Wednesday Reading Meme
Feb. 26th, 2020 07:16 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
osprey_archerWhat I’ve Just Finished Reading
I finished Arthur Ransome’s Swallowdale! Less sailing than anticipated on account of a shipwreck, but on the other hand: shipwreck! The book also treats us to a hidden valley, a secret cave, a mountain-climbing expedition, a wicked great aunt, and many feasts… And, like the first book, it also has more colonialist attitudes than you could shake a stick at, which I expect is just going to continue for all twelve books of the series.
It’s so weird that Arthur Ransome quaffed so deeply from that cup while apparently passing the cup of sexism entirely. Yes, Susan is the one who is in change of cooking and looking after the stores, but no one ever says it’s because she’s a girl or because girls just ought to be in charge of housekeeping, and no one ever expects the other girls (and four of the six main characters are girls) to take an interest in dish-washing just because they’re girls. Everyone pitches in with the basic housekeeping tasks, boys and girls alike, and Ransome makes a point about how vital Susan’s work is and how the Swallows’ mother might not let them go on adventures if she didn’t know Susan was so responsible and reliable.
I also finished Elizabeth Peters’ Crocodile on the Sandbank, and I am sorry to report that no one has written Amelia Peabody/Evelyn Barton-Forbes fic, even though CLEARLY the only proper and appropriate ending to the scene where Amelia asks Evelyn what sex is like is for Evelyn to say that, oh, she just can’t explain, but if Amelia likes, Evelyn could… show her?? I mean honestly. Amelia is CONSTANTLY dilating on Evelyn’s beauty. BOTH of them wax poetic about a vision of the future in which they grow old together. Evelyn forces Amelia to buy a red dress!!
To be fair there are only 32 fics on AO3 anyway, and it seems entirely possible that Evelyn will be Sir Not Appearing in the Rest of This Series, and I’m not actually opposed to the romantic matches that eventuate by the end of the book… but still. I’M JUST SAYING.
What I’m Reading Now
Anna Larina’s This I Cannot Forget: The Memoirs of Nikolai Bukharin’s Widow, which I’m taking in rather slowly because it’s so sad. Gulag memoirs are harsh enough in the first place; Anna Larina’s has the added horrible wrinkle that everyone in the entire country knew about her husband’s arrest and trial, so even though hundreds of miles separated them, she had a pretty good idea what he was suffering - without being able to do a damn thing about it.
What I Plan to Read Next
I’ve discovered that Eva Ibbotson has a hitherto unsuspected short story collection, A Glove Shop in Vienna and Other Stories, and I’m contemplating whether to read it once I’ve read The Reluctant Heiress. Or maybe I should save it for a rainy day? It’s always good to have an unread Eva Ibbotson up your sleeve just in case.
I finished Arthur Ransome’s Swallowdale! Less sailing than anticipated on account of a shipwreck, but on the other hand: shipwreck! The book also treats us to a hidden valley, a secret cave, a mountain-climbing expedition, a wicked great aunt, and many feasts… And, like the first book, it also has more colonialist attitudes than you could shake a stick at, which I expect is just going to continue for all twelve books of the series.
It’s so weird that Arthur Ransome quaffed so deeply from that cup while apparently passing the cup of sexism entirely. Yes, Susan is the one who is in change of cooking and looking after the stores, but no one ever says it’s because she’s a girl or because girls just ought to be in charge of housekeeping, and no one ever expects the other girls (and four of the six main characters are girls) to take an interest in dish-washing just because they’re girls. Everyone pitches in with the basic housekeeping tasks, boys and girls alike, and Ransome makes a point about how vital Susan’s work is and how the Swallows’ mother might not let them go on adventures if she didn’t know Susan was so responsible and reliable.
I also finished Elizabeth Peters’ Crocodile on the Sandbank, and I am sorry to report that no one has written Amelia Peabody/Evelyn Barton-Forbes fic, even though CLEARLY the only proper and appropriate ending to the scene where Amelia asks Evelyn what sex is like is for Evelyn to say that, oh, she just can’t explain, but if Amelia likes, Evelyn could… show her?? I mean honestly. Amelia is CONSTANTLY dilating on Evelyn’s beauty. BOTH of them wax poetic about a vision of the future in which they grow old together. Evelyn forces Amelia to buy a red dress!!
To be fair there are only 32 fics on AO3 anyway, and it seems entirely possible that Evelyn will be Sir Not Appearing in the Rest of This Series, and I’m not actually opposed to the romantic matches that eventuate by the end of the book… but still. I’M JUST SAYING.
What I’m Reading Now
Anna Larina’s This I Cannot Forget: The Memoirs of Nikolai Bukharin’s Widow, which I’m taking in rather slowly because it’s so sad. Gulag memoirs are harsh enough in the first place; Anna Larina’s has the added horrible wrinkle that everyone in the entire country knew about her husband’s arrest and trial, so even though hundreds of miles separated them, she had a pretty good idea what he was suffering - without being able to do a damn thing about it.
What I Plan to Read Next
I’ve discovered that Eva Ibbotson has a hitherto unsuspected short story collection, A Glove Shop in Vienna and Other Stories, and I’m contemplating whether to read it once I’ve read The Reluctant Heiress. Or maybe I should save it for a rainy day? It’s always good to have an unread Eva Ibbotson up your sleeve just in case.
no subject
Date: 2020-02-26 12:23 pm (UTC)And about the colonialism, in the first book, can I ask how it manifests? Is it in blithe assumptions that the locals are simple folks who need a guiding hand, or---?
no subject
Date: 2020-02-27 01:30 am (UTC)The books - the two that I've read, I mean - take place in the Lake Country of England, so there's no actual colonialism going on right there. It's more in the imaginative structure they've set up around their adventures: the children pretend that they're explorers and everyone else they meet (except the Amazons, who are pirates) are natives or savages or possibly cannibals, depending what's most useful to the game.
no subject
Date: 2020-02-26 01:47 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2020-02-27 01:25 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2020-02-27 02:12 pm (UTC)Then there's one just before Dunkirk: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2226411
no subject
Date: 2020-02-26 07:48 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2020-02-27 01:23 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2020-02-26 09:56 pm (UTC)I know the feeling! Except that, after reading The Secret Countess last winter, I have made it through all the adult Ibbotsons and am keeping some of the children's books in reserve. Also, I read A Glove Shop in Vienna long ago, because it was one of the three adult Ibbotsons at my hometown library.
no subject
Date: 2020-02-27 01:22 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2020-03-01 11:30 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2020-03-01 01:12 pm (UTC)I have not started reading Peter Duck yet, but the description makes it sound like it's set in the Caribbean (or possibly they're going to be imagining an adventure in the Caribbean? Unclear), and... I'm not sure I'm ready for Arthur Ransome's Take on the Caribbean. But I'm picking up the book at the library tomorrow, so ready or not, here I come.
no subject
Date: 2020-03-01 01:26 pm (UTC)OH MY nor am I