coffee & ink

Forbidden SEXY BITING

Fri, 25 Jul 2008 16:38:52 GMT

Everything Lianne Sentar has to say about Vampire Knight is 100% TRUE.

I will admit that the way mangaka Matsuri Hino keeps the melodrama ball rolling is nothing short of brilliant. This manga is basically a dramatic, sexy shoujo series with all the non-awesome parts cut out. The stupid premise building and bad opening only last about a chapter - then it’s headfirst into Kaname’s smoldering gazes and Zero hugging his naked body and screaming about how he’s a monster, what has he done, damn you, vampires.

Dollhouse Lifespan Betting Pool

Thu, 24 Jul 2008 22:33:25 GMT

TV.com: Whedon shakes up the order of his midseason Fox series Dollhouse by shooting a new "prequel" episode to serve as the show's pilot.

View Poll: Dollhouse Lifespan Betting Pool

Dr. Horrible's Singalong Blog

Thu, 24 Jul 2008 21:15:43 GMT

I am deeply disappointed that at no point did Dr. Horrible invite his blog viewers to sing along with him.
The problem, for me, is not that Penny died. It's not even that she is a token over which the men struggle, because I think there's an implicit criticism of the men's behavior in the way that Billy is offered the chance to talk to Penny and instead continues to work on his evil hijinks and an explicit criticism in, well, everything the Hammer does. It's that, as many people have said, Penny is utterly without agency and individuality. She is a Generic Sweet Thing to be stuffed in a refrigerator. She doesn't even get to dump The Hammer or turn down Dr. Horrible. She is perfect and she is dull and even though she gets more screentime than anybody but Dr. Horrible and The Hammer, she has considerably less character development than Moist (on screen for about two and a half minutes, tops) and Bad Horse (sender of singing telegrams and played by a horse). Superheroes and supervillains get the monikers with the definite articles, but in fact Dr. Horrible and The Hammer are people, caricatured and strange as they are, and Penny, named as she is, is just The Girl.

It's not enough to have the antagonist/superhero be a misogynist. It's not enough to have the protagonist/supervillain be characterized by the flaw of failing to treat a woman as a person instead of an object. The actual *narrative* has to treat her better than the other characters do, and this narrative doesn't.

(Also see: Fred in Angel Season 5 and the sad decline of Cordelia Chase.)
I get that this is a home production put on by Joss Whedon, his brothers, and his pals, and that's why it's so white. But, see, that is not a defense. That's the same criticism of Hollywood and American television many of us have been making all along. When the system is inherently racist, inherently privileges the hiring of white people (especially white men), and inherently creates stronger social bonds between white people than across races, you need to consciously act against it in order to promote racial diversity and and equalize power relations. This is something Whedon seems to get, more or less, for white women -- his hiring record on this front is much better than the records of producers on most sf/f shows. But it's not something he's taken action on in regard to race.
I am surprised so many people were surprised that Bad Horse was a real horse.
I am laughing at all the people who were surprised that Neil Patrick Harris could sing. I laugh at you with love. But I am still laughing at you.
I thought Neil Patrick Harris was adorable, Nathan Fillion was hysterical even if his singing wasn't great, and Felicia Day did about as much as she could with Penny and looked cuter with shorter hair.
Act II was my favorite.
I like the mood transition in Act III but a lot of the music sounds a bit too much like a Sondheim knockoff.
I like that Dr. Horrible really was a supervillain, after all, and just as shallow and horrible as most of the rest of the people in his world.
I am strangely amused by the Hammer groupies in three-part harmony.

Top Ten Books with Useless But Entertaining Lists

Wed, 23 Jul 2008 20:52:05 GMT

I have been surfing The Guardian's Top 10 Books lists and they are the most respectable, predictable, dull lists you could expect to ever see. I could have filled most of them out in my sleep just as soon as I'd heard the title. (Notable exception: Catherine Sampton's Top Ten Asian Crime Novels, which surprised and delighted me by have 8 out of 10 authors Asian. I'd expected the inverse ratio, if anything.)

I am now burning with the desire to write up lists of the Top Ten Books About Species Who Communicate By Scent or Top Ten Books with Scenes Where Villains Die By Fire or something. Given me a topic and I will attempt to provide. The sillier the better, frankly.

Note on Supernatural S3

Tue, 22 Jul 2008 21:32:26 GMT

I hope the cuts work because I am doing this via email and won't be able to
correct it till I get home. But I don't think it's very spoilery anyway.

I find it hysterically funny that Dean always drives, even when he's
clinically sleep-deprived ("Dream A Little Dream of Me") or having
hallucinations of demons, warping faces, and hellhounds ("No Rest for the
Wicked"). I personally would demand the keys from the guy with the
hallucinations, but apparently Sam Winchester is made of sterner stuff.

Highly Secret Tip for How Not to Have Your Opinion Linked on the Internet

Sat, 19 Jul 2008 21:11:00 GMT

Do not:

Post it in a public site accessible to anyone with a Net connection;

or
Email it to a stranger as part of business correspondence.

This has been a public service announcement. You may now resume normal Internet usage.

Fri, 18 Jul 2008 16:48:52 GMT

Happy birthday, renenet!

Links

Thu, 17 Jul 2008 13:02:19 GMT

Good
K. Tempest Bradford lists sf/f markets looking to increase racial diversity

Bad
LJ decides to restore Basic Accounts, only not

Ugly
William Sanders re-posts rejection letter with bigoted comments, goes on long defensive screed which I haven't bothered to read. He's also declared that now he's not letting anyone take down stories, whether or not they give him $40. I'm not sure I'm even going to comment on him anymore because clearly he either enjoys the attention or it drives him into a helpless frenzy of assholery and self-immolation.

