bronze_ribbons: knife with bronze ribbons (Default)
[personal profile] bronze_ribbons
  • I've cross-posted my April Shousetsu Bang*Bang story to AO3:

    Biddable (5875 words) by ribbons
    Chapters: 1/1
    Fandom: Original Work
    Rating: Explicit
    Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
    Relationships: Original Female Character(s)/Original Female Character(s), woodwind virtuoso/amateur harpsichordist
    Additional Tags: Musicians, Classical Music, Dorm Sex, Asian-American Character, Even shy harpsichordists get horny as all get out
    Series: Part 5 of Being Extra to Nail All the Things
    Summary:

    Lucienne wasn't planning to attend the early music festival auction. But then Iggie Wei yelled out her name from the "Instant Gratification" table.



  • I'll round up my impulse Discord drabbles from the past couple of years at some point, but I did whip up (cough) a short danmei crack (cough) sequence at the start of spring:

    Four Burials and a Beginning (505 words) by ribbons
    Chapters: 1/1
    Fandom: 魔道祖师 - 墨香铜臭 | Módào Zǔshī - Mòxiāng Tóngxiù, 陈情令 | The Untamed (TV)
    Rating: Mature
    Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
    Relationships: Jiang Cheng | Jiang Wanyin/Yu Ziyuan, Jiang Cheng | Jiang Wanyin/Jin Zixuan, Jiang Cheng | Jiang Wanyin/Wen Ning | Wen Qionglin, Jiang Cheng | Jiang Wanyin/Zidian, Jiang Cheng | Jiang Wanyin/Lan Huan | Lan Xichen, Jin Ling | Jin Rulan/Lan Jingyi
    Characters: Jiang Cheng | Jiang Wanyin
    Additional Tags: Sex Pollen, Parent/Child Incest, Suicide, (not of main characters), Fisting, Drabble Sequence, Animate Object, Crack, Half-Baked Dove, (more like 4/5 roasted), Jiang Cheng | Jiang Wanyin-centric, Podfic Available
    Summary:

    Four times Jiang Cheng had sex under duress, and then the start of something different.



  • ... and then, a day later, this shows up in my in-box:

    Four Burials and a Beginning [Podfic] (13 words) by jennisaisquoi
    Chapters: 1/1
    Fandom: 魔道祖师 - 墨香铜臭 | Módào Zǔshī - Mòxiāng Tóngxiù, 陈情令 | The Untamed (TV)
    Rating: Mature
    Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
    Relationships: Jiang Cheng | Jiang Wanyin/Yu Ziyuan, Jiang Cheng | Jiang Wanyin/Jin Zixuan, Jiang Cheng | Jiang Wanyin/Wen Ning | Wen Qionglin, Jiang Cheng | Jiang Wanyin/Zidian, Jiang Cheng | Jiang Wanyin/Lan Huan | Lan Xichen, Jin Ling | Jin Rulan/Lan Jingyi
    Characters: Jiang Cheng | Jiang Wanyin
    Additional Tags: Sex Pollen, Parent/Child Incest, Suicide, (not of main characters), Fisting, Drabble Sequence, Animate Object, Crack, Half-Baked Dove, (more like 4/5 roasted), Jiang Cheng | Jiang Wanyin-centric, Podfic, Podfic Length: 0-10 Minutes, Audio Format: MP3, cold-ish read
    Summary:

    Four times Jiang Cheng had sex under duress, and then the start of something different.



    As other commenters have noted, what's especially fun (and, for me, gratifying) about this podfic is the LMAO clearly coming through in jenni's take.


  • The irrepressible jennisaisquoi also honored me as the giftee for her 5-minute recording of westiec's "An Unlikely Partnership":

    an unlikely partnership | End Racism in the OTW [Podfic] (13 words) by jennisaisquoi
    Chapters: 1/1
    Fandom: 魔道祖师 - 墨香铜臭 | Módào Zǔshī - Mòxiāng Tóngxiù, 陈情令 | The Untamed (TV)
    Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
    Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
    Relationships: Wei Ying | Wei Wuxian & Yu Ziyuan
    Characters: Wei Ying | Wei Wuxian, Yu Ziyuan
    Additional Tags: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Ghosts, Ghost Yu Ziyuan, Canonical Character Death, Body Horror, Wei Wuxian's Revenge Road Trip, Yu Ziyuan Riding Shotgun, Wei Ying | Wei Wuxian is Not Okay, Podfic, Podfic Length: 0-10 Minutes, Audio Format: MP3
    Summary:

    After the Burial Mounds, Wei Wuxian calls on the dead to help him take his revenge. Someone he doesn't expect answers.

    Podfic of an unlikely partnership | End Racism in the OTW by westiec.




  • vinia recorded one of my all-time favorite Proper English-inspired fics, written by milliners, as a gift to me!

    how much the heart can hold [podfic] (16 words) by vinia
    Chapters: 1/1
    Fandom: England Series - K. J. Charles
    Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
    Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
    Relationships: Bill Merton/Jimmy Yoxall
    Additional Tags: Podfic, Podfic Length: 10-20 Minutes, Audio Format: MP3, Audio Format: Streaming, Audio Format: Download, Bill is so bossy, And Jimmy loves him for it, Hashtag Bill Merton Forever
    Summary:

    Bill and Jimmy work out what comes next.



  • And, also in England World (specifically post-Will Darling Adventures), MDZS mainstay kisahawklin found the Yuletide 2021 drabble I'd written for [personal profile] celli and recorded it, with a terrific cover by Rifle:

    [Podfic] Foresight (15 words) by kisahawklin
    Chapters: 1/1
    Fandom: The Will Darling Adventures - K.J. Charles, England Series - K. J. Charles
    Rating: General Audiences
    Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
    Relationships: Will Darling/Kim Secretan
    Characters: Daniel da Silva
    Additional Tags: yumadrin, Yuletide Madness Drabble Invitational, Post-Canon, Make the Yuletide Gay, Podfic, Podfic Length: 0-10 Minutes, Audio Format: MP3, Audio Format: Streaming, Audio Format: Download
    Series: Part 7 of Voiceteam 2025 Drabbles
    Summary:

    "Unfortunately, I have a very good idea of how he’d react if I offered to take him to a tailor." - Kim Secretan, in "How Goes the World?"

    DS anticipates a opportunity.

  • TOS Spotlight: Offensive Content

    Jun. 7th, 2025 05:53 pm
    [syndicated profile] otw_news_feed

    Posted by xeno

    The Policy & Abuse committee (PAC) is responsible for enforcing the AO3 Terms of Service (TOS). To help users better understand the TOS, we’re posting a weekly spotlight series about the TOS and our policies. We’ll also be reading comments and answering questions on this and our other spotlight posts.


