Recent reading

[luzula]

Sing for the Coming of the Longest Night by Katherine Fabian and Iona Datt Sharma (2018)
For book club. This is a quest where the two romantic partners of a third person team up to find him when he's gone. In a way it reminded me weirdly of The Dark is Rising, though it's really very different: a magical quest during winter, set in Britain. I did appreciate that the main characters are the two tips in a V-relationship, you don't see that often in fiction! I had complicated thoughts on the ways in which it did and didn't agree with my own experiences in such relationships.

Kidnapped by Robert Louis Stevenson (1886)
I listened to the Librivox audiobook. This was a fun adventure, though David made a number of, uh, bad decisions--although I guess there would've been less story if he hadn't. And he was only 18. I noped out of the sequel, because the male narrator of that one made the artistic choice to read women with a sort of high, falsetto voice, which I dislike. I don't like it any better when women narrators try to make their voices low when they read men--much better to differentiate voices by the character's personality. Also, given that Kidnapped is partly set in Appin in 1751, I wish Isobel Haldane had been in it! Heh, maybe I just wanted to read a novel about her instead.

Small Farm Future by Chris Smaje (2020)
Written by the author of the blog of the same name; it's about how in the future, due to various crises, we might many of us have to be involved more with agriculture to survive.

Sea-Green Ribbons by Naomi Mitchison (1991)
About a girl growing up in a Leveller family in 17th century London, and her further life. I liked it--I mean, I like pretty much anything Mitchison wrote. It's interesting to me how ideas are associated, or not associated, with each other in different time periods. Like, how strongly the idea of economic equality was associated with a certain kind of Christianity at that time, which is certainly not the case today.

Comments

[regshoe]

Naomi Mitchison's books continue to sound absolutely fascinating, as well as admirably wide-ranging—the history of the Levellers is something I'd love to know more about, so I'll definitely add this one to the to-read list!

And I was just thinking of reading Kidnapped in the new year, after theseatheseatheopensea was posting about it—plenty there to appeal to FotH fans, it seems :D

[luzula]

I'd not quite finished the book when I posted, but there was a bit about slavery at the end of Sea-Green Ribbons when she goes to America that was...sort of uncomfortable to read? I mean, it was not like the main character (or the slave for that matter) were perfectly comfortable either, but I was kinda surprised that she would accept her family owning a slave for whatever reason, given the political/religious opinions she'd expressed before. Hmm.

[regshoe]

Huh, that does sound uncomfortable. I'll see what I make of the ending!

Also, by the way—I've been having a look at the 'Small Farm Future' blog this morning and it looks really interesting. Especially what he's saying about land sharing as human philosophy—I remember I had a lecturer at uni who was a big advocate of the land sparing approach from a zoological/conservation point of view, but I was never really convinced it'd be an ideal system to live in.

[luzula]

It's an interesting blog! I think he's a social scientist turned farmer.

I could swear I'd read a really interesting post about land sparing/sharing on another blog, but now I can't find it...

[chestnut_pod]

What a beautiful title Sea-Green Ribbons is! I feel warmly towards the book for that alone.

I'd be interested to hear more about your thoughts on if Sing for the Coming of the Longest Night works on a craft and emotional-engagement level, if you feel like giving them. I've been going back and forth on whether I think I should read it based on my own respective experiences in that kind of relationship, and the reviews I've read have mostly just noted what the relationship is, rather than how it is written.

[luzula]

Oh, hmm. I'm not the most analytical reader, but: I liked the book but didn't love it as some of the others did. The writing style is fine but doesn't stand out to me. Layla and Nat (the two partners of Meraud) don't particularly like each other at the start, but it's not personal dislike; rather it's that they don't know each other well and have very different lives and somewhat stereotype each other based on that. At the end they've come to like each other. Layla's wife, on the other hand, still rather dislikes Meraud. Does that help?

As for my own experience, I've had one great relationship with a partner's partner, and one terrible, relationship-ending one. So on the one hand I'd love to see warm friendship and shared experience between the tips of the V, and the book didn't quite give me that since it ended when they were just getting to know each other! OTOH, I would also like to see acknowledgement that if the relationship between the tips of the V doesn't work, it can potentially wreck the whole thing. And the book seems like it cheerfully assumes it's fine if they dislike each other.

