Big Answers to Small Questions

I finished the third book in the trilogy just before going to sleep last night. It was a good read, but when all is said and done, I feel like there are a number of loose ends that, when tugged at, cause the whole thing to threaten to fall apart, if not to actually do so.

My main objection is the rest of the world. The events in the trilogy happen in the US, and we're told in mentions here and there that the rest of the world is different, likely doing better. But, except for a couple of very specific events — which are instigated by Americans — the rest of the world just stays out. The closest analogy I can think of is North Korea. Except that North Korea invests a lot in its military to keep the rest of the world out, whereas Kress's America seems to have no functioning military, or at least none that ever gets mentioned. It's like the rest of the world just goes "Oh, they're crazy. Let's stay out of there." Which doesn't seem likely, because people have time and time again demonstrated a complete inability to leave people alone.

And while the ending of the final volume is somewhat more satisfying than the ends of volumes 1 and 2, it also very much sets it up for Kress to potentially write a fourth book. And not a small opening. Imagine if Lord of the Rings had ended with a bookseller unpacking a crate of old books they'd just bought, finding a copy of How to Make Rings of Power: Complete and Unabridged by Sauron and trying to decide whether or not to put it on the shelf.

So more or less a mixed reaction. Some parts I though were good, some parts not so good. Thought-provoking, though not necessarily in the ways the author intended.

Also, I've got one comment on the physical book (and so nothing Kress could have done anything about): Maybe publicity works different in publishing, or maybe the publicity department at Tor in the mid-'90s had never heard of "underpromise then overdeliver," but I found the front cover text on this book kind of hilarious:

First Wells's The Time Machine,

then Clarke's Childhood's End, now...

BEGGARS RIDE

NANCY KRESS

I watched the whole thing, start to finish, and I thought it was good. Not as good as Paris (2024) or Pyeongchang (2018), but good. Both A. and L., who watched it with me, were kind of freaked out by the large-head dancers of Puccini, Rossini, and Verdi, but they were actually one of my favorite parts of that section. The performance by Andrea Bocelli was enjoyable, but at the same time felt kind of stuck in. The multi-site Parade of Nations struck me as a good idea, because athletes not being able to march in the parade because they were up on the mountain has long been a problem for the Winter Games — I hope future host cities make this into a tradition. I got a laugh out of the DJ switching over to The Barber of Seville for the Italian team to walk in!

I also have to give NBC a big thumbs-down for one of their choices during the Parade of Nations: There were only about half a dozen nations that NBC chose not to show in the streaming version of the ceremony (there might have been more skipped over in the broadcast version), and they picked Mongolia for one of them?! WTAF! Mongolia is always one of the best-dressed teams and I think skipping them was a terrible idea!

And while we're on the subject of team uniforms: I will be so, so, so, SO glad when Team USA lets someone other than Ralph Lauren design their uniforms! (And just in case anyone from Team USA is reading this: By "someone other than Ralph Lauren," I don't mean Tommy Hilfiger. I mean someone actually different.)

ETA: I just noticed that the article I linked above had the Mongolian uniforms from the Paris Games. You can see their current (equally awesome, if not more so) uniforms here.

Hi everyone! Still here, still super busy, but I saw an item in the news today that I had to jump on and share with you: The most humorous (potential) Olympic doping scandal ever!

The event: Ski jumping.

The rule: In order to prevent ski jumpers from going full flying squirrel with their suits, they undergo a 3D body scan, which determines the dimensions (and hence the surface area) of their suit.

The allegation: It has been alleged that some ski jumpers are having their penises injected with hyaluronic acid to make them bigger and thus net them extra cloth in the crotch of their suits. It's not a lot, but given the tight margins of victory in some Olympic competitions, it could make a difference.

The ruling: WADA (the World Anti-Doping Agency) has said they have no definitive evidence that this has ever been done, and in fact they aren't even sure that this would fall under the definition of doping, but they do say they'll be looking into it.

Meanwhile, I'll be over here laughing.

Yesterday, I finished reading Beggars and Choosers by Nancy Kress, the sequel to Beggars in Spain. I enjoyed this book and found it engaging enough that the problems I had with Beggars in Spain no longer bother me.

As I noted in my reaction to Beggars in Spain, given the power of the other genetic modifications on the Sleepless, the lack of a need to sleep seems almost like an afterthought. Apparently Kress realized this as well, because in this book, humanity is divided into four groups (listed here in decreasing order of genetic modification):

1. Super-sleepless (AKA Supers)
2. Sleepless
3. Donkeys
4. Livers[^1]

The Sleepless are pretty much written out of the story — most of them are in prison by this point, and the ones who aren't are pretty much helpless to affect the course of the story. The Sleepless are still necessary to the overall arc of the story, though, as without them there would be no Super-sleepless.

I think the problems that I still have with both this book and with Beggars in Spain come down to them being the first two parts of a trilogy where the parts are pretty much inseparable[^2]. Looking back from Beggars and Choosers, Beggars in Spain becomes sort of a prologue ("I told you that story so I can tell you this one..."). I don't really feel like it would be possible to tell the story of Beggars and Choosers without having told Beggars in Spain first — there's simply too much to try to squeeze it all into early chapters and/or memories. At the same time, Beggars and Choosers suffers from "second book of a trilogy" disease: it doesn't end so much as just stops.

