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Wednesday Reading Meme
Oct. 14th, 2020 09:03 amWhat I’ve Just Finished Reading
After having the book out of the library for literal months (I may have actually checked it out before lockdown), I have AT LONG LAST finished Nadezhda Mandelstam’s memoir Hope against Hope. It focuses mainly on the four years between her husband Osip Mandelstam’s first arrest in 1934 and his second (and final) arrest in 1938, a grace period which she frequently refers to as “a miracle,” although it’s also clear that the hopes raised and repeatedly dashed during this reprieve were in effect a part of the state persecution designed to grind them down.
Otherwise most of my reading this week has been proofreading for Her Magical Pet, which should be coming out… tomorrow! I’ll be sure to post a link, it’s got loads of amazing stories. (And also a link to the companion volume, His Magical Pet, but I didn’t proofread that one so the only story I have read in it is my own.)
What I’m Reading Now
Still working on Mary Renault’s The Charioteer I’M SO SORRY I meant to read this faster, I know at least five of you want this review. Life has gotten away from me this week. ( Some spoilery thoughts )
I’ve also begun reading Robert Louis Stevenson’s Catriona! So far, Davie Balfour has spent the day wandering Edinburgh running errands. No sign of Alan Breck Stewart yet, but we have met the titular Catriona, full marks to Stevenson for promptitude on that one.
...Also I’ve abandoned the possibility of actually including an excerpt from my leads’ Kidnapped fic in my book, because there is no way that I can do the Lowland Scots dialogue. Readers will have to rest content with an enthusiastic discussion about the plot point where David Balfour and Alan Breck Stewart get tossed in a dungeon and the guards beat Alan for cheeking them (you know he would) and David cradles Alan’s battered head in his lap.
What I Plan to Read Next
Should I wait for the library to get Megan Whalen Turner’s Return of the Thief, or should I bow to the fact that I will inevitably want a copy and just buy it now?
After having the book out of the library for literal months (I may have actually checked it out before lockdown), I have AT LONG LAST finished Nadezhda Mandelstam’s memoir Hope against Hope. It focuses mainly on the four years between her husband Osip Mandelstam’s first arrest in 1934 and his second (and final) arrest in 1938, a grace period which she frequently refers to as “a miracle,” although it’s also clear that the hopes raised and repeatedly dashed during this reprieve were in effect a part of the state persecution designed to grind them down.
When I used to read about the French Revolution as a child, I often wondered whether it was possible to survive during a reign of terror. I now know beyond doubt that it is impossible. Anybody who breathes the air of terror is doomed, even if nominally he manages to save his life. Everybody is a victim - not only those who die, but also all the killers, ideologists, accomplices and sycophants who close their eyes or wash their hands - even if they are secretly consumed with remorse at night. Every section of the population has been through the terrible sickness caused by terror, and none has so far recovered, or become fit again for normal civic life. It is an illness that is passed on to the next generation, so that the sons pay for the sins of the fathers and perhaps only the grandchildren begin to get over it - or at least it takes a different form with them.
Otherwise most of my reading this week has been proofreading for Her Magical Pet, which should be coming out… tomorrow! I’ll be sure to post a link, it’s got loads of amazing stories. (And also a link to the companion volume, His Magical Pet, but I didn’t proofread that one so the only story I have read in it is my own.)
What I’m Reading Now
Still working on Mary Renault’s The Charioteer I’M SO SORRY I meant to read this faster, I know at least five of you want this review. Life has gotten away from me this week. ( Some spoilery thoughts )
I’ve also begun reading Robert Louis Stevenson’s Catriona! So far, Davie Balfour has spent the day wandering Edinburgh running errands. No sign of Alan Breck Stewart yet, but we have met the titular Catriona, full marks to Stevenson for promptitude on that one.
...Also I’ve abandoned the possibility of actually including an excerpt from my leads’ Kidnapped fic in my book, because there is no way that I can do the Lowland Scots dialogue. Readers will have to rest content with an enthusiastic discussion about the plot point where David Balfour and Alan Breck Stewart get tossed in a dungeon and the guards beat Alan for cheeking them (you know he would) and David cradles Alan’s battered head in his lap.
What I Plan to Read Next
Should I wait for the library to get Megan Whalen Turner’s Return of the Thief, or should I bow to the fact that I will inevitably want a copy and just buy it now?
