sunlit_stone

Title: Needed Reassurance
Rating: G
Type: Fic
Size/length/word count etc.: 513
Prompt: #001 Adamant
Fandom/Ship: Dongmyeong / Harin (Onewe)
Notes/Warnings: None
Summary Dongmyeong is grateful for the support.

( It was just a throw-away line. )

Find the table with the list of fics here

Current Mood: busy
Current Music: Wao Wao - All(h)ours

larryhammer

The last time I posted about Yue Xia Die Ying, I had just read one of her xianxia novels and really enjoyed it. Since then, I’ve read two more of her historical romances. TL,DR: two thumbs up.

The first one, Like Pearl and Jade, is a more serious, if low-key, drama with romance. Technically the female MC is a transmigrator, but this identity has zero impact on the story and is used only as a framing device. The story and romance are both quite good, and I like how the frequent small digs at the patriarchy build to (small) actions that improve the status of (some) women. This is about the same size as I Am Average and Unremarkable, or about half of Journey to the West.

The second one, though, this one is a delight. The half-again longer* The Times Spent in Pretense I can only describe as a Chinese analog of Georgette Heyer. Its tone is relatively light, despite a redonkulous number of assassination attempts,** with a sheen of satire. More to the point, the male MC is outright Heyeresque, one of her Mark II models by Heyer’s classification, and his several brothers are as eccentric as any Heyer cast.*** The female MC, meanwhile, spends most of the first half playing several roles that are funny enough in themselves, but that eventually start colliding with each other, resulting in comedy gold.

Unlike Like Pearl and Jade, its feminism is baked in from the start. The female MC’s parents are both generals and military heroes. Her mother in particular is a badass beauty, with adoring female fans who proposition her in public — behavior viewed as more déclassé than scandalous. Way less hetereonormative than usual for a straight romance from mainland China. Meanwhile the female MC’s initial life goal is to acquire an estate near the capital where she can “raise male pets,” i.e. collect a harem of consorts — and her family quietly supports this, as it’s not an unknown hobby for noblewomen, though not one that gets publicly flaunted. The differences from our history are highlighted by contrast with a neighboring kingdom with traditional NeoConfucian values, where they look down on this degenerate place (while being baffled at how happy and prosperous it is despite its grave moral lapses).

I am also greatly amused by a minor character, part of a rival’s girl posse, who makes repeated metatextual commentary based on genre tropes.

Possibly best of all, though, the female MC never fades into the background, as happens all too frequently in Chinese historical romances, but is an active plot participant all the way through the climax.

Both recommended, the second highly so.

* So about three-quarters of a Journey West.

** Spoiler: not a single assassin succeeds.

*** My favorite is the would-be artist. The female MC’s first reaction to one of his landscapes is “What on earth was this painting? A bunch of heavily inked blobs and lightly inked blobs mixing together as friends?” Which is funny enough, but eventually it comes out that everything about this scene are even more examples of pretenses.

---L.

Subject quote from …Ready For It?, Taylor Swift.

prettygoodword

heavens (HEV-uhns) - n.pl. (usually with "the"), the near sky of atmosphere surrounding the earth; the distant sky of the sun, moon, and stars.

In the singular, the abode of the Deity and the blessed dead, but as noted yesterday, the main sense of Old English heofon was sky. It in turn comes from a Proto-Germanic root of uncertain origin.

---L.

larryhammer

For Poetry Monday, another bit of Japonisme:

On Seeing the Daibutsu, Ella Wheeler Wilcox

Long have I searched, Cathedral, shrine, and hall,
To find a symbol, from the hand of art,
That gave the full expression (not a part)
Of that ecstatic peace which follows all
Life’s pain and passion. Strange it should befall
This outer emblem of the inner heart
Was waiting far beyond the great world’s mart—
Immortal answer, to the mortal call.

Unknown the artist, vaguely known his creed:
But the bronze wonder of his work sufficed
To lift me to the heights his faith had trod.
For one rich moment, opulent indeed,
I walked with Krishna, Buddha, and the Christ,
And felt the full serenity of God.

Wilcox (1850-1919) was an extremely popular American poet with, shall we say, a mixed critical reception. She visited Japan in 1911. This is from her collection Picked Poems (1912), and is about the same statue as Kipling’s Buddha at Kamakura.

---L.

