Follow-up.
Jun. 9th, 2006 02:49 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sub_dividedI had no idea Lawrence Yep was such an unsung hero. Poll!
[Poll #744780]
1. Updated the gmail accounts with Vampire Knight chapters 10-18.
2. Let's talk about yaoi manga.
Mainichi Seiten
•![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
canis_m is right, Mainichi Seiten is the best thing ever. I mean. (Bottom-right corner, the one on the left is Mayumi who Yuuta (in the yukata) likes and the one on the right is...Yuuta's adopted father. XD. Later, Mayumi realizes that Yuuta is a lot like his adopted father, i.e. his oldest brother. Someone call Frued!) I love Yuuta's relationship with Shuu, it is exactly like what you would expect from a streetsmart teenager who has been adopted by a barely-older lonely author. The four brothers are adorable together, they're all so different and yet so unmistakeably brothers. The thing I really like about this series is that the characters are all complicated, but make sense when taken as a whole. Also, it is really funny. But OMG, if that is really the relationship between Japanese authors and their editors, I feel sorry for the authors. (You can find Mainichi Seiten in the aarinfantasy.com forums, scanlated and raw.)
I Want to Become Your Bird
• The worst yaoi manga I've read this year is I Want to Become Your Bird (fun fact: the protagonist looks like Light and Teru's love-child and his crush looks just like L). The thing that makes it so awful is that it makes no sense. The main character (hereafter "MC") comes from a completely normal family, and yet he is a cyncial sexpot who sleeps with his art teacher because of, I don't know, nihilism or something. The L lookalike is a smart but spacy med student who likes thoughtful conversation, and yet he is going out with MC's stupid ditzy childish older sister. And for absolutely no reason at all, MC's uncle writes porn for a living. (I know, I know, sounds like crack-filled fun, but seriously it's awful, it's like the mangaka threw every yaoi cliche she could think of onto a buillitan board and then threw darts blindfolded to decide which ones she'd use, sometimes missing the board altogether.)
Love Mode
• Every year or so I try to read Love Mode, and I get a little bit further before giving up. The first time, I gave up at the "author's extra" where all of the characters are listed in a big Seme (S) | Uke (U) chart. (Conventions are one thing, but no need to be so matter of fact about it.) The second time, I gave up at the scene where Takamiya (S) and Reiji (S) rescue Izumi (U) and Naoya (U) from some punks. Reiji is one thing, but Takamiya (I thought) was totally not the type for punch-in-face heroics. The third time, I gave up after seeing Reiji-in-an-SS-uniform pinups -- twice.
But this time I perservered! The ending really is something. I was totally blown away. It really is worth reading through the whole series (though ummmm not if you're violently opposed to rigid seme/uke rules) just for the last four volumes. I mean Kiichi and Reiji and Matsuomi and wow. And then if you go back to read the earlier volumes (esp six) it's so neat, there are all of these extra layers of meaning you didn't get the first time around. *is so totally converted XD*
3. Might as well blog this now: Naomi Novik, Black Powder War
I liked Throne of Jade better than His Majesty's Dragon because it had more history and less Dragon Care For Beginners/Training Montages. I liked the cultural conflicts and I liked the scenes that reminded me of History 211: Introduction to Modern Chinese History, especially when they were throwaways. ("There are famines and floods, and a peasant uprising in the south," Yongxing said, and I died.) The showdown where Lawrence and the rest are under seige in the Imperial quarters naturally reminded me of the Boxer Rebellion, at least until the bannermen started using crazy kung fu moves (for some reason, this was more shockingly fantastic than the dragons -- I expected dragons, they're in the premise, but I did not expect crazy kung fu). The final resolution, where Temeraire's circumstances are finally revealed, was brilliant, because it somehow managed to be perfectly logical and predictable without being anti-climactic.
I like The Black Powder War better than Throne of Jade. Part of it is simple: journeying through the desert >>> journeying through the ocean, Istanbul >>> Beijing (your mileage may vary). But also, some of the things Novik was doing in previous books, she did more in this one, and I really dug that.
