rynling: (Gator Strut)
“book lovers” don’t love anything about books and it’s weird (or, defending classic novels)
https://zynart.tumblr.com/post/686874519007330304/book-lovers-dont-love-anything-about-books-and

This is a (very) long Tumblr post with a clickbait title taken from a clickbait tweet, but it's beautifully written and skillfully argued. I read this essay over the course of several days, and every paragraph filled me with joy and power.

Obviously I love literary fiction, and not just in my area of specialty. Still, I understand why a lot of people actively hate "the classics," not to mention the dripless onanistic litbros who take the gatekeeping of who gets to count as "a serious writer" to an almost biblical level. What I appreciate about this essay is that it relegates those sorts of culture war concerns to a corner and discusses literary novels on their own merit.

Also, while I'm not super into the concept of "a literary canon that everyone needs to read," I agree with the author that's it's good to read writing that wasn't specifically created for a teenage audience. Idk man. I just think it's good for people to be exposed to art that isn't easily digestible, and by "good" I mean "fun and interesting and inspirational from a creative standpoint."
rynling: (Gator Strut)
It turns out that the Corpse Party manga has been officially licensed and is available for Kindle (here).

Read more... )

I don't know what I expected 🙃 but I'm still going to read it.
rynling: (Ganondorf)
The Bride of Retro Horror
http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/books/hg101-digest-vol-8-the-bride-of-retro-horror/

Hey kids! Do you like retro horror video games? The Bride of Retro Horror features genre-defining classics like Clock Tower and Alone in the Dark, two titles from the early 1990s that helped define the “survival horror” genre, even though they both predate Resident Evil. Also featured are some movie tie-ins like Friday the 13th and The Nightmare on Elm Street, as well as other early horror games from all over the globe.

I ordered a copy of this book (from Amazon), and I'm really enjoying it. Essentially, it's a full-color retro gaming magazine with lots of high-quality screenshots and solid research. I don't actually want to play any of these games, but I'm having a good time reading about them.
rynling: (Gator Strut)
I am currently simmering in an anxiety hell of my own making, so I want to chill out a bit by telling a story about my two-year-old corgi, Lola.

Like most corgis, Lola is extremely cowardly. Things she is afraid of include: rain, plastic bags, bikes, people opening their car doors, cats, birds, people sitting on their porches, the wind, and tennis balls.

Lola is also afraid of books. This is a problem because I like to read. When I'm reading, Lola wants to sit on the bed or the couch with me. Unfortunately, she's afraid of the books, so she'll cower on the floor and whine.

Despite being cowardly, Lola is fairly intelligent and eager to please, so I taught her the command "little lick." What this entails is that I'll put something in front of her face and say "Lola, little lick," and she'll give it a tiny little kiss. This is the only way she'll consent to tolerate objects that scare her, such as the PlayStation 5 controller.

So now, every time I want to sit down and read, the corgi has to touch her cute little nose to every single book, generally along the bottom edge of the pages. I apologize to the university library, but honestly, my dog is cleaner than most undergrads. Anyone who finds themselves in possession of a book consecrated by Lola should consider themselves lucky.
rynling: (Default)
Moss Ball Bonsai
https://www.tuttlepublishing.com/japan/moss-ball-bonsai

I found a book that was written just for me. Chapters include:

- Moss Ecology
- Enjoying Moss
- The Power of Moss
- A Photo Album of Popular Mosses

It's a gorgeous (yet inexpensive!) hardcover book filled with lovely photography, and I'm definitely going to add it to my Dark Souls required reading list.
rynling: (Mog Toast)
Pitch Guide for Translators
https://antonhur.com/pitch-guide-for-translators/

The end of the opening paragraph is where I usually drop comp titles, which are the titles of books that are similar in vibe with your book. For Cursed Bunny, I mentioned Her Body and Other Parties by Carmen Maria Machado and Mouthful of Birds by Samanta Schweblin, both edgy, literary horror written by women. Try to find comp titles from books that the editor is likely to have read or at least heard about. If you can find a comp title in the editor’s or publisher’s backlist, that’s even better. There are several recurring discussions about comp titles that people on Twitter make such a big deal about for some reason—don’t overthink it. The point is to provide context for your book and to help the editor get a good feel for it. That’s all there is to it.

I'm not a huge fan of either of the comp titles listed here, but Cursed Bunny is very good. As is this entire post. And I think this is really good and useful advice about comp titles, which are one of my worst weaknesses.
rynling: (Terra Branford)
beyond the edge of the world
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cLPM83Tk1M8&t=3s

According to the caption, this ambient fantasy mini-album is "inspired by the earthsea book, the farthest shore."