Obviously I'm not actually expecting the book to cater to my personal experiences! I'm just explaining my reaction to it. : )

[chestnut_pod]

Thank you; that was very helpful! I appreciate your sharing and elaborating on the plot a little.

[jesse_the_k]

Like, how strongly the idea of economic equality was associated with a certain kind of Christianity at that time, which is certainly not the case today.

Depends on the Christianity. Even in the U.S., there are some religions which are all about "Jesus loved the poor" and social justice. They just don't have the money or press influence that the megachurch evangelicals do, with their gospel of prosperity.

(Further proof that we live in a Christian nation: as an atheist Jew, I know about sectarian differences in Christianity.)

[luzula]

Yes, of course there are religions which are all about equality and social justice today! But it's not like all left-wing politics is entirely based on them. To be fair, I guess the 17th century was a much more religious time...and maybe I should be careful about making general statements in general about things I don't know enough about, heh.

[mific]

I'm interested in Small Farm Future - mostly as an antidote to the post-EMP apocafic I've been reading lately, which is mostly about US preppers gunning down everything that moves!

[luzula]

Well, check out the blog! It should give you a pretty good idea of whether you'll like the book.

[starshipfox]

I generally enjoy Stevenson, and I found "Kidnapped" a lot of fun, particularly because it's so rooted in Scotland, and I recognised a lot of what was described from my time there. I read "Catriona" too, and it just isn't very good: oddly, Stevenson thought it was his best novel, but it's kind of rambling and not very convincing, so I think skipping it was a good choice!n

[luzula]

Yes, "fun" is a good description of Kidnapped; it's just a good adventure story. Good to know I might not be missing much in Catriona, then.

[brigantine]

"Small Farm Future" sounds interesting. I quite like the idea of more people with farms, and small farms at that. The crises that might force us into that, not so much fun, but lots of small farms sounds rather nifty.

[luzula]

Well, here is the blog, if you want to check it out--lots of interesting posts on it.

And hi, how are you doing? : )

[hyarrowen]

Kidnapped is such a great story. If you can face struggling through Catriona in print form, it's worth it - you find out that Davie and Alan are basically best buds forever, which is nice.

[luzula]

Aww, that does sound nice. But I confess I already read the Wikipedia summary of it! Maybe I'll check out the Gutenberg ebook, we'll see.

[hyarrowen]

You get Davie and Alan huddling together under bushes, Davie and Alan sharing a bed, and a very plausible poly set-up, among other stuff.

Also the best three-word description of a city ever.

I mean, the actual plot is very dull, but there are gems along the way.

[luzula]

Hee, you know how to tempt me. *g*

Although isn't there quite an age difference? I mean, if Alan was 25 or so I wouldn't hesitate to ship them, but the real person seems to have been about 40, and David is so young...I can't remember what Kidnapped says about Alan's age, maybe it aged him down.

[hyarrowen]

Hmm, well, that's a good point... age difference is usually a squick for me. I can't remember how old Davie is in the book either. He always seems much more mature than Alan, though. None of this is helped by the 2006 adaptation in which Alan is played by an early-40s Iain Glen, who is frankly shippable with anything and anyone at any age.

/shutting up now

[luzula]

I would never claim that Alan is mature, but David is not quite eighteen when the book starts.

BUT TOO LATE I already read the one fic that seems to exist for the pairing. It has some typos, but is otherwise really delightfully well written and characterized. The second paragraph made me laugh and laugh:

I'm write this expanded relation of events largely for my own amusement, as only one other set of eyes shall ever see it, and I am not sure how the other shall react. Nevertheless, I should like to put into writing these down fond, old memories lest time and age dull them, though now it seems that those bright moments will burn in my heart forever, the last flames to fade even as my eyes dim and my soul leaves my body. (I put these reassurances in for the other reader, who is as vain as a cock and as jealous as Medea.) I will continue my story.

Thanks, I might check out the movie if I can get hold of it!

[hyarrowen]

Hah, I hadn't come across that fic, and yes, it sums up the whole "whoa, wait, is this really happening?" vibe I get with these two. It's got all the snark and all the affection too. Just great.