Wednesday Reading Meme July 23 2025
Jul. 23rd, 2025 06:02 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kitewithfishWhat I’ve Read
The Goblin Emperor by Katherine Addison – easily my fifth time thru this book. Love how this just unfolds slowly. Maia is such an isolated character but with a deeply firm sense of justice and care for his actual subjects – it’s a bit nonsense as a political system (an emperor from fucking nowhere with no real power base getting the throne and it not turning into a bloody mess? Unlikely!) but as personal journey, it was great. Read it with a book group for the first time and lovely to talk about it with a group.
Someone You Can Build a Nest In – (2024) by John Wiswell – This is a good book! Experimentally gooey and weird first person monster narration, solid set of social and romantic conundrums, solid emotional base, and the story unfolds at a good pace. Overall, a great first novel! At one point, the gooey monster uses the word “allosexual” in their mental narration and I had to put the book down for a minute, but, well, it’s otherwise a pretty good romance and a pretty good adventure. I think I’ll read John Wiswell again. He’s doing interesting things with body horror that is also just… a nonhuman person navigating disability in a convincing way. Some rosemary slander.
Excellent Women by Barbara Pym – (1952) I picked this up at the suggestion of a friend whose favorite writer is Max Beerbohm, which I think tells you something about her general reading – usually she’s reading much earlier books than me! This book is one of those English novels of manners that feels like a comedy poised on the knife edge of tragedy – if the author were any less adept at navigating social folly, it could veer into a giant mess, but she keeps dancing on that edge, and I kept laughing! Our main character is Mildred Lathbury, shabby and respectable and a reliable help to her community, observing the world of the more dramatic and more careless married neighbors who somehow keep involving her in their nonsense. Mildred is too sensible and too English to let herself get totally swept up in their drama, but is nevertheless too kind and too accustomed to ‘being useful’ for other people to totally divorce herself from the awkwardness of it all. The end of the novel reads as a bit wistful to me – Mildred seems to be veering towards an existential crisis, wondering if there’s every going to be more to her life than being one of the ‘excellent women’ whose time is at the disposal of every social need but their own happiness. I *think* from context that the end of the novel, where she agrees to help a pushy academic edits his papers, is meant to be a step towards romance and a more fulfilling life, but it’s 1952 and it’s England and Mildred is too smart to not see the trap she’s in and too accustomed to it to balk and run. It’s not quite Austen but it’s not not Austen.
What I’m Reading
Witness for the Dead by Katherine Addison – 50% - Audiobook – A Re-read inspired by the Goblin Emperor. This novel follows an investigator introduced in Goblin Emperor in his life after that case. It’s a great example of mystery plots and worldbuilding working in tandem – not every petitioner who comes to Thara Celehar for help asks for help with a mystery that is mysterious to them. Sometimes the case is an opportunity for Addison to show the reader something about the world that is totally everyday for them and wildly strange to us – allowing the story to unfold the world as a mystery itself!
Style: Toward Clarity and Grace by Joseph Williams – 1981 book on writing clearly. 20%
Immortal Dark by Tigest Girma – 25% - Audiobook - A habesha-focused YA vampire novel. I’m having a little trouble squaring the idea that vampires formed a pact with humans to limit their predation and the end result was… a university? But the book comes highly recommended and I do like the main character, Kidane Adane (whose name is roughly Amharic for “hero protagonist”). She’s a bit stressful at this point in the narrative, vengeful and grieving by turns.
My Favorite Thing is Monsters Vol 2 – Emil Ferris – 30% - I gave up on the hard copy of this book because it’s a behemoth and I simply cannot hold it comfortably.
Service Model by Adrian Tchaikovsky – 5% - I have known robot valet Charles for 5 minutes but if anything bad happens to him, I will fly to England and beat Tchaikovsky’s mailbox with a bat. This is, oddly, a nice companion to Excellent Woman by providing a POV character who is actually completely devoted to taking care of a single man, as a programmed robot, instead of a coerced woman. Charles is having a bit of a crisis.
What I’ll Read Next
The Deep Dark
Track Changes
Alien Clay
Monstress, Vol. 9: The Possessed
Navigational Entanglements
The Butcher of the Forest
The Practice, the Horizon, and the Chain
Speculative Whiteness: Science Fiction and the Alt-Right
The Brides of High Hill
The Tusks of Extinction
“Charting the Cliff: An Investigation into the 2023 Hugo Nomination Statistics”
“Signs of Life”
“By Salt, By Sea, By Light of Stars”
“The Brotherhood of Montague St. Video”
“Loneliness Universe”
“The 2023 Hugo Awards: A Report on Censorship and Exclusion”
“The Four Sisters Overlooking the Sea”
“Lake of Souls”
The Goblin Emperor by Katherine Addison – easily my fifth time thru this book. Love how this just unfolds slowly. Maia is such an isolated character but with a deeply firm sense of justice and care for his actual subjects – it’s a bit nonsense as a political system (an emperor from fucking nowhere with no real power base getting the throne and it not turning into a bloody mess? Unlikely!) but as personal journey, it was great. Read it with a book group for the first time and lovely to talk about it with a group.
Someone You Can Build a Nest In – (2024) by John Wiswell – This is a good book! Experimentally gooey and weird first person monster narration, solid set of social and romantic conundrums, solid emotional base, and the story unfolds at a good pace. Overall, a great first novel! At one point, the gooey monster uses the word “allosexual” in their mental narration and I had to put the book down for a minute, but, well, it’s otherwise a pretty good romance and a pretty good adventure. I think I’ll read John Wiswell again. He’s doing interesting things with body horror that is also just… a nonhuman person navigating disability in a convincing way. Some rosemary slander.
