Recent reading

[luzula]

Okay, I have a backlog now, so here are a bunch of books at once.

Orsinian Tales by Ursula K. Le Guin
A collection of short stories set in the same world (but in different times) as Malafrena. I am not a huge fan of short fiction in general since it can take me a while to engage with the characters and story. But these stories are lovely--Le Guin gets me engaged every time. Although sadly I don't think any of these stories pass the Bechdel test, even though there are actually a fair amount of women in them.

No Surrender by Constance Elizabeth Maud (Librivox audiobook)
Suffragette fiction from 1911. This is not exactly a subtle book, but I liked it. Read if you want impassioned speeches about women's rights, creative political actions, and a feel-good ending, complete with the (rather marginal) male love interest at last converting and supporting the fight. Also, sooo much Bechdel-test passing.

Mujeres Libres - fria kvinnor för en fri värld by Albert Herranz [Mujeres Libres - free women for a free world]
From suffragettes to the Spanish anarchist women's movement in the '30s. This is just a 100-page introduction with some general history, some biographies, and some translated newspaper articles. Quite interesting.

Mary: a fiction by Mary Wollstonecraft
For book-club-at-work. An early novel, or rather novella; sadly I found it quite boring. Okay, it's about a woman who thinks for herself and it passes the Bechdel test, but there are a lot of religious reflections which I skimmed over, and the writing is just not very engaging. Her introduction says: In an artless tale, without episodes, the mind of a woman, who has thinking powers is displayed. The female organs have been thought too weak for this arduous employment; and experience seems to justify the assertion. Without arguing physically about possibilities—in a fiction, such a being may be allowed to exist. That sounds...a bit defensive? But I haven't actually read A Vindication of the Rights of Woman, so I don't know what she says there. And I guess this is an early work.

My last three books seem to fit a pattern...

Comments

[feroxargentea]

Huh, funny, I read No Surrender the other month too. The village library was throwing their copy out because nobody had ever borrowed it. It's now in my "needs new home and probably won't find one" stack.

Feminism yay, and also a brave phonetic stab at the local dialect (although I don't know whether that came across in the audio version.)

[luzula]

Oh, that's funny. The reader took a stab at the dialect, too, but since I have no idea how it was actually supposed to sound, any inaccuracies didn't bother me.

I was a bit sad at the end, that their main goal (women's suffrage) came about long ago, and yet there are still so many things wrong with society. /o\ It was just not the thing that was going to fix everything to the extent that they thought.

[feroxargentea]

I was curious and went over to Librivox to hear a sample, and no, that is very much not what it sounds like! Hee! (No offence to the reader - it was great that she recorded the book anyway - it just happens to be my local dialect, so the Americanised version sounds funny to me.)

Yeah, people always pin their hopes on one thing that's going to change the world, whether it's suffrage, a law repealed, a prime minister ousted. I guess we just have to keep reminding ourselves that each small gain is worthwhile.

[luzula]

Heh, if it's your own dialect I can imagine it's jarring. But I'm happy the audiobook existed, mangled dialect or no--I thought she was a good reader otherwise.

I'm sure my attempts at pronunciation of Russian words/names in my recording of Kropotkin's autobiography was funny to Russian speakers, too. I did have a Russian to coach me, but that only gets you so far. Ah well.

[nonesane.livejournal.com]

Just read "Orisinian Tales" (or rather, the Swedish translation "Berättelser från Orsinien") and for some reason it didn't grab me at all. I usually adore Le Guin's stories, but for some odd reason these short stories didn't gel with me.

Didn't intend to post to whine about that - just wanted to ask if you think reading "Malafrena" (which I haven't) helps with understanding the world of "Orisinian Tales"? I'm thinking I might have read things in the wrong order, since I was pretty lost during my reading as to where everyone was and what was going on, historically.

Or maybe I read a crappy translation XD It had so many typos readers before me actually had taken a pen to it and put in edits out of pure frustration (I borrowed the book from the library).

[luzula]

Orsinian Tales and Malafrena are not dependent on each other, except for general shared worldbuilding, and I don't think reading Malafrena beforehand would help much. Here's my review of Malafrena, if it helps.

Yeah, could be the translation, I guess? I haven't read her in Swedish for a long time.

[nonesane.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the info!

I really like your book thoughts and recs, so your review definitely helps! Will have to try the book in its original language and see if that helps :)

[luzula]

I really like your book thoughts and recs

Thanks! They're fun to write, and I'm glad you enjoy them.