Solo Celebration Bingo
May. 1st, 2014 01:07 am Solo Celebration Bingo is now open for posting over on ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
allbingo. Read the rules and see the public card.
allbingo. Read the rules and see the public card.May. 1st, 2014
Gender-Variant Chivalry
May. 1st, 2014 01:22 am This is silly. But it got me thinking in more serious terms about how chivalry would look with more than two genders.
Characters and Archetypes
May. 1st, 2014 02:15 amI found a couple of good essays, one about Captain America and Superman, another about the Winter Soldier.
It got me thinking, again, how people often make mistakes because they just don't understand how to play a certain type of character. Man of Steel botched because it took a specific archetype -- the Unsullied Hero -- and dragged him through the mud. This is not only unfun, it doesn't play well, because the parts of the character don't fit together anymore. There are a jillion cynical heroes; we don't need more. We need the contrast of having at least a few who are not fucked-up bastards.
The Winter Soldier worked because it took the same Unsullied Hero archetype and dumped him into a world painted entirely in shades of grey. And he sat the fuck down and picked out the atoms of black and white one at a time, so he could remind people what those looked like. Cap isn't boring. If he looks boring, you're writing him wrong. He's beautiful and good and therefore really rather scary. He's also terribly vulnerable because the world can be a harsh place no matter how much he wants it to be better.
Contrasted against this we have the Winter Soldier himself, who is without morality because he is without agency. And yet he managed to steal it back in the end, because when you have spent years of your life devoting yourself to protecting someone, it makes you part of each other. HYDRA could wipe his narrative memory. They couldn't wipe the muscle memory of protecting Steve. Because memory is holographic, you can never quite get rid of every piece; and any piece can connect to another. So here we have a hero who's been tortured clear out of his head -- and yet remains a hero, because he can't kill his best friend. It doesn't matter what you're forced to do. It matters what you choose to do. Whenever there was any choosing involved, Bucky was making hero choices.
The hero has a thousand faces. So does the villain. You can pick any one you want. But make sure you get the right one for the job. Don't try to mess things around. If you want a Hanged Man or an Antihero then fine, go with that. Those don't play the same way as an Unsullied Hero, who like most of the pure archetypes doesn't mix very well with others. You have to know how to play the character you pick, because they do better in different plots. They solve problems in different ways. And if you mismatch things, the audience tends to complain.
It got me thinking, again, how people often make mistakes because they just don't understand how to play a certain type of character. Man of Steel botched because it took a specific archetype -- the Unsullied Hero -- and dragged him through the mud. This is not only unfun, it doesn't play well, because the parts of the character don't fit together anymore. There are a jillion cynical heroes; we don't need more. We need the contrast of having at least a few who are not fucked-up bastards.
The Winter Soldier worked because it took the same Unsullied Hero archetype and dumped him into a world painted entirely in shades of grey. And he sat the fuck down and picked out the atoms of black and white one at a time, so he could remind people what those looked like. Cap isn't boring. If he looks boring, you're writing him wrong. He's beautiful and good and therefore really rather scary. He's also terribly vulnerable because the world can be a harsh place no matter how much he wants it to be better.
Contrasted against this we have the Winter Soldier himself, who is without morality because he is without agency. And yet he managed to steal it back in the end, because when you have spent years of your life devoting yourself to protecting someone, it makes you part of each other. HYDRA could wipe his narrative memory. They couldn't wipe the muscle memory of protecting Steve. Because memory is holographic, you can never quite get rid of every piece; and any piece can connect to another. So here we have a hero who's been tortured clear out of his head -- and yet remains a hero, because he can't kill his best friend. It doesn't matter what you're forced to do. It matters what you choose to do. Whenever there was any choosing involved, Bucky was making hero choices.
The hero has a thousand faces. So does the villain. You can pick any one you want. But make sure you get the right one for the job. Don't try to mess things around. If you want a Hanged Man or an Antihero then fine, go with that. Those don't play the same way as an Unsullied Hero, who like most of the pure archetypes doesn't mix very well with others. You have to know how to play the character you pick, because they do better in different plots. They solve problems in different ways. And if you mismatch things, the audience tends to complain.
Empty Boxes
May. 1st, 2014 05:08 pmI found this wonderful quote about marriage.
Life is a series of empty boxes. Each relationship, each job or hobby, your religion, your community, all the stuff you do -- it's just a container. You have to add the filling yourself. If you're working with other people, you have to mind who's putting stuff in vs. who's taking stuff out. Always try to add a little bit more than you take out. Don't just mooch, and don't let people take advantage of you. Aim for a healthy balance. You don't have to add and subtract the same kind of thing; you can put in praise and take out cuddles, or whatever. Relationships are about an exchange of energy.