Excellent Women by Barbara Pym – (1952) I picked this up at the suggestion of a friend whose favorite writer is Max Beerbohm, which I think tells you something about her general reading – usually she’s reading much earlier books than me! This book is one of those English novels of manners that feels like a comedy poised on the knife edge of tragedy – if the author were any less adept at navigating social folly, it could veer into a giant mess, but she keeps dancing on that edge, and I kept laughing! Our main character is Mildred Lathbury, shabby and respectable and a reliable help to her community, observing the world of the more dramatic and more careless married neighbors who somehow keep involving her in their nonsense. Mildred is too sensible and too English to let herself get totally swept up in their drama, but is nevertheless too kind and too accustomed to ‘being useful’ for other people to totally divorce herself from the awkwardness of it all. The end of the novel reads as a bit wistful to me – Mildred seems to be veering towards an existential crisis, wondering if there’s every going to be more to her life than being one of the ‘excellent women’ whose time is at the disposal of every social need but their own happiness. I *think* from context that the end of the novel, where she agrees to help a pushy academic edits his papers, is meant to be a step towards romance and a more fulfilling life, but it’s 1952 and it’s England and Mildred is too smart to not see the trap she’s in and too accustomed to it to balk and run. It’s not quite Austen but it’s not not Austen.
What I’m Reading
Witness for the Dead by Katherine Addison – 50% - Audiobook – A Re-read inspired by the Goblin Emperor. This novel follows an investigator introduced in Goblin Emperor in his life after that case. It’s a great example of mystery plots and worldbuilding working in tandem – not every petitioner who comes to Thara Celehar for help asks for help with a mystery that is mysterious to them. Sometimes the case is an opportunity for Addison to show the reader something about the world that is totally everyday for them and wildly strange to us – allowing the story to unfold the world as a mystery itself!
Style: Toward Clarity and Grace by Joseph Williams – 1981 book on writing clearly. 20%
Immortal Dark by Tigest Girma – 25% - Audiobook - A habesha-focused YA vampire novel. I’m having a little trouble squaring the idea that vampires formed a pact with humans to limit their predation and the end result was… a university? But the book comes highly recommended and I do like the main character, Kidane Adane (whose name is roughly Amharic for “hero protagonist”). She’s a bit stressful at this point in the narrative, vengeful and grieving by turns.
My Favorite Thing is Monsters Vol 2 – Emil Ferris – 30% - I gave up on the hard copy of this book because it’s a behemoth and I simply cannot hold it comfortably.
Service Model by Adrian Tchaikovsky – 5% - I have known robot valet Charles for 5 minutes but if anything bad happens to him, I will fly to England and beat Tchaikovsky’s mailbox with a bat. This is, oddly, a nice companion to Excellent Woman by providing a POV character who is actually completely devoted to taking care of a single man, as a programmed robot, instead of a coerced woman. Charles is having a bit of a crisis.
What I’ll Read Next
The Deep Dark
Track Changes
Alien Clay
Monstress, Vol. 9: The Possessed
Navigational Entanglements
The Butcher of the Forest
The Practice, the Horizon, and the Chain
Speculative Whiteness: Science Fiction and the Alt-Right
The Brides of High Hill
The Tusks of Extinction
“Charting the Cliff: An Investigation into the 2023 Hugo Nomination Statistics”
“Signs of Life”
“By Salt, By Sea, By Light of Stars”
“The Brotherhood of Montague St. Video”
“Loneliness Universe”
“The 2023 Hugo Awards: A Report on Censorship and Exclusion”
“The Four Sisters Overlooking the Sea”
“Lake of Souls”
Hello!
Jul. 20th, 2025 05:03 pmthemagpieapologues posting in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
addme_fandomName: Zumi
Pronouns: They/them
Age Group: 40s
Country USA
Subscription/Access Policy: Public posts in general, with some members-locked ones. Everyone is free to add, though!
What I chat about: Usually whatever random thoughts are going on, particularly any fandom thoughts I have. I want to post more often, particularly in talking about a couple creative projects I've got going on. So, pretty much anything I feel like posting...? With heavy irregularity; it's not unusual for me to go weeks without using my journal, so don't be concerned if I vanish off the face of DW for a while.
I'm looking to connect with people who: Want to chat, whether about random things or fandom things (even if non-shared fandoms). Collaborators, other creators, or people who just want to have ordinary conversations! I'm not that interested in taking part in discourse or anti culture, and I don't tend to post many negative things myself, but if you wanna chat about something and get it off your chest, that's also fair game.
Main Fandoms: Disney Ducks (particularly the wider Uncle $crooge comicsverse) is a big one, as is Fraggle Rock. Pokemon and Digimon are also huge ones cohabitating in my brain. Oh! And also Megaman, especially the EXE series. These are all pretty equally big fandoms in my book. And Red Dead Redemption 2 and RDO; looking to play RDR1 someday, but that's a little out of my reach right now.
Other Fandoms: Dimension 20, Skyrim, Dungeon Meshi, Fullmetal Alchemist, Animal Crossing, Dreamlight Valley, Undertale and Deltarune, Final Fantasy series, Kingdom Hearts, In Stars and Time, Stardew Valley, The Sims, Sherlock Holmes, assorted other older anime, Dragonlance, DnD as a whole, assorted Disney franchises, assorted Dreamworks franchises, been really getting into CBS's Ghosts, really I've been in fandom spaces for a long time there's a LOT here, I KNOW I'm forgetting some...
What I Create for Fandom: Fanart, for the most part. The occasional fic, but mostly it's drawing.
Other Hobbies: Reading, photography, hiking, fishing, video games, painting
Pronouns: They/them
Age Group: 40s
Country USA
Subscription/Access Policy: Public posts in general, with some members-locked ones. Everyone is free to add, though!
What I chat about: Usually whatever random thoughts are going on, particularly any fandom thoughts I have. I want to post more often, particularly in talking about a couple creative projects I've got going on. So, pretty much anything I feel like posting...? With heavy irregularity; it's not unusual for me to go weeks without using my journal, so don't be concerned if I vanish off the face of DW for a while.
