Meme Friday
May. 30th, 2025 08:00 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
slippery_fish18) Do you use any tools, like worksheets or outlines?
Not really. I have Scrivener and I use its inbuild tools when I work on something longer (which I haven't done for a while). It's a great software. And I use some websites for editing like quillbot.
The rest of the questions are here.
Not really. I have Scrivener and I use its inbuild tools when I work on something longer (which I haven't done for a while). It's a great software. And I use some websites for editing like quillbot.
The rest of the questions are here.
llumdelluna
May. 30th, 2025 07:14 pmllumdelluna posting in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
addmeHello! I'm new in here, and it feels lonely for now. I'd love to start getting to know people, and grow my reading list.
Name: Laura
Age: 40s
I mostly post about: my daily life, things that happen (mostly ordinary and mundane), my thoughts, or my daily activities. I also love to post photos. I'm a psychologist, so I won't rant about work or share details about that for confidential reasons, but I might occasionally talk about my work in general, or things that concern me at the moment.
My hobbies are: outdoor activities (hiking, paddle surf), yoga and sports in general, scrapbooking, watching movies and TV shows, reading (especially graphic novels), playing videogames
My fandoms are: I'm not really active in fandoms right now, but I don't have any problem in adding you if you're into them, as long as that's not the only content of your journal
I'm looking to meet people who: basically I'm open to meet anybody who is willing to interact. I'm a very open minded person, I like to get to know people and know more about what their life is lilke. I love journals that talk about mundane things, I find comfort in daily life and routine.
My posting schedule tends to be: I guess I'm going to post several times per week. My journal is new and I haven't added friends yet, so I might post more when I add people.
When I add people, my dealbreakers are: racism, homophobia, and in general people who are mean to others.
Before adding me, you should know: my account is very new, so you won't see much content for now. Please, don't let that make you think I am not an active person or a person who is not going to post, is simply that I just joined DW and is all still a blank page for me (and this can be pretty scary). I used to be a huge poster on LJ years ago (I had an active account there for years), and I really miss to have a space where to share my thoughts and daily stuff, and also read about other people's life. I have accounts on other social medial sites, but none of them is giving me the kind of connection and safe space feeling that I find in places like this, so that's why I decided to go back to journaling.. I miss all the connections I made back then through LJ, and I'd like to find a place I can call home here in DW as well.
On a last note, I was polvodestrella in LJ. I don't have access to that account anymore, and I don't know if anybody from my flist back then in there is in here and reads this If this is the case, feel free to add me back, I'd love that
Name: Laura
Age: 40s
I mostly post about: my daily life, things that happen (mostly ordinary and mundane), my thoughts, or my daily activities. I also love to post photos. I'm a psychologist, so I won't rant about work or share details about that for confidential reasons, but I might occasionally talk about my work in general, or things that concern me at the moment.
My hobbies are: outdoor activities (hiking, paddle surf), yoga and sports in general, scrapbooking, watching movies and TV shows, reading (especially graphic novels), playing videogames
My fandoms are: I'm not really active in fandoms right now, but I don't have any problem in adding you if you're into them, as long as that's not the only content of your journal
I'm looking to meet people who: basically I'm open to meet anybody who is willing to interact. I'm a very open minded person, I like to get to know people and know more about what their life is lilke. I love journals that talk about mundane things, I find comfort in daily life and routine.
My posting schedule tends to be: I guess I'm going to post several times per week. My journal is new and I haven't added friends yet, so I might post more when I add people.
When I add people, my dealbreakers are: racism, homophobia, and in general people who are mean to others.
Before adding me, you should know: my account is very new, so you won't see much content for now. Please, don't let that make you think I am not an active person or a person who is not going to post, is simply that I just joined DW and is all still a blank page for me (and this can be pretty scary). I used to be a huge poster on LJ years ago (I had an active account there for years), and I really miss to have a space where to share my thoughts and daily stuff, and also read about other people's life. I have accounts on other social medial sites, but none of them is giving me the kind of connection and safe space feeling that I find in places like this, so that's why I decided to go back to journaling.. I miss all the connections I made back then through LJ, and I'd like to find a place I can call home here in DW as well.
On a last note, I was polvodestrella in LJ. I don't have access to that account anymore, and I don't know if anybody from my flist back then in there is in here and reads this If this is the case, feel free to add me back, I'd love that
Where the Axe Is Buried by Ray Nayler
May. 30th, 2025 01:23 pmlightreadsWhere the Axe Is Buried
4/5. A near future scifi thriller about the violently authoritarian surveillance state (it’s Russia) where the president is downloaded into successive bodies which the population steadfastly pretends not to notice, and the western european powers that have “rationalized,” i.e., installed AI prime ministers. A book about regime destabilization, and surveillance shadows, and thought control, and inception.
