Books, part NEARLY THE END
Aug. 5th, 2008 02:37 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
petroniaMy sister got Touching from a Distance for me from England, along with Bound Together and that book by Jacqueline "And To Think We Worried About The Cross-Dressing" Doherty (I'd forgotten to list those - they don't qualify as recreational reads in my mind ^_^;). Speaking of thematic pairs, the latter and Deborah Curtis's memoir are pretty similar, in that they're about conventional, family-oriented, and likeable women who're cut out of their loved ones' lives and tragedies through no fault of their own, other than (perhaps) failure of imagination. The strength of both books is that the perspectives on offer fill in some information gaps in the official (read: white male rock canon) storyline. The weakness of both books is that there aren't revelatory insights, as the narrators didn't have a fucking clue what was going on at the time and don't understand it now. XD; Hindsight is always 20/20 but you want to apply the metaphorical bat to the head all the same: "Your husband was cheating on you! The other guys in the band are not 'nice kids' they are 'dickheads'!! Did you NOT NOTICE when your son dropped out of school and eloped with your daughter's ex-boyfriend!!!"
The other strength of both books is that the stuff about the women's self-realization makes up somewhat for the rest. Sororial unit is not at the stage in life where she can equably read a book about someone's mum but I am, I guess. As for Bound Together I'll say only that 1) the coffee-table format is Japan-esque in a pleasing way, and 2) a fandom has few spices as savoury as the sense that there is after all a Man oppressing one's Troo and Sekrit Knowledge with heteronormative whitewashing and general sins of omission. XD
I do think the potential impact of Touching from a Distance is muffled in my case as Ian Curtis's myth doesn't resonate... whatever that means. I love Joy Division, though their albums aren't for all occasions; I think Ian Curtis was a talented and earnest young songwriter who had a lot of presence as a frontman. He was also epileptic, suicidally depressive, and emotionally isolated, which led to him offing himself. I don't find any of that last bit conducive to mythologizing. Can't even see how it could be to others.
Next when I have time: fandom catch-up. XD; Supposed to read some more Ravages of Time, and that JoJo novel. (Is anyone up to date with SBR?) Maybe some CLAMP. Not reading Victory of Eagles until it's out in mass paperback, probably. Should blog about RL for record-keeping purposes but that's unlikely to happen while RL is still stressful. XD;
The other strength of both books is that the stuff about the women's self-realization makes up somewhat for the rest. Sororial unit is not at the stage in life where she can equably read a book about someone's mum but I am, I guess. As for Bound Together I'll say only that 1) the coffee-table format is Japan-esque in a pleasing way, and 2) a fandom has few spices as savoury as the sense that there is after all a Man oppressing one's Troo and Sekrit Knowledge with heteronormative whitewashing and general sins of omission. XD
I do think the potential impact of Touching from a Distance is muffled in my case as Ian Curtis's myth doesn't resonate... whatever that means. I love Joy Division, though their albums aren't for all occasions; I think Ian Curtis was a talented and earnest young songwriter who had a lot of presence as a frontman. He was also epileptic, suicidally depressive, and emotionally isolated, which led to him offing himself. I don't find any of that last bit conducive to mythologizing. Can't even see how it could be to others.
Next when I have time: fandom catch-up. XD; Supposed to read some more Ravages of Time, and that JoJo novel. (Is anyone up to date with SBR?) Maybe some CLAMP. Not reading Victory of Eagles until it's out in mass paperback, probably. Should blog about RL for record-keeping purposes but that's unlikely to happen while RL is still stressful. XD;
