This is a follow-up to a post I made last November about Benjanun Sriduangkaew being outed as Requires Hate. There is now another round of fallout occurring related to Laura Mixon, who made one of the major contributions to the conversation, being nominated as Best Fanwriter in the Hugo Awards (and endorsed by George R.R. Martin for it).

I’m not going to weigh in on the awards, because I don’t follow the SFF community closely enough to feel I can speak authoritatively on who should win what, or who should vote for what. But I do want to talk about some things I’ve been reading since my November post, and things I’ve been thinking.

But mostly I want to talk about how we talk to each other.

In my November post, I alluded to the fact that I felt disconnected from what I perceived as the party line for many online social justice activists. For years, I was reluctant to speak out from a more moderate stance, because I simply didn’t want to deal with (what I expected to be) the resulting discussion and/or backlash. I believe that Sriduangkaew’s abusive and extremist actions not only contributed to that kind of culture flourishing online, but that they couldn’t have happened without it.

Let me be absolutely clear: I am a woman of color, and I did not want to discuss social justice activism online because I felt my voice would not be welcomed—by other people of color as well as white allies. I wasn’t intimidated and I didn’t feel silenced. But I felt my energy was better used elsewhere. I take responsibility for that decision, and for any complicity which could be interpreted from my silence.

In the comments section of my November post, I elaborated that I do understand the urge of some PoC to circle the wagons when one of our own comes under fire—particularly when issues of social justice and racial identity politics are at stake. It’s been such a long and painful struggle for so many that the danger of losing ground is frightening and exhausting. I don’t blame people for concluding that more hardline stances or alliances are necessary for the greater good, or feeling they must support the lesser of two evils.

Can we define our terms, though? What is the “greater good” to you? What are you advocating toward, exactly? For me, it’s always been a very simple and broad principle: universal acceptance that the majority is not the default.

This has been my personal struggle, ever since I was a young child ashamed of being different. I was ashamed of the name my parents gave me because my friends found it funny and foreign, ashamed of the poverty we came from because no one else seemed to have our problems, ashamed that my immigrant story was muddy and blood-soaked compared to all those rosy tales of ships sailing from Europe to Plymouth Rock and Ellis Island. When I was young I was actually afraid to tell my family’s story to anyone because I felt it would be inflicting their story, because the things they had been through were shocking to a WASP consciousness, disturbing to the equilibrium, abnormal. But, you know, I was young and I had a lot to learn. In fact, I still have a lot to learn, which is the other broad principle I live by. That is my ongoing journey.

I’ve felt for a long time that this universal acceptance—the majority is not the default—could never be achieved solely through anger or harsh words. I will confess that the first time I ever saw the “tone argument” explained during online discussions, I instinctively saw the potential for abuse in it. Yes, of course, it’s understandable that a person who is hurt will react strongly at first, and will lash out. I’ve done it myself, many times, and I believe we should all allow for honest expressions of pain, frustration, indignation. And we absolutely should expect honest and thoughtful apologies from those who cause that pain, as well as promises to do better.

But where I try to draw the line is when that initial reaction becomes the only possible reaction. It’s too easy to refuse to see each other’s humanity—especially online, where we only have words and pixels to represent ourselves. We lose sight of the complexity of people, the fact that we are all carrying our own painful histories and burdens. We forget that the person on the other side of the computer screen is journeying through life one day at a time—one lesson at a time—just like we are. And how unhelpful and in fact dangerous it is to reduce individuals to categories or labels or defaults, in all directions on the scale of privilege.

This also goes for people who’ve made mistakes in the past but are trying to do better. I don’t forgive blindly, but I don’t refuse to forgive blindly, either. When presented with evidence of someone making good on a promise to do better, I will extend my good faith, accepting that they’re on a journey as important as my own. Otherwise, what good came of my anger?

What I’m trying to say is this: What do you want to achieve? And do you truly think you'll get there with warfare rather than empathy? Entrenched positions rather than dialogue and communication? If so, how much ground are you willing to sacrifice with these methods? How many wounded will you leave in your wake?

Because in my view, you change the world one person at a time, one interaction at a time. Each encounter is an opportunity. I would rather put my time and energy into encounters where each of us comes out of the process with a positive connection rather than a disconnection, thinking “that was actually a good day” rather than “that ruined my day.” Where we teach each other to be better than we were before, and hopefully then go on to teach others.

Anyway, here’s the reading I’ve been doing:

• Safe, https://sffpoc.wordpress.com/ -- a PoC-led discussion space where all are welcome



• Mia, Out of Fracture -- I will defend our right to hold different opinions and not be a monolith and have complicated conversations and not be some sort of ideological prop or tool for people only wishing to use us to amplify their voices… To create, to build, to love; this isn’t soft. I think of Perelandra manifest: “fiery, sharp, bright and ruthless, ready to kill, ready to die, outspeeding light…” I believe in love. As shield and sword, as song, as revolution and resistance, as defiance.



• Rochita Loenen-Ruiz, Movements: Taking Stock: Encouragement and the Antidote to Toxicity -- With the rise of call-out culture, with the increase of online toxicity, we see a growing anxiety—the sad thing is, I see a growing anxiety in those who possess more marginalizations than others. Women, writers of color, creators who are LGBTQ, these are often the groups who are most vulnerable to rising toxicity in online culture. We speak of encouraging and building up diversity, while at the same time we fail to think about the kind of atmosphere marginalized voices need in order to continue to thrive and create.



• Asam Ahmad, A Note on Call-Out Culture -- No matter the wrong we are naming, there are ways to call people out that do not reduce individuals to agents of social advantage. There are ways of calling people out that are compassionate and creative, and that recognize the whole individual instead of viewing them simply as representations of the systems from which they benefit.



• Ngọc Loan Trần, Calling IN: A Less Disposable Way of Holding Each Other Accountable -- We have to let go of treating each other like not knowing, making mistakes, and saying the wrong thing make it impossible for us to ever do the right things. And we have to remind ourselves that we once didn’t know. There are infinitely many more things we have yet to know and may never know. We have to let go of a politic of disposability. We are what we’ve got. No one can be left to their fuck ups and the shame that comes with them because ultimately we’ll be leaving ourselves behind.



• All of the Feelings, In an attempt to not hurt anyone but also not end the conversation… (proof that good activism can happen on Tumblr!)

And finally, I have been a card-carrying contributor at fail_fandomanon for years. Or I would be, if the velociraptors hadn’t eaten all the cards.


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Tags: race/ethnicity

Last night I found myself posting some fairly substantive fandom meta to Tumblr. Is this how it begins? I don't do much fandom meta these days, but occasionally I have stuff to unpack and it just felt more natural to do it in a space where I've been seeing more activity. But now I feel guilty, so I thought I'd bring that meta over here.

First I just wanted to say that I started watching Jane the Virgin because lots of y'all love it. I like it a lot also! I'm a little bit sad though that the title character is not my fave, largely because her boyfriend -- who I still remember as boring Reid from Everwood -- is my absolute least fave and I hate how quickly they got together. Although maybe her one-note grandmother is my least fave. Hmm. Overall however the show is pretty fun and it makes me smile. Rogelio is my Brogelio!

I'm also watching Better Call Saul because I will buy anything Vince Gilligan wants to sell me. It's cool to be back in ABQ, with familiar places and faces and that particular vibe, but at the moment I don't have any deep thoughts. I'm waiting for more plot to happen.

