The Blue Flower, Penelope Fitzgerald
Dec. 21st, 2025 10:51 pmSometimes, what one really wants is a short book, which is why last month I reread Penelope Fitzgerald's The Blue Flower for the first time in a very long time. I think I appreciated it more. Reading it is like walking along a wood-panelled corridor in a rather shabby house, passing door after door and peeping through the keyhole at each upon a brilliantly-lit scene that shows for a moment a glimpse of a place and of the inhabitants' lives.
Fritz/Friedrich von Hardenberg/the philosopher and poet Novalis, at the age of 22 meets and falls in love with Sophie von Kühn, who is twelve. Fitzgerald knows better than to waste time on telling her readers that she is well aware this is inappropriate, to put it mildly. The reader knows that this is ludicrous. Sophie is twelve on her first appearance, not well educated, not particularly inteligent. She loves her family, and she likes beer, smoking her pipe, and watching the Hussars fall over on the frozen river. Fancying oneself in love with her is the end result of a concept of woman as the child of nature, and the way in which incredibly well-educated men look at the intelligent, interesting, sensible, grown up women around them, and enjoy their company, value them, depend upon them, and yet fail to see them as actual human beings. Sophie herself may be tragic, the romance is not.
For Sophie is not only a random 12 year old inspiring a poet philosopher, but dying of tuberculosis, which pervades the novel as much as the country's damp pervades its buildings. Undeniable in the case of Sophie as a black patch on the wall, but lurking also hidden in the plaster, in everybody's lungs*. Sophie is a fool, but she is a child, it's excusable, and as a child she faces her illness with both the lack of understanding and courage required for three surgeries without anaesthesia. Fritz and his brother Erasmus are fools, and it is not excusable. They are equipped with everything they could need to be both Romantic and rational men, yet they are not. "Take some fucking responsibility!" I want to cry to almost every man in the book. The women have to (up to the age it can be handed on to a daughter not yet worn out with child-bearing), you could, too. Recognise, philosopher, that you could have a conversation about Goethe's works with a woman who has read them. But Goethe, too, only comes to see Sophie.
Fitzgerald's first novel was published in her late 50s, she was nearly 80 when this was published. There's hope for us all!
*Since the novel was written, it has been suggested that Friedrich and his siblings may not have succumbed to TB, but to cystic fibrosis.
Fritz/Friedrich von Hardenberg/the philosopher and poet Novalis, at the age of 22 meets and falls in love with Sophie von Kühn, who is twelve. Fitzgerald knows better than to waste time on telling her readers that she is well aware this is inappropriate, to put it mildly. The reader knows that this is ludicrous. Sophie is twelve on her first appearance, not well educated, not particularly inteligent. She loves her family, and she likes beer, smoking her pipe, and watching the Hussars fall over on the frozen river. Fancying oneself in love with her is the end result of a concept of woman as the child of nature, and the way in which incredibly well-educated men look at the intelligent, interesting, sensible, grown up women around them, and enjoy their company, value them, depend upon them, and yet fail to see them as actual human beings. Sophie herself may be tragic, the romance is not.
For Sophie is not only a random 12 year old inspiring a poet philosopher, but dying of tuberculosis, which pervades the novel as much as the country's damp pervades its buildings. Undeniable in the case of Sophie as a black patch on the wall, but lurking also hidden in the plaster, in everybody's lungs*. Sophie is a fool, but she is a child, it's excusable, and as a child she faces her illness with both the lack of understanding and courage required for three surgeries without anaesthesia. Fritz and his brother Erasmus are fools, and it is not excusable. They are equipped with everything they could need to be both Romantic and rational men, yet they are not. "Take some fucking responsibility!" I want to cry to almost every man in the book. The women have to (up to the age it can be handed on to a daughter not yet worn out with child-bearing), you could, too. Recognise, philosopher, that you could have a conversation about Goethe's works with a woman who has read them. But Goethe, too, only comes to see Sophie.
Fitzgerald's first novel was published in her late 50s, she was nearly 80 when this was published. There's hope for us all!
*Since the novel was written, it has been suggested that Friedrich and his siblings may not have succumbed to TB, but to cystic fibrosis.
Thoughts on contemplating the charity shop
Dec. 4th, 2025 11:09 amBeige is a practical summer work cardi colour. It doesn't suit you and you never wear it.
These trousers are lovely. Their shape is perfect for you and suits you really well, the wool fabric is in perfect condition. But you got them 18 years ago, they were a Hobbs sample in a smaller size, and it is hardly surprising they are too small. They should go. But you need to mend the lining first. Or cut it out? Because you will never have time to mend it.
These trousers are likewise a great style and shape for you. But you bought them on Ebay knowing they were a size too large and planning to take them in. You could send them back. But you won't.
You made this great vintage style dress. It was snug then, when you had just had norovirus, because fitting it was a nightmare. Also, you can't sing in choirs at the moment anyway. You can let it serve someone else in winter party and concert season. Please. You can.
Why on earth did you buy all three volumes of Captive Prince on fandom osmosis before reading the first and discovering that fandom osmosis lied to you and these are not books of Nirvana in Fire court scheming? You do not have to read the second and third, you will not learn valuable things about writing from them. You also can drop them somewhere you don't do Gift Aid so you don't have to be embarrassed by the pro published slavefic.
You've never liked this blouse, much as you want to. It needs ironing. Do that!
Thank goodness, this jumper has no complicated feelings attached.
These trousers are lovely. Their shape is perfect for you and suits you really well, the wool fabric is in perfect condition. But you got them 18 years ago, they were a Hobbs sample in a smaller size, and it is hardly surprising they are too small. They should go. But you need to mend the lining first. Or cut it out? Because you will never have time to mend it.
These trousers are likewise a great style and shape for you. But you bought them on Ebay knowing they were a size too large and planning to take them in. You could send them back. But you won't.
You made this great vintage style dress. It was snug then, when you had just had norovirus, because fitting it was a nightmare. Also, you can't sing in choirs at the moment anyway. You can let it serve someone else in winter party and concert season. Please. You can.
Why on earth did you buy all three volumes of Captive Prince on fandom osmosis before reading the first and discovering that fandom osmosis lied to you and these are not books of Nirvana in Fire court scheming? You do not have to read the second and third, you will not learn valuable things about writing from them. You also can drop them somewhere you don't do Gift Aid so you don't have to be embarrassed by the pro published slavefic.
You've never liked this blouse, much as you want to. It needs ironing. Do that!
Thank goodness, this jumper has no complicated feelings attached.
I've got such a wonderful pear
Nov. 9th, 2025 09:32 amIt's been a fabulous season for pears. I assume that this is to do with the weather (drought-stressed trees giving their all for fruit?), but week after week even the most average bag from the supermarket has delivered fragrant, juicy pears that ripen and then do not immediately rot. I had some gorgeous Comice pears from the market last week that were enormous.
