Staying at home is the norm... What are you reading?

[Hawki]

Campusland (3/5)

There's a saying that goes along the lines of "a comedy is a tragedy for the people living inside it." That more or less describes my take on this book, because while obstensibly a comedy, it comes off as more a tragedy. Because it highlighting some of the insanity on American college campuses hits a bit too close to home.

The author, drawing on his own experiences, depicts Devon, a stand-in for basically the upper crust of American college campuses. Right from the start, we know the tone is going to be set when the fictional Devon Daily states that the term "freshmen" will no longer be used as it's a sexist term, and all new students will be called first-years. Also the use of the term "fresh" is problematic, because it raises issues of objectification. Things, er...get a bit more crazy by the end of the book. Like, a lot more crazy. Riot-level crazy. But between the first hint of this, and the end result, there's plenty of elements that don't feel like sattire, but rather things straight out of reality, almost quote for quote. Not so much "ripped from the headlines," but rather "reprinted from the headlines." The most chilling scene of this is where our protagonist has to go through a Title IX proceeding. Assuming the legal proceedings as depicted here are true to reality (and the afterword indicates they are), then holy shit.

Should warn you that you're likely to get offended no matter what. Heck, I got offended for a second when out of all the campus activist groups (groups that splinter into smaller groups, and towards the end, are arguing which group is the most oppressed, and who has the 'right' in one group to speak for another group), fossil fuel divestment comes into it. Here's me going "hey, that's a good cause, why are you making fun of it?" The second after that moment of indignation, I actually smirked, because if I find something to be offended about, arguably the book's doing its job in equal opportunity offending. I mean, probably doing more offending in some areas than others, but still, reasonably equal opportunity.

So if I like these elements of the book, why don't I rank it higher? Well, two reasons, and both of them are in the manner of delivery. First, the book feels like it's trying to juggle too many characters at times, and some of them are more interesting than others. Second, and more notably, at times, the book feels like a polemic. As in, passive narration is used, present tense is used, and it feels less like a novel, and more like the author is trying to address the reader directly. Now, obviously the book is itself sending a message the author wants to read, but at times, while it does it well (between dialogue), at times, it doesn't, when it's delivered via narrative. Ergo, the lower rating.

 

[Dalisclock]

Naked Lunch by William S. Burroughs

Burroughs spent 15 years a heroin addict (and a thief, trafficker and murderer). He took notes in The Sickness, and then published them under the title Naked Lunch (Kerouac misquoted "naked lust" et voila). This isn't a confessional, like Junkie or Queer. This is rampant nonsense and there's not point to it. In the annexes to the revised version Burroughs writes more lucidly and reports on his many addictions like he's a correspondent for a war against himself. What a sad, pathetic man. In the text he's simultaneously repulsed and fascinated by his own homosexuality, and I guess his incoherent 'routines', as he called chapters with no flow or causality between them, were meant to express that inner conflct. The novel was a big deal back when you couldn't say this or that in reputable print but now comes across as desperate to shock and offend, way too juvenile to be taken seriously.

I saw the film back in the day and found it bizarre so decided to try the book in the hopes it would make sense of it somewhat.

Yeah.....big mistake. I don't remember how much I read but I gave up pretty quick once it felt like the book wasn't going anywhere.

The Odyssey by Homer.

I liked it well enough. I didn't know that the Iliad came first, but oh well. I was actually surprised how little of the story was Odysseus fighting fantastical creatures and going on adventures in Hades and such. That was almost exclusively in a tale Odysseus told to some guys who took him in. The rest of the story was just going around begging presents and rides from people and fighting the suitors. Also reading the phrase "The child of morning, rosy fingered Dawn," verbatim on every page.

It's also amazing how different the values of people were back then. All the heroes, men who are like gods, think nothing of going around and sacking towns, killing the men and selling the women into slavery. Really noble. I don't know, Odysseus seems like kind of a jerk at times from my modern day perspective 3 millennia later.

Also the gods are wholly unreasonable. So these guys give Odysseus a boat ride home, not knowing and having no way of knowing that Poseidon is ticked off at Odysseus for blinding his son the cyclopes. After they drop him off Poseidon is so ticked off he sinks their ship and wants to bury their city under a mountain! Just for giving Odysseus a ride! He doesn't do anything to Odysseus, though, because Zeus decreed that he should return home. How were they even supposed to know?

