ArtLung LiveJournal

Congrats to stoneself and darkfoxprime on their engagement!

True story, I (accidentally) matched them up, 17 years ago.

Here's a little something I haven't done in a while — the game is an easy one. Go to amazon, find some of your favorite books, and post the most distressing one-star reviews.

As it turns out, Nathanael West was not writing fables for kids!

1.0 out of 5 stars a new veiw, September 4, 2001
A Kid's Review
miss lonley hearts is a truely tragic story centered around a depressed lunatic and his immoral and drunk freinds. he sets out to solve peoples problems and ends up only making them worse ruining his life as well as others. while the writers craft may be good, and there are many levels to this story, it is not one to contrive morals from.

(I wonder if the kid's opinion changed seven days later, or what he thinks now for that matter.)




"Kate" (if that is her real name!) is all wrong, but she does nail Bukowski in a sentence, I must say.

1.0 out of 5 stars waste of a generation, December 4, 2005
By Kate M. Maldonado "cromatica" (Seattle, WA, USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)
This book was so bad that it actually made my blood pressure go up. Since it was written in the '50s, Gnossos' lack of charm or even the most basic social skills may be seen by those who grew up in that repressed era as signs of having a free spirit, or of being a rebel. It seems Farina couldn't see outside the little construct of his college/drug scene, which, even in the sixties, did not define the world. Anybody can take massive quantities of drugs and inflict themselves onto others under the impression that they themselves are being interesting.
It's as if Farina was in a boardroom with Fox network producers; "Ok, is there lots of drugs? violence? vandalism? Don't forget the lesbians! Point of the story? Never mind, we've got lesbians!"
I think people like this book for the same reason that they like TV shows like "Cops"; a vicarious experience of a degenerate lifestyle.I can see how, 40 years ago, one may have felt a bit naughty reading such graphic fare, but this book is about as hip as wearing a peace medallion with a fringed leather vest. No wonder so many baby boomers are having cuddle parties and paying people thousands to come to their corporate office to teach them to juggle and tune their wind chimes.
Bukowski was a jerk, but at least he was funny.




This one must be from the first reviewer's mother or father:

1.0 out of 5 stars In Bad Taste, January 8, 2000
By A Customer
This review is from: Geek Love (Paperback)
I had to read this book for an English Lit course and I really had a very hard time finishing it. I must be pretty abnormal since most reviews were good. I found the content very disturbing. For someone's mind to come up with such horrific actions which I feel are immoral as well as sick must have a twisted outlook on life. I really couldn't see the author's point. The ending was a pretty common ending to murder, incest and drug taking. There are so many wonderful literary books out there, I can't understand why a Professor would recommend this book.


(I hope the "Professor" assigned Lolita immediately after this one. You know, as a sorbet.)





And what would a reader review be without a rejoinder to an unnamed group of apologists for Nazism, which had nothing to do with the book in question (hint, parts of it were published in a magazine the year before Hitler was born):


1.0 out of 5 stars A favorite of Neo-Luddites and Neo-Nazis, March 20, 2003
By Michael J Edelman (Huntington Woods, MI USA) - See all my reviews
(TOP 100 REVIEWER) (REAL NAME)
This review is from: Hunger: A Novel (Paperback)
Can you seperate the art from its creator? Of course not. "Hunger" is not an exceptional piece of literature by any means. Hamsun's fame rests in large part on his "oppression", as some would have it. I.e., he was opressed after WWII in the same way that Quisling and Goebbles were oppressed.

As Hamsun's popularity gorws, so does the whitewashing of his memory and the moral equivocation that allows some intellectuals to do so. I cannot count myself among them.

...wake me when it's time for Artdecopunk.

As I said before, the privilege displayed by some Game Chef participants is pretty blatant to me. My reaction to a lot of the games was pretty similar to shreyas's; I also noted a lot of disturbing (to me) race and class ideas in addition to the women/sex/violence thing.