And now here's my meta. ( The 100 2x13 - Clarke, Abby, and how The 100 is frakking bleak (and also bananas).Collapse )

*

While I'm here, the person who runs the social media accounts for the writers of The 100 has done a massive analysis on her personal blog of how fandom operates on social media, and her experience interacting with fans through Tumblr, Twitter, Instagram, etc. She's got numbers and charts and everything, and she talks about other shows as well.

Unfortunately you can only read the posts by starting at the bottom of the relevant tags on her blog, as opposed to a chronological series of links, but it's all pretty fascinating.

http://shoutingintothewind.com/tag/social-media/

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Tags: fandom, tumblr, tv: breaking bad, tv: the 100

I can now properly thank Missy for my adorable Little Women treat -- always a bonus to get an Amy March story which sees all of her flaws and strengths so clearly. *waves lonely Amy fan flag*

And I can say I totally suspected my assigned gift (Anna to the Infinite Power) was by rivkat. In fact, a few days ago I emailed thuviaptarth with my suspicions all, "AHEM. I AM A DETECTIVE AM I NOT." It helps to be in a fandom where you can count the number of writers and readers on one hand. :-D

My assigned recipient was MacyAudenStar. It was her first Yuletide. We matched on a TV show called The 100, which began airing in the US in March and just got better and better as the Yuletide deadline approached. So I was excited on multiple levels about writing.

Briefly about the show: the pilot begins with the descendants of people who took refuge on a huge international space station during a world-destroying nuclear war, 97 years prior. The current administration sends a group of 100 juvenile delinquents down to Earth to test whether the radiation's lowered enough to be habitable. The kids find out, to their horror, that plenty of people survived on Earth all along; meanwhile, everyone back on the space station is running out of air. Miscommunications with bloody results abound.

There are some intriguing female leaders in the cast, both teen and adult, which is the main plus for me, and pretty good world-building, thoughtfully blogged about by the inventor of a fictional language used on the show. Lots of TV critics and mainstream media have recommended it. Only 21 episodes have aired so far, so it should be possible to catch up during the winter hiatus.

The Next Shore (13250 words)
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Summary: After the war with Mount Weather, Clarke and Bellamy lead a splinter group to form a new settlement on the coast. But the territory they want already belongs to another Grounder clan.

Branches off from canon post-2x08, "Spacewalker."

Beta thanks to thuviaptarth, who is both the thinkiest and the stealthiest.

( some thoughts on the writing process and the show, with spoilers for all episodesCollapse )

Writing soundtrack: 1989 by Taylor Swift (picture proof)

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Tags: fanfic: the 100, tv: the 100, yuletide

Happy New Year, everyone!

I think I've done this adapted year-end meme about movies and TV for a couple of years now. It's not necessarily stuff that got released or aired in 2014, just what I watched (and can recall right now).

( Movies in 2014Collapse )


( TV in 2014Collapse )

This post has comments at its original location at http://hesychasm.dreamwidth.org/267556.html. Please comment there or here.

Tags: movies

So first of all, I declare myself a winner of Yuletide, thanks to my amazing gifts:

Restrike (Anna to the Infinite Power)
10K words (!!!) expanding on the YA science fiction dystopia novel of my childhood. Female clones, check. Hetcest, check. Futuristic world going to shit, check. Awesomeness, check. I broke the comment character limit when I went back to add more squee today.

Lovely and Loved (Little Women)
A gorgeous Madness story about grown-up Amy and her family. Both Amy and Jo retain those little flaws and quirks which gave their characters and their relationship such depth in the novel, and Laurie remains dreamy. <333!

*

Other stories I read and enjoyed, and I am a winner again because I'm pretty sure I left comments on all of them! (Also, thank goodness for the AO3 History feature.)

( Fandoms: Alien, Anne of Green Gables, Billy Elliot, Breaking Bad, Contact, Dune, Edge of Tomorrow, FFA RPF, It, My Mad Fat Diary, Peter Pan, The Secret Garden, Strictly Ballroom, The Winter Prince, ZoolanderCollapse )

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Tags: yuletide

Over the past few weeks, I've been watching a discussion in the online science fiction & fantasy community about a writer from Thailand named Benjanun Sriduangkaew. The TL;DR version is that this woman had two online lives. One was her Sriduangkaew pen name, under which she was apparently very friendly and kind to her fellow writers and sold herself as a sort of ingenue, bringing a fresh minority voice to SFF.

The second was an older persona, a blogging and book reviewing pen name called Requires Only That You Hate. Under this name she wrote scathing reviews of books and launched personal attacks on authors who didn't measure up to her standards of social justice activism. She stalked authors she disliked online, talked about subjecting others to violence (acid attack, beheading and rape, for example), and apparently enticed earnest social justice allies into private correspondences which then gave her blackmail material. Her "performative rage" methods even contributed to one author attempting suicide via overdose.

This person had other names going back years -- well before social justice became a popular online movement -- and it seems widely agreed now that she was an abusive bully under all of them. When someone finally linked her up with her warm and friendly Sriduangkaew pen name a few weeks ago, however, shit started flying ( /understatement ). SFF writer Laura Mixon has put a lot of work into cataloging and sourcing this person's bad deeds in an exhaustive report here.

I'm not really a part of the science fiction & fantasy book community, so I haven't felt comfortable commenting until now. I still don't really feel comfortable, and I've been going back and forth for days now on whether to post this.

I contributed a bit to Mixon's report before she published it. I had a conflict with Sriduangkaew in 2011, when she went by the LJ username winterfox (since deleted and re-assigned to an innocent party who might be regretting their choice of username now). The conflict happened in the community 50books_poc, which was devoted to reviewing books by authors of color. Sriduangkaew/Requires Hate/winterfox and her supporters felt that a certain level of personal attack was warranted in reviews of books they disliked. Other community members, including me, disagreed. The mods opened the issue up for discussion. Several hundred comments later, the community was never the same again and is now more or less defunct.

I was pretty pissed off at Sriduangkaew for about a day. From people's comments in private, I came away feeling she was basically a troll who was misusing social justice rhetoric to win fights on the internet. Having put her in that "troll" category, I didn't pay much attention to her later activities as Requires Hate. I regret that now, seeing all the hurt she went on to cause -- in particular against other women of color, in disproportionate amounts according to Mixon's report. I didn't understand just how far beyond "troll" Sriduangkaew actually was.

I was more pissed off, for a longer time, about the other people in that exchange who honestly and earnestly felt that this troll's behavior could be supported, or that it even merited a discussion.

This is complicated to unpack. Here is the part where I say I don't speak for all people of color. I feel that pretty clearly, because I've felt at odds with certain aspects of the online social justice movement since RaceFail 2009. I've talked around my feelings of alienation for years, both in private and in public, but I've never really stated it outright. I don't speak for all people of color, but I am going to speak with some force right now.

What's complicated is that I still feel, very much, that minority inequality is a fact, that the privileges enjoyed by the majority and by those with historical and institutional power are facts, that the resulting injustices are facts, that people have a right to be angry about these facts, and that they have a right to demand and expect these facts to someday change. Apply this across whatever portion of existence you want: employment, housing, education, representation in the media, whether people listen to what you say, whether you can walk down your street without getting gunned down by the law.

I also feel that some of the rhetoric of social justice is useful and helpful -- but not much beyond what I wrote in the above paragraph. I never signed onto a movement with tenets like "white people should always shut up when people of color are talking about racism." Or "people of color can say and do whatever they want in anger, and white people need to just take it." Or "white people have nothing to teach people of color about how racism works, ever." My marriage to a white man -- the mixed-race and multicultural family I might someday have with him -- would never survive beliefs like that. My friendships with some very dear people, who actually did teach me a few things about how racism works, would never survive beliefs like that. I literally would not be able to function, or advance a social justice agenda, in the real world with beliefs like that.

