#lockdown recs

[antigonick]

hello Pauline! i am wondering if you have any suggestions on online platforms/websites for reading. with the libraries closing, i obtained a free scribd subscription for 30 days, and i am looking for free resources. i absolutely adore your blog !!

Oh, nice! I already burnt my free trial with scribd a semester ago so I wasn’t eligible for the free subscription, and it was a blow, I have to say.

These days, my go-to free ressources are The Open Library and Libgen, and The Cambridge University Press has made a bunch of their academical textbooks available for free to alleviate library-closing-related difficulties, as did JSTOR, and MUSE. @lifeinpoetry has also created a tag for free and inexpensive e-books on sale during the quarantine, which she updates weekly I think? And if you’re into audiobooks, you could set up a month free trial with Audible, their app is pretty neat.

If you’re looking for literature in other formats, you could also look into weekly free screenings by theatres and opera houses. I know the Opera de Paris screens ballets and operas (Giselle! Le Barbier de Séville! Carmen!) and the National Theatre screens one play a week with #NationalTheatreatHome, as does The Globe Theatre. Actually, from the 9th of April, NTLive will play Sally Cookson’s adaptation of Jane Eyre and if you can, do watch it. I saw it live once and loved it. Oh, and obviously, podcasts. Now’s the time to start The Magnus Archives if you haven’t.

[themyskira]

Lockdown recs - Superman Smashes the Klan

Superman Smashes the Klan is the best Superman comic I’ve read in a long time. Gene Luen Yang and Gurihiru’s reimagining of the 1946 Adventures of Superman radio serial “Clan of the Fiery Cross” is a truly beautiful, heartfelt book.

It follows the parallel stories of Clark Kent, early in his career as Superman, unsure of his heritage and hesitant about embracing his full power; and Roberta Lee, a Chinese American girl who has recently moved to suburban Metropolis with her family and is struggling to fit in.

Many comic writers have touched on the idea of Superman as a refugee and immigrant, but none have explored it quite so brilliantly as Yang does here, digging into the pressures both Clark and Roberta feel to assimilate, how hyperaware they are of the parts of themselves that might be deemed alien and threatening, how they hold themselves in for fear of standing out in the wrong way and being rejected for it.  Ultimately, it’s through helping each other to embrace their differences that Clark and Roberta are able to stop the white supremacists who are terrorising the Lees’ neighbourhood.

The original serial was created in the midst of a 1940s resurgence of the KKK, written with the express intent of stripping away the Klan’s mystique and showing them to be the pathetic slime that they were. Yang, too, is keenly aware of the environment in which he’s writing: the book’s rebuke of the fictionalised 1940s Klan is written with an eye towards modern white supremacy, and its discussion of racism both overt and covert is thoughtful and layered.

Gurihiru’s artwork is, as always, a delight, dynamic and expressive and vibrant.

And it’s a book suffused with a deep love of Superman, his history and his creators, Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster.  The way in which Yang pays tribute to one of the character’s real-world inspirations — the brightly-costumed circus strongman, and in particular the “Superman of the Ages” Zishe Breitbart — is particularly poignant.  On every level, this comic is just wonderful.

[antigonick]

Hi, dear! I'm so bored due to the quarantine. Could you recommend me books/movies to read/watch? Any genre, any length - it doesn't matter. :)

Aw, I feel you. Okay, totally random recs, you sure? I gathered some of my favourite horror movies recently for a solid candle-lit marathon, so I’ll start with those—Robert Eggers’ The VVitch, D. R. Mitchell’s It Follows, Robert Wise’s The Haunting of Hill House, Drew Goddard’s Cabin in the Woods, Neil Marshall’s The Descent, Yeon Sang-ho’s Train to Busan, Ari Aster’s Midsommar, Jack Clayton’s The Innocents (or Alejandro Amenábar’s The Others), Takashi Shimizu’s Ju-On series (The Grudge), Jordan Peele’s Get Out, Scott Derrickson’s Sinister, James Watkins’ The Woman in Black, Stuart Rosenberg’s Amytiville Horror. I also like Argento, but he makes me laugh rather than fret. Also, within this year—A Quiet Place and Ready or Not were lovely. (Wait, no. Lovely isn’t the right word.)

To be honest, I have only two modes when it comes to films, and they are—horror galore, or exquisitely crafted period dramas (often based on books I love). There are no in-between. Let’s just say you can not go wrong with Joe Wright’s Pride and Prejudice, Autumn de Wilde’s Emma, Yorgos Lanthimos’ The Favourite, David Mitchell’s Cloud Atlas, Whit Stillman’s Love & Friendship, Joan Craft’s Anne of Green Gables miniseries (1972), Joe Wright’s Atonement, Cary Fukunaga’s Jane Eyre, and Andrew Davies’ BBC Pride and Prejudice (1995). 

Also, huh, Avatar the Last Airbender and Gravity Falls? (Apparently I do have an in-between mode.)

