(no subject)

[extrapenguin]

Okay so I'm falling asleep on my keyboard (and will go goodnight soon), but:
- I have Worldcon flights! I'm arriving on the Monday afternoon (after 30+ hours of travel) so I'll have Mon afternoon/evening to wander around Wellington being supremely jetlagged, then Tuesday to wander around Wellington/maybe walk a path, slightly less jetlagged, before Worldcon on Wednesday-Sunday. I leave the following Saturday (with another 30+ hours of travel), so I have four and a half days (I'm reserving Friday evening for packing) to spend in and around Wellington. I've spent some time on the tourism webpages, but people in and around Wellington, is there anything you think I Must Do? (My current plans are mostly along the "walk around trails in the nature" lines. I'm physically fit and your winter is roughly our autumn, temperature-wise.)

- Work is ... not exploding, but busy. I'll have to go in early tomorrow to get some actual work done before some bullshit meetings. The good news is that I finally found out when I'm going on a longish work trip, and it's not in conflict with any space_swap deadlines.

- space_swap noms are ongoing! I have processed a lot. I will process more tomorrow, when I'm not asleep on my keyboard.

- I've continued with the femslash ficlets, even if I've wanted to write some Yang Jian/Xiaoxiao het for Fairyland Lovers (??????), return to a name magic MDZS concept I had in 2018, and do approximately eleventy billion other fics. Today's and yesterdays were CQL Wen Qing/Jiang Yanli darkfic.

- I came across some interesting meta on the translations of the MDZS sex scenes. Part 1, part 2, part 3, part 4, addendum from a translator (all on tumblr). It's interesting, and I'm side-eyeing ExR a bit now. (Tldr is that compared to two other translations, ExR picked the more "severe"/dubconny/yaoi-tropey ways to translate phrases and expressions, while the other two translations being compared are much closer to each other.) The meta author doesn't compare to the raws, but did (for parts 2 and 3) consult with someone who's looked at them.

- MDZS fic rec! But suppose Icarus did not fly so high, Jin Guangyao redemption/canon divergence where Nie Mingjue never dies. I enjoyed it!

- 音阙诗听 - 惊蛰 (Jingzhe | insects wake). It's not yet the 6th of March, and the insects are thankfully still asleep here, but I enjoy the song.

Comments

[china_shop]

!!!!!!! For some reason, I'd assumed Worldcon was happening in Auckland. If it's happening here, maybe I should re-consider attending...

Anyway, yes, it's a great city for walking if you don't mind hills. Zealandia (wildlife sanctuary) is excellent in a very low-key, non-flashy kind of way. If weather permits, rent a bike and head around the bays to the Chocolate Fish Cafe. I mean, I could suggest a dozen things... (but not right now; I have beta to do). Ftr, it's likely everything will be more expensive than you think it should be.

And we should meet up, right? Coffee or dinner or something? \o/!! :-)

[extrapenguin]

Yup, it's in Wellington! There'll be a price hike in membership on the 15th IIRC, so if you don't need to save up before purchase it's worth buying the membership now.

Finland isn't cheap, either, and I'm aware that you need to cart everything halfway around the globe. I promise not so suffer from too much sticker shock! :P The wildlife sanctuary (and the zoo?) sounded cool when searching around; I'm definitely planning to go there. I have months left to plan my itinerary, so no rush.

Yup, let's meet up! I, uh, have an inconvenient inability to digest dairy, and dislike coffee, but surely there will be someplace capable of feeding both of us?

[china_shop]

Aha, so since yesterday morning I've discovered that most of the Wellington transformative fen I know are going, as is a friend from Auckland. I would have already heard about this if I spent more time on twitter, which is where they mostly hang out. *facepalm* (Chances of my registering continue to increase, even if that does mean making a decision before tomorrow night.)

I'm fond of the zoo, but have no idea how it compares internationally.

Other off-the-top-of-my-head things to do in Wgtn (you may have already found some of these via googling):

Walks: https://wellington.govt.nz/recreation/enjoy-the-outdoors/walks-and-walkways
Ferry to Matiu/Somes Island: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matiu_/_Somes_Island
Bike rental: https://switchedonbikes.co.nz (these are my go-to people and where I bought my ebike; there are other bike rental places too, of course)
There are umpteenzillion independent cafes, each with individual weirdnesses. Most of them are good at accomodating dietary restrictions; I'll ask around for ones with good selections of tea. :-)
I can organise a local transformative fen meet-up, if you want to meet people before WorldCon and increase your chances of seeing familiar faces in the crowd. (We occasionally go out to dinner for fangirl Fridays, but have been known to manage other days of the week when required. ;-)

[extrapenguin]

Oo, thank you for the links! This simplifies my options hugely – the other places I'd found were more on the "Tourist! It is possible to observe plants while walking!" end of the scale than I consider useful.

Don't worry about the zoo – I haven't gone to that many, and I imagine it'd have potentially-visible NZ animals, which obviously aren't mainstays in Finnish zoos. :P I'll put the wildlife sanctuary at higher priority, though.

I can organise a local transformative fen meet-up, if you want to meet people before WorldCon and increase your chances of seeing familiar faces in the crowd.
!!! Yes, that would be amazing! I think I'll be braindead/asleep on the Monday, but I should be up to talking to people by Tuesday dinner. (Though I should probably note that the whole "Autistic weirdo" thing comes across much more obviously in person than over text. *g*)

[china_shop]

Oh, there's the botanic gardens, too, speaking of observing plants while walking. They're also on a hill. :-)

but I should be up to talking to people by Tuesday dinner. (Though I should probably note that the whole "Autistic weirdo" thing comes across much more obviously in person than over text. *g*)

We are all weird in a variety of ways. You'll be fine! :-)

I am now registered for CoNZealand, btw. *slightly bewildered, what, somehow a decision happened?*

[extrapenguin]

I am now registered for CoNZealand, btw. *slightly bewildered, what, somehow a decision happened?*
\o/ I hope you have fun!