Also, I'd like to remind/inform you: I keep a list of links to the monthly logs of books that I read at this sticky post, and the monthly logs contain links to the reactions I've written. If you see a book title without a link, it means I haven't written a reaction to that book, but if you'd like to hear what I thought about it, leave a comment and I'll write a reaction!

[^1] I think "Livers" in this context is rather an awkward word — my mind immediately went to the organ, but instead it's formed from the very "to live."

[^2] It seems like there ought to be one word for "three stories told in three consecutive books which share the same world and characters" and another word for "one story split into three books because of the limitations of bookbinding and/or the nature of the publishing industry," instead of using "trilogy" for both.

I am reminded of a statement by the former mayor of Bogotá, Antanas Mockus, a politician who employed artistic strategies in his office: "When an artist goes to prison, they take a piece of chalk and draw a line some centimetres from the wall to define their space, so they can have a bit more restrictions (sic). But by making those restrictions they in fact liberate themselves." A line can be a border and simultaneously an assertion of freedom. Being able to decide on your own limits, your strengths and weaknesses, is always empowering, offering a certain degree of sovereignty even in the direst situation.

Joanna Warsza, "Open Mic: Joanna Warsza on the Art of Open Group," *Artforum," October 2025, p. 110.

I've been thinking about this since I read it an hour or so ago. I think the quote from Mockus helped Warsza to set up for presenting her idea, but I don't think Mockus (at least as presented in this quote or — as I think is likely — in this translation of his quote) appears to quite understand what was going on in those prison cells. I don't think the artists wanted to "have a bit more restrictions (sic)," but instead, as Warsza put it, to "decide on [their] own limits."

When I was younger and studying poetry in school[^1], I never really understood why someone would choose to write poetry once prose had been invented, which seemed to me to be a superior method for conveying ideas. It's only later, as I learned more and started producing art of my own, that I learned the potential value of working within a set of restrictions, whether self-imposed or those of a traditional form. And looking back, I wonder if this value of restriction is something that my teachers could have explained to me, or if it's something that I had to figure out on my own in order to understand it.

[^1] Confession: I never really liked or (apparently) understood poetry.

New Year Book Meme, via trobadora:

1. Grab the nearest book.
2. Turn to page 126
3. The 6th full sentence is your life in 2026.

Here's mine: The book nearest at hand to me is Japanese Soul Cooking by Tadashi Ono and Harris Salat. Page 126 was a page of photographs, page 127 was a mini table of contents for a chapter, so the next full page of text is page 128, where the 6th sentence is "The cities and towns on the western side of Japan, like Osaka and Hiroshima, are the okonomiyaki heartland," which is an interesting fact, but I'm not sure how to take is as a fortune!

“By far the dominant reason for not releasing sooner was a reluctance to trade the dream of success for the reality of feedback.” (Kent Beck, software engineer)

I find I do this a lot. I spend time "planning" or "gathering knowledge," often until I lose interest in the thing before ever actually trying to do the thing. While I recognize that this is often an attempt to try to avoid the awkward phase where I'm learning the thing and can't really help doing the thing badly, it's still hard to put that recognition into action. I don't really do new year's resolutions, but I'm trying right now to try to more actively recognize when I'm doing this and take action to stop myself from doing it. So, with that being said, I'm going to take the air-dry clay that I got for Christmas out of its package and go make some awkward looking sculpture!

• 1 January
  • The Georgian Feast: The Vibrant Culture and Savory Food of the Republic of Georgia (Darra Goldstein)
• 6 January
  • Black from the Future: A Collection of Black Speculative Writing (ed. Stephanie Andrea Allen & Lauren Cherelle)
• 8 January
  • I'm in Love with the Villainess (manga), vol. 9 (Inori)
  • Library Wars: Love & War, vol 9 (Kiiro Yumi)
• 9 January
  • Giant Robot: Thirty Years of Defining Asian American Pop Culture (eds. Eric Nakamura, Francine Yulo, Tracy Hurren, Megan Tan, and Tom Devlin)
• 11 January
  • 108 Asian Cookies: Not-too-sweet Treats from a Third-Culture Kitchen (Kat Lieu)
• 13 January
  • Little Bosses Everywhere: How the Pyramid Scheme Shaped America (Bridget Read)
• 15 January
  • How Infrastructure Works: Inside the Systems That Shape Our World (Deb Chachra)
• 17 January
  • Ashes of Honor (Seanan McGuire)
• 19 January
  • Beggars and Choosers (Nancy Kress)
• 20 January
  • Komi Can't Communicate, vol. 32 (Tomohito Oda)
• 23 January
  • Laid-back Camp, vol. 16 (Afro)
• 29 January
  • 1913: The Year Before the Storm, Florian Illies

NMIXX released a video containing both a holiday version of "Blue Valentine" (the same tune and lyrics, but with holiday-style backing music) and a rerecording of "Funky Glitter Christmas." Enjoy!

A couple of fun things to watch for:

1. At about 1:38, Sullyoon comes out of a doll box, which is fun because people often say Sullyoon looks like a doll.
2. At about 1:45, the toys have Lily tied to the floor, a la Gulliver's Travels.

When I order things from Japan and Korea, my goal for managing postage costs is to have the postage cost less than the item, which I'm usually able to manage. Recently one of my friends sent me a package from within the US, for which the postage cost 3x the cost of the item!