Media Diet, July

Iron Widow, by Xiran Jay Zhao: Mechas meets Medieval China. This book was so polarizing that I gave in to find out where I landed. I'll say that it started rough, especially in prose. For example,

“Hey!” A laugh ruptures out of my gloom.
“What? Where’s the lie?” He stamps his hands on his hips, sleeves flopping.
“Okay, fine! There’s no lie.” I strain back a grin.

The emotional portrayals were highly inconsistent-- at some point, there's a single line where she suddenly wants acceptance from the other pilots, while both before and after she mostly disdains them. And the incongruous rants and oppressions feel like they're meant to address the real world instead of the world in the book. I also see why some people said the threesome read more as a V and others that it was a proper threesome-- it depended on if they found the lines addressing the m/m relationship believable or not. However, once the book gets going, the prose does smooth out and the pacing starts hitting its stride. I /did/ really like the reveal in the last five pages; it felt well foreshadowed and more importantly, consistent in a way other pieces did not. At its best, it reads like a power fantasy fanfic... And there's a reason that's popular.

The Sentence, by Louise Erdrich: In Minneapolis of Nov 2019 - 2020, the protagonist, an Ojibwe woman who works for a local Indigenous bookstore after years of incarceration, is first haunted by her most annoying customer and then experiences the real world events of that time period. From chestnut_pod's rec. The book tries to do so much, in addressing a myriad of political and personal stresses, and occasionally overreaches, but mostly successfully conveys the trauma of that year and of America's past. I enjoyed the plot around the most annoying customer more than I expected! I didn't see the ~twist~ coming, and once I read it, it made total sense, which I do prize as a reading experience. It was also an interesting experience to visit Birchbark Books as I was reading it! I don't know that this was a style that would appeal to everyone, given how scattered it could be, but I really see why Erdrich is so revered.

Afterparties, by Anthony Veasna So: Short story collection centered around a Californian Cambodian American community. From meitachi's rec. A very strong and distinct sense of the author's views on life and his community and himself permeates the whole book. My favorite story was "We Would've Been Princes!" because I found the characters (archetypes?) the most interesting. The stories felt oddly held at a distance for how intimate the voice was, perhaps most exemplified by the unsexy sex scenes. I think ultimately the collection wasn't to my taste, but if I had encountered the individual stories as one-offs, I might have liked them more? Just as a whole collection, the insights to story ratio was too low.

Lena, by qntm: A short story written in the style of wikipedia on the first executable image of a human brain. Mentioned here, but that post is, imo, somewhat avoiding the purpose of the short itself, which is definitely about capitalism (specifically per the author, the gig economy). I found the thoughts-to-length ratio high.

The Ghost Bride (2020): In 1890s Colonial Malacca, the matriarch of a wealthy family proposes that Li-lan become a ghost bride to solve her family's financial struggles. (Despite the setting, it's primarily in Taiwanese Mandarin.) Recced by dolorosa_12. Although the plot was engaging enough, and I especially enjoyed how much fun the actor for the deceased son was clearly having at being the dramatic dead bad guy, it overall relied too heavily on sudden contrivances and obvious mistakes by characters for my taste. Despite it being set up as a mystery, the female protag does not get to do nearly enough problem solving. Also, far too much loyal servant trope. Still, a fun enough romp, and it was exactly the length and subject desired for a varied group so I was satisfied.

Wild Babies ep 1: A documentary about baby animals in the wild, which I wouldn't normally include in my media diet except I needed to complain that I hate when nature documentaries cut together different times and locations to try and make something more dramatic. All you need are cute babies! There's enough drama from the natural world, it's annoying and misleading to do this.

Everything Everywhere All at Once: Interdimensional, mostly zany adventure, with a dash of family feelings. I found most of the humor spot on and hilarious! My mom's friends thought it was more for our generation than hers, and I think the humor is the reason. I... am not sure the family feelings or times when it tried to be ~meaningful~ worked for me. Enjoyed it, but (IMO) not very deep / thought provoking (either on the scifi or nihilism), more of a humor movie.

Night Bus: Short 20 min horror film set on the last bus of the night. From Neocha's review. I thought the animation style, a cut-out technique, was very interesting, though the story was whatever.

Legend of Yunze s1+special: A webdrama, with very short (~2 min) episodes, only showing the highlights / outline of the story; s1 is a xianxia setting and the special is modern. S1 was a little too standard plot-wise for my taste, but the special was fun. The manipulation was a lot when concentrated on just the highlights though.

Land of the Lustrous (2017 anime): The Lustrous, a crystalline species, are under constant threat of being harvested by the Lunarians, who attack frequently; the protagonist is too fragile to fight, but yearns to do so. From rushthatspeaks' rec. Beautiful color work and nice animation. The story is very compressed, which made it hard for me to really care about the characters, but the pacing also meant it kept interest high through the entire runtime. Some interesting thoughts prompted by the ability of the Lustrous to incorporate other materials into their bodies, but at the cost of losing the memories stored in those lost parts; on the other hand, if a Lustrous shatters, they can be restored as long as the pieces are rejoined. I liked it, but it's definitely not a complete story, and the manga seems very complicated...