Currently Wednesday: 8 January 2020

[calissa]

Currently Reading

My book club predominantly reads SFF, but occasionally ventures into other territory. To kick off 2020, we thought we'd tackle Growing Up Aboriginal in Australia edited by Dr Anita Heiss. It's a collection of short non-fiction essays from a wide variety of Aboriginal perspectives. I've found it very educational so far. One thing I found curious was that the essays were arranged in alphabetical order by the author's surname, rather than arranging the stories so as to provide contrast and variety. Perhaps a difference between fiction and non-fiction anthologies? I haven't read enough of the latter to know. Or perhaps the editor was looking for a less judgemental approach.

Speaking of judgemental, I'm attempting to read Writing and Enjoying Haiku: A Hands-On Guide by Jane Reichhold for something like the third or fourth time. While it has been informative, the author certainly has some Opinions and I feel like there's some subtle racism at work. However, the book has introduced me to the ideas of kigo and saijiki, which I find resonate with me. Japanese haiku traditionally contain kigo, a word that indicates the season. Saijiki are dictionaries of kigo. I have found myself contemplating pulling together my own saijiki.

On audio, I'm currently a short way into Archivist Wasp by Nicole Kornher-Stace, a dystopian YA sci-fi. It's a lot darker than I was anticipating and have kind of been avoiding it. After all, living in apocalypse seems like enough right now.


Currently Watching

Sahaquiel and I are close to wrapping up the second season of Upstart Crow, a sitcom about William Shakespeare. It has been fun to play spot the reference and Sahaquiel relishes the pantomime-villain feel of the antagonist.

Comments

[pantha]

Oooh, that does sound like interesting reading. If you'd like light-and-fluffy reading, I can see if I can recommend stuff to you (though, umm, broken-record-me would like you to know that the Lady Trent series delivers that in spades).

Glad you both liked Upstart Crow. My husband & I also really enjoy it.

[calissa]

broken-record-me would like you to know that the Lady Trent series delivers that in spades

The best thing about this is I already have a copy, so it doesn't add to my TBR pile.

Glad you both liked Upstart Crow. My husband & I also really enjoy it.

It merges low-brow and high-brow humour in such a satisfying way. And my sweetheart does a remarkable impersonation of Robert Greene.

[pantha]

The best thing about this is I already have a copy, so it doesn't add to my TBR pile.

*muahahahahaha* *enables*

[sweet_sparrow]

Archivist Wasp is so good, but yeah. It's pretty bleak, especially at first. I hope you'll enjoy it as you continue, though. It's such a powerful story about friendship. The rest sounds pretty interesting too.

[calissa]

Your comment reassures me, so I think I'll stick with it and see how it goes.

[sweet_sparrow]

<3 Hopefully well. It's very different from a lot of what's out there, which is partially the science fantasy setting and largely the grumpy, snarky friendship that stays a friendship. I find that, for me at least, if you connect to the humour in it, it's a lot of fun once the action starts to pick up and the worldbuilding starts to come together.

But to be honest, it's my kind of weird fantasy, so I admit to bias.

[sine_nomine]

What an interesting bit about haiku. I know that my Japanese sister-in-law says that Haiku have to be written about nature so it's not surprising that one should include a word referring to the season.

And it certainly adds more meaning beyond the 5-7-5 we're taught in school. Very brain stratching, I've found!

[onewhitecrow]

Not a common way to structure academic works, no. Maybe there was politicking going on in the editorial office and they just decided that if no-one could agree what was most important thematically it should just be unquestionably fair. Sounds like a fascinating if likely painful volume.

Where's the crow in the Shakespeare sitcom?

[calissa]

Sounds like a fascinating if likely painful volume.

It has been that. I'm looking forward to the book club discussion.

Where's the crow in the Shakespeare sitcom?

No literal crow, I'm afraid. Only a figurative one. It's an epithet from one of Shakespeare's detractors, inplying his work is harsh and unmusical.

[winterbird]

Almost all non-fiction anthologies I know are arranged by interest and not by alphabetical order? It may be edited by someone who knows more about Indigenous matters but not much about anthologies though, or it might be a cultural choice?

The haiku guide sounds pretty cool! We were generally taught at university that the kigo didn't have to be 'naming a season' so to speak (though this can certainly be done), but referencing something that everyone within the culture understands as being particular to a season, snow = winter, cherry blossoms = spring, etc. Tanka (which was what I specialised in, in that unit) are similar, and it is really nice to tie them together as a saijiki.

I found it made me feel a lot closer to the landscape. And I still write tanka sometimes because of it.

[calissa]

It may be edited by someone who knows more about Indigenous matters but not much about anthologies though, or it might be a cultural choice?

The editor is a professor and author, with several prestigious award nominations. So, I'm leaning to the latter. It looks like she has some teaching notes on her website, so I might also poke through those before book club meets.

Studying haiku and tanka sounds fascinating! Do you read anything in those forms these days?