taina

i don't usually have access to Finnish books, so i made sure to buy lots of them on my holiday!

Yön väliverho - Anne Hänninen
poetry

Niin kauan kuin on elämää - Jevhenija Kuznjetsova
the author had a talk and signing event while we were in Helsinki, but we were busy enough sightseeing, we didn't have time to go to the event.

Minun naiseni - Julija Iljuha

Turkoosi vyöhyke - Susinukke Kosola
poetry

Perhonen ja jaguaari - Aliette de Bodard
a few Xuya short stories, none of the titles sound familiar to me. exciting!

Merenkirkas, nummenhämärä - Katriina Heikkilä
political fantasy with a focus on power and ethics?

Kultainen peura - Miina Supinen
historical fiction set in Eastern Karelia. i bought it based on the recommendation card. when i paid, a green-haired bookseller complicated me on a good choice. they turned out to be the one who wrote the recommendation.

Kielet ennen meitä - Topias Haikala
an overview of the development of the languages spoken in modern Finland (that is, Finnic languages, Sámi languages and Swedish), starting from Proto-Uralic and Proto-Indo-European. this was a great find: it's a topic that i find really interesting and wouldn't find books about where i live.

Ylva - Marko Annala
we visited an exhibition featuring the painter Petri Ala-Maunus. he made a painting inspired by this novel, which is now the cover illustration. the book sounded interesting enough, and when looking at it in the museum gift shop, i learned that the author Marko Annala is the front man of the metal band Mokoma, which i sometimes listen to.

Kanteletar ja opas sen lukemiseen - Elias Lönrott, Niina Hämäläinen
i was aware of the Kalevala, obviously, but i hadn't heard of Kanteletar before: a collection of loose songs from the same sources.

Muumilaakson marraskuu - Tove Jansson
i found a cheap paperback in the Moomin Museum gift shop. i've read it before, it's my favourite of the Moomin books. i wanted a copy for my own library.

Luiden hiljaisuus - Alastair Reynolds
part 3 of the Revenger series. my uncle found two copies when organising his bookshelves so he gave me one of them.

Notes from the Burning Age - Claire North
i bought this from Science Fiction Bokhandeln in Stockholm on the way home. i was allowed to buy only one (1) book there because my suitcase was completely full by that point.

mes bibliothèques sont pleines et les nouveaux livres s'empilent au sol. je suis très contenxe de la valeur esthéthique des piles de livres, mais je lamentais qu'elles ne suivent pas le système d'organisation de ma bibliothèque personnelle dont je suis si fièr. ma partenaire m'a dit qu'alors je pourrais les organiser, elles aussi.

ce qui a entraîné une grande réorganisation de ma biblithèque. la section non-fiction s'est élargie et tous les livres de non-fiction vont de nouveau dans l'étagère ; j'ai fait plus de place aux recueils de poésie aussi.

la fiction en anglais (sauf science-fiction et fantasy) et la fiction en néerlandais sont sorties de l'étagère intégralement pour être entassées en piles séparées. à vrai dire, ça fait un peu plus désordonné maintenant – sans doute parce que les piles de livres sont à présent plus nombreyx et de tailles hétéroclites. (la solution est évidente : obtenir davantage de livres pour les augmenter...)

a review of The Little Book of Fungi by Britt A. Bunyard

I'm a bit wary of Little Books of this or that, I don't really trust them to be worthwhile in terms of quality. But I figured since I don't have much base knowledge of mycology, this might be okay as a primer or very basic reference work for me. That was a mistake, my first instinct was correct.

The Little Book of Fungi is a collection of fun facts that is mostly intended to look pretty. (The ochre clothbound cover does look very nice. The blurb is a sticker that I assume can be removed to leave a tastefully minimalistic outside with just the title, the author, and a small stylised bunch of mushrooms.) The inside is very heavily illustrated, with the page area divided about equally between text and illustrations. Additionally, the pages are very thick (for the colour images), so the number of pages is smaller than you might expect for the book's thickness (not very thick). All this means that there is very little text.

The text feels messy to me. The way information that seems related to me is sprinkled through different chapters feels disorganised; the organisation within the two-page sub-chapters feels wonky sometimes; and occasionally there's a sentence that doesn't quite make sense. There are too many sentences starting with "Amazingly," for my liking. (I don't think you should start a sentence with "Amazingly," if the previous sentence already described something as "amazing".) Sometimes the information of two  not-very-info-heavy sentences is summarised in a third sentence.

