triadruid

Yesterday's massive, if localized, Shipment of Race-and-Sexuality-Fail by some speculative fiction writers (I'm not linking; they've already got more publicity attention and critique than they can handle, I'm sure) caused several things to click for me regarding the issues of prejudice, -isms, and privilege that have been circling the Internets lately. I kept thinking of writing a post about it, but my brain was too tired and I had too much to do, and I'm still really in the beginning stages of understanding this crap. So instead, today I came across some essays and explanations and attempts at education; for my own information as much as any of yours, I'm collecting them here:

• First and foremost, Mary Anne Mohanraj guest-posted on John Scalzi's blog in a really accessible and straightforward way; here's part two.
• The Angry Black Woman blog, which has a fair amount of guest-writers and a lot of content on recent events, including yesterday's. She also hammered the point home for me about why Persons of Color shouldn't be obligated to teach Clueless White Persons what they're doing wrong: it's exhausting.
• How Not To Be Insane When Accused Of Racism - this one's key to understanding the difference between racism and prejudice, and when to Shut Up and not Defend Yourself. I really twigged to somebody's comment somewhere about the disservice many white liberals did to their kids in the 60s and 70s by telling them to be "colorblind" and All Would be Well. We also got a heaping huge dose of "Racists Are Equivalent to Nazis and Baby-Rapers" which tends to make everybody flip out when accused of doing or saying something racist, even inadvertently.
• Ursula K. LeGuin's comments on the "colorblind" idea, and the whitewashing of the Earthsea miniseries. In particular, "I think it is possible that some readers never even notice what color the people in the story are. Don't notice, don't care. Whites of course have the privilege of not caring, of being "colorblind." Nobody else does." was instructive of a blindspot I had until fairly recently.
• I Didn't Dream of Dragons, a slightly different take on the idea of Writing the Other.
• deepad's "White People, it's not All About You, but for this post it is" (now crossposted to DreamWidth)
• A really good discussion on why 'tone' arguments are usually counterproductive, from Racism 101.
• Oyate's Books To Avoid (mostly books for kids, but still useful)
• ::edit:: Finally, Justine Larbalestier has good news about the cover of Liar, which was originally whitewashed but now is getting a full redo, even in hardcover. Sometimes, things work out.

Sorry if this got long.

My dreams have been weird with a capital Q lately. My brain is only half-on as a result, so today you get links of a literary nature (basically).

Point the first: Obama, McCain, Clinton, and Kucinich go to a Convention of a different sort. Hilarity ensues.

Secondly, if you don't have time to read comic books (what are you doing on LJ, then?), here's a helpful set of one-sentence summaries, courtesy of jackbabalon23.

And finally, Elizabeth Bear linked to a publisher's blogpost about why your favorite new book may not be at your brick-and-mortar store. Interesting stuff there, especially if you're an author-in-aspiration.

Almost finished (halfway through the last book) with Harry Turtledove's Timeline-191 series. When I do, I'm pretty sure this'll be the longest series of books I've ever finished, at least until Mssr. Sanderson finishes the Wheel of Time. Almost 6000 pages of excellent alternate history, but he has the same flaw that Robert Jordan does/did; he apparently intimidates his editor into NOT doing his job, cutting redundant passages and 'stock phrases' where he should. It could also be tightened up a bit, like any series of 11 books might. Still, very entertaining (if something with the least-PC language you can imagine and, by the end, multiple nuclear bomb attacks in the Second World War can be called entertaining). I'd recommend it. On the other hand, I'm looking forward to reclaiming my dialect... there's so much regional/generational 'authenticity' that it's starting to bleed over into my own speech patterns.

Speaking of "rocks fall", we went to go see the new Indy Jones movie last night as part of a fundraiser for Concerned Care, Inc. Riotously funny film (although I imagine the cash bar helped), totally ridiculous plot, and more in-jokes than you can shake a fedora at. princessboredom apparently found it 'boring', but I have to wonder how much she's seen of the first three films. There's a lot of internal humor that won't translate well if you don't remember what came before it; on the gripping hand, Marion Ravenwood Williams!

This has to be the best "not-a-compliment" I've seen lately:

"...probably the best-known practitioner of alternate history working today."