But I'm trying to stay calm about that. One of the first things that people do when they really start to understand this whole privilege thing is to start noticing it everywhere -- in themselves, in others, whatever. And they freak out. They run up to their friends on the other side of a privilege equation and go "ZOMG DID YOU HEAR, WHITE PEOPLE ARE OFTEN DICKS TO PEOPLE OF COLOR" or whatever, and their friends look at them as if they've claimed to have just found out about this amazing new thing called "television."

I've often wondered why my friends who are POC, or queer, or women, or whoever don't make a bigger ruckus when they're slapped in the face by someone else's privilege. I mean, as a white male-passing straight-passing person, I sure get incensed when I'm treated unfairly! The thing I failed to realize there is that for me, that's the exception, because I'm not on the distaff end of societally-mandated privilege. It's not the rule; it's an aberration.

Because it happens so rarely to me, I can make a big fucking deal about it. I still remember that I was shocked, SHOCKED when a Chinese dude in high school said "I can't believe I got beat (on a math test) by a white guy!" ZOMG RACISM RACISM, amirite? I had no clue that wherever this guy goes in the U.S., despite being born in this country, people will look at him as a foreigner and ask him where he's from. ("Los Angeles." "No, where are you from." "Los Angeles." "I mean, where were you born." "...Los Angeles." "I mean, where are your parents from?" "Oh. China." "Ahhh!")

I thought I understood what it's like to be a victim of racism, because this guy had -- gasp! -- made a reference to me being white and doing better than he did on a test. And man, that annoyed me! But I knew nothing.

So now I know more, and I can see more. And yet displays of privilege still seem like exceptions to me, even when directed against people of color, women, queers, the poor, people with disabilities, or whatever. They still seem like things to get all het up about and raise a ruckus, even if it's not on my behalf.

But does that work? Most people who aren't as privileged by society don't go around shrieking hysterically each and every time someone with white privilege, male privilege, straight privilege, able privilege, or some other privilege opens his or her fool mouth and looks stupid. To think that they should -- or that I should -- is itself a kind of privilege, that only sees privilege as isolated incidents rather than a system of oppression.

What's more, it rarely works. Usually it just makes privileged people even more hostile.

One thing I'm really bad at is learning how to choose my battles wisely. I suck at that. I waste time and effort on trivial nonsense and am too tired to do anything about the big problems. Part of it's probably an ADHD thing. Part of it's just my personality (and the effects of a lifetime of privilege?). Maybe this is why I dislike games about resource management. (Nah, there are other more pertinent reasons.)

So I'm practicing not flying off the handle. Over on Game Chef, I started a thread about gender and GC, asking people if their gender affected their game designs. Unsurprisingly, the men have chimed in to say that their gender (which is "default" via privilege, and thus "invisible" to them) made no difference at all in their designs, even when they're talking about how they chose pictures of sexy women because they're sexy women.

It's so obvious and blatant to me that I want to point and say "LOOK, THERE IS IS. THERE'S YOUR GENDER PRIVILEGE SPEAKING." But it won't do any good, really. It won't accomplish anything other than giving myself a little pat on the back for being so enlightened, and will make a lot of people feel defensive; it's a battle that's not wise to fight.

I want to learn more about privilege and its greater effects as a system of oppression that is pushed by society at large. And if I jump in and find that one guy there who was sexist (or racist or whatever), that will shut down the debate. That will make it about him (or her) and not about systems of privilege and dynamics of power. I won't learn anything, and that other person won't learn anything, but we'll sure fight a lot.

I gotta admit, sometimes I like doing that. It's a way of releasing hurt and anger and frustration. But it is a battle worth fighting? Usually not. Talking about privilege and systems of oppression and whatever is going to work if the audience is receptive. But if it's not, then it's wasting time for everyone, and it's more productive to build toward making that audience more receptive. That involves something more than just flamethrowing and righteous indignation.

So, I am working on it. I am trying hard to just sit and listen when people tell me about their experiences with gender (or whatever), and if I spot privilege, I give myself that silent "attagirl" pat on the back and move on instead of blowing up. Wow, shocker, guys who write games about hot chicks may have some sexist notions in their heads. I write games about hot chicks, and I know I still have sexist notions too. There are times to let it go and just listen, if even if I can't agree with them.

