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Posts Tagged ‘linkage’

“You people and your categories.”

As a member of the Outer Alliance, I advocate for queer speculative fiction and those who create, publish and support it, whatever their sexual orientation and gender identity. I make sure this is reflected in my actions and my work.

The Outer Alliance is a recently-launched LGBT organization for speculative fiction. Depending on which bits of the Internet you play around in, you may be seeing that paragraph a lot in the next day or so, as this has been designated a Pride Day to advertise the organization’s existence.

I have to admit, on the whole, I’ve been more an audience for queer spec fic (or fic of any kinds) than a producer of it. A little victory dance happens inside me every time I see this stuff depicted non-pejoratively in media, because that’s at least half the battle: on one hand you pass the laws, and on the other you have Captain Jack Harkness. In the long run, it’s going to be the kids who grew up watching TV shows and movies and reading books and comics where queerness is accepted who really win the war. Queerness will look about as transgressive to them as women wearing pants does to us.

But of course somebody has to produce those texts, and homosexuality (let alone transgenderism etc) is still pretty thinly represented in SF/F. I’ve done a bit of it, though not enough. Deeds of Men was the cause of my favorite crit-group statement ever: “The sodomy was good!” “A Mask of Flesh” features a xera, a being that actually changes sex based on its long-term mood; there’s another one in “Chrysalis,” set in the same world, who has attained a state of spiritual balance, such that ome exists as a bilateral hermaphrodite. Unfortunately, “Chrysalis” is indicative of most of my other queer-content stories, in that it’s currently awaiting revision before I can send it out. “Love, Cayce” includes a lesbian relationship at one point, and “Remembering Light” confirms something hinted at in “Driftwood,” which is that Last has had relationships with other men. (The broader truth is that, when you’re the only survivor of your world for untold yonks of time, you have lots of relationships of all kinds. He’s no Jack Harkness, sleeping with anything that will stop long enough for him to smile at it/her/him/them/other, but he’s gotten around.)

Basically, this is something that has gotten onto my radar in the relatively recent past, and I’m trying to incorporate it into my work, but I’m producing fewer short stories than I used to and a bunch of the ones I have written aren’t on the market right now, which means the effect of me thinking about it isn’t very visible yet. Still, it’s better than the nothing I had before. And if you follow that top link, you’ll find a post with a kisquillion links to other people’s work, many of them more prolific than I am.

political linkage, all in one place

I’ve had various things open in tabs for a while now, but the truth of the matter is that I probably won’t have the brain-power to say anything substantive about them until, oh, November. So screw it. I’ll just toss them up in a single post, and leave it at that. If you aren’t interested in politics, cruise on by.

New Rule: Not Everything in America Has to Make a Profit — Bill Maher, expressing a lot of my concerns about what happens when the profit motive becomes the governing principle of various fields.

Touching back to principles — Abi Sutherland on the need for the government to protect the individual against the corporation.

The GOP’s Misplaced Rage — pretty much a classic case of “I didn’t leave my party; my party left me.” Bruce Bartlett, long-time Republican economist and old-school developer of supply-side economics, on the ways in which our current problems are the GOP’s fault. I don’t necessarily agree with his ideas on how we could and should fix the problems, but this guy is exactly what I see lacking in the face of the Republican Party today: an intelligent, principled man whose views I can respect even when I disagree with him.

An Officer’s Experience in Our Christian Military — this worries me. A lot.

I should have posted this before

Strange Horizons is running a fund drive — this being one of their regular means of keeping the magazine afloat — and if you donate, you’ll be entered in a drawing for one of these prizes, which (for those interested in such things) includes signed sets of my two series. Along with a bonanza of awesomeness from other people, of course.

And if you donate before 11:59:59 PST today, John Scalzi will match your donation, up to a total of $500. So now’s a good time to do it. Go forth and support!

poetical linkery

Every so often I find myself wishing I wrote poetry (or read much of it, for that matter). Alas, I am very hit-or-miss when it comes to reader-end appreciation, and my poetical output consists of one piece that maybe someday I’ll bash into a shape where I’d be willing to put it in front of editors. So mostly I’m unconnected from that world.

But I do keep a sporadic eye on places like Goblin Fruit and Mythic Delirium — and, as it turns out, those two things are in the news together right now. Rhysling Award winner Amal El-Mohtar and Jessica P. Wick, co-editors of Goblin Fruit, will be guest-editing an issue of Mythic Delirium. Mike Allen (MD’s usual editor, and also the fellow behind Clockwork Phoenix) is running a contest to promote that guest issue. Details are behind that news link, but the short form is, you’ll be entered to win a copy of MD’s 10th anniversary issue, which includes a special poem by Neil Gaiman, complete with a hand-stamped illustration. There are not many copies of this in existence, so if you’re a Neil Gaiman fanbeing, consider clicking over to see if you can get your mitts on one.

a kind of awesome list

Just saw the list of recipients for the 2009 Medal of Freedom.

One of the first thoughts I had upon reading it was, somewhere in America, there are people frothing at the mouth because only three out of sixteen are straight white men. (And of those three, one is physically disabled and one is a pillar of liberal American politics. I don’t imagine the people frothing think much of either of those guys.)

[Edited to add: I should have made it clearer in the first instance that the people I imagine are frothing at the mouth are not the entirety of conservatives. I’m talking about the birthers, the Sarah Palin worshippers, the Rush Limbaugh goons and the Freepers, and the rest of the wingnutty base. I honestly think it’s a shame that they have become the vocal face of American conservatism, because they’re doing their best to turn it into the party of racist reactionaries, and that’s an opposition I simply cannot respect.]

