I have such a weak spot for century old pulp sci-fi and fantasy
Reviews and Comments
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left_adjoint reviewed Trans/Rad/Fem by Talia Bhatt
Can a synthesis of trans liberation and feminism be easily arrived at? This collection asserts …
It's....okay?
3 stars
Maybe I'm the wrong audience but I feel like this book was pretty sub-101 transfeminism and also not particularly well-written or persuasive. Not offensive but also not much of anything. The last chunk, "Third Sex", deconstructing how transness in south asia has been framed was definitely the highlight of the book
left_adjoint commented on Kind Mirrors, Ugly Ghosts by Claire Donato
So weirdly raw and sortof triggering but the surreality and abstraction weirdly makes it easier to look at
left_adjoint started reading Kind Mirrors, Ugly Ghosts by Claire Donato
Saw this book on a shelf and was so enamored with how strange it look I had to borrow it
This reimagining of the "Twelve Dancing Princesses" traces the story of a family of flappers …
Really really good
5 stars
Content warning Spoilings
It's not Mechanique, let's get that out of the way
but it's a really good story that will hit hard if you grew up a captive in your home like I did
my only quibble with it is that there's some moments it feels like the flow of time gets a little funky but that might even be intentional given the content, playing with Jo's sense of time being based in how much is happening
the years of captivity disappearing in a nonlinear blur and the last few months as the sisters all start really living feel like they should have filled years instead
the ending is sappy and sweet and I cried multiple times through this book as I powered through it desperate to know if they got away or not and if Jo and Tom find each other again
left_adjoint commented on The girls at the Kingfisher Club by Genevieve Valentine
This reimagining of the "Twelve Dancing Princesses" traces the story of a family of flappers …
Liking it so far
Feels like a transitionary form between Mechanique's singular style and her more "normal" novel writing in Persona
It's slow and character focused in the good way
left_adjoint reviewed The Sexual Politics of Meat by Carol J. Adams
""The connections traced between rampant masculinity, misogyny, carnivorism, and militarism operate as powerfully today as …
Ehhhh...?
3 stars
It's
okay?
It's a lot thinner on concepts and insight than I'd hoped and has the flaws radical feminist writing often does: penis as sole implementation and synecdoche of sexual violence, ahistoric lauding of women led societies as inherently fair and non violent, bits of evopsych dripping in
It also wasn't, like, bad? But I feel like the first 30 pages and the last twentyish are really the heart of the text with a lot of filler
left_adjoint rated The Employees: 5 stars
The Employees by Martin Aitken, Olga Ravn
Shortlisted for the International Booker Prize, The Employees reshuffles a sci-fi voyage into a riotously original existential nightmare. Aboard the …
left_adjoint finished reading The Employees by Martin Aitken
Shortlisted for the International Booker Prize, The Employees reshuffles a sci-fi voyage into a riotously …
What a strange inexplicable thing (complimentary)
left_adjoint started reading The Employees by Martin Aitken
Shortlisted for the International Booker Prize, The Employees reshuffles a sci-fi voyage into a riotously …
Halfway through and what a fascinatingly weird little book
More like experimental prose poetry than a novel
If you've ever seen the movie Kontroll do you remember the scene where all the subway workers go through their psych evals and it's a montage of surreally broken people?
Okay it's like that but sci-fi
left_adjoint reviewed The Real World of Technology by Ursula M. Franklin (CBC Massey lecture series)
In this expanded edition of her bestselling 1989 CBC Massey Lectures, renowned scientist and humanitarian …
I can't believe I haven't reviewed this
5 stars
Really fantastic book. I reference the first chapter constantly when describing technology as a system of practice. It'll take you an afternoon or two to finish but it will help clarify so much.
left_adjoint started reading The Sexual Politics of Meat by Carol J. Adams
""The connections traced between rampant masculinity, misogyny, carnivorism, and militarism operate as powerfully today as …
More light reading
left_adjoint reviewed Repression Queen by Harper O'Neill
The Author wants respect and escape. Kayla wants to exist at all.
Repression Queen is …
Really good but hard
5 stars
This was a really good strange little memoir and also difficult for me to read personally because I feel like I'm reading what my life would have been like had I married a straight woman (and not a bi ace woman) and tried a whole lot longer to be a man
left_adjoint started reading Repression Queen by Harper O'Neill
The Author wants respect and escape. Kayla wants to exist at all.
Repression Queen is …
This is going to be sick, I can just tell
left_adjoint started reading The girls at the Kingfisher Club by Genevieve Valentine
This reimagining of the "Twelve Dancing Princesses" traces the story of a family of flappers …
It's Genevieve's second book that I've never actually read! I'm on like page 10 so far