Katabasis by R.F. Kuang

No one can accuse Kuang of writing the same story over and over; each novel I've read has been completely different than the one before, and Katabasis is no different. Cambridge grad student Alice, a student of the arcane arts, makes a journey through Hell* to find her recently-deceased thesis advisor so he can provide her the letters of recommendation she needs to obtain a teaching position. The absurdity of such a quest gives you an idea of the nature of the book -- a sharp satire of academic politics and overachieving students. It's funny, too; I laughed out loud at the list of academic sins of pride ("Had more of a comment, not a question").

It's tempting to compare this to Kuang's other novel in an academic setting, Babel. That novel bluntly tackled colonialism in a bleak story that illustrated the many evils caused by greed and prejudice. Katabasis's stakes are much smaller, but Kuang uses them to illustrate pettiness and cruelty of academic life under a professor who revels in the power he has over his students. Unlike Babel, where magic causes real world harm, and could cause real world good, magic doesn't seem to do anything useful here, which is perhaps the source of the cruelty ("Competition in academia is so vicious because the stakes are so small"**). As Alice wends her way through Hell, we learn more and more about the psychological and physical indignities and assaults Professor Grimes subjected her to, and the way she tolerated it because of her drive to succeed and her fear that he would blackball her. Part of her journey, then, is coming to terms with that abuse and realizing how miserable her life had become in the name of academic achievement.

She's not the only one caught up in such a toxic environment; the members of this Cambridge school have a gnostic world view, not just in the search for hidden or lost knowledge, but in the way the mind is elevated far above the body. It's a mindset not unexpected for people who are focused on intellectual achievement above all else, but it does open the students up to neglect -- going without food, sleep, or fresh air for days or weeks -- and even abuse. 

It's not anything new; the idea that the spiritual (or intellectual) world is superior to the material world has been around for millenia, and is present today amongst the transhumanists hoping to live forever and the techbros striving to hack their bodies. But the life of the mind is not enough, and people eventually crave food, touch, pain, pleasure, movement, physicality. Humans are not meant to be divided like this, and this is the lesson Alice must learn as she scales mountains, becomes close to Peter (who's on the same quest), hungers for whatever scraps of food she can get, and revels in physical battles.

It's not a spoiler to say that by the end Alice has reevaluated what she wants out of life, and I'm not sure that she will be able to overcome her own flaws and hang-ups so easily, but the novel ends on a lovely little note of hope, of having a wide-open future ahead.

 

 

*This Hell is not the Christian Hell, although in borrows many elements from it while incorporating myths and literature from other traditions as well to get at universal truths. The sections Alice must travel through don't line up perfectly with the seven deadly sins, for example, but Kuang depicts those sins in a surprisingly orthodox manner; the realm of Desire is squalid, pathetic, and sad, Pride is petty and pointless; and Anger is futile.

**Laurence J. Peter. 

Knotted Pearl Treasure Necklace

 

I thoroughly enjoyed making a knotted pearl treasure necklace. The inspiration was from one of The Beadshop's videos, and the first step was rooting through my jewelry box and bead supplies for the appropriate charms and pendants. It was hard to limit it to five! Deciding on the pearls was easier; I had a string of fresh water pearls with the slightest lavender cast waiting to be used for a special project. Once everything was decided, the necklace came together quickly.

Left to right: 

A broken earring, from the late-90s trend of colored crystals and sparkly everything.

A fancy button I found on the street when I lived in Boston, and probably the closest I will ever come to owning something from Ferragamo. I miss Boston.

The pendant my father gave me the night before my wedding. It came on a gold collar but neither simplicity nor grey and gold were my style, so it languished. A few years ago I repurposed the gold collar to hold a cameo pendant and Mother and Child medal that used to belong to my mom and a white "pearl" pendant that belonged to my grandmother, making the collar a family affair and much more likely to be worn. I'm glad I've now found a place for my father's pendant, too. (No elegant, minimalist jewelry for me!)

A vintage French (I think) miraculous medal. This came from a tin of vintage notions from French General; they now mostly sell textiles and notions for quilts and other sewing arts, and I miss the jewelry kits they used to put together.

A gemstone pendant left over from the first iteration of my tiny, occasional jewelry-making business. I've been half-heartedly selling jewelry for a long time! I just can't bring myself to do any marketing and research to make a real go of it (there's a reason I became a lawyer, and then a librarian; I'm allergic to "business").