Subject quote from The Sign, Ace of Base.

prettygoodword

Okay, should be able to post more regularly again -- or at least regularly enough to run a theme week, which this time will be words for the skies, starting with:

sky (SKAI) - n., the expanse of air over the earth; (often plural) the appearance of the upper atmosphere, esp. regarding the weather; the celestial regions, the heavens; the highest level or degree.

Thanks, WikiMedia!

This, as you might expect for a very basic word, is a very old one -- attested to around 1200 in Middle English forms sky/skie/ski, also used to mean cloud/mist, which unexpectedly came not from Old English but rather Old Norse skȳ, cloud (the Old English word for sky, heofon, instead became heaven), which ultimately goes back to a PIE root meaning conceal/hide. Interesting semantic shift there.

---L.

oracne

I’ll be at Readercon 34 this weekend after spending most of the last couple of weeks doing massive re-reads.

If you’ll be there, please feel free to stop and say hello! My schedule is below.

The Works of P. Djèlí Clark
Salon I/J Friday, July 18, 2025, 1:00 PM EDT
Andrea Hairston [moderator]; Leon Perniciaro; Rob Cameron; Tom Doyle; Victoria Janssen
Our Guest of Honor P. Djèlí Clark rounded out his first decade as a published author with a Nebula and a Locus for his fantasy police procedural novel, The Master of Djinn, and both those awards plus a British Fantasy Award for his monster-hunting novella Ring Shout. His short story “How to Raise a Kraken in Your Bathtub” is short-listed for the Hugo this year. As a History professor at University of Connecticut, he investigates the pathways leading from West African storyteller/poets (griots, a.k.a. djèlí) to the American abolitionist movement. Help us celebrate the works of our honored guest!

The Purposes of Memorable Insults in Sci-Fi and Fantasy
Salon I/J Friday, July 18, 2025, 5:00 PM EDT
Storm Humbert [moderator]; Anne E.G. Nydam; Charles Allison; Ellen Kushner; Victoria Janssen
Some of the most quotable lines in science fiction and fantasy are zingers. Wit can do a lot to build a character, a world, and a universe, and has the ability to either support or undermine reader expectations. This panel aims to explore and elaborate on the use of wit—and especially takedowns—in literature, exposing how a verbal jab can serve as more than just a punchline.

Moving from Traditional Publishing to Self-Publishing
Salon G/H Friday, July 18, 2025, 7:00 PM EDT
Victoria Janssen [moderator]; Cecilia Tan; Jedediah Berry; Sarah Smith; Steven Popkes
It’s becoming increasingly common to hear of authors whose self-published work was so successful that they were picked up by a traditional publisher. But what of the authors who have gone the other way, by turning their backs on traditional publishing and going into self-publishing? Panelists will survey the varying reasons for making this transition, how authors have navigated it, and what this might say about the state of publishing overall.

Kaffeeklatsch: Victoria Janssen
Suite 830 Friday, July 18, 2025, 8:00 PM EDT

The Works of Cecilia Tan
Salon I/J Saturday, July 19, 2025, 12:00 PM EDT
Victoria Janssen [moderator]; Charlie Jane Anders; Laura Antoniou; Cecilia Tan (i)
Our Guest of Honor, Cecilia Tan, has a publication history that spans Asimov’s, Absolute Magnitude, Ms. Magazine, Penthouse, and Best American Erotica, among others. Writer and editor of science fiction and fantasy, especially as they intersect with erotica and romance, she is also the founder of Circlet Press, an independent publisher that specializes in speculative erotica. Her own writing earned a Lifetime Achievement for Erotica in 2014 from Romantic Times magazine. She also contributes to America’s other pastime, baseball, in her role as Publications Director for the Society for American Baseball Research (SABR). Come hear our panel discuss Cecilia’s many talents and accomplishments.

Un-Kafkaesque Bureaucracies
Salon I/J Saturday, July 19, 2025, 7:00 PM EDT
Victoria Janssen [moderator]; Alexander Jablokov; J.M. Sidorova; Laurence Raphael Brothers; Steven Popkes
In fiction, bureaucracies are generally depicted as evil in its most banal form, yet many of the actual bureaucracies that shape our lives exist to protect us from corporate greed. How can—and should—we tell other stories about bureaucrats and bureaucracies, particularly as the U.S. stands on the precipice of disastrous deregulation? And might fantasies of bureaucracy (such Addison’s The Goblin Emperor and Goddard’s The Hands of the Emperor) be the next cozy subgenre?

