Month(s) in Review: February and March 2022

[elenothar]

Says a lot that I managed to do one monthly review post at an appropriate time before crashing and burning. Figured it'd make more sense to just shove the two months together, particularly since March was... not a great month (read: busy at work, health issues, and a death in the family), so I didn't do a lot.

First off, thanks to the kind soul who paid for an account upgrade! <3 I'm having a lot of fun with the increased icon count and am eyeing that Guardian mood theme...

TV and movies

Three movies this time (I think? The problem with doing these review posts too late is that my memory is already going again): the new Dune film (pretty and some good acting from mostly side-characters, but otherwise un-engaging), Embrace Again (surprisingly good, and to no one's surprise I liked Zhu Yilong in it), and Drum Youth, which is Zhu Yilong's first movie (? possibly? He's very baby-faced anyway) and pretty decent, though I don't much care for high school settings.

On the TV front, I'm still bouncing off of things, but I did watch Wheel of Time, which was largely enjoyable, kept up with all my watchalongs and re-watched Our Song, the Chinese music competition show of Qingshenshen fame (a comfort watch, basically).

Books

Most of Seven Years in Tibet until I got distracted, a good chunk of the Chinese classic Journey to the West (translated by Anthony C. Yu, the unabridged version), Ursula K. LeGuin's Left Hand of Darkness, which was a very interesting read, and Amitav Ghosh's Sea of Poppies, which was very vivid and well-written, but generally reminded me of why I don't often read 'literary' novels, i.e. why do they always have to be so grim. I also re-read one of my favourites, Tanya Huff's Sing the Four Quarters

Fandom activities

I signed up for the Guardian 520 exchange, which I'm very excited for. Assignments will go out next week, so hopefully I'll jive with mine and get writing on that. Guardian Bingo is proceeding apace - I have strong doubts I'll be able to fill all the squares, even in a year, but I'm giving it a good go.

I posted four fics in February and March, two in each month (which seems a fairly standard rate for me these days - Guardian continues to be very good to my writing muse).

Variable (Guardian, 7.5k, my take on tiny dragon Shen Wei)

Gilded (Lost Tomb Reboot, 5.5k, part of a series of us stabbing poor Wu Xie)

Delusions of Universality (Guardian, 1.5k, Dixingren & gender & Shen Wei)

what the weave tells you (Guardian, 4k, intimate Weilan featuring non-sexual dark energy bondage (no, I don't know what I was doing there either...))

Here's to hoping April is a better month overall. Hope everyone is keeping well!

Comments

[elenothar]

You said it, honestly, I feel as if there's an unwritten rule in a lot of literary fiction that the characters have to be unlikable (or else trauma-laden, or both) and you're not supposed to come away from it feeling better about anything. Really a murder mystery should not be a happier reading experience than a literary novel, and yet they often are!

Exactly! And it honestly drives me nuts. I took a creative writing course once and it was clear that a) the instructor thought only literary fiction counted as a worthwhile endeavour and b)all literary fiction has to be dark. I barely made it through some of the reading in that course because it was so far past my comfort level. In short, a whole lot of bs.

Continuing to be impressed about your ability to produce a steady stream of high-quality fics. I'm looking forward to what everyone comes up with for the 520 exchange! (/selfish spectator)

I'm trying to be more positive about my writing, so I'll just take that compliment and be happy <3

There's going to be So Much 520 stuff in May, so many people signed up. It'll be great.

I really want to watch Embrace Again, for Z1L (at the piano yet!) and for Wuhan dialect, but I don't feel up to it right now. (I mean, The Rebel is objectively a whole lot grimmer, I imagine, but at least it's not happening now, knock wood. You know what I mean.) Would be glad to hear more about what you thought of it, anyway.

Z1L at the piano was an absolute gift, and his whole character was adorable (TM). In general, I enjoyed the storytelling in the film - it's one of those 'several narrative strands that intersect at times' set-ups, and it worked really well imo. I got invested in several characters that were not played by Z1L, so that's a plus (and mildly surprising XD), too. I was pleased that I could distinguish some of the Wuhan dialect features (and yes, the whole film is in that dialect), which was a lot of fun. All the s instead of sh...
For what it's worth, the Rebel is absolutely a whole lot grimmer, but I did cry several times during the movie (I cry easily though, so ymmv). I thought they handled the whole pandemic setting pretty well, but I do understand that others might be more sensitive to this than I.

[nnozomi]

I am literally a whole month late how did that happen (and you've written more great fics in the interim, ditto), but I meant to thank you for explaining more about Embrace Again, especially the Wuhan dialect! I'm going to wait and see if it ever makes it to Japan and then maybe I can bring myself to watch it?
<3

[elenothar]

*gestures vaguely* Time keeps... happening. I don't know where the year has gone either.

It's not a film I'd recommend watching when you're already down/sad, but I do generally recommend it. Though also I've watched some truly awful films in my time just for a specific actor, so I don't know how valid an opinion that is. Maybe watch it with someone else? That way you can yell about it/point out all those instances of hey dialect! (... I absolutely did that, my poor watching partner had to put up with a lot ;)