For example: the Tharkay/Lawrence conflict really lets you look at Lawrence from an outsider's perspective. This also happens in the first two books, because Lawrence is constantly working with people whose worldviews are different from his own. But Tharkay is the first person whose contrary views manage to shake Lawrence up, and cause him to question his assumptions, including his assumptions about himself. Since the books are written in very tight third-person from Lawrence's perspective, I really enjoyed the chance to see Lawrence in a different, less positive, light. (Tharkay is won over by the end, of course.)
Another thing I liked was that Temeraire's habit of questioning everything, which before was as much curiosity as rebelliousness, in this book takes on a distinctly revolutionary tone. XD. At the same time, Temeraire's personal devotion to Lawrence is never in question. This is where all of the bonding scenes in the first and second book (first book especially) really pay off, because without all that background it really wouldn't have been believeable. (For fans of awww!Lawrence/Temeraire scenes, Black Powder War may be a disappointment, as there are nowhere near as many of them in this book.)
Also, Lawrence meets Napolean in this book. ^_____^ naturally, he is surprised to find himself impressed by him. BPW continues a theme from the first two books, which is that having an admirable personality is not the same thing as having admirable politics. For example, you remember that although Lawrence's father is a jerk, he's anti-slavery, while Riley, who's a great friend, is pro-slavery. In this book, Lawrence profoundly admires the King and Queen of Prussia. They're brave, dignified, principled, etc. They personally take to the field in battles. He especially admires the Queen, who is kind, sensible, and brave. But his personal liking doesn't quite manage to erase the fact that as policymakers, their decisions are deeply misguided, and end up hurting their country deeply -- especially the Queen, who is a member of the War Party.
I also liked the way this book emphasized that although individuals are important, they are not that important, i.e. Lawrence and Temeraire alone are not enough to change the outcome of Napolean's Prussian campaign.
Okay, enough analysis. New Turks! Escape through the sewers! Sneaking into harems! ZOMG DRAGON BANDITS, Arkady I ♥ you~!
4. This comment made me smile. It is probably a sign of my oldest-child-ness that my first reaction was "Yay, parental approval!" and not "ZOMG who is this person?!"
[Poll #744780]
1. Updated the gmail accounts with Vampire Knight chapters 10-18.
2. Let's talk about yaoi manga.
Mainichi Seiten
•
canis_m is right, Mainichi Seiten is the best thing ever. I mean. (Bottom-right corner, the one on the left is Mayumi who Yuuta (in the yukata) likes and the one on the right is...Yuuta's adopted father. XD. Later, Mayumi realizes that Yuuta is a lot like his adopted father, i.e. his oldest brother. Someone call Frued!) I love Yuuta's relationship with Shuu, it is exactly like what you would expect from a streetsmart teenager who has been adopted by a barely-older lonely author. The four brothers are adorable together, they're all so different and yet so unmistakeably brothers. The thing I really like about this series is that the characters are all complicated, but make sense when taken as a whole. Also, it is really funny. But OMG, if that is really the relationship between Japanese authors and their editors, I feel sorry for the authors. (You can find Mainichi Seiten in the aarinfantasy.com forums, scanlated and raw.)
I Want to Become Your Bird
• The worst yaoi manga I've read this year is I Want to Become Your Bird (fun fact: the protagonist looks like Light and Teru's love-child and his crush looks just like L). The thing that makes it so awful is that it makes no sense. The main character (hereafter "MC") comes from a completely normal family, and yet he is a cyncial sexpot who sleeps with his art teacher because of, I don't know, nihilism or something. The L lookalike is a smart but spacy med student who likes thoughtful conversation, and yet he is going out with MC's stupid ditzy childish older sister. And for absolutely no reason at all, MC's uncle writes porn for a living. (I know, I know, sounds like crack-filled fun, but seriously it's awful, it's like the mangaka threw every yaoi cliche she could think of onto a buillitan board and then threw darts blindfolded to decide which ones she'd use, sometimes missing the board altogether.)
