oyceter | (no subject)

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Ugh, been keeping an extremely weird schedule these past two days -- go home, eat dinner, promptly fall asleep on the couch. Then wake up at midnight, stay up a few hours and go back to bed. So, LJ has fallen a bit behind.

Feeling vaguely better (about homesickness, not so much the job hunt). It's hard to believe sometimes that I've been in CA for a year now, and it's been driving me crazy that I haven't been able to go home this summer. I think this may have been the longest stint I've gone without going back. I feel vaguely like that Greek myth guy who touched the earth to regain strength (name starts with an A....) who Hercules had to fight.

I also applied to Viz for a job last night, heh heh. I figure that's the one job I've applied to for which I actually, you know, qualify. Everything else feels like: I don't have experience, and I'm an EAS major, but I learn fast! Really! And I'm smart... I think... or maybe not... sigh. I would have applied to Tokyopop too, except they're down in LA, boo. Then I wonder, gyah, even if I get it, do I want to be in a small company? I suppose it depends on what I'd be doing. And the sheer coolness value of dealing with manga cannot be denied. Though, of course, there is also the possibility of burnout and never being able to read for fun again. This is, of course, assuming that I even get an interview.

I was talking to my boss a few days ago on book reading habits, and he says after voraciously reading everything he could get his hands on, he sort of calmed down a bit. I think part of this was because he had the store all the while and could borrow stuff, and after a while on the buying team, you get a little patience and realize you can wait until a like new copy with your favorite cover comes in. I thought for a little and realized I'm still in the voraciously reading everything stage. I must have shifted into high gear when I moved here and realized I actually had room for books because I wasn't moving every year (ha, yeah right, and oh how my back regrets those purchases!). But, I have two pretty good public libraries near me, and the store, and I stumbled onto lots of smart people on LJ who've read tons and tons and tons of things I haven't, and I feel like I'm scrabbling for all the books I possibly can get my greedy little paws on to keep up. In Princeton I had a milder case of this, as being in college without a car limited public library and bookstore trips. Plus, I didn't have this ocean of recs.

Gah. I feel so underread (not-well-read?). I want to read all the sci-fi and fantasy classics now, along with good feminist lit crit (I don't think I've read much... mostly I've stuck to feminist history), want to read more non-Asian feminist history, want to read more Asian feminist history, want to brush up my Chinese history and Japanese history, want to read up on Korea, on which I am frightfully ignorant, want to read any new anime/manga criticism that's come out, and wah, there are too many books! Not that that's the bad thing -- it's the too few hours that I resent.

On a brief continuation of the manga post, not only is Hana Yori Dango/Boys Over Flowers (Yoko Kamio) out, so is Hana Kimi (Hisaya Nakajo), which I was still reading in Taiwan. Has cross-dressing heroine and much shenanigans in an all boys school. Plus, pretty art. And wah, Revolutionary Girl Utena the manga is out!! (ok, it's probably been out forever, but I've been really out of it) Still no Good Morning Call, which was my first intro to shoujo. Still no non-Paradise Kiss Yazawa Ai, which annoys me because I want to make everyone read Nana so I can finally talk to someone about it. The last person who I knew read it was my Japanese teacher. But I find myself excited about manga again, now that they've stopped limiting themselves to translating all of CLAMP and other magical girl comics. I'm, heh, actually not that big of a CLAMP fan, mostly just because I never bothered to read anything past X.

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Antaeus (don't know if I spelled it right), is the guy I think you mean.

Yeah, that's it, thanks!

Plus, I didn't have this ocean of recs.

Oh, yeah. I have SUCH a pile of books AND such a list of future purchases from that...

Gah, I sympathize.

You people, you are all too smart ;).

Recommend me Asian feminist history and Asian history books? If you've got the time and inclination, that is. But I haven't read anything in those subjects, and I feel very ignorant.

I think working at Viz would be cool, although it probably (like most publishing) doesn't pay very well. I was just reading the blog of someone who does translations for Viz or Tokyopop, but I can't remember where it was or how I got there ...

I second this request for recommendations. It is one of the striking ironies of my schooling that, despite spending a good portion of it in a private school in South Korea, I was required to study the U.S. and Europe and Africa and Latin America...but never Asia. So, being desperate to escape Korea, I never did until I hit a course on Korean warfare (Imjin and Korean wars) in college. I'm still kicking myself over that one. Well, that and finding stuff on the periods I'm interested in in English is a pain in the butt. I really, really need to become fluent in Korean, and then head on over to classical Chinese.

Good luck with the jobhunting!

And I have to say, Magic Knights Rayearth and CLAMP Campus Detectives almost completely alienated me from CLAMP. It wasn't until

melymbrosia's recommendation of Clover that I relented, and I was much taken by the first volume (need to find the rest). Less impressed by Tokyo Babylon vol. 1 overall, but we'll see.

