yuuago | Reading

1. I had another work from home day. I'm about halfway caught up with my email and fully caught up with teams. Tomorrow I've got a couple meetings, so I've got to go in to the office, but I might work from home again on Thursday to finally catch up on everything.

2. When Carla was out today she stopped at Uncle Tetsu's, a Japanese cheesecake chain. They have a sakura cheesecake right now and we had some after dinner tonight and it was sooooooo good. I normally prefer New York style cheesecake to the Japanese fluffier style, but this was really good consistency and the sakura flavor was amazing.

3. I finished playing The Plucky Squire. Overall it's a pretty fun game, but it is not just a straight action adventure game. There are a bunch of (frankly not that fun) mini games for the boss fights and stuff where you have to play other styles of games and that is not what I signed up for. Like for one character's boss battles you play a Mike Tyson style boxing game, for another it's a rhythm game, and for the third it's a Puzzle Bobble type. Then there are some stealth sequences where you have to sneak past enemies who can kill you instantly if they sense you, and if they sense you there is no way to run to escape, even if you're close to a place you could get away. You're just instantly dead. And the final battle is a space shooter type. The good thing is that if you die in a boss battle you can sometimes restart partway through, not all the way at the beginning, and the stealth sequences have multiple checkpoints and you'll respawn there rather than back at the beginning. But I would still have preferred not to have that "variety" in my action adventure game. Still is a fun game, though. But if you suck at those types of games it might ruin it for you.

4. I finished editing all my Disney Japan pics, so hopefully I can get the last day's posts written up later this week.

5. Jasper is just so handsome.

torachan

When I last left off, we had just checked out the big gift shop at the Fantasy Springs hotel and were exploring the land while waiting for our return time for the Peter Pan ride.

( More DisneySea adventures! )

rocky41_7

The most recent commute audiobook was The Starless Sea by Erin Morgenstern, of The Night Circus fame (although admittedly I have not read that one yet). This is a fantasy novel about Zachary, a young man swept into the drama of a secret underground society and the mysterious figures who surround it.

I finished this book on Sunday morning, catching the last 7 minutes of a whopping 19-hour runtime over breakfast, and since then I've settled into a relative disappointment. On paper, this book has so many things that should make it an ace in the hole for me: Book lovers! Cats! Secret magical societies! Queer characters! Women who are something Other taking control of their destinies! And yet, overall, this book just did not land for me.

As is a risk, I think, with all stories that are about the power of stories, The Starless Sea comes off a little pretentious and self-important. It is a book lauding the unmatched importance of books. I felt aware at various points throughout the book of how hard it was trying to appeal to people like me, who would enjoy the idea of a dark-paneled underground room with endless books and an on-demand kitchen, and this sense of pandering did take away from it at times.

However, it also does some interesting things with regards to what it is like to be the person in a story (such as the fate of Eleanor and Simon, once their part in the story is done) as well as the risks of valuing preservation over change and growth. Without giving too much away, there is a secret society in decline, and a woman so determined to prevent its downfall that she ends up causing significant harm to the organization she's trying to save because she is unwilling to accept that an end comes for all things. I enjoyed this theme and I felt like it was echoed well throughout the story, and in many ways it's easy to sympathize with her ultimate goals, if not her methods.

I also enjoyed the attitude the book takes towards its protagonist, Zachary. Not too much of a spoiler, but Zachary is confronted with a magical door into this secret society when he's about 11. But he doesn't open it. Years and years later, when Zachary is 24, is when his role in this society begins. While I adored those kinds of child isekai stories as a child myself, it was fun to see a story about a child who didn't quite dare answer the call at the time, but still got his chance for an adventure later.

The book also really captures Zachary's sense of having missed out. By the time he arrives, the secret society is essentially on its deathbed, and while Zachary enjoys his exploration of it, several times we catch him thinking longingly of what it would have been like to be a part of things at the height of the society's relevance and power. Nevertheless, Zachary is there at a key time, and he understands that by the end.