Anyway, I can't find the link that I had wanted to give and which the post title references* - all knowledge not contained on the internet shock! - so have the Eddie Izzard sketch.
*It was a music hall(?) song from the days in which there were "comediennes", sung by a woman who was probably not Joyce Grenfell, in which she declaims at length how she has such a wonderful pair of eyes. They don't make 'em like that any more...
Anyway, I can't find the link that I had wanted to give and which the post title references* - all knowledge not contained on the internet shock! - so have the Eddie Izzard sketch.
*It was a music hall(?) song from the days in which there were "comediennes", sung by a woman who was probably not Joyce Grenfell, in which she declaims at length how she has such a wonderful pair of eyes. They don't make 'em like that any more...
Adventures in Disney+
Nov. 2nd, 2025 03:38 pmI subscribed to Disney+ in the summer for a £1.99 per month (with adverts) offer for a simple reason. I wanted to watch Rivals, and I wanted to watch Shogun. At the end of the offer I succumbed to continuing a few months more for £3.49 per month to finish series 1 of Only Murders in the Building, and watch a few films I hadn't managed. It's been entertaining, but Disney definitely doesn't make enough of interest to keep me going beyond this calender year.
The adverts, surprisingly, aren't too bad, but then nothing is worse than Eurosport advertising, and Discovery+ has now made that £30.99 per month (it was that a year not so long ago) and removed the no-adverts for subscribers. But that is another rant.
Rivals You had to be there, I think, whenever it was that the latest Jilly Cooper bonkbuster from the library was the big thing. I was there, so I enjoyed this utterly ridiculous television, which due to timing, I watched with my parents. It had the sense not to make something serious out of this utter froth, but to let it be over the top 80s fun. The casting is terrific. I don't know whether they decided to make Cameron Cook African-American before or after the casting call, but it was an excellent choice, and not only for a strong performance from Nafessa Williams. Forty years on, it highlights Cameron's status as an outsider among this incestuous, privileged bunch to make her more than a ball-breaking bitch. There is an inevitable problem of casting David Tennant as Tony Baddingham, namely that his charisma is way ahead of everybody else. This helps make it plausible that he's got where he has, but really doesn't help Rupert's actor, who is perfectly adequate but not in the same league as Tennant on the acting or charisma front. It also doesn't help that Tony is 100% right about Rupert being a nasty piece of work whose politics are, shall we say, rather flattered by production. Cooper's transformation of the character was masterful, but she is good at characterisation and I found the politics easier to put aside on the page than on the television where they are somehow just not there except that for their uncommented-on pervasiveness. Rupert really cares about and sympathises with the underlying causes of football hooliganism. As a Thatcher minister in the 1980s, yes. It also pulls its punches on Declan and Maud a bit, whose parental failures are more explicit in the novel. Anyway, it's utter tosh, but sparkling tosh, recommended if you enjoyed the books back in the day and don't expect anything else. I will probably resubscribe for a month to watch series 2, especially given the different-from-the-book cliffhanger.
Shogun. Back to the 80s too with Shogun, a new adaptation of the 1975 doorstopper. The harsh way to put this would be that I would probably prefer Richard Chamberlain's character interpretation of seventeenth century ships' pilot John Blackthorn who finds himself washed up in Japan and caught in aristocratic power struggles (loosely based on real figure William Adams). That's not entirely fair. There's a lot to like here, from the outstanding performance of Sanada Hiroyuki as Lord Toronaga, to the visuals, and it tells its story pretty well. The weakest performances, unfortunately, seem to come from the two leads of Cosmo Jarvis and Anna Sawai, but the real problems are not so much the actors, as the presentation. Jarvis/Adams is written and played as far too much of a bolshy European/American audience everyman who has no patience with these backwards Japanese or realism about his position as a de facto captive, as opposed to a seventeenth century man with the prejudices of his time - but also his own experience of an extremely hierarchical society. The concept of bowing to a social superior is hardly going to be new to him, even if these particular bows are. As for Sawai/Mariko, it feels like the 1970s really show through the character's origins, with the background TV sexism of 2025 failing to dig into the character's potential. There's a lot to like about her, but it didn't feel adequately explored, not helped by the tendency to use the character to infodump. I'm sounding very grudging here, and I was disappointed in comparison to the glowing reviews, which I felt in retrospect were bowled over by the obvious successes (including the handling of the languages, which is done extremely well) and didn't look closely enough at other elements. It's decent TV that I can completely see why many people enjoyed, and there were some very strong performances, but one of those things where one just feels that there was the potential to be better with a more nuanced script. I may look out for some of the actors in other things, though.
Currently watching Only Murders in the Building, which is fun, but tenser than I had osmosed. Possibly I ought to have paid more attention to the title...
The adverts, surprisingly, aren't too bad, but then nothing is worse than Eurosport advertising, and Discovery+ has now made that £30.99 per month (it was that a year not so long ago) and removed the no-adverts for subscribers. But that is another rant.
Rivals You had to be there, I think, whenever it was that the latest Jilly Cooper bonkbuster from the library was the big thing. I was there, so I enjoyed this utterly ridiculous television, which due to timing, I watched with my parents. It had the sense not to make something serious out of this utter froth, but to let it be over the top 80s fun. The casting is terrific. I don't know whether they decided to make Cameron Cook African-American before or after the casting call, but it was an excellent choice, and not only for a strong performance from Nafessa Williams. Forty years on, it highlights Cameron's status as an outsider among this incestuous, privileged bunch to make her more than a ball-breaking bitch. There is an inevitable problem of casting David Tennant as Tony Baddingham, namely that his charisma is way ahead of everybody else. This helps make it plausible that he's got where he has, but really doesn't help Rupert's actor, who is perfectly adequate but not in the same league as Tennant on the acting or charisma front. It also doesn't help that Tony is 100% right about Rupert being a nasty piece of work whose politics are, shall we say, rather flattered by production. Cooper's transformation of the character was masterful, but she is good at characterisation and I found the politics easier to put aside on the page than on the television where they are somehow just not there except that for their uncommented-on pervasiveness. Rupert really cares about and sympathises with the underlying causes of football hooliganism. As a Thatcher minister in the 1980s, yes. It also pulls its punches on Declan and Maud a bit, whose parental failures are more explicit in the novel. Anyway, it's utter tosh, but sparkling tosh, recommended if you enjoyed the books back in the day and don't expect anything else. I will probably resubscribe for a month to watch series 2, especially given the different-from-the-book cliffhanger.
