Linkage and thoughts

Wah. Woke up today and rushed to work for my 9:00 meeting, only to discover that... I had no 9:00 meeting.

*headdesk*

Need to check my calendar better.

Things that I've sort of been thinking about/reading online:

chi_zu complains about the Memoirs of a Geisha trailer.

Most of my complaints are in the comments. I liked the book when I read it, but that was a while back. I suspect I would be sporky reading it now. Also, I feel somewhat guilty in complaining because I don't feel like I know enough about the subject or the time period. But there is the instinctive sporky reaction.

Will probably end up seeing the movie anyway and have to bite my tongue through the whole thing!

greythistle's post on Crusie's Bet Me has some interesting comments on race in romances.

I also saw a book called Desperate Tigress in a bookstore during the last trip. It's by a Jade Lee, so I assume the author is Asian?

And here is where I feel guilty feeling better about the author being Asian, or at least assuming an Asian name. I mean... it by no means indicates "cultural authenticity" or anything, and I have issues with the entire notion of cultural authenticity and one-upsmanship in the name of authenticity. (and because I am self-promoting and also entirely too lazy to hijack this entire post, I will simply link to an older post which has more in-depth thoughts)

On one hand, yay non-European romance! Yay Chinese romance! On the other hand, the back cover copy made me cringe. White barbarians and Tao sexual enlightenment indeed. I flipped through the first two or three pages, and the very language made me cringe as well. It's hard to put my finger on why, just that... it feels like it's trying too hard to be "exotic" or "Chinese" or something. On the third hand (or tentacle?), people had good reviews on Amazon. On the fourth tentacle, the reviews set off my spork-o-meter (to coopt yhlee).

Has anyone read these?

( Cut for rambling on race and assorted other matters )

That was actually going to be some giant essay on race in romance and in genre, on race in fandom (I remember being one of three Asians at Norwescon, or so I felt. And one of the other Asians was my roommate). Or a ranty thing on being young, female and Asian in terms of my group, which is largely young, female and Asian and comfortable; in terms of my department, which is mostly young, female and of more than one race and of more than one nationality; in terms of my company, which is mostly male and of more than one race and of more than one nationality; in terms of my company's upper management, which is almost invariably older, white, male, and American. But I am too lazy to actually write it.

Westerfeld, Scott - Midnighters: The Secret Hour

And with this, my Scott Westerfeld binge is over. Well, that is, until I can borrow more from yuneicorn or convince myself to buy more.

Bixby, Oklahoma is a very strange city where there is a hidden hour of the day, tucked in at midnight. The blue hour can only be experienced by those born at midnight (the Midnighters! v. clever), and they battle slither with thirteen-letter words, clean metal alloys and other things. The numerology bit are a little iffy to me. Anyway, so far, there are four midnighters in Bixby, each with his or her own special talent -- Dess is the mathy, warriory one who makes clean metal alloy weapons with thirteen-letter name, Rex is the keeper of Midnighter lore and sort of leader, Jonathan is the free spirit who can sort of fly, Melissa is the withdrawn psychic.

Enter Jessica Day, the new kid, also a Midnighter. The book basically goes into finding out her power.

This is very familiar territory for the mutant/psychic/supernatural kids series (other examples include LJ Smith's Dark Visions trilogy, and X-Men, and other things I can't think of). I do like how Westerfeld plays a bit with some of the stereotypes -- the fearless leader is more spooky than do-good, and the outcast figure is actually the friendliest one in the bunch. And the warrior figure's strengths are based on math. On the other hand, I'm still not all that interested in the "figure out the new kid's talent" story, and I wasn't particularly drawn to Jessica.

I'm actually most interested in Melissa and the potential spooky conspiracy with her psychic-ness and Rex's lore-ness, and because I am stubborn and contrary, I have decided she is my character and I shall pet her and call her George. Um. Yes. YA ensemble casts make me revert to middle school reading habits in which I automatically pick a favorite, usually completely contrary to the character that's supposed to be most appealing.

Anyhow, will be interested to see what happens, but not enough to buy the hardcover.

Links:
- rilina's review