One of the things that really got me about the story was the values dissonance of the Suitors/Moochers in Odysseus's palace. They decide to move in and harass his wife for years so one of them can marry her, all the while living off his food and eating them out of house and home. Penelope, despite being the queen, apparently can't kick them out because she's a woman and apparently their son can't kick them out because he's not of age yet, except Odysseus is presumed dead(thus the suitors) so one would think the authority to kick them the fuck out of the palace for being jackasses would fall to one of them, but it's treated like Odysseus wife and son are helpless in this regard. It's even worse that the suitors actively plot to murder the son and apparently this still isn't enough to have the guards/soldiers boot them from the palace/throw them in jail/etc. Thus the impetus for him to go find his dad or at least news of his dad.

And at the end, it's resolved by Odysseus coming home and killing them all which again, begs the question: Wait, this was an option the entire time? I mean, I understand the whole thing about guests being protected by the host, and I imagine there's something about Greek Culture that explains this but on it's face it comes across as a problem with an easy solution nobody seems willing to use.

It comes across as a Greek version of Catch 22. Only Odysseus can get rid of the Suitors, but the suitors wouldn't be there harassing his family if he wasn't presumed dead to begin with.

 

[Drathnoxis]

I saw the film back in the day and found it bizarre so decided to try the book in the hopes it would make sense of it somewhat.

Yeah.....big mistake. I don't remember how much I read but I gave up pretty quick once it felt like the book wasn't going anywhere.



One of the things that really got me about the story was the values dissonance of the Suitors/Moochers in Odysseus's palace. They decide to move in and harass his wife for years so one of them can marry her, all the while living off his food and eating them out of house and home. Penelope, despite being the queen, apparently can't kick them out because she's a woman and apparently their son can't kick them out because he's not of age yet, except Odysseus is presumed dead(thus the suitors) so one would think the authority to kick them the fuck out of the palace for being jackasses would fall to one of them, but it's treated like Odysseus wife and son are helpless in this regard. It's even worse that the suitors actively plot to murder the son and apparently this still isn't enough to have the guards/soldiers boot them from the palace/throw them in jail/etc. Thus the impetus for him to go find his dad or at least news of his dad.

And at the end, it's resolved by Odysseus coming home and killing them all which again, begs the question: Wait, this was an option the entire time? I mean, I understand the whole thing about guests being protected by the host, and I imagine there's something about Greek Culture that explains this but on it's face it comes across as a problem with an easy solution nobody seems willing to use.

It comes across as a Greek version of Catch 22. Only Odysseus can get rid of the Suitors, but the suitors wouldn't be there harassing his family if he wasn't presumed dead to begin with.

I got the impression that there wasn't much of an official force he could call on to enforce the law and oust the suitors. He tried to rally the other councilors of Ithaca to get rid of them, but nobody wanted to do anything. The only way to get rid of them was by force and Telemachus didn't have any way to force a hundred people out of his house by himself.

And yeah, I thought it was pretty strange how Penelope just gets completely bypassed on the inheritance. Everything goes straight to Telemachus and Penelope needs to go get married again to have someone to support her.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

I saw the film back in the day and found it bizarre so decided to try the book in the hopes it would make sense of it somewhat.

Yeah.....big mistake. I don't remember how much I read but I gave up pretty quick once it felt like the book wasn't going anywhere.

The movie is less an adaptation of the book than a highly stylized "biopic" of Burroughs, incorporating several aspects of his life (his gig as an exterminator, his wife's murder, his friendship with Ginsberg and Kerouac, his stint in Tangiers, the actual writing of a book called Naked Lunch, etc) that aren't present at all in the book itself. The only things directly adapted from the source material are several passages that are quoted verbatim by the characters (the Kerouac/Ginsberg characters read a bunch, and Bill recites the story about the talking asshole) and some concepts like the Benway character, the Mugwumps, the two cops, mentions of Interzone and the addictive centipede meat. Other than that the movie basically just borrows the book's title.

 

[Palindromemordnilap]

And at the end, it's resolved by Odysseus coming home and killing them all which again, begs the question: Wait, this was an option the entire time? I mean, I understand the whole thing about guests being protected by the host, and I imagine there's something about Greek Culture that explains this but on it's face it comes across as a problem with an easy solution nobody seems willing to use.

