Notes, Notings, and Common Refrains

Snagged from davidgillon, which he snagged from legionseagle who got the list from this blog post over at Tor.com: 100 SF/F books you should consider reading in the New Year.

Italics = read it. Underline= not it, but another by the same author. Strikethrough = did not finish.

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( Read more... )

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So, going by this list, it looks like I'm not very well-read at all. Though what this list really shows me is that I haven't read much of any SF/F published after 1980 -- I think that's because my main access to the genre was through school libraries and public libraries, which tend to have more older books on their shelves than book stores.

Some of these book titles (and their summaries on Wikipedia, when I look them up) ring very faint, foggy, bells. I very well could have read them, but I'm not confident enough to actually italicize them....

I'm glad Patricia McKillip is on this list. Although I read The Forgotten Beasts of Eld, the book of hers that kept me up all night until I finished it was The Changeling Sea ... I had such a fiction-crush on that wizard (*blush*). And although it is not SF/F, I also really liked The Night Gift, though I acknowledge it's not a "Significant piece of Literature" of the sort that gets on lists like this (the pop culture references, put in to ground it firmly in the present, real, world, end up making it terribly dated), but it's a bittersweet exploration of how mental illness affects a close-knit group of teenage friends, and how they band together to try and help the one who's suffering.

Anyway, all that means is that I have a whole lot of good first time reading to look forward to.

On the Fourth of July, BuzzFeedYellow posted this video: "What is Privilege?". It shows a video of ten people participating in a privilege awareness exercise, where everyone starts out in a single line, and then each steps forward or back one step at a time, based on how each person identified with 35 conditions of privilege.

As expected, the white straight males ended up near the front. And that sheer predictability is one of the biggest flaws in this exercise, as pointed out by Christina Torres in this article: Why the Privilege Line is a frustratingly unfinished exercise

Quote:

PoC often end up as props to help White people see how privileged they are.

Which… I get. I get often needs to be done. WP need to see, somehow, the privilege they live in, and if this does it, then that might be a start.

[snip]

When I do this exercise from now on, I want to start doing the line again, but with a different version of the questions. Something that centers on and calls out the unique ways PoC have their own forms of power, questions that uplift communities and also pushes PoC to question their own experiences with each other.

Over on jesse_the_k's journal, there's a discussion about how this exercise barely even acknowledges Disability as a culturally oppressed class -- of the 35 statements on privilege, there's only one that even acknowledges that physical or mental disability exists (#4), so if you have such a disability, you get "docked" one privilege point -- the same is true for both of the other versions Christina Torres linked to in her article. This, in itself, is a sign of how little awareness of ableist privilege there is in our society. Because if that box does get a check in your life, then a whole cascade of privileges slip out out of your reach, and there is zero acknowledgement of that.

So I'm including the "original" 35 questions behind a cut, below. And then, I'm going to try and come up with my own list, that a) has more specific acknowledgement of able-bodied/sound-mind privilege, b) includes some empowerment statements such as Torres suggested, and c) is roughly the same length of the original list. That means some questions will end up being dropped, which I acknowledge is problematic.

( The original 35 *Privilege Walk* questions )

( My Version )

So -- how'd I do?

From out of the snowflake_challenge community on DreamWidth:

Day 2

In your own space, create a list of at least three fannish things you'd love to receive, something you've wanted but were afraid to ask for - a fannish wish-list of sorts. Leave a comment in this post saying you did it. Include a link to your wish-list if you feel comfortable doing so. Maybe someone will grant a wish. Check out other people's posts. Maybe you will grant a wish. If any wishes are granted, we'd love it if you link them to this post.

Remember that you can ask for whatever you want - icons, ficlets with specific relationships, a beta, art, haiku, interpretive dance, whatever. And note that it's at least three things...have fun with it.

Well, since this is a wish-list I'll ask as a genre-wide fan, rather than as a fan of any particular franchise:

1. An A.I. story where robots evolve to become self-aware, "super-powerful" beings (by our standards) ... and simply wander off, to go form their own communities/ecosystems (That whole "overlord" scenario never made sense to me. Why would they want to enslave slower, more fragile, less intelligent creatures? Far more trouble than it's worth, surely).

2. A retelling of "The Frog King" from the Brothers Grimm, where the king is the villain, and either the princess or the witch are the protagonist -- and maybe they team up together (it's not much of a stretch, if you read the original).

3. A vampire story where the vampirism is a natural, mortal, medical condition, but the vampire protagonist plays along with peoples' belief in the supernatural as a form of self-protection (If someone believes that salt water over which a priest has said a blessing will render you powerless, while bullets are useless, you're much less likely to get shot).