    Over 15% of all complaints that PAC receives each year are about content that users consider offensive but does not violate the AO3 Terms of Service. This includes, but is not limited to:

    • Fictional depictions of societally taboo topics, immoral behaviors, or crimes (such as bestiality, child sexual abuse, incest, and rape)
    • Fiction that contains or promotes offensive and/or oppressive viewpoints
    • RPF (real person fiction) that contains explicit content or portrays people in a negative light
    • Explicit fanworks for canons whose creators have said they dislike explicit content

    Offensive fanworks are not against the AO3 Terms of Service, and PAC will not remove fanworks simply for being offensive.

    AO3 is a home for all fanworks

    AO3 operates under the principle of maximum inclusiveness of fanwork content. We will not make moral judgements about a work: if it’s a legal fanwork that does not violate any of our policies, we will not remove it from AO3.

    Don’t report works for being objectionable or offensive. If you wish to avoid certain content when browsing AO3, you can use the tools discussed below.

    Why does AO3 allow fanworks about content that is illegal where I live?

    There is a difference between fictional content about acts that would be illegal if performed in real life, and content that is itself illegal to post or access in a particular jurisdiction.

    AO3’s Terms of Service are designed to comply with United States law (specifically, the laws of Manhattan, New York). It is legal in the U.S. to create and share fictional content about murder, theft, assault, or other such crimes. It is also generally legal in the U.S. to create and share fictional content about topics such as bestiality, child sexual abuse, incest, and rape. AO3 allows users to post and access fiction about all of these topics.

    In accordance with U.S. law, AO3 prohibits sexually explicit photographs, videos, and other photorealistic images of children (also known as Child Sexual Abuse Material, or CSAM). This includes embedded images, links, and any attempts to solicit, distribute, or otherwise obtain or provide access to such material – whether in a work, comment, or anywhere else on AO3.

    However, stories and non-photorealistic artwork (such as drawings or cartoons) that depict sexual activity involving characters under the age of eighteen are allowed, provided that the works are properly rated and warned. Even if the work features real people, fiction about real people is still fiction, and therefore it is allowed on AO3.

    Depending on where you live, the laws that apply to you may be more restrictive than the ones described above. All users are responsible for following the laws that apply to them. If certain content that is allowed on AO3 is illegal for you to access, then you should ensure you carefully observe all relevant ratings and warnings, and use the tools discussed below to avoid accessing any work that indicates it may contain such content.

    What about other explicit or suggestive photorealistic images?

    Photographic or photorealistic images of humans may not be used to illustrate works featuring underage sexual content (regardless of whether the images themselves are explicit in nature). This includes (but is not limited to) photographs of children, porn gifs, photo manipulations, computer-generated or “AI” images, and other linked or embedded images that could potentially be mistaken for photographs of real humans.

    If the work appears to feature underage sexual content (as indicated by the “Underage Sex” Archive warning or other contextual markers present in the work’s tags, notes, or text), then PAC may require all photographic or photorealistic images of humans, regardless of their perceived age, to be removed from the work.

    If your work does not feature underage sexual content, or if the images are not photorealistic, then please read our Terms of Service FAQ: Can I embed explicit images in my fanworks?

    Real Person Fiction (RPF)

    RPF is fiction based on real people. AO3 does not consider RPF works (in and of themselves) to be harassment of the individuals represented in the works. RPF works are allowed on AO3, even if they contain explicit content, negatively portray their subjects, or are about individuals who are minors and/or not well-known.

    However, harassment and doxxing are both prohibited under our Terms of Service. This means that we do not allow works that advocate for actual harm to be done to a real person, nor do we allow works that disclose non-public information about a real person.

    Fiction is generally permitted to include public information such as age, profession, city of residence, media or “stage” names, and publicly known legal names. However, if someone uses a pseudonym that they have not linked to their legal name, you’re not allowed to post content that links the two.

    What if the creator of a canon states that they dislike explicit fanworks or don’t want people to create fanworks based on them or their work?

    Creators are free to dislike fanworks, explicit or otherwise. However, AO3 holds the position that transformative fanworks are legal under United States law, and do not require the original creator’s permission to be posted. If a fanwork does not otherwise violate our Terms of Service, then that fanwork is allowed on AO3.

    I don’t want to see certain kinds of works. How can I avoid them?

    We want all our users to enjoy using AO3, but each user is responsible for their own browsing experience. If you encounter a work that upsets you, please leave the work, and use the following tools to manage your browsing experience and avoid seeing it again.

    Tag exclusion filters

    AO3 has an extensive tagging system. Tags can be used to filter out works when you are browsing a tag or using the work search function.

    As discussed in our post about ratings and warnings, all works containing adult content must be rated “Mature”, “Explicit”, or “Not Rated”. If you don’t want to encounter adult content, you can use filters to exclude all works with these ratings. If you encounter a work rated “General” or “Teen” that has explicit content, you can report it to PAC.

    In addition, all fanworks that contain underage sexual activity, rape/non-consensual sex, graphic violence, or major character death must be labeled with the respective Archive warning or the “Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings” label. Much like ratings, you can use filters to exclude any or all Archive warnings (including “Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings”). If you encounter a work that is missing an Archive warning, you can report it to PAC.

    Creators frequently apply relationship and additional tags to indicate other kinds of warnings or content. All of these tags can also be used to exclude works. When a tag is excluded, any tags that are linked to it as synonyms or subtags will also be excluded. For example, if you exclude the “Child Abuse” tag, works that are tagged with “Canonical Child Abuse“, “Abused Children“, etc., will also be excluded, even though they don’t use the exact tag “child abuse”.

    How to use tag exclusion filters

    To exclude a tag using the filters sidebar:

    1. You can get to any canonical tag’s works page by clicking on a tag, either directly on a work or by using Tag Search.
    2. Open the filters sidebar. On a large screen, it’ll automatically be visible on the right-hand side of the screen. On a small screen, select the “Filters” button to make it appear.
    3. Navigate to the “Exclude” section.
    4. You can expand each tag type to see the most common tags used on works in your search results. If the tag you want to exclude is listed, select the X next to it.
    5. If you’re trying to exclude a Fandom, Character, Relationship, or Additional tag that is not one of the most common tags, type the tag into the “Other tags to exclude” box.
    6. Select the “Sort and Filter” button at the bottom of the sidebar. This will apply the chosen search filters to the list of works you can see, removing any works with the tags you’ve excluded.

    Exclude by keyword search

    In addition to using tags to exclude content, you can exclude a keyword or phrase by inserting a minus sign in front of it in the “Search within results” box. Doing so will mean that any works which contain your keyword or phrase in their metadata will not show up in your results. Metadata includes the title, creator, tags, summary, and beginning and end notes, but it does not include content in the body of the work or individual chapter notes.