On the whole, the book is frustratingly short on details. I don't consider myself someone who needs every riddle solved and every question answered to enjoy a story (in fact, a bit of lingering mystery can really make the tale!), but when I hit 75% completion on this lengthy audiobook and still had no real idea what the purpose of the secret society at its core was, I found myself annoyed. It began to feel that Morgenstern had no answers, and was keeping things vague and whimsical to cover up a lack of depth. There is value, particularly in this kind of story where the magic is ill-defined and fate plays a present if unclear role, in not laying things out too plainly. It leaves room for imagination, it keeps things a little mysterious and exciting. But at some point, we need enough answers to know why we should care about these things, and the presence of several characters who could have given Zachary answers but never did felt like they were being kept from the readers.

Morgenstern's prose was enjoyable, and both Zachary and deuterogonist Dorian were decent characters (no one can stop me form envisioning Dragon Age's middle-aged Dorian Pavus, side shaves and all, when thinking about Dorian in this story). I will also give The Starless Sea a shout-out for including video games explicitly in its conception of story-telling (Zachary begins the "real" start of the book as a graduate student studying games with an interest in branching narratives).

Morgenstern does a solid job of weaving together the various parts of the story which start out feeling quite disparate, though as noted, greater clarity would have improved things. It was fun to see how seemingly irrelevant things eventually fell into place. However, themes and descriptions at times felt circular, particularly given that the plot feels stalled for large portions of the story. It's often unclear what Zachary is doing here, besides hanging out.

Perhaps owing to the absence of clarity about the point of these goings-on, the story rarely grabbed me. I liked it and I was curious about what happened next, but I was almost never truly gripped. It was never the kind of book I'd stay up late for. I also was not a huge fan of Kat's sections of the book. To have made it through so much of this audiobook only to have the long-awaited climax repeatedly interrupted with Kat's diary was driving me crazy by the final story segments. She gave us some interesting perspective from the "real" world, but the timing of it was incredibly frustrating.

I certainly don't regret the time I spent with The Starless Sea, and I was pleased with the final scenes for Zachary and Dorian, but it's not something I'll ever read again, and it makes me a little wary of The Night Circus, which is loosely on my TBR and has received significant praise. Maybe this one was just not quite my cup of tea. I'll still give Morgenstern another chance though; maybe a shorter book of hers will be more focused.

Crossposted to

books

0dense

man today I woke up and had 'go to the shops, tidy the yard, and give blood' as my major day-off chores. and I did them! there's a new hemometer at the donation center that doesn't need a finger-stick, which is very nice. and I did my first major round of post-lenten cooking, and brace yourselves, but meat is so much more filling than just veg X_D I can't believe I'd forgotten so quickly! I'm happily very veg-forward, but wow is it nice to have the option again.

so that's all nice and boring.

I ALSO found out more about the roots of that one local murder cult, AND it turns out that [local school] has been knowingly flouting a federal regulation for two decades. and the thing is, it all tracks with what people are up to around here, but that sure is two pretty odd ones to get hit with at once????? like, at least once someone's said that they don't believe all the stories we tell about growing up in this corner of the planet, but I just usually figure every city probably gets up to some kind of shenanigans if you look hard enough. But then again, no, sometimes we are problems georg.

this morning I thought the weirdest thing I would learn today was that someone I've known was on cka-46, but now it feels like such small potatoes.

Current Mood: baffled

torachan

1. I worked from home today, getting a fair amount of catching up done. Unfortunately I forgot that I also had to double check all my stores' budgets for next month today so that did take some time away from the email and teams catch-up, but I should be able to focus more on that tomorrow. (Probably will mostly work from home tomorrow, too.)

2. We bought a sweater for Alexander for his birthday and even though his birthday is not until next week, gave it to him yesterday so he could try it on and see if it fit, and it was a little big so we said we'd be happy to go exchange it. I was just thinking to exchange it whenever we next go, but there was availability today and Carla felt like going to Disneyland, so while I had to stay home and focus on my email backlog, she went and exchanged the sweater and had a nice morning at DCA. She managed to find all the rest of the hidden easter eggs there (eventually with some help from an online guide) and took pictures, but I'm just going to include those with our next trip post rather than make a separate one. They had Lightning McQueen and Mater ones which are super cute, though.

