Etienne Domingue

@akhuan

🏳️‍🌈 he/they BAs (Religion, Psych); MA (Contemporary Religion). Queer Québecois heritage & hermeneutics enthusiast on unceded W8banaki land. Aime: folk, punk, RPGs, comics. Déteste: AI, warmongers & their apologists. “Swim until you can’t see land.”

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Etienne Domingue@akhuan· Jun 29

An incredibly smart, wholesome graphic novel on burnout, grief, and how to be there for each other. The art is impeccable and the dialogue had me smiling with glee. Trung Le Nguyen is a singularly gifted storyteller. #BookSky #GraphicNovel

The cover of Trung Le Nguyen’s “Angelica and the Bear Prince,” which depicts a girl holding hands with a boy with a cartoon bear in the background.

Etienne Domingue@akhuan· Jun 28

This was a fun short horror anthology—a good mix of fresh takes on known motifs and new tales. I enjoy the emotional range of Adam Ellis’s art style a great deal and look forward to other books of his.

The front cover of Adam Ellis’s “Bad Dreams in the Night” features a scene rendered in purple and red hues showing a man in old-fashioned dress ascending a grand staircase with a candelabra in hand. The title lettering is yellow and looks hastily scrawled.

Etienne Domingue@akhuan· Jun 27

Just finished this. Though short, I found it a bit dense at times, and read it in fits and starts. I was already familiar with “Mythopoeia.” I did not enjoy it as much on further study, possibly because my thinking on the role of imagination has evolved. #booksky #fantasy #tolkien

The cover of a paperback edition of “Tree and Leaf” by JRR Tolkien, which features a hand-drawn sketch of a tree bearing a variety of strange flowers and fruit.

Etienne Domingue@akhuan· Jun 16

On its face, “Chouette” is about a cellist who gives birth to a strigine aberration. I like that its core metaphor is impenetrable. It’s also relentlessly grim and incredibly violent. #BookSky #Owls

The cover of Claire Oshetsky’s “Chouette” — a rough woodcut of a yellow-eyed owl framed by foliage.

Etienne Domingue@akhuan· Mar 19

Couldn’t resist.

Etienne Domingue@akhuan· Feb 25

Denis Villeneuve’s second feature film, “Maelstrom,” is a singularly strange and affecting story of human connectedness not as a source of comfort, but as a web of tragedies.

The poster for Villeneuve’s “Maelstrom,” which is a stencil of the title on a black background. We glimpse a blurry greyscale still frame, presumably from the film, through the bold sans serif—though it’s hard to say what it is. Above the title is a fish (the narrator).

Etienne Domingue@akhuan· Feb 22

This gay little goblin.

Jaken, a green-skinned, yellow-eyed yokai (demon) wearing an eboshi (black cap) and a brown kariginu (loose-fitting robe). The subtitles read: “How beautiful… He’s so dashing!” in reference to his master/crush Sesshomaru Sama.

Etienne Domingue@akhuan· Jan 1

Inuyasha rewatch highlights, part 3: extremely relatable Shippo.

Etienne Domingue@akhuan· Dec 30

The setting is extremely mean-spirited at times—and I could have done with fewer lucubrations on fantasy metaphysics—but I am too attached to the characters (especially: the sapient dogs) to give it up. I was also made to look up half a dozen words, which is no small feat. 🧐 #fantasy #booksky

The front cover of Alex Pheby’s “Malarkoi,” the second book in the “Cities of the Weft” series.

The cover illustration is an ink drawing of a series of pyramids on a barren coast. Some of the pyramids float in the air, inverted or not, in a configuration that blots out the sky. A large bird, like a heron, flies over the top-right corner of the image, craning its neck over the title.

Etienne Domingue@akhuan· Dec 14

North Hatley? No way! We are practically neighbours. Our dog Piper is a rescue from the Hatleys.

Etienne Domingue@akhuan· Dec 14

“Dark Ark” by Cullen Bunn and Juan Doe has a wild premise (what if a separate ark saved monsters from the flood?) and a few endearing characters. The highly stylized art, while very expressive, makes it somewhat difficult to parse the action at times. #comics

The three volumes of Bunn & Doe’s “Dark Ark” stacked over each other. The cover of the first volume is done in red camaïeu and depicts an ark passing through writhing tentacles.

A page from the first volume depicting various monsters fighting, including a green ogre.

A page from the third volume depicting Khalee (the daughter of Shrae, the ark builder) and Krull (a manticore).

Etienne Domingue@akhuan· Dec 9

You will be visited by three spirits.

From left to right: Amethyst, Garnet, and Pearl.