    In addition to excluding specific keywords, you can also use this method to avoid works created by a particular user: just type -creators:USERNAME into the search box. You can filter out multiple creators at a time by typing this same command multiple times, separated by commas or spaces (for example, -creators:USERNAME1,-creators:USERNAME2).

    If you’re browsing a work tag, then you can exclude keywords using the filters bar. Type your keyword exclusion into the “Search within results” box, then select “Sort and Filter”.

    If you’re using Work Search, use the “Author/Artist” field to filter out works by a particular user. You can also filter them out from “Any Field”: if you do that, you’ll catch not just any works they’ve created, but also any works created by someone else where their username is mentioned in the tags, summary, notes, or other metadata.

    Permanently avoid seeing specific users or works

    If there is a user that you never want to see again, you can mute them. Muting a user means that you will no longer see works or bookmarks they’ve created, other users’ bookmarks of their works, or comments they’ve left on AO3. To mute a user, simply select the Mute button on their profile page.

    Muting a user will result in a banner at the top of every work search results page. If you want to hide this banner, you can add a site skin that includes p.muted.notice {display: none;}. Site skins customize the way AO3 looks to you while you’re logged in.

    You can also use site skins to hide specific works that you don’t want to see. Once set up, your site skin will be active whenever you’re logged into your account on any device.

    To use a site skin to hide a particular work:

    1. Find the work ID. The work ID is the number in the URL immediately after /works/
    2. While logged into your account, go to archiveofourown.org/skins
    3. Select “Create Site Skin” (or edit your skin if you’re already using one)
    4. In the CSS box, type .work-000 {display: none !important;}, replacing “000” with the ID of the work you want to mute
    5. To mute multiple works, use a comma-separated list: .work-000, .work-111, .work-222 {display: none !important;}
    6. Save or update your skin. If it’s new (or if you weren’t already using it), you’ll also need to select the button labelled “Use”

    If you need help creating or using skins, filters, work searches, or any other AO3 feature, please contact Support.

    Can I permanently block a tag or have a persistent filter?

    Unfortunately, it’s not currently possible to save a set of tags or search exclusions directly on AO3, although you may be able to find third-party tools or site skin instructions to help you do this. AO3 doesn’t have those kinds of built-in persistent filters: every time you open a new search page or works list, the filters will be reset. However, if you run a search using filters, you can bookmark the results page in your browser. The bookmarked page will keep the same search and filter settings when you return to it later.

    What if I have more questions about offensive content?

    PAC follows a strict confidentiality policy. Therefore, while you are welcome to ask general questions in the comments of this post, we will not give information on specific cases, publicly rule on a work, or update you on the status of a report you have already submitted. Comments on this post that discuss specific works or users will be removed.

    For more information, you can read our TOS FAQ on offensive content vs illegal content.

    If you are still uncertain, you can comment below or submit a question through the Policy Questions & Abuse Reports form.

    dr_zook: (58<3)
    [personal profile] dr_zook posting in [community profile] anime_manga
    Author: [personal profile] dr_zook
    Fandom: Wild Adapter (manga)
    Characters: Kubota Makoto, Tokito Minoru
    Rating: Teen & Mature, m/m
    Word count: 1,307 & 1,480
    Notes: Two years ago I wrote a fic for Yuletide and promised my beta reader a raunchy sequel, so here we go. 

    Read them over at AO3! And/or chat me up at my DW. :D

    hide the fuel that's gathered here is set right after their escape in vol. 6! Click the link for further notes and tags.

    Soaked in Fire Two Paths Collide is the promised raunchy coda for above fic. Things are heating up here. ;)
    pastelpom: a cartoony-style bust illustration of my character Stel looking to the right with a smile and his tongue sticking out (Default)
    [personal profile] pastelpom posting in [community profile] anime_manga
    Fandom: Death Note
    Author/Artist: pastelpom
    Title: Swimming Upstream Into the Mouth of a Bear
    Rating: PG-13
    Word Count: 2,346
    Highlight for Warnings: *Suicide mention, death, canon typical misogyny, etc*
    Disclaimer: This is a fanwork, I do not own the characters and no profit has been made from this work
    Summary:

    The world was not built for you. The world does nothing to accommodate you. Think of yourself like an insect evolved to resist pesticide - you grow in spite of, not because of, the narrative of the world. God's mighty hand inks you in the same way he would an extra in a crowd shot. Fuzzy, indistinct, vague.

    You are tired of it.

    Why not try something new?

    A/N: a little meta thing about misa becoming aware of her place in the narrative :3 still tweaking things here and there but overall im happy with it!

    AO3 Link
    vriddy: Dabi looking up (dabi looking up)
    [personal profile] vriddy

    Starting to process my backlog of links. Originally, I started collecting this particular list when the allegations about Neil Gaiman surfaced last year (if you've been lucky enough to miss that, but want to learn more, [personal profile] muccamukk's round-up post is still an excellent overview).

    It's always hard when stories, songs, shows, etc that made a difference to you turn out to be created by someone who's done or is doing horrible things. I always find it hard when it's followed by a demand to just stop liking whatever it was, as if that's as easy as snapping your fingers to remove the impact of sometimes formative stories from one's life.

    Here are a few links that helped me navigate this, whenever it happens, since it happens often. If you only have energy for one link, I'd recommend making that the first one. It's nuanced and practical.

    Dealing with Authors Who are Jerks, Bastards, or Downright Evil in Real Life by [blogspot.com profile] writinginthedarktw. "But how should we react when a writer we admire, or who we have a personal relationship with, turns out to be a not-so-good person? The short answer, of course, is you can react any damn way you wish. There’s no right way. But I can share with you how I attempt to navigate these rough waters."

    4 more links: 1 for library workers, 2 on how putting people on a pedestal does no one any good, 1 on a specific fandom )

    Made in Korea by Jeremy Holt (2022)

    Jun. 6th, 2025 12:47 pm
    pauraque: bird flying over the trans flag (trans pride)
    [personal profile] pauraque
    Next up for Pride Month media, I read Made in Korea, a graphic novel about an android called Jesse who is purchased by a childless couple to be their daughter. Both the author Jeremy Holt and the illustrator George Schall are nonbinary (they/them).

    parents gaze at an inactive android child in a box and marvel that she is beautiful

    I had mixed feelings about this one. On the positive side, I really liked how the themes of identity and coming to know oneself were explored. Jesse's story is at least partly a metaphor for transnational adoption (Holt is an adoptee) and also resonates with more general feelings about not being the child your parents expected and needing to grow out of their narrative about you. Gender identity is directly addressed, which I love to see in an android story! It bugs me when androids uncritically accept a binary gender role based on the anatomy they're built with, even when the story digs into their personhood and free will in other ways. This book does not assume that an android built to look anatomically female is a girl, nor does it assume that if androids existed they would all be built with binary anatomy!

