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carriagelamp · 2 months ago

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How is it that February felt so long, but March and April flew by? I didn't read as much as I would have liked this month because work was picking up and keeping me busy, but I found some very pleasant, comforting books which was exactly what I needed

The Essential Dykes to Watch Out For

Alison Bechdel is obviously a name I’ve known for years, and I’ve been aware of Dykes to Watch Out For as well since it’s something of a cornerstone for queer lit, but it’s not something I’ve ever sought out beyond the occasional panel passed around on Tumblr. I read Fun Home last month though, and in doing so I found out that my library also had the completed collection of comics so I finally checked it out!

Dykes to Watch Out For is a weekly “gag-a-day” comic strip that ran from the early 80s to the early 00s that follows the lives of lesbians/queer women who all move in similar circles (are generally part of the same friendship group, to varying degrees). It was an excellent read, because Bechdel is able to really capture how diverse queer women are. There are different personalities, body types, ethnicities, political beliefs, sexualities, ages, families… and through all these different types of character you get to see politics and society of the day critiqued in real time while still having things to laugh about. (And man I really did laugh a lot, I didn't realise how much I'd been missing gag-a-day style comics until this moment)

It was honestly one of the most self-affirming works I’ve read in… I don’t know, years. I honestly can’t say the last time I felt so *seen* in any one work before. There was something so wholly reassuring about reading it, and I highly recommend it to any queer person (or anyone who just enjoyed political satire newspaper comics). That being said, I did ’t find that I enjoyed the first two-thirds more than the last third… the last third got more into family, pregnancy, and divorce drama which isn’t really my thing. It also became… perhaps a bit more cynical and a little less optimistic? But it still had funny or insightful moments, and the first two-thirds were so outstanding that I didn’t regret reading it for a moment.

Everything Is Tuberculosis

Man, this seemed like the book that everyone was hyped for this year, so I decided to give it a try too — I was looking for a new nonfiction to read after all — but… nah. Could not get into it. After a bit I just gave up. I realise that I’m the anomaly here, I couldn’t even tell you why I didn’t hit for me… the narration? subject matter? not in the right headspace? the stars didn’t align? Who knows.

The Guy She Was Interest In Wasn’t A Guy At All v1

Another comic I’ve seen bandied about on tumblr for a while and finally decided to read — and it was delightful! The art style with its green accent colour was so enticing, it made it an absolute treat to read, and the story was adorable, I'm already excited to get my hands on book 2 (as if my brother, who finished reading this, looked at me, and informed me that I *would* be buying the next book) I love mistaken identity stories, and watching how the characters’ relationship grew both in school and at the record store was fun.

The comic follows Aya, a highschool girl who develops a crush on the cool guy working at the local CD store, where they connect over similar music tastes — tastes which Aya feels are not shared among her usual school friends and which she’s used to keeping very private. However she has no idea that the “cool guy” she has a crush on is in fact the shy female classmate in her class.

Home: A Memoir of My Early Years

A memoir of Julie Andrews' early life pre-Hollywood success. I got the audiobook of this to have something to listen to at bedtime, and it served its purpose admirably. I didn’t find it a terribly exciting read, the anecdotes somewhat rambling and not always very cohesive, but it was all interesting enough to keep me going and there was an undeniable comfort to it which really helped me unwind and drift off in the evenings — and hey, if nothing else I got to listen to Julie Andrews in my ear as I fell asleep every night which is a win! I may listen to the next volume the follows the Hollywood years after I finish one or two of my current audiobooks.

The Last of the Really Great Whangdoodles

A children’s librarian recommended this to me as one of her favourite children’s novels (and is the reason I went on to read Home, Julie Andrews connection!) and now having read it I completely agree with her! I actually had to immediately go out and by my own copy after reading it...

There was something terribly nostalgic about it despite my never having read it before, it makes you feel like you're seven years old again in the middle of the summer. The visual descriptions and pure whimsy of the book made it a treat to read, and it went at a leisurely pace that reminded me of classic children’s tales, like Alice in Wonderland or Phantom Tollbooth or Charlotte’s Web. While it had an adventure and surprises and some tension, it was never in a rush and never sacrificed its prose or childhood gentleness by rushing through the narration.

The story follows three children who meet a professor who claims that he knows how to enter a semi-imaginary world where the last of the really great Whangdoodles rules over a vast land of other strange, whimsical creatures. The children befriend the professor and work with him until all four of them are able to enter Whangdoodleland.

The Magic Fish

A beautifully made graphic novel that tells the story of teenaged boy Tiến through the framing device of fairy tales. The story explores his Vietnamese family learning English through shared stories and finding ways to connect to a new culture, one that Tiến is fully immersed in, without losing the culture they left, as well as Tiến’s sexuality and his struggles to find a way to come out to his parents. It's all interspersed with fairytales that highlight what the family is going through in their own ways and provide starting points of connection and communication. It was a lovely read.

