(no subject)

Finished Monarch: Legacy of Monsters - which was a lot better than I expected. I just had to skip over the first five minutes of the first episode. Where Bill Randa as portrayed by John Goodman in a brief cameo summons a huge spider.

The focus is mainly on Hiroshi Randa and his two children, and his mother, who disappeared a century prior. It takes place in San Francisco and Tokyo.
Kurt Russell (70) and his son Wyatt play Uncle Lee Shaw, in the past and in the present.

Cate - Hiroshi's daughter is a lesbian school teacher, while Kentara, her brother is an artist leaving in Tokyo, and Kentara's ex-girlfriend May (is a coder on the run from something). They get involved in tracking down Kentara and Cate's father who is missing after a Godzilla event in San Francisco.

I found it entertaining. It also really gets across the theme - that everyone has their own view on how to save the world, and they do not agree on which method is the most effective. Humans rarely agree on anything.

What I liked about the series is there are no clear bad guys. You think various people are bad guys, only to discover they are just trying to protect others or solve a problem. One of the better sci-fi monster series that I've seen to date.

***

Started reading a couple of new books:

1. Penpal by Dathan Auerbach

[E-book version.]

This starts with a rather intriguing passage. The protagonist/narrator relates a memory of working at a diner. While he was working there, a little girl and her father entered the diner. They were giving each kid a free cream cone with their dinner. And had fifteen different flavors to choose from. The little girl burst into tears - because she simply couldn't choose which flavor. So the narrator gestured to the father and produced a towering cone with five different flavored scoops of ice cream. The little girl was filled with joy. Now it's unlikely she'll remember this, but for that moment she was filled with joy. The writer goes on to relate how odd memories are - and how we forget things, embellish, change them, rewrite them, or fill in gaps. Sometimes forget them entirely so there are whole gaps in our memory.

The previous book I read "The Croning" also had a narrator who had inexplicable gaps in his memory or forgot things.

I think it is protective device. But our bodies remember. Particularly when it comes to trauma. And the difficulty with life - is everyone has experienced trauma, and we're all bumping into each other's trauma without realizing it. Worse? We have different coping skills.

For example? When I was little - people traumatized me with spiders. They kind of weaponized them against me? Or scared me with them? And did it repeatedly? So I'm petrified of spiders.

I was recently asked if horror or what scares us is similar to comedy or beauty - in the eye of the beholder? I think it is.

Some people are afraid of police officers. They won't call them for help.
They consider this a healthy fear. My sister-in-law falls into this category, as does my brother. I do not. But I've had a more varied experience.

Others are afraid of clowns. And consider that a healthy fear.

Others spiders - and consider that healthy. Spiders are dangerous. Not all spiders obviously. Some are necessary. I'm terrified of spiders, but I also know they are necessary and not all bad. That doesn't change the fact that I am terrified of spiders.

What I've realized recently is how thin the line between fear and hate is? And how easy it is to demonize the object that I'm afraid of? I'm terrified of this upcoming election and the GOP, so I wish they'd go away. I've decided they are dangerous - but I have to be careful not to demonize them.
And that's hard.

See?

2. Strange Tales from Japan - 99 Chilling Stories of Yokai, Ghosts, Demons and the Supernatural

This is a collection of folktales that are retold by Keisuke Nishimoto (a folklorist) and translated by William Scott Wilson.

The author makes a point in the preface that if you want to know the real Japan - you should visit the rural areas, not the tourist destinations or cities. This is actually true of most places. If you want to see the real NYC - you probably should visit the outer boroughs and the neighborhoods such as the East Village, Chelsea, Upper West Side, Harlem, Tudor City, Brooklyn, Kensington, Prospect Park, etc.

3. Dreadful - would it hurt to be a little bit good by Caitlin Rozakis

This is a comical novel about a Dark Wizard with amnesia - probably from some spell that went awry. I have it in paperback not audible like the link suggests. And via Barnes and Noble.

4. And... still making my way through the audible version of "King of Diamonds" - a non-fiction novel about a journalist hunting down a jewel thief in Texas decades later.

***

Yes, I've jumped genres. I'm fighting depression and anxiety. And weirdly horror is comforting me at the moment - mainly because, as bad as things get? I'm grateful I'm not in that situation.

Not getting a lot done. I think my body and mind just want to veg. A respite. I have low energy at the moment. And have had it for quite some time.

Mother doesn't know when she wants me to visit her. I come up with a time, she discourages me. So far we're still online for October. But I'm worried about Hurricane Season - so considering moving it up to September.

I don't know what to do. I mentioned coming down now - but too crowded and too hot. I think she's struggling to figure out where to fit me in? My brother works nicely - he drives, he can do chores around the house, he talks to his wife and daughter on the phone, he doesn't have dietary restrictions, and is as she puts it "laid-back". She means well and I know she loves me, but...I get in the way, I think? Lately, I've been feeling like I'm just in everyone's way and maybe if I permanently stayed out of their way...it would be better? I don't know, the mind it can play tricks on you, when you are alone a lot, I think.