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wolffyluna) wrote2025-01-29 06:30 pm
Books! Finally!
The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde by Robert Louis Stephenson
I continue my unofficial project to read all the "classics I should read" on audiobook. It's a fun little story, and I think it does lose something with the fact that Everyone Knows the Twist, but it's good.
But I'm about to interrogate the text from the wrong perspective. I'm going to take a death mask of the author and put it on a rescuci-anne: you could really do an interesting queer or disability reading of that story. You've got the secret alter egos and the whole thing where... people REALLY don't like Mr Hyde, and while some of this is because he does alarming shit, a lot of it is because he looks 'secretly deformed' and just gives off bad vibes. There's just this thing where-- I don't want to ignore the murder? But by word count people spend more time off put by Hyde's appearance than his actions. Jekyll goes on and on about being repressed and wanting to physically transform, and PEOPLE ARE MORE OFFPUT BY THE TRANSFORMATION THAN THE MURDER.
Also there's this thing-- completely uninitentional unless Stephenson had a time machine-- where there's a mirror scene. And it is weirdly similar (weirdly mirrors, eh, eh? [rimshot]) to the mirror scenes you get in trans coming of age stories.
In particular Jekyll is feeling straightjacketed by his role as a respectable gentlemen, which. well. Not the intended reading but it sure is there. It creates the mental image of "Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde vs Dr Jekyll if she discovers oestrogen (the book is about as long but has way less murders)"
On the other hand, so much of the descriptions of Hyde are about how hairy he is and. I cannot recommend making a modern, transmasc reinterpretation, but you totally could. The thematic stuff is There. Especially if you did stuff about the way [wiggle hands] queer/feminist communities can interpret masculinity qua masculinity as evil.
Paladin's Strength by T Kingfisher
chocochipbiscuit recommended this to me and they were SO RIGHT. This is excellent romantasy. T Kingfisher should consider writing more psychologically realistic middle aged romantic fantasies with excellent dialogue forever. The smooth men plot was great, the chemistry between the characters was great, and the worldbuilding remains excellent.
I also love-- so in romance novels the "thing that characters give as a reason for not getting together" is often referred to as the 'no way.' A I love that a significant part of the 'no way' is "but she's a NUN." "But she's not a celibate nun." "STILL A NUN."
Valedor by Guy Haley
This is a re-read of a beloved Warhammer book, about Space Elves fighting Space Bugs and Tragically Dying. I remain steadfast in my opinion that it is excellent, but it needed more of my favourite, Prince Yriel, he who spends most of the book having awful meetings with half a spoon and calculating how best to kill people with it.
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