regshoe | Reading

In War and Peace, I've read through Book Three and the unglamorous shambles of the battle of Austerlitz, and one theme that's stuck out to me is the sort of... grim bureaucracy(?) of war: the Russian-Austrian war council adopts a battle strategy that many of them know won't work, more or less because they want get out of this meeting and it's basically already in place/too late to change their approach; the commanders actually in the field are mostly worried about not being the person blamed for anything going wrong:

Not wishing to agree to Dolgorukov's demand to commence the action, and wishing to avert responsibility from himself, Prince Bagration proposed to Dolgorukov to send to inquire of the commander in chief. Bagration knew that as the distance between the two flanks was more than six miles, even if the messenger were not killed (which he very likely would be), and found the commander in chief (which would be very difficult), he would not be able to get back before evening.

The selected messenger ends up being Nikolai Rostov, who does not die (despite, among other incidents, finding himself directly in the path of a unit of hussars charging at full gallop, because of course he did) but does fumble the chance to meet his idol Emperor Alexander: "But as a youth in love trembles, is unnerved, and dares not utter the thoughts he has dreamed of for nights," he's too shy to approach him even though he literally has an excuse to do so?? On the other hand, Prince Andrei is personally taken prisoner by his hero, Napoleon, although at that point he's kind of over it, having had an ongoing near-death experience and an accompanying revelation about "the insignificance of greatness."

I ended up skipping ahead in Damon Runyon's Guys and Dolls and Other Writings to read "The Idyll of Miss Sarah Brown" (1933), which was the main basis for the musical Guys & Dolls— it turns out that in the original story, there's no bet over whether gambler Sky Masterson can convince "missionary doll" Sarah Brown to join him on a day trip to Havana; he just falls for her on sight, tries to woo her by winning a guy's soul in a craps game to build up her mission, and then she catches on and comes marching in to gamble for his soul, which really ought to have made it into the musical but I've decided is how they make up off-stage between "Marry the Man Today" and the finale. (On the other hand, Sky's father's warning about not taking a bet from guys who "show you a nice brand-new deck of cards on which the seal is never broken" and "offer to bet you that the jack of spades will jump out of this deck and squirt cider in your ear," because "as sure as you do you are going to get an ear full of cider," is wholesale Runyon.) I agree with

osprey_archer that someone really ought to write a crossover between Runyon's dim-witted gangsters and P.G. Wodehouse's dim-witted toffs, especially because the last few (as read in order) stories have in fact involved befriending random civilians: in one, a trio of American gangsters are hired to assassinate the king of a small European country, only to discover that the king is about six and really keen on Al Capone and baseball; in another, a group of tough guys running a ticket-scalping racket (maybe more surprised than I should have been to discover this was a thing since at least the 1930s??) adopt a nice little doll who got stood up at the Harvard vs. Yale football game, and learn to love the epic highs and lows of college football in the process.

Current Music: Rocks In My Pockets - The Mountain Goats

isis

I'm finally feeling mostly human after being down with a cold for about a week; serves me right for being a judge at the regional science fair and exposing myself to all those middle school germ factories. Well, I read a lot, anyway.

Shroud by Adrien Tchaikovsky - first-contact with a very alien alien species on the tidally-locked moon of a gas giant. Earth is (FRTDNEATJ*) uninhabitable, humans have diaspora'ed in spaceships under the iron rule of corporations who cynically consider only a person's value to the bottom line, and the Special Projects team of the Garveneer is evaluating what resources can be extracted from the moon nicknamed "Shroud" when disaster (of course) strikes. The middle 3/5 of the book is a bizarre roadtrip through a strange frozen hell, as an engineer and an administrator (both women) must navigate their escape pod to a place where they might be able to call for rescue.

