“Precarious Life: The Powers of Mourning and Justice” by Judith Butler

It may surprise you, but I haven’t read much of Judith Butler’s work. And I wanted to change that, so I picked up this book. It’s from the early 2000s and mostly is in reaction to 9/11 and the Iraq War, but it is so stunningly prescient today. The work consists of a few essays by Butler. The first essay talks about how stories shape our politics and who is allowed to have a voice in those stories. The second starts off about mourning and from there discusses how mourning can impact politics and community. The third is a scathing indictment of Guantanamo Bay. The fourth talks about the charge of anti-Semitism when criticizing Israel, and the final essay is the most traditionally philosophical as it discusses Levinas and how that impacts personhood.

Now a lot of these are heavily based in a certain time for sure, but a few really moved me. The essay on mourning I thought was really beautifully written, in that it captured a lot of what I feel I went through with regards to grief and pain. And even the first one I think captured something essential about politics and how people think about global events. But I really wanted to focus on the anti-Semitism essay since that resonates so strongly with the current climate. Butler talks about how people are charged with “essentially” being anti-Semetic, meaning that they don’t intend to be anti-Semetic but the listener charges them with it anyways. And this is a dangerous thing to do as that means that there is no way to prevent the charge and therefore you can say that literally anything is anti-Semetic. And the result is that people are discouraged from criticizing Israel for starters, but also that it detracts from very real and very dangerous actual anti-Semitism going on. Through this, she calls for respect and self-determination for Palestinian people, and for free and open discussion around this topic so that people can contribute without the threat of being called anti-Semetic.

Now this is so important in this day and age as literally nothing has changed! Everything against Israel’s genocide of Palestinians gets labeled anti-Semetic or Hamas or whatever, and people are still terrified of taking a stand because they don’t want to offend Jewish people. Which is so frustrating and ridiculous as people are being bombed and killed. Going through this, it feels as though Butler is talking about 2023 and not 2003. And that is so so sad that nothing has changed in that amount of time.

I also didn’t love all of them, the essay on Guantanamo is good but it’s overly specific to that situation for me to talk about it now. And the final essay has a few too many ideas in it to make sense. But it is simply amazing how much of this was directly applicable to things we are still discussing and thinking about today. I picked this book at random, I didn’t research it or anything, but getting this one glimpse of Butler’s work really makes me want to read the rest of it. I bet they are just as insightful on any number of other topics.

This Is Beautiful: Solidarity

 Well not to dox myself, but the university I attend as a graduate student just ended all DEI programs before anyone asked them to. This is definitely an attempt to spin it as something the current administration is pressuring them into, but there's been talks about this since the fall and it's not fooling me. The administration just wants to consolidate more power in their end and do what they wanted to do all along.

In response, there's been a lot of heartening things taking place. More faculty are trying to learn from the graduate students who have been organizing for ages. And when faculty get fired up, that's when you know it's bad. So the solidarity and determination from everyone has been really encouraging and hopeful. I think this next year(s) is going to be rough, but we will have each others backs throughout it!

“Assassin’s Apprentice” by Robin Hobb

My sister bought me this book for my birthday and I only just now got around to finishing it! It is a pretty good fantasy novel, I really liked the world building and most of the characters. I will say though that it moves pretty slow and the magic system was confusing to me. But as I have read much worse things out there and the writer clearly knows what she is doing, I likely will continue to read the rest of the series.

This book follows Fitz, a bastard of the king-in-waiting from when he is dumped on the castle steps as a child to him growing up and taking on his first big task as an assassin. For most of his childhood he is raised by the stablemaster Burrich. He additionally makes a friend in the dog Nosy, by entering his mind through what we learn is the Will. Burrich though disapproves and when he learns about this he takes Nosy away. Fitz is then discovered to be there by his father’s wife and she takes him under her wing. She has him learn how to fight and write and gifts him another dog. Around the same time, Fitz is visited by Chade, the king’s assassin. He starts to teach Fitz how to sneak around and notice things no one else will. His final teacher though is Galen, the Skillmaster, who teaches him how to use the Skill which is putting ideas into other people’s heads. Galen creates an abusive relationship with all of his students and tries to kick Fitz out until Burrich beats Galen up.