    The major aspect that did not work for me was the plot element of a school shooting. (cut for content) )

    So there was a lot that I liked, but also a pretty big section of the narrative that seemed totally out of place and mishandled. I don't regret reading the book and I think some aspects will stick with me in a good way, I just wish it had kept the focus on its strengths.

    Adventures in DVDs

    Jun. 6th, 2025 08:11 am
    osprey_archer: (cheers)
    [personal profile] osprey_archer
    I’ve never owned my own TV before, but one of my friends had an extra which became mine when I moved into the Hummingbird Cottage. A Target gift card had just come into my possession as a housewarming gift, so I traipsed off to Target for a DVD player.

    “I didn’t know we sold those anymore,” the bemused clerk informed me. (Target does, however, have a large record selection. Also WiFi enabled record players. What a time to be alive.)

    Undeterred, I made my purchase, and drove home happily dreaming of all the new movies and shows I would watch.

    I did in fact manage to watch a couple of new movies: Studio Ghibli’s The Red Turtle, a wordless movie about a man marooned on an island who ends up marrying a turtle who turns into a woman (as turtles are wont to do), and Werner Herzog’s Happy People: A Year in the Taiga, which is a fascinating documentary about trappers in the taiga, although it does keep saying things like “These trappers are almost untouched by modern civilization” as the trappers zoom off in their snow mobiles. I mean. Maybe a little touched by modern civilization?

    However, what I’ve mostly been doing is rewatching old favorites. I rewatched the Romola Garai Emma and the pre-Raphaelite miniseries Desperate Romantics (both of which I own), and contemplated borrowing the 2006 Jane Eyre and 2008 Sense and Sensibility miniseries from the library before deciding that no, it was better to wait till I could find them used somewhere, and therefore enjoy the thrill of the hunt.

    (I have not yet found either of those miniseries, but on my last visit to Half Price Books I DID find a copy of the 1981 Brideshead Revisited miniseries for a mere $10!!! which was instantly stolen by a friend who hasn’t seen it yet. Which is fair enough I guess.)

    I did get the first two seasons of The Vicar of Dibley from the library, and have now started in on their Poirot collection, and was disconcerted to discover that with Poirot in particular I have barely any memory of the show. Things like the bit where Miss Lemon says “Poirot looked middle-aged even as a baby,” yes. The solutions to the mysteries? No. Gone. Might as well have never watched the show. Which is convenient for a rewatch, admittedly.

    As much as I’m enjoying my rewatches, however (season one of Downton Abbey next?), I would like to stir a few new-to-me things into the mix as well.

    1. I’ve started the 1981 sitcom A Fine Romance, because (a) it stars Judi Dench, and (b) the episodes are half an hour long. (I’m a sucker for shows with half hour episodes.) It’s cute, but I’m not totally sold yet. Will give it a few more episodes and see how I feel.

    2. On the topic of half hour shows (actually 22-minute shows), I’ve heard Abbott Elementary is fantastic. Yes? No? Maybe so?

    3. Given my love of Poirot, I was looking thoughtfully at the Miss Marple adaptations. But alas they’re all two hours long, and I turn into a pumpkin at about 60 minutes.

    4. Has anyone seen Flambards? Would you recommend it? I’m considering it because it’s on the shelf at the library and I have a vague memory of someone, somewhere, gushing about it, except maybe they were gushing about the book that it’s based on and not the show.

    5. I attempted to watch a Vanity Fair miniseries, by which I mean that I got a copy out of the library and then never even put it in the DVD player because the thought of watching Becky Sharp be mean to people while smiling sweetly was too stressful. Strongly suspect I would feel the same way about the classic 1979 Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy miniseries, which is unfortunate as it would be the perfect capper for my George Smiley readings.

    6. However, as a general rule, I do enjoy book to miniseries adaptations, especially if they’re period pieces and the episodes are less than an hour long. So please let me know if you have recs!

    Follow Friday

    Jun. 6th, 2025 12:35 am
    ysabetwordsmith: Cartoon of me in Wordsmith persona (Default)
    [personal profile] ysabetwordsmith posting in [community profile] followfriday
    Got any Follow Friday-related posts to share this week? Comment here with the link(s).

    Here's the plan: every Friday, let's recommend some people and/or communities to follow on Dreamwidth. That's it. No complicated rules, no "pass this on to 7.328 friends or your cat will die".

    Catholic school 1940's Quebec

    Jun. 5th, 2025 07:17 pm
    timemidae: A slice of celery in the shape of a heart (Default)
    [personal profile] timemidae posting in [community profile] little_details
    Hi! 

    I've been reading up on the historical Catholic school system in Quebec, and I've gathered that until 1960 there were commonly Catholic schools that were supported by public funds (officially ended in the 90's). I've been able to find the names of some of the girl's schools, but haven't been able to easily find the names of any of the mixed or boy's schools below the high school level. 

    Anyone know any specific schools that could have served a 10-year old, working class, Catholic boy in Montreal or Quebec City ~1940? 

    Thanks! 

    May 2025 Newsletter, Volume 200

    Jun. 5th, 2025 07:36 pm
    [syndicated profile] otw_news_feed

    Posted by Lute

    I. 200 NEWSLETTERS

    This month marks the 200th edition of the OTW Newsletter! Starting in February 2012, the newsletter has consistently provided updates on committees across the OTW. Over time, the newsletter’s format has grown and shifted, settling into the format used today.

    If you’re curious, older newsletter editions can be found on AO3 News and the OTW website! Thank you so much for supporting the OTW and our projects. Here’s to many more!

    II. ARCHIVE OF OUR OWN

    Policy & Abuse is currently running a weekly spotlight series about the AO3 Terms of Service. These news posts have been highlighting various nuances of AO3’s policies, and Policy & Abuse has been coordinating with Communications’ News Post Moderation subcommittee to answer follow-up questions in the comments.

    AO3 reached 15 million fanworks in May! Communications published a news post to celebrate.

    Also in May, Accessibility, Design, & Technology deployed a few enhancements related to username and password changes, as well as fixed some longstanding bugs in tag sets. Systems is preparing to mount new servers, after which they’ll be able to get them up and running for AO3.

    Open Doors announced the import of Homosapien Press: the publisher of multi-fandom fanzines such as Samurai Errant, Homosapien, and Pure Maple Syrup. They also completed the import of Slash Advent Calendar and Snow Lands. Lastly, they launched a way for archivists and publishers to designate a Fannish Next of Kin to take over collection management post-import.

