The Lace Spangles Sparkle and Tremble
Plimouth Jacket, photo by Ed Nute
- Minimal Pairs and Gaze This is an important post. And it’s something I’ve noticed when reading submissions. A lot of times it’s clear that the person doing the submitting hasn’t bothered to look up anyone’s name. Although my favorite cover letter so far addressed me as “HEY GIRL HEY” (I do not recommend this strategy unless you’re a friend of mine).
- Malinda Lo has been ON FIRE lately. Here she is on the cover reveal of David Levithan’s Two Boys Kissing. And here she is on how to curate your online presence as an author–it’s full of good advice. And an awesome picture of Isaac Asimov and his sideburns.
- Hey Amazon, Where’s My Money Amazingly enough, having an self-pubbed Amazon bestseller does not guarantee a swimming pool full of money. Imagine that.
- 5 Moments that Prove Mr. Rogers was the Greatest American
- Imaginary Internet Friends
- Am I Making Excuses for Gaudy Night? (via)
- Lots of amazing discussion this week on romance and feminism.
- Beyond Bodice Rippers: How Romance Novels Came to Embrace Feminism This is the article which kicked off the whole discussion, the next three links follow on from it. (I would suggest not reading the comments on this article; the other comment sections should be fairly safe.)
- Cecilia Grant has some further thoughts on feminism and romance.
- Then Liz McCausland got in on the act with a link round-up and some thoughts of her own.
- Finally, Janet at Dear Author declares that everything old is new again–and brings up a lot of important points about the history of this genre that so many people love.
- On a more depressing note, we were also treated to a display of rape culture in action with the verdict in the Steubenville rape trial in which a number of news “journalists” expressed their deep and abiding sympathy for the rapists. Because when a young girl is passed out and raped by amoral young men, we really should feel sorry for the young men. OR MAYBE NOT. Trigger warnings galore for these links.
- Black Girl Dangerous: On Rape, Cages, and the Steubenville Verdict. This is extraordinarily nuanced and talks about the prison-industrial complex.
- Steubenville is Rape Culture’s Abu Ghraib Moment
- Henry Rollins on the verdict and the media coverage. This is the line that’s stuck with me since I’ve read it: “If it’s a man’s world as they say, then men, your world is a poorly run carnage fest.”
- FBI says it has identified the thieves in Gardner Museum heist; paintings’ location still unknown. So this is my very favorite art museum and this fills me with such hope that these paintings can be returned to their rightful place. And then I can visit them.
- Myke Cole on PTSD. (via)
- Literacy Privilege I thought this was really interesting–and something I hadn’t thought about before. It’s sparked a fair bit of interesting discussion on my favored forum over on Ravelry, too.
- Nature is weird, y’all. Resurrecting the Extinct Frog with a Stomach for a Womb
- Jennifer L. Amentrout signs a six figure, three book deal for Wait for You. The book was written in 20 days in January. We’re not even out of March. So basically it’s a first draft? Brie had some problems with the book.
- Vandana Singh on Kim Stanley Robinson’s 2312 and why it’s a failure on multiple fronts.
- Star-Gazing Girls of Georgian England Hey, look! Another article in which a traditionally feminine pursuit is only interesting because it tackles what, at the time, was primarily a male pursuit. This makes me grind my teeth because the piece in question isn’t even finished–if it were a half-complete sampler of Bible verses no one would care and, in fact, there is an example of a much more technically accomplished piece in this article that is basically held up as yet another boring sampler that all the ladies made. To me, something like the Plimouth Jacket is much more interesting than a half-finished sampler of the solar system. They had to reverse engineer spangle manufacture for the jacket! Textiles are a mostly invisible technology which sucks because they’re the root of so much of our modern society–including the computer I’m using to write this.
- Finally, a mesmerizing video of ball bearings rolling around on a table.
The Imaginary Internet Friends was lovely and so sad. I must say that there are day when I feel like my very real imaginary friends are what keep me sane.
I feel like that, too. And I, too, have mourned the loss of imaginary internet friends. People who say that the connections we make on the internet aren’t real are mistaken.
I visited the Gardner not long before the paintings were stolen. I would love it if this helps them get returned home.
Mesmerizing vid is mesmerizing. OoooOOOoooOOOOooh