rymenhild: Manuscript page from British Library MS Harley 913 (Default)
[personal profile] rymenhild
Absolutely rage-inducing advertisement of the day, printed in white text on a black background on a poster pasted on a vacant storefront:

Strippers will not tolerate disrespect... HAHA, just kidding!

A website address beneath the text suggested that there may be a movie associated with this poster. I feel that it is not a movie I want to see. In fact, it is probably a movie I want to wave protest signs in front of.

In cheerier news, instead of writing this afternoon (*facepalm*), I ended up in the basement of Local Independent Bookstore reading Sir Terry Pratchett's Nation. (Then I ended up purchasing the book... remind me not to walk into bookstores.) The plot involves an analogue-Polynesian boy and an aristocratic English girl recreating civilization on a tsunami-wiped island, but the plot itself is only a vehicle for an argument about human dignity and faith and belief and rage against the divine. Oh, and there's a postcolonial reclamation of science from imperialism in there: the Galápagos writes back, or even more precisely, we learn, the Galápagos wrote first. I'm trying to avoid an author-centric critique here, but I can't stifle the sense I get that in writing Nation, Sir Terry manipulates his own, deeply personal, rage and desire for dignity in the face of mortal and divine failures.

Not a perfect book by any means; there are subplots that seem unnecessary and moments of tonal dissonance; but a very fine book, worth reading and worth debating. I keep thinking about how it's a direct reply to Lord of the Flies and an indirect reply to His Dark Materials, but since what I should be thinking about is my dissertation, I'm going to stop my post here and invite comments.
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rymenhild: Manuscript page from British Library MS Harley 913 (Default)
rymenhild

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