Discover Top Posts Tagged with #krow.reading

@dehautdesert replied to your post “@tajmutthall replied to your post “rereading...”:

I'd actually love to read you going into detail on why you think the prose is mid and what exactly works and doesn't for you. TBH Pacat is so Dunnett-influenced that the only thing I'm capable of seeing when I read it is "simplified Dunnett", would love to hear a more neutral take

i'll see if i can scrounge some time to make a post about the prose with examples (been a bit busy lately)...won't lie i am just a hater sometimes and i also just finished the sympathizer and the committed by viet thanh nguyen which are both very good "literary" novels (the former was the author's debut novel and won the pulitzer prize for fiction) (also i put "literary" in quotation marks bc i think this whole genre thing is so artificial lol but anyway i digress).

so reading captive prince is a bit well. different. it's not bad and obviously one is expected to judge it within its genre i.e. romantasy (which tbh i would disagree with lol. like why not judge it against "real" novels tm? because it won't hold up? why/why not? etc. it's like how @tajmutthall said "I did not expect Ursula K. LeGuin or JRR Tolkien or even Jane Austen here." but why not? why not expect more?

and i suppose i was expecting more because i've seen similar tropes (captivity, slash, slavery tropes etc) written better in fanfiction which is seen as romantasy adjacent and/or "lower" in the tier of what constitutes "real" literature (compared to say. dostoevsky or dickens or any other "western literary canon" author)

sidenote i haven't read dunnett - i assume you mean dorothy dunnett? lymond chronicles is on my list but i haven't gotten around to it yet. i think there is some merit to saying "well you're clearly unfamiliar with the genre so why are you criticising the book" (which i admit is true, i do not read books labelled as "romance fantasy" as a whole) but imo that argument applies more to criticism of the tropes. but i think recognising good/bad/mid craft does not require knowledge of a specific genre

#dehautdesert #captive prince #and of course this is all subjective #krow.reading

i finished wuthering heights yesterday and i really liked it

#books to obsess over. i can't wait to reread it again #krow.reading #also my parents are on the verge of divorce #i don't think either are brave enough to actually file it #but personally i am rooting on the side of divorce

currently reading the body in pain by elaine scarry (critical analysis of torture and war) and it's so elucidating

#im like 300 pages of 1000 pages in on my ereader #krow.reading #books #forgot what my reading tag was...

i'm in the middle of reading anthony bourdain's a cook's tour: in search of the perfect meal (2001) and i have to say i'm so interested in the simultaneous orientalism and white guilt that's present in the book. like tbh bourdain was clearly way more informed than the average american* about the ravages of war and imperialism/colonialism on vietnam and cambodia, and from interviews and other shows etc he's called out western views on other countries' cuisines as plain racism (e.g. msg, veganism) but he's obv not spouting theory (nor tbh do i think he has the ability to articulate it really) bc his book is a food/travel book first and foremost. but the white guilt is so...so evident. and yet there is i would say a lot of respect there. anyway after this book im hoping there's a least a few analysis papers out there about him

*(which tbh, a low bar)

#i read kitchen confidential (2000) last week and now i'm reading this one #tbh idk if white guilt is really the most appropriate term but for now i think it's the one that fits the best #anthony bourdain #krow.reading #orientalism