competence; Dick Francis

[kate_nepveu]

My new motivational reminder is "be the competence porn you want to see in the world," because I realized that I get the same nice warm glow when I accomplish what I know that I'm capable of. (Shocking, I know.) We'll see how long that is effective.

Meanwhile, rec your favorite competence porn, ideally text because time and access, and ideally not dude-heavy, as I have just finished an Aubrey-Maturin skim/skip re-read and am likely about to embark on a Dick Francis binge.

Also, speaking of Dick Francis, rec me your favorites. I think all I've read is Proof--or at least if I've read more, I don't remember a thing about them. I've already checked rachelmanija's tag and seen skygiants's review of The Edge.

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[minoanmiss]

Batgirl: Year One is awesome for competence porn. She's just starting out, she's new, but she's good and she gets better and better.

The King Must Die -- the bull-leapers are made of competence porn and glory. Even as a captive in a strange land Theseus recognizes the value and valor of being a bull-leaper and works towards it.

[kate_nepveu]

Super interesting, thank you!

Also I was thinking about how, a) learning-to-be-competent stories are a related niche for me (THE GOBLIN EMPEROR) and b) if I hadn't reread it pretty recently, I could have gone for Unbeatable Squirrel Girl! (How have I not yet taught my phone that what comes after Unbeatable is Squirrel Girl?!)

[minoanmiss]

Unbeatable Squirrel Girl! cheers

[cofax7]

Oh, my, yes to the bull-leapers. It's my favorite sequence of any Renault novel and every time I reread it I'm sad about how short it actually is, in relation to the rest of the novel.

[minoanmiss]

I am so there with you on this!

But then we get a callback in Bull From The Sea, with "the last and greatest dance of Theseus the Athenian", eee!