SEAL Book Club

[Bee]

So, uh, has everyone read the texts? Nobody wants to be the first? Would you rather keep discussions to Sundays as originally suggested?

[zatnosk]

So, uh, has everyone read the texts? Nobody wants to be the first? Would you rather keep discussions to Sundays as originally suggested?

I've read the texts (Mulberry and Owl as audio), although haven't found time for the poems yet. I've had a very busy saturday though, so that's my excuse for not having posted anything yet. (Also, I have no idea how bookclub discussions work..?)

[Bee]

So, uh, has everyone read the texts? Nobody wants to be the first? Would you rather keep discussions to Sundays as originally suggested?

I've read the texts (Mulberry and Owl as audio), although haven't found time for the poems yet. I've had a very busy saturday though, so that's my excuse for not having posted anything yet. (Also, I have no idea how bookclub discussions work..?)

no worries! we're not doing anything formal, so you can just talk about what you thought about them, whether you liked or hated anything, that sort of thing

[thiskurt]

So, uh, has everyone read the texts? Nobody wants to be the first? Would you rather keep discussions to Sundays as originally suggested?

Yeah, I read everything, and... I don't know how to start these things?

Ok, well, I think I liked Mulberry and Owl the most of all of them.

Mulberry and Owl

I liked what we got to see of the world of the Dragon Throne empire and whatever Owl was, it was a good backdrop for the story I think, the space empire was familiar enough not to be confusing, but with some unique elements to keep the interest and it helped to serve the story which is not really about rebellion against a space empire and I did want to find out what the reason she actually came there was throughout most of it.

Owl's weapon being a scream and thus also her voice/way to express herself is an interesting notion.

I have a question:

At the end of the story Owl ostensibly lets her go, because it likes suffering and the suffering of Thu because of her guilt and solitude after losing her friend is greater than what simply killing her would be.

But do you think that's true? In the end Thu seemed to come to terms with the guilt if anything. Will she be able to move on do you think? So why did Owl let her go? Was she kind of tricked? Was it a mercy, seems unlikely, because it can relate due to its own solitude? Or is it still partially true even is Thu has made some peace with what happened if not fully?

Six Fictions about Unicorns

Six Fictions... was told in the second person, you don't see that very often. It wasn't jarring or anything, but I'm not sure what we were supposed to get out of using that perspective, I don't think it felt that much more intimate or relatable because of it?

But then I am not a girl with a unicorn.

Except maybe at the end, there the you form might have helped to invoke the vision/idea of an open path through the forest before you.

[InspectorCaracal]

So confession I only just read the stories but I made sure to read them before reading Kurt's impressions.

My thoughts, hmm. I'm just gonna go through them in listed order rather than trying to sort, and I think I'm gonna do them as separate posts instead of all at once.

[InspectorCaracal]

Mulberry and Owl

It was an... interesting? read. I'm not sure how I feel about it in terms of like/dislike, but I thought it was well-crafted and very deliberately written, and the characteristics of the setting were very good, but I had a sense of, not exactly deja-vu through the whole thing, but it felt like treading old ground, somehow.

At the end of the story Owl ostensibly lets her go, because it likes suffering and the suffering of Thu because of her guilt and solitude after losing her friend is greater than what simply killing her would be.

But do you think that's true? In the end Thu seemed to come to terms with the guilt if anything. Will she be able to move on do you think? So why did Owl let her go? Was she kind of tricked? Was it a mercy, seems unlikely, because it can relate due to its own solitude? Or is it still partially true even is Thu has made some peace with what happened if not fully?

Short version: not true! I think the final exchange was deceptively simple, the "let me go and I'll suffer far more than if you kill me" part.

But, I think that's what Thuỷ believed to be the reason why Owl let her go. For Thuỷ's part, I think she had a final deathbed-of-sorts realization that it wasn't all her fault, that it was a series of mistakes on both her and Kim Lan's sides. And that the suggestion of releasing her to live in suffering was a final ploy, because she no longer wanted to die, which was convincing because it was spoken out of the experiences of pain and suffering she had lived through for years to this point.

As for why Owl actually did release her, I think it was because - possibly for the first time in her existence - she formed an emotional connection to someone else, that someone being Thuỷ. Because Owl was lonely, and Thuỷ was lonely, so Owl was suddenly in a position to empathize.