That's what I'm trying to train myself to do.

I just posted on the Game Chef forums to withdraw my game, "Awesome Women Kicking Ass," from consideration for the official and unofficial awards this year.

Naturally, the question of "why?" comes up -- but I'm not going to post that over at the GC site.

( Here's the long story, if you want to skip it over )

Lehman and Andy K are in charge of, and judging, the Game Chef 2008 contest. Given the way they've decided to treat me -- lying about me, dragging a fight to another forum, deliberately ignoring my expressed pronoun preferences, and just generally being assholes -- I have no confidence in Game Chef this year and I'm withdrawing from the competition. I don't want to support their little contest.

There's no point in participating in a game design event if the judges have decided to be jerks to you. I'm going to get a fair shake from them? Not likely.

Sent from my Verizon Wireless LG enV2 - thanks to mzmartipants for the idea!

CALIFORNIA SUPREMES OVERTURN GAY MARRIAGE BAN

From the text of the decision:

Accordingly, in light of the conclusions we reach concerning the constitutional questions brought to us for resolution, we determine that the language of section 300 limiting the designation of marriage to a union "between a man and a woman" is unconstitutional and must be stricken from the statute, and that the remaining statutory language must be understood as making the designation of marriage available both to opposite-sex and same-sex couples. In addition, because the limitation of marriage to opposite-sex couples imposed by section 308.5 can have no constitutionally permissible effect in light of the constitutional conclusions set forth in this opinion, that provision cannot stand.

Plaintiffs are entitled to the issuance of a writ of mandate directing the appropriate state officials to take all actions necessary to effectuate our ruling in this case so as to ensure that county clerks and other local officials throughout the state, in performing their duty to enforce the marriage statutes in their jurisdictions, apply those provisions in a manner consistent with the decision of this court. Further, as the prevailing parties, plaintiffs are entitled to their costs.

The judgment of the Court of Appeal is reversed, and the matter is remanded to that court for further action consistent with this opinion.

Via Cowtown Bisexual, 10 Things Your Congregation Can Do To Welcome People Who Are Attracted To People Of More Than One Gender.

This picture is awesome:

I just sold my third story to Εννέα (3+3+3=9!), which pays three eurocents a word. The story in question, "Impression: Sunrise", was the third piece of fiction I ever published. It has now been published in three magazines — the first two being the now-defunct Webzine Speculon.com (one of three sales that got me into SFWA years ago) and the now-defunct community arts paper Wide Angle NY (no connection to three there, but it was run by Greeks). I did have to cut three hundred words to meet the strict Εννέα guidelines, but did earn ninety-six (lots of threes there!) euros for that ...yep, three minutes of work.




I have no idea why more people aren't submitting their short SF (2500 words or less, no fantasy or horror, but if they take my SF, it can be soft as marshmallow) to Εννέα. They run 52 stories a year and are always eager for content. Just email Mr. Mastorakis at angmstATenetDOTgr with a RTF file containing your story. It really is the easiest thing in the world, plus euros are hot these days and the magazine, a newspaper supplement full of comics in the Euro/Heavy Metal mode, has 200,000 readers.

Today has been the most perfect weather in the history of perfect weather! YES. MORE LIKE THIS. If the weather here was like this all the time, I would be one happy camper. My life would be perfect and I would shit rainbows 24/7, I'm sure. It's 2AM and it's still, like, 70 degrees. GOD BLESS GLOBAL WARMING. Sure, it probably means we're going to be extinct in a couple of decades, but at maybe the weather in San Francisco will cease to suck for a few years in the meantime. You know. Before the food riots, and plagues from the mountains of corpses and whatnot.

http://www.catandgirl.com/view.php?loc=601

If you've been reading any transgender blogs or journals lately, you've doubtless seen concern about the appointments to DSM-V working groups on gender identity disorder. (If you haven't, just google.)