Galen’s final test is to drop all of his students off at mystery locations. Fitz is dropped off at a dangerous place that he isn’t expected to return from, but he gets word from his dog that Burrich is being attacked and he manages to rush home. Burrich realizes that Fitz knew by using the Will on the dog and ceases to associate with him. Then Fitz gets the order to accompany the new prince to his wedding and kill the bride’s older brother to ensure that the bride is the sole heir to her kingdom. He gets there and the prince is in perfect health, not sickly as he was told. He starts to doubt his mission, even more so when the princess reveals that she knows he’s an assassin and attempts to poison him. Fitz protests against his orders but is told by the king and the prince’s younger brother to stay firm. So he goes to confront the bride’s brother, he puts the poison in the wine, but unbeknownst to him the wine was already poisoned and the bride’s brother dies. Fitz is arrested, Nozy reappears as an old dog and chews through his bonds and Burrich supports Fitz to confront the prince’s brother. He attempts to kill both Burrich and Fitz, Fitz is only saved by Nosy dragging him from the pool he was supposed to drown in, killing Nosy in the process. Meanwhile there is an attempt on the prince’s life but Fitz finally uses the Skill to warn him, and they head home. Fitz is barely alive, Burrich is also severely injured, but peace is maintained in the kingdom.

Now my main complaint with this book is that the magic systems are very confusing. I had no idea what the difference is between the Will and the Skill for most of the book. And I’m still a little confused, but I think the Will is animals and the Skill is people potentially. Which makes Burrich’s reaction to the whole thing a little ridiculous as he encourages Fitz with the Skill and hates the Will. But ok we learn as we go and that’s fine.

The other complaint is that it moves pretty slowly. Fitz primarily hears about things going on elsewhere in the kingdom while he studies or something. He likes a girl in town but doesn’t make any moves. The Fool pops in and out but there’s a lot going on in there that we don’t know. The politics of the situation primarily aren’t revealed until the last second when it feels like I’m struggling to keep up. I’m hopeful that it speeds up though, introducing a world can take time.

Having said all that, I do really like the world and the characters. Burrich is charming and the Fool is delightful. Fitz is a bit annoying, but not in a way that makes me hate him. The characters like the princess that we meet at the last moment I hope stick around as there aren’t enough women here (but there never is in fantasy). Hobb so clearly knows what she is doing that even when the going gets frustrating, I still want to keep going.

And keep going I will, I am trying to get my hands on the second book in the trilogy and am looking forward to reading it!

This Is Beautiful: Muppets Amigurumi

 So a few days ago a friend texted that she found The Muppets Official Crochet Amigurumi at the local library and I knew I had to get my hands on it. So I requested it and picked it up the next day. It is delightful! All of the main Muppets are here, and based on the pictures anyways, they look very similar to the real deal. Nothing worse than being interested in a pattern but the eyes look terrifying or the colors are all off. 

I'm so excited, I fully intend to work my way through the whole book eventually, but starting with Kermit for now. It'll definitely take a while, but it's so energizing to have a new project to be working on!

“The Lantern and the Night Moths” by Yilin Wang

I bought this book ages ago when it was published, but then had a friend borrow it and she only just got it back to me (graduate students, oh well). It was a really interesting read, I don’t know much about Chinese poetry or translation as it’s one of those arts that is frequently overlooked. Or put another way, you only notice it when it goes wrong. In addition to a small collection of poems from each of the poets, there are short essays that talk about the process that Wang went through with each of the different works. Each poem additionally is printing in both Chinese and in English for comparison.

The book spans quite a few ages, it starts with Qiu Jin’s poetry. She was a poet and early feminist who was known for breaking gender norms. She’s also how I first heard about this work, I knew that Wang’s work was stolen by the British Museum and I was part of the group that helped her fight that. Wang’s experiences are touched on with her essay on this section, it’s interesting hearing about that again from her perspective.

