tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-75950068710761734512024-03-05T05:03:59.910-05:00Plenty of Pageswhat started as a book review blog is morphing into a home for my musings on being a girl and being gay and the ways that intersects with my being a geek, and with geek culture. i do still and will continue to review books, because i read a lot and it's primarily what i enjoy talking about. if you've got a recommendation, or want to hear what i have to say on a topic, feel free to leave it in the comments.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01761151670790950970noreply@blogger.comBlogger52125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7595006871076173451.post-25096555092822418642015-03-04T11:12:00.000-05:002015-03-04T11:29:28.640-05:00Whodunit Actually Doesn't Matter: Reviewing The Connicle Curse by Gregory Harris<a href="http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51VLWg1G9sL._SY344_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51VLWg1G9sL._SY344_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg" height="200" width="133" /></a>
Hey everyone! I'm emerging from my wampa-cave for a review of a book I got an ARC of from NetGalley. I was pretty excited by the reviews I'd read of this series, labeling it as what would happen if Holmes and Watson were romantically involved instead of just full of subtext. I was expecting banter, a good twisty mystery, and a decent dose of that lovely societally-induced repression that makes Victorian romances (especially queer ones) so delightful. Unfortunately I was mildly disappointed on all three counts, but it did give me a lot to think about. <br />
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The narrator is Ethan Pruitt, the Watson to Colin Pendragon's Holmes. He has a sly sort of humor to him, but it was swallowed up by the massive amounts of angst he went through over the course of the book, as the mystery touched on some painful events in his past. Pendragon was clever, yes, but the ways in which he ordered Pruitt about in public fell short of the whimsical rudeness of Holmes and Watson. In the books and especially the 2009 movie, Watson's put-upon suffering is funny because it's intercut with moments of real emotion between the two-- but I never really felt that emotion between them, the weight of their long relationship and what they meant to each other, the way I wanted to. <br />
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The mystery itself was rather muddled for me as well. At one point Pendragon complains that he can't make sense of the crimes that have been committed, and I felt rather the same way. There didn't seem to be any clear objective the murders were driving toward, there was a lot of misdirection and confusion, but not the kind that ramped up my own sense of urgency and curiosity. There was really no clear indication that the crimes had been committed by one person with a specific aim in mind, which is something I hadn't thought of as vital to a murder mystery until now. Ultimately the reveal of whodunit packed no punch, because there'd been no foreshadowing and almost no development of the character in question beforehand. The final confrontation was decently done, but I thought the death unnecessary (though perhaps if I'd read the first two books I'd have cared more about the character?). <br />
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This was hardly a bad book, and I think it did a wonderful job of portraying queer characters in genre fiction without making the story all about them being queer. But the plot could have used tightening, and my lack of emotional connection to the characters made it fall flat. All of which has led me to think in depth about mysteries, and the careful amount of construction that goes into their creation. <br />
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Arguably, detective fiction is the only genre where the structure of the book is predicated on the characters setting aside their own personal goals, desires, and motivations, in favor of dedicating themselves to someone else's. At least nominally, a detective has to remain objective, at a distance from their cases, lest they lose their ability to think critically about how to solve them. Of course, the best mysteries are the ones where that objectivity is impossible to preserve-- consider Tana French's Dublin Murder Squad series, or Mulder and Scully's work on the X-Files, or Holmes when confronted with the work of Moriarty. <br />
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What's common in all these great mysteries is the sense of growing dread-- that while the case of the week may have started out as just another death or theft or unexplained phenomenon, the root of it is something intimately connected to the detective on an emotional level. And if the detective doesn't tread very carefully, the fallout will be not only the failure to solve the case, but a catastrophe for the detective on a personal level as well. In a good mystery, the arc of the plot is a success only if it unravels the detective's impartiality along with the explanation of how the deed was done. If the detective remains wholly outside the case, it's more an intellectual exercise than a story.<br />
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Which isn't to say every good mystery must drag the detective's inner demons out onto the page-- many of the shorter Holmes stories are more like long-form riddles than exposés into his character. But the genius of Doyle's work is that he intersperses longer stories that show Holmes and Watson as real, three-dimensional people, with shorter pieces that serve as funny or consternating palate cleansers in between. <br />
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But in a novel, the reader spends a long swath of time with the characters, and keeping the detective at a remove from the case also serves to keep the reader at a remove from the detective. It's counterproductive if the author is trying to build tension and keep the reader invested in what happens. Because ultimately the solution to the problem is only important insofar as it is important to the people trying to solve it. In <u>Faithful Place</u> by Tana French, we care if Frank catches Rosie's killer because Frank is driven like a madman to find out what happened to her-- without Mulder to remind us that aliens took his sister, we lose the sense of urgency that keeps us on the edge of our seats as he and Scully come this close, again and again, to finding the truth. <br />
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Not to harp on Tana French (but if you like mysteries and you aren't reading Tana French, repair that oversight immediately) but her first book, <u>In The Woods</u>, is the perfect example. In that book, there are two mysteries that protagonist Rob Ryan and his partner Cassie are trying to solve: a murder that's just occurred, and the disappearance of Rob's two best friends back when he was a child. The two are linked from the outset, but in the end only one of them gets solved. We never know what happened to Rob's two friends-- and I'm totally okay with that, because I got enough emotional closure from the completed arc of the story and the solving of the modern murder, that I didn't need to know. I wanted to, of course, and so does Rob. But finding the facts matter far less than feeling the character has come full circle, and in that respect <u>In The Woods</u> tells a whole and complete story. <br />
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So, returning to <u>The Connicle Curse</u>. The driving emotional force in the book-- Pruitt's past experience with mental illness and the devastation it brought upon his family when he was a child-- didn't have much to do with uncovering the mastermind behind the murders. Pendragon was set up as Pruitt's emotional support system, and indeed we see Pruitt taking comfort from his partner a few times throughout the book. But the resolution of Mrs. Connicle's brush with institutionalization and Pruitt's ability to confront the horrors of his past didn't dovetail neatly enough with the resolution of the murders. The book played ping-pong with the two, never giving me a chance to really get emotionally invested in either storyline. <br />
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In fact, reading this book and writing this post have reminded me that it's been a while since I last read a Tana French book. It might be time to pick up the next in the Dublin Murder series, and scratch the itch for a mystery I actually won't be able to put down. <br />
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<span style="font-size: 10px; line-height: 18px;">You can see more of my book ratings <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/list/29986-emily?shelf=read" target="_blank">at my Goodreads</a>. The Connicle Curse is <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Connicle-Curse-Colin-Pendragon-Mystery/dp/0758292716/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1425485480&sr=8-1&keywords=the+connicle+curse" target="_blank">available for sale on Amazon</a>. </span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01761151670790950970noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7595006871076173451.post-62532265514187076752015-02-18T14:13:00.000-05:002015-02-18T14:13:33.151-05:00be our guest, be our guest...<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://pbs.twimg.com/media/B9H1sBCIcAIJ0wg.jpg:large" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="193" src="https://pbs.twimg.com/media/B9H1sBCIcAIJ0wg.jpg:large" width="320" /></a></div>
This is sadly not that inaccurate a depiction of what it's like driving through Cambridge and Somerville right now. There have been times I've questioned the sanity of keeping a car in a city with such a big public transit system, but these past few weeks I've been so glad of it. Patches of cleared sidewalks get sighted about as often as the Loch Ness Monster, and are nearly as dangerous. What was once my front lawn is now a twelve-foot-high snowbank spilling out into the street.<br />
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But there are bright spots-- quite a few, in fact. I had a fabulous weekend in the delightful city of Troy, New York with my three best friends, I saw the sun on Monday, and I am so proud to say that on Tuesday I was featured for the first time as a guest blogger on the awesome urban fantasy blog <a href="http://allthingsuf.com/" target="_blank">All Things Urban Fantasy</a>! You can see my post, a sneak peek at a few YA urban fantasy titles coming out in the next few months that I'm really excited about, <a href="http://allthingsuf.com/2015/02/guest-post-upcoming-ya-books-get-excited.html" target="_blank">right this way</a>.<br />
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The girls that run ATUF are pretty awesome, and I'm really pleased to be working with them. I'll have another review up with them in the next few weeks, and I got a chance to participate in their series <a href="http://allthingsuf.com/2015/02/cover-art-coverage-11-new-titles-14.html" target="_blank">Cover Art Coverage </a>this week as well. Going all Tim Gunn on the covers of some recently released titles was a ton of fun (not gonna lie, I had to stop myself from saying "I question your taste level" just because I <i>could</i>.)<br />
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So that's what I'm up to this week-- that, and preparing for another snowstorm that's supposed to hit this Saturday. Sigh. At least I've got a lot of books to read...Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01761151670790950970noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7595006871076173451.post-69795985115690739582015-01-22T12:43:00.002-05:002015-01-22T13:01:50.714-05:00Scoundrel? I Like The Sound Of That: Reviewing the 'Rogues' Anthology<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://www.georgerrmartin.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/rogues.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://www.georgerrmartin.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/rogues.jpg" height="200" width="131"></a></div>
When I say I'm weak for a good heist story, I mean <i>weak</i>. Ocean's Eleven, Locke Lamora, Holly Black's Curse Workers trilogy, The Sting, the list goes on. Give me a person (or, preferably, a group of people) robbing some rich asshole blind and having a snarky fantastic time while doing it, and I'll eat it up like candy.
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Greg Van Eekhout wrote a great blog last summer about <a href="http://torforgeblog.com/2014/06/02/the-magic-of-heists/" target="_blank">the magic involved in a successful heist</a>, and he's right-- there is something irresistible about that sleight-of-hand smile-at-me-while-my-partner-steals-your-wallet kind of character. As it turns out, George R. R. Martin feels the same way, and so he went about assembling a collection of stories all featuring rogues in one form or another. As with any anthology, this was a bit of a mixed bag, with some stories sticking more successfully to the theme than others. I've briefly reviewed each story in terms of its relevance to the theme, and its overall awesomeness, below the cut.
