#WITMonth in Review and Cultural Experience Curation

Above: My veg-adapted Taiwanese Beef Noddle Soup. When we visited Taiwan last year, Carolina fell in love with this soup, going as far as to eat it for breakfast. I recreated it using the recipe found here , but replaced the beef with marinated portobello and shiitake mushrooms (marinade was soy sauce, liquid smoke, vegetarian Worcestershire sauce, and red wine). It turned out fantastic. Let me know if you want a picture of any of the ingredients I used; they weren’t hard to find in the Austin area.

#WITMonth is over. I read a lot — reading has been a serious avenue of procrastination for me these past few months. I’m going to briefly review a few of my favorites below:

The Story of My Teeth by Valeria Luiselli, tr. Christina MacSweeney — Mexico — Super impressed with the translation of this book because it’s so steeped in humor. It’s a fast read with great pacing, which I think really benefits its conceit (a Quixotic auctioneer who claims to own the teeth of famous historical figures) and the comedy. There are a million references to writers and artists, especially Latinx figures, and I only got about 10% of those references, but it didn’t hinder my enjoyment. Highly recommend.

Human Acts by Han Kang, tr. Deborah Smith — South Korea — Well, this one is about the opposite of Luiselli’s book. From the author of the Booker-winning The Vegetarian, Human Acts is a fictionalized account of the Gwangju student uprising in South Korea, told through the perspectives of a handful of characters. The book faces the brutality of the event head on. It’s full of trauma and unnecessary suffering. I had to stop reading and just sit with it several times, and I think that’s one of the best signs of a masterful book. I think it’s an even better work than The Vegetarian , though it’s also quite different.

I’ll Be Right There by Kyung-Sook Shin, tr. Sora Kim-Russell — South Korea — Like Human Acts , this book also deals with student protests in South Korea, but here the protests are the backdrop for the intersection of the lives of three students, each of whom carries with them a massive weight of trauma. My favorite part of this book is how lovingly it portrays the space and idea of a literature classroom — it’s full of hope and optimism, and it acknowledges the pretension while also making a case for a little pretension being a good thing. I typed up one particular section for sharing.

Last Words from Montmartre by Qiu Miaojin, tr. Ari Larissa Heinrich — Taiwan by way of Paris — This is a short, epistolary novel chronicling a young woman’s attempt to keep her head above the waters of a roiling sea of depression and obsession, with a big chunk of the desperate nature of young love. It’s set in Paris, but the narrator is Taiwanese. There are a lot of parallels between the protagonist and the author, and I think once I learn more about Miaojin this book will be even better.

Marzi by Marzena Sowa, tr. Sylvain Savoia — Poland — Graphic memoir about growing up during the collapse of the Soviet Union in Poland. Main character is a young child but the book works for an adult audience. The art is great, and the language fits the rhythm of childhood really well. The actual story gets a little bogged down in near-repetition of anecdotes in the middle of the book, but overall a fast read that alternates hitting you with little jabs of tragedy, familial love, and the intense exploration of youth.

Eventide by Therese Bohman, tr. Marlaine Delargy — Sweden — Quiet, contemplative novel about an art professor’s divorce aftermath and the search for what she wants out of her life. Lots of social commentary. Climax was a little predictable, and honestly, there are a lot of similarities to another Swedish book that I repeat like a broken record — Willful Disregard — that I’d say you should read it first (it’s better) then pick this one up if you need more.

The books above I liked enough that I plan to seek out other works by the authors. For posterity’s sake, a few books I did not enjoy nearly as much: Amrita by Banana Yoshimoto tr. Russell F. Wasden (though I have enjoyed previous work by Yoshimoto, specifically Kitchen , so don’t write her off), After the Winter by Guadalupe Nettel tr. Rosalind Harvey, Empty Set by Verónica Gerber Bicecci tr. Christina MacSweeney, and Blue Self-Portrait by Noémi Lefebvre tr. Sophie Lewis.

Beyond reading too much, I’ve been thinking a lot about how I curate my consumption of books, movies, television, and video games. There’s the stuff I consume in order to make decisions about what to partake in, but I’m more thinking about what information you get about a thing you’re planning to check out soon, or a thing you’ve recently checked out. The dichotomy in my head is a spontaneous vs. curated experience. As an example, for the book I described above, The Last Words of Montmartre , I wish I had learned more about the author before reading it because I feel like that would’ve added another level to my reading. In this case I still can, and I can even reread the book easily since it’s short, but there are many cases where that’s less practical. Movie reviews or Goodreads posts often help me catch things I would’ve missed otherwise. But there’s also something to be said for going into things with a blank slate, for having no idea whatsoever what’s going to happen or what to look out for.

I’m working on an essay about this dichotomy when it comes to video games. I have conflicting desires about not wanting to miss any content or opportunities while simultaneously not wanting to spoil any story for myself. How do we navigate that decision? Persona 5 is the game that’s really putting my notions to the test. It’s a time sensitive game where you have to plan out what you do every day, and if you make the wrong decisions it could lead to you not meeting some characters or missing out on optional events. But, in making sure I caught all that content, I definitely think I’ve removed some of the wonder of exploration from the experience. I think a lot of serious gamers would tell me to play the game twice: once without any information and once with a guide, but there are so many games, and so little time, especially when this one takes an estimated 90 hours to complete.

How much do you want to know before committing to a TV show, a film, a book, a movie, or a game? Do you only research them extensively after the fact? Is there a work you wish you had known more about going into it? Tell me, I’m a ball of conflict.

Further reading:

• Longreads published an anonymous essay chronicling the experience of a professor at my university with the apathy of those around her toward racism. It’s devastating and necessary.
• I am so jealous of Lyz Lenz’s resiliency and determination. Her profile of Tucker Carlson is a feat. A quote: “If we can figure out how an intelligent writer and conservative can go from writing National Magazine Award–nominated articles […] to shouting about immigrants on Fox News, perhaps we can understand what is happening to this country, or at least to journalism, in 2018.”
• Need more depressing content? Boy do I have you covered. Texas spends an average of $130,000 per year per child in prison, and only $10,000 per year per child in school . For profit education and criminal justice systems combined with negligence of public education is destroying the lives of entire swaths of people.
• I just read Solanin by Inio Asano and it’s one of the best books about the malaise of your mid-late 20s I’ve ever read. Here’s the brilliant Morgan Giles reviewing it way back in 2011.
• I gave up on Welcome to Nightvale a while ago. It’s a great podcast, but after 90ish episodes it just got a little repetitive for me. Since then, I’ve tried several other fiction podcasts ( Alice Isn’t Dead , Bubble , Hello from the Magic Tavern ) and none of them have stuck. But now I finally found one that has! Wooden Overcoats is about a petty funeral director on a tiny British Isle who is facing competition from a second funeral home for the first time. His sister, Antigone, is my spirit animal. The narrator is a mouse who is working on her memoirs. I’m five episodes in and just loving it.
• This is the best tweet I’ve read all day.

Self plug: I reviewed the latest Witcher novel for the SFinTranslation blog. Spoilers: I didn’t like it, but it is interesting how the almost same story can be received so differently in book vs. video game form (yes, I know the quality of storytelling is different but still).

Did you pick up any books for Women in Translation month? Read any of the above and have thoughts? I’d love to hear from you.

-g