that inevitable victorian thing: 3.25 out of 5 things
this one has me torn.
as a reader for pleasure, this is great. it's well-written y.a. fiction with great extras: polyamory! super gay! tons of shiny goodness things!
as a politically conscious reader: this is a book about rich people getting horny and getting away with marginal romantic/sexual living as if they discovered it. frustrating.
some spoilers:
i loved reading this book. a royal heir and two middle-upper-class heirs get romantically involved and end up inventing polyamory. as a reading experience, it's accessible, paced well, and you can root for the characters; they're decent people. politically, though, you can't ignore that they're a bunch of rich kids getting away with romantic/sexual hijinks as if they were inventing it from scratch . . . is polyamory an affectation of the rich? are ordinary people not worth exploring? it's fun, and it's a great scifi exploration of a novel setting (what if the British enpire didn't fall apart and embraced ethnic diversity instead of remaining super racist?), but i can't ignore that it's about the pleasure exploits of the rich and high-class. there's a brief flirtation with "lower-class" experience, but those characters are not at all central.
the book does capture its setting beautifully -- the experience of the north of canada, the anxiety-provoking experience of high society -- and its emotional and sensual scenes are expertly written. if you are a horny teenager, this book for sure has what you're looking for. again, super gay, a big plus. but ultimately it's about rich people and rich people problems. a toss-up. it has the vibe of desiring to be radical but falling short of what that would actually require. enjoy it if you are so inclined.
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Do you guys have any more intersex rep books? There's only like 5 on here and it's hard to find anything ;w;
Main Characters:
Pantomime by L. R. Lam - bisexual intersex genderfluid MC
That Inevitable Victorian Thing by E. K. Johnston - poc queer female x bisexual intersex female x male
None of the Above by I. W. Gregorio - intersex female
Golden Boy by Abigail Tartellin - intersex male
Annabel by Kathleen Winter - trans-femme intersex male
Middlesex by Jeffery Eugenides - Greek-American intersex transgender male
Cattywampus by Ash Van Otterloo - intersex female
Double Exposure by Bridget Birdsail - intersex female
Across the Green Grass Fields by Seanan McGuire - intersex female
Miss Jane by Brad Watson - intersex female MC born with vaginal agenesis that causes incontinence and prevents penetrative sex
An Ordinary Wonder by Buki Papillon - Nigerian intersex female MC forced to live as a boy
Sorrowland by Rivers Solomon - black albino bisexual intersex MC who is partially blind and has chronic pain
The Desert Prince by Peter V. Brett - intersex female questioning her gender identity
Lord of the Last Heartbeat by Mary Peterson - non-binary intersex MC (he/him)
Real Easy by Marie Rutkoski - intersex female
Just Ash by Sol Santana - intersex male
Trans Liberty Riot Brigade by L. M. Pierce - queer intersex female with a fantasy-drug addiction
Side Characters / World Building:
Temper by Nicky Drayden - intersex SCs in a world where everyone is born with a twin, and sometimes the genitalia gets "mixed" between them
2313 by Kim Stanley Robinson - intersex female MC due to future scientific advancements in a society without gender norms, where intersex / nonbinary seems to be the default
The Pursued and the Pursuing by A. J. Odasso - intersex female prominent SC (adopted daughter of main mlm couple)
Manywhere: Stories by Morgan Thomas - intersex prominent SC, but gender identity unknown
full notes on representation and publishing info at qbdatabase.com
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Interesting Papers for Week 17, 2024
Computational mechanisms underlying latent value updating of unchosen actions. Ben-Artzi, I., Kessler, Y., Nicenboim, B., & Shahar, N. (2023). Science Advances, 9(42).
Associative learning or Bayesian inference? Revisiting backwards blocking reasoning in adults. Benton, D. T., & Rakison, D. H. (2023). Cognition, 241, 105626.
The value of mere completion. Converse, B. A., Tsang, S., & Hennecke, M. (2023). Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 152(11), 3021–3036.
Stable sound decoding despite modulated sound representation in the auditory cortex. Funamizu, A., Marbach, F., & Zador, A. M. (2023). Current Biology, 33(20), 4470-4483.e7.
Differential attentional costs of encoding specific and gist episodic memory representations. Greene, N. R., & Naveh-Benjamin, M. (2023). Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 152(11), 3292–3299.
The scaling of mental computation in a sorting task. Haridi, S., Wu, C. M., Dasgupta, I., & Schulz, E. (2023). Cognition, 241, 105605.
Simulations predict differing phase responses to excitation vs. inhibition in theta-resonant pyramidal neurons. Kelley, C., Antic, S. D., Carnevale, N. T., Kubie, J. L., & Lytton, W. W. (2023). Journal of Neurophysiology, 130(4), 910–924.
Attention preserves the selectivity of feature-tuned normalization. Klímová, M., Bloem, I. M., & Ling, S. (2023). Journal of Neurophysiology, 130(4), 990–998.
An approximate representation of objects underlies physical reasoning. Li, Y., Wang, Y., Boger, T., Smith, K. A., Gershman, S. J., & Ullman, T. D. (2023). Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 152(11), 3074–3086.
Associative and predictive hippocampal codes support memory-guided behaviors. Liu, C., Todorova, R., Tang, W., Oliva, A., & Fernandez-Ruiz, A. (2023). Science, 382(6668).
Same but different: The latency of a shared expectation signal interacts with stimulus attributes. Lowe, B. G., Robinson, J. E., Yamamoto, N., Hogendoorn, H., & Johnston, P. (2023). Cortex, 168, 143–156.
Model-free decision making resists improved instructions and is enhanced by stimulus-response associations. Luna, R., Vadillo, M. A., & Luque, D. (2023). Cortex, 168, 102–113.
Infants’ sex affects neural responses to affective touch in early infancy. Mariani Wigley, I. L. C., Björnsdotter, M., Scheinin, N. M., Merisaari, H., Saunavaara, J., Parkkola, R., … Tuulari, J. J. (2023). Developmental Psychobiology, 65(7), e22419.
Action planning and execution cues influence economic partner choice. McEllin, L., Fiedler, S., & Sebanz, N. (2023). Cognition, 241, 105632.
Parallel processing of value-related information during multi-attribute decisions. Nakahashi, A., & Cisek, P. (2023). Journal of Neurophysiology, 130(4), 967–979.
Extended trajectory of spatial memory errors in typical and atypical development: The role of binding and precision. Peng, M., Lovos, A., Bottrill, K., Hughes, K., Sampsel, M., Lee, N. R., … Edgin, J. (2023). Hippocampus, 33(11), 1171–1188.
Mediodorsal thalamus-projecting anterior cingulate cortex neurons modulate helping behavior in mice. Song, D., Wang, C., Jin, Y., Deng, Y., Yan, Y., Wang, D., … Quan, Z. (2023). Current Biology, 33(20), 4330-4342.e5.
Metacognition and sense of agency. Wen, W., Charles, L., & Haggard, P. (2023). Cognition, 241, 105622.
Sensory deprivation arrests cellular and synaptic development of the night-vision circuitry in the retina. Wisner, S. R., Saha, A., Grimes, W. N., Mizerska, K., Kolarik, H. J., Wallin, J., … Hoon, M. (2023). Current Biology, 33(20), 4415-4429.e3.
The timing of confidence computations in human prefrontal cortex. Xue, K., Zheng, Y., Rafiei, F., & Rahnev, D. (2023). Cortex, 168, 167–175.
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