Cross Stitch Diary Part 3

 I'm way behind in showing off my stitching. As always, thanks to The Daily Stitchuation for inspiration.

 A red heart for Valentine's Day.

A Star of David for the Bar and Bat Mitzvah we went to.

An ashen cross for Ash Wednesday.

A stack of books for my February reads. 

A tooth because there were lots of dental appointments earlier in the year. 

A pi pie for Pi Day.

a Clover leaf for St. Patrick's Day.

A cross for Good Friday.

A bunny for Easter. 

Corn because I read Men of Maize. 

A tomato pincushion because I've been doing a lot of mending. 

A tabby cat (standard issue) for Porcupine.

Daffodil and lilac blossom for Spring. 

A drop of blood because I gave blood.

Grogu because we saw The Mandalorian and Grogu.

Frida Kahlo's eyebrows and crown of flowers because I saw the Frida and Diego exhibition at the MoMA.

A priestly collar because my brother (a priest) came to visit. 

A soccer ball for the World Cup (yay Spain! Boo Argentinian poor sportsmanship!).

 

Phew! This project is now about a year old, but I plan on continuing it until I run out of fabric. 

Woven Fringe Earrings

 Joan Williams's project in the autumn 2023 issue of Belle Armoire Jewelry caught my eye immediately -- Czech glass on a miniature rug woven from cotton floss, inspired by the saddle blankets horses wear.

 

Lacking a mini loom, I made one from a large matchbox:

I enjoyed the weaving so much, however, that I'm seriously considering getting a proper loom of that size (the matchbox worked, but the warp threads had an annoying tendency to slip off at inconvenient moments).

Lacking glass beads in a suitable color, I instead created a little stack from brass discs, fordite beads, and size 8 seed beads to anchor them in place. Finishing was easier than I expected, too; a blunt needle made it easy to hide the thread ends under the wefts on the back.

These earrings were a lot of fun to make; I bet a bracelet would be, too!
 

Book Round-Up: Where Does the Time Go?

 Thornhedge by T. Kingfisher: Kingfisher's novella is a decidedly unusual retelling of Sleeping Beauty, with a heroine who is about as far from a Disney princess as you could imagine. Instead of the usual tropes, the story focuses on the folk idea of changelings and how that can devastate a family. It's melancholy and touching, odd and funny. 

Around the World in Eighty Games by Marcus du Sautoy: du Sautoy is a mathematician with a longstanding fascination with games, and here he gives an overview of the history of gaming. As you might guess from the title, he covers games from every part of the globe and as far back as the third millennium BC. His insight into why humans play games was good, although when he strayed into meaning-of-life philosophy he fumbled a bit.

The Art of Vanishing by Morgan Pager: This was an interesting premise -- painted figures come to life when people aren't watching, and some people can even enter the paintings -- but the resulting story was just ok; The pacing was better suited to a thriller (this wasn't) and the love story wasn't very strong.

The Mythmakers by John Hendrix: An interesting graphic novel on the fruitful (and fraught) relationship between J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis, with digressions into the nature of myth, fairy tales, and folk tales. I had known about the Inklings, of course, but reading about the deterioration of their relationship (due to religious and literary differences, changing life circumstances, and human frailties) was sad. One hopes they are now reunited, their friendship restored to its full glory.

Golden Age Bibliomysteries by Otto Penzler, ed.: A collection of mysteries set amongst librarians, booksellers, and collectors. Sometimes the bookish element was a McGuffin, other times integral to the plot. Stories by Lawrence G. Blochman, Anthony Boucher, and Cornell Woolrich were standouts. 

Hellboy v. 5-7: Love 'em. With volume 5, the initial storyline is over -- Hellboy is no longer fated to bring about the apocalypse and he's no longer a member of BPRD. Instead we get his adventures, past and present, along with Mignola's trademark folk horror and humor. 

Untitled Red/Pink/Orange Thing

 This project has been on my mind for years. I'm using the techniques in Effie Mitrofanis's gorgeous Threadwork: Silks, Stitches, Beads & Cords. 

The first step was gathering fabrics and threads.

 Four years ago I mounted linen gauze (from some expensive curtains my cats wrecked 🙄) into a frame, tacked on a base of sheer rose fabric from an old camisole, and layered on rectangles of dupioni silks. I used a running stitch in matching pearl cottons to hold the silks in place.

