Ruxandra Grrr > Recent Status Updates

Since this is a massively beloved classic, I'm just gonna do silly little comments that are shockingly modern but loving. For instance: so far this feels like a book about a bunch of subs looking for / to their perfect doms.

Out of all the Okorafor books I've read, this one feels like the most Octavia Butler-connected. The messiness of the quest group is similar to Parable of the Sower.

"Jeez. Nothing we build is natural. If it was natural, we wouldn't need to build it."

Was not expecting this to be more gay than the movie I adore, but it's a nice surprise for sure.

I'm upset at the protagonist scolding this other guy for attending meetings of peasants wanting to revolt. This guy is the son of a baron and I guess his crime is being a class traitor?? We will see where this goes. It's a make it or break it issue for me.

Something I love & a weird coincidence: the characters are in Sofia and Helen mentions that they're under a linden tree and that people pick the flowers and make tea. Just two days ago, I was with my friend who has this as her favorite book and I was urging her to smell the linden smell (my fave!!) and telling her how it's weird to have so many linden trees in Berlin and the tea is not that popular, nor the picking.

I wish I'd taken notes of all the things in here that make me eye roll. Like the very basic Romanian elements added. The racism when discussing Romani people. Etcetera. In many ways, this feels like a supremely silly book that's even sillier for trying to be serious. More in my review (maybe).

A thing I've noticed before about Hobb's books and that I really love is that she doesn't tokenize. If she wants to write about gay men, she will have at least four characters, instead of one or two.

This could actually be a really interesting series on compulsory heterosexuality and monogamy, but as great as a writer Hobb is, she only gets halfway there.

I have a shocking lack of things to comment about this. I'll just say the chapters are very short so I never really get into it. Not a lot to sink my teeth into.

"Obviously, alcohol only has the effect of borrowing happiness from the future."

Very well put, that's why these days I only drink two beers per month

This is not going in the direction I thought it would, plot-wise, but that's great, actually.

I'm enjoying this so far thanks to the middle aged protagonist and having recently seen a movie taking place in Hong Kong in the 80s, which is coloring the vibes of Hong Kong in the 70s for me (not a perfect overlap, but still)

I have to say, Idk how I feel about the two characters that i've been 95% sure are closeted since I read their first interaction. I don't mind that one is a fucking asshole and the other one is more conflicted (and interesting!). It's just a bit off-putting that other (manlier) characters see them as fastidious. I am pretty sure Hobb's intention is that it's a class issue, not a gay issue but still.

Not sure exactly where this little interstitial plot of two people who are sending birds to each other and have developed a friendship and sending little messages alongside official communication they're responsible for, but it's cute and I'm intrigued.

Just when I thought this was doing a well-worn Hobb dynamic of a woman who has an unwanted suitor, I see that what she sets up here is a lot juicier, probably. Love how she plays with expectations.

Took me this long to get that the book is trying to get you to engage in conspiratorial thinking (there's repetitive motorcycle accidents and too many heart attacks), but you're just reading a mystery and trying to connect the dots yourself, as you maybe would with any book that has mysterious elements. Maybe that's the point?

Oooh, I love the mention of the pretty criminally underwatched movie Upstream Color. A great, incredibly weird movie.

Really enjoying this, but can't help but feel I'm missing something because I can't connect whenever the book talks about classical music and my eyes just glaze over 😅

The cringe in this has already killed me twice (complimentary).

The past two hours has just been me crying, screaming, throwing up, giggling and rolling on the floor laughing, over and over again.

I love how so many of the system AI's descriptions are just overtly political in this book, whether it's about colonialism and racism, or destigmatizing drug use.

Can't believe I forgot how DG brings kink into all this a bunch of times, and it makes sense! He talks about a 'safe word theory of social liberation' and how apparently Michel Foucault found kink healing?? In his personal life? The distinction between power and domination being a very interesting one.

Oooh, Angela Davis's mother emerged from this community of 'red-diapered' babies! (author's phrasing).

It is a class war after all, as Kelley details allll over this book how affluent Black people were not working in favor of working class Black people and tried to stop them from getting the right to vote 🙃 just like the bloody suffragettes only cared about their class and their 'race' getting the vote.

Whenever someone hates the left, I wanna be like: are you enjoying the weekend? Are you enjoying only having to work 8 hours per day? Are you enjoying whatever rights you have? Do you think they sprung fully formed from legislator skulls?? Or did people protest and rally and fight for them and paid with their lives?? That's what I wanna say.

Me, whenever Pony says something or is mentioned: 😍😍😍😍😍 it's rather ridiculous, but I do love him so much.

Ughhhh, why do I have to be like an adult and do some work today 😭😭😭

Been saying this for years:

'My doctors were fundamentally servants of the status quo. Their work was predicated on the assumption that the world is bearable. And anyone who finds it otherwise should be coaxed or medicated into acceptance. But what if it isn't? What if the reasonable reaction is endless, horrified screaming?'

I like this 'art as a form of avoidance from feelings' thing. I relate to it 🥲