“Rat Queens, Vol. 1: Sass and Sorcery” by Kurtis Wiebe

This is a graphic novel that was recommended to me literally years ago by a friend, and I finally found it at the local public library. It’s pretty short, I was able to finish it in a day or so.

The Rat Queens are a gang of warrior ladies in a medieval town who love booze, drugs, candy, and killing people. It’s a pretty diverse group, one is a mage that uses goddess magic, another is a sword fighter, another is a healer, and the final member is a hobbit-like creature who steals things. The main plot is that someone is trying to kill them and they mostly fight stuff off and try to survive. They figure out by the end that it’s Bernadette, a woman in the town who hates them.

My main critique is that I didn’t have a great handle on the plot. I couldn’t keep track of names at all and there were so many fights and injuries that I didn’t know how got injured or if there were any consequences to that. I bet if I kept reading it would get more interesting, with more clues and intrigue. As a first installment though… It’s not doing much for me. Most of it is either fights or parties. That’s really it.

Anyways, I likely won’t check out volume 2, but if I happen upon it, I would give it a chance. I think graphic novels take a bit more time to suck me into the story, but I do tend to like them once I get going.

This Is Beautiful: Trip Coming Up

 This semester has been really hard, to be honest if you can't tell I've been really reaching with these "This Is Beautiful" posts. I can tell the burnout is coming up fast. But it's ok, I just need to get through the rest of this week and I'll be off to DC for a conference and also to see some friends! I'm very excited, I haven't seen these people since I moved out of DC to go to grad school back in 2019. And of course that city is absolutely amazing. I'm definitely looking forward to it!

“The Hammer of Thor” by Rick Riordan

This is the second book in the “Magnus Chase and the Gods of Asgard” series. I wrote about the first one a little while ago and was really eager to dive into this one.

The story picks up a little after it left off, by cleaning up the loose thread that was Thor losing his hammer. Again. The squad of Magnus the undead warrior, Sam the Valkyrie, Blitz the dwarf, and Hearth the elf all get together again. They’ve had time to train since the first book and it shows with Riordan telling us more about the runes. But their information was bad and they ended up finding a legendary sword. Loki shows up (conveniently) and demonstrates his power over his children by knocking Sam out, then drawing the sword and stabbing Blitz.

The only thing that can heal Blitz is the stone that goes with the sword. Conveniently, Hearth’s dad has it. Inconveniently, he’s a huge asshole. Hearth and Magnus head there to get the stone while Sam recovers. Meanwhile Loki has been making a mess of Sam’s private life, by telling her family that she’s going to marry a giant for him. Her fiancée takes this hard, understandably, and Sam ends up telling him all about her life as a Valkyrie. Magnus returns from getting the stone just in time to coax him into believing Sam.

They end up going to the wedding, with Sam’s half-sibling Alex (a gender-fluid character!) posing as her. Thor and some gods in theory have their back, but when it comes to the fighting they are too late. Magnus’ uncle takes the sword and severs Loki’s bonds, the god and man both escape. Sam learns that to recapture him they have to sail to Scandinavia. The book ends with Magnus getting advice from his cousin Annabeth, and she decides to introduce him to Percy.

Alright so there’s just so much going on in this book. I’ll admit that I was lost when following the plot for most of the time, there’s just a lot of giants and subterfuge and trickery when it comes to Loki. If I reread it I’ll probably pick up on more then that I missed this time!

Highlight of the book is definitely Alex. Alex is gender-fluid, sometimes uses he/him pronouns and sometimes uses she/her. There’s a conversation about this with Magnus where Alex says that he doesn’t want to use they/them pronouns because when they feel a gender, they FEEL a gender. They/them just doesn’t cut it. It’s really nice because it’s both a vehicle to explain gender fluidity to the audience, and it plays a role in the plot. Famously Loki is pretty genderqueer, he becomes pregnant and gives birth sometimes, and as a child of Loki Alex embraces change and uses that to recapture her independence from her father. I’m really excited to see where this character goes next.

