Nane: Kim

Age: 45

These questions were written by frieliegh.

1. If you could change one life-changing event in the life of someone important to you, would you?

2. Which do you think is easier to do, being friends for many years, or being life partners for many years?

3. Have you ever walked away from someone you considered a friend?

4. If you had to choose between telling the truth and hurting a friend or lying and making them happy, which would you choose?

5. Which would you rather hear--the truth which will hurt, or the comforting lie?

Copy and paste to your own journal, then reply to this post with a link to your answers. If your journal is private or friends-only, you can post your full answers in the comments below.

If you'd like to suggest questions for a future Friday Five, then do so on DreamWidth or LiveJournal. Old sets that were used have been deleted, so we encourage you to suggest some more!

Hello, all! I know I'm a little late to really consider this a new year's post, but here I am looking to meet a few new people nevertheless.

About me:
My name is Katie. I'm 47 years old, and this summer will mark my 25th year of journaling on LJ/DW/both.

I'm a writer by profession, primarily of literary fiction with occasional book reviews for variety. I live in Philadelphia with my partner of 27 years (she's a high school physics teacher). We have a pair of eight-month-old kittens named Oscar and Zorro. I'm the oldest of three sisters in a pretty close-knit family. My sisters have five kids between them, and being an aunt is basically my favorite thing.

I love books and am always reading. Favorite authors include E.M. Forster, Marilynne Robinson, Leo Tolstoy, Virginia Woolf, Ursula K. Le Guin, Lauren Groff, Andrea Barrett.... The list could go on and on. I also love the outdoors and learning about nature. I've been a birdwatcher for years; more recently I've gotten into things like butterflies and insects, reptiles, wildflowers, and more. In summer, my favorite thing is finding wild orchids. My partner and I like to travel, and when we do, I use it as an opportunity to learn about the amazing variety of nature in other places.

In case you haven't already guessed, I'm a very introverted person. I spend most of my time at home, where I keep myself busy writing, reading, or in the kitchen. I like cooking, baking, and food preservation, and I'm always working on some sort of kitchen project or trying to teach myself a new skill.


About my journal:
My journal began as a place for me to keep track of my reading, and that's still the subject I write about most often. Other frequent topics include the interests mentioned above: writing, nature, cooking and baking. I tend to post more about what I'm thinking than about what I'm doing at any given time, although I do sometimes use my journal to keep track goals or record projects that I'm working on. I often include photos. I would say I post about once a week...but realistically it's probably a bit less than that.

If you're looking for a friend who comments on every single post, I'm probably not the right person for you. I do like to interact and I always read my friends page, but I prefer to comment only when I have something worth saying. Also, I've found over the years that I don't mesh well with extremely prolific posters. Once a day is fine, but if it's more than that I have trouble keeping up.

My journal is friends-locked for privacy, but I will be happy to add anyone who's interested in checking it out. And I won't be offended if it turns out that it's not your style.

Say hello if you think we'd get along!

I collect false treasures in empty wardrobes.

This quote by Paul Eluard opens book #14 from the "Women in Translation" rec list, which continues to fatten up my TBR list. This is Empty Wardrobes by Maria Judite de Carvalho, translated from Portuguese by Margaret Jull Costa. This novella, originally published in the 1960s, is about the ways in which women are subsumed by the men in their lives, or otherwise are buffeted about with less control over their lives than they ought to have.

The forward by Kate Zambreno is a wonderfully complementary piece. She talks about the anger she feels going to a woman's funeral and hearing the dead woman sanctified by men in her life who did nothing but take from her, who can speak of her only to praise what she did for others, and can say nothing about what the woman herself was. 

Sometimes you can read a book and just know the author was angry when she wrote it. This is one of those. The book uses the phrase "discreet rage" about one of its characters, and I think that sentiment succinctly describes the whole book. The protagonist, Dora Rosario, is ten years into widowhood, and she has devoted her entire life to mourning her unremarkable husband as much as she had previous devoted her life to supporting his every opinion regardless of whether or not she agreed with it. Now, a decade on, her mother-in-law reveals something about Dora's late husband that changes her entire perspective.