    In April, Policy & Abuse received 2,734 tickets, while Support received 3,003 tickets. Tag Wrangling wrangled just over 490,000 tags, or approximately 1,100 tags per wrangling volunteer.

    III. ELSEWHERE AT THE OTW

    Fanlore’s annual Fanlore Bingo Challenge is in full swing! This year the event is running from June 2 to June 15, and the bingo is beach themed. All Fanlore visitors and editors, new and old alike, are invited to participate!

    Fanlore also celebrated May with a themed month: Creature Feature! Their editing chat on the Fanlore Discord server was a big success; thank you to everyone who joined. You can check out Creature Feature highlights on Fanlore’s Tumblr.

    Translation’s recent recruitment led to the addition of a new translation team for Irish! User Response Translation’s first ever recruitment has also concluded.

    Transformative Works and Cultures continues to seek submissions for their upcoming special issue on Latin American Fandoms. The deadline for submissions is January 1, 2026.

    IV. GOVERNANCE

    Elections announced the 2025 Election Timeline in coordination with Communications and Translation. Candidates will be announced on June 22, and the deadline to become a member for voting is June 30.

    Development & Membership is continuing to send donation gifts from April’s Membership Drive. They’re also starting to work on membership queries for the 2025 election and related mini-Drive in June.

    Board, with the help of the Board Assistants Team, held a public board meeting on April 26, 2025. The meeting had 74 attendees, and Board answered 10 questions live and 7 questions asynchronously after the meeting. Meeting minutes are available on the OTW website.

    Board also approved the creation of the Organizational Culture Roadmap workgroup, continued work on Crisis Procedures and Paid Staff Transition projects, and met with the Cybersecurity Delegate to discuss their report and next steps. The Board Assistants Team continued work on multiple ongoing projects, including updates to the Board Discord moderation guidelines, OTW roadmap goals, and non-profit training.

    Lastly, Board announced the resignation of Zixin Zhang as a Board Director. We wish Zixin all the best in her future endeavors.

    V. OUR VOLUNTEERS

    Volunteers & Recruiting conducted recruitment for three committees this month: Fanlore, Finance, and Open Doors. Volunteers & Recruiting also began a large-scale project regarding their procedures on inductions and removals. This project aims to ensure documentation is consistent across all roles in the OTW, focusing especially on tools managed by Volunteers & Recruiting.

    From April 21 to May 18, Volunteers & Recruiting received 154 new requests and completed 149, leaving them with 36 open requests (including inductions and removals listed below).

    As of May 18, 2025, the OTW has 933 volunteers. \o/

    New AO3 Documentation Volunteers: 1 Editor
    New Open Doors Volunteers: Fandoms_addict and 1 other Admin Volunteer
    New Policy & Abuse Volunteers: BlackTeaAndVodka, WonderfulWorld, Pent,­ and 1 other Policy & Abuse Volunteer
    New Strategic Planning Volunteers: Everett Merian and Camilla Zhao
    New Support Volunteers: 1 Tag Wrangling Liaison
    New Tag Wrangling Volunteers: Ebonwing, Jazzberries, Keladry, megidola, and Tal (Tag Wrangling Supervisors)
    New Translation Volunteers: Bluebear, flatlander woman, Lavinia, Mici Pici, ömer faruk, Somber, and 3 other Translation Volunteers
    New TWC Volunteers: 1 Symposium Editor
    New User Response Translation Volunteers: Ekevka, meat, Patkiecoo, Remu, and 4 other URT Translators

    Departing AO3 Documentation Volunteers: 1 Editor
    Departing Communications Volunteers: 1 Chair-Track Volunteer and 1 TikTok Moderator
    Departing Fanlore Volunteers: 1 Policy and Admin Volunteer
    Departing Open Doors Volunteers: Fandoms_addict and 3 other Import Assistants, and 1 Technical Volunteer
    Departing Support Volunteers: 1 Support Volunteer
    Departing Tag Wrangling Volunteers: Eirinen, Luhba, Vyslanté, and 2 other Tag Wrangling Volunteers
    Departing Translation Volunteers: D.Taradi, dhriti, hedvig, Mai, Meep, and 4 other Translation Volunteers

    For more information about our committees and their regular activities, you can refer to the committee pages on our website.

    Book Review: A Legacy of Spies

    Jun. 5th, 2025 08:16 am
    osprey_archer: (books)
    [personal profile] osprey_archer
    I went into John Le Carre’s A Legacy of Spies with a certain trepidation, as the book is a late-career novel that retreads the events of Le Carre’s first break-out hit, The Spy Who Came in from the Cold. Years after the events in the earlier book, Smiley’s right-hand man Peter Guillam finds himself the focus of a legal investigation into what exactly went down during that mission.

    Frankly, the premise struck me as a tired rehash of an earlier success. But this is not a fair assessment of A Legacy of Spies, in which Le Carre cheerfully twists a few knives that he had hitherto left untwisted in the general Smiley saga. As such, this review will feature spoilers for all the Smiley books )

    Despite my doubts, a perfect end to the series, really. Brings the story full circle, updates us on all the most interesting characters, continues the exploration of Le Carre’s favorite themes. Were we the bad guys? - by “we” meaning not England, or Europe, or the West, but the international brotherhood of spies.
    vriddy: Studious, smiling Eri (studious)
    [personal profile] vriddy

    I am 57% into my beta edit preps – not the edits themselves based on the actual beta feedback yet, but the list of action items I intend to go through. I'm more or less following the plan I had set out, though I ended up using Scrivener comments a lot instead of a separate file as I had expected. So I have 3 files/file types:

    • Structural comments, which I'll address first. I think this will be the most difficult and most painful part. Will try to do this in a way that has as few consequences as possible to limit the amount of rewriting (I think that's feasible as long as I'm careful, for this particular story).
    • Overall comments, for stuff that'll need small changes in every chapter. I plan to re-read this before and after every chapter edit, so I keep it in mind as I edit and potentially find new areas to include these elements. It's about things like certain characters feeling too one-dimensional and/or too unsympathetic (so more options for interactions, flashbacks/memories, and other elements to flesh them out more), worldbuilding elements that still weren't highlighted enough and feel like a surprise when they come up later, etc.
    • One file per chapter for more generic notes, though so far I'm not really using that much. Scrivener comments are doing the job. And it's very satisfying when several people bring up the same thing and I can edit an existing comment, like, wow! This sure was a confusing paragraph for everyone, huh!

