everyoneās always whining about how olric isnāt romanceable and iām over here devastated that i canāt win elsieās affections. olric isnāt even interested in romance but elsie is a romantic legend. i want to be one of her many conquests. please elsie just one chance
u know what now that i think about it there are a lot of suspiciously single old people in mistriaā¦terithia, errol, landenā¦npc studio give the people what they want
I really love reading translated works (not referring to fan-translated stuff but paid translators for novels and so on), but also whenever they end up being bad/mediocre I have to wonder how much of it is on the translator versus the original author. For example I know Clarice Lispector is difficult even in her original Portuguese so itās excusable that translators canāt mimic the wordplay and other quirks, but even a mediocre translation of her work still ends up being evocative and beautiful because her translators at least understand her intent enough that they can still phrase everything beautifully in a way that makes sense in English. Meanwhile some recent official Japanese -> English manga translations Iāve read just sound clunky and strange in English, like the translator did a one-to-one translation instead of rephrasing a bit to make the dialogue actually sound human.
(This was sparked by my current read, Notes of a Crocodile by Qiu Miaojin (trans. Bonnie Huie). Some passages are so beautiful and then others sound very clunky and inconsistent which takes me out of the narrative ā which could be some writing experimentation on Miaojinās part, although I canāt attest to this because I canāt read the original. This isnāt a knock on Huie because translation is a push-pull between original author and translator, just my own thoughts about how translation is such a strange and difficult process. Iām glad there are publishers pushing out more translated works into English, though ā NYRB, New Directions, and Deep Vellum/Dalkey have some great stuff.)
Finally finished Septology by Jon Fosse after about a year of on-and-off reading. In all I think itās a 4 out of 5 star book: it could drag on especially in the parts with Asleās nonsensical religious rambling (in my mind at least, though Iām not Catholic so I canāt attest to how religious folks might feel about it), but it was at least ambitious and a decent-to-good meditation about life.
Rambling spoiler-y thoughts below (with mentions of alcoholism and CSA ā and also forgive me if I missed some accent marks for some names because Iām typing on my phone):
In all, as I said above, a good book. The repetition got very exhausting at times, especially when Asle would start going on about the light in his paintings and his religious thoughts and his landmark points when he looked out the window while sitting at his table, so I kept putting down the book to read something else. But when Fosse really tried the narration was hypnotic (my favorite part being the playground scenes in book I), which is probably why I had an easier time with the middle part than the beginning because of the depth of Asleās memories and how they shaped him. I love books where Nothing Really Happens so this worked for me, especially because I love good stream of consciousness writing, but I can see why some people might fall off this pretty quick. The way Fosse wove in and out between Asleās memories, and especially the weaving between narrator Asle and doppelgƤnger Asle in the first two parts (books I-II), was well done and reminded me a lot of Virginia Woolfās style (and the boat scene at the very end where Asle starts confiding more in Asleik about his life reminded me of the last section of Woolfās To The Lighthouse, as the narrative wove between the kids and Mr Ramsay on the boat and Lily Briscoeās reminiscing at the house).
Personally I thought the middle section (books III-V, maybe into VI) was the best, having the most background into Asleās life and childhood plus the duality with his doppelgƤngerās life. Asle came off as pretty neurodivergent to me, but Iām not sure if Fosse intended this or if he was trying to make him an āeccentricā artist type with some vague handwaving that Something was wrong but who cares about specifics. At the very least his issues with math and directions came off as dyscalculia to me, with anxiety and maybe autism thrown into the mix. With that framing I was very sympathetic to him for all the weirdness in his life and his at-times frustrating behavior, especially after the parts where he recalls his neighborās drowning death when they were kids, his getting molested by the Bald Man as a child, and his little sisterās sudden death. That would drive anyone to become withdrawn and angry like he did as a teen, especially the aimlessness he felt because he hated school and felt no one in the world understood him. (Side note but I was kind of stunned at the Norwegian school system and how easy it seemed to drop in and out of it lol. I realize this probably takes place in the pre-cell phone/widespread internet era so Iām not entirely surprised Asle could do things like scratch out his ID card to change his age, plus education rules probably changed considerably since his childhood, but it was funny that he kept moving around so quickly, from the workshop in Aga for his time at the academic high school to Herdis Asenās room to attend the art school in BjĆørgvin and then to Alesās momās friendās house in what felt like less than two months.) My only major issue with this part was Asleās first meeting with Ales, but thatās more because it came off as cringy teenagers in love haha. I donāt think the dialogue was that good in most of the book, but with the writing style it was more about the feeling of it than the conversation itself that was important, which Fosse conveyed very successfully.
