“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.

This Is Beautiful: International Working Women's Event

 This past weekend my union put together an International Working Women's event with panels, a workshop on reproductive justice, and a potluck! It was so fun, even though there wasn't a ton of people, it was a group where everyone just vibed with each other really well. We got to reconnect with an old friend, my partner made a new friend, and caught up with the organizers. Plus I got added to a panel at the last minute since they were desperate for people haha. I had a good time, I love a captive audience.

But the great thing really was the community and feeling part of a bigger movement, which is what organizing is all about. It's so great when the things you do are energizing.

“The Art of Making Dances” by Doris Humphrey

I got this book on loan from a friend, I was curious since I have choreographed a number of dances but I have never sat down and studied it myself. A book appeals to me much more than a class because classes on choreography tend to start at the mind-numbingly simple as most dancers only have experience with doing moves that have been given to them, not coming up with their own. And since I’ve been choreographing for a while I so don’t want to go back to that stage, I more want ideas I can mess around with and think about. Or feedback on a larger piece, but that’s unlikely.

The book is very comprehensive and methodological when it comes to dance. It quite literally starts with a discussion of who the choreographer is and habits that a choreographer should have when it comes to noticing movement and adapting it to other bodies. It goes through the tools of the trade like symmetry/asymmetry, phrases, the stage itself, and having multiple bodies to work with. Then there’s dynamics, rhythm, motivation, words, music, props, and finally overall form. Most chapters have a basic illustration to show what she is referring to with things like symmetry or opposition as well. It ends with a checklist and Humphrey’s thoughts on the field of dance as a whole (in the 60s anyways).

Overall, this was a great read but I think it requires a certain amount of familiarity with the dance world. She talks about existing pieces such as “Giselle” or the “Dying Swan” variation that you’d probably have to close the book and watch before going back to it. If you have that knowledge though, this is a very thorough overview of modern dance and how to think about/construct it. She really builds her knowledge from the ground up and covers everything very completely.

At the end of the book is a list of dances that she made, and I was really interested in going to find some after reading this. Unfortunately it doesn’t seem like many survived, I was able to find two recreations of her work online and not much else, a few snippets really. It just goes to show how fleeting dance is as an art form, there isn’t a good way to write it down and once you’ve performed it, if someone hasn’t memorized it the choreography is truly just gone. And here’s a pioneer of modern dance whose whole body of work has been greatly reduced. Even a few dances by other people that she references I couldn’t find, the preservation just isn’t there.

Anyways, with regards to what I’ll be thinking about, she did definitely give me some ideas. I hadn’t thought much about the stage itself and how I use it beyond how center is very powerful. She has a whole chapter on entrances and exits. Bows too get a dedicated section. There’s also a bit about words and dialogue in dance which I never thought about before, but she is right in that dance is a singular art form where performers are not expected to make noise. Seems like it’d be fun to shake that up.

So this was a great read, possibly for me only, but I am very glad that I picked it up. I hope that in the future I can attend a performance of some of her choreography, it seems a shame to have read so much about it to never see it.

This Is Beautiful: Med School Smoker

 Ok so unique to the school that I'm at (I think) the med school students each year put on a silly show mocking the school and the faculty. I had never been, it's one of those things that I think is cool for sure, but I wouldn't go unless I knew someone in it. And I finally knew someone, one of my lab mates was acting in the show. It was so fun! All the music was parodies of existing music, and the plot was just Scooby Doo characters running around. But there was some great stuff here, the pit musicians and some singers were amazing! The dancing was not good at all (sigh), but that was my main complaint. 

The plot itself was also pretty good, they made the deans of the school the villains and called them out on giving themselves raises while the med school students have to pay too much tuition. I do have to wonder if this is an established route for med school students to call out authority and then they don't do it elsewhere in ways that actually impact them, but I might be overthinking it. But I was surprised that there was so much about how students are overworked and pay too much, while the administration of the school gets rich. 

Anyways, this was a ton of fun and I almost wish that I started going earlier! I hope my lab mate is able to keep doing this so I keep having a reason to attend.

“Blood of Tyrants” by Naomi Novik

We are so close here, this is the penultimate book in the Temeraire series! (Check out books one, two, three, four, five, six, and seven elsewhere on the blog.) This is definitely building up to a climax with Napoleon, and it satisfyingly has a decent amount about Laurence and Temeraire’s relationship as well. It does have some weird jumps in it though, and it unfortunately doesn’t seem as though we will be ending with the rest of Temeraire’s formation.