Shogun. Back to the 80s too with Shogun, a new adaptation of the 1975 doorstopper. The harsh way to put this would be that I would probably prefer Richard Chamberlain's character interpretation of seventeenth century ships' pilot John Blackthorn who finds himself washed up in Japan and caught in aristocratic power struggles (loosely based on real figure William Adams). That's not entirely fair. There's a lot to like here, from the outstanding performance of Sanada Hiroyuki as Lord Toronaga, to the visuals, and it tells its story pretty well. The weakest performances, unfortunately, seem to come from the two leads of Cosmo Jarvis and Anna Sawai, but the real problems are not so much the actors, as the presentation. Jarvis/Adams is written and played as far too much of a bolshy European/American audience everyman who has no patience with these backwards Japanese or realism about his position as a de facto captive, as opposed to a seventeenth century man with the prejudices of his time - but also his own experience of an extremely hierarchical society. The concept of bowing to a social superior is hardly going to be new to him, even if these particular bows are. As for Sawai/Mariko, it feels like the 1970s really show through the character's origins, with the background TV sexism of 2025 failing to dig into the character's potential. There's a lot to like about her, but it didn't feel adequately explored, not helped by the tendency to use the character to infodump. I'm sounding very grudging here, and I was disappointed in comparison to the glowing reviews, which I felt in retrospect were bowled over by the obvious successes (including the handling of the languages, which is done extremely well) and didn't look closely enough at other elements. It's decent TV that I can completely see why many people enjoyed, and there were some very strong performances, but one of those things where one just feels that there was the potential to be better with a more nuanced script. I may look out for some of the actors in other things, though.
Currently watching Only Murders in the Building, which is fun, but tenser than I had osmosed. Possibly I ought to have paid more attention to the title...
A poem for today
Oct. 15th, 2025 05:40 pmI have got a headache
I do not know the reason.
A headache is annoying
And always out of season.
I have got a headache,
It will not go away,
I wish it would and never ever
Come another day.
I do not know the reason.
A headache is annoying
And always out of season.
I have got a headache,
It will not go away,
I wish it would and never ever
Come another day.
It's forever since I posted, which is due to a variety of things, quite high among them being tired and returning to work, and also that I prefer to do DW posts on my laptop and this one is reaching the end of its life. Though I have done some more enjoyable things this summer, and am just back from visiting my parents. So with the train delay compensation payment requests submitted, it's time for a post. Books.
To Each His Own, Sciascia. What can I say, other than that I should have read it years ago? This is simply a superb book. The form may be a detective novel, the subject is political, the condemnation sharp, the writing exquisite (I read it in English). A pharmacist in a small Sicilian town receives an anonymous death threat, and is duly murdered. Life continues much as before, except for mild-mannered academic Professor Laurana, a little vain and certainly naive, who finds himself following a lead and slowly drawn into a dangerous situation. I can't recommend it highly enough to people who enjoy a book that is really, really well-written. Especially as it isn't even a challenging ride - part of the beauty of the prose is its straightforwardness. The narrative isn't complicated, but perfectly chosen; it is the situation that is twisted.
Legend of the Condor Heroes, Jin Yong. A wuxia (martial arts society historical fantasy, think Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon) novel set in the 1200s, this is the first of a trilogy published in the late 1950s and with many, many film and television adaptations since then. Like a lot of genre ur-texts that are basically pulp, it tells a rollicking story in sufficiently competent prose and makes for a fun read, although the translator's choice to translate some names* and not others felt a bit odd. If I tell you that chapter 2 involves a lengthy fight in an inn, it will give those who have watched cdramas a sense of the kind of book this is. Long-lost relatives, treachery, and beautiful chaste women abound. At some point, I'll read the next one.
*Her argument for keeping the title, despite the birds not being condors, is much stronger.
The Incandescent, Emily Tesh. I ordered this from the library and was very much looking forward to it after enjoying Some Desperate Glory, but alas, I wasn't impressed. The concept of a magical boarding school story from the perspective of the teachers is great, but unfortunately I found this deeply unconvincing: thinly plotted, didactic, a trifle smug, and the worldbuilding doesn't hold up at all. Paired with Some Desperate Glory, I can see that Tesh feels passionately about education, but you need more than that to make a good novel, especially given the aforementioned worldbuilding, which fails specifically in terms of secondary/tertiary ed. You can have learning magic at school being basically socially irrelevant like Classics, so it doesn't matter that it is only taught in very expensive private schools and the entire rest of the population is shut out except for a few who have to learn it for public safety, or you can have magic be something that military R&D are passionately interested in and every shop needs to pay for magical wards for safety, but you can't have both. In the world she sets up, in every respect except "this school is unjustifiable and of course the protagonist is appropriately aware but it is also old and special and lovely", there is no way that several Scottish universities and the redbricks wouldn't have been teaching sorcery ab initio since the 1920s at the latest and the government funding it. Also, if you are telling me that the teacher cares, she really cares, and is a sensible, competent professional woman, then why the hell is she repeatedly behaving like Harry Potter and his progenitors going off to investigate things without telling anyone? I could go on (the caretaker!), but I'll spare you.
Idlewild, James Frankie Thomas. A fandom osmosis read, except it turned out to be a misosmosis. I was under the impression that it was about intense Theater Kids (US spelling for what seems to be a US phenomenon) at New England private university level possibly murdering one another, i.e. a bit of a The Secret History rip off. It is not. It does feature sort of Theater Kids, but at an expensive New York private high school. Unfortunately, fairly contemporary US private high schools are about the last setting that I am interested in reading a novel so this book started out as not really my kind of thing and remained so. But, I did read it, and I did think it was a good book. There is no murder, but there are a couple of very intense queer teenagers in a very intense friendship at a Quaker-ethos school that I thought was rather well depicted as supposed to be offering something different because it was a Quaker-ethos school, but that actually was failing its pupils in a highly conventional manner*, and US 2003 setting that seems well-drawn but that, obviously, I didn't personally relate to. Mostly what I admired was the novelist actually having something to say and saying it in a book about queer and trans experience, in a particular time and place, and accepting that something with any depth is inherently not going to speak to everybody's experience, and Thomas doesn't waste his or the reader's time hesitating to commit to his story and characters. It didn't speak to me personally - much though I enjoyed the recognisable early 2000s LJ milieu - but what does that matter? It spoke to other people, and it made an effort to be something.
*I found myself wondering whether Fay would have been better off at a standard school that would haved force all pupils through the hoops to higher education and its potential for self-discovery, or whether that would have been even more destructive.
To Each His Own, Sciascia. What can I say, other than that I should have read it years ago? This is simply a superb book. The form may be a detective novel, the subject is political, the condemnation sharp, the writing exquisite (I read it in English). A pharmacist in a small Sicilian town receives an anonymous death threat, and is duly murdered. Life continues much as before, except for mild-mannered academic Professor Laurana, a little vain and certainly naive, who finds himself following a lead and slowly drawn into a dangerous situation. I can't recommend it highly enough to people who enjoy a book that is really, really well-written. Especially as it isn't even a challenging ride - part of the beauty of the prose is its straightforwardness. The narrative isn't complicated, but perfectly chosen; it is the situation that is twisted.