I would like to believe we are moving away from the world portrayed in Empty Wardrobes (though not with as much success as I'd like), but this is a stark reminder of how even a few generations ago, in the Sixties, a woman's identity was so controlled by her husband's. There are only two men in this book--Duarte, Dora's dead husband, and Ernesto, the longtime partner of a side character--and they both, through social structures, exercise incredible control over the lives of the women around them without any respect or even knowledge of their impact.

The three main women in this book--Dora, her daughter Lisa, and the narrator--each take a different approach to the male romantic partners in their lives, and none of them comes out the better for it (well, perhaps for Lisa, but I personally doubt it will last), because the ultimate problem is societal attitudes about the way men and women are meant to relate to each other. 

It's not a long book, and I can't say much more without spoiling things, but I also think it does some fabulous things with its narration and perspective, and the way it doles out information. Really an excellent framing that allows for a lot of fluidity and filling in gaps with your own visions while remaining clear in the nature of the story it's telling. 

This book was only translated into English in 2021, which is a shame, because I think it would have struck a nerve much earlier, but we have it now! Costa does an excellent job with the work too; the writing is full of punchy phrases like the above, and she captures some realistic dialogue--characters repeating themselves, responding in ways that don't quite match up with what was asked, etc.--while keeping it natural-sounding. 

Gonna try to make a tradition of re-promoting myself yearly in January~

Name(s): Azure or Bede. I answer to both, so use whichever floats your boat!
Age: 20-something
Hobbies: Writing (fanfic, essays and fan analysis), drawing, editing (videos, images and gifs), coding, researching (almost exclusively things that don't matter), and gaming!
Fandoms: I mainly participate in video game fandoms! Right now, I'm really into Pokémon (my one true fandom), Cookie Run, Great God Grove, In Stars and Time, Kingdom Hearts, Vocaloid, and Splatoon. I'm at least passively interested in most Nintendo games, though. I'm also a furry (rabbit fursona)!

I mostly post about... My fandoms, non-fannish interests (including disability, queerness, the indie web, writing, art and alterhumanity), and some personal stuff!
I'm looking to meet people who... Have similar interests (whether that be fandom or non-fandom), or who just pass the vibe check and have interesting things to say.
My posting schedule tends to be... A little bit sporadic! I go through small periods of inactivity. When I come back, I always cross-post everything I've posted onto other platforms with the back-dating feature, though! I love commenting on other people's posts, and try to do it as often as possible.
When I add people, my dealbreakers are... Bigots, right-wingers, and AI "artists". Christians who try converting others, or who don't CW for religious discussion. (No offense to the latter, it's a personal thing.) Regarding fandom, I'm squicked out by Harry Potter (I'm trans; I hope you can understand!) and Hazbin Hotel, and have pedophilia/incest/rape as triggers.
Before you add me, you should know... I'm autistic and otherwise mentally disabled, so please be patient with me! I'm from the South of the USA, so I use petnames very casually ("honey, darling, dear," etc). You can also (or alternatively) add my account for my fanfic and fandom meta exclusively, fairyfic.

Name: Ciacconne

Age: Mid 30s

I mostly post about: My life, health, and fandom stuff.

My hobbies are: Writing, reading, gaming, and art.

My fandoms are: Harry Potter, FF16, FF7, Frieren, Slayers, Gintama, Kekkai Sensen, YGO— basically game and anime fandoms.

I'm looking to meet people who: Share my interests and fandoms.

My posting schedule tends to be: daily/weekly/monthly/sporadic/etc — I post daily, or will try to post daily now.

When I add people, my dealbreakers are: People who are antis.

Before adding me, you should know: I focus a lot on my health, be it mental or physical.