"The Twilight Zone" by Nona Fernandez

Jun. 2nd, 2025 05:53 pm[personal profile] rocky41_7 posting in [community profile] books
rocky41_7: (Default)
Last night I finished The Twilight Zone by Nona Fernandez, book #9 from the "Women in Translation" rec list. This book was translated from Spanish by Natasha Wimmer.
 
The Twilight Zone is a nonfiction book, part memoir, part investigative journalism piece by Fernandez, first published in 2016. It concerns Fernandez's study of and memories of growing up under the Pinochet dictatorship in Chile. The author is haunted by the traumas of the regime, both those she experienced firsthand and those she heard about from others, and the book in some ways feels like an exercise in simply trying to reconcile those feelings.
 
Fernandez's book is of course very specific to the Chilean experience, and yet core parts of her incisive commentary about both the absurdity and the cruelty of autocracies rings true around the world. The exercises the regime goes through in its constant quest for self-preservation are both ridiculous and brutal, feelings Fernandez captures in her title. The surrealist sci-fi hit show of the 70s fits very well as a metaphor for the often-flailing yet eminently dangerous police state. 
 
Fernandez does an excellent job of using her prose to say things not neatly spelled out in words. I was reminded of reading The Things They Carried in high school, and how revelatory it seemed to me at the time how the author could use the style of prose to suggest a character's mental disarrangement without simply saying he was deranged. Fernandez's prose stood out to me in a similar way—how she uses the structure of her words to capture the feelings at play.
 
Equally compelling is the obviously copious amounts of research Fernandez put into her work. She portrays herself as a woman consumed by a quest to find answers about this regime, and it comes across in her work. Names, dates, places, timelines — Fernandez has clearly put in the leg work to piece together the final days of the highlighted victims of the regime as much as can be done. 
 
However, the book never comes across like a textbook. Fernandez ably weaves her research into a compelling narrative. Neither does she ever seek to blur the line between the facts and her imagination—she keeps a clean line between what she knows and what she wonders, or imagines. Nevertheless, the questions and suppositions that populate Fernandez's mind feel regrettably natural for anyone in the aggravating circumstances of a mendacious autocracy. She does an excellent job of showing how crazy-making it is to live under such a government, where you are constantly being lied to in direct contradiction of visible facts, and yet there seems to be nothing you can do but either accept the truth or taste the knuckles of the regime. 
 
I really enjoyed this read. It breezed by and I can absolutely see what a national treasure Fernandez is as a writer! I would love to see if more of her work has been translated into English; she has a wonderful voice.

Quantum Bang is live

Jun. 1st, 2025 11:55 pm[personal profile] starwatcher
starwatcher: Western windmill, clouds in background, trees around base. (Default)
 

For those who don't know, Quantum Bang is a super-sized version of Big Bang (fic productions, not the TV show). Stories are written in a variety of fandoms, and most are epic in length, with a number of art illustrations. Some will eventually appear on AO3, but some remain only on the QB site.

For the next two weeks, two (or sometimes three) stories will be posted each day. Here's a list of the titles, and what fandom is represented, that will be posted.

https://quantumbang.org/2025-posting-schedule/

Every year I tell myself to let people know, and every year I fritter away the time. This year, I'm finally taking a minute to actually make a post. And if you don't see anything that piques your interest, click on the Fiction Index to check out stories from the past six years.

Happy reading!

 

The Reality War - Doctor Who Icons

Jun. 2nd, 2025 12:40 pm[personal profile] magnavox_23 posting in [community profile] icons
magnavox_23: Jodie Whittaker is jumping in the air with the tardis in the background (DW_Jodie_jumping)
Under a cut for *spoilers*


cut cut cut )

Check out the rest here. <3
magnavox_23: Jodie Whittaker is jumping in the air with the tardis in the background (DW_Jodie_jumping)
Under a cut for *spoilers*

cut cut cut... )

Check out the rest here. <3 
garryowen: (trek enterprise)
Fandom: Star Trek AOS (Reboot)
Pairings/Characters: Gaila & Christine Chapel
Rating: Teen
Length: 4,185 words
Creator Links: [archiveofourown.org profile] igrockspock
Theme: Female relationships

Summary: Privacy and fairy tales are two concepts that don't translate well into Orion.

