This and that
Dec. 17th, 2010 10:48 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
luzula1) dSSS is POSTED! (Yuletide is under control.)
2) Just finished reading Connie Willis' "Doomsday Book", which several people have recced to me. It was really good, but augh, so dark. It almost gave me nightmares. I thought Kivrin's part of the story was a bit slow in the beginning, and I was more into what was going on back in Oxford. But that long build-up in Kivrin's story pays off, because by the time those medieval characters start dying horrible deaths in the plague, you've really started caring about them. So yeah, it's very effective.
3) Am listening to an audiobook of Ursula K. Le Guin's "The Left Hand of Darkness". It must have been ten years or so since I read it last, and wow. It's even better than I remembered. Possibly this is because the reader is very good, but gah, Le Guin's writing! *has no words* I fangirl her so hard. Also, there is a long journey across an Arctic landscape in the book. You will not be surprised that it pushes my buttons. : )
4) I found a song which feels like it's made for Bob/Caroline. Just listen to this: "Caroline, I'm on my way back home to you/Can't imagine what I've been going through/Without you by my side/It's been a long, long time/Oh, won't you say a prayer for me/I hope that you remember me/You're always on my mind, my Caroline" and this: "Promises that I can't be/Someone's heart that I can't keep/Days so long I couldn't speak/Roads so rocky I could not sleep/I've seen things so beautiful, all around this broken world/They pale in comparison to you". It's maybe a bit too bouncy and happy, but I can imagine it's when they're being reunited after CotW.
5) Oh yeah, and I can now report on the 19th century porn that I was listening to as an audiobook. It is full of hilarious purple prose. There is "staff of love", "twin globes of alabaster reposing on a field of snow", and in a single paragraph, we have the following euphemisms for the female genitals: "the very sanctuary of love itself", "the mossy covering of that hallowed spot", "secret charms", "mount of Venus", "mystical grotto", "the abode of bliss".
But it also uses quite matter-of-fact terms: "vagina" and "clitoris" are common. In fact, there's quite an emphasis on the clitoris--there is always clitoris stimulation during sex, and mention of clitorises being erect, and women complimenting each other on their "spendidly developed clitoris". There's quite a lot of lesbian sex (sometimes with a dildo, which is called exactly that), but not even a hint of sex between men, despite there being sex scenes where several men are present. People always come at exactly the same time, which can be hilarious when there are five people participating. The same words are used for female and male orgasm, usually "spend", "discharge", or "emit", and indeed all 19th century women seem to ejaculate copiously when they come.
I admit I didn't make it through all four hours of this audiobook, because it is pretty repetitive: beautiful people with no personalities (but splendidly developed clitorises!) having sex over and over.
2) Just finished reading Connie Willis' "Doomsday Book", which several people have recced to me. It was really good, but augh, so dark. It almost gave me nightmares. I thought Kivrin's part of the story was a bit slow in the beginning, and I was more into what was going on back in Oxford. But that long build-up in Kivrin's story pays off, because by the time those medieval characters start dying horrible deaths in the plague, you've really started caring about them. So yeah, it's very effective.
3) Am listening to an audiobook of Ursula K. Le Guin's "The Left Hand of Darkness". It must have been ten years or so since I read it last, and wow. It's even better than I remembered. Possibly this is because the reader is very good, but gah, Le Guin's writing! *has no words* I fangirl her so hard. Also, there is a long journey across an Arctic landscape in the book. You will not be surprised that it pushes my buttons. : )
4) I found a song which feels like it's made for Bob/Caroline. Just listen to this: "Caroline, I'm on my way back home to you/Can't imagine what I've been going through/Without you by my side/It's been a long, long time/Oh, won't you say a prayer for me/I hope that you remember me/You're always on my mind, my Caroline" and this: "Promises that I can't be/Someone's heart that I can't keep/Days so long I couldn't speak/Roads so rocky I could not sleep/I've seen things so beautiful, all around this broken world/They pale in comparison to you". It's maybe a bit too bouncy and happy, but I can imagine it's when they're being reunited after CotW.
5) Oh yeah, and I can now report on the 19th century porn that I was listening to as an audiobook. It is full of hilarious purple prose. There is "staff of love", "twin globes of alabaster reposing on a field of snow", and in a single paragraph, we have the following euphemisms for the female genitals: "the very sanctuary of love itself", "the mossy covering of that hallowed spot", "secret charms", "mount of Venus", "mystical grotto", "the abode of bliss".
But it also uses quite matter-of-fact terms: "vagina" and "clitoris" are common. In fact, there's quite an emphasis on the clitoris--there is always clitoris stimulation during sex, and mention of clitorises being erect, and women complimenting each other on their "spendidly developed clitoris". There's quite a lot of lesbian sex (sometimes with a dildo, which is called exactly that), but not even a hint of sex between men, despite there being sex scenes where several men are present. People always come at exactly the same time, which can be hilarious when there are five people participating. The same words are used for female and male orgasm, usually "spend", "discharge", or "emit", and indeed all 19th century women seem to ejaculate copiously when they come.
I admit I didn't make it through all four hours of this audiobook, because it is pretty repetitive: beautiful people with no personalities (but splendidly developed clitorises!) having sex over and over.
(no subject)
Date: 2010-12-17 04:39 pm (UTC)1) dSSS is POSTED!
W00t! *fistbump of victory* \o/
(no subject)
Date: 2010-12-17 07:23 pm (UTC)W00t! *fistbump of victory* \o/
Yessss! *fistbumps*