Media Diet, February-March
Apr. 1st, 2022 20:37![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
superborbThe Silence of the Girls, by Pat Barker: A retelling of the Iliad from Briseis's perspective. I'm sure this recommendation came from dolorosa_12; I think it was in a comment somewhere, but she has a full rec post here. I found this very readable, despite the grimness and the unflinching look at war. The internal conflict and emotion of Briseis is a focus and particularly subtly well done. I did think it was a little uneven in tone sometimes in ways that were jarring; I can't quite put my finger on why, but maybe it was the modernisms that some other reviewers complained about? Also, as any retelling goes, it's hard to build up suspense when you know exactly what's going to happen, and this one does faithfully follow all the beats. But worth a read if the premise sounds appealing for sure!
Is That a Fish in Your Ear, by David Bellos: A series of essays on the topic of translation. I don't know if it's because evidence was cut in order to suit a general audience, but the main frustrating flaw was that the balance was frequently too far into 'strong opinion strongly stated' without any evidence. For example, I tweeted this in frustration, where he claims that repeating the gestures along with an interpretation is amusing because only a child could think that was translation, but I disagree that that's why the joke works? Just many points where I had a 'what, no' reaction. However, there was PLENTY of interesting detail--the chapters on international law and how translation is treated in the UN were particularly new to me--and enough insight to keep interest. Like, "the irresistible desire of words to mean something else" is just a banger quote. Worth a read if it's a topic you're interested in; not sure it's on my list of riveting nonfiction.
Amelia Bedelia voyage! by Herman Parish, translated by Patrick Moisan: Part of a continuation of the Amelia Bedelia books centered around her as a child; in this book, she goes on a road trip with her family and learns to fish. I wasn't sure if I'd find it very funny given how much they rely on word play, but I guess these new ones aren't as full of puns as I remember the old ones being? There were a few that I caught. I guess I can read chapter books in French, which is mildly shocking? But it's hard to tell if I didn't find it as funny because: a) my French is bad, b) I'm no longer the target age, or c) the new ones really aren't as good.
Disfigured, by Amanda Leduc, read by Amanda Barker (DNF): On disability in fairy tales. I really liked the reader for this. I... found the content superficial, with very little depth in either the fairy tale analysis or the disability studies angle. It also was sometimes defensive in a way that I associate negatively with people who are Too Online, with respect to the author's whiteness. I stopped after the (very uncritical) section about how the author so envied and wanted the princess-ness of Kate Middleton. I guess my main problem with these kinds of pop academic books is they so rarely have the rigor; there was no argument or persuasive thrust and it was very fluffy.
My Brilliant Friend, by Elena Ferrante, translated by Ann Goldstein: The first book in a series about the lives of two girls growing up in poverty and violence outside Naples, which covers their childhood. The reviews discussing the translation choices in the book are mostly about specific turns of phrase or generally that Italian is more free, but the general sentence structure is so unusual that I wonder that is from Italian or the original prose. I've read a few other Italian translations, but not extensively enough to guess. The book is very mm, literary fiction? Despite being very distinctly set in a specific region and time, it didn't have that sense of place that really grips me. Maybe because it is so introspective and feelings based that it doesn't leave room to explore the world? However, the friendship between the two girls, the push and pull and uneasiness of it, was very interesting. The transition about the preoccupations of a small girl to teenager were also well done. I won't be finishing the series, I think, but this book was enjoyable enough.
Heathers (West End Cast Recording): Heathers the Musical is a black comedy with CW for bullying, suicide, sexual assault, bulimia, school violence, drug use. I really like the Off-Broadway cast album, mostly because Jessica Keenan Wynn has an /excellent/ voice and is a great Heather Chandler. Anyway, I listened to the West End recording, and I was surprised by the changes they had made? Some of the changes seemed odd-- at first like they were censored for sex or language, but then everything else was intact so...? Anyway, they replaced a song I didn't like with a few new ones, but I kind of felt that inserting new songs after the musical was complete meant those songs don't really move the action forward? Which usually leads to a weak /musical/ song and it's no different here, even though I would independently really like "I Say No," and have listened to it a bunch.
