potentialities

Hey, books! Remember when I used to read them and not just try to write them?

What I've been reading

I reread The Saga of the Volsungs for reasons loosely connected with my NaNo. I feel bad for Signy's first two sons, though. "I don't wanna visit Uncle Sigmund! His flour is full of venomous snakes!" "Eh, go ahead and kill this one." "Waaaaaaaah!"

I reread Jeeves in the Offing, which is very much a sequel to The Code of the Woosters. I had completely forgotten that Bertie strikes up quite a cordial relationship with Sir Roderick Glossop while the latter is pretending to be a butler named Swordfish, which is a wonderful example of a platonic crack pairing.

I read the complete run of Avengers Arena, where Marvel comicsverse meets The Hunger Games. Actually, it turns out that it's more ( spoilers ) It was interesting to read at the end that Dennis Hopeless had actually pitched a teen drama comic, with a sort of Triwizard Tournament-gone-wrong plotline potentially way down the line, and his editors were all, nah, skip everything else, write that instead! I think I would have enjoyed that original comic more, but I think enough of the origin comes through in this version to give it some depth.

I read the novella "The Princess and the Queen" from GRRM's newly-edited megathology. ( Mild spoilers )

I read Boxers & Saints, Gene Luen Yang's companion graphic novels about the Boxer Rebellion. Actually, I read Saints first, and I think that reading order makes more sense when it comes to understanding the scenes that take place in both, but I didn't consult my self in an alternate universe who read them the other way round. They're both good, but they sit kind of oddly next to each other—Boxers is almost twice the length of Saints, to begin with. Both Little Bao and Vibiana have (what are presented as) real magical/spiritual experiences, but they don't seem very equivalent—( spoilers ) But, I mean, they're both still beautifully told and drawn.

I also read all three parts of Gene Luen Yang's second arc of Avatar: The Last Airbender comics that continue after the end of the show. These ones finally tell the story of Zuko's mother. These are really nicely done, and the next best thing to having more shows about Aang et al.

I read Up All Night, an okay YA short story anthology about kids who (wait for it) stay up all night, for one reason or another. It had a short Gene Luen Yang Monkey comic in it, and also a really cheesy David Levithan short story.

What I'm reading now

Image on the Edge: Margins in Medieval Art

"[...] when I look at the cast listing I can't help but think that the movie will have to end up seeming like an alternate history in which european civilization is all but wiped out, except at the poles, and they are trying to fight off a warring horde of ethnically-diverse but otherwise consistently dark-skinned people (who can shoot CGI fire out of their hands)."

What else can I say?

♥

Last week, as you may recall, I posted a very serious poll about Avatar: the Last Airbender, including the all-important question of Zuko's hair. Five of you copped out shamelessly by declaring that all of Zuko's hair is inherently the best, including the the hair that he has shaved off, but we also had two votes for book three, one vote for book one, and my own vote for book two.

It turns out that I was shamefully premature in casting my vote preferring Zuko's hairstyle last season, because this week book three has introduced us to the unutterable delight that is: emo!Zuko. As you can see, I have constructed a diagram to better demonstrate the completeness of Zuko's emo.

Discussion questions: What would be the name of Zuko's emo band? What would their first album be called? How great would the pyrotechnics at their shows be, at least until they accidentally burned down the tiny club or garage they were playing in? How many of their t-shirts would Aang own? How many of their shows would he go to, dragging Katara along with him even though she claims she doesn't even like their music because it's simplistic and derivative, until he finally manages to catch Zuko afterwards, Momo handing over Aang's CD for him to sign because Aang is too flustered to move, much less speak? How much do I ship Zuko/Aang/Katara?

This weekend Sam actually came to town just so we could watch the premiere of season three together. I made Fire Nation Curry for the occasion. Yeah, we are awesome.

Why don't I have an Avatar icon? Oh yeah, because I'm lazy.

[Poll #1060378]

ETA: Why must my most common typos involve failing to properly conjugate or otherwise inflect a word? Do I just type the stem and feel that I've done enough? Balanced breakfast, guys.

ETA2: Also, all the hair on Zuko's head. I don't even know what the hair on Zuko's hair would be, unless he got too impatient for it to grow out even though it does so like magically and he got a weave.