I was reading perfectly acceptable books, and then I picked this up and was like oh damn. Now this is good writing. This is tight (less than 100,000 words, probably) and intense and strange and bleak and hopeful. It stradles several genres and as such I suspect will not satisfy a lot of people: too literary and ambiguous for some, too much thriller for others. But this really landed for me.
Dense, chewy, controlled, beautifully written. Terribly sad on the costs of defying authoritarianism. Hopeful, in a complicated way.
Content notes: State violence Disappearances, camps, etc.
4/5. A near future scifi thriller about the violently authoritarian surveillance state (it’s Russia) where the president is downloaded into successive bodies which the population steadfastly pretends not to notice, and the western european powers that have “rationalized,” i.e., installed AI prime ministers. A book about regime destabilization, and surveillance shadows, and thought control, and inception.
I was reading perfectly acceptable books, and then I picked this up and was like oh damn. Now this is good writing. This is tight (less than 100,000 words, probably) and intense and strange and bleak and hopeful. It stradles several genres and as such I suspect will not satisfy a lot of people: too literary and ambiguous for some, too much thriller for others. But this really landed for me.
Dense, chewy, controlled, beautifully written. Terribly sad on the costs of defying authoritarianism. Hopeful, in a complicated way.
Content notes: State violence Disappearances, camps, etc.
Just to refresh your memory of Catcher in the Rye
Jun. 2nd, 2025 12:24 pmconulyat one point Holden sleeps over at a former teacher's house and wakes up to find that teacher patting his head, which prompts Holden to leave.
And I guess we can interpret that scene and the teacher's motive in a lot of ways, but I gotta say, I never expected one of those ways to be "Well, it's obviously innocuous, and the fact that Holden interpreted it as a sexual advance proves he's lying about the 20 times he claims he's been the victim of sexual assault already".
*********************
( Read more... )
And I guess we can interpret that scene and the teacher's motive in a lot of ways, but I gotta say, I never expected one of those ways to be "Well, it's obviously innocuous, and the fact that Holden interpreted it as a sexual advance proves he's lying about the 20 times he claims he's been the victim of sexual assault already".
( Read more... )
Justice League of America #246
May. 30th, 2025 05:22 pmiamrman posting in scans_dailyWriter: Gerry Conway
Pencils: Luke McDonnell
Inks: Bill Wray
The Justice League are evicted from their headquarters.
( Read more... )
OTW Signal, May 2025
May. 30th, 2025 03:03 pm![[syndicated profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/feed.png){kind=small}
otw_news_feedEvery month in OTW Signal, we take a look at stories that connect to the OTW’s mission and projects, including issues related to legal matters, technology, academia, fannish history and preservation issues of fandom, fan culture, and transformative works.
In the News
An article by Publishers Weekly notes how demographic changes in readership have influenced publishing houses to diversify the titles they publish. Female readers are at the forefront of this change.
Most top-selling manga titles, though classified as shonen manga, also boast huge female followings. Some are also the work of women, like the hit series Delicious in Dungeon by Ryoko Kui, translated by Taylor Engel (Yen). But girls’ manga is growing in popularity, especially subgenres exploring LGBTQ+ themes. And as the manga audience ages, following a decade-long boom in young adult readership (according to the Beat’s annual BookScan analysis, graphic novel sales reached an all-time peak in 2022, with tween-to-teen manga titles consistently among the top sellers), publishers report that female readers in particular seek out more mature and diverse subject matter.
This diversity is reflected in titles published under subgenres such as BL and GL. BL, short for Boys’ Love, is notable for having a particularly high readership retention rate, prompting publishers to explore a variety of themes. Some of these themes, such as omegaverse, trace their origins to fanfiction.
GL, short for Girls’ Love, draws a much more varied demographic – the article notes that the genre boasts a mixture of male, female, straight and queer fans and creators. A 2020 essay exploring the genre’s readership demographic attests that “yuri is made for a diverse audience by an equally varied group of creators.” Studies, such as Verena Maser’s 2013 survey of Japanese yuri readership found that the gender and sexuality of GL audiences was vastly varied. A 2017 survey by Zeria, aptly titled Yuri isn’t Made for Men, studied the international audience and found that a majority of GL fans are women, who do not identify as heterosexual.
Themes too are pushing the boundaries of what defines a work as manga or literary graphic novel. Female creators are at the helm of this change, creating mature, personal stories that reflect the desire for manga that feels relatable and represents the diversity of its growing audience.
My Friend Kim Jong Un (Feb. 2026), a graphic memoir manhwa by Keum Suk Gendry-Kim, also translated by Janet Hong, describes life with another level of bad neighbor: Gendry-Kim lives on a small island within sight of North Korea.