When I'd just started this book I said that it reminded me of Alien Clay, and it really does have a lot in common with that book, especially since they are both expressions of Tchaikovsky's One Weird Theme, i.e. "How can we see Other as Person?" He hits the same beats as he does in that and other books that are expressions of that theme (for example, the exploratory overture that is interpreted as hostility, the completely different methods of accomplishing the same task) but if it's the sort of thing you like, you will like this sort of thing. It also reminded me a bit of Dragon's Egg by Robert L. Forward, in the sense that it starts with an environment which is the opposite of anything humans would expect to find life on, and reasons out from physics and chemistry what life might be like in that environment. Finally, it (weirdly) reminded me of Summer in Orcus by T. Kingfisher, because the narrator, Juna Ceelander, feels that she's the worst possible person for the job (of survival, in this case); the engineer has a perfect skill-set for repairing the pod and interpreting the data they receive, but she's an administrator, she can do everyone's job a little, even if she can't do anybody's job as well as they can. But it turns out that it's important that she can do everyone's job a little; and it's also important that she can talk to the engineer, and stroke her ego when she's despairing, and not mind taking the blame for something she didn't do if it helps the engineer stay on task, and that's very Summer.

I enjoyed this book quite a lot!

[*] for reasons that don't need exploring at this juncture

How I Killed Pluto and Why It Had It Coming by Mike Brown is what took me through most of the worst of my cold, as it's an easy-to-read micro-history-slash-memoir, which is one of my favorite nonfiction genres. Brown is the astronomer who discovered a number of objects in the Kuiper Belt, planetoids roughly the size of Pluto, which led to the inevitable question: are these all planets, too? If so, the solar system would have twelve or fifteen or more planets. If not - Pluto, as one of these objects, should not be considered a planet.

I really enjoyed the tour through the history of human discovery and conception of the solar system, and the development of astronomy in the late 20th and early 21st centuries. He manages to outline the important aspects of esoteric technical issues without getting bogged down in detail, so it's very accessible to non-scientists. Interwoven in this was his own story, the story of his career in astronomy but also his marriage and the birth of his daughter. It's an engaging, chatty book, and one must forgive him for side-stepping the central question of "so what the heck is a planet, anyway?"

Don't Stop the Carnival by Herman Wouk, which B had read a while back when he was on a Herman Wouk kick. I'd read Winds of War and War and Remembrance, and Marjorie Morningstar, but that was it, and I remembered he had said it reminded him a lot of our time in the Bahamas and Caribbean when we were living on our boat.

The best thing about this book is Wouk's sharp, funny writing - his paragraphs are things of beauty, his characters drawn crisply with description that always seems novel. The story itself is one disaster after another, as Norman Paperman, Broadway publicist, discovers that running a resort in paradise is, actually, hell. It's funny, but the kind of funny that you want to read peeking through your fingers, because you just feel so bad for the poor characters.

On the other hand, this book was published in 1965, and it shows. I don't think the racist, sexist, antisemitic, pro-colonization attitudes expressed by the various characters are Wouk's - he's Jewish, for one thing, and he's mostly making a point about these characters, and these attitudes. The homophobia, I'm not sure. But the book's steeped in -ism and -phobia, and I cringed a lot.

I enjoyed this book (for some value of "enjoy") right up until near the end, where a sudden shift in tone ruined everything.

Don't Stop the Spoilers

Two characters die unexpectedly; a minor character, and then a more major character, and everything goes from zany slapstick disasters ameliorated at the last minute to a somber reckoning in the ashes of last night's party. In this light, the ending feels jarring: the resort's problems are solved, the future looks rosy, and Norman realizes he is not cut out for life in Paradise and, selling the resort to another sucker, returns to the icy New York winter.

Reflecting on it, I think this ending is a better ending than the glib alternative of the resort's problems are solved, the future looks rosy, and Norman raises a glass and looks forward to dealing with whatever Paradise throws at him in the future. But because everything has gone somber, it feels not like he's learned a lesson and acknowledged reality, but that he's had his face rubbed in horror and decided he can't cope. If he'd celebrated his success and then ruefully stepped away, it would be an act of strength, but he runs back home, defeated, and all his experience along the way seems pointless.

Generation Loss by Elizabeth Hand - I got this book in a fantasy book Humble Bundle, so I was expecting fantasy, which this is very much not. It's a psychological thriller, following the first-person narrator Cass Neary, a fucked-up, drugged-out, briefly brilliant photographer who has been sent by an old acquaintance to interview a reclusive photographer - one of Cass's heroes - on a Maine island.