Man. If there were ever a fantasy novel that deserved to be turned into a big-budget art film directed by Guillermo del Toro, it's The Farthest Shore. This is exactly what I would want the OST to sound like.
rynling: (Gator Strut)
I decided to cancel class yesterday so I could finish the White Mask Varré story. I regret nothing.

Like Elden Ring itself, I think this story is very good, and I would recommend it to no one.

I will now alienate everyone I know by posting it online.


...As an aside, I learned from the Dark Souls podcast that Lady Tanith of the Volcano Manor is named after Tanith Lee, a fantasy writer who was extremely prolific during the 1980s. I managed to get a copy of her short fiction collection Dreams of Dark and Light from the Princeton library, and wow. Those monsters do be fucking.
rynling: (Cool Story Bro)
I recently read Andrew Ross's 2021 book Sunbelt Blues: The Failure of American Housing. It's not a long book, but it still took me more than two months to finish. There's nothing wrong with the writing; it's just depressing.

Read more... )

Anyway, the main thing I took away from Sunbelt Blues is that apparently the Mormons bought up a bunch of wildlife preserves, which they plan to use as a biological ark in the event of an apocalypse. As a result, the Church of Latter-day Saints is the largest landowner in Florida. True story: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deseret_Ranches
rynling: (Mog Toast)
In the spring semester I'm teaching a literature class called "Tokyo Stories." I don't mean to be a grumpy old man, and I say this with nothing but sympathy: I think college-age students have trouble with reading. A lot of this is coming from the fact that reading requires quiet, focus, and attention, and these kids are extremely busy. I therefore want to assign books that are (a) short, (b) interesting, and (c) accessible, both in the sense of "easy to read" and in the sense of "easy to find summaries and reviews online" (also in the sense of "inexpensive" and "readily available in a digital edition").

This is what I have so far:

- In the Miso Soup by Ryu Murakami
- Kitchen by Banana Yoshimoto
- After Dark by Haruki Murakami
- Tokyo Ueno Station by Miri Yu
- Convenience Store Woman by Sayaka Murata
- The Last Children of Tokyo by Yoko Tawada
- Himawari House by Harmony Becker

I'm considering assigning one of the Fuminori Nakamura crime novellas - maybe the one about the taxi driver? - but I don't remember them being that good in translation. I guess I should probably read a few of the translations again over the break. I'm also considering the first volume of the Durarara!! light novel series, but I need to read the translation first to see if it's any good.
rynling: (Cool Story Bro)
Content warning for a brief discussion of cannibalism in horror fiction, and also not-so-horror fiction. It's nothing explicit, but I'm probably not the best judge of what's upsetting to read.

Read more... )
rynling: (Cool Story Bro)
Fairy Tale is excellent. I really enjoyed it.

Read more... )

Another nice thing about Fairy Tale is its illustrations. Damn I love when books have good art.
rynling: (Default)
Wait wait our idea of dirty medieval peasants is based on a *tax aversion scam*??? Please tell me more I need to know this.
https://brunhiddensmusings.tumblr.com/post/170638767425/wait-wait-our-idea-of-dirty-medieval-peasants-is

of course word of these envoys traveled faster then they did, virtually every town they came to had time to claim they had far less taxable wealth then they actually did have by the time the audit arrived. in one of the more over the top cases an entire village pretended to have caught insanity- when the taxmen arrived they saw screaming laughing idiots with underwear on their heads so they left as fast as they could considering at the time insanity was thought to be literally contagious. it would be over five years before anyone tried to audit that town again.

Sounds legit. I think there's also a history writer bias of wanting to make everyone outside the ruling elite seem uncivilized, when really most people in most places in most periods of history are just going to be living their lives in a completely normal way.

One of my favorite microgenres of fantasy is small stories about the quiet everyday lives of normal people - tertiary characters at best - who exist in the same world as epic events. One of my favorite examples of this is the first collected volume of Gotham Central, which is an episodic police procedural. The quality of the series drops after the first volume, and I tend not to be sympathetic toward the police, but I love the idea of normal people doing normal everyday jobs and suddenly there's Batman.
rynling: (Terra Branford)
In order for a story to be considered “Gothic,” I think it needs to include…

Read more... )

There are numerous cross-genres and sub-genres of Gothic that have their own specific conventions, like Gothic Romance and Boarding School Gothic. I didn’t address the visual language of the Gothic, or how tropes and conventions vary between times and cultures. Still, I think this is the core of the genre.
rynling: (Cool Story Bro)
I think you could say that the concept of “the Gothic” originates in Germany in four ways.

