Five Books and One Movie
Apr. 14th, 2020 09:51 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
forestofgloryWelcome to Five Fandom 5+1s and a Meme! This is a series of posts about stuff that’s important to my own personal fandom history. I wanted some space to talk about happy and whimsical stuff and explore the different ways I’ve experienced fandom over time. I thought it would be fun to borrow the popular fanfic structure of 5+1 things. I’m using the word fandom very broadly here, to include SFF book fandom, transformative fandom, and just liking things. The things I’ve picked to talk about might not be the best or my favorites but they are fundamental to my experience and have shaped my thinking.
1. The Thief by Megan Whalen Turner This is the first book in The Queen’s Thief series. However I first read The Thief as a child when it was a stand alone novel, with no sequels.. I loved it then and I love it now. I know some of my friends have really struggled with this one and only read it in order to read the other books in the series, but I enjoy this one a lot. I really like the use of first person narration, and perhaps I have a bit of nostalgia influencing my opinion.
2. The Vorkosigan Sagaby Lois McMaster Bujold - I tried to pick just one of these books, but I just couldn't. I need to talk about all of them, as a unit. I first read these in high school, when I was fortunate enough to have a sizeable allowance and access to a bookstore that specialised in SFF. Every month, I would walk up to the bookstore and walk home with an armful of books. I would only buy one new Vorkosigan book at a time, because I was enjoying reading the series fairly slowly.
These books are by no means perfect, but I love them and they have shaped me in so many ways. Even today,e when I’m mulling my way through a moral problem I often find myself thinking of an adage from these books, “people over principles.” Bujold has a way of getting a lot of meaning in only a few words.
3. A Door into Ocean by Joan Slonczewski This is an extremely me book that I love and wish more people had read. It has my favorite fictional ecosystem, gender politics, and non-violence. I read this in uni because I was exploring older SFF by women authors and I’m so glad that I did.
4. Stars in my Pocket like Grains of Sand by Samuel R. Delany I’m mad that I didn’t read this book in high school when I was reading “the classics of SFF” It just sucks that books like Stranger in Strange Land are easy to find, and constantly foisted on you by other people, but Stars in My Pocket I had to work to track down. This book is just chock full of interesting ideas! It has so much going on around gender, pronouns, sex and family.
5. Sing for the Coming of the Longest Night by Katherine Fabian and Iona Datt Sharma I can’t stop recommending this novella, I just love it so much! Its been my go to queer book rec for a while now, but I also felt extermly seen by the way the Jewish characters in this pratice Judaism in hapharad but meaningful way. This book also features magic in modern London, polyamory, and found family. I can’t recommend it enough!
+1 movie My Neighbor Totoro I saw this movie for the first time when I was 10. My fifth grade class had weekly Japanese lessons and for several weeks they showed us this movie -- in Japanese, with no subtitles. I loved it immediately and have loved it ever since. It's so calm the landscapes shown are so beautiful. I was so excited to get the chance to share this piece of my childhood media with my kid and now she loves it too!
1. The Thief by Megan Whalen Turner This is the first book in The Queen’s Thief series. However I first read The Thief as a child when it was a stand alone novel, with no sequels.. I loved it then and I love it now. I know some of my friends have really struggled with this one and only read it in order to read the other books in the series, but I enjoy this one a lot. I really like the use of first person narration, and perhaps I have a bit of nostalgia influencing my opinion.
2. The Vorkosigan Sagaby Lois McMaster Bujold - I tried to pick just one of these books, but I just couldn't. I need to talk about all of them, as a unit. I first read these in high school, when I was fortunate enough to have a sizeable allowance and access to a bookstore that specialised in SFF. Every month, I would walk up to the bookstore and walk home with an armful of books. I would only buy one new Vorkosigan book at a time, because I was enjoying reading the series fairly slowly.
These books are by no means perfect, but I love them and they have shaped me in so many ways. Even today,e when I’m mulling my way through a moral problem I often find myself thinking of an adage from these books, “people over principles.” Bujold has a way of getting a lot of meaning in only a few words.
3. A Door into Ocean by Joan Slonczewski This is an extremely me book that I love and wish more people had read. It has my favorite fictional ecosystem, gender politics, and non-violence. I read this in uni because I was exploring older SFF by women authors and I’m so glad that I did.
4. Stars in my Pocket like Grains of Sand by Samuel R. Delany I’m mad that I didn’t read this book in high school when I was reading “the classics of SFF” It just sucks that books like Stranger in Strange Land are easy to find, and constantly foisted on you by other people, but Stars in My Pocket I had to work to track down. This book is just chock full of interesting ideas! It has so much going on around gender, pronouns, sex and family.
5. Sing for the Coming of the Longest Night by Katherine Fabian and Iona Datt Sharma I can’t stop recommending this novella, I just love it so much! Its been my go to queer book rec for a while now, but I also felt extermly seen by the way the Jewish characters in this pratice Judaism in hapharad but meaningful way. This book also features magic in modern London, polyamory, and found family. I can’t recommend it enough!
+1 movie My Neighbor Totoro I saw this movie for the first time when I was 10. My fifth grade class had weekly Japanese lessons and for several weeks they showed us this movie -- in Japanese, with no subtitles. I loved it immediately and have loved it ever since. It's so calm the landscapes shown are so beautiful. I was so excited to get the chance to share this piece of my childhood media with my kid and now she loves it too!