The Endless Appetite for Fanfiction
Create / Collaborate Saturday, July 19, 2025, 8:00 PM EDT
Kate Nepveu [moderator]; Claire Houck/Nina Waters; Laura Antoniou; Victoria Janssen
In an article of the same name (https://www.fansplaining.com/articles/endless-appetite-fanfiction), Elizabeth Minkel discussed how “2024 was the year [fanfic] truly broke containment—everyone seemed to want a piece of the fanfiction pie, leaving fic authors themselves besieged on all sides.” Attempts to steal and monetize fanfic proliferated, as did reviews treating living authors as distant and unreachable. What do these trends say about larger changes in attitudes toward stories and creators? How can fans of all kinds nurture supportive connections to authors?

andersenmom

Weekly Score: 57.6% (19/33)

Goal 1: Declutter house and take care of family. 55% (12/22)

Review: This was harder than I expected it would be, Probably because I didn't schedule time to recover from the trip. That was something I should know by now.

Goal 2: Catch up on Fannish50. 67% (4/6)

Review: I got the three posts written, but only got one posted. I'll work on that better as things go on.

Goal 3: Prep for writing retreat. 60% (3/5)

Review: I could probably redo this one, as I really only needed to look for a couple of poms. I found a few ideal places, and I sent a second email as well. Still not getting all of the people to answer. But we do have a little bit more time.

Intentions for the future: G1: Get working on my house. I'm tired of it looking the way it is. This week's zone is the Main bathroom and one extra room, and I'll focus on my office. G2: Same as before, write three posts, post three of them. G3: I'm going to start working on the menu, and figure out what else we might need.

Current Mood: sleepy
Current Music: Pretty Boy - P1Harmony

sideways

• Zoo City was an almost-great book - the writing style was engaging, the protagonist was compelling in her bitterness, the concept of being Animaled was ballsy in its co-opting of Pullman's dæmons. It just kind of forgot to let anything the protagonist did... matter? Oops.

• "A demon-hunting KPop group finds itself on a new battlefield when the demons launch their own boy band" is such a perfect comedy movie premise! For some reason, though, the movie also wedged in a cliche dramatic plot-line it didn't really have time for or do anything new with, and in fact the more I think about said plot-line the more questions I have. KPop Demon Hunters was still, somehow, a pretty fun watch. The energetic animation and catchy songs definitely helped.

• Re-read The Prefect, which was the first Alastair Reynolds book I ever read, back in the day! Reynolds' character work has always been fairly average, but his character and world concepts are so thought-provoking I tend not to mind.

• If I had ever been a big Murderbot fan, I suspect I'd be genuinely very annoyed by the TV adaptation. As it is, I'm still exasperated by some of the choices and by the fact streaming seems to have permanently crushed the industry's ability to tell a well-paced logical fucking story, but I'm at least enjoying individual segments. It's a strong cast (Mensah especially) and when they get a well-scripted scene, they deliver on it! Alas...

• I'm nearly at the end of Babylon 5's first season, which may get its own post if I can find the energy. I'm into it overall, and it's very interesting to experience in a time-capsule sort of way as well, which is the mark of good sci-fi.

andersenmom

I'm pretty sure this was a save one/drop one find. BZ-Boys was a five member group, although two ended up leaving. They haven't released anything since then, about a year ago. The song we heard? Outlaw. Only four promoted this song, and so far as I could tell, no one knows why the two left. The whole mini was fun, so I'm glad I grabbed it.

Watch on YouTube

Current Mood: Melting
Current Music: Lemon Drop - ATEEZ

prettygoodword

fettle (FET-l) - v., (UK) to prepare or arrange (something), to put (arrangements) in order; (north UK) to sort out, to mend, to repair; (metal.) to line (a furnace) with loose material such as sand prior to pouring in molten metal. n., condition, state, usually only in the phrase "fine fettle."

I wanted only the verb, but the noun really is better known, especially in North America. Goes back to Middle English fetlen, to bestow/fix/prepare/put in place/prepare (oneself) for battle/shape, after which the trail goes cold, with several possible Old English roots suggested.

---L.

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sunlit_stone

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Reading

Fic: Needed Reassurance

“in my dreams / i know i’m gonna be with you / so i take my time / are you ready for it?”

heavens

“no one’s gonna drag you up / to get into the light where you belong / but where do you belong?”

sky

Readercon 2025

12 Week Year WAM Week 03

media round-up

Fannish50 #10 - BZ-Boys

fettle

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October 2024

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