Grandmaster of Demonic Cultvation (MDZS) v4

Continuing my reread of The Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation through the fan-audiobooks made by @redoftheturks. Book 4 was an especially nice one to revisit after the intensity of Book 3's backstory — and also because I’m pretty sure I read this one very quickly when I had it the first time around so it was nice to take it a bit slower this time around;;; I loved the return to the Burial Mounds and seeing the Juniors all jump up to defend Wei Wuxian when it was clear that he was being set up to take a fall, and the commentary on how fickle reputation and society's favour can be that comes about from it. Just an excellent bit of storytelling! Plus I love Jiang Cheng and all the angst related to that... everything, so can't help but love his return ( •̀ ᴗ •́ )

And as usual I can’t recommend this fan-audiobook enough! Redoftheturk’s handles it so well, the reading manages to make the dramatic moments in this book feel tense and stressful, and then can totally swing around and elevate the comedy bits in the next breath! Considering how much these books oscillate between between tones, it’s honestly impressive how seamlessly Redoftheturk’s reading is able to flow between them and never make it feel jarring. It’s all very natural and lots of fun. I’ve already started relistening to Book 5.

Three Bags Full

Probably my favourite book from this month? Three Bags Full is a murder mystery that takes place in Ireland and is about the death of a shepherd. He’s found in his own field with a spade through his chest. Obviously, this is of interest and concern to all the people from the local village (for quite a variety of reasons) but the chief investigators? His flock of sheep.

They’re appalled by the death of their shepherd (that’s wolf behaviour!) and they’re determined to figure out what happened (otherwise who knows who’s doing this, it’s like having a wolf in sheep’s clothing in your midst!). This author does a great job of portraying the sheep's viewpoint and how they both do and don’t relate to the world of humans. Each sheep has its own personality and its own strengths, and they work together as only a flock can in order to slowly unravel the secrets of the humans that surround them. Since things aren’t always straightforward to a pack of sheep, it means that as the reader you really do need to pay attention to the strange little details that come up and how they’re mentioned, because things that seem unfamiliar or unimportant to the sheep could end up being very relevant to a human trying to solve the mystery.

Highly recommend if you enjoy a “cosy” murder mystery. (Although if you've heard anyone try to distill this down to just a comedy, ignore them. It's definitely comedic at times, but there's way more happening in here that "just comedy", everything with Gabriel's flock? *chefs kiss*)

My Dress-Up Darling v11, 12, 13

I have to say, Books 11 and 12 were… fine. And I can’t say much beyond that. I read them, I liked them well enough, I don’t remember much about what happened in them. Book 13 though? Oh ho ho, now we’re talking. Gojo getting more and more obsessed with this story and character? Marin failing to understand what’s really going on with him? People seeing and really being blown away by both of their hard work? Them going accidentally viral? Oh my god, there are going to be so many fallouts from this volume and I cannot wait. How Gojo’s mental health doing? With he and Marin get back on the same page? Will Marin admit her feelings? What’s going to happen with people going insane over the cosplay???? Ah!!! (and also this was just such a pretty volume, the pictures of the new creepy angel cosplay were something else, I couldn’t look away!)

Doctor Who: The Resurrection Casket

Another Doctor Who novel, I will often grab one of these if I’m feeling a bit stressed or if I have a lot of driving to do, and I met both of those criteria recently — I drove down to the States for a weekend and holy shit guys, don’t think I’ll be doing that again in a hurry. It’s getting really unnerving to cross the border.

Anyway, this is one of the better Doctor Who novels I’ve read in a while. It was a sci-fi, space-faring retelling of Treasure Island with the 10th Doctor and Rose, and I think they did it quite well. I enjoyed the new characters they introduced and it never felt like they overshadowed the Doctor or companion, I liked trying to figure out all the reference (when I finally clued in to who Long John Silver was…), and the adventure was an enjoyable romp the whole way through with lots of creativity. As far as Doctor Who novels go, this is one I would recommend.

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pynkhues · 2 years ago

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So I know people tend to have lots and lots of opinion about dog pound but more often then not, I’ve seen a tendency for folks to give Roman’s recollection of the game (that dog pound was bulling/abusive/messed up in some way shape or form) the most weight…and this candidly baffles me for a bunch of reasons. I know the actor's opinions don't need to be given weight, but I see tons of weight given to actor interviews for Succession in other contexts and both Jeremy and Kieran (per an interview with Kieran around S3) signed on to the read that dog pound wasn’t traumatizing but was instead a rewritten memory because Roman generally felt like a victim and I tend to agree with that read. It also kind of fits in more with the dynamic we generally see Kendall and Roman have throughout the show and especially in Seasons 1-3. Add to this that Roman was around 4 when this took place if we're taking his word for it (making Kendall under 10 and Connor early 20’s-ish?) and again I’m wondering why his memory is given so much more weight than Connors. Do you have any view or thoughts as to why Roman is treated as the more reliable narrator when it comes to dog pound and more broadly how do you tend to think about the siblings various contradictory childhood memories?

