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auroracloudI can't seem to get myself to stick to any particular schedule with these posts. Oh well! On to recent culture. I updated my reading last week, but it's been a few weeks since I wrote about other forms of culture, so I'll probably forget something. And because this was getting too long, I'm mostly leaving podcasts to another post, but this time I'll actually try to do it soon after, hopefully later today. I just don't want to sit here for quite as long as it would take to list them now.
Books
This is a quick one: I've just finished the Flavia de Luce book I started last week (#6 in the series), and read some Russian fairy tales. I've also returned to reading The Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon, which I had on a bit of a hiatus for a while. And I've started reading The Raven and the Reindeer by T. Kingfisher, which is a lovely Snow Queen retelling. (I've recently encountered the titular raven, who is delightful.)
Short stories
I'm just going to list some short stories I've either listened to (in podcasts) or read in the past few weeks, which I particularly liked.
- Windrose in Scarlet by Isabel Yap, published in the November issue of Lightspeed. It's a queer feminist fairytale retelling about reclaiming your fate and story and all that good stuff, and I loved it, and I'm really glad I got around toreading listening to it before the Hugo nominations ended, so I could nominate it for Best Novelette. I hope it makes it to finalist, it's so good.
- Before the nominations closed, I also read some more short stories in the hope of finding more things to nominate. I've already mentioned Florilegia by Amal El-Mohtar in Mythic Dream, which I did nominate. I also read and liked Adrianna in Pomegranate by Samantha Mills from Beneath Ceaseless Skies, though I didn't end up nominating it. Mainly because it was a touch too sad for my current preferences; which doesn't make a story worse, but my feelings after a story ends do affect these things, and I especially want to promote stories that I find uplifting. It was really gorgeous, and the descriptions of parchments, inks, and writing were delectable to read.
- Toasted Cake is back! It's a flash fiction podcast with Tina Connolly, who narrates the stories excellently. It was supposed to be on hiatus for longer, but she brought it back because it's something to do that will make people feel better. The first story was Quality Control by Marissa Lingen, which is delightful and you should all listen to it or read it (it was originally published in Nature), especially if you want a story about a competent woman keeping supervillains in check.
- Also in fiction podcasts, today I listened to How Did it Feel to be Eaten by Amit Gupta, from Escape Pod, which was a wonderful, original, hopeful story blending spirituality and technology in a way I haven't quite seen before.
Other media: TV, Films and Theatre
(Getting this one out of the way before the podcasts, because it's shorter.) For TV, just the last episodes of Season 12 of Doctor Who when they aired, which I've talked about, and that's that. I am thinking of starting to watch some of my DVDs again, or maybe get a subscription service for a while, but so far I haven't.
For film, before all this (*gestures at the world*), I managed to take myself to a cinema, for the first time in over a year, and see The Portrait of a Lady On Fire (Portrait de la jeune fille en feu), the gorgeous French historical film with an f/f romance. I loved every moment of it, it's incredibly beautiful in so many ways, and such a touching, beautiful story and excellent historical where everything feels real, from clothing (mostly everyday wear for the upper classes rather than lush ball gowns) to food to the extremely gender-segregated nature of life in past centuries. There are hardly any men in the film at all, all the central characters and relationships are among women. The central relationship develops slowly but it's lovely when it does, and while it doesn't have a typical romance ending, I didn't mind that in any way. Ashrj said in her recent podcast episode about the film, queer people are getting the same kind of stories that straight people have typically done, and that's amazing.
In theatre, in less amazing and overwhelming things, I saw the musical version of The Hunchback of Notre-Dame, which is basically Disney songs with a new, darker script. It was my second time seeing it, mostly because I had an understudy as Quasimodo and also wanted to see the main guy as I rather like him. It wasn't necessarily the best-suited role for him - I feel like the understudy's acting was better - but he sounded great, and it was interesting to see him in something new. I love the Esmeralda in that production, but I don't like the Frollo at all, and while the script doesn't exactly do the character favours or give him depth, I feel a different director and actor could have done better things with the role. Still, it sounded good and looked good, and I love some of the songs. But I'm glad I got one of the cheaper tickets. Well, now I guess it's no more live theatre for me (or anyone else) for some time now.