This is so self-evident to me that I just...I have to think that anyone who does believe all of those tenets wholeheartedly is very, very lucky. Because apparently they live in a world where they never have to worry about real consequences, or real people, or how to ever actually win the fight for real change.

Maybe I'm straw-manning, but if so, how did this current controversy with Sriduangkaew arise? For my part, I kept largely silent while a lot of the online social justice movement did seem to sign on to those tenets. I have to own that. I just didn't have the energy for the debate. I should have found it anyway. Full stop.

I was cynically unsurprised to find someone like Sriduangkaew, in 2011, abusing the arguments and hard work which honest, earnest social justice advocates had popularized online after RaceFail 2009. I was pissed off, but unsurprised. Power corrupts, and I guess winning internet fights about racism can make you feel pretty powerful...?

But I was surprised -- and frankly, very angry -- at how many of the honest, earnest advocates in that particular community bent themselves into all kinds of contortions to give someone like Sriduangkaew legitimacy. At how some of us had to patiently explain that calling an author a "stupid fuck," for example, was kind of messed up and served no social justice purpose whatsoever. And that trumpeting the idea that this was actually a laudable action was also messed up...because why? Honestly, why? The prize at the end of all of this is supposed to be equality, and that kind of bullshit not only takes our eyes off the prize, it has us staring daggers at each other.

I think that 2011 discussion ended in a draw, which to me felt like a loss. Afterward I went quiet again, instead of wading back in and wrenching the sword of social justice from the troll who'd somehow tricked the stone into giving it to her. I thought I'd run out of energy, and I thought I'd be -- I already sort of felt that I was -- trying to reason with a bunch of brick walls. And I honestly thought, well, if that's where this online movement has ended up, god bless y'all and good luck, but I'm going to just do it my way in my own life.

I probably would still feel like that, but the Sriduangkaew fallout has brought this full circle, and it makes me wish I'd chosen differently. So this post is complicated, because I still respect and benefit from and need a lot of the prior arguments and hard work done by other advocates. And I don't want anyone to lose focus on the prize just because of some really awful sword technique, so to speak.

But I also need to stop keeping silent when I see active harm being done to this advocacy. I want there to be a space in this movement for moderation. For swords down, for people listening to and learning from each other no matter what their origins are, for understanding the consequences of our arguments and our actions in the world where most of us actually have to live. I need to feel like there are others who believe the same things as me, so that I can feel like I belong to this again.

That said, I also need to make clear that at the moment, there are voices I would prefer to hear from -- by a long shot -- compared to a number in the past weeks who I feel are too eager to use Sriduangkaew as an excuse to discredit social justice activism, or to stop listening to justifiable anger. If you are speaking from a position of privilege, of power, of majority, along any axis, consider how to use your platform in ways that aid and direct attention to more marginalized voices, and thereby address at least one inequality. With this post, I am trying to offer up my understanding that I will always have more to learn and that my personal experiences are not the end of this story. I would appreciate the same courtesy and understanding from others choosing to weigh in on the discussion.

And finally, because it needs repeating: I do not speak for all people of color. Benjanun Sriduangkaew and her supporters do not speak for all people of color. They certainly do not speak for me.

I am sorry it's taken me so long to speak at all.


This post has comments at its original location at http://hesychasm.dreamwidth.org/266437.html. Please comment there or here.

Tags: race/ethnicity

Hello Yuletide author! I apologize for putting my prompts etc. in this slightly delayed post rather than my sign-up, but I was a bit scrambled this year. I really appreciate you writing a story for me -- as with every Yuletide, I'm just happy to be receiving a story at all. I hope the writing process is fun and makes you happy as well!

In case you're curious about some of my general preferences, my Yuletide tag is here.

As for my specific requests:

( Wheel of Time (Aviendha)Collapse )

( My Mad Fat Diary (Rae)Collapse )

( Little Women (Amy)Collapse )

( Anna to the Infinite Power (Anna)Collapse )

*

Thank you so much in advance for your story! I look forward to whatever you come up with. :)


This post has comments at its original location at http://hesychasm.dreamwidth.org/265558.html. Please comment there or here.

Tags: yuletide

The first episode of My Mad Fat Diary's second series aired last night in the UK, and Channel E4 put the second episode on their website a week early. I jerry-rigged Chrome so I could watch the latter, but now that means waiting two weeks for episode three, argh. Well, I did it to myself.

After the brilliance of the first series I was half-dreading the second, but there was no need for worry. The unflinching bravery of the writing and Sharon Rooney's acting, the extreme realism, the perfect melding of cinematography and editing and nostalgic 1990s soundtrack -- it's all in peak form. So worth the wait, except for how it was such an excruciatingly long wait!

I get the same feelings from this show as Friday Night Lights: I see the characters as people I want to protect and wish all the best things for. But MMFD doesn't pull any punches and it's telling a story that's been crucially missing from TV until now. I've seen people on Tumblr saying it can be triggering. It deals with teenage mental illness including depression and self-harm, body image insecurities, damaged families, competitive female friendships. And it's all from the perspective of a protagonist who isn't shaped like typical teenage female protagonists, who's allowed to be fucked up, frustrated, funny, lustful, lusted after, human, real.

It can be pretty hard to watch, but I wish I'd had a show like this when I was a teenager. Or even, you know, when I was thirty.

Specific spoilery thoughts for eps 1 and 2:

( Read more...Collapse )

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Tags: tv: my mad fat diary

Happy New Year, all!

The Yuletide story I received this year was an amazing gift -- a perfectly in-character post-series piece for Emily Owens MD. This was a short-lived show on The CW starring Mamie Gummer, daughter of Meryl Streep, as a young doctor trying to navigate adulthood and the beginning of her career, and it was beautiful and hilarious and cruelly canceled because hardly anybody watched it. Even post-reveals I'm still half-convinced that my Yuletide author was actually a writer for the show because the character voices were so perfect. <333 to freneticfloetry and thank you so much again!

The End Where I Begin (3095 words) by freneticfloetry
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Emily Owens M.D.
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Emily Owens/Will Collins, Emily Owens/Micah Barnes
Characters: Emily Owens, Tyra Dupre, Will Collins, micah barnes, Gina Bandari, Original Female Character(s)
Additional Tags: Stream of Consciousness, Medical Mumbo Jumbo, More Ellipses Than Strictly Necessary, Misses Clause Challenge
Summary:

That's where the story ends. At the beginning.

I wrote a story about Sandy Murry from Madeleine L'Engle's Murry-O'Keefe novels, for cinco:

Those who abide in love (3909 words) by hesychasm
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Austin & Murry-O'Keefe Families - Madeleine L'Engle
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Sandy Murry/Rhea, Dennys Murry/Lucy
Characters: Sandy Murry, Dennys Murry
Summary:

Sandy takes an exam, meets the future love of his life, and returns home for Christmas.

I grew up with these books and have read my copies practically to pieces, but reviewing them again in prep for Yuletide made me pay more attention to the differences between Sandy and Dennys, particularly in Many Waters and A House Like a Lotus (but sadly missing in A Swiftly Tilting Planet despite it being set between those two). The last piece of fanfic I wrote before this was for last year's Yuletide, so in some ways I felt rusty about the whole fanfic thing, the struggle to write in character and make things fit the universe, etc. I have some thoughts about all of that, plus thoughts on the books themselves, and because it's me they're long-winded:

( Read more...Collapse )

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Tags: books: l'engle, fanfic, fanfic: madeleine l'engle, yuletide

Because I'm still waiting for some benevolent deity of writing to reach down and fix my Yuletide story, I'm adapting some meme questionnaires to track my media consumption this year.