    Having said that, I still had massive, massive, massive issues with getting started. Like, I had built this all up into such a huge thing in my head, and it's in the first time I handle feedback on an entire manuscript at once, and from several people... Below the cut is a list of things I did to finally make myself Just Do It (tm). Maybe there'll be a piece of inspiration for someone else, though mainly I want my future self to remember to check here next time I'm stuck! In my case, it was definitely a process problem, like, just not knowing where to start or what to do.

    vriddy's weirdo productivity tips on actually getting started )

    In general, I am tremendously enjoying working offline. I got the feedback back in 3 formats: GoogleDocs, Ellipsus, and LibreOffice with tracked changes. I am loving the LibreOffice one, so much that I downloaded all the GDocs too (thankfully the comments are included!) and work like this for everything. Ellipsus didn't work for me for reasons I mentioned earlier, and as a note doesn't seem to allow exporting with comments either, as far as I could see.

    Making progress feels nice! Once I have a system, it's easier for me to let momentum carry me. We'll see if that continues to work when it's time to do the actual beta changes! I do intend to take a short break before jumping in.

    Community Thursday

    Jun. 5th, 2025 06:20 am
    vriddy: Aizawa crying (crying)
    [personal profile] vriddy
    Community Thursday challenge: every Thursday, try to make an effort to engage with a community on Dreamwidth, whether that's posting, commenting, promoting, etc.

    Over the last week...

    Vigilantes chit-chat on [community profile] bnha_fans.

    Commented on [community profile] endings.

    RIP (Read In Progress) Wednesday

    Jun. 4th, 2025 04:39 pm
    silversea: Cat reading a red book (Reading Cat)
    [personal profile] silversea posting in [community profile] booknook
    Happy June!

    What are you reading?

    More Pride and Prejudice

    Jun. 4th, 2025 07:49 pm
    regshoe: (Reading 1)
    [personal profile] regshoe
    Before going to see Pride and Prejudice* (*sort of) I re-read the book, and wow, it really is an absolute delight of a book, isn't it? I've read it several times, but I feel like I noticed the details much more than I have before this time through and appreciated the structure and character arcs better. I also appreciated just how funny it is—oh, that bit near the end when Elizabeth is fully aware that she's in love with Darcy and is agonising over how he will surely never propose a second time—and then later, when he has proposed and they're all happy but her family are still being embarrassing... It does seem to me, though, that for all I love Austen's writing I just can't quite feel fannish about it. I don't know; I love some of her characters very much (Mr Darcy being probably my second or third fave, after Fanny Price and maybe Anne Elliot), but somehow none of them quite come across as the right kind of weird or messed-up for me to find truly compelling and blorbo-able. It's funny how that sort of thing works. I was also struck by Austen's sentence structure—she uses commas in a way that's definitely not standard or 'correct' now and seems much more typical of grammatically looser-feeling eighteenth-century writing, which is interesting.


    And while reading I also took the opportunity to try another adaptation that I'd never seen before, the 1980 TV series (which is on Youtube, albeit in a somewhat unwieldy scene-by-scene format). I really like this one! It's basically faithful to the book; where it adds and changes things the choices are always interesting and feel like they were made from a place of love for and joy in the original—often expanding on something from the book, showing in specific detail things that Austen gives in summary—even if some of them are a bit strange. It feels quieter and more subtle than the more famous adaptations, which I like. Elizabeth Garvie is just perfect as Elizabeth: she gets 'there was a mixture of sweetness and archness in her manner which made it difficult for her to affront anybody' completely, and (er, according to my taste) her looks also get 'the very great pleasure which a pair of fine eyes in the face of a pretty woman can bestow'. David Rintoul's Darcy is very stiff and formal in his manner in a way that's easy to read as autistic, which I approve of on general principles and as an interpretation of Darcy. The adaptation also has an absolutely lovely Jane; a Lydia who is completely her mother's daughter; a Georgiana who suits the character perfectly in her brief appearance; a Mr Bennet whose sharp edges of cruelty are completely not softened. The opening title sequence of each episode pans over a period-style cartoon summary of the episode's events, which is charming. I really liked the house they used for Pemberley, also!
    pauraque: drawing of a wolf reading a book with a coffee cup (customer service wolf)
    [personal profile] pauraque
    This is the fifth and final part of my book club notes on The Way Spring Arrives and Other Stories. [Part 1, part 2, part 3, part 4.]


    "The Woman Carrying a Corpse" by Chi Hui (2019), tr. Judith Huang

    Why doesn't she put it down? )


    "The Mountain and the Secret of Their Names" by Wang Nuonuo (2019), tr. Rebecca F. Kuang

    Wreckage from satellite launches threatens a rural village. )


    "Net Novels and the 'She Era': How Internet Novels Opened the Door for Female Readers and Writers in China" by Xueting Christine Ni (2022) [essay]

    What it says on the tin. )


    "Writing and Translation: A Hundred Technical Tricks" by Rebecca F. Kuang (2022) [essay]

    Kuang discusses translation. )


    the end

    I was pretty impressed by this collection. The stories spanned a lot of different themes and styles, and while not everything was to my taste, the quality of writing was high and it's hard to think of any entries that didn't at least offer something interesting to think about. There was agreement among the group that it's a good starting point for Chinese SF/F but of course it can only be a small slice of a huge and diverse field. I'd be interested to explore further.

    I may need to sit out the next book for scheduling reasons. But even if so, I will return!

    Oregon Trip, Day 1

    Jun. 4th, 2025 12:23 pm
    yourlibrarian: Merlin sleeps (MERL-SleepingMerlin-adsullatta)
    [personal profile] yourlibrarian
    1) Just returned from a road trip from Portland to L.A. Almost had a hitch at the very start when it turned out my partner couldn't take me to pick up the car until 12:30 and the pickup had been scheduled for noon. I figured, not a big deal, right, to move it to 1 PM? Tried doing so with the 800 number since I couldn't seem to alter the reservation (and the local office usually can't be reached). I was told that if the car wasn't picked up by soon after 12 it would no longer be available. That sounded ridiculous, so I went to the office in person. Yup, no problem at all to move it to 1 PM. They told me I couldn't prepay for the pickup since it had to be tied to a specific vehicle.

    I then asked if I could add the pre-paid fuel and tolls since the Chicago dropoff meant it wouldn't even cost me much more than if I did it myself. No but I could do that online. In fact, I couldn't. I was never offered the option.

