What did you just finish reading?The May issue of
Apex. Which includes a nice poem from the perspective of an abandoned robot trying to give itself away ('The Busker, Broke and Busted', by Shira Lipkin), which obviously I liked.
The essay this month was Sigrid Ellis's 'Kicking Ass, Taking Names, Bubblegum Optional' which is on finding empowerment through badass action heroines in movies with some extremely sexist elements. (She specificly discusses Resident Evil 3, Jennifer's Body and Sucker Punch, none of which I have actually seen.)
Which you would think I could relate to, but actually, the defensiveness just made me feel kind of awkward. I guess I've never been in an argument with someone who wanted to tell me something I liked was irredeemably sexist. Also, I have a friend who owns a movie called
Raped by an Angel, so really ... I probably have a skewed sense of what movie-habits people might find problematic!
In terms of the short stories ...
I quite enjoyed 'Ilse, Who Saw Clearly', by Lily Yu, which is told as a fairy tale – a man comes to a village in the winter, selling eyes. Only one person does not give hers in exchange for the brand new eyes, and she is the one who has to set out in search her village's eyes, after summer comes, and the eyes all melt away. It was a pretty low-key story, with more human selfishness and frailty than villainy.
It was also one of the three texts I encountered the word 'peripatetic' in in the last few weeks ...
'The Binding of Ming-tian', by Emily Jiang, was told in many little vignettes. I don't think I really got it.
'Come to My Arms, My Beamish Boy', by Douglas Warrick is the story of an old man with Alzheimer's, and his death. (
skip)
Alzheimer's is the pain theft of memories by something supernatural. Which is a romantic thought, and not one I cannot ultimately buy into.And the last story was 'Tight Little Stiches in a Dead Man's Back', by Joe Lansdale, which I disliked. There's also an interview with Lansdale, where he talks about his inspiration for the story: 'I always loved all those old science fiction movies where the world changed and was full of mutations the day after the bomb. ... I wanted to nod to all of that, but approach it from a kind of literary story; a variation on Two People in Connecticut Are Having Trouble With Their Marriage.'
The latter part probably explains my dislike. Sorry, guy partially responsible for the bomb, I am not that interesting in your guilt about your dead daughter and your angst about how your wife doesn't love you any more!
What are you reading now?First Cut 2, which is a collection of interviews with film editors, edited by Gabriella Oldham. I'm really enjoying it – they're all really interesting interviews, and she asks good questions. I'm finding the interviews with people who mostly edit documentaries especially interesting, although I am not someone who watches many documentaries. Part of that may be because documentary editing has more in common with vid editing than fiction-film editing does!
I'm not familiar with most of the work being discussed in the book, which is probably a pity, but it hasn't been off-putting at all.
(Also, I like that everyone in the book is introverts! Not that that's really surprising, it's just kind of nice :D)
What do you expect to read next?Next, let's pretend I'm going to read
Hidden Agendas: What We Need to Know About the TPPA, by Jane Kelsey. Which is a short, ebook-only non-fiction book – Bridget William Books (small, NZ non-fiction publisher) is apparently doing a bunch of them, which really pleases me. Publishers making good choices for the future! Also, they are in the process of digitising their out-of-print books so I will be able to buy a copy of 'A Woman of Good Character: Single Women as Immigrant Settlers in Nineteenth Century New Zealand' which I started reading when I was on a work placement and never got to finish.