In terms of criticism, I think the ending felt a bit limp and sudden. Thereās build-up through books Vi-VII that I felt implied Asle would die soon given his extreme exhaustion, his decision to give up painting, repeated visions of Ales being near him, and his reminiscing about the deaths of the people around him. The sudden drop-off of the final 2-3 pages into the rambling section of flashbacks through his life and his doppelgƤngerās was what sealed that conclusion for me, kind of like how people who have almost died but come back often say they saw visions of their life as they were dying. I donāt know if I feel that this is a hopeful ending, but Asle seemed more at peace with himself as he prayed and since every other book section ends with Asle praying then I suppose it had to happen again at the end. Maybe this is a sign that he can finally move on with his life, maybe this is a sign of impending death, I donāt know.
Another issue I had was the Asle and Guro doppelgƤnger thing. The deaths of the BjĆørgvin Asle and Guro felt like a release of negativity for narrator Asle (and presumably Ć sleikās sister Guro), like they embodied the worst parts of their counterpartsā¦ but Iām not sure what the dual Guros were supposed to be. With both Asleās the comparison was clear (one remained an isolated alcoholic who was unfaithful to both his wives and seemed like a much less successful artist than our Asle, while the other managed to move on from alcohol and stayed faithful to his wife even long after her death, and so on) but the two Guroās felt like an afterthought. I wish this could have been expanded upon when Asle finally visited Sister Guro at the end with Ć sleik for Christmas, but besides mentioning that she liked to drink/smoke and also did Hardanger embroidery like her BjĆørgvin counterpart this duality fell flat. Was the proximity of the BjĆørgvin doppelgƤngers the connection ā that those two couldnāt stay away from each other while narrator Asle avoided Sister for decades? Was each Guroās ability to collect their respective Asleās paintings implying something about their level of emotional intimacy/understanding with them or something (one wanted but couldnāt afford to buy her Asleās paintings but the other amassed a free collection of his best work through her brother)? And now that the counterparts were dead then maybe our Asle and Guro could meet without all the baggage of their counterparts weighing them down? Maybe there are certain details I didnāt catch because I read ~400 pages in less than a week, I donāt know, but the Guro stuff felt a bit superficial.
Also, poor Bragi, losing his alcoholic owner who constantly had issues getting up to walk and feed him only to get taken in by a guy who constantly doesnāt warm his house up and keeps letting him fall to the floor because he canāt remember the dog is in his lap before getting up. somebody please feed Bragi something besides bread :(
Anyway. Good book. Iāve already read some of Fosseās other stuff and thought they were decent to good too (Morning and Evening I liked a lot, while Scenes from a Childhood was fine and gave some background to Asle from Septology). I have Melancholy I-II coming in the mail soon so Iāll be excited to read that since I do like Fosseās writing style a lot and that one seems shorter. I donāt know if I can survive another repetitive 600+ page tome right now lol
An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works
Juniper spends a night with Valen.
(Juniper/Valen from Fields of Mistria - rated E, 3.7k words, my first major attempt at smut in forever, minor spoilers for the game but no really specific references to heart events or the plot)
how the hell do people organize their home bookshelves. I get one new shelf (and probably need 1-2 more) and suddenly I canāt fathom how to organize everything in a sensible wayā¦ plus I need to update my book inventory because I havenāt done so in 6 months. I might need to do a complete overhaul by publisher or ABC order by author/title or something but itād be annoying lmao
dailybridgerton
discoholicmusic
prguitarman
origamiaround
areudirty
yousharknotpass