 

Last year I tacked on a rose motif from a fancy scrap of polyester fabric. I couched Japan gold around the edges, filled in background sections with chipwork, and stitched the center spaces between petals with metallic ribbon. 

 Initially, I was disappointed that I didn't have any gold purl for the chipwork (this project is purely from my stash), but I like the way the silver looks.

 A couple of weeks ago I twisted silk scraps into ropes and coiled those ropes into spirals, twisting, coiling, and couching them down as I worked. What a pain in the ass that was! It made me realize I really need a proper stand for this frame. Or a third arm.

 

This past week I kind of went overboard beading a sun motif in the upper corner, using tiny scraps of folded silk (straight from Mitrofanis's book), sequins, bugle beads in two sizes, and lots and lots of seed beads. 

 

I'm ready for a break from this project, but I have a couple of ideas for it still -- I want to use more scraps to create a vine with more flowers and leaves along the bottom, and I think I will embellish the rest of the background with lots of tonal embroidery. But who knows where inspiration will take me!

Book Round-up

Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe by Fannie Flagg: I've seen the movie, of course, but I had not read the book until it was the April selection for my book club. Unlike the movie, the book follows many more characters than Ruth and Idgie (whose relationship is a lot more obvious), and the depictions of racism, poverty, and addiction in the 1920s and 30s are sometimes heartbreaking. I don't have a lot to say about it, but I enjoyed it.

The Spellshop by Sarah Beth Durst: Durst set out to write the ultimate cozy novel, and it certainly has all the elements -- books, flying cats, talking plants, bakeries, gardens, jam, and a gentle love story. I do wish she had put as much thought into the world-building; I don't need GRRM-levels of detail, but the characters were remarkably incurious about the political revolution happening in the background. On a nit-pickier level, I also wish she had done a little more research into how libraries work (manuscripts, for example, don't have publishers, and in a world apparently without a printing press books would be much scarcer and more expensive than they are now). Props to her, though; Meep the cactus is adorable.

Witch Hat Atelier by Kamome Shirahama: A cozy fantasy manga series about a little girl who accidentally turns her mother into a statue and must attend the titular atelier to learn how to undo the spell. It was cute, but I don't feel the need to read the <checks notes> … next 14 volumes.

Exit Strategy by Martha Wells: I love these novellas so much I've started buying them rather than getting them from the library. This one is as funny, thrilling, and even heartwarming as the previous ones (don't hate me, Murderbot!).

Hellboy v. 1-4 by Mike Mignola: A reread, just because. Love both the unambiguously good (despite his name and appearance) hero and the mix of folklore and horror.

Meet Me in the Moon Room by Ray Vukcevich: A collection of very short, very odd stories. Vukcevich specializes in speculative, almost absurdist fiction. The stories were hit-or-miss for me; some were quite affecting, but others were clinical, sometimes quite cold and cruel. A riff on Frankenstein ("Rejoice") was excellent.

Pussy Willows (a Little out of Season)

 I love decorating with pussy willows late winter/early spring, and I've long admired DusiCrafts's beautiful patterns, so I bit the bullet and bought one. And then I made two ornaments, one for my mom and one for me:

The nice thing about DusiCrafts's patterns is that she offers a lot of options -- several different versions of the pussy willow branches, some with buds and some just with catkins, Easter eggs to add to the design, and different sizes and shapes for the ornaments themselves. I liked being able to customize them a bit!
 

Book Round-Up

The Correspondent by Virginia Evans: An absolutely lovely epistolary novel about an elderly woman looking back on her life, and the wonderful, difficult, troubling relationships she had. It was well worth the months-long wait at my library.

Great Big Beautiful Life by Emily Henry: I’ve only loved Henry’s odd-numbered books, but this (her 6th) broke the pattern. Probably because it was also a departure for her, with a good chunk of the novel devoted to another elderly woman reflecting on her life and relationships (a theme this month, I guess). I know some were put off by that, but I was ok with it, especially because I tend to prefer romances that are secondary, not primary, plots.

Agnes Aubert's Mystical Cat Shelter by Heather Fawcett: Of course I read a book about a woman who runs a cat shelter and her wizard landlord. I'm loving Fawcett's take on romantasies -- fewer assholes, more humor.

Woman Hollering Creek by Sandra Cisneros: I don't know why it took me so long to read Cisneros, but I absolutely loved this collection of vivid, evocative, heartbreaking, and funny stories. My favorite was "Little Miracles, Kept Promises."