The illustrations are pretty, but not always very illustrative. Sometimes they're just nice photos or drawings of mushrooms (and hey, I'm a mushroom image enjoyer), but don't otherwise add much for how much page area they take away from potential text. Sometimes they are (I assume) meant to explain something, but because the parts of the illustration are not labeled, I'm left with no idea what I'm looking at.

And, you know, the book in general isn't very informative. There were plenty of facts I didn't know, of course, but not much in the way of insights. I guess if you're already read Merlin Sheldrake's Entangled Life (for example), I'd say The Little Book of Fun Facts is worth giving a pass.

a review of Toward Eternity by Anton Hur

Toward Eternity has a lot going for it that should really be my shit: poetry; AI; AIs reading poetry; exploration of the meaning and import of language(s); of what makes humanity (especially in a world where there are sentient beings that are not (biologically) similar to H. sapiens as we know it today. But I found it just okay. It didn't really focus enough on language(s) and I felt it also forgot about poetry for a while.

It also cared deeply about capital-M Music (especially classical European music – Bach and Mozart in particular), and that is an effective trick for making me lose interest. I simply feel "an intense, burning indifference" to it as a major component in fiction. I cannot relate, I anti-relate, it's just not for me. (To be clear, I haven nothing against music, I just don't care for it in fiction.) At least one of the points of view contrasted Music with poetry (which in the rest of the book are cast as an eternal, essential part of the universe, something that transcends humanity and keeps existing even if no one is around to read or recite or remember it anymore), and considered it even more pure and sublime(?) and so on than language – and then it wasn't really brought up again.

The book was maybe also too short for what it wanted to do (or at least for what I felt it was setting up). There was not enough page time for each character, and the book ended in a kind of awkward place of not enough mystery to leave me intrigued after finishing it, yet not enough revelation to leave me satisfied either. I would also have liked the eternal essence of poetry to be supported a bit more.
(Also, the poetry featured in this book is primarily 19th century English and American poetry, which one of the viewpoints states early on was a tool of imperialist violence. And while the same character states that these poems have merit nonetheless, I do find it awkward that the only examples of eternal and universal poetry we get are from this hegemonic Anglo-American canon.)

Speaking of characters and viewpoints – the story is told through a single notebook in which a chain of roughly a dozen characters each write their own story, or part of their story, or their part of the story. The first three or so characters have somewhat distinct voices, but the later ones all sound/feel the same, and I found myself asking when and how they had the opportunity to write in the notebook, which broke my suspension of disbelief a little.

That said, Toward Eternity still manages to do a bunch of interesting stuff, and it's easy to keep turning the pages (or keep listening), and I did enjoy the musings about poetry, such as they were. It may be interesting to people who enjoyed Anjet Daanje's Het lied van ooievaar en dromedaris. It's not the same, of course (nothing can be), but the structure and red thread of the respective books are similar in some ways, as well as the poetry/literature and music themes.

een recensie van Met z'n zessen in bed: De toekomst van liefde, van polyamorie tot relatiepillen van Roanne van Voorst

Ik heb tegenwoordig met alle nonfictie dat ik méér had gewild: meer informatie, meer analyse, meer diepgang. Bij Met z'n zessen in bed had ik dat gevoel minder dan gemiddeld, dus dat is positief.

Het boek was grotendeels interessant en ook fijn geschreven, het las heel snel. Het nadeel van zo'n groot thema als "de toekomst van liefde" is dat je niet veel ruimte hebt voor de subthema's. Aan de hand van de hoofdstuktitels verwachtte ik wat meer uitweiding over mensen die celibaat zijn bijvoorbeeld, en ik was verrast dat de 4B-beweging en de incels niet aan bod kwamen. Bij avatars en virtuele realiteit viel er naar mijn mening nog wel meer te zeggen over identiteit(sconstructie).