I'm looking to connect with people who: Want to chat, whether about random things or fandom things (even if non-shared fandoms). Collaborators, other creators, or people who just want to have ordinary conversations! I'm not that interested in taking part in discourse or anti culture, and I don't tend to post many negative things myself, but if you wanna chat about something and get it off your chest, that's also fair game.
Main Fandoms: Disney Ducks (particularly the wider Uncle $crooge comicsverse) is a big one, as is Fraggle Rock. Pokemon and Digimon are also huge ones cohabitating in my brain. Oh! And also Megaman, especially the EXE series. These are all pretty equally big fandoms in my book. And Red Dead Redemption 2 and RDO; looking to play RDR1 someday, but that's a little out of my reach right now.
Other Fandoms: Dimension 20, Skyrim, Dungeon Meshi, Fullmetal Alchemist, Animal Crossing, Dreamlight Valley, Undertale and Deltarune, Final Fantasy series, Kingdom Hearts, In Stars and Time, Stardew Valley, The Sims, Sherlock Holmes, assorted other older anime, Dragonlance, DnD as a whole, assorted Disney franchises, assorted Dreamworks franchises, been really getting into CBS's Ghosts, really I've been in fandom spaces for a long time there's a LOT here, I KNOW I'm forgetting some...
What I Create for Fandom: Fanart, for the most part. The occasional fic, but mostly it's drawing.
Other Hobbies: Reading, photography, hiking, fishing, video games, painting
(no subject)
Jul. 18th, 2025 12:19 pmdame_grise posting in addme_fandomName: Sam
Age group: 50+
Country: USA
Subscription/Access Policy: I am fairly easy about access/subscribing/etc. with a few exceptions. No sharing any comments from my posts, mine or others, outside of this platform. And if it's locked, it's locked. I use filters, so sometimes having access to one post is not access to others. Good? Then feel free to read/add/etc. If I like you, I'll do the same. Feel free to read the topmost sticky on my journal (should be public) or any with the ban policy tags for further details.
Fannish Interests: A lot? I'm old. Lots of old-school anime. Doctor Who, old and new (and new new). Musicals and literary fandoms. Mostly I write my own stuff. I'm DameGrise on AO3 with fics from The Scarlet Pimpernel and others.
I like to post about: My life, mostly, fan stuff sometimes, health issues, etc. I have various filters.
About Me/Other Info: Older Southern female librarian stuck in the Midwest. I write, play video games. I'm disabled and queer. Ask?
I tagged big general things if that's okay.
I tagged big general things if that's okay.
Stealing more memes from Sara
Jul. 17th, 2025 07:39 amshamanicshayminGive me a fandom and I will describe the most self-indulgent fic I could write for it.
zarlaI keep going back and forth between Aokabu and Deltarune thoughts, I want to think about both of them and it's hard to balance them! Then out of nowhere yesterday, I woke up with a few lines in my head for this scene in Vargas I've been stuck on for years. I started it back before I hurt my arm in like, 2021, and I've chipped at it occasionally but it'd mostly been sitting there mocking me.
I should've drawn something, but I figured I'd have to ride the inspiration as long as it was there. Just get the ball rolling. I ended up banging out like 11k in one sitting. IT FELT GREAT.
I got through the scene and it played out a bit differently than I expected. I have a lot of scraps of scenes in that file I played out and didn't use, or hadn't found a place for, or wanted to get down a certain turn of phrase, and a bunch of them don't work anymore now. There are still some other scraps I'd like to work into it... and it's just a first draft, but still! I got a good chunk into the next scene too, although it went in a totally different direction than I planned. I'm trying to think of a good stopping point for it. It'd be amazing to finally get a whole draft done for the chapter after all this time. I joke sometimes that the stars have to align for me to write a new chapter for Vargas, it can't be predicted, BUT THAT'S REALLY WHAT IT'S LIKE SOMETIMES.
Really does feel good to get the ball rolling on it again. This fic will follow me to my grave.
lj post
I should've drawn something, but I figured I'd have to ride the inspiration as long as it was there. Just get the ball rolling. I ended up banging out like 11k in one sitting. IT FELT GREAT.
I got through the scene and it played out a bit differently than I expected. I have a lot of scraps of scenes in that file I played out and didn't use, or hadn't found a place for, or wanted to get down a certain turn of phrase, and a bunch of them don't work anymore now. There are still some other scraps I'd like to work into it... and it's just a first draft, but still! I got a good chunk into the next scene too, although it went in a totally different direction than I planned. I'm trying to think of a good stopping point for it. It'd be amazing to finally get a whole draft done for the chapter after all this time. I joke sometimes that the stars have to align for me to write a new chapter for Vargas, it can't be predicted, BUT THAT'S REALLY WHAT IT'S LIKE SOMETIMES.
Really does feel good to get the ball rolling on it again. This fic will follow me to my grave.
lj post
Wednesday Reading Meme July 16 2025
Jul. 16th, 2025 04:22 pmkitewithfishWhat I’ve Read
Nothing to completion! I am reading a lot of different books at the same time tho.
What I’m Reading
Someone You Can Build a Nest In by John Wiswell – Last week I called this “a weird and gooey monster book” – This week, it’s a devastating romance with the two main characters that have layers upon layers of mommy issues. It’s great, would recommend. Hugos Shortlist.
Style: Toward Clarity and Grace by Joseph Williams – 1981 book on writing clearly. I think it does a lot of really careful explanation of the problems people encounter with getting their ideas into words. I’m only about 10% in.
Excellent Women by Barbara Pym – 1952, set immediately post-War in England. Our main character is a spinster with a fascinating set of social circles. “Excellent women” in this case seem to be all the women who do the grunt work of making things work in society. Recommended by a friend who never reads anything more recent than the 1970s.