Men of Maize by Miguel Angel Asturias: Considered to be possibly the first magical realism novel, it's not nearly as famous as 100 Years of Solitude, probably because the text is quite challenging -- a loose understanding of time, opaque (to me) allusions to Guatemalan political history, extensive references to Mayan folklore and religious beliefs, and an impressionistic approach to language use. I'm so glad I didn't try to read it in the original Spanish, a particular dialect with lots of Mayan vocabulary. This edition was heavily annotated and had several essays on the author, text, and translation, which allowed me to understand much better Asturias's themes of colonialism and the degradation of the environment and left me with a desire to learn more about the Mayans. (Interestingly, there's a section very similar to my favorite Cisneros story.)

 

I Made a Book!

The pattern is from The Barmy Fox, based on a simple folded paper booklet design she used to make for her young students. The embroidery uses a wide variety of stitches, although I made some changes to suit my own preferences. For stability and opacity, I inserted stiff interfacing between the pages.

This is such a clever but simple way to make a booklet, and I have so many ideas I want to try with it. 

 

Cross Stitch Diary Part 2

 I've been making and reading, just not quite having the energy to post. (Sometimes I post on Instagram or Substack.)

A piece of cranberry pie for Thanksgiving.

Candles for Advent.

A Christmas tree.

A blue SUV because the brakes failed and we had to cancel our trip to see family.

A wedge of cheese because we celebrated New Year’s Eve with a charcuterie board (we are old and/or tired and/or introverted).

A crown for Three Kings’ Day.

A birthday cake for my oldest.

A star for Minnesota, l’Etoile du Nord (so proud of Minneapolis).

A stack of books for the ones I read in January.

---

Book Round-Up

 Rogue Protocol by Martha Wells: Still enchanted by the series. I think I'm going to buy them (high praise!)

Winter's Tales by Isak Dinesen: A varied collection of tales, rigid in upholding the class system and morality, but also with sharp insights about the inherent oddness and tragedy of some people. "The Dreaming Child" in particular, about the lies we tell ourselves, has stuck with me.

Claire DeWitt and the City of the Dead by Sara Gran: I joined a book club, and this was the first (for me) pick. And I was one of the only people who liked it, ha. Ostensibly a murder mystery set in New Orleans about a year after the flood, it's by no means a conventional procedural. There are elements of magical realism, not a whole lot of detecting gets done, and Claire is an oddball (to put it mildly). Instead it's about trauma, the lack of control we have over what happens to us, and the ability to rise above it. This is the start of a trilogy and I'm looking forward to the other two.

The Librarians by Sherry Thomas: Of course I was going to read a book about librarians who solve a murder. Unfortunately, it was a bit of a disappointment. I liked the characters and the story, but the whole thing felt engineered, like the author was given a checklist of modern topics, character traumas, and pop cultural references to incorporate.  A more organic version of the story would have been perfect.

English Is not Easy by Luci Gutiérrez: This is a delightful graphic novel that explains the English language to non-native speakers. For a native speaker like me, the value is in the quirky, funny, occasionally bawdy illustrations.

Tuesday Mooney Talks to Ghosts by Kate Racculia: This story has the titular character go on a scavenger hunt arranged by an eccentric millionaire while dealing with the ghosts (figurative and literal) of her past, but it took an unexpectedly dark turn towards the end. Still, it was fun and engrossing, and filled with a number of great characters.

Wild Dark Shore by Charlotte McConaghy: another book club pick, and again I was one of the only ones who liked it. It's a family drama with elements of eco-dystopia and magical realism; normally I avoid dystopian novels at all costs, but gratifyingly this one found hope in human relationships, particularly in those of parents and children. A common reason given today for not having children is the unwillingness to subject them to climate change, but that can lead to a sort of despairing complacency, an excuse to not bother to try to solve the very many problems we are facing. Future generations can and should inspire us to work towards the common good. I think some of my fellow club members were hung up on the lack of explanation for the some phenomena and motives in the novel, whereas I'm more comfortable with unanswered questions. It's a sad novel, but gorgeous in its own way.

Cross Stitch Diary

 Inspired by The Daily Stitchuation, I've started a stitch diary (not my first one). For my own sanity, I'm not forcing myself to stitch every day, or create a motif for each day. 

Part 1:

 A cap, because my Down Syndrome son finished high school.

A strawberry, because I love them.

An evil eye, because I was reading about them.

A resist symbol, because Trump.

