The Slacktiverse

This week in The Slacktiverse, December 31 2011 / January 1 2012 (updated)

The Blogaround

This week Ana Mardoll posted:
Twilight: When Fantasies Reinforce Toxic Societies
There’s a tension in my mind with Twilight. On the one hand, I don’t want to criticize fantasies. Fantasies are private, fantasies are helpful, fantasies are healthy. On the other hand, when a fantasy becomes saturated in the mainstream, do we have an echo-chamber where society can become worse as a result of people modeling the fantasy? And how does this translate into the process of writing? Come share in Ana’s existential confusion in a Very Special Twilight post.

This week Ana Mardoll posted:
Deconstruction: The Fantasy of Being Beautiful
I wonder if the fantasy of Twilight isn’t one of becoming beautiful so much as it is about becoming a completely different person – in the same way that Kate Harding’s Fantasy of Being Thin is not about weight loss but about personality transformation.

This week Ana Mardoll posted:
Open Thread: Characters You'd Like To See In Fiction
Open threads aren’t usually meant to be reblogged, but here’s one I’d love to see a variety of opinions on. What are you missing in your fiction lately? Reading suggestions also welcome!

Chris the cynic writes: I was messing around with images of the Mona Lisa most of yesterday. This week I wrote about why I support Elizabeth Warren, returned to a photo I took a while back to do some fun stuff with it, and wrote about depression. Surprisingly enough, given the topic, I'm pretty sure that last one doesn't need a trigger warning. It's mostly about how many depressed people there are and how that means that we're not all alike.

In terms of stuff I'd like to point people to again, I've written multiple times about depression, and I think that my first attempt (Trigger warning: depression, in a fair amount of detail at that) is something that I'd like others to see in hopes it can help people understand.

There are also two bits of fiction I'd like to point back to, both Twilight related. The first is a silly version of the van scene from Twilight that plays at least as loose with the laws of physics as the original but has, in my opinion, a lot more fun doing it. The second is an ongoing alternate version of Twilight in which, for the most part, the characters are not jerks. They also happen to have the opposite genders as their Twilight counterparts.

spinetingler reports: I've been posting (mostly old dusty) Christmas music (The 25 Days of Blogmass) and will finish up this years series this week at audioarchives.blogspot.com

Ruby writes: My Wintermas review of Jerry Jenkins' 'Twas the Night Before is almost done. This will mark the second book I've completed over at Heathen Critique. I recently tweaked my blog a bit to have some easy links to my completed critiques (both books and movies) right at the top where people can find them. My full critique of Babylon Rising by Tim LaHaye and Greg Dinallo can be found here. The new TV Tropes page for the Babylon Rising series is here. As the new year begins, I will continue with Jerry Jenkins' Atheistopian novel, Soon.

Jarred got personal this week by talking about how Christmas doesn't always seem like Christmas and reviewing his year of discovering and recovering from his codependency. He also discussed being an ally to marginalized people and how important it is to actually keep those who are marginalized in the center of the discussion. He continued the them of supporting others by discussing one of the reasons it's important for men to support feminism.

Coleslaw writes: What with my son visiting and other things, I only have two posts this week. Loot is about Christmas gifts given and received, and I'm Not Tebowing; My Shoelace is Untied. (Warning: NSFW language from quoting some of It's Hard Out Here for a Pimp.)

Since we were invited to send in items that were missed earlier in the year, I have a few. I have an unfinished fictionalized account of my 1986 trip to Africa in Alien Landscapes, Part One and Part Two, and the non-fiction version (with pictures), My Real African Adventure. Also, I have my own views about the Proverbs 31 woman.

Laiima reports: This week I wrote about some health challenges explained and I'm pretty happy about how that's working out.

MercuryBlue writes: Literata's right that New Year's Resolutions don't often work. But that doesn't mean they're not worth a try. I'd like it if everyone at The Slacktiverse tried to make a habit of getting up from the computer every fifteen to twenty minutes to do an assortment of exercises found at http://www.rsiwarrior.com/stretches.html or anything else findable by Googling 'RSI exercises'. Repetitive stress injuries are Not Fun, and now's as good a time as any to start work on preventing them.

Michael Mock writes: This week in Mock Ramblings, I talked about my experiences as a parent in No Shoes, No Shirt, No Service - No Pants? I proposed another project for the Mad Science Lab in For Flavor, and started a Right Behind story called They Are Legion (Part One, Part Two). Finally, Diana of the Squirrels tells her story in Curse You, Mowgli!

This week, Storiteller reflected upon what she's accomplished and learned in one year of writing her blog, including what's she's gained from participating in The Slacktiverse community in A Year in Review. She also considers her New Year's Resolution from last year and sets a rather more metaphysical one this year in Big Cats, Fruit and New Year's Resolutions.