The book starts with Laurence washed up on shore. He’s lost all memory of the past eight years, meaning that he thinks he is still in the Navy and is the captain of a ship. As it turns out, he’s in Japan while the country is closed to foreigners, and so he is taken in by a nobleman but is effectively a prisoner. Eventually he escapes and starts to make his way across the countryside aided by a servant. Meanwhile Temeraire is going nuts trying to find Laurence and in the process they are irritating most of the Japanese officials since they aren’t supposed to be there. Hammond is being delightfully annoying trying to get Temeraire to forget it. Of course though, Laurence bursts out of the woods to only be confronted by this protective dragon and hilariously when Temeraire insists that he is a captain and a prince of China Laurence only responds with “like hell I am.” Very amusing.

From there we journey to China and this is where things get interesting. My favorite parts of the book are where Laurence is trying to remember, or remembering fragments of things, and is just trying to make sense of it while his whole crew dances around certain issues like how he’s a disgraced captain and all that. There’s a very amusing passage where he realizes that Emily Roland is a girl and reads a letter from his mother asking after her and puts two and two together and starts to wonder if Emily is his daughter! Which she isn’t, but there’s another layer where his mom thinks he is the father and it’s all very confusing and funny.

Once in China, there’s an abrupt transition to an assassination attempt on Laurence and the other prince. They manage to escape unharmed, but the Emperor decides to send Laurence into China to root out some rebels that are smuggling opium from the English. They get out there and find a destroyed town, but learn that it’s an inside job, the same assassins are also trying to sow discontent in China. As part of this they find Arkaday and Tharkey who have been trying to find Laurence and warn him that Napoleon is now in Russia. Things change drastically after that, they depose the Chinese general and then Laurence and Temeraire head to Russia with the Chinese forces while the rest of the formation returns to England.

There’s so little of the book left but also all of Russia. This is the first we see of the country, turns out that the dragons there are extremely large hoarders of treasure, and the rest are very tiny and treated like servants. The Russians don’t know how to control their dragons, fundamentally, so it’s either treasure or physical violence as the group learns that in the Russian breeding grounds dragons are chained and starved. This becomes strategy, Napoleon is losing until his forces set loose a ton of breeding ground dragons who are so hungry that they start eating Russians and then fleeing to join Napoleon. The book ends with Laurence anticipating another battle with much more evenly matched forces.

There was a lot that I really liked about this book, including the loss of memory plot. Yes it is a little of “this is late in the series and we need to be reminded of a few things” but it was also very entertaining and funny. Plus it doesn’t hurt to see Laurence grow to care more for Temeraire and less for his government again. I do wish that there was more of this though, as soon as we hit China we are pretty much done with talking about it and it’s mostly mentioned in passing.

There are also some really abrupt and weird transitions, to the point where it is hard to follow. This first happens with the assassination attempt in China, I wasn’t sure if this was going to be revealed as a drill or some other plot at play here. But it was all sincere. It happens again when they decide to go to Russia, suddenly we are in Russia talking to the generals there with no sense of how we got there. The nice thing about this series is that it is similar to George R. R. Martin where Novik includes how they get from place to place instead of teleporting them so I hope that this trend does not continue.

Beyond that, it was interesting to see Russia and another outlook on how dragons are treated and integrated into human life. And I do find it fascinating how Novik continually holds up China as the exemplar for how to treat dragons rather than the “more civilized” Europe as would have been believed at the time. It’s a nice shift in power in history and how we view it by deconstructing a little why we should have thought Asia to be an inferior society.

Looking forward to the last book, I do wish we were with more beloved characters from throughout the series. Maximus and Lily have returned to England and I doubt that they would make it back in time to defeat Napoleon. I hope that there will be a way to bring them all together, I adored their presence in this book and I would hate to leave it off on a sour note.

This Is Beautiful: asses.masses

 Last weekend I had one of the most incredible collective experiences with a video game. It's called asses.masses and it's a video game that a crowd plays together. You can play or you can backseat drive and voice act for the characters. I was absolutely blown away by the entire thing.

The game itself is about donkeys staging a revolution to get humans to appreciate them, and I figured it would be fairly straightforward, but it's got a lot going on. There's donkey afterlife and reincarnation and donkey gods, and how the gods aren't going to save you. The play style for the afterlife is completely different in that it's in 3 dimensions and the rest of the game is in 2. Plus there's questions at the beginning that I don't think change much, but they foreshadow some jokes. 

I was also really fascinated by how this is a one person game, sometimes it's 2 people or more, but really there's only one controller. And yet a whole crowd is participating. It does feel like a huge experiment to see if it's possible to have a collective experience that way, but honestly I was so engaged and I never touched the controller.