…
With such mature topics, Hurren finds, there’s also more crossover with audiences that don’t usually read manga. The titles “belong with our other literary graphic novels. We’re reaching out to manga-specific press, but it’s not a manga-specific trade campaign.”
This evolving landscape of manga readership is not just a trend but a reflection of deeper cultural changes towards a more diverse and inclusive literary future.
Parallel to the rise of female manga readership is the increasing popularity of Chinese web literature in Japan. A recent article by The Star noted that platforms like WebNovel, under China’s Yuewen Group, have seen significant growth, with a 180% surge in Japanese users in 2024 alone. This expansion is not just in readership but also in cultural exchange. Japanese creators and fans are actively engaging with Chinese web novels, translating works, and even co-developing new intellectual properties.
One such example is the Chinese web novel Apocalyptic Forecast, a fantasy fiction that deals with the supernatural and secret societies. Japanese screenwriter and director Hikaru Takeuchi became an avid fan of the novel, translating over 200 chapters into Japanese and sharing them with friends. Her efforts highlight the deep cultural resonance and potential for cross-cultural collaboration such stories hold in the literary world.
When the novel ended, Takeuchi felt compelled to write a letter to its author, Feng Yue. The cross-border fan mail became a symbolic bridge between cultures. In a recent interview, she expressed her hope of introducing more Japanese readers to the rich and emotional world of Chinese web literature.
The success of Chinese web novels like The King’s Avatar and Dragon Raja further illustrates this trend. The King’s Avatar has been downloaded over 30 million times in Japanese, and its anime adaptation has been screened in multiple countries, including Japan. These works are not just gaining popularity, but are also influencing Japanese creators, leading to a blending of cultural elements and shared narratives that appeal to a global audience.
OTW Tips
Ever thought about dipping your toes into editing on Fanlore but weren’t sure how to jump in? 2025’s Monthly Editing Challenges are the perfect place to start! Each month has a new editing task to encourage users to step out of their editing comfort zones. Completion of a month’s challenge can earn you shiny badges for your User page, and who doesn’t love a little digital flair for their efforts?
Not sure how editing on Fanlore works? Check out Fanlore’s Guide to Editing Pages, and if you’re new, create an account to get started!
We want your suggestions for the next OTW Signal post! If you know of an essay, video, article, podcast, or news story you think we should know about, send us a link. We are looking for content in all languages! Submitting a link doesn’t guarantee that it will be included in an OTW post, and inclusion of a link doesn’t mean that it is endorsed by the OTW.
Murderbot Is Glitching in “Escape Velocity”
May. 30th, 2025 02:00 pmreactor_feedMurderbot Is Glitching in “Escape Velocity”
Have you ever imagined what Murderbot would look like if it were to appear in*Sanctuary Moon? Well…
Published on May 30, 2025
Image: Apple TV+
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<p class="syndicationauthor">Posted by Stefan Raets</p><p class="ljsyndicationlink"><a href="https://reactormag.com/tv-review-murderbot-episode-4/">https://reactormag.com/tv-review-murderbot-episode-4/</a></p><p class="ljsyndicationlink"><a href="https://reactormag.com/?p=815043">https://reactormag.com/?p=815043</a></p><post-hero class="wp-block-post-hero js-post-hero post-hero post-hero-horizontal">
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<h2 class="post-hero-title text-h1"><i>Murderbot</i> Is Glitching in “Escape Velocity”</h2>
<div class="prose post-hero-description prose--post-hero">Have you ever imagined what Murderbot would look like if it were to appear in*Sanctuary Moon? Well…</div>
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<p class="post-hero-author text-xs font-aktiv uppercase font-medium [&_a]:link-hover">By <a href="https://reactormag.com/author/alex-brown/" title="Posts by Alex Brown" class="author url fn" rel="author">Alex Brown</a></p>
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Published on May 30, 2025
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<div class="post-hero-caption post-hero-caption-vertical [&_a]:link"><p>Image: Apple TV+</p>
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<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="740" height="377" src="https://reactormag.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/murderbot-ep4-1-740x377.png" class="w-full object-cover" alt="Screencap from Murderbot S1E4" srcset="https://reactormag.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/murderbot-ep4-1-740x377.png 740w, https://reactormag.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/murderbot-ep4-1-1100x561.png 1100w, https://reactormag.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/murderbot-ep4-1-768x392.png 768w, https://reactormag.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/murderbot-ep4-1-1536x783.png 1536w, https://reactormag.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/murderbot-ep4-1-2048x1044.png 2048w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 740px) 100vw, 740px" /> </figure>
<div class="post-hero-caption post-hero-caption-horizontal [&_a]:link"><p>Image: Apple TV+</p>
