Actually, just some recs - videos, stickers, stuff

[kitewithfish]

Some things I have found interesting and helpful in my recent Hunkered Down phase:

- Maggie Mae Fish's video essay, Cats and the Weird Mind of TS Eliot, which is an really interesting look at TS Eliot as a person, his politics, and how his world view influenced his writing. A lot of the excepts from his writing here made me think about Cats the Musical in new ways, and while I still haven't seen the Tom Hooper film (and maybe never will), this seems like an entertaining and funny short examination of Eliot as a person. 

-Three related things:

• Naomi Novik's new YA novel,  A Deadly Education, which I really enjoyed and thought was had some really interesting worldbuilding. I have been reading Novik's published work for years and I have also really liked her fanfic under her pen name Astolat. 
• the accompanying episode of the Be the Serpent podcast, Ep 71: Back to School, about magical schools (note: No spoilers for A Deadly Education, some discussion of JK Rowling's transphobic shittiness in the Hogwarts part),  - which is a in-depth and loving discussion of magical schools in literature and fic and how they function and the tropes around them. I really enjoyed Novik's thoughts on Harry Potter's wizarding world as wish-fulfillment writing for a single mom who wanted to give their child the experience of being able to buy anything they wanted. 
• For the commentary, I wanted to include this one-star GoodReads review of A Deadly Education which talks about some issues with the depiction of the multicultural elements of the school (Some spoilers for early elements of the book but nothing major). I think the notes in this review are accurate - the one passage about the minor demons that infest dreadlocks is WILDLY tonedeaf and completely out of left field, AND, I also didn't notice it when I was reading. Some of the other elements mentioned in this review are more open to interpretation and I'm a fan of this author, so I read them more charitably, but I don't think there's any denying that they are part of the book and might be dealbreakers.

-The Granada Sherlock Holmes Series - All on youtube, shhhh This was a re-watch for me, but there's something very calming just now about re-watching stories that I know will end with justice. 

-Bande Washi Tape Stickers - Goldfish - These are just really damned cute. Since I'm doing a lot of Important Covid Time Journaling TM, I have been really enjoying just adding some stickers to upcoming pages of my notebook in advance of hitting those pages. I also have this brand of stickers with tulips, assorted garden and dandelion flowers. It's making me happy and chill. 

Comments

[obstinatecondolement]

I've just started A Deadly Education a while ago! I must pick it up again. I was enjoying it so far. I generally like Novik's work (although Uprooted was a bit of a slog for me and whichever of the Temeraire novels where they're in Australia, while I enjoyed it, took me about two years to finish) so no surprise there. I think the many comparisons reviewers were making to HP made me less enthused to read it, which is no fault of the work itself, it's just that I am so exhausted with JKR adjacent things in the wake of her taking up Glinner's mantle on Twitter.

[kitewithfish]

Re: the JKR thing - yeah, I think that's totally fair. I had to bail on some HP adjacent things recently, due to that emotional spillover. ADE doesn't feel like the same brain space for me, but I could see how for some people it definitely could.

I still think Spinning Silver is Novik's best professional writing work, but I had to say that I think her fanfic is always going to be closest to my heart!

[obstinatecondolement]

Like, the book itself didn't spark those feelings, but I tend to be very "I wonder what everyone else is saying about this thing I like?" about stuff, so all the "OMG Slytherpuff friendship!" and "Feminist Harry Potter!" comments turned me way off.

Spinning Silver is the business, I love it so much ♥ Her fic is also *chef's kiss* and her SGA stuff in particular makes up a lot of my comfort re-reads.