The following isn't written by me, but I received it in email via the Southern Arizona Gender Alliance mailing list, where it was forwarded by someone who knows the author. Dr. Stephen Russell originally sent this reply to the University of Arizona LGBT Faculty/Staff/Graduate Student Organization mailing list.

Friends and colleagues:

I have been receiving and reading the emails about Ken Zucker for the past several days, and feel that I must respond. The emails and blogs mischaracterize his work – I know Dr. Zucker, and while we do not fully agree on issues about sexual and gender orientation / identity and its development, I know Dr. Zucker to be a person who is concerned about the welfare of children and youth. My experience is that this concern is what motivates his (controversial) work.

I have been in communication with Dr. Zucker about this, because I wanted to hear from him directly, as the reports did not match with my reading of his published work and my personal experience with him. First, he has never used "aversion therapy" (which involves mild electroshock or nausea-inducing stimuli). Related – reparative/conversion therapy is a method that has been used to attempt to change adult same-sex sexual attractions to opposite-sex sexual attractions – he has not practiced or endorsed this form of therapy.

Here is what he writes about his therapeutic work:

The "gender-positive" therapeutic approach that I use with young, pre-pubertal children who have gender identity conflict is to try and help them feel comfortable with their bodies so that when they are adolescents or adults they do not feel so uncomfortable in their own skin that they need to seek out hormonal and surgical sex-reassignment. We know already from several follow-up studies of young children that the majority "lose" their desire to change sex, with or without therapy, and many develop a comfortable sexual identity as gay, lesbian, or bisexual and are comfortable in their own skin. As an important aside, when we see adolescents in our clinic who are severely gender dysphoric, we are very supportive, after a careful evaluation, in helping them transition to the opposite gender, including the use of hormonal blockers and/or cross-sex hormonal treatment.

I realize that this explanation may still be objectionable for some – but it is a far cry from the descriptions of Dr. Zucker's work that are being circulated.

Dr. Zucker's understanding / conceptualization of gender dysphoria in children is well-represented not only in science, but in the queer community. He is grappling with very complex questions – questions about which "we" in the queer community don't have full consensus. We have to acknowledge that there is no solution to the DSM that will unify science -- or our communities.

Finally, keep in mind that he began this work years ago, before there existed the scientific or community debate and discourse about these issues that we have now … if you read his published work, it has evolved in the last 10 years.

I worry that we undermine good research – and well-informed advocacy – in a world driven by polemic blogs.

With some hesitation, and respect,

Stephen

Stephen T. Russell, Ph.D.
Professor, Fitch Nesbitt Endowed Chair in Family & Consumer Sciences
Director, Frances McClelland Institute for Children, Youth & Families

Of Dr. Russell, the person forwarding the email to the SAGA list writes: Stephen's field of study is GLBT youth, particularly the risks youth face when coming out, and he is well respected (and a very nice person). He's also a gay man. So he has both personal and professional interest in the issue of Zucker's appointment.

I don't have a strong take on what's right or wrong here, but I feel it's important to provide this perspective in addition to the others that are circulating currently.

As far as fiction goes, I am, as of fourteen seconds ago, buying for 2009.

However, if you're looking for a quick payday, you'd be smart to send me a query for a feature article. I hardly get any, and those I do get are grotesquely inappropriate. While a dime a word is definitely on the low end of the non-fiction payscale, it is not as though Clarkesworld's non-fiction features involve a lot of shoeleather journalism. As it stands, I actually have to go out and solicit articles like some kind of schmuck, and sometimes people even tell me ridiculous things like, "I'm not good at non-fiction." A bizarre response to "How about some free money?" I say.

I'm happy to take science articles such as the one we ran on supersperm and genetic competition between parents and offspring, personal essays such as Rick Bowes piece on experiencing the World Fantasy Convention as a sober person or Tim Pratt's on being a deadline novelist and a new father, narrative interviews (NOT Q/As, those are not my department) with either an interesting individual or group on some specific topic, or some pop culture stuff such as our article on pro wrestling.

