TV TALK

I went to the seaside last weekend. Inland was warm and sunny, and admittedly, Friday was also warm and sunny on the island, but Saturday and Sunday were both foggy. The fog was so thick that I couldn't see the mountain on one side of the island nor the islands close by on the other.

I spent the first Sunday on this period reading Murder in the Dressing Room, which was a cozy way to spend a Sunday. The one thing that I kept getting stuck on was that the main character is supposed to have been a part of this specific community for long enough that a leader in the community set them up to be their successor, but they had to be told almost everything about the people they've been collaborating with for years. The impression was that they were an outsider to the community they were supposed to be leading. This bit tends to overpower everything else at times, but mostly this was a nice mystery in a queer community in London (and specifically drag scene) and our intrepid explorer detective has a supportive partner, which is always a plus.

After that, I read The City Beautiful. This was a tense novel—so not entirely what I usually read—and really awesome. It has one of my favourite rebuttals to the "homosexual behaviour is forbidden in the Bible" argument. I'll quote it here. For context, they've started kissing.

"Wait," I panted. "We shouldn't do this. It's a sin."

"Sins are measured in the pain you cause others."

"But Leviticus."

"But David and Jonathan." Frankie's breath coaxed up the fine down on the nape of my neck as he nuzzled my throat. "If something brings us mutual pleasure and harms no one, it's a virtue."

But David and Jonathan.

After that I read Ex Libris, which I ended up enjoying more than I thought I would. It's a series of short essays about books that the author finds culturally significant. I initially wanted to pick it up because I'm a fan of Dana Tanamachi's work, who did cover illustrations included in the book. I found out that they printed just the illustrations as postcards, so I think I'll get that for my collection instead.^*

I also tackled His Dark Materials series. (Mulefa world remains my favourite.) It's a different experience on this reread. Turns out there's a fair bit of hidden theology in this book. The Case for God, a book that I read in parallel, enhanced the experience. While the rest of the book was interesting, if slightly too dense, I really think that just reading chapter one would we a good companion to His Dark Materials. (I haven't read her book, but Mona Sobhani's interview on Moonbeaming felt really resonant too, with His Dark Materials in general and The Amber Spyglass in particular.)

• Holly Stars, Murder in the Dressing Room (A Misty Divine Mystery 1)
• Aden Polydoros, The City Beautiful
• Michiko Kakutani, Ex Libris: 100+ Books to Read and Reread
• Philip Pullman, Northern Lights (His Dark Materials 1)
• Philip Pullman, The Subtle Knife (His Dark Materials 2)
• Philip Pullman, The Amber Spyglass (His Dark Materials 3)
• Karen Armstrong, The Case for God

_{^* Forever sad that at the moment Tanamachi mostly does murals that are on the other side of the world from where I am. You have no idea how much research I did when she put on the I Liked What I Saw exhibition at Laity Lodge. Through various (official) sources, I think I managed to track down all the artwork that was shown then.}