july round up

[agletbaby]

hello! i spent the vast majority of july away from home, which means two things.
1) due to time and devices had, there's chunks of the internet i didn't access for a while there. including dreamwidth, so sorry if i missed anything!
2) my consumption habits were a little weird. i watched way less than usual, but had a strong reading month. which has ramifications for Posts Like This. this is my first month on dw and therefore my first month doing one of these, but i don't know if it'll set any kind of useful template going forward. just trying things out


(i am now back in my flat. that's also weird. i keep sleeping in...)


that said, here's what i read/watched this month:


read

👍therese ranquin, emile zola

• see my post

👎the queen charlotte bridgerton spin off novelisation

• it's a bridgerton spin off novelisation
• i basically acquired it as an in-joke, but felt i ought to read it. it's not very good, and it's also gets rid of all the stuff that made the tv show interesting. if you want a romance, either to lightly enjoy or to criticise (which is an interesting exercise with queen charlotte, the premise being frankly wack), the show is better.

👎psychogeography, merlin coverley

• theoretically, this was an introduction to psychogeography.
• except i thought this totally failed as an introduction. both made strange assumptions of knowledge, and was weirdly limited in its scope too.

👍the count of monte christo, alexandre dumas

• long book about revenge.
• i've been reading this for a couple of months, but finally powered through the last half over about 10 days this july. on the one hand, it's very long, and there's a bit of a lull in the middle. but, the first 300 (?) pages and the last 400 (? pages sort of mean nothing when there are this many) are so fun, and that's still a ton of good book for your buck. like, there's a point towards the end of the book (still hundreds of pages left) where dominos start falling, and literally every chapter after (and they're short chapters) has an exciting revelation. overall, lots of murder. lots of sailing. lots of secret identities. a nice romance. a deeply awful romance which actually really dampens the ending. i don't like everything dumas does - the count particularly is a figure i feel kind of conflicted and unconvinced by. but i am glad i've read it, and i had a good time.

👍the employees, olga ravn

• interviews with the human and humanoid (robot) residents of a spaceship.
• it took me a chunk of reading to be convinced by this, but that's okay, because this one's short! the beginning reads to me like a creative writing class 'respond imaginatively to an object' exercise, partly because that's lowkey what it was. but the story (which feels like the wrong word) grows complex and knotty (also feels inadequate) in ways that i found fulfilling (maybe) and impactful (yeah).

👍foundation and empire, isaac asimov

• the second foundation book. (as opposed to second foundation which is the third)
• one thing i find weird when people talk about the foundation series is that everyone seems to have agreed that it's scifi but like, boring. theoretical. i went in expecting a thought-experiment or something. but these bad boys have plot. yes asimov clearly hates writing action but action still happens - it's just off screen. on screen, there's all sorts of scheming and negotiation. there's a plot twist at the end of this one! anyway, i really like this sort of style/era of scifi, and i really liked this. i also really enjoyed asimov's writing here.

👍the shipping news, annie proulx

• guy moves to newfoundland.
• speaking of liking writing styles. the plot here, for me, is entirely secondary to proulx's tremendous capacity to arrange words in groups. she's so good. i feel like reading this has forced me to reconceptualise my entire understanding of sentences: they don't have to be long to be interesting! there's some really good metaphors and similes here, she's great at conjuring moods. a reading experience to take notes about.

🫱illuminations: essays and reflections, walter benjamin

• a collection of literary criticism plus.
• i use benjamin a lot, but in a selective ways, mostly picking up an essay as it seems relevant and then focusing in on the sections which resonate with me. i will continue to do that. there was a lot of valuable stuff in here, and i'm glad i have read it all, but it was also very hard work. if you want somewhere to start, i recommend 'unpacking my book collection', which was the last standalone essay i read before attempting this collection, and probably lulled me into the false sense of security which led to me reading a whole book of benjamin's dense theory.

watched

why didn't they ask evans? (2022)

• three part agatha christie adaption.
• pretty good! i needed something distracting but familiar to put on after a tiring week and it fit the bill. if you've seen any christie tv adaption you know broadly what to expect. i thought the reveal was a bit artlessly done, but it's not that it's a bad resolution, it's just the way it was filmed. got me considering how the reveal is a real art in mystery fiction. would love to know any faves/stand outs.

black narcissus (1947)

• nuns set up shop in the himalayas
• this is a gorgeous, eerie visual experience. i've also been intermittently thinking about nunneries ever since. truly what a fascinating situation to put people in: isolated, close, rigerous and moral. i really think they're such an interesting setting. one of my favourite books is the prime of miss jean brodie, and this story really got me reevaluating the minor-but-key nun stuff in that one. i'd like to read the black narcissus novel, and muriel spark's other nun book. also really got me hype for the nun ii (#nun2sweep) (not really, but i am separately hype about the nun movie, i could enthuse for hours about the conjurings)

the darjeeling limited (2007)