This week Kit Whitfield continued her deconstruction of famous first sentences with The Trial by Franz Kafka.

Last week Ana Mardoll posted:
Twilight: The Problem of Mike
There’s a tendency for Mike to seem good compared to Edward, simply because he is less bad than Edward. This tendency comes from the same place as “Nice Guys” and is a dangerous fallacy. Mike may not be stalking Bella, but that doesn’t make him less aggressive, or automatically more caring for her safety and feelings – because he’s not.

Last week Ana Mardoll posted:
Deconstruction: Manic Pixie Dream People
Musings on the movie “Bridesmaids” and how the defining trait of Manic Pixie Dream People is a disturbing tendency to not recognize the word “no”. Good when used in small quantities; disturbingly bad when mixed with privilege and served as the main course.

Last week Ana Mardoll posted:
Narnia: The Passion of Aslan
The biggest problem with the execution of Aslan, if indeed it is meant to be seen as analogous to Christ’s crucifixion, is that while Jesus’ sacrifice was an act of peace that anyone could partake in, Aslan’s sacrifice is an act of war that only Edmund can benefit from. Something crucial has been lost in the translation.

In case you missed this

The U.S. Department of Justice will block the voter ID provisions of an election law passed in South Carolina earlier this year because the state’s own statistics demonstrated that the photo identification requirement would have a much greater impact on non-white residents, DOJ said in a letter to the state on Friday. (TPM Muckraker "Justice Department Blocks South Carolina’s Voter ID Law")

Authorities in Iran said Sunday they are again moving ahead with plans to execute a woman sentenced to death by stoning on an adultery conviction in a case that sparked an international outcry, but are considering whether to carry out the punishment by hanging instead. (The Globe and Mail, December 25 2011 "Iran considers hanging or stoning to execute woman convicted of adultery")

Things you can do

Foodbanks are facing particularly difficult times as more people need help at the very moment when many supporters are less able to give. Community members are encouraged in email in additional Foodbank contacts:

Australia
Canada
America
United Kingdom

--Co-authored by the Slacktiverse Community

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The Board Administration Team
(hapax, Kit Whitfield and mmy)

The deathbed (non)conversion

The recent death of Christopher Hitchens resulted in the expected profusion of obituaries but a surprisingly small (given similar events in the past) number of claims that HItchens made a final deathbed conversion.

Do you think that that has more to do with the personality/persona of Hitchens himself, his writings during the last months of his life or changes in American society?

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The Board Administration Team
(hapax, Kit Whitfield and mmy)



Board Post, December 29 2011

Irregular Business

This weekend TBAT will post the last "This week" of 2011 and the first of 2012. Members of the community are encouraged to send in items that were missed earlier in the year, posts they are particularly proud of and other items they would like to share with the community in addition to links to posts from the past week.

Regular Business

Don't forget to send in items that you want included in This week in The Slacktiverse December 31 2011 / January 1 2012.

The three sections of the weekend post are:

The Blogaround

Any denizen of the Slacktiverse who has posted an article to their own website during since the previous weekend post is invited to send a short summary of that article along with its permalink to TBAT. That summary and link will be included in the next weekend blogaround. This will help to keep members of our community aware of the many excellent websites hosted by other members.

In Case You Missed This

Readers of The Slacktiverse can send short summaries of, and permalinks to, articles that they feel might be of interest to other readers.

Things You Can Do

Anyone who knows of a worthy cause or important petition should send a short description of the petition/cause along with its url to TBAT.

Deadlines

Please email all submissions to slackmods at gmail dot com. The deadline this week will be 2000 GMT on Saturday.

Urgent or time-sensitive announcements will be posted immediately rather than being held for the next regular "This Weekend" post.

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The Board Administration Team
(hapax, Kit Whitfield and mmy)



Comics & Countries

To quote Mike Timonin You know, I'd love to see a Canadian hero who isn't a) a copy of an American hero, b) somehow connected to hockey, c) Wolverine, or d) all of the above.

After some searching we found a comic book hero who is Canadian, not connected to hockey and not Wolverine.

What non-American comic book heroes do you know of? Which do you think 'work' best for the cultures they represent and why?





[from] http://digitalcomicmuseum.com/index.php?dlid=12175

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The Board Administration Team
(hapax, Kit Whitfield and mmy)



How I Turned Into That Person

Good books often get challenged because they challenge us in turn. If you look at the list of most commonly challenged books in US libraries, you'll see classics of both adult and children's literature, Toni Morrison rubbing shoulders with Judy Blume, Vladimir Nabokov with S.E. Hinton, Margaret Atwood with Maurice Sendak. With a few exceptions ('Go Ask Alice' is a pretty disingenuous book), it's practically a roll-call of honour.