Het hoofdstuk over sekswerk was wel sterk, en het hoofdstuk over polyamorie was niet slecht (ik heb lage verwachtingen). Van Voorst is monogaam, maar reflecteert op wat ze zelf kan leren van polyamorie en polyamoreuze filosofie, en hoe ze dat kan toepassen op haar eigen relaties.
Ik begrijp dat relatieanarchie moeilijk te definiëren is; er bestaat waarschijnlijk niet een enkele "correcte" definitie. Ik kom wel duidelijk incorrecte definities tegen. Ik ben dan ook niet onder de indruk van "Relatieanarchie: een groepsrelatie die egalitair is, waar dus geen hiërarchie bestaat." Dat is namelijk de definitie van niet-hiërarchische polyamorie.

Ik weet niet waarom mannen als Seneca en Cicero en witte mannen uit de Europese Renaissance worden aangehaald als vriendschap gedefinieerd moet worden.

Het was een redelijk goed boek, tot het laatste hoofdstuk: "Een genderrevolutie en het einde van de hetero's". Dit hoofdstuk was slecht. Van Voorst weet niet genoeg over queerness en gender en heeft duidelijk onvoldoende onderzoek gedaan. In haar streven naar een valse objectiviteit zet ze [mensen die strijden voor hun eigen rechten] op één lijn met [mensen die de rechten van anderen willen inperken] – "beide kanten" hebben namelijk "sterke emoties". Transfobe mythen worden zonder reflectie overgenomen, statistieken van twijfelachtige kwaliteit worden slecht geïnterpreteerd, termen worden verkeerd gebruikt, Butler wordt verkeerd geduid. Bovendien schrijft van Voorst hier nauwelijks wat over liefde en haar toekomst, dus het hoofdstuk draagt ook niets bij aan de onderzoeksvraag.

Het nawoord met conclusie is ook niet sterk. Het voelt alsof van Voorst er hier niet echt zin meer in heeft en weinig te zeggen heeft.

het boek als gebruiksvoorwerp.
het boek dat ik altijd bij me draag.
het boek dat tekenen van gebruik vertoont.
het boek dat waterschade oploopt onderin mijn tas.
het boek waarin ik zinnen onderstreep.
het boek waarin ik aantekeningen maak in de kantlijnen.
het boek waarin ik ezelsoren vouw om de beste gedichten terug te vinden.
 
het boek dat ik uitleen.
het boek waarin ik anderen uitnodig marginalia te schrijven.
het boek met kanttekeningen in drie handschriften.
het boek dat in waarde toeneemt door de perspectieven van zijn lezers.

het boek als oplage van tienduizenden.
het boek als exemplaar.
het boek dat niet onverkocht wordt versnipperd.
het boek als gebruiksvoorwerp dat zijn doel heeft gediend.
het boek dat een bijzonder afscheid krijgt.

het boek dat ik heb uitgelezen.
het boek dat ik heb gelezen en waarvan ik zeker weet dat ik het niet opnieuw zal lezen.
het boek dat niemand anders wil.
het boek dat zijn doel heeft uitgediend.
het boek waar ik nog een laatste keer wat vermaak uit haal.

het boek als voorwerp dat goed brandt.
het boek als symbool.
het boek als voorwerp dat niet mag branden.
het boek waarvan het branden verkeerd voelt.
het boek dat juist door het taboe spannend is om te verbranden.
het boek.

a short review of I Contain Multitudes: The Microbes Within Us and a Grander View of Life by Ed Yong

I want to preface this review with the caveat that university has kind of ruined nonfiction for me: nowadays everything just feels like I'm reading an introduction and keep waiting for the real deal to start – the details, the evidence, the argumentation – but it never comes. That definitely affected my enjoyment of this book.

The writing is pleasant enough, but I feel I Contain Multitudes is a bit worse than usual about leaving out important details. Often Ed Yong will offhandedly mention something really fascinating (such as that microbes "ensure the sanctity of the blood-brain barrier", p. 63) but doesn't elaborate and never returns to the topic, so that I feel I'm just reading a list of fun facts. Or he'll mention that deep-sea giant tube worms living around hydrothermal vents have no mouth or anus because they get all their nutrition from chemoautotrophic bacteria living inside them that use sulfides for energy, but doesn't explain how those sulfides get from the surrounding water into the worms and to their bacterial symbiotes.

