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:

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Comments

[geraineon]

Just been rereading things and watching a lot of dramas (I started on the Side Story of Fox Volant... let's see if I make it further than any other attempts with all other adaptations because I get really annoyed with the main character).

[anne]

Jun You Ji Fou/Art Thou Ailing, in order to see if I want the Rosmei edition. Alas, I do! Sorry, budget!

[dayadhvam_triad]

Keeping up with 穿越成宋徽宗公主, which just finished an arc involving internal rebellion and an attempt to clean out some military corruption during a lull in external conflict (the Jin-Song wars), and I saw a few readers worrying that the depiction of the uprising would draw censor hammer attention, esp. as the comments got quite heated at times. It's not like novels haven't covered rebellions before??? esp. when it's so clearly delineated as pre-20th-century history... maybe some opaque ref to 20th-century stuff flew over my head idk.

(speaking of censorship—very :o to see the NYT cover the Haitang writers' arrests & prosecutions that have been happening since last year. :( BBC had an article too but that one's more trashwrong)

I'm also following 穿着龙袍穿越了!, about a guy dressed in emperor cosplay who timetravels to the late Eastern Han right when things are going belly up. This story's more lulzy entertaining with the protag doing his very best to fake it as the "real" emperor vs. the other two options, though one's already gaslighted himself out of the running (self-PUAed per cnet lmao)

last but not least I gotta note the ~1-year mark since I started reading 3K Workers and consequently fell down a deep, deep, deep hole ahahaha :') it spurred me to actually get a JJWXC account and spoiled me for other stories in the genre orz

[forestofglory]

I read the intro to a book of translated Ming dynasty plays about the Generals of the Yang Family -- but then I didn't actually read any of the plays. Partly because the intro suggests that there aren't many women in these plays even though later adaptions do feature lots of women. But I still might read them at some point

[headstone]

Continuing down the home stretch of Remnants of Filth, which I expect to finish in the next day or two since I have some time to spare and I've just got the last two volumes to go. It's my impression that the last volume is mainly extras, anyway.

The box of Rosmei preorders I placed in March arrived this week—I might do a little writeup of the books, what the editions are like, the merch they include, etc, and link it to the comm, if it's of interest? I didn't order everything so some will be missing, but I've got a few of them.

[dayadhvam_triad]

I'd be interested in that writeup! curious about Rosmei's editions /eyes

[douqi]

Started xianxia baihe This Cultivator Disgusts Me, which is billed as powerful demonic cultivator/pure saintly orthodox cultivator with some twists. After slogging past the seemingly mandatory opening scene of the demonic cultivator slaughtering her way through the orthodox sects (I have read SO many such beginnings... authors please get a bit more creative I beg), it's getting more entertaining. The saintly female lead has literal plot armour, so every time the demonic cultivator tries to kill her (we're up to Attempt #100 by Chapter 4), the attack bounces back on her with a vengeance: she dies, and the timeline resets.

[douqi]

The main character annoys me so much!! How DARE he not appreciate Cheng Lingsu the way she deserves.

[llonkrebboj]

Cnovel adjacent, I'm continuing to read 诗经讲评之风人深致 alongside Shijing/Book of Songs at a snail's pace, and learning words in traditional and simplified chinese (many are still in use today !!!!). It's slow going because I'm very easily distracted xD

By the TL for this song for example! https://www.tumblr.com/fwoopersongs/787103960535367680
It's also cnovel adjacent because this is the theme for season one of the audiodrama for 默读/Silent Reading by priest. (I have never finished modu xD halfcactus is entirely to blame for this 😂 with their fanvid https://archiveofourown.org/works/66758812)

[halfcactus]

Found out from this comm's free-for-all post that the donghua adaptation of Lord of the Mysteries is finally out so I just watched the first 2 eps. No idea what's happening yet but enough things are happening that I'm entertained in a "reminds me of a videogame" way (ep1 particularly reminds me of Persona 3). The main character is less OP than expected, which is nice - it's a transmigration story but he doesn't seem very familiar with this world or its events. And I love the ending theme Dark Dream, sung by Curley Gao, I've had it on repeat for the past couple of days.

