Somnology!

22 Comments

1. Just a note – IIRC Alan Scott said he might do like to do #19 “Midsummer”, so if he still feels that way, I’d be happy to let him take it.

   Alan, please let us know if you are still up for it!

   If not, I can still do it, no problem.

   • Aw, man, I knew I forgot something.

     Seriously. I’ll take care of this tomorrow.

     • Yep, still interested.

2. I noted on the previous Somnology that I’d like Three Septembers and a January (in Book 6) and Hob’s Leviathan (in Book 7). I don’t know what the chapter numbers are.

   • Katherine! Where the heck were you and/or Maribou in the comments on the last one?! Why did *I* have to be the blushing dude to write all that crazy stuff about a young woman’s “awakenings”? It was like Cinemax After Dark or something. 🙂

     • I dunno about Katherine, but my knee-jerk reaction to what you said was along the lines of, “Ah, the male bastions of Literature, where androgyny feels feminine.” And I’m too sick to know if that’s funny or grumpy (I’m not FEELING grumpy, I swear!), so I just left it alone.

       Plus there’s the whole thing where I feel at home all the time in tweed blazers and cuff links, but as if I’m passing half of the times I wear a dress, and the thing where I’d read all of Tintin and Spirou before I turned seven, and the thing where I was shown how to skin a rabbit before I started elementary school, and and and and, so – while approximately cis-gendered more often than not – I’m not much of a native speaker on whether something feels feminine. My perspective is that the story was balanced.

       My selfish small favorite thing about The Doll’s House arc was the moment about a third of the way in where I remembered being 21, and reading it, and realizing that Tvyoreg jnf zbqryrq (/unq zbqryrq uvzfrys) nsgre T.X. Purfgregba. Most of the other allusions y’all note (‘cept some of the comics ones) are things I just expect that everyone knows (I had a strange and bookish childhood) … but that one snuck up on me most delightfully.

       • Well gosh, maybe I didn’t explain myself well. But I don’t see Rose’s story as androgynous at all – like I said everything from her name, on through the art/imagery (and the Red Riding Hood story from before) seemed clearly symbolic of female biology and experience.

         Though you are onto something with Desire – I do pretty much see Desire as “female”; but I also saw the Nagel paintings that Desire is clearly riffing on, and Annie Lennox and Grace Jones (I came of age in the 80’s) as female (not really androgynous) too.

         My bigger worry, was that the whole comment came across like a review of “Rochelle, Rochelle” or something.

         http://youtu.be/f8J9WssSj7Q

         • See, I wasn’t being very clear either, because I didn’t mean that Rose’s *own* story, or persona, etc, were androgynous – I meant that the story arc as a whole (at least in those two episodes) is balanced between masculine and feminine. It is as much about Dream as it is about Rose, for starters. Also, there’s as much heavy traditionall “masculine” symbology to be had as female – it’s just that we’re trained to see masculine symbology, masculine quests, masculine etc, as invisible, or neutral (unless they are even bigger and louder than the female ones), so something balanced often seems feminine. I am lazy and my eyes hurt too much for close reading right now, so I don’t want to make a list (which is why I didn’t comment on the original post, really – it feels obnoxious to say “Go back and look again” rather than supporting my argument – but you did ask where I was 🙂 ).

           And yes, Desire. Desire is every bit as much David Bowie as Annie Lennox. Weirdly, I’ve only ever seen men code s/he as definitely female, but in general, it seems that anything in the middle is socially safer when we code it female, these days – there’s a reason why they chose Felicia Huffman to play the lead in Transamerica, for example. I have lots more opinions about this, but a) no politics, b) my eyes hurt if I think too hard.

           Thanks for posting the Replacements link – it’s actually one of those songs that I’d only ever heard cover versions of, while missing out on the original, as per a previous discussion on here :).

           Watching http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LUkOtHd4Al4, I deeply suspect Shirley Manson of having read Sandman…

         • Yes, Desire’s definitely supposed to be both male and female – in some art s/he looks like one, in some like the other.

           Which is neat, because it means that the seven Endless are precisely half male and half female in composition.

         • Maribou – You missed out on the ‘Mats original?! Aren’t you from Canada? I heard from North that’s Canada’s practically Minnesota!

           Not too familiar with the Crash Test Dummies, but I consider this the pinnacle of Canadian rock music.