But my biggest complaint is the glaring lack of critical engagement at times. Yong cautions against assuming causation, so is careful to avoid stating that gut microbes whose presence correlates with obesity make you fat, but blandly assumes that fat = bad, and takes it for granted as a sign of unhealth. He mentions research into "curing" autism without any reflection. And in a chapter especially devoted to ecosystems, in a whole book that advocates for a wider ecological view of microbiomes, he presents the introduction of Leucaena to Northern Australia as cattle fodder as an unambiguous success for the cattle industry, when these plants are among the worst invasive species according to the IUCN.

a review of As We Fall by Anya Wildt

Unfortunately, this book was a disappointment for me :(

I didn't really care for the generic Roman-inspired setting, it felt bland and undetailed. I realise the setting is a bit of a secondary concern in a romance book, but I care about worldbuilding a lot.

The plot was a bit weird. There was a nearly 200-page gap in the middle where the plot didn't really advance at all. The political plot was also unconvincing. There were people who wanted things, but they didn't really seem to have clear motivations. The effect is that they seemed to just be mindlessly doing things for the sake of having a conflict.

I hated the main character. Throughout the book, he got less and less sympathetic: he's mean, rash, irresponsible, and has a serious temper problem. He doesn't listen to anyone and lashes out at the people who care about him. Also, he's much more interested in sneaking out of the palace to play detective than in fulfilling his duties as a head of state. I'm inclined to agree with his enemies who think he is not fit to rule.

And on top of everything, the romance is not romantic.

( spoiler )

I can understand Domitris falling in love with Sinnan, but I don't really see any sign of Sinnan returning the feelings, or having any reason to.

There were also some minor editing issues, mostly in the form of words that were used wrong. I think the author picked some synonyms that don't fit. That didn't really bother me, though.

i'm currently reading poetry by Ахматова (in a collection very descriptively titled Gedichten – i don't know if it's all of her poems, but it sure is a large number of poems). she has some good love poems that kind of make me want to write some love poetry of my own, except that sounds like Effort and today i'm spiritually lying face-down on the floor

au sujet du roman Identitti de Mithu Sanyal

j'ai récemment lu Identitti de Mithu Sanyal en v.o. allemand. j'ai quelques réflexions à faire concernant la non-traduction telle que je la comprends.

dialogue de Priti
parmi les personnages figure Priti, une indienne britannique qui est venue étudier en allemagne. elle est d'ailleurs la meilleure amie et cousine de la personnage principale Nivedita. Priti maitrise bien l'allemand, mais ses répliques contiennent beaucoup de mots et fragments de phrases associés à l'anglais :

»I thought, du schmollst halt.« (p. 337)

Priti antwortete so schnell, dass ihre Sätze sich gegenseitig Beine stellten und im Stürzen die nächsten mitrissen. »I'm serious ... I'm ... I've ... Nivedita! Ich habe Oluchi daran erinnert, dass du meine Cousine bist ... und sie dich nicht so behandeln ... so über dich reden ... unter diesen Umständen ... I can't live mit ihr in einer WG ...« (p. 225)

Dans le troisième cas, elle est soumise à une forte pression de temps et confrontée à l'hostilité de son interlocutrice (»Du hast genau dreißig Sekunden, mir einen guten Grund zu nennen [...]«), mais ce n'est pas le cas des deux autres exemples. ça me rappelle la façon dont on mélange des mots et expressions anglaises dans notre néerlandais, mais allant plus loin.

vocabulaire académique
je n'ai pas le temps de chercher des exemples, sauf celui-ci qui revient encore et encore dans le livre : l'usage de « race » et non pas « Rasse » (le second terme étant une traduction inexacte, comme l'explique l'autrice dans la note après l'épilogue). il est plutôt courant de laisser la terminologie scientifique non traduite, je crois que c'est le cas en contexte néerlandophone aussi. (je n'ai jamais eu d'instruction universitaire en néerlandais ; uniquement en anglais et français, le dernier ayant la particularité de chercher à tout traduire.)

majuscules
ça ma surprix de voir que certains noms communs empruntés à l'anglais sont écrits sans majuscule, contrairement à la convention allemande :

»Es ist nur so, dass Soul Food eine ganz spezifische Bedeutung hat und wenn wir es einfach für alles verwenden, was lecker ist, ist das cultural appropriation ...« (p. 63)

notez toutefois la différence entre « Soul Food » (et « Comfort Food » sur la page précédente) et « cultural appropriation ».  je n'ai pas su y découvrir de règle ou schéma.