Six are women. Three are black. Two are Hispanic. One is Native American. One is Bangladeshi. One is Jewish (at least one — I didn’t check religion). Two are open gays. There are foreigners and the aforementioned disabled guy. Out of sixteen, only Jack Kemp belongs to the core Republican demographic.

And you know what? It warms the cockles of my heart to know that conservative bloggers are probably already bitching about this “affirmative action” list. I want them to be unhappy, because the list they would be happy with is not a list I want to see.

(Not actually true. What I really want is for even conservative bloggers to celebrate diversity. That would be far better than the ongoing fight with people who think the only “real Americans” are the straight white Christian ones. But until we have that, I’ll enjoy this.)

I’d be curious to know how the ratios compare to Bush’s picks, but honestly, I’m too lazy to sort through demographic info for eighty-one more people. At a glance, it looks more white male to me — but it’s hard to tell from just names, and I’m inclined to assume that interpretation anyway, so my glance is admittedly not a good basis for evaluation. Even if Obama’s choices over the next few years aren’t more diverse, people are going to view them that way, because the guy making those choices is black, and so of course he’s probably rewarding all kinds of undeserving minorities while ignoring the achievements of the Great White Male. Right?

<headdesk>

I’d rather focus on the good. Like, now I’m really interested to read more about and by Dr. Joseph Medicine Crow. He sounds awesome — and I’m not just saying that because he’s an anthropologist. <g>

Let’s play pretend

I’ve been so busy this week that it’s taken me days to get this link posted, but: a fellow named Marshal Zeringue contacted me a little while ago with what amounts to a one-question interview question, which was, If they make my book into a film, here’s who I’d like to play the lead role(s).

I cheated a bit and answered for both Midnight Never Come and In Ashes Lie. Head on over there to see who I have faces for in my head (and who I don’t).

(As far as the comet book’s concerned — I don’t have a good visual reference for either Galen or Irrith yet. I should try to fix that.)

poll time! but not here.

Over on FFF, I’m polling people about side stories — pieces of short fiction an author writes that are connected to a novel series. (Like, say, Deeds of Men.) If you’ve got any experience with those, as a writer or a reader, go over and vote.

And feel free to spread this elsewhere, if your LJ readership is interested in this kind of thing. The more data, the merrier!

This is kind of fabulous.

The VanderMeers, having been given a 13th anniversary ale to try out, decided that of course the thing to do was to see how it went with different books.

It kinda makes me wish I liked beer and/or wine. You could have a pretty ridiculous party, swigging down different drinks, trying to match them up with appropriate books. “I think this is more of a chardonnay kind of fantasy . . . .”

As it happens, Ashes didn’t go well with the beer at all, especially the selection Ann was reading. But she recommends a rich honey mead — Rosamund and Gertrude would approve. ^_^

Time to talk bad guys

Normally I write my SF Novelists posts well in advance, and just set them up to go live when the sixteenth rolls around. This one’s of a more recent vintage: it took me until yesterday to decide I wanted to spend this month talking about villains and antagonists. Go, read, comment over there.

linkage gets a follow-up

Back in April, I made an annoyed post about how Wall Street types were wringing their hands over Up — not because they thought it would be a flop, but because they didn’t think it wouldn’t be an even bigger hit than everything else Pixar has ever done, and therefore investors should abandon that obviously sinking ship. Or something.

Well, it’s slightly gratifying to see a follow-up in the New York Times, featuring this line: “Dead wrong” is how Richard Greenfield of Pali Research put his related analysis in a research note. In other words, Up has done just fine, thank you, where “just fine” is defined as “raking in profits your average studio would be breaking out the champagne for.” (He’s still recommending people sell Disney stock — but that’s based on issues with broadcast TV and the theme parks.)

It doesn’t address my underlying issue, which was the idea that every movie Pixar makes has to reap a bigger harvest than the one before it, or it’s time for investors to bail. From my perspective, Greenfield wasn’t wrong because Up turned out to be a bigger earner than he forecasted; he was wrong because he acted as if the sky was going to fall if it only made a good profit rather than a spectacular one. I still find the insistence on nothing but constant growth to be unsustainable. But at least the guy has issued something of a mea culpa.

You can’t be both good and strong

Mary Robinette Kowal’s column over at AMC this week takes a hard look at good queens in fantasy film. The gist of it is, you can’t be both good and powerful: if you’re good, you’re a child and/or tiny and/or sick and/or married to someone else who’s holding the reins. If you’re powerful, you’re evil.

(Before somebody else points it out: yes, I think she missteps a bit with Galadriel; sure, Celeborn’s around, but even if you’re looking solely at the movie, it’s pretty obvious that Galadriel’s much more central and important than her husband is. And if you know the books, he’s her appendage, not the other way around.)

I think the situation’s much better in novels, if only because the data set’s so much bigger. But still, I think the underlying structure that produces the result Kowal describes isn’t entirely gone: “women with power” is a concept our culture as a whole still isn’t quite comfortable with. (See: the response to Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign.) That idea’s scary, and scary =/= good.

An interesting column. I’ve been enjoying reading them each week, but this is the first one that’s really made me go “hmmmm.”

Only in a game . . . that’s crazier than mine

Okay, I’ve been in games where we blow up elevator shafts with a jet-skis, and I’ve been in games where we steal reincarnated lama/camels from Tibetan peasants, and I’ve been in games where meddling dwarves send their friends off with picnic baskets full of spells designed to make them stop blushing at each other and DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT ALREADY . . .

. . . but I’ve never been in a game where a character glued an NPC to his back.

Nor, now that I think of it, have we ever driven the GM to drink. Must try harder!