The Goblin Emperor by Katherine Addison – re-reading for book club. Yup, this is amazing. Easily the fourth time I have re-read.
The Familiar by Leigh Bardugo – Did not finish, am abandoning – I realized that the annoying side character was actually going to be a romantic interest and I was like, I need out.
What I’ll Read Next
The Deep Dark
Track Changes
Alien Clay
Service Model
Monstress, Vol. 9: The Possessed
Navigational Entanglements
The Butcher of the Forest
The Practice, the Horizon, and the Chain
Speculative Whiteness: Science Fiction and the Alt-Right
The Brides of High Hill
The Tusks of Extinction
“Charting the Cliff: An Investigation into the 2023 Hugo Nomination Statistics”
“Signs of Life”
“By Salt, By Sea, By Light of Stars”
“The Brotherhood of Montague St. Video”
“Loneliness Universe”
“The 2023 Hugo Awards: A Report on Censorship and Exclusion”
“The Four Sisters Overlooking the Sea”
“Lake of Souls”
Nothing to completion! I am reading a lot of different books at the same time tho.
What I’m Reading
Someone You Can Build a Nest In by John Wiswell – Last week I called this “a weird and gooey monster book” – This week, it’s a devastating romance with the two main characters that have layers upon layers of mommy issues. It’s great, would recommend. Hugos Shortlist.
Style: Toward Clarity and Grace by Joseph Williams – 1981 book on writing clearly. I think it does a lot of really careful explanation of the problems people encounter with getting their ideas into words. I’m only about 10% in.
Excellent Women by Barbara Pym – 1952, set immediately post-War in England. Our main character is a spinster with a fascinating set of social circles. “Excellent women” in this case seem to be all the women who do the grunt work of making things work in society. Recommended by a friend who never reads anything more recent than the 1970s.
The Goblin Emperor by Katherine Addison – re-reading for book club. Yup, this is amazing. Easily the fourth time I have re-read.
The Familiar by Leigh Bardugo – Did not finish, am abandoning – I realized that the annoying side character was actually going to be a romantic interest and I was like, I need out.
What I’ll Read Next
The Deep Dark
Track Changes
Alien Clay
Service Model
Monstress, Vol. 9: The Possessed
Navigational Entanglements
The Butcher of the Forest
The Practice, the Horizon, and the Chain
Speculative Whiteness: Science Fiction and the Alt-Right
The Brides of High Hill
The Tusks of Extinction
“Charting the Cliff: An Investigation into the 2023 Hugo Nomination Statistics”
“Signs of Life”
“By Salt, By Sea, By Light of Stars”
“The Brotherhood of Montague St. Video”
“Loneliness Universe”
“The 2023 Hugo Awards: A Report on Censorship and Exclusion”
“The Four Sisters Overlooking the Sea”
“Lake of Souls”
Bonjour! :)
Jul. 13th, 2025 12:45 amjavert posting in addme_fandomName: Sam(ifer)
Age Group: early 30s
Country: Austria
Subscription/Access Policy: I don't (currently) make locked posts. Other than that, anyone is free to subscribe, unsubscribe, grant access, revoke access, etc.
About Me/Other Info: I'm a French guy who's constantly trying to post more on this website, and right now what my brain craves is more activity on my Reading page. o7 I'm participating insunshine_revival which has been helping with the posting, but my Reading page is pretty slow and I'd really like to get more people on there so we can all post alongside each other. Or something. I'm mostly looking for people who post about fandom stuff, but the actual fandom isn't super important to me (though if we have fandoms in common, that's great!) I'm more into the vibe of shared enthusiasm/passion, you know? I'll show you the little (size neutral) guys (gender neutral) that make my heart soar, you'll show me yours. That sort of stuff.
Main Fandom: My main fandom is Pokémon, specifically Pokémon X&Y. It's been my ride or die for over a decade now, though I've been a general/more casual Pokémon enjoyer since 1999. I love the creatures (all generations, though I don't know the ScaVio ones very well yet) and I love the characters (especially the Kalosian ones, but my heart is open to most of them.) In general, I'm largely into the games, and not so much into the rest, but that doesn't mean I dislike it.
Other Fandoms: Non-exhaustive list, because I can never remember what I like: .flow, A Series of Unfortunate Events (books & show), Ace Attorney, Amphibia, Animal Crossing, Arcane, Assassin's Creed (mostly Unity), BEASTARS, Far Cry 4, Final Fantasy (7, 9, 15), James Bond (Craig era), The Legend of Zelda, Minecraft, Mob Psycho 100, Petscop, Pokémon GO, Portal (1&2), Severance, Silent Hill (2&4), Sonic the Hedgehog (games & movies), Squid Game, Star Wars (movies), Stardew Valley, Super Paper Mario, Tales of Symphonia, Undertale/Deltarune, Vocaloid, Yakuza/Like a Dragon, Yume Nikki, Yuppie Psycho.
OTPs and Ships: My OTP is Professor Sycamore/Lysandre from Pokémon X&Y! Unbeatable! Number one forever! On my death bed I will be thinking about them! Other than that, here's a selection of ships I've been into in the last few years: Redd/Nook (Animal Crossing) Sade/Arno (Assassin's Creed) Ibuki/Louis (BEASTARS) Ganondorf/Link/Zelda (The Legend of Zelda) Serizawa/Touichirou (Mob Psycho 100) Eusine/Morty, Serena/Shauna, almost any male character/Lysandre (Pokémon) In-ho/Gi-hun (Squid Game) Zelos/Regal (Tales of Symphonia) Tachibana/Oda, Majima/Nishiki (Yakuza/Like a Dragon)
Fannish Activities: I draw and write! This year has rendered me a bit too swamped to do much of either (I haven't written anything in months and I miss it a lot) but these are my two main fannish endeavors. I also frequently participate in events (mostly exchanges, but not always) and sometimes even mod/host them. I also have a (WIP) fansite for Pokémon X&Y!
