Adventures in Liminality -- Borders for Dummies

kitsunealyc @ 2008-07-17T13:08:00

2008-07-17T17:09:40Z

So, I've been anticipating this for a little while. Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along-Blog is a project by Joss Whedon, starring Neil Patrick Harris, Nathan Fillion, and Felicia Day. It will only be online for a brief time, then they're taking it down (although they'll be releasing it on DVD later, according to the master plan). The basic premise is that NPH is an aspiring supervillain, NF is his superhero archnemesis, and FD is the activist that they're both in "love" with.

There's singing. There's a freeze ray. There's NPH, NF, and FD all hamming it up. It's pretty much all around awesome.

First two installments are here: http://drhorrible.com/. Final one goes up on Saturday. On Sunday, it vanishes into the night.

kitsunealyc @ 2008-06-26T13:04:00

2008-06-26T17:19:38Z

I tend to avoid the classics, so I'm not surprised that I didn't do all that well outside of genre books and childrens books. On the other hand, I'm well above 6.

According to The Big Read, the average adult has only read 6 of the top 100 books on their list.

1) Look at the list and bold those you have read.
2) Italicize those you intend to read.
3) Underline the books you LOVE.
4) Reprint this list in your own LJ so we can try and track down these people who've only read 6 and force books upon them ;-)

Type your cut contents here

1. Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen
2. The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien
3. Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte
4. Harry Potter series - JK Rowling
5. To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
6. The Bible
7. Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte
8. Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell
9. His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman
10. Great Expectations - Charles Dickens
11. Little Women - Louisa M Alcott
12. Tess of the D'Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy
13. Catch 22 - Joseph Heller
14. Complete Works of Shakespeare - hmm, some, but definitely not all!
15. Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier
16. The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien
17. Birdsong - Sebastian Faulks
18. Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger
19. The Time Traveller's Wife - Audrey Niffenegger
20. Middlemarch - George Eliot
21. Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell.
22. The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald
23. Bleak House - Charles Dickens
24. War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy
25. The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams
26. Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh
27. Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
28. Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck
29. Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll sooooo many times
30. The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame
31. Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy
32. David Copperfield - Charles Dickens
33. Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis
34. Emma - Jane Austen
35. Persuasion - Jane Austen
36. The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe - CS Lewis (Isn't this the same as #33?)
37. The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini
38. Captain Corelli's Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres
39. Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden
40. Winnie the Pooh - AA Milne
41. Animal Farm - George Orwell
42. The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown
43. One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
44. A Prayer for Owen Meaney - John Irving
45. The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins
46. Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery
47. Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy
48. The Handmaid's Tale - Margaret Atwood
49. Lord of the Flies - William Golding
50. Atonement - Ian McEwan
51. Life of Pi - Yann Martel
>b>52. Dune - Frank Herbert</b>
53. Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons
54. Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen
55. A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth
56. The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon
57. A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens
58. Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
59. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon
60. Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
61. Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck
62. Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov
63. The Secret History - Donna Tartt
64. The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold
65. Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas
66. On The Road - Jack Kerouac
67. Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy
68. Bridget Jones' Diary - Helen Fielding
69. Midnight's Children - Salman Rushdie
70. Moby Dick - Herman Melville
71. Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens
72. Dracula - Bram Stoker
73. The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett
74. Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson
75. Ulysses - James Joyce
76. The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath
77. Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome
78. Germinal - Emile Zola
79. Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray
80. Possession - AS Byatt
81. A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens
82. Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell Woot for Mitchell!
83. The Color Purple - Alice Walker
84. The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro
85. Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert
86. A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry
87. Charlotte's Web - EB White
88. The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom
89. Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (some, but not all)
90. The Faraway Tree Collection - Enid Blyton
91. Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad
92. The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery (I love the bit with the fox)
93. The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks
94. Watership Down - Richard Adams
95. A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole
96. A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute
97. The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas
98. Hamlet - William Shakespeare
99. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl
100. Les Miserables - Victor Hugo

Huh. Who left this old thing lying around?

2008-05-27T16:44:30Z

Wow. A livejournal. I'd forgotten I had one of these things. Wonder if it still works.

*rattle, rattle. Tink, tink, tink*

Hmm. Seems to be in working order. Amazing how technology holds up these days.

So, ruminations on Wiscon. I went. It was good. I came back.

Therein lies the problem.

I don't know what I was expecting before I went, but I had a lot of powerful realizations while I was there. I lied. It wasn't good. It was great. Cathartic. Revelatory (and revealatory). Somewhat expiating.