General recommendation: If offering a perpetual non-exclusive right to host a story, make sure you have an out clause that allows you to take down your story at will after an initial period. In most cases, it seems to work fine to have the stories up permanently, but why not make sure you have an escape if you need it?

Admin

Thu, 17 Jul 2008 00:47:00 GMT

I've been getting comments from spam LJs recently, so I've enable CAPTCHA (Completely Automated Public Turing test to tell Computers and Humans Apart) for LJs not on my friends' list. If the CAPTCHA is broken enough that this doesn't stop the problem, I may start moderating responses from LJs not on my friends' list. (It looks like requiring two separate CAPTCHA verifications may reduce the incidence of comment spam, but we'll see.)

Sorry for the inconvenience.

Tue, 15 Jul 2008 22:57:51 GMT

"Running Up That Hill" is the little black dress of mashups.

PSA

Tue, 15 Jul 2008 19:51:01 GMT

People who've been commenting on William Sanders' self-implosion may want to ban igorsanchez before he spams them with idiotic abuse and pornographic icons.

Don't click on his profile or LJ link. So not worth it.

After shooting self in foot, William Sanders pours gasoline over his head and sets himself on fire

Tue, 15 Jul 2008 13:10:18 GMT

William Sanders:

I am hereby making a change to the aforestated offer. Effective as of now, any Helix contributor who wants his/her work deleted from the archives will have to pay for the privilege. Specifically, it'll cost you forty bucks, payable to Melanie.

And that's IF Melanie figures it'll take her an hour or less to do the job. If you've had a whole bunch of stories in the magazine, and/or a lot of other related entries - award nominations etc. - to be taken out as well, then she's at liberty to charge whatever she thinks is right.

But forty is the minimum. This is not negotiable.

Come now - forty bucks, that's NOTHING, is it? I mean compared to the inestimable value of keeping your precious principles all shiny and pretty. Not to mention the basic principle involved at her end. Call yourselves feminists, do you? Then you ought to be ashamed of yourselves trying to exploit a woman's labor like that.

I'm not just jiving around about this. I'm serious as a rattlesnake bite. You want your stuff deleted, you can pay for the privilege. Not to the magazine - none of the rest of us will touch a nickel. (Though no doubt Lawrence will have to handle the transaction, unless you happen to have Melanie's mailing address.) If you're not sure how to make the check out, email us, we'll forward it to her.

Tobias Buckell is offering to help out anyone who wants a story removed, but I'd suggest following Kate Nepveu's suggestion to post the story elsewhere with an explanation instead. I object to Sanders' extortion, and I think David Moles is right that the price will only go up if people pay.

I don't have to explain why it's wrong for Sanders to pass along the cost of supporting his "principles" to protestors, right? This would be an unprofessional and unethical thing to do even if I agreed with Sanders and not the people wanting the stories removed.

Mon, 14 Jul 2008 21:03:06 GMT

Clearly, we have all been misjudging William Sanders, who has kindly been accepting substandard stories to increase his writers of color headcount.

eta: Story replaced with note "Story deleted at author's pantiwadulous request."

...
...
...

Even sarcasm fails me.

Addendum to last post

Sun, 13 Jul 2008 04:08:02 GMT

In response to a query, Gordon Van Gelder informed me that David Truesdale has one more column to write before the end of his contract. It doesn't sound like the contract is going to be renewed. This makes boycotting F&SF for Truesdale's presence irrelevant, although the general issues for sf/f described by nojojojo, among others, are still pressing.

I'm wondering if it makes sense to request that genre editors in general shift to identity-masked submissions, at least for slush~~; it's customary for scientific papers, and I think editors at Strange Horizons have said it's their standard practice~~. [eta: Wrong on both counts. See comments for details.] I don't think it will be as simple for fiction as it is for orchestra auditions, since gender and racial bias affect the judgment of content as well as technique; but it might be a place to start.

modified in the guts of the living

Fri, 11 Jul 2008 19:17:16 GMT

1.
Writer Thomas Disch killed himself July 4. Reportedly, he'd been suffering from health issues, depression, the death of his partner of thirty years, financial straits because of the cost of his partner's final illness, and a threatened eviction from his apartment (because the lease had been in his partner's name). I have read a very odd selection of his work, not the novels or the short fiction or even the poetry, but The Brave Little Toaster Goes to Mars, and a peculiar and delightful fable called "The Happy Turnip," which no one else seems to remember, but which I would snatch up in an instant if someone put it out as a children's book. I have several of his novels, and have been planning to read them; I have been planning to read them, and sometimes I would pick them up and look at them and put them down again.

Because I found his LJ, you see. I found his LJ, on which he published much excellent and bitter poetry and, on one of the days I happened to check, a rant against Muslims. I decided I didn't need to read his books just then.

I decided I didn't need to read his books just then, or his LJ at all; but I didn't respond to his posts, either in his LJ or mine, and I didn't decide I'd never read his books. I still haven't made that decision. I still haven't sold them.

2.
Maybe Disch, famous for his biting and bitter wit, would have killed himself anyway, but he shouldn't have had to worry about eviction in the meantime. It is unjust. It is laughable, almost, in New York City, the city with the most tenant-favorable rent laws in the entire country; laughable, with the kind of laughter that hurts.

Heterosexism: if Disch had been married to his partner, if Disch had been able to marry his partner, he would have automatically inherited all his property, including his lease. This is why marriage equality is so important.

