Exercise and books

That might actually be a plausible title for this journal, the way my life has been of late.

In any case, cattitude convinced me to go to the gym when he did this morning; I did a shorter-than-usual-for-me workout, to favor a sore shoulder and tender knee.

And I've finished kijjohnson's novel Fudoki, an excellent intertwining of two stories, both set in 12th-century Japan: the life of a princess, spent almost entirely in the city of Heian-kyo, and the tail of a cat who travels a long way from Heian-kyo, the latter a tale of magic, kami, and adventure, set in a time when cats were new to Japan; the princess is writing the cat's tale, and interrupts to write her own. Cat and princess both run into what is expected of women at that time and place, but the cat is unaware of the expectations--the magic that gives her much else she needs omits large amounts of human culture and emotion--and, by the ways in which she ignores them, leads most of the people she meets to decide they don't apply to her.

( gym numbers )

Exercise and books

That might actually be a plausible title for this journal, the way my life has been of late.

In any case, cattitude convinced me to go to the gym when he did this morning; I did a shorter-than-usual-for-me workout, to favor a sore shoulder and tender knee.

And I've finished kijjohnson's novel Fudoki, an excellent intertwining of two stories, both set in 12th-century Japan: the life of a princess, spent almost entirely in the city of Heian-kyo, and the tail of a cat who travels a long way from Heian-kyo, the latter a tale of magic, kami, and adventure, set in a time when cats were new to Japan; the princess is writing the cat's tale, and interrupts to write her own. Cat and princess both run into what is expected of women at that time and place, but the cat is unaware of the expectations--the magic that gives her much else she needs omits large amounts of human culture and emotion--and, by the ways in which she ignores them, leads most of the people she meets to decide they don't apply to her.

( gym numbers )