasure shorten your life more than eating the burrata or chocolate cake? Is it more dangerous to eat whole foods containing fat, or fat-free, salt-free, cholesterol-free concoctions made of unpronounceable chemicals? Is it riskier to eat the taco from the truck (risk of food poisoning), the kale from the supermarket (risk of E. coli), the heart-healthy salmon (risk of mercury poisoning), or nothing but carrots you grew yourself (risk of turning orange and ending up in the hospital, which actually happened to a friend of my parents)?
I'm not advocating totally ignoring health or ethical issues in food. But I am advocating not going fucking insane over them. I'd rather be more like Tony Bourdain and Jonathan Gold than bust my ass trying to be immortal via carb deprivation or an all-banana diet or a ban on sugar. Who wants immortality without bacon?
If you agree, go eat something delicious you've never had before. And come back and tell me about it.
comments
I'm still heartbroken but after years of occasionally wondering if Anthony Bourdain had been sent that story so often that he wanted to throw things at it, it was great to learn that not only had that not happened, but he read it and actually enjoyed it! I never did get to meet him but I read his books and he read my story: close enough for comfort.
Food, like sex, is the most ephemeral of pleasures. You can return to the same restaurant or cook the same dish again and again, but you can only ever eat that particular one once. Maybe the taco should replace the cherry blossom as the symbol of transience. Or maybe a scoop of sakura ice cream in the summer.
And, like sex, we're taught to fear food. To be embarrassed about food. We're told that eating what we like will kill us. That it'll make us fat (the horror!) and ruin our health (if we're not perfectly healthy, mentally and physically, it's shameful and our own fault). To protect ourselves from blame and, I suppose, to live forever, we must not eat for comfort or companionship or simple enjoyment, but must carefully calculate every bite based on medical recommendations that change every year, but mostly, based on social pressure and shame.
I'm not talking about allergies or other known-to-the-individual actual health issues, but of blanket prohibitions on endless lists of arbitrary ingredients, and a general culture of blame which, ignoring actual causes of poor health like lack of medical care, poverty, racism, and sexism, attaches itself to the eating choices of individuals.
Barring recent terminal diagnoses, none of us know how long we'll live or how we'll die. I would be very surprised if Tony Bourdain and Jonathan Gold, my all-time favorite writer on Los Angeles, didn't often get told that their habit of eating anything that looked interesting and fit into their mouths would shorten their lives and they should stop. (If either of them had been women, I'd be 100% sure of it.) But any connection between their deaths and their love of food is tenuous at best, and most likely nonexistent. What food actually brought them, I think, was happiness, connection, and meaningful lives that made the world a better place.
Everyone takes the risks they're comfortable with, but it's complicated because we can't ever know exactly what the risks are. Stress and unhappiness are bad for us too; will the stress of dieting and the loss of pleasure shorten your life more than eating the burrata or chocolate cake? Is it more dangerous to eat whole foods containing fat, or fat-free, salt-free, cholesterol-free concoctions made of unpronounceable chemicals? Is it riskier to eat the taco from the truck (risk of food poisoning), the kale from the supermarket (risk of E. coli), the heart-healthy salmon (risk of mercury poisoning), or nothing but carrots you grew yourself (risk of turning orange and ending up in the hospital, which actually happened to a friend of my parents)?
I'm not advocating totally ignoring health or ethical issues in food. But I am advocating not going fucking insane over them. I'd rather be more like Tony Bourdain and Jonathan Gold than bust my ass trying to be immortal via carb deprivation or an all-banana diet or a ban on sugar. Who wants immortality without bacon?
If you agree, go eat something delicious you've never had before. And come back and tell me about it.
comments
July 25, 2018
Cold recipes for hot weather
It is horrendously hot here in LA, so I've been puttering around the kitchen putting together salads and composed salads. Yesterday I came up with an extra-delicious white bean/arugula/salmon salad.
Rinse a can of white beans. Toss with a little chopped onion, salt and pepper, chopped parsley, flaked smoked salmon (not the lox type), and some good balsamic vinegar. (Don't skip the balsamic. I initially used lemon juice, but the balsamic takes it from "okay I guess" (lemon juice) to "I think I'll make this again tomorrow.")
Toss arugula, kale or baby kale, or other raw bitter-ish green of your choice with olive oil and more balsamic.
Boil an egg to the point where the yolk is still somewhat soft. Slice it in half, sprinkle with salt and pepper.
Put some of the white bean salad on top of the greens. Put the sliced, still-warm egg on top of that. Enjoy.
What are your favorite "too hot to cook" recipes?
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Rinse a can of white beans. Toss with a little chopped onion, salt and pepper, chopped parsley, flaked smoked salmon (not the lox type), and some good balsamic vinegar. (Don't skip the balsamic. I initially used lemon juice, but the balsamic takes it from "okay I guess" (lemon juice) to "I think I'll make this again tomorrow.")
