Week of Joy (Day One; Part One): An Introduction
If you don’t follow me on Twitter, then you have no idea what this is all about. Basically, with all the nasty crap going on in the world right now, not to mention in the science fiction and fantasy community, I have decided to take one whole week off from depressing things and only write about things that bring me or others some sense of joy. I won’t go completely off the trail, of course, but I think a little detox will do me (and maybe others) some good. So, for the next seven days, you can expect lots of talk about books (releases, books I like, etc.), comics (ditto), movies (ditto), and anything else I feel like babbling about (SF/F-related or otherwise). Of course, I don’t have to do this alone. If you want to join in, feel free to do so! All you have to do is spend the next week blogging or tweeting about things that make you happy. That’s the only rule. And if you do join in, let me know where you’re going to do it so I can link everyone who reads my blog to your stuff! And so you should all prepare yourselves, for the Week of Joy has BEGUN!
Link of the Week: Speculative Friction
If you haven’t seen this already, then you have to look before the whole thing goes kaput. DMCA notices have been issued (expected really), and it’s unlikely the images will remain online in an easily accessible space for long (if I’m wrong about that, please let me know in the comments). So what is Speculative Friction? The owner of the page defines the project as a “disinfectant” for the SF/F community. The tumblr itself contains a number of screencaps from the SFF.net forums, featuring the sometimes sexist, but mostly confused, thoughts on the SFWA fiasco(s) from the last month (I discussed the second fiasco here) from several big-name and lesser-known SF/F authors. It’s quite illuminating, really. I definitely recommend reading it. Anywho!
Top 10 Blog Posts for June 2013
A half-and-half list. Half new stuff, and half retro stuff. It’s really kind of weird how this keeps happening. Oh well. Here’s the list: 10. Genre Books for Non-Genre People: Still Missing the Point, Folks! 9. Why I Hated Superman Returns 8. Amal El-Mohtar Calls for the Expulsion of Theodore Beale from the SFWA 7. Silly Reader Questions: Super Powers, Magic, Bathrooms, and Poetry 6. Top 10 Most Ridiculous Moments in Science Fiction and Fantasy Film in the 90s 5. Dear Regal Cinemas: Insane People and How Your Staff Responded 4. Ray Bradbury Predictions Fulfilled 3. Top 10 Cats in Science Fiction and Fantasy 2. Top 10 Overused Fantasy Cliches 1. SFWA, Sexism, and Progress (A Response to Jason Sanford)
Things Happening Now: World War Z, Shoot the WISB, and Women Authors
What’s going on over at the Skiffy and Fanty compound? Quite a lot, actually! First up, authors Emma Newman and Susan Bigelow joined the S&F crew to talk about science fiction and fantasy by women. I quite enjoyed the direction we went after listing some of our favorite female authors, especially since we covered things like how reading influences writing and so on. Lastly, the most recent episode of Shoot the WISB has hit the web. This time, I’m joined by David Annandale and Jen Bosier for a discussion of World War Z. The episode contains a lot of spoilers, so save it for later if you intend to see the movie. And that’s what’s going on over at the S&F compound. Go DL the episodes and enjoy!
Comic Review: Action Lab Confidential (Previews)
Now that I have this magic tablet thing, I’ve been able to take advantage of all the lovely stuff floating around on ComiXology (a comic store/reading app). And since I’m now a comic book nut, I figure it’s fair to toss some more reviews at you all. The first of my ComiXology reviews is for Action Lab’s preview collection, featuring excerpts from PrinceLess (Whitley, Goodwin, and Kim), Double Jumpers (Dwonch and Blankenship), Jack Hammer (Barrows and Ionic), Jetta: Tales of Toshigawa (Wade, Wade, and Williams), Fracture (Gabborin, Cicconi, and Dwonch), Space-Time Condominium (Dwonch), Glob World (Freeman, Strutz, and Garcia), Monsters Are Just Like Us (Super Ugly), Exo-1 and the Rocksolid Steelbots (Pryor, Besenyodi, and Logan), Back in the Day (Dwonch and Logan), and Snowed In (Lundeen). I won’t talk about all of these in much detail for obvious reasons (so many excerpts!). Generally, I was unimpressed by the lot. The best of these eleven comics barely rates as “something you’d use as filler.” Some of them are awful precisely because they play into stereotypes best served “dead.” Basically, even though I had no expectations when I went in, I came out extremely disappointed. Here’s the breakdown: PrinceLess (2/5) The basic premise for this comic seems to be this: princess is trapped in tower; male suitors come to “rescue her”; princess insults them and uses the abuse (and a dragon) to send them on their way. The idea is cute enough. I like the reversal of the princess-in-the-tower trope, especially when that reversal comes with a large side of feminist anger. However, I also find it difficult to enjoy what is clearly a patriarchal universe (something readily apparent in one of the full issues), especially when we’re supposed to accept verbal abuse as a legitimate attack on those structures, despite the fact that the “Princess” never leaves the tower in this particular excerpt. It just didn’t work for me. Double Jumpers (0/5) Sexism and gaming culture. Why do they so often go hand in hand? Why can’t we have respectful portrayals of women and female bodies in the game world? Such are the fundamental problems with David Dwonch and Bill Blankenship’s Double Jumpers. The excerpt opens in a bar — if you’re expecting