Also there’s the ending. Annabeth has been in the series from the beginning, but she hasn’t played a very big role. Mostly she’s there in the background, more explicit than the other Riordan series, but still not doing much. Bringing in Percy would be a big step, especially if he’s advising on the upcoming adventure. Maybe this will bring some clarity into how all of these different gods can coexist? I’m not sure. There’s also more clarity for where in the Percy Jackson storyline we are. Earlier you couldn’t tell, but now Annabeth is telling Magnus about a god that came to earth (Apollo) and some Roman gods mucking things up. It’s pretty clearly The Trials of Apollo.

When Riordan first started doing crossover things and I was still in high school, I thought it was really cool. Now though with the MCU and all that it feels pretty… played out. I don’t really particularly want a huge crossover series with all of the gods and everything. But I trust Riordan a lot in how he’s grown as a writer. Quite possibly he’ll find a really interesting twist on it all. We will just have to wait and see.

This Is Beautiful: Fall Break

 I am writing this pre-fall break, but to be honest I do really need a few days to just have less going on. I do think to a certain extent I am putting too much reliance on a few days without classes, since I still have everything else going on, but I'm hoping I'll put some good boundaries up and manage alright. We shall see.

“Monsters: A Fan’s Dilemma” by Claire Derderer

I first read a review of this book several months ago when it was first published. The whole premise made me excited to get my hands on it, but it was in such high demand that I didn’t manage to read it until recently. In a nutshell, this is a book about monstrous men and what to do with them. Or what to do with the art that they create.

Derderer is a memoirist and honestly it makes a lot of sense for this work. It is deeply personal, she continually asks what “we” should do or feel about these men, but then immediately corrects herself with “sorry I mean I.” As in, what should I do about it? The book opens with her relationship to Polanski’s work and movies, while still being disgusted by what he has done. In her journey to figure out what to do, she decides to write a kind of biography of the audience. How has the audience thought and reacted to these people?

Each chapter talks about a different monster, from Michael Jackson to Woody Allen. One of the most interesting parts is where she talks about monstrous women. As it turns out, women get labelled monstrous for simply abandoning their children. Men do all this and get away with it scot-free (men are monsters for murder or rape or what have you). Throughout all of this, Derderer is talking about her reactions to their art and to finding out about what they have done, and how that creates conflict within her. She talks about how art is how one biography (the artist) meet another biography (the audience) and it is continually defined by this subjective experience.

The ending is deeply moving. I didn’t think that the book would come to any conclusion, but Derderer does manage to wrap it up incredibly well. She talks about her alcoholism, and her realization that she is also, a monster. She is flawed. If she can get a redemption arc through recovery, should we allow for others to redeem themselves as well? The book finally wraps up with her talking to a friend who had a monstrous stepfather. The problem is, he loved him anyways. And that’s the real issue here, we find this art that impacts us deeply, but the person who made it is flawed, and despite that we love it anyways. There is no solution, there is no way to be a correct consumer of art. You can know the biography and chuck it or not, because this is all subjective and in the end comes down to how you respond to loving these people anyways.

This was so well done, I have been talking about it to many friends as I try to parse through the book. Because these monstrous men are everywhere, you cannot be an art fan without hitting at least five of them. And we so rarely see monstrous women talked about either, mostly because women rarely become celebrated artists. It’s a very nuanced discussion that gives space for the reader to dissect their own experiences by anchoring itself in Derderer’s.

I also really appreciated the focus of the work being on the audience. Yes she discusses the lives of these artists but the bulk of it is about what has been written by people about the artists or how she feels about them. As she mentions, that is the issue with cancel culture (if there is a “cancel culture”) is that it puts the focus on these monsters instead of on the people impacted by them. And she mentions that this puts the burden on the consumer to fix the system by not consuming their art or tossing it or whatever, but that doesn’t work either. That won’t eventually fix things or make it go away it just puts the burden in the wrong area.

