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wSep 5, 2009 | |
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Catching Fire Now that I live in a city with a most excellent used book market (a ton of my manga is purchased at half-price), it's pretty rare that I buy a book brand new the day it comes out. In fact, I think I've only ever done that for Harry Potter. But when My thoughts are a bit mixed, but overall, it's good, and I like it, and it's just as suspenseful as the first one. If you liked The Hunger Games, then you're probably already freaking out that Catching Fire is out and you need to read it. That said....spoilers! And for serious, these are books that nobody wants to be spoiled for. Don't do it! Come back and comment later! Okay. So I like Peeta a lot, as a character. But I really want Katniss to be with Gale. I think that they belong together. It almost seems like Katniss favors a poly relationship, but given how jealous Gale is of Peeta, I don't think that that would ever work. This book started off fantastically, and there were threads of fantastic throughout. I love the seeds of rebellion, the use of the mockingjay as a symbol of the rebels, of Katniss not realizing that she is the symbol. And the books are oh so dark - how can these be YA?? They really test the boundaries, I think. How many books have the protagonist purposely trying to kill other people her own age? BUT, I was sort of disappointed to see Peeta and Katniss have to return to the Hunger Games arena. Yes, it was pulled off in such a way that all of the characters were surprised and shocked, but it also sort of felt like the author was pulling the plot along and wanted some real excitement....so she turned to the same device used in the first book. I was a lot more interested in what was taking place in District 12 and the woods surrounding it. I thought that it was unnecessary for the characters to return to the arena. I love reading about Katniss. She is so intelligent, so capable, and so angry - in so many pieces of fiction, the female protagonist is trying to get other people to like her, trying to be nice - but Katniss is a spitfire, will literally rake your face with her nails in anger, and I love her to death. The setup of the districts being oppressed by the government/rich district also reminds me a lot of Midgar in Final Fantasy VII. ALSO, I tried looking for fanart at DeviantART, and all I can find are versions in which every character is white. WTF! Katniss is a person of color, right? And Gale? I mean, I'm starting to think that I read these books wrong, but I feel like the books state several times that they both have olive skin, and that Gale's is even darker than Katniss's. It was just.....really weird, and I felt pretty skeeved out. As for you local people....I think that Keely has dibs on borrowing my copy first, but if you all would like to borrow it, please leave a comment, and I'll make a list and do my best to arrange the trading-off of the book. Do we really have to wait an entire year before Book 3? Ahh! There is so much to say! Read it, Internet, so we can talk about it! Labels: a: collins suzanne, books, books: ya, race scribbled mystickeeper at 9:41 AM 
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wJun 4, 2009 | |
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In which I try to address my white privilege, or otherwise justify my ardent love for Little House. I'm reading lots of Little House-related books and was about to write a post about Roger Lea MacBride's Rose books. But then I got to writing, and figured I should just make this its own post. Please feel free to openly discuss the topic: I am okay with being called on my shit, analyzing my white privilege, and focusing on the discussion at hand and not my hurt feelings. I've already written on LiveJournal about Laura Ingalls Wilder's Little House books here and here. I reread the entire series every year throughout my childhood. I think that I was reading these books in kindergarten. This seems improbable, but I have pretty distinct memories. There was some discussion last time I posted about the books, with people linking to this website about the books showing the erasure of the American Indians. I'm still not really sure how I feel about this critique. The book that deals most closely with American Indians is the second one, Little House on the Prairie, when Pa accidentally builds a house right next to hunting path, in the middle of Reservation land. As a child, I remember imprinting on Pa Ingalls disagreeing with their neighbor, Mr. Scott, because Mr. Scott would say, "The only good Indian is a dead Indian." 'What a dick!' I thought as a kid. And in the end, the Ingalls move. Yeah, the Ingalls moved around the Midwest and "settled" land that had already been inhabited by American Indians. It sucks. Even though Pa didn't kill anybody, he still participated in this movement of shunting aside indigenous people in favor of white people. So did my ancestors, who lived in cities and farmed land that used to belong to different people. But I guess I'm just curious. What else was Laura supposed to write about, if she's writing her personal history? It's a shitty thing that happened, but I think that not owning up to it, or sanitizing children's literature from it is not going to help matters at all. She lived in the 19th century, and wrote in the 1930s. She wrote about her life. Is that bad? I can see why any person would prefer to not read the Little House series and would rather read books about the lives of American Indians instead: books about them, books by them, books that celebrate them. I totally respect people who might decide to do that (not that anybody needs my permission). But I guess I'm just curious why Laura Ingalls Wilder gets a bad rap when not everyone else does. As Anyway. This discussion of race will probably be tied in to future posts I made about this universe of Laura Ingalls Wilder books, because I'm devouring them like candy, and I tell you what Internet, there is some heinous shit out there, and I intend to read it so that you don't have to. I wanted this topic to get its own post, so that's that. Labels: a: austen jane, a: brontes, a: wilder laura ingalls, books, books: ya, race scribbled mystickeeper at 7:55 PM
