(Peeks in) Hello?

[foxinthestars]

So, I've been away from DW for a long time. My last post was, wow, three and a half years ago. But lately I've been feeling like I want to come back.

In the meantime I'd largely moved to Facebook, since that's where I keep up with my RL friends (mostly my SCA shire and kingdom right now), but the atmosphere there is way different of course, and I was getting back in the mood to ramble about fannish things and just ramble in a more DW-esque way generally, so I guess here I am?

Right now I'm obsessing about Ascendance of a Bookworm -- hereinafter "Honzuki" (new anime season countdown, woo!) -- and yet again trying to get back to studying my Japanese. Conveniently, Honzuki's publisher, TO Books, puts their Japanese edition ebooks on American Amazon, including novels, manga, and the novels in a "Junior" edition with furigana (pronunciation glosses) on everything. They also offer the same options with Weakest Tamer and Tearmoon, and I've been enjoying the former for that reason; it lacks Honzuki's "OMG this is the best thing EVER!" valence, but it's fun. I did enjoy the anime of Tearmoon back when, but I don't feel like going back to that one.

There's other stuff going on, not all of which I want to put in a public post, but that seems like enough for now.

Um, hello again?

Comments

[princessofgeeks]

*waves*

Hello!

[ysabetwordsmith]

>> So, I've been away from DW for a long time. <<

Welcome back! Here is my info for new users, which may help you find currently active parts of Dreamwidth:

newcomers has lots of resources about how to use Dreamwidth and where to find things you'll enjoy here. If you're coming from Tumblr, soc_puppet has posted tutorials for that angle. Find your Tumblr friends here.

The Follow Friday Master Post has lists of active communities by topic where you can look for some based on your interests, including some of the Most Useful Communities. Many bloggers use recurring posts to pin down their key interests and maintain activity, which is also a good source of inspiration if you aren't sure what you want to post yet.

This month's big event is marchmetamatterschallenge for archiving or writing new meta such as reviews, canon overviews, or fanifestos.

>> ramble about fannish things <<

You might check out some Fandom communities. goals_on_dw has a signup post for Fannish 50.

Re: Hello!

[foxinthestars]

Thanks! This looks helpful!

(And I already loaded up some fresh icons.)

Re: Hello!

[ysabetwordsmith]

I'm happy I could help!

Keep an eye out for events; some of them have icons too.

[lorata]

*waves*!

[schneefink]

Hi!

I heard about "Ascendance of a Bookworm" in passing, would be interested in reading a pitch if you feel like it :)

[foxinthestars]

Boiling it down to a pitch is a challenge, but I'll give it a try.

It's an extensively thought-out and worldbuilt isekai where a book-obsessed young woman finds herself in the body of a poor, sickly commoner child in a Renaissance-Europe-esque fantasy world. In this world, for poor commoners, books are unobtainable, so she sets out to make them herself, but she can't do it alone. Her quest leads her into relationships with a wide cast of well-realized characters (including loads of good female characters) and results in her "Ascendance" through the world's usually-rigid class system from poor commoner to wealthy merchant to magic-wielding noble, although her past-life experience creates problems as well as opportunities. And along the way, bit by bit, she learns that some things in life are more important than books (not many things, but some).

Of course as a nerd I find the bookworm heroine fun and relatable (she's also somewhat crafty --- she accidentally revolutionizes the fashion world with crochet), and I feel like the balance of drama and humor is good. Themes that stand out to me are people trying to understand each other across different experiences and frames of reference, the importance of human connection and family, the power of education, and working to navigate and improve an unjust social system when you can't just flip the table over. In terms of a story's themes, I've found it interesting lately to consider what makes the bad guys the bad guys, and in Honzuki, the answer is pretty much "they're callous entitled snobs" (who don't even start appearing until the end of part 1, BTW).

Things to be warned about: The society she ends up in tends to be rigid and conservative, which among other things leaves LGBT representation effectively nonexistent. Multiple instances of child abuse, status-based abuse, and sexual exploitation. Age gap romances are sometimes a thing, although in the cases I can think of the younger party has their share of power in the relationship.

The anime currently has about 36 episodes covering parts 1 and 2 (out of 5). The new season starting in April is set to cover part 3, which is where noble society and magic come fully into play. There are also manga adaptations of parts 1 and 2, plus ongoing partial manga of parts 3 and 4, if you want to get a sense of it faster than reading dozens of light novel volumes.

[schneefink]

I've found it interesting lately to consider what makes the bad guys the bad guys, and in Honzuki, the answer is pretty much "they're callous entitled snobs"
reasonable answer imo.

Thank you! I put it on my (too long) list of things to check out one day :)