#2 - Saki Mafundikwa, Afrikan Alphabets

[waelisc.livejournal.com]

This is nonfiction; the full title is Afrikan Alphabets: The Story of Writing in Afrika.

Saki Mafundikwa is a Zimbabwean graphic designer and started ZIVA, the Zimbabwe Institute of Vigital Arts. About 20 years ago he became interested in the diverse writing systems developed in various African cultures, and started collecting info on them during his travels.

The topic is really broader than alphabets per se. The author explains in the beginning that he's going to use "alphabet" as an umbrella term to include alphabets, syllabaries, pictographs, ideographs, and written symbols in general. A linguist would probably cringe at lumping those all together, but honestly, African Writing Systems sounds dry and academic compared to Afrikan Alphabets and he does want people who aren't linguists to get interested in the topic.

There's lots of beautiful artwork, and the section on Bantu symbol writing was probably the most interesting of all because the meaning of each symbol was explained. Unfortunately, many of the other writing systems were just pages and pages of symbols without any explanation of how they were developed.

For some of the pictographic and ideographic systems this was baffling, because over time the symbols become very stylized and you can't tell if the symbol now identified as 'dou' started as a tree or a warrior with a shield or a field of maize or what. It's just pretty. Since the author is a visual artist, I guess he was more focused on appreciating the symbols for their aesthetic qualities more than I was.

So I found this book both moving and frustrating. Mafundikwa is passionate and eloquent about African people reclaiming traditional cultures and his desire to see a revitalization of writing systems developed in Africa, for African languages, by native speakers of those languages.

But I was frustrated that the book wasn't so much "the story of writing in Afrika" as "a scrapbook about Afrikan writing," and there were so many points where I wanted to know more. So, now I'm interested to find a book about African language & writing by someone with more of a linguistics background. And hopefully also a PoC.

#9: Private Arrangements by Sherry Thomas

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

With the main story set in 1893, Gigi Rowland and Camden Saybrook have been married for ten years. Society regards their marriage as courteous because they neither fight nor act too fond of each other. They’ve also been living on separate continents since the day after their wedding, for reasons known only to them.

Gigi, however, is through with that, and wants a divorce from Camden so that she can marry Freddie, a sweet but somewhat dense artist. He reminds me of a puppy, which I suspect is why Gigi liked him in the first place. Camden returns to England and agrees, on the condition that she agree to stay married for a year, during which time, they will try to produce and heir.

So, uhm, I hate this plot. Some of the most horrendous “alpha male who needs a restraining order” romance novels I’ve read over the years have had this plot, and in every one, it’s seemed to involve some poor woman forgiving the bastard for his horrible behavior due to good sex and angsty past (usually, he’s also been whoring his way through the world while she’s either been chastely wasting away at home, or dying of guilt due to one indiscretion), or getting blamed because of someone else’s manipulations. Thomas was recced to me by very reliable sources, and I thought it had to be the wrong author when I found the book at the bookstore. I was assured that it wasn’t what it seemed to be, and was actually pretty good, so I timidly went back and got it.

Thankfully, the reliable sources were right. The incident that drove them apart was actually Gigi’s fault, something that actually took me a while to get used to, as it defied every genre precedent I’ve encountered. And it wasn’t some Big Misunderstanding, but a terrible mistake that escalated, and the way things play out paints Camden in just as bad a light, and the outcome is as much his fault as Gigi’s. In fact, Thomas seems to be very aware of the inherent problems of this type of story, and strives to keep Gigi and Camden as close to equals as she possibly can at all stages, including their lives in the ten years they were separated.

( cut for length )

Mindscape, Andrea Hairston

[rydra_wong]

OMFG I LOVE THIS BOOK READ THIS BOOK NOW.

Um.

Okay.

You know what it was like when you read early Delany for the first time? Babel-17 and Nova, all multi-faceted dazzle and chutzpah, gorgeous outrageous sf opera?

Like that.