And we all have a mental image of the challengers, don't we? Twinset and pearls, or perhaps a varsity sweatshirt. Probably a woman, an interfering mother who expects the whole of society to shield her child from reality, parochial, intolerant and rather stupid. A very easy and satisfying figure to hate on, really.

Which is why I was a little surprised to find myself writing to the BBC, challenging a children's show for - of all things - its values.

*cue bouncy music*

Mike the Knight, he's a brave young hero!
(Be a knight, do it right!)
He's a trainee knight, but does he show fear? No!
(Be a knight, do it right!)
There'll be trouble, double trouble,
But you know it's going to be all right,
'Cause every day is an adventure For Mike the Knight...

Now, admittedly nostalgia is a powerful motivating force when it comes to children's entertainment. I was heartbroken when they changed the format of Zingzillas. I was wary when they introduced Abadas, purely because it was something new. (It turned out to be rather charming and I'm now fond of it.) The books and shows that entertain my son are important parts of his childhood, and my emotional attachment to them is consequently strong and a little conservative: the more he grows and changes, the cooler he gets, but changing his favourite shows triggers an instinctive resistance in me. But I know this isn't rational, and I try not to be silly about it.

So when, with literal and metaphorical fanfares, CBeebies (the preschool channel produced by the BBC, generally of a very high standard), trotted Mike the Knight out of his stable, I was cautious but determined to be fair.

Here's the basic format of each show. Mike, a trainee knight with a supportive mother, an apparently absent knightly father and a trainee witch sister called Evie whose spells never work, is always looking for a quest. Something comes up, he exclaims 'By the king's crown, that's it!', and races off to make a quest of it - making a mess of it because he's more preoccupied with his fantasies of knighthood than with paying attention to his circumstances. He stops everyone crossing a bridge all day to protect them from a monster, for instance, when a little investigation would reveal it's just Evie's pet frog trapped down an echoing hole; he races off to make a quest of collecting Evie's birthday cake and getting it redesigned with knightly decorations, ignoring her trying to tell him that her preferred birthday treat would be to help him with a quest (because being allowed to play with your brother is obviously the height of a girl's ambitions); he decides to prove his pathfinding abilities, removes all the road signs and makes everyone get lost; and so on. After a while, he realises his mistake, declares, 'It's time to be a knight and do it right!' and fixes the mess he's made. Everyone stands in the background and applauds - a mostly white crowd with one or two token Asian-looking people. The Asian-looking bard sings of Mike's heroism, and we have the credits.

Which is why my letter to the BBC was headed: 'If you're white and male, you're a star even if you're wrong; if you're brown or female, you're background even if you're right.'

My complaint letter was, in short, written from a progressive point of view.

Here it is in full:

We are the parents of a white little boy, and are concerned about Mike the Knight. Complaining like this, we may sound like a politically correct cranks, but we love most of CBeebies: it's educational, fun, and full of good values, and our son has a great time watching it.

Mike the Knight is a disappointing exception. Where most of CBeebies shows make an effort to show diversity in a respectful way, Mike the Knight focuses heavily on a single character - a white boy, the category that we already have a million stories about. And the way it focuses on him is, to our eyes, destructive.

Yes, it's about doing it right in the end, and it clearly means well. But where most CBeebies shows appreciate the value of community, respect for difference and working together, Mike is fraught with entitlement: the plot is all about him making trouble because his status as an aspiring knight - a male role, we note, and are there any non-white knights? - makes him feel entitled to be the star, even if it means pushing himself to the centre when there's no need and failing to listen to other people who know better than him. Yes, he puts it right in the end - but through his own revelations, while female and brown people stand in the background playing a subordinate role. If you're not white and male, your prospective roles in this world are admiring rival, admiring sidekick, or admiring observer.

This is not a role we want our son to be modelled. Female and non-white people are his brothers and sisters, his co-stars, not his background, and we want him to feel comfortable with that. The world is already full of messages pushing the idea that white men are the stars and everyone else is background, and apart from encouraging prejudice and unrealistic expectations, it puts an unfair burden on white boys, implying that they're weak if they have to accept someone telling them they're wrong. Even the theme song - 'does he show fear? No!' - pushes old and destructive ideas about how men are supposed to be strong and occupy the leading role.

This is a set of values that discriminates against the many and isolates the few. The idea of a knight doing things right could be great if it took in the notion of true respect for others - why shouldn't Mike have knight friends who are female or of colour, for example? or sometimes find himself called upon when he has other things in mind than seeking attention? - but at the moment, on a channel that's usually progressive, Mike the Knight is decades out of date.

Justin Fletcher, the male presenters, the Piplings, the Zingzillas, Mr Bloom, Bob the Builder: all these are excellent models for a white boy living in a world where he'll have to learn how to navigate the disparity between the privileges he gets and the privileges denied other people if he's going to become a good person. Mike the Knight is a sorry exception, and we hope very much you'll either improve it or replace it with something better.

