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Happy ἐξελαυνω Day! Also World Book Day
The books I'm reading: Oh, so many, some for years. I'm hoping to finish The Silver Chair and Anne Allison's Nightwork: Sexuality, Pleasure, and Corporate Masculinity in a Tokyo Hostess Club this weekend.
The books I'm writing: That one with the pirates and the volcano, and that other one with the princesses which I will not re-set into a cod-1930s, no I will not. Plus some academic papers.
The book I love the most: Too many to name. But the one trilogy of books I haul around the world with me is Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials.
The last book I received as a gift: Mary Elizabeth Berry's Japan in Print and Christopher Bolton's book on Abe Kobo.
The last book I gave as a gift: Hmm. I have not given many books recently. I gave my dad Bob Woodward's new book for Christmas.
The nearest book: Dorinne Kondo's Crafting Selves: Power, Gender, and Discourses of Identity in a Japanese Workplace.
The last book I bought myself: Mary Gentle's Lost Burgundy, C.S. Lewis and his brother's childhood stories, and Shriek: An Afterword by Jeff VanderMeer.
As if I could ever pick just one book that I love the most. And now I'm off to do all the tasks ever, including translating the new chapter of Gate 7.
The books I'm writing: That one with the pirates and the volcano, and that other one with the princesses which I will not re-set into a cod-1930s, no I will not. Plus some academic papers.
The book I love the most: Too many to name. But the one trilogy of books I haul around the world with me is Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials.
The last book I received as a gift: Mary Elizabeth Berry's Japan in Print and Christopher Bolton's book on Abe Kobo.
The last book I gave as a gift: Hmm. I have not given many books recently. I gave my dad Bob Woodward's new book for Christmas.
The nearest book: Dorinne Kondo's Crafting Selves: Power, Gender, and Discourses of Identity in a Japanese Workplace.
The last book I bought myself: Mary Gentle's Lost Burgundy, C.S. Lewis and his brother's childhood stories, and Shriek: An Afterword by Jeff VanderMeer.
As if I could ever pick just one book that I love the most. And now I'm off to do all the tasks ever, including translating the new chapter of Gate 7.
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Book I'm writing: Eventually, Draft II of the Metametanovel. This upcoming NaNo, possibly a new commentary on Pale Fire.
Book I love the most: Ulysses by James Joyce. By far.
Last book I got as a gift: A Michael Stackpole Battletech novel that's been sitting in the back of my car since New Year's, unread.
Last book I gave as a gift: Spaceman Blues by Brian Francis Slattery.
Nearest book: The Temperature Handbook, the gigantic Omega Engineering catalogue.
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At first there was a little bit of puzzlement- this is good, but why is Zadie Smith trying to write Philip Roth? But I hit a point yesterday where I spotted a keyword from Ulysses, omphalos, and some things kind of clarified. I realized that Jewishness or Goyishness is an update of Joyce's Jewgreek or Greekjew, by way of Lenny Bruce. I'm starting to see the ways in which Alex-Li synthesizes Bloom and Stephen. There is a WHOLE LOT going on in this book beneath the surface. And I really don't like using the word audacious to describe writing because it's so overused in blurbtext, but it's the right word for what Smith is doing here. This is daring, dangerous writing.
Admittedly I have Third Commandment issues with the way she uses the Tetragrammaton, but... that's why she's using it. Because those four characters have so much inherent power to them.
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This sounds simultaneously fascinating and soul-crushingly depressing. Which way is it tipping?
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This reminds me, I totally need to bring up Ouran High School Host Club in class when we discuss this.