Love Mode
• Every year or so I try to read Love Mode, and I get a little bit further before giving up. The first time, I gave up at the "author's extra" where all of the characters are listed in a big Seme (S) | Uke (U) chart. (Conventions are one thing, but no need to be so matter of fact about it.) The second time, I gave up at the scene where Takamiya (S) and Reiji (S) rescue Izumi (U) and Naoya (U) from some punks. Reiji is one thing, but Takamiya (I thought) was totally not the type for punch-in-face heroics. The third time, I gave up after seeing Reiji-in-an-SS-uniform pinups -- twice.
But this time I perservered! The ending really is something. I was totally blown away. It really is worth reading through the whole series (though ummmm not if you're violently opposed to rigid seme/uke rules) just for the last four volumes. I mean Kiichi and Reiji and Matsuomi and wow. And then if you go back to read the earlier volumes (esp six) it's so neat, there are all of these extra layers of meaning you didn't get the first time around. *is so totally converted XD*
3. Might as well blog this now: Naomi Novik, Black Powder War
I liked Throne of Jade better than His Majesty's Dragon because it had more history and less Dragon Care For Beginners/Training Montages. I liked the cultural conflicts and I liked the scenes that reminded me of History 211: Introduction to Modern Chinese History, especially when they were throwaways. ("There are famines and floods, and a peasant uprising in the south," Yongxing said, and I died.) The showdown where Lawrence and the rest are under seige in the Imperial quarters naturally reminded me of the Boxer Rebellion, at least until the bannermen started using crazy kung fu moves (for some reason, this was more shockingly fantastic than the dragons -- I expected dragons, they're in the premise, but I did not expect crazy kung fu). The final resolution, where Temeraire's circumstances are finally revealed, was brilliant, because it somehow managed to be perfectly logical and predictable without being anti-climactic.
I like The Black Powder War better than Throne of Jade. Part of it is simple: journeying through the desert >>> journeying through the ocean, Istanbul >>> Beijing (your mileage may vary). But also, some of the things Novik was doing in previous books, she did more in this one, and I really dug that.
For example: the Tharkay/Lawrence conflict really lets you look at Lawrence from an outsider's perspective. This also happens in the first two books, because Lawrence is constantly working with people whose worldviews are different from his own. But Tharkay is the first person whose contrary views manage to shake Lawrence up, and cause him to question his assumptions, including his assumptions about himself. Since the books are written in very tight third-person from Lawrence's perspective, I really enjoyed the chance to see Lawrence in a different, less positive, light. (Tharkay is won over by the end, of course.)
Another thing I liked was that Temeraire's habit of questioning everything, which before was as much curiosity as rebelliousness, in this book takes on a distinctly revolutionary tone. XD. At the same time, Temeraire's personal devotion to Lawrence is never in question. This is where all of the bonding scenes in the first and second book (first book especially) really pay off, because without all that background it really wouldn't have been believeable. (For fans of awww!Lawrence/Temeraire scenes, Black Powder War may be a disappointment, as there are nowhere near as many of them in this book.)
Also, Lawrence meets Napolean in this book. ^_____^ naturally, he is surprised to find himself impressed by him. BPW continues a theme from the first two books, which is that having an admirable personality is not the same thing as having admirable politics. For example, you remember that although Lawrence's father is a jerk, he's anti-slavery, while Riley, who's a great friend, is pro-slavery. In this book, Lawrence profoundly admires the King and Queen of Prussia. They're brave, dignified, principled, etc. They personally take to the field in battles. He especially admires the Queen, who is kind, sensible, and brave. But his personal liking doesn't quite manage to erase the fact that as policymakers, their decisions are deeply misguided, and end up hurting their country deeply -- especially the Queen, who is a member of the War Party.
I also liked the way this book emphasized that although individuals are important, they are not that important, i.e. Lawrence and Temeraire alone are not enough to change the outcome of Napolean's Prussian campaign.
Okay, enough analysis. New Turks! Escape through the sewers! Sneaking into harems! ZOMG DRAGON BANDITS, Arkady I ♥ you~!
4. This comment made me smile. It is probably a sign of my oldest-child-ness that my first reaction was "Yay, parental approval!" and not "ZOMG who is this person?!"