The Tyranny of Socks

Really, I would just like 2022 to be better for all of us. It has been a year: just when I think we're moving forward a bit, back we go.

It has been another year without much of fandom for me; I wrote 11 stories (most of them were drabbles, I think) with no fandom overlap. I have watched A LOT of TV over the last year, and enjoyed it, but nothing has really clicked. In fact just this evening we watched the latest episode of The Expanse, and two episodes of Lost In Space (we are still on the first season). I'm just not sure I have much to say about either of them. We also started watching Lupin, which is delightful.

It has been a very quiet holiday. I don't really think I'm going to stay up for midnight, though. I'm not sure I feel the need to see 2021 out.

Recently finished:

I finally succumbled to my completist tendencies and read Bujold's latest (last?) Barrayar book, Gentleman Jole and the Red Queen. I am sorry to say that I did not like it. I am actually 100% behind the idea of Cordelia using Aral's DNA to have a bunch more children, but I would have liked a lot more exploration of the bitterly ironic situation that meant that she could only do so after he was dead and Miles had inherited. This book had basically no struggle and no anger, and I was just... bored. I mean, I knew I probably would not enjoy everything about it, but I was hoping to find something good to cling to. I did not.

Currently reading:

On paper, Piranesi, by Susannah Clarke -- finally! I am really really enjoying this! I love the imagery of the House! I love the way the details of what is going on are slowly being filled in, and the narrative voice is really excellent! I can't wait to find out yet a little bit more about what is going on here! (Don't tell me how it ends.)

On tablet, the GRRM prequel book about the Targaryens. I would actually have to look up the title. Fire and Blood, I think? This may be a sign of the level of my engagement in it, but on the other hand it's soothing to read right before bed, and there's quite a lot of it so it will keep me going for a while. As a book, I don't really care about anything or anyone in it, but that doesn't really interfere with my purpose in reading it, for which see directly above.

Temporarily put aside:

I saw somewhere that someone (wow, isn't this vague?) had requested C. J. Cherryh's Faded Sun trilogy in a fiction exchange, and that reminded me that I owned a copy and have occasionally thought about re-reading it. Also for some reason I don't own a copy of Dune. Why is that? Anyway, I only just started this but I think I'll go back to it when I'm done with Piranesi. I do remember really liking it, back in the day, which to be fair was a long time ago.

I might, though, turn first to the diaries of Tommy Lascelles, because while my mother was here we watched A LOT of The Crown, and it turns out that A has a collected volume of them, mostly from the 1940s or earlier (so before the series begins) and about his time with Edward VIII and George VI. He was such a great character, and so I'm looking forward to these, but either A or Spartacus might nab them first, now that my mother has gone home.

I had an excellent time with this year's crossworks exchange!

I received a really enjoyable story from Beatrice_Otter, The Princess and the Folly in which Peter Grant and Shuri geek out about magic and science together -- this is a story I have wanted to read for a very long time!

And I wrote a crossover between Persuasion and Pride and Prejudice, two novels I have loved for a very long time but never dared to write for -- it was a really fun experience, although I was very glad to have the reassurance of likeadeauce as a beta reader:

Still-Life with Pheasant, Oranges, and Calves-Foot Jelly (6305 words) by Vaznetti
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen, Persuasion - Jane Austen
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Anne Elliot/Frederick Wentworth, Elizabeth Bennet/Fitzwilliam Darcy, Kitty Bennet/James Benwick
Characters: Elizabeth Bennet, Anne Elliot, Catherine "Kitty" Bennet, Anne de Bourgh, Frederick Wentworth, James Benwick, Fitzwilliam Darcy, Colonel Fitzwilliam (Pride and Prejudice), Jane Bennet, Georgiana Darcy
Additional Tags: Crossover, Epistolary, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Georgian House Party, Background Col Fitzwilliam/OMC, Minor Illness, painting and poetry, Georgian invalids
Summary: A selection of letters sent to and from Pemberley during the visit of Miss Anne de Bourgh and her companion, Miss Anne Elliot, to Mr and Mrs Darcy in the autumn of 1814.

I also wrote a crossover for the most recent multifandomdrabble exchange: Feed Your Hungers, a crossover between The Expanse and Star Trek: Discovery, with Naomi Nagata (post-the most recent season) making a deal with Mirror Georgiou (likewise). I wrote a non-crossover story as well, as a pinch hit -- And on the shattered doorposts, a Riddle-Master of Hed story set after the end of the first book, from Deth's perspective. it contains spoilers for the whole series, but then again I imagine that anyone reading the story will have already read the books!

Since I only wrote a pinch-hit and a single extra treat for this round of the drabble exchange, I was going to say it wasn't a very successful round, but clearly it went better for me than for the exchange mods. I'm certainly looking forward to seasonsofdrabbles, probably also as a pinch-hitter/treat-writer.