Most interesting to me was hearing about how there are so many different processes for translating depending on the style of the poet. She talks a lot about preserving allusions and meanings that English audiences wouldn’t pick up on, and keeping elements of ambiguity as well. I’ve heard Wang talk about how translating can be like writing poetry as well, and now looking at the poems she’s referring to really makes that clear, and more real, in my mind. It’s not something that is a one-to-one, there’s so much work happening below the surface here!

I really like to support ace writers, and this was a great book to finally get to. It isn’t entirely poetry, if that isn’t your thing, but it is really interesting to hear about the process of translating poetry.

This Is Beautiful: Community

 I had a performance this past week with a group that I have been kinda on and off with. But while the performance itself was kinda mid, sitting around hanging out with people was a really nice time. It was just a good reminder that while I have a lot of differences with leadership the members are cool and fun people that I like. And it was nice because I didn't have to work to rejoin or anything, just was able to pick it back up.

Community is just so important, and now more than ever we need each other. We can't forget about that.

“League of Dragons” by Naomi Novik

This is the final book in the Temeraire series! I’m going to miss it after this. (For the previous installments, check out the first, second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh, and eighth blog posts.) Overall I think it’s a pretty satisfactory ending but there were some characters that I would have liked to have seen again before the end.

The book starts in Russia, Temeraire and Laurence are driving Napoleon out of there. While there a bunch of ferals bring word that Napoleon stole Temeraire and Iskerika’s egg from China so Temeraire takes off after them. While out he runs into Tharkey who has new intelligence on this, and the 3 of them (Temeraire, Laurence, and Tharkey) team up with Iskerika and Granby to find the egg. They end up falling into a trap and get captured by the French, Temeraire and Iskerika plan to steal their egg back. The egg hatches and turns out she has the divine wind AND can breathe fire, not to mention she inherited Temeraire’s tendency to question authority. The dragons grab the humans and they all head back to England. Once there, Laurence is promoted and is to lead a group of officers (who all hate him) into mainland Europe to combat Napoleon. Temeraire also has to work to get dragons on their side as Napoleon has been promising them a whole lot of money for their service.

There’s a big ol battle, Napoleon gets captured, and then he’s exiled. Laurence isn’t happy about how it resolves, he thinks that his enemies should be treated with more respect and it is evident here that his wife partially orchestrated his downfall. Hammond does make several appearances as the diplomat here, always entertaining to see him. Temeraire and Laurence aren’t sure what to do now, Laurence has spent time with his mother and he wants to be able to give Temeraire a better life. Conveniently Tharkey shows up, he has some land he’d be willing to let them live on. Temeraire decided to go into politics and join Parliament to continue advocating for dragon rights.

Of course, this series couldn’t end with Napoleon being brought down. And all in all, I think it’s a very satisfying defeat. There’s a number of armies that come together, and a lot of different groups are rallied between the dragons and the humans. Laurence has to get the officers that hate him to like him, and he negotiates pay for the dragons which wins a whole lot of them over. Temeraire also learns to share some wealth and pay dragons better than Napoleon does to get them on their side. It’s an interesting look at coalition building for sure.

I do wish that we got to see more of the British dragons. Maximus and Lily are barely there, and we never get to see Demane and Kulingile. For the most part, Temeraire and Laurence are doing their own thing, but bringing it full circle with his formation would have been really nice.

I also think the transition to more boring politics for Temeraire is interesting. I’d have to read the series again to make a decent analysis of the techniques and collective action going on, but I loved watching his fight for dragon rights. I’m sure that there’s more here to explore that Novik included, but it did also feel like dragon complaints and politics changed from book to book as they traveled so it made it difficult to spot through lines.

This doesn’t make my top few books of the series, but I also wouldn’t say that I was disappointed with it. A satisfying ending all around, but definitely not splashy or a stand out, and there’s nothing wrong with that.