Reading Update No. 1

Hello!

I agonized over that simple title– it feels pretty big to establish the naming structure for my reading updates. I went with “Reading Update No. 1” because this is the first time that I am updating you. I like that the number at the top of the page will refelct how many reading updates there have been. To balance my desire to populate this blog with my desire to have a consistent (and reasonably paced) posting schedule, I’ll post these reading updates on Sunday mornings, and other topics on Wednesday evenings (if I have another that week). Let me know how that sounds to (all seven of) you! Feel free to introduce yourselves in the comments, too!

This post will cover the beginning of 2022, since there have been no updates up to this point.

Mistborn

I’m starting off the year with Mistborn by Brandon Sanderson. Mistborn is a high fantasy trilogy following the charasmatic paladin-type character Kelsier, and a sixteen year old thief named Vin. It takes place in The Final Empire, a Theocracy established and maintained by the power of the Lord Ruler– the god figure and emperor.

The magic system is so much fun to read– it is called Allomancy. Allomancers are able to ingest certain types of metals, and by “burning” them, they gain magical abilities. For example, Allomancers that can burn pewter gain super-strength-like abilities, and those who can burn steel are able to push on other metal objects — making small coins fly like projectiles, or pushing off of large metal objects to jump inhumanly high. There are metals that allow the user to manipulate emotions, and some that enhance the user’s senses. It makes for some really interesting fight sequences and intrigue– the fact that it is framed as a heist story really sweetens the deal.

I’m enjoying it so far! The characters are complex, lovable, and flawed. The setting is one that comes up a lot in fiction: the totalitarian state that dominates and subjugates everyone except the highest echelons of society, and those closest to the ruler. In short, its been done many times before. However, the fantasy elements combined with the heist story format give it a wonderfully fresh feeling. It’s a setup that gets us invested in each of the characters for their individual strengths and weaknesses, and puts them in a familiarly bleak setting. As a reader who is familiar with the stereotypical totalitarian state, I am on the edge of my seat wondering if they’re going to succeed against the forces subjugating them; I’ve seen many good characters fail in the past. In my opinion, Mistborn is a great way of using the trope-familiar setting to enhance the stakes.

I love reading fantasy in the winter. I think it has something to do with fantasy’s ability to reintroduce wonder to my life. I love that cultures in the far Northern reaches of the globe have long storytelling traditions to get through the winter– like Norse sagas and the oral traditions of the Irish seanchai. The idea of long, fantastical stories keeping people entertained through the long nights and cold months is really appealing to me. While oral syorytelling traditions are harder to come by in the US these days, there are plenty of extensive fantasy series to fill that void. Reading Mistborn in January is proving to be a good choice. Can’t wait to finish it!

Interior Chinatown

Interior Chinatown by Charles Yu is completely taking me by surprise. The cover says it is “a novel,” and its formatted more like a script. But it is definitely a novel– the script-ness is definitely a stylistic choice (and a fantastic one, as I’ll get into). I read the first 80 pages in an evening– partially because of the low word count per page, and mostly because I was hooked. By page twenty, I was tearing up.

The descriptions are beautiful, and Yu has an incredible ability to make me feel like I am in Chinatown with the characters. The prose borders on poetry at times. The second-person POV (using “you” and referring directly to the reader– a bold and uncommon choice) definitely contributes to this. In the second-person works I’ve read in the past, it was a jarring POV and took a while to get used to. Yu, however, uses it so flawlessly that it took me about ten pages to realize it was second person at all. From that point on it continued to feel natural and served the story perfectly. I’m really enjoying the different style and seeing the effect it has on both the narrative and my interpretation of it.

The specific Chinatown this novel takes place in is kept ambiguous for thematic purposes– and it definitely works. I think Yu wants us to take the book as an example of what Asian people in the diaspora experience, without granting the reader the ability to deny it based on geography– the “well that’s just in that city” self-exemption goes out the window. He frames the story in the same generalizations that American society already pidgeonholed Asian communities into– Chinatown is different city to city, but they’re all called Chinatown and regarded similarly no matter where you go. This book plays into that at first, and then dives deeper into the complexities of life in Chinatown, and what it’s actually like to live life there. The parts that do this best read more like a memoir than a novel.

This book seems to have two faces: the literal and the metaphorocal. Literally, it is about Willis Wu, an actor who is stuck in the role of “Generic Asian Man” in a stereotypical crime drama. In these scenes, he is an actual actor who is on set playing a role. However, the script format serves as an extended metaphor when Willis isn’t acting in a scene. Each member of the Chinatown community plays a role– for example, most young dudes start off as “Generic Asian Man,” and have dreams of getting the role of “Kung Fu Guy”. I’ve been really drawn in by that discussion. Kung Fu Guy is the Asian man most valued by society– the famous, the revered, and the literal Kung Fu Guys we see on TV (i.e. Bruce Lee). Yu is talking about the value of Asian representation in media, and whether the Kung Fu Guy is a good form of representation– while Asian Americans finally get see someone who looks like them on the big screen, he is painfully aware of how it reinforces stereotypes, and just how few Asian actors get to play that coveted role. Here’s a quote that illustrates this:

“. . . Bruce Lee proved too much. He was a living, breathing video game boss-level, a human cheat code, an idealized avatar of Asian-ness and awesomeness permanently set on expert difficulty. Not a man so much as a personification, not a mortal so much as a diety on loan to you and your kind for a fixed period of time. A flame that burned for all yellow to understand, however briefly, what perfection was like.”

Interior Chinatown, page 24

There is humor and satire mixed into the serious discussions that make it more fun to read and more impactful at once. I’m quite excited to see where Yu goes with the rest of the book. After reading the first eighty pages in an evening, I’m going to take the rest a bit slower to take it in more intentionally.

Thanks!

Thanks for reading! In addition to these reading updates, I’m planning on doing book reviews (which would be Wednesday posts). If the reading updates drain everything I have to say about books, I might change the way I do updates so the reviews can be stronger, or distill the best parts of the updates to supplement the reviews. I may also decide to post only on Sundays, and make the post an update or review or something else entirely. We’ll see how it goes! See you next Sunday 🙂