3. We bought a stereo for the garage and it arrived today. As all modern stereos do these days, it also has bluetooth capability to connect to your phone, but she mainly wanted it for playing actual CDs. Her current CD rack is overflowing, so we need to get another and then move the CDs out to the garage so she can have them out there with the stereo. Nice thing is, unless you're standing right by the door or window, even with it turned up pretty loud you really can't hear much from outside. Amazing what insulation can do!

4. I love the look on Ollie's face here, but he was even cuter before I turned on the light and came in. It wasn't dark but was dim enough that he was really well camouflaged in the box!

schneefink

After a long day of classes (on a bank holiday, too) I treated myself to some grapefruit + nougat ice cream and then planned to spend some time reading, do some housekeeping in preparation for hosting a guest (very exciting), and then write some overdue review posts, maybe prepare some recs if I'm feeling ambitious.

Instead I spent most of the evening continuing to play Astalon: Tears of the Earth. I'd seen it recommended quite a few times on r/metroidvania and I was very curious, so when I saw it was on sale I bought it even though it's not entirely smart to start a new game 2.5 weeks before an exam. Ah well.

You play as a group of three adventurers in a post-apocalyptic wasteland that investigate (read: fight their way through) a tower from which comes a substance poisoning their village. One of them sold his soul to the titan of death, and in exchange every time you die you are transported back to the entrance of the tower.

I also saw it described as a "metroidvania with roguelite elements," which made me a bit skeptical because the other game that claims that is Dead Cells and that didn't convince me when I briefly tried it. But that description isn't really accurate because it doesn't have the procedural generation of a roguelike, it has the exploration of a metroidvania, and that's my favorite part of the genre. It just doesn't have checkpoints and very little healing. But there's plenty of shortcuts to unlock so landing back at the beginning is much less frustrating than I'd feared. And unlocking shortcuts is very satisfying; the exploration is satisfying in general, with plenty of secrets to discover. Plus, there are not that many but enough character interactions that I care about the characters as well.

After about eight hours I've beaten three bosses (one of them I'm pretty sure is optional) and discovered around 35% of the map. ( Spoilers )

rachelmanija

In this YA novel published in 1990, six fourteen-year-olds face their inner dragons while they're in an accelerated academic program which includes a class on Beowulf.

I read this when it first came out, so when I saw a copy at a library book sale, I grabbed it to re-read. It largely holds up, though I'd completely forgotten the main plot and only recalled the theme and the subplot.

My recollection of the book was that the six teenagers are inspired by class discussions on Beowulf to face their personal fears. This is correct. I also recalled that one of the girls was a gymnast with an eating disorder and one of the boys was an athlete partially paralyzed in an accident, and those two bonded over their love of sports and current conflicted/damaging relationship to sports and their bodies, and ended up dating. This is also correct.

What I'd completely forgotten was the main plot, which was about the narrator, Eric, who idolized his best friend, Paul, and had an idealized crush on one of the girls in the class, who he was correctly convinced had a crush on Paul, and incorrectly convinced Paul was mutually attracted to. Paul, who is charming and outgoing, convinces Eric, who is shy, to do a speech class with him, where Eric surprisingly excels. The main plot is about the Eric/Paul relationship, how Eric's jealousy nearly wrecks it, and how the boys both end up facing their dragons and fixing their friendship.

Paul's dragon is that he's secretly gay. The speech teacher takes a dislike to him, promotes Eric to the debate team when Paul deserves it more (and tells Eric this in private), and finally tries to destroy Paul in front of the whole class by accusing him of being gay! Eric defends Paul, Paul confesses his secret to him, and the boys repair their friendship.

While a bit dated/historical, especially in terms of both boys knowing literally nothing about what being gay actually means in terms of living your life, it's a very nicely done novel with lots of good character sketches. The teachers are all real characters, as are the six kids - all of whom have their own journeys. The crush object, for instance, is a pretty rich girl who's been crammed into a narrow box of traditional femininity, and her journey is to destroy the idealized image that Eric is in love with and her parents have imposed on her - and part of Eric's journey is to accept the role of being her supportive friend who helps her do it.