Books
This is a quick one: I've just finished the Flavia de Luce book I started last week (#6 in the series), and read some Russian fairy tales. I've also returned to reading The Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon, which I had on a bit of a hiatus for a while. And I've started reading The Raven and the Reindeer by T. Kingfisher, which is a lovely Snow Queen retelling. (I've recently encountered the titular raven, who is delightful.)
Short stories
I'm just going to list some short stories I've either listened to (in podcasts) or read in the past few weeks, which I particularly liked.
- Windrose in Scarlet by Isabel Yap, published in the November issue of Lightspeed. It's a queer feminist fairytale retelling about reclaiming your fate and story and all that good stuff, and I loved it, and I'm really glad I got around to
- Before the nominations closed, I also read some more short stories in the hope of finding more things to nominate. I've already mentioned Florilegia by Amal El-Mohtar in Mythic Dream, which I did nominate. I also read and liked Adrianna in Pomegranate by Samantha Mills from Beneath Ceaseless Skies, though I didn't end up nominating it. Mainly because it was a touch too sad for my current preferences; which doesn't make a story worse, but my feelings after a story ends do affect these things, and I especially want to promote stories that I find uplifting. It was really gorgeous, and the descriptions of parchments, inks, and writing were delectable to read.
- Toasted Cake is back! It's a flash fiction podcast with Tina Connolly, who narrates the stories excellently. It was supposed to be on hiatus for longer, but she brought it back because it's something to do that will make people feel better. The first story was Quality Control by Marissa Lingen, which is delightful and you should all listen to it or read it (it was originally published in Nature), especially if you want a story about a competent woman keeping supervillains in check.
- Also in fiction podcasts, today I listened to How Did it Feel to be Eaten by Amit Gupta, from Escape Pod, which was a wonderful, original, hopeful story blending spirituality and technology in a way I haven't quite seen before.
Other media: TV, Films and Theatre
(Getting this one out of the way before the podcasts, because it's shorter.) For TV, just the last episodes of Season 12 of Doctor Who when they aired, which I've talked about, and that's that. I am thinking of starting to watch some of my DVDs again, or maybe get a subscription service for a while, but so far I haven't.
For film, before all this (*gestures at the world*), I managed to take myself to a cinema, for the first time in over a year, and see The Portrait of a Lady On Fire (Portrait de la jeune fille en feu), the gorgeous French historical film with an f/f romance. I loved every moment of it, it's incredibly beautiful in so many ways, and such a touching, beautiful story and excellent historical where everything feels real, from clothing (mostly everyday wear for the upper classes rather than lush ball gowns) to food to the extremely gender-segregated nature of life in past centuries. There are hardly any men in the film at all, all the central characters and relationships are among women. The central relationship develops slowly but it's lovely when it does, and while it doesn't have a typical romance ending, I didn't mind that in any way. As
hrj said in her recent podcast episode about the film, queer people are getting the same kind of stories that straight people have typically done, and that's amazing.In theatre, in less amazing and overwhelming things, I saw the musical version of The Hunchback of Notre-Dame, which is basically Disney songs with a new, darker script. It was my second time seeing it, mostly because I had an understudy as Quasimodo and also wanted to see the main guy as I rather like him. It wasn't necessarily the best-suited role for him - I feel like the understudy's acting was better - but he sounded great, and it was interesting to see him in something new. I love the Esmeralda in that production, but I don't like the Frollo at all, and while the script doesn't exactly do the character favours or give him depth, I feel a different director and actor could have done better things with the role. Still, it sounded good and looked good, and I love some of the songs. But I'm glad I got one of the cheaper tickets. Well, now I guess it's no more live theatre for me (or anyone else) for some time now.