Classism and capitalism: Regardless of marriage, regardless of income, no one should have to beggar themselves to provide medical care for themselves and their loved ones. This should be treated as a basic human right, not a privilege reserved for the middle class, the propertied, those employed by large corporations. No one should have to fear losing their home. This is why marriage equality is not enough.

3.
I've loved so many things that hurt me: so many books, so many TV shows, so many stories. So many things that tell me women don't count or brown people aren't human or Jews are disgusting. I love them still. I take what I can and leave the rest, or I try to; the hurt is hard to leave behind. But I do get how reasonable people can hate what William Sanders said and still support the magazine he edits, why people of conscience were still considering submitting new work to Helix yesterday, why I'm still reading John Milton and Ezra Pound and William Butler Yeats, not to mention watching rather less transcendental TV shows about ghost hunting brothers, not to mention keeping Thomas Disch on my bookshelves and planning to read his work sometime.

But. But. I am so tired, people. I am so tired of the hatefulness, the racism and sexism. I am so tired of looking in the Asimov's forums being a slap in the face because all the decent people in there can't drown out the racism and sexism spewed by S.F. Murphy and David Truesdale. I'm tired of having to forebear it.

Look, I understand why people have published with Helix in the past, especially people who were unaware of Sanders' history. But if you know and you continue to publish there, then you're continuing to support Sanders' racism. I really can't separate the personal from the political support aspects of this--I'm not sure I should, but it's an irrelevant question, because I can't. Sanders didn't separate the personal and the professional. He sent out a piece of professional correspondence with a racial/religious slur in it. Even ignoring the implications of his comments on the types of fiction he'd be willing to buy, what this says is that he expects people to accept and support his racism/religious bigotry during professional interactions. What this says to me is that supporting his business transactions is supporting his behavior as acceptable professional behavior in the sf/f field.

I won't do that. And, to be honest, I don't think other people should, either.

And also -- and this is a lot scarier to write, because it is a much bigger bridge to burn -- I do not think people of conscience should be supporting The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction as long as Dave Truesdale's columns continue to be published there, either by buying the magazine or submitting stories to it. It would be another thing if he were publishing fiction or even if he were publishing nonfiction unrelated to his sexist and racist behavior on the Asimov's forums. But he's not. The same venom and prejudice displayed in his attacks on K. Tempest Bradford are displayed in his columns about science fiction, both as a literature and as a community, and clearly and demonstrably affect his reviews of books and short fiction.

[ETA 7/12 11:55pm: In response to a query, Gordon Van Gelder informed me that David Truesdale has one more column to write before the end of his contract. It doesn't sound like the contract is going to be renewed. This makes boycotting F&SF for Truesdale's presence irrelevant, although the general issues for sf/f described by nojojojo, among others, are still pressing.

I'm wondering if it makes sense to request that genre editors in general shift to identity-masked submissions, at least for slush~~; it's customary for scientific papers, and I think editors at Strange Horizons have said it's their standard practice~~. [eta Wrong on both counts. See comments for details.] I don't think it will be as simple for fiction as it is for orchestra auditions, since gender and racial bias affect the judgment of content as well as technique; but it might be a place to start.]

4.
I'm afraid to post this, honestly. I'm afraid people I respect will think I'm being rigid and inhumane for suggesting a boycott; I'm afraid people I respect will think I'm inethical and uncaring--that friends will think I'm not giving enough weight to their oppressions--for not feeling able to support a boycott for all cases of bigotry.

I don't think it's an easy call, or a simple call. I'm not planning to shun people who disagree with me on this, or argue against them or their work. But I am asking them, publicly and plainly, to reconsider what they're doing and whether their actions are contributing to the kind of community and literature they want sf/f to be.

Drive-by link

Fri, 11 Jul 2008 17:05:53 GMT

{Via BlackAmazon}: I haven't been able to follow this closely, but Renee at Womanist Musing posted on race at Feministe and has been getting the usual response. If you're as tired as I am of seeing WOC bloggers chased offline and out of feminist blogging circles, you might want to stop by, check out her posts, and see if you want to comment in support or engage in more substantive discussion. It looks like this post is getting some of the usual, too.

It's like someone is writing books JUST FOR ME

Thu, 10 Jul 2008 18:59:18 GMT

Philip K. Dick Award-winning author of SPIN STATE AND SPIN CONTROL Chris Moriarty's THE INQUISITOR'S APPRENTICE, about Sacha Kessler, a young Jewish kid from New York's Lower East Side, part of a Manhattan in 1905 in which each ethnic immigrant community boasts its own brand of witchcraft, and the city government is intent on stamping out all "Un-American" brands of magic, to Reka Simonsen at Holt, in a significant deal, in a three-book deal, by Scott Hoffman at Folio Literary Management.

♥ There should only be labor strikes! Golems and labor strikes! ♥

Wed, 09 Jul 2008 21:46:50 GMT

Another book meme! I know, I am full of thrills today. This is from David Pringle's Science Fiction: The 100 Best Novels, which came out c. 1984 or something, thus explaining part but not all of the list's limitations. I do not have 100 Best SF Novels. I have Horror: The 100 Best Novels, even though I read and love science fiction, and generally do not read and do not love horror, because Horror had essays written by Neil Gaiman and Diana Wynne Jones, and Science Fiction did not. I forget what Gaiman wrote up, but Diana Wynne Jones wrote up The White Devil by John Webster (not a novel, but still awesome), which is one of the reasons why I love her.

I'm bolding what I've read.