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<a href="http://plentyofpages.blogspot.com/2015/01/scoundrel-i-like-sound-of-that.html#more">Read more »</a>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01761151670790950970noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7595006871076173451.post-32985477428791268532015-01-13T16:26:00.001-05:002015-01-13T16:31:00.917-05:00cool shit i found to help you get over being forced to put on pants today<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/7f/7d/9e/7f7d9eca45dbe01297cc86475e29bfac.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="224" src="https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/7f/7d/9e/7f7d9eca45dbe01297cc86475e29bfac.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
Because I know I'm not alone in being super, super bitter that I can't call out of work due to freezing my nonexistent balls off. Whether your balls manifest on this plane of reality or are entirely imaginary, I salute any and all of you who managed to drag them (and presumably the rest of your body as well) out into the world today.<br />
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Unless you live in Australia, in which case, go have an iced coffee and enjoy your warm weather somewhere I don't have to hear about it.<br />
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Some cool shit happened this week, like this Irish priest who <a href="http://www.irishcentral.com/news/politics/Dublin-priest-says-he-is-gay-during-Mass--receives-standing-ovation.html" target="_blank">came out to his congregation and got a standing ovation</a>. That just warms the cockles of my freezing little heart, dammit.<br />
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On Sunday night, the Golden Globes was pretty great for women, with not only Their Royal Highnesss Tina and Amy calling out Bill Cosby for being a rapist on live TV (on Cosby's former home network, no less) but some really great roles for women, trans people, and minorities were handed out as well. Through a series of clicks I couldn't possibly retrace at this point I came across now-Golden-Globe-winning actress <a href="http://www.buzzfeed.com/jarettwieselman/gina-rodriguez-latina-speech-jane-the-virgin" target="_blank">Gina Rodriguez talking about her role on Jane the Virgin</a> and why cultural representation matters, which made me fistpump and say "Hell yeah!" Similarly, The Mary Sue pointed out how <a href="http://www.themarysue.com/bojack-horseman-comedy-gender-parity/" target="_blank">Bojack Horseman gets the whole representation thing too</a>, which especially in light of last week's post about supporting characters in Disney films, makes me double fistpump.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://media.tumblr.com/db59a995b320433a7ece919633046ff8/tumblr_inline_nhuecypqTs1qzt0ie.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://media.tumblr.com/db59a995b320433a7ece919633046ff8/tumblr_inline_nhuecypqTs1qzt0ie.png" height="180" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">it's a croc wearing crocs. meta game too strong...</span></td></tr>
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(Also that show is hilarious and how come I'd never heard of it before last week??? Glad to have that hole in my media consumption filled in.)<br />
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Recently, on "Buzzfeed is a glorious timesuck that will simultaneously amaze you and ruin your life," they posted a collection of <a href="http://www.buzzfeed.com/kmallikarjuna/harry-potter-text-posts-that-are-too-real" target="_blank">tumblr winning at the HP text post game</a>. This not only gave me a chuckle, but sent me on this imaginative tailspin of planning an in-depth analysis of the ways fandom identity has shifted in its expression as the fandom community has shifted from LJ to tumblr. Like, how is our sharing of meta different, and graphics, and are memes the same, and how has the ubiquity of tumblr text posts allowed for shorter meta or headcanon sharing versus LJ meta which was often much longer... Yeah that's a dissertation I'm never going to write, but it's fun to think about. XD<br />
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Also, this week we learned that the secret to building the pyramids was <a href="http://www.themarysue.com/the-secret-to-moving-heavy-stones-in-egypt-has-been-discovered-and-it-wasnt-aliens/" target="_blank">a lot more prosaic than Fox Mulder and other theorists previously believed</a>. (Sorry X-Men Apocalypse, you didn't get it right either.)<br />
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OK, that's all for this Tuesday. Stay warm, Northern Hemispherites, until next time!<br />
<3Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01761151670790950970noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7595006871076173451.post-44986903382423518802015-01-12T12:06:00.005-05:002015-01-12T12:06:52.796-05:00Why I Am Charlie (and you are, too)<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">So, everyone has been talking about Charlie Hebdo lately, and </span><a href="http://opentheyear.tumblr.com/post/107509050942/avantblargh-before-social-media-sparks-fire-and" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;" target="_blank">I said a bit</a><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span><a href="http://opentheyear.tumblr.com/post/107503972872/winnerwinner-the-gasoline-station-please" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;" target="_blank">about it on tumblr</a><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> last week after the debates started getting heated, and now after doing some more reading and thinking, I want to say some more. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I've never been personally attacked or threatened for my writing, but I know people who have been. It's not pretty. And while I acknowledge there's a very real difference between satirizing people or institutions with power and privilege at their command, and satirizing marginalized groups who are often the targets of random acts of hatred and violence themselves, the bottom line is that committing violence against people for speaking their minds is wrong.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><a href="http://whatever.scalzi.com/2015/01/11/disorganized-thoughts-on-free-speech-charlie-hebdo-religion-and-death/" target="_blank">John Scalzi's response</a> to all this fervor hit the nail on the head. In talking about whether or not we agree with or support Charlie Hebdo's ideology, he says:</span><br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">"my comfort level is about me, not about Charlie Hebdo or anyone else. Free speech, taken as a principle rather than a specific constitutional practice, means everyone has a right to share their ideas, in their own space, no matter how terrible or obnoxious or racist or stupid or inconsequential I or anyone else think they and their ideas are."</span></blockquote>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Take, for example, the movie The Interview. The queens of comedy Fey and Poehler roasted it a bit last night at the Golden Globes, saying that the controversy forced us all to pretend we wanted to see it-- quite accurately, because I didn't want to, and still don't. But I was deeply unnerved by Sony's capitulating response to North Korea's threats. (Chuck Wendig did the best job of explaining <a href="http://terribleminds.com/ramble/2014/12/18/art-held-hostage-why-sony-not-releasing-the-interview-is-scary/" target="_blank">why that should make us all nervous</a>, in case you weren't already.)</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">As artists, we have a responsibility to make the art we feel compelled to make. It might be snarky, offensive, racist, or just plain crap. But that doesn't mean we should be denied the right to make it, or that violence and murder is an acceptable response to art we don't like.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">People have drawn parallels to Rush Limbaugh and asked if we would be defending him so hard if he'd been the one attacked for his hate speech. And as much as I hate to admit it, my answer is yes. I would rather be force-fed live slugs than do anything to support Limbaugh (I'm not even comfortable calling him an artist, but speaking your mind via film/music/graphics/writing and speaking your mind via rancid diatribes on the radio are not distinguishable in the eyes of the law, so the comparison stands). I loathe the man, and I wish he would come down with a case of permanent laryngitis or, you know, a lobotomy. But if someone were to murder him for speaking his tiny, bigoted mind, <b>that would not be okay</b>, and I would absolutely stand up in the street to protest that event.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Like Wendig says in his article about The Interview: protesting the things we find objectionable is part of social discourse. Threatening or enacting violence upon people for making or looking at art is fucked up and always, always wrong.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">So yeah, #jesuischarlie. But whether you use the hashtag or not, you are Charlie too-- because you click links on Facebook, because you look at videos on YouTube, because you're reading this blog. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Because if murder as a response to art is okay, then that means we're giving governments and terrorist groups the power to decide what art is okay to make and what isn't. And if we go there, pretty soon the line between those who make the art and those who consume it is going to blur, and that's the start of a slippery slide. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It's simple: either free speech is protected or it isn't. If people are allowed to make films like Selma and Pride, to write <u>Watchmen</u> and put a gay wedding on the cover of an X-Men comic, </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">then people are </span><i style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">also </i><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">allowed to draw racist cartoons and make terrible movies about assassinating Kim Jong Il and shout on the radio about the dangerous plague of gays in America. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We don't have to agree with Charlie Hebdo. We don't have to support their art or validate their points of view. But we can't lose sight of the fact that last week two men took 12 innocent lives because they didn't like some cartoons. And if we don't make it clear that we will not be silenced by terror, the person who uses guns as their first line of social discourse will never have any reason to put down the gun and try picking up a pencil instead.</span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01761151670790950970noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7595006871076173451.post-31606541724055854102015-01-08T15:35:00.002-05:002015-01-08T15:35:13.917-05:00Disney made a mistake, but Emily Asher-Perrin didn't.<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #363636; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Earlier this week over on tor.com, Emily Asher-Perrin posted a thoughtful and, I thought, pretty spot on analysis of </span><a href="http://www.tor.com/blogs/2015/01/tangled-brave-and-frozen-all-made-the-same-mistake" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">what Tangled, Brave, and Frozen all got wrong</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #363636; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">-- namely, that while they have female protagonists, they completely lack any female supporting cast, up to and including the animal sidekicks. </span></div>
<b id="docs-internal-guid-20943ee6-cb3f-67d0-405a-5979b787ca4e" style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #363636; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I know we're not supposed to read the comments, but I did. And after a lot of eyerolling, I came across one commenter who sparked a reply in me, which I'd like to expand on here.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #363636; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The commenter wrote: </span></div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #363636; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">...why single out these three films when this happens EVERYWHERE. The critique really should be why does this happen (and everywhere, not just three Disney films, as in this essay here): one of the biggest selling genre series was written by a woman and it's a pretty white, male, heterosexual magical and muggle world that she's depicted.</span></blockquote>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #363636; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">And hey, that's not a bad question. Why target Disney, when this issue is disgustingly rampant and, let's face it, kids' movies are not even close to the majority of films that get produced in the US on a yearly basis? </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #363636; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">It all comes down to how we critique, how we begin to frame the conversation. As I replied to that Tor commenter, an examination of the relegation of women to nameless windowdressing in all Disney films would be a dissertation, not a blog post. Lists help keep the discussion focused-- by critiquing these three films, Asher-Perrin isn't saying that they're the only films that need critiquing, she's using them as a jumping-off point to start a wider examination of the inherent sexism in Hollywood.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">And boy, what a can of worms that is. The </span><a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/11/13/women-in-the-media-female_n_2121979.html" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Huffington Post reported</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> in 2012 that a study by the </span><a href="http://www.seejane.org/" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Geena Davis Institute on Gender and Media</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> that looked at nearly 12,000 roles in prime time TV, children's TV, and family films, "</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">...