And in the end, the issue is within ourselves and how we can still love this art and these artists. And there’s nothing wrong with that (unless you’re going around virtue signaling and making others feel bad about it, but that’s my addition here). Derderer’s gone through this whole journey and it comes down to the same place that it was in the beginning: it’s subjective and totally within you. Which ends up not being disappointing because you’ve gone through all of this work and considered all of these different angles and now you can finally feel settled with this conclusion. Anyways, if you think about art I would highly recommend this book, it is so informative and well done, I think I will be digesting it for many years to come.

This Is Beautiful: Really Good Breakfast Sandwich

 Alright so this is kind of a silly post but stay with me. This coffee shop that we frequent recently added a breakfast sandwich and it has been sold out every time I've been there. I finally got one last weekend and it was so amazing and worth the wait! The focaccia bread was amazing, with a kinda spicy sausage, egg, some sort of aioli, and caramelized onion. I was in heaven! Hopefully I get another one soon.

I think food can definitely be a form of art, more broadly. Taste is such an overlooked sense, and food can definitely create a strong impression and impact on participants. It also can carry a message depending on the ingredients used and how it's presented.

“The Sword of Summer” by Rick Riordan

I am finally continuing my journey through Riordan’s works and have finally arrived at his books about Norse mythology! Honestly I’ve been looking forward to this one for ages, I can’t believe I didn’t get to it earlier.

The story is about Magnus Chase, a homeless teen in Boston. He’s running from his uncle and cousin (Annabeth) and ends up in the house of his other uncle, Randolph. Randolph takes him to a bridge to find a sword, which Magnus ends up pulling from the water. Then a god appears and they fight, Magnus goes over the bridge into the water and then finds himself in Valhalla. Meaning that he is now dead.

Story doesn’t end there, Magnus makes some friends and realizes that his old homeless buddies are a dwarf (Blitz) and an elf (Hearth). His Valkyrie (Sam) is also a daughter of Loki. Hearth and Blitz come to Valhalla for Magnus and they escape together. Sam eventually finds them and all together they go looking for the sword. They get it back from an ocean goddess, and then learn from another god (a severed head) that they have to rebind Fenris Wolf, because if the wolf comes loose that brings about Ragnarok, or Norse doomsday. In the end though, of course they are successful and rebind the wolf and return to Valhalla as heroes!

There’s a lot of things I skipped over, but that’s the gist of it. Now a really interesting choice on Riordan’s part is to include Annabeth Chase (from the Percy Jackson series) as a prominent character from the beginning. So we know from the start that these aren’t the only gods at play here. I’m not sure if he’s building to a more dramatic crossover in this series or in a future one, but that’s definitely going to eventually manifest.

Then there’s the treatment of objects. Magnus learns about this from the dwarves who introduce each other to the objects around them as though they’re individuals. And of course that carries over into other objects too. Most obvious is Jack, Magnus’ sword. Jack talks, has a personality, and flies around on his own. He hates Magnus’ dad for giving him away, but is loyal to Magnus. It’s an interesting choice because I’m not sure how prominent this was in Norse culture and mythology. Is this something Riordan took and is running with? Not sure.

By far my favorite aspect of the Norse myths though is the fact that they are circular. Ragnarok supposedly happens again and again, and everyone is fated to do the same things, commit the same betrayals, until the world starts over. But the challenge then becomes crafting interesting characters that make choices in the face of destiny. Riordan takes this head on, early into the story Loki says that the details are how they undermine fate. The overall picture stays the same but the little things can still change. So you are able to still see Magnus take control of his destiny and make choices. I’ll be excited to see how this changes as the story progresses.

The ending of the book was very upbeat, everyone gets rewarded and goes home happy. Which is an interesting choice for the first installment of a series, it wrapped everything up. But there is an epilogue making it clear that Loki is still up to no good. Onwards to the next one!

This Is Beautiful: Cider Mills

 Had last weekend off so went to a cider mill to get apple cider and donuts! It just doesn't feel like fall until you do that. Sure the bees swarm you afterwards, but that's all part of the charm. And now donuts for breakfast for a little while!

