Er, it's still wednesday in north america, right?

[frayadjacent]

Reading meme!

What I've read lately

I re-read The Last Unicorn by Peter S. Beagle a few weeks ago, then got busy with work starting and haven't read much else.   I grew up on the animated film, which I still love, and didn't read the book for the first time till my early 20's.  In many ways they're pretty similar -- Beagle wrote the screenplay -- which means that for significant portions of the book I can actually hear the film's dialogue as I read.  (Did I mention I watched that movie a lot?  It and The Black Stallion were my childhood movie staples.)  However, the book develops Schmendrick and Lir quite a bit more and is quite a bit less romantic about Amalthea/Lir.  I dunno, I still love the way the book explores -- and turns on its head -- the highly gendered notions of innocence that prevail in these sorts of fairy tales.  "Beasts don't go on quests, but young girls do."  It still breaks my heart when Schmendrick turns the unicorn into a human.  But I still love who she becomes at the end.  And of course Molly Grue still rocks my socks.  The book doesn't have anything to say about the ways that purity and innocence are racialized, though, except to perpetuate it.  It's especially noticeable when the unicorn becomes Amalthea, and suddenly it's not a white unicorn that everyone's carrying on about, but a very pale white woman.

What I'm reading now

I just started Alif the Unseen, recommended by yasaman in this meme!  I've only read the zeroth and first chapters, but I'm already getting pulled in.  

I've also been reading A PhD is Not Enough!  Which, yeah, I'm not gonna talk about that here.

Anything else?

I am way behind on my Elementary fic!  I blame lack of internet.  However, I'm also determined to leave comments on fic I've read recently (er, within the last few months...) before I start more.

Comments

[kass]

I loved Alif the Unseen. G. Willow Wilson is awesome with awesomesauce.

[frayadjacent]

Yeah, it's been great so far!