I wasn't calling for Mike the Knight to be banned. I'd like it to be improved a great deal, or else to make way for a better program: a TV channel has limited slots and I think they should go to shows that don't marginalise the majority of people, but if they want to keep it around on their website or sell DVDs of it and make them available in libraries, that's their right. So there's that.

On the other hand, I have unquestionably joined the ranks of mothers who complain that fiction is modelling bad values for their children.

I don't expect TV to be my babysitter. If I don't want us to watch Mike the Knight, it's up to me to switch the box off. And yet here I am, complaining - with, I believe, good cause - about a TV show failing to meet with my moral standards.

Which raises the question: is there any difference between me and Mrs Twin-Set, and if so, what is it? We are both, after all, complaining that we don't want our children taught bad values. We are both accepting the posit that what a child encounters in fiction is going to have some effect on how he or she thinks. We are both considering that a public service has some responsibility to the public conscience.

We have a difference of opinion, at least. I'm not complaining because I want things excluded; I'm complaining because I don't want things - like women and people of colour - excluded. I'm not objecting to my son's innocence being violated; I'm objecting to his privilege being reinforced. I'm not arguing that no one should have access to Mike the Knight, just that it could be improved and that if it's not, another show would be a better occupant for finite TV time. But then, what if I were in a library and I saw a book I really had doubts about on the children's shelves? Would I complain? I certainly have plans to influence my son's fictional palate: there are books and shows and movies I plan to introduce him to because I think they'd be emotionally educational (though whether he actually likes them or not is, of course, up to him). There are books I hesitate over; for instance, I plan to read aloud Edith Nesbit and J.K. Rowling and Diana Wynne Jones, partly for their entertainment value and partly because I absolutely loathe C.S. Lewis and, should my son turn out to be a fan of magical tales, I'd like to give him the opportunity to bond with other, less bigoted authors first so that he can view Lewis with a bit more critical distance. (Of course, with this attitude it'd serve me right if he turned out to be Lewis's reincarnation.) So while probably wouldn't want a library to pull a book off its shelves, I certainly think in terms of exercising a degree of parental influence in the first few years of my son's life.

So at the end of the day, it may simply come down to an issue of politics. I don't think, for instance, that one should censor a book because it has shocking content (be it Lolita's paedophilic narrator or Blubber's villain using racial slurs); I believe that honest depictions of bad things are a good thing in books. I don't object to sexual content in fiction; to my mind, the sooner my son wants to have The Talk the better for him. While I'd hope that a writer for young children would be responsible in depicting the consequences of violence, I don't object to violent content per se. I'm all in favour of stuff that supports racial equality, LGBT rights and social justice. But on the other hand, Mrs Twin-Set is a fantasy figure, and without hearing the reasons for the challenges, I probably shouldn't assume I know real peoples' motivations. I'll stand up for my politics, but they may not explain everything.

So I'm wondering: is complaining complaining no matter what your motivations? Are there legitimate and illegitimate complaints? What's the difference? I'd really like to know what people think, because frankly, I'm far from sure.

--Kit Whitfield

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The Slacktiverse is a community blog. Content reflects the individual opinions of the contributors. We welcome disagreement in the comment threads, and invite anyone who wishes to present an alternative interpretation of a situation to write and submit a post.

This week in The Slacktiverse, December 24/25 2011

The Blogaround

This week Ana Mardoll posted:
Twilight: The Problem of Mike
There’s a tendency for Mike to seem good compared to Edward, simply because he is less bad than Edward. This tendency comes from the same place as “Nice Guys” and is a dangerous fallacy. Mike may not be stalking Bella, but that doesn’t make him less aggressive, or automatically more caring for her safety and feelings – because he’s not.

This week Ana Mardoll posted:
Deconstruction: Manic Pixie Dream People
Musings on the movie “Bridesmaids” and how the defining trait of Manic Pixie Dream People is a disturbing tendency to not recognize the word “no”. Good when used in small quantities; disturbingly bad when mixed with privilege and served as the main course.

This week Ana Mardoll posted:
Narnia: The Passion of Aslan
The biggest problem with the execution of Aslan, if indeed it is meant to be seen as analogous to Christ’s crucifixion, is that while Jesus’ sacrifice was an act of peace that anyone could partake in, Aslan’s sacrifice is an act of war that only Edmund can benefit from. Something crucial has been lost in the translation.

Last week Ana Mardoll posted:
Twilight: Bad Boys and Blood Drives
Mr. Banner is drawing blood from his students, with neither parental permission nor disinfectant wipes nor advance warning, and with zero planning in case one or more of his students feel faint during the process. All in support of a blood donation drive being held in a city that’s more than an hour’s drive away. What could possibly go wrong?