Modao Zushi season 3: The final season of the MDZS donghua. Despite some notable flaws in episodes 1-11, I thought it had some nice tight timing (both comedic and plot), so I was happily watching along until-- the total trainwreck of episode 12, when they tried to tie up every single loose end in 20 minutes aka epic levels of emotional whiplash. Whatever disaster happened to the last episode caused the emotional evacuation of the WWC-LSZ relationship, a truly 'JL abandoned by all uncle units' ending, and the most emotionally confusing choices when they finally decide to pay JC's voice actor and give him lines. The pre-ep 12 criticism is that it really made the situation more black and white (for the tighter plot), leading to a way more evil / less sympathetic JGY; they also had JC just stand there during scenes in a sexy lamp fashion. It turns out the complicated emotions around/of those two are really important for the emotional beats of the story! Small notes: Do the zombies have long fingernails because of how nails might appear to grow after death? The ski lift Jinlin Tai stairs (thanksx_los ) are amazing. The donghua settles on A Qing instead of Jing as CQL did. Anyway, I did enjoy eps 1-11, even if they had flaws! Just! Ep 12?!?!?!
Dune (2021): The adaptation of the novel, which enough people said they liked that I was interested. (I've not read the book, so this is movie-only thoughts with some cultural osmosis.) I thought the uneasiness and foreshadowing of the eventual subversion of the messiah trope was particularly well done-- subtle, carefully done, and stood the test of time. The violent stereotypes drawn on for the Fremen... less so. The change of the associations of the name Jessica since 1965 is also mildly amusing. Overall, it was fine as a big budget scifi film, with attendant levels of cool visuals, perhaps a little more plotty than most.
Ascension (2021): Documentary about various lives in China, presented without commentary, though the dramatic music choices and cuts speak for themselves. The juxtaposition of the model saying "I'm going to get heatstroke" with the gardener weeding is a little caused by the translation though-- it's more like, going to get sunburned, and generally I felt like the attempts to engender contrast could have been done with a more subtle hand. Some very cinematic scenes, most of which made it to the trailer. IDK that I'd recommend it to everyone, but if you like meandering documentaries, I did enjoy watching it.
Turning Red: The latest Pixar, about a Chinese Canadian 13 year old for whom puberty comes with the startling curse of turning into an enormous red panda. I livetweeted it here! I thoroughly enjoyed it; it is pretty unsubtle in jokes, metaphors, and foreshadowing, but in a straightforward kid movie way. It did not hit my embarrassment squick! It did make me cry twice, but I'm an easy crier haha. rot13 spoiler: V qba'g trarenyyl ybir gur ohyyl-orpbzrf-sevraq fgbelyvar, ohg gurl gevrq uneq gb znxr uvz yvxnoyr naq nyfb orvat guerngrarq ol n tvnag erq cnaqn vf cbffvoyl n yvsr-nygrevat rkcrevrapr. There are also inexplicable backstory gaps, mostly related to how they tried to structure this Chinese Canadian family, but the kind I can ignore while watching. I thought the feelings of it worked well overall, so I'd definitely recommend!
PlanD (youtube): Chill home vlog (mostly cooking and eating). I found these quite soothing, so I wanted to rec them! I think watching tzuyang's mukbangs has finally inured me to the weirdness of watching someone eat on video hahaha, allowing me to just bask in this genre of Korean home vloggers. There's several, but thus far PlanD has been my favorite of the genre.