I was surprised and pleased to discover that this and other Sweeney books are currently available as ebooks. I will check some out.

zimena

Me, on this DW a few days ago:

Players I want OUT, as soon as possible:
Neil Robertson, Luca Brecel, Ali Carter.
From the tactical point of view, I also want Kyren Wilson and John Higgins out,
but it's not a fierce desire for it to happen as soon as possible.

The first two days of the World Championship gave these results among others:

🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Kyren Wilson 9 - 10 Lei Peifan 🇨🇳
🇦🇺 Neil Robertson 8 - 10 Chris Wakelin 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿

Do I get to make another, more important wish, too? I mean, seeing as these ones worked surprisingly well?

🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Mark Selby to lift his 5th World Championship trophy on May 5th. Please.

torachan

1. Back to work tomorrow. I am not enthused about that, but I did really enjoy my time off and I felt like being off for three weeks allowed me to actually disconnect more from work than I usually do if I'm just off a couple days or even a week. I did glance at my email and messages every day, but only responded less than ten times and even when I looked at the phone screen to see the messages, I only did so once or twice a day, rather than multiple times throughout the day. Tomorrow will be the start of a huge catch-up (thousands of messages to get through) and I think I will just work from home tomorrow unless something else comes up, so at least it will be a slow easing back into things. And since it's the last week of the month, there are less meetings, which means for time for catching up.

2. We had a lovely time at DCA this morning. I've heard that easter can be a pretty busy day but while it was getting a little busier by the time we left, it was super light in the first few hours and the weather was great.

3. I love getting shots of the cats looking out the window.

torachan

Last day of the Food and Wine Festival so last chance to ride Soarin' Over California before it goes back to Soarin' Over the World.

( Read more... )

torachan

Currently Reading
The Undiscovered Deaths of Grace McGill
26%. The MC is a cleaner who goes in and deep-cleans the houses where people have lain dead and undiscovered for a long time. She stumbles upon a mystery when two of her recent jobs have had the same dried flower at the scene. Pretty interesting so far.

Architectural Follies in America
16%. This is a short, picture-filled book about various odd buildings in the US. Randomly found it in a neighborhood Little Library. It's interesting.

A Drop of Corruption
23%. This has definitely picked up now and I'm a lot more interested in what's going on. Just haven't been making much progress because I've been off work and the majority of my audiobook time is in the car. Also a note on the audiobook, and I had this problem with the otherwise excellent audiobook versions of The Locked Tomb series, but there are pronunciation changes from the first book! I'm guessing that after the first book's audiobook came out, the narrator got feedback from the author and then made changes for the following books, but it's really jarring and I wish that if the author really wanted names/words said a certain way (or in the case of The Locked Tomb, certain accents used) then they would make note of that first, rather than changing mid-series. (And if it's just the narrator making changes rather than author feedback, I wish they wouldn't make those changes, either. Pick a pronunciation and stick to it!)

Hidden Figures
44%.

Recently Finished
Winterborne Home for Mayhem and Mystery
Sequel to Winterborne Home for Vengeance and Virtue. This felt like maybe there was supposed to be more books in the series and it all got wrapped up quickly in the end? It was all right, but I wasn't super into either book.

The Boney Hand
Sequel to Charlie & Frog. Another mystery in the town. This was cute. Seems like the author maybe wanted it to be a series but there haven't been any more books after this.

The Amelia Six
Middle grade book about a group of girls who win an overnight stay at Amelia Earhart's childhood home, but while they're there, her goggles go missing and they have to solve the mystery. It was just all right.

Murderburg
Apparently originally a web comic, this graphic novel is about a small island town inhabited mostly by criminals. The actual name is Muderburg, but everyone calls it Murderburg. The main characters are not even thinly veiled Morticia and Gomez, though the children are not Wednesday and Pugsly. It was fine. Somewhat funny in places but mostly just there.