This week, Storiteller discovered the results of a stupid mistake and experienced a minor inconvenience as a result. However, reflecting on how the same mistake might have devastated someone less economically stable, she sees another example of America's inequality in The Richness of Second Chances. To help those cooking for the holidays or any other time, she shares a few of the cooking tips she's picked up from her husband in Secrets of a Professional Cook's Wife.

Last week, Storiteller wrote the second half of her sustainable Gift Guide, focusing on bicycle-oriented gifts in Bike-o-riffic Gift Guide. She also highlighted one of her favorite organizations, which has done a tremendous amount of wonderful work in the D.C. area in Fangirl Friday: D.C. Central Kitchen.

Yamikuronue writes: Last week I published TPD pp65-67 (Trigger Warning: Domestic abuse). This week I was more productive, with two TPD posts: pp. 67-70 and pp. 71-72.

Chris the Cynic writes: Last week I wrote a thing on divisibility rules, and a campaign message from Edward Cullen and this week I wrote a thing on divisibility rules in base twelve, talked about the uncertain future of my house, and learned that Deird has the jetpack ready.

Michael Mock writes: This week in Mock Ramblings, I finished my deconstruction of Night of the Living Dead Christian. I also recommended a worship band that I heard recently, and admired Firstborn's growing sense of restraint. I sketched out a script for a truly appalling movie idea and talked about horror movies that shaped my childhood. Lastly, I recommended a little more Christmas music that I actually like.

Laiima reports: This week I posted about my uncomfortable relationship with discipline and beginning anew.

This week Kit Whitfield continued her deconstruction of famous first sentences with Sourcery and Pyramids by Terry Pratchett and Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov.

Coleslaw writes: My cat, D'Artagnan, provided me with documentary evidence of A Little Known Christmas Fact. It Was a Dark and Stormy Night, so I spent it compiling a list of 15 instantly recognizable first lines, and Amaryllis added 13 more easily recognized first lines of poems and one I'm still pondering. I survive eating pizza at a local dive, the Fleur de Lis. Finally, my son is home from London for Christmas, but I may need a map and a calendar to keep track of his Comings and Goings.

Oh, and if you were in Target the day before Christmas Eve and The Shopper in Aisle Six seemed to be acting a bit oddly, there's a reason for that. Not a good reason, necessarily, just a reason.

Happy holidays of all kinds to those who celebrate them, and for those who don't, thank you for having patience with the rest of us.

Literata reviewed a book of Tarot spells, asked "What's in your Witch-kit?," and recounted a conversation on Theodore Roosevelt Island.

Sarah writes: Last week I posted a poem by Raul Zurita and a "things I've been reading" entry. This week, I posted "this year in pictures" and some Christmas music.

This week, Jarred continued his discussion of "Raised Right," talking about how conservative politics and fundamentalist religion can consume some young people's childhood. He also wrote a post for Yule and reaffirmed why the Catholic church is not a desirable "men-only" space. His sentimental side got the better of him as he finished out the week with a post about Christmas and anticipation.

J. Enigma reports:
(Global Trigger Warning: Transhumanism, violence, language) The saga of Human Black Box continues with yet more twists and turns. First, in Part 6, Chloe wakes up having just been resleeved after Cameron shot her, and learns some interesting things about Cameron and the New Hope Colony. Meanwhile, Zira concocts a scheme to get them in New Hope; one that hopefully won't get Chloe killed (again). Part 7 has Zira tracking down one Cameron's forks and interrogating it to try and learn more. However, it's easier to get information with bribery and lies than it is with torture and harm... Part 8 (Specific Trigger Warning: Torture) returns us to Chloe, who makes a couple of startling discoveries about New Hope, saves Jesus, and sees for the first time New Hope's "Salvation of Mankind"... And as always, the link the Archives, where you can read all of the previous installments before these three.

(Trigger Warning: Transhumanism) I also took an opportunity to catch up general transhumanist posts, which I've been ignoring lately. The first post (We Will Lose Autonomy Over Our Beings...) in response to an article written by a fellow transhumanist entitled: "Is Transhumanism Coercive: Why forcing humanity to remain relatively stupid and sick doesn't make us freer". The post details his argument against a bioconservative who claims that transhumanists will force people to undergo modifications. I address the general debate and the bioconservative points in my post. (Trigger Warning: Transhumanism, Uplifting) I also took the time to revisit the concept of animal uplifting, and rehash my argument how it's our moral responsibility to use our technology, that has made our life better, to make life better for all sapient creatures.