Content notes: This is about Gaila, so there are mentions of enslavement and prostitution.

Reccer's Notes: I am fascinated by stories of how people come to Starfleet and what it must be like to meet people from such disparate backgrounds. This story approaches this subject with grace as Gaila and Christine Chapel become roommates at Starfleet Academy and must figure out each other's very different values and expectations. By opening up to each other, they forge a friendship. I like how creative the author is in describing Gaila's background and culture. The cultural exchange never feels heavy-handed. It's conveyed with tiny, realistic details like borrowing things from someone else's desk.

In addition to the cultural exchange element, the story weaves in ideas of resilience and having the power to change your life.

Fanwork Links: Once Upon a Time. And the WONDERFUL podfic by nickelmountain.
full_metal_ox: A gold Chinese Metal Ox zodiac charm. (Default)
Fandom: Mo Dao Zu Shi, Chen Qing Ling
Pairings/Characters: F/F; Madam Jin/Yu Ziyuan; Madam Jin, Yu Ziyuan, Jiang Cheng
Rating: Teen and Up
Length: 600
Content Notes: adultery (mentioned), angst, arranged marriage, bereavement, generational trauma, heteronormativity, marriage politics, possible (unexpressed) adult-> minor pining
Creator Tags: 5+1 Things, Drabble Sequence, Zǐdiàn (Módào Zǔshī) - Freeform, Canonical Character Death, Socially Imposed Heterosexual Marriage, Background Relationships
Creator Links: (AO3): [archiveofourown.org profile] Zdenka
Theme: Female Relationships, Arranged Marriage, 5+1, Mutual Pining, Pining

Summary:

Five times Madam Jin saw Zidian on Yu Ziyuan's hand, and one time she saw it on her son's.

Notes:

Written for femslashfete for the prompt "artifact."


Reccer's Notes: Zdenka manages to cram so much into 600 words: an exquisitely painful soromance fulfillable only through generational proxy, imposed in turn—and the reader has the added pang of knowing what’s going to become of that couple.


Fanwork Links: Advance and Retreat, by [archiveofourown.org profile] Zdenka.

Round 175: Female Relationships

Jun. 1st, 2025 09:11 am[personal profile] runpunkrun posting in [community profile] fancake
runpunkrun: combat boot, pizza, camo pants = punk  (punk rock girl)
Photograph with added text: Female Relationships, at Fancake. Four old Nepalese women sit together on a low brick wall, their feet dangling, most of them barefoot, their shoes kicked off below them. They're dressed in loose patterned fabrics in various shades of red and the mood is relaxed.
Our theme for June is female relationships!

That's any kind of relationship—platonic, romantic, professional, familial, adversarial—between characters who identify as female.

The tag for this round is: theme: female relationships

If you're just joining us, be sure to check out our policy on content notes. Content notes aren't required, but they're nice to include in your recs, especially if a fanwork has untagged content that readers may wish to know about in advance.

Rules! )

Posting Template! )

Promote this round! )

sam young. black doves.

Jun. 1st, 2025 04:26 am[personal profile] inkcharm posting in [community profile] fandom_icons
inkcharm: (Default)
CANON: Black Doves.
CHARACTERS: Sam Young (Ben Whishaw).
ADDITIONAL INFO: 107 Icons, Season 1.
CREDIT TO: [community profile] inkonic


HERE @ [community profile] inkonic

August 2018

S M T W T F S
   1234
5678 91011
12131415161718
19202122232425
262728293031 

Most Popular Tags

Style Credit

Expand Cut Tags

No cut tags
Page generated Jun. 15th, 2025 12:35 am
Powered by Dreamwidth Studios