And I really didn't want to come home.

It has to do with the way the space at Wiscon was constructed. Some spaces have a strongly masculine construction (i.e., certain kinds of sports events), some a strongly feminine one (i.e., certain kinds of beauty/fashion events). Most spaces I frequent are genderless, but almost every space (even the "feminine") is dominated by a "masculine" gaze.

This is where terminology is inadequate and misleading. Most people who know me know that I am not particularly invested in the categories of masculinity or femininity, at least not as essential things. I freely admit, however, that there are socially constructed categories of masculinity and femininity that we all participate in, and that inform how we make and interpret meaning.

A "masculine" gaze is something that all of us are subject to most of the time, and something we all participate in perpetuating against others and ourselves. It is a gaze that judges people according to arbitrary standards, be it of beauty, success, intelligence, etc., and places them in a hierarchy of some people being prettier/better/more valuable than others based on those judgments and standards. The object of a masculine gaze will never be as good as the one who arbitrates the standards, because the arbiter gets to set the standards according to their biases. Since there is no *single* arbiter, but rather a de-centered social apparatus that works in concert to create ever-more-impossible standards, we are *all* -- male and female, white and black, old and young -- rendered less powerful by this gaze, even as we perpetuate it on ourselves and others.

Calling it a "masculine" gaze, therefore, is misleading, because both males and females are implicated in the construction and enforcement of those standards. Moreover, calling it that tends to alienate a large portion of the population that self-identifies as masculine and therefore feels that defending masculinity and the "masculine" gaze is self-defense.

It is not. It is self-defeating.

The reasons for calling it a "masculine" gaze are socio-historical, because in most societies (both currently and in the past), the people who have the most power to determine these standards of judgment are or have been gendered male. That is not to claim that all males have had this power, or that all males would consciously choose to deploy it. As indicated above, males, even males in positions of power, are just as subject to being judged by these arbitrary standards as anyone else (although, the people in power tend to come out ahead, since they participated in setting the standards in the first place). I also want to emphasize that females are just as implicated in this process, especially through deploying the judging gaze and enforcing the arbitrary standards. As most anthropologists will attest, females more often tend to be the bearers and distributors of culture, and women's roles are more often involved in policing norms and standards than male roles.

I wish I could find better terminology that communicates all these nuances. I'm left with "masculine" gaze because that is the term that has been developed through decades of discourse on this topic amongst activists and people in gender studies. People familiar with the discourse know what I'm talking about when I refer to a "masculine" gaze, to the point where I'm probably preaching to the choir. People unfamiliar with the discourse are often alienated, even if they would agree with the concept if they could get past the term and into the meat of the issue. Hence the long description, which really only touches the surface of these issues.

So, what does all of this have to do with Wiscon?

For the first time in my conscious experience, I found myself in an un-gendered space that was mediated by what I could only call (for lack of a better term) a "feminine" gaze.

I did not feel like I was being judged against arbitrary standards that I could never measure up to. I was comfortable in my body (and gods, hasn't it been ages since I experienced that!) and confident about the unique and interesting perspectives I had to offer. I felt free to be myself without judgments laid upon me, even if that self was very different from the various normative tendencies that are inevitable in any large gathering of people (yes, we are all snowflakes, but the more people you have, the more patterns tend to emerge). I felt this, and even more impressively, I felt the way that everyone around me was feeling it too. It meant that I could begin the process of changing the perspective of the worst perpetrator of the "masculine" gaze in my life: myself.

It was hard to give as good as I got, and I didn't succeed above half the time. Even though I try not to participate in the imposition of the "masculine" gaze in my day-to-day life (both towards myself and others), I fail a lot more often than I succeed, to the point where I'm not even aware of the ways I'm still heavily implicated in the process. It was only on the last day of the conference, as I was preparing to leave, that I even became consciously aware of this phenomenon.

I thought about it all the way home. And what I realized was, I didn't want to come back. When I expressed these feelings to my partner, I nearly cried. I didn't because I was in a McDonalds. It would have been inappropriate. Insert eyebrow lift and sardonically tilted smile here.

I'm tired -- bone tired, heart tired, soul tired -- of living a life subject to the "masculine" gaze. I hate it, and most people I know feel similarly. I crave experiences like the one I had this weekend, and yet I don't know how to even begin to push against the overwhelming tide of social forces that are looking at me, judging me, arbiting me, and always pressuring me to turn a "masculine" gaze upon myself. It's so overwhelming, I can't even begin to imagine what a first step would look like.

