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What books are you reading?
Apparently colonialism and racism are bad. There’s an interesting premise in that magic comes from the distance between words in different languages when inscribed in silver and is almost entirely the domain of Oxford philology scholars, but mostly Babel is about the first thing.
It’s terrified of being anything less than entirely and indisputably on the right side. It’s not merely that characters are constantly explaining what’s wrong with empire and colonialism and how it feels to not be white in mid-nineteenth century Oxford, but the footnotes are there to explain how really racist every reference is. Feels very contemporary in that any ambiguity or shade must be avoided in preference for lectures as though it were an opinion piece in the Times.
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I am currently devouring a newish cyberpunk book, 36 Streets, by T.R. Napper. It is a classic cyberpunk style story set in Vietnam maybe the year 2080, featuring a fresh twist on the hardboiled detective story. Weirdly, it feels like this book was written directly for me. The protagonist is a smart, tough, half-Vietnamese woman with a drug addiction. More than 25 years ago, I was in a relationship with a smart, tough, half-Vietnamese woman with a drug addiction, on and off for a few years. The main character in 36 Streets comes across exactly like my ex, except that this fictional character also has extensive HTH training. The book just about jumped off the library shelf at me, because the color scheme of the cover (neon blue, neon pink, and black) matches a large piece of art on the wall in my computer room. And there was an enthusiastic cover blurb from Richard K. Morgan, author of Altered Carbon and just about the only other good modern cyberpunk writer. I'm about 20% into the book so far, and it's a real page turner. Action, dark humor, intrigue, good dialogue, and decent character development.
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- Cranberries
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Followed that with the infinitely more accessible Drawing of the Dark by Tim Powers which is also set in 1500s but not nearly so hung up on names and lists of events. Also quite magical/mythic and if you like beer, is about the only book making beer brewing a significant plot point. Powers is an odd duck, his stuff is always good and inventive but he seems very overlooked, maybe because he bounces around on different topics and never built an audience?
Now on to The Club Dumas by Arturo Perez-Fuerte which is what the Johnny Depp "The Ninth Gate" was based on. This is a deep dive into antique books and Dumas with lots of exposition, much like the authors The Flanders Panel dealt with chess and flemish painters. I know where it is going thanks to the movie but it is refreshing to read stuff written well before the internet made detective mysteries into extended Google searches and nonsense hacking segments
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Bret Devereaux might have ruined this kind of fantasy for me, as well. The second revolution is replete with a smaller army winning advantages through clever tactics, inventing submarines and tunneling under an ocean channel. It's cute, but rings hollow. Rome reigned for as long as it did not because of spectacular tactics but because it had solid generals, well-fed armies and, most importantly, a huge population to draw soldiers from. Sneak attacks and technological innovation are great and all, but historically victory at this scale came from fielding and supplying the bigger army.
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Nguyen makes three core arguments here. Striving play exists and is the enjoyment of games in the pursuit of victory but not the attainment of victory per se. Games are an art practiced by both the designer and player. The particular artistic medium of games is agency in the same way that sound is the medium of music or movement the medium of dance.
The first point is very well developed. I would have appreciated more time spent on the latter two, especially considering the title. Nguyen briefly considers harmony in agency when a single move in chess escapes a threat while creating a new against the opponent but also takes a bit of a punt by admitting that aesthetics cannot be a check list. Sure, but some further guidance would be appreciated in developing a critical language for talking about games and their unique qualities.
It’s not for everyone. It’s not the final say on the topic, but it is huge step forward. I hope it and its arguments gain more traction in the wider community for expanding our ability to talk about our hobby.
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- Cranberries
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Cranberries wrote: I am rereading Anne Tyler's The Accidental Tourist after reading that William Hurt, who starred in movie, had passed away recently. I originally read it in college, I think, and enjoyed the movie. The book is holding up well. It's a very different book when you're in your fifties reading about Macon Leary pondering the meaning of life than when you are a young college kid trying to figure out if Muriel is super hot or not.
“Ever consider what pets must think of us? I mean, here we come back from a grocery store with the most amazing haul - chicken, pork, half a cow. They must think we're the greatest hunters on earth!”
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“Disaster followed disaster... the hero stuck in there, though. Macon had long ago noticed that all adventure movies had the same moral: Perseverance pays. Just once he'd like to see a hero like himself -- not a quitter, but a man who did face facts and give up gracefully when pushing on was foolish.”
― Anne Tyler, The Accidental Tourist
This thread is the only record of what I read in 2022, for some reason. There’s nothing in Goodreads.
EDIT: I was using Goodreads incorrectly but did find books here I had forgotten to record.
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