Small Galaxies
I say we all wear red shirts on December 21, 2012. So at least if we die, we die as Mr. Gene Roddenberry intended.
Make it so.
Reminding everyone of the plan.
December 2012
1 post
April 2012
2 posts
“The impressive young actress Sophie Turner plays Sansa with the thousand-yard stare and flat-affect voice of an abuse victim living from beating to beating. Sansa gets a lot of grief from fans of the show and the books alike – she’s stupid, she’s insipid, she’s prissy, she’s gutless. Bullshit. She’s doing what she needs to do to survive, as the episode’s opening scene demonstrates. She instinctively plays to Joffrey’s narcissism and cruelty, convincing him to spare a drunken knight’s life while dropping enough “Your Grace”s on him to make him think it was his idea. If she’d been less courteous, like the other Starks would have been, she’d be dead.”
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Sean Collins - Rolling Stones “Game of Thrones Recap: No Man Should Have All That Power” (via fystarks)
Don’t hate the player: hate the game. Team Sansa.
(via cijithegeek)
“
Many adults are put off when youngsters pose scientific questions. Children ask why the sun is yellow, or what a dream is, or how deep you can dig a hole, or when is the world’s birthday, or why we have toes. Too many teachers and parents answer with irritation or ridicule, or quickly move on to something else. Why adults should pretend to omniscience before a five-year-old, I can’t for the life of me understand. What’s wrong with admitting that you don’t know? Children soon recognize that somehow this kind of question annoys many adults. A few more experiences like this, and another child has been lost to science.
There are many better responses. If we have an idea of the answer, we could try to explain. If we don’t, we could go to the encyclopedia or the library. Or we might say to the child: “I don’t know the answer. Maybe no one knows. Maybe when you grow up, you’ll be the first to find out.”
” —Carl Sagan, The Demon-Haunted World: Science as the Candle in The Dark (via ironfleet)February 2012
4 posts
Internet Winnage: Someone Asked…
[Trigger warning: discussion of rape, rape culture, rape-related tropes found in Watchmen.]
…so here we go.
One of my big problems with Watchmen is how stupidly the near-rape is handled. And it’s EPIC stupid.
It’s full of every dumbass cliche there is,…
Really? Silk Spectre I falls in love with him after he tries to rape her and beats the shit out of her. SS II specifically states how cool he is, and flirts with him openly. Ozymandias respects him. Rorschach praises him, that leaves almost no POV characters left who don’t openly express admiration for him. And, this stuff doesn’t happen in a vacuum…using rape cliches isn’t excused because the writer is talented, unless the cliche is subverted or presented in some manner that illuminates the characters in a new way. This doesn’t. In my opinion, of course. The victim falling in love with her rapist is a hoary cliche and there’s nothing here to elevate that cliche away from its crappy peers. Brilliant book. It doesn’t mean it’s without problems.
January 2012
1 post
December 2011
18 posts
Comics And The Power Of Emotion
I got this lovely note in my ask box. I’m not going to post the name because I don’t know if the poster involved wanted her name used. It got me thinking:
“I just wanted to thank you. I know it sounds extremely cheesy/lame, but I just appreciate all of your work so much - especially Birds of Prey and the new Batgirl. I’m a huge Barbara fan, and for some reason, reading the stories that you write about her makes me feel a lot less lonely. Thank you for all of the hope that your stories have given me. Can’t wait until Issue 5!”
Of course, I appreciate the kind words, but I was really struck by what she said, about comics making her feel less lonely.
I don’t talk about this online a lot, but I grew up in an extremely rough situation that didn’t really get better until I left home. I’m not going to whine about the whole story here, but one problem was that I grew up on a farm, far, far away even from the teensy little redneck town where I went to school. We had no close neighbors with kids my age, no television, very little to do other than chores and wandering.
But comics really did help with that. When I read comics (or some really good fantasy fiction), I felt like the world wasn’t so tiny, that it was MASSIVE and filled with wonder and people from other planets and amazing friends with wonderful adventures. I was just a kid, but I treasured those stories and read them to tatters.
As I grew up and moved away, comics had gotten pretty grim and unwelcoming to female readers and I drifted away a while.
Then I went through a very sad period, and rediscovered comics by accident (it was Mark Waid and Alex Ross’ KINGDOM COME). I just fell in love with it. And now they had actual SHOPS where you could buy comics, and you could talk to the other readers, and the staff. And holy crap, I went online and there were whole message boards where you could talk to hundreds of people about these wonderful books.So, lots of times comics have been lovely for me, made me feel emotions. And twice, it was life-changing. That’s not counting going pro and all the things that that has brought to my life, I’m speaking solely as a reader.
