Chiming the time when you came to my room

[sovay]

So my vacation ended and it feels appallingly apt that immediately on returning to the Boston area I had to see a doctor I hadn't planned (and have to call another doctor tomorrow) and other than watching the latest episode of Chernobyl (2019) my day was otherwise devoted to my paying job. There were some fireworks over the Mystic, their highest explosions just barely visible through our skyline of roofs and trees. Happy Memorial Day.

And then I wrote more than a thousand words of fiction. For the first time in five months. On a project I desperately want to finish because once it is out of my head I will have more room for other things, I hope. Also I enjoy it.

Not a joke: I need more vacations.

Comments

[swan_tower]

I just watched the fourth episode and am riveted -- but I told my husband he shouldn't watch it, due to a recurrent thread in the fourth ep (if you've seen that one yet you'll probably know what I mean). We studied the Chernobyl disaster in some depth during my AP Physics class in high school, so I'm already generally conversant with the technical aspects of what happened before and after the explosion, but the political side was (unsurprisingly) left out; watching things like "we must stop the spread of misinformation" and the extended denial that it couldn't possibly have exploded is horrifying in its own way. I switched to Chernobyl after noping out of the first episode of Folklore -- which also seemed well-done, but way too much horror for my taste, especially when I was watching it alone at home late at night -- and after watching most of the Gunpowder miniseries earlier in the evening; when that was done, I wound up staying up too late and watching an ep of Gentleman Jack just to leave my mental palate with a taste that wasn't totally depressing.

I particularly love the way Legasov and Shcherbina have bonded. You're all set for the apparatchik to be an obstructionist asshole who thinks he understands enough, but all it takes is one look at the real scope of the situation and he sells his property on the banks of that river in Egypt.

[sovay]

(if you've seen that one yet you'll probably know what I mean).

Cats are harder on me than dogs, but, yes.

(I didn't watch the fourth episode until tonight, due to having to work my face off this week.)

I particularly love the way Legasov and Shcherbina have bonded.

"Valery, what's that? A smile?"

You're all set for the apparatchik to be an obstructionist asshole who thinks he understands enough, but all it takes is one look at the real scope of the situation and he sells his property on the banks of that river in Egypt.

Yes. I loved that. Precisely because it isn't what's expected, especially of bureaucrats in a science-oriented narrative, but it's how people sometimes surprise you.

Talk to me about Gentleman Jack?

[swan_tower]

Gentleman Jack is based on the life of Anne Lister, whom I hadn't heard about before recently, owing to the way the Onyx Court series skipped over the early nineteenth century. :-P Late Georgian lesbian in a sense of the word that wouldn't be out of place today, who carried out a lot of business dealings in a way women didn't normally do.

I find it an interesting show in part because it's willing to let Anne not be sympathetic all the time. She's a really interesting woman, but she's also manipulative, brusque, and howlingly inconsiderate of her sister. It's a type of narrative freedom female characters still don't receive very often.

[sovay]

She's a really interesting woman, but she's also manipulative, brusque, and howlingly inconsiderate of her sister. It's a type of narrative freedom female characters still don't receive very often.

Nice! I enjoy that as a feature of storytelling even when I want to throw things at the characters in question.

I knew about Anne Lister (I may in fact have learned about her from O'Hooley & Tidow's "Gentleman Jack"), and I knew of the existence of the series, but you are the first person I can ask personally for an opinion, so I appreciate it.

[swan_tower]

I enjoy that as a feature of storytelling even when I want to throw things at the characters in question.

I suspect you'll also like the actress who plays Lister; she has the kind of face you tend to find interesting.

I knew about Anne Lister

I'm not surprised.

[sovay]

I suspect you'll also like the actress who plays Lister; she has the kind of face you tend to find interesting.

Legit.