1. George Orwell - Nineteen Eighty-Four
2. George R. Stewart - Earth Abides
3. Ray Bradbury - The Martian Chronicles ♥
4. Robert A. Heinlein - The Puppet Masters I think this is one of the, like, two Heinlein novels I haven't read. Somehow I think I would have been happier if I had read this and NOT read To Sail Beyond the Sunset or Podkayne of Mars. If only I could trade retroactively.
5. John Wyndham - The Day of the Triffids
6. Bernard Wolfe - Limbo
7. Alfred Bester - The Demolished Man
8. Ray Bradbury - Fahrenheit 451
9. Arthur C. Clarke - Childhood's End
10. Charles L. Harness - The Paradox men
11. Ward Moore - Bring the Jubilee
12. Frederik Pohl & C.M. Kornbluth - The Space Merchants
13. Clifford D. Simak - Ring Around the Sun
14. Theodore Sturgeon - More than Human ♥
15. Hal Clement - Mission of Gravity
16. Edgar Pangborn - A Mirror for Observers
17. Isaac Asimov - The End of Eternity
18. Leigh Brackett - The Long Tomorrow
19. William Golding - The Inheritors
20. Alfred Bester - The Stars My Destination
21. John Christopher - The Death of Grass
22. Arthur C. Clarke - The City and the Stars
23. Robert A. Heinlein - The Door Into Summer</b>
24. John Wyndham - The Midwich Cuckoos
25. Brian W. Aldiss - Non-Stop
26. James Blish - A Case of Conscience
27. Robert A. Heinlein - Have Space-Suit -- Will Travel This was one of my favorites. This does not mean veejane should attempt to read it.
28. Philip K. Dick - Time Out of Joint
29. Pat Frank - Alas, Babylon
30. Walter M. Miller - A Canticle for Leibowitz
31. Kurt Vonnegut - The Sirens of Titan
32. Algis Budrys - Rogue Moon
33. Theodore Sturgeon - Venus Plus X Interesting failure.
34. Brian W. Aldiss - Hothouse
35. J.G. Ballard - The Drowned World
36. Anthony Burgess - A Clockwork Orange
37. Philip K. Dick - The Man in the High Castle
38. Robert Sheckley - Journey Beyond Tomorrow
39. Clifford D. Simak - Way Station
40. Kurt Vonnegut - Cat's Cradle Kurt Vonnegut is very confusing when you're ten and you don't really get irony.
41. Brian W. Aldiss - Greybeard
42. William S. Burroughs - Nova Express
43. Philip K. Dick - Martian Time-Slip
44. Philip K. Dick - The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch
45. Fritz Leiber - The Wanderer
46. Cordwainer Smith - Nostrilia I think this is kind of awful. Read the short fiction instead.
47. Philip K. Dick - Dr Bloodmoney
48. Frank Herbert - Dune
49. J.G. Ballard - The Crystal World
50. Harry Harrison - Make Room! Make Room!
51. Daniel Keyes - Flowers for Algernon The shorter version is better.
52. Roger Zelazny - The Dream Master For this one I like both short and long versions. (There's only one scene's difference, I think.
53. John Brunner - Stand on Zanzibar
54. Samuel R. Delany - Nova
55. Philip K. Dick - Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?
56. Thomas M. Disch - Camp Concentration
57. Michael Moorcock - The Final Programme
58. Keith Roberts - Pavane
59. Angela Carter - Heroes and Villains Have you ever seen the pulpy scifi paperback version cover? It's hysterical. It looks like a Gor book.
60. Ursula K. Le Guin - The Left Hand of Darkness
61. Bob Shaw - The Palace of Eternity
62. Norman Spinrad - Bug Jack Barron
63. Poul Anderson - Tau Zero
64. Robert Silverberg - Downward to the Earth
65. Wilson Tucker - The Year of the Quiet Sun
66. Thomas M. Disch - 334
67. Gene Wolfe - The Fifth Head of Cerberus
68. Michael Moorcock - The Dancers at the End of Time
69. J.G. Ballard - Crash
70. Mack Reynolds - Looking Backward from the Year 2000
71. Ian Watson - The Embedding
72. Suzy McKee Charnas - Walk to the End of the World
73. M. John Harrison - The Centauri Device
74. Ursula K. Le Guin - The Dispossessed
75. Christopher Priest - Inverted World
76. J.G. Ballard - High-Rise
77. Barry N. Malzberg - Galaxies I am sure this seems very daring if you are impressed by misogyny and clinical depression.
78. Joanna Russ - The Female Man ♥
79. Bob Shaw - Orbitsville
80. Kingsley Amis - The Alteration
81. Marge Piercy - Woman on the Edge of Time
82. Frederik Pohl - Man Plus
83. Algis Budrys - Michaelmas
84. John Varley - The Ophiuchi Hotline
85. Ian Watson - Miracle Visitors
86. John Crowley - Engine Summer ♥
87. Thomas M. Disch - On Wings of Song
88. Brian Stableford - The Walking Shadow
89. Kate Wilhelm - Juniper Time
90. Gregory Benford - Timescape
91. Damien Broderick - The Dreaming Dragons
92. Octavia Butler - Wild Seed
93. Russell Hoban - Riddley Walker
94. John Sladek - Roderick and Roderick at Random
95. Gene Wolfe - The Book of the New Sun
96. Philip Jose Farmer - The Unreasoning Mask I was put off PJF forever by the Riverworld book that opens with some guy raping his infant niece.
97. Larry Niven & Jerry Pournelle - Oath of Fealty
98. Michael Bishop - No Enemy but Time
99. John Calvin Batchelor - The Birth of the People's Republic of Antarctica
100. William Gibson - Neuromancer

Wed, 09 Jul 2008 21:10:56 GMT

{via ktempest and rydra_wong, with thanks to skywardprodigal for additional links}

Okay, seriously? When someone, in a professional piece of business correspondence, calls Muslims "sheet heads" and writes, "You did a good job of exploring the worm-brained mentality of those people - at the end we still don't really understand it, but then no one from the civilized world ever can - and I was pleased to see that you didn't engage in the typical error of trying to make this evil bastard sympathetic, or give him human qualities," the appropriate response is not to reprove the person who publishes the letter for "violating copyright" and "acting unprofessionally". The big problem does not lie in the publication of the letter. The big problem lies in its content.