I suspect I'll be thinking about that for a while longer, it was a great way to show how engaging video games are and how to get a group focused on a single goal. I hope that there's more projects like this.

“Assistant to the Villain” by Hannah Nicole Maehrer

I picked this book up in a bookstore recently because it looked like a fun time. I think I initially picked up the sequel Apprentice to the Villain before realizing that this was the first in the series. It is a fun time! But a little more of a romance than what I expected.

The book starts with Evie being newly unemployed and wandering through the woods dejected. The runs into an injured man, she tries to help him but ends up getting hired by him as his assistant. And of course this is the notorious Villain who has been terrorizing the kingdom, but she is desperate for a job and he is attractive. Evie ends up really liking the position, the Villain treats his employees well and doesn’t look down on the women in his employ. Which isn’t much, but it’s better than her previous employer who stabbed her after she refused his advances.

Anyways as Evie and the Villain make moon eyes at each other a plot unfurls where the Villain wants to foil the plans of the King to get a pair of magical creatures. The Villain captures the creatures’ mate and wrecks that, but then Evie returns home to find out that her supposedly sick father is not sick at all and in fact has been working for the King. He bought Evie magical ink that can copy itself and has been looking at her notes this whole time. After incapacitating him and moving herself and her sister out, they are attacked by the King’s guards and the Villain is captured. Evie as part of the bargain is given back to her previous employer, who she kills, and hangs his head up in the manor before making plans to rescue the Villain.

So the narrative swaps back and forth between Evie and the Villain throughout the story, and makes it pretty clear very early on that they both like each other but can’t do anything about it. And honestly I was pretty bored by the Villain chapters, I like Evie much more as a character. If the whole point of the Villain is that he’s mysterious and whatever, having a direct passage to his thoughts doesn’t make a whole ton of sense. And clearly, a lot of the idea of being a villain in the book has to do with standing up for yourself and challenging the status quo, which makes a lot more sense for a woman to be in that position than a man. All that said, the Villain did grow on me as you learn more of his backstory, but at first it was a slog.

The politics of the situation does take a bit of suspension of disbelief. The Villain does murder and behead people and hang their heads in the manor, but it gets revealed later on that he only does that to the King’s men. The townspeople can’t actually name any crimes he’s committed, it’s all a PR stunt. Which again, I have to suspend some disbelief with. They can’t name ANYTHING he’s done? At least have a murder or a robbery or something. Which again is why the villainy thing makes a lot more sense for a woman, she’s getting revenge against the men in her life who have abused and taken advantage of her. The actual Villain himself is just laying a path for her to follow.

All of that said, it is a fun book. The characters are really quirky (there’s a frog that communicates in little signs) and it’s a great blend of medieval aesthetic with modern sensibilities. I will try to find the sequel, but we will also see. If it’s a lot more longing than I’m definitely ehhhh on that.

This Is Beautiful: Teaching Heavy Week

 I lucked out and somehow this week I ended up giving a guest lecture and proctoring an exam, but at least it was a relatively light research week! So I was able to focus a little more on teaching than I have been lately and that has been nice. I'll have to get back on the research grind next week though.

“Crucible of Gold” by Naomi Novik

This is the seventh book in the Temeraire series (check out books one, two, three, four, five, and six) and we are getting close to the end of this nine book series folks! This book involves the squad heading to a new part of the globe again, but it also brings back beloved characters towards the end so it makes for a nice mix.

The book starts with Hammond, the ambassador to China from a few books ago, traveling to Australia. He finds Laurence there and reinstates him to help fight in South America, Laurence agrees reluctantly, and they sail with Riley towards their destination. Tragedy strikes and the ship sinks, taking Riley with it. This death is felt very keenly, which contrasts with my earlier criticism of how minor characters get slaughtered constantly. They make it to a French ship and are then marooned somewhere on land. The sailors are largely criminals from Australia and they try to capture Demane when drunk once, leading to Kulingile slaughtering them. Eventually the party makes it to civilization and learn about the customs here.

Turns out that in South America each dragon has their own village that they consider the men in it to be their property. Due to the diseases that have killed off a lot of the indigenous populations, men are now one of the most highly valued materials. The group consists of a lot of sailors, meaning that the Sapa Inca will see them, and Iskerika tries to convince Granby to marry her. Granby reveals to Laurence that he’s actually gay so cannot marry her which was a fascinating reveal to me! The French show up with Napoleon and drive the English out where they run into the Tswana rescuing slaves in Brazil. Mrs. Erasmus makes an appearance as a leader of the group, and Laurence seeks an alliance with them. This doesn’t go over well with the Portuguese or Hammond, but aviator reinforcements from England (as in Maximus and Lily) agree with Laurence. They end up capturing several large ships from the French and load up the Tswana to return to Africa. The book ends though with Gong Su (the cook) revealing that he has been working for the Chinese government the whole time, and Laurence must return there. Laurence mourns the loss of Riley as getting there will be much harder now.