Etienne Domingue@akhuan· Dec 8

Tom Hanks is in many of my favourite movies and “Cloud Atlas” is at least 2.5 of them.

Etienne Domingue@akhuan· Dec 5

My partner and I have been watching Inuyasha (his first time, my umpteenth). Here are two standout moments so far.

A tired Kagome (right) tells Shippo the young Kitsune (left): “My soul went flying out of my body then came back in, but I seem to be fine.”

The red-eyed half-demon Naraku tells his incarnation Onigumo (off-screen): “Do not think I want you inside my body any longer than necessary.”

Etienne Domingue@akhuan· Oct 21

Stop scrolling and post two characters who bring you happiness.

Etienne Domingue@akhuan· Aug 27

Kaveh Akbar’s second poetry collection is a deeply affecting meditation on family, faith, and country—on the awkwardness of their cohabitation in the poet’s heart. The titles are often poems in themselves. #Booksky #Poetry

The cover of Kaveh Akbar’s “Pilgrim Bell”—yellow, pink, and black drops on a beige background.

Etienne Domingue@akhuan· Aug 26

I was passably surprised by the characters’ vicissitudes (Howey certainly doesn’t show his creations much mercy). I felt that some ideas (like the silos’ religion) were underdeveloped, but after you pass the 1500-page mark it’s probably best to start leaving some things to the imagination. #Booksky

“Dust” by Hugh Howey, the cover of which shows the silhouette of a woman running over a parched and featureless expanse.

All three volumes of Hugh Howey’s “Silo” series side by side. The spines show characters walking on a seemingly endless staircase.

Etienne Domingue@akhuan· Aug 24

Fordham’s adaptation is commendably restrained. His art conveys mood powerfully, but much of the setting is consigned to the blur beyond the depth of field. I’m not sure this oneiric style is well-suited to Le Guin’s anthropological sensibility but I still look forward to the next volume. #Booksky

The cover of Fordham’s adaptation of Ursula K Le Guin’s “A Wizard of Earthsea.” It shows the young sorcerer Sparrowhawk walking on a beach. The shadow he casts stretches beyond the tide line where it spreads like an oil slick over the waves.

Etienne Domingue@akhuan· Aug 18

In book two of “Silo,” Hugh Howey takes his sweet time painstakingly exposing his apocalyptic conspiracy. I had a hard time with one of the protagonists at first, but was rewarded for my perseverance with the adventures of Solo (my favourite character in the series). #Booksky #scifi

The cover image: over a blue background, the word “SHIFT” in rime-frosted grey letters stacked on top of one another, with the vague contours of a figure superimposed on the letter “I,” like a person caught in a block of ice.

Etienne Domingue@akhuan· Aug 17

A screen capture of a Duolingo cartoon character asking “Do you have many books at home?” in German.

Etienne Domingue@akhuan· Aug 4

Finally, I have been blessed with this majesty. #PokémonTCG

A screen capture of a Pokémon TCG Pocket card, Lugia EX, with “New Art Coming Soon” in lieu of the image.

Etienne Domingue@akhuan· Aug 3

Caught up on the show and got impatient. Didn’t expect to have so much access to the characters’ feelings. That affects the pace somewhat, but it’s also necessary to convey the sense of duty that people who enforce iniquitous systems struggle with. Hugh Howey’s prose is highly effective. #Booksky

The cover image of Hugh Howey’s NYT bestseller entitled “Wool”: yellow stairs winding around the word “Wool” on a red background.

At nearly 600 pages, book one of the Silo series is a hefty tome, but a fairly rewarding one, full of high-stakes post-apocalyptic drama. Juliette, the protagonist, is a model of resilience and resourcefulness.

Etienne Domingue@akhuan· Jul 30

Found this on our island rental. Sontag’s generalizations occasionally seem far-fetched but her articulation of the way in which documentary can erode reality for propagandistic purposes is prescient in retrospect. The pipeline from “reality” TV to “alternative facts” is woefully short. #Booksky

The cover for the Vintage edition of Susan Sontag’s “Under the Sign of Saturn,” a collection of seven essays in cultural criticism originally published in “The New York Review of Books” between 1972 and 1980.

The cover illustration is a composite image of a man standing in front of a pre-modern European structure partly occluded by an oversized pocket-watch while Saturn, with its rings visible, hangs in the black sky.