I will now proceed to do a completely unrelated meme, because I have been ignoring all my feminist and antiracist feeds for a week for my own mental health. Via loads of people but most recently shewhohashope, here is a list of books, some of which I have read. I know you care! But I am lj-cutting anyway.

bold those you have read, underline those you LOVE and italize those that you intend to read. But instead of forcing books on your friends, just pass the list forward. [Ed. What is this "forcing" of which she speaks?]

# The Face of Another by Kobo Abé
# The Woman in the Dunes by Kobo Abé
# The Box Man by Kobo Abé
# Secret Rendezvous by Kobo Abé
# The Ruined Map by Kobo Abé
# The Ark Sakura by Kobo Abé
# Kangaroo Notebook by Kobo Abé
# Live From Deathrow by Mumia Abu-Jamal
# Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe
# Purple Hibiscus by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
# Half a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
# The Dilemma of a Ghost by Ama Ata Aidoo
# Our Sister Killjoy by Ama Ata Aidoo
# No Sweetness Here by Ama Ata Aidoo
# Smoke Signals by Sherman Alexie
# First Indian on the Moon by Sherman Alexie
# 10 Little Indians by Sherman Alexie
# The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fist Fight in Heaven by Sherman Alexie
# Indian Killer by Sherman Alexie
# The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie
# The Woman Who Owned the Shadows by Paula Gunn Allen
# The House of the Spirits by Isabel Allende
# The Tales of Eva Luna by Isabel Allende
# How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents by Julia Alvarez
# In The Time of the Butterflies by Julia Alvarez
# Bless Me Ultima by Rudolpho Anaya
# La Frontera by Gloria Anzaldúa
# Tahuri by Ngahuia Te Awekotuku
# Gorilla, My Love by Toni Cade Bambara
# Giovanni's Room by James Baldwin Interesting choices for Baldwin! But no, I haven't read these.
# If Beale Street Could Talk by James Baldwin
# Lion's Blood by Steven Barnes
# For Nights Like This One: Stories of Loving Women by Becky Birtha
# Lover's Choice by Becky Birtha
# What We All Long For by Dionne Brand
# Food and Spirits by Beth Brant
# Ryddim Ravings by Jean Binta Breeze
# The Fifth Figure by Jean Binta Breeze
# The Threshing Floor by Barbara Burford
# Kindred by Octavia E. Butler
# Parable of the Sower by Octavia E. Butler
# Parable of the Talents by Octavia E. Butler I think. I've read the first Parable book, but not the second; I forget which title is which.
# Blood Child by Octavia E. Butler
# Popo and Fifina by Arna Bontemps and Langston Hughes
# Your Blues Ain't Like Mine by Bebe Moore Campbell
# Black Ice by Lorene Carey
# Kingdom of this World by Alejo Carpentier
# So Far from God by Ana Castillo
# The Mixquiahuala Letters by Ana Castillo
# What Looks Like Crazy on an Ordinary Day by Pearle Cleage
# Soul on Ice by Eldridge Cleaver
# Free Enterprise: A novel of Mary Ellen Pleasant by Michelle Cliff I like this, but I don't love it. I may love Bodies of Water or No Telephone to Heaven, though. It's early to tell.
# Dictee by Theresa Hak Kyng Cha
# Devdas by Sharat Chandra Chattopadhyay
# The Marrow of Tradition by Charles W. Chesnutt
# The House Behind the Cedars by Charles W. Chesnutt
# The Conjure Women and The Conjure Tales by Charles W. Chesnutt
# Donald Duk by Frank Chin
# Chickencoop Chinaman and The Year of the Dragon by Frank Chin
# In Her I Am; Not Vanishing by Chrystos
# The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho
# Black Feminist Thought by Patricia Hill Collins I wouldn't say I loved this, but it has had a deeper impact on me than some books I've loved.
# Segu by Maryse Condé
# The Children of Segu by Maryse Condé
# I, Tituba: Black Witch of Salem by Maryse Condé
# Desirada by Maryse Condé
# Nervous Conditions by Tsitsi Dangarembga
# Breath Eyes Memory by Edwidge Danticat
# Krik? Krak! by Edwidge Danticat
# Eu Nasci Uma Mulher Negra (I Was Born a Black Woman) by Benedita da Silva
# Are Prisons Obsolete? by Angela Y. Davis
# Dhalgren by Samuel R. Delany I feel embarrassed to admit I haven't read this!
# Hogg by Samuel R. Delany I don't feel embarrassed to admit I haven't read this. From reading his sexual writings in nonpornographic work, I am pretty sure Delany's porn is Not For Me.