Toss arugula, kale or baby kale, or other raw bitter-ish green of your choice with olive oil and more balsamic.
Boil an egg to the point where the yolk is still somewhat soft. Slice it in half, sprinkle with salt and pepper.
Put some of the white bean salad on top of the greens. Put the sliced, still-warm egg on top of that. Enjoy.
What are your favorite "too hot to cook" recipes?
comments
July 20, 2018
Second Nature, by Jae
A highly enjoyable novel about shifters (Wrasa) secretly living among us and the human woman writing a lesbian romance novel about them which is unwittingly all too accurate. Despite the amusing premise and a number of quite funny scenes and bits (the liger shifter heroine nearly gets her cover blown due to setting off a human's cat allergy; a menacing lion shifter is maced with catnip and starts rolling around on the ground laughing hysterically), it's overall fairly serious, with high stakes and lots of intricate shifter worldbuilding. The Wrasa are more animalistic and less human than is usually the case nowadays, and Jae gets a lot of mileage out of exploring that.
Griffin, a liger soldier/assassin dedicated to protecting her society’s secret at any cost, is dispatched to investigate Jorie, the romance novelist, to find out why her in-progess novel is so accurate. (Jorie’s beta-reader is a Wrasa.) While posing as an expert on big cats, Griffin gets to know Jorie and her three housecats, and starts questioning her society’s priorities and her own mission, which is likely to end with her getting the order to kill Jorie. My common complaint about novels not following through on their premise is a complete non-issue here: every aspect of the premise, including “What if I get ordered to murder an innocent woman who I think I might have a crush on?” is explored in satisfying detail.
This reads more like an urban fantasy novel from the 80s than like a typical paranormal romance. There are a number of important relationships other than Griffin/Jorie, and the antagonist gets his own POV. (The other relationships are great; the antagonist POV doesn’t add much, IMO, though at least he’s a well-meaning extremist rather than a sadistic psycho.) Though it does allow for all three POV characters, two of whom know anything about writing or publishing, to somehow instinctively know that lesbian fiction is “niche” and unlikely to sell well. I feel that this part just might be autobiographical.)
I liked this a lot and will read the other book set in the same world. It’s nicely plotted, the characters are interesting and fun, and the worldbuilding is really well-done.
Second Nature[image error]
[image error] [image error]
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Griffin, a liger soldier/assassin dedicated to protecting her society’s secret at any cost, is dispatched to investigate Jorie, the romance novelist, to find out why her in-progess novel is so accurate. (Jorie’s beta-reader is a Wrasa.) While posing as an expert on big cats, Griffin gets to know Jorie and her three housecats, and starts questioning her society’s priorities and her own mission, which is likely to end with her getting the order to kill Jorie. My common complaint about novels not following through on their premise is a complete non-issue here: every aspect of the premise, including “What if I get ordered to murder an innocent woman who I think I might have a crush on?” is explored in satisfying detail.
This reads more like an urban fantasy novel from the 80s than like a typical paranormal romance. There are a number of important relationships other than Griffin/Jorie, and the antagonist gets his own POV. (The other relationships are great; the antagonist POV doesn’t add much, IMO, though at least he’s a well-meaning extremist rather than a sadistic psycho.) Though it does allow for all three POV characters, two of whom know anything about writing or publishing, to somehow instinctively know that lesbian fiction is “niche” and unlikely to sell well. I feel that this part just might be autobiographical.)
I liked this a lot and will read the other book set in the same world. It’s nicely plotted, the characters are interesting and fun, and the worldbuilding is really well-done.
Second Nature[image error]
[image error] [image error]
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July 16, 2018
The Secret Horses of Briar Hill, by Megan Shepherd
A middle-grade novel about a girl in a hospital who sees winged horses in the mirrors, then climbs over the wall of an abandoned garden on the grounds and finds a horse with a broken wing.
With a premise like that, how can you go wrong? Well--once you ask yourself that question, the ways become obvious. I will say that this book is quite beautifully written and is obviously doing exactly what the author wanted it to do. There is no shortage of craft. It just managed to hit multiple points which are not objectively bad, but which I really dislike. Spoilers for the entire book follow. ( Read more... )
An Amazon reader who also found it depressing wrote, On the positive side, the story gives us a good look at how many children's lives were lost before vaccines came into existence.