( Movies in 2013Collapse )

( TV in 2013Collapse )

This post has comments at its original location at http://hesychasm.dreamwidth.org/263738.html. Please comment there or here.

Tags: movies

This year marked the 20th anniversary of the beginning of The X-Files. This was my first online fandom. I think I was like a lot of people who couldn't make it to the bitter end. I can't remember exactly when I dropped out -- I liked Doggett, but I was already burned out on the sloppy mythology and, to be honest, the Mulder/Scully dynamic. And I was burned out on the fandom itself, which became so fractious. Except for a curious rewatch of "Clyde Bruckman's Final Repose" a few years ago, I never looked at re-runs and my DVD sets collected dust on the shelf.

But also this year, Gillian Anderson showed up on Hannibal and she looked pretty good (even if her character and acting style were a bit opaque).

And Breaking Bad ended this year (still processing it*) and there won't be anything new from Vince Gilligan for a while. And I got curious about whether his TXF episodes, which I always remembered as some of the best of the series and which also featured some Walter White precursors, still held up.

My husband was game to watch them, though he'd never seen more than bits and pieces of the show. But for some reason I was like, no, first you need to know who Mulder and Scully are. We should start at the beginning.

Now, a mere few weeks later, we're already closing in on the end of Season 4. What even, I don't know.

I don't really have organized thoughts, but here are the thoughts I do have, in no particular order:

( Read more...Collapse )

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Tags: tv: the x-files

The Hunger Games film adaptations continue to be everything I want in terms of improving on the books for entertainment purposes.

But after seeing Catching Fire over the weekend, a friend and I realized we disagree about how to read the end of Mockingjay. I'm pretty sure the eventual film version will prove me right, but I'm curious how other people interpret it.

( spoilers for the whole seriesCollapse )

So am I right or wrong?



...and while I'm here, I'll drop a fic rec. I think this one's probably considered a fandom classic for Katniss/Peeta shippers who wanted a more satisfyingly healing end to the books.

The Unrecorded Hours by hollycomb takes 24,000 words to give Katniss a better ending. It's a bit of a wandering ramble through the post-traumatic healing process back in District 12, taking one step back for every two steps forward, going to unexpected places -- kind of the way life sometimes does. I think it works better on the second read, once you know where it's going and why. [rec copied here from field_reports]

This post has comments at its original location at http://hesychasm.dreamwidth.org/263200.html. Please comment there or here.

Tags: books, movies

Hello Yuletide author! First, THANK YOU! This is only my third Yuletide. I'm mostly just excited to be getting a story in one of my requested fandoms so really, that's half the thing done. :) I hope the writing process is fun and makes you happy as well!

In case you're curious, my Yuletide tag is here.

( About meCollapse )

( About my requests: My Mad Fat Diary, Breaking Bad, Emily Owens MD, It - Stephen King, The Shining - Stephen King, ElementaryCollapse )


In conclusion, and once again, THANK YOU, mystery author! I can't wait to read whatever you come up with. ♥!



This post has comments at its original location at http://hesychasm.dreamwidth.org/262522.html. Please comment there or here.

Tags: yuletide

Amazon and Alloy Entertainment, the production company behind Gossip Girl, The Vampire Diaries and Pretty Little Liars, have entered into a partnership allowing people to self-publish and sell fanfic for those books. Amazon promises they will have similar licenses for other properties. Read more here and here.

They're offering royalties of 20% or 35%, depending on length, and will set your price for you in a range between $0.99 and $3.99 per story. (They're also making some high-handed claims to the original content in those stories, so be sure to read every word.)

I have never taken issue with people making money off their fanfic or other derivative work, although usually what you see is authorized tie-ins or people "filing off the serial numbers" so that it gets rewritten from fanfic to "original," like E.L. James did with 50 Shades of Grey.

This, I think, is something a bit different. For one thing, it opens up the copyright licensing to a much broader group. I'm suspicious that Amazon is starting with teen-oriented dramas, i.e. targeting younger fans and customers who maybe have no idea how much fanfic is already free on the Internet, or how a lot of older fans view fanfic as a "gift economy."

Mostly though I'm just curious how much profit and participation this program is actually going to get. I'm sure authors will want to participate, but will readers really pay? Just look at these content guidelines, which are fairly limiting. The whole thing strikes me as impractical from a business perspective, but then again, many fans do seem happy to give financial support to authors they love when those authors start charging money for writing that was previously free (E.L. James, Cassandra Claire, S.U. Pacat being some examples that come to mind). And there may also be some purchaser bias in people thinking that if something has a price tag on it, it's superior in quality to free stuff.

Anyway, I've been surprised by fandom often enough before, so who knows?

Content Guidelines for Kindle Worlds

• Pornography: We don't accept pornography or offensive depictions of graphic sexual acts.
• Offensive Content: We don’t accept offensive content, including but not limited to racial slurs, excessively graphic or violent material, or excessive use of foul language.
• Illegal and Infringing Content: We take violations of laws and proprietary rights very seriously. It is the authors' responsibility to ensure that their content doesn't violate laws or copyright, trademark, privacy, publicity, or other rights.
• Poor Customer Experience: We don't accept books that provide a poor customer experience. Examples include poorly formatted books and books with misleading titles, cover art, or product descriptions. We reserve the right to determine whether content provides a poor customer experience.
• Excessive Use of Brands: We don’t accept the excessive use of brand names or the inclusion of brand names for paid advertising or promotion.
• Crossover: No crossovers from other Worlds are permitted, meaning your work may not include elements of any copyright-protected book, movie, or other property outside of the elements of this World.

(cross-posted to Tumblr)

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In other news, a while back I spoke to a reporter at the Washington Post Express about fandom and fanfic. The article is pretty basic Fandom 101 stuff, but it's respectful on the whole, and the reporter indicated she was inspired to write it after having stumbled onto some fanfic she was really impressed by. I'm quoted as Jintian, along with some familiar names. An Unforbidden Love: In fan fiction, your favorite characters can do...whatever you want them to. This post has comments at its original location at http://hesychasm.dreamwidth.org/261679.html. Please comment there or here.

Tags: fandom, self-publishing

Have seen up to 1x03 of The History Channel's Vikings. Loving it! First because of the culture clash between the Vikings and the British, which I find deliciously amusing. Second because of hot-ass Travis Fimmel, who I think is perfectly cast as the cocky and wily Ragnar -- those gorgeous blue eyes! those smirky lips! those cheekbones! Third because of Katheryn Winnick as Lagertha and her tough no-nonsense awesomeness. I love that their first thought upon ( spoilerCollapse ) I may have found a new favorite husband/wife team to keep Coach and Mrs. Coach company.

Not really sure what's the reasoning behind using Gabriel Byrne as such a cartoonishly bad villain, but I'm too distracted by the thought that he apparently hasn't aged since 1994. Is he a vampire??

Speaking of Vikings who become vampires, why can't The Vampire Diaries just be a better show? Argh.

I can't remember if the show has played with concepts of moral equivalence in previous seasons to this degree. It was always very clear that Stefan and Damon had terrible pasts (and still-bad presents) but I think Elena and friends at least could maintain the moral high ground. Any violence they did was in self-defense or in defense of loved ones, and it was also limited.