Other scattered posts I've made include (Trigger Warning: Talks of Sexism and Racism in culture) my thoughts on the new Batman movie, The Dark Knight Rises, and the fact that Riddly Scott announced that he would be drawing on the works of "noted sc-fi writer" Eric von Daniken, the author of Chariots of the Gods, otherwise called "the pseudo-archeologists' guide to claiming Brown people couldn't have done that", to create a "prequel" of sorts for the Alien series (Batman, Aliens, and Hollywood). I also made a post about the recent discovery of Earth-like planets orbiting a star some 950ly from here, and how this is just the tip of the iceberg, and how Kepler will prove very rewarding yet. I also took a look at a Liberty Council bulletin that very clearly showed a governor of Rhode Island calling it a "holiday tree" was turning us into North Korea, and took a look at a little bit of the history behind the "War on Christmas," and how their claim loops right back around and links up with the origin of the so-called "war". I also put up a small science post, as if my writings weren't eclectic enough this week, about an observation of a wasp that has the strange habit of lifting ants into the air and then dropping them (don't worry - no ants were harmed, and I talked a little in the post as to why, along with a bunch of roleplaying game references), and lastly made the announcement that I hadn't gotten my short story published, took a look at the "Sci-Fi ghetto", and determined that if at first you don't succeed, skydiving is not for you. You can find that post here.

In case you missed this

Yamikuronue writes: This week I have exciting news: I published my debut novel, Wolfbound, under the penname Jane Bailey. An excerpt is available for free here, as well as the typical previews generated by Smashwords and Amazon.

Income inequality has increased in the United States over the last decades. According to this recent study, (Income inequality in the Roman Empire) income inequality is not only greater in America than it is in Russia -- it is also greater than it was in Ancient Rome.

Things you can do

Donations to help the hungry and displaced around the world can be made through Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors without Borders.)

--Co-authored by the Slacktiverse Community

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The Board Administration Team
(hapax, Kit Whitfield and mmy)

Merry Christmas—Happy Christmas to All

Christmas is a time for family. Tradition. Remembering the past, enjoying the present, looking towards the future.

My family has two Christmas traditions in particular that I want to talk about. One is 'Twas the Night Before Christmas as narrated by my mother's mother, who died...must be fifteen years ago now, shortly after my mother's father. The home video shows Grandma D, Grandpa R, Dad (and part of the tradition is that Mom, when we get to that part of the video, says "God, he looks young"), me age not quite three, and my brother age just past one. I like this tradition, because it's a way of connecting with people I loved and lost; just thinking about it is putting tears in my eyes. The essay title comes from this: Grandma D misread the final line of the poem.

Our other important family tradition is that Mom reads Anastasia Joan Kirby's A Dream of Christmas Eve. This is also a way of connecting with my grandmother; she read the story to my mother and her siblings every Christmas Eve, and when Uncle R1 started having kids, she wrote Saint Anthony's Guild for permission to photocopy the book so that each of her children and their families could have a copy. Ours is crayoned on; apparently I thought the book needed some color. We actually have two copies, because a couple years ago I tracked down a used copy online and bought it for Mom for her birthday. Judging by Mom's reaction, it's the best present I've ever given her.

It's an incredibly sweet little story, written in couplets of anapestic tetrameter. The narrator describes a dream ze had one Christmas Eve, in which Santa Claus, upset because he'd "forgotten poor Timmy and Sue", sees the children's family Nativity scene and asks baby Jesus what he should do. Jesus, incredibly articulate for a miniature sculpture of a newborn, sends Santa up to the sleigh for "the doll that was broken / And all the old things Santa thought were no good, / Stacked up in the sleigh with odd pieces of wood" that Joseph means to use to make a boat for Timmy. Mary asks Jesus to miracle her up needle and thread for a new dress for Sue's doll. The Magi take the embroidery on their robes and the gifts they brought Jesus to decorate the Christmas tree. The camel donates hair for a paintbrush, the lambs wool for a doll-sized muff, the shepherds their staffs for candy canes, and the ox asks Jesus, "Would He please to remove the best horn from its head / And make from it one that would toot Toots instead?" Jesus himself takes the lights from all their eyes and a star from the sky as the final touches on the tree. Santa, whom one would think would be used to magical happenings, is astonished and overjoyed to discover that his mistake will not in fact ruin Timmy and Sue's Christmas; he thanks Jesus and the others for all their help and for making his Christmas bright. "There wasn't enough that he'd like to have done, / But the very best gift he could leave, for a start / Was all of the love that he had in his heart, / And I heard him call out as he left for his rest: 'MERRY CHRISTMAS to All, and one that is blest!'"

It's a Catholic story, as well. Transubstantiation, if you're unaware, is the Roman Catholic doctrine that the bread and wine of the Eucharist is the body and blood of Jesus. If carbohydrates can be flesh and alcohol can be blood, literally instead of merely symbolically, why shouldn't statuettes be the actual persons they depict? Miracles, in the Catholic view, do happen.

