Reading Wednesday

[oyceter]

Didn't post last week since I didn't actually finish anything....

What I've read: Finished Adulthood Rites! And Imago! More noodling for Wiscon: all three of the books are captivity narratives in ways, though Jodahs' captivity is the least restrictive... it's only outlawed from Lo, and then briefly imprisoned while looking for its human mates. I keep being struck by the biological determinism of the books, particularly the emphasis on Human males and their propensity for wandering in Adulthood Rites, and how the Oankali think it's more important to listen to the messages that Humans' bodies give as opposed to their mouths/thoughts. There are some scenes in which the person is saying they don't want to be physically intimate with an ooloi, but the ooloi reads past the words to their body and goes on anyway. And... it doesn't always work out well--the Humans are frequently conflicted--but I am reminded of rape cases in which the survivor is physically aroused during the attack and how that in itself can be incredibly traumatic (as well as the super awful arguments about how then it isn't really rape).

Must remember to go over oracne's entry (spoilers) before the con as well. Can't believe Wiscon is in less than two weeks!

I also read rachelmanija's A Cup of Smoke, which is a collection of her short stories and poems. I've read a lot of them before, but I really needed something comforting after Haru, and having a familiar voice (along with a rodent zodiac) was immensely helpful. Unsurprisingly, I liked the stories more than the poems (I am not a huge poetry person), and there are a lot of f/f, POC, and retold tales, which is right up my alley. I can't really be objective about this, since Rachel is a really good friend of mine, and I can see so many of her fingerprints over all the stories, but that is also why it was the perfect thing to read right when I needed it.

What I'm reading now: Er, I'm not. I started Tansy Rayner Roberts' Creature Court trilogy, but I still need familiarity and comfort right now. Possibly instead I will continue rewatching Fruits Basket and Utena (CB is watching them for the first time. I think he's more taken with Utena so far, especially now that we've seen a few more Nanami episodes).

What I'm reading next: Maybe stuff for Wiscon? I don't know. Oh wait, I mean to get to the new Skip Beat chapter!

Comments

[oracne]

Tcastleb sent me a paper she did on homosexuality in the trilogy - she quoted most of it in the comments to the post, as well, or I can send the article if you want.

[oyceter]

Reading it now! I forgot to check comments for your LJ post, thanks for the reminder.

[hebethen]

I wasn't wildly amazed by FB when I watched it, but it will always have a place in my heart for that scene where fbzr bs gur znva punenpgref onfvpnyyl grne n grnpure(?) n arj bar sbe fnlvat gung vs n xvq unf frys-rfgrrz vffhrf, vg'f gurve bja snhyg gung ab bar yvxrf gurz. (I don't know if he reads your DW, so ROT13 just in case.)

[oyceter]

I liked the FB anime, but I LOVE the manga. I think it gets overlooked a lot because of its shoujo pastel coloring, but there's a lot there about dysfunctional families and abuse and how to move on. Also, thanks for ROT13! He doesn't read regularly, but I'm sure other readers who haven't seen it appreciate it.

[hebethen]

Oh, is it much different from the anime? It sounds like you recommend it?

[lnhammer]

Very much different from the anime, which took its tone from the first volume and never altered it to match where the author took the story. Also, they had to invent an ending that was totally negated by the manga revelations of the rest of the zodiac, and what their relationships are. I highly recommend it -- if I had to cull my manga collection to five titles, that would be one.

(Also, the manga has the most hysterically Oh So Wrongtastically Wrong funny high school production of Cinderella EVER, which also happens to be the only school festival episode I've ever met that has moved a manga story forward, on multiple character fronts no less.)

---L.

[jinian]

Different, much more interesting, so good.

[oyceter]

I highly recommend it! The anime ends around volume 6 or so of the 22-volume series, so there's a LOT more content. A lot of the themes that the series explores are there in the anime, but they're fleshed out much more in the manga, and the manga's ending is incredibly powerful. It's one of my favorite series.