[researchers] found a lack of aspirational female role models in all three media categories, and cited five main observations: female characters are sidelined, women are stereotyped and sexualized, a clear employment imbalance exists, women on TV come up against a glass ceiling, and there are not enough female characters working in STEM fields."</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Ouch.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Let's take this a bit further. In 2013, the MPAA reported that the share of tickets sold to 2-11 year olds was </span><a href="http://www.mpaa.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/MPAA-Theatrical-Market-Statistics-2013_032514-v2.pdf" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">at its highest point since 2009</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> (page 2), accounting for 12% of frequent (once a month or more) moviegoers (page 12). 7 of the top 25 grossing movies of 2013 were rated PG or under (page 23) with 4 children's films appearing in the top 10.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">In a world where women account for only 28% of speaking roles in family films, that's a pretty strong message we're giving, over and over, to really young kids.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Studies show that kids learn a lot about </span><a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.2044-8309.1985.tb00669.x/abstract" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">gender roles</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> and </span><a href="http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1367031" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">job expectations</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> from media. If the TV tells them that 72% of people with important things to say are men, they're going to grow up thinking that's reality. If the TV tells them a 14 to 1 ratio of men to women in STEM fields is normal, they're going to internalize that as truth without even realizing it. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I say again: ouch.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The lack of adequate, varied representation of women in media is a big problem, one that reaches way further than Disney. </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">But if we're going to critique, why not start there? Of course we want to erode entrenched sexism now, see more representation on our screens now. But it's also important to do whatever we can do to stop the cycle now, and give the next generation a chance to grow up without being spoon-fed so much subtextual sexism.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #363636; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The point of Asher-Perrin's post was that if a juggernaut like Disney, who rakes in money even on its weakest offerings, were to start the ball rolling on equal representation, it might give other filmmakers (and artists, and writers) the courage to follow suit. The Tor commenter was wrong: </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Asher-Perrin's </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #363636; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">critique shouldn't be different from what it is, it should stand alongside and be considered intersectionally with critiques of other films, other studios, other media. </span></div>
<br /><span style="color: #363636; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Her post is a gateway to a larger consideration of the kinds of movies and media we offer our kids, and especially in light of the Frozen fever that doesn't seem to be releasing its grip on America's kids (and adults!) anytime soon, I applaud her for getting the discussion started. </span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01761151670790950970noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7595006871076173451.post-69536238851517194032015-01-07T13:21:00.000-05:002015-01-07T13:25:09.084-05:00Cities, Planets, and a Partridge in a Pear Tree<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Happy new year, everyone! </span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I don't know about you guys, but the holidays tire me out. December went by in a flash, and by the time New Year's rolled around I found myself lacking the energy to do anything but lie on my bed and read, in which pursuit I spent a glorious New Year's weekend. Immersed in the fabulous </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Ancillary Sword</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> by Ann Leckie, and then by the various worlds presented in George R. R. Martin's </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Rogues </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">anthology, I got to thinking a lot about worldbuilding. </span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">For a speculative fiction writer, worldbuilding is one of the most important parts of structuring the story you want to tell. You have to find a good balance between giving the reader a complete picture of the world you've imagined, and giving them so much information that the story gets lost inside the encyclopedia you're dumping on them. It's really easy to fall down on either side of that line, and the authors who walk it best manage to deliver their worldbuilding so casually you barely realize it's happening.</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">In that vein, I compiled a list of a few of the best examples of worldbuilding in fantasy and sci-fi, both as a reference for myself as a writer when I find myself mired in the hows and whys of my worlds, and for everyone else to enjoy and hopefully add to.</span></div>
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<a href="http://www.kameronhurley.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/031624662X.01._PC_SCLZZZZZZZ_.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://www.kameronhurley.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/031624662X.01._PC_SCLZZZZZZZ_.jpg" height="200" width="134" /></a></div>
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">the Imperial Radch series by Ann Leckie </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">- I imagine it's really hard to find a way to explain "My main character used to be a ship with thousands of bodies all controlled by her AI, but now all but one of the bodies are dead and she has to pretend to be human." But Leckie manages to do just that, and to give her narrator a place within a detailed and politically complex sci-fi universe, without infodumping even once. Some might argue she errs on the side of obscurity, and there were certainly places at the beginning of the book where I was a little confused, but the picture comes together at a slow but steady pace, and the final product is seriously, seriously cool.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: baseline;">When Gravity Fails by George Alec Effinger </span><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial; vertical-align: baseline;">- While the plot in this book isn't the tightest one might wish from a murder mystery, the worldbuilding is outstanding. The city of the Budayeen is so vivid I can picture it in my mind even years after having read the book, same goes for the technology and weapons described. It's a textured blend of a place, it feels real even though it's unmistakably full of sci-fi elements. This is a case where the world is built effortlessly through the narrator's voice, as he travels through the social strata of the city trying to catch a murderer; you don't even realize how much of the picture is painted in until you step back and look at it from a distance.</span></span></div>
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<a href="http://feministfiction.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/Locke-Lamora-UK.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://feministfiction.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/Locke-Lamora-UK.jpg" height="200" width="130" /></a></div>
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">the Gentlemen Bastard sequence by Scott Lynch </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">- This is my favorite book series being published right now, full stop. Lynch takes a fairly straightforward approach to worldbuilding, but he's clearly given his world an insane amount of thought, and there are just as many passages of description as there are casual allusions to things that help fill in the picture around the action. Camorr itself, the city setting of the first book, is like a Renaissance-era Venice if it were made by aliens and populated by the Mafia. But every city we've visited with Lynch, from Tal Verrar to Old Theradane, just straight-up feels like a real place. He knows just what details to give to make you feel the cobblestones under your feet and taste the wine on your tongue. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Dune by Frank Herbert </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">- One of the greatest examples of sci-fi where the world is built through context. There's almost no info-dumping in Dune, just a lot of contextual allusions to important things that allow the reader to put together a complete picture of the worlds we visit. Like concentric circles, Herbert builds the Atreides family, the way they integrate with the Fremen society, the Fremen's place on Arrakis, and Arrakis's place in the universe, so casually you hardly realize he's doing it. Getting a POV on the Harkonnens, and the excerpts from Princess Irulan's writings, rounds out the bits we'd miss by sticking just with Paul's POV. </span></div>
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<a href="http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1327619585l/10836728.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1327619585l/10836728.jpg" height="200" width="128" /></a></div>
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The Rook by Daniel O'Malley </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">- In a story where your main character is a member of the British Supernatural Secret Service, coworker of vampires and dreamwalkers and sociopaths who inhabit four bodies at once, how to avoid the infodump factor? Easy-- make your character lose her memory and have to learn everything about her world all over again. I love epistolary fiction to begin with, and I really loved that The Rook is told half through letters from Myfanwy to her future memory-wiped self. Though there are sections that are heavy with information, it doesn't feel egregious because it's new to the character as well as the reader. Also, the inner structure of the agency is both brilliant and intuitive, so it's not hard to understand how the pecking order works.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">the Harry Potter series </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">- Similar to The Rook, a really great way to introduce your world to your audience is through the eyes of a character to whom everything is totally new. How better to ease us into the Wizarding World than by taking us, literally, to school there? It's pretty brilliant that Harry's new to being a wizard entirely, and not just new to the idea of Hogwarts-- his newbie status allows for continued worldbuilding throughout the series. My favorite use of this is probably in Book 5 when we learn about the Ministry's inner workings and St. Mungo's Hospital.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Boneshaker by Cherie Priest </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">- Really, this entire series builds an incredibly complex and colorful world, but I've only read two of the five books in it, so I'll talk mostly about the first in the series because that's what got me hooked. I love alternate history, and the best alternate histories take well-known people and events and mash them up with the fantasy elements that make them new. We all know about the Gold Rush, but using that as a path to a zombie apocalypse (albeit a contained one) is a twist I would never have seen coming.</span></div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01761151670790950970noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7595006871076173451.post-11034062065373710642014-09-03T14:59:00.000-04:002015-01-14T14:04:11.091-05:00Fuck the Higher Bird: A Review of 'Yoga Bitch' by Suzanne Morrison<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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More often than not on this blog, I've reviewed genre fiction-- that is, sci-fi or fantasy or something other than straight-up "literary" fiction. What I've never done is review nonfiction, simply because I don't, as a rule, read nonfiction. David Sedaris notwithstanding, my experience with other people's memoirs has more often than not been an exercise in eyerolling at the self-aggrandizing navel-gazing contained therein. Memoir is what people write when they think they're more special than they are.<br>
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When I went to the AWP conference in Seattle this past February, I went to a panel about book reviews where the editors of several review publications offered advice on how to make reviews pop. The best piece of advice I got was that a review shouldn't be a summary of the events of a book-- it should frame the book in context. Simply laying out the events of the book isn't enough; you can get that by going to Amazon. A good review tells a reader not if the book is good or bad, but why it's relevant.<br>
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It was also at AWP that I, on a whim, attended a panel on humor in memoir, and got to hear Suzanne Morrison read from her book Yoga Bitch. When I tell you I laughed so hard I cried, I'm not exaggerating. Her sarcasm, her unflinching honesty about her own inner failings, and most of all, the unbelievable story of a group full of grown adults who willingly drink their own pee, had me hooked.<br>