# Babel-17 by Samuel R. Delany
# Stars in My Pocket Like Grains of Sand by Samuel R. Delany
# A Yellow Raft in Blue Water by Michael Dorris Maybe? I don't know. I read parts of it before the accusations came out, so I might be able to treat it as a book independent of the context. I can't do that for the other books by him.
# Guests by Michael Dorris
# Morning Girl by Michael Dorris
# The Crown of Columbus by Michael Dorris and Louise Erdrich Seriously, Meme? I love most of Erdrich's work and I've liked some of Dorris's, and I think this book is awful.
# At the Hands of Persons Unknown: The Lynching of Black America by Philip Dray
# Souls of Blackfolk by W.E.B Dubois
# My Soul to Keep by Tananarive Due
# The Living Blood by Tananarive Due
# The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas
# The Sun, The Sea, A Touch of Wind by Rosa Guy Dutton
# The Joys of Motherhood by Buchi Emecheta
# The Life of Olaudah Equiano by Olaudah Equiano
# Love Medicine by Louise Erdrich Can Lipsha Morrissey be one of my imaginary boyfriends?
# The Beet Queen by Louise Erdrich
# Like Water For Chocolate by Laura Esquivel
# A Gathering of Old Men by Ernest Gaines
# The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman by Ernest Gaines
# Don't Take Your Love to Town by Ruby Langford Ginibi
# Ego-Trippin' and Other Poems for Young People by Nikki Giovanni
# Racism 101 by Nikki Giovanni
# Pushing the Bear by Diane Glancy I've read some of her short fiction but not an entire collection.
# Introducing... Sister NoBlues by Hattie Gossett
# Potiki by Patricia Grace
# Nigger by Dick Gregory
# Up from Nigger by Dick Gregory
# Callus on My Soul by Dick Gregory
# The Epic of Sundiata by Mandika Griots
# Dogeaters by Jessica Hagedorn
# Roots: The Saga of an American Family by Alex Haley
# Mama Flora's Family by Alex Haley
# Born Black, Born Palestinian by Suheir Hammad
# Justice and Her Brothers by Virginia Hamilton
# In Mad Love and War by Joy Harjo
# Palace of the Peacock by Wilson Harris
# Locas by Jaime Hernandez
# The Mambo Kings Sing Songs of Love by Oscar Hijuelos
# Mean Spirit by Linda Hogan
# Where We Stand: Class Matters by bell hooks
# Brown Girl In The Ring by Nalo Hopkinson
# Shell Shaker by LeAnne Howe
# The Ways of White Folk by Langston Hughes
# The Bone People by Keri Hulme ♥
# Paradise of the Blind by Duong Thu Huong
# Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston ♥
# Mules and Men by Zora Neale Hurston
# Seth and Samona by Joanne Hyppolite
# Whale Rider by Witi Ihimaera Awesome movie, though.
# Tangi by Witi Ihimaera
# Woman Far Walking by Witi Ihimaera
# Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro
# Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro
# The Rain God by Arturo Islas
# The Black Jacobins by CLR James
# Mi Revalueshanary Fren by Linton Kwesi Johnson
# Lost in the City by Edward P. Jones
# Poem About My Rights by June Jordan
# Dusk by F. Sionil Josè
# The Cotillion by John Oliver Killens
# Girl by Jamaica Kincaid I think? I read a couple of Jamaica Kincaid books, but I'm no longer sure which ones.
# A Small Place by Jamaica Kincaid
# Interpreter of the Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri Don't love the whole collection, but was incredibly impressed by the first story in it.
# The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri
# Sightseeing by Rattawut Lapcharoensap
# Quicksand by Nella Larsen
# Passing by Nella Larsen
# Native Speaker by Changrae Lee
# A Gesture Life by Changrae Lee
# Aloft by Changrae Lee
# Natif-natal by Félix Morriseau-Leroy
# Plénitudes by Félix Morriseau-Leroy
# Do Not Go Gently by Judith Smith Levin
# Zami by Audre Lorde
# Twilight in Jakarta by Mochtar Lubis
# Nectar in a Sieve by Kamala Markandaya
# Brown Girl, Brownstones by Paule Marshall
# Praisesong for the Widow by Paule Marshall
# Mother Tongue by Demitria Martinez
# Of Love and Other Demons by Gabriel García Márquez
# Memories of My Meloncholy Whores by Gabriel García Márquez
# All I Asking for is my body by Milton Maruyama
# Raj by Gita Mehtaj
# The Pillar of Salt by Albert Memmi
# Wild Ginger by Anchee Minn
# A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry
# Monkey King by Timothy Mo
# Sour Sweet by Timothy Mo
# House Made of Dawn by N. Scott Momaday
# The Ancient Child by N. Scott Momaday
# The Way to Rainy Mountain by N. Scott Momaday
# In the Bear's House by N. Scott Momaday
# The Man Made of Words by N. Scott Momaday
# Loving in the War Years by Cherríe Moraga
# Richard trajo su flauta y otros argumentos by Nancy Morejon
# My Place by Sally Morgan
# Love by Toni Morrison
# Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison
