Month in Review: September 2022

[elenothar]

Not much to report for this one - September is always busy, what with the start of the new academic year, and we also had guests for long stretches of time (by my standards), which ate up what little free time I had.

TV and movies

I watched Zhu Yilong's most recent movie Lighting up the Stars - not entirely my thing (mostly due to the type of characters involved), but the acting was good and so were the family feels, and I liked seeing the way Wuhan was portrayed.

Started a rewatch of Who Rules the World with folks on Discord, which remains fun and fairly undemanding. Other group watches still going on include Ultimate Note (not really capturing my attention, alas), The Rebel, Love and Redemption, very occasional Nirvana in Fire. I've given up on Romance of Tiger and Rose, which I know a lot of people like, but it's just too much secondhand embarrassment a la romantic comedy and the whole thing is a bit too, idk, stylised? for me.

I haven't been watching any fiction on my own because no time, and also I often find it hard to settle on something to watch when I'm not mid-series with something, so I just end up doing something else. Quite a bit of British comedy panel shows though...



Books

Several, for once! I now live near a library branch, and am taking full advantage.

- Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir: very fun, some interesting language ideas, and prose and characters that make it a very smooth, easy read (in German I'd say 'kurzweilig'). Felt very similar in style to The Martian
- The Way Spring Arrives and Other Stories: a translated anthology of Chinese short fiction; I enjoyed it a lot.
- Seraphina by Rachel Hartmann: I read it for relevance to my research re: music in fantasy, but it wasn't my cup of tea. Very politics and intrigue
- Dragonsong by Anne McCaffrey: read for the same reason; a brief and nostalgic read, it's got that McCaffrey/Lackey/etc vibe. A bit too YA to really capture my attention though
- the first two volumes of the English print translation Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation
- Herland by Charlotte Perkins Gilman: read for work reasons; not super my cup of tea either (stories that stray towards utopia usually aren't), but interesting for a look at early 20C feminism

I also finished She Who Became the Sun (Shelley Parker-Chan), which is a strong rec as predicted, and started The Curse of Chalion (Lois McMaster Bujold), because she's an author I usually like.


Fandom

The only reason there's anything much to report here is because Guardian wishlist fic finally went live (though, in my case, it was written long beforehans). I'm very pleased with and grateful for the wonderful gifts I received: art for my fic Treaty-Bound by acoyotewhowanders, a ficlet about Shen Wei knitting by tinypinkmouse, a fic about Dixingren music by nnozomi and a domestic weilan double drabble by trobadora. Links to all at this DW post.

Wishlist contributions:

Knell (Chu Shuzhi & Shen Wei, 2.7k)

Changing like the Seasons (weilan wingfic, 3.3k)

Distraction Level: Lethal (Shen Wei holding a baby, 1.5k + mixed media, art by teyla

Breath In (The Rebel, Lin Nansheng/Zuo Qiuming, 1.5k)

Outside of wishlist:

Tresses (Shen Wei & Cheng Xinyan, 1.2k)

Comments

[profiterole_reads]

Have you watched other DMBJ series? Ultimate Note is one of the strongest, so I'm curious if you like other parts.

[elenothar]

I've watched Reboot, LT1 and LT2 (also Time Raiders) - I'm still missing LT2.5 and Sand Sea, both of which I'll get around to eventually. I can't say I really agree with Ultimate Note being one of the strongest (though I do hear that it's the closest to the books it's adapted from, which is not a dimension I can judge since I've read only a very little bit of the books so far), but most of that is personal preference.

(I'm happy to elaborate, I'm just conscious of other people liking it and have no interest in harshing anyone else's joy with personal opinions, so I'm keeping it vague unless you're specifically curious about my reasons ❤)

[profiterole_reads]

I've seen Reboot, the donghua, Ultimate Note and Sand Sea, and find the latter two strongest, but since we have few series in common (this franchise is so big), that might explain it.

(Let's just have fun and not go into harshing anything.)

[elenothar]

Agreed on just having fun! It's one of the nice things about a sprawling franchise like this - everyone will find their corner :D

[tinny]

Quite a bit of British comedy panel shows though...

Same. It's weird how i now have *three* layers of distraction shows. The British comedy stuff is the lowest tier. /o\ (Not that it's bad! Just that my brain wants to avoid watching other stuff that I *think* I should watch but dont wanna.)

[elenothar]

They're just funny and low effort. And let us vaguely keep up with UK news.

[trobadora]

Ultimate Note didn't do it for me either; of the DMBJ shows I've seen it was my least favourite. Good to know I'm not alone with that, given it's so popular!

the first two volumes of the English print translation Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation

How did you enjoy it? I got the German official translation instead myself.

[elenothar]

It seems to be the prevailing opinion in the Friday discord watchalong, but then we all skew towards Reboot, I think, so perhaps it's not surprising.

How did you enjoy it?

It's good reading - the English flows and it doesn't do that 'translate all terms and/or names' thing that I dislike. That said, I've never read any of the previously out translations, and my Chinese isn't good enough yet to attempt the original, so I can't really pass judgment on how good a translation it is.

[trobadora]

Sha Hai is at the top for me along with Reboot, and I don't think I'm the only one, so I'd say it's not just the Reboot effect? *g*

(If you're watching Sha Hai next I may have to try and be there for that timeslot as well ...)

Glad you're enjoying it! I did read the original English fan translation first, and I was really curious about how it would read in German, so I went for that instead. (Really fun read! Some translation weirdnesses, but they don't bother me much.)

[elenothar]

We'll be watching Sha Hai next, yeah. I should probably try to watch it before then so I don't get overwhelmed trying to keep up with show, subs, and chat...

Interesting re: the German translation. I do like looking at translation differences *puts linguist hat on*

[trobadora]

Yes, same here about translation differences! I wish I had more time to look at them in more detail, that would be so fascinating.

[elenothar]

I get to look at it professionally sometimes, which is nice. But it's fiddly and time-consuming

[trobadora]

I can imagine! But very neat. :D

[nnozomi]

lol, this is one of two adjacent "September roundup" posts on my f-list, both starting with "Well, nothing much to say really..." At least it was peaceful. (and thank you once again for the lovely wishlist fic! A nice addition to my permanent file.)

I haven't read Dragonsong in years and years, wow. I think the sequel Dragonsinger has more music and somewhat less whump.

Talk soon <3

[elenothar]

At least it was peaceful.

Well, I mean, the reason it was peaceful on the media and fandom front was because it wasn't peaceful in RL 😂

(Still so glad you liked the Rebel ficlet!)

Hmm, do you happen to recall if the rest of the series, i.e. Dragonsinger, has magical music? My impression from Dragonsong was that while music was super important, it was still 'normal' music used in many different ways.

[nnozomi]

Probably too late a reply to be of use, sorry, but I don't think there is any magical music per se on Pern; there is telepathy/magical dragons etc., but the music is just music as far as I remember (one reason I liked Dragonsinger, it's very conservatory-ish). So yeah, in short, your impression is correct.
(And hoping for more peaceful RL to come...)

[elenothar]

No, no, still useful. I may read it for the non-magical music, too, there's just not as much urgency attached to that.