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<a href="http://plentyofpages.blogspot.com/2014/09/fuck-higher-bird-review-of-yoga-bitch.html#more">Read more »</a>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01761151670790950970noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7595006871076173451.post-57222949339126905442014-08-26T15:33:00.003-04:002014-08-27T08:31:10.207-04:00A Guide to Recognizing Your Geeks<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUAQo4HXHzCX5FRbn9QYQiJAFQ4_e0bpdNTPC9jHZfb5ac7mnRCDzSi_A_0TkpUXqoLd3DNQstpe9h2FlYVcQWgS-v6dqu2ZhcvtfRQIRY3xjnTdnHdmUEUjVzQu9q3Z-qU66Ntdp4uz8/s1600/lewis.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUAQo4HXHzCX5FRbn9QYQiJAFQ4_e0bpdNTPC9jHZfb5ac7mnRCDzSi_A_0TkpUXqoLd3DNQstpe9h2FlYVcQWgS-v6dqu2ZhcvtfRQIRY3xjnTdnHdmUEUjVzQu9q3Z-qU66Ntdp4uz8/s1600/lewis.jpg" height="200" width="173" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">goodbye old school...</td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Remember "Revenge of the Nerds?" It's a terrible movie, not one I'd recommend watching if you haven't suffered through it already, but it stands as a testament to the Bad Old Days when cool was king and "nerd" was one of the worst insults to hurl. The film presented what was, then, a novelty idea: that geeks can be good for more than shoving into lockers.<br />
<br />
That idea isn't so novel anymore. Over the past few years, geek has actually become chic. Or at the very least, it’s got a certain cachet. The days where dweebs were automatically equated with Steve Urkel are over, and for those of us who spent elementary school defending our prized Boba Fett lunchboxes, we’re now enjoying a bit of blowback from the <i>je ne sais quoi</i> of Chuck, Katniss, and the rebooted Star Trek franchise.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7cMkYKUNFdSXbI14h9mDKZTaVBy6sYeH1Tu-DshaTZVA88SjUACdxVjg_xaj2MMwIY-8Z4LELI_DM9moqvf34Uhill3Ik8IV5pzAOj-K1AtHuJtZN42O6eJIR52o5ppx8I3TaLoB-7kE/s1600/fitzsimmons.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7cMkYKUNFdSXbI14h9mDKZTaVBy6sYeH1Tu-DshaTZVA88SjUACdxVjg_xaj2MMwIY-8Z4LELI_DM9moqvf34Uhill3Ik8IV5pzAOj-K1AtHuJtZN42O6eJIR52o5ppx8I3TaLoB-7kE/s1600/fitzsimmons.jpg" height="213" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">...hel-LO new school.</td></tr>
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<br />
It's not just coming from one corner anymore, either. Glee lifted choir kids out of the social-strata underworld; supernatural creatures like vampires, werewolves, and Misha Collins are all over late-night TV; and the ubiquity of the Marvel films— not to mention the collective dazzle from the MCU's star-studded cast— has made it gauche <i>not</i> to know your Avengers on sight.<br />
<br />
So what's separating the geeks from the muns, these days? Some might argue we've got to step up our game to keep our street cred. In the wake of the Lord of the Rings movies, I wasn't the only person I knew willing to go to any lengths necessary to prove I'd been a fan before the movies— in fact, my fervor was outshone by people two and three times my age, from my father to my college advisor, who actually offered a seminar on Tolkien in 2004. In those brief and brilliant years when we were inundated by a new Rings or Harry Potter movie every time we turned around, it became the shibboleth of nerd culture to know "how it really happened", to toss out pieces of trivia like Quaffles through a goal hoop, each of us hoping to rack up the highest score. <br />
<br />
And I get it— I really get it. When I was little, books were my best (sometimes my only) friends. Frodo wasn't just real to me, he was important. Knowing him was important, and discovering someone else who felt that way about him was the best kind of surprise, an instant recommendation of someone's character. It was how I learned who was like me and who wasn't— who it was safe to be myself around— who I could trust. Geek was my identity, and when you own an identity that slaps you firmly onto the margins of mainstream society, you come to terms with the fact that most people will never know that part of you. You just can't trust them to understand it; you'd rather hide it than have it denigrated.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjjecet6gUdtVNM9bUfaH_DLX8nFDOorQtF8lnNu1cbGu0tkZ5VPOr5QLoD0LEFAJsdcqcDZyvr8_UkNVIt5PgqeeWX3HmR9yL2Tv2LeWdeDTsVxhJlU2hphb2wcTlmklyvgWGczCqgA54/s1600/tina.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjjecet6gUdtVNM9bUfaH_DLX8nFDOorQtF8lnNu1cbGu0tkZ5VPOr5QLoD0LEFAJsdcqcDZyvr8_UkNVIt5PgqeeWX3HmR9yL2Tv2LeWdeDTsVxhJlU2hphb2wcTlmklyvgWGczCqgA54/s1600/tina.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">better question: who <i>doesn't</i> like debating <br />the finer points of Westerosi politics?</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
So as the curtains have been drawn further and further back, the titans of geek media given spit and polish for presentation to a wider audience, we nerds have found ourselves swimming in a much more crowded pond. All of a sudden, knowing who Frodo Baggins is isn't a barometer for geekdom, because everybody knows. Dropping a joke about Thor's hammer isn't an indicator of who's a geek versus who just wandered into a showing of the Avengers by mistake. You can no longer automatically trust that you've found a kindred spirit in someone wearing a Winter is Coming t-shirt. So how do you tell who it's safe to debate the finer points of Westerosi politics with, and who will look at you like you're nuts for thinking that much about it? The sieve has to get finer; the tests have to get harder. Are you <i>really</i> a geek, or are you just pretending?<br />
<br />
It feels like an important distinction to make. Because in labeling ourselves different, we set ourselves up as a foil to that which we're different from. The opposition is right there in the title— Revenge of the Nerds. Sometimes it can feel that dire— that we do need revenge for all the slings and arrows we've weathered defending our right to enjoy things unironically, without caring if it's cool. And reading a Red Wedding freakout on Facebook from someone who mocked you mercilessly for reading fantasy books in high school can be— well— a little galling. <br />
<br />
Right now we're at the epicenter of the earthquake, the blast point where counterculture becomes culture. And I'll be the first to admit it's not pretty. Sharing sucks; I'm an older sister, I know. It feels like something's being taken from us, that our stories are no longer our own, and in order to keep our identity intact we have to pull up the stakes and retreat further into geek territory, rebuild our pylons and siege towers to keep the non-geeks out. We can still use our geekdom as a stick to draw a line in the sand; it can still be us versus them. <br />
<br />
But that's a bat'leth that cuts both ways. Nobody can absorb all facets of geekdom— there just aren't enough hours in a day. I can talk Star Trek and fantasy literature for days, but the number of video games I can hold a conversation about can be counted on one hand. So does that mean I'm not a "real" geek? Does the fact that I'm 30 and only just contemplating buying my first game system somehow make me "less" than people who've been using controllers as long as they've been using silverware?<br />
<br />
There's been a lot of talk lately about gatekeeping in geek culture as it relates to women— about girls who go into comic shops and get awkward-stared off the premises, women who go to cons and get harassed for their cosplay, women who get quizzed and challenged by whiny men who feel threatened by the presence of women in "their" geek space. I know I don't need to state that that's bullshit; we can all smell it from where we're sitting, and we know enough to avoid stepping in it.<br />
<br />
But if I'm being honest, it's not okay to do to anyone. Who cares when someone became a fan of something? If you were lucky enough to be born with a Silver Age spoon in your mouth, good for you. But we geeks put our pants on one leg at a time just like everyone else. Who are we to judge whether someone's interest is "real"? Who are we to stand with our arms crossed and say "Not you, you are not worthy, you shall not enter here"? We're not Gandalf— we don't get to say who shall or shall not pass. <br />
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Fantasy, sci-fi, video games, comic books, they're all ways of telling stories, the purpose of which is to talk about our experiences of being human. I've talked a lot about fandom and how it provides a haven to people who are underrepresented in media— that fandom is where I go to find people like me, whether on the pages of fanfiction or in conversation with other fans. That's what draws all of us to partake in geek culture, isn't it? Sharing our experiences of what a book or movie or comic or game meant to us. <i>Sharing</i>. Communicating. Interacting with people who are <i>like us</i>. <br />
<br />
Pardon me for waxing a little Professor X here, but we— we geeks— have more in common with the rest of the world than we might think. Peaceful coexistence with the uninitiated in a geek-oriented space is possible— and not just possible, it's happening already. So maybe this is where we find our common ground: in the exposure of our touchstones to the public eye, in not only allowing, but inviting non-geeks to experience them along with us. In welcoming the newcomers, not excluding them.<br />
<br />
Who knows— maybe in being a guide instead of a gatekeeper, you'll help someone discover they've had a Browncoat inside them this whole time. You'll be the one that opened that door into Narnia, the giver of that Green Lantern ring. The analogies I could make are endless. The point is, we all know the experience of reading a book or watching a show and feeling the tops of our heads lift off as that spark in our brain catches and turns into an inferno of excitement. We know it, and we live for it. It's the best feeling ever. And take it from me, watching someone else experience it is like a contact high— and who wouldn't want to be the bearer of that wondrousness?<br />
<br />
Look at it this way— this pervasiveness is the nerd's ultimate revenge. We're everywhere now, and we're turning "them" into us without even warning them first. Instead of the geek taking off her glasses to reveal the "normal" girl hidden inside, we can be responsible for the opposite transformation. It's the ultimate comeback to the challenge of hipster culture, which asks us to love things only ironically, from a safe emotional distance. <br />
<br />
Screw that. Reject the idea that by sharing our culture there's less of it to go around. Stop worrying, and learn to love the spotlight. Love your stories, share your stories, and make other people love them too. Those people are our people now. And if the proliferation of the nerd herd doesn't sound intensely awesome to you… are you sure you're <i>really</i> a geek?
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01761151670790950970noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7595006871076173451.post-63582446166687377012014-08-06T15:11:00.001-04:002014-08-07T10:19:30.889-04:00Guardians of the Galaxy: A-Holes, Whores, and Things You Just Don't Say to Your FriendsMarvel used the word "whore" in one of their movies, and I'm really not okay with it. <br>
<br>
Let me back up. <br>
<br>
When I was sixteen, I called my best friend a whore, and it ended our friendship.<br>
<br>
Okay… let me back up some more.<br>
<br>
<a href="http://plentyofpages.blogspot.com/2014/08/guardians-of-galaxy-holes-whores-and.html#more">Read more »</a>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01761151670790950970noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7595006871076173451.post-71683072655178790862014-07-30T12:58:00.000-04:002014-07-30T13:07:56.763-04:00'Ghosts of Tupelo Landing' by Sheila Turnage<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Starting the sequel to a book I loved is always a bit of a risk. But it was one that paid off with Sheila Turnage's <u>Ghosts of Tupelo Landing</u>, the sequel to last year's sidesplitting <u>Three Times Lucky</u>. Despite the volume of books I read, there are few that can make me laugh out loud without a care for how many funny looks I'm getting from commuters or coworkers around me. But like its predecessor, <u>Ghosts of Tupelo Landing</u> had me chortling on the regular. Mo's voice is so strong, and the humor comes in many flavors, from the bait-and-switch ("Connoisseur", I whispered. "French for 'know-it-all.'") to rueful self-deprecation (The problem with having a temper is you find out what you're going to say at the same time everyone else does.). I can't help but recognize a bit of the fiery troublemaking kid I was in Mo, but even if I didn't have that soft spot, I'd still be laughing my ass off.<br />
<br />
I trusted Turnage not to try to "one-up" the plot of the first book (one of my biggest peeves about mystery series) and she didn't disappoint. This time instead of a murderer on the loose, the real threat is to the livelihood of Mo's nearest and dearest, and in a way she can't fix just by figuring out whodunit. This is only tangentially a ghost story, with the title referring more to the shades of the town's past than to the actual ghost Mo and Dale are chasing. The overall feel of the book is of things coming full circle-- an out of town boy coming back to live with his grandfather, schoolchildren learning about their town's history by interviewing their elders, a historic building given new life through the town's collective effort. It's a deft way to frame the characters' development as they take on bigger challenges, both practical and personal.<br />
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Change is a common theme in middle-grade fiction, as most of its readers are already hurtling into adolescence at breakneck speed. Mo is growing and changing-- it's no coincidence that for the first time we see her in school-- and the scope of her world is growing too, as she turns her outward "Upstream Mother" focus inward to the people around her, and her place among them. The mystery was harder to solve, too, as it involved navigating the often confusing world of adult emotions and motivations. But Mo's facility for people (and for bullshitting her way out of sticky situations) helps her hold her own against bitter bootleggers and grouchy grannies alike, keeping the story moving constantly forward.<br />
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But the biggest strength of this book is in its unquestioning acceptance of Mo's experiences, and how it refuses to compromise her agency as the storyteller. Whether or not the ghost of Nellie Blake is "real" is never even brought up-- Mo experiences her as real, and therefore so do we, the readers. It's part of what makes Mo such a great narrator and such a strong character-- her world is the world we live in while we're with her, and it's a colorful explosion that doesn't step outside itself for a moment. Turnage has said that when she first sat down to write <u>Three Times Lucky</u>, Mo emerged almost fully formed, her voice clear and distinct, and that solidity certainly translates to my experience as a reader. If only all characters-- especially all female characters-- were as complete in their humanity as Mo LoBeau.<br />