Legend of the Condor Heroes, Jin Yong. A wuxia (martial arts society historical fantasy, think Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon) novel set in the 1200s, this is the first of a trilogy published in the late 1950s and with many, many film and television adaptations since then. Like a lot of genre ur-texts that are basically pulp, it tells a rollicking story in sufficiently competent prose and makes for a fun read, although the translator's choice to translate some names* and not others felt a bit odd. If I tell you that chapter 2 involves a lengthy fight in an inn, it will give those who have watched cdramas a sense of the kind of book this is. Long-lost relatives, treachery, and beautiful chaste women abound. At some point, I'll read the next one.
*Her argument for keeping the title, despite the birds not being condors, is much stronger.
The Incandescent, Emily Tesh. I ordered this from the library and was very much looking forward to it after enjoying Some Desperate Glory, but alas, I wasn't impressed. The concept of a magical boarding school story from the perspective of the teachers is great, but unfortunately I found this deeply unconvincing: thinly plotted, didactic, a trifle smug, and the worldbuilding doesn't hold up at all. Paired with Some Desperate Glory, I can see that Tesh feels passionately about education, but you need more than that to make a good novel, especially given the aforementioned worldbuilding, which fails specifically in terms of secondary/tertiary ed. You can have learning magic at school being basically socially irrelevant like Classics, so it doesn't matter that it is only taught in very expensive private schools and the entire rest of the population is shut out except for a few who have to learn it for public safety, or you can have magic be something that military R&D are passionately interested in and every shop needs to pay for magical wards for safety, but you can't have both. In the world she sets up, in every respect except "this school is unjustifiable and of course the protagonist is appropriately aware but it is also old and special and lovely", there is no way that several Scottish universities and the redbricks wouldn't have been teaching sorcery ab initio since the 1920s at the latest and the government funding it. Also, if you are telling me that the teacher cares, she really cares, and is a sensible, competent professional woman, then why the hell is she repeatedly behaving like Harry Potter and his progenitors going off to investigate things without telling anyone? I could go on (the caretaker!), but I'll spare you.
Idlewild, James Frankie Thomas. A fandom osmosis read, except it turned out to be a misosmosis. I was under the impression that it was about intense Theater Kids (US spelling for what seems to be a US phenomenon) at New England private university level possibly murdering one another, i.e. a bit of a The Secret History rip off. It is not. It does feature sort of Theater Kids, but at an expensive New York private high school. Unfortunately, fairly contemporary US private high schools are about the last setting that I am interested in reading a novel so this book started out as not really my kind of thing and remained so. But, I did read it, and I did think it was a good book. There is no murder, but there are a couple of very intense queer teenagers in a very intense friendship at a Quaker-ethos school that I thought was rather well depicted as supposed to be offering something different because it was a Quaker-ethos school, but that actually was failing its pupils in a highly conventional manner*, and US 2003 setting that seems well-drawn but that, obviously, I didn't personally relate to. Mostly what I admired was the novelist actually having something to say and saying it in a book about queer and trans experience, in a particular time and place, and accepting that something with any depth is inherently not going to speak to everybody's experience, and Thomas doesn't waste his or the reader's time hesitating to commit to his story and characters. It didn't speak to me personally - much though I enjoyed the recognisable early 2000s LJ milieu - but what does that matter? It spoke to other people, and it made an effort to be something.
*I found myself wondering whether Fay would have been better off at a standard school that would haved force all pupils through the hoops to higher education and its potential for self-discovery, or whether that would have been even more destructive.
Fic: Third Lifetime (The Princess Royal)
Jun. 26th, 2025 04:25 pmFic: Third Lifetime
Fandom: 度华年 | The Princess Royal (TV)
Rating: T, CNTW
Length: 1244
Summary: Su Rongqing gets another life and another chance. Although this time, he'll need a different strategy.
*
That I watched all forty episodes of this drama earlier in the year can only be ascribed to the fact that I spent most of the winter/early spring feeling absolutely rubbish. It starts out with the potential for an intriguing story with imperial princess Li Rong reborn as an 18 year old after being murdered by her ex-husband, or so she thinks, and determined to manage things better this time. Fortunately/unfortunately for these intentions, the ex-husband she had murdered as revenge has also returned to his youthful body, as has her other love interest, who has spent almost the past two decades as a eunuch. Alas, the potential is wasted in overly-complex and yet rather shallow plotting that doesn't add up very well, and an increasingly nauseating romance that balances the premise of having an ambitious and intelligent female lead who wants power and is obviously the best-suited for it of any of the main characters, rather poorly with the apparent need for her also to be Protected by a Man who, for all his claims of respect and admiration for her, is basically Jack Maynard in hanfu. The second male lead's former status as a eunuch feels rather symbolic. don't Nonetheless, I did watch to the end, and having done so had to write fic.
Also, the title is suddenly making me think that it would be very entertaining to see a cdrama based on the House of Windsor. A sort of period drama/fantasy remake of The Crown...
Fandom: 度华年 | The Princess Royal (TV)
Rating: T, CNTW
Length: 1244
Summary: Su Rongqing gets another life and another chance. Although this time, he'll need a different strategy.
*
That I watched all forty episodes of this drama earlier in the year can only be ascribed to the fact that I spent most of the winter/early spring feeling absolutely rubbish. It starts out with the potential for an intriguing story with imperial princess Li Rong reborn as an 18 year old after being murdered by her ex-husband, or so she thinks, and determined to manage things better this time. Fortunately/unfortunately for these intentions, the ex-husband she had murdered as revenge has also returned to his youthful body, as has her other love interest, who has spent almost the past two decades as a eunuch. Alas, the potential is wasted in overly-complex and yet rather shallow plotting that doesn't add up very well, and an increasingly nauseating romance that balances the premise of having an ambitious and intelligent female lead who wants power and is obviously the best-suited for it of any of the main characters, rather poorly with the apparent need for her also to be Protected by a Man who, for all his claims of respect and admiration for her, is basically Jack Maynard in hanfu. The second male lead's former status as a eunuch feels rather symbolic. don't Nonetheless, I did watch to the end, and having done so had to write fic.
Also, the title is suddenly making me think that it would be very entertaining to see a cdrama based on the House of Windsor. A sort of period drama/fantasy remake of The Crown...
I had an excellent weekend last week in Ilkley, watching the Saturday of the Lexus Ilkley Open Tennis Tournament (an early grass season event) with my sisters. They are more into tennis than I am, but live sport is always fun to watch, and we had a lovely day of sunshine that wasn't too blistering, and relaxing entertainment, punctuated with occasional bleating of the nearby sheep.
