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Oct. 1st, 2014 11:34 pmProgress notes for September 23-30, 2014
Total words new or revised : - 657. Also, at least 70 single spaced MS pages (I usually work on the computer double spaced but no point in changing a file I'm using on the Dana every time I switch)
Music: Almost entirely the computer playlist and/or my MP3 player. Noteable that I seemed to get some songs to crop up some extra; Jim Moray's Seven Long Years, Lennie Gallant's Lifeline, a couple of Vienna Teng's, and on one particular day, the MP3 player seemed especially fond of Ukrainian trad/rock bands. (When I get Ukrainia and the Ukrainians back to back....)
Mean things: Unwanted gender-bending, being forced to either let someone be hurt or be something you don't want to be (for yet another character), basically everyone here is having their personality pushed to its limits.
Recently finished reading: Galen Beckett - The House on Durrow Street. Mostly good, but while it avoided the *exact* trope I was fretting it would hit, it chose to use its only slightly better second cousin instead. Because this is a spoiler, I'll append it as a postscript.
Currently Reading: Kate Elliott - Cold Steel
Next on the to-read pile - Martha Wells - The Serpent Sea and the Siren Depths
Progress notes for October 1, 2014
Total words new or revised : +400, darn it all. But I think the next segment retracts some of that.
Tea: Decaf apricot black tea with, I realised after, the herbal ginger-mint teabag left in, adding a bit of a nice aftertaste. I might do that again on purpose sometime)
Music: The computer playlist.
Mean Things: Not wanting to return what's not yours. Being okay that it means someone else will die. A rather final break-up.
Reason for stopping: Hit a chewy bit in the scene, then looked at the time and realised I should have roused Joseph from his nap about 25 minutes before.
Inevitable Asides:
- Had rather a nice SCA-related gathering on Saturday evening.
- A friend's son was born today, well and hale.
- Another friend is having extra tough times I can't say more about, but it sucks even to watch.
- Had a nice outing with Grandma on Tuesday, mildly dampened by some texting related to the prior point.
- Joseph is REALLY hard to keep still in a restaurant, though. I tend to let him run a circle or two about so long as he's not interfering with anyone else, because he's too young yet for trying to pin him down further to result in anything but a tantrum that would be MORE disruptive. But I'm not sure exactly how to communicate "You've grown too old for that" once I think he has.
- Tomorrow he restarts swimming classes.
____________
The trope I was afraid of in The House on Durrow Street is "The sole gay love affair (And only that one) MUST end with one of the lovers tragically dead." Instead, we got, "The gay lovers both live, but part tragically anyhow, because one is irreparably damaged." Not... exactly an improvement. This is one of those tropes that's pardonable if you meet it in one or two stories, so I'm not saying anything about Beckett as a person, but pernicious in its frequency over multiple stories.
In the rivets in the moving train land, though, considering it after the fact, I also have some questions about the gender essentialism of the magic system. It's almost a given that straight men are sorcerers, straight (? We've seen no lesbians or bisexuals as yet in this world that I recall) women are witches (One male character in the background appears to have some skill at manipulating wood once cut - is he a male witch or just another alternate talent?), and gay men are illusionists. There's not a lot of evidence - one glimpsed private moment with the man and woman in charge of the illusionist's theatre, which mostly involves holding hands - that even implies heterosexuals or bisexuals can be illusionists. If he doesn't want it to be quite that clear cut and dried (And it's been long enough since I read the first book, I can't remember if there were any exceptions therein, so I can grant I might have missed something), I hope the next book makes that clearer.
I have to wonder what Beckett thinks a trans* person (Or, heaven forbid, a non-binary) would end up being? The gender they were originally assigned or the gender they really are? Or some fourth form of magic? Or maybe that's why our humble wood-manipulator can do his thing; he's not 100% "he", he's just too minor for it to be known to the reader?
Total words new or revised : - 657. Also, at least 70 single spaced MS pages (I usually work on the computer double spaced but no point in changing a file I'm using on the Dana every time I switch)
Music: Almost entirely the computer playlist and/or my MP3 player. Noteable that I seemed to get some songs to crop up some extra; Jim Moray's Seven Long Years, Lennie Gallant's Lifeline, a couple of Vienna Teng's, and on one particular day, the MP3 player seemed especially fond of Ukrainian trad/rock bands. (When I get Ukrainia and the Ukrainians back to back....)
Mean things: Unwanted gender-bending, being forced to either let someone be hurt or be something you don't want to be (for yet another character), basically everyone here is having their personality pushed to its limits.
Recently finished reading: Galen Beckett - The House on Durrow Street. Mostly good, but while it avoided the *exact* trope I was fretting it would hit, it chose to use its only slightly better second cousin instead. Because this is a spoiler, I'll append it as a postscript.
Currently Reading: Kate Elliott - Cold Steel
Next on the to-read pile - Martha Wells - The Serpent Sea and the Siren Depths
Progress notes for October 1, 2014
Total words new or revised : +400, darn it all. But I think the next segment retracts some of that.
Tea: Decaf apricot black tea with, I realised after, the herbal ginger-mint teabag left in, adding a bit of a nice aftertaste. I might do that again on purpose sometime)
Music: The computer playlist.
Mean Things: Not wanting to return what's not yours. Being okay that it means someone else will die. A rather final break-up.
Reason for stopping: Hit a chewy bit in the scene, then looked at the time and realised I should have roused Joseph from his nap about 25 minutes before.
Inevitable Asides:
- Had rather a nice SCA-related gathering on Saturday evening.
- A friend's son was born today, well and hale.
- Another friend is having extra tough times I can't say more about, but it sucks even to watch.
- Had a nice outing with Grandma on Tuesday, mildly dampened by some texting related to the prior point.
- Joseph is REALLY hard to keep still in a restaurant, though. I tend to let him run a circle or two about so long as he's not interfering with anyone else, because he's too young yet for trying to pin him down further to result in anything but a tantrum that would be MORE disruptive. But I'm not sure exactly how to communicate "You've grown too old for that" once I think he has.
- Tomorrow he restarts swimming classes.
____________
The trope I was afraid of in The House on Durrow Street is "The sole gay love affair (And only that one) MUST end with one of the lovers tragically dead." Instead, we got, "The gay lovers both live, but part tragically anyhow, because one is irreparably damaged." Not... exactly an improvement. This is one of those tropes that's pardonable if you meet it in one or two stories, so I'm not saying anything about Beckett as a person, but pernicious in its frequency over multiple stories.
In the rivets in the moving train land, though, considering it after the fact, I also have some questions about the gender essentialism of the magic system. It's almost a given that straight men are sorcerers, straight (? We've seen no lesbians or bisexuals as yet in this world that I recall) women are witches (One male character in the background appears to have some skill at manipulating wood once cut - is he a male witch or just another alternate talent?), and gay men are illusionists. There's not a lot of evidence - one glimpsed private moment with the man and woman in charge of the illusionist's theatre, which mostly involves holding hands - that even implies heterosexuals or bisexuals can be illusionists. If he doesn't want it to be quite that clear cut and dried (And it's been long enough since I read the first book, I can't remember if there were any exceptions therein, so I can grant I might have missed something), I hope the next book makes that clearer.
I have to wonder what Beckett thinks a trans* person (Or, heaven forbid, a non-binary) would end up being? The gender they were originally assigned or the gender they really are? Or some fourth form of magic? Or maybe that's why our humble wood-manipulator can do his thing; he's not 100% "he", he's just too minor for it to be known to the reader?