Although, it seems to me that developing better, more inclusive and less judgmental terminology for both gazes could be a good start. Any suggestions?

Cheers.

Because not everyone is on our Changeling list anymore

2008-02-19T11:59:35Z

Dragon: The Hoarding
Preview 1 – Basic Principles

So, what’s this whole Dragon game about, anyway? In essence, we wanted to mix the things we like about Vampire and Changeling along with something new and fresh – the chance to play a new type of creature. Most of the game will feel familiar to players who are familiar with other World of Darkness settings. Specific information is forthcoming, but here are the basic principles:

* Long ago, the Mythic World and the Mortal World existed together, and dragons walked the earth in their true forms. At some point there was a terrible Sundering, and a barrier of disbelief called the Firmament separated the worlds of Myth and Man. While inhabiting the Mortal World, it is impossible for dragons to show their true forms, so they’ve taken mortal shapes in order to live among humans.

* Every dragon is driven by an overwhelming urge to hoard. Some dragons hoard wealth and power, and these have become the hidden masters of mortal society. Others might hoard social connections, priceless treasures, knowledge, riddles, or even Bob Dylan albums, depending on the dragon’s individual temperament. Regardless, every dragon protects its hoard jealously and seeks to expand it whenever possible!

* The most common dragons in our setting are European dragons, who are divided into ten breeds (these are the equivalent of clans or kiths). There are metallic dragons (gold, silver, bronze, brass, and copper) who are essentially “seelie” in nature and who uphold lawful values. There are also chromatic dragons (red, blue, green, white, and black) who are essentially “unseelie” in nature and who follow a chaotic path. These are not “good/evil” distinctions – it’s better to think of them as “seelie/unseelie” differences. Each dragon has both sides to its personality. There are also other “neutral” dragons (Eastern, Mezoamerican, etc.) but these rare breeds are unusual in our setting at the beginning of the game.

* Draconic society exists to protect the Firmament (dragons must remain hidden, lest the dreaded Slayers discover them and wage deadly war against dragonkind) and to protect the wealth of the domain’s collective hoard. In each domain, dragons select a Prince or Highlord twice per year. In the summer months, the metallic dragons rule, and in the winter months, the chromatic dragons are in charge. The Prince and her Officers rule in conjunction with the elders of the five Major Houses of the domain.

* Dragons are essentially immortal. In most cases, when a dragon “dies” it will eventually regenerate and recover. The only way to fully kill a dragon is to simultaneously defeat its mythic, mortal, and astral bodies all at once (something that only the Slayers are regularly able to do!) While recovering from a mundane death, dragons can still interact with other dragons as astral “ghosts.”

* Dragons hold court in special locations called “Bastions.” In a Bastion (the equivalent of a freehold), the Firmament that divides the worlds of myth and men is thin, and dragons appear more “draconic” in their human forms. (This is an excuse for creative costumes and makeup, if you like that sort of thing!) Also, from a Bastion a dragon may enter the Mythic world, where she may choose to assume her true dragon form, and where various adventures and excitement await!

* Draconic power and status is based on the size of one’s hoard. Hoard is determined by background traits (now known as Hoard traits). These include Allies, Collection, Contacts, Fame, Influence (all types), Library, Resources, Retainers, and Treasure. The greater one’s hoard, the more power one has in the political process. (Note that you don’t need ANY hoard in order to become Prince – but you must win the support of other dragons who possess hoard in order to gain the title!)

* Dragons may pool their wealth to form Houses or Orders. Houses and Orders are associations of mutual interest that cross breed lines. The Order Oroborous, for example, is a society of dragons who share an interest in philosophy and the occult, while House Grendel tends to view humans as inferior creatures who should be forced to serve draconic whims. Any given House or Order is usually composed of both metallic and chromatic members. A distinction is typically made between Major and Minor Houses in a given domain – the five wealthiest Houses are the Major Houses, and they will each have a seat on the Council of Orders (similar to a primogen council, but with specific differences). All other recognized houses are Minor Houses, who often compete to gain wealth and improve their standing.

* We will provide a few sample houses (like the Order Oroborous and House Grendel), players are also encouraged to design their own houses! Houses are a great way to build your own faction and factional interests in the game.

* Dragons have many unusual allies and antagonists, such as Slayers (the dragons’ dreaded archenemies), Scions (the children of the Gods and Demigods who populate the mythic world), the Avatars of the Heavens (unusual Exalted beings from the Mythic realms), and the Imoogi (creatures that resembles a dragons but suffer a curse that renders them monstrous and outcast).

