Stuffs and things I have been watching and reading

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Books:

Talk Sweetly To Me by Courtney Milan: How did I miss that there was a LADY MATHEMATICIAN/PHYSICIST romance novella at the end of the Brother's sinister series? Sweet, straightforward, "charming rakeish dude persuades sensible black scientist that he really loves her and respects her work and they live happily ever after". Neither of them are upper class which is nice. Plus, black regency heroine!

The Goblin Emporer Katherine Addison aka Sarah Monette: A lush, readable, and emotionally engaging take on "A nobody unexpectedly ends up Emporer, suddenly has to figure out how to survive life at court". Reminds me a bit of Lois McMaster Bujold. I really liked the main character, the exiled offspring of an ill fated marriage between the elf Emporer and a goblin princess, and also enjoyed the the world and characters. It was interesting having no humans around (though they might be one of the lesser races under another name?) not sure what I make of the racial subtext of the willowy, white, elegant elves vs the less refined, heavyset, black-skinned goblins, with mixed race people usually servants. The two main flaws were that (a) The author uses the very sexist setting as an excuse to focus almost entirely on men for the first 2/3 of the book (the last 1/3 is better but not enough to make up for it) (b) The language felt overly complex (probably would have helped if I'd noticed the glossary...) and was a weird mix of very old fashioned and very modern. Ends at what would be an entirely satisfying place for the first book of a series but it's not so I was left wanting slightly more.

Games:

Sinerider: A very rough around the edges but fun game about figuring out which equation will make the right shape to affect and pass through various objects. Not unlike actual mathematical research it is a mixture of JOY and PAIN. I had to resort to editing the url to get some of the later levels to function. Also I took so long figuring out this solution I want to preserve it for posterity: 3*(1.2+cos(t/(25+cos(t/8))))*sin(2+x-20*sin((t-2)/5))
(The initial levels are simpler :))

Deponia: A point and click adventure game with pretty graphics and a fun sense of humour and SUCH AN ANNOYING PROTAGONIST. On the plus side we're clearly supposed to think he's a selfish lazy man child but that doesn't entirely make up for having to hear his irritating opinions every time I try and do something. And apparently the female lead "Goal" spends most of the game unconscious.

The Longest Journey: An apparently fun point and click adventure game. I wouldn't know, it wouldn't run on my mac even though it was supposed to >:(

To The Moon: Apparently very good point and click game, I found the self consciously snarky dialogue too painful, especially given that it's supposed to be this very serious, emotionally affecting story.

Syberia: a slow, dated, but kind of charming point and click adventure game about a woman investigating a town of clockwork automatons. I have been put off by it not letting me choose where to save and then crashing.

TV:

Elementary: finally got around to starting Season 3! I am liking it well enough so far, but it helps I was warned to expect it to remain the Sherlock Show with all Joan's relationships/needs etc treated as secondary. I like Kitty.

The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt: A Tina Fey comedy about a woman making a life for herself in New York after escaping a a cult in an underground bunker. Overall I really liked it, it's all about women refusing to be defined by others, and is also just funny with lots of likeable characters. But the humour is deliberately "shocking" and it's clearly written by a white straight wome. The female characters, while over the top, were varied and subtle under the jokes. The POC and gay characters are more one note, and the sexuality and race humour tended to be "lol white people are racist!" (which, yes, but...) and was sometimes unfortunate. Also lol what are the letters after G in Glbt. Mild cliffhanger ending and some heavy subjects but otherwise very cheering.

Agents of SHIELD: I was told it improved after season 1 episode 10 (the point where I got irritated and stopped) and it really did! By about episode 13 I was hooked. It's GREAT going in knowing all these spoilers, stopped me getting irritated when it looked like the plot was going in ways I wouldn't have liked. But it feels like it's way less clever than it thinks it is. I can live with cheesy self indulgent superheroes where Good Always Wins, and with gritty shades of grey, but it doesn't seem to be able to decide which it is. So when the heroes do grey things I don't feel like it's justified, and when they are Shocked and Outraged at other "good" guys being morally grey they look naive, and the moral line seems really arbitrary. Overall they act like weirdly childish for grizzled operatives of a shady government agency, yet that childishness is rewarded, which only works for me in a 100% fluffy universe like Brooklyn 99. May continues to be my favourite, I love her sooo much. And as of s1e19 May/Ward has been MORE DELICIOUS THAN I EVER DREAMED when I first started crack shipping it. (I don't ship them romantically or desparately want to see them making out I just think it makes for a really interesting dynamic)

Comments

[hebethen]

Regarding the language in "The Goblin Emperor", I'm fairly sure part of it was that the author wasn't deliberately going for "old-fashioned" or anything like that, but rather trying to have a T-V distinction in her dialogue (formality and/or hierarchy indicated by variant forms of the second person pronoun). The problem is, of course, that English went with formal "you" as the generic second person eventually, which means that informal "thou" not only sounds old-fashioned to the modern reader but also -- completely at odds with its history -- formal.

It was an interesting choice for me to examine, and I also found some entertainment in attempting to parse out the titles and names, but of course a novel is not, generally speaking, intended primarily as a linguistic puzzle.

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Actually that bit worked fine! It was the contrast of sentences along the lines of "I wouldst liefer speak an thou willst" right next to much more modern language. And contractions everywhere!