Recent reading

[luzula]

Aaaah. Today I am up early to go to the appointment where the house changes owners, and tomorrow I move. I suppose it's understandable that I didn't sleep well last night, but it's ironic that this happens just when I most need to sleep well.

Babel by R F Kuang (2022, audiobook)
For book club. I thought the central idea of the book (the linguistics magic) was very cool, and found the book page-turney and interesting! Perhaps it's a little on the nose about colonialism being bad, which was reinforced by the footnotes being read by a different person, so before I understood that they were footnotes, I thought it was a little voice coming in to point out all the things that were racist. But hey, colonialism is bad, and it's good to read that perspective along with the regency romances. The other things I want to say are spoilery. I felt stupid at not seeing the end coming, because what happens with the tower of Babel? It falls, right? *facepalm* But it was clear to me from the start that their strike via takeover of the tower was going to fail, because they didn't have most of the workforce with them. What's to stop the government from giving in to their demands, them giving up the tower, and the government just installing all the loyal silverworkers there and then going to war with China anyway? If you're striking, it's not effective if you're only a few persons (unless you can permanently control important means of production)--but hey, they're teenagers and might not have the best strategies. I do think the book's claim that you could destroy as much infrastructure as you like and the upper classes won't care, because they can just go to their country mansions, is false--if nothing else, the stock market is going to crash and they deeply care about that. So I think it's unrealistic that the government didn't pretend to give way, but I see why they didn't, because then the author couldn't have had the ending she wanted. I'm undecided about the support from the working classes. I mean, yes, Luddites, definitely a thing. OTOH, the book seems to be saying that industrialism + colonialism was bad for the working classes of the colonizing country? But I suppose there isn't just one answer to that--it must depend on who you are, and where, and when, etc.

System Collapse by Martha Wells (2024)
Murderbot! Murderbot is much more stressed out than I am. I don't have anything deep to say about this book, but it's good to read another installment in a series you already know you like. Also, I'm impressed by Well's ability to write action scenes in a way that is 1) easy to understand, and 2) engaging. It's in the character voice, I suppose.

Comments

[sanguinity]

Today I am up early to go to the appointment where the house changes owners, and tomorrow I move.

Hurrah! I hope it all goes reasonably smoothly!


I suppose it's understandable that I didn't sleep well last night, but it's ironic that this happens just when I most need to sleep well.

The way of the universe! (At least in my experience.) The more critical it is that I sleep well, the less likely it is that it will happen...

[luzula]

Going smoothly so far! Of course this just makes me suspect some bump in the road ahead...

The more critical it is that I sleep well, the less likely it is that it will happen...
Very true!

[seascribble]

Good luck with the move!

[luzula]

Thanks, same to you!!

[dolorosa_12]

I found the footnotes in Babel a strange mixture of smug and paranoid — as if Kuang were writing with fear of an imaginary Twitter mob descending unless she made it blatantly clear that depiction wasn't endorsement. That being said, the fact that she felt she had to do it probably says more about the current state of genre publishing than about Kuang's skills as a writer.

I hope the move goes smoothly!

[cathexys]

That is such a great observation about the footnotes. To me it read a lot like a grad student showing off her research, but I think your reading is more on point!


Have a great move, Luzula!

[regshoe]

Today I am up early to go to the appointment where the house changes owners, and tomorrow I move.

Good luck!! It is understandable, but I hope you manage to get a good night's sleep tonight. <3

[luzula]

I did, actually! Thank you. : )

[chestnut_pod]

Extremely good luck tomorrow! I hope everything goes smoothly and quickly.

[luzula]

Yes! Everything going well so far! \o/

I loved reading this in audio

[jesse_the_k]

because the footnotes helped me hear the Chinese better.

Matching face-palms on the tower's inevitable fall. /o\

I insisted on finishing but ugh the detailed torture descriptions were unpleasant.

From the first novella, I've deeply appreciated Wells's skill at 3D description. I can actually follow what's going on!

Re: I loved reading this in audio

[luzula]

Yes, the reader was good, I think. And hee, glad I'm not the only one being obtuse!

[petra]

Best wishes with the move!

[luzula]

Thank you! Going well so far!

[nineveh_uk]

but it's ironic that this happens just when I most need to sleep well

Twas ever thus! Good luck with the move, I hope all runs smoothly.

[luzula]

Everything smooth so far! *holds thumbs in Swedish fashion instead of crossing fingers*

[scribe]

Good luck with the move! Can't wait to see the new place!

[luzula]

You'll see it next book club! : D

[china_shop]

Perhaps it's a little on the nose about colonialism being bad, which was reinforced by the footnotes being read by a different person, so before I understood that they were footnotes, I thought it was a little voice coming in to point out all the things that were racist.

Hee!

Hope the house transfer went well! <333

[luzula]

Transfer went well, moving going well so far. <3

[nnozomi]

I hope the ownership transfer and actual move went/have gone/are going well!

I was similarly struck by Babel in general and interested to hear your thoughts on its practicalities.
before I understood that they were footnotes, I thought it was a little voice coming in to point out all the things that were racist.
I feel like that is in fact a pretty good summary of the role played by the footnotes... I was put off by them because a) early on a footnote laboriously explained a joke that was much funnier when left to the reader to work out, and b) I assumed until well into the book that they were footnotes from our (real) world, as it were, and then a stray mention of something showed that they were in-world footnotes and it just didn't work for me at all.

Murderbot is much more stressed out than I am.
This is one of the great things about fiction--it's so satisfying to think "well AT LEAST I'm not having as bad a day as --- is" about a given fictional character.

[luzula]

Going well so far! <3

Hmm. I don't think I ever identified who was the writer of the footnotes? Yeah, as a whole they didn't work that well for me, but I did like the one telling us about Griffin and his cohort. Or at least, I did appreciate knowing that, but OTOH, I'm not sure the footnote format was the best way of doing it.

[antisoppist]

I've just read Babel too and I often found the footnotes annoying because they explained things that I knew so there I thought the author was showing off their research in case someone came and accused them of making stuff up (and I didn't see why they felt the need to do that, or to sometimes use them to point at racism) but then when there were clearly in-world footnotes, which confused me, I decided the footnotes were meant to give a sense of reality to imaginary things by explaining them in the same way as the real things. But I don't know if that was really the intention.

It would have been even more confusing as an audiobook!