I have just about finished Warleggan, which is just as well since the library wants it back tomorrow. This is the one where ( cut for spoilers, and also sexual violence )

Overall I think I like the TV show better than the books I've read, but both of them are really melodramatic and contrived. In a good way! But the show has George's A+ conflicted pining for Ross.

We finished watching Domina. It remained really delightful, although I wonder whether someone who didn't know all about the Primus trial would have enjoyed it quite as much as I did. (I have to admit that Primus' fate in this makes much more sense than his historical fate.) I am really really enjoying their Tiberius and Drusus, and also Tiberius' relationship with both Livia and Antigone; I love how everyone admits that Tiberius is brilliant, but that there's something inexpressibly creepy about him (and of course this eventually comes to the surface in a disturbing but predictable scene.) I also really like that I was never entirely sure what, if anything, Livia feels for Gaius.

It was spectacular to look at and I really really hope they make a second series. It's sort of doing "How did Livia become the Livia of I, Claudius," except just to the left of that.

In other news, I have signed up for crossworks, and am wondering whether I should sign up for auexchange too. It would mean two stories at once, plus the next round of multifandomdrabble. But I am just about at the end of my teaching and marking responsibilities, and having a lot of fanfic to write sometimes actually encourages me to get my own work done. So I don't know.

I remember hearing that someone was going to make a TV show about the early life of Livia, the wife of Augustus, and filed it away under "interesting, but might never happen" but guys, it has happened, and it is amazing! I am here with my Roman historian hat on and my tv watcher hat on to tell you that if it appears where you are you MUST give it a try. We are watching it via NOW TV because it's a Sky Atlantic thing, which might mean that in the US HBO has it. We are up to episode 4 (of 8) and so far it is a neverending delight.

So first of all, it looks great. I had heard that the sets for Rome had been destroyed but I think that must be false because I'm pretty sure they're using them for this show and the passing years have made them look amazing. I am going to be using this word a lot.

(Unlike Rome, the women are most of the time wearing clothes. Clothes which a Roman woman might conceivably have worn, even.)

Secondly, whoever made this has actually read some Roman history, and thinks that the fall of the republic and the establishment of the principate is interesting! So unlike in Rome, there is some accurate political stuff. And I don't think it's boring or incomprehensible, but obviously I am probably not the best judge of that.

Also!!! Octavia has more or less the right number of children! Although I think they've dropped a Marcella and maybe an Antonia from an active role in the story. (I realise that I am making snippy comments about Rome here a lot, and honestly that isn't completely fair because I did enjoy Rome, but I am enjoying this SO MUCH MORE. This show was basically made for me.) But someone here is clearly paying attention to who is who, and whose stories are going to be important.

So it begins in 43 with the marriage of Livia and Tiberius Nero. Livia is like, 15, and Tiberius Nero is a huge jerk and a total loser. This is all historically accurate! They go on the run in a not totally historically accurate way, and I do regret that we didn't get Livia's epic ride south to Sicily, with only a single companion and the infant Tiberius clutched to her chest, but overall what we got was pretty good.

Livia's father, Livius Drusus, is played by Liam Cunningham. He is the A+ Best Roman Dad ever, and although he does die fairly early on his presence remains important.

It takes a couple episodes to reach Livia's epic back-stabbing ruination of Scribonia and her remarriage to the young Caesar. I honestly don't know what Livia sees in the young Caesar, but after a 12 year time skip he's played by a much better-looking guy (Matthew McNulty) so it seems more reasonable. Nonetheless Livia's expressions when he says that if he can't be dictator he'll become a god instead are priceless. This show, as far as I can tell, is about how Livia invented the principate and I am 100% its target audience. The whole existence of the Piso subplot is basically there to make me happy (me and everyone else who knows what happens in 23/2 BCE).

The timeskip is an interesting choice, and surprised me, but I think it's because it really is a political story, and is focused on Livia -- but it does mean that we don't get as much Octavia as we could, which is a shame because the Octavia of the first couple episodes is a delightful bitch, and I could watch her forever. The recast seems to have changed her temperment, and now she is much more of a conciliator; I can see how the ten years of Antony might have brought that change about, but it would have been great to see the process. Most of the other recasting was very well done -- you can absolutely see the similarities between the younger and older actors in each role (except for Gaius' glow-up, and Maecenas has grown like 7 inches and now towers over everyone else in a very funny way.) It also means that the child characters have more of a role -- Julia and Marcellus and Iulus Antonius and Tiberius and Drusus, and all I can say is that if you know what's coming this is all extremely delightful.

