hieroglyfic dreams

Lookie at who visited me this morning! (Click to embiggen)



We saw a different fox in our yard last night, smaller and more gray. Foxes are periodic but uncommon visitors to our yard; more frequently (like, daily) we see deer, and of course squirrels and chipmunks, and bears are rare.

What I've recently finished reading:

Translation State by Ann Leckie, which struck me as having a lot to unpack. Maybe it's just because of the state of the world in these times that I read it, or maybe the use of neopronouns (which by the way I hate, sorry, they knock me right out of the narrative in a way that singular "they" does not - but perhaps this was the intended effect, considering?) primed me to read it this way, but wow did Reet's journey of self-discovery amid discomfort, and his insistence that he was human (and that he was baffled and upset by others insisting the contrary) read like a trans narrative to me. (Which - does that mean the ending suggests that biology is destiny after all? Or maybe it suggests that fuck you, a trans man can get pregnant and carry and give birth to a child, and is still a man, damn it, which I think is probably a better reading.)

Anyway, I mostly liked it, although the pacing felt odd to me, very slow for a while and then bam-bam-FAST toward the end. I liked the hints about the very weird Translators and the even spookier Presger looming in the background. (And hah, the conspiracy theories about "of course the Presger don't exist, they were invented as a pretext for this faction to take over the government" made me laugh because yet another reflection of our world.) And I liked Enae, who reminded me of Ingray in Provenance, a young person trying to come out from the shadow of more forceful relatives and to Do the Right Thing even while they have no idea what that is.

Lord of Chaos by Robert Jordan, which is Wheel of Time #6. These last few books have been chock-full of thick chunky plot. Though also it's a little disappointing, in a way, that the story is so sweeping and involved that some characters get only a tiny bit of screen time, and I want more of them! I have to say that I really liked the end of this one, as compared with the others, as the Epic Battle did not (really) involve the Forsaken and their epic plotline, but was more the inevitable outcome of the threads of the last several books coming to a head.

I am super excited by developments involving Egwene (haha no spoilers but if you've read the books you know what I'm talking about) which makes for a nice mirror to Rand's arc, in a way. I'm also enjoying the political machinations going on with respect to certain countries' rulers, as well as what is going down with the Aes Sedai - someone like Elaida (who rumor has it will be played in the show by Shohreh Aghdashloo!!) has much more complex motivations than e.g. Liandrin (in the book, especially - in the show I think they gave her somewhat more depth) and I am always there for conflict for complicated reasons between people who are (sort of) on the same side (like between Moiraine and Nynaeve, especially in the book) more than for the big Good vs Evil type of conflict.

What I'm reading now:

...book 7, A Crown of Swords, I am nothing if not predictable.

What I've recently finished watching:

The last season of The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, which was really playful in a lot of ways, with the time-jumping and differing perspectives. I especially liked the Susie episode, which was hilarious. But I also really appreciated the journey Midge took toward her success, the setbacks and the triumphs (and the constant underlying message of how much harder every triumph was to earn while dancing backwards in high heels, so to speak) and all the very human people that made up the show.