A lot of things are going on in this book, but I loved the balance of new and old characters. The return of Hammond was well placed as his pompousness is very entertaining throughout the travels. And seeing Maximus and Lily towards the end was wonderful as I missed their presence for the previous book. We didn’t get much of them, but I hope that it serves as a good omen for the next installment.

There are new characters that are also fun, a South American dragon tries to adopt Hammond and basically joins them on the journey, and a French dragon gets flirtatious with Iskerika. This ticks Temeraire off, and it is interesting to see his view on Iskerika change from annoyance to seeing her good qualities.

Now the queer representation, I was shocked by this reveal because I was not expecting it at all in this book. It had not mentioned queerness at all, if anything it was very deeply set in heteronormativity. Of course though, that was probably just Laurence’s biases coming through. At first I thought it might be asexuality, but a liaison is mentioned with another officer so Granby appears to be homosexual. What is interesting is that it isn’t the majority of Granby’s personality or choices at all, but he mentions how he keeps it a secret. Laurence refers to it as a “vice” and speculates on how the looser environment of the aviators might have been ore welcoming. I hope we get to hear more about this side of Granby, even if it isn’t a major part of the story, just because it seems very brief right now.

Finally I thought the culture in South America was really interesting in comparison to everywhere else. In England men own dragons, in China the dragons are equal to men, and now we have dragons owning men. This resonates a lot with the European dragons, especially Temeraire as he tries to take care of his crew more. It is an interesting progression in his thought process as we deal with liberation of both dragons and also people from slavery.

I’m excited to see what choices get made as the series comes to a close! Only two books left!

This Is Beautiful: Jazz at Lincoln Center

 Last weekend there was the (basically) annual Jazz at Lincoln Center performance on campus! It was so fun! There was a high school jazz ensemble that opened, and then the group came on. They played a cool variety of music, including a bari sax and cornet duet. There was only one woman in the group, 2nd alto sax player, but she ripped on her solo, I loved her! So it was a fun performance, I'm so glad I was finally able to go. They usually come around Thanksgiving when I'm out of town, so I'm so happy I caught them!

The Dragon Prince Season 7

Alright I need to air a few things about the most recent TDP season, so spoilers below for suuuure. 

Now overall I thought it was really strong. I definitely liked it more than seasons 4 and 5 which entered one ear and left through the other. But they super didn't stick the landing on this one y'all.

Not to gloss over the things I liked in favor of complaining, but I'm about to do that. I loved seeing Callum and Rayla interact with Runaan and Ethari. I loved seeing Ezran come apart at the seams and not be a perfect king a little bit. Terry finally left Claudia and I cheered. I really really liked seeing Callum struggle with his inner demons and his impulse to use dark magic.

Anyways, to skip to the end, the writers then proceeded to undercut it all. The archdragons sacrifice themselves to destroy Aaravos, even though he will regenerate in seven years, and there's a big happy ending.

Issue number 1 I have is that there are zero emotional stakes for the viewer. We haven't seen the archdragons all season, they hop in at the end for an episode or two and to take out the big bad. Callum tries to do dark magic but gets interrupted, Ezran finds the Novablade but doesn't get to use it. So it makes no sense to go with the dragon sacrifice option because the Novablade is literally right there! Instead of him regenerating we could just be done with it but that plot point goes nowhere. It just sets it up for the next arc without wrapping things up because that's how Netflix works now I guess.

Other issue is the happy-go-lucky ending with them founding a town where people will be nice to each other or something. Now this could be fine, but also the thing that was interesting about season 4 was seeing the conflicts between elves and humans as they try to coexist. If there's just a time jump and we see people living happy lives without any conflict or lingering trauma, that is so uninteresting to me. I want to see the hard conversations that have to arise and the fact that rebuilding trust and community takes work!

And I didn't expect this to break me, but then Zym spoke and Dante Bosco (of Zuko voice fame) came out and I LOST IT. Started screaming on the spot. Not because I hated it, but it just so doesn't fit Zym's small, chirping body. I hope that he gets a little bigger and grows into that deep voice but OH MY GOD it doesn't really fit at the moment.

And then the thing that baffles me is that the show might not continue, so what I was seeing leading up to the show was that the writers would give us an ending. And uh, no not really. There's the fact that Aaravos is returning, and they finally confirmed that Harrow is a bird now. And where has he been for the past seven seasons? Don't leave me on this note please...