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<p>Best episode yet! I was breathless through the entire 22 minutes. The <em>Rise and Fall of Sanctuary Moon</em> part? I literally squealed with glee. My only complaint is that it’s too damn short. I need a whole episode of Murderbot self-inserting into <em>Sanctuary Moon</em> fanfic.</p>
<p><strong>Spoilers ahoy.</strong></p>
<hr class="wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity is-style-dots" />
<p>The episode opens with a flashback to Security Unit 238776431 being built at the Threshold Pass Fabrication Center in the Corporation Rim. We see how SecUnits are made, which is in this charmingly antiquated fashion. The Company indentures people into their factories and they apparently make all the parts by hand and then piece the constructs together. I guess when you have an endless supply of free labor, there’s no reason to automate anything. There are thousands, potentially millions of people with decades of indenture to work off. Might as well let them build SecUnit arms one at a time. Seeing all the glitches and protocol breaks, it’s a surprise more SecUnits haven’t gone rogue.</p>
<p>If anything, this whole episode is one big glitch. Murderbot survived the attack by the blue SecUnit, but only barely. It comes to being dragged through the DeltFall habitat. Due to injuries sustained in the fight in the previous episode, its memory is dumping <em>The Rise and Fall of Sanctuary Moon</em> episodes into its consciousness. This leads to my favorite scene thus far: Murderbot acting like it’s in the show. It’s what finally sold me on Alexander Skarsgård as Murderbot. I’ve more or less enjoyed his take on the character thus far, but this right here, was perfection. The sheer, unadulterated joy he expresses as <em>Sanctuary Moon</em>!Murderbot, with its glorious bouffant of a wig and its garish yellow jumpsuit, is just delightful. And recasting Mensah as the Captain! And her hair! I am obsessed. Truly obsessed. Whoever came up with the idea for that scene deserves a special Emmy just for them.</p>
<p>Pin-Lee, Ratthi, and Arada are back at the ship, having been ditched by Mensah. She decides to rescue SecUnit, against the wishes of the rest of her crew. Poor Murderbot gets downloaded with malware through a combat override module, then can’t remember it was infected, but it still knows something is wrong. Mensah kills the blue SecUnit with a mining drill, then drags the glitching Murderbot out of the habitat. But hold on, that evil blue SecUnit isn’t actually dead! (This is some real soap opera plot twisting and, as someone raised on a steady diet of <em>All My Children</em> and <em>One Life to Live</em>, I’m hella into it.) Ratthi tries to be the hero and fails spectacularly by getting knocked out by the recoil of his energy blaster. The honor of permanently and totally killing the blue SecUnit goes to Arada and Pin-Lee who quash it like a bug with the hopper landing gear. It sounds intense, but the script once again expertly balances darkness and levity. </p>
<p>Murderbot isn’t in the clear, though. It now knows it’s going to kill the humans thanks to the malware the evil blue SecUnit installed on it. We’ve seen Murderbot fantasizing about killing the humans or abandoning them and running off on its own. We’ve seen Murderbot freak out about interacting with humans and wanting to be left alone. Now it has the chance to get everything it claims it’s been wanting. But instead of letting itself kill everyone, it sacrifices itself. It spares the humans by shooting itself in the gut. Oh yeah, our little killing machine is a living, breathing (wait, does it breathe?), caring companion, whether it likes it or not.</p>
<figure class="wp-block-image aligncenter size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="1100" height="555" src="https://reactormag.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/murderbot-ep4-2-1100x555.png" alt="Screencap from Murderbot S1E4" class="wp-image-815046" srcset="https://reactormag.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/murderbot-ep4-2-1100x555.png 1100w, https://reactormag.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/murderbot-ep4-2-740x373.png 740w, https://reactormag.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/murderbot-ep4-2-768x388.png 768w, https://reactormag.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/murderbot-ep4-2.png 1500w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 1100px) 100vw, 1100px" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Image: Apple TV+</figcaption></figure>
<p>One of the things I think a lot about in terms of AI is how so often people most excited about it talk about the tech as if it were a slave at the mercy of their every whim. All these ads talking about an AI app like it’s a personal assistant, all these tech bros talking about how they’re going to make a computer who can take care of their children and do all their thinking for them, all these weirdos eagerly anticipating everyone getting their own sexbot. What they want is a sentient construct without the ability to refuse. They want something that is basically a human but one they have an excuse not to care about. </p>