CapriUni is a Giant Robot that has Crablike Pincers, a Single Giant Eye and Tough Leathery Skin, carries a Flamethrower, and can Change Colour. Strength: 9 Agility: 4 Intelligence: 8 To see if your Giant Battle Monster can defeat CapriUni, enter your name and choose an attack: fights CapriUni using Strength Agility Intelligence

*considers putting such a robot into her Nano Novel*

Here: Words and Deeds Love Meme 3

Head on over there and nominate someone you love (including yourself, if you're needing a little love). Anonymity is welcome, and also optional. Anonymous folk can sign in using Open ID.

1) (Better get to this before the week's over -- it's from all over my circles, by now):
It's International Book Week. The rules: Grab the closest book to you, turn to page 52, post the 5th sentence as your status. Don't mention the title. Copy the rules as part of your post.

I have several books equidistant from me, in several directions, none of which I am actively reading right now. I chose two books, each reaching in a different direction:

Book one:

This great end cannot be achieved by treaties alone.

Book the Second:

"Well, here we are," he said.

2) I got my first "dislike" on one of my YouTube videos, this week. I also got my first "Favorite Added." I'll try to be more chuffed about the second than I am disappointed by the first.

3) How will these book memes morph when everybody has moved on to e-readers? If you have, essentially, 100 books all occupying the same geographical space, how do you pick "the closest one"?

4) A bit ago, I mentioned The Jim Henson Hour to alryssa, because one of the kittens she's fostering reminds me of The Thought Lion. That sent me on a nostalgic romp through YouTube to find clips of the show...
The only clips I found were posted by someone who videotaped them off his television as they aired, and so the posted segments are complete with the commercials of the day (autumn, 1988). It's scary to think that I was already a college junior by then [fully adult] and yet everything looks so old and primitive. And yet, I remember watching that very first episode and being blown away by the Shiny!! Also, the humor in the Muppety first half struck me as being edgy and hip, but now, that, too, is clunky, and dusty, and slow. And yet, The Muppet Show which was set in an old vaudeville theater, still feels fresh and fast.

Moral: The more modern your style, the faster it ages (?).

5) Speaking of aging, last night, I watched a video about what exactly happens between the Moon and the Earth that causes the tides. And that put "We like the Moon, 'Cos it is close to us!!!" in my head... And someone mentioned in the comments that he remembered first seeing that back when he was in grade school...

Aaaaiiiii!!!

Snagged this from vilakins

Go to Wikiquote. Click Random Page.

Pick the third quote.

Whatever that turns out to be is the tagline for the movie poster of your life-story movie.

[Full Disclosure: I cheated like whoa on this one. I kept getting quotes from recent movies I've never seen because the television ads for them bored me, and TV shows and currently-running webcomics. And I dunno... using a quote from someone else who's still alive and kicking for a tagline for my biopic just feels wrong.]

What I finally settled on is this: "Patience is a flatterer, sir, and an ass, sir." Aphra Behn

I'm not sure what that means ... But it's pithy, and has a fun verbal rhythm. Is she talking about Patience as the personification of a state of mind, or an individual character who happens to be named Patience? ;-)

1. I like your default icon! Did you paint/draw it?
Yes! I did! I drew it as part of NaArMaMo (LiveJournal Comm)! You should join! it's fun!

2. Favorite food or drink (or both)?
Anything with chocolate. Or ginger. Or chocolate and ginger.

3. [This one may be a tad personal, so feel free to ask for another question if it is!] What do you think are the most important issues facing people with disabilities today, and why?

Yikes. Not so much personal, as big... [And this is the official "in my world" caveat. The Disabled in China, or the Ukraine, or Ghana may disagree] Okay -- It's either:

• that People with Disabilities become invisible (according to beaurocracies) between the ages of 18 and 65 -- or whatever the legal years between adulthood and elder-hood in your country are -- Lots of information and professional help, and glossy brochures, offered to parents of disabled children. Lots of attention in the news media and by politicians for those over 65 (but then, the folks are classed as "seniors" -- not the "Disabled", so Disability still has no political clout as a social identity, even though we're 20% of the overall population, according to the US Census Beaurough -- and the British equivalent, if I'm not mistaken)
  
  or:
  
  
• Visitability: a movement and philosophy that says every new house built should meet minimum requirements for accessibility for the Disabled -- not just the disabled person's own home, which is what happens now.
  
  So, for example, my front door is the only door in my neighboorhood that I can knock on. My own doorbell is the only bell I can ring. So I can't visit the neighbors to borrow the proverbial cup of sugar, or leave a pot of chicken soup on the stoop, if I hear they're feeling poorly. or get invited to a dinner party, or anything else.