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wApr 5, 2009 | |
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Media Stuff Now that Funimation has the subbed version of the anime Romeo x Juliet streaming for free on their website, I might finally finish the damn thing. Today I watched episode 15 and 16. This series started off with a lot of promise, but is just....not holding good on it, for me. I want to see it through to the end to see what happens, but I don't have much hope. I mean....come on! It's Shakespeare, it's dripping with so much angst that the pages of the play are practically wet with blood. Everyone has emo, there are swords, and the anime version had added bonuses! An inversion of gender roles, giving Juliet an entirely new identity of the Red Whirlwind, a mix-up of the premise, an impoverished city, etc. Even the addition of characters from other plays (Hermione, Regan, etc.) give the writers practically unlimited ranges of angst and characters, but they just use their names and genders, and that's about it. The show devolves into low-budget animation and storylines I don't give a toss about. This seems to happen in a large number of animes for me, and it's why an interesting premise for a movie/TV show/book/whatever is never enough of a selling point for me. Because no matter how interesting it starts off, it can end in a lackluster way. Scrapped Princess was like that for me. Ditto with Darker Than Black, Witch Hunter Robin, Code Geass, Paranoia Agent. While it's certainly no Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, here are links to people talking about this week's Dollhouse: meganbmoore here and here. Matt Ruff here. The Asian Women Carnival #1 is up. Rachel Manija Brown is hosting The Incomprehensible Awards! Continued here. Funimation is going to be streaming episodes of the new Fullemtal Alchemist just 4 days after it airs in Japan!! For those unfamiliar, this new series will be more heavily based on the manga. [ie, it will be better!] But it starts at the beginning, so you needn't have seen the first series to watch this one. Labels: anime, anime: fullmetal alchemist, anime: romeo x juliet, fandom, race, tv: dollhouse scribbled mystickeeper at 11:02 PM
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wMar 27, 2009 | |
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La! I have updated my 101 Primer since its original posting two months ago. Nothing has been deleted, but more links have been added (mostly to communities), as well as a new section on "Race and Fandom." The links to RaceFail posts are by no means even remotely exhaustive, but I tried to pick the ones I thought most appropriate for a 101 primer. I purchased the following today, for $.50 a piece! A Free Man of Color by Barbara Hambly Fever Season by Barbara Hambly A Hunger for Home: Louisa May Alcott's Place in American Culture by Sarah Elbert Toward a Recognition of Androgyny by Carolyn G. Heilbrun The Female Man by Joanna Russ Writing and Sexual Difference edited by Elizabeth Abel The Wounded Woman by Linda Schierse Leonard Beyond Anger: On Being a Feminist in the Church by Carolyn Osiek, R.S.C.J. Doesn't that last one sound amazing?! From the back cover: What happens to a woman who has a deep faith and ardent commitment to her Church, and yet who because of her honesty and openness to truth becomes more and more convinced of the validity of the feminist critique of insitutional religion? Labels: books, catholicism, feminism, race scribbled mystickeeper at 1:34 PM
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wMar 4, 2009 | |
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Go There! Oh yeah, that shit storm is still blowing. Read my post Link Sprinkle over at the LJ. It has too many LJ names in it to make transposing feasible. Labels: cultural appropriation, fandom, race, racefail 9000, racism scribbled mystickeeper at 6:19 PM
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wFeb 26, 2009 | |
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Protector of the Small I read Song of the Lioness in fragments spread out over a few months, and I'd have to read it again for style, but I think that Protector of the Small was better written. I definitely liked Kel better as a protagonist. I like how hard Pierce makes Kel work. I feel like I'm there for every blow, every muscle strain, of her training to become a knight. I remember this being true in the Song of the Lioness Quartet, too. I like that Kel had to deal with bullying/hazing. She didn't tattle, but got stronger and made sure it didn't happen to others. I have so much respect for her strength and personal code of honor. I think these will be comfort books for me in the future! I like how Kel ages throughout the four books, both physically and emotionally. Everyone around her changes, too, even the way characters view each other and the world. Pierce is really good with her viewpoint characters - while some characters appear in many of her books, they are viewed differently by the people telling the story. I like her consistency, and the obvious thought she gives to viewpoint and the backgrounds people are coming from. I like that it seems Pierce realized how "easy" Alanna had it in Song of the Lioness - and so Kel has no magic. I found