* The game is designed to have three major modes, depending on your RPG preferences. For those who enjoy social interaction and interpersonal roleplaying, Dragons are passionate creatures with wild temperaments leading them to all forms of companionship, intrigue, romance, and conflict. For those who enjoy adventure, Dragon is designed to offer various exciting adventures (and quests) in the mortal and mythic worlds – you can do everything from stopping gang wars (either from the good of your heart or to consolidate your own power on the streets) to fighting exotic beasts within the Mythic realm. Finally, for those who enjoy politics, Dragon offers an intricate new political system tied to the gain and loss of influences and backgrounds (now known as Horde traits).

Those are just some of the basics! We will have more information on specific breeds (as well as character creation guidelines) soon. Stay tuned!

***

UPCOMING SCHEDULE

Friday, February 22: Character Creation I (7pm at the IMU)
Friday, March 28: Character Creation II (7pm at the IMU)
Sunday, April 6: Dragon: The Hoarding Premiere
Friday, April 11: Interlude
Sunday, April 20: Dragon Game

Interludes will then continue on the Second Friday, and Games will play on the Third Sunday. Thanks again to Mark Ridge for making these dates available for us!

Let the Hoarding Begin...
Dragon Storytellers

PS - drop a reply if you'd like to be added to the Dragon email list!

Gender bias in a nutshell

2008-02-19T11:21:43Z

Once again, XKCD gets it right:

http://xkcd.com/385/

I'm going back to bed. Wake me up when I can be judged on my merits as an individual human being, and not as a representative for an entire catagory of people that I only nominally self-identify with.

Uh...

2008-02-16T14:17:34Z

Whoa. I knew the show was strange, but this is even weirder than I remembered:

And what the heck is the upside-down dildo in the Batmobile?

Obama supporters FTW

2008-02-13T15:06:42Z

This is a great bit of inspirational propaganda. Some of the commenters criticize it for lacking any substance, but I think that there's a difference between policy and the more ephemeral mood that is brought to a regime. The rhetoric of the recent administration was one of fear, divisiveness, and unquestioning acceptance. This rhetoric is inclusive, inspirational, and filled with love and hope. A four minute music video (or party speech for that matter) is not a good venue for establishing or explaining policy. It is an excellent venue for establishing the ideological trajectory of an administration. I think it would be a great relief to have a regime dedicated to positivity (Yes), inclusiveness (We), and activism (Can).

I prefer Hope to Fear.

Foxes and Balls

2008-01-18T17:59:23Z

I watched this for the very pretty arctic fox, but I stayed to watch the ball clip, cause it's fascinating to watch.

http://www.weather.com/multimedia/videoplayer.html?clip=9543&collection=topstory&nav=topstory&from=36hr_outlet_video

Everyone who cares has probably seen these by now, but..

2008-01-14T16:44:28Z

So, I was browsing youtube and I found this video, which is a matrix ping-pong style vid:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eAK0qovqq9E&NR=1

I thought this would be the best thing I watched all day, but then I opened my email and a friend sent me a link to the torchwood teaser, which he claimed would be the sexiest thing I saw all week.

Edit: uh... warning: only work safe-ish, so use caution.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-v0szrB5nB8

Guh. Forget all week, this is likely to be the sexiest thing I see all year (at least until the episode airs). It's like Russel Davies broke into my mind in the middle of the night, ransacked it, and then put the contents up on youtube. I just... wow. This is made of win. And all the fangirls go *squeee! squeee!*

I need that backlit kiss shot as an icon.

And in other news:

My Peculiar Aristocratic Title is:
Lady Madame Alyc the Mad of Menzies on the Minges
Get your Peculiar Aristocratic Title

I like this for the alliteration. We're all Mad in Menzies on the Minges.

I have arrived! (or am arriving? Or may arrive, depending?)

2008-01-04T13:55:51Z

I think this is just about the best compliment a fanfic writer can receive:

You have received a private message from:

Name: Blinded-Kit
Profile: http://www.fanfiction.net/u/1081287/
--------------------

hey,
i wasnted to know if you could write a sequel to your Doctor who/harrypotter
crossover.
or at least give me the permission to carry it out more.
because it has real potential and background to be a kick butt story.
i wont take what you have already, unless you give my the lesure to it.
also i would review, but my stupid laptop won't allow the reveiw box up...so
i'm doing this!
hope to hear form yo soon,
thank you fro reding...
Danielle

_________

And my response:

Name: kitsunealyc
Profile: http://www.fanfiction.net/u/495266/
--------------------

Wow! I think that's the highest compliment a fic could receive.