To be fair, Odysseus killing all the suitors results in all those suitor's families gathering their forces and marching on Odysseus' home, a scenario they only get out of thanks to Athena dropping out the sky as a literal deus ex machina and telling everyone to cut it out. Murdering all their guests (jerkass guests or not) does have some serious repercussions, its just Odysseus has a goddess on his side

 

[Dalisclock]

I got the impression that there wasn't much of an official force he could call on to enforce the law and oust the suitors. He tried to rally the other councilors of Ithaca to get rid of them, but nobody wanted to do anything. The only way to get rid of them was by force and Telemachus didn't have any way to force a hundred people out of his house by himself.

And yeah, I thought it was pretty strange how Penelope just gets completely bypassed on the inheritance. Everything goes straight to Telemachus and Penelope needs to go get married again to have someone to support her.

That just seems weird. Kings usually have a personal or house guard, if nothing else to keep the plebs from looting the palace or escorting unwanted children off the lawn. I realize it was 3000 or so years ago and not what we think of Kings and Palaces and I guess Odysseus took his personal troops with him to war, which apparently means it's been Penelope, Telemachus and the house staff for 10 years?

Anyway, I'm reading Brandon Sandersons Wax and Wayne Trilogy, which could also be called Mistborn: Victorian/Western edition. I read the original Mistborn series years ago and this one is about 300 years later, where society has progressed to something akin to the Victorian/Edwardian era in tech/culture level(there's mentions of automobiles becoming a common sight in the 2nd book, so that puts is smack in the early 20th century). It's a much faster and somewhat lighter read then the other books of his, not nearly as epic but also not nearly as dark as the original Mistborn books or the Stormlight archive. I was shocked when I reached the end of the first book(I'm reading on a kindle, so the trilogy is all counted as a single book in page count), by how fast it went.

I just finished with Shadows of Self(Book 2) and started on Bands of Mourning(book 3) and I'm digging it. I wasn't initially sure how well guns and superpowers was gonna work but somehow the idea of people jumping through the air firing guns at each other works in this context without seeming too silly. The 2nd book has a fair bit of call backs to the original books so I had to do some quick wiki browsing to remind myself of certain people and events. The fact most of the characters from the original now have religions based around them and the Kandra are seen as something akin to angels is kinda weird but also cool.

 

[BrawlMan]

Battle Angel. I got the Deluxe Hardcover Box Set last week. I'm in the middle of volume 2 right now.

 

[Drathnoxis]

Anyway, I'm reading Brandon Sandersons Wax and Wayne Trilogy, which could also be called Mistborn: Victorian/Western edition. I read the original Mistborn series years ago and this one is about 300 years later, where society has progressed to something akin to the Victorian/Edwardian era in tech/culture level(there's mentions of automobiles becoming a common sight in the 2nd book, so that puts is smack in the early 20th century). It's a much faster and somewhat lighter read then the other books of his, not nearly as epic but also not nearly as dark as the original Mistborn books or the Stormlight archive. I was shocked when I reached the end of the first book(I'm reading on a kindle, so the trilogy is all counted as a single book in page count), by how fast it went.

I just finished with Shadows of Self(Book 2) and started on Bands of Mourning(book 3) and I'm digging it. I wasn't initially sure how well guns and superpowers was gonna work but somehow the idea of people jumping through the air firing guns at each other works in this context without seeming too silly. The 2nd book has a fair bit of call backs to the original books so I had to do some quick wiki browsing to remind myself of certain people and events. The fact most of the characters from the original now have religions based around them and the Kandra are seen as something akin to angels is kinda weird but also cool.

I really liked the first Mistborn trilogy so I've been a little apprehensive about reading the second trilogy. It hasn't worked out well when other series have gone from fantasy to steam punk. I might give it a show when I feel like a break from the Horblower series.

________________________________________________________________________________________________

The Happy Return, Ship of the Line, and Flying Colours by C. S. Forester. I've been really enjoying the Horatio Hornblower books. It's interesting to read about life at sea and there's a lot of action to keep me on the edge of my seat. There isn't really much in the way of characters besides Hornblower himself. It's his story and he's far too preoccupied with himself for anybody else to get a chance to shine, but that's okay because every body else is basically cannon fodder for the many brutal navel battles. It really is an awful life to be a sailor. You could be minding your own business farming or whatever then suddenly be pressed into navel service to a life of bad food, bad water, constant toil, and brutal death or disfigurement from a wall of cannon fire. I'm glad I live in an age of voluntary military service.

