ancient house of rantings

Last time, Eliza Hellbound tried to drag the world into Hell. Heavy died fighting her.

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⌈ Secret Post #6991 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.


01.
[Umineko When They Cry]


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Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 01 pages, 12 secrets from Secret Submission Post #998.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

Here we go! Uh, for page limit reasons I will skip the opening action scene, but I think the after-action debrief summarises it well enough...

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⌈ Secret Post #6990 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.


01.


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Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 01 pages, 18 secrets from Secret Submission Post #998.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

Well, with Starro defeated, who else could possibly oppose the Crime Syndicate of Amerika?

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In the comments to these weekly posts (and only these posts), it's your chance to go as off topic as you like.

Talk about non-comics stuff, thread derail, and just generally chat among yourselves.

The intent of these posts is to chat and have some fun and, sure, vent a little as required. Reasoned debate is fine, as always, but if you have to ask if something is going over the line, think carefully before posting please.

Normal board rules about conduct and behaviour still apply, of course.

It's been suggested that, if discussing spoilers for recent media events, it might be advisable to consider using the rot13 method to prevent other members seeing spoilers in passing.

The world situation is the world situation. If you're following the news, you know it as much as I do, if you're not, then there are better sources than scans_daily. But please, no doomscrolling, for your own sake.

Hope those hit by the winter storm in North America have been taking care of themselves.

SCOTUS struck down Trump's Trademark Tariff plan, which he responded to by re-imposing them using an even more obscure law, providing a loophole.

In the UK, the Andrew formerly known as Prince was arrested (on his birthday no less) for Suspicion of Misconduct in Public Office, following his links to Epstein. A government grandee, and Lord, Peter Mandelson was likewise charged. Given that Norway has also arrested a prince of their country, people are starting to ask when the wheels of justice will grind Stateside.

In a truly deranged ramble, even by his standards, Trump also said he was sending two US Navy Hospital ships to Greenland to deal with the residents who were "not being taken care of by Norway". Both Greenland and Norway have declined, pointing out that they both already have free nationalised healthcare, which is more than America has. Greenland also just provided medical assistance to a US submarine, where a sailor had been taken ill, so... that was awkward.

The Winter Olympics drew to a close, and next up we have the Winter Paralympics.

Starfleet Academy gave us our first canon gay (and occasional skirt wearing) Klingon: Jay-Den Kargg who is in a cute relationship with the cheerily upbeat (and much shorter) Kyle. This caused the usual pearl clutching from people who probably keep spare pearls to clutch on hand in case of emergencies, but we can ignore them.

The George Foreman Lean Mean Fat Reducing Grilling Machine Cookbook
Paperback – January 1, 2000
by george-foreman-connie-merydith (Author)


Today we finished reading our second cookbook of the year. The front matter includes Acknowledgements, Preface, Introduction, and Smart Eating for Healthier Living. The recipe chapters are Bring Out the Best of Grilling -- Marinades, Sauces, and Rubs; A Cut Above -- Beef and Lamb; Smoky Sensations -- Pork Chops, Ribs, and Ham; Tender Choices from the Sea -- Fish and Shellfish; Savory Grilled Poultry -- Chicken and Turkey; Quick and Easy Favorites -- Burgers, Sandwiches, and Snacks; Tempting Companion Dishes -- Vegetables, Fruit, Salads, and Desserts. Then in the back are a basic cooking guide, glossary, and index. The index lists both recipe titles and ingredients.

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⌈ Secret Post #6989 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.


01.


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Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 01 pages, 24 secrets from Secret Submission Post #998.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

Forewords and Afterwords by W.H. Auden

A collection of essays, including reviews, all written on occasion, for a particular book.

It produces a great variety of subjects.

Some are of period interest, of various kinds. The appropriate treatment for migraines being psychoanalysis? On the other hand, this is where I read his observation about how going over to Rome was a shocking scandal in the upper classes -- like the birth of an illegitimate baby -- but something that did happen, whereas becoming a Baptist was inconceivable.

Much about poets and other writers, some interesting observations on heroes, and more.

 

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There are still three issues remaining, but it's time for the final showdown with Starro, and Superwoman's origin! Why does she hate men so much? A much more pertinent question than why David Finch drew Starros with four tentacles for the cover!

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It started in October 2024 - it's been seventeen issues and one annual.

It's the Cirque, which Dick'd encountered as Robin, having designs on him and Blüdhaven.

In issue #132, he'd confronted the Cirque's representative Olivia Pearce - and seen her face.