All that to say is that I sure hope that the third arc gets greenlit and we get the rest of it because I sure CANNOT leave on this note. We need a more satisfying ending (and also I need Soren and Corvus to kiss) alright that's all.

This Is Beautiful: Lyra

 So I've been taking lyra classes for a little over 2 months, I took trapeze classes this summer too, and I finally hit the point where I feel really good on the apparatus. I got through all the poses that we did this month multiple times, versus last week I could do them once, maybe twice. And it's just incredible how much progress that represents! 

It's got me covered in bruises, but it's shaping up into a fun hobby. I unfortunately have to take February off for scheduling reasons but hoping to get back up there soon!

“All the Beauty in the World: The Metropolitan Museum of Art and Me” by Patrick Bringley

I picked this up at a bookstore recently as it seemed like something I would enjoy: thinking about the experience of being in a museum and how that can help you think through or process emotions. And it was a delightful book, it is short, I would have liked a little more, but it hits deliciously.

Bringley is a late-20s New Yorker who just got a job at… the New Yorker. Unfortunately his brother then gets terminally sick with cancer. After caring for him on his deathbed Bringley does not want to be part of the grind anymore and pretend to be someone he is not. Instead, he applies to be a security guard at the Met. Having grown up around art, he simply wanted to lose himself in the collection and could not see himself doing anything else at the time. He talks about different works of art and interactions he had with museum visitors, as well as special exhibitions and how the museum changed over time.

Eventually Bringley has two kids and realizes that he got what he needed out of this experience. He applies to do walking tours in the city and ends up leaving his position as a security guard. He got what he needed and realized that his life can still change and grow in many ways, and leaves to grow alongside his kids.

Now this might seem like a premise that is a little navel-gazey, but also, any memoir is. I personally really appreciated more the discussions of art than the anecdotes of life. It is cool to see what the guards are doing in the background, and I liked the parts where life and art combined, but hearing about his kids just was not as interesting to me. I liked the parts where he used art to talk about his grief or how his family has processed emotions in the past. I also really liked talking about how patrons come up to guards to ask about the art. So much of life is in art, and separating it out felt bizarre after reading about his date at a museum or his mom crying in front of a pieta.

The best part of the book talks about how some kids doing a school assignment need to learn from the art and not about the art. Because that is a thesis that I inherently agree with, I think you should learn about the artist and the context if you really want to know what they were getting at, but on a basic level anyone can learn from art just by standing in front of it. And thinking about how it makes you feel. What does it bring up? How does it resonate with you? An expert can’t tell you that, only you can. And a security guard is inherently positioned to know this as someone who is paid to stand there for eight hours a day and just keep an eye on the art.

Which is the fascinating thing as security guards are nearly always people that I simply do not notice. I am not one of the patrons who ask them questions or for directions, honestly I try to not get in trouble so I usually avoid getting their attention. But it was so cool to hear about their experiences, and even how they sometimes get looked down on. Even though they are doing what now sounds like one of the most enlightened jobs in the world, protecting and standing near art.

Anyways, I loved this. Again it is not very long and I would have liked more about different works of art and things like that, but probably that is enough for me to not get annoyed with the memoir aspects of it. Art is so powerful and speaks to us so profoundly in different moments of our lives, I thought this was a fascinating look at that during a key point of the author’s life. And it resonated with me as well, there have been so many times I was in crisis and went to a museum and came close to crying in front of different works of art. Some great and some just hitting the chord it needed to. Sometimes that is just all we need.

This Is Beautiful: Organizing

This past weekend I was at a retreat for my university union. It was really nice, I don’t know, I always dread these busy weekends but having to have to put aside the time to focus on exactly one thing is always really great and energizing for me. So had a lot of good discussions and made good progress, and in these times (ugh) it felt good to just be working on this and looking out for each other. I’m glad I picked up this role even though it’s late in my graduate school career.

“Tongues of Serpents” by Naomi Novik

This is the sixth book in the Temeraire series! You can read about the earlier installments here for the first, second, third, fourth, and fifth! This book takes us again away from England and to Australia where Laurence is sent essentially as punishment.