<p>The Murderbot Diaries were written well before the generative AI snake oil hysteria, but Martha Wells explores similar themes. The humans fabricating Security Units are trapped in an exploitative labor system, but unlike Security Units, they’re only indentured. The only thing they’re more powerful than are constructs. They don’t see constructs as potential allies in the fight to overthrow the Corporate Rim. They see them as machines, as things that can only do what they’re told. They delight in forcing a Security Unit to hold its hand out while they burn it, or fabricate shoddy equipment because the constructs themselves don’t matter. Until they do. Obviously generative AI and AI aren’t sentient (no matter what venture capitalists, overpaid consultants, and news magazine op-ed writers will have you believe), but the desire to lord over others and to boss around something that can’t say no is just under the surface of a lot of the hype.</p>
<p>On a less heady topic, it is so nice to have a normal, middle aged woman be a hero for once. Mensah isn’t a buff bad-ass, a strategic genius, or a decisive leader. She’s a scientist in a leadership role that requires of her more than she ever thought she would have to give. She has panic attacks and cares deeply about her team, even the ones who don’t want to be part of it. She takes on the blue SecUnit not because she thinks she can fight it—we just saw Murderbot lose to it twice in direct hand-to-hand combat—but because she couldn’t live with herself if she left behind one of her own. She doesn’t see Murderbot as a human or a robot but as something in between, and she doesn’t even know it hacked its governor module. She thinks it’s a normal SecUnit, a little glitchy perhaps, possibly even a corporate spy, but still normal. It’s pretty remarkable. Murderbot doesn’t know how lucky it was that Mensah picked it for this mission. Noma Dumezweni is perfectly cast as Mensah. She plays her with just the right amount of frustrated mom energy.</p>
<p>Sabrina Wu and Akshay Khanna go all out in this episode as Pin-Lee and Ratthi. Wu plays Pin-Lee with such gusto. They’re erratic and high-strung, then dip down into this mischievous calmness. Ratthi constantly stumbles into toxic masculinity then immediately backs out again with a litany of apologies, and Khanna does an excellent job keeping him on this side of charming instead of being obnoxious, insincere, or obsequious. In the previous episode, Pin-Lee accused Ratthi of auto grinding to get a high score in the videogame KillJoyBloodLustTechRiot, and after his performance in this ep, yeah, I believe it. The character development on the show is so much deeper than in the novella, for obvious reasons. I’m really enjoying the choices the actors are making with these characters. They feel like they fit the medium of a television adaptation while also honoring the vibes of the books. </p>
<p>This is the episode where I decided I loved this show. It’s been fun so far, but this was top tier. Fingers crossed we ride this high through the rest of the season.</p>
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<figure class="wp-block-image aligncenter size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="1100" height="551" src="https://reactormag.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/murderbot-ep4-3-1100x551.png" alt="Screencap from Murderbot S1E4" class="wp-image-815045" srcset="https://reactormag.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/murderbot-ep4-3-1100x551.png 1100w, https://reactormag.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/murderbot-ep4-3-740x370.png 740w, https://reactormag.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/murderbot-ep4-3-768x385.png 768w, https://reactormag.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/murderbot-ep4-3.png 1500w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 1100px) 100vw, 1100px" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Image: Apple TV+</figcaption></figure>
<p><strong>Final Thoughts</strong></p>
<ul class="wp-block-list">
<li>Episode 4 covers the last half of chapter 4 in <em>All Systems Red</em>.</li>
</ul>
<ul class="wp-block-list">
<li>Who is Donna Komparzits and what is in the classified blue room that she needs to report to?</li>
</ul>
<ul class="wp-block-list">
<li>So, do we think the reason Murderbot was able to hack its governor module was because of a glitch in its fabrication? If so, are other SecUnits also trying to hack their governor modules? Is the going rogue all the time thing just a joke or…</li>
</ul>
<ul class="wp-block-list">
<li>The names of the actors on <em>Sanctuary Moon </em>are absolutely incredible. It was hard to tell on the distorted screen, but I think these are the names (correct me in the comments if I get someone wrong): Captain Hossein is played by ElonieJef Chem, Navigation Officer Hardööp-Sklanch is played by Breiller MocJac, Lieutenant Kulleroo is played by Arletty, NavBot 337 Alt 66 is played by Pordron Bretney III Roche, and a “subcontracted actor” Kon Rennell plays Colony Solicitor Vagus.</li>
</ul>
<ul class="wp-block-list">
<li>Director Toa Fraser and Director of Photography Daniel Grant are back at it with more fantastic shots. Especially loved the rotating shot of Murderbot on the ground after falling off the table. And how they have the camera glide at unusual angles to demonstrate Murderbot’s disorientation. </li>
</ul>
<ul class="wp-block-list">
<li>Murderbot singing the theme song to <em>Sanctuary Moon </em>was so silly, and I mean that as a compliment. </li>
</ul>
<ul class="wp-block-list">
<li>It’s so interesting that Murderbot casts itself not as a construct like the NavBot but as one of the human crew. Despite insisting both last episode and this that it absolutely was not part of any crew.</li>