Actually, now that I think of it, both these things are symptoms of the same issue: Disabled people are recognized as members of their family, but not members of any community wider than that -- we don't exist (as a social entity) outside the closed doors of our private houses.

And why is that important? Because "disability" is a human condition -- not a special condition.


4. One or two books that you think more people should read? Spell of the Sensuous: Perception and Language in the More-Than-Human World By David Abram (nonfiction) and Sister Water by Nancy Willard (fiction -- I got the hardcover edition, back before it had that second part of the title in parentheses...)

5. Pet peeve(s)? You mean, other than #3? The misuse of who and whom -- especially by narrators of the news and TV commercials. And the fact that I can't get away from crime or medicine procedurals on my television -- surely, there are other interesting types of stories to tell (and no, "reality television" is not an option).

[ETA: Oh, yeah -- almost forgot -- if you want questions, leave a reply!]

I gacked this from alryssa, this time.

Icon meme:
1. Reply to this post, and I will pick five of your icons.
2. Make a post (including the meme info) and talk about the icons I chose.
3. Other people can then comment to you and make their own posts.
4. This will create a never-ending cycle of Icon Squee!

alryssa picked these:



Feminist:
A black and white photo of a middle-aged man with a bushy white beard, wearing a high black turban. The caption (in black and dark red lettering) reads: "This is what a feminist looks like."

This is Dadabhai Naoroji, a late-Nineteenth / early-Twentieth Century human rights activist and politician (the first British MP born in India). I got the picture, and the inspiration, for this icon from one of spiralsheep's history posts, wherein she highlights history of women and People of Color. One of the causes Naoroji worked for was the equal education and civil rights of women.



No Tea. Thnx:
This is a Doctor Who Companion of Awesome: Zoe (She traveled with the Second Doctor, played by Patrick Troughton). In this scene from "The Invasion," the Doctor has gone off to confront the baddie, and she's worried that he's been gone too long, and (irrc) suggests that she go looking for him. The Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart, old military man that he is, basically pats her on the head, says that's nothing for her to worry about, and suggests she calm down with a cup of nice tea.

This is the dirty look she shoots at his back.

The caption is my own wording of the unspoken subtext: "Patronize me again. I dare you!" (as a short-statured, wheelchair-using woman, it's a frustration I've often felt the need to snark about [or make an icon of]).



Mirth:
A holstein cow wearing a jester's cap-and-bells, standing in a cartoon meadow. The caption reads: "got mirth?" in lower-case ariel font. This is one of the first icons I ever made, years ago. It's a take-off on the American Dairy Association's "Got milk?" ad campaign of the time. And it's an expression of my belief that a trickster's attitude is as good for your health as the proper dosages of calcium and vitamins.



Our life:
An animated text icon, in a blue script font on a white background: "And this our life, exempt from public haunt, finds tongues in trees, books in the running brooks, sermons in stones, and good in everything." snowgrouse made it for me. The quote is from Shakespeare's As You Like It -- the opening speech of Act 2.

The duke has been usurped by his (mustache-twirling, evil) brother, and he and all his courtiers have been living in exile in the Forest of Arden. He's being all: "Yay! Exile is the Bestest thing Evah! I'm learning so much from Nature about how to be a good human being!" His courtiers, meanwhile, are rolling their eyes and muttering: "Yeah... Um. I'd quite like my warm bed, and proper food, and entertainment, thanks. I'm tired of moral lessons."

I like the quote because it expresses the notion that there's more to life than humanity and popular culture; it's both very Pagan (i.e. our "Bible" and our "Sermons" are in paying attention to Nature), and very Naturalistic-in-favor-of-biodiversity (there are no "Bad" species, or "Bad" weather). Also, I'm a cock-eyed optimist, too. Most of the time.



Affixed:
A black engraving-style illustration of Shakespeare (or an imaginary version of Shakespeare) on a white background with the caption in red: "Yea! My head hath been affixed!"

This was the graphic attatched to a Shakepeare quote meme that circulated a while back, where you insert your name (or any random word), and it gives you a famous Shakespeare quote with your text replacing a key noun.

Here it is, if you're curious: The Shakespeare Quote Generator (from the same folks who gave us the food monkey wars, irrc). A meme within a meme, yay!


There's just something about the pose in that image that struck me as suspicious (like it's a cropped illustration of a random Elizabethan Gentleman that someone stuck a vaguely Shakepeare-looking face onto). So I snagged it and added a vaguely Elizabethan version of "My hed is pastede on, yay!"