“Happy Yoga: 7 Reasons Why There’s Nothing to Worry About” by Steve Ross

This is another book that my old housemate left in the house and I thought looked interesting. I used to be a Buddhist/yogi so I have read a lot of other texts about that stuff (it’s what got me into philosophy) but have fallen off of that more recently even though I still practice yoga for exercise. The argument behind this book though is that doing yoga has to be accompanied by mental exercises as well. And this mental exercise has to do with what he calls recognizing that there’s “nothing to worry about.”

Ross has six reasons why there’s nothing to worry about. They are: you can’t get happy, you can only be happy; you can have true love; you’re not fat; you’re not your daily grind; you can change your world; you will never die; and you can be yogic, and to the yogi, everything is bliss. That’s the book in a nutshell, plus every chapter comes with meditation prompts and exercises, yoga poses, supplements, and songs to listen to that are related.

Now there’s a lot that I like about this book. It’s very accessible, Ross does a great job of making jokes throughout which diffuses the serious tone that often comes with talking about enlightenment and the nature of reality blah blah. And the meditation exercises plus yoga poses make it possible for anyone who reads the book to do yoga.

Probably the best aspect of it is that the book tackles head on a common critique of mindfulness. Which is that it is used for complacency in order to make people accept their situation instead of trying to change it. According to Ross being able to accept your surroundings isn’t that at all. He uses the example of someone cutting the line in front of you, acceptance isn’t letting them cut. It could be acceptance of saying to them “hey the line’s back there” and continuing on without getting emotionally involved. I like this stance a lot, you are able to work towards change and making the world better (which is what being a yogi is about) while still maintaining a state of acceptance and bliss.

Now the main issue that I have with the book all has to do with the chapter called “You’re Not Fat.” And keep in mind that the book was written in 2003, in recent years the fat community has been reclaiming the term “fat,” but I will let that one slide here since that would have happened after this book was written. A lot of the chapter is about accepting your body as it is, since you are not your body, and that’s all well and good. But then Ross gets into how besides a few rare genetic disorders people who are “fat” look like that because of the way they eat. Which really isn’t true and honestly is a bit of a gendered issue. Plenty of women gain weight because of diseases like PCOS or because of medications like birth control or antidepressants (that last one is probably regardless of sex). And while I think that nutrition does a lot of good to address issues at their sources, you simply cannot say that the majority of people should eat better because for a lot of people their weight is out of their control and not due to diet. Those “rare genetic disorders” are not so rare at all. Not to mention that this all unfairly puts the blame on the individual rather than the situation that they’re in.

Then Ross gets into his tips about diet. And they can really be boiled down to recommending that everyone eat an all raw vegetarian diet. I have so very many issues with this section. First of all, he rarely cites his sources here. And I know that this is a book written for popular consumption, but if you are going to make health recommendations universally, you better start citing something beyond your own experiences here. Especially if you are an able-bodied white guy. Which leads into my next point which is that there is no evidence that an all raw diet does anything incredibly beneficial for you. Turns out that cooking your food is not a bad thing! So do not believe the hype, this just happens to be a diet that works for some people who are extremely loud. And finally there is the section on meat. His main point is that humans do not have the biology to be carnivores, our digestive system is too long and meat rots by the time it gets digested which makes meat-eaters smell bad. This has to be the most ridiculous thing I have heard, humans have been eating meat for hundreds of years! We have literally evolved to be omnivores! Saying that our digestive system is too long and we should have one the length of a dog’s is really just pointing out that humans are bigger than dogs! Plus the thing about meat-eaters smelling bad, I have never heard this before. On a personal note with regards to this, he keeps talking about how people these days eat too much protein. I have an iron deficiency, I have tried to go vegetarian and it simply has not worked for me, I feel low on energy and irritable. I know a person who has autism and is able to function better with more protein so they pound the protein powder to help their brain out. The bottom line is that none of this advice actually applies to everyone, it is all based on one man’s preferences and experiences. Do me a favor and start citing your sources, I am begging you.

Diatribe about the eating recommendations aside, I think I would recommend this book with a huge grain of salt. The rest of it is decent, and even the points about the yogi logic behind food is pretty sound. But also the food chapter is probably the longest one, so unless you just cut out those pages, you’d probably be better off finding a more recent yogi text that does not have questionable diet advice.