I actually am in the process of writing another fic set in this 'verse,
something of an epilogue, but also a launching-off point for future adventures
because Hermione would make a kick-** companion.

Despite this, I would say that you are more than welcome to take the concept
and the events in my fic as background for a fic that you want to write. The
only thing I lay claim to as mine are the actual words ;> If you do write
something, I would love to read it, and I'd be flattered if you cited my fic
as inspiration.

Good writing!

Alyc

I think when people start writing fics based on your fic, you can claim to have "arrived" as a fanfic author.

The Organization for Transformative Works

2007-12-14T16:45:31Z

Why am I only hearing about this now? I swear, you leave LJ for a few months and suddenly it's like a whole new world.

http://www.transformativeworks.org/

Naomi Novik is my new hero. Napoleonic-era English Navy, Chinese Dragons, fanfic, and kimonos at major awards shows. How cool is she?

1, 2, 3, 4, What the hell are we fighting for?

2007-12-05T17:41:51Z

So, for those of you who haven't heard about the NIE yet, a consensus agreement was just released by all 16 U.S. intelligence agencies that says they have "high confidence" that Iran shut down its nuclear weapon development programs in the Fall of 2003, and does not currently have intentions towards reopening them. Despite having been advised of this since July, the Bush administration continues to maintain that Iran is an imminent nuclear threat.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/12/03/AR2007120300846_pf.html, also, www.democracynow.org

It's like the Duelfer Report all over again. Isn't there some well-known saying about those not learning from history being doomed to repeat it? My country's government embarrasses me.

Alyc
raring up for another four years of depression.

I figured it out... with a pencil and a pen, I figured it out.

2007-11-20T14:31:34Z

Yoinked from threerings, Joss, the writer's strike, and the #2 pencil protest: http://whedonesque.com/comments/14772. Like the original poster, I'm just in it for the Joss Newsie filk.

Beowulf

2007-11-16T12:18:40Z

See it in 3D at an IMAX theater. Really.

Where'd I put that damned pomegranate?

2007-09-26T20:03:27Z

Last night I had a very weird, but strangely sexy dream. I was on the run from my husband, who was the leader of this massive warband. I was hiding out in an old, abandoned-looking castle which was ruled over by a not-very-trustworthy Bandit King. The Bandit King was shifty, and not sexy at all. He decided to sell me out to my husband, but it was a trick and what he really was doing was luring my husband into a trap to kill him. So, my husband shows up -- alone, cause he's testosteroni that way -- and the Bandit King leaves us in a room together while he rallies up his guys to kill me and my husband. Turns out that what we really needed was exactly this kind of locked-in-a-room-together form of marriage counseling, cause within minutes we're fighting, and minutes after that we're making with the hot and heavy, but then I see that my husband is actually undead (I could sense it with my hands as they skimmed over his flesh... it was very weird, and terribly kinky). He knows it's a trap and that the Bandit King is going to kill us both, but he came anyways cause he loves me (aw, squish!). The only way we can survive is if I become undead too. The bandit king bursts in with his men and we make a break for it. We run through all these creepy rooms with ghasts and zombies and stuff while I dither about what to do, but eventually I agree to become undead, and then we get away and I'm this hot-ass undead Queen of this undead warrior legion, with this undead hottie at my side.

Which really all just indicates that I spent too much time playing WoW in the Ghostlands last night.

Goes off to make myself a Forsaken...

kitsunealyc @ 2007-09-20T19:32:00

2007-09-20T23:31:59Z

I wanted the Magic Time Lord's Hideout, but this one comes with two different rooms for dancing, so I'm good!

Your home is a

Gamer's Mansion

Your kitchen consists of dilithium-powered food replicators, manned by obedient robot slaves, who are sure to never, ever rebel. I mean, it's preposterous to even consider it. There's a Chocolatessen, which is rapidly becoming your favorite room of the house. Having one is also becoming a trend among your wealthy neighbors. Your master bedroom is the size of a small barn, with carpet thick enough to reach your ankles. Your study has every science fiction title ever written. One of your garages contains a life-sized X-Wing fighter, and KITT. (KITT was a gift from a well-meaning uncle.)

Your home also includes a robot repair bay, where your mechanized servants are routinely fitted with new restraining bolts. (It's just a precaution.) Your guests enjoy your animatronic replica of the cantina at Mos Eisley. Outside is your radio telescope, listening constantly for alien transmissions. Especially invaders. They'll come eventually, even if nobody believes you. (Nobody does.)