this quartet less annoying than SotL. Kel doesn't have magical powers, a magical pendant, a magic Goddess-voiced cat, a magic horse, or whatever else. The Prince of Tortall is not her best friend. I like that Kel has to do without the Gift, that some things don't come naturally to her. As much as Alanna's life sucked sometimes, I feel like Knighthood/etc. came a bit too easily/naturally for the protagonist, like it was ordained. I found it a lot easier to relate to Keladry. I found the death of Joren of Stone Mountain in the Chamber of Ordeal to be a little WTF. I mean, it was angsty and sort of neat, but it seemed almost too simple of a way for her nemesis to be taken care of. While Alanna's Uber Destiny with Duke Roger made me roll my eyes a little bit, this interaction was a little bit too far at the other end of the spectrum for me. The ending of the series was a bit of a let-down for me. Kel killed both of the Evil Dudes, just as expected, and none of her friends died. I know they're chidrens' books, but come on...a main character died in Animorphs, and I think those books are a little less involved than Pierce's Tortall books, although they're probably equally violent. It was a bit too cut-and-dry for me. I liked the middle of Lady Knight much better. I really did not expect Haven to get razed like that. Although, finding out that not everybody was killed was sort of sucky. I really liked the emotional impact of Kel realizing they had been hit hard, and I think it almost would have been cooler if everyone in Haven had died, and Kel had to live with it. Like that Kel ends up with nobody. While I appreciate Pierce's discussion of bodies and birth control, I also think it's nice that Kel doesn't have sex, and even moreso that it's Cleon, the dude, who wants to wait until marriage. Kel is miffed, but respects the decision. It seems like whenever feminist YA authors present women with a choice about sex, the girls always end up having it, so it was refreshing to see Kel having frank conversations with her mother (in which her mother said, be on birth control, and then decide) that are mature, and then having to wait anyway. I also really like that she didn't end up engaged at the end, like Alanna did. Hello, being 18 years old! So, I say all of these good things with a grain of salt. What makes Kel somewhat special in comparison to her peers is that her father was the Tortallan diplomat to the Yamani Islands for 6 years of her childhood. Thus, Kel is not only adept at interacting with people hailing from the Yamani culture, but is also trained in Yamani fighting styles and weapons. After making it through Tortall's training for knighthood, she uses her weapon of choice: a glaive. It's extremely clear that the Yamani Islands are meant to be Japan. Women wear kimonos secured by obis. Kel refers to her weapon with the "Yamani" (see: actually Japanese) word naginata. In the text, Yamani people bow by placing their palms flat on their thighs and bending forward. Honor is taken very seriously by warriors, and death is viewed as preferaable to surrender or capture. But in the first two books especially, Pierce makes a narrative choice that I find pretty weird. Whenever Kel hides her emotions, she is described as acting in a Yamani manner. Not just once, but almost ad nauseum. When she smiles but is actually upset, it is a "Yamani smile." When she struggles to keep her countenance free of emotion, she is keeping it "Yamani-blank." When she defers to cultural manners as a way to interact with others, her face becomes "a Yamani mask of politeness." It might be true that Japanese culture looks less favorably on a selfish outpouring of emotions than, say, U.S. American culture, but it just smacked of painting too broadly with one brush for my tastes. Also, some of the names were a little improbable, such as "Chisakami" and "Shinkokami," and sort of sounded like an anime fangirl writing some AU fanfiction, making up names. Of course, some aspects of it were nicely written, and helped bring the Quartet as a whole into focus.. Women in the Yamani Islands are given much more weapons training than women in Tortall (equivalent of France/England) because men are often away when towns/etc. get attacked by pirates. As a child, Kel is 5 years old and with her mother in a temple when pirates attack. And her mother is bad-ass with a glaive, cutting people down and saving some Yamani relics. Thus, it's fairly natural to both Kel and her family that she would want to train to become a knight. I really want to read Terrier.....I want to see things from a lower-class character. But I've already got Trickster's Choice checked out, and I own the first two of the Immortals Quartet (yeah, I skipped it and went right for Keladry's quartet instead). I'm thinking that I will love Terrier a lot. What are Melting Stones and Will of the Empress about? Labels: a: pierce tamora, books, books: fantasy, books: ya, cultural appropriation, race scribbled mystickeeper at 8:38 AM
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wJan 24, 2009 | |
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101 Primer So. My blog is operating under the assumption that everyone who comments in it is beyond the 101 level when it comes to differences in gender, race, hetero-normativity, differently abled people, etc. I assume that you understand that some people benefit from privilege due to the way our society is structured. "But, Mystickeeper!" you say. "I don't believe you!" "Well, Jimmy," I say. "Sit your ass down, and read these posts. NO REALLY. Read them." Please read the rest of the post at the LiveJournal, as some them link to LJ people. Labels: feminism, privilege, race, racism scribbled mystickeeper at 10:47 AM
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