As for books, completely off the top of my head and based on my current clutter, please check out Hilary Mantel’s Wolf Hall, Sarah Water’s The Paying Guests, Anne Brontë’s The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, Emily Dickinson’s Complete Poems, Philip Pullman’s Daemons and Other Voices, Henry James’ The Turn of the Screw, Anne Carson’s Plainwater, Emily Wilson’s translation of The Odyssey, A. S. Byatt’s Possession, or Umberto Eco’s Baudolino. 

(or you could also go and read/play Fallen Hero: Rebirth and Retribution). 

[antigonick]

Hello, I hope you're well! Would you happen to have any recommendations for particularly comforting reading (or watching, or listening) material? I'm open to short poems and essays as well, not only books. I'm looking for those lovely blanket-like and friend-like things you can catch yourself sinking into, all warmth and attentive care. Thank you xx

I do! You can actually find quite a few posts related to that in the enormous masterpost list here, but off the top of my head, there’s this list on children literature I love, short books (though not all of them happy), and also a feel good and sappy list. After these, my recs might be repetitive, but hey; for friend-shaped books that read like sunshine, my mind always goes to Gail Carson Levine’s Ella Enchanted, L. M. Montgomery’s Anne of Green Gables and Anne of Avonlea, Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice and Northanger Abbey, Daphné du Maurier’s Frenchman’s Creek, Howard Pyle’s The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood, William Golding’s The Princess Bride, Sylvia Townsend Warner’s Lolly Willowes, Angela Carter’s Book of Fairytales (slowly becoming aware that ‘comforting’ means folk tales and their by-products for me apparently?), Sarah Waters’ Tipping the Velvet, and a bit darker, but very good to lose yourself, Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials. His essays Daemon Voices are also very sweet and feel like comforting conversations about writing and story-telling. For poetry, Rainer Maria Rilke’s Sonnets to Orpheus and Kenneth Rexroth When We With Sappho and Seamus Heaney’s Field Work and Mary Oliver’s Complete Poems.

As for watching material, my ultimate feel-good are cartoons like Gravity Falls and Over the Garden Wall and most beloved Avatar the Last Airbender but I have a soft spot for Brooklyn Nine-Nine and... why did my mind go to What We do in the Shadows? Well. There’s also What We do in the Shadows (the film before the series, ideally). Alright! I hope these blanket you as fluffily as possible.

[antigonick]

Hi! If you’re still doing the recs, do you know any good novels that would fit into dark academia or something like TSH? Any way, I hope you stay safe and have a nice enough quarantine :) (as safe and nice a quarantine can be, bleh).

Hi! I actually have an old book recs post that answers that very question. I’d add A. S. Byatt’s Possession: A Romance, Diane Setterfield’s The Thirteenth Tale, Umberto Eco’s The Name of the Rose, Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials and Mark Z. Danielewski’s House of Leaves. They don’t take place in a university though—it’s less about the “aesthetics” and more that they share the same dark tugging towards knowledge and the abstract. Byatt’s, Eco’s, Pullman’s and Danielewski’s are more mature works than TSH is, I think; less about morality, about right or wrong, less performative; more about the experience of knowledge, the hubris of curiosity, its satisfaction... or lack thereof.

A’ight I’m rambling again.

[antigonick]

Omg this is probably fate XD Ok let's try one last time: if by any chance you had some book recs on 'light themed' books (comfort, happy ending, nothing too dark) that you could share with us during this quarantine, I would be eternally grateful, Pauline. Stay safe

Aw, was that it, suspense anon? Well, of course, no worries. My favourite happy, light reading include: L. M. Montgomery’s Anne of Green Gables and Anne of Avonlea, Gail Carson Levine’s Ella Enchanted, Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice and Northanger Abbey and Emma, Virginia Woolf’s Orlando, Douglas Adam’s The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, Sylvia Towsend Warner’s Lolly Willowes, and E. M. Forster’s A Room with a View. Speaking of Austen (when am I not, though?), if you can get your hands on it, I really recommend the new Autumn de Wilde’s film adaptation Emma. I cackled a lot. 

[antigonick]

Hi! I've followed you for a long time and I really loved the explicit history - I downloaded it in 2017 & it really helped me understand certain contexts in tsh better. Do you have any book recs about strong, ambitious women? I love books about women that have political themes and show them as being powerful characters in their own right.

Oh, thank you for suffering years of silliness! I don’t know if that’s exactly what you’re looking for—mostly these are old and I’m sure there’s much more in contemporary literature—but I’d recommend Jeannette Winterson’s Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit, Anne Brontë’s The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, Charlotte Brontë’s Shirley, Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter, Kate Chopin’s The Awakening, and Margaret Atwood’s Alias Grace and The Robber Bride.

[antigonick]

hello, do you have any recommendations for books featuring love stories with a near antagonistic flavor? kind of reminiscent of 'but what if what you love also repulses you'?

God this is exactly how the book I’m translating these days starts (but they get all over each other after ten pages, so that might be a little fast for you). For a light take on the trope, Georgette Heyer’s Sylvester could do the trick; if you’re looking for (a lot of) angst, maybe Angela Carter’s Love, Du Maurier’s Rebecca? There’s also Sarah Waters’ Fingersmith—there’s no “repulsion”, but the lovers are literally antagonists for most of the story (and it’s delicious.)