On the train, I read James Lee Burke's Two for Texas a novella that which has been sitting on my shelves for the better part of two decades. TBR piles never do get shorter. It's an early work by Burke, and lacks the depth of his later books, while showing that promise in his fantastic sense of place and descriptions, and ability to draw the reader straight into scene and character. However its compactness as a narrative was a problem for me because it was drawing on a lot of US cultural history/national mythology that I am simply unfamiliar with. I felt like someone reading a short novel about the trial of Anne Boleyn from the POV of a clerk, written for a British audience, while knowing nothing more about Henry VIII than his name. Sam Houston? Never heard of him, but the city must be named after him so presumably he wins something. Santa Anna? A name with no resonance whatsoever. David Bowie? I know he had a knife... But it was engaging nonetheless, and a reminder that I haven't read Burke for a while. It's time to pick some more recent Dave Robicheaux novels off the TBR pile.
On the train, I read James Lee Burke's Two for Texas a novella that which has been sitting on my shelves for the better part of two decades. TBR piles never do get shorter. It's an early work by Burke, and lacks the depth of his later books, while showing that promise in his fantastic sense of place and descriptions, and ability to draw the reader straight into scene and character. However its compactness as a narrative was a problem for me because it was drawing on a lot of US cultural history/national mythology that I am simply unfamiliar with. I felt like someone reading a short novel about the trial of Anne Boleyn from the POV of a clerk, written for a British audience, while knowing nothing more about Henry VIII than his name. Sam Houston? Never heard of him, but the city must be named after him so presumably he wins something. Santa Anna? A name with no resonance whatsoever. David Bowie? I know he had a knife... But it was engaging nonetheless, and a reminder that I haven't read Burke for a while. It's time to pick some more recent Dave Robicheaux novels off the TBR pile.
Stories of violent death: novels and opera
Jun. 8th, 2025 05:01 pm1) The Shortest Way to Hades, Sarah Caudwell. Light, bright, a lot of fun, and a clever mystery. Also a pleasant change to have a detective story that doesn't involve sexual violence. I found myself thinking partway through that the most 80s thing about this 80s book is not the absence of email or mobile phones and that documents are typed, the boozy lunches, the fact that every single character with the possible exception of Hilary* is undoubtedly a Tory, but a relatively junior barrister not only owning a car but driving it through central London in the afternoon as apparently the quickest way to get anywhere.
2) Silent Parade, Keigo Higashino. Not lacking sexual violence (though no detailed description), but very good, and the thing that was annoying me as I was thinking "but why aren't they all doing X" turned out to be a twist, so that was fine. I'd not read any Higashino before and this was clever, readable, and I'll read more. I just wish that UK translations of Japanese novels would indicate at the beginning which way round they are putting the family name and given name. Either is fine, but since it seems to vary which is chosen in different books, I would like it to be made clear so I know.
3) Simon Boccanegra, Verdi. Opera North semi-staged production at the Royal Festival Hall, which means comfy seats, excellent sightlines, and much cheaper prices than otherwise in London. Rather tortuous trains, which the presence of![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
antisoppist made more endurable. The performances, vocal and orchestral, were fantastic and it was a thoroughly enjoyable evening, but it's not going to join the list of my favourite operas because while the music is great, the drama isn't so strong. Too much of the plot happens off-stage with characters then reporting to others, ultimately I wasn't moved by the piece as a whole in the way I want to be by the operas that really work for me.
*Possible Liberal Party?
2) Silent Parade, Keigo Higashino. Not lacking sexual violence (though no detailed description), but very good, and the thing that was annoying me as I was thinking "but why aren't they all doing X" turned out to be a twist, so that was fine. I'd not read any Higashino before and this was clever, readable, and I'll read more. I just wish that UK translations of Japanese novels would indicate at the beginning which way round they are putting the family name and given name. Either is fine, but since it seems to vary which is chosen in different books, I would like it to be made clear so I know.
3) Simon Boccanegra, Verdi. Opera North semi-staged production at the Royal Festival Hall, which means comfy seats, excellent sightlines, and much cheaper prices than otherwise in London. Rather tortuous trains, which the presence of
antisoppist made more endurable. The performances, vocal and orchestral, were fantastic and it was a thoroughly enjoyable evening, but it's not going to join the list of my favourite operas because while the music is great, the drama isn't so strong. Too much of the plot happens off-stage with characters then reporting to others, ultimately I wasn't moved by the piece as a whole in the way I want to be by the operas that really work for me.*Possible Liberal Party?
Racing in the pink
May. 29th, 2025 08:58 pmThe Giro d'Italia has by far the most evocative competition jerseys of the three grand tours of cycling. Forget France's yellow or Spain's red, what could beat the rosa, ciclamino, or azzura?
In which my car is too much a metaphor
May. 13th, 2025 10:50 amI took my car to the garage last week as the central locking wasn't functioning, which meant that I couldn't lock it at all. It has been repaired, but in the course of this has demonstrated Life Lessons that I could have done without, namely:
* sometimes it doesn't matter that something has been maintained in good condition or had light use, the passage of time also ages things.
* hooking it up to the machine that confirms the faulty door is door X rather than believing your client who thinks - for good reason - that the faulty door is Y, but is mistaken, saves time.
But most of all:
* don't design a car without the capacity to turn off the central locking function and just operate each door with a key!
The other Life Lesson of the past fortnight is that however good an idea a dentist appointment at 8am on a Saturday may seem in theory, in practice, I deeply regretted that life choice. That's 100% my fault though, and will I learn from this triumph of hope over experience? I doubt it.
* sometimes it doesn't matter that something has been maintained in good condition or had light use, the passage of time also ages things.
* hooking it up to the machine that confirms the faulty door is door X rather than believing your client who thinks - for good reason - that the faulty door is Y, but is mistaken, saves time.
But most of all:
* don't design a car without the capacity to turn off the central locking function and just operate each door with a key!
The other Life Lesson of the past fortnight is that however good an idea a dentist appointment at 8am on a Saturday may seem in theory, in practice, I deeply regretted that life choice. That's 100% my fault though, and will I learn from this triumph of hope over experience? I doubt it.
Mr Queen, and Crash Landing on You
May. 6th, 2025 03:44 pmI am completely failing to write up a short fic that is a lot of fun in concept, but like pulling teeth to write. Character voices are not cooperating. Possibly if I ignore it for a bit, I can wrench a mini version out of it. In the meantime, I've been meaning for absolutely ages to mention some TV series, so I'll do that instead.
Mr Queen
In which a modern chef and a bit of a playboy finds himself bodyswapped with a depressed nineteenth-century Joseon era queen. At its heart is a terrific performance by lead actress Shin Hye-sun as our deeply confused protagonist, but the whole thing is just great fun. Can Jang Bong-hwan/Queen Cheorin navigate the pit-of-vipers court, avoid having sex with the king, and get back to his own time, hopefully having sex with his hot maid first? He may not know too much history, but he does have one useful skill: he can cook.