dolorosa_12; I think it was in a comment somewhere, but she has a full rec post here. I found this very readable, despite the grimness and the unflinching look at war. The internal conflict and emotion of Briseis is a focus and particularly subtly well done. I did think it was a little uneven in tone sometimes in ways that were jarring; I can't quite put my finger on why, but maybe it was the modernisms that some other reviewers complained about? Also, as any retelling goes, it's hard to build up suspense when you know exactly what's going to happen, and this one does faithfully follow all the beats. But worth a read if the premise sounds appealing for sure! Is That a Fish in Your Ear, by David Bellos: A series of essays on the topic of translation. I don't know if it's because evidence was cut in order to suit a general audience, but the main frustrating flaw was that the balance was frequently too far into 'strong opinion strongly stated' without any evidence. For example, I tweeted this in frustration, where he claims that repeating the gestures along with an interpretation is amusing because only a child could think that was translation, but I disagree that that's why the joke works? Just many points where I had a 'what, no' reaction. However, there was PLENTY of interesting detail--the chapters on international law and how translation is treated in the UN were particularly new to me--and enough insight to keep interest. Like, "the irresistible desire of words to mean something else" is just a banger quote. Worth a read if it's a topic you're interested in; not sure it's on my list of riveting nonfiction.
Amelia Bedelia voyage! by Herman Parish, translated by Patrick Moisan: Part of a continuation of the Amelia Bedelia books centered around her as a child; in this book, she goes on a road trip with her family and learns to fish. I wasn't sure if I'd find it very funny given how much they rely on word play, but I guess these new ones aren't as full of puns as I remember the old ones being? There were a few that I caught. I guess I can read chapter books in French, which is mildly shocking? But it's hard to tell if I didn't find it as funny because: a) my French is bad, b) I'm no longer the target age, or c) the new ones really aren't as good.
Disfigured, by Amanda Leduc, read by Amanda Barker (DNF): On disability in fairy tales. I really liked the reader for this. I... found the content superficial, with very little depth in either the fairy tale analysis or the disability studies angle. It also was sometimes defensive in a way that I associate negatively with people who are Too Online, with respect to the author's whiteness. I stopped after the (very uncritical) section about how the author so envied and wanted the princess-ness of Kate Middleton. I guess my main problem with these kinds of pop academic books is they so rarely have the rigor; there was no argument or persuasive thrust and it was very fluffy.
My Brilliant Friend, by Elena Ferrante, translated by Ann Goldstein: The first book in a series about the lives of two girls growing up in poverty and violence outside Naples, which covers their childhood. The reviews discussing the translation choices in the book are mostly about specific turns of phrase or generally that Italian is more free, but the general sentence structure is so unusual that I wonder that is from Italian or the original prose. I've read a few other Italian translations, but not extensively enough to guess. The book is very mm, literary fiction? Despite being very distinctly set in a specific region and time, it didn't have that sense of place that really grips me. Maybe because it is so introspective and feelings based that it doesn't leave room to explore the world? However, the friendship between the two girls, the push and pull and uneasiness of it, was very interesting. The transition about the preoccupations of a small girl to teenager were also well done. I won't be finishing the series, I think, but this book was enjoyable enough.
Heathers (West End Cast Recording): Heathers the Musical is a black comedy with CW for bullying, suicide, sexual assault, bulimia, school violence, drug use. I really like the Off-Broadway cast album, mostly because Jessica Keenan Wynn has an /excellent/ voice and is a great Heather Chandler. Anyway, I listened to the West End recording, and I was surprised by the changes they had made? Some of the changes seemed odd-- at first like they were censored for sex or language, but then everything else was intact so...? Anyway, they replaced a song I didn't like with a few new ones, but I kind of felt that inserting new songs after the musical was complete meant those songs don't really move the action forward? Which usually leads to a weak /musical/ song and it's no different here, even though I would independently really like "I Say No," and have listened to it a bunch.