Non-Fannish Interests: Right now, I'm super into webdev and web design. I also like and am curious about all kinds of arts and crafts (trying to get back into sculpting and painting lately, also picked up cross-stitching through one of my partners.) I miss taking long walks around a lake, and I love animals (I have two cats!) I also enjoy washing the dishes...
Age Group: early 30s
Country: Austria
Subscription/Access Policy: I don't (currently) make locked posts. Other than that, anyone is free to subscribe, unsubscribe, grant access, revoke access, etc.
About Me/Other Info: I'm a French guy who's constantly trying to post more on this website, and right now what my brain craves is more activity on my Reading page. o7 I'm participating in
sunshine_revival which has been helping with the posting, but my Reading page is pretty slow and I'd really like to get more people on there so we can all post alongside each other. Or something. I'm mostly looking for people who post about fandom stuff, but the actual fandom isn't super important to me (though if we have fandoms in common, that's great!) I'm more into the vibe of shared enthusiasm/passion, you know? I'll show you the little (size neutral) guys (gender neutral) that make my heart soar, you'll show me yours. That sort of stuff.Main Fandom: My main fandom is Pokémon, specifically Pokémon X&Y. It's been my ride or die for over a decade now, though I've been a general/more casual Pokémon enjoyer since 1999. I love the creatures (all generations, though I don't know the ScaVio ones very well yet) and I love the characters (especially the Kalosian ones, but my heart is open to most of them.) In general, I'm largely into the games, and not so much into the rest, but that doesn't mean I dislike it.
Other Fandoms: Non-exhaustive list, because I can never remember what I like: .flow, A Series of Unfortunate Events (books & show), Ace Attorney, Amphibia, Animal Crossing, Arcane, Assassin's Creed (mostly Unity), BEASTARS, Far Cry 4, Final Fantasy (7, 9, 15), James Bond (Craig era), The Legend of Zelda, Minecraft, Mob Psycho 100, Petscop, Pokémon GO, Portal (1&2), Severance, Silent Hill (2&4), Sonic the Hedgehog (games & movies), Squid Game, Star Wars (movies), Stardew Valley, Super Paper Mario, Tales of Symphonia, Undertale/Deltarune, Vocaloid, Yakuza/Like a Dragon, Yume Nikki, Yuppie Psycho.
OTPs and Ships: My OTP is Professor Sycamore/Lysandre from Pokémon X&Y! Unbeatable! Number one forever! On my death bed I will be thinking about them! Other than that, here's a selection of ships I've been into in the last few years: Redd/Nook (Animal Crossing) Sade/Arno (Assassin's Creed) Ibuki/Louis (BEASTARS) Ganondorf/Link/Zelda (The Legend of Zelda) Serizawa/Touichirou (Mob Psycho 100) Eusine/Morty, Serena/Shauna, almost any male character/Lysandre (Pokémon) In-ho/Gi-hun (Squid Game) Zelos/Regal (Tales of Symphonia) Tachibana/Oda, Majima/Nishiki (Yakuza/Like a Dragon)
Fannish Activities: I draw and write! This year has rendered me a bit too swamped to do much of either (I haven't written anything in months and I miss it a lot) but these are my two main fannish endeavors. I also frequently participate in events (mostly exchanges, but not always) and sometimes even mod/host them. I also have a (WIP) fansite for Pokémon X&Y!
Non-Fannish Interests: Right now, I'm super into webdev and web design. I also like and am curious about all kinds of arts and crafts (trying to get back into sculpting and painting lately, also picked up cross-stitching through one of my partners.) I miss taking long walks around a lake, and I love animals (I have two cats!) I also enjoy washing the dishes...
(SFF Bingo): The Birthday of the World And Other Stories, by Ursula K. Le Guin
Jul. 12th, 2025 09:05 amprimeidealI'm pretty sure I've read one book by Le Guin before (this would have been ~15+ years ago so I'm not sure on the details): "Changing Planes," a collection of various worldbuilding descriptions of fantasy worlds accessed from the liminal space of airport terminals. Not much plot, just descriptions. The K. in Ursula K. Le Guin is for Kroeber; her father was an anthropology professor at Berkeley who, among other topics, studied Ishi, an indigenous man from California who was the last of the Yahi people. So this is quite the setup for SF as anthropology.
The reason "The Birthday of the World," in particular, was on my radar was because it contains two of Le Guin's three stories about "sedoretu," a complex social structure where culturally-sanctioned marriages are in groups of four; this premise has taken off in the fanfiction world, because sometimes you're like "this character has a hard enough time trying to find one partner, how would they handle it if they were expected to marry three?" So I wanted to know how more about how worldbuilding worked in that setting--how are names handed down? That kind of thing.
There are eight stories in this collection, most of which are set in the "Ekumen" universe she's used as a setting for many of her novels and short fiction. And several share the themes of "slice of life that's more about revealing the setting than a big plot or conflict."
"Coming of Age in Karhide"--same world as "The Left Hand of Darkness" (which I haven't read), about a planet where the people are mostly human but experience gender and sexuality very differently from Earth people. The changes that come with puberty (or menopause) are weird and scary for everyone, no matter where you are in the galaxy; part of why we have rituals is to help us cope with that. It raises some questions I've seen in a contemporary context about "what kinds of things do people tolerate if they believe they're inevitable, but would rebel against if they thought an alternative was available?"
"The Matter of Seggri"--snapshots from a planet with a very skewed sex ratio and how it evolves over the centuries. One thing that this and "Coming of Age" both did well was depict how children's play is a mirror of what they see in adult society--when kids on our world "play house" or act out stories with their stuffed animals, they're imagining what it means to be "the mother" or "the father," and even if this is a very limited understanding, it still tells you something about the world they live in. Which is oftentimes more interesting or revealing than just depicting the adults doing adult things.