</ul>
<p><strong>Quotes</strong></p>
<figure class="wp-block-pullquote has-text-align-left"><blockquote><p>“Yeah, take some pride in your work. You wouldn’t wanna fuck up and produce a chronically anxious, depressed Murderbot.” How very Marvin the Paranoid Android.</p></blockquote></figure>
<figure class="wp-block-pullquote has-text-align-left"><blockquote><p>“Humans. On some level, they must know how weird they are.” </p></blockquote></figure>
<figure class="wp-block-pullquote has-text-align-left"><blockquote><p>“You don’t mean that. It is a very cool rule.” </p></blockquote></figure>
<figure class="wp-block-pullquote has-text-align-left"><blockquote><p>Pin-Lee: “You’re being very macho, it’s disgusting.” Ratthi: “You’re both wonderful people. I mean that.”</p></blockquote></figure>
<p>[end-mark]</p>
<p>The post <a href="https://reactormag.com/tv-review-murderbot-episode-4/"><i>Murderbot</i> Is Glitching in “Escape Velocity”</a> appeared first on <a href="https://reactormag.com">Reactor</a>.</p><p class="ljsyndicationlink"><a href="https://reactormag.com/tv-review-murderbot-episode-4/">https://reactormag.com/tv-review-murderbot-episode-4/</a></p><p class="ljsyndicationlink"><a href="https://reactormag.com/?p=815043">https://reactormag.com/?p=815043</a></p>
Book Review: Butter
May. 30th, 2025 11:08 amosprey_archerRecently littlerhymes reviewed Asako Yuzuki’s Butter, “a novel of food and murder,” to quote the cover. “Food AND murder?” I said. “Two of my favorite things in one book?” AND the book was translated by Polly Barton, who translated Aoko Matsuda’s Where the Wild Ladies Are, which absolutely clinched the deal.
This book is fantastic. It is a novel of food and murder, but also about the impossible demands of femininity, fat-shaming, the extent to which it is possible to be responsible for another person, the difficulty of truly embracing your own desires (starting with the surprisingly difficult task of figuring out what you even want), the brutal hours demanded by Japanese companies, the meaning of friendship, and also what the heck is UP with Manako Kajii.
Manako Kajii is in prison, convicted of murdering three men. The evidence is entirely circumstantial: she was dating all three men, having met them through a website for people looking for marriage, except instead of marrying them she got them to give her loads of cash in exchange for gourmet meals and, one presumes, sex. Unfortunately for her, three of her boyfriends died in quick succession, and although there’s no evidence she pushed one off the railway platform or snuck the other that lethal overdose of sleeping pills, people are so mad about her lifestyle that she’s convicted of the murders anyway.
They’re especially mad because Kajii managed all this while being (by Japanese standards) FAT. The siren who lured three men to their deaths is not even pretty. This terrifies everyone: men because they shudder over the humiliation of potentially being murdered by a girl who is not even a perfect 10, and women because this only strengthens their belief that what men really want is not an equal partner but a mommy-wife who feeds them, cleans up after them, and coos over their boring rants about work.
Although the book may sound like a murder mystery from the summary, it’s notably uninteresting in actual evidence about Kajii’s supposed killings. The details I mentioned above we learn almost incidentally, and our heroine Rika, a magazine reporter working on a profile of Kajii, makes no attempt to follow them up. Her interest is in the mystery of Kajii herself: what makes her tick?
In trying to figure out Kajii, Rika reads Kajii’s food blog (a lush wonderland of luxury brands and fancy restaurants), interviews Kajii, begins to learn to cook herself, falls in love with food and flavor and maybe also a little bit with Kajii, or at least what Kajii represents to her, which is the willingness to embrace one’s own desires, whether that means eating what one wants to eat or (in Kajii’s case) giving up on “employment” to be supported as essentially the mistress of a variety of rich old men.
The problem, as Rika repeatedly discovers, is that like Kajii’s old men, what Rika sees in Kajii is what she’s projecting onto Kajii. They saw her as a sweet traditional girl who just wants to please men; Rika sees her as an avatar of chasing your own desires, even if those desires are socially disruptive. Kajii herself is both those things, as well as an outspoken misogynist who longs for a daughter, a daddy’s girl who never went back to her hometown after she left at eighteen, a walking contradiction who revels in manipulation but also, perhaps, longs for the connection that has thus far eluded her.
Or maybe not. Maybe Rika is projecting that longing for connection onto a basically heartless sociopath. Yuzuki maintains all these tensions, juggling all these different facets of Kajii without ever simplifying her to one single Kajii.
This is a very Kajii-centric review, because it was Kajii who most blew me away, but I also loved Rika and her friendship with Reiko, both for their own sake and because they allow Yuzuki to develop her themes about societal expectations about femininity in so many directions that the theme becomes almost fractal. Here is a writer who has a lot to say and is saying all of it at the same time in a way that’s so engrossing that I barely resisted the desire to take a sick day just to keep reading.