This season we've got: ( spoilersCollapse )

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Tags: tv: the vampire diaries, tv: vikings

I was looking forward to going to an Oscar party tonight and cleaning up with my winning bracket, haha, but we're having to flake out at the last minute. :-(

GoldDerby.com is where I go for expert predictions. My thoughts on the Best Picture nominees below:

Argo - 27% of votes, 27/10 odds

What even the hell? So very historically inaccurate, and not in a good way: in fact, I actually don't usually care that much about accuracy, but this was just OTT. I found most of the dramatically tense bits, most of which were apparently manufactured for the film, eyeroll-y and nonsensical. I also thought it was thin on characterization and I didn't care about anyone I was watching. But yay for Bryan Cranston and Kyle Chandler continuing to get movie roles. Boo for Ben Affleck's face.

Lincoln - 15% of votes, 11/2 odds

I agree with all the criticism that it was too much play and not enough movie. Great script by Tony Kushner, and great acting from damn near everyone in the massive cast -- including obvs Daniel Day-Lewis -- but so much of Spielberg's direction felt flat and unexciting. Which is surprising, because it's Spielberg. I am looking forward to yet another eloquent and humbly gracious acceptance speech from DDL.

Silver Linings Playbook - 13%, 13/2 odds

I feel like I need to see this again. I bounced off a lot of the first half, then was only gradually starting to feel won over, and suddenly it was finished. I know this was a personal project for David O. Russell because of his son, but as far as his take on family drama I much preferred The Fighter a couple years ago. Also, apparently Robert DeNiro's character was constructed almost entirely in the editing room: he did a lot of takes where he played the father as a harsh abuser, and then Russell and his editor chose what they wanted afterward. If I were an actor working hard on bringing a character to life and a director changed it all up in the editing room, I'd be furious. But he'll probably get Best Supporting Actor, and I wouldn't be surprised if DeNiro himself doesn't even care that much anyway. Not looking forward to JLaw winning. I have gone off her as she continues to put her foot in her mouth in the press -- the act is no longer cute.

Life of Pi - 10%, 9/1 odds

Would really like Ang Lee to get his second Best Director Oscar for this; his odds are about even with Spielberg at the moment. Ang Lee is just one of the best directors around, period. His body of work is so diverse and interesting. Anyway, I wish I'd seen this in 3D in the cinema as it was apparently magnificent, but even in 2D it was glorious. Can't believe Suraj Sharma had never acted before.

Zero Dark Thirty - 9%, 10/1 odds

Torture controversy aside (to me it did feel like more than a few minutes), I don't doubt there was also some Argo-style fictionalization going on here. But it felt to me like a technically better-executed movie and I found the scenes at bin Laden's compound full of real tension. Bonus points for Jennifer Ehle and Jessica Chastain sharing scenes where they talk about work. I've admired Jessica Chastain in so many movies now -- I've seen all but like, two of hers -- and would love to see her win Best Actress. Unlike her main competitor JLaw, who was part of an ensemble cast, Chastain carried most of this movie on her shoulders, and her character was more subtle and compelling to me.

Les Miserables - 8%, 12/1 odds

Didn't see. Never been a big fan of the musical, and I hate Tom Hooper's "directing" style. Case in point: the miniseries John Adams, which we've been watching. The man has zero idea how to place cameras; he seems to love crazy angles and extreme close-ups, but they're always so clumsy and amateur. Looking forward to Anne Hathaway's pretentious acceptance speech (I know she's been saying great things in interviews about women in the media, but her speeches are cringe-y).

Amour - 7%, 14/1 odds

Didn't see. Really want to. Afraid it will break me.

Beasts of the Southern Wild - 6%, 16/1 odds

I absolutely loved this movie. I can see why some criticize it for romanticizing poverty and/or glamorizing a particular sub-culture, but I don't share those criticisms. I thought it was amazing and emotionally wrenching from start to finish (but beware of extreme shaky cam). And for anyone who thinks Quvenzhané Wallis was too young to really understand she was acting, you should watch this video of her getting into character.

Django Unchained - 6%, 16/1 odds

I found this movie to be largely obnoxious torture porn, directed by a largely obnoxious dick. I don't know how many shots I really needed of Kerry Washington and Jamie Foxx in extreme pain to get that Slavery Is Bad, but it felt like Tarantino was just exploiting the violence their characters suffered for shock value -- it felt almost disturbingly fetishistic. I mean, it's Tarantino, what else is new, but the actors and the topic deserved better. I love Jamie Foxx -- watch basically any interview he's in, he's humble and charming and thoughtful and a fucking hard worker, and also talented on so many levels -- and I hope he never works with Tarantino again. I'm also, admittedly, annoyed that neither he nor Samuel L. Jackson have been getting as much awards recognition as Christoph Waltz and Leonardo DiCaprio.

Also, link courtesy jeviltwin: Django, in chains -- a critical essay from actor Jesse Williams.

Anyway, I am looking forward to Steve McQueen's 12 Years a Slave with Chiwetel Ejiofor, to come out sometime later this year. Neither McQueen nor Ejiofor have ancestral connections to slavery in the US, as far as I'm aware, but I expect they'll take the issue rather more seriously than Quentin fucking Tarantino.

The Master - not nominated for Best Picture, but like most of Paul Thomas Anderson's work I felt it was one of the most interesting movies of the year. PTA specializes in extreme character studies, very grounded in time and place, and this one was particularly eccentric and deeply layered. It was also beautifully shot and edited, with lots of gorgeous golden afternoon light, and it was really, really well-acted. If not for DDL, this would have been Joaquin Phoenix's year.

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Tags: movies

I forgot to mention in my pimping post for My Mad Fat Diary that it's set in 1996, which means a total nostalgia-fest for people of a certain age. The soundtrack is full of Blur, Oasis, The Cure, The Smiths, The Stone Roses, Radiohead, Björk, Mazzy Star, Beastie Boys...all deployed to great emotional effect.

I also need to emphasize, a little more specifically and strongly than I did in my pimping post, that the show deals with mental illness in teenagers, and is possibly triggery for body image, abuse, self-harm, and suicide. That said, it's been getting praise from critics for removing some of the stigma around these issues; and on the viewer level, I can't tell you how many times I've seen people on Tumblr and LJ saying they wish there had been a show like this on the air when they were younger.

It's been renewed for a second series, so you should absolutely check it out (all six episodes are at Youtube, but be sure to check the summary descriptions for the ones where you should switch over to Dailymotion to get the soundtrack uncut).

Last night I was in the Tumblr tag reading people's reactions to the first series finale and someone's comment struck me:

I’m nervous because I’m too far away to reach out and grab her if something goes wrong.

I think people tend to feel this way about a lot of characters they love, but especially the ones they identify with very strongly. I'm so happy that a character like Rae Earl exists on TV now. Seriously -- how can I love her face so much after just six episodes?



image credit supertgirl@tumblr

Anyway, my specific thoughts about the finale are ( spoilersCollapse )

This post has comments at its original location at http://hesychasm.dreamwidth.org/259881.html. Please comment there or here.

Tags: tv: my mad fat diary

image credit supertgirl@tumblr

Oh my God THIS SHOW. This show kicks me in the fucking balls, over and over and over again. I love it so much. I highly recommend taking some time this weekend to check it out -- five episodes out of six in its first series have aired so far, with the sixth and final one airing Monday in the UK, on channel E4.

It's based on the real life diaries of a British radio personality named Rae Earl, from when she was an overweight teenager just released from a stint in a mental hospital. The show pulls no punches about those topics, so fair warning, but IMO it's all done with such an empathetic, painfully true-to-life perspective -- because it's Rae's diary and narrative voice telling the story, and she's sharp and intelligent and principled and funny as hell.