"Unchosen Love" and "Mountain Ways" are the sedoretu stories. In this world, you can only have sex with someone of your same moiety. This is a very big taboo; cross-dressing to adopt a different gender is okay, if that helps with the marriage balance, but the moiety division is more fundamental.
In the introduction (which is great, and has some very funny asides), Le Guin describes "Solitude" this way:
There are some abrupt jumps when it seems the most interesting stuff is happening offscreen (Luis' friend argues with him about religion; a moment later, Luis is elected council leader because everyone likes him, even the religious people). But overall, this one was really compelling.
Bingo: Five short stories. Hot take: at least some of the stories ("Coming of Age in Karhide," the sedoretu ones) are sufficiently slice-of-life, "low stakes, minimal conflict" to meet the spirit of "Cozy SFF." (I don't think "Old Music and the Slave Women" counts in any sense of the word.) I have no idea what I'm actually going to use for that square, something like "The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet" doesn't do it for me.
The reason "The Birthday of the World," in particular, was on my radar was because it contains two of Le Guin's three stories about "sedoretu," a complex social structure where culturally-sanctioned marriages are in groups of four; this premise has taken off in the fanfiction world, because sometimes you're like "this character has a hard enough time trying to find one partner, how would they handle it if they were expected to marry three?" So I wanted to know how more about how worldbuilding worked in that setting--how are names handed down? That kind of thing.
There are eight stories in this collection, most of which are set in the "Ekumen" universe she's used as a setting for many of her novels and short fiction. And several share the themes of "slice of life that's more about revealing the setting than a big plot or conflict."
"Coming of Age in Karhide"--same world as "The Left Hand of Darkness" (which I haven't read), about a planet where the people are mostly human but experience gender and sexuality very differently from Earth people. The changes that come with puberty (or menopause) are weird and scary for everyone, no matter where you are in the galaxy; part of why we have rituals is to help us cope with that. It raises some questions I've seen in a contemporary context about "what kinds of things do people tolerate if they believe they're inevitable, but would rebel against if they thought an alternative was available?"
"The Matter of Seggri"--snapshots from a planet with a very skewed sex ratio and how it evolves over the centuries. One thing that this and "Coming of Age" both did well was depict how children's play is a mirror of what they see in adult society--when kids on our world "play house" or act out stories with their stuffed animals, they're imagining what it means to be "the mother" or "the father," and even if this is a very limited understanding, it still tells you something about the world they live in. Which is oftentimes more interesting or revealing than just depicting the adults doing adult things.
"Unchosen Love" and "Mountain Ways" are the sedoretu stories. In this world, you can only have sex with someone of your same moiety. This is a very big taboo; cross-dressing to adopt a different gender is okay, if that helps with the marriage balance, but the moiety division is more fundamental.
What is a moiety? a Gethenian asked me, and I realised that it’s easier for me to imagine not knowing which sex I’ll be tomorrow morning, like the Gethenian, than to imagine not knowing whether I was a Morning person or an Evening person. So complete, so universal a division of humanity — how can there be a society without it? How do you know who anyone is? How can you give worship without the one to ask and the other to answer, the one to pour and the other to drink?
I wanted to know more about the stereotypes associated with these. Are Morning people or Evening people the ones who ask, or pour? When you meet someone new in a big city, how do you tell their moiety--would people introduce themselves the way some people in our world make a point of introducing themselves with gender pronouns? I didn't feel like the stories really fleshed that out for me. (Which means I'll just be left to my own devices if I ever decide to write fanfiction with this conceit.)In the introduction (which is great, and has some very funny asides), Le Guin describes "Solitude" this way:
the concern of the story...is about survival, loyalty, and introversion. Hardly anybody ever writes anything nice about introverts. Extraverts rule. This is really rather odd when you realise that about nineteen writers out of twenty are introverts.
We have been taught to be ashamed of not being “outgoing.” But a writer’s job is ingoing.
I'm not sure I would agree! The premise, at the start, is that this is another anthropological story; Leaf wants to learn more about the world of Eleven-Soro, but finds it very difficult to talk with the people there, because they barely have any social structure. Her Hainish colleagues think it might be easier for children who grow up in Sorovian culture to understand and make sense of it, and so Leaf raises her son Borny (eight) and daughter Ren (five) on Soro. Years later, Leaf and Borny want to go back to their spacefaring society, but Ren wants to stay. The Sorovians are not "a people;" they are "persons," and Ren wants to be a (solitary) "person." Leaf is aghast and believes she's failed if her child is rejecting all the opportunities of high-technology life in favor or an isolated existence in the jungle.
In some ways, women have a stronger social structure and slightly better lives than men on Soro, so the fact that Borny wants to go back to the Hainish ship and Ren doesn't is understandable in light of that. But I think their ages at the beginning are also significant. Borny can remember a time before Soro, and appreciate what the space station has to offer, much more clearly than Ren. Everything Leaf experiences makes lots of sense--if an ethnographer can never really get an objective, bird's-eye, view, the only way to understand a culture is to live in it authentically, then maybe the only way to do that is to do it from childhood...she wouldn't want to interfere with the native Sorovians and abduct them away from their home, but it feels different leaving her daughter to experience what seems to be a much lower quality of life.
If it was just a story of "extraverts versus introverts," then I might feel more aligned with Ren's attitude of "I don't need a big social structure, I'm just me." But I think there's an asymmetry in that it would be easier (not easy, but easier) for a Hainish person to choose a life more like the isolated Sorovians, than for a Sorovian to make the reverse decision. There's a lot of discourse about "is it a weakness of liberalism that it doesn't tell people what the good life is, or is it a strength that it allows different people and different subcultures to pursue different versions of the good life?" Our world, and Hainish spaceships, are not perfect, but I'm grateful for the different opportunities and technologies they allow.
