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Sep (lord of all I survey) ([info]sepiamagpie) wrote,
@ 2012-03-26 01:12:00


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Borrowers Afield and Phule's Paradise
I finished The Borrowers Afield by Mary Norton and began Phule's Paradise by Robert Asprin, since apparently my whole reading life is these two authors now? I do not know.

A bit of advice, if you want to write a post about the wonders of reading and happiness, don't do something like read certain reaction tweets about Rue and Thresh in the Hunger Games first. People are vile and I unfortunately have nothing of value to contribute on this topic, but they're still vile.

I'm still on the racism topic because The Borrowers Afield was written in the 50s and guess what comes with that! Yes, featuring heavily in the book are the Romani (please re-advise me if I've used the wrong term and I apologize if so) people. That's not what they're called in the book, among other things. Also at one point Arrietty mentions the flower over her head gives a 'ku klux klan' effect. Oh lord. This has been your paragraph of warning to people considering reading or rereading. I enjoyed the book, but that's there and you can't really get around it.

It also introduces Spiller, the feral Borrower, who I liked. It also ends on a very satisfying note where I actually heard dramatic music in my head.

Quick request: Is there any place that has a timeline of the Borrowers or someone who I can discuss this with? Because there seems to be two missing years in it between Book 1 and 2, but I may just have misread something. And the case of two people finding Arrietty's diary.

Onto Phule's Paradise, which I remember liking a fair bit. Right now Phule and his crew have been assigned to guard a casino. Only what they're guarding it against is a hostile takeover from mobsters and it's an attempt from a member of high command to screw them over.

I will keep you updated on how it progresses and how anti-climatic the ending is this time.


(Post a new comment)


[info]tehrin
2012-03-26 06:26 am UTC (link)
The Rue, Thresh and Cinna reaction frankly baffles me because they make it clear in the book that Rue is black and that District 11 is entirely black (thanks, Capitol, for re-introducing American slavery) and Thresh is from there too. People who didn't notice this clearly haven't read close enough or glance over it because of their own racism. Rue is one of my favorite characters.

I've seen both Romani and Rom used. I'm always correcting people when they use the verb "gyp." I do this more than you'd expect.

(Reply to this)(Thread)


[info]sepiamagpie
2012-03-26 06:34 am UTC (link)
The Capitol seems to be real jerks.

(Reply to this)(Parent)


[info]white_serpent
2012-03-26 07:13 am UTC (link)
I've seen Rom most frequently; wikipedia (world's foremost authority, I know) indicates Romani is correct for the group as a whole, and different subgroups may use different terms.

(Reply to this)(Thread)


[info]sepiamagpie
2012-03-26 07:19 am UTC (link)
That's what google told me but there's that lingering 'oh god I don't know' because a lot of the results was complaining that they're not racist, damnit and kind of thinned up the usefulness.

(Reply to this)(Parent)


[info]puipui
2012-03-27 02:23 am UTC (link)
A bit of advice, if you want to write a post about the wonders of reading and happiness, don't do something like read certain reaction tweets about Rue and Thresh in the Hunger Games first. People are vile and I unfortunately have nothing of value to contribute on this topic, but they're still vile.

I just read The Hunger Games last week, all in one night, and I cried like a tiny little baby when Rue died. And then I cried again when Thresh died. There was a lot of crying, all in all.

I don't even want to know what people are saying about them on Twitter. :(

(Reply to this)(Thread)


[info]puipui
2012-03-27 02:25 am UTC (link)
I just realized that I probably should've put a spoiler tag on that. SPOILER SPOILER OMG SPOILER YOU CAN TOTALLY TELL IT'S GOING TO HAPPEN FROM THE SECOND THEY'RE INTRODUCED BUT STILL SPOILER OMG. I knew it was coming and I still cried, sigh.

(Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)


[info]tehrin
2012-03-28 01:06 am UTC (link)
Me too. Cried like a baby. Going to cry when I finally go see the movie.

(Reply to this)(Parent)


 
   
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