Reading Wednesday

[sabotabby]

 Just finished: Doppelgänger: A Trip Into the Mirror World by Naomi Klein. Managed to read it in the 7 days, mainly because I couldn't put it down. This was so good. At the risk of this being too on the nose, I saw myself in it, in that 1) I'm having a problem with the collapse of the consensus reality, and I often catch myself wondering if I'm the unhinged one, and 2) I am actually predisposed to conspiratorial and paranoid thinking, so the very sorts of intellectual traps that Klein's subjects fall into are ones that I have to work very hard to avoid. 

There's a lengthy chapter on Israel and Palestine at the end, which was written before The Current Situation but nevertheless is important to read while we're in the midst of The Current Situation, as it's very insightful as to the psychological underpinnings of Israel's behaviour. It's a rare point of agreement (there's one other very touching one at the very end) between the Naomis, albeit in Wolf's case, quite possibly for the wrong reasons, but the interesting bit to me is the mirror that Klein holds to the Old Jew (people like me and my ancestors—weak, intellectual, rootless, etc.) and the New Jew (the heavily armed Israeli who will never be genocided again). B/c obviously that's something I think about a lot. 

Anyway this is a good book and you should read it.

The Trail of Nenaboozhoo: and Other Creation Stories by Bomgiizhik Isaac Murdoch. This one was very cool. Timeless stories that are relevant, as many of them deal with cycles of creation and destruction, where humans get too greedy and are punished for it, and the non-humans are punished along with them. It's beautifully told, both narratively and visually.

Currently reading: The Meaning Wars Complete Omnibus by Michelle Patricia Browne. This is a bunch of short stories and novellas by a friend of mine. Is Cozy Dystopia a subgenre yet? I feel like it's along those lines. It follows a sprawling set of characters within an interstellar dystopia, from a wormhole engineer on the edge of known space to a family of refugees escaping America. Some of the stories are epistolary, others more traditionally narrative, and the disparate storytelling styles add a layer of depth and expansiveness to the collection. My favourite so far is a very strange story about a reeducation camp for governesses—it's surreal and imaginative and beautifully written. 

Crow Winter by Karen McBride. I just started this one, so I'm not 100% sure where it's going, but I'm intrigued so far. It's about an Anishinaabe girl who returns to her home on the rez after she graduates from university. Her father has recently died and her mother is having a hard time coping without him. So far all very slice-of-life and litfic, but I'm gathering from the blurb and the reviews that it goes in a more magic realism direction. She's being followed by crows that may be Nanabush (making this the second Nanabush/Nenaboozhoo story I'm reading this week), so I gather that has something to do with it. Really good so far.

Moby Dick by Herman Melville. They found a piece of gold and everyone is very excited about it. There's also a bit of a digression about astrology, just in case you felt things weren't as gay as they could be. (I would have guessed Ishmael would be into astrology but it's Stubbs. We all contain multitudes I guess.)

Comments

[naraht]

Anyway this is a good book and you should read it.

I've been hearing about it for a while now but you've persuaded me to put it on my library wish list.

[sabotabby]

I'd love to hear your thoughts.

[minoanmiss]

Cozy Dystopia seems a sybset of Cozy Catastrophe

it took me 20 minutes to write that sentence ahahaha

[sabotabby]

That sentence broke my brain.

With Cozy Catastrophe I go right to Action by Sam Shepard. Which is not cozy at all, it's very uncomfortable.

[greylock]

Do I need to go to my Cozy Catastrophe shelf?
(I do have one)

[sabotabby]

Really?

[greylock]

Well, admittedly, it's mostly John Wyndham and his ilk, and it's two thirds of a shelf...

[naomikritzer]

I read Doppelganger and as you might guess from a quick look at my username found it UNNERVINGLY relatable.

Although fortunately for me, the Naomi people mix me up with most often is Naomi Novik. That's a lot less horrifying but has still led to some genuinely awkward moments. (Like, OK. I was at *the con in my home town* and this guy, who got introduced to me, told me that he had a bone to pick with me about the ending of my most recent book. This sent me into a slight panic spiral because I had not intended it to be THAT much of a cliffhanger, but then he elucidated that he meant The Last Graduate. If I'd read the Scholomance series at that point I could have defused a lot of tension by joining in the complaints, but as it was I just laughed and said, "oh, wrong Naomi" and the blood drained out of this guy's face as he remembered, oh yes, we also have a LOCAL writer named Naomi. He told me he liked my books, too, but you know: too late, you are now stuck the amusing protagonist of stories about Naomi Confusion from now until the day I die, probably.)

But the thing that was the most striking was how much I had in common with Naomi Klein, from the minor trivia like looking for tchotchkes with "Naomi" on them and never finding any, to being a Jewish teenager in an environment where Zionism was heavily pushed and we were already profoundly uncertain about it. We also (this was a really odd one!) each spent a year in the UK with our families, and encountered a lot more antisemitism there than we ever had at home. Anyway I recommended the book to everyone but with more of a caveat of, "possibly this is not going to be as relatable to most of the world as it was to me."