[china_shop]

Well, I really enjoyed your write-ups last year, so... (Especially the bit about AI and human intelligence? consciousness? being like a sports car and a cheetah. :-)

[extrapenguin]

>:D \o/ Success!

(There are a panels on a bunch of different topics at Worldcons; there are a bunch of science-y panels, the genre fiction panels (about e.g. worldbuilding fantasy armies or women writing MilSF or whatnot), transformative fandom panels, and the filk stuff, frex. So there's even more stuff to choose from than what I've written up! I mostly kept to the science panels.)

[china_shop]

The science-y panels are the main draw for me, at this stage, but that might change when I see the programme. :-)

[trobadora]

You know, I'm really side-eyeing some of the handwringing over the MDZS sex scenes. Like 'em or not, I think it comes across pretty damn clearly that it's nowhere near noncon, and you have to read it severely agains the grain to arrive there. But I find the translation discussion really interesting, and wish it wasn't mired in that context. Thank you for the links!

[extrapenguin]

Oh yeah, the fandom has an anti problem, doesn't it? That's annoying, and I'm glad I quit when I did.

(FWIW, my personal stake is that the novel was recced to me as being "very good with consent", which imo the ExR translation at least isn't. Not rapey, no, but too far into the territory of ehh behavior to count as "very good". (It was also recced as enemies to lovers, and a number of other recs of various levels of inaccuracy, since apparently people couldn't describe it accurately but had to sell the moon and stars as well.) I also have a number of other beefs with the ExR people for being colossal wankers. And then the animation happened and the antis came, with the messages of soft uwu and sex bad...)

[trobadora]

very good with consent
enemies to lovers

What? WHAT? ... Have people just started outright inventing things when they rec shows now? Because I don't see what either of those has to do with MDZS. So glad I didn't run into that before I read it (or watched the drama).

[extrapenguin]

Have people just started outright inventing things when they rec shows now?
This was for the novel, and it was in ... late 2017? So the cnovel crowd was very heavily young with bad reading comprehension, as I soon discovered. (The character dynamic I was advertised was much more similar to that of Thousand Autumns than MDZS.)

[trobadora]

Wow, if that's the general level of reading comprehension I'm suddenly no longer surprised by any of the WTF opinions I sometimes see around ...

[extrapenguin]

I hear that some actual adults have since discovered the fandom, but, yeah. First it was that crowd, then the animation brought in the teenage antis with their anti takes. (And of course the adults can have WTF takes as well, but theirs are often a different flavor, if that makes sense.)

[solo]

I came across some interesting meta on the translations of the MDZS sex scenes. Part 1, part 2, part 3, part 4, addendum from a translator (all on tumblr).

Wow, this is fascinating. I wonder if the author could be persuaded to put this on AO3, too...

[extrapenguin]

No harm in asking? Though idk if they'd consider that too public a venue - apparently MDZS is a megafandom full of antis.

[solo]

I'm helpless with tumblr, idk how one can ask anyone anything there.

apparently MDZS is a megafandom full of antis.

Meh, that sucks.

[extrapenguin]

There's the [url of tumblr person].tumblr.com/ask page, which may or may not allow anonymous asks, depending on settings?

[jo_lasalle]

Woo, awesome travel plans! The 30 hour trip length sounds like torture (it's kept me from seriously looking into New Zealand) but yay for a good chunk of extra touristing around the con!

[extrapenguin]

Two 10-hour flights are not for the faint-hearted! Plus lots of waiting at Hong Kong International - 5-ish each way. I figured that since it's probably a once-in-a-lifetime trip and I had the excuse, I should probably stay for another week.

[tinny]

The MDZS analysis was interesting. I usually brush off cnovel sex as borderline non-con and intentionally painful, and that author's in particular. So seeing someone try to analyze it to fit what I would call loving and consensual is weird, to say the least. Ah well.

I've wanted to write some Yang Jian/Xiaoxiao het for Fairyland Lovers

This show does the weirdest things to us, doesn't it? I was so suprised how much I liked those two. I've never before liked a secondary couple this much.

[extrapenguin]

I usually brush off cnovel sex as borderline non-con and intentionally painful, and that author's in particular.
It often is, though that analysis was a good reminder that translation can affect where the sex is on the dubcon scale. (And yeah, MXTX has kinks I do not share at all.)

I was so suprised how much I liked those two. I've never before liked a secondary couple this much.
I'm not really surprised, given that while the show loves its cliché het tropes I do not love, Yang Jian, due to being cast as comic relief alien, doesn't get any of the het dude tropes and even communicates with his love interest(!!!!) so it sidesteps a lot of my het bugbears. Especially after Xiaoxiao stopped with the "When I told you to go away, I wanted you to chase me!" shit. (Though I've yet to watch the last 3 episodes. I hope there won't be a relapse.)

[tinny]

due to being cast as comic relief alien, doesn't get any of the het dude tropes and even communicates with his love interest(!!!!) so it sidesteps a lot

That is true, I probably should have expected that. What I actually expected was that he'd be ridiculed more and the whole relationship would be comic relief all the way, and that didn't happen.

I don't think there are any major relapses in the last three eps. There is one scene in the last ep where all the men talk/joke about their relationships, which is terribly insensitive, and which I could have done without. But otherwise, the relationship itself stays okay, imho.

[extrapenguin]

Ah, that's nice to hear about the lack of relapses! My personal, probably unpopular opinion is that so far of the couples we've seen, they're the most likely to last outside of heightened reality romance narrative logic. They communicate! They had an understanding of each other and grew closer through crisis!