Let's write some words

I need to distract myself from the impending prospect of Prime Minister Boris Johnson (you know you're in dire straits when Jeremy 'let's privatise the NHS' Hunt looks like the best option), so here is a mixed bag of a post to catch everyone up on various thingst that have been going on.

But first, I want to draw people's attention to fic_corner, The Exchange at Fic Corner, which is a fanfic exchange for YA and children's book fandoms. Nominations are open, and you can nominate fandoms here. There are guidelines on what can be nominated, and how many things you can nominate, here. I really hope we get a lot of participation this year, as the mod has mentioned that unless participation increases and matching becomes easier, they may not run the exchange again. As someone whose fandoms are mainly book fandoms (with a slight preference towards YA and children's works), I selfishly hope this isn't the case!

In other exchange news, I'm eagerly anticipating the nightonficmountain exchange going live later today. It's one of my favourite exchanges, and is one of the high points in my fannish calendar. I'm looking forward to reading my gift and browsing the collection.

*

My mother has been visiting from Australia. We spent six days last week (from Sunday to Saturday) hiking together in North Yorkshire, walking around 80km from the moors to the sea, starting in Helmsley and finishing up in Whitby. For the most part we had good weather (two days of driving rain and howling wind aside), and it was an absolutey beautiful part of the world in which to spend time. Mum and I normally try to do something like this when she visits, as it's a great way to talk and catch up without any distractions. I've stuck a little photoset up on Instagram.

We followed up the week of hiking with a day trip to London to see Henry V in the Globe Theatre. Weirdly, despite having lived in the UK for more than eleven years (and less than an hour's train ride from London), I've never seen a show at the Globe, so it was great to be able to experience it at last. You can buy seated tickets, but they're much more expensive than the five pounds it costs to see the performance while standing. I really love Shakespeare's history plays (or, more accurately I just love the ridiculous soap opera of the Plantagenets), so this was a good choice, although I'm not sure the director's choice to gender-flip some roles really worked. In my opinion it would have been better to work with an entirely female cast if that's the route the director wanted to take. In any case, I was very happy to be in London on such a beautiful day.

*

Reading-wise I've been slogging my way through the Hugo finalists, although I'm losing motivation a bit. So far I haven't really read anything new to me that's blown me away, and the works I'd already read were things I'd nominated for Hugos anyway. I still need to read some of the Series, YA and Campbell finalists, but suffice it to say that nothing I've read so far has converted me to a fan of Brooke Bolander, Seanan McGuire, or, in general, the editorial acquisitions preferences of Clarkesworld magazine.

I'm moving away from Hugos reading for the time being for a pile of books from the public library, Max Gladstone's new novel, and, in July, Aliette de Bodard's third Dominion of the Fallen book and the novel co-written by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone, simply because I really need a break from feeling that I'm reading out of duty.

*

In terms of TV I've been in raptures over the Good Omens adapation like everyone else, although I'm only partway through it due to all the travel, and I've been thoroughly enjoying Brian Cox's documentary on the solar system, which I find oddly soothing. It's daunting and disorienting to think how vast the universe is, and how old, and how tiny and young and very much alone we are within it, and the series of ridiculously lucky accidents that had to accumulate for our planet to exist, and for life, and us, to exist on it, are terrifying. But it's also beautiful.

Years and Years, Russell T. Davies' six-part dystopia that just finished up on the BBC, started off promisingly, but, I felt, pulled its punches at the end because Davies can't resist sentimentality. The show traces the frighteningly plausible catastrophes of the near future, following the experiences of one extended family (two brothers and two sisters, their various spouses/partners, children, and grandmother). Some elements of Davies' imagined future are frighteningly plausible (a three-year waiting list for a medical procedure, or the option to use 'NHS Enhanced' and pay £10,000 to jump the queue; people in white-collar jobs assuming they were safe from the threat of automation and then abruptly finding themselves out of work; US President Mike Pence), and the British characters' reactions to these various affronts and indignities (grumbling acceptance) feel realistic. But Davies drew back from the logical, depressing conclusion to these statements he was making for an ending that felt optimistic in an unearned way. Let's just say that since 2015, and certainly since 2016, I find it hard to accept a real-world scenario in which a horrifying dystopia and iniquitous government is toppled by the public revelation of its crimes and human rights violations.

*

And now I find the weekend is upon me. Tomorrow Matthias and I will be heading off to Brighton for three days, meeting Mum there (she's currently in Berlin) for a long weekend. I've never been, and he's only been for work, so I'm looking forward to exploring a new corner of the country.

What is everyone else up to this weekend?