Reading Wednesday

[sabotabby]

Just finished: Invisible Line by Su J. Sokol. This was quite good. Xe did a good job in not just complicating utopia—I have a minor dislike of "flee to Canada" as a plot point in dystopian fiction, and the portrayal of Montreal as a bureaucracy subject to limits on its ability to do the right thing is very nuanced and well done—but also making the characters messy and traumatized. The big crisis in the last act could have been averted if the parents talked to their damned kids, but of course they are too paranoid and distrustful from years of living under fascism, so they don't. Looking forward to reading the sequel.

Currently reading: Mavericks: Life stories and lessons of history's most extraordinary misfits by Jenny Draper. This is really fun—TikTok-sized portraits of history's interesting (not always good) characters. I knew about a lot of them, like Ellen and William Craft and Noor Inayat Khan, but a lot of the others, like Eleanor Rykener and The Chevalier d'Eon, are new to me. It's very fun and conversational.

Comments

[angelofthenorth]

Eleanor Rykener is fascinating - I first learnt about her at the BL's Medieval Women exhibition which I kinda loved.

[neeuqdrazil]

I really like J Draper - their YT videos are very interesting and well done, and I'm looking forward to reading this!

[minoanmiss]

The Chevalier d'Eon is made of sexitude

[flamingsword]

Yup! I learned about her from the anime, weirdly enough.

[moon_custafer]

Apparently she and the Chevalier St-Georges (fencer, composer, known in his time as “the Black Mozart” fenced each other once in an exhibition match, and somebody later did a political cartoon of the two of them teaming up to fight crime trounce the Prince Regent: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:St._George_%26_the_Dragon_and_Mademoiselle_d%27Eon_%22Riposting%22.jpg

[ioplokon]

Yeah, who would flee to Canada!? :p