# Beloved by Toni Morrison
# The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison
# The Easy Rawlings series (Devil in a Blue Dress, A Red Death, Black Betty, White Butterfly) by Walter Mosley
# Walkin' the Dog by Walter Mosley
# Always Outnumbered by Walter Moseley
# Desirable Daughters by Bharati Mukherjee
# Turning Japanese by David Mura
# Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami
# The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle by Haruki Murakami
# A Wild Sheep Chase by Haruki Murakami The Murakami books I love are Underground and The Elephant Vanishes. Haven't been blown away by the novels so far.
# Train Whistle Guitar by Albert Murray
# Dis Poem by Mutabaruka
# Child of Dandelions by Shenaaz Nanji
# Mama Day by Gloria Naylor ♥
# The Women of Brewster Place by Gloria Naylor
# Blanche Cleans UP by Barbara Nealy
# A Personal Matter by Kenzaburo Oe
# A Quiet Life by Kenzaburo Oe
# Hiroshima Notes by Kenzaburo Oe
# The Famished Road by Ben Okri
# Incidents at the Shrine by Ben Okri
# Stars of the New Curfew by Ben Okri
# My Year of Meats by Ruth L. Ozeki
# Drinking Coffee Elsewhere by ZZ Packer
# Gulf Dreams by Emma Perez
# Fresh Girl by Jaira Placide
# Follow the Rabbit Proof Fence by Doris Pilkington and Nugi Garimara
# Eugene Onegin by Alexander Pushkin
# The Negro of Peter the Great by Alexander Pushkin
# The Wind Done Gone by Alice Randall
# Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys ♥ Really? I knew about Pushkin and Dumas, but not her.
# The Sano Ichiro Mysteries series by Laura Joh Rowland
# The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy ♥
# Midnight’s Children by Sir Salman Rushdie
# The Rose Garden by Saadi
# Push by Saphire
# When I was Puerto Rican by Esmeralda Santiago
# Almost A Woman by Esmeralda Santiago
# Funny Boy by Shyam Selvadurai
# Almanac of the Dead by Leslie Marmon Silko
# Ceremony by Leslie Marmon Silko
# Coffee Will Make You Black by April Sinclair
# Assata: An Autobiography by Assata Shakur
# For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow Is Enuf by Ntozake Shange
# The Tale of Genji by Murasaki Shikobu Still on Chapter 33! But love enough of it anyway.
# The Black and White of It by Ann Allen Shockley
# Loving Her by Ann Allen Shockley
# Say Jesus and Come to Me by Ann Allen Shockley
# White Teeth by Zadie Smith
# On Beauty by Zadie Smith
# Aké: The Years of Childhood by Wole Soyinka
# Gitanjali by Rabindranath Tagore
# The Home and the World by Rabindranath Tagore
# The Crescent Moon by Rabindranath Tagore
# Gora by Rabindranath Tagore
# Relationships by Rabindranth Tagore
# The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan
# The Kitchen God's Wife by Amy Tan
# The Bonesetter's Daughter by Amy Tan
# Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry by Mildred D. Taylor
# Let the Circle Be Unbroken Mildred D. Taylor
# The Night Wanderer by Drew Hayden Taylor
# Faultline by Sheila Ortiz Taylor
# Petals of Blood by Ngugi Wa Thiong`o
# Devil on a Cross by Ngugi Wa Thiong`o
# The Buru Quartet (This Earth of Mankind, Child of all Nations, Footsteps, House of Glass) by Pramoedya Ananta Toe
# Living Pidgin by Lee Tonouchi
# Swerve: Reckless Observation of a Post-Modern Girl by Aisha Tyler
# Naked Ladies by Alma Luz Villanueva
# Under the Feet of Jesus by Helena Viramontes
# The Color Purple by Alice Walker
# Up from Slavery by Booker T Washington
# The Kadaitcha Sung by Sam Watson
# Sons for the Return Home by Al Wendt
# The Wedding by Dorothy West
# Blues Dancing by Diane McKinney Whetstone
# The Intuitionist by Colson Whitehead ♥
# Poems of Phillis Wheatley by Phillis Wheatley
# Native Son by Richard Wright
# Black Boy by Richard Wright
# The Mis-Education of the Negro by Carter G Woodson
# Na Han (Battle Cry) by Lu Xun
# Selected Stories of Lu Hsun by Lu Xun
# Wild Meat and the Bully Burgers by Lois-Ann Yamanaka
# Blu's Hanging by Lois-Ann Yamanaka
# Heads By Harry by Lois-Ann Yamanaka
# Name Me Nobody by Lois-Ann Yamanaka
# Red Sorghum by Mo Yan
# The Dahomean by Frank Yerby
# The Girl From Storeyville by Frank Yerby
# The Foxes of Harrow by Frank Yerby