This is one of the reasons why I take this stuff so seriously. An issue of a particular book might be just an assignment to the writer, but it might be tremendously important to a reader. I’ve had, probably, over the years, maybe eight to ten people say that stories I’ve written helped keep them from hurting themselves, and I know other writers have had that, as well. Comics can do that, they are stories of better possibility, they can touch the heart.
So my question is, have comics ever helped you feel less alone? Have they ever caused you to experience a powerful and positive emotional response?
If so, what characters do that for you the most?(Also, I have no idea why Tumblr is ignoring my paragraph breaks on this post…any ideas? It looks like a block of text!)
Rifling Through The X-Files: 1x06 "Ghost in the Machine"
Have you tried turning it off and on again?
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Plot:
Mulder’s former partner (heyyyy), Jerry Lamana, approaches Mulder and Scully about a case Lamana’s working on: Benjamin Drake, the CEO of a major software company, Eurisko, died when he was electrocuted after trying to open one of the company’s doors with his electronic key. Lamana suspects murder most foul, and the evidence suggests that someone hacked the COS security system and electrocuted Drake remotely. Yikes. Mulder constructs a rough criminal profile of the culprit being a “sociopathic game-playing recluse.” Lamana, hard up for a victory after a humiliating, career-damaging fuckup, swiftly steals Mulder’s notes and presents it as his own work. All signs point to recently fired founder Brad Wilczek, who argued pretty vigorously with Drake immediately prior to Drake’s death, and who is essentially the only person capable of accessing the COS, since he built it. Other suspects include the sentient COS itself, since Drake wanted to disable it because it caused a huge financial loss to the company. So basically it’s your standard “wait, did this artificial intelligence contrive to murder a human in order to preserve its own ‘life,’ such as it is?” plotline. And the answer to that question is “yes.”
Programming notes + question!
Hey there, people who read this blog. As you may or may not have noticed, I haven’t been able to post an X-Files recap this week — unfortunately my boss has been out sick for the past two and a half weeks, which means I’m the only person running our department so yay for simultaneously working two jobs. It also means writing lengthy blog posts has been more than a little difficult.
Which brings me to a question: are the lengthy blog recaps of all the X-Files eps actually fun to read? Would you prefer shorter recaps? A shorter wiki-like summary that glosses over some of the nuance followed by a slightly longer and possibly (I make no promises) humorous commentary? I love writing the recaps but I don’t want to send everyone to snoresville if they’re just too damn long. What are your thoughts? You can send an email here or message me here.
Confidential to Internet:
Reading Batgirl in digital format is why we have computing devices.
Rifling Through The X-Files: 1x05: "Shadows"
“When I die, I will haunt all your asses.” — Benjamin Franklin, drunk, possibly.
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I’m going to be honest, you guys. “Shadows” is almost offensively boring.
So before we get to a lengthy plot summary, let’s talk about the most fun thing about “Shadows”: terrible fashions. Specifically the terrible fashions of Lauren Kyte, a lady who is being haunted by her ghost-boss…and an array of florals?
Is that a teal silk blouse and an odd and unflattering rose-patterned skirt? You bet. Also that glass plaque has just been moved by a ghost.
You know what’s better than one ugly floral? Two (mismatched) ugly florals! Bonus points if one is in the form of a faux-quilted purse.
I’m going to try to give Lauren a pass on this ensemble because it was the mid-90s and everyone fell in love with two things: 1) burgundy/cranberry and 2) vests. It was like everyone spontaneously realized that their upper rib cage needed more coverage and/or emphasis. Seriously, it was a thing.
“
I come from a little rednecky town in Oregon, and honest to god, if a kid had been openly gay, his or her life might have been at risk. There was simply no tolerance whatsoever, and this wasn’t all that long ago.
Now, the school has several openly gay kids, including my niece, and they are well-liked, popular and accepted. No question that there are still struggles and prejudice, but it’s a different, and better world by far for them.
…
I do have a lot of hope for the future. I feel like the hard wave of sheer, rampant, unapologetic homophobia is in fact fear…these people know the world is passing them by, and they want to hang on to their ignorance any way they can. But they’re going to lose, it’s just inevitable, and their kids will be ashamed of them, and history will portray them as the fearful little bigots they are.
” —Gail Simone (via doctordisaster)
Gail Simone has a tumblr. Gail Simone has a Tumblr. And she says amazing things on it, because of course she does.