That's not saying I think Owl had a sudden about-face from sadistic sociopath to caring and empathy, but I think that moment of connection and seeing herself, so to speak, in this tiny human, were too much. That's why Owl sounded so hostile at the end.

Also? I think Owl really did think that killing Thuỷ (who Owl was sure, accurately, had wanted to die) was an appropriate favor in exchange for having her scream returned, so she was, in a way, trying to repay her fully by killing her. So deciding not to kill her after all was also, in a way, a continuation of that intent.

[InspectorCaracal]

Six Fictions About Unicorns

All right. I admit. I got about two sentences into this one and I had to stop and stare off into the distance while I fully absorbed the fact that it's been long enough since "tumblr fiction" started being a thing that it's now been accepted into mainstream speculative fiction publications.

I still can't really deal with this but uh. I'll get over it.

Ahem.

I really liked this one, actually. I've always liked a good, uh. tumblr fiction. ahem. By "tumblr fiction" I mean this format, where you follow someone over the progression of time in second person in "steps", each one highlighting an emotional beat in the life of the PoV. (I wrote one myself once.) And this one I think was really good. It held to a single beat for each section, filling in just enough of the details that you could follow the progression.

Aside from that, I think some other reasons I liked it is that I found the first half of it extremely relatable, having grown up poor myself, and the contrast with imagination vs reality without it being presented as a reason why reality is inferior. Harder, but not inferior.

My opinion would probably be really different if it hadn't had the uplifting ending, though. I mean, it gave me some pretty strong The Last Battle of Narnia vibes, so I kind of feel like she rode off on the unicorn into the afterlife, which could be seen as a downer ending, but I thought it was really strong and positive, especially after all the roughness of the rest of her life.

(editing in slightly after the fact)

On a slightly tangential note: I feel like the unicorn is supposed to be a metaphor for something, but I can't put my finger on what. Did anyone else get this impression?

[InspectorCaracal]

I'm gonna bundle both of the poems into this post because, well.

amorous advice for the ocean-oriented

I honestly don't have anything to say about this one. I could see what it was going for and I'm sure it did it well but it just didn't resonate with me at all.

What about y'all? Anyone have any thoughts on this one?

-----

The Captain Flies

I really liked this one, although I don't think I would've appreciated it as much if it hadn't been for the header quote. For one thing, I wouldn't have made the connection to the italicized verses being PT stretches, and I think that connection is somewhat integral to the entire tone of the poem.

I dunno if I can really verbalize what I liked about it. I got a lot of emotion from it, and I really liked the impact of the repeated collapse into ticking, but I can't really explain why.

I also am ashamed to admit that I didn't get the last verse. I think it's referencing something that happens in the original story, or maybe the sequel, but I'm only passing familiar with the story of Peter Pan. (The original book is, I think, still on my TBR list.) If anyone else knows, I'd appreciate some illumination.

[Bee]

Oh, let me start with the poems, then! SFF poetry always stumps me lol

The Captain Flies
I'm really torn on this one. I think it's a powerful poem, but I... don't like the implication that one should feel pity for Captain Hook. It's been so long since I've read or watched Peter Pan, I don't remember enough to judge how solid this interpretation of the character is, but I'm leaning towards not. It feels more like a reimagination, kwim?


amorous advice for the ocean-oriented
Okay so I actually loved this one? Specially the use of dashes, you can read them as emphatic pauses, but I think they're supposed to bring up multiple images simultaneously?

she will be beautiful / monstrous /

material. hair tangles of seaweed,

living / writhing / unwilling to sit

straight on her head, knots shifting /

sailing with every movement on

untenable sea.

And I think it's such an incredibly powerful image, an awe-inspiring, unearthly seductress. You should be terrified of her.

Absolutely fantastic.


Six Fictions About Unicorns
I didn't dislike it but also... it's okay? IDK. I think I get what it means--childhood dreams, personal identity, growing old--but I dunno. It feels a little like chain mail.

[Bee]

The Captain Flies

I really liked this one, although I don't think I would've appreciated it as much if it hadn't been for the header quote. For one thing, I wouldn't have made the connection to the italicized verses being PT stretches, and I think that connection is somewhat integral to the entire tone of the poem.

Oh, so that's what that was about? I really didn't know what to make of those portions.

I'm currently still trying to collect my thoughts on Owl and Mulberry so I'm going to take a break, brb