On a cultural ignorance note, this would have been a lot less confusing as my first Korean drama had I been aware that nineteenth-century Joseon attitudes to cousin marriage were not not those of nineteenth-century British literature. It turns out my "Ah, so the king can divorce his wife and she can marry her hot cousin and they can all end up happily" has a degree of wrongness as an interpretation up there with "Aslan is really Satan."
Crash Landing on You
Wealthy South Korean businesswoman Yoon Se-ri gets blown off-course while paragliding and lands in North Korea in a Netflix success. Technically, the North Korean section of the MMZ, but she doesn't realise this until too late, and now she is stuck. Rescued by handsome, highly educated, sensitive pianist North Korean* army captain Ri Jeong-hyeok, can he and his battalion hide her until they can return her to South Korea, or will they be betrayed? Whether they will fall in love is, obviously, not in question. It's not all romance or North Korean army scandals, there's an extensive plot around her family's business, which she was going to take over before she went missing, and a family drama with various terrible relations.
There's so much to like about this drama. It has engaging characters, good acting, and a great plot concept. The visual design of the North Korean settings is fantastic, and it does not, in any way, make one think that it would be good to live in North Korea, despite the warmth with which some of the characters are portrayed. Unfortunately, it has sixteen episodes each about 70 minutes long, and once we got into the second half they felt longer. It felt as if approximately 50 minutes of plot has to be wrapped in an additional 40 minutes of romantic glurge, sometimes with graphics of pastel hearts and rainbows literally decorating the screen. Obviously a lot of people felt differently, but I don't think South Korean romantic TV drama pacing and I don't quite gel.
Also, I feel very aggrieved on behalf of the secondary romance couple. They deserved better, damn it!
*No, I wasn't entirely convinced by this, either.
Mr Queen
In which a modern chef and a bit of a playboy finds himself bodyswapped with a depressed nineteenth-century Joseon era queen. At its heart is a terrific performance by lead actress Shin Hye-sun as our deeply confused protagonist, but the whole thing is just great fun. Can Jang Bong-hwan/Queen Cheorin navigate the pit-of-vipers court, avoid having sex with the king, and get back to his own time, hopefully having sex with his hot maid first? He may not know too much history, but he does have one useful skill: he can cook.
On a cultural ignorance note, this would have been a lot less confusing as my first Korean drama had I been aware that nineteenth-century Joseon attitudes to cousin marriage were not not those of nineteenth-century British literature. It turns out my "Ah, so the king can divorce his wife and she can marry her hot cousin and they can all end up happily" has a degree of wrongness as an interpretation up there with "Aslan is really Satan."
Crash Landing on You
Wealthy South Korean businesswoman Yoon Se-ri gets blown off-course while paragliding and lands in North Korea in a Netflix success. Technically, the North Korean section of the MMZ, but she doesn't realise this until too late, and now she is stuck. Rescued by handsome, highly educated, sensitive pianist North Korean* army captain Ri Jeong-hyeok, can he and his battalion hide her until they can return her to South Korea, or will they be betrayed? Whether they will fall in love is, obviously, not in question. It's not all romance or North Korean army scandals, there's an extensive plot around her family's business, which she was going to take over before she went missing, and a family drama with various terrible relations.
There's so much to like about this drama. It has engaging characters, good acting, and a great plot concept. The visual design of the North Korean settings is fantastic, and it does not, in any way, make one think that it would be good to live in North Korea, despite the warmth with which some of the characters are portrayed. Unfortunately, it has sixteen episodes each about 70 minutes long, and once we got into the second half they felt longer. It felt as if approximately 50 minutes of plot has to be wrapped in an additional 40 minutes of romantic glurge, sometimes with graphics of pastel hearts and rainbows literally decorating the screen. Obviously a lot of people felt differently, but I don't think South Korean romantic TV drama pacing and I don't quite gel.
Also, I feel very aggrieved on behalf of the secondary romance couple. They deserved better, damn it!
*No, I wasn't entirely convinced by this, either.
One of the major casualties of Covid for me has been the theatre, which I'm simply not up to going to as much as I was, so it was great this winter to go to two really good productions.
Natasha, Pierre and the Great Comet of 1812, Dave Molloy, at the Donmar Warehouse.
Musical based on War and Peace - wisely, on a limited chunk of War and Peace - finally making it to the UK in an excellent production. I'm so out of touch at the moment that I didn't know it was going to be on, but fortunatelyantisoppist did. I've no idea why it has taken 12 years (OK, Covid might have played a role there), because it is enormous fun. As the prologue tells us 'Natasha is young and Andrey' isn't here, but a lot of Moscow society is and taken up with entertaining itself at other people's expenses/being a miserable sod. Will Natasha's life be ruined for other people's idea of a good time? Will Pierre get a grip? Will anyone ever recognise (incuding Tolstoy) that Sonya is the MVP*? The singing and performances were excellent, production fast and sharp, and though it is not deeply moving, it tells its story very well. Surely some regional producing theatre must want to put it on? I'm baffled sometimes by UK theatre's curious resistance to the musical as a genre, despite the West End.
Plus surely the best piece in praise of a taxi driver in musical theatre.
The Flying Dutchman, Wagner, Opera North.
I went up to Leeds to see this with my father and sister a week after Great Comet, and I have to admit that about a minute into the overture I was thinking, 'Great Comet was excellent, but this is on another level.' Fabulous orchestral playing of a magnificent score, superb singing and acting, a riveting experience from start to finish. The production introduced some concepts of refugees, being lost on the sea and wandering, including voices of refugees speaking their experiences, that met with a mixed critical reception. Frankly, I didn't think it really added much to the main narrative, but I've come across infinitely worse opera production concepts, and the critical bafflement about this one seems out of proportion. It was a pretty straightforward production with an additional element, there was no obscurity of the main story, and making Daland a government minister ranks pretty low on "weird things that happen in opera stagings".
Much more distracting to me was something integral to the original. While I was aware of the basic story (sailor cursed to wander the seas coming to land only once ever seven years, unless he can be saved by the love of a good woman), and there is little more plot than that, what I hadn't realised was that the second act is basically this:
Heroine's father: So I've offered you to this rich creepy kind of ghost sailor for his money.
Heroine: I have read a million vampire fanfics, I am READY.
I am not kidding. Senta is literally the girl that people worry about reading Twilight, she is DTF the exotic erotic scary doomed creature, and Wagner thinks that this is cool.
Have you seen the ship upon the ocean
with blood‑red sails and black masts?
On her bridge a pallid man,
the ship's master, watches incessantly.
Whee! How the wind howls! Yohohe!
Whee! How it whistles in the rigging! Yohohe!
Whee! Like on arrow he flies on,
without aim, without end, without rest!
Yet there could be redemption one day for that pale man
if he found a wife on earth who'd be true to him till death!
Ah when, pale seaman, will you find her?
Pray Heaven, that soon
a wife will keep faith with him!