A page from the article entitled “Fascinating Fascism”:

Although “Triumph of the Will” has no narrative voice, it does open with a written text heralding the rally as the redemptive culmination of German history. But this opening statement is the least original of the ways in which the film is tendentious. It has no commentary because it doesn't need one, for “Triumph of the Will” represents an already achieved and radical transformation of reality: history become theater. How the 1934 Party convention was staged was partly determined by the decision to produce “Triumph of the Will”—the historic event serving as the set of a film which was then to assume the character of an authentic documentary. Indeed, when some of the footage of Party leaders at the speakers' rostrum was spoiled, Hitler gave orders for the shots to be refilmed; and Streicher, Rosenberg, Hess, and Frank histrionically repledged their fealty to the Führer weeks later, without Hitler and without an audience, on a studio set built by Speer. (It is altogether correct that Speer, who built the gigantic site of the rally on the outskirts of Nuremberg, is listed in the credits of “Triumph of the Will” as architect of the film.) Anyone who defends Riefenstahl's films as documentaries, if documentary is to be distinguished from propaganda, is being ingenuous. In “Triumph of the Will,” the document (the image) not only is the record of reality but is one reason for which the reality has been constructed, and must eventually supersede it.

Etienne Domingue@akhuan· Jul 28

Not sure I would lavish quite so many superlatives onto Ms. Rundell as the blurb writers have, but “Impossible Creatures” is undeniably compelling and uplifting. I look forward to future adventures in the Archipelago. #fantasy #BookSky

Etienne Domingue@akhuan· Jul 24

I just beat “Sword of Mana” (2003). I put in about 50 hours, likely more than necessary (I could have leveled up more wisely). I am not sure I understand any of the characters’ motivations, but it’s hard to beat those *vibes.* #swordofmana #rpg #vintagevideogames

A grainy picture of the “Sword of Mana” end screen: a jeweled sword planted in the earth almost down to the hilt, with plants creeping over it; the trunk of a gargantuan tree is barely discernible in the background, and the word “fin” appears in white letters in the bottom right corner.

Etienne Domingue@akhuan· Jul 16

There’s more to love than not to love in this ambitious urban fantasy, but I was left feeling the plot did not completely warrant the page count. The characters would have made a lasting impression even without this long acquaintance. McGuire remains a singularly skilled stylist. #booksky

Seanan McGuire’s “Middlegame,” being the adventures of twins surviving the machinations of a secret society of American alchemists and/or children’s authors. The cover depicts a hand of glory, which is famously a candle made from a human cadaver’s hand that grants the bearer secret powers.

Etienne Domingue@akhuan· Jul 11

My Daggerheart character’s favourite quarry in the Sablewoods.

A beady-eyed creature with the head, forelegs and tail of an ostrich, but with the body and teeth of a smilodon, smiling malevolently.

Etienne Domingue@akhuan· Jul 8

Read “The Age of Earthquakes” on the shores of the Maskinongé. The authors never cite their sources; they are also too flippant and too confident in their predictions, but thought-provoking enough to be worth my time. #Booksky

The cover for “The Age of Earthquakes: A Guide to the Extreme Present” by Shumon Basar, Douglas Coupland, and Hans Ulrich Obrist, featuring a distorted globe.

Three definitions:
Narrative drive (n.)
The belief that a life without a story is a life not worth living. Ironically accompanied by the fact that most people cannot ascribe a story to their lives.

Denarration (n.)
The process whereby one's life stops feeling like a story.

Time shrink (n.)
Describes the way in which your perceived life shrinks when it becomes over-efficient from multi-tasking, and not enough down-gaps are left between specific experiences.

“The future loves you but it doesn't need you.”

“The unintended side effects of technology dictate our future.”

Etienne Domingue@akhuan· Jul 2

Not sure how my study of weird fiction skirted Mr. Blackwood all this time. “Ancient Sorceries” didn’t do much for me—the explanation by the narrator of the frame story fairly ruins it, in my view—but “The Willows” is masterful. The prose is delightfully strange without seeming contrived. #booksky

A slim hardback volume with a dust jacket illustration depicting devils or cat-like figures dancing with joined hands around a bonfire—a depiction of the witches’ sabbath described at the climax of “Ancient Sorceries,” a story about a timid Englishman who succumbs to dépaysement in a rural French community.

The table of contents: “Ancient Sorceries,” “The Listener” (the tale of a down-on-his-luck intellectual who takes up lodging in a haunted tenement), “The Sea Fit” (an account of an evening on the coast with a whimsical sort), and “The Willows” (the story of two travellers reckoning with the gaze of powers greater than themselves).

Etienne Domingue@akhuan· Jun 6

I wouldn’t expect anything less from the great T. Kingfisher, but that was oddly charming. I wanted to know more about the Greenteeth. An inspired take on the concept of the Changeling. #fantasy #BookSky