And, you have a pet -- a taun-taun named "Padme".

Below is a snippet of the blueprints:

Find YOUR Dream Home!

Yes, but by whose name will he swear?

2007-09-18T16:27:00Z

Don't just read the headline... it keeps getting more amusing as the article goes by.

Yoinked from jaylake

http://www.ketv.com/news/14133442/detail.html

I think I saw this in a movie once. Miracle on something something? We need to start a letter writing campaign, stat!

Although, given that this case is going on in Nebraska, that guy's going to be really sad when Cthulhu shows up and eats the jury... and the courthouse.

On Writing and God Complexes

2007-09-16T15:35:53Z

There's a discussion happening at Smart Bitches right now about the writer-as-god, with the corrollary that it is tantamount to sacrilege to question or critique the way a writer decides to take a story, or the arc of particular characters. This is in response to writers like Anne Rice, Laurell K. Hamilton, Robin Hobb, and other authors (most recently, Charlaine Harris, apparently) who have taken flack for a variety of reasons over their authorial choices. Rather than go into the whole thing, you can read it here if you're really interested:

http://www.smartbitchestrashybooks.com/index.php/weblog/a_book_is_not_a_child/

Since I have an interest in folklore, fairy tale retellings, and fanfic, I find these kinds of conversations very interesting and sometimes a little frustrating. In this case, I responded most strongly to the following quote, pulled out of Harris' blog entry:

"The writer is determiner of fate for his or her characters. Writing is a lone pastime, not a group endeavor. It doesn’t take a village to write a book. It takes one person, shut up in a room for hours on end."

I vehemently disagree with this (as do the Smart Bitches, although we disagree for different reasons). A writer is constantly drawing from the public domain of collective stories, imagery, assumptions and archetypes. The writer's contribution to this is to spin all these ingredients in new, interesting and engaging ways. There are more great writerly quotes about writing taking the familiar and making it unfamiliar (or vice-versa) than I could list here. The imaginary of writing as some noble, solitary endeavor divorced from the world or lived interactions is a very popular one that some writers like to trot out, but I think that "bullshit" can be called through the pairing of these two quotes. They come in sequence on my favorite quote site, and the gender-theorist in me loves the irony of it:

What no wife of a writer can ever understand is that a writer is working when he's staring out of the window. ~Burton Rascoe

The best time for planning a book is while you're doing the dishes. ~Agatha Christie

Who the fuck is Burton Rascoe? (answer: a little known turn-of-the-century literary critic and journalist who is best known for writing about other writers). I'd much rather be like Agatha Christie. Writing is no more a solitary process than living is. If I had to acknowledge everyone who contributed to even my smallest piece of writing, I'd go mad.

But that is only one end of the process. There is also the entire aspect of reception and reading of a text. As much as the process of writing is a conversation between the author and the world she inhabits, the process of reading is a conversation between the reader and the text the author has produced. The idea of claiming that I (or any writer) should have some control over that conversation, that process of interpretation, seems to be laden with hubris.

I feel some proprietary interest in the particular ways I construct a story. I don't think it is right that other people should economically profit from the products of my labor, but I think it is hypocritical to try to shut down all dissent, alternate readings, or reinterpretations (whether that be in the form of literary critique, audience disappointment, or fan reimaginings). This comes from the way I understand the text. I see it as a conversation between the people who inspired the story, and the people who read the story, with myself not as a God/Creator, but as a mediator, a translator, a worldwalker.

kitsunealyc @ 2007-09-08T14:13:00

2007-09-08T18:15:31Z

Yoinked from the_sandwalker:

http://www.cybuscorporation.com/

Marka-registrada, baby!

In other news... alcohol is bad, and last night the zombies won.

kitsunealyc @ 2007-09-02T11:49:00

2007-09-02T15:54:29Z

Rhymes with Bannister...

Your Score: House Lannister

63% Dominant, 36% Extroverted, 63% Trustworthy

Confident. Dangerous. Unrelentingly sexy. The master of all you survey, you are of House Lannister.

You are a dominant personality—and how! When someone asks “and who are you, the proud lord said, that I should bow so low?” your response is probably, “FUCK YOU! I’m a fucking LANNISTER, that’s who the HELL I am!” And then you’d pimp-slap them with your golden hand. All joking aside, you view leadership as your natural, god-given right; it is a trait, just like your golden curling hair and irresistible sex appeal. It’s who you are—a Lannister.

