Alive Without Breath: Keng Lye
These are amazing and gorgeous and I want one.
- At the risk of causing some sort of cross-link black hole, Cora Buhlert has a wonderfully informative round-up of the various Hugo and Clarke shortlist discussions.
- This is an amazing post about the recent film adaptation of Les Misérables. Which I finally got around to seeing after it came out on DVD and I was fine all the way up until the very end at which point there was ugly crying. Lots of ugly crying. Also this.
- Geek Love: Gargoyles & Geek Girls This hurts me in ways that I can’t quite explain except that I would say that I’m a geek from way back (hi, I made a Viking trivia board game in 9th grade, that must count for SOMETHING) and I’m not a guy.
- Mark your calendars for next year: April 8 is International Raistlin Majere Day! Fantasy readers of a certain age (ahem) will be all up in that mess. Except for those of use who are holding out for International Drizzt Do’Urden Day.
- The Ugly Internet
- The Day I Forgot How to Use a Book Whoa.
- Sledge Hammer! Television shows I have loved…
- DC Introduces First Transgender Character in Mainstream Comics Yay! “She added that she thinks most superhero comics readers don’t have a problem with increased diversity, but rather with stories that promote sermonizing over storytelling.” Yes yes yes yes yes. Diversity is a wonderful thing but not when it comes at the expense of the story.
- The Supersizers: Restoration How happy am I that Genevieve is watching this series and recapping it? A LOT HAPPY.
- Sacred Sexism Fascinating reading, this.
- Why ‘Accidental Racist’ Is Actually Just Racist Yes. And this, too: Everything That is Wrong with That Brad Paisley/LL Cool J “Accidental Racist” Song: A MOSTLY COMPLETE LIST
- RT Award Nominees & Winners — SF/F Congratulations to all the winners! I’ll always have a soft spot for this award.
- Feminism and Social Class in Kristan Higgins’ My One and Only I always find these discussions really interesting because class is definitely one of those things that romance tends to not do very well–or does in broad strokes. There are definitely exception but they are few and far between.
- Susan Faludi in The New Yorker on How Shulamith Firestone Shaped Feminism
- My So-Called ‘Post-Feminist’ Life in Arts and LettersThis quote pretty much summarizes it: “They’ll smear you.”
- Love story: Jan Morris – Divorce, the death of a child and a sex change… but still together
- “Disability” Fantastic piece about Chana Joffe-Walt’s NPR piece about disability. Lots of good links at the end, too.
- Feeling grateful. Heather is Canadian, but I think this sentiment applies across the board: “We shouldn’t attack employees who have sick leave provision in their contracts. We should ask why it is that we don’t extend paid sick leave to everybody.”
I am really, really annoyed at the Geek Love column. Seriously, Nick Mamatas is right: “geek pride” is incredibly damaging. Look at that one go, othering and disappearing women! People who aren’t like the author! People who came to their geekdom in different ways even way back when. People, dare I say it, who aren’t white and American and moderately well-off.
I didn’t comment, because right now my life is falling apart and I can’t hack the stress the pushback would be.
Ah, well. I did find an awesome video today:
Made me very happy. (Starships! Were meant to fly!)
I actually had a whole thing written about how I didn’t have access to a lot of the markers of fandom mentioned in that post and then I decided it was too personal and I deleted it. I may be white and American but I grew up in a relatively strict household and it was made clear to me from a very young age that certain things were not for me and media fandom was definitely one of those things (not that my parents would have recognized it as such).
That is a most excellent video! *sparkle hearts*
And I totally, totally, totally understand not wanting to deal with pushback. One doesn’t have unlimited energy for dealing with this sort of thing. I hope things get better for you soon!
I’m Irish. And never really found comics appealing. And I really don’t get a lot of the emotional investment in media and tech fandoms. (I mean, I’m a history geek, but there’s really not the same cultural identification there…)
I like stuff. And I get enthusiastic about stuff, but it’s not fundamental to my self-image the way it seems to be to certain parts of an older generation. It does seem to be an older generation, one uncomfortable with proliferating ways and means of engaging with certain touchstones of their childhood culture, and the new meanings assigned to older symbols by more diverse participants…
It does have a certain odor of “those interlopers are getting COOTIES all over our cool things!”, doesn’t it?
I’m not doing a very good job at articulating my thoughts on this. Teenage girls are, at least in American culture, discouraged in their enthusiasms. They’re made fun of (see: Twilight and One Direction) and they’re generally portrayed as not knowing any better.
Liking stuff isn’t fundamental to my self-image, either.
And then there’s this, which is pretty epic: http://www.themarysue.com/rae-johnston-fake-geek-girl-gamer-tweet/
I went to an all-girls secondary school and had a rather socially isolated out-of-school life, so I’ve really no idea how teenage society works outside that bubble even here…
I can well believe that society treats teenage girls’ enthusiasms as invalid or dangerous. It does the same thing with women’s, after all, and has historically.
Wow, I love that vid!
And now, someday I want to read Les Miserables (b/c of both awesome links)