           Thanks for the reply on the other stuff; I definitely find this stuff interesting, but can also see that it could probably be tough to discuss too deeply here without contravening the ‘no politics’ rule. It’ll have to wait for the main page post I guess (hint, hint). 😉

         • I had forgotten until I re-read Dolls House that Desire was officially androgynous, as opposed to an androgynous looking woman. My reason has to do with what happens in later books (seriously, this is all kinds of spoilers. Do not read this unless you’ve already read the whole series).

           Jr riraghnyyl svaq bhg gung gur cerivbhf Qrfcnve qvrq, naq jnf ercynprq. Zl ernqvat unf nyjnlf orra gung Qrfver naq qrfcnve orvat ersreerq gb nf gjvaf jnf gung gur arj Qrfcnve jnf fbzrubj tebja sebz n cvrpr bs Qrfver. (V qba’g erzrzore vs gung ernqvat vf jryy fhccbegrq va gur grkg be vf whfg zr univat n penml vagrecergngvba). Guhf, V nyjnlf guvax bs Qrfver orvat srznyr orpnhfr Qrfcnve vf, naq V frr gurz nf orvat, shaqnzragnyyl, vqragvpny gjvaf.

         • V guvax gurve cerfragngvba nf gjvaf fbzrjung cynlrq vagb zl vagrecergngvba nf jryy (gubhtu VVEP jnl onpx va gur zvfgf bs gvzr ba zl vavgvny ernqvat, V fnj Qrfver nf “srznyr” gura, rira orsber V ernyvmrq Qrfver naq Qrfcnve jrer gjvaf – ntnva, Qrfver whfg ybbxf gbb zhpu yvxr gur Antry cnvagvatf, naq gubfr nyjnlf nccrnerq “srznyr” gb zr).

           Fgvyy, gurl pna or sengreany gjvaf jvgubhg orvat vqragvpny gjvaf.

         • Nagel! It was driving me nuts trying to remember the name of the artist who did those uber-80s, super-stylized paintings.

         • You got it backwards Glyph. Canada isn’t practically Minnesota; Minnesota is practically Canada.

     • I really didn’t pick up that stuff. Some of what you said made sense to me, and some of it seemed like overthinking it.

       • some of it seemed like overthinking it.

         Sometimes a dream vortex is just a dream vortex, eh? 😉

3. Regarding the “no politics” rule, what are the specifics? I think it will be tough to discuss “The Golden Boy” without some mention of politics.

   • In general, the point of the rule is this: try not to start a fight.

     If it’s possible to choose a sentence between “Kennedy’s win over Nixon in 1960 had some controversy” and “Racist Republicans hated blacks so much in 1960 that they threw the election to avoid being in office when Civil Rights legislation would finally make it to the President’s desk”, please choose the former.

     • Or, more to the point, I understand that you may have strong opinions on politics to the point where you would rather talk about your opponents than talk about politics. That’s great. That’s what the front page is for, though. If you’d like there to be a Mindless Diversions Extra! post where we can discuss such things like the mendacity of the people on the opposition, just let me know and I’ll set up *AT LEAST* a sidebar post (and, hey, if you’ve got a guest post in you, I’m pretty sure that I can get away with making it a main post, if’n it’s a slow day).

       Now, that said, it may be impossible to discuss certain frames or certain lines of the issue without veering into something that someone will be offended by (even if you’re not trying to be offensive). Now, I generally trust that we’re all able to tell the difference between people who are seriously offended and people who just fall down and start screaming like they’re in a soccer match. I don’t really care so much about the latter… but when it comes to the former, I’d ask if maybe rot13ing the paragraph in question wouldn’t be the best solution.

       I mean, we can’t talk about Prez without talking about Vietnam, about Nixon, about the Energy Crisis, and about the 70’s in general. I’m pretty sure that all of us are cool with that.

       If, however, we’d like to discuss how Prez’s policies really would have brought peace to the Middle East, for real, let me know and we’ll put something up on the front page.

     • That is how I interpreted the policy, I just wanted to make sure I had the correct interpretation, so that I would not stick my foot in my mouth.

4. It is a few weeks away, but I would also be willing to volunteer for a couple chapters from Season of Mists. It is my favorite arc.

   • I am sure that you won’t be alone for that one. Any particular ones?

Comments are closed.