You are introverted, meaning that you prefer to keep your ambitions and devices to yourself. Unfortunately, your personality is so vivacious that (despite all your intended secrecies) you are still a very obvious person. Though no one knows what avenues you will travel, your destination is clear to all. And of course, yours is a road to greatness! You have a magnetic, polarizing personality: people either love you or hate you. They also probably find you exceedingly intimidating. Their fear is probably well-placed.

Finally, you are trustworthy. Does this surprise you? Remember your unofficial motto: “A Lannister always pays his debts.” Though you enjoy keeping secrets and playing games, everyone knows you are a major player. Underhanded tactics are so expected from you that they don’t particularly count as untrustworthyness—it’s more of a family legacy than a choice. Your promise is as good as the gold that you shit.

Representative characters include: Tyrion Lannister, Jaime Lannister, and Tywin Lannister

Similar Houses: Greyjoy, Stark, and Targaryen

Opposite House: Tyrell

When playing the game of thrones, you play it balls to the wall.

Link: The Song of Ice and Fire House Test written by Geeky_Stripper on OkCupid Free Online Dating, home of the The Dating Persona Test

...which is what you bitches will be thrown over if you mess with me on my path to world dominance.

uh... or something?

The thing that amuses me most about this is the part where it says people are afraid of me, and with good reason. I've actually run into this on occasion, but I really don't understand it. I'm not a scary person. I'm wee. I'm polite. If I don't like a person, chances are I'll just avoid being in social situations with them so that I don't have to put up with them or be bored by them. This means that I'm not really all that vindictive. I'm so soft-hearted that I save spiders. Why do they all fear me so?

Novel in 90

2007-09-02T14:50:31Z

I'm trying Novel in 90, and since my target wordcount for writing fiction is 1500 words a day, I've signed myself up to try two novels (Novel in 90 has a wordcount exhortation of 750 words a day). I have the Teleidoplex outline and am starting to working on filling in the spaces, so that's my first project. The second one is a regency romance, just for fun.

So, the wordcount for 9/1 is:

Teleidoplex: 804 words of existential angst

Fribble: 916 words of mannerly social interaction

Horrific nightmare...

2007-08-30T14:18:52Z

I had a terrible dream last night that the fox cut went to a new hair stylist, and they bleached his hair and cut it in this shaggy, flippy metrosexual style á la Queer as Folk. He came out of the salon and was asking me what I thought, and I couldn't figure out a way to tell him that the style made him look short and pudgy, and that it made his face all red and shiny, and that I really preferred him tall and slender, with pale skin and dark hair.

I was so worried about hurting his feelings, so I just shut my mouth and took him out to dinner. I just can't express how bad his haircut was.

Omen Girl

2007-08-27T19:07:22Z

Title: Omen Girl
Rating: PG
Media: Buffy/Good Omens
Summary: Apocalypses Happen.
Spoilers: for Buffy through S7, and Good Omens
Disclaimer: I do not own either media. That belongs to the Trinity of Joss, Neil and Terry
Archive: At Twisting the Hellmouth, inspired by justaguy's round robin.

I was having a bit of writer's block so I decided to do this for fun.

Omen Girl

“Wait, so you’re telling me it just stopped? Not 'too late', not 'we missed it', but that it’s over? It was stopped? By someone else?”

“Er… yes. That would appear to be the case.” Buffy pressed the cell phone closer to her ear. Giles’ voice on the other end had become muffled during his response. She could almost see the Watcher abashedly polishing his glasses, unwilling to admit over the phone that they’d missed their shot at stopping another apocalypse.

“This is not of the good, Giles. Things like this don’t just… stop. I mean, we’ve been doing this for a while now, and our record for random apocalypse stoppage is 0-for-uh, what is it now? Eight? Nine?”

“Including the matter in Kazakhstan? That would be twelve. This one would have been thirteen.”

“Oooo-kay. Not really making with the comfort, here.”

“Buffy, look, I don’t know what else to tell you. As of fifteen minutes ago, we had a definite opening of a Hellmouth. All signs and portents pointed to it. Now. Nothing. The seas have stopped boiling, the toads have stopped raining. I’m even getting reports that the dolphin and whale populations have recovered, which is really quite extraordinary. I don’t know what to say.”

“Look, Giles. I’m standing here outside of some military base in Lower Tadpole—”

“Tadfield,” he corrected, and this time she imagined he was pinching the bridge of his nose.