And pile of books? Oh, don't even go there. Life sucked worse in many ways when Ara woke every three hours (if not oftener), but I could read a book and rock her or walk her, which is almost never feasible anymore. (Among other things, carrying her one-armed is, uh, heavy these days...)

We had Chinese history and geography till gr. 8, but as it was all in Chinese, I don't think much of it sunk in -_-;;. Senior year I took US history and govt., heh. Luckily manga and anime sort of sucked me into the entire Asian history/literature/everything sphere though!

Hee, reorganizing the bookshelves now that most of my books are in the new place -- I have empty space on my bookshelves finally, but I suspect that will last maybe a week, at the most.

Sure.. gives me a good excuse to scrounge through college notes.

I think the general law of the universe at this point is that the jobs that pay well wouldn't hire me anyway...

LJ was tough for me there also, and I am much less well-read than you even having had a lot more time to get there, if that's any consolation. But now, although I still sometimes feel the panic of time melting away still, I have gotten back to feeling the piles are a comfort too, sort of like having a really full pantry of delicious things stocked up.

And I do hope something breaks for you soon; fingers crossed and hugs, of course.

Mm, I like the idea of fully stocked pantries. Sort of a safety net. It was so amazing, stumbling onto LJ and meeting all you people, and you've all read all this stuff that I haven't! The people I knew in college and high school mostly read the same things I had (high school in particular, thanks to the limited supply of books).

*hug* I read primarily non-fiction which most people don't talk here and extensively in my field which is (Shhhhh!) business administration with a few hits in health care and labor relations, not hot topics either, and my main interests are gardening and the visual arts, also not as common. It's kind of ironic, and how often does _that_ happen *smile* that I was talking to my therapist sister last week (now if we can just get a car mechanic in the family we'll be all set) about this a couple of weeks ago.. I had a bad experience on LJ right about the time the job situation (layoffs) came up and it sort of keyed right into some issues for me and what with one thing and another I imploded.

Thing is it really wasn't me; and I'm very sure it's not you. You're very bright, and I mean that sincerely, I'm not just saying it to make you feel better. The whole reading thing, gosh, I wish I had hours to surf, and the freedom to go back to school, and read and write and chat with all the facsinating people here, and a brain that was about a bazillion times bigger than it is to allow me to explore at depth every thing I'm interested in, and to map patterns at a global scale.

Most of the time this is just a pull; but when stresses pile up it can be a real lowering feeling. It's very much of the not fun. I just hope that life can throw you a break instead of the curves you're getting now, and I hope that you know how special you are. Paper isn't people, and trust me if I had a place for you in my department, I'd feel blessed to have you there.

And I don't say that to make you feel better either. *grin*

Thanks. Reading this helped a lot, and I'm very touched ^_^. *hugs*

And I hope things are going better for you -- I'm so sorry LJ managed to turn into a source of stress instead of stress relief.

I feel underread, too, not so much in comparison to any specific human being(s), but in comparison to what's out there, what nonfiction I'd like to know and what fiction I'd like to love. (And in a few cases, vice versa.) My book list for the local library runs to five pages. My book list for the university library is barely started yet, but could go so much farther. It's very like the sensation of doing astronomy: I am so much smaller than all this.

I feel like that in the bookstore all the time -- these shelves and shelves and shelves of things I haven't read and topics I don't know about. And that's just the bookstore. University libraries make me drool ;).

http://www.pantheon.org/

Very useful when you're thinking, what was the name of that mythic figure again.

Nifty! Thanks ^_^.

or at least, South Asian feminist history. I took a course in South Asian feminist writing, I have the course packet lying around somewhere...in a box....somewhere in my room.

*thinks*

I'll get back to you on that, okay?

re: manga - Other than dipping my toes in with Cowboy Bebop, Fruits basket anime and manga, I haven't really been compelled to actually *buy* anything else - I usually end up in the Graphic Novels department for an hour and speed read through everything that looks mildly interesting (or I have a guilty pleasure complex about) - I got through Mars and Peach Girl this way - oh, the soapiest of shoujo. I keep on hearing names come up over and over again, and I check them out - but other than the horrifyingly entertaining Cinderalla (the birds on a stick! the super deformed illustration style, the cute zombies!), nothing's really captured my attention. I went to Anime Expo last year, and I picked up previews of things - but some of them were just...okay, I don't want to read a horror manga about mutant fish. I have enough problems with wildlife in general, I don't need to see fish WITH LEGS stalking people in showers, and there was the One Piece stretchy boy and the boy who was reincarnated into a penguin and...eh, I'm putting all my hopes into Miyazaki's adaptation of Howl's Moving Castle.

That would be so cool! I don't even know where to start with South Asian history.

Heh, I just went to Borders and ogled at the amount of manga that's there now. I saw one bookshelf and was happily browsing, then turned around to face four more! And I'm cheap, so I do the whole stand there and skim too, heh.

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And slightly tangentially

Re: And slightly tangentially

I might be able to help you out with the Asian feminist history...

Re: I might be able to help you out with the Asian feminist history...