Break Out
Heavy-handed graphic novel about a world where mysterious and possibly alien cubes appear in the sky and start randomly kidnapping people. But it only happens to teens, so when the governments of the world have done all they can and can't find a way to stop it, they just say well, it's just a few people here and there, we'll just have to live with it. Then the kids save the day. Obviously paralelling school shootings, but it felt like the message was more important than the story itself, because the plot is just one of those types where so many coincidences happen just right that it feels unbelievable.

Do Da Dancin'!: Venice Competition vol. 1-2
I'm not enjoying this quite as much as the original series, but it's good enough that I'll finish it.

Umimachi Diary vol. 8-9
Overall this series was just okay. I originally read the first three volumes on a limited time free promotion and liked them a lot, but when I finally got around to reading the rest of the series now I just found it kind of dragged. Not bad, but just okay.

torachan

1. We went to the farmers market this morning. I wish it was on Sundays instead of Saturdays because we usually go to Disneyland on Saturday morning, but this week we're going tomorrow instead, so we could go to the farmers market today. Sadly the Filipino tamales guy was not there this week, but we did get some of the delicious chocolate dipped macaroons we've gotten the last few times we went.

2. For dinner we ordered pizza from a fancy local place we have been meaning to try for years and never get around to. Sadly the one pizza I was most interested in from their menu was not available (butternut squash), but we got a zucchini one and a meat lovers one and both were very tasty. Definitely would order from there in the future, though it's not an every day place, that's for sure.

3. Usually I make a chocolate sheet cake for Carla's birthday but because we were out of town, I totally forgot about it, until randomly a channel Carla follows on youtube had a video about it, so I decided to make it today. I don't bake very much anymore and this cake is a lot of work, but it's soooooo good. After I'd already started mixing ingredients, Carla mentioned making a half-batch, but it was too late by then, but for next time I definitely will. We hardly use our large oven anymore and it's become a cupboard instead, so it has to be made in two small sheet pans to fit in the Breville, and that made it a little more annoying, plus we just don't need that much cake. I can give a good chunk to Alexander to take home with him tomorrow, at least.

4. Chloe and Molly were twinning on the bed.

torachan

Up until just recently (April 1st, as it happens), the rides in Fantasy Springs were virtual queue only, so you really had to get there early to lock in the return times, but as of this month, they now have regular standby lines in addition to the paid premier access for three of the four rides (the Tinkerbell ride is standby-only). Still, I wanted to make sure we were in the park right when it opened to get those premier access passes, especially for Frozen, since that is the most popular ride.

So I went over to the park around seven and got in line, and Carla planned to meet up with me before nine. ( That was definitely the right plan! )

dhampyresa

AUC, babyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy

torachan

1. Nintendo announced that preorders for the Switch 2 will start on 4/24 and the price will stay the same. Hopefully it won't be too difficult to get one.

2. I had ordered some jeans from Target the other day but have to return them because they don't fit (they discontinued the style of jeans I have been wearing these past few years so now I have to try to find an equivalent), so we were planning to go to Target to return them today, and then last night we watched a video about the new pickle menu items at Popeye's, and there is no Popeye's conveniently nearby but there are two near Targets on the other side of town. So we decided to go to one of those Targets and then get lunch at Popeye's. Sadly they seem to be already out of the fried pickle chips, but Carla did get their pickle brined wings and a pickle lemonade. I just got regular chicken tenders, but they were really delicious. I wish we had a Popeye's or even KFC nearby but the only fast food chicken near us is Chick-fil-A. :( Anyway! Returned the pants, stocked up on cat food, and had a nice lunch. Oh, and Popeye's also right now has strawberries and cream biscuits, which are very tasty.

3. Chloe was being so tolerant of Jasper being near her, and Jasper was being a good boy and not pestering.

torachan

The final days of our trip!

( Last full day and flight home )

rocky41_7

Book #7 from the "Women in Translation" rec list: Untold Night and Day by Bae Suah, translated from Korean by Deborah Smith.