<br />
I'm assuming Turnage will be putting out another sequel soon, only because I can't imagine saying goodbye to a character and a place I've come to adore so much after only two books. People often deride adults who read children's books (James Wood's recent invective, <a href="http://www.vanityfair.com/culture/2014/07/goldfinch-donna-tartt-literary-criticism" target="_blank">quoted here</a>, springs to mind), but whatever your age, <u>Ghosts of Tupelo Landing</u> gets my full-throated recommendation to anyone who likes good writing or is in need of a good laugh.<br />
<br />
Overall rating: 4.5/5 stars (rounded up to 5 for how much it made me laugh)<br />
Geek quotient: 2/5 stars<br />
Girl quotient: 5/5 stars<br />
Gay quotient: 2/5 stars (Mo has a gay "uncle" who's a very positive role model in her life- normally I wouldn't give this two stars, but in a book for this age group it gets more weight.)Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01761151670790950970noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7595006871076173451.post-71829794316624333352014-06-17T09:14:00.000-04:002014-06-17T09:14:45.336-04:00"Prince of Thorns" by Mark Lawrence<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgR7H9ahQ0xA1Dh3rjnUEVjpZT2msHzu7OQC9EqOt-uNyBG3Z0gKReKuesEf6IifPNBM4zDgbfxO6hzqczqGcPlONwvnpOWTQOLgkFuvjDHVTq_Wz9dy__QkxhoCX-C6gXoMydX7VOqkkM/s1600/Prince-of-Thorns-Mark-Lawrence-cover.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgR7H9ahQ0xA1Dh3rjnUEVjpZT2msHzu7OQC9EqOt-uNyBG3Z0gKReKuesEf6IifPNBM4zDgbfxO6hzqczqGcPlONwvnpOWTQOLgkFuvjDHVTq_Wz9dy__QkxhoCX-C6gXoMydX7VOqkkM/s1600/Prince-of-Thorns-Mark-Lawrence-cover.jpg" height="320" width="210"></a></div>
With no ado at all, I'm back! Shit's been crazy; I'm finally reading again, at last.<br>
<br>
So, <u>Prince of Thorns</u> by Mark Lawrence. I have really mixed feelings about this book-- I'd been really excited to read it, but when I got into it I just... couldn't get into it.<br>
<br>
A synopsis: When he was nine, Prince Honorous Jorg Ancrath watched as his brother was murdered and his mother raped and then murdered by villainous Count Renar's men. His father the king is a neglectful vicious jerk who refused to enact vengeance upon Renar in favor of using the murders as leverage to bargain a profitable trade agreement with him. Furious and betrayed, Jorg peaces out of home at age ten, and collects-slash-joins a bunch of thugs who then pillage their way across a bunch of kingdoms under his command, all with the ultimate goal of vengeance upon Renar and overthrowing his father to take the throne of Ancrath for his own. But there's more at play than just bloodlust; the Hundred Kingdoms are at war, and the closer Jorg gets to understanding how to win it, the more he starts to realize he has no idea what he's up against.<br>
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<a href="http://plentyofpages.blogspot.com/2014/06/prince-of-thorns-by-mark-lawrence.html#more">Read more »</a>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01761151670790950970noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7595006871076173451.post-36079385861142074082014-04-16T10:54:00.002-04:002014-04-16T11:01:47.754-04:00springtime... maybe?The calendar says it's spring, yet when I woke up this morning there was a crust of snow on the daffodils in my front yard. I'll say again what I've said several times this year: Go home weather, you're drunk.<br />
<br />
I just wanted to pop in and say hello, and apologize for the long silence. I hit a little crisis of faith toward the middle of February, in writing a few reviews and realizing I wasn't sure what I was trying to say, which led to this anxiety spiral of questioning why I was reviewing books, was anyone even reading my reviews, and if not, what the point of it all was.<br />
<br />
The lesson here is clearly that Seasonal Affective Disorder is not to be underestimated.<br />
<br />
Now it's spring (sort of) and I'm working on finishing the draft of that pesky novel that I started back in November, and trying to get back on the reading horse after a few months spent rereading the Harry Potter series and a boatload of Captain America comics. Also, I'd just realized that due to some weird glitch, my last blog layout was not letting you actually read more when you clicked the "Read More" link in my breaks, so the pretty layout has been swapped out in favor of something more basic and functional. Snazzing it back up will be a project for another time. Apologies if anyone was trying to read my past posts and couldn't make them work!<br />
<br />
The point is, I'm reading again, which means you can, I hope, expect to see some reviews popping up here again in the near future. Probably shorter and less rambly than my previous sort, but who knows. I'm still working this out as I go.<br />
<br />
Thanks for still being along for the ride, readers. Till next time!<br />
♥ emilyAnonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01761151670790950970noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7595006871076173451.post-62759537014962740542014-01-22T16:37:00.000-05:002015-01-09T12:59:41.993-05:00'Company of Liars' by Karen Maitland<div style="text-align: left;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1podC2-SUki-CvgoKyG89Ip0wdihc8gu3VTE32Kn8tbqYFsojzUKOdwFuuAT0-e2qNpeIC_3jn_xyoPSc9Ytiy0t_ZU_qpsiGIfXgUWOLP6kt716wPb79Vwi79Pj2mmfYm5RlK57vHrQ/s1600/Company-of-Liars-cover-large.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="'Company of Liars' by Karen Maitland" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1podC2-SUki-CvgoKyG89Ip0wdihc8gu3VTE32Kn8tbqYFsojzUKOdwFuuAT0-e2qNpeIC_3jn_xyoPSc9Ytiy0t_ZU_qpsiGIfXgUWOLP6kt716wPb79Vwi79Pj2mmfYm5RlK57vHrQ/s1600/Company-of-Liars-cover-large.jpg" height="320" title="" width="208" /></a></div>
Hey everyone, happy 2014! It's good to be back. I hope all of your holidays were merry and bright and full of good books. I've missed blogging-- to be fair, I didn't end up reading a whole lot in December that I could've blogged about anyway, but even still, it's good to be back in the saddle.<br />
<br />
I'm really excited about this post, because I've been looking forward to reading (and reviewing) this book literally for months. <u>Company of Liars</u> by Karen Maitland, whose back cover describes it as a reimagining of the Canterbury Tales. <br />
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Bear with me through a brief history lesson, which I'll start with a confession: my focus in college was Old and Middle English literature. And I am a giant, embarrassing, drooling Chaucer fangirl. I'm not <strike>only</strike> talking about the one played by Paul Bettany, either. Chaucer was the man. He was one of the first writers to decide that he'd had enough of this "real literature is only written in French and Latin" crap, and wrote in the vernacular that actual regular English people spoke on a daily basis. He's credited with starting the legitimizing of English as a language good for anything besides singing dirty songs in bars or figuring out how many bales of wheat to trade for a sheep.<br />
<br />
While he wrote a bunch of other works, he's most famous for the Tales, which live at the crossroads of sociopolitical commentary and self-insertionist fanfic. The narrator of the Tales is a guy named (you guessed it) Chaucer, and though the poet himself isn't on record as ever deciding to go on a pilgrimage, he used his vast experience of people from all walks of life to create a bunch of believable characters-- archetypes if you will, of the sorts of people that most English people would know-- a nun, a priest, a miller, an innkeeper, et cetera. Though they came from all occupations and classes, the pilgrims all thought that going on this holy road trip would absolve them of their sins. In some cases, Chaucer found this ironic and hilarious; in others, noble and commendable. It all depended on the person. Further setting the Tales apart from most literature of the time, there's no one main hero in this story, just regular people, and Chaucer immortalized every one of them, quirks, warts, farts, and all.<br />
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So-- back to 2013, and <u>Company of Liars</u>. The narrator of the book is called Camelot, not a name but a title, held by an old scarred man who sells useless trinkets claiming them to be holy relics. Rumors of the pestilence (the early name for the Black Death) have been circulating, and Camelot is trying to make it to a shrine to spend the winter in. Unfortunately for him, he keeps meeting people who he feels compelled to allow to join him, for their safety as well as his own-- a young couple expecting a baby, an albino child who reads the future in runes, a midwife, a musician and his apprentice, a one-armed storyteller, and a sideshow operator with a wagon full of marvels.<br />
<br />
As the title of the book would suggest, all of these people are liars. And between the incessant downpour, the lack of food, the growing stories about the plague, and the growing tensions between various members of the group, it becomes clear pretty early on that something's going to go FUBAR in this medieval station wagon-- the only question is when. The fact that there's a lone wolf that seems to be following their caravan-- hunting them, even-- only adds to the fear. Then, one by one, the members of their company start dying in increasingly gruesome ways.<br />
<br />
This is the point at which it becomes clear, both to our narrator Camelot and to the reader, that whatever is preying on the travelers (be it wolf or human) isn't doing so at random-- that rather than being absolved of their sins as Chaucer's pilgrims hoped for, they're being punished for them instead.<br />
<br />
This is the part where we get spoilery, so if you want to remain in the dark about whodunit, now's the time to stop reading.<br />
<br />
Still with me? Okay, good. Because we're going to have a chat, you and me, about creepy children.<br />
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.eddecker.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/children-of-the-corn.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://www.eddecker.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/children-of-the-corn.jpg" height="224" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Nope, this town is totally normal.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
The <a href="http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/CreepyChild">creepy kid trope</a> (don't click that) is often used as a mini deus ex machina, not to solve the problems of a particular story, but to expose them. The idea of a child that knows too much is unsettling-- a child that can think like an adult, and worse, perpetrate evil or horrifying acts like an adult, is one of the creepiest there is. Even if the creepy kid's job is just to stand by and make ominous pronouncements about what's going to happen, it's still unsettling. Kids are supposed to be innocent, and when faced with one who isn't, it jolts us out of our comfort zone faster than you can say Linda Blair.<br />
<br />
So if your book contains an albino 12-year-old with a long white rat's nest of hair and pale eyes who barely talks except to read runes and make cryptic statements about the people around her, I just go into it assuming she's one early bedtime away from going Lizzie Borden on everyone around her. Add to that the fact that the pregnant lady gives her a doll and she scratches its face off with a knife because she doesn't like it looking at her, and that she's crazy good at hunting but takes ages to actually kill her prey because she likes watching the animals struggle? RED ALERT EVERYONE, THIS IS NOT A DRILL.<br />
<br />
So while I may have called it pretty early on that Narigorm (which is a near-anagram for <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Morr%C3%ADgan#Nature_and_functions">guess which Celtic goddess</a> whose abilities include foretelling the means of a person's death?) was behind the wolf hunting and shredding Camelot's companions, no one in the book seems to figure it out, even as the body count rises.<br />
<br />
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</div>
Which is kind of the point, if you think about it. The best and scariest killers are the ones who do their dirty work right under others' noses and get away without suspicion (hello, Doctor Lecter). And who would suspect a child of murder? As Camelot finds out to his great chagrin, people don't want to even consider the possibility, even when it's standing there telling them in a sepulchral voice that the runes say someone's going to die less than 12 hours before one of their group turns up stabbed to death with his man-bits torn off.<br />
<br />
I should also mention this book is not for people who are squeamish about blood.<br />
<br />
Anyway-- one of the funniest parts of the Canterbury Tales is how Chaucer exposes the divide (in some cases, the chasm) between how the pilgrims think of themselves, and what their actions actually say about them. also In <u>Company of Liars</u> this theme is just as important, but it's used for horror, not humor. Each of the people in the group either has secrets of their own or is hiding someone else's, or both. They have a facade that they're desperately trying to maintain, and the growing dread that mounts with each chapter mirrors the characters' growing realization that those secrets won't stay buried for long. So reading <u>Company of Liars</u> is like traveling this double spiral of horror-- not only the realization that Narigorm is a practiced murderer who assembled this company on purpose to torment them, but that no one in is safe while they're with her.<br />
<br />
It seems strange to say about a book about a road trip, but Narigorm is the only thing that moves the plot along. Without her, the travelers would be content to keep living their lies, and would probably have finished their journey in ignorant peace, but she is always nudging them toward exposure. And while she as a character may be motivated to kill, her function in the story is to bring about that unearthing of the truth. She reveals how fucked up each one of these people is-- proves to them that the truth cannot stay hidden no matter how desperately they wish it-- and then punishes them for their sins.<br />