The story is copyright 1937, so I can't blame Kirby for failing to be a twenty-first-century feminist, but the story has rigid gender roles. Joseph is a carpenter, a historically male-coded activity. Mary sews, something coded female since the dawn of time. Timmy gets the outdoor activity, the "boat / Which Timmy next summer might set out to float"; Sue gets a doll. Whether it's a fashion doll or a baby doll isn't specified, but either way, playing with dolls is a strongly female-coded activity. I've never understood that. Fashion is one of those industries, like cooking, where doing it for money is coded male and doing it for love or to support a family is coded female, and while it's true that most women will be mothers, just as many men will be fathers. Given the rigid gender roles of the story, how can my mother tolerate reading this to her daughters?

The only speaking parts in the story are Santa, Jesus, the camel (identified as 'he'), the ox ('it'), and perhaps the lamb ('perhaps' because, well, "The lamb went Baa-Baa!—which meant, I would guess / It was perfectly happy and answered Yes, Yes!"). Three male characters, one that may or may not be male (insert quote from 1776) but certainly is not female, and one of unidentified gender. Mary rates five couplets, more than anyone else but Santa and Jesus, but strictly speaking, she does not speak at any point in the story. She thinks in quotation marks. I do not count the narrator as a speaking part, though perhaps I ought to; if I did, that would make it two characters of unidentified gender, though the author's name is stereotypically female. Again, 1937; I find I cannot fault Kirby for doing something that everyone in 2011, it seems, is still doing, but in the context of 2011 feminism, it makes me uncomfortable.

There's one final thing I don't like about this story. Timmy and Sue are described as "two poor little children", and the lack of presents and Christmas tree decorations from the children's parents means we must assume 'poor' to be in the economic sense rather than as in "oh, you poor thing". Again, 1937; this story was published during the Great Depression. Why do Timmy and Sue rate a miraculous Christmas, when so many other children in that era didn't get Christmas at all? And reading the story in 2011, where are all the charitable givers? Christmas is the most profitable time for charity, at least in the US, where I assume this story to be set (certainly it was published in New Jersey); charities that accept volunteer hours rather than donations in cash or kind inevitably find themselves turning folk away at Christmas and shorthanded the rest of the year. No Christian I've ever known likes the thought of a child waking up on Christmas Day to find no presents under the tree, and the US has a lot of Christians. Why then did these two children have nothing? And why do they get a one-time miracle consisting of toys and candy, when a one-time miracle of a new job for the household breadwinner would do the family much more good?

A Dream of Christmas Eve illustrates a complicated Catholic doctrine, transubstantiation, for young minds, as well as an easier to understand doctrine, that God will provide. In the Catholic context, the story is a success, and it's a damn shame it's so little known. But I am not Catholic and I cannot read the story as a Catholic. In the context of atheism, let's hear it for suspension of disbelief, and in the context of feminism, the story, though typical of its time, is completely unsuited to a modern audience.

I can't imagine Christmas without it.

--MercuryBlue

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The Slacktiverse is a community blog. Content reflects the individual opinions of the contributors. We welcome disagreement in the comment threads, and invite anyone who wishes to present an alternative interpretation of a situation to write and submit a post.

Board Post, December 22 2011

Irregular Business

This week TBAT returns to the regular "This week" post. Members of the The Slacktiverse community are encouraged to send in items that were originally posted as comments to last week's "This week" post or items that would usually have been added to last week's post as well as the "regular" items for this week.

Regular Business

Don't forget to send in items that you want included in This week in The Slacktiverse December 24/25 2011.

The three sections of the weekend post are:

The Blogaround

Any denizen of the Slacktiverse who has posted an article to their own website during since the previous weekend post is invited to send a short summary of that article along with its permalink to TBAT. That summary and link will be included in the next weekend blogaround. This will help to keep members of our community aware of the many excellent websites hosted by other members.

In Case You Missed This

Readers of The Slacktiverse can send short summaries of, and permalinks to, articles that they feel might be of interest to other readers.

Things You Can Do

Anyone who knows of a worthy cause or important petition should send a short description of the petition/cause along with its url to TBAT.

Deadlines

Please email all submissions to slackmods at gmail dot com. The deadline this week will be 2000 GMT on Saturday.

Urgent or time-sensitive announcements will be posted immediately rather than being held for the next regular "This Weekend" post.

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The Board Administration Team
(hapax, Kit Whitfield and mmy)



Yule - Sustaining Rebirth

Six months ago, I told a story of Litha being destruction averted, because although it is easy to associate warmth with the very energy of life, it is important that we not be overwhelmed by it. ^[1] Yule, by contrast, is a celebration of life being created anew, and created again, even in the midst of cold and darkness. It is a time when re-creation leads, appropriately, to recreation.