The show has decided that Tiberius is basically a child sociopath (for a variety of historical reasons) which is plausible; it's not my favorite characterisation but it works. Clearly the Tiberius-Livia relationship is going to be juicy here.

Nearly all the characters are historical -- the one exception is that Livia has a freedwoman best friend named Antigone, who is very important in the first episode and remains present. If the main character having a Black best friend is too much of cliche for you, I still think you should watch the show, but that is definitely a thing that is going on here. Although Antigone also has her own storyline and her own issues, but really, this is Livia's story.

I saw the final episode of The Falcon and The Winter Soldier in (near-enough) real time! ( And I guess I have a handful of things to say? )

Right. It's late, and I am probably not making much sense. I have a couple long things to rec, but maybe next post.

Happy Passover to all who celebrate -- and next year may we be able to be together with a broader selection of our loved ones.

I have a question about other people's practice: does anyone actually eat the orange of inclusivity and spit out the seeds of prejudice as part of their seder? With us it just sits on the plate as a talking point (we explain it when we explain the other seder plate items).

This year, probably because I was starting to feel trapped at home, I made a different kind of haroset (tasty, nut not necessarily better than my usual!) and also made gefilte fish (and I'm never going to buy it again -- homemade or none at all!)

Today is cold and damp: I taught Spartacus the family chili recipe, which is now making thr house smell good.

Recently finished: Fly by Night, by Frances Hardinge. I enjoyed this a lot! I loved the wordplay and the worldbuilding. It was part of a set of books handed down to Spartacus -- he is nearly finished with it as well. We appreciated its crossover potential: it might not be a beautiful day in the village, but you are a horrible goose.

Currently reading: a lot of fanfic, and stuff for work. Currently, Cicero's letters to his brother Quintus. I have a lot of time for Quintus, as it can't have been easy being the other Cicero; he does actually carve out a good career for himself as a governor and military commander (and poet). He was Pompey's legate in Sardinia and one of Caesar's in Gaul; he stays on an extra year with Caesar as well, perhaps looking to gain more experience and connections. Perhaps in some happier (for the Ciceros) version of Roman history he would have been able to run for a consulship in the 50s. But instead the system fell apart, and took him and his son with him.

In any case, the letters are good, except for the first which is actually a treatise on provincial governorship disguised as a letter, and is truly horrid (but useful to the historian!) I only hope Quintus rolled his eyes and took it in good faith for what it actually was.

Damn it! ( spoilers for a season that came out years ago )

Outside the cut: the first half of this season was really amazing -- tightly written and satisfying on both an emotional level and in terms of the story making sense. I am less sure about what's going on after the time-skip so far but that might be because I miss the big team-up from the first part of the season -- having all the characters together in one place made for more interesting interactions, even though obviously it doesn't really make sense for e.g. Bobbie or Avasarala to be on Rocinante.

I find it very interesting that Amos referred to Prax as his best friend -- rather than Naomi, or even Alex, who he's spent more time with. It makes me wonder more and more about Amos; at one point I thought I had missed some backstory stuff for him but now I think it's just being fed out very slowly, and I want to know more.

Also: Naomi! I like that she is having her own adventures, although I am not sure that she really fits in on the ship-formerly-known-as-Nauvoo. I am cautiously interested in the way religion is worked into the worldbuilding in The Expanse -- cautiously.

I finished the two books I mentioned in the last version of this post. The Alan Furst book was really awful, in the end, so I picked up Dark Star to see whether he really has gone downhill or whether he could never write at all. I'm still re-reading it, which I guess is the answer. I can see the roots of the things that are going to irritate me about him but they're undercut by many of the other characters in the book also being real people.

A and I have started to watch The Expanse. It was a good thing that he wanted to watch it because I might not have stuck with the first season; I'm still not entirely sure of everything that happened in the early episodes because I tended to zone out whenever Miller was on the screen. Maverick cop is one of my least favourite character archtypes. But the show picked up when he met up with the other characters, and the plot started to come together more, and now I am very engaged! We're getting toward the end of S2 -- they're investigating things on Ganymese, and Bobby Draper has just been granted political refuge. I have a very bad feeling about literally everything at the moment.

Amos and Naomi are absolutely my favourite characters. I assume that this surprises no one. I am also very interested in Chrisjen Avasarala, whose interrogation of Bobby Draper was a thing of beauty. (To be fair I would probably listen to Shohreh Aghdashloo read the telephone book, and this is a great role for her.)

( mild spoilers about years-old television below )

It reminds me of BSG but in a good way; I'm trying not to be too spoiled but it looks like it won't degenerate into nonsense? Despite the whole story having in essence a single large plot and central mystery. I like stories with that kind of arc, it's just that in episodic TV they so often end in incoherence.