"Old Music and the Slave Women" is a follow-up to "Four Ways to Forgiveness" (haven't read that either), stories about a Hainish observer on a world full of slavery and, in this installment, civil war. He gets captured by the pro-slavery government, spends some time getting tortured, then awkwardly tries to make small talk with the (former?) slaves like "haha, I, too, have been tortured in the cages!" Is this trauma dumping as bonding opportunity, or cringey "guy who has only been tortured for a couple hours can't possibly understand people who have been slaves their entire lives?" I don't know. There were some poignant reflections on what it means for a family of slaves to have a child born into freedom, even if he only lives for a few years, but on the whole it was very bleak.
This isn't specific to any particular story but I will note that Le Guin is extremely blunt and to-the-point about the facts of life. Societies and family units differ widely across all the settings, but I found a lot more explicit discussion of penises, vulvas, fucking, and rape than in most of what I read. Which can be useful and illustrative, but sometimes gets wearing. (The sedoretu stories were probably the least explicit in this regard. Yeah, their rituals and structures are different from ours, but these are very conservative, socially considerate and rule-following people.)
"The Birthday of the World" is about a society that worships their monarchs as deities (but then it falls apart). There's a first-contact story going on behind the scenes, but the narrator is only observing it at a distance, so her interpretations are intriguing but we only get a little of it. Inbreeding is bad? IDK. It's not exactly "slice of life with no plot" but neither is it "characters making meaningful decisions and traditional plot." Slice of death.
"Paradises Lost" is longer than the others, explicitly set close to Earth and not part of the Hainish continuity. And it's also great. The setting is a generation ship that's going to travel for 200 years to explore a new planet, and how the people who spend their whole lives in transit might (or might not) find purpose. The contrast between how the original ("Zeroes") generation who left Earth fear they may have cheated their descendants, versus how the descendants actually feel about the whole thing, is fascinating. The beginning is a stream-of-consciousness about how a fifth-generation spacefarer might try and fail to conceptualize Earth:
In some ways, women have a stronger social structure and slightly better lives than men on Soro, so the fact that Borny wants to go back to the Hainish ship and Ren doesn't is understandable in light of that. But I think their ages at the beginning are also significant. Borny can remember a time before Soro, and appreciate what the space station has to offer, much more clearly than Ren. Everything Leaf experiences makes lots of sense--if an ethnographer can never really get an objective, bird's-eye, view, the only way to understand a culture is to live in it authentically, then maybe the only way to do that is to do it from childhood...she wouldn't want to interfere with the native Sorovians and abduct them away from their home, but it feels different leaving her daughter to experience what seems to be a much lower quality of life.
If it was just a story of "extraverts versus introverts," then I might feel more aligned with Ren's attitude of "I don't need a big social structure, I'm just me." But I think there's an asymmetry in that it would be easier (not easy, but easier) for a Hainish person to choose a life more like the isolated Sorovians, than for a Sorovian to make the reverse decision. There's a lot of discourse about "is it a weakness of liberalism that it doesn't tell people what the good life is, or is it a strength that it allows different people and different subcultures to pursue different versions of the good life?" Our world, and Hainish spaceships, are not perfect, but I'm grateful for the different opportunities and technologies they allow.
"Old Music and the Slave Women" is a follow-up to "Four Ways to Forgiveness" (haven't read that either), stories about a Hainish observer on a world full of slavery and, in this installment, civil war. He gets captured by the pro-slavery government, spends some time getting tortured, then awkwardly tries to make small talk with the (former?) slaves like "haha, I, too, have been tortured in the cages!" Is this trauma dumping as bonding opportunity, or cringey "guy who has only been tortured for a couple hours can't possibly understand people who have been slaves their entire lives?" I don't know. There were some poignant reflections on what it means for a family of slaves to have a child born into freedom, even if he only lives for a few years, but on the whole it was very bleak.
This isn't specific to any particular story but I will note that Le Guin is extremely blunt and to-the-point about the facts of life. Societies and family units differ widely across all the settings, but I found a lot more explicit discussion of penises, vulvas, fucking, and rape than in most of what I read. Which can be useful and illustrative, but sometimes gets wearing. (The sedoretu stories were probably the least explicit in this regard. Yeah, their rituals and structures are different from ours, but these are very conservative, socially considerate and rule-following people.)
"The Birthday of the World" is about a society that worships their monarchs as deities (but then it falls apart). There's a first-contact story going on behind the scenes, but the narrator is only observing it at a distance, so her interpretations are intriguing but we only get a little of it. Inbreeding is bad? IDK. It's not exactly "slice of life with no plot" but neither is it "characters making meaningful decisions and traditional plot." Slice of death.
"Paradises Lost" is longer than the others, explicitly set close to Earth and not part of the Hainish continuity. And it's also great. The setting is a generation ship that's going to travel for 200 years to explore a new planet, and how the people who spend their whole lives in transit might (or might not) find purpose. The contrast between how the original ("Zeroes") generation who left Earth fear they may have cheated their descendants, versus how the descendants actually feel about the whole thing, is fascinating. The beginning is a stream-of-consciousness about how a fifth-generation spacefarer might try and fail to conceptualize Earth:
The blue parts were lots of water, like the hydro tanks only deeper, and the other-colored parts were dirt, like the earth gardens only bigger. Sky was what she couldn’t understand. Sky was another ball that fit around the dirtball, Father said, but they couldn’t show it in the model globe, because you couldn’t see it. It was transparent, like air. It was air. But blue. A ball of air, and it looked blue from underneath, and it was outside the dirtball. Air outside. That was really strange. Was there air inside the dirtball? No, Father said, just earth. You lived on the outside of the dirtball, like evamen doing eva, only you didn’t have to wear a suit. You could breathe the blue air, just like you were inside. In nighttime you’d see black and stars, like if you were doing eva, Father said, but in daytime you’d see only blue. She asked why. Because the light was brighter than the stars, he said. Blue light? No; the star that made it was yellow, but there was so much air it looked blue. She gave up. It was all so hard and so long ago. And it didn’t matter.
