Bird by Bird was the first book recommended in a thread I started about writing advice books over at thewrite_away community. I've made it something of a project to read the recommendations in my free time. I started with Bird and finished it over a weekend traveling to another city and back.

( Here's what I thought )

So, bumps and all, Bird by Bird is a worthwhile read for anyone interested in a perspective on the ups and downs of a writer's life, especially one that is funny and compassionate at the same time. I liked it a lot.

Phyllis Ann Karr's Frostflower and Thorn and Frostflower and Windbourne were published in 1980 and 1982 respectively. The sorceress Frostflower and warrior Thorn hail from the Tanglelands, the kind of gritty, dangerous pseudo-Medieval European fantasy setting that is very much at home in the eighties and which is seeing a resurgence in the aughts and teens of this century. (If the descriptors "gritty," "dangerous," and "pseudo-Medieval" remind you of anything, Frostflower and Thorn begins with a note that it was first written during George R. R. Martin's Clarke College workshop in 1977.)

( Worldbuilding, pacing, feministing )

Frozen is, in my memory, the first movie I have been agitating to see for an entire month. This began when I saw the Let It Go clip on YouTube via Love, Joy, Feminism. Like Libby Anne I was deeply moved by the way Elsa felt free to break away and express everything about herself she had been forced to repress all her life. Watching it, I tasted again the lonely exhilaration of that moment when you forget about being good and dutiful and give yourself permission to be your own self, a necessary if not final step to healing.

This began my hankering to see the movie, which to my disappointment would not open in Korea for another month. I all but marked the day on my calendar and pestered the husband about it every few days, until the long-suffering man took me to see it yesterday on opening night.

( Here be many spoilers )

For all its flaws and limitations Frozen has come further than just about any Disney movie since Lilo and Stitch, and shows that feminist storytelling is good storytelling, period. That's only natural, since stories are about human concerns and feminist themes are issues that affect people in their relation to gender and sex. Feminism, in other words, is about huge swathes of life. Leave those out and you can't tell the full truth of human experience. Frozen goes in the right direction. My only complaint is that it doesn't go far enough.

One-line summary: A suspicious tailor joins Dr. Bashir for lunch. It's all downhill from there.

( Synopsis )

( Can I nickname this episode Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy? )

That trust, a calculated, mature trust with eyes wide open to the ramifications and consequences, is both the force that makes friends for the Federation and sometimes makes it vulnerable to its enemies. It's the balance the Federation's peoples have struck in a perilous universe and it paid off in this episode, and in the form of Deep Space Nine, a place where friends and enemies from across the worlds are brought together for stories in infinite and enjoyable combinations.

(06/14/13: Updated with synopsis. Spoilers and some bad language.)

I've started watching Deep Space Nine on fairladyz2005's recommendation, and it is certainly worthy of high praise. I've finished the first season and like it so much I've decided to write a series of posts talking briefly about my impressions.

One-line summary: Sisko falls into a hole and must dig his way out.

( Comments )

Overall "The Emissary" does what a pilot episode should do, setting up a premise for the whole series that will be a source of new conflicts and stories. The episode gave me high hopes for the show, the first season of which was a mixed bag with some real highlights. More on that later; for now, Luna out.

Another Trek episode, another game-breaking alien species. This one was mainly interesting for the new depth it added to Quark's character in his pivotal scene. It was sort of a bummer that this game-obsessed species don't show up anymore (at least not as of early Season 5, which is where I'm at), there seemed to be some interesting statements in their story about gaming and honesty and stuff. And Jesus, it was a shock to come back from Season 5 and see Jake Sisko as a 14-year-old boy. They sure change in four years, don't they.

The awesome fairladyz2005, who introduced me to DS9, also sent me a list of TNG episodes that were relevant to DS9. One of them was "The Host," a Season 4 TNG episode that first introduced the Trill. The DS9 episode "Dax" is in many ways an inversion of "The Host." Where the Trill character in "The Host" had to prove himself to be the same guy as a previous incarnation in order to gain the trust of warring factions, the titular Trill in "Dax" must prove herself a different person in order to get away from the crime a past self is accused of committing.

That question, the meaning of identity, is the central subject of "Dax" much as it was in "The Host." However, the understanding of that question, along with the setting information on the Trill, has become a great deal more sophisticated since TNG. Much like the changes in the Ferengi since their first appearance (TNG 1.05 "The Last Outpost"), it shows the evolution of Trek writing.

( On the law, and what really matters )

"Dax" may not have had the most original or unexpected resolution, but the abovementioned subtlety in the writing still drew me into the story and made me think. The episode was also a smart legal drama with an appealing sense of humility that a court is not always the final arbiter of truth, and the real story happens with the choices of men and women in their lives. The courtroom is a forum where some very interesting issues are laid bare, though, and the courtroom scenes were worth it for that reason.

It's not often that a science fiction TV episode gets my academic side berserk with excitement. I mean, even I have to admit a TV show about aliens and spaceships that goes on and on about theories of law and economics and social justice would be dull.

"Captive Pursuit," however, is notable for punching me right in the ivory tower without being dull at all. Hoo boy, is it not.

( Let's see if I can make the review not-dull as well. )

Though this is very much an O'Brien episode, the rest of the regular cast played lively supporting roles. I particularly liked how the script built up to Sisko's crucial assist of O'Brien by showing the Commander's sense of timing beforehand. It was as though the station were a symphony, an endeavor of cooperation and trust conducted by a virtuoso. That trust didn't budge even when Sisko chewed O'Brien's head off at the end for his actions. If the result of such ability and camaraderie is an episode like "Captive Pursuit," that's certainly the kind of music I'd like to hear more of.

I know these are coming at sort of a frenetic schedule, but I'm on a dopamine rush from starting something new (and a Real Life Responsibility I'm procrastinating on, in case you couldn't tell), so might as well use that energy while I have it. Besides, I'm impatient to move on and write about 1.06 "Captive Pursuit," which rocked my world for reasons I will discuss.

( How to host a murder mystery... IN SPACE! )

Overall "A Man Alone" is a good standalone episode and that further develops the setting, characters, and character relationships. Much like "Babel" after it it's not particulary memorable, but was solid and enjoyable. I'd put this one in the second tier when it comes to Season 1 episodes.

Beware of Pity is the only completed novel by Stephen Zweig, an Austrian novelist, playwright, and biographer. I never heard of the guy before a French friend mentioned the book in an e-mail, but evidently he was hugely popular in the 1920s and 1930s. I was glad to have discovered his novel, which is a psychological epic, high drama, and nail-biting suspense all in one. I have read the new Anthea Bell translation, which I highly recommend.

( Ruminations on the paradox of liberalism, power, selflessness and more in one spoiler-free package )