<br />
Strangely, she fulfills the same function for the book's travelers as the Narrator does in the Canterbury Tales. In this perverted, horrific reimagining of the Tales, Narigorm plays the part of Chaucer, pulling back the veil on the secret lives of the people around her and meting out retribution-- not by immortalizing their flaws in fiction, but by reminding them how worthless their lies, and their lives, really are.<br />
<br />
This makes the book sound bleak, but for all that it hasn't got a happy ending for almost any of its characters, I found it very satisfying. Maitland has a beautiful writing style and she paints emotion and atmosphere with a vivid brush. I was totally captivated by this story; each chapter was something to savor and linger over, and I was thoroughly sorry to turn the last page.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;">You can <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Company-Liars-Novel-Karen-Maitland/dp/0440244420/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1390425600&sr=8-1&keywords=company+of+liars" target="_blank">buy Company of Liars on Amazon</a>, and read my reviews <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/plentyofpages" target="_blank">crossposted to Goodreads</a>. </span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01761151670790950970noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7595006871076173451.post-42175173597497126742013-11-14T09:51:00.004-05:002013-11-14T09:53:28.747-05:00NaNotDeadYet!Hey everyone,<br />
<br />
Sorry for the long silence. Work clicked into overdrive toward the end of October, our big conference was the first weekend in November, and I decided to do <a href="http://www.nanowrimo.org/">NaNoWriMo</a>. So my brain cells, to put it mildly, are few and far between.<br />
<br />
I haven't read much new since I finished Scott Lynch's long-awaited <u>The Republic of Thieves</u>. I decided on a whim (because the leadup to Halloween always puts me in a spooky, magical mood) to do a full reread of the Harry Potter books. I'll have some thoughts about them eventually, but for now I've just been reveling in the re-immersion. It's astonishing how repeated watchings of the movies have altered my sense of the books, their quality, how much I enjoy them, especially the first two. I'm just starting Prisoner of Azkaban, which is one of my favorites, so I'll probably blog a bit about the first three when I'm done with it.<br />
<br />
Also, in my very little spare time (ie: the times when my eyes are crossing at work and I need to zone out on something) I've been catching up on <a href="http://www.tor.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=blog&id=13372">the Great Wheel of Time Reread</a> over at tor.com, which has been hilarious. I first read the series my first year of college, when I had very few friends and a lot of time on my hands. I got really fed up with them around book 6, I think, but I persevered until book 9 just to see if they'd get better. They didn't. But there is so much that's good and interesting about the series, so the reread blog is like doing a supercondensed reread of my own-- I get to remember all the good parts without killing a hundred hours and handfuls of the aforementioned scant brain cells.<br />
<br />
So that's where I'm at. I'm hoping to finish the few reviews I had started before work exploded, but I probably won't get to them until I hit the 40k mark with NaNo (don't want to jinx myself!) and I might end up skipping over them entirely and moving on to whatever book I kick off December with.<br />
<br />
But seriously, if you've been thinking about <u>The Republic of Thieves</u>, read it. It was worth every second of the wait. AND I saw Scott Lynch speak at the book's premiere in Boston, and he promised that the 4th installment will be in our hands by Christmas next year. To which I responded, "!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" So that's good news for all Locke and Jean fans.<br />
<br />
If any of you guys are doing NaNo, what are you doing to stay focused? I discovered <a href="http://www.twitter.com/NaNoWordSprints">@NaNoWordSprints</a>, which has been immensely helpful... especially after I didn't write all last weekend on account of it being my 30th birthday and getting kidnapped by my besties for a weekend of eat-drink-and-be-merry. In case I needed the confirmation that I've definitely outgrown the "get wasted three nights in a row" stage of my life... yep, I got it.<br />
<br />
Okay, back to work. Love!<br />
<3 emily<!--3-->Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01761151670790950970noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7595006871076173451.post-56810484070073204372013-10-10T13:06:00.001-04:002013-10-10T13:06:55.919-04:00On shipping, and being wrongI came across a Tumblr post the other day with a set of gifs from a recent movie, showing the two nerdy scientist characters (both male) grinning and hugging each other from the moment in the movie right after they help save the world. The OP's tags were quoted below the gifset, saying something like, "I actually thought they were going to kiss", or something similar.<br />
<br />
The person on my feed who reblogged the post had amended it with tags of her own. Paraphrased, she said that she didn't understand "why a fandom refuses to just let dudes who are friends be friends", that not every fictional friendship "involves touching penises".<br />
<br />
This made me, to understate, a little mad. Not because I happen to enjoy that particular ship (though I do) but because of the self-righteous queer-phobic sentiment behind the tags. It's the nature of the fan world that you'll come across ships that make you go "Huh?" or "Yikes" or downright "Ew." It's just a fact of fanworks, and being part of fannish culture. Some people see a ship where you cannot imagine one existing. Eat your vegetables, kids; some people like things that you don't like.<br />
<br />
So I'm not taking issue with the fact that this person doesn't ship these two characters. That's her gods-given right as a person; to ship or not to ship, as she sees fit. But I <i>am</i> taking issue with her castigation of "a fandom" seeing a ship where she doesn't see one-- of her taking the fact that people ship these particular characters and turning it into a general interdict against ships she doesn't enjoy. I don't personally understand why people ship Draco/Hermione or Mal/River or Dean/Sam or any number of the roughly five million ships that scroll down my Tumblr dash every day. But frankly, it's not for me to judge.<br />
<br />
Because here's the thing about shipping. Non-fannish people often have a hard time with the concept, because they don't tend to be the types of people who think a lot about fictional canons and characters when they're not watching/reading/playing that canon. But fannishness-- broadly speaking, and shipping in particular-- is about seeing the possibility of the story to go a different way, for it to contain more than just what's shown on the screen or the page.<br />
<br />
To date, one of my favorite things the internet has ever churned out to talk about slash fanfiction is <a href="http://cimorene.dreamwidth.org/2650856.html">this post by dreamwidth user Cimorene</a>, in which she talks about representation (gay characters and relationships in the textual context of the canon) versus slash (queering the canon through your own interpretation). A few years ago I also wrote <a href="http://betweenthebliss.livejournal.com/79393.html">a post about queer representation in media, especially genre fiction</a>, and my participation in fan culture-- specifically fanfiction, even more specifically slash. If you're new to the concept of shipping or slash, those are good places to start.<br />
<br />
When we talk about slash, we're talking about dragging the lens from mass media's obsessively heteronormative view to something that feels more like what we experience in reality. I love <a href="http://zeroatthebone.wordpress.com/2013/05/27/tossing-the-script-of-desire/">this blog post</a>, which discusses the "script of desire", the expectations we're taught to have and the incredibly narrow roles men and women are "supposed" to fill when interacting with each other.<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Heteronormativity isn’t just about the presumption that everyone is heterosexual. The expectation that boys woo girls feeds into your mind the expectation that relationships are necessary for fulfilment, and you are less than if you are not having particular kinds of sex with a particular, and a particular kind of, person at particular intervals.</blockquote>
And if you don't have that kind of sex, if you aren't even remotely interested in it, then what? Where do you find those people that you remind you of yourself? When I watch a movie and I look for someone to cast myself in the role of, it's almost never one of the leads. It's usually the socially awkward geek; the brainy bookish kid with the sharp tongue; the withdrawn angry kid with the enormous chip on her shoulder.<br />
<br />
And when I see that character form an attachment to another character, especially one of the same sex, I can't help but wonder how it might grow beyond attachment to attraction-- because that's how I've experienced attraction, sex, love, in the past. That's the story my brain tells, because <i>it's the story I've lived</i>.<br />
<br />
So what's the basis of this Tumblr user's bashing of this ship-- and not only this ship, but a group of fans who choose to look beyond what is only textually a friendship? Why the resentment that exists from someone who doesn't ship a particular pairing, towards the people that do? Her tags came off as not only self-aggrandizing but also snobbish-- as though just knowing that some people enjoy shipping these two characters was threatening to her, was somehow tainting what she saw as the "right" interpretation of their relationship.<br />
<br />
I talk with my friends periodically about what makes a geek a geek. We've basically boiled it down to the fact that being a geek, at least in the current hipster culture of detachment and "ironic" enjoyment of things, has a lot to do with not being afraid to get excited about stuff. I'm a geek because I get excited about wizards, werewolves, made up worlds, giant robots fighting monsters in the ocean, and a host of other things. I get excited by shipping. And I think people who get down on others for their ships are not only betraying the spirit of geekdom, but seriously detracting from the safe space that most of us consider our fannish lives to be. Like I said in the post I linked above; fandom is where I come to find people like me. And it's contrary to that fraternal feeling to tell someone their ship is lame, or wrong. You wouldn't want someone to do that to you.<br />
<br />
In the immortal words of Vin Diesel: Don't be a dick, Dick.<br />
<br />
Sure, not all friendships between two dudes involve sex. But the point of participating in a fandom is that you have a platform from which to posit that it <i>could</i>-- that any friendship <i>could</i> turn into romance, regardless of the gender of the characters involved. That if you want to, you could read the friendship between these two secondary characters as being the prelude to, or simply the outward expression of, a romantic relationship. That that's a story that's just as valid to tell as any other.<br />
<br />
And if you read a piece of fanfiction that speaks to you-- that tells you the story of someone you relate to, having the kind of sex that you want to have, falling in love in a way you can imagine yourself falling in love-- who the hell is anyone else to tell you you're wrong?<br />
<br />
Till next time, geeks, stay frosty. And incidentally, if you're on tumblr, you can see my incredibly nerdy collection of reblogs at opentheyear. :)Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01761151670790950970noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7595006871076173451.post-592583057120649112013-10-02T16:39:00.001-04:002013-10-03T18:58:55.873-04:00Cool shit I found to cure the common cold (and by cure, I mean distract from)<div class="" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">this is about the level of involvement i have <br />
with my surroundings today.</td></tr>
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It's happened to all of us, I'm sure. The seasons change, you wake up one day and your sinuses are tight, and you think, oh great, allergies. Then you get a little chest raspiness and a sore throat, so you cough sometimes, sounding not so much ill as pathetic.<br />
<br />
That was yesterday. Breathing hasn't been much fun, which for me at least, kind of gives me a lackluster outlook on life in general. Breathing being, you know, sort of important. So now I not only sounded like Howl's wheezy alter ego, but I basically had the same level of excitement for my surroundings as him too.</div>
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Then this morning I woke up to find my nose was doing its level best to win a faucet impersonation contest, my sore throat had gone from zero to <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K2UEphykgsk">full Tim Curry</a> in the night. Am I sick? Yes. But sick enough to miss work? Ehhh.... I figured I'd suck it up and come in. I need the money, and I need to continue making a good impression on my new boss.<br />
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://gifrific.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/Everything-Hurts-and-Im-Dying-Parks-and-Recreation.gif" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://gifrific.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/Everything-Hurts-and-Im-Dying-Parks-and-Recreation.gif" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">yes i am very perky and would love to<br />
HACK WHEEZE assist you today!</td></tr>
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Besides, I worked retail for four years, I know how to slap on a smile with the best of 'em.</div>
<br />
Now you might be asking yourself, what's my problem? Why don't I just pull up my pants, take a Day-Quil and move on with my life? Ohoho, if only it were that simple.<br />
<br />
