Media Round Up: At the Cusp of the Year

[forestofglory]

The Deep & Dark Blue by Niki Smith— this is a middle grade graphic novel about a trans girl and her twin brother who have to present as girls, to escape their cousin who is trying to kill them. I liked how it played with “dressing up as another gender’ tropes. Also there is spinning based magic, and I love having textile based magic. I really liked this!

Yuletide— This an annual small fandoms exchange that goes live on Dec 25. I enjoyed so many of this years stories! I wanted to share a couple of fics I especially liked form the 2020 collection:

缘起缘未了 | when I see you again by stickmarionette f/f White Snake retelling, 9k words.

even if it's just one person by Lanerose Episolory Nirvana in Fire fic featuring letters between two friends, 2k words

The False and the Real by sigaloenta Imperial Radch fic focusing on Mercy of Kalr, 6k words.

a bold and brilliant sun azurewaxwing Sleuth of the Ming Dynasty space AU, 7k


Culinary Nostalgia: Regional Food Culture and the Urban Experience in Shanghai by Mark Swislocki— This book which focused on modern history was not super relevant to my interest in historical chinese dramas. However I’m also really interested in urban history and food so I found this fascinating

The Fire Never Goes Out by Noelle Stevenson— This is called a memoir but it doesn’t really have a narrative, and felt fragmented. It’s more of a collection of personal comics, some of which cover specific events, others of which are more about capturing a certain feeling. It was interesting but also a little frustrating. (Content note: depression, homophobia)

Everything Is Beautiful, and I'm Not Afraid: A Baopu Collection by Yao Xiao— this a collection of autobiographical comics by a queer Chinese migrant. Like the previous collection there were a lot of comics about specific feelings, which lead it not really being a narrative. (Content note: depression, homophobia)

Star Trek: Discovery Season 3 episodes 1-6— This is what R and I are watching together now! It’s fun, also there's a giant fluffy cat! I’m enjoying the characters and their evolving relationships.

Flavorful Origins season 3 episodes 1 -6 Watching some of these 10-15 episodes of this Chinese produced food documentary since I don’t have much focus to watch longer things right now. This season focuses on the province of Gansu, and has made me hungry several times.

TGCF dongua episode 1 I so I’m in a group that’s rewatching The Untamed and someone suggested that we also watch TGCF with is also based on a novel written by MXTX. And despite some technical problems we did! The animation is really pretty.

Comments

[rachelmanija]

supper relevant

Best typo.

[rekishi]

Oh neat, group rewatches. :D (The Farscape discord has something like that, sadly at a terrible timezones for me, lol)

[naye]

Thank you for the Yuletide recs! I've stashed them all in my Save For Later.

[forestofglory]

Oh dear :)

[forestofglory]

I think we actually share all four of those fandoms, nice!

[forestofglory]

Yeah, its super fun! I love seeing what different people notice.

[slashmarks]

The book about culinary nostalgia in Shanghai sounds interesting, I may check that out.

[askygoneonfire]

Grudge! I love the newest addition to the illustrious line of Trek pets

[forestofglory]

Grudge is great!

[forestofglory]

I would have preferred a bit more detail about the actual food, but it was still a good read!

[starshipfox]

I was really disappointed by Noelle Stevenson's book too: I've enjoyed her comics a lot in the past, but this one felt really lazy. It was basically a collection of tumblr round-up posts. I felt like she didn't want to explore her feelings and experiences in any great depth, and to keep her personal life separate from her work, which is a completely valid choice -- unless you're writing a personal memoir, in which case it doesn't really work.

[suncani]

The Imperial Radch story sounds good, i've saved it and hopefully will read soon. I just finished the 1st book but I feel like there's so much going on spoilers aren't really a problem.

[forestofglory]

Yeah, I think would have worked better for me if wasn't marketed as memoir, but it was still just an odd mix of stuff.

[forestofglory]

Well the fic is about a character you haven't met yet, but its a prequel so its not spoilerly or anything, just sometime I have trouble getting into fic about characters I don't know.