Life is a series of empty boxes. Each relationship, each job or hobby, your religion, your community, all the stuff you do -- it's just a container. You have to add the filling yourself. If you're working with other people, you have to mind who's putting stuff in vs. who's taking stuff out. Always try to add a little bit more than you take out. Don't just mooch, and don't let people take advantage of you. Aim for a healthy balance. You don't have to add and subtract the same kind of thing; you can put in praise and take out cuddles, or whatever. Relationships are about an exchange of energy.
Thinking About Frozen
May. 1st, 2014 06:32 pm People are still talking about the pros and cons of Frozen. That alone makes the movie a success.
My first impression was very mixed. There were parts I loved and parts I hated. But on the whole, it wins a big "Keep going!" from me. Why? They tried something NEW. It was a movie with two female leads that didn't follow the usual kind of plot and did a lot of different stuff. When you push the envelope like that, chances are you'll botch something. That's okay. That's great! If you're not making any mistakes, you're not learning, you're coasting. I'd rather see people making new movies than the same one I've already seen 20 times.
My first impression was very mixed. There were parts I loved and parts I hated. But on the whole, it wins a big "Keep going!" from me. Why? They tried something NEW. It was a movie with two female leads that didn't follow the usual kind of plot and did a lot of different stuff. When you push the envelope like that, chances are you'll botch something. That's okay. That's great! If you're not making any mistakes, you're not learning, you're coasting. I'd rather see people making new movies than the same one I've already seen 20 times.
The Latest SFWA Wank
May. 1st, 2014 06:54 pm ... about harassment and sales figures. The only really sensible part of any of this? If you don't like an organization, leave. But flouncing just makes you look like a pouty tween.
Losing Cultural Diversity
May. 1st, 2014 08:03 pmHere's an interesting essay about low diversity in Young Adult books. Buried within is an observation new to me: as library funding was cut, librarians bought fewer books about black characters, and publishers released fewer. So cutting library funding can impact what books even get published for anyone to read. This is how cuts to library funding hurt everyone. A leak anywhere in the pipeline will reduce the flow at the far end, and there are a lot of leaks.
But the cool part of that is that you can apply yourself to fixing any part of the pipeline within reach. This includes:
* Encourage children of color to read.
* Give them diverse YA books.
* Encourage adolescents of color to write or illustrate books.
* If you're an editor or publisher, hustle contributors of color to submit to your market. Buy the best manuscripts from them.
* If you're an editor, professional OR HOBBY, coach people of color to tell their own stories and share them.
* If you're a reader, buy books by and about people of color.
* Support alternative publishing -- small press, micropress, self-published, crowdfunded, etc. -- because these venues are more welcoming of diverse contributors.
* Support sales. This includes promoting books to a wide audience, and making sure libraries, teen centers, and schools have enough money to buy diverse books.
* Review! Anybody can write a review now and post it to their blog or a major bookseller's site or a reader hubsite.
* Make and share lists of books by and about people of color.
* Analyze the problem and talk about how to fix it. Every bit of information is valuable. Maybe it will give someone else an idea on a new solution.
But the cool part of that is that you can apply yourself to fixing any part of the pipeline within reach. This includes:
* Encourage children of color to read.
* Give them diverse YA books.
* Encourage adolescents of color to write or illustrate books.
* If you're an editor or publisher, hustle contributors of color to submit to your market. Buy the best manuscripts from them.
* If you're an editor, professional OR HOBBY, coach people of color to tell their own stories and share them.
* If you're a reader, buy books by and about people of color.
* Support alternative publishing -- small press, micropress, self-published, crowdfunded, etc. -- because these venues are more welcoming of diverse contributors.
* Support sales. This includes promoting books to a wide audience, and making sure libraries, teen centers, and schools have enough money to buy diverse books.
* Review! Anybody can write a review now and post it to their blog or a major bookseller's site or a reader hubsite.
* Make and share lists of books by and about people of color.
* Analyze the problem and talk about how to fix it. Every bit of information is valuable. Maybe it will give someone else an idea on a new solution.
Introducing Dialecticdreamer
May. 1st, 2014 11:15 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dialecticdreamer is one of my new readers, who has recently started a Dreamwidth blog. There's a lot of meta about movies, comics, books, and other cultural material primarily in the speculative fiction genre. You'll also see posts about various social causes such as sexism or practical stuff like self-care. There's a bit of fiction too. Well-written, sometimes snarky, good links, high signal:noise, updates often. Highly recommended.
Some sample posts:
"A Good Neighbor" Part 1 of 5
"Something Off About That"
"Aliens Among Us"
"Love"
"Beneath the Celluloid Gloss"