You see, lieblings, most people see those histamine-blocking medications as the go-to for the sorts of illnesses that can lay you out for a few days at a stretch. I, on the other hand, apparently have the immune system of a Regency heroine (the annoying Caroline Bingley type, natch), because what antihistamines do to me is not make me better. They make me high. High, high, higher than a kite with a jet pack attached to it. Sure, my symptoms are gone, but I'm basically in a coma of drugs that renders me incapable of interacting with my environment beyond eating and drinking what's put in front of me, and occasionally blowing my nose.<br />
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All of which means it's really difficult to medicate myself when I'm sick, lest I end up a drooling, gibbering mess. Most of the time, like my British forebears, I medicate with tea, Advil and willpower. Sometimes that works. Most of the time, my illness then progresses on to the stage where I lie on the couch moaning about how terrible I feel in the hopes that someone will take pity on me and bring me chicken soup or something. Usually I just succeed in making the people who live with me find very important things to do outside the house.<br />
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<a href="http://media.tumblr.com/dd69fead695b0a0a4e883c47949a1e00/tumblr_inline_mtwfzpJfly1r0u2cd.gif" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="136" src="http://media.tumblr.com/dd69fead695b0a0a4e883c47949a1e00/tumblr_inline_mtwfzpJfly1r0u2cd.gif" width="320" /></a></div>
Without finding the magical correct combination of medicines to stave off this hell-plague, I predict we will reach this stage by tomorrow night. Which could be cool if I end up not going into work on Friday, because hey, three day weekend. But a) I could use the money, and b) no one wants to waste a sick day actually being sick, amirite?</div>
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So my normal mood when October finally arrives in my life, which is basically summed up by this cat :</div>
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<a href="http://media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m8pqdbngnU1qd0as9.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m8pqdbngnU1qd0as9.gif" /></a></div>
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has now been replaced by a feeling of general malaise and a desire to get back in bed. This is bad for several reasons. One, I joined <a href="http://www.thekitchn.com/sign-up-for-the-kitchn-cure-the-kitchn-cure-fall-2013-194693">The Kitchn Cure</a> (because I'm obsessed with The Kitchn and if you're not... why not?? It's like internet Disneyland for foodies!) and am supposed to be merrily cleaning and purging my kitchen this week. Yeah, like that's going to happen when I'm a snot factory. Also, my mom's coming up on Saturday to help me with projects around the apartment, and on Sunday I'm going to a wedding expo with my two best friends who are getting hitched in a year. Yay weddings! Hope I don't hack up something gooey on any expensive dresses!</div>
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On the upside, if I do take a day off on Friday, at least I'll have a lot of good books to keep me company. :D</div>
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Now here, have some links. They're totally taking my mind off wanting to crawl under my desk and take a nap. I promise.</div>
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<ul>
<li>I love Rainbow Rowell (author of the stunning <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Eleanor-Park-Rainbow-Rowell/dp/1250012570/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1380746870&sr=8-1&keywords=eleanor+and+park">Eleanor and Park</a>, and ssh I haven't laid hands on <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Fangirl-Rainbow-Rowell/dp/1250030951/ref=la_B0042IIWBU_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1380747000&sr=1-1">Fangirl</a> yet but BELIEVE ME it's on my list) and <a href="http://www.hbook.com/2013/09/blogs/out-of-the-box/five-questions-rainbow-rowell/">the Horn Book asked her five questions</a>, the answers to which I really loved.</li>
<li>In "I'm really old" news, <a href="http://www.buzzfeed.com/dray/hey-ya-is-10-years-old-4666">Hey Ya turned ten last week</a>, and <a href="http://fyeahhboymeetsworld.tumblr.com/post/62158806192/20-years-ago-today-perfection-debuted-3">Boy Meets World turned 20</a>. And just in case you hadn't had a "right in the feels" moment yet today, here, have <a href="http://www.buzzfeed.com/kaitlynnknopp/16-things-mr-feeny-taught-us-de8z">16 things Mr. Feeny taught us</a>. </li>
<li>The Mary Sue posted these <a href="http://www.themarysue.com/minimalist-sci-fi-book-covers/">minimalist covers for essential geek literature</a>. Personally I'd love to see The Hero and the Crown on there with the crown of sorka leaves, or the Earthsea books with the two halves of the Ring of Erreth-Akbe. What books do you guys think qualify as essential geek lit?</li>
<li>Like swearing? Who doesn't? <a href="http://www.themillions.com/2013/09/you-ninnie-hammer-flycatcher.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+themillionsblog%2Ffedw+%28The+Millions%29">Colin Burrow's review</a> of Melissa Mohr's <a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0199742677/ref=nosim/themillions-20">Holy Shit: A Brief History of Swearing</a> will give you some great ideas for inventive curses. Unless you already lash out at people by calling them "grouthead gnat-snappers", in which case, carry on.</li>
<li>Here, have House Lannister <a href="http://www.themarysue.com/lion-king-game-of-thrones/">drawn like characters from The Lion King</a>.</li>
<li>In queer girl news, <a href="http://www.afterellen.com/a-lesbian-in-the-sorority-house/09/2013/">this response</a> to the Smith girl who wants a straight-only sorority on campus is really thoughtful and nonjudgmental. Which is more than I could have mustered myself, frankly. Equally thought provoking, <a href="http://www.autostraddle.com/michelle-rodriguez-coming-out-bisexual-is-a-big-deal-198811/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Autostraddle+%28Autostraddle%29">Riese from Autostraddle's response</a> to M-Rod's (long-awaited) coming out, and thoughts on why it's a big deal. Definitely gave me some perspective on both M-Rod and the language that we as internet denizens take for granted when talking about representation, feminism and queer activism.</li>
<li>And lastly, in "thinking about writing" news: two perspectives. One; <a href="http://www.buzzfeed.com/leonoraepstein/the-original-friends-character-descriptions-are-spot-on">these original descriptions of the six "Friends" are really spot-on</a>. Makes me think about boiling a character down to his or her essence, and what actually is the essence of a good character, and how to write an ensemble cast that all works together in interesting ways. <br />Alternately, Rainbow Rowell (again ♥) <a href="https://twitter.com/rainbowrowell/status/385250625862119424">tweeted this morning about the unaired pilot of Sherlock</a> and what the comparison between it and the final cut says about the power of revision. Food for writerly thought! Writers out there, do you believe in sticking to your concept no matter what, or do you leave room in your brain for ideas, characters, stories to change as you write them?<!--3--></li>
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Okay darlings, it's nearly 5pm, which means it's nearly time for mama to go take some Advil, make a cuppa and crawl into bed with the fat flumpy cat and a book. Till next time!</div>
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♥ emily</div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01761151670790950970noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7595006871076173451.post-80132653984963163502013-09-30T15:47:00.000-04:002013-09-30T15:47:56.394-04:00An immortal wizard walks into the World Series of Poker... : "The Incrementalists" by Steven Brust and Skyler White<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxDoXuYFysC3aiclZKX_cav4Z588MGkHdmdmHg25VSHnOlKvfk8fbFu0a2tH25svSowT-bll6zpDdycA9BIPPsgATEbpekArRnmeuGGwkpx-moecpjIVShR7alHGlMIsMUt5Y0k5mNy4bN/s1600/The+Incrementalists.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxDoXuYFysC3aiclZKX_cav4Z588MGkHdmdmHg25VSHnOlKvfk8fbFu0a2tH25svSowT-bll6zpDdycA9BIPPsgATEbpekArRnmeuGGwkpx-moecpjIVShR7alHGlMIsMUt5Y0k5mNy4bN/s200/The+Incrementalists.jpg" width="139"></a></div>
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It sounds like the setup to a bad joke. A guy sits alone in a bar in Vegas, waiting for his next poker game to start. He flirts with the waitress, has a drink, thinks about the fact that his ex-girlfriend recently committed suicide; nothing really to set him apart from the sludge of humanity around him. But underneath his baseball cap sits a mind that's been reincarnated through dozens of bodies over the course of many centuries-- a mind that remembers every era of history and every time he used his magic to change things for the better. And the best part is, our wizard isn't alone. He's got 200 friends just like him-- a secret society who's been magically nudging people toward working for the greater good, operating between the lines since the dawn of time. This is the premise of Steven Brust and Skyler White's <u>The Incrementalists</u>-- the foundation for a story that is simultaneously fantastical and everyday, mixing magic both wondrous and mundane. </div>
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<a href="http://plentyofpages.blogspot.com/2013/09/an-immortal-wizard-walks-into-world.html#more">Read more »</a>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01761151670790950970noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7595006871076173451.post-77597740162626086122013-09-25T17:01:00.002-04:002013-10-02T12:55:44.458-04:00Punch-Drunk and in a Funk: 'Crux' by Ramez Naam<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<a href="http://www.kurzweilai.net/images/crux-cover.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://www.kurzweilai.net/images/crux-cover.jpg" width="211"></a><span style="color: #181818; font-family: Georgia, serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px;">The year is 2040, and the latest drug to hit the streets is Nexus, a bionic enhancement that allows human brains to network like computers. Kade, Rangan, Ilya and Watson are the geniuses behind the newest upgrade, and they're living like kings-- until a secret branch of the government sends an agent to shut them down. You can read all about that in <u>Nexus</u>, the first book in Ramez Naam's cyberpunk trilogy; this review deals with the sequel, <u>Crux</u>, which finds two of our hacker friends dead, one imprisoned, the other on the run for his life, and the government agent who started it all working against her former employer just as hard as the hackers she once tried to subdue. Throw in a few guys with ties to shady government agencies, some terrorists, some freedom fighters, and some people who are some or all of those things at once, and you've got a recipe for a whirlwind of a book that, unfortunately, came out sort of half-baked.</span></span><br>
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<a href="http://plentyofpages.blogspot.com/2013/09/punch-drunk-and-in-funk-crux-by-ramez.html#more">Read more »</a>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01761151670790950970noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7595006871076173451.post-63070133743711217032013-09-18T15:34:00.001-04:002013-09-18T15:34:38.231-04:00Heaving over the Hump in Hump Day<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
So there will be some Cool Shit I Found Online here, but first I have to say something. </div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiwcMPESvxc-6E__zTAs-kr6f1jDOk1H_kn0rkkMxYhB9OYKGjkKXg9wxTVLEX4rXfpd1parFgpvRNvrMRiSuCXjyrn5bR1B77VS9ItdYnyd3q2X3iAovxv_HyQydSoWw39NitRaZbvRqI/s1600/Screen+shot+2013-09-18+at+3.18.39+PM.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiwcMPESvxc-6E__zTAs-kr6f1jDOk1H_kn0rkkMxYhB9OYKGjkKXg9wxTVLEX4rXfpd1parFgpvRNvrMRiSuCXjyrn5bR1B77VS9ItdYnyd3q2X3iAovxv_HyQydSoWw39NitRaZbvRqI/s320/Screen+shot+2013-09-18+at+3.18.39+PM.png" width="214"></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">#gpoy</td></tr>
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Right now I'm trying to shove lunch in my face one-handed while answering a work email and approximately a billion personal emails, calling my hairdresser back to confirm my haircut for Saturday, and writing this post. You guys, my life has gone from zero to sixty in the best way possible. I started a new job as a project assistant at a local university, and I. Fucking. Love. It. It's the perfect job for someone who's anal retentive with a little bit of ADD-- my job is basically to come in, let my boss dump a to-do list on my head, and then put on Spotify and take care of business. Armed with FileMaker, Photoshop, and (I shit you not) an entire room full of office supplies, I am helping an entire department get ready for their big event of the year (a conference that happens the week before my birthday) and I am kicking ass at it. Not to toot my own horn-- well, actually, I heard my boss tell her supervisor that I'm "awesome, really really awesome" today, so I think horn-tooting is well within my rights. XD<br>
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Anyway, the upshot of this is that the past few weeks have been a major whirlwind, with insanely busy work weeks bracketed by weekends full of actually Doing Stuff-- going to visit my grandmother, going to Ikea to buy a wardrobe and dresser, putting the wardrobe together and realizing when it was 80% done that we had put the legs on wrong and had to back up to being 30% done and fix it, that kind of thing.<br>
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This is kind of a big deal for me, because (as some of you may know) in the spring I was let go from a job I adored for what amounted to political BS reasons, and it left me sort of at loose ends for a while, wondering what was next for me. And it's a huge relief to feel like I've found a niche, a job I am just as good at as I was at my old job, maybe even better. The pay isn't quite as good, but I work two miles from my house so I'm getting outside and getting exercise regularly, I'm no longer spending upwards of two hours a day in the car, and-- this is really the clincher-- I never have to go to a mall on a Saturday again unless it's to buy things.<br>