The flag of Iceland, because I read Sjon's Codex 1962 (and I want to go someday).

A hospital symbol, because my son had minor surgery.

A school bus, because the privatized bus system in NYC suuuuucks.

A tear, because life is hard.

An apple, pumpkin, and leaf because I love fall.

A witch's hat because I crocheted one a week before Halloween.

Part 2:

 A piece of cranberry pie for Thanksgiving.

Candles for Advent.

A Christmas tree.

A blue SUV because the brakes failed and we had to cancel our trip to see family.

A wedge of cheese because we celebrated New Year's Eve with a charcuterie board (we are old and/or tired and/or introverted).

A crown for Three Kings' Day.

A birthday cake for my oldest.

A star for Minnesota, l'Etoile du Nord (so proud of Minneapolis).

A stack of books for the ones I read in January.

The Bone Clocks by David Mitchell

Mitchell's novel, set in the same world as Cloud Atlas (and all his other novels), has a similar formal structure: it's divided into six parts, each a different kind of story -- coming-of-age, Faustian bargain, war memoir, literary satire, metaphysical fantasy, and eco-dystopia. Underlying the narrative, though, are references to a war between the mysterious Horologists and Anchorites; the former are trying to protect humanity from the latter, who want to use humans as fuel in their quest for immortality.

 But it’s not until late in the novel we learn this, and with the exception of the fifth section we spend little time with the Anchorites and Horologists themselves. Instead every part serves as a character study, each one narrated by someone with a connection to Holly, the first narrator and the key to the novel as a whole. in each of these sections we see the characters make bad or even disastrous decisions, but what matters is the fallout — not just the consequences to the plot, but the effect on the characters and what they choose to do after. 

 It's here that Mitchell demonstrates his skill as a writer. Most of the characters are deeply flawed, often making stupid, selfish, or evil choices, but Mitchell lets us see what drives them to make those choices. The fourth section in particular stood out -- it's the section that covers the longest time period, allowing us to see an arrogant, self-involved writer ever so slowly repent and learn to put others before himself. On the other hand, the fifth section, while fun and fascinating, felt out of place. The sixth section returns us to ordinary humans, but, set in a near future ravaged by climate change, it displays a deeply cynical attitude about humanity, something that seems almost like a betrayal of the poignantly-depicted characters of the rest of the novel.

Despite my disappointment in the ending, I fully intend to read more of Mitchell's work. The world he has created is filled with wonderful characters and fascinating bits of lore.

A Long-Overdue Christmas Wrap-up

 It's been a tough month.

On the crafting front, I started Sue Spargo's Christmas tree pillow project. I cannot actually afford any of her kits, though, so I worked out of my stash. In the process I changed some motifs and stitches to suit my tastes, such as adding a manger scene because Christmas isn't secular for me, and eliminating most bullion knots because those are the devil's stitch. What I have so far:

I also stitched this freebie from Momentoell. I like the chunky effect she gets by using 6 or even 12 strands of floss. The lovely, soft colors are a nice change of pace, too, from the usual embroidered Christmas tree.

Not much jewelry making happened, but I did remake a bracelet (which apparently I never photographed) with several Christmas-themed charms into a necklace. No point in wearing a bracelet if my wrists are covered up in several layers of long johns and wool sweaters (it's so cold where I work).

 

My middle son gave me a skein of acrylic yarn for Christmas. I love the color, but it is too scratchy to wear so I crocheted a garland. This worked up so fast and fun I made a second with a different yarn.

He also gave me more buttons, so I made a button garland for the tree.

And I finally finished my youngest's quilt: 

On the book front, I read three Christmasy books:

The White Priory Murders by Carter Dickson: An enjoyable locked-room mystery, where, amusingly, Dickson had two characters immediately propose the most obvious explanations to accuse each other. John Dickson Carr was name-checked in the locked-room mystery Wake Up Dead Man, too, which was a fun little easter egg.

Snowed In by Catherine Walsh: a cute holiday-themed contemporary romance, related to her previous novel, Holiday Romance. I enjoyed it, but it lacked an effective structure to hang the story on.

Golden Age Christmas Mysteries ed. by Otto Penzler: some of these would better be classified as spy thrillers or adventures, but all were enjoyable. The collection runs the gamut from light-hearted, comedic stories to darker, melancholic ones, so there's something to suit most tastes.

I think that about wraps it up. Aside from the food, cancelled trip, car troubles, pretty snow fall, improv king cake ...