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Apr. 27th, 2025 05:27 pm1. I got the most wonderful poems in the post from ![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
minoanmiss. Thank you! They are going to decorate my office.
2. I've been rereading the Murderbot books. I've finished all of them except Network Effect, which I just started today, and the most recently published one, which I've never read before. I love Murderbot so much.
3.
The Tempest by William Shakespeare
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
I had never read this play and had somehow gotten a completely wrong impression of it. I thought it was long and tragic and deeply serious and full of soliloquies about the nature of power and monstrosity; instead, it's really short, mostly ridiculous, and a pretty breezy read. I mean, the postcolonial reading of the play appeals to me; there's definitely some heft and interest in interpreting Prospero as the colonizer and Ariel and Caliban as the colonized. (I also like Gonzalo's reference to Montaigne's "Of Cannibals.")
I suspect this is much more fun to watch than read; I bet the buffoonery is much funnier.
I'm a little confused by what happens at the end to Caliban, Stephano, and Trinculo. Are they left behind on the island? Are they pardoned and they leave to go back to Milan? 2025 ETA: Stefano and Trinculo go back with Prospero et al, but it's not clear what happens to Caliban. I think they just leave him behind.
I'd like to see a stage production of this play, especially the gender-flipped one with Helen Mirren.
View all my reviews
The Woman in Me by Britney Spears
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
This book makes me so sad and angry. I can't believe the conservatorship she was put under is any way legal. I'm glad she's back in control of her own life.
Really potent commentary on the sexual double standard, being a woman in the entertainment industry, the legacy of family trauma, and mental illness.
View all my reviews
Buddenbrooks by Thomas Mann
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
This starts out really slowly. I was bored for about the first hundred pages. Once the book circles down from its aerial view of the family and dives more deeply into each individual character, I found myself hooked.
This is a deeply tragic book. I feel so sorry for most of the characters. Tony is forced to marry someone she doesn't love (even though her family wouldn't acknowledge the pressure they're putting on her) rather than the man she does (although I'm not certain she'd have been happy marrying that guy given the class/wealth disparity between them); then that guy turns out to be a scoundrel and a cheat. The second guy she marries is a lazy good-for-nothing, and her daughter's husband ends up a scoundrel and a deserter. Christian clearly has some sort of mental disorder as well as OCD, but I also think he has autoimmune disorders that would account for the nerve pain he experiences that everyone dismisses.
I ended up really enjoying this despite the slow start.
View all my reviews
3. the future is (a benevolent black hole) by ClassicMelancholy
Stranger Things
Steddie
Slow, happy getting together
standing up the dead by heartofwinterfell
Stranger Things
Max/Lucas, blink-and-you'll-miss-it Steddie
Max and Eddie dimension hopping post-Vecna. I love how things change in each world they visit.
minoanmiss. Thank you! They are going to decorate my office.2. I've been rereading the Murderbot books. I've finished all of them except Network Effect, which I just started today, and the most recently published one, which I've never read before. I love Murderbot so much.
3.
The Tempest by William ShakespeareMy rating: 3 of 5 stars
I had never read this play and had somehow gotten a completely wrong impression of it. I thought it was long and tragic and deeply serious and full of soliloquies about the nature of power and monstrosity; instead, it's really short, mostly ridiculous, and a pretty breezy read. I mean, the postcolonial reading of the play appeals to me; there's definitely some heft and interest in interpreting Prospero as the colonizer and Ariel and Caliban as the colonized. (I also like Gonzalo's reference to Montaigne's "Of Cannibals.")
I suspect this is much more fun to watch than read; I bet the buffoonery is much funnier.
I'm a little confused by what happens at the end to Caliban, Stephano, and Trinculo. Are they left behind on the island? Are they pardoned and they leave to go back to Milan? 2025 ETA: Stefano and Trinculo go back with Prospero et al, but it's not clear what happens to Caliban. I think they just leave him behind.
I'd like to see a stage production of this play, especially the gender-flipped one with Helen Mirren.
View all my reviews
The Woman in Me by Britney SpearsMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
This book makes me so sad and angry. I can't believe the conservatorship she was put under is any way legal. I'm glad she's back in control of her own life.
Really potent commentary on the sexual double standard, being a woman in the entertainment industry, the legacy of family trauma, and mental illness.
View all my reviews
Buddenbrooks by Thomas MannMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
This starts out really slowly. I was bored for about the first hundred pages. Once the book circles down from its aerial view of the family and dives more deeply into each individual character, I found myself hooked.
This is a deeply tragic book. I feel so sorry for most of the characters. Tony is forced to marry someone she doesn't love (even though her family wouldn't acknowledge the pressure they're putting on her) rather than the man she does (although I'm not certain she'd have been happy marrying that guy given the class/wealth disparity between them); then that guy turns out to be a scoundrel and a cheat. The second guy she marries is a lazy good-for-nothing, and her daughter's husband ends up a scoundrel and a deserter. Christian clearly has some sort of mental disorder as well as OCD, but I also think he has autoimmune disorders that would account for the nerve pain he experiences that everyone dismisses.
I ended up really enjoying this despite the slow start.
View all my reviews
3. the future is (a benevolent black hole) by ClassicMelancholy
Stranger Things
Steddie
Slow, happy getting together
standing up the dead by heartofwinterfell
Stranger Things
Max/Lucas, blink-and-you'll-miss-it Steddie
Max and Eddie dimension hopping post-Vecna. I love how things change in each world they visit.
