lukknits: September

WELL THIS WAS UNEXPECTED. The beginning & end narration were really weird, also - I'm kind of at a loss what exactly to get as the message of the movie. Say no to genetic modification? Except if it's already been done, then no point killing it off since it has as much right to live as anything else?

I have to admit, I was pretty sad when I reached the end. Fry's dry humour (and footnotes) were a wonderful touch, and it would make a great introduction or review of the Greek myths for I want to say most ages.
The only thing I had an issue with was the format of the physical paperback itself: it felt a lot chunkier than the amount of text it held for some reason. If it's going for that size, I'm not sure whether there's a hardcover version of it, but I feel like it would work better as a hardcover. Or go slightly larger and aim for a lap-sized retelling of the Greek myths.

I really enjoyed reading this one! Devoured it over two days. There was a point when the number of casualties to the fuzzy mud is mentioned and I thought for sure the 5 dead would be Tamaya, Chad, Marshall, the bearded man, and maybe the vet who rescued them. I do wish Marshall's character got a bit more space on the page to develop (though he does), but for the length of the book and the format it took, it wasn't bad. Ditto with Chad.

Something about the style of writing made the longer ones drag on for what seemed like an inordinately long time. The shorter stories were fine, and I enjoyed them - and I liked the longer ones at the end as well, just that I feel they could use a bit of reworking or be cut down a little shorter. That's just personal taste though.
Reminds me a bit of Kelly Link's stories, in the slightly eerie and supernatural.

Oh wow that imploded! I didn't expect that ending. The relations between the family members was really strange throughout, and I'm curious how the dysfunction allowed them to survive as a unit this long.

A whistling language. SO. COOL.
Incredible film that really makes you think about traditions & how our sense of morality, which can be so black & white, often needs to be reconsidered to allow for all the complicated nuances of reality.

First of all: READ THIS. It's sad, yes. It's depressing, yes. But it's also kind of uplifting in a way, because it's right there in the open that these emotional states can overtake us without any reason, and you know what? Sometimes, we just need to roll with it, have a good cry, and then move on. This picture book (or so it's filed in our collection) starts with a bang and doesn't for a moment let you down.
Second: It's the same illustrator as the Roald Dahl books! I'm wondering if this says anything about the Dahl books.

Another lovely picture book that walks us through death as the child goes through the stages of grief after losing his mother. Beautifully illustrated, with astounding use of colour, everything is minimal yet all the more palpably expresses the emotions of each page for it.

Anxiety reappraisal: I'm excited, not nervous. Keep telling yourself that and you'll actually perform better! This is exciting news. Not... nervous exciting, just exciting exciting.
People don't think about you as much as you think they do, which... of course they don't. They're worrying about how they're being perceived, just like you are.
Being nicer to yourself! Self-compassion, because you're not that special. Except, if everyone experiences what I experience to some extent, doesn't that mean I'm just not holding up as well as everyone else?
Would things go well if we treated regular social interactions as improv using the "yes, and..." rule, where the "yes" doesn't mean "I agree with what you're saying" so much as "I'm listening to what you're saying, and here's what I have to add to that"?

Uhmmm.... yes.
You know exactly how it's going to go down in the end, but I still love it. And I love that Jen isn't portrayed as just knowing all this stuff right from the get-go - there's still a learning curve (e.g. how she falls down the first time she shoots the gun, how she kind of winged it killing Dimi) - but is resourceful af. I mean, she still knows way more about what to do right away than I'd imagine, but it's not like she's done this before. But that final bit where Richard thinks for one hot second she'll hesitate, and THERE'S NO HESITATION.
It seems a lot more a revenge on victim-blaming as a whole, considering how classic victim-blaming some of those lines were, like when Stan's saying that Jen was so into him last night, or when Richard tells her she's so beautiful they just can't resist.

Reading

From Eternity to Here: The Quest for the Ultimate Theory of Time by Sean Carroll

Here goes another foray into space and time. I didn't actually finish any of my previous attempts at physics books, so let's hope I'll be able to see this one to the end! Pretty dense, but approachable in tone. I just started reading the endnotes halfway through where I'm at right now, and they're absolutely delightful.

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