Alison Fincher
@alisonfincher.bsky.social
independent researcher doing public scholarship at Read Japanese Literature (readjapaneselit.bsky.social) | Japanese lit reviewer for Asian Review of Books | historical romance reader | ATL | she/her | personal account
I don’t think anything I said implied Biden was progressive. He didn’t fail to engage with the Black community. White progressives consistently do.
I could be wrong, but it seems to be a consistent failure of more progressive candidates, no? Which is a problematic blind spot for progressives to say the least.
The history there makes New York and Ireland uniquely problematic. 😅
Pre-Trump, some of the same people worshipped Reagan—even decade after he was dead. I have a family member who would go to vote just to write in “Reagan” and then “Zombie Reagan” every four years.
A great example are the Russell T. Davies- vs. Steve Moffat-run eps of Dr. Who w the Weeping Angels. In Davies’, you barely see them except amidst flashing lights. No movement on screen. With Moffat’s, they’re CGI. Even though Moffat created the Angels, Davies’ execution is way more effective.
It’s not a cultural difference. Americans, at least, are also horrified.
I enjoy Goodreads as a social media site. I engage in a book club there. It’s fun. I get nothing else out of it.
People often say "Goodreads isn't for writers, it's for READERS! You should only read reviews if you're a reader"
But actually, that's wrong, because even as a reader it's a shitty bad site full of terrible reviews written by people who don't know how to read.
Man... I have NOT been able to concentrate today. These are the days I fiddle around on the website, updating and reformatting. The list of Japanese fiction in English translation by author got an update all the way through I. 😅
A List of Modern Japanese Fiction in English Translation, Authors A-K
Japanese Fiction in English Translation by Author This list includes only fiction written for adults after 1868 for the simple reason that the corpus of translated Japanese literature is just too e…
readjapaneseliterature.comAsking for a friend—seriously, because I don't even have a TikTok account. Can anyone recommend a popular BookTok account about Japanese literature?
Just finished Cat Sebastian’s You Should Be So Lucky. Set in 1960.
Lovely to live briefly in a time when journalists could make a good living and baseball players weren’t making millions.
(Everyone deserves a living wage. It’s just hard to imagine professional athletes being underpaid. Ever.)
I’m planning to visit Japan next summer to celebrate turning 40, and I really want to visit Tohoku. I’ve learned so much about it from reading Japanese literature.
It’s not fancy. It’s money grubbing in the guise only fancy. 😩
I mean, it’s also water saving. So maybe in Denver and LA?
People who have loud work Zoom meetings in quiet community tea shops should be sent back to the office. 😑
People who have loud work meetings in quiet community tea shops should be sent back to the office. 😑
Is the on lap necessary? My kid loved being next to me in one of those bouncy chairs with a metal frame.
Otherwise, you can work at a table/desk with a baby in lap. Or with a tray over armrests in an armchair. Neither works once the baby can grab for keys.
I’ve bought an e-copy of all your back catalogue since you’ve been fundraising. And just bought a paperback of The Bachelor’s Valet for a teen’s BD. Introduce them to the genre with something both wonderful and extremely PG. 😅 (It’s one of my favorites.)
I wish you all the luck.
Could you spare a moment to share something going well in the world? Or your world personally?
Oof. Mariko asks Blackthorne if he’d rather “have a boy”. Can’t tell if Clavell is also homophobic or making a point that homophobia is dumb or just doing what he thinks is representing history, but it goes ON AND ON AND ON….
Plus Mariko brings it up again several times. “Don’t offer him a boy!!!”
Or, alternatively, so tiny people can crawl out of my ears.
Trying to remember if Blackthorne uses the word “pillow” in his pages-long homophobic screed. 😑
Whereas if you were a Millennial like me, each of those ellipses would be an em-dash. Or an incomplete sentence. 😅
I’m also pissed, but are you being ableist on purpose? Because that’s still not okay.
It did not even occur to me that the authors were consulted, but it is reassuring that their wishes are being respected. Thanks for the help!
Opened up Bluesky and was delighted that the first thing I saw was, "Fucking Buntaro." Like, no context, the comment is also 100% on point. 😅
I wanted this to work as a meme format—"So sorry, but—but it seems like the Shogun winner has been been Mariko's translations. And rightly so!
(I more-or-less understand the cultural debate at stake here with Japanese names for ethnically Japanese people. Happy to discuss in another context. Not asking now, though. Just trying to get it right for an upcoming podcast episode on Zainichi Korean literature.)
Question: Many (the majority?) of English-language publishers now seem to list Japanese authors (given name) + (family name) on books.
But that doesn't seem to be true with people who aren't ethnically Japanese, even if they have Japanese names? Li Kotomi? Yu Miri?
Is that correct?
Oh yeah. Fair enough. He was just on a list of hypocritical Republicans next to Palin, so I felt compelled to say something.
To be fair, that wasn’t the only issue McCain was the most reasonable Republican in the room on.
We’ve been exactly here before… with the DNC running a candidate few people want and not campaigning bc “Trump bad” should be enough. It’s not. Biden is supporting a genocide + armed assaults on college campuses FFS.
ATM, the alternatives look a lot like full on fascism and fascism light.
@nhledbetter.bsky.social, I’m still relistening to Shogun. TIL the show stole Yabu’s death poem from Goyoko/Gin. 😅
I went to a talk with Susan Napier and she talked about an English-language book that inspired part if the plot of The Boy and the Heron. I can’t for the life of me even figure out where I wrote the title down! Help? @kaitlynugoretz.bsky.social?
Would you stick to being a bee advocate, please? Or get an alt account? Or something?This is the cringiest response I’ve read in a long time.
It would also be interesting to look at the intersections with gender and race. The Emory profs were both women. I’ve seen posts that suggest Black profs are being disproportionately targeted for arrest.
It would also be interesting to look at race, gender. I’ve seen a lot about Black professors being arrested in disproportionate numbers. The Emory professors were both white women.
Interesting point!
I wonder what the actual stats are and whether there’s confirmation bias in the original claim here. At Emory (the closest uni to me with protests and arrests), the two arrest d professors are with the economics and philosophy departments.