Trying to accurately describe the plot of this book is an exercise in futility, so I'm not going to bother. All I can say is it centers around Ayami, a woman who is an actress, or maybe a poet, or possibly both, and is on her last day of work at an audio theater for the blind in Seoul.

This is a book I feel like I'd have to read at least one more time all the way through to be able to really discuss the themes and motifs at play. It's an incredibly cerebral novel that never gives up a clear answer about what's happening. What's real or not real changes from scene to scene. Is Ayami an orphan? Did she have a wealthy aunt? Is she the poet from Buha's youth? Is the director the bus driver? Who really got hit by the bus, and who was the murdered woman in the attic? Is Ayami Yeoni? The book leaves you to your own conclusions.

This is a book that I feel you'll either love or really hate. I enjoyed the trip, but it's hard to explain why. Reading this felt like running a fever in August; the whole thing is a sweaty, sticky dream where you can't tell if a conversation you had was real or not or real and supplemented in your memory by the dream. Early in the book, Suah presents one of the best descriptions of living through a heat wave I've ever read as she describes being in Seoul at the height of summer. I'm going to quote a few lines here just to give you an idea:

"The midsummer metropolis was a temple of benumbed languor, the home of long-vanished, cult-worshipping tribes. Rarefied sleep sucked bodies into a burning crater lake choked with sticky flakes of black soap ash and honeycomb chunks of grey pumice. In cramped rooms unrelieved by air conditioning or even a fan, if you opened the window hot air heavier than a sodden quilt rushed in, clogging your pores like the wet slap of raw meat, but with it closed the oxygen would quickly evaporate, disappearing at a frightening rate until the air was filled with nothing but heat. Nothing but the ecstasy of ruin."

Suah's language is vivid and brilliantly evokes specific, sometimes very obscure feelings. The conversations between characters swerve between the practical and the deeply abstract and philosophical. Overhanging the whole surreal experience is the memory of the military rule of Korea and the ever-present shadow of North Korea. The characters are rarely directly concerned with these things, and yet, their presence crops up: when Ayami describes helicopters flying overhead; the citywide blackouts; when Wolfi, a German tourist, keeps asking to visit a particular area that Ayami repeatedly tells him is inaccessible because it requires passing through North Korea. South Korea isn't really a peninsula, she tells him, it's an island.

It's a short novel, just 152 pages, but I still felt like I'd been on a journey by the time I finished it. I think this would make a great work for discussing in a book club or class, because it's one of those stories where everyone is going to pick up on different details and have different explanations for the various strange phenomena at play. What is this book about? I can't really say. It reminded me a little bit of the short film Genius Loci in how the characters interact with the city and the constantly-changing story landscape.

If you do give it a read, I definitely recommend reading the translator's note at the end, it adds a little something and she explains some of her translating choices. This book, like several of the others from this rec list, presented a translating challenge, I imagine, and I think Smith did an excellent job capturing Suah's surrealist world. This is not the first book of Suah's that Smith has translated and I'm sure her familiarity with Suah's particular writing helped make this such a wonderful translation.

Another win from this list!

Crossposted to

books

zimena

I went to Manchester for 10 days earlier this month, to see the snooker Tour Championship. I'm not sure I'll be in the mood for a full and detailed post about it, but I just want you to know that it was magical and wonderful. I can't believe that it's already my third tournament that I've been to, since the first one in December last year. My next one won't be until November, now, though.

The World Championship starts tomorrow. And in very good news: Ronnie confirmed that he is going to play. I don't really know what to expect from him this year, seeing as he's been withdrawing from anything and everything this season, and we've not even seen him play since he broke his cue in anger after losing to Robert Milkins in the Championship League in January. I still want him to do well, though. And it made me smile to see him again.

Just... unfortunately Ronnie and Mark are on the same quarter of the draw. That means that if both get through the first two rounds, they'll meet in a quarterfinal. I don't think I need to tell you how I feel about the prospect of this. Let's not think that far ahead, though. For now, there are matches to enjoy from tomorrow (well, that's today now, seeing as it's 1am already), so let's deal with one thing at a time.

