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Short story. Robin Hood has been reincarnated. He is now a professional shoplifter. Targeting extremely posh supermarkets and only stealing very niche luxury foods. Like truffles and caviar. Which he then hands out to the homeless and people who wait in queues in front of foodbanks. Each items comes with text like "Have a taste of what those who keep you downtrodden eat!".
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Aug 5, 2022 13:35
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| # ¿ May 10, 2024 18:11 |
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A parody historical novel about a nunnery in France or Italy. The convent only accepted nuns who were of noble birth, from princesses to "oops, this servant girl gave birth to a child that looks too much like the Prince, better hide her away in this convent!". Because all the nuns came from upper class backgrounds the Pope kept making exceptions to rules about poverty. So they ate luxury foods, slept in comfortable beds, their habits were black velvet, had servants, had a special box in the opera where they could watch the performances without being seen. The main character was a princess nun who wished her parents didn't come visit quite so often, as they disrupted her private life.
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Oct 27, 2022 15:15
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Book from China, I read it some time in the early 90s. It is set in the aftermath of Mao taking power. So early or mid 1950s? A theatrical performer, quite old, doing some kind of quick change opera? has lost everything after his type of theatre was declared too oldfashioned and conservative. So now he lives on a river boat doing quick change shows in villages and sailing to the next village after each show. Calling himself something like "Speed Mask Master" He is also a eunuch because his parents wanted him to get rich? He is depressed about the fact that he will never have a son, so he adopts an orphan boy he finds eating fish offal on the riverbank. There is a lot of "How can anyone let a boy go? Sons are the true wealth of a family!" He starts training the boy as an apprentice. But it turns out the boy is really a girl. Which makes him furious! Girls are NOT allowed to learn his craft? But he can't bring himself to leave the girl behind as he has familial feelings for her now. So he trains her as a contortionist and acrobat. The training is gruelling. Things like forcing her legs into a split, tying her up and leaving her over a pot to piss in for 6 hours? But it is also obvious he really loves this girl, and laments that "in the old days you could have been a favourite concubine, eating duck feet and dressed in silk". They get in trouble when the old man refuses to teach some Mao Opera troupe how to do his quick change trick. I think it ends with the old man starving to death in a cage, and the girl joining the new style opera, but only after she gets to do some "filial funeral ritual" in front of the man dying in the cage.
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Nov 25, 2022 12:40
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Omi no Kami posted:Not the exact plot, but The King of Masks is a 1996 movie which is hella close to what you're describing. Obviously drawn from the same well, maybe this was a fashionable storyline at the time?
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Dec 2, 2022 22:03
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A sci-fi novel where aIiens secretIy ruIe Britain and one or more universities have been turned into a prison camp for peopIe with psychic abilities? It had a blue cover with a star symbol on it? Never mind, it was The Bone Season by Samantha Shannon BattyKiara fucked around with this message at 13:40 on Dec 23, 2022 |
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Dec 22, 2022 23:26
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Mode 7 posted:Been watching an interesting lecture series on the evolution of the Arthurian legend and it's got me reminiscing about one of my first major exposures to a number of the stories, and I'd like to hunt it down and take a look to see how it packaged the Arthurian tales for a younger reader. Unfortunately I can't remember what the drat book was called or who it was by, and trying to track it down has been a pain in my rear end, so putting it here as a hail mary. CouId you Iink these Iectures, pIease? Sounds Iike something I wouId Iove
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Jan 19, 2023 13:05
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Short story about a bIoke who is convinced there is secret society setting up in his neighbourhood, Iots of shenanigans as he tries a bunch of very inept spying on supposed secret society happens, with humorous resuIts! Turns out the secret society and their compIex handshakes turns out to be a IocaI meet up for deaf peopIe
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Jan 27, 2023 14:42
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That sounds very pIausabIe, yes
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Jan 30, 2023 13:30
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Owl at Home posted:Trying to remember the name of a book I read sometime in the early to mid 2000s. I went to look up the title yesterday because I was SO confident that it was either a Ursula K. Leguin book or a Madeleine L’Engle book but I scoured the synopses of their bibliographies and nothing similar turned up. I must have misremembered because I could not find this thing anywhere in there. Heartlight by T.A. Barron
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Mar 11, 2023 23:27
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Sci-fi where Earth sends unwanted citizens to a new pIanet, modeIIed on how Britain sent prisoners to AustraIia? There is a revoIution on the prison pIanet, and they start rebuiIding society with new ruIes, ending up refusing to accept more immigrants from Earth, causing an aImost armed confIict? Sorry, this is reaIIy vague, I read it whiIe in hospitaI around 20 years ago
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Jul 16, 2023 12:44
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No, absoIuteIy not that
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Jul 16, 2023 14:08
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| # ¿ May 10, 2024 18:11 |
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Time travel novel made me remember a terrible novel I read in the early 1990s. Setting: Stone age level village. There are some metal tools, but very few, and mostly used for special occasions. The phrase "Beware! Beware the bright circles!" is used a greeting/warning/start of religious rituals. Circular items are taboo, especially small circles. Even perfectly round stones are immediately smashed so they are no longer circular. There is a nasty, several pages long, extremely detailed coming of age ritual. Teenage girls are held down, and copper knife is used to cut a centimeter deep gash is cut from inside her belly button to her pubic bone. This results in a wide scar once healed, as there is no sewing up or bandaging done. Once fully healed, the girls is seen as adult and sexually mature. While in healing the girl is kept secluded, given first pick of food at all meals, exempt from all work, and those who want to be her future lovers leave gifts at her hut. She must accept all gift, but it is up to her if she wants to repay the men. It is hinted that the better the gifts, the better the chance she will choose the man later. The bright circles are coins. Or the memory of money. It is a warning to not reinvent capitalism
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Mar 4, 2024 15:45
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