It's dense in a very Delany-esque manner -- the opening will leave you drowning in characters and backstory, struggling to keep track of who's who and what's what and Barrier and Vermittler and Extras and Los Santos and New Ougadougou and ethnic throwbacks and Tadeshi Mifune and gene-art and Paradigma and fire-ants and OMGWTFSENTIENTHAIR.

Refer to the cast list in the back of the book, fasten your seatbelt, and make sure that your tray-table has been put away and your seat is in the upright position. It will all make sense. Eventually. Probably.

After a first read, I'm still trying to disentangle who was double-crossing who, and (also as with Delany) I'm not entirely sure the plot logic would all stand up to close examination (OMG DOLPHINS ALIEN SPACESHIP WTF).

But the glory is in the sheer richness of invention, the skill with which Hairston wrangles the huge cast (all three-dimensional, flawed, vulnerable and surprising -- Hairston handles her characters with a generosity that I found very moving), and the luscious and complex things it has to say about ethnicity, identity, the past, and survival.

Also I want to steal the line "You can't blame multiple personality disorder for aesthetic choices" and find opportunities to use it in conversation.

Soul Song; A Dream of Stone and Shadow, by Marjorie Liu. 11, 12.

[rachelmanija.livejournal.com]

I report with sorrow that I have now finished all of Liu's Dirk & Steel series, and can't read any more till her new one coms out. Apparently that one's about a dragon prince! Too bad, I was hoping for one about Eddie, that little angst-muffin.

These two books, the first a stand-alone and the second a novella in the book Dark Dreamers edited by Christine Feehan, make an unintentionally good paired reading set. Both are about a non- or part-human man enchanted and enslaved by a witch, and rescued by a bi- or multi-racial human woman.

I loved "A Dream of Stone and Shadow." It might be my favorite Dirk & Steel yet. The short length kept the focus clean. D&S agent Aggie is a bad-ass pre-cog who rescues children from sexual abuse. She is contacted by a gargoyle who is imprisoned by a witch, along with his three brothers who have been turned to stone, and can only escape into the astral plane when the witch cuts out his heart and eats it with a nice Chianti. He and Aggie bond, rescue a little girl, and have psychic orgasms. Amiri guest-stars. And it's even more awesome than it sounds!

Dark and gruesome as a fairy tale, it's also full of black humor and action. Aggie is excellently tough and sweet, the gargoyle is charming, and while the finale was a borderline nonsensical deus ex machina, I didn't even care.

Click here to buy it from Amazon: Dark Dreamers

I knew Soul Song was "the one with the merman" but for some reason I thought that meant the hero was amphibious and/or could turn into a dolphin. No, he's a merman with the traditional fish tail! He's the abused slave of a witch who forces him to work as a prostitute and assassin, and who is ordered to kill Kit Bell, a biracial violinist who can see when people are about to die. There are bad cops, a vampire, a society of merpeople whose bones are too soft for them to live on land, and cameos by assorted D&S agents.

I liked Kit a lot. Alas, M'Cal, the merman, has lots of angst but little personality. There's a lot of running around and a storm at sea, but to little purpose. Enjoyable but not one of Liu's better works. Though it did have one truly excellent moment...

( Read more... )

Hello!

[marykaykare.livejournal.com]

I just saw a mention of the community in kate_nepveu's journal. The idea intrigues me and I think I'll join in. I read lots of stuff and I'm not always sure when it's by POC so that will get me to be more aware of what I'm doing. Or not doing.

Anyway, hi everybody.

McWhorter, Our Magnificent Bastard Tongue; Buckell, Sly Mongoose (#1-2)

[kate_nepveu]

My first two books for the challenge. Unlike some, I am going to count books I "was going to read anyway," partly because the challenge might prompt me to pick books up sooner—and given my to-be-read bookcase, that's no small thing—and partly because I want to see what the overall distribution looks like at the end of the calendar year. All of these are crossposted from my booklog, with links to the original posts at the end of the review.

First, John McWhorter, Our Magnificent Bastard Tongue: The Untold History of English, a non-fiction popular-level linguistics work:

( review )

Second, Tobias S. Buckell, Sly Mongoose, an SF novel:

( review )