I mean, this is fantastic:
The history in the bookscreens, Earth History, that appalling record of injustice, cruelty, enslavement, hatred, murder — that record, justified and glorified by every government and institution, of waste and misuse of human life, animal life, plant life, the air, the water, the planet? If that is who we are, what hope for us? History must be what we have escaped from. It is what we were, not what we are. History is what we need never do again.
There's one part that's like "what if there are two types of people, people who need religion and symbolism and those who don't" that, like Anathem, was pretty iffy. But the narrative undercuts that: some characters try to tell "noble lies," if only by omission, in order to work against a potentially dangerous religious faction. One of the main characters points out that this is very contemptuous of the ordinary people who they're trying to convince, and potentially just as dangerous as the religious extremists themselves.There are some abrupt jumps when it seems the most interesting stuff is happening offscreen (Luis' friend argues with him about religion; a moment later, Luis is elected council leader because everyone likes him, even the religious people). But overall, this one was really compelling.
Bingo: Five short stories. Hot take: at least some of the stories ("Coming of Age in Karhide," the sedoretu ones) are sufficiently slice-of-life, "low stakes, minimal conflict" to meet the spirit of "Cozy SFF." (I don't think "Old Music and the Slave Women" counts in any sense of the word.) I have no idea what I'm actually going to use for that square, something like "The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet" doesn't do it for me.
NFE 2025: Dear Author
Jul. 11th, 2025 01:13 pmsyrena_of_the_lakeIt's the most wonderful time of the year again! This is pretty much a repeat of last year's letter, but at least I'm consistent.
Dear Author, thank you in advance! Please feel free to mix and match elements from my different prompts and follow your heart's desire. Wherever you take it, I will be delighted to read your story — and I hope you have fun writing it!
Things I like:
Compared to previous years, I have deleted my standard "character bashing" item compared to last year, because of one of my prompts. A nuance there: while I do take issue with the traditional "lipstick and nylons" variation on the problem of Susan, I love seeing other perspectives. So I will put it this way: if the story is set in *canon Narnia,* I'd prefer to avoid character bashing (e.g. depictions of Susan as a shallow woman fallen away from the grace of Narnia, or Aslan as a cruel, manipulative god). If your story is AU, though, or told from an outside or unreliable perspective, all bets are off! (E.g., Narnian mythos through Jadis' eyes - maybe she tells the true history and the one we know is mere propaganda, or maybe her version is wildly distorted, either is great! Maybe modern Narnians debate whether Susan – or all Four – were the faithless monarch(s) who abandoned them - that would be a great story too.)
Basically, wherever the story takes you, I'll be very happy to go along for the ride. Thank you again!
Dear Author, thank you in advance! Please feel free to mix and match elements from my different prompts and follow your heart's desire. Wherever you take it, I will be delighted to read your story — and I hope you have fun writing it!
Things I like:
- Witty banter and humor
- Competent, complex, multi-dimensional characters
- Friendship, found family, friends-to-lovers, slow burn
- Plot, adventures, space duels, intrigue, mysteries and spy stories
- Nature, especially lakes, woods, mountain, prairies, and the night sky
- Shipping preferences: m/f, f/f or gen
- I prefer happy endings to tragedy, but I also have a soft spot for ambiguity and bittersweet. Eerie and eldritch is fun too. I am not normally big on straight-up horror... but I will absolutely make an exception for my dark!Narnia prompts!
- A strong sense of place. The differences between places, the little things that set someplace apart or bind people together even across languages and cultures... Whether you want to delve into worldbuilding or just give me a glimpse, I'll love it.
- Talking animals and mythological creatures, especially those with little screen time. Wolves and crows are particular favorites, but I’d love any creatures (real or mythological) you want to use to populate your story!
- Sirens. See also: my username. (The Lorelei, Greek bird-women, mermaid-like, feral or sensual — any mythology or interpretation you like!)
- World War II spy stories
- AUs that hold true to both the spirit and setting of the original — canon compliant or divergent “what ifs” are wonderful, and I hold a special place in my heart for Everyone Lives, Nobody Dies (or Everyone Lives, Nobody Leaves). I’m not usually a fan of mundane coffeeshop-style AUs, unless set in modern!Narnia, a.k.a. Museumverse.
- Stories with gloriously diverse characters, rich full lives in both Narnia and Spare Oom, filled with faith and hope but not dogma, intellectually enriching, and all the tapestry of creation in both worlds.
- Speaking of which, re: other Narniaverses – I adore Rthverse, if you are so inclined (please check with Ruth)! Remember Kangarooverse? Me too, I love it! Want to expand on your own existing 'verse? Please do! Want to play in someone else's verse? Please ask them first!
- Crossovers and fusions: I love them! I enjoy having all my favorite characters get together and explore new worlds and dynamics, with or without the conceit of magic rings and the Wood between Worlds.
Things I don't like:
- Noncon, incest, gore
Compared to previous years, I have deleted my standard "character bashing" item compared to last year, because of one of my prompts. A nuance there: while I do take issue with the traditional "lipstick and nylons" variation on the problem of Susan, I love seeing other perspectives. So I will put it this way: if the story is set in *canon Narnia,* I'd prefer to avoid character bashing (e.g. depictions of Susan as a shallow woman fallen away from the grace of Narnia, or Aslan as a cruel, manipulative god). If your story is AU, though, or told from an outside or unreliable perspective, all bets are off! (E.g., Narnian mythos through Jadis' eyes - maybe she tells the true history and the one we know is mere propaganda, or maybe her version is wildly distorted, either is great! Maybe modern Narnians debate whether Susan – or all Four – were the faithless monarch(s) who abandoned them - that would be a great story too.)
Basically, wherever the story takes you, I'll be very happy to go along for the ride. Thank you again!