Also, new icon.

That, or I'm paralyzed by my huge vocabulary. *headdesk* Anyway, I blame archway for this meme. She gave me 'K', and here are 10 a bunch of things I like that start with that letter...

• Kissing - I could do this for hours, and at very slight provocation. I used to be bad at it, believe it or not... (I was a tongue-puller)
  
• Kathy Spenler - Momma Kat. 'nuff said...
  
• Karen - my aunt Karen is an absolute sweetheart, and one of the few people on that side of my family that I'd still like to keep in touch with now that my mom has passed away. Also, she has the World's Coolest Small Dog, "Hans Olo".
  
• KIMBABIG (otherwise known as Megadeth's debut album, Killing Is My Business... And Business Is Good!) - abysmal production values, reckless time signatures, and more enthusiasm/anger than skill, but I still love this album. If only they hadn't had to censor "These Boots" for the CD re-master...*snort*
  
• Krakatoa - the history of this place has always fascinated me, ever since I read The Twenty-One Balloons as a kid... the idea that the planet could randomly just destroy an entire island was, and is, mind-blowing.
  
• K9 - dogs, police dogs, Doctor Who's minion... it's all good!
  
• Kal-El - I like the big lug Boy Scout. Sue me.
  
• Killin' Stuff - I've been a fan of Hack-n-Slash/Blow-em'-Up games for decades. Battletech on my old 386DX, D&D in all forms, Crossed Swords on the Neo-Geo, Diablo II, etc...
  
• KDE - always been my favorite Linux desktop; dunno why...
  
• Kawasaki Ninja - sexy, stupid-fast bike.
  
• Kevlar - very technologically impressive material, and of course terribly useful.

Anybody else who wants to play/get a letter, comment to that effect.

My family goes out of town again, and what's the first thing I do? Stay late at work, of course...*headdesk* Of course, being on the phone all yesterday meant I came home, stared about a bit, and went to bed early without saying 10 words to matchgirl42. Sorry 'bout that..

Also, I think I've finally 'broken' a bone; I use scare quotes because I'm not certain, but one of the metatarsals in my left foot has been hurting like hell for the last three weeks most times that pressure is put on it. Maybe a stress fracture, maybe something stupider like arthritis? Bah.

Still not getting much writing done for NaNoWriMo, even though I'm narrowly ahead of featherynscale (at least until she updates whatever she did on the plane yesterday), but I got "a" website updated.... also finished Stranger in a Strange Land (very Heinleinian), and The Philosopher and the Druids, which was better (and yet different) than expected. That officially brings me up to 50 books this year, first time I've done that since Book-It! in grade school.

Is it Friday yet?

National Novel Writing Month is officially upon us, and unlike in previous years I'm actually considering participating this year rather than just looking on in horror/awe as some of my friends go through the ritual. Still, 50,000 words (even tag-teamed) is a lot of time and energy, and I'm not sure I've got that much of either, plus all the other crap I do. That's 1,667 words or 2 1/2 pages a day, on average...

otterkin had a clever idea with "LoLoFooMo", (Local) Local-Foods Month, based around cooking. Others sometimes leverage their creative inclinations into non-prose works. I wonder what else you might do with such a challenge?

• 50,000 10,000 lines of code on a project (that you're not being paid for)
  
• NaBloPoMo, posting a blog entry every day for a month...
  
• Script Frenzy
  
• Int'l Sonnet & Haiku Month, right here at insohaimo
  
• NanoWriMo (note capitalization), one piece of short fiction a day, as in nano_wrimo
  
• 30 pieces of art, each taking no longer than a 24-hour period to complete
  
• National Solo Album Month

Other ideas?

I invented a phonology (and a spreadsheet to run it, thank gods).

Whee! (I'm pretty sure this counts as content-free)

This is a fantastically funny meme, found in infintysquared's journal:

Leave a list of fictional characters in your journal that you would love to get a message from. It is your friend-list's mission-- should they choose to accept it-- to write you an in-character post from a character on that list. Then they post their own list in their journal and the process continues!
( Lots to choose from )

::edit:: Funniest. Game. Ever.