If I could only describe my reading taste in two terms, they would be “Jane Austen” and “fantasy.” This is a totally hypothetical and unlikely scenario, but the point is that I love Jane Austen and I love fantasy fiction, almost (well, not really, I’d say about half-way) to the exclusion of any other reading material. I mean, I read other stuff fairly frequently, but I always go back to Jane Austen and fantasy.
And what I find really interesting is that, while at first glance they seem completely unrelated, I often find echoes of Jane Austen in my favorite fantasy stories. It’s undeniable that Austen has had a sizable impact on Western literature in general, but in fantasy in particular, and a specific brand of fantasy, I see her stamp everywhere. …
It’s been a week since I saw Star Wars Episode IX: The Rise of Skywalker. There were things I loved about it, and things I wasn’t so on board with, and things that I was simply baffled by. I’ve now had some time to process and sort out my emotions regarding the conclusion of this epic saga. I’ve read Twitter threads and thinkpieces and watched YouTube essays that solidified and deepened my views, plus some that made me examine them more closely, and I’m ready to move on.
And how do I move on from a deeply moving cinematic experience? With books! If you, like me, want to further explore an element or concept you found compelling in The Rise of Skywalker, or the Star Wars saga in general, you can probably find what you’re looking for in a book. …
I am a hypocrite.
Not really, but I needed a good hook for this post. If I had written this maybe three years ago I would have been a hypocrite, though, so we’ll go with it. Here’s why.
I used to fancy myself a book snob. I always adamantly claimed that any book was inherently better than its film adaptation (I still believe that’s usually true, with a few exceptions), and that any self-identified reader worth their salt ALWAYS reads the book before seeing the movie.
But a couple years ago I read some compelling arguments for watching the movie first that made a lot of sense to me. A movie is out of necessity a simplified version of a novel’s plot, so if you see the movie first, then read the book, you discover new details about the story, expanding your exploration of the plot, characters, and themes, rather than narrowing them. If you do subscribe to the idea that the book is always better, why not save the best for last? …
So I’ve recently discovered a new favorite author, three-time Hugo Award winner and all-around badass N. K. Jemisin. I finished reading The Fifth Season and immediately had to learn more about Jemisin and her other works. Of course books 2 and 3 of the Broken Earth trilogy have gone to the top of my TBR, along with her Inheritance trilogy, but right now I’m working my way through her recently released short story collection, How Long ’Til Black Future Month?
In her introduction to the collection, Jemisin states that the title of the book comes from an essay she wrote in 2013, which is a great read and a celebration of Afrofuturism, and particularly music artist/actor Janelle Monae. (If you don’t know what Afrofuturism is, watch Black Panther; Wakanda is an embodiment of Afrofuturistic ideas. …
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