    Despite all this had no trouble with the pickup on the day, nor the drive up other than rain all the way. And I did rather like the light that would flash if someone was coming up on my left or right side to alert me to possible blind spots. The other thing was that as soon as I'd sat in the rental the service agent let me know to ignore the constantly signaling "maintenance warning" light. They had just gotten it back from the dealership and nothing could be found wrong with the car. Read more... )

    The flight was definitely unfun. I had a middle seat and was very tired from a poor night's sleep followed by a 3 hour drive. I tried resting for an hour but gave up and watched Wicked on the in flight panels. I thought it was fine, certainly big budget, some nice dance routines and performances. I was surprised to realize it was only Pt. 1 of the story. I guess it was a good spot to end it to get the audience back in for the sequel. Read more... )

    2) It took me a while but I did catch up on Pillowfort posts. Here at Dreamwidth though one can't scroll back longer than 2 weeks, which was skip=350. So there may be posts from from the 21st I can't see.

    That said I'm having to skim through a lot because it's a ton of posts and I have things to catch up on now that I'm home again. More on that later.

    3) Yesterday was unpacking, laundry, and refrigerator triage before today's weekly shop. I thought I was shockingly tired yesterday given that Monday night I had the most sleep since before the trip and the general stress was over. I even wondered if I was coming down with something but I feel ok today too, just...tired.

    4) One nice bit post-trip is that I still had some of K's curry pretzels which she gifted M and me with. People love them so much she was urged to make it a side hustle but she said she didn't have the time for that, and preferred getting to relax rather than have a second job when she came home. She made some to order for Christmas sales a few years ago and said she didn't want to go through that twice.

    5) Usually my partner complains that he never has time to watch his TV stuff because he has so little viewing time, and when he does have it we watch things together. My being away is clearly helpful on this front as he's looking forward to some of our joint viewing again 😉

    Poll #33198 Kudos Footer-524
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    Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 6

    Want to leave a Kudos?

    View Answers

    Kudos!
    6 (100.0%)



    tentaclemod: (Default)
    [personal profile] tentaclemod posting in [community profile] raremaleslashex
    Hello and welcome to yet another round of Rare Male Slash Exchange!

    A little later than usual but nonetheless I will continue running this exchange. No rules have been changed since last year: Please address all questions to the tentaclemod@gmail.com address or comment on this post.

    Here is the tentative schedule, to be finalised later this week:

    SCHEDULE 2025

    (all times 20:00PM UTC)

    Nominations Open: Thursday 19 June
    Nominations Close: Sunday 29 June
    Signups Open: Thursday 3 July
    Signups Close: Sunday 13 July
    Deadline: Saturday 16 August
    Works reveals: Saturday 30 August
    Creator reveals: Saturday 6 September

    AO3 | Tagset

    Eligibility:

    To be eligible, a pairing must fulfill the following criteria:
    • Be a slash ship involving male characters only
    • Have no more than 200 fics on AO3 - this includes only complete works of at least 1000 words in English (using "otp: true")

    Where numbers are borderline, the mod reserves the right to use their discretion; please feel free to make a case in the eligibility post!

    Nominations:

    The tagset will be available here. An AO3 account is required.

    Further nominations instructions (disambiguation, how to nominate franchises, etc.) will be available on the eligibility post once nominations open.

    Each participant may nominate up to 10 fandoms with up to 10 relationships in each.

    All fandoms and ships requested and offered in this exchange must be chosen from those nominated into the tagset. Please nominate to make sure what you want to request/offer appears!

    RPF: RPF is permitted, subject to eligibility as outlined above. Non-famous family members are not eligible. Under-18s are not eligible for modern RPF.
    Threesomes/moresomes: these are permitted, subject to eligibility as outlined above. All ships must include only male characters.
    Crossovers: Crossover ships are permitted, subject to the eligibility rules above. These should be nominated under 'Crossover Fandom' with the fandom name for each character in brackets, e.g. Tony Stark (MCU)/Bruce Wayne (DCEU).
    Original characters in non-original canons: You may nominate Character/Original Male Character(s), e.g. Luke Skywalker/Original Male Character; Harry Potter/Original Male Characters. Any original character(s) nominated will be assumed to be male.
    Original Works: Original ships are permitted. These must be nominated under 'Original Work' in the format 'Character Type/Character Type' e.g. 'King/Advisor', 'Pilot/Soldier/General', etc. All characters will be assumed to be male. If they are not nominated in this way, they will be rejected.
    Note that there is a 100 character limit on the number of characters (the literal letters/numbers/spaces, etc., not the people!) in tags on AO3. If you run into the limit and need to check how many there are in yours, you can use the spreadsheet here.


    Signups:

    Signups will be here. An AO3 account is required.

    You can request 3-10 fandoms with 1-20 ships and a choice of fiction, art, podfic, or either.

    You can offer 4-10 fandoms with 1-20 ships and a choice of fiction, art, podfic, or either.

    As long as you request/offer the minimum number of required fandoms, you can repeat fandoms. e.g. requesting Harry Potter, Supernatural and MCU for your three required fandoms, plus another slot of MCU.

    If a signup does not include the required number of fandoms, it will be deleted when signups close.
    All fandoms and ships requested and offered in this exchange must be chosen from those nominated into the tagset. Please nominate to make sure what you want to request/offer appears!

    If no offers match your requests, your requests will go out for claiming as an initial pinch hit. Please bear in mind that if this is unclaimed for a number of weeks, you may be asked to add extra requests; however, the mod will do all they can to prevent this.

    If no requests match your offers, the mod will contact you at the email address associated with your AO3 account to see if there is anything else you can offer. If you do not reply within 24 hours, or there is nothing else you can offer, your signup will be deleted.

    Dear Creator letters may be linked to in your signup in order to give a creator further details on your likes and dislikes. These are optional.

    Please include anything you absolutely don't want to receive (Do Not Wants) in the Optional Details field in your AO3 signup. In the event that a DNW is included in your gift, only clear and reasonable DNWs in your signup will be enforced. (Please bear in mind that DNWs cannot be used to box your creator into producing a very specific work.)

    Participants may sign up with a maximum of two accounts each. If you sign up with two accounts, please bear in mind you will be expected to produce at least one fanwork per signup. Please sock responsibly!


    Assignments:

    Assignments are only guaranteed to match on one fandom, one ship and one medium.

    Minimum requirements are a complete work of fanfiction of at least 1000 words or a completed piece of fanart or a complete work of podfic of at least 500 words. Art & Podfic should be original work created entirely by you; icons, manips, etc. cannot fulfil art requests. Do not post a work in progress.

    Your assignment must focus on a requested ship, and must include a romantic and/or sexual relationship of some kind. This is not a friendship exchange!

    That is not to say, however, that all gifts must include explicit material. Explicit gifts are not required, but are permitted (subject to recipients' DNWs).

    Please do not discuss - or post! - your assignment in public; creators should remain anonymous until creators are revealed. Do, however, feel free to discuss with a beta reader.