And she does it all AND includes some great food descriptions, too. I was so carried away by her enthusiasm that I actually tried Kajii’s recipe for rice with butter. It didn’t have the same transformative effect on me that it had on Rika, but maybe if I used the very fancy butter that Kajii recommended…
littlerhymes reviewed Asako Yuzuki’s Butter, “a novel of food and murder,” to quote the cover. “Food AND murder?” I said. “Two of my favorite things in one book?” AND the book was translated by Polly Barton, who translated Aoko Matsuda’s Where the Wild Ladies Are, which absolutely clinched the deal. This book is fantastic. It is a novel of food and murder, but also about the impossible demands of femininity, fat-shaming, the extent to which it is possible to be responsible for another person, the difficulty of truly embracing your own desires (starting with the surprisingly difficult task of figuring out what you even want), the brutal hours demanded by Japanese companies, the meaning of friendship, and also what the heck is UP with Manako Kajii.
Manako Kajii is in prison, convicted of murdering three men. The evidence is entirely circumstantial: she was dating all three men, having met them through a website for people looking for marriage, except instead of marrying them she got them to give her loads of cash in exchange for gourmet meals and, one presumes, sex. Unfortunately for her, three of her boyfriends died in quick succession, and although there’s no evidence she pushed one off the railway platform or snuck the other that lethal overdose of sleeping pills, people are so mad about her lifestyle that she’s convicted of the murders anyway.
They’re especially mad because Kajii managed all this while being (by Japanese standards) FAT. The siren who lured three men to their deaths is not even pretty. This terrifies everyone: men because they shudder over the humiliation of potentially being murdered by a girl who is not even a perfect 10, and women because this only strengthens their belief that what men really want is not an equal partner but a mommy-wife who feeds them, cleans up after them, and coos over their boring rants about work.
Although the book may sound like a murder mystery from the summary, it’s notably uninteresting in actual evidence about Kajii’s supposed killings. The details I mentioned above we learn almost incidentally, and our heroine Rika, a magazine reporter working on a profile of Kajii, makes no attempt to follow them up. Her interest is in the mystery of Kajii herself: what makes her tick?
In trying to figure out Kajii, Rika reads Kajii’s food blog (a lush wonderland of luxury brands and fancy restaurants), interviews Kajii, begins to learn to cook herself, falls in love with food and flavor and maybe also a little bit with Kajii, or at least what Kajii represents to her, which is the willingness to embrace one’s own desires, whether that means eating what one wants to eat or (in Kajii’s case) giving up on “employment” to be supported as essentially the mistress of a variety of rich old men.
The problem, as Rika repeatedly discovers, is that like Kajii’s old men, what Rika sees in Kajii is what she’s projecting onto Kajii. They saw her as a sweet traditional girl who just wants to please men; Rika sees her as an avatar of chasing your own desires, even if those desires are socially disruptive. Kajii herself is both those things, as well as an outspoken misogynist who longs for a daughter, a daddy’s girl who never went back to her hometown after she left at eighteen, a walking contradiction who revels in manipulation but also, perhaps, longs for the connection that has thus far eluded her.
Or maybe not. Maybe Rika is projecting that longing for connection onto a basically heartless sociopath. Yuzuki maintains all these tensions, juggling all these different facets of Kajii without ever simplifying her to one single Kajii.
This is a very Kajii-centric review, because it was Kajii who most blew me away, but I also loved Rika and her friendship with Reiko, both for their own sake and because they allow Yuzuki to develop her themes about societal expectations about femininity in so many directions that the theme becomes almost fractal. Here is a writer who has a lot to say and is saying all of it at the same time in a way that’s so engrossing that I barely resisted the desire to take a sick day just to keep reading.
And she does it all AND includes some great food descriptions, too. I was so carried away by her enthusiasm that I actually tried Kajii’s recipe for rice with butter. It didn’t have the same transformative effect on me that it had on Rika, but maybe if I used the very fancy butter that Kajii recommended…
Fortune Wheel 02.25: Weekly Reminder 3
May. 30th, 2025 04:54 pmprisca posting in fandom_empireIt's Friday, and about two days to go until week three is over. Posting for this week officially ends Sunday, June 1 17.00 UTC. There is a grace period until the week is finally called 'close'.
We have 9 regular participants so far; and 7 participants in the team challenge. Feel free to check the score lists. The total score and the teams will be counted on Sunday. If you find a mistake or you have any questions, don't hesitate to leave a comment here.
You can earn 15 regular weekly points + some extra points when using the lucky color.
You can use a wildcard at any time, to grab any prompt from your promptlist. The connected color prompt won't change!
You can post two fills for the team challenge. Even if you haven't signed up, you can participate as a joker to support a team. Joker fills can't earn any individual points!