 

[Dalisclock]

I really liked the first Mistborn trilogy so I've been a little apprehensive about reading the second trilogy. It hasn't worked out well when other series have gone from fantasy to steam punk. I might give it a show when I feel like a break from the Horblower series.

I'd argue it's not really steampunk, or at least, it doesn't fall prey to a lot of the obnoxious tropes that Steampunk is infamous for("You know what this needs? MORE GEARS"). One of the biggest things that gets introduced is that Aluminum unaffected by the metal-based powers a fair number of people have.

So, for example, coinshots can detect and push metal objects such as guns and bullets, meaning an coinshot(like Wax) faced with a gang of thugs carrying steel guns could use his pushing ability to knock the guns out of their hands and deflect incoming bullets, which gives the allomancer a distinct advantage in a gunfight. Especially when Wax is a gunfighter himself.

However, thugs with aluminum guns and ammunition means the push power is useless against said weapons, though it could still be used to allow the coinshot to jump around making himself a much harder target.

The catch is that Aluminium is expensive due to the industrial processes being used to make it(which is historically realistic, because Aluminum was once hard to manufacture which made it expensive), which keeps everyone from just using aluminium all the time.

It's also mention soothing(depressing emotion) and rioting(inflaming emotion) is blocked by aluminum embedded in hats, so a number of the well off and later the police wear aluminum lined headwear to protect themselves from emotional manipulation.

 

[Sneed's SeednFeed]

I hope to start The Fratricides by Nikos Kazantzakis soon after I'm done with Postmodernism, or, the Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism by Frederic Jameson. The latter is so immense, makes me want to learn more about architecture and aesthetics.

 

[Hawki]

Star Wars: Most Wanted (3/5)

This book is...a book.

Yeah, no shit, as you might say, but while you chuckle, I'll point out that the reason I say that is that this book hasn't given me any strong impressions one way or the other, and its status as a prequel to the film 'Solo' is both to its strength and detriment. I'm going to focus more on that angle, because otherwise, there's not much to talk about. McGuffin, lasers, genre, plot, ending, yadda yadda yadda.

So, Most Wanted is a prequel to Solo, depicting Han and Qi'ra in their youth as members of Proxima's gang. They're drawn into a web of intrigue when a deal goes wrong, and over the course of events, discover stuff about themselves and each other. As in, Han discovers his natural aptitude for flying, while Qi'ra gets a taste of the high life. As character arcs go, this is hardly an original one, but it gets the job done. In one sense it sets the stage for the film, yet on the other hand, it kind of works against it.

Here's the thing about Qi'ra and Han in 'Solo' - I never really got a sense of chemistry between them. If I'm being generous, I could estimate its intentional. I mean, Qi'ra betrays Han, and that sets the stage for Han finding 'true wuv' with Leia further down the line, breaking him out of the cynicism that the film arguably kickstarts for him. Of course, the less generous reading of this is that the lack of chemistry isn't intentional, that it's just down to issues of writing and/or acting. Whatever the case, the relationship between our protagonists here is much better done, like, I can buy that over the course of these events, Han and Qi'ra come to care about each other. More than anything this being exemplified when Qi'ra rejects an offer to go offworld because it would mean betraying her friends in the process. However, this character arc feels at odds with Solo. Yes, you could argue that Qi'ra being with Crimson Dawn damaged her moral compass, but even so, the arc here is like a refutation of the one in 'Solo.' Like I said, Qi'ra gets a taste of the high life and enjoys it, but rejects it here, but not in Solo. It's simultaniously foreshadowing events in the movie, while also making those events iffy.

Maybe I'm reading too much into this, but that aside, the book leaves me with little to discuss. So, um, yeah.

 

[Hawki]

Mass Effect: Foundation (3/5)

If I had to describe Foundation in one word, it would be "frustrating." Frustrating, because as a collection of thirteen comic issues, at times, it's good. Even great. At other times, it's twaddle. It's frustrating, because the comic series could easily have kept up its quality level, but it keeps stumbling, and by the end of it, I was left to say "so, nothing of importance actually occurred."