After fighting off Napoleon in England, Laurence and Temeraire are sent to Australia with three dragon eggs. They are charged with bringing up some dragons there to start a group, but it’s really a punishment as mostly convicts are sent to work in Australia. Iskerika and Granby end up coming with them, as Iskerika is determined to get an egg from Temeraire (he doesn’t seem pleased about this). Thrankey comes as well, to explore that part of the world supposedly. Once there, there is instantly a revolt against the leadership in Australia. Laurence is hoping to get a pardon out of this so he wants nothing to do with it. Pretty shortly after they land though, the horrible captain Rankin who practically killed his dragon in the first book shows up for one of the eggs. It’s the offspring of some of the feral dragons in the previous few books, and once he pops out Ceasar ignores Temeraire’s warnings about Rankin and takes to him. The three dragons then are tasked with exploring the interior of Australia, they find a really nice valley that Laurence considers staying in more permanently, and then one of the two remaining eggs is stolen!

They take off after the thieves, but it is slow going. Iskerika has to head back to Sydney to update them on the journey, and to let the ship that’s supposed to take Granby home to not leave yet. Temeraire gets caught in a firestorm and has to spend a lot of time recovering. There are also mysterious bunyips that pick off the men from underground tunnels and almost catch Temeraire in quicksand. While they’re looking though, the third egg hatches. It’s a very small egg and they did not have much hope for it, and when the dragon pops out it looks even weirder and cannot fly. There is an argument over whether to dispose of it as a mercy killing, but Demane (one of the boys from Africa) ends up taking the dragon. He has to hunt for it, but eventually the dragon (named Kulingile) fills out his air sacs and starts practically floating away. The dragon surgeon with them says that means he’ll be able to fly, and in fact this air sacs are so big he’ll likely be a heavy-weight dragon! This causes arguments as the people that wanted Kulingile to die earlier now don’t think that Demane should have control of him.

Eventually they catch up and find that the stolen egg has hatched to the Australian natives, who are very kind to the visitors and have been doing trade with the Chinese for a while. It is revealed that they have sea serpents carry packages between them and have been evading regulation that way. Tharkey has secretly been here to investigate smuggling, so he is pleased with the information. Meanwhile though, the British realize that the port is here and try to attack it, upsetting Temeraire. The natives call upon the sea serpents and it quickly turns into a rescue mission to save the hapless sailors. The book ends with them heading back to Sydney, Granby and Iskerika leaving to return to England and Tharkey going back to India to pass on his information, and Laurence telling Temeraire he would like to return to the valley and set up their life there. He’s had enough of fighting for governments.

Not going to lie, the book is a bit of a slog. A lot of the first half has to do with the Australian politics and who is rebelling against who and I simply don’t care to pay attention to that. It only gets interesting once the egg is stolen, and even after that it is a lot of running around chasing their mysterious thieves. It just reminds me that the best books of this series are the two that take place in England as those feel much more grounded and less like we have to be explained absolutely everything going on. Rankin’s addition does help with this a little as we already are familiar with him, but he’s so horrible it’s more of a love-to-hate situation. I did enjoy meeting the new dragons hatching though!

Kulingile is a really interesting character. I was hoping it would go in a slightly different direction from how the book went, allowing him to live while he couldn’t contribute in the usual way of dragons was super anti-capitalist and imperialist. Temeraire even supposes he could be an artist or a poet at one point. (He doesn’t take to it haha.) But then having the twist of Kulingile actually being able to grow into a very conventionally useful dragon kind of killed it. It took a cool disability narrative and made it “inspirational” or whatever. I can’t help but feel a little disappointed, even if I am still interested in how his story will go.

The series has also gotten progressively nicer to native characters as the series goes. It parallels Laurence’s thoughts on the matter, as in this book he repeatedly stands up for the native Australians when British officials dehumanize them. Having said that, we don’t spend a ton of time getting to know them so it does not feel like rah rah representation, more doing the bare minimum. But you really never know with books set in the Napoleonic Wars so it is nice to see.

I am so close to the end of this series, I will definitely keep going with it! If nothing else I love the dragons and the increased thought process from Temeraire. He somehow manages to be very child-like and endearing while coming up with complex thought processes about duty and loyalty and questioning authority. A really loveable character, I hope I can enjoy his voice up until the end!

This Is Beautiful: Absurdist Theater

 I went to a staged reading over the weekend of this absurdist play "Frenzy For Two" and it just spoke to something I've been feeling for a while. Which mostly has to do with how everything sucks but we keep going on as normal and that feels just so wrong. And it made me think about how much the theater of the absurd speaks to me through things like "Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead" and stuff like that. I really need to get out and see more of it but those plays also tend to be logistically difficult. Ugh so hard not being in a city with a big theater scene!

“When Women Were Dragons” by Kelly Barnhill

I picked this up at a bookstore in Denver while I was out there for a conference. I mostly liked that it was about dragons, and vaguely because it was about feminism. I think this was a lefty dream of a book though, the dragons are fierce and communal and hardworking, and one of the main heroes is a librarian! 