Players I like who are in the tournament: Mark Selby, Ronnie O'Sullivan, Judd Trump, Wu Yize, Ding Junhui and Si Jiahui. Maybe David Gilbert, too, a little bit. It massively broke my heart that Michael Holt failed to qualify, after he had such a good run to Judgement Day, but then crumbled in the last match, unfortunately. I love him, though. I mean it, he'd probably be 3rd on this list by now.

Players I want OUT, as soon as possible: Neil Robertson, Luca Brecel, Ali Carter. From the tactical point of view, I also want Kyren Wilson and John Higgins out, but it's not a fierce desire for it to happen as soon as possible.

Yes, I will drive everyone crazy with the snooker during the next 2.5 weeks.

In non-snooker news, I have now finished preparing course materials about edible plants that can be found near my town.

No, this is not my area of expertise by any means. Some months back I wanted to start learning more about which useful flora could be found nearby, though. So, there's this woman I knew to be into these things, and she came up with the idea for the course. She's the one supplying the majority of information about plants and nature, while I've been doing the technical work on the computer, as well as some research and adding a bit of information related to mythology and folk beliefs/medicine, as I might know a bit of that, even if I can't distinguish even basic plants from one another.

The course will run for 7 weeks, one day each week. We already have 7 people signed up for it, and our start date will be 23 April. No, I don't feel like I should be teaching these things, and I mainly see myself as a technical assistant rather than a course host. But the thing is still that I've accepted being there, so I will be. And that is, in itself, complete madness.

dhampyresa

To be clear: The movie is simply titled "Fanon". It's just that that's also a word and I wanted this entry title to be not confusing.

I just saw this 2025 movie by Jean-Claude Barny. It's only come out in very few French theaters (for... some... reason...) but I hope it ends up getting a wider/international release.

It's really good! It covers Fanon's life from 1953 to his death in 1961. It's mostly about his work as part of the pro-Algerian independance resistance and anticolonialism/antiracism activism rather than his work as a psychiatrist. I didn't know he was so hands-on with the resistance.

Fanon's social status as a Black French citizen is really interesting, because the film makes the very deliberate to only show scenes in North Africa. Fanon is a Black man, which makes him a victim of anti-Black racism, but the main form of racism he lives within is racism directed towards people of Maghrebi/North African origin[1]. He's a Black man but he is also a French citizen, which gives him rights and protections many of his friends don't have -- he doesn't have to obey a curfew and can't get arrested by the army, for two relevant examples.

[1] Tbh this is the main form I see racism in France take -- this isn't to say there are no other forms of racism in France, simply that the biggest racialised minority in France is people of North African descent.

I was wary of Josie, his wife, taking a completely passive role in the story. She never becomes an active character but she is still a person in her own right. I liked the scene where she quotes back more of the poem he was quoting back at Ramdane while Fanon is like ._.

One thing that really stuck out to be was how the French army was filmed. They were filmed like... Well, like Germans. As in, like how the German army is filmed in WW2 films. I don't know how else to put it? Maybe it's the thudding of the boots or the crispness of the uniforms or something but it was noticeable.

Besides the obvious warning for racism, both anti-Black and anti-North African (including one use of a slur directed at each), I should also point out that there is a somewhat graphic surgery scene at one point, an onscreen strangulation and at least two occasions of people being shot, as well as implied/offscreen torture, murder and bombings.

muccamukk

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2025 Disneyland Trip #23 (4/5/25) Tokyo DisneySea (Part 2)

Recent Reading: The Starless Sea

clown city usa

Daily Happiness

Started Astalon: Tears of the Earth

Face the Dragon, by Joyce Sweeney

When my snooker wishes work

Daily Happiness

2025 Disneyland Trip #28 (4/20/25)

Weekly Reading

Daily Happiness

2025 Disneyland Trip #23 (4/5/25) Tokyo DisneySea (Part 1)

Happy 2778 to all who celebrate!

Daily Happiness

2025 Japan Trip Part 4 (4/8-9)

Recent Reading: Untold Night and Day

Notes (mostly snooker)

(Frantz) Fanon

Music Friday

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