The thing about Foundation is that its, um, foundation, is pretty decent. Most of the story is seen through the eyes of Rasa - a character you'll more likely know as Maya Brooks if you've played ME3. The story is part sidequel, part framing device, in that most of it takes place from 2183 to 2184, alongside ME1, and in the leadup to ME2. This could have run the risk of falling into what I call Me Too Syndrome (no, this isn't a reference to #MeToo, I was using this term to describe some works long beforehand), but it manages to avoid that. Rasa, and other characters slide into the events of the games pretty seemlessly. Rasa as a character herself isn't bad, and the comic actually makes Kai Leng a pretty awesome character to be around. Huh. Who'd have thought? So for a fair bit of time, I was onboard, but then things started to go wrong. Some of the comics are basically just big action sequences. Now, action in comics isn't inherently bad (comics are certainly better suited for action than novels), but there's good ways to portray action, and bad ways. Thane killing the people who killed his wife, tying in with the tragedy of his character? Good action. Jack yelling and screaming as she tears up her test facility? Bad action. True to character, sure, but you can have too much action in a work to the point where I lose interest. And again, it's frustrating, because the comic is so damn solid for its first half, but then keeps detouring in its second. And that brings us to the crux of how it's all joined together, and that's Rasa. Rasa...isn't a good character.

Oh, don't get me wrong, she starts out good, and the good writing extends to Cerberus as a whole. Like, Miranda and Jacob are both dedicated to humanity, but clearly have different ideas as to what that entails, and this reflects their actions in the field. This is good stuff, from both a worldbuilding and narrative perspective. Rasa however, doesn't work. Rasa starts out as a child labourer on an asteroid station, before catching a ride to Cerberus, declaring that she wants to stand for something. The leadup to this makes more sense than this tidbit suggests, but even here, there's problems. Wanting to stand for something? Okay, sure, that isn't an unreasonable statement. But why Cerberus? Why this group? I don't know of anyone who joined ISIS who "wanted to stand for something," they already had a good idea of what they were standing for. Further on, Rasa clearly believes in the cause of bettering humanity, but that's ex post facto. And by the end of the story, she leaves Cerberus, sneaks out with the Shepard clone, and declares that she wants to stand for something. What, we don't know. Her frustrations with Cerberus up to this point are understandable in the context of the plot, but not so understandable that I can buy she'd shoot her way out under the vague promise of standing for something, whatever that is. It also doesn't help that at this point, Rasa and Miranda are drawn similarly, so following the fight becomes difficult.

Like I said, Foundation is frustrating. It's frustrating, because it could be so much better than what it was, but at the end of the day, it makes too many gaffs for me to rank it any higher. Also, half of the time I read "Rasa," I thought of the "Raza" from Dark Matter. Make of that what you will.

 

[Hawki]

I really liked the first Mistborn trilogy so I've been a little apprehensive about reading the second trilogy. It hasn't worked out well when other series have gone from fantasy to steam punk.

Glad I'm not the only one who read Wax & Wayne and thought of LoK.

Anyway, W&W is average, while LoK actively bothered me, so, yay?

 

[Specter Von Baren]

I just now finished reading 'The Road to Wigan Pier' and I have to say I am filled with a sense of futility over the current state of the world as I see the things described by Orwell matching today almost to a T. I am now faced with the cyclical nature of humanity and ignorance of people of today of how we're blindly falling into the same pitfalls our forefathers faced and... I don't feel depressed, I can't describe how I feel right now.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

Ways of Seeing by John Berger (1972)

A personal throwback to my film school days, which were filled with Marxist literature. I'd already read papers from Berger and probably parts of his Ways of Seeing. Who knows? I get the Frankfurt School regulars mixed up because everybody quotes Benjamin and more or less arrives at the same conclusions. Here's a mantra to take you through liberal arts school: "Reality is a theoretical construct of narrative discourse".

The book is part essay, part picture book. Its mission statement is to analyze the relationship between the spectator and the image - primarily the oil painting, or as informed by it. Basically images are there to reinforce the ideals of the system that allows for them, at least in the European tradition. Its ruminations on class and gender feel more than obvious to me but nevertheless true and just as relevant 50 years after its original publication.

 

[TheVampwizimp]

The Killing Moon, by N.K. Jemisin

I'd never heard of the author before I got this book as a gift, but apparently she won Nebula and Hugo awards for her debut fantasy trilogy, so she's become a pretty big deal very quickly.