I kept reading because the narrative voice is fabulous and incredibly seductive, even though the character is a terrible person who does terrible things in between slugs of Jack Daniels and gulps of stolen uppers. It feels very immersive, both in the sense of being immersed in the world of the novel's events and in the sense of being immersed in the perspective of a messed-up photographer. But overall it's not really the sort of book I typically read, and it's not something I'd recommend unless you're into this type of book.

stonepicnicking_okapi

( 1-14 )

aurumcalendula

Title: One Woman Army
Fandom: Multifandom
Music: One Woman Army by Porcelain Black
Summary: 'I'm a one woman army'
Notes: Premiered at TGIFemslash 2026!
Warnings: quick cuts, flashing lights, violence

( streaming )

AO3 | bsky | tumblr | YouTube

( Additional Notes )

( sources )

cahn

Educational meme from

thistleingrey (also seen at a couple of other places under lock). I've answered for both my sister and myself (generally similar answers, sometimes not), as well as for my kids. (Will eventually lock.)
( Cut for length )

stonepicnicking_okapi

Today is the boys' father's birthday so I made today's prompt 'marriage' but the only thing I can think of is this. I can't say I watched it regularly but it was definitely part of popular TV culture in the US for about a decade.

Watch on YouTube

oracne

I have learned to purl! I got several rows into "stockinette," alternating garter stitch and purling, until my loops were too tight and I had to start over.

I shall be practicing more!

Go me!

oursin

Charity secures 1000 acres for Wales’ largest rewilding project:

The charity’s approach will include introducing hardy cattle and Welsh mountain ponies to the land, with ancient breeds of pigs to follow. Their grazing and roaming will support habitat restoration.
Peatland rewetting and natural water retention across the site over the next five to ten years means the project will contribute to increased biodiversity, cleaner water, healthier soils, improved carbon storage and reduced flood risk for downstream farmland.
It is hoped these actions will create conditions to boost various species, with the potential for red squirrels, pine martens, polecats, curlews and hen harriers to return.
The charity also aims for much of the work to be carried out by local tradespeople. Community participation will also help uncover and share stories of those who lived and worked across the site’s 55 historic stone landmarks, from Bronze Age cairns to traditional upland buildings.

***

Not sure if this can at all be mapped onto Cranford (based on Knutsford): Knutsford's Booths Hall granted special building status:

The house was built in 1745 for Peter Legh after he married heiress, Anne Wade.
The building was extended in 1845 by his grandson, Peter and remodelled in 1858 into an Italianate style by Edward Habershon for John Legh, a nephew of Mr Legh.
In 1917, the Legh family auctioned the hall and estate.
....
Historic England says it was listed for ‘demonstrating fine craftsmanship in the brickwork and stone detailing’ of each phase.
Special features include the unusual and well-preserved first floor conservatory with a curved glass roof.
The good survival of interior features and decoration from all three building phases using high quality materials and a high degree of craftsmanship.

***

Another kind of heritage: Green’s Dictionary of Slang: Five hundred years of the vulgar tongue, including the invaluable Timelines of Slang.

***

Smutwalk: Mapping Nineteenth-Century Obscenity - though actually, not all of the physical places are still there. Still. I think one might manage a tribute to Pornographers of Ye Olde Tymes stroll.

***

Queer love and friendship: 1920s Fitzroy Square:

In 1927, Bobby and his queer working-class friends gathered in his Fitzroy Square flat. Though surveillance documents, we can learn about these vibrant gatherings, the people involved and the passionate, intimate letters that survive. These records offer a rare insight into queer lives of the time.

***

How Not To Do Heritage, we feel (guy has quite rightly been getting crapped on on social media): History professor finds huge Iron Age hoard: 'The collection will be auctioned at Noonans in Mayfair on 4 March as part of a coins and historical medals, external sale.'. Observe the guy's creepy smirk in the photo.

osprey_archer

Recently,

littlerhymes sent me the Guardian’s poll for Australia’s Best Picture Books. As I am nothing if not suggestible, at least where picture books are concerned, of course I couldn’t help reading a few.