...
Let me be the one whose loyalty shall save you!
May God's angel reveal me to you!
Through me shall you attain redemption!
I sat there thinking what a pity it was that Wagner died too soon to see Nosferatu. There is also some wonderful sea music, and the Dutchman has a great aria, but honestly, it's Senta's batshit goth fangirlery that sticks with me.
*Credit to the Olivier Awards, who gave Maimuna Menon the award for best supporting actress.
Natasha, Pierre and the Great Comet of 1812, Dave Molloy, at the Donmar Warehouse.
Musical based on War and Peace - wisely, on a limited chunk of War and Peace - finally making it to the UK in an excellent production. I'm so out of touch at the moment that I didn't know it was going to be on, but fortunately
antisoppist did. I've no idea why it has taken 12 years (OK, Covid might have played a role there), because it is enormous fun. As the prologue tells us 'Natasha is young and Andrey' isn't here, but a lot of Moscow society is and taken up with entertaining itself at other people's expenses/being a miserable sod. Will Natasha's life be ruined for other people's idea of a good time? Will Pierre get a grip? Will anyone ever recognise (incuding Tolstoy) that Sonya is the MVP*? The singing and performances were excellent, production fast and sharp, and though it is not deeply moving, it tells its story very well. Surely some regional producing theatre must want to put it on? I'm baffled sometimes by UK theatre's curious resistance to the musical as a genre, despite the West End.Plus surely the best piece in praise of a taxi driver in musical theatre.
The Flying Dutchman, Wagner, Opera North.
I went up to Leeds to see this with my father and sister a week after Great Comet, and I have to admit that about a minute into the overture I was thinking, 'Great Comet was excellent, but this is on another level.' Fabulous orchestral playing of a magnificent score, superb singing and acting, a riveting experience from start to finish. The production introduced some concepts of refugees, being lost on the sea and wandering, including voices of refugees speaking their experiences, that met with a mixed critical reception. Frankly, I didn't think it really added much to the main narrative, but I've come across infinitely worse opera production concepts, and the critical bafflement about this one seems out of proportion. It was a pretty straightforward production with an additional element, there was no obscurity of the main story, and making Daland a government minister ranks pretty low on "weird things that happen in opera stagings".
Much more distracting to me was something integral to the original. While I was aware of the basic story (sailor cursed to wander the seas coming to land only once ever seven years, unless he can be saved by the love of a good woman), and there is little more plot than that, what I hadn't realised was that the second act is basically this:
Heroine's father: So I've offered you to this rich creepy kind of ghost sailor for his money.
Heroine: I have read a million vampire fanfics, I am READY.
I am not kidding. Senta is literally the girl that people worry about reading Twilight, she is DTF the exotic erotic scary doomed creature, and Wagner thinks that this is cool.
Have you seen the ship upon the ocean
with blood‑red sails and black masts?
On her bridge a pallid man,
the ship's master, watches incessantly.
Whee! How the wind howls! Yohohe!
Whee! How it whistles in the rigging! Yohohe!
Whee! Like on arrow he flies on,
without aim, without end, without rest!
Yet there could be redemption one day for that pale man
if he found a wife on earth who'd be true to him till death!
Ah when, pale seaman, will you find her?
Pray Heaven, that soon
a wife will keep faith with him!
...
Let me be the one whose loyalty shall save you!
May God's angel reveal me to you!
Through me shall you attain redemption!
I sat there thinking what a pity it was that Wagner died too soon to see Nosferatu. There is also some wonderful sea music, and the Dutchman has a great aria, but honestly, it's Senta's batshit goth fangirlery that sticks with me.
*Credit to the Olivier Awards, who gave Maimuna Menon the award for best supporting actress.
Fic: The Road to Bianliang
Apr. 13th, 2025 12:31 pmFic: The Road to Bianliang
Fandom: The Radiant Emperor Series - Shelley Parker-Chan
Rating: T, CNTW
Length: 1858
Summary: Once a man has been told of the existence of an organised conspiracy among his superior officers to kill the Prince, seize the army, and march on the imperial capital, there is only one answer he can give if his life is not to be very short.
Fandom: The Radiant Emperor Series - Shelley Parker-Chan
Rating: T, CNTW
Length: 1858
Summary: Once a man has been told of the existence of an organised conspiracy among his superior officers to kill the Prince, seize the army, and march on the imperial capital, there is only one answer he can give if his life is not to be very short.
Fic: A Felicity of No Common Order
Mar. 25th, 2025 03:02 pmFic: A Felicity of No Common Order
Fandom: Persuasion - Jane Austen
Rating: G, CNTW
Length: 1551
Summary: 'Sophy,' said Captain Wentworth, 'my business is serious. I go to call on Sir Walter to inform him that Anne Elliot and I are to be married. That is, that Miss Anne Elliot has done me the greatest honour and accepted my hand. Now, will you congratulate me?'
There's one further thing to discuss after an engagement - how to break the news.
Fandom: Persuasion - Jane Austen
Rating: G, CNTW
Length: 1551
Summary: 'Sophy,' said Captain Wentworth, 'my business is serious. I go to call on Sir Walter to inform him that Anne Elliot and I are to be married. That is, that Miss Anne Elliot has done me the greatest honour and accepted my hand. Now, will you congratulate me?'
There's one further thing to discuss after an engagement - how to break the news.
Thoughts on reading Persuasion
Mar. 18th, 2025 08:49 amBath is basically regency Butlins.
Or, given the blend of both social stratification and social mixing, a cruise ship. Mrs Smith's interior cabin is below the waterline and she can't afford the entertainment/extras, but she knows the entire housekeeping staff.
Or, given the blend of both social stratification and social mixing, a cruise ship. Mrs Smith's interior cabin is below the waterline and she can't afford the entertainment/extras, but she knows the entire housekeeping staff.
Eurovision 2025 campaigning
Mar. 14th, 2025 09:55 amI am not a big Eurovision fan, but for once I'm reccing a song. More specifically, I mean a silly comic song with a catchy tune despite being in a Finnish-Swedish dialect, very cleverly done, and generally I think that this year's Eurovision Song Contest should be won by KAJ: three Finns competing for Sweden with a song in praise of saunas. I know this because antisoppist and I watched the final of Sweden's Melodifesten competition on Saturday. 12 songs, whittled down from 30 in the semi-finals, from 2000 entries. This was the sole one in Swedish, and apparently Sweden's first non-English entry since 1998. Apparently certain stalwarts of the Swedish Eurovision circuit are very unhappy. Diddums. This is an excellent, bonkers song that's actually memorable, and Måns' entry was very professional, very dull, and didn't deserve to win.
Anyway, you should vote for Bara bada bastu:
With English subtitles.
