Enthusiasm is a virture!

she/her, 22, songster, jellyfish enthusiast, mostly on Tumblr to see my very funny friends

[ifyouknowmeirlgoaway]

I really love how misgendering is an act of colonial violence in the Imperial Radch universe.

Like when the Radch shows up and calls somebody "she" when they're not, it's not just getting their gender wrong, it's a statement that this entire part of their society doesn't matter and is going to be erased. And even when they gender someone "correctly", it's not any better. Because it's just the word that they're using, not a recognition of identity. It's insulting in a different way, and it must sting for the women who hear it and know that it's just happenstance that they're not being misgendered.

And it's constant. We talk about other people constantly. There's no escaping that violence when talking to the Radchaai.

And even when a Radchaai is trying to be respectful, they are so bad at figuring out gender that they constantly get it wrong, so even someone trying to be respectful is a reminder of the way that this imperial force erases identity and culture.

[egalitarianmagpie]

But, I AM fascinated by water treatment systems and I WOULD have appreciated the information ☹️

[elexuscal]

Radiant Star: [introduces a new Justice warship character]

Citizens of the occupied city: [understandably worried and concerned about the army of super-human corpse soldiers]

me: [kicks my legs like a school girl 💖💖💖]

[toushindai]

there is something soooo fascinating to me about how Ancillary Justice/Sword/Mercy steep the reader in Radchaai culture, in all the things that Breq and those around her take for granted. One of my favorite, most potent examples: the immediacy of her response to Dlique's death; the way, in her perspective, there is an obvious proper (just, beneficial) way to perform grief, and very serious potential consequences to any single element being out of place, obvious consequences, even though of course Presger Translators probably have their own culture it is nevertheless vital that they show respect to Dlique's death in the proper Radchaai fashion. Meanwhile all of these procedures are entirely new to us, the reader, but Breq doesn't really slow down to justify them because why would she? They are the substrate of the world as she knows it. Breq is not a Radchaai citizen but she is Radchaai in the same way that the religion I grew up with is just a part of me. It is all part and parcel of how Leckie writes societies and I am in love with and in awe of how Leckie writes societies.

But it's also really interesting that, to me, coming back to Radch-adjacent spaces feels like home within the series. I remember reading Translation State and while Reet and Enae were going "Radchaai snobs, are they good for anything other than drinking tea and misgendering every single person?", I was like oh tea! gloves! I'm home!. And Ooioiaa is our first Radchaai-controlled setting since the Ancillary trilogy, and the familiarity was grounding while all my focus went into keeping up with the convoluted Ooioiaan politics (in audiobook form no less). And--like that post I just reblogged says--I was soooo delighted to meet a new Horrifying, Massive Warship Full of a Whole Town's Worth of Puppeted Corpse Supersoldiers.

AND THEN

my familiarity with the series also really rubs in some of the horror of Radchaai things before the book does! I felt genuinely sick to my stomach as the doctor was insisting that it was going to be fine she was going to be careful educating Jonor, and when the narration mentioned that Justice of Albis was responsible for crowd control I was already wincing, because Breq has told us what ancillary crowd control looks like.

anyway I really enjoyed this book and I love this universe

[nasty-little-guy]

I have a suspicion that Ann Leckie is to worldbuilding what JRR Tolkein is to languages. I think she loves building a world so goddamned much that she simply has to tell the stories within it.

Listen, if our beloved Ann Leckie is gonna do ONE THING she's gonna construct a world that is so thought-out on a political and material level. Ann Leckie is running up to your constructed world, pounding on the fourth wall, yelling "WHAT DO THEY EAT? WHERE DOES IT COME FROM? DOES IT MAKE SENSE FOR THAT FOOD TO BE PRODUCED IN SUFFICIENT QUANTITIES TO SUPPORT THE POPULATION? WHAT ARE THE WORKERS CONDITIONS LIKE? HOW DO THEY PRAY? WHAT MATERIALS ARE INVOLVED IN THEIR PRAYER? WHERE DO THE PRAYER MATERIALS COME FROM? HOW DOES THAT DIFFER FROM OTHER SOCIOECONOMIC CLASSES IN THIS PLACE?" And then she fucken skateboards away to play seven-dimensional chess with gender.

And we all agree we love Ann Leckie for this.

[elexuscal]

Bet it felt good as fuck for that Justice of Albis ancillary [/its decade/whole self], exhausted and starving and stressed, to, at just the most dramatically perfect moment, connect back with the main ship hive mind and in a single glorious rush, realise it was fucking free, and belt out a true, unrestrained laugh.

[ifyouknowmeirlgoaway]

One of my favorite bits of Radiant Star is when someone is asking for help from a nonbinary person, and the narration goes like "If sie was she instead of sie, it would be different." Because it'd been established that women are viewed as superior at least in some areas, but it wasn't really dwelt on. And then it just gets hammered in in that instance, that even though this society has 5+ genders there's still a form of sexism that gives genuine power to one of them.

It's not a huge moment so I don't know why it worked so well and hit so hard for me. Maybe because it felt so natural, so like what somebody who is in that culture would say? Not an outside commentary on gender, just a genuine statement of what life is like and how it affects that moment.

Especially since we get so little information about gender on Aaa. We learn some of the specifics of one religious organization, and that's kind of it. It's exciting to suddenly get more information, even if it's just a single sentence.

[quick-nip]

(via Saturday Morning Cartoons: Baopu #15) by Yao Xiao

words to remember

[ceylonsilvergirl]

THIS HAS MADE AN ACTUAL DIFFERENCE IN MY LIFE!!

Implementing this has improved how I feel about myself, and HOW I SEE OTHER PEOPLE!!

I’m not a burden to put up with. I’m a person who deserves respect, but does have some idiosyncrasies.

Other people aren’t barely tolerating me, they’re being patient and considerate and working hard to be polite.

And I find that when I acknowledge the good I see in other people, they feel respected and appreciated.

[mangalemi]

[mixedscholarlybag]

The bit in Mercy where Breq goes 'why did it have to be my good leg and not the one that hurts me all the time' really is one of the top five devestating Breq moments of the whole fucking trilogy like not only that being what she's feeling and thinking but then EXPRESSING that out loud. Fleet Captain it is not just Medic who is worried about you

[sing-you-fools]

i must say, i am a huge fan of when a book is in the middle of a very exciting plot containing many interesting problems when out of nowhere for a few pages it's like, "hey by the way, real quick, here's a detailed explanation of the city's water filtration system! i'm telling you this for a reason and you should worry about it. anyway! haha okay back to the plot" and you just get to be Scared for a while

[princesssokphanny]

A once-in-a-lifetime shot — the moon perfectly framed by a rainbow. Caught at just the right time. 🌈 🌕

[reallyreallyreallytrying]

that guy's ok... he pays me a tithe. that guy doesn't pay me a tithe - we don't see eye to eye. oh, here comes a big tither. love this guy

[ode-on-a-grecian-butt]

[famouspainterwombat]

[bunny-boyler]

Maybe if we Ran away with Carly Rae Jepsen in 2015 none of this would have happened

[maryreadings]

obsessed with this silly tiger