The book follows Alex who as a young girl stumbles across a dragon. We then find out that in the 50s there’s a Mass Dragoning event, where many women across the country all simultaneously shed their skin and become dragons. No one knows why, and it quickly becomes taboo to speak of it so no one learns why or how. Alex’s aunt is one of the women who turn into a dragon, leaving her mother to basically adopt Alex’s cousin Beatrice. Alex’s mom eventually dies of cancer though, and her dad dumps both her and Beatrice at a different apartment to keep them away from his new family. Alex is determined to go to college and study math like her mom, but doesn’t know how. The local librarian comes to her rescue, and even gets her in touch with a former doctor who studied dragons and knew her aunt.

Then her aunt comes back. Alex is mad, but dragons all over are returning to their homes en masse. There are more people being accepting of dragons, and slowly things are changing. Alex moves into a giant farm not far from college with her sister (who is popping in and out of being a dragon), and her aunt and her aunt’s three other dragon friends. The dragons all get to work raising Beatrice and Alex can focus on being a student. Alex has a relationship with another girl at school, but that ends when she transforms into a dragon and Alex decides not to. Alex ends up accepting that Beatrice will turn into a dragon, and Beatrice even ends up going back and forth for a while. The book ends with Alex aging and being cared for by her younger sister as a dragon.

I really loved this book and I think I’ll be pondering it for a while. I was concerned that it would be stuck in 50s feminism, but there are trans women mentioned and even men are mentioned as turning into dragons. The dragons are also not all peace loving creatures, many of them eat their husbands before flying off. It’s seen as people’s prejudices leading them to be violent rather than them starting anything.

The lack of labels is also very nice. Alex has this relationship with her friend, but never calls herself gay. Same with her aunt and the dragon polycule, they never label it as anything. They just let everyone be who they are and don’t worry about it. The main label is dragon or human. Which is the most defining one of the book.

I love that Alex never dragons. I love that she comes to peace with her mom not dragooning, I love that it isn’t seen as a lesser option to stay in her human form. I think as I was reading I was worried that those that dragooned would be more enlightened or woke or something, but the book makes it very clear that it’s about thinking about what kind of life you want for yourself. Whether you answer that call or not. And it isn’t a moral failing. Her mom had this power with knots, which opposes the magic of being a dragon. It keeps you a human and grounded, and that is the power that Alex ends up taking on.

The men are also practically inexistent throughout the story. Alex’s dad is useless, the boy she goes with to prom is forgettable, and the librarian guy is also about to blend into the background. The only man that does anything is the doctor studying dragons, and it is made clear that he is a bit of a windbag. I love it.

Anyways this was such a fun book, it was infuriating reading about the things Alex’s dad puts her through, but there is so much beauty and glory in it as well. It really shows how beautiful and incredible women can be, and that there is so much power in being a woman.

This Is Beautiful: Set Schedule

 It's the start of a new semester, and I am viciously protecting my work from home time. I've decided to keep two days as at home only, and then go into work the rest of the time so that I have motivation to see people and get work done. And we are doing it and sticking to it! Only took me five years but we are keeping to this and at least start the semester strong.

“A Victory of Eagles” by Naomi Novik

This is the fifth book in the Temeraire series! You can find posts on the earlier posts here as well, there’s the first, second, third, and fourth! This is the first book to head back to England and honestly it is probably my favorite of the series so far. It was so nice to head back to familiar territory and see how the war is going. This book also does something different in that the narration now alternates between Temeraire and Laurence instead of just being from Laurence’s perspective.

The book starts with Temeraire in the breeding grounds with other dragons and being bored out of his mind. Laurence is meanwhile on a ship in forced servitude more or less, punishment for bringing a cure to the French and essentially committing treason at the end of the last book. Temeraire gets news that his ship sank with him on it, and starts rallying the dragons up there to go fight. They form their own regiment and head out to fight the French. Laurence meanwhile did survive, and was told that times are desperate enough that he has to find Temeraire and report for duty. They eventually catch up to the dragons and Temeraire insists on being treated as a leader in the army and getting pay for his dragons.

Napoleon tragically takes London, and Iskierka (a fire breathing dragon who hatches a book ago) ends up leaving the group and getting herself and her captain captured. Laurence and Tharkey head after her and Laurence runs into the woman he was supposed to marry if he didn’t go into the Aerial Corps and her husband. The husband accompanies them on the rescue mission and gets himself killed. They head off and the army leadership end up using Laurence’s status as a criminal to have him use the dragons to massacre French raiding parties. Tharkey eventually catches up with him and snaps him out of his despair that just led him to agree to this, and they have a huge battle with the French forces. The English are successful and drive them off the island, but Napoleon gets away and the white Celestial Lien blows apart most of the Navy.

