I’m enjoying a much-needed idle evening here at home. I have reviews I probably should be working on, and maybe I will as the evening goes on, but for now I’m feeling the need for random surfing and maybe a blog commenting spree.
Speaking of blog commenting, I drove by Danielle Leigh’s reading diary today, but didn’t actually read it, because she has a review there for the first volume of Sayonara, Zetsubou-Sensei: The Power of Negative Thinking just released by Del Ray, and though I’m eagerly anticipating reading it myself, I already know I’ll be reviewing it for Manga Recon, so for now, other reviews are off-limits. I have found that I am easily intimidated by someone else’s fantastic review, so after one such experience, I decided to force myself to keep away until I’ve completed my own review. Now I’m wondering, you who review manga (or anything else for that matter), do you do the same?
In other news, I really enjoyed Brigid Alverson’s interview with Matt Thorn, whose translation of est em’s Red Blinds the Foolish (reviewed by me here) I found pretty spectacular. After I read the interview, I did some searching around, and discovered this essay on shojo manga that Matt Thorn published back in 2001. It was a pretty great read, so I thought I’d share that here.
Lastly, Lianne Sentar asked me for further elaboration on my accusations of misogyny in Let Dai, and I’m embarrassed to be unable to respond with any kind of credibility, because I don’t have print copies of the series. Can anyone help me out? I think some specific examples of the language used by Dai would help me, but unfortunately, I’m not good at remembering exact words, especially when I’ve consumed a series as rapidly as I did Let Dai. If you’ve got some handy, let me know! ETA: I think these are no longer necessary! Conversation progressing without them. :)
jun says
February 19, 2009 at 8:25 pmNow I’m wondering, you who review manga (or anything else for that matter), do you do the same?
Absolutely! Besides the intimidation factor, I don’t want my opinions to be influenced by those of someone I respect. “Oh, so and so gave it a C. Now I look like a doofus for liking it and giving it a higher grade.”
Melinda Beasi says
February 19, 2009 at 8:32 pmHee, I pretty much accept that I’m going to look like a doofus most of the time, but yeah, it’s nice not to know the specifics on that beforehand. :D
Grace says
February 19, 2009 at 9:44 pmI often avoid reviews before I read something, because I don’t want to be spoiled too much, but I don’t usually avoid them before writing a review myself. I’m always curious what other people thought and sometimes I like to respond to that in my review as well, so it makes sense to read them first.
Melinda Beasi says
February 19, 2009 at 9:47 pmAh, that’s interesting! I’ve referred to other people’s reviews in posts about this or that manga, but never in a review I was writing for someplace other than my own blog. Well, I guess that’s a given, since I don’t consider much of what I write in my blog to actually be reviews. Heh.
Ed Sizemore says
February 19, 2009 at 10:33 pmI never read reviews for books I’m going to review. Part of it is I don’t want my review to be a reaction to someone else’s writing. I want my review to be solely my reaction to the book and nothing else. Once I’ve finished my review I do like to look around and see how some others have reacted.
P.S. I perfer having the discussion here instead of at on LJ. But then again, I’ve never been a fan of LJ so that taints my perspective.
Melinda Beasi says
February 19, 2009 at 10:38 pmOnce I’ve finished my review I do like to look around and see how some others have reacted.
Yes, I do that too. And occasionally I’m surprised at just how differently I’ve reacted to something than other people have. Though I suppose I’ve been more surprised at how often we all tend to agree.
P.S. I perfer having the discussion here instead of at on LJ. But then again, I’ve never been a fan of LJ so that taints my perspective.
I am glad you feel that way, because I agree! I’ve been dismayed that all the conversation was over there, because I’ve wanted to become less a part of LJ instead of more, which was what seemed to be happening.
Ysabet says
February 19, 2009 at 11:21 pmI virtually never read reviews for manga I plan to review and/or read for myself. Mostly it’s due to hating spoilers so much, but I do also worry about other perspectives affecting my own too much. That said, I do occasionally read other reviews after writing my own but before submitting it, out of curiosity about how my reaction compares to other people’s. This virtually never results in tweaking my own review, though, unless someone hits on a point I’d completely missed.
(Seeing lots of reviews go by for books I plan to read but probably won’t lay hands on for a couple of weeks is very fidget-inducing. I’m so behind on my review stack, and I don’t know yet if another little heap will have arrived by the time my routine gets back to normal. So much to read!)
Thanks for the reminder about Sayonara, Zetsubou-Sensei, too—I need to order a copy. ^^
Melinda Beasi says
February 20, 2009 at 7:13 amThat said, I do occasionally read other reviews after writing my own but before submitting it, out of curiosity about how my reaction compares to other people’s.
Ah, yes, I have done this as well, though I don’t think I’ve ever changed my review at all because of it. Not that I can recall, anyway.
Seeing lots of reviews go by for books I plan to read but probably won’t lay hands on for a couple of weeks is very fidget-inducing.
Agreed! I’m always desperately trying to keep up with what I have on my plate, though it’s not so much because of the reading. I’m a super-fast reader, and in fact, I think I’ve read everything I’m meant to review in the next few weeks already. I’m just a really, really slow writer. It takes me days to write a review. I write a few sentences for the first few days, and then finally pull the rest of it all out over one evening, but for whatever reason, I can’t seem to process what’s in my head any faster than that. Unless it’s just a mini-review (a Manga Mini, for instance), which I can usually do in a day. That said, I have something coming up for next week’s Manga Minis, and though I read the book two days ago, I still haven’t got anything down on (virtual) paper.
Ysabet says
February 20, 2009 at 12:45 pmI’m a very fast reader too, but I don’t like reading review copies until I’m about to review them. (I like the idea of reading the books and letting them percolate away for a while before I put my thoughts down, but if I read too much else between reading and writing-up I usually start focusing on the newer thing, which isn’t so good.) And thus the stack grows, since I usually only review a couple of things a week. Eep.
Melinda Beasi says
February 20, 2009 at 5:32 pmI find that even if I read *nothing else*, it still takes me a few days with my thoughts to actually write a review. It’s just… my brain I guess. Heh. Stupid brain. :)
Estara says
February 20, 2009 at 8:32 amOn a slight off-track: did you read his incredible Moto Hagio interview, too? At the time I imported the Comics Journal to Germany just for that edition ^^
http://www.matt-thorn.com/shoujo_manga/hagio_interview.php
Melinda Beasi says
February 20, 2009 at 10:20 amOh, thank you so much for the link! I didn’t run across that on my own!
Estara says
February 21, 2009 at 4:37 amWelcome ^^. I believe everyone interested in shoujo manga needs to read that article at least once.