I am also delighted by their ( filk to Nessan dorma )
antisoppist and I watched the final of Sweden's Melodifesten competition on Saturday. 12 songs, whittled down from 30 in the semi-finals, from 2000 entries. This was the sole one in Swedish, and apparently Sweden's first non-English entry since 1998. Apparently certain stalwarts of the Swedish Eurovision circuit are very unhappy. Diddums. This is an excellent, bonkers song that's actually memorable, and Måns' entry was very professional, very dull, and didn't deserve to win. Anyway, you should vote for Bara bada bastu:
With English subtitles.
I am also delighted by their ( filk to Nessan dorma )
Art and art materials
Jan. 16th, 2025 01:04 pmYou know how it is, shopping with thought and consideration for some specific art or craft material*, and then whoops! Your hand/brain slips and the basket now also contains something completely different as well. So I am still buying some acrylic paint and paper/canvas as my art class will be doing acrylics the next few weeks, but also popped in some watercolour burnt sienna (extremely useful for everything, can't believe I haven't already got a tube only a very used half-pan) and Daniel Smith lunar black (extremely niche, but exactly what I want for a volcanic landscape painting I am thinking of).
The last few months have been rather challenging, but one thing that has been great is that I signed up for an art class run by the local FE college, hugely enjoyed the first term, and signed up for the second. At the beginning of the term, we were asked about our experience and why we had chosen it, and I said that I was outsourcing my self-discipline so that it would force me to focus on things I never do in my own time, practice, and learn new techniques.
So it has proved. I've done very little other art on account of it taking up this space in my brain and free time, but that's fine. I suspect that without it I'd have done even less. It's Wednesday evenings, I can drive and park there and not get cold/wet, and the tutor is really good. It was badged as a mixed ability class, and she's really good at lessons that work for class members of a range of previous experience and ability, and giving people the support and guidance that they individually need so that everyone enjoys themselves and learns. Moreover, while it's easy to sneer (and I have done) at the fact that local authority hobby classes now need to have "learning objectives" etc for their funding, in fact the tutor's application of it works really well in providing structure to the course and individual classes, so that what we are doing is contextualised both as a technique and in terms of art history/modern painters**.
In short, I have ended my long-standing feud with pastels, though I will only be using them at home when it is warm enough to work outside, have actually done perspective exercises for the first time in my entire life, and found that a still life drawing exercises are fun, actually.*** I find myself concentrating like hell. And I'm about to have a go at acrylics, which I have only tried once a long time ago, and which offer the opportunity to do something different than I usually do. Insert second set of grandiose thoughts about what I could do with them. Basics first!
Moral of the story: I nearly didn't sign up because I thought it would be too tiring. It is too tiring, but it's worth it.
*Or in IKEA, whatever 3 small things are on your list.
**Likes them. Looks up artist and sees price/discovers they are Canadian. Oh well. But also does feel a bit inspired by seeing what people are doing and how they are doing it.
***Though last week when I thought it would be fun to do the odd one at home when I just wanted to do some art and didn't know what, my brain rapidly went "Yes, you could do a big complex mixed media piece of these objects that are also in your home and it would be interesting to have the objects and the painting in conversation in the space together." NO!!! I can just draw one tiny vase in coloured pencils on a sheet of WH Smith cartridge paper, actually.
The last few months have been rather challenging, but one thing that has been great is that I signed up for an art class run by the local FE college, hugely enjoyed the first term, and signed up for the second. At the beginning of the term, we were asked about our experience and why we had chosen it, and I said that I was outsourcing my self-discipline so that it would force me to focus on things I never do in my own time, practice, and learn new techniques.
So it has proved. I've done very little other art on account of it taking up this space in my brain and free time, but that's fine. I suspect that without it I'd have done even less. It's Wednesday evenings, I can drive and park there and not get cold/wet, and the tutor is really good. It was badged as a mixed ability class, and she's really good at lessons that work for class members of a range of previous experience and ability, and giving people the support and guidance that they individually need so that everyone enjoys themselves and learns. Moreover, while it's easy to sneer (and I have done) at the fact that local authority hobby classes now need to have "learning objectives" etc for their funding, in fact the tutor's application of it works really well in providing structure to the course and individual classes, so that what we are doing is contextualised both as a technique and in terms of art history/modern painters**.
In short, I have ended my long-standing feud with pastels, though I will only be using them at home when it is warm enough to work outside, have actually done perspective exercises for the first time in my entire life, and found that a still life drawing exercises are fun, actually.*** I find myself concentrating like hell. And I'm about to have a go at acrylics, which I have only tried once a long time ago, and which offer the opportunity to do something different than I usually do. Insert second set of grandiose thoughts about what I could do with them. Basics first!
Moral of the story: I nearly didn't sign up because I thought it would be too tiring. It is too tiring, but it's worth it.
*Or in IKEA, whatever 3 small things are on your list.
**Likes them. Looks up artist and sees price/discovers they are Canadian. Oh well. But also does feel a bit inspired by seeing what people are doing and how they are doing it.
***Though last week when I thought it would be fun to do the odd one at home when I just wanted to do some art and didn't know what, my brain rapidly went "Yes, you could do a big complex mixed media piece of these objects that are also in your home and it would be interesting to have the objects and the painting in conversation in the space together." NO!!! I can just draw one tiny vase in coloured pencils on a sheet of WH Smith cartridge paper, actually.
Fic: Conversations in Raingold
Jan. 10th, 2025 01:28 pmFic: Conversations in Raingold
Fandom: Some Desperate Glory - Emily Tesh
Rating: T, CNTW
Length: 2531
Summary: There's a lot still to talk about even after the end of the world.
*
I'm counting this as a 2024 fic, as I essentially wrote it then, but didn't have the opportunity to do a final edit until this morning, which makes 2024 was five works and two new fandoms, if not a high word count, and my most sexually explicit one by some margin!
I never made a post about Some Desperate Glory, which I enjoyed a lot. It was the right book at the right time, and one that fandom managed to sell to me correctly as "readable SF novel about a girl who grows up as an enthusiastic member of a space fascist cult and then discovers that the leopards want to eat her face," and I felt it delivered on that premise in an entertaining way. There are some structural flaws, but I found it engaging from beginning to end.
Fandom: Some Desperate Glory - Emily Tesh
Rating: T, CNTW
Length: 2531
Summary: There's a lot still to talk about even after the end of the world.
*
I'm counting this as a 2024 fic, as I essentially wrote it then, but didn't have the opportunity to do a final edit until this morning, which makes 2024 was five works and two new fandoms, if not a high word count, and my most sexually explicit one by some margin!
I never made a post about Some Desperate Glory, which I enjoyed a lot. It was the right book at the right time, and one that fandom managed to sell to me correctly as "readable SF novel about a girl who grows up as an enthusiastic member of a space fascist cult and then discovers that the leopards want to eat her face," and I felt it delivered on that premise in an entertaining way. There are some structural flaws, but I found it engaging from beginning to end.
