Lay down for a while, recollect

[dolorosa_12]

Reading is off to a good start this year. I've finished three books, and should be done with a fourth by the end of today.

I wanted to start my 2024 reading with The Temple of Fortuna, the third book in Elodie Harper's historical fiction trilogy about enslaved women who worked in a brothel in Pompeii (their names are taken from real graffiti, but everything else about their lives is fictionalised). The first two books were excellent, so the idea was to save up the third, and start the year's reading on a high note. Unfortunately, The Temple of Fortuna is the weakest of the bunch. It reads like two books awkwardly merged together (its first half follows our protagonist, Amara — formerly enslaved in the brothel, then freed by a besotted patron who loses interest in her once his paternalistic rescue fantasy has played out — during her time in Rome with another patron, with an empahsis on the precarious position of women at the margins of political power, the second half is all about the volcanic eruption and Amara's attempts to save herself, her young daughter, and the father of her daughter from the destruction), and it has a happy ending which feels entirely unearned. It's a trilogy in which two-and-a-half books are about dispossessed people, and their bitter struggle for survival, and the fact that they can progress socially, acquire wealth, material comforts, and a measure of respectability, but they will never be truly safe or secure from some kind of exploitation and must be constantly vigilant for it — and then the final half book just handwaves that all away as if it were nothing. This is one series that definitely did not stick the landing.

Back when I had just graduated from university, I spent about six months living with my dad, during a rather stressful, emotionally difficult period of both our lives. It's not a time that I look back on with much fondness, but one good memory from that time was reading my way through every George Orwell book that my dad had in his house, and having endless discussions with him about them. Dad clearly remembered last year that one of the few things we can agree on is Orwell, and sent me DJ Taylor's biography (Orwell: the Life). This is not the most recent biography, the one that focuses on how terrible Orwell was to women — this book was published in 2003, and is a much more conventional chronological survey of his life and work. It's fine, as far as biographies go, although it has an annoying tendency to speculate wildly about its subject's motivations and experiences in periods (such as Orwell's childhood or time in Burma and Paris) in which the written record is limited.

The third book I read, however, was excellent. The Pomegranate Gate (Ariel Kaplan) is the first in a fantasy series set during the dying days of Islamic Spain, and the advent of Christian rule, with a twin focus on the experiences of Jewish people on the Iberian peninsula during this time, and on Jewish folklore, mythology and mysticism of the era, from which it draws its supernatural elements. Kaplan has compressed the timeline somewhat (forced conversions, expulsions, and Inquisitorial persecution of forced Jewish converts to Christianity seem to be happening almost simultaneously and immediately after the switch from Muslim to Christian rule in the final holdout areas), which is possibly my only quibble, since from my perspective this decision seems taken solely to amplify the sense of threat and urgency and make it easier for the narrative to unfold. Half of the story follows characters who are struggling to survive and make decisions about their lives in the wake of the violent destruction of their world, the other half takes place in a magical, supernatural world whose beings are undergoing similarly violent upheavals, and eventually the stories converge. (My tag for this particular kind of story doesn't quite fit, since we've got not only thinking women, but thinking people of other genders sleeping with monsters here...) The characters are wonderful, the setting is rich and vivid, and I'm only sorry that it's the first in a series and I'll have to wait for a while to get the next installment. Do bear in mind that due to the setting and subject matter, this is not a lighthearted read — the book is about violent antisemitism and all the horrible forms this can take, and the pain and terror that it causes its targets. But it's also about survival, and community, and the bravery it takes to continue to survive as a distinct community and people in the wake of such horrors.

Today's prompt is IceBreaker Challenge! Tell us about yourself.

Since I seem to have started a sort of 'three things' theme to this post, I will list this in sets of threes.

Although I've had nearly thirty different jobs, I would describe myself as having (so far) changing career twice, or in other words having had three careers (newspaper journalism, academia, librarianship). The weirdest job I've ever had — when listed without much detail — was working for a circus.

I watched Mad Max: Fury Road three times in the cinema (and countless other times since). I am not looking forward to the prequel.

My three favourite icebreaker questions are: what is your favourite body of water (and why)?; which book would you ask people to read if you wanted them to understand something essential about you without you having to explain it? and; what is your favourite comfort food?

Finally, three fandom-related things.

bestof_icons is hosting an event to vote for the best icon makers of 2023. Currently, nominations are open.