Read more... )

Moving on, I tend to think that there’s not really a strong Gothic genre in Japan because Japan’s material culture isn’t conducive to some of the key elements of the genre.

Read more... )

And finally, I understand that there’s a lot of cool contemporary Gothic fiction in Argentina. Given the country’s history, I guess that makes sense, but I don’t know much about it. Also, the Chilean author Isabel Allende writes incredible and epic literary Gothic novels. I don’t read Spanish or Portuguese, unfortunately, but I’d love to learn more about Latin American Gothic.
rynling: (Default)
Gothic: An Illustrated History
https://press.princeton.edu/books/hardcover/9780691229164/gothic

The word Gothic conjures associations with the dark and melancholy, the weird and feared, and haunted places and people. In Gothic, Roger Luckhurst offers readers an unprecedented look at the ways this uncanny style has manifested itself through architecture, literature, film, art, video games, and more. From the works of Victor Hugo and E. T. A. Hoffmann to Southern Gothic, ancient folklore, and classic horror movies, Luckhurst explores how an aesthetic that began in the margins has been reinvented through the centuries to become part of mainstream global culture.

Despite being published by Princeton, this isn't an academic book, and the person who wrote it isn't a professor. All in all, it's excellent, with lots of photos and illustrations. The physical copy is very handsome and definitely worth getting at a $15 discount on Amazon.

Read more... )

I took three things away from this book.

Read more... )

By the way, when I ordered a copy of Gothic: An Illustrated History, Amazon told me that I might also enjoy the recently published Pandemonium: A Visual History of Demonology. And damn if the algorithm wasn't 100% correct.
rynling: (Mog Toast)
On the recommendation of someone whose writing I admire immensely, I started reading Jessica Brody's Save the Cat! Writes a Novel, and it's great. Specifically, it's very useful in terms of concrete practical information concerning issues such as structure and word/pagecount.

What I especially appreciate about this book is that Brody doesn't obsess over "conflict" as a guiding concept (which I think is overrated) but instead focuses on character development spurred by the tension between what the main character wants and what they need, as well as how this development is spotlighted by the narrative structure of the character's world.

Read more... )
rynling: (Mog Toast)
I want to add that I very much appreciate when people spoil things for me. I only have so many days on this earth, and I need people to tell me when something is worth my time. For example:

Read more... )

I write a fair number of reviews, and I think about this issue a lot in very concrete and practical terms. There's always going to be a delicate balance between explaining what's interesting and compelling about a piece of media and allowing your reader the space to experience it for themselves, but I sometimes feel that the hand-wringing over "posting spoilers on the internet" may have gone a bit overboard.
rynling: (Mog Toast)
Where the Crawdads Sing Author Wanted for Questioning in Murder
https://www.theatlantic.com/books/archive/2022/07/where-the-crawdads-sing-delia-mark-owens-zambia-murder/670479/

This is some real Heart of Darkness horror that isn't the least bit cute or funny, and I'm not going to post an excerpt from it. Suffice it to say that I feel justified about my impression of this book, which I hated.

By the way, if anyone ever does a close reading of my work, this is what they're going to find out:

(1) I'm bisexual. Surprise!!
(2) I would absolutely romance a demon.
(3) I do in fact really like tea and plants.
(4) I can't proofread worth shit.
rynling: (Default)
I'm still reading the t-shirt book. Body-shaming pedo shit aside, I just really like Haruki Murakami.

One of the chapters is about Murakami's t-shirts with turtles and lizards. Apparently he feels the same way that I do about turtles and lizards, which is that they're really cool. Like, if you have to choose, you'd rather pet a dog, but that doesn't diminish from how cool turtles and lizards are. Murakami says that he went to the Galápagos once, and that the islands are covered in iguanas. I generally don't have a "favorite" type of anything, but damn I love iguanas, and now I sort of want to visit the Galápagos.

On the other hand, that's a long plane ride, and I think ecotourism is kind of stupid to begin with.

On my third hand, I could just go to Florida, which is also now covered in iguanas apparently? When I searched for "where in Florida are the most iguanas" (the first autocomplete suggestion was "where in Florida are the most sinkholes," which sounds like another project for another day), I didn't get a straight answer, but I did learn all sorts of interesting iguana facts, such as:

- They dig under houses.
- They crawl into sewers.
- The colonize drainage canals.
- They bore holes into seawalls.
- They ruin golf courses.
- They eat butterflies.

In any case, I think the highest concentration of iguanas might be around Miami, but that could just be because the area has a high human concentration and thus more reported sightings. More research is necessary; but, in the meantime, please enjoy this lovely picture of one handsome chonker.

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