People in temperate climates have a long, long history of celebrating the days when the sun seems to stand still, halting its northward journey and then turning southward again, promising longer days and an end to winter, even if it is a long way off. ^[2] Midwinter solstice heralds a fresh start, and the promise of the whole world coming back to life - not miraculously restored after just a few days, but gradually reborn through the more mundane magic of germination and gestation.

Of course, this isn't the only time of year we talk about new life coming into being, but it is one of the most poignant and symbolic times. I've seen so many rituals, both at Yule and other holidays, that speak to people's desire for rebirth in their everyday lives. It's easy to want a fresh start, a sudden and dramatic change - just like magic! - which will remove our obstacles and change our bad habits in one fell swoop. It's easy to create a ritual that panders to the most unexamined form of this yearning for a quick fix, to assure people that if they simply want it hard enough, or light enough candles, it will happen. Worst of all, it's too easy to let this devolve into the idea that the universe is a vast wish-granting machine, and that if you don't get what you want, either someone is out to get you or it's all your fault. A similar idea is at work in the secular custom of New Year's resolutions, and they are famously ineffective.

The natural world doesn't work that way. The sun doesn't suddenly spring back to its position at the height of summer - and it's a good thing, too, because that kind of transformation without transition would be incredibly traumatic. This is true for humans, too. Sudden changes and fresh starts do occur, but they're not always something to be yearned for, and they're seldom as easy as we would like to imagine. More often, rebirth is not an instantaneous process. Usually it arises not just from our wishing but from our working. New life and ways of life usually require that we make choices day after day, again and again, choosing anew and working in support of that choice.

We experience this in our relationships, too; they have to be nurtured on a regular basis. A marriage vow, for example, isn't something that magically forges a lasting, loving relationship between two people. It's choosing to live out that vow, again and again, choosing to love, to forgive, to be patient, that keeps the relationship alive, helps it be reborn day by day. It's not that every single choice, or word, or action has to be perfect, but that enough of them are good enough to tip the balance. It's not the making of the vow but the keeping of it that provides the warmth of love in the heart of the family, just as it's not the single moment of Yule but the gradual lengthening of days that warms the world for springtime.

This kind of gradual progress can be frustrating. The day after Yule isn't noticeably longer, and it's going to go on being cold for quite a while. In the face of that, it's important to celebrate the magical moments, like the days when the very sun stands still and then changes course. But often, our culture puts too much weight on the single moments, with unrealistic expectations leading to inevitable disappointments: the big dinner must be a time of jollity and familial love, the long-awaited present must be perfectly surprising and satisfying all at once, and so on.

Instead of trying to force Yule, or New Year's, or any other single moment, to give me instantaneous transformation, I try to follow the Sun's pattern. On this shortest day, I take time to pause, to stand still and just be present. Then, when I want to renew or re-create my life in some way, I do it gradually, gently, a little at a time. That kind of sustained rebirth, a daily, incremental newness of life, has a name: growth. Growth, and the precious knowledge that it continues, even in the cold and dark of winter, is what I celebrate in this season.

--Literata

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^[1] At this time, the Northern Hemisphere is approaching the winter solstice, while the Southern Hemisphere is approaching Litha, or summer solstice.↩

^[2] Solstice comes from the roots "sol," meaning sun, and "sistere," meaning to come to a stop. [Online Etymology Dictionary]↩

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The Slacktiverse is a community blog. Content reflects the individual opinions of the contributors. We welcome disagreement in the comment threads, and invite anyone who wishes to present an alternative interpretation of a situation to write and submit a post.

At Patheos: TF: A person of action

Fred Clark has posted a new post, TF: A person of action, at Patheos.com.

This week Fred writes about pp. 445-450 of Tribulation Force.

Excerpt:

And there is the difference between Miss Patricia Devlin and the other characters surrounding her in these books — she has business to attend to. She’s busy. She’s what a “person of action” actually looks like.

How fitting, then, that she should shoulder her way unexpectedly into this book in this particular scene in order to preside over the death of the hapless Bruce Barnes. Bruce should have been busy. Better than anyone else, he knew exactly what was coming. It was all clearly spelled out for him in the Rev. Billings’ notes — so clearly that there was no need for him to fritter away more than a year locked in Billings’ old office re-reading and re-re-reading those simple notes. Yet beyond the crudest of crude plans — dig a hole and hide — Bruce never got busy acting on what he knew.

“Help or get out of the way,” Patricia said. Bruce never did the former so here, at last, he does the latter.

[Fred Clark, TF: A person of action, December 19, 2011, posted at Patheos.com]


Commentators who would like to share their responses to the new post with all of Fred's fans (old and new) can cross-post to both boards.