The Garden of Discordia

So I was going to do a nice, well-structured post on the German university system (because some of my former classmates from Sweden were curious) but that will have to wait a bit, since I'm feeling a bit too tired for that right now. My annoying almost-cold is beginning to become a real chest cold, which I am valiantly fighting with the help of fresh ginger tea, eucalyptus honey, hot steamy baths and a bit more actual shut-eye in the sleep/internet equation.

In the beginning of November, we'll go see the Norwegian all-female band Katzenjammer. According to our Katzenjammer-expert, they do "chaos pop with some folk-punk". It's fast, engaging and entertaining at least, and I think the concert might turn out to be really great - they seem like one of those bands that do extra well live.


One of my favorite songs, A bar in Amsterdam.

We bought the tickets today and, since we were at the ticket office already also got tickets for the musical Tanz der Vampire - one pair of plastic fangs included with the tickets!
Alas, it's based on the movie by Roman Polanski, him of serious skeevyness, and as such, I'm sure he'll get royalties. Otoh, I hope it's not too much, because Tanz der Vampire nicely filled some ticky-boxes on my mental "Stuffs I Must Do in Berlin This Exchange Year": Seeing some big-budget stage extravaganza, seeing a original German-language musical and vampires/gothy stuff. They'll show the Rocky Horror Picture Show here in Berlin too, in November, which works for ticky-box one and three, but since it will either be translated or in "denglish" (German talk, English songs) it moves to the second position.
Also, the stage images they have on the website look wonderful (eeeeeven though one of the posters has a bit of a Twilight-y vibe going on) so, uhm, I'll just be evil and go. Sorry.

A few days ago, I finished reading Walter Moer's Ensel and Krete: ein Märchen aus Zamonien. ( Bookblather goes here )

Basically, it's a take-it-or-leave-it book, though anyone who has a strong liking for Moer's style ought to have fun with it. It's also the first book where Hildegunst von Mythenmerz is introduced, which alone makes it worth a read.

When buying this one, I also noticed that the sequel to his Die Stadt der Träumenden Bücher had arrived: Das Labyrinth der Träumenden Bücher! Only out in hardcover so far, but I'm very much looking forward to reading it later :) And there's apparantly a third part coming out in about a year, swell!

My univeristy library has a lovely system which sends out mails approx 2 days before you need to return a book (and then you get increasingly stern mails that you should Really Return That Book, NOW PLEASE, once the date has passed). For some reason it's called millenium, so I have a bunch of mails from "millenium". It feels a bit like being in contact with a Dan Brown novel

Anyway! I borrowed a whole bunch of books for my paper and have re-loaned all the ones I'm still working with. However, since there is absolutely no room for anything more in the paper as it is and I have no time at all to read them, I am returning Maria Nikolajeva's books about the structure of childrens literature. I managed to read her first one - Barnbokens byggklossar (The Building Blocks of Children's Books) before the essay writing began, since it was included in the reading suggestion list for the essay course. It was really good! I've also got "Power, Voice and Subjectivity in Literature for Young Readers" here, but I'm gonna return it unread and hope to pick it up later some day.

She uses narrativism to pick apart and analyze the structure in children's literature. It interested me, because it's a much better approach to studing manga than many other lit science entrances I've seen - not as good as actual, y'know, mangastudies but there is still a lack of a good "comic analysiz + story tropes + solid step-by-step analysis - Orientalist exoticism = GOOD FRAME FOR MANGA ANALYSES" book. What I like about using a structure such as Nikolajeva's children's focused narrativism, is that you can get to grips with the text as such, and (I hope) not get tangled up in Western perceptions of Japanese culture. I am, anyway, more interested in How Manga Reads Here than But What Does it Mean There? At least when it comes to trying to do any work of my own, I loved Kinsella's study of the Japanese publishing industry in Adult Manga. But hey, I'm in lit science, not sociology plus I don't speak Japanese - it's not like attempting to update her study will ever be anything that I can or should do :)

Anyway! Nikolajeva: Easy to follow, very structured, I haven't actually tried to apply any of her stuff, but it seemed nice and comprehensible.

This, and the intimatopia idea put forward by Elizabeth Woledge are both tools/theories that really ring true to certain experiences I've had as a fandom-focused reader, writer and all-around participant.

So there's a preview of the latest Dresden Files book - Ghost Story - up at the publisher's site.

I click my way over there, feeling all happy and expectant and, yay, free sneak peek awesome! And then, ugh, it's formatted in Flash. Stupid flash at that, where I can't move the mouse without the entire page scrolling away, the pages don't respond to arrow keys or other keyboard short-cuts as I would like them too.