It's an interesting one, isn't it?

I agree with you (and the actors, haha), that I think the dog pound wasn't traumatising or that it even really meant anything at the time they were playing it. It's just a children's game that took on a different meaning in their adulthood as Roman and Kendall's particular dynamic crystalised. I talked about it a little bit in this post about games on the show if you're interested in reading more about that in particular!

I do think the context of Roman bringing up the dog pound game when he did is also important and not talked about as much as it should be. After all, Kendall's kind of seen to have the more defined arc over these episodes between the failed coup, his relapse, then the upswing of him getting in bed with the enemy (Sandy and Stewy).

Roman though has a really complicated arc too - it's his inability to stand with Kendall which makes the coup fail, and his elevation as prized son in Austerlitz is undermined by what I tend to interpret as a mix of guilt and shame first over letting Kendall down and then over his relapse, which bleeds into a degree of protectiveness which we don't usually see from him, both in that episode and in the next (it's an underrated moment, but Roman offering to make everyone stop doing drugs at the party before they go in in 1.08 is very special to me).

But there's a shift then in 1.08 which is triggered by Stewy pretty blatantly cutting him out of something and folding Kendall back in. It's this teetering new power dynamic where any guilt he felt is swallowed up by the realisation he doesn't want to lose this new station as the dog at their father's side, and I think he uses this distorted memory from childhood to justify his anger and try to reinforce this position. Kendall thought Roman was the weak dog once, but he's not, Kendall is. Kendall's the one out, Kendall's the weird one, Kendall is, as Shiv aptly put it in 1.01, not emotionally strong and has addiction issues.

(Interestingly too, while it's not in the episode, in the 1.08 script it shows that Roman's there when Kendall realises their dad's sent Greg to keep an eye on him, and I think there's this interesting emphasis there in Roman realising Kendall needs a babysitter twice - himself in the last ep and Greg in this one - which for him reinforces Kendall as the 'weak' one.)

He weaponises a long past memory that he treats as an immovable truth to not just play victim, but I think as a yardstick to show how far he's come, and how far Kendall's fallen.

As for why Roman's treated as the more reliable narrator, I think there are a few reasons for it. In particular, I do think Kendall is the Known Liar of the show, haha. All the kids lie to varying degrees of course, but Kendall really lies in a way that I tend to think can feel more insidious, particularly as he lies in such a wildly broad spectrum - sometimes it's aching self-flagellation, sometimes it's mortifying self-aggrandisement, sometimes it's just straight up pathetic, and sometimes it's just the awkward vulnerability of trying to save face (particularly when he's relapsing).

We don't see Roman explicitly lie all that much on the show, at least not in the way many of the other characters do. In some ways he's actually the opposite to Kendall because Kendall tends to use lies as a means of defense or a way to hide while Roman absolutely and often weaponises a truth. Orrr at least I'd say that's what he would like to think of himself? I actually think Roman lies all the time, it's just less through actual lying like Kendall does, and more through undermining the truth or playing around in the grey of it. He likes to lean on a question and see what it does to the truth, like he knows that it's malleable and wants to see the shape it could take, and that's overall something I find super interesting about his character, and I think feeds into a distortion of truth / memory.

But back to your question about why people see Roman as the more reliable narrator of their shared past, yes, I think it's viewed through the prism of Kendall being the one more likely to lie, but I also think it's due to Roman's abuse being easier to understand and more textual than Kendall and Shiv's. We see him get hit, both Shiv and Kendall talk about Roman being hit, Roman jokes about it and diminishes it, and even in 3.09 blames Kendall and Shiv for it (I actually think there's such an interesting parallel there to Roman being abandoned with the waterpistols and the story of Shiv being abandoned with the chocolate milk in the car, but that's a whole other story, haha).

We get childhood stories from Roman more than any of his siblings, so he feels like the one who thinks about it the most. Is that true? I don't know, but I get why that would make people put more stock in his role as the narrator of it.

As for the contradictory childhood memories, I do think the show is interested in the subjectiveness of memory overall, and the way people influence the past and make history malleable, and I think that exploring that through the very specific context of a family like the Roy's, who have a loose relationship with the truth at the best of times, is a pretty remarkable way to do it.

#my nephews were playing puppy and person again last night while i was facetiming them and the 5yo licked my sister's phone screen lmao #the look on her face in the background was hilarious #i actually just wrote up a huge second part of this about trauma on childhood brain development in regards to the roy's but it was long #and kind of off topic #and also a bit science-y #so i took it out #but let me know if you'd like to read that too #i've just been working in that space again so it is f r e s h #haha #succession meta #kendall + roman #i'm also always interested of these little moments where roman actually is protective of kendall #and particularly how shiv weaponised it against him in living+#kendall roy #roman roy #hbo succession #welcome to my ama

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