Magic Beach, written and illustrated by Alison Lester, which alternates scenes of children playing at the beach with their corresponding imaginary adventures: they build a sandcastle, then imagine charging across the moat to defeat a fiery dragon, etc. The style of the illustrations doesn’t particularly appeal to me, but the conceit is charming, and I did like the kid who has a hat brim that looks like the inside of a watermelon. I’d love to have that hat too.

Possum Magic, by Mem Fox, illustrated by Julie Vivas. Possibly THE most Australian experience of my life, up to and including the time I actually visited Australia. A magic possum and her granddaughter tour the major cities of Australia, eating classic Australian foods like Vegemite sandwiches and lamingtons along the way.

Where the Forest Meets the Sea, written and illustrated by Jeannie Baker. A story about a boy and his father boating over for a picnic on the beach of the Daintree rainforest in Queensland, with absolutely gorgeous collage illustrations. Thrilling to look at and also thrilling to try to figure out what materials Baker used to construct the images.

Edward the Emu, by Sheena Knowles, illustrated by Rod Clement. I picked this one because of the cover, which features a grumpy emu lying flat on the ground. Who among us has not felt like that some days? Edward the emu is tired of being an emu, so he pops over to visit the seals, the lions, the snakes, etc., until he overhears someone saying that the emu is their favorite exhibit in the zoo. Well well WELL. That puts being an emu in a new light!

Who Sank the Boat?, written and illustrated by Pamela Allen. Recommended by

littlerhymes as a childhood favorite, and I could absolutely see a child requesting this story over and over and over and over and over and squealing with glee at the ending every time. (A most unexpected character sinks the boat.) Might lend this one to my mother to read to my niece.

A delightful exploration! I wish to continue my meander through classic Australian children’s books. Any recommendations?

3sfmod posting in

threesentenceficathon

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luzula

Still not reading much, but I did read some books during the past two months!

The Incandescent by Emily Tesh (2025)
Listened to the audiobook for my book club. This is the first book in a while that grabbed me in a page-turney way, and I enjoyed it a lot! I'm sure it can be picked at, and we did so during book club, but for me it was mostly notable in being a book I was immersed in while reading, which for me these days is rare.

The Sleeping Soldier by Aster Glenn Gray (2023)
When I first started reading this, my feeling was that "yeah, I read a lot of posts on the author's DW about this book, and I guess the book is exactly what I was expecting it to be". Like, in a way I felt as though I didn't even have to read the book. But this feeling passed when I got into the particulars of the characters and their relationships so that they felt real to me, so that it wasn't just about the Idea of the book any longer, and then I thoroughly enjoyed it. (The Idea of the book being, if you haven't heard of the book before, the contrast between what was allowable in male friendships in 1860 and 1960.)

I also listened to about half of The West Passage by Jared Pechaček (2024), also for book club. I feel like the book had a lot of Gormenghast DNA, and I enjoyed the weird worldbuiling, but I didn't end up finishing it.

crantz posting in

once_upon_fic

First of all, we're okay! But after discussion, Morbane and I have decided that we'll be putting Once Upon on hiatus for this year, with intention to return in 2027.

Thankfully we have ten years of archives of this exchange for you to get your fix while we get back on track! As well, the 2025 collection remains open for late prompt filling.

And now is a great time to read fairytale collections! Right now I'm personally working my way through the Penguin translation of 1001 Arabian Nights and hoping to dig into "The Turnip Princess and Other Newly Discovered Fairy Tales".

passingbuzzards

Finally watched the latest Mission: Impossible last night, and while I can’t rate it as highly as my favorites, for that ( final [SPOILER] STUNT SEQUENCE I am prepared to forgive this movie ANY AND ALL SINS, the last 30 minutes were SO good (+ various other thoughts) )

Anyway, tl;dr, god I fucking love action movies, thank you Tom Cruise for your service. This movie may not have hit the emotional or cinematographic highs of some of the others but my god I CANNOT WAIT to watch the BTS!!!

flowing_river posting in

yuletide

Event: Traumatic Experiences
Event Link:

traumaticexperiences
Pinch Hit Link: Current Pinch Hit Post
Due Date: March 1st at 8PM PST

traumaticexperiences is a (psychological) trauma themed multifandom exchange. We have 1 returning pinch hit and 7 previously unclaimed pinch hits! You must write a fanfiction that is a minimum of 1000 words and include a requested fandom, relationship or solo character, and freeform in your fill. The collection will not reveal until everyone who requested 3 unique fandoms has received a gift that meets the minimum assignment requirements.

