Wednesday Reading Meme!
Jan. 9th, 2013 09:52 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sasha_featherCurrently Reading
The Indelible Alison Bechdel This has some notes about her process, miscellaneous comics, and calendar comics of Dykes to Watch Out For. It's been on my TBR shelf for a long time, and I've been in a comics/graphic novel mood. I'm enjoying it a lot.
Here We Cross, a poetry anthology of queer writers. Some WisCon names in this one!
Recently Finished
Habibi by Craig Thomas (graphic novel)
I have mixed feelings about this book. The drawing style is amazing and I loved the parts about Islamic religion, desert life, and the preciousness of water. I found other parts of it disturbing: the main character, Dodola, is a child bride in the beginning of the story, then later a prostitute and a member of a harem. So, there is a lot of dub-con sex, a lot of drawings of naked women that seemed a little creepy*, and precocious sexuality. Also: she has a child in the harem who dies, and Dodola later claims that this child was "murdered by her own neglect." This seems like a ridiculous statement based on the fact that the child had a doting wet nurse raising him, and lived in the lap of luxury in a palace. WHUT. I get that she feels guilty for not bonding with the child. I just don't buy that her neglect killed the child; and wish another explanation had been provided.
I found Zam's plot line to be very disturbing, and I'm not entirely sure why; I'll have to think about that more and probably talk about it with other people who have read this book. It might be my own cultural lens at work.
What do you think you'll read next?
I've loaded my Kobo up with fanfic. I also recently acquired a used copy of Fire by Kristin Cashore.
*As opposed to Bechdel, who draws lots of naked women in realistic, subjective ways that seem not at all creepy to me.
The Indelible Alison Bechdel This has some notes about her process, miscellaneous comics, and calendar comics of Dykes to Watch Out For. It's been on my TBR shelf for a long time, and I've been in a comics/graphic novel mood. I'm enjoying it a lot.
Here We Cross, a poetry anthology of queer writers. Some WisCon names in this one!
Recently Finished
Habibi by Craig Thomas (graphic novel)
I have mixed feelings about this book. The drawing style is amazing and I loved the parts about Islamic religion, desert life, and the preciousness of water. I found other parts of it disturbing: the main character, Dodola, is a child bride in the beginning of the story, then later a prostitute and a member of a harem. So, there is a lot of dub-con sex, a lot of drawings of naked women that seemed a little creepy*, and precocious sexuality. Also: she has a child in the harem who dies, and Dodola later claims that this child was "murdered by her own neglect." This seems like a ridiculous statement based on the fact that the child had a doting wet nurse raising him, and lived in the lap of luxury in a palace. WHUT. I get that she feels guilty for not bonding with the child. I just don't buy that her neglect killed the child; and wish another explanation had been provided.
I found Zam's plot line to be very disturbing, and I'm not entirely sure why; I'll have to think about that more and probably talk about it with other people who have read this book. It might be my own cultural lens at work.
What do you think you'll read next?
I've loaded my Kobo up with fanfic. I also recently acquired a used copy of Fire by Kristin Cashore.
*As opposed to Bechdel, who draws lots of naked women in realistic, subjective ways that seem not at all creepy to me.
no subject
Date: 2013-01-10 04:49 am (UTC)After many teeters and totters on Habibi I decided on balance I loathed it. That the author could revel in Arabic calligraphy without learning a word of Arabic just creeps me right out. (Calligraphy is all about turning words into art and making art that speaks!) And yet there's a warmth in his images, in particular when two people are communicating, that's really special.
no subject
Date: 2013-01-10 04:16 pm (UTC)