[frandroid]

> looking for tchotchkes with "Naomi" on them and never finding any

Wow, that must be maddening, considering how common of a name it is...

[sabotabby]

Naomi Klein and I are from the same milieu in a lot of ways. Not so much with the Zionism (or Judaism as a religion, given how profoundly my mum rejected her own upbringing) but as a Jewish red diaper baby with conflicting messages about politics from the rest of my family, etc. Also being in Toronto I'm like. One degree of separation away from her and Avi. They're genuinely good people.

At least being compared to Naomi Novik is not as bad but I can see how it would be HELLA awkward omg.

[frandroid]

> There's a lengthy chapter on Israel and Palestine at the end,

Damn that sounds interesting.

> Is Cozy Dystopia a subgenre yet?

You mean space opera without the operatic parts? :)

[sabotabby]

No, it's definitely still space opera! It's more like if Becky Chambers was edgier.

[ioplokon]

Cozy Dystopia makes me think of the game The Long Dark. I change the settings to make the animals nice & then just wander around in the snow :)

Also DOPPELGANGER! What did you think of Klein's remedy at the end? To me this was the weakest part - and therefore the part where we have to jump in and do some work for ourselves...

[sabotabby]

I thought it had the same problem as every "here is a problem, oh shit now I need to suggest a solution or everyone will be sad and hate me forever" book.

I did find her anecdote about meeting Wolf to be weirdly touching, though.

[frandroid]

So wait, you identified with BOTH Naomis? :D

[sabotabby]

A bit, yeah. I can't say I'm immune from all of this. I'm just more self-aware than Wolf.

[dissectionist]

We just started watching Atlanta. And I just finished reading the sequel to Moon of the Crusted Snow. It was great!

[sabotabby]

Oh hell yeah! Plz tell me your thoughts on all.

[dissectionist]

We’re only three episodes into Atlanta, so although I’ve been enjoying the mix of (occasionally surrealist) humor and grim reality, I don’t have much else to say about it yet.

As for the book: I thought it was a realistically portrayed representation of what that kind of undertaking would have required. (Trying to avoid spoilers here.) I really enjoyed the new main characters (and revisiting returning characters) and seeing how things had changed.

Younger’s sophomore English class is reading Moon of the Crusted Snow this semester, so I’m really excited to see what Younger thinks of it! I wrote to his teacher to express my approval of his book choices, and he replied that he’s from Sudbury too (where the author is from) and the book really reminded him of what it’s like to grow up up north.

[sabotabby]

Yeah the thing about Atlanta is that it starts as one kind of show, which is very good, and turns into another kind of show. You get hints of it in the first episode but I had no idea. No spoilers and they wouldn't make sense anyway.

I'm so glad Younger is reading that in class! It's one of my options for the Grade 11 novel study (and one that I have a class set of because I love it so much) but my kids are at such different reading levels that I don't do an assigned novel.

[greylock]

I'm just at the tail end of S4, and... it constantly surprises, and gets better.
It is ... more an anthology than a drama. But with the same characters.

Also, how Lando is Donald Glover?

[greylock]

At the risk of this being too on the nose, I saw myself in it, in that

If you check and double check things, you're fine.
I know how you feel, but if you at least try and assess secondary sources (much less primary), you're going great.

The Old Jew/New Jew thing is interesting. I suspect I thought I knew that would be a thing. Also, I read said book in November, and noted the fact it was written at a different time at the time.
And, of course, today is not literally yesterday. I've never seen to many governments slap down Israel as I think I have today.

Is Cozy Dystopia a subgenre yet?

I mean... it m just be. Surely?

[sabotabby]

I've heard if you worry you're going insane, it means you're fine, but I don't actually believe it. There's a number of things I think and feel that appear to be at odds with consensus reality.

I've always been keenly aware of the Old Jew/New Jew dichotomy. I'm such a stereotype of an Old Jew and I wonder how much of that is at the root of my politics more than anything else.

[greylock]

I've heard if you worry you're going insane, it means you're fine, but I don't actually believe it.

I've lived it, so I believe it.

There's a number of things I think and feel that appear to be at odds with consensus reality.

You know which 1984 quote goes here!

I'm such a stereotype of an Old Jew and I wonder how much of that is at the root of my politics more than anything else.

If I remember rightly, NK seemed to think there was something in that argument. Not having quite as defined a cultural identify myself* I can't say I'd really given the topic much thought before reading that.

[*I mean, I am sure I have one, and will probably think of examples later ]

[sabotabby]

It's weird because I have very weak cultural links. But it's definitely A Thing for me anyway, in no small part because the Old Jew is defined by what they are not (white/European/Christian/normal).

[greylock]

Jews are white until they're not!

I have no real cultural links, but if you asked me - at gunpoint - I'd identify as Scottish for deep seated family history.

Honestly, 'Jew' is such a loaded phrases for myriad reasons. It's a weird intersection of religious, racial, political, mythological and historical narratives, and inescapable... but I am sure I'm not saying anything new to you.

I mean, Evangelicals support Israel so all the Jews die so the rapture comes... If I understand the logic.
I never did understand the Bible. much less whatever that is.
What even logic is that?