( Her master, the Zanni, came out of it. )

The launch of Justice League Quarterly might’ve seemed excessive, but in retrospect, it let Giffen, DeMatteis, and Jones explore a few story concepts in depth that otherwise might’ve been sent to the margins. First up was Booster Gold’s new super-team, the Fighting Shills. No, wait, I mean the Intellectual Property. No, wait, I mean the Bought-And-Paid-For Hacks. No, wait, I mean…the Conglomerate? Are we SURE that’s their name?

( In 1990, the name ‘‘Citizens United’’ would’ve said ‘super-team’ more than ‘‘overextension of corporate power.’’ )

⌈ Secret Post #6988 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.


01.



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Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 02 pages, 30 secrets from Secret Submission Post #998.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

Another tradition of forming a super-hero team: the members having a little bit of conflict first.

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If Mexican Gothic left you craving more South American fantasy horror, Our Share of Night by Mariana Enriquez of Argentina (translated from Spanish by Megan McDowell) has you covered. This is a family epic intertwined with the dark machinations of a macabre cult and its impact. It's also a splendid allegory for the evils of colonialism and generational trauma. This book was #15 from the "Women in Translation" rec list.

The book begins with Juan, a powerful but ill man who acts as a "medium" for the cult to commune with its dark god. Juan, struggling with the health of his defective heart, the wear-and-tear of years as the medium, and the grief and rage of his wife's recent death (he suspects, at the orders of the cult he serves) is desperate to keep his son Gaspar from stepping into his shoes, as the cult wants. Juan's opening segment of the book is about his efforts to protect Gaspar.

From there, the book branches off into other perspectives which give background to both the cult and the family. This is a great way of giving us a holistic and generational view of the cult, but it does drag occasionally. Gaspar's sections--in his childhood and then later in his teens/young adulthood--together make up the majority of the book, and while enjoyable, do amble off into great detail about his and his friends' day-to-day lives, such that I did wonder sometimes when we were getting back to the plot. I don't like to cite pacing issues, because I think that gets thrown around a lot whenever someone didn't vibe with a book, but the drawn-out length of these quotidian sections doesn't fit well with how quickly the climax of the book passes and is wrapped up. I would have liked to have spent less time with Gaspar at soccer games and more on his plans for addressing the cult.

However, on the whole, the book is a fun, if very dark read. It also serves well as a critique of Argentina's moneyed class and of colonialism in general, and how money sticks with money even across borders. Here, Argentina's wealthy have more in common with English money than with the Argentine lower classes (and that's how they want it). The cult, populated at its upper echelons by the privileged, is an almost literal blight on the land, willing to sacrifice an endless amount of blood, local and otherwise, to beg power off a hungry and unknown supernatural entity.

It brutalizes its mediums, which it often plucks from poverty to wring for power and then discard. Juan was adopted away from his own poor family at six, under the insistence his parents would not be able to pay for the medical care he needed, and he is the least-abused of the cult's line of mediums. As soon as the cult sets their eye on his son, Juan must begin scheming how to keep Gaspar away from them.

Although he acts out of love of his son, Juan is also a deeply flawed person. He is secretive, moody, lies constantly (there is actual gaslighting here) and doesn't hesitate to knock Gaspar around to make him obey. The more he deteriorates--a common problem with all cult mediums--the less human he becomes. Part of this is his work, but much of it is also attributable to years of being used by the cult for its ends and the accumulated emotional trauma. This, of course, is then inflicted on Gaspar through his father's tempers and secrets.

Similarly flawed are the other members of the immediate family. Juan's wife Rosario, despite a better nature than her parents, still supports this cult and is eager for Gaspar to follow in his father's footsteps as a cult medium, in part for the prestige it will bring her as his mother. Gaspar, although far more empathetic and gentle than either of his parents, eventually grows up with his father's temper. Watching him grow from a sweet-natured little boy into the troubled young adult he becomes after years of his father's abuse and neglect is painful, but realistic.

The book is also unexpectedly queer. It's not often a book surprises me with its queerness, because that's usually what landed it on my radar in the first place, but this one did. Juan and Rosario are both bisexual and later in the book we spend some active time in Argentina's queer scene, including during the AIDS crisis in the 1980s. 

The translation was great! It read very naturally, even the dialogue, and it never felt stilted or awkward in its phrasing.

An ambitious novel that for the most part, pulls off what it's trying to do. As mentioned, I wish the ending had gotten more room to breathe, and I would not have minded this coming at the cost of some of the middle bits of navel-gazing, but I still felt the story was satisfying. 

 

( Scans under the cut... )

⌈ Secret Post #6987 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.


01.


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Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 02 pages, 36 secrets from Secret Submission Post #998.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.