During the calm afterwards, Laurence is sent off to a remote island to do a colonialism with Temeraire as his punishment. Iskierka ends up following them so Granby comes along too, and Tharkey agrees as an adventurer. On the way over, Laurence assures Temeraire that he is quite happy with how things turned out.

So a continual conversation going through the books is Temeraire’s insistence on the humanity and rights of the dragons. He has the most progress here in that now the dragons can hold positions of leadership in the military and they start to build infrastructure that can accommodate dragons. We also see Laurence advocate for them more. Temeraire also has an increased understanding of human politics as he realizes just how badly the treason hurt Laurence’s relationships and material prospects. By far though the best part of this is seeing how Temeraire is able to organize the dragons at the breeding grounds and get them to participate in the war and fight for themselves instead of sitting by passively. This leads to a lot of progress for the British in fact, and the dragons seem keen to carry this forward.

What is also fun is to see how on Laurence’s side his treason has impacted his relationships with the other dragon handlers. We don’t see as much of this, but he talks to Jane about how he could have done this more covertly, and he runs into his old girlfriend in London who thinks he’s a traitor. Harcourt just had her baby and doesn’t seem too with it, but she even seems worried about him. They for sure don’t disagree with what he did, but they appear to be very locked into their roles and can’t do much about that. The dragons in a sense are much more free than they are.

I do think one of the shortcomings of this book though was that the switching between narration took away a lot of the transitions and travel time. There were multiple points where I was confused what was happening because something was glossed over or missed in the transition. It is nice to hear from Temeraire, especially with the dragon liberation plot, but that doesn’t mean that we need to get sloppy with it.

All that to say that I don’t think I’m going to like this next book very much. The previous traveling books were fine but they didn’t have a firm base with familiar characters and setting, and we just cut down on the vast majority of the characters that I loved seeing again in the past two books. I am going to read it anyways and it’ll be interesting to see how Norvik pulls this off, but I suspect that my peak interest in the series just passed. This will be a tough installment to follow.

This Is Beautiful: The Woobles

 I don't think I've written about this yet, but I have a new crafting hobby to add to all of the other ones. It's crocheting little amigurumi! This company called the Woobles puts together little kits of everything you need, and they have videos demonstrating how to do it all. It was really easy to learn from, and I love that it's an all-in-one kit (even if I have like 7 crochet hooks now). I also love that the yarn is easy to work with, and they give you a good amount so you aren't drowning in yarn by the time you're done.

Honestly I've found them to be really helpful for crocheting other things too, I now feel pretty confident with reading patterns and have made a few non-Wooble amigurumis. It has made the process just so much easier when you know how to get started. The kits are pricey, but if you have the time, I would really encourage picking one up, it has made my spare time much more enjoyable!

“The Rift” by Gene Luen Yang

I have been slowly making my way through the Avatar: The Last Airbender graphic novels and this is the latest one. (Check out the earlier ones like The Promise and The Search). I think I might have read this one before, a lot of it seemed familiar.

In this story, Avatar Aang wants to celebrate a traditional Air Nomad holiday, but a city has sprung up where the ceremony is supposed to take place. He finds a joint effort from the Earth and Fire Nations to extract metal from the area and refine it. Toph tagged along and loves this venture, while Aang is sad about the loss of tradition. Turns out that Toph’s father is in charge of it, and Aang learns from his past life Yangchen that the festival is to keep a dangerous spirit at bay. An earthquake traps many people underground, and Toph’s metal bending is the only thing keeping them safe. Toph’s students save them, and Aang ends up fighting the spirit, wounding it and causing the spirit to leave while bemoaning how humans destroy everything. Aang speaks to another spirit though, who praises the ingenuity of humans, and he ends up more hopeful about finding balance between their worlds.

Now Toph is one of my favorite characters and I loved seeing more of her here. I just wish that they wouldn’t have her clash with Aang so much. The refinery is clearly horrible for the environment, having her defend it so staunchly just looks bad. But it was cool to see her reunite with her father.

The note that the series ends on is pretty bleak. The spirit storms off saying that the Avatar won’t be enough for balance as the Avatar is human in the end. Balance seems far off, or antiquated at best. I don’t think Aang’s conversation with the hopeful spirit really makes up for that. But it does introduce these ideas that later show up in Korra.

I like chugging through these periodically, they aren’t very long and are a nice way to see characters from Avatar that I love so much. I’ll keep going, there are a few more that are left for me to check out!