Tim Lieder

32. Sandman: Seasons of Mists by Neil Gaiman and Various - In the quasi-mythological way that the story of Morpheus and Nada was told originally, it felt like the kind of tragic love story that happens in mythology. But it's also the kind of thing that the old religions traffick in. I even wrote about it in my tumblr posts on The Book of Job which is "Don't attract the attention of the gods". Only Morpheus is not JUST a god in the Greek mythology way. He's also a stand-in for the author and a metaphor for story telling.

So we return to Nada in this one and it sets everything off as the theme of the comic book series - the ways that change can be painful and even destructive but is also inevitable - we see it from the perspective of an early 30s/late 20s viewpoint where growing up means examining your actions and admitting that you were really shitty in many ways. The "Time Traveler slapping their younger self" trope is common here. Only Morpheus is millions of years old and he's being written by a writer in his early 30s So he's in that reflective but also likely to get angry when his faults are pointed out phase.

I have always hated that "if you hurt her, we'll kill you" trope. I get that it means "don't be an abusive prick" but I still remember shitty things that I've said and angry emails I've sent when my feelings were wounded, and really how can you avoid hurting someone that you are close to? So you might say "don't hurt my friend, sister, etc" and mean "don't punch her in the face" or "don't gaslight her and tear down her sense of self-worth until she's a shell of her former self" and I'm going to remember the time when I was first dating my college girlfriend and she came back from vacation and I told her that I didn't miss her that much. I think I meant it in a "this is a healthy non-obsessive relationship" or maybe I was trying to "be honest" but either way I made her cry (and this was reported from someone else) and as much shit as we did to each other and as much as we've both moved on to the point that I can't even email her without feeling weird about it because what the hell do we have to talk about, that memory still hits me with a fresh wave of guilt.

We are fragile sad creatures.

So anyhow, this isn't even the main plot of the book. It's just that Morpheus is finally made aware that he was a total asshole when he condemned his lover to hell for thousands of years (not forgiving her) first by Desire who angered him and then by Death who told him it in a concerned way. (there's symbolism there too. I just see that. In the midst of desire, you can hear the truth and do everything to deny it, but under the shadow of death there really is no place to engage in self-deception.)

And the rest of the book is also about change, or the need to change as well as the inability to change. Lucifer can change and only needed an excuse to change. Nada can only change because she can't continue as her place in a myth. The gods can't change but they can find more advantage or at least ask for an advantage. Loki changes his face but only to continue to be Loki. The fairies come to the Dream Kingdom and one loses her glamor and the other one thinks about his life in a serious way.

And in the end we return to Morpheus and Nada having a conversation and knowing that it won't ever work out and getting closure.

Closure - a literary trope that we never really get in real life at least not in the way we would want it. (in my twenties there was a couple that was famous for breaking up and getting back together and at one point he was calling her and leaving messages asking for closure. She ignored him because really, if they talked they probably wouldn't have gotten closure, just more anger and recrimination).

33. Dead Boy Detectives vol 1: Schoolboy Terrors - Toby Litt & Mark Buckingham - This one is less think piece as it's got a couple characters who were introduced in Seasons of Mists and they are still walking around trying to save people. The main story is about a girl who is the child of a rock star and an artist (I wonder if the trope of the child of artists being neglected is a self-criticism thing. Although I'm not sure if Holly Black has children) and she goes to a private school because she wants to and it's the old school that the boy detectives died in.

So this is a lot of "hey remember this?" material with the old bullies still there and the ghosts wanting to kill students as the daughter of rock star is afraid of making friends because her friends keep getting killed by ghosts. And then her new friend gets killed by a ghost. I think she might come back but my damn library doesn't have the next volume. It's a really unfair and nasty plot twist with the friend being possessed by a demon.

I guess there's a tv show coming to Netflix so that's hopeful.

Also it fits in with the theme because the boys try to save this girl because one has a crush on her, and the boys might be a couple but it's mostly a shipper thing.

34.And Laughter Fell from the Sky by Jyotsna Sreenivasan - I'm not sure what I think about the ways that the publishing companies tend to be friendlier towards books by non-white people when they are adapting a Victorian novel. On one hand, that seems racist. On the other hand, when it comes to immigrant families there is a wealth of material to draw upon when it comes to the Victorian and Regency novels. I was actually trying to figure out if this one was based on a Jane Austen book before looking in the back and seeing that she was adapting House of Mirth but with a curiosity towards the man in that book seemingly being so confident (House of Mirth is one of those books with an ending that has pissed off readers and movie goers for decades. He just decides that he doesn't want to be with her??? At the last minute??? After everything that held them apart is gone??? Fuck you Wharton. I think it's Wharton...yes. It's Wharton).

So I don't have a problem with Indian writers finding a great deal of material in a novel like House of Mirth especially when they find a great deal of inspiration in a novel about arranged marriages and thinking about your family and their needs before your own.

Sreenivasan is not terribly excited by the whole arranged marriage trope. As I talk about this book, I am seeing certain things that she's doing including weighing against her lead woman character - Rasika - and Rasika's intent on being a good Indian daughter who gets married, especially who gets married before a certain date. Her parents are depicted as foolish. In fact, no parents really come off well in this one (Abhoy's parents are also an arranged marriage with his father being an abusive guy and his mother never really knowing what she wanted).

Also Rasika is never really depicted as someone who wants an arranged marriage. She has boyfriends. She has sex. She even has sex with Abhoy almost as soon as they reconnect - after he accidentally interrupts a date with an awful suitor - and ends up getting assaulted by an uncle who tries to blackmail her in regards to seeing her with Abhoy. And she does make Abhoy confused and existentialist not sure about what he wants in life, but in love with Rasika.

Honestly I got into it. Maybe it's because I'm in love with a woman who pulled away from me when I could admit to myself that I was in love with her. Not that I'm waiting around for her to change her mind or even come into my life as a friend (which I would like. I guess I'm ok with these emotions; not nearly as obsessive as they were in the past with different women) and so the dynamic of Abhoy knows that he loves Rasika even as Rasika keeps pulling away from Abhoy because he's not in her vision of how her future should go was something that I could latch onto.

On the other hand, the book ends with a traumatic head injury. I guess that's a plot point that stops the characters from running away from each other.

Ok. Here's the spoiler as if you thought that she would REALLY end the book like House of Mirth. They get married in the epilogue. The book ends with her agreeing to marry Abhoy because she finally has stopped running away and trying to live the life her parents want. The funny part is that at the wedding, no one talks about how much they are in different castes being a major scandal. Everyone is just happy she married another Hindu - unlike her cousin who shows up at the end and narks on her, who is running away with a Muslim. Also traumatic head injury.

I kind of hope I didn't influence anyone not to read the book on the spoiler. It's a romance book. Of course, they end up together in the end. Did anyone go to Bridget Jones's Diary thinking that they are going to break up? Well then again Bridget Jones was based on a book where they do end up together, as opposed to a book where they should end up together but fucking Wharton thought a tragic ending where they just decide not to get together for the sadness.

And there are enough twists to keep the story going.