Assignment Requirements

PH 2 - Dredge (Video Game), Trigun (Anime & Manga 1995-2008), 間の楔 | Ai no Kusabi (Anime)

PH 6 - Given (Anime), 呪術廻戦 | Jujutsu Kaisen (Anime), Wind Breaker (Anime), Outlast (Video Games)

PH 7 - Four Assassins (2011), RoboCop (Movies 1987-1993), Half-Life (Video Games), Crossing Jordan (TV 2001)

~~PH 8 - The Defenders (Marvel TV), Charmed (TV 1998)~~

PH 17 - NoPixel (Web Series), 仙王的日常生活 | The Daily Life of the Immortal King (Cartoon), 文豪ストレイドッグス | Bungou Stray Dogs, Undertale (Video Game)

PH 18 - 你却爱着一个傻逼 - 水千丞 | In Love with an Idiot - Shui Qian Cheng, 火焰戎装 - 水千丞 | Huǒ Yàn Róng Zhuāng - Shuǐ Qiān Chéng, 职业替身 - 水千丞 | Professional Body Double - Shuǐ Qiān Chéng, 小白杨 - 水千丞 | My Little Poplar - Shuǐ Qiān Chéng, 时光代理人 | Link Click (Cartoon), 老婆孩子热炕头 - 水千丞 | Lǎo Pó Hái Zi Rè Kàng Tou - Shuǐ Qiān Chéng, 附加遗产 - 水千丞 | Fù Jiā Yí Chǎn - Shuǐ Qiān Chéng, 人渣反派自救系统 - 墨香铜臭 | The Scum Villain's Self-Saving System - Mòxiāng Tóngxiù, 谁把谁当真 - 水千丞 | Shéi Bǎ Shéi Dàng Zhēn - Shuǐ Qiān Chéng, Crossover Fandom

PH 19 - Winx Club, My Little Pony Generation 4: Equestria Girls (Cartoon 2013), My Little Pony Generation 4: Friendship Is Magic (Cartoon 2010), SK8 the Infinity (Anime)

PH 20 - Star Trek: Voyager, Star Trek: Picard, Star Trek: Firewall (Book)

For more details/to claim, view the pinch hit post.

skygiants

I never got around to writing up Anne McCaffrey's The Mark of Merlin when I read it last year, but I've been thinking about McCaffrey a lot recently due to blitzing through the Dragons Made Me Did It Pern podcast (highly recommended btw) and

osprey_archer asked for a post on my last-year-end round-up so now seems as good a time as any.

The important thing to know about The Mark of Merlin is that -- unlike many of the things I've read recently! -- it is not, in any way, the least little bit, Arthuriana. They are not in Great Britain. There are no thematic Arthurian connections. There is absolutely zero hint of anything magical. So why Merlin? Well, Merlin is the name of the heroine's dog, and he's a very good boy, so that's all that really needs to be said about that.

Anyway, this is McCaffrey writing in classic romantic suspense mode a la Mary Stewart or Barbara Michaels, and honestly it's a pretty fun time! Our Heroine Carla's father Tragically Died in the War, so he asked his second-in-command to be her guardian and now she's en route to stay with Major Laird in his isolated house in Cape Cod. Tragically scarred and war-traumatized Major Laird has no Gothic-trope concerns about this because Carla's full name is Carlysle and her dad accidentally forgot to tell him that the child in question was a daughter and not a son; Carla is fully aware of the mixup and but has not chosen to enlighten him because she thinks it's extremely funny to pop out at Major Laird like "ha ha! You THOUGHT I was a hapless youth and wrote me a patronizing letter about it, but INSTEAD I am a beautiful and plucky young co-ed so joke's on you!"