What I DON'T want is this: your term paper. Feature articles are those non-hard news/non-scholarly articles published in magazines such as Atlantic Monthly or even your local community weekly newspaper. The one about the guy with the shoelace collection, or the story about the house that burnt down in 1858. That sort of thing. Literary criticism also counts, but I am not running either book reviews or scholarly papers. Look at the New Yorker's literary journalism or even something like Bugfuck! by Rick Cusick (albeit at 1/12th the length).

Too many of the queries I get are for Q/As (see above) or for what was pretty obviously a school assignment that just happened to be about monster movies or Barry Malzberg short stories from forty years ago. Term papers are essentially designed to have an audience of one, and that person gets paid to read them. That's a word to the wise WRT why I don't want them in my magazine.

Also, when you send a query, this is what you do:

First graf: THE HOOK OF THE STORY. Note that the hook of the story is NOT the first paragraph of a term paper, ending with a thesis statement. It is a one or two-sentence description of the "nut" of the story. Something like, "Everyone loves free. Today, bestselling SF authors like foo and bar are putting their books online, for free, and even letting fans play around in their fictional universes. It's called 'Creative Commons', and it may just change the way geeks read." Stories should be focused. There is no such thing a story about "fantasy is better than science fiction", as that story has no focus.

Second graf: WHY YOU SHOULD BE THE ONE TO WRITE ABOUT THE IDEA.

Third graf: Specifics — WHO will you be talking to, WHAT books/movies/whatever will you be looking at.

Fourth graf: Proposed word count, prior pubs, clips if possible.


That's it. It's really very simple.


I have an article in the works for 6/1, but after that I am totally free. This is probably the easiest way in the field to make $250 by the Fourth of July. Note that queries are by definition non-exclusive, which is why they don't get rejected. The assumption is that a query is being shown to any number of venues. Just send something in and if you don't hear after a few days, understand that we don't want that story idea. Feel free to query again right after that with a different concept.

http://sandiegoblog.com/archives/2008/05/14/2008-american-marketer-of-the-year-awards-at-san-diego-w-hotel/

The San Diego chapter of the American Marketing Association (SDAMA) celebrates the city’s top marketing professionals and students at the 2008 American Marketer of the Year (AMY) Awards on Thursday, May 22 from 5:30 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. at the San Diego W Hotel.

AMY Award nominations were accepted until May 9 for excellence in the following marketing and communication areas: Integrated Marketing, Cause Marketing, Advertising (Print, Television, Radio and Web), Special Event, Green (environment-focused marketing), Web Site Design, Electronic Presentations, and Direct Marketing and/or Direct Mail. There is also People’s Choice Award, an award for students, and a category for miscellaneous work such as newsletters and promotional materials.

All AMY Award categories are evaluated on criteria such as content, overall quality, style, innovation, and effectiveness. Experienced marketing and communications professionals from the South Florida chapter of the AMA make up the panel of judges, and San Diego’s own Lee Ann Kim, the Channel 10 News anchor, will present the awards to the winners.

AMY Award tickets are $45 per person for AMA members and $55 per person for non-members, and include a gift bag and two drink tickets. To learn more about SDAMA and to purchase tickets for the event ceremony, email info-sandiego@marketingpower.com, visit www.sdama.org or call 619.402.7825.

(Copied shamelessly from carneggy's journal, for those who read mine and not his.)

Follow up to yesterday's post. (Thanks, khedron) Turns out it was a guide for both husbands and wives, and here is a link to a flickr photoset of the entire test.

My score for all pages of the wives' test? 46 demerits, 22 merits. Balance: -24. Oh, well. It's not the 1930s any more, for sure.

This reminds me of the "censorship" pixelization code in The Sims that prevents you from ever seeing their little 1×2-pixel SimRogenous zones. (Don Hopkins once told me a long story about how hard that was to implement...)

There are also now Wikipedia links in the maps (checkbox on the "More" tab). There aren't very many of them, though. Anyone know what triggers their presence?

I went through a box today and dug up a bunch of stuff from my time as a Cultural/Religious Imperialist evangelical Christian missionary in Japan.

Anyone interested in reading about that? If so, I may scan it and post about it.

DNA Lounge update, wherein we network with a socialness.