The Killing Moon is also fantasy, the first of a duology that may or may not be expanded further in the future. The first thing I like about it is the setting; I've not read a ton of fantasy before, and I think all the fantasy I know is pretty typical high-fantasy stuff set in an analogue to roughly-medieval Europe, but this book is based on an Egyptian setting. Most of the action is in a city on the banks of a river running through a huge desert, and the characters are all dark-skinned to varying degrees. The worldbuilding, always one of the things I pay most attention to, is very smooth. Each chapter begins with a brief bit of text that explains or expounds on an aspect of the world, like old sayings and statements of local law. The rest of the time the author is careful to keep the exposition within the context of the story, and so you get a gradually filled-out sense of the city of Gujaareh and its culture, as well as the political factions in and around it. There's only light hand-holding of the reader to enter the story, and it's very deftly done.

It's also got a pretty simple but effective magic system, narcomancy, practiced only by a socially-segregated religious organization. The plot and the mystery of the story hinge on the magic and who uses it, but it's not a big focus of the story. The central conceit of the city and its main cast is an interesting one that I don't think I've really seen before; Gujaareh is a city dedicated to peace, to such an extreme that the first rule everyone follows is to take whatever path creates the least conflict. It's not even just pacifism and non-violence, it's a serenity of mind and action that makes the characters very mild and placid on the surface, even as they go through hardship and emotional turmoil inside. It's an interesting philosophical basis for a story set in a world of very harsh truths.

The real focus is the characters. All of them are likeable in their own ways, even the villain. The two main characters especially are given a lot of effort to flesh out their motivations and struggles, in very fine detail. That's actually something distinctive about the writing in general; it's very tightly focused, often spending more time exploring a character's thoughts and the minutae of the moment than on moving the plot forward. I find it creates a languid pace for most of the book, though there are punctuations of sudden action. This isn't a bad thing either. It's rather pleasant and easy to read, unlike a lot of more dense and convoluted sci-fi and fantasy epics.

If I'm looking for criticism, there are a few times it feels overdramatic; sometimes the narration focuses very deeply on a character's anguish to the point of feeling like it's trying too hard. For some readers there may seem to be not quite enough plot, and less urgency to the action than is usual in the genre. And I also think the central ideas of peace at all costs and what to do when violence is the quickest path to peace is only shallowly explored; more could have been done there with that interesting set up.

But I think it's a very well-written book with a fascinating setting and good characters, including some intrigue and a nice mystery surrounding the antagonist. I'd recommend it.

Also, half of the time I read "Rasa," I thought of the "Raza" from Dark Matter. Make of that what you will.

Ah, I miss that show. I'm still ticked off it never got an ending.

 

[Hawki]

narcomancy,

...why did I read that and think of drugs? 0_0

Ah, I miss that show. I'm still ticked off it never got an ending.

Funnily enough, I'm watching season 2 right now.

 

[Dalisclock]

I just now finished reading 'The Road to Wigan Pier' and I have to say I am filled with a sense of futility over the current state of the world as I see the things described by Orwell matching today almost to a T. I am now faced with the cyclical nature of humanity and ignorance of people of today of how we're blindly falling into the same pitfalls our forefathers faced and... I don't feel depressed, I can't describe how I feel right now.

This is pretty much how I've been feeling for a while now.

 

[BrawlMan]

I finished Volume 2 of Battle Angel; completing Rollerball Arc. Right now, this is my favorite arc. I read a quarter of Volume 3, where we get introduced to Nova and the return of Zapang. Will read more tomorrow.

 

[TheVampwizimp]

...why did I read that and think of drugs? 0_0

Hah, it's not magical control over narcotics; it's sleep magic. The Gujaareen worship the goddess of dreams, and there's even a huge multicolored moon that rises every night to prove her importance. In fact that's something I could have mentioned above, that the book at times has a somewhat dreamlike quality to the prose. I think the serenity that the characters and the author are trying to achieve is related to the ethereal nature of dreams and the peace and restfullness that pleasant dreams represent. Which makes it more shocking when the peace is shattered by violent nightmares. And that's something I always appreciate about writing, when the nature of the writing is trying to enact its own themes or is mirroring the subject matter itself. It's something I try to do with my own stories when it's appropriate.