wednesday reading
Feb. 10th, 2017 01:35 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
boxofdelights• What are you reading?
The Buried Giant, by Kazuo Ishiguro, for SF book group. A third of the way in. We're not getting along very well. Everything is mysterious. Some things are portentous. No one understands anything, but no one is very bothered, because no one remembers anything. Except in fragments. One mysterious woman told the same story as another mysterious woman. A strange warrior keeps giving our main character significant looks: does he remember something that the MC does not? Another odd figure was going to tell us his theory, but he has to leave. He's back. His theory is that maybe it's not just the characters who are senile; maybe God is also going senile.
I think I am going to get to the end of this book and ask, "What was that all about?" And the book will answer, "I don't know, Susan. What do you think that was all about?"
• What did you recently finish reading?
The Left Hand of Darkness, by Ursula K. Le Guin. Reread, for classics book group. So good! Thirty years ago the exploration of gender interested me most, but now it is the politics, power, status, loyalty.
The book has also changed between readings because I fell in love with Due South, and now I cannot not see Estraven and Genly Ai as alternate-universe Fraser and Kowalski. Especially when Estraven does something amazingly competent. Or lets you see how hard it is on him to do something dishonorable, even when the end absolutely does justify the means. Or writes, about Genly, "He endures the cold pretty well, and if courage were enough, would stand it like a snow-worm." I wonder how many fics in which Fraser keeps a journal, or encourages Ray to, and then after the Quest one of them reads the other's journal, were inspired by Estraven's journals more than Bob's?
• What do you think you’ll read next?
A spool of blue thread, by Anne Tyler, for Tawanda book group.
The Buried Giant, by Kazuo Ishiguro, for SF book group. A third of the way in. We're not getting along very well. Everything is mysterious. Some things are portentous. No one understands anything, but no one is very bothered, because no one remembers anything. Except in fragments. One mysterious woman told the same story as another mysterious woman. A strange warrior keeps giving our main character significant looks: does he remember something that the MC does not? Another odd figure was going to tell us his theory, but he has to leave. He's back. His theory is that maybe it's not just the characters who are senile; maybe God is also going senile.
I think I am going to get to the end of this book and ask, "What was that all about?" And the book will answer, "I don't know, Susan. What do you think that was all about?"
• What did you recently finish reading?
The Left Hand of Darkness, by Ursula K. Le Guin. Reread, for classics book group. So good! Thirty years ago the exploration of gender interested me most, but now it is the politics, power, status, loyalty.
The book has also changed between readings because I fell in love with Due South, and now I cannot not see Estraven and Genly Ai as alternate-universe Fraser and Kowalski. Especially when Estraven does something amazingly competent. Or lets you see how hard it is on him to do something dishonorable, even when the end absolutely does justify the means. Or writes, about Genly, "He endures the cold pretty well, and if courage were enough, would stand it like a snow-worm." I wonder how many fics in which Fraser keeps a journal, or encourages Ray to, and then after the Quest one of them reads the other's journal, were inspired by Estraven's journals more than Bob's?
• What do you think you’ll read next?
A spool of blue thread, by Anne Tyler, for Tawanda book group.
no subject
Date: 2017-02-10 12:08 pm (UTC)Yes! This was my experience, too. I thought it had really interesting things to say about nationalism and politics.
The book has also changed between readings because I fell in love with Due South, and now I cannot not see Estraven and Genly Ai as alternate-universe Fraser and Kowalski.
This has actually never struck me before! And...I'm not sure I agree, actually. I mean, I see what you mean, but all of them are so much their own persons for me that I can't just see one pair as versions of the other.
I actually quit reading The Buried Giant halfway through--it was just not for me. /o\
no subject
Date: 2017-02-12 02:49 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2017-02-10 06:30 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2018-03-26 08:00 pm (UTC)Everything is mysterious. Some things are portentous.
Yes.
no subject
Date: 2018-03-26 11:05 pm (UTC)