There is an actual suspense plot; the suspense plot is that Someone is hunting Carla for reasons of secret information her dad passed on in his luggage before he died, and also his death was under Mysterious Circumstances, and so we have to figure out what's going on with all of that and eventually have a big confrontation in the remote Cape Cod house. But mostly the book is just Carla and the Major being snowed in, romantically bickering, huddling for warmth, cooking delicious meals over the old Cape Cod stove, etc. etc. Cozy in the classic sense, very little substance but excellent for reading in a vacation cottage while drinking tea and eating a cheese toastie.

As a sidenote, I did not know until I started listening to Dragons Made Me Do It that McCaffrey's Dragonflight preceded The Flame and the Flower, the book that's credited as being the first bodice-ripper romance novel and launching the genre of historical romance as we know it today, by a good four years. It's interesting to place this very classic romantic suspense novel -- which was published almost a decade after Dragonflight, but, at least according to this Harvard student newspaper article I turned up, at least partially written in 1950 -- against the full tropetastic dubcon-at-best dragonsex Pern situations, which clearly belong to a later moment. And speaking of later moments, it's also a bit of a mindfuck for me to think very hard about McCaffrey's place in genre history and realize how very early she is. I was reading McCaffrey in the nineties, against Lackey and Bujold. Reading her in conversation with Russ and LeGuin is a whole different experience.

But this is all a tangent and not very much to do with The Mark of Merlin, a perfectly fun perfectly fine book, very short on the wtf moments that have characterized most of my experiences with McCaffrey, and if anything comes late to its moment rather than early.

sovay

I have not slept in two nights as opposed to brief random hours elsewhere on the clock, but the sunlight this afternoon was gorgeous.

( I'm a little hungover and I may have to steal your soul. )

Like just about the rest of this weekend, any plans I had to attend even part of this year's sci-fi marathon at the Somerville did not survive contact with my stamina. Hestia has now broken four slats out of my blinds for a better view on Bird Theater and having tired herself out chattering at their delicious players sleeps innocently against my mermaid lamp, softly and a little snufflily breathing out a purr.

Current Music: Houndmouth, "Sedona"

sanguinity

candyheartsex has revealed, and I have received a delightful gift!

In Which Laurent Rises to the Occasion
The Wounded Name -- D. K. Broster
Laurent/Aymar, Amyar/Avoye
Canon divergence, Pre-Poly

Aymar despairs of clearing his name and leaves France, leaving only a letter behind.

Laurent is so delightfully himself, burning with passion for all the things! For Aymar! To clear Aymar's name! To tenderly care for him! And also to straighten out this mess where Aymar is determined to throw himself on his sword for Avoye's sake, without first consulting with Avoye about whether she even wants that! (If there is one thing that Laurent has learned from his association with Aymar, it is the frustration of having a lover throw himself on his sword for you without asking first! NOT THAT THIS FLEETINGLY CRITICAL THOUGHT MEANS HE LOVES AYMAR ANY THE LESS!!!!!!!)

I have strong suspicions as to who wrote the story (*casts a meaningfgul glance in

luzula's direction*), especially given the central theme that maybe you should ask your girlfriend what she wants before making a grand life-altering gesture in her name. (A genre of story that

luzula excels at!) But I shall refrain from offering official thanks until after reveals. (But please know I enjoyed it very much!)

oursin

This week's bread: a v nice loaf of Dove's Farm Seedhouse Flour.

Saturday breakfast rolls: the ones loosely based on James Beard's mother's raisin bread, Marriage's Light Spelt flour.

Today's lunch: tempeh marinated in oil, tamari, maple syrup, pomegranate vinegar with some crushed garlic and ginger paste for a couple of hours (?overnight might have been better?), stirfried with chillies, mangetout peas and choi sum, and the marinade added at the end, served with sticky rice with limeleaves.

jsamn_fic_exchange posting in

jsamn_ficexchange

Hello and a belated Happy New Year! We're hoping to run the exchange again this year and plan to open nominations soon.

We're running a poll to measure interest in repeating the exchange, and also maybe adding in new formats for gifts (such as art). Please fill in our anonymous form here if you think you might like to take part!

Please feel free to drop any questions in the comments below.

dolorosa_12

This weekend has been calm, relaxing, and wintry. Yesterday's skies were clear and blue, and it was a real pleasure to walk out to the gym for my two hours of classes, watched through the windows by myriad cats as they observed me make my way through the freezing air. After lunch, Matthias and I assembled the growhouse we bought for germinating this year's vegetables. All things being equal, I'm hoping to start with tomatoes, cucumbers, radishes, and some herbs by the end of the month.