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With a premise like that, how can you go wrong? Well--once you ask yourself that question, the ways become obvious. I will say that this book is quite beautifully written and is obviously doing exactly what the author wanted it to do. There is no shortage of craft. It just managed to hit multiple points which are not objectively bad, but which I really dislike. Spoilers for the entire book follow. ( Read more... )
An Amazon reader who also found it depressing wrote, On the positive side, the story gives us a good look at how many children's lives were lost before vaccines came into existence.
comments
July 13, 2018
FF Friday: Falling For Summer, by Bridget Essex; partway into Second Nature, by Jae
"Falling for Summer" is a contemporary romance novella in which Amanda, who has blamed herself for 20 years for her kid sister Tiffany's tragic drowning in the lake where they grew up, returns to the lake to come to terms with her guilt. There she meets the sexy Summer, a swimmer who rents out cottages by the lake, who turns out to be Tiffany's best friend.
I like trauma and healing narratives, and with one exception there wasn't really anything wrong with this novella, but though reasonably well-written, with some very appealing descriptions of Summer's wet hair and swimmer's muscles, it left me with an overall meh feeling. I think I wanted it to either be more iddy or less by-the-numbers. I also really disliked the ending.
( Read more... )
On a different topic, if you recall my entry for last week, I am now partway into Jae's FF shifter novel Second Nature, in which Griffin, a liger soldier/assassin dedicated to making sure the human world never finds out about shifters is assigned to investigate a paranormal romance novelist, Jorie, whose in-progress FF shifter novel bears suspicious resemblance to the truth about actual shifters, and really enjoying it. It's more like 80s urban fantasy than current paranormal romance - the romance is the main story, but it's slow burn, there's tons of intricate worldbuilding, and a lot of non-romance relationships.
At the part I'm at now, Griffin (posing as a big cat biologist helping Jorie with her research) has been inveigled into being the buffer between Jorie and her visiting mom, they accidentally got along so well that Griffin and Jorie's mom had a solo lunch the next day so they could pump each other for info on the secretive Jorie, only Jorie's mom is allergic to cats and also to Griffin, so Griffin is sneaking antihistamines into her food while she's in the bathroom so she won't suspect. The book is overall much more serious than comic, but there are some scenes like that which are comedy gold.
comments
I like trauma and healing narratives, and with one exception there wasn't really anything wrong with this novella, but though reasonably well-written, with some very appealing descriptions of Summer's wet hair and swimmer's muscles, it left me with an overall meh feeling. I think I wanted it to either be more iddy or less by-the-numbers. I also really disliked the ending.
( Read more... )
On a different topic, if you recall my entry for last week, I am now partway into Jae's FF shifter novel Second Nature, in which Griffin, a liger soldier/assassin dedicated to making sure the human world never finds out about shifters is assigned to investigate a paranormal romance novelist, Jorie, whose in-progress FF shifter novel bears suspicious resemblance to the truth about actual shifters, and really enjoying it. It's more like 80s urban fantasy than current paranormal romance - the romance is the main story, but it's slow burn, there's tons of intricate worldbuilding, and a lot of non-romance relationships.
At the part I'm at now, Griffin (posing as a big cat biologist helping Jorie with her research) has been inveigled into being the buffer between Jorie and her visiting mom, they accidentally got along so well that Griffin and Jorie's mom had a solo lunch the next day so they could pump each other for info on the secretive Jorie, only Jorie's mom is allergic to cats and also to Griffin, so Griffin is sneaking antihistamines into her food while she's in the bathroom so she won't suspect. The book is overall much more serious than comic, but there are some scenes like that which are comedy gold.
comments
July 6, 2018
So long old job
Today in Van Nuys, where I used to work, it is 114 degrees F.
ETA: It is 103 where I live. Luckily I recently installed AC in my bedroom.
ETA 2: Riverside hit 118 degrees (tying its record from 1925).
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ETA: It is 103 where I live. Luckily I recently installed AC in my bedroom.
ETA 2: Riverside hit 118 degrees (tying its record from 1925).
comments
The Morning After, by Jae
An actress trapped on a terrible blind date with a clingy woman named Valentine, on Valentine’s Day, extracts herself and goes to an anti-Valentine’s Day party, where she gets so drunk that she blacks out. She wakes up the next morning in the bed of an attractive butch woman. What did happen the night before? And can she overcome her misconceptions and prejudices about butch women?
A free novelette by Jae, a very popular and respected FF writer. After reading this story, I can see why. Despite the fact that I didn’t like the plot and additionally didn’t much like the actress, the writing style was smooth, funny, likable, and drew me in. I wouldn’t really recommend this story--it packed in several tropes I dislike in its short length--but I’m going to try a couple of her novels that have much better-sounding plots. (Second Nature[image error], about a werewolf pack, and Heart Trouble[image error], about an ER doctor who soulbonds with a waitress.)