Dear Penguin. This is, what, six pages of a coming book? Would you kindly just throw them up as html pages and be done with it, I promise the evul e-pirates won't make off with all the loot even if you do. Thank you

On the content, though, it hooks me but good, hehe, I look forward to this book!

The annual book sale started recently in Sweden and I bought some stuff at work. Not as much as last year, because my heap of unread books has grown exponentially since I started this course, but I still made some nice finds!

I bought The Moon and the Sandals, Fumi Yoshinaga's debut work, which I assume is going out of print now that we're putting it on sale *pout* Haven't read it yet, but it'll be interesting to see where she started!

I also got two classic SF books, Alfred Besters The stars my destination and the ultra-classic Do Androids dream of electric sheep? by Philip K Dick. Will be interesting to read... some day... when I have time ^^;;;

Aargh. I have the latest Pratchett in a bag on my floor (Tiffany Aching #4 - I shall wear midnight) and I haven't even started reading because I have to read for school (the Bible + Homeros).

When did I turn halfway responsible concerning studies? x_X

Finally! My book has been sent from the states. I've been waiting for Boys' Love Manga: Essays on the Sexual Ambiguity and Cross-Cultural Fandom of the Genre for quite a while now, but it seems as if there were delivery problems or somesuch. Hope it arrives today or on Tuseday ^_^

(With unfailing precision, the internet died when I just hit "post" for this entry yesterday... so you get it now instead. Recycling = win, y/n?)

I don't have time to write proper reviews and whatnot right now, but I have the feeling that if I start putting my "book logg" off, it'll wither and die before February has passed. And at least two months I should manage, darn it.

So, on to the preview copies!

First off is Jim Butcher's latest Dresden Files, Changes. Oh, this one was a very intense page turner. I felt that the last book was too much plodding around and too little happening, until the very end when there was a huge mess of shit happening which could influence the overall outcome of the series - but by then, the book was mostly done so very little reflexion on those events could take place.

It's somewhat similar here, although the action is better paced and the foreshadowing works. The threads from older books, from the very beginning of the series up to much more recent events, are nicely (if somewhat predictably) picked up again. Oh, and this book does definitely change things around in Harry's world, on a both personal and more general level.

Good stuff. Less good is that Butcher now intends to carry the series into the "lower twenties" apparantly, because I want to get to the end some time :/ preferably before I'm tired of reading about Harry Dresden, thanks.

Then I read something-Sniegoski's Where Angels Fear to Thread, the next part in the Remy Chandler series. It's urban fantasy/mystery with an angel living on Earth as the main character. And that's probably where it fails the worst, because the fact that he's an angel doesn't matter one fucking bit for the plot. Remy/Remiel's Seraphim self is violent, threatens to "burn his humanity away" if he lets go of it and... is violent. That's it, basically. Oh, and Remy mopes about this a bit.

I tried to imagine what would have changed if Remy was a demon who'd somehow left hell and decided to be good, with a violent, destructive demonic side he supressed... Not a thing would be different as far as the in-book action. How people react to him, sure, somewhat but when he might as well have come from another planet or be his complete opposite without it messing up the plot. Nah, not good.

Otherwise the books are bland; a step up from most urban fantasy, which is horrible. That's why I keep reading them, so I can feel that I have some insight into the genre without having to suffer through the worst drivel...

Anyway, the books are bland, but not too shabbily written. There's a lot of old Bible characters running around, although, once again they don't feel very Biblical. I don't mean the story has to be preachy - for instance, in Angel Sanctuary, the characterization and plot are both very much driven by what the characters are, without it in any way being a respectful treatment of Christianity. I like that - I like Marianne Fredriksson's books, also, "Paradisets Barn" and whatnot, where there is also a feeling that, yes, these people don't just share names with someone from the Bible they are that person. They have met God, angels, demons etc, great otherwordly forces and that has in one way or another affected them.

I have also read Black Butler which is awesome. Yayness.

Of the books on my current reading list are:
- Uncle Dynamite by P.G. Wodehouse, something I borrowed from grandma
- Dwarves, a German fantasy book (though I read it in English, free copy from work) about... well, guess. Am almost finished, decent so far
- At the Mountains of Madness collection by Lovecraft. Have read the title story and The Case of Charles Dexter Ward so far, and yes, the old man knew how to craft his horror...
- Some African fantasy, a preview book I picked up because African fantasy is rare.
- Some shitty vampire romance book by J.R. Ward which I'm reading because it's part of a topic on the symposium. It is AWFUL!.