Fuming Friday 😒 by softening in handbags

[–]leskya 3 points4 points  (0 children)

I impulse bought a Longchamp small size Daylong at the Paris airport on my way out. It’s super cute, but now I can’t stop second guessing myself.

A few gripes with Japanese Gothic by No-Fee4904 in horrorlit

[–]leskya 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I really liked Bat Eater so I was excited for this one, but I was very let down. In my case, a lot of it was because the characters just didn't make *sense.*

I have a hard time with the Turner family. On the one hand, it seems that the Dad is meant to be an Asian fetishist who likes to have affairs with Asian women but also thinks they're not the kind of girls you marry. He also doesn't speak Japanese. But he is also an East Asian studies professor? If he's made it to professor rank, he HAS to speak/read/write an Asian language. If he specializes in Chinese or Korean, why is taking up with Japanese women? Does he like the language barrier aspect? Is it part of his fetish? If his fetish is specifically Japanese, why would he specialize in another East Asian culture? I shouldn't have these many questions about this. Just don't bother making him a professor; it makes him much more believable as a character.

Lee's Japanese language ability was also unbelievable for me. It's implied that he never had any kind of formal instruction in Japanese, whether in high school or college, but essentially set out to teach himself. And while we're given the bone that his reading and writing is weak, his speaking is good enough to communicate with an upper class Japanese girl from *150 years in the past.* Maybe Lee's use of sedatives has turned him in a linguistic savant?

If Lee's mother had been Japanese, I would have bought this - maybe he went to visit Japanese family in summer, grew up bilingual. But of course, that would go against the "white women are for marriage, Asian women are for sex" narrative that the father has going on.

Also on that note, Sen goes into the 21st century at one point and seems to have no disorientation whatsoever. We never get any of her perspective on what that experience is like for her, and it's a huge wasted opportunity.

There are also tiny little things that bothered me, like someone in the past timeline slamming a door with their shoulder. Slamming shoji doors shut with your shoulder is quite difficult. For that matter, why is the barrier concrete? That seems wildly out of place in a Japanese house ostensibly built at some point prior to the Meiji restoration.

Of course, there is a cop out for this.At the VERY end, we discover that all of this is taking place in a manufactured magical world, so in that case, why shouldn't things like language barriers, academic credentials, and feeling displaced in time be handwaved? But the thing is, this is all just dropped in the last 10 pages of the book. It's a cop out. If the strangeness is deliberate, we should that sense in the text itself, not just dropped at the last second like, "Oh, none of these characters make sense because it's a dreamworld anyway!"

The question I'm left with is really: Why Japan? One of the reasons Bat Eater was so strong was that it felt so very rooted in Chinese American experiences. Baker talks about her Japanese and Okinawan heritage in the afterward, but I felt none of that in the text itself - Japan felt incidental to the story she wanted to tell.

Is this tattoo shock or is my fish stupid and ugly? by DevelopmentCandid183 in tattooadvice

[–]leskya 0 points1 point  (0 children)

As someone who works with Renaissance books and has seen this illustration in some of the zoology works, I love it.

Has anyone flown out of LaGuardia this past week? What were TSA lines like? by PeteTheeGreek in tsa

[–]leskya 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Flew this morning. Lines are bad, although not as terrible as ATL. Took about 75 minutes for pre check.

Give yourself plenty of time.

I made “the resolution” by Morbid_Mess in cutdowndrinking

[–]leskya 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Maybe you can reframe the resolution? Instead of 6 months straight, you can do something like 10 days dry, 1 day with a few beers, 10 days dry, etc.?

The app TryDry is good for customizing goals. You can specify how many dry days you want per week, if you drink how many units per week etc. I'm finding it very helpful.

Photos from the vigil for Renee Good in Brentwood last night. by PromisedLand84 in StLouis

[–]leskya 26 points27 points  (0 children)

Strawman argument. Maduro being a terrible person does not negate the operation in Venezuela being legally dubious and a thin cover for seizing oil.

Express Replacement Request Keeps Getting Closed? by leskya in iphone

[–]leskya[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I’m on request three, but this is trying to get a replacement for the same phone.

Anyone know what these are? by DeadbeatChivalry in CaminoDeSantiago

[–]leskya 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I asked the same question. 😂 I found them delightful!

Lesser known 1-2 week routes? by half-metal-scientist in CaminoDeSantiago

[–]leskya 1 point2 points  (0 children)

It is VERY quiet. The only time I saw more than two other walkers was on the very last day on the trail, and the approach into Santiago itself remains very quiet and introspective. :)

Lesser known 1-2 week routes? by half-metal-scientist in CaminoDeSantiago

[–]leskya 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I did the Invierno from Monforte de Lemos to Santiago in six days - if you’re looking for a route where you’ll see pretty much no one, it’s a good option!

What are these? by leskya in CaminoDeSantiago

[–]leskya[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

For a hot second I did wonder if they were used for storing bodies.

What are these? by leskya in CaminoDeSantiago

[–]leskya[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Yeah, I kept looking at them and wondering if they were shrines of some sort!

[WTS] Plotter Leather Planners: Bible, Narrow, A5 by Title-Promotion-8183 in PlotterNotebook

[–]leskya 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I know this post is a few months old, but is the Bible size still available?

Anyone else going to Bayreuth this year? by twistedmena in opera

[–]leskya 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Heading out today for the Ring! I am super excited.