Rae lucks into a group of awesome friends who perceive and appreciate her awesomeness, so the show is mostly about her figuring out how to be "normal" and trust people again (recognizing that of course, no teenager really ever feels normal and the trouble with trusting teenagers is that they're teenagers). In the meantime she's drifting apart from her oldest friend Chloe, and the show understands deeply how that can happen when girls get older, and how competitive and petty they can be with each other -- especially when one is apparently the "winner" at femininity yet still has her own insecurities (note: I ANTI-REC the recent movie Bachelorette which also attempted to depict this kind of dynamic). Rae's also dealing with her mother, who is pretty troubled in her own way but keeps trying to communicate with her daughter with imperfect love. Also trying to help Rae navigate all of this is her therapist, a worn-down, lovely man played by Professor Quirrell from Harry Potter, heh.

It's got a Misfits sort of feel with irreverent and dark British teen humor (seriously, it's funny as hell), but it's totally grounded in reality and overall it's a much sweeter show. I still expect the last episode to break my heart, though. They will also find out on Monday whether they're renewed for a second series, but it's getting rave reviews so I'm feeling confident.

Anyway. How to watch? This amazing person has put all five episodes on Youtube, and even included English subtitles in the CC captions (sometimes the northern English accents are so thick that even my husband, born and raised in London, can't puzzle them out). She had to remove some music from the fourth and fifth episodes, but has provided alternate links to the complete episodes on Dailymotion.

You want to watch this. Don't wait. It's already all over Tumblr. It's about to be all over your friends lists. It's going to be Yuletided. Guarantee.

This post has comments at its original location at http://hesychasm.dreamwidth.org/259621.html. Please comment there or here.

Tags: tv: my mad fat diary

I made a deal with my husband a while ago that we were not going to do anything for Valentine's Day, and I told him I'd be annoyed if he got sneaky and bought me flowers or chocolate or something like that. He agreed. Then on Valentine's Day morning, he left me this on my bedside table: ( cut for imageCollapse )

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I've been spending some time in the "klaroline" tag at Tumblr because of recent developments on The Vampire Diaries. Basically, a pairing has been building on the show which consists of your standard bad boy villain woobie reforming (attempting to reform? reluctantly reforming? reluctantly attempting to reform?) himself for the love of a good woman, aka Spike/Buffy-lite [eta: speaking of which, confidential to M, look at how far we've come, ahahah].

(It's working for me, mostly because of chemistry and prettiness and because sometimes I just like creepy Dirty Bad Wrong relationships. Like, I ship Harry/Hermione, Ron/Hermione, Draco/Hermione and Snape/Hermione, you know?)

Anyway, I'm finding the tag on Tumblr...interesting. Previous to this I've primarily just used Tumblr to look at pretty pictures. But I think this is my first real experience of fandom as an insta-reaction kind of place -- Tumblr makes it so easy to just pop out quick, pithy exclamations, and its setup is not great for in-depth discussion or TL;DR kinds of meta.

So in some ways, I feel like I'm looking directly into the unfiltered, irrational id. (Specifically, the id of very young women -- I've checked a few profiles for ages to be sure.). As you might guess, there is a lot of romanticizing going on, a lot of sympathy for the villain, a lot of imploring his love interest to take his declarations at face value and love him back.

I know so much of this is cultural and can largely be derived from the hoary old expectation that women are supposed to be chaste and "pure" whereas men are biologically wired with baser instincts. So, for instance, derivation 1 = women should only reluctantly enjoy sex (or at least only be enthusiastic about it with the right man); derivation 2 = the best women can reform the worst men; derivation 3 = when a (bad) man (finally) offers his love, a good woman accepts and returns it, etc. etc.

I am generally fine to recognize all of this intellectually, and then let myself and everyone else carry on experiencing fandom and feminism however we like -- I mean, provided I don't see active harm being done -- because I feel it's not my business or responsibility how others do that stuff. But man...wading past all of this mess on Tumblr just to get my pretty pictures is hard.

The thing is, I personally credit fandom-at-large with deprogramming my brain out of a lot of unsavory insta-reactions I used to have (I grew up in a particularly sexually conservative culture and household and geographic region, on top of all the messed up stuff we learn and internalize just by living in the world). And now I'm like, is this an opportunity to pay it forward? Do I get in there and try to engage in discussion or education or whatever? Isn't that just going to devolve into me acting superior and/or arguing with teenagers? Should I just hope/assume they figure this stuff out eventually on their own? And also, aren't I still learning and figuring this stuff out?

...blah. There's a lot more I'm thinking and feeling about all of this, but it feels very fraught.

*

I also watched Beauty and the Beast and that gave me the blahs as well. The show continues to please me with its racially diverse cast and focus on female relationships. But it miscalculates so much on plot and romance -- I would so much rather have watched Cat and Tess's Valentine's Day back-and-forth than basically anything that happened with Vince and Alex, gorgeous as Bridget Regan is. And I hear it's been struggling in ratings, so I'm just waiting for the news that it's been canceled like Emily Owens, MD.

Hmm. Perhaps it's now time to finally try Nikita before that gets canceled too.

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Commentary on other Thursday night shows to follow.

This post has comments at its original location at http://hesychasm.dreamwidth.org/259339.html. Please comment there or here.

Tags: fandom, gender/sex, tumblr, tv: beauty and the beast, tv: the vampire diaries

Meme from my flist:

What are you reading now?

Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen. Generally I am an Austen watcher rather than an Austen reader (defriend me now, I know). This might be the only one I've actually read by her, and that was years ago. It's wonderful on re-read -- I mean, what can I say that hasn't already been said? But I've been reading it on my Nook, which means I only ever pick it up when I'm out of the house waiting for an appointment or sitting on a train, so it's slow-going.

Of course, rather than just buckling down to finish, in the past few weeks I have instead watched the BBC miniseries with Jennifer Ehle, the 2005 film with Keira Knightley, and also The Lizzie Bennet Diaries (possible thoughts on this one in a separate post -- basically I find the format difficult and the Lizzie actress excruciating, but I always liked original flavor Lydia and I like that this version is getting a sympathetic, complex storyline).

Oh, and I watched Ang Lee and Emma Thompson's Sense and Sensibility for good measure. And then read Colonel Brandon/Elinor epistolary fanfic. *hands*

Given this recent Austen immersion, it was interesting to read cereta and coffeeandink's posts yesterday on not judging adults who live with their parents. Now I want to look for some scholarship on Austen's life circumstances, i.e. "spinster" who remained with her family, versus her fiction, i.e. heroines who needed to get married and then managed to do it, largely happily.

What did you just finish?

Winter's Bone by Daniel Woodrell. OMGGGGGGG. Ree Dolly, a 17 year old girl living in hardship in the Ozarks and taking care of her two young brothers and mentally ill mother, must prove to law enforcement that her meth cook father is dead or else lose their home to the bail bondsman. Grim and gorgeously written.

Ree’s grand hope was that these boys would not be dead to wonder by age twelve, dulled to life, empty of kindness, boiling with mean. So many Dolly kids were that way, ruined before they had chin hair, groomed to live outside square law and abide by the remorseless blood-soaked commandments that governed lives led outside square law. [...] Sometimes when Ree fed Sonny and Harold oatmeal suppers they would cry, sit there spooning down oatmeal but crying for meat, eating all there was while crying for all there could be, become wailing little cyclones of want and need, and she would fear for them.

