Read-in-Progress Wednesday

[geraineon]

This is your weekly read-in-progress post for you to talk about what you're currently reading and reactions and feelings (if any)!

For spoilers:

<details><summary>insert summary</summary>Your spoilers goes here</details>

<b>Highlight for spoilers!*</b><span style="background-color: #FFFFFF; color: #FFFFFF">Your spoilers goes here.</span>*

Comments

[geraineon]

I am still neck deep in Love and Deepspace, which half counts... Probably going to replay the main story, now with added knowledge of lore, because there is some timeline shenanigans going on here.

Additionally, I read the article douqi shared regarding incest in danmei (see pinned resource post! it's been uploaded into the shared drive). If people are interested, we can also do journal article discussions on here? idk.

[dayadhvam_triad]

ooh thanks for the shared drive reminder & for uploading it!

[geraineon]

<3

[forestofglory]

A while ago a friend was posting about Mongols a lot so I started Commodity and Exchange in the Mongol Empire: A Cultural History of Islamic Textiles by Thomas T. Allsen. I really should get back to that, it's interesting and not very long

[aurumcalendula]

That sounds really interesting!

[forestofglory]

It is interesting, but I've been busy lately and haven't had the focus for it. Soon hopefully!

[geraineon]

That sounds like a really interesting paper!

[ehyde]

Taking a break from cnovels this week, I'm finally reading This is How You Lose the Time War which is lovely, if not quiiiite living up to last year's twitter hype so far (but I'm less than halfway through).

[aurumcalendula]

I really enjoyed it, but I suspect I might've felt a bit let down if I'd first read it post twitter type instead of a few years before.

[geraineon]

<3

I both want to read that novel and not want to read that novel because I feel like it won't live up to the hype... maybe in another few years.

[larryhammer]

I've been too distracted by adulting to continue, but this weekend I got a dozen chapters into Transmigrator Meets Reincarnator, which has been fun so far.

[geraineon]

Adulting does take up a lot of time! Glad you got some reading in.

[dayadhvam_triad]

I came across this journal article, a comparative review of 3K Workers and 穿进赛博游戏后干掉BOSS成功上位 (After Transmigrating into the Cyber Game, I Defeated the Boss and Successfully Rose to the Top @ novelupdates), which discusses the evolution in depiction of female characters' moral norms within a yanqing context from Qiong Yao to Legend of Zhen Huan etc. and how these two novels, while nominally yanqing, have protags reconstructing moral norms within narratives that are essentially divorced from romance. It doesn't address baihe at all, and I can't say I agree with everything the author's saying (I haven't read that widely in the relevant genres), but it's interesting food for thought!

Read some stories that ranged from "meh ok forgettable" to "hilarious black comedy BUT with a glaring issue that totally ruined the 2nd half" /SIGH; I've also been reading bits and pieces of 世说新语/A New Account of Tales of the World in the original CN vs. EN tl... for ficcing purposes XD

[geraineon]

Oooh, /eyes emoji/

That is an interesting article. What would you say are your biggest disagreements with them, and is it quite different from your experience reading baihe?

[dayadhvam_triad]

Re: baihe, it feels like the article doesn't consider its existence period. It discusses the expansion of webnovel female protag characterization from kind/good to cruel/ruthless and Strong Female Character and how this ties to feminism in what comes off as a very heteronormative framing (what kind of behavior the protag does to get love [from a man] or refuse expectations to receive love [from a man, the negation thereof], hello "vicious female supporting role" and its subversion, mixing love narratives and moral narratives, ad nauseam). When the author gets to 穿进赛博游戏后干掉BOSS成功上位 and 3K Workers, they talk about how the protags don't conform to or negatively react to moral norms formed for women vs. men in a patriarchal environment, but bypass that (heteronormatively framed) matter altogether by nature of the problem/conflict they focus on. And it's no coincidence that both stories are marked yanqing but have very background romance.

Though I haven't read much baihe, I've osmosed that some stories assume different societal norms (e.g. gender equality in a historical setting), so that's another approach—ignored by the article—where the writer changes the norms of the setting upfront. But even in non-historical settings, I don't know if the article writer could easily map the dynamics they discuss onto baihe stories. (I mention historical vs. non-historical only b/c my current cmedia consumption falls almost entirely under the former category.)

Specific disagreement—the author talks about how Lu Xuanyu in 3K Workers is the physical incarnation of a self-created DnD character and is thus a posthumanist metaphor through which readers can project themselves. I felt a very vehement NO! in my soul when I read that. XD While I love that LXY is very "normal" (in her initial attitude) compared to the typical historical transmigration story protagonist imo, I never once felt that she's the kind of character who can serve as a pseudo-self-insert. Just, no?!?!?

[geraineon]

Thanks for sharing your thoughts about this paper! Reading your impressions, it does sound like the article is a little lacking in breadth. Lost opportunities!

... self created DND character seems like a super specific comment from the author! Huh. I'd expect self-insert characters to be bland or a bit more "blank-slate" but what I've heard of 3K Workers does not feel like that?

[dayadhvam_triad]

To be fair, "self-created DnD character" is accurate LOL. When LXY comes to the Three Kingdoms era, her body is that of her own DnD (Pathfinder) character which she created for a tabletop RPG group—the DM even comments caustically on its annoyingly long name and super-low charisma stat (novel author put up a character sheet for funsies). But yeah she's very much a distinctive character, not a blank-slate self-insert. Feels like an example of "why were the curtains blue?" where the meaning read into it by the article author doesn't hold up imo.

[liliacs]

Still reading and enjoying To Embers We Return! I've reached most of the important characters by now, all of whom seem fun so far.

[geraineon]

<3 what chapter are you at now?

[liliacs]

Chapter 26! I've still been busy recently so haven't been getting as much reading done as I wish.

[duckprintspress]

No c-novels for me this week... and considering my mom just bought me a bunch of the English translation of Solo Leveling, probably not for several weeks to come lmao.

[geraineon]

Solo-levelling is still on ongoing series right? Manhwa?

[duckprintspress]

the manhwa is finished! it's not all officially published in English tho.

[lessonsinescapology]

I keep trying to read BG novels but fail to find one that I really like. Why are they so full of melodrama and bad tropes? *sighs*

[geraineon]

Haha, idk. Melodrama sells, I guess?

I like a good melodrama myself, but I'm quite picky about the flavour XD

[lessonsinescapology]

It must sell judging from how prevalent it is in these novels^^

[neigette]

Ooh, chinese BG novels or just in general? There were a few I enjoyed for the angst, but I guess they can be a bit melodramatic too

[lessonsinescapology]

Hi! I'm reading Chinese BG novels and even the ones by authors with a good reputation/popularity have this melodrama issue. Overuse of tropes. Supporting cast of female characters are all jealous or stupid. Etc.

The obvious conclusion must be it is the norms of this genre and that readers prefer it this way.

[neigette]

Hmm yeah, that's quite common but it might also have to do with when the books were written. At least, most of the ones I've read are quite old.

I personally really liked 三生，忘川无殇, 少年的你，如此美丽 (original novel for Better Days, the movie), and 你如北京美丽 (which has a drama adaptation now but I didn't watch). It's been a while since I've read them but I don't think they have as many annoying tropes, although there is definitely angst, which I enjoy.

[lessonsinescapology]

I don't know when the novels were written to be able to judge that. But I read what people have recommended as well-known or popular BG novels and those that were adapted to Cdramas. The genre conventions remind of 70s/80s shoujo manga.

Of course I'm mainly a danmei reader so the gap is wide for me.