• wes anderson actors take a train across india
• i really liked asteroid city. couldn't tell you why, or what it means; not even what it means to me. but i found it deeply moving nonetheless. which reminded me there's only a handful of anderson films i've not seen, and could easily catch up on, this being one. this having been one. because i watched it. i liked it, i found it touching, i think it enters the fairly large bunch of anderson films that i like well enough, but that's it. however, it is the kind of film that i think i would enjoy hearing someone who really likes it talk to me about.

the box (2009)

• i don't know how to explain this one. cameron diaz and james marsden get given a box and an ethical dilemna?
• a movie of constant movement. you never know what's happening - but it's so fun to speculate in the moments where you catch your breath. i really liked this, in the same way i liked fincher's the game: less about quality or message, more about the thrill of the unfolding (unboxing?). thinking about it whilst writing this is making me want to rewatch it, which in itself is a pretty glowing review.

red eye (2005)

• cillian murphy and rachel mcadams have an airport meet-cute. it's a thriller
• it's fun! the tension's good, there's some mildly gross violence, both leads give actually great performances. i love a noughties thriller, and this is a first class one. something prime to watch with friends, i think, which is what i did.

hoodwinked! (2005)

• little red riding hood, if it was rashomon by way of shrek
• to me, this is the funniest film of all time. although i did watch it a lot as a child so i'm deeply biased. however, i think it stands up? like, you could do a live action adaptation of this, call it knives out 3, and nobody would know. (this is a lie, but mostly because half the cast are animals.)

oppenheimer (2023)

• the one that's in the cinema atm
• i thought this was quite objectively really good. it's so carefully crafted, and feels so intentional in the story it's telling. i think most of the jokes (all those tweets about reveals of famous historical figures being like in marvel ughhhh) and discourse vastly misses the point. nolan seems to know exactly what story he's telling, and exactly how callous and short-sighted that story was made by the people in it. and he's clearly deeply interested in that. and it's interesting. also this film whizzes by, in a way few three hour films ever do (the batman and zodiac are the only ones that spring to mind)

odd episodes of the witcher and his dark materials, and foundation s2

• i'm not a tv person, but i spent a few days with my parents, who are. and honestly, it was fun! i will be carrying on with foundation (perhaps expect a post on adaption choices?), and i'd like to watch more of the other two too. it helps that i've either already watched a series (the witcher/foundation) or have the book deeply imbedded in my soul (northern lights). actually, it also made me want to reread hdm and carry on with the witcher book series, and obviously i already finished my next foundation novel. which is the issue with tv: there's too many other things i want to do, so i get distracted and never finish.

(no hands for this section, because i'd broadly recommend everything)




i wanted to do another little sub-category of assorted other things, but i can't think of enough off the top of my head, so here's a few random bits to end on.

• i read the wikipedia page on the fermi paradox on a beach, and had a great time. it's like, wow, physics. aliens. the universe. i actually come back to it every couple of years and always feel inspired and discombobulated.
• i'm really into the brian david alvarez's intern videos rn (i love the phrase 'elegant walk' in this one): the way he pronounces things really brings me joy, it opens up a whole new world of words.
• i just started weaving again, last night, so hopefully i bring that forward into next month! and also just started death's end, which is the last three body problem book. i'd also like to read great expectations, dangerous liasons, and barthes' mythologies in august. we'll see! august can be busy: it's my birthday month, and the only one where the city i live gets properly interesting, so it may be a bit of a juggle.

Comments

[virgomoon]

been returning to the fermi paradox wikipedia page perennially since i was in 9th grade so i really feel you there with the feeling discombobulated and awed and everything that the fermi paradox entails... with this vein, i raise you this video which introduced me to it and also i think is so well made.

really appreciate a round-up post, makes me think deeply about media other people have watched/read/imbibed and what they have to say about it and how that affects what i might/already do think about it. keep em comin <3

[agletbaby]

oh thank u for the vid i'm excited to watch... wikipedia is the only medium i've ever experienced the fermi paradox in but maybe not the best one.

is there anything u particularly like to see in a round-up post, either in terms of content or formatting? i love rounding up but it's not something i'm used to dojng publically?

[shrimpchipsss]

YOU READ FAST...

I'm really intrigued by the employees! might have to go looking for that

[agletbaby]

i do but i also had a lot of time to read! there's not usually so much to report...

and yess, give the employees a go, it's definitely worth the time