Hetty, Byatt and Reese

I just finished the book, Wilder Girls, written by Rory Power.

It is a novel about a girl school on Raxter Island, which is under quarantine, because of the outbreak of a mysterious disease. The disease physically changes the girls… (while the girls at the same time is coming of age). The central part of the story turns around the relationship between three friends: Byatt, Hetty and Reese. The story also speaks to many other things like our interaction with the environment, climate change and authority. (The book did remind me of the Southern Reach Trilogy of Jeff VanderMeer, at least in terms of certain themes.)

I definitely would recommend it!

Because I think I’d been looking for it all my life – a storm in my body to match the one in my head.
Favorite Quote from Wilder Girls

Wilder Girls’ Pinterest Board:

Feature image: Photo by Erda Estremera on Unsplash

Polly

A collage of Nuala from The Dreaming and the cover of Paul takes on the form of a mortal girl

*The feature image is a collage of Nuala from The Dreaming and the cover of Paul takes the form of a mortal girl.

I found the book Paul takes the form of a mortal girl by Andrea Lawlor at the Book Lounge. When I started with the book I was not sure if I like it – I am still not sure if I like it ironically, but I do think it is a great book, which is probably a weird thing to say. Paul/Polly is the main character in the book.

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What do replicants and copies remember?

We are not so different

“I’m not an answer,” she said. “I’m a question.”
She might also be a message incarnate, a signal in the flesh, even if she hadn’t yet figured out what story she was supposed to tell.”
Ghost Bird to Control
Book 3, Southern Reach Trilogy

Since the first time I saw the Blade Runner (1982) movie, I was fascinated with the world that it replicated and built, with the characters and also with the questions it posed to the viewer. I have seen both the original Blade Runner movie and the various different versions of it. I’ve also seen the new Blade Runner 2049 (2017) film and the three short films (Blade Runner Black Out 2022, 2036: Nexus Dawn and 2048: Nowhere to Run ) that bridge the “gap” between the two films. This being said, Blade Runner has not been the focus of my attention the last week or two. Rather, the Southern Reach and Area X has occupied me. But, strangely enough, by reading the Southern Reach trilogy, I have also been thinking about Blade Runner.

One specific thing has triggered my thinking, while reading the Southern Reach trilogy written by Jeff Vandermeer, namely the so-called “copies” or “false doppelgangers” created by Area X. (See below for further explanation.) In turn I have been thinking about the replicants in the Blade Runner Films. (The Annihilation-film, although very good, does not follow the same trajectory as the books.) I have been wondering if the “copies” made by Area X and the “replicants” in Blade Runner does not lead us to ask similar type of questions?

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Things I have been reading

Dora from The Dreaming (Second issue from the Dreaming)

It is has been a while since I have written something, so I thought I should just give an overview of what I have been reading. Recently, I worked through the Sandman collection and that has probably changed my life. I have written about it here. I started with the new issues from The Sandman Universe, and have specifically focused on The Dreaming. My favourite character in The Sandman collection is Delirium, and it seems I already have a favourite in The Dreaming, namely Dora (see featured image). We don’t know much about Dora yet, but I am looking forward learning more about Dora. Things we already know is that Dora can move between the different realms, she knows things about people and sometimes transform… Anyway, this is not a post about the Sandman, or Dora. Continue reading “Things I have been reading” →