In the evening, we went out for a meal at this place — a former stately home that's now a boutique hotel and events venue, just slightly out of town near the village of Stuntney. It's not reachable by public transport, and the last time we ate there we got taxis back and forth, but this time around we decided to try walking. It's not the most picturesque walk: you walk along a paved footpath next to a main road for about half the trip, then you have the option of continuing along the main road with no footpath (i.e. walking on the verge), or going slightly out of the way into Stuntney village, walking the length of the village and then rejoining the main road when the village ends. We went with the latter (the idea of walking along the verge of a main road in the dark did not appeal), and the whole thing took just under an hour. It was definitely a good way to work up an appetite! It was lovely to sit in the bar next to an open fire, drinking champagne, before moving into the restaurant for the meal, which was fairly solid gastropub-type food, in a conservatory with views back across the fens to the cathedral, and a woman singing covers of various pop songs. The whole experience was so warming and cosy.

It was meant to start raining and snowing at 1am, but in actual fact this only really arrived in the light of the morning — drenching me when I ducked out to the bakery to pick up pastries for breakfast. We had deliberately planned to spend the whole of Sunday indoors, and the advent first of heavy rain, and then of snow, confirmed the wisdom of this decision! The snow was intense: fat flakes that danced through the air, and settled all over the trees, roofs, and ground. It lasted for a couple of hours, although it's all well on the way to melting now, and turning to slush. While it lasted, it was a beautiful backdrop to some slow yoga, watching the Olympics, and lots of reading.

You may recall that a few weeks back, I was asking for recommendations of fairytale/mythology/folktale retellings, and this week is when I've made proper efforts to start with some of the books you recommended. This somehow worked out as being two very different Eros/Cupid and Psyche retellings: The Sharpest Thorn (Victoria Audley) and Till We Have Faces (C.S. Lewis), both doing very different things with the myth, both doing them well.

( Cut for some (positive) remarks on The Sharpest Thorn, as I know the author here on Dreamwidth and this gives the choice whether to read my remarks or not )

As for the Lewis, I went into this with some trepidation that I'd tried to overcome due to my general trust in the taste of the people who'd recommended it. I last read Lewis more than twenty years ago, when I was assigned That Hideous Strength to read for a university class during my undergrad degree, and felt the book's misogyny with an almost physical force. It remains one of only two books that made me so angry that I literally hurled them at the wall, and I had determined then to never, ever read another C.S. Lewis book again.

I genuinely cannot reconcile the writing of women (from a woman's first-person perspective, even) in Till We Have Faces with the seething, misogynistic contempt of That Hideous Strength. It's almost as if the books are written by two entirely different people. This retelling tells the story of Cupid and Psyche from the point of view of one of Psyche's sisters (who, in the original versions of the tale, out of jealousy of their sister's material circumstances, convince her to break her divine husband's taboo on viewing him, sparking Psyche's exile, misery, and ill-treatment), and what it's really concerned with is the gulf between the human and the divine, and how the former are only able to perceive the latter dimly, through darkness. I'm not doing it full justice with that description — really, it's something that has to be read to experience fully — but I'm just in awe, really. It's one of the few works of fiction that really conveys the yawning gulf between mortal and immortal ways of being, seeing, and experiencing existence. Per Lewis, ordinary human beings are for the most part so incapable of understanding the divine that they fill in this chasm with darkness, with symbols, with metaphor, and with monstrosity. What an incredible book (although I couldn't help rolling my eyes indulgently at the whole Golden Bough of it all — oh mid-twentieth-century authors with interest in comparative religion, never change).

In the time since I've started this post, the snow has now melted fully, and that silvery snowlit quality in the sky has been replaced by soggy grey. The afternoon is, I suppose, somewhat running away from me. This cosy conclusion to the weekend, however, holds nothing more complicated than some slow-cooking Iranian food for dinner, cups of smoky tea, and a fire in the wood-burning stove. It's been a good two days all around.