[halfcactus]

LOL the JitD / Modu distractions

[halfcactus]

Ahahahaha the reflect/reset mechanic is really making me imagine a montage of failed assassinations. Do either of them remember?

[halfcactus]

Ah, I was just wondering how your webnovels were doing so I'm pleased to see updates haha. Yike at the comment section, that sounds tense.

A friend screencapped the BBC article for me and yeah, unsurprised with how they wrote it. (Ty for the archive link for the NYT one!)

[llonkrebboj]

!!!!! Just saw some lovely gifs of this go past on tumblr! They tagged it guiyi zhizu so the title connection didn't quite register 🤣 I might check it out and leave the reattempt at watching An Ancient Love Song (Apparently it stuck the landing!) for later.

[hazevi]

I binged Golden Terrace and I'd overall say it was quite a pleasant read and am currently reading the extras! I definitely think there were some points that could have been expanded upon and there was a point in which I thought that Mr. Yan Xiaohan was a little too deep in his love-addled (恋爱脑 lmao) state despite the author saying it too haha. Still cool :3

[dayadhvam_triad]

<3! I haven't been reading as much (put aside 穿越成宋徽宗公主 before catching up in one go), and most of what I've tried hasn't been memorably good or bad... XD; sigh yeah with stories like these they get comments about class vs. gender intersectionality that COULD be promising but easily devolve into simplistic What Matters More /o\

ngl I snorted when the BBC article said readers should think of danmei as "a gay version of Fifty Shades of Grey" come ON pls writer you can do better than that

[dayadhvam_triad]

oooh congrats on finishing the song tl! /saves to look at later I will get around to continuing 默读 one day... ONE DAY...

[dayadhvam_triad]

! A relative recced Lord of the Mysteries to me alongside 穿进赛博游戏后干掉BOSS成功上位 as her top two favorite webnovels. While we have very different genre preferences, I really enjoyed the latter when I finally read it, so I guess it's time to go check out this donghua and give the novel another try~

[llonkrebboj]

Why would Jin-Song history trigger the chapter lock though? There is that be cautious with 'historical nihilism' guideline. But like you said, that only applies to 20th century stuff. 🤷‍♀️

+1 re: snorted 🤣 They could have said explicit novels if they were worried the normie readers wouldn't understand and left it at that.

[dayadhvam_triad]

The story's set during the Jin-Song wars, but this particular arc was focused on a local peasant/soldier uprising which led to discussion about readers' sympathies with them, counterarguments that no this is clearly a case of Animal Farm!, then a few commenters started going "stop STOP don't talk about this anymore I'm afraid it will lead to consequences" and others pushed back with "we are clearly just talking about history wayyyyy in the past, stop trying to draw a link here!" ^^;

[douqi]

The demonic one definitely does, she's super tired of reliving the same day of her life repeatedly. Not sure yet about the other one, we haven't seen things from her POV yet.

[duckprintspress]

I feel this so hard. I really like Golden Terrace but I think the pacing is its biggest flaw, there were things I really wish they'd gone into more depth on. Maybe it's just the war historian in me but I especially wish we got more of their separation as like. on-screen events unfolding.

[lee_bella]

Cyan Wings recced the novel in the author's note for I Just Want To Retire Quietly, which really got me curious about Lord of the Mysteries the novel.

[duckprintspress]

I've been super busy the past week because we're leaving on a family trip this coming Tuesday and so we're trying to get the house all straightened and cleaned, and that's been devouring my free time, but while I haven't been able to read any C-Novels, I do have a question for anyone who sees this:

Which do you think I should bring on our 1-week vacation?
- First two volumes (of 3) of Lip and Sword by Jin Shisi Chai (https://www.goodreads.com/series/359109-lip-and-sword)
- First two volumes (of 7) of Yuwu by Meatbun Doesn't Eat Meat (https://www.novelupdates.com/series/yu-wu/)

[lessonsinescapology]

I watched it too. The animation is gorgeous but this is the studio who made MDZS so it would be disappointing if they didn't do a good job.

The novel is coming out end of July by Yen Press. I have it on pre-order and am looking forward to reading it.