Urban living

Wed, 09 Jul 2008 15:02:43 GMT

Today a black squirrel broke into my kitchen and wreaked havoc on my spice rack.

BE STILL, MY BEATING HEART

Mon, 07 Jul 2008 19:04:25 GMT

Dark Horse is doing an omnibus edition of Clover! Given the changes in the market, it doesn't seem unreasonable to hope it will be (a) unflipped and (b) done in some kind of prestige format for people who are willing to pay for extra style (HERE! standing RIGHT HERE!).

Clover was the first manga I ever read and it's still one of my favorites. I haven't found another series with anything quite like its dreamy, elliptical, fragmentary style.

Thu, 03 Jul 2008 15:01:21 GMT

Fell down, banged up leg, can't bend knee. Retiring to bed with ibuprofin and ice pack.

Follow-ups to follow-ups

Wed, 02 Jul 2008 22:17:03 GMT

Keeping this one brief:

Urgent Action for Farmworkers: An update on Trader Joe's (lack of) response to the death of Maria Isabel Vasquez, 17 years old and 2 months pregnant, due to unsafe conditions in a vineyard owned by one of Trader Joe's suppliers
I've been ignoring Overcoming Bias's continued exposure of its biases because I am tired of losing all my lower-case letters, but loligo's been following some of it, and I hear mswyrr's been doing yeowoman's work on the argument front.
SF Mind Meld: Is There A Gender Imbalance in Science Fiction Publishing? If you are avoiding ~~Overcoming~~ Demonstrating Bias, skip the comments by John Wright and Andrew Wheeler. But do check out Marie Brennan's comments elsewhere.
giandujakiss discusses Gender Blindness:

And it was as simple as you would expect. Part of the issue was the focus of the book - hardcore sci-fi, less fantasy - which, I assume, is a genre with more male authors to choose from. But critically, what happened was that when he was pressed for time and needed material, he went to - you guessed it - his friends. He went to authors he was pals with, the guys he knew, and voila! He ended up with an almost all-male book, via a process that he truly believed had been gender blind.

Obviously, it doesn't take a lot of insight to intuit that in a world where editors are mostly men, friends of editors are most likely to be men. But had the editor not put out this apology, and had readers not raised such a fuss about the earlier volume, this aspect of the selection process would not have been known. The publisher and editors would have continued to defend themselves as gender blind, and probably many readers would have insisted that the imbalance of authors merely reflected imbalances in ability and/or interest in sci-fi. And that kind of thing is, without doubt, happening right now for other books or other fields where gender balances exist - decisionmakers are insisting that their processes were gender blind and that any imbalances must necessarily reflect "real" differences in the sexes.

So to me, it's just a classic story about why saying something is "gender blind," or "race blind," is insufficient. Existing advantages for whites, and for men, are reinforced through a "blind" process - even leaving aside additional and well-documented phenomena, like, say, unconscious prejudices that lead people to judge work with a male name attached superior to work with a female name attached.

There are many different ways to attempt to demolish the existing advantages reinforced by "blind processes"; one of them is expanding and integrating social networks and institutions, so that they do not default to white and male. (There can be disadvantages to this for marginalized peoples as well, but I'm going to skip over that for now.) One project that's performing this for science fiction fandom and publishing is the Octavia Butler Memorial Scholarship Fund, which sends writers of color to the Clarion workshops, science fiction writing programs which often also often act as a de facto networking shortcut and support group for aspiring writers.

One of the first Butler scholars, Shweta Narayan, writes about her Clarion experience:

But I'm getting deeply uncomfortable. Specifically, about our portrayals of the other; I'm seeing a trend of men writing women who are nonexistent, stereotyped, or victimized. No single story is upsetting me, exactly; it's the overall effect, which seems rooted in unconsidered assumptions.

Should I speak up?

The little-Indian-girl voice, the voice of my cultural conditioning, says no. It says don't make a fuss, and don't make a scene. Nobody else is objecting. Do you want to make people uncomfortable? Nobody likes difficult girls.

But there's another voice. It says, you're an Octavia Butler Memorial Scholar. Are you really going to let this slide? Would Octavia Butler want you to hide in the corner like a good Indian girl? What would Octavia do?

(Paypal donations accepted at essay and scholarship links.)

(Briefer than the last set?)

Sunday in the Park with George (Roundabout Theatre, New York City, 6/28/08)

Mon, 30 Jun 2008 22:42:11 GMT

Sunday in the Park with George is a Mary Sue story. (But I knew that.) It makes "Georges Seurat" look like the most unlikeable bastard on the face of the earth. (But I knew that.) If it hadn't been for the second act, when "Georges Seurat" is replaced by his great-grandson George, I would have thought Daniel Evans incapable of charm, and he's not, he's just good at playing an unlikeable guy unlikeably. (I didn't know that. It's probably unfair to compare him to Mandy Patinkin, but I do.) Jenna Russell is incredibly charming--Dot has to be charming, to make up for how Georges is not--charming enough that I am even charmed by all the Scottish poking holes through her attempt at a Southern accent. (I didn't know that. It's probably unfair to compare her to Bernadette Peters, but I do.) George's "Chromolume" is an incredibly uninspired light show, which is especially noticeable given the brilliance of the lighting in the rest of the show, where slides and shades recreate pointillist paintings, painters made of light drink champagne made of light, light speckles foilage and bark onto a white curtain that's re-created a tree, and a painter's model who can't dance casts a sharp-edged blazing-white shadow on the wall. The national stereotypes are downright embarassing. I spend the entire show arguing with it in my head, It is not fate or artistic temperment that means you can't say "I love you" to your girlfriend, it's that you're a JERK and Why why why always male artists and female muses and Oh the lonely life of an artist let me laugh at you. (But I knew I would.)

But still. But and.

"Finishing the Hat" is the best song about art ever written. Not the women leave you because they don't understand your artistic soul shit. But.

Look, I made a hat. Where there never was a hat.

Unless the best song about ever written is "Color and Light," not the Order. Design. Composition, not the Tone. Form. Symmetry. Balance., but just the More red... And a little more red...Blue blue blue blue. Blue blue blue blue. Blue yellow red. Green conjoined with orange. Color and light. By the blue purple yellow red water on the green orange violet mass of the grass.

And I'm thinking, It doesn't work, and I'm thinking, It's a noble attempt, though, and I'm thinking, It's doomed really, how can you put them together, the art that's all about space and the art that has no form the eyes can see but can't exist without time, you can't do it, music about painting, dancing about architecture, and

GEORGE: Dot, I cannot read this word.

DOT: Harmony.

with the music swelling up behind, with the music behind it, the word that's painting and music both, that word, that moment, it does work. It does.

(And I didn't know that.)

Look, I made a hat. Where there never was a hat.

Thu, 26 Jun 2008 19:25:31 GMT

{Via} Jonathan Strahan apologizes for gender makeup of Eclipse 2 eta and for "gender-blind" comments.