Just finished reading Convenience Store Woman by Sayaka Murata (English translation) and I loved it! But all the review blurbs on the cover are making me so mad I want to scream. They're all like "haha omg it was so quirky" and "so hilarious!" and I'm like???? It literally isn't?? It's charming and clever and dunks real hard on MRAs. It's an impressively concise story of an autistic woman vs the ableism in her society, who tells everyone to fuck off. It's fabulous, but reducing it to "quirky" is insane to me! What kind of fetishizing bullshit review is this: "as intoxicating as a sake mojito" ?? 🤮

I'm bringing this book to my Publishing Translated Literature class so we can mock and shame Granta.

Might not be the book that will teach you anything, but it will certainly show you how harsh society is.

here are some lines in the book which I find quite interesting:

Fan cover for Convenience Store Woman by Sayaka Murata

Feo's fave books of 2022 (1/6)

Convenience Store Woman by Sayaka Murata

2022 Reading:

Convenience Store Woman by Sayaka Murata (translated by Ginny Talley Takemori)

Kinda wanna collect all the covers, not going to lie to you.

if you ever doubt your writing, be it your themes, or the reason behind it, remember that h.g wells wrote war of the worlds both as a commentary on colonialism and the horrors it brings, and because he fucking hated his neighbours and his 13 hour job, and wanted to write about the town in which he lived getting blasted to the fucking ground by lasers into an irreparable heap and all of the townspeople dying painfully 

you, too, can channel your hatred for that guy that lives down the hall and blasts music at 4am into the one of the most influential science fiction stories ever written! fuck it! i believe in you!!  

This is one of the most inspirational things I’ve ever seen

Been looking for this

Out of all chapters in Machiavelli’s The Prince, I did not expect the one that says: “DO NOT RELY ON MERCENARIES UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES” to be still relevant in our day and age, but I guess here we are?

“Eliot and Parker have a very specific relationship. It’s not brother/sister, it’s not boyfriend/girlfriend, but it is I know the pain you’re carrying because I carry a version of it. And Eliot, in a lot of times, is the only one who can reach across to her across that gulf.” - John Rogers, ‘The Long Way Down Job’ DVD Commentary

Cas: i love you 🥺

Dean for the past few days on tumblr dot com:

she’s a booklr kinda gal

Pulling the Wings off Angels - K.J. Parker

One of Parker's finest. Not in terms of action or plot (there is no heist), but in presenting a set of characters that acts as a pinpoint for all the moral or philosophical questions one can ask of such a constellation. We get:

The location is someplace in fictional Europe, triangulate between the smallest denomination, trachy (Greek), the chanting of Mundus Vergens (France, the lyric of which are a commentary on the politicial situation at that time - around the third Crusade) and the fad of ornamental hermits, which was all over Europe, but particularly pronounced in Germany.

With the scene set, Parker's out for all the questions of culpability, justice, mercy and believe vs. fact and he delivers on every one. The angel is the catalyst for all the interaction of a weave between science, politics and religion, where - if you were to tug on one string - the whole fabric is in danger of becoming unravelled. He's doing this in his usual witty prose and deep knowledge of history, engineering, numismatics and law.

Highly entertaining and food for thought. Absolute recommend.

Finished Tread of Angels by Rebecca Roanhorse earlier, and I’m continuing the angel theme with my next read.

Readers Burrow into a Bookworm Haven in Kurkku Fields’ ‘Underground Library’

Reblogging things I like feels a lot more goblinesque than upvoting ever did. The upvotes felt like "hmm yes, I approve *golf claps*" while reblogging feels like furtively staring at something before shoving it in your mouth and scurrying back underneath the nearest piece of furniture.

Which isn't to say that I don't like it. But I definitely find myself going "maybe I shouldn't reblog this because I've already reblogged a bunch of things today and I don't want to look like I don't have a life," I say as I close the app and reopen it like one of those little automatic box toys with the switches.

Several centuries ago, the Pope decreed that all the Jews had to convert to Catholicism or leave Italy. There was a huge outcry from the Jewish community, so the Pope offered a deal. He’d have a religious debate with the leader of the Jewish community…

If the Jews won, they could stay in Italy; if the Pope won, they’d have to convert or leave.

The Jewish people met and picked an aged and wise Rabbi to represent them in the debate.

However, as the Rabbi spoke no Italian, and the Pope spoke no Hebrew, they agreed that it would be a ‘silent’ debate.

On the chosen day, the Pope and the Rabbi sat opposite each other.

The Pope raised his hand and showed three fingers.

The Rabbi looked back and raised one finger.

Next, the Pope waved his finger around his head.

The Rabbi pointed to the ground where he sat.

The Pope brought out a communion wafer and a chalice of wine.

The Rabbi pulled out an apple.

With that, the Pope stood up and declared himself beaten and said that the Rabbi was too clever.

The Jews could stay in Italy!

Later the cardinals met with the Pope and asked him what had happened.

The Pope said, “First I held up three fingers to represent the Trinity. He responded by holding up a single finger to remind me there is still only one God common to both our beliefs. Then, I waved my finger around my head to show him that God was all around us. He responded by pointing to the ground to show that God was also right here with us. Finally, I pulled out the wine and wafer to show that God absolves us of all our sins. He pulled out an apple to remind me of the original sin. He bested me at every move and I could not continue!”

Meanwhile, the Jewish community gathered to ask the Rabbi how he had won.

“I don’t have a clue!!!” the Rabbi said.

“First, he told me that we had three days to get out of Italy, so I gave him the finger. Then he tells me that the whole country would be cleared of Jews, so I told him that we were staying right here.”

“And then what?” asked a woman.

“Who knows!!” said the Rabbi. “He took out his lunch, so I took out mine!”

if internet comments on cookbooks were like the ones on D&D books

https://www.wired.com/2008/06/alttext-0618/

Source: https://www.wired.com/2008/06/alttext-0618/, which I found out about from https://twitter.com/mxdshipwreck/status/1669480866891051008