See also 2010 film starring Jennifer Lawrence and John Hawkes, who in a previous incarnation once said Agent Scully was already in love.

What are you planning to read next?

I think after P&P I'll be in the mood for historical romance by a current author, so I've got Lisa Kleypas's Hathaways series queued up, and I've been alerted that Meredith Duran has a new Victorian, That Scandalous Summer.

I'm also contemplating re-reading the entire Wheel of Time series because it's now finished -- I quit around book 9 or so. I know, I know, I know. But Robert Jordan was from my hometown and I have some particular memories associated with the friend who first recommended the books to me when we were kids, so I'm curious how the nostalgia will affect the reading experience. Also, besides Tolkien, Le Guin and now GRRM, these may actually be the only fantasy books I've ever read. (And there goes the other half of you defriending me, heh.)

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Tags: book review, books, lizzie bennet diaries, movies

My sympathies to everyone who is mourning iamsab. We weren't close, but we went to the same college a few years apart. And once, over a decade ago, she wrote me some advice about my education, 800 words (I just checked) which basically amounted to: SEIZE LIFE! Celebrate geekdom and nerdiness, love learning and words and creativity, and appreciate people who love these things too. And oh, it's okay to make mistakes, as long as you keep trying, because even the big mistakes will teach you something. I've always remembered that and felt like if I had even half of her passion and bravery and generosity, I'd be doing okay.

There are so many fellow fans on her Facebook page right now. It's beautiful and amazing. I was actually thinking just the other day how much my own life has been enriched by the kindness of people I've met through fandom, people who've become friends over the years but also, in a way, mentors and teachers and counselors, or simply occasional advice-givers: everything from finances to dating to family to how to dress for a job interview, and more. I was just a kid when I started talking to people online, and while I learned early on how to be rigorous in keeping my online and offline lives apart, I've greatly benefited from letting them overlap. I'm not sure I could ever truly measure the amount of growing up I've been able to do because of this, the informal life education I've received solely through the exchange of words with "strangers" on the Internet, and which has been just as valuable -- if not more so -- than anything I ever learned in a classroom.

I guess I just feel fortunate to have stumbled into this crazy world at such a formative time, so many years ago, and I feel glad that I stayed. Thanks to all of you, and thanks to Emily, for being among the many fine folks I've met here.

This post has comments at its original location at http://hesychasm.dreamwidth.org/258328.html. Please comment there or here.

So you know that moment at the end of Season 2 of Buffy the Vampire Slayer when Buffy does that thing to Angel?

I am looking for more canons with moments like that. Canons where the strong, awesome, complicated female character DOES NOT let her love/lust for a male character compromise her principles, morals and integrity.

Anyone got any recs?



PS: Fuck you, ( two Sunday night season finalesCollapse ) Fuck you very much.

This post has comments at its original location at http://hesychasm.dreamwidth.org/257464.html. Please comment there or here.

This year I watched A LOT of TV, haha. I would have liked to comment a lot more on them while watching, but c'est la vie.

Which TV shows did you start watching in 2012?

Arrow -- not by choice; I think it's a steaming pile of shit but my husband watches it
Avatar: The Last Airbender/Legend of Korra -- had a glorious time mainlining the first and laborious time getting through the second
Beauty & the Beast -- gets better and better, to be honest, even the beast stuff
Dexter -- actually, I'd previously seen Season 1, but I picked up the latest season because plot stuff I heard about interested me
Downton Abbey -- ridiculous soapy fun
Elementary -- still primarily Tivo TV, because Thursday night is packed, but I'm always surprised by how much I enjoy it
Emily Owens MD -- dammit! see below
Justified -- but only partway through S1 still, just not enough time
Scandal -- pulled in by the sexy commercials
Teen Wolf -- because fandom told me to

Which TV shows did you let go of in 2012?

American Horror Story, Misfits, Revenge, Scandal, So You Think You Can Dance, True Blood, The Walking Dead -- all just got too ridiculous or annoying to come back to.
Emily Owens MD -- NOT BY CHOICE, FUCK YOU CW, FUCK YOU.
Gossip Girl -- because it is finally ending hallelujah! THANK YOU CW, THANK YOU.
Homeland -- circling the drain, see below.

Which TV shows did you mean to get into but didn't in 2012? Why?

Nashville -- because of Connie Britton; I've got all the eps ready to go when I have more time.

Which TV shows do you intend on checking out in 2013?

I need to pick back up with Justified and The Sopranos and The Wire. Also curious about Leverage and Luther.

For new shows, I'll be planted on the couch for the new Kevin Bacon one, The Following.

Which TV show impressed you least in 2012?

Homeland. My God. This show has turned into such a hot mess I kind of actively hate it now. I don't think I've ever seen such a complex, intriguing, awesome female character sliced off at the knees so shockingly fast -- I think it literally happened in the space of two episodes. Depending on how the season finale goes this Sunday, I may be dropping this show entirely. I know lots of people are thinking about picking it up, so, be warned.

Parks and Recreation. Suddenly it just wasn't funny anymore. And Ben/Leslie, ugh, used to be so cute but now so irritating.

Scandal. It was ridiculous and soapy and ridiculous, which was part of the id-appeal to begin with I guess, but I just can't deal with it anymore. And Kerry Washington, I want to love you, but you need some new, non-sneering facial expressions.

Which TV show did you enjoy the most in 2012?

Avatar: The Last Airbender, Breaking Bad, Community, Teen Wolf

Also, we finally finished Homicide: Life on the Street although I think technically we started watching it in 2011. Although the last season was not so great, as I said to monanotlisa on Tumblr: I recommend Homicide to anyone who heaps praise on The Wire or bemoans the lack of diversity in TV. It’s The Wire’s predecessor, basically, and it is AMAZING. It had a diverse cast of characters talking seriously and frequently about — and dealing with — race issues in their jobs, personal lives and society at large. Fantastic writing and acting and sophisticated story arcs, too.

Bonus: shows I kept up with in 2012 which maintained the same level of quality to which I was accustomed

Game of Thrones, The Good Wife (minus anything involving Kalinda, sry2say), Mad Men, Sherlock, The Vampire Diaries

This post has comments at its original location at http://hesychasm.dreamwidth.org/257166.html. Please comment there or here.

Tags: tv: homeland, tv: homicide: life on the street

...guys, can we talk about this?



These are Detectives Catherine Chandler and Tess Vargas of the New York Police Department. They're characters on Beauty and the Beast, a new show airing on The CW network this season, which is actually a remake of a 1980s show by the same name (a show which may have done weird things to my sense of romance as a little girl, but anyway...). They're played by Kristin Kreuk and Nina Lisandrello.

So let me sum up the relevant points, because I don't have the wherewithal for a whole essay what with prepping for the Storm of the Century the Year the Month right now:

1. They're FEMALE HOMICIDE DETECTIVES.

2. They're PARTNERS.

3. Kristin Kreuk's character is half-Asian (her mother has been shown as Asian -- this is important because her other well-known character, Lana Lang in Smallville, was white).

4. Nina Lisandrello's character is Latina (although not specified by show yet, so I'm only assuming).

5. They chase down suspects and interrogate them and solve cases and look fucking badass while doing so:

( cut for images, but seriously, you want to clickCollapse )

6. Also, they have SO MUCH CHEMISTRY OMG.

7. I wish this was a show all about them, instead of a show which seems to think it's more about Kristin Kreuk's character and some angsty beefcake "beast" guy. But they do get a lot of screentime together, and it is both satisfying and tantalizing at the same time.

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For similar reasons to the above, I am also enjoying Scandal and Elementary. More about them another time.