We have 9 regular participants so far; and 7 participants in the team challenge. Feel free to check the score lists. The total score and the teams will be counted on Sunday. If you find a mistake or you have any questions, don't hesitate to leave a comment here.
You can earn 15 regular weekly points + some extra points when using the lucky color.
You can use a wildcard at any time, to grab any prompt from your promptlist. The connected color prompt won't change!
You can post two fills for the team challenge. Even if you haven't signed up, you can participate as a joker to support a team. Joker fills can't earn any individual points!
barmy
May. 30th, 2025 07:10 amprettygoodwordbarmy (BAHR-mee) - adj., containing or covered with barm, the foam that forms on malt liquors while fermenting; bubbling with activity or excitement; (chiefly UK) crazy, odd, strange, foolish.
The first senses are easy to deal with: it goes back to Old English beorma, both the head/forth on a beer and the yeast that ferments it, from a Germanic root, exact PIE source unclear. That last, though, is much debated -- most authorities hold that it's either a non-rhotic-speaker's respelling of balmy in its sense of crazy/odd/foolish or a respelling influenced by barmy in the frothy sense, but some that it's an alteration of St. Bartholomew, one ward of the Hospital of St. Mary of Bethlehem, which last word also gave us bedlam (and Green's Dictionary of Slang notes that there was an asylum in Barming, Kent). So, like, 🤷🏼
---L.
The first senses are easy to deal with: it goes back to Old English beorma, both the head/forth on a beer and the yeast that ferments it, from a Germanic root, exact PIE source unclear. That last, though, is much debated -- most authorities hold that it's either a non-rhotic-speaker's respelling of balmy in its sense of crazy/odd/foolish or a respelling influenced by barmy in the frothy sense, but some that it's an alteration of St. Bartholomew, one ward of the Hospital of St. Mary of Bethlehem, which last word also gave us bedlam (and Green's Dictionary of Slang notes that there was an asylum in Barming, Kent). So, like, 🤷🏼
---L.
(no subject)
May. 30th, 2025 10:09 pmfred_mouseI've not been posting, because life has been exhausting. Some paperwork, some attempting to get the house under control with a different deadline than previous, some house-guest G, visiting from Canberra. They arrived Tuesday. Wednesday they had sorted to go out with a friend, and I spent much of the afternoon scanning SwanCon history stuff. Thursday we went to the Shipwrecks Museum and talked about what I know of Fremantle history; had a very mediocre lunch at a cafe that wasn't as good as I remembered from a couple of years ago; failed to go to the library; and went and watched Thunderbolts (I have opinions, but I haven't attempted to articulate them much). Today, we did a potted tour of the hills, going up Crystal Brook Road, stopping at the lookout at the junction of that and Welshpool Road; lunch at the Kalamunda Dome; G learning that gum nut babies (of May Gibbs fame) are actually based on real gum nuts and that May Gibbs is claimed as a local; a detour to the car park at Lesmurdie Falls and discovering that the path is short but too many stairs for G to see the Falls; wandering out to Mundaring Weir; taking a random set of roads that seem like home to me and meant that we could see the cut of the ZigZag down the hill; not doing a stack of things that would have been good due to limited time and energy. And then a small dinner party where we half arsed a range of things, but the food was tasty and the friends were fabulous.
and having written that out, I don't have the oomph to edit into more coherent and less run on sentences.
I'm criminally boggled
May. 30th, 2025 02:44 pmoursinWelsh farmer pleads guilty to stealing more than 70 sheep from neighbour.
The term 'rustled' is invoked: 'At least 73 ewes in lamb were rustled in March'.
Alas, this does not sound at all like the Old West of the movies of my youth:
[He] told the court he had acted because of financial pressure but understood his actions were “unacceptable”, BBC Wales reported. Williams added that he “deeply” regretted stealing the sheep and “feels ashamed”.
This is downright weird, though, coming over as somewhere between performance art and participant observation??? Or maybe more like anthropologists who 'go native' if they spend too long in the field, this is a sad warning of what happens to criminology lecturers?
Woman who calls herself ‘UK’s poshest thief’ fined for stealing Le Creuset cookware:
A former criminology lecturer who calls herself the “UK’s poshest thief” has been fined for stealing more than £1,000-worth of Le Creuset cookware, steaks, wine and gin.
Pauline Al Said and her husband, Mark Wheatcroft, have been fined £2,500 between them after the thefts from a garden centre and a branch of Marks & Spencer.
....
Representing themselves, the couple, from Southsea in Hampshire, told Portsmouth crown court their actions were on the “lower end”.
Personally, I think 'stealing your Le Creuset cookware' is in the same area of tackiness as, what was it, 'people who bought their furniture', or was it silverware?
I also think it is tacky to call yourself 'UK's poshest thief' and a pretty sure sign that you are a very long way from being the C21st equivalent of Raffles the Amateur Cracksman.