ICON NOMINATIONS - JOIN IN!

fandomtrees is still looking for pinch-hitters to fill prompts for needy trees. There are more details on the comm, and a spreadsheet listing participants' requests.

Someone made podfic of one of my fics! This is the first time this has ever happened, and I haven't had a chance to listen to it yet (it seems to be part of some kind of Obernewtyn challenge — I should contact the podficcer and see if there's an active fandom somewhere I don't know about), but I'm very pleased it exists!

[Podfic] Mirrored Flame (29 words) by robinfaipods
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Obernewtyn Chronicles - Isobelle Carmody
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Characters: Elspeth Gordie, Dragon (Obernewtyn Chronicles)
Additional Tags: Post-Canon, Podfic, Podfic Length: 10-20 Minutes, Audio Format: MP3, Audio Format: Streaming, Audio Format: Download
Summary:

Three years after the events of The Red Queen, Elspeth Gordie returns to Redport.

Podfic of Mirrored Flame by Dolorosa.

This post is getting incredibly long, so I think I'll stop here. I hope everyone's been having lovely weekends!

Comments

[shadaras]

Oh, thanks for reminding me about The Pomegranate Gate! I'd heard of it a while ago, and now it's out and I can put it on hold at the library. :) I'm glad you liked it, and I'm excited to read it myself!

[dolorosa_12]

It's very good! I hope you enjoy it.

[kore]

Aww, that's really sweet about you and your dad. (I personally think there hasn't been a good biography of Orwell yet -- most of them are really slanted.)

I've heard about Pomegranate Gate! It sounds really good.

I am so not looking forward to that prequel either. Hell, if they could de-age freaking Samuel Jackson, why not Charlize? Or tell the story of how the wives convinced her to smuggle them out (because you know that must have been really something). But really it doesn't need a prequel. It was a fantastic movie -- work of art really -- all on its own.

(Pettily, she KILLED Immortan Jerkface, and it was SO cathartic. Why do we have to see him again?)

[dolorosa_12]

My issue with the prequel is twofold. Firstly, I loved that Fury Road was about all kinds of women — not just young and beautiful women, and even Charlize Theron was grimy and middle-aged and physically disabled. Whereas making a prequel will by necessity mean making a film that's all about a young, beautiful woman. (I would have had the same issue if they'd deaged her.)

My main issue, though, is that Fury Road is like a myth, or a folktale — we don't see everything, and there are lots of little asides and mysteries that are never explained. (Places and people that the characters pass on their journey, what was going on with Max before he shows up in the film, how the whole set-up in the desert with the water reservoir happened, etc.) Even things that aren't really that mysterious (what was done to Furiosa to make her the kind of person she is, what was done to the five Wives to make them want to escape) aren't shown explicitly: we know without being told that they were subjected to physical and sexual violence, but we don't need to be shown in voyeuristic detail. I feel that a prequel, by its very nature, is going to want to demystify things that don't need to be explicitly spelt out. Fury Road was perfect at many things, and one of the things it did perfectly was tell a story about exploitation, misogyny, and acquisitive, violent abuse without explicitly saying that it was doing that, or showing these things directly. I remember it genuinely astonished me, that a story about those things could be done so well, by a white Australian baby boomer man!

Pettily, she KILLED Immortan Jerkface, and it was SO cathartic. Why do we have to see him again?

Well, technically we're not going to be able to see him again, in any case, since the actor who played him died last year! But I agree with your general point.

[yarnofariadne]

Ooh your icebreaker questions are great!

[dolorosa_12]

Thank you! They're the sort of things I'd always want to be asked myself, although I feel the second one is perhaps too personal to ask strangers.

[corvidology]

Snap! I worked for a circus as well.

Small... big top? ;D

[dolorosa_12]

Oh wow, what are the chances?

I worked for Cirque du Soleil, so pretty big in terms of circuses. It sounds quirky when I don't give any further details, but really I worked in their concession stand/bar, selling snacks and drinks during the interval. To this day I have a pavlovian response to a particular song in the Varekai score that produces a strong urge to clean a popcorn machine! It was a pretty corporate working environment, given the size of the organisation, but I enjoyed it well enough as far as these kinds of jobs go.

What was your circus job?