“—with a large and rather amped-up group of slayers-in-training, and nothing to slay. Things are completely quiet here. I know you and Will had trouble pinpointing this thing, even with all the omens. I’m just… are you sure the apocalypse didn’t… y’know… go all Jack Griffin on us?”

“No. It looks like it was dealt with. In point of fact, until you called, I thought it was your team’s doing. As it is, fifteen minutes ago there was an impending apocalypse. Five minutes ago it stopped. Everything is returning to normal.”

Buffy wanted to argue more, but her and the other Slayers’ spidey-senses had stopped going off around the same time that Giles said they got the all-clear on the apocalypse. “Well, I suppose we shouldn’t look a gift-horseman in the mouth.” She sighed in spite of her words. “I just wish we knew what happened.”

“Willow and I will try to discover that, but we may just have to accept this one as a bit of grace from the Powers.”

Buffy reluctantly agreed, and closed the phone to look at the half-dozen slayers surrounding her. It was their first apocalypse, and they still had a certain dewy-eyed eagerness, but their shoulders were sagging as they realized that they’d come all this way for nothing. The birds were singing; the neighbors were gossiping over their fences; a gang of kids were riding past on bikes. The world was a wonderful place. Nobody should look upon the reprieve from an apocalypse as a disappointment, least of all a Slayer. She shook her head and prepared to reprimand them when she spied a colorful poster nailed to a telephone pole. She was sure it hadn’t been there a few moments ago.

“Hey!” she said brightly. She would save the reprimands for later. A diverted apocalypse called for a celebration. “Who’s up for going to the Circus tomorrow?”

Bette Davis didn't have this problem

2007-08-19T00:25:25Z

Y'know, most of the time I think Robin Hobb is bit of a crackpot with her somewhat luddite stance regarding the internet and writers:

http://www.robinhobb.com/rant.html

but then something happens like today, where I sit down to take a brief break from writing, and end up spending an hour on Youtube because I found some new and cool thing and got distracted.

Today's distraction: Speed Painting.

This one's my favorite. Fricken' Mascara, man!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0sahHSNy_Uk

Uh. Back to work. I'm pretty sure I have a character's life to screw over. That's easily as fun as speed painting, right?

(for the record, I love Robin's work, I just think she's a little too on the "what's bad for me is bad for everyone else" side of the fence).

The Stars my Dustination... heh.

2007-08-13T03:34:00Z

These are my thoughts on Stardust. They're not really all that spoilery, but cut anyways, because it is not a gushing review:

I saw it on Friday, and again today (Sunday).

I liked it. I liked it better on a second viewing. I didn't *love* it, but I liked it well enough. I thought the book's ending was *much* stronger, and that the big, Hollywood-Villain ending they went with was inane and didn't hold up to even cursory examination. I thought the music was overdone. It was like a huge, rococco engagement ring on a delicate hand -- too much for the simplicity of the tale.

Other than that, I loved Michelle Pfeiffer, who can look stunningly beautiful even in age makeup. I hate Sienna Miller, who can look like an over-tanned beach hag even when she's supposed to be done up pretty. You're supposed to dislike Victoria. I get that. What I don't get is what *anyone* saw in her, because Miller did such a terrible job making her the least bit anything other than a Victorian sorostitute. I thought DiNero was somewhat amusing, but overrated, and that Ben Barnes (who played young Dunston) was much cuter than Charlie Cox. I would have loved to see him play Tristan, but Charlie Cox did a fine job. I *adored* Claire Daines, even though I never would have thought to cast her as Yvaine. She's not pretty. She's regal and weird and fey, and a perfect casting for a star. When she shines, she really shines.

Overall, though, I think the true weakness for me came down to the language. Vaughn went for an everyday, conversational feel, rather than a more elevated poetics. It robbed the movie of that numinous, fairy-tale quality that the book got from Gaiman's prose coupled with Vess's artwork. That's really the sad thing for me. I can barely get a glimpse of what makes Gaiman one of my favorite writers, and Vess's Rackham-esque sensibility isn't to be found anywhere.

Also. No offence. I've seen The Princess Bride. The Princess Bride is an old favorite of mine. This was no Princess Bride.

EDIT: I just discovered that Ben Barnes is to play Caspian in the next two Narnia movies.

Hugggnnnhhhhhgguuurrrhggghhh (*drools and feels like a dirty old woman*)

Voyage of the Dawn Treader = First favorite fantasy book
King Caspian = First crush

Hugggnnnhhhhhgguuurrrhggghhh (*still drooling and feeling like a dirty old woman*)