one of those “an accountant, a black guy, and a sexy redheaded intern walk into a bar” jokes, then you’ll thankfully find yourself disappointed here, though the setup seems to have been deliberate. From there, everything goes downhill. Well, actually, it was already at the bottom of the hill when it started; in the first few panels, one of the main characters does the following: 1) complains about someone else’s girlfriend; 2) proclaims that she is a bitch, but that he’d still “hit that” (direct quote); and 3) essentially hints that the redheaded intern’s value is derived from her ability to bring him beer. Oh, and it doesn’t get better from there. Shortly after, the same character acts as the butt of one of the oldest gaming jokes since the invention of female gaming characters: guy wants to play big burly man warrior, but gets stuck playing the sexy warrior chick in skimpy clothes (boob grabbing and complaining ensues). What might have been a humorous, positive portrayal of women within gaming culture turned out to be a long sea of jokes I remember as “funny” in the 90s (that’s the beginning of my involvement, so I cannot speak for gamers who were active in the 70s or 80s). That’s honestly what this comic feels like: a throwback to 12-year-old me, dripping with assumptions about who plays video games, what female bodies mean in this culture, and so on and so forth. In the end, the decent artwork and the fun concept (geeks playing MMORPGs via VR) couldn’t save the terrible characterization and the out-of-date jokes. I’d pass on this one if I were you. Jack Hammer (2/5) Private detective? Check. World with some kind of super power? Check. Murder? Check. That’s basically what you’ve got in Jack Hammer. Of all the comics in this lot, this is probably the only one I found semi-interesting, though that quickly fell apart when the perspective shifted to the people who committed the crime, and then once again to some sort of past event. None of this is properly explained, so the excerpt reads like a bunch of semi-random pages from different issues. In the end, I was more confused than interested. Jetta: Tales of Toshigawa (2/5) There’s something about two warrior women fighting for reasons that aren’t altogether clear, and in the midst of that battle, the protagonist talks ad naseum about how she feels about fighting this individual. Why? I don’t really know. There’s an obvious history here; the character suggests as much. But without a full understanding of that context, it’s impossible to really understand what is going on, except that two women are fighting with swords. Additionally, the characters frequently utter some variation of the word “unga,” which looks as ridiculous as it sounds. I have no idea what that sound is supposed to represent, as I’ve never heard a human being make that sound in any other context than “I’m being silly.” But these characters are kicking and trying to stab one another. Unga? No idea. Fracture (2/5) A young man with a blown knee suddenly shifts his mind into that of a local super villain. Hi-jinks ensue. If one were to restructure this comic to avoid the absurd “jump” from one body to the next, I suspect there would be a lot of potential in the whole idea. But the excerpt feels like two indirectly-related chunks shoved together. There is no sense of character development. Instead, we’re supposed to care about someone we don’t know. On top of that, I didn’t much care for the artwork, in part because the character drawings and settings looked too two dimensional — I’m probably spoiled, though. It’s sad, really. I kind of liked this one at first. Space-Time Condominium (1/5) One very long poop joke. You’ve heard this
American Literature Syllabus: Suggestions Open!
For those that don’t know, the syllabus I had designed for an American Lit. survey course got rejected. The reasoning behind that rejection makes sense, and I’ve been told point blank that if I want to teach that same course in the Spring (under a World Literature heading), it’ll happen. But that means I’ve got to put together an entirely new syllabus. As of this moment, I am thinking about framing this survey course with the loose theme of “American identity.” I want to have as wide an exploration of this question as possible, both to show the breadth of such concerns within American lit and to avoid having too narrow of a focus (i.e., one segment of identity). There are a number of novels, short stories, and plays I am considering for the syllabus, including some that I’ve taught before (such as Black No More by George Schuyler). But I’d like to expand my focus. This is where you come in. Which novels, short stories, or plays would you suggest for a syllabus loosely concerned with “American identity”? So long as the work is written by someone from the U.S. after 1900, it qualifies. Genres are not relevant, though I always include a little science fiction (sometimes fantasy) in my syllabi (I’m currently thinking about teaching One for Sorrow by Christopher Barzak, for example). So have at it! (Note: I am interested in canonical work as well as work by various ethnic or minority groups, including African Americans, Native Americans, LGBT folks, refugees (and related categories), women, and so on and so forth. I deliberately write my syllabi to include a range of different groups to show my students that the “canon” is not really a representation of American literature as a whole and that these other literary “groups” are important. Understand that I can’t fit everything in. I feel bad about that every time I teach a survey course. I want to cover every single group imaginable, but I can’t. 16 weeks just isn’t enough time 🙁 ).