    You only need to create one fanwork for your assignment, e.g. if your recipient has 6 requests, you do not need to create a work for all 6. This does not need to be the one you matched on; you can use any of their requests. However, please do not create a work for a fandom you don't know.

    If your assignment does not match the fandoms/ships/medium you offered, contact the mod as soon as possible. It will not be possible to change assignments for any other reason.


    Posting:

    To post your fic/art on AO3: navigate to your AO3 dashboard, click on 'Assignments', find your Rare Male Slash Exchange 2023 assignment and click 'Fulfill'. Should artists need help posting, please contact the mod at tentaclemod@gmail.com.

    Works containing excessive spelling or grammar errors (enough to hinder comprehension) will not be accepted. Works created with AI will not be accepted.

    As works should remain anonymous during the collection's anonymous period, do not post your work elsewhere before creator reveals or discuss it the details publicly.

    You can edit your work after posting it until the collection is revealed, but your gift must be complete enough to stand as it is by the deadline.

    Saved drafts do not fulfill assignments. Please ensure that you actually post your gift!


    Defaulting:

    If you cannot finish your gift, please default.

    To default: navigate to your AO3 dashboard, click 'Assignments', locate your Rare Male Slash Exchange assignment and click 'Default'.

    If you default and your creator also defaults, you will not be assigned a pinch hitter and are not guaranteed a gift.

    There is no penalty for defaulting before the deadline.

    If you have not posted a gift by the deadline, the mod will default you. You will need to post a full gift for any request in the exchange (excluding your own) before you will be permitted to participate in any further rounds.

    If you need an extension, please email tentaclemod@gmail.com, including how long you need (no more than 48 hours will be granted) and your AO3 username. I do not need to know why you want the extension. Note that no extensions can be granted once the deadline has passed.


    Pinch hits:

    Pinch hits will be posted to the Dreamwidth community.

    Please reply to the pinch hit post to claim, including your AO3 username; if you are successful, the mod will contact you and officially assign the pinch hit to you through AO3.

    You can claim a pinch hit even if you aren't signed up for the exchange, but you will need an AO3 account.

    Note that if you claim a pinch hit without logging into Dreamwidth, I will not be able to respond to your comment.



    Treats:

    You can write/draw additional gifts for other participants and post them to the exchange collection as treats. These do not have to be for your assigned recipient.

    You are welcome to create treats even if you aren't signed up for the exchange.

    To post treats, navigate to the collection and click 'Post to Collection'. You will need to manually add the name of your intended recipient - please check this very carefully!

    Treats do not have to fulfill the minimum word count. They must, however, include a fandom, relationship and medium requested by the recipient.

    Treats will not become main gifts for this exchange.



    The aim of this exchange is to create gifts that the recipients will enjoy. If you break the rules above or are found to be participating in bad faith (e.g. signing up with multiple accounts in bad faith; acting spitefully toward the mod or other participants; using uncredited works as your own), you will be banned from participation.

    You must be at least 18 years old to participate.



    If you have any questions, please feel free to ask! You can either comment on this post (anon is on) or send an email to tentaclemod@gmail.com.

    Wednesday Reading Meme

    Jun. 4th, 2025 10:52 am
    osprey_archer: (books)
    [personal profile] osprey_archer
    What I’ve Just Finished Reading

    I feel that I ought to have something intelligent to say about Virginia Woolf’s To the Lighthouse, but honestly I don’t have a lot to say intelligent or otherwise. Woolf is one of those writers where I respect her skill as a prose stylist, but almost never connect with her work outside of A Room of One’s Own. I thought it might be a fiction/nonfiction thing, where I didn’t vibe with her fiction but liked her nonfiction. But then I read a book of her essays and also wasn’t feeling it, so maybe A Room of One’s Own was just a one-hit wonder for me.

    I also finished Alice Alison Lide and Margaret Alison’s Johansen’s Ood-le-Uk the Wanderer, a 1931 Newbery Honor winner written by two sisters. (The Alison sisters are one of three sibling pairs to win Newbery recognition, the others being brother-sister pair Dillwyn and Anne Parrish and brothers James and Christopher Collier.)

    Ood-le-Uk is a fifteen-year-old Inuit boy who is swept out to sea on an ice flow, eventually landing in Siberia where he is taken in by the Chukchi and nearly human-sacrificed by the shaman, only to be saved at the last minute by the talisman he wears: a cross in a little wooden box that washed across the sea to his home in Alaska. Does he later meet a Russian Orthodox priest who changes his life by telling him about Christianity? One hundred percent.

    What I’m Reading Now

    I’ve just started an Alice in Wonderland reread, in the copy given to me by my friend Micky, with a note in the front that assures me that the book is just as “chaotic and confusing” as the story my friend Emma and I wrote in sixth grade. It occurs to me that this may not have been a compliment to our magnum opus.

    What I Plan to Read Next

    I’m going in with Fanny Burney’s Evelina.

    Into the Archives

    Jun. 3rd, 2025 03:06 pm
    osprey_archer: (books)
    [personal profile] osprey_archer
    About a year ago, I realized that some of the older children’s books that I wanted were available in the archive of the university where I work. “If only I knew where the archives were and how to request books there,” I mused, without of course making the faintest effort to acquire this information.

    But I have become incrementally better at turning ideas into reality, so it took only a year before I learned where the archives are (the top floor of my favorite library, which incidentally is the library closest to my office) and how to request an appointment to read a book there. Then I traipsed over to the archives for The Little Angel: A Story of Old Rio, illustrated by Katherine Milhous of The Egg Tree, which is the real reason I wanted to read it, although I was also nothing loath to renew the acquaintance with the author, our old friend Alice Dalgliesh of Newbery fame.

    The archives are not quite as fancy as the Lilly Library Reading Room: no mural of Great Thinkers in History! But they make up for it with comfy rolling chairs, and the archivists do still bring you your book on a pillow, which is the most important thing.

    The book itself is in that particularly mid-twentieth century style where we’re gently drifting through some time in the life of a family long ago and far away. (Sometimes it is just long ago or just faraway, but here it’s both.) We enjoy some street festivals, meet a cute kitten named Gatinho, cheer as the daughter of the house furiously refuses an arranged marriage with a man who just tossed Gatinho across the room (Gatinho is unhurt, except for his dignity), and accept that this is not the kind of book that is ever going to interrogate the fact that this upper-class Brazilian family in the 1820s has slaves. Milhous’s illustrations are charming but not as magical as the illustrations in The Egg Tree or Appolonia’s Valentine.

    Nonetheless, pleased by my success, I went back to trawl the library catalog for more books to read in the archives… and discovered they have a copy of one of my remaining Newbery books, Valenti Angelo’s Nino! What a score! So I’ve got an appointment tomorrow at lunch to begin reading.