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Can you hear my sigh of relief? I kind of give one every time I remember that I can enjoy weekends again.<br>
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The downside of all this activity is that I haven't had as much time to surf the internet for treasures with which to delight you in between my reviews. Hopefully now that I'm past a big part of the training stage of the new job and am settling in to the actual <i>doing</i> the job part, that'll change. But for now, here! Have some links!<br>
<a href="http://plentyofpages.blogspot.com/2013/09/heaving-over-hump-in-hump-day.html#more">Read more »</a>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01761151670790950970noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7595006871076173451.post-21188056938181942722013-09-10T17:16:00.000-04:002013-09-26T14:37:12.067-04:00'A Thousand Perfect Things' by Kay Kenyon<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjK7oPt1E9l7jzV-WVasSQ1RN5NU9fdyrHBUMn_uaRKt_g-8NOXdDthsY-9vwB0FnHDYTSs49f6-py1SDR0FjEz9ammX7vvrZQKbtDrE1m9mcOBHe0_CS6x6hPLLRzhEh83tgWExVSe4a54/s400/A+Thousand+Perfect+Things.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjK7oPt1E9l7jzV-WVasSQ1RN5NU9fdyrHBUMn_uaRKt_g-8NOXdDthsY-9vwB0FnHDYTSs49f6-py1SDR0FjEz9ammX7vvrZQKbtDrE1m9mcOBHe0_CS6x6hPLLRzhEh83tgWExVSe4a54/s320/A+Thousand+Perfect+Things.jpg" width="211"></a></div>
Hey everyone, sorry for my absence the past few weeks-- I went on vacation and then started a new job, and it's taken me until now to get my blogging brain stuffed back inside my head. :)<br>
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I'm returning with a review of <u>A Thousand Perfect Things</u> by Kay Kenyon. I want to start by saying that this book surprised me. I've never read anything by Kay Kenyon before, so when I got the ARC of her newest book I didn't know what to expect, and my reaction was mixed.<br>
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Like a lot of books, I started it on the train on my way to work, which made it really awkward when I started crying less than twenty pages in. So, something I haven't talked about here is that my grandfather passed away in July, at age 85 and after a long battle with heart and lung disease. We were very close; I'm still trying to metabolize the fact that he's gone, and I'm pretty sure I'll be trying for a long time to come. So reading about our protagonist Tori and her bond with her grandfather was a wrench-- even more so when Sir Charles takes sick and dies (the part that had me in tears-- good work, Ms. Kenyon), leaving behind a family who thought he was crazy, and an idea that consumes Tori's focus and is the basis for the entire story to come.<br>
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<a href="http://plentyofpages.blogspot.com/2013/09/a-thousand-perfect-things-by-kay-kenyon.html#more">Read more »</a>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01761151670790950970noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7595006871076173451.post-25691637875320596952013-08-15T15:42:00.002-04:002013-10-02T12:56:41.283-04:00The Strain Trilogy by Guillermo del Toro and Chuck Hogan<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-FMan7P5OJZE/TlE81-OKTWI/AAAAAAAAAyQ/l0wtZ1lIkvQ/s320/The+Night+Eternal.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-FMan7P5OJZE/TlE81-OKTWI/AAAAAAAAAyQ/l0wtZ1lIkvQ/s320/The+Night+Eternal.jpg"></a></div>
So it's been a little while since I read Guillermo del Toro's <u>The Strain</u> and <u>The Fall</u>, but after finishing <u>The Night Eternal</u> I had to go back and do a little brush-up to see if I was remembering them accurately. I'd rated <u>The Strain</u> four stars on Goodreads, its successor three, which are solid ratings that mostly held up under a second scrutiny. I had high hopes for <u>The Night Eternal</u>, but sadly it didn't live up to the hype, and forced me to reassess my rating of the entire series.<br>
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It starts off so promisingly, too. <u>The Strain</u> was touted upon its release as "the book that makes vampires scary again", a bounceback from the supposed decline the neckbiters have been on since Bela Lugosi first donned an opera cape. And while I agree that the Cullens, Salvatores, Spikes and Erics of the pop culture world haven't been balanced out by an appreciable weight of run-for-your-fucking-life scary vamps, Del Toro and Hogan sought to tip the scales and ended up overbalancing them. As the series goes on the emphasis is very much on quantity rather than quality-- the characters devolve into predictable tropes; the plot gets bogged down in sidetracks that are boring, transparent or both; and the lion's share of the work seems to have gone into describing battles in as much cinematic detail as possible rather than giving any emotional weight to the characters' development. It is possible to have scary vampires and still tell a good story, and I'm going to point out the main areas where I think GDT and CH went off the rails.<br>
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<a href="http://plentyofpages.blogspot.com/2013/08/the-strain-trilogy-by-guillermo-del.html#more">Read more »</a>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01761151670790950970noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7595006871076173451.post-76260297888870992822013-08-05T12:28:00.002-04:002013-08-05T12:28:59.532-04:00cool shit i found online, part 2<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://silvestregustolatino.com/magento/media/catalog/product/cache/1/thumbnail/600x600/9df78eab33525d08d6e5fb8d27136e95/c/h/chocolate_3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://silvestregustolatino.com/magento/media/catalog/product/cache/1/thumbnail/600x600/9df78eab33525d08d6e5fb8d27136e95/c/h/chocolate_3.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">pretty sure 12-year-old me chose French <br />because of the food. but in my defense, <br />i didn't know what a burrito was back then.</td></tr>
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Happy Monday, lieblings! After listening to a dude on the bus this morning chattering away on his phone in German, I'm wishing I hadn't let all my foreign language chops fall by the wayside. I used to be nearly fluent in French, dammit, and I knew some really horrible-sounding Russian curses for awhile there too...<br />
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But I digress. It's time for round 2 of Cool Shit I Found Online. Any suggestions for a name for this series would be appreciated, otherwise this runs the risk of sticking. And I can do way better than CSIFO for an acronym.<br />
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<li>Good timing! Not long after posting my <u>Casino Royale</u> review, I came across this list of <a href="http://www.retreatbyrandomhouse.ca/2013/08/5-great-spy-books-2/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=5-great-spy-books-2" target="_blank">5 great spy books</a> and this list of <a href="http://bnreview.barnesandnoble.com/t5/In-the-Margin/BNR-Recommends-10-Great-International-Crime-Noirs/ba-p/11053" target="_blank">10 international crime noirs</a>, none of which I've read. Yet. </li>
<li>Like Tor books? Well, at Tor.com they're celebrating their fifth birthday by <a href="http://io9.com/download-151-science-fiction-and-fantasy-stories-from-t-1011712804?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+io9%2Ffull+%28io9%29" target="_blank">letting you download all 151 stories</a> published on the site for free. :D</li>
<li>The Atlantic spawned a discussion last week about favorite and memorable first lines. <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/books/2013/aug/03/favourite-first-lines-booker-longlist-authors" target="_blank">The Guardian jumped in</a> and now I'm curious what you guys have to say. One of my all-time favorites will forever be from Lois Lowry's inimitable The Giver: "It was almost December, and Jonas was beginning to be frightened." What's one that's always stuck with you?</li>
<li>Feminist Yog-Sothoth. <br /><a href="http://24.media.tumblr.com/38896fed0f041be28f14ca623871b262/tumblr_mok6kbJoSG1qcmiwro4_1280.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="260" src="http://24.media.tumblr.com/38896fed0f041be28f14ca623871b262/tumblr_mok6kbJoSG1qcmiwro4_1280.jpg" width="320" /></a><br /><br />Yeah. <a href="http://daveyoufool.tumblr.com/post/53228671169/so-i-decided-to-make-feminist-yog-sothoth-a-meme" target="_blank">That's a thing now</a>. </li>
<li>In "Charles Dickens is a wanker" news, <a href="http://www.themillions.com/2013/08/send-in-the-clowns.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+themillionsblog%2Ffedw+%28The+Millions%29" target="_blank">he's probably responsible for popular imagination's concept of scary clowns</a>. I knew I hated him for a good reason. Other than <u>Great Expectations</u>, I mean.</li>
<li>And in "Oh my god, my childhood" news, the actor who voiced Mr. Freeze on Batman: The Animated Series <a href="http://comicsalliance.com/mr-freeze-michael-ansara-batman-the-animated-series/" target="_blank">passed away this week</a>. I think Freeze and Magneto were my first introduction to the deliciously murky world of bad guys you can't help loving (as opposed to <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YWuC9NBPOG4" target="_blank">Clayface</a>, who just straight up scared the shit out of 8-year-old me). </li>
<li>Speaking of scary, reading this article about <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2013/aug/01/silence-of-the-lambs-25-years" target="_blank">25 years of Hannibal Lecter</a> made me remember that I hadn't ever gotten around to those last 3 episodes of Hannibal. So I did. And then I remembered why I never watch TV shows as they're first airing; I frakking hate cliffhangers. I hate waiting. Damn you, Tumblr, for sucking me into this mess! <br /><br />To slake my rage, I had to go look up some spoilers about <a href="http://screencrush.com/nbc-hannibal-spoilers-bryan-fuller-red-dragon/" target="_blank">what Bryan Fuller has planned for future seasons</a>, but it only made me more impatient. Anyway, the article is really good, especially if you're a fan of crime novels and psychological thrillers. (And if you're a fan of 'Hannibal', <a href="http://screencrush.com/nbc-hannibal-spoilers-bryan-fuller-red-dragon/" target="_blank">this article</a> on the food styling for the show is pretty cool.)</li>
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And that's your lot for today. Got any cool shit you found online you think I'd enjoy? Drop it in the comments!<br />
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01761151670790950970noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7595006871076173451.post-36925853662252993212013-08-02T09:30:00.000-04:002013-09-25T21:34:49.926-04:00'Casino Royale' by Ian Fleming<br>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiRsYYEkwL8XyPjKJXwJawuqfmkBUeN3Qvwdxek-qXxU2V0IvzM3OStNj7xgu6ObeLPA55Cqgl6-B4X0SbZ4Ec1Na7LjO7uMTwd1vuZAiXhomi3iRfUYQykL-BWFbV0jWB7RvHcB4ceefc/s320/casino+royale+01.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiRsYYEkwL8XyPjKJXwJawuqfmkBUeN3Qvwdxek-qXxU2V0IvzM3OStNj7xgu6ObeLPA55Cqgl6-B4X0SbZ4Ec1Na7LjO7uMTwd1vuZAiXhomi3iRfUYQykL-BWFbV0jWB7RvHcB4ceefc/s320/casino+royale+01.jpg" width="199"></a></div>
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I was in middle school the first time I saw a James Bond movie. My brother and I were hanging out at our grandparents' house on New Year's Eve and some network had on a marathon. "For Your Eyes Only" was, to my twelve-year-old brain, a feast. Dramatic, suspenseful, ridiculous, full of explosions and just enough sex to get all my hormones and adrenaline fizzing at once. I was enthralled, not only by the spectacle, but by the character of Bond-- this dashing rake who charmed his way into opium warehouses and ladies' ski suits with equal felicity, fought bad guys while running, driving or rock climbing, prevented the sabotage of the British navy and looked great doing all of it.
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In that light, maybe it's weird that I'm only just now digging into his source material-- starting, of course, at the beginning. Casino Royale happens to be one of my favorite Bond movies, so I was excited to sink my teeth into the superspy's origin story. As much for my own self-analysis as anything else, I was curious to investigate the source of Bond's popularity. What is so engaging about this man, this figure, that he's managed to occupy a significant place in our cultural consciousness for over half a century? Based just on Casino Royale, at least, the sad fact is that I have no idea.
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<a href="http://plentyofpages.blogspot.com/2013/08/casino-royale-by-ian-fleming.html#more">Read more »</a>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01761151670790950970noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7595006871076173451.post-6947573389532489212013-07-29T16:14:00.001-04:002013-09-25T21:34:49.940-04:00'A Matter of Blood' by Sarah Pinborough<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://img1.imagesbn.com/p/9780425258460_p0_v1_s260x420.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Sidebar question : the series is called The Forgotten Gods in the US and The Dog-Faced Gods in the UK. Which do you like better?" border="0" height="320" src="http://img1.imagesbn.com/p/9780425258460_p0_v1_s260x420.JPG" title="" width="209"></a></div>
The opening act of Sarah Pinborough's urban fantasy horror trilogy is dark. It's gory, it's harsh and unflinching in its descriptions of an ugly world; no romps with city-dwelling fairies here. It's urban fantasy at its most brutal, illuminating a bleak potential future where-- as our killer makes a habit of pointing out-- nothing is sacred. It's that idea of the sacrosanct that winds its way throughout the book, touching each of the characters in turn, leading the jaded Detective Jones to a thorough examination of not only the ways in which his society is broken, but in which he is as well.<br>
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<a href="http://plentyofpages.blogspot.com/2013/07/a-matter-of-blood-by-sarah-pinborough.html#more">Read more »</a>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01761151670790950970noreply@blogger.com0