Introduction Post

[petra]

If you're joining us, please comment with:
1. Your name (your pronouns)
2. Experience with being stuck inside: newbie, been not around the block a few times, Grizzled Veteran of the Indoors Wars
3. Self-soothing: Favorite way to self-soothe at the moment
4. I hope: What you hope this community can do for you
5. I can offer: What you are bringing to the party

For example:
Petra (she/her)
Been not around the block a few times
Self-soothing: reading long fanfiction & Stardew Valley
I hope: I want to add structure and enjoyment to my days of being stuck inside, and bring the same benefits to other people
I can offer: an open, sympathetic mind and suggestions of ways to cope, e. g. "connect with new people on the internet for new perspectives"

Comments

[petra]

Large, real-time online social events don't sound like my idea of a good time either. All the stress of People, right in your own home.

Have you read anything good recently?

[desireearmfeldt]

Apart from the romance novel I'm reading for an online waiting community's book group -- which I'm not enjoying much but am kind enjoying talking about the writing of -- I just finished The Red Garden, by Alice Hoffman, and A Study In Scarlet Wonen,by Sherry Thomas. I enjoyed both of those.

The Red Garden is a series of linked magical realism short stories, all taking place in the same town over several centuries. I read it because I just played a live-roleplaying game based on it, so that context got me thinking some interesting things about adaptation.

I liked the Lady Sherlock book enough to want to continue reading the series, but I'm not sure all of the clues/information/plot actually make sense. Also the author makes the off choice to spend a large proportion of pages on the police detective who is boots on the ground for solving the main mystery while Holmes is off screen. I think I would have structured the book differently if I were writing it.

How about you?

[petra]

I recently devoured Ada Palmer's Terra Ignota series (three of four planned books published) and enjoyed the hell out of it. The worldbuilding is masterful and intricate, the storytelling goes wild and wacky places, and it does fascinating things with identity.

Other than that I've mostly been reading fanfiction.

[desireearmfeldt]

Oh, I read those maybe last year? I enjoyed them but ended up feeling like they morphed into a somewhat different thing than they started out as. Which I guess I often end up feeling about books that start with a heavy focus on the reader (and often the viewpoint character) figuring out What's Going On. Once the initial big mystery is revealed, anything that follows necessarily has a different feel. I had the same reaction to NK Jemison's Broken Earth trilogy.

[petra]

Yeah, once the curtain gets pulled aside the story changes significantly, but I liked where it went and the way it went there well enough that I didn't mind.

On my to reread in case of emergency list: Discworld.

[desireearmfeldt]

...and there's quite a lot of Discworld to keep you occupied!

[minoanmiss]

Your username made me start humming. :)

[desireearmfeldt]

Just call me 'the decrepit Desiree.'

(Amusingly, I have played Mme Armfeldt on the stage, but not Desiree Armfeldt...though hopeful fantasy springs eternal!)

[minoanmiss]

But were you hopelessly shattered by Saturday night? :D

I kind of love that you got to play her Mom Of Opinionated Old-Ladyness. One day you'll get to play her, I'm sure!

[desireearmfeldt]

Mme. Armfeldt was great fun to play! "Bear that in mind child, as you chomp so recklessly into that gingersnap!"

Maybe my goal should be to age backwards through the roles, passing through Desiree and Petra and Anne to wind up playing Fredrika at 60!

[petra]

I would watch this take on A Little Night Music.

[desireearmfeldt]

Someone in my theatre group was working a while ago on a proposal for an age-reversed Romeo & Juliet, which sounded interesting. (I'm not sure what happened to it...possibly the proposer got too busy with life and parenting to pursue it.)

[jesse_the_k]

R&J as retired oldsters? I don't get it.

[desireearmfeldt]

If I remember correctly, the idea was that R&J would be seniors at the point where they were in the care of their grown children. But it's been a while and the details are fuzzy in my mind.

[petra]

I can see why someone would be interested in a lightning romance between seniors who have decided they no longer need to know better. And having a fresh young nurse in scrubs would fit beautifully. Lady Capulet etc. would be R&J's children, I take it?

[desireearmfeldt]

Yes, and I think the idea may have been the grown children wondering if their elderly parents were in their right minds etc., but my memory of the details is hazy.

[petra]

Not Enough. But plenty.

[via_ostiense]

A Study in Scarlet Women is fun! I enjoyed Charlotte's devotion to her sisters, and her relationship with Mrs. Watson. It's a refreshing variation on the "Holmes is a complete misanthrope" characterization.

[desireearmfeldt]

I liked her as a character!

(I actually think the "Holmes is a complete misanthrope and/or can't function socially" characterizations stray pretty far from ACD canon -- which is, to be sure, not terribly consistent.)

[desireearmfeldt]

I also enjoyed the idea that seemed to be emerging of "Sherlock Holmes" being created by committee, with Holmes's ACD-canonical abilities spread out over several characters: the disguise and knowledge of accents being contributed by Mrs. Watson, the Mycroft analogue being Ingram's brother -- and for that matter, Watson's job as the writer of the fictionalized episodes being covered by Livia rather than by Mrs. Watson. I expect that's the author being deliberately subversive about community vs individualism/individual-heroism. :)