The Morning After[image error]
[image error] [image error]
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A free novelette by Jae, a very popular and respected FF writer. After reading this story, I can see why. Despite the fact that I didn’t like the plot and additionally didn’t much like the actress, the writing style was smooth, funny, likable, and drew me in. I wouldn’t really recommend this story--it packed in several tropes I dislike in its short length--but I’m going to try a couple of her novels that have much better-sounding plots. (Second Nature[image error], about a werewolf pack, and Heart Trouble[image error], about an ER doctor who soulbonds with a waitress.)
The Morning After[image error]
[image error] [image error]
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July 5, 2018
Dear AU Exchange Writer...
I'm requesting fic for everything.
( General Likes. )
( General DNWs. )
( Dark Tower - Stephen King )
( Punisher (TV 2017) )
( The Stand - Stephen King )
comments
( General Likes. )
( General DNWs. )
( Dark Tower - Stephen King )
( Punisher (TV 2017) )
( The Stand - Stephen King )
comments
Extremely fun fanfic exchange
I'd like to lure more people into participating in the AU Exchange, for alternate universes! Both canon divergence (what if Lobelia Baggins got the One Ring?) and actual alternate universes (what if Little House on the Prairie was a space opera?)
You can select from available fandoms and types of alternate universes here in the tagset - the types of alternate universes are under "freeforms," sorted by ones specific to certain fandoms and ones that can be applied to any, labeled "ALL." So, for instance, you select "Narnia" as your fandom, "Eustace Scrubb & Jill Pole" as your characters, and "ALL: Creepy/Dark Circus" as your AU. And so forth.
Here are a few of my favorite alternate universe tags which you can request someone to write for you, or offer to write yourself:
Star Wars Sequel Trilogy: Everything is the same except Kylo Ren is a chicken
Star Wars The Last Unicorn: The Last Unicorn is set and true in Star Wars
X-Men Comics: Xavier's Mansion Haunted By All The Dead Team Members
ALL: Heian Japan AU
ALL: Travelers on the Silk Road AU
ALL: Hyperspace test pilot AU
ALL: Female characters are the major players
ALL: Humans Soulbonding To Animals Is Common But Looked Down Upon
ALL: One Character Is A Demon That The Other Character(s) Summoned
ALL: Soulmate or 1000 Roaches AU (Context.)
I'm still working on my letter but in the meantime you can look at this one for an example of how it all might work. Contains huge spoilers for all listed fandoms, but if you click you'll see them all under a cut so you can just look at the ones you want to see.
comments
You can select from available fandoms and types of alternate universes here in the tagset - the types of alternate universes are under "freeforms," sorted by ones specific to certain fandoms and ones that can be applied to any, labeled "ALL." So, for instance, you select "Narnia" as your fandom, "Eustace Scrubb & Jill Pole" as your characters, and "ALL: Creepy/Dark Circus" as your AU. And so forth.
Here are a few of my favorite alternate universe tags which you can request someone to write for you, or offer to write yourself:
Star Wars Sequel Trilogy: Everything is the same except Kylo Ren is a chicken
Star Wars The Last Unicorn: The Last Unicorn is set and true in Star Wars
X-Men Comics: Xavier's Mansion Haunted By All The Dead Team Members
ALL: Heian Japan AU
ALL: Travelers on the Silk Road AU
ALL: Hyperspace test pilot AU
ALL: Female characters are the major players
ALL: Humans Soulbonding To Animals Is Common But Looked Down Upon
ALL: One Character Is A Demon That The Other Character(s) Summoned
ALL: Soulmate or 1000 Roaches AU (Context.)
I'm still working on my letter but in the meantime you can look at this one for an example of how it all might work. Contains huge spoilers for all listed fandoms, but if you click you'll see them all under a cut so you can just look at the ones you want to see.
comments
June 23, 2018
Villains who put kids in cages?
What are some fictional villains who put kids in cages? I'm making a sign pointing out what a classic supervillain move this is, and the only examples I'm coming up with are the witch in "Hansel and Gretel" and the supervillain with the flying decapitation hat in Heroic Trio. I'd like something a bit more iconic than the latter. Did this ever happen in Harry Potter?
ETA: Sorry, was overly literal. Locking children in dungeons also counts.
I just returned from a rally protesting the internment camps. It was notable for being the only political protest I've ever attended in which not only did cars and commercial trucks honk in support, so did several fire trucks. Going to another one next Saturday (June 30). Those are nationwide, and you can find one in your area here: https://act.moveon.org/event/families-belong-together/
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ETA: Sorry, was overly literal. Locking children in dungeons also counts.
I just returned from a rally protesting the internment camps. It was notable for being the only political protest I've ever attended in which not only did cars and commercial trucks honk in support, so did several fire trucks. Going to another one next Saturday (June 30). Those are nationwide, and you can find one in your area here: https://act.moveon.org/event/families-belong-together/
comments