Modao Zushi season 3: The final season of the MDZS donghua. Despite some notable flaws in episodes 1-11, I thought it had some nice tight timing (both comedic and plot), so I was happily watching along until-- the total trainwreck of episode 12, when they tried to tie up every single loose end in 20 minutes aka epic levels of emotional whiplash. Whatever disaster happened to the last episode caused the emotional evacuation of the WWC-LSZ relationship, a truly 'JL abandoned by all uncle units' ending, and the most emotionally confusing choices when they finally decide to pay JC's voice actor and give him lines. The pre-ep 12 criticism is that it really made the situation more black and white (for the tighter plot), leading to a way more evil / less sympathetic JGY; they also had JC just stand there during scenes in a sexy lamp fashion. It turns out the complicated emotions around/of those two are really important for the emotional beats of the story! Small notes: Do the zombies have long fingernails because of how nails might appear to grow after death? The ski lift Jinlin Tai stairs (thanks
x_los ) are amazing. The donghua settles on A Qing instead of Jing as CQL did. Anyway, I did enjoy eps 1-11, even if they had flaws! Just! Ep 12?!?!?!Dune (2021): The adaptation of the novel, which enough people said they liked that I was interested. (I've not read the book, so this is movie-only thoughts with some cultural osmosis.) I thought the uneasiness and foreshadowing of the eventual subversion of the messiah trope was particularly well done-- subtle, carefully done, and stood the test of time. The violent stereotypes drawn on for the Fremen... less so. The change of the associations of the name Jessica since 1965 is also mildly amusing. Overall, it was fine as a big budget scifi film, with attendant levels of cool visuals, perhaps a little more plotty than most.
Ascension (2021): Documentary about various lives in China, presented without commentary, though the dramatic music choices and cuts speak for themselves. The juxtaposition of the model saying "I'm going to get heatstroke" with the gardener weeding is a little caused by the translation though-- it's more like, going to get sunburned, and generally I felt like the attempts to engender contrast could have been done with a more subtle hand. Some very cinematic scenes, most of which made it to the trailer. IDK that I'd recommend it to everyone, but if you like meandering documentaries, I did enjoy watching it.
Turning Red: The latest Pixar, about a Chinese Canadian 13 year old for whom puberty comes with the startling curse of turning into an enormous red panda. I livetweeted it here! I thoroughly enjoyed it; it is pretty unsubtle in jokes, metaphors, and foreshadowing, but in a straightforward kid movie way. It did not hit my embarrassment squick! It did make me cry twice, but I'm an easy crier haha. rot13 spoiler: V qba'g trarenyyl ybir gur ohyyl-orpbzrf-sevraq fgbelyvar, ohg gurl gevrq uneq gb znxr uvz yvxnoyr naq nyfb orvat guerngrarq ol n tvnag erq cnaqn vf cbffvoyl n yvsr-nygrevat rkcrevrapr. There are also inexplicable backstory gaps, mostly related to how they tried to structure this Chinese Canadian family, but the kind I can ignore while watching. I thought the feelings of it worked well overall, so I'd definitely recommend!
PlanD (youtube): Chill home vlog (mostly cooking and eating). I found these quite soothing, so I wanted to rec them! I think watching tzuyang's mukbangs has finally inured me to the weirdness of watching someone eat on video hahaha, allowing me to just bask in this genre of Korean home vloggers. There's several, but thus far PlanD has been my favorite of the genre.
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Date: 2022-04-04 02:00 (UTC)I've tried to read My Brilliant Friend several times and never get into it! I think the literary fiction part is just difficult for me. Maybe one day I'll make it through.
Because I listen to a lot of musicals, I've had songs from Heathers recommended in my feed but couldn't figure out what it was about exactly. Maybe I'll check out the Off Broadway one first?
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Date: 2022-04-04 12:46 (UTC)Yeah, I kind of struggled to get into My Brilliant Friend. I both see why it was acclaimed and also why I didn't love it?
Heathers the Musical is based on the movie of the same name, with an irreverent approach to issues that perhaps couldn't get away with such a flip approach today. I really listen to the Off Broadway recording on repeat though.
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Date: 2022-04-24 18:02 (UTC)Oh no, I am behind on the MDZS donghua, that sucks to hear about episode 12! But at least we still have the other media to fall back on.
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Date: 2022-04-25 14:11 (UTC)