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Some Thoughts On Some Books I Read This Year
Not an exhaustive list, nor presented in any particular order, just
based on what came to mind first. Not directly related to TTRPGs in the
way the rest of the blog is, but if my mind goes there they’ll come up.
I will not shy away from spoilers.
Serpents Reach by C.J. Cherryh
Cherryh has been a scifi blindspot for me for a while and this was the
first of her work that I’ve read. I liked it a lot. The Dune-style
politicking in a wretched familial eugenics cult is well realized, as is
the xenobiology weirdness around the bug species. Politics of intimacy
particularly interesting both in the way that the underclasses of
humanity are interacted with by their immortal rulers and in the way
that you have to effectively kiss the bugs to understand them. Absolute
highlight might be the machinic revolution of the lowest class, where
humans stripped of their will and made to follow orders turn out to be
amenable to an order to engage in a self-spreading bacchanal that
obliterates the social and economic infrastructure they were made to
serve — an idea with much to unpack, but presented compellingly as a
flaw in the eugenicist class’s assumptions. I will definitely be seeking
out and reading more Cherryh.
Between Two Fires by Christopher Buehlman
An odd one. Overwhelming in its deployment of christian cosmology as
objectively true in governing the world, but so dour in the world
constructed this way that it feels almost maltheistic — but maybe that’s
just because I’ve never had a christian spiritual practice? I don’t know
the author’s personal beliefs but it certainly seems to take pains to
avoid outright religious conservatism. The best elements are firstly the
story of Mathieu, a sad gay alcoholic priest trying to square his queer
desires with the power structure he inhabits wherein desire is a
political weapon of the worst people, who is written with a lot more to
chew on than any other character; and secondly the strength of many of
the horror vignettes taken as individual scenes. In particular I like
Sister Broom, a scarecrow made animate who steals the arms of the dead
nuns who built her.
Greener Pastures by Michael Wehunt
A mostly pretty good collection of horror shorts. October Film Haunt:
Under the House is the clear standout story, definitely going
to be thinking about it a lot — the particular move to make the horror
of found footage into text form by inserting itself into the work of
editing and blogging about horror is a fantastic idea, and when the
unknown force announces its desire to finish the movie being made it is
a really delightful maneuver. Really makes me want to run the found
footage inspired Lowlife campaign I’ve had ideas for. The rest of the
stories range from quite good (Beside Me Singing In The Wilderness,
Onanon) to okayish (the title story fell a lil flat). The repeat
invocation of turning into a bird is interesting to me. The focus on
heterosexual partnership and parenthood is a lil more tiresome when
reading the back half in particular. Still not sure what to make of the
invocation of a mysterious and spooky woman with an erection in A
Discreet Music: it is abrupt enough to not have time to coalesce into
specifically transphobia-as-horror, but it also never feels like it
coalesces into anything that’s not that. Theres ways to take it
charitably and ways to very much not.
Sensor by Junji Ito
I’ve liked Ito’s more well known stuff for a while (especially a fan of
Gyo) and this was a real delight to add to that. I love when a brain is
a cloud is a lava flow is a library of all possible knowledge. I love
when an evil goth girl is controlling the traffic mirrors to hunt you. I
love when there’s a horrible bug that sucks. Just lovely to look at in a
way that makes the pretty cool modern occultism story punch above its
weight.
Cruel Optimism by Lauren Berlant
A really valuable book. Nothing I can say about it is as smart as the
book itself. If you have complicated feelings about the comprimises made
in achieving a good life under capitalism and whether they even work,
this book will be useful in thinking it through. Dovetails with my
interest in Ranciere very well. There’s meat on the idea of reading
gold-for-xp as a relationship of cruel optimism I bet.
Side Affects: On Being Trans And Feeling Bad by Hil Malatino
A reread, done after Cruel Optimism, which it cites extensively. A
really useful set of thoughts and reading around the complicated network
of things mediating what is permissible or not to express about
transness in what setting. Felt good to see thoughts that have cropped
up for me organically be expanded on, to see iterations I wouldn’t have
personally gotten to, and to be pointed at other reading.
The Hall of the Singing Caryatids by Victor Pelevin
I really liked this one. A short weird sci-fi about bodies as commodity,
the weird relationship of capitalist russia to its own history, and also
what if you were always secretly a praying mantis. Highly recommend
it.
Babel-17 by Samuel Delany
Another reread, explicitly done for the purpose of using ideas in it in
a scifi ttrpg project. It’s so damn good: Delany’s vision of a future
where you can get fursona surgery that helps you pilot a spaceship is
compelling without ever being twee or naively utopic. I love the
complicated interplay of human social positions that mediate various
relationships (for example: polycules allowed to exist because they can
do the job of a dune navigator in aggregate, but that utility being the
only reason conservatism tolerates them hanging over many heads).
Compelling weirdos in space, compelling use of sapir-whorf that feels
cool to read even when it really stretches what it can do. Particularly
fond of the ghosts that are illegal to remember talking to — I had
forgotten how funny it was when a conservative beurocrat walks through a
neighborhood of discorporate beings and is repeatedly scammed out of
money while immediately forgetting this happened to him, so that he is
shocked to have less cash on him every time he checks his wallet.