[corvidology]

Summer hols caring for animals, including the magnificent Tiny the elephant, still a soft squishy spot in my heart (she ended up at a zoo in Europe)

...my aunt had some interesting husbands.

I will say they were all treated exceptionally well vet checkups at all, and the 'domestic' animals like the dogs and horses were basically frolicking. Despite being very young and their good treatment, I learned from reading at the time that even dogs and horses were not that well treated at many circuses. Tiny motivated me to join an 'anti-animals in circuses' group at a very young age.


...If anyone wants to yell at me, I was 10/11.

[dolorosa_12]

Oh wow, that's amazing!

[kingstoken]

Thank you for spreading the word about our needy trees!

[dolorosa_12]

No worries! I hope the fest is able to open on time.

[skygiants]

I'm so glad you enjoyed Pomegranate Gate, I had such a blast with it! It kept unspooling more and more things that were specifically relevant to my interests. :D

[dolorosa_12]

It was such a good book, and I'm only sorry I now have to wait for a while to read the next one!

[lirazel]

Question about the Harper trilogy: would it work if I just read the first two books and then didn't bother with the third? Or is it an incomplete story that way? It's so hard to tell whether trilogy is really "this is one story split into three parts" or "this is three stories that are connected but you can really read any of them by themselves."

I am so excited about Pomegranate Gate!

I am charmed that you think this is an incredibly long post! People's perceptions of post length vary so widely!

[dolorosa_12]

The first book works fine as a standalone, but I feel that if you read the second, you need to read the third.

The Pomegranate Gate is excellent! I hope you like it.

I think the post feels long because of all the graphics, which stretch it out. I suppose it's not that long in terms of word count.

[lirazel]

In that case, maybe I'll just read the first one. Thanks for the info!

That makes sense! I was just laughing because I write looooooong posts sometimes!

[lynn82md]

That is great you finished three books already! The only Orwell book I read so far was 1984.

What did you do at the circus?

My favorite body of water? Anywhere I can swim safely

[dolorosa_12]

When I go into details about the circus job, it's less exciting — I worked on the concession stand at a Cirque du Soleil show, selling snacks and drinks during the intermission. It wasn't bad work, as far as these kinds of jobs go, though.

We had to read Nineteen Eighty-Four for school when I was a teenager, and until I was an adult, that was the only thing of his that I read, but during those months at my dad's I read most of his nonfiction (he was a journalist/book reviewer, and there are lots of collections of his reviews and essays), and several of his other novels.

[scintilla10]

The Pomegranate Gate sounds intriguing! Thanks for sharing your thoughts on it.

(it seems to be part of some kind of Obernewtyn challenge — I should contact the podficcer and see if there's an active fandom somewhere I don't know about) The podfic looks like it's part of voiceteam, which is a scavenger-hunt-style podfic challenge. (Apologies if you knew this part already - I only know about it through podficcer friends of mine, so I'm not sure if other people know about it. Possibly there's also a specifically Obernewtyn challenge as well!)

[dolorosa_12]

Ah, that makes sense about the podfic challenge — I hadn't heard of it, as podfic isn't really something that's generally on my radar, so I appreciate you explaining. I thought it might have something to do with Obernewytn because it was tagged as part of the 'Scrappy Band of Misfits' challenge, and Misfits are characters in the Obernewytn series, but having looked more closely it seems to be a multifandom thing.

I highly recommend The Pomegranate Gate.

[chestnut_pod]

I cannot wait for The Pomegranate Gate to finally come off hold for me. I think I will need to also refresh my Guy Gavriel Kay in the meantime, so I am in the right mood. There's also a semi-recent Lois Lowry book in the period which I remember reading and respecting a couple years ago; perhaps that should go in the mix too. Oh, and brush up my Benbassa again… a reading project takes shape!

[dolorosa_12]

This reading project sounds amazing!

[lokifan]

Oh, what a shame about that trilogy!

Those are great ice-breaker questions! And my favourite comfort food is realistically probably sour cream and onion Pringles, but Marmite on toast is what I most missed when I got ill in Vietnam; it's what my mum gave me when I was ill as a kid.

[dolorosa_12]

Yeah, it really was a sudden dip in quality, and a disappointing end to what had been shaping up to be one of my favourite series of books.

Vegemite on toast with a cup of black tea is one of my comfort foods, so I totally get what you're saying! It's like soothing home and childhood on a plate.