This post has comments at its original location at http://hesychasm.dreamwidth.org/255588.html. Please comment there or here.

Tags: tv: beauty and the beast

Thanks to about 24 hours of travel time, door to door, I have finally finished the effing series!

(And what do I do? I immediately turn to a 380K-word fanfic WIP, The North Remembers by Silverblood, because dammit, I neeeeed to know what happens next. Even if it's only what someone else wants to happen.)

In my last post I mentioned that I was reading a combined version of Books 4 and 5. I got it in ebook form from here (scroll down to the comments). This was probably the only way I could get it done -- Book 4 was seriously dragging for me a third of the way through, and I was frustrated to hear there was so much chronological overlap with Book 5. I might have missed out on some OMG! moments and set-ups/reveals, but that link assures me they did their best to keep the reading experience good.

That said, did the actual content make the reading experience good? Um.

( Read more...Collapse )

I checked out the Prophecies page at Westeros.org, where people with more patience and attention span than me have tried to explicate the various prophecies and dreams in the books. All I can say is, I do not envy GRRM the experience of being under so much reader scrutiny. And I'm really curious how he's organized his writing space.

This post has comments at its original location at http://hesychasm.dreamwidth.org/255417.html. Please comment there or here.

Tags: books: asoiaf, tv: game of thrones

Hello Yuletide author! First, THANK YOU!!! This is only my second Yuletide. I'm mostly just excited to be getting a story in one of my requested fandoms so really, that's half the thing done. :) I hope the writing process is fun and makes you happy as well!

In case you're curious, my letter from last year's Yuletide is here -- it's largely the same except that two requested fandoms are different.

( About meCollapse )

( About my requestsCollapse )


In conclusion, and once again, THANK YOU, mystery author! I can't wait to read whatever you come up with. ♥!

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Tags: yuletide

I think it's still sophia_helix's birthday on the other side of the International Date Line, so HAPPY BIRTHDAY, my dear! I hope this next year brings you a swift upturn in luck, fortune and happiness.

In honor of the occasion, and because I know she would understand, I would like to announce that my new favorite line from the A Song of Ice and Fire/Game of Thrones series is: [cut not for spoilers, but for grossness]The ship groaned and growled beneath him like a constipated fat man straining to shit. Brilliant, no? (Answer: HAHAHAHAHAH.)



(Also, I'm not sure which book that's from -- I am reading a version which some lovely Internet person put together which combines Book 4 and 5 in chronological order. It's probably the only way I could possibly finish. I still have like 600 pages to go...!)

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Tags: books: asoiaf

It's fall TV season time!

In my version of The Good Wife's S4 premiere, in which lawyers know their rights and the characters act like themselves instead of like idiots because the idiot plot requires them to be idiots, ( spoilers through 4x01Collapse )

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Homeland's S2 premiere was way better. We mainlined S1 a few months ago but I didn't have much to say. I think it's a really entertaining, well-done show, and the end of last season was bleak and depressing and kind of brilliant. However, I disagree with its Emmy for Best Drama and particularly Damian Lewis's Emmy for Best Actor. I know the argument that Bryan Cranston has three Emmys already, but to paraphrase one commenter on ONTD, you don't tell Usain Bolt it's someone else's turn for gold. The best is supposed to win. Bryan Cranston is the best. Period.

Anyway. The S2 premiere was very good, and the promo for the rest of the season also looked very good. I think Carrie is one of the most fascinating female leads I've seen in a long time, if possibly ever, and I'm excited to watch the rest of her story. Claire Danes did deserve her Emmy: she makes Carrie incredibly hard to like and sympathize with, but also so incredibly human. The character is painful enough on paper, with all her flaws and vulnerabilities, but as acted...GAH.

( spoilers through 2x01Collapse )

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Speaking of political shows set in DC, I also picked up Scandal.

I've never watched a Shonda Rhimes show before but I thought I'd give this one a chance because (a) first black female solo lead in an American hour-long TV drama in, apparently, 30 years; (b) run by a black woman who's also running two other hour-long dramas, like, she kind of owns network TV now apparently; (c) okay, fine, there were some really hotass sexy commercials the past couple weeks.

Basically, I only care about the Olivia/POTUS relationship, because Kerry Washington and Tony Goldwyn have the HOT HOT HOT like fiyah! kind of chemistry, and the infidelity and power issues also make it disturbing and kinky and wrong in that oh so right kind of way. But otherwise the show is a soapy ridiculous mess and it apparently takes place in some kind of fantasy DC where people talk way too fast using way too many words while making very little sense. As of now, I think it's going to be background TV.

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And finally, Downton Abbey.

( spoilers through 3x03Collapse )

- Oh, and Maggie Smith also did not deserve that Emmy. Not over Christina Hendricks. :(

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Tags: tv: downton abbey, tv: homeland, tv: scandal, tv: the good wife

I watched the finale as soon as we got home from Dragon*Con and I'm still thinking about it, as well as the season* overall.

I was at a dinner party the other night and we got to talking about the show, and a woman declared how much she hated Skyler White. I agree Skyler's a hard character to like on her own -- if she were a real person we would never be friends -- but it's amazing that she gets no sympathy or empathy given who her husband is. But then, I understand there are still a lot of people on Walter's side, so I dunno.

12_12_12 a while ago posted some fantastic meta which breaks down how Skyler is an "emasculating" kind of woman, someone whose need to control and be in charge of all things -- particularly her marriage, household, kids, and Walter's cancer treatment -- implicates some deep cultural protectiveness we feel about masculinity and male pride. I'd previously described the show as a critical and frequently damning look at frustrated manhood, the aspirations and self-images of white "middle American" men, the culturally ingrained need to dominate rivals and provide for and protect one's family (both the marriage-and-children kind and the kind formed by one's actions). But I never drew the end of that line to Skyler. It's like viewers can't help themselves feeling (even if not thinking it consciously): yes, Walter is a sucky human being, but dammit, why can't Skyler just let him wear the pants once in a while? And it's hard to think past that initial recoil. (Actually, the meta is way more interesting and insightful than that, and I think she's promised more to come, so watch that space.)

Anyway, given the context of all that, I'm still thinking about Skyler's arc this season.

( spoilers, plus talk about Holy shit! momentsCollapse )


[*] I do presently consider this Season 5 and next year will be Season 6 -- if you shut down production, go on months of break, and then re-start it for episodes which will air a year later, it's two separate seasons. (Plus, Aaron Paul agrees with me.) But once the show ends, we may all come to think of them as a single season.

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Tags: tv: breaking bad

PSA:

XF fans who are also Marvel Avengers fans: a certain person's evil twin *cough* has posted a story! It's Thor's perspective, which from what I can tell is not so common, and because it's this author, it's also told with an uncommonly odd/spooky/lovely voice: By any outward touch (AO3 link). Read and encourage her to keep writing!

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I've been watching Game of Thrones but haven't had much to say about it. Overall it's an entertaining show, but I thought parts of Season 2 got rather tiresome and painful to watch (everything to do with Robb Stark, and sadly, much of Daenerys's plot). Still, it made me curious to find out what would happen next. I am a completist, so I read Books 1 and 2 first, and fuck me if that didn't take a long-ass time. Even with skipping the endless lists of lords and knights and foodstuffs.

Then I read Book 3, and OMG could not put it down ! ! !

( spoilers through Season 2 and the first third of Book 4Collapse )

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And! Second City did a hilarious spoof applying the "It Gets Better" concept to A Storm of Swords:



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Tags: books: asoiaf, tv: game of thrones