This week in The Slacktiverse, April 3 2011

 

This week's Blogaround:

This week, Ruby continued her dissection of Soon, Jerry Jenkins' novel set in a post-World War III world in which all religion has been outlawed.  In Chapter 8: TEXAS!!! and Chapter 8: Roughnecks, anti-hero Paul Stepola, an atheist religion expert in the National Peace Organization, investigates a "miraculous" pillar of fire in an oil field.

 

During the past week, hapax posted her regular quickie book reviews and an effort to tie her visceral dislike of April Fools' pranks to broader observations about What's Wrong With Society These Days.

 

Mike Timonin blogged about fasting as a form of political action in his post Fasting, further notes.

 

Ana Mardoll continued her analysis/deconstruction of the Twilight series with a new post this week:

Twilight: Cheating with Vampires

Can anything be worse for intrepid protagonist Bella as she considers with horror the looming specter of having to repeat the same material as last year in her new high school literature class? Quite possibly so, since the series seems to be heading towards the eventuality of having to repeat high school forty or fifty times over as part of her plans for immortality.

 

Laima/Laiima blogged about having an "active month of Aries" for the first time in several years and what that means for her as a writer in her new post aries unfettered.

 

TW: Discussion of religious emotional abuse.

Sarah posted the first in a planned series of ruminations about her faith and the way it's changed over the years. The initial post, what I think about when I think about faith, part one, is mostly about her teenage years and the church her family went to when she was in high school. It's especially about the emphasis on emotions in the evangelical culture she was a part of and how they were used to manipulate people.

 

The poster who now blogs as "the former conservative" published a number of posts this past week: the late article about a gamer who doesn't want games that cater to gays or women; and two deconstructions car wreck reading and the car wreck isn't over of a fundamentalist Christian blog.

Jarred wrote a handful of blog posts to celebrate his coming out anniversary. He starts out by describing the night he came out In a Small Alcove at Susquehanna University Then he explores some of the events that led up to that night as he reviews The Path Left Behind. Then he explores the timing of coming out in Coming Out Considerations

This week's In case you missed this

EduSolidarity:

In light of the pushback against teachers unions in specific and collective bargaining in general going on in this country, last week a bunch of teachers came together to write about why they support unions. Over a hundred teachers wrote and its worth reading at least a few of their articles just because they have so many different perspectives on the values of and issues with unions.

 

   

Jarred encourages fellow denizens of The Slacktiverse to check out the blogs of Marisa:

Marisa is a former multiple (as in multiple personalities, also known as Dissociative Identity Disorder). She is currently going through the process of republishing all her old online diary entries from when she was learning to manager her multiplicity and first starting the healing journey related to the abuses that caused it. Her writing is raw and honest (and potentially triggering), and well worth reading. I'm personally enjoying it, because she's currently posting her entries from the years prior to when she and I met (she started her first online diary in 1994, and she and I first crossed paths on another online diary site in 2002, give or take a year.) By the time I met her, she had already progressed var in her journey, so getting a clearer picture of her "starting point" has been incredibly illuminating for me. For those particularly interested, Marisa also has a current blog where she talks about her life as it is today and will provide further "looking back" commentary on posts at The Crew.

This week's Things you can do

     

The community at hungerfast.org

is organized a campaign of fasting and prayer to protest (American) budget cuts which will make life even more difficult for the most vulnerable among us.

 

TW: Rape, sexual violence, torture.

Last Saturday, a young woman lawyer named Iman al-Obeidi burst into a Tripoli hotel and pleaded with foreign journalists for help, showing bruises and crying that she had just been gang-raped by 15 of Qaddafi's men. She screamed as she was dragged away by Libyan agents and has not been seen since......Qaddafi will ignore most international outrage, but he listened to the Turkish government when they asked him to release foreign journalists. Let's urgently raise a massive global call to Turkish Prime Minister Erdogan to help save Iman. [Avaaz.com]

Click here to sign the petition that will be sent to the Turkish government.

______________________________________________________

     

 

 

 

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



http://agirlcalledraven.blogspot.com/2011/03/what-i-think-about-when-i-think-about.html

Comments

[Ruby]

I think there may be something wrong with hapax's link.

[Nenya]

I love seeing all these links to things by our commentariat! A whole feast of blogs and posts to read. Yum.

[The Board Administration Team]

@Ruby - yup there was something wrong. It should be okay now. Post again if it doesn't work.

[Ruby]

All good. *salutes mods*

And, upon reading hapax's post, I am happy to report that my workplace was blissfully free of April Fool's nonsense. (I despise practical "jokes.") That said, my blog host did do a small joke that was actually funny--it added a zero to the end of the blog counter for the day--so if you got 156 views, it said you got 1,560 views. And...I liked it. It made me giggle, and most importantly, it was not at anyone's expense. Refreshing.

[Brin (not Meir)]

[proofreader]
>and Chapter 8: Roghnecks<
Roughnecks has a u.

>Laima/Laiima bloged<
Blogged has two g's.

>and waht that means for her as a writer<
What, not waht.

The last ForCon link is broken.

[/proofreader]

*goes to read links*

[The Board Administration Team]

@Brin -- hmmm....strange things happen when one cuts and pastes.

And that last link worked in one browser (the one used to preview it) but apparently not in others.

Have changed things....hopefully all is good now.

[Thalia]

It's especially about the emphasis on emotions in the evangelical culture she was a part of and how they were used to manipulate people.

While I didn't find this entry particularly triggering, this is the sort of thing for which I would specifically request a TW flag.

Thank you for your consideration.

[The Board Administration Team]

@Thalia: What TW flag do you think would be most appropriate/useful?

[Thalia]

@TBAT: TW: Emotional manipulation? I get triggered by stories about cults, brainwashing, love-bombing, guilt-tripping for God and the like. Seriously, when I first came here, I didn't even know anything about triggering--I was just happy that someone was writing about the difference between the Christianity I loved and the one I was afraid of. So thanks for answering. This is the me finally putting a pin in it. (Another suggestion: Religious emotional abuse?)

[Headless Unicorn Guy]

Ruby continued her dissection of Soon, Jerry Jenkins' novel set in a post-World War III world in which all religion has been outlawed. In Chapter 8: TEXAS!!! and Chapter 8: Roughnecks, anti-hero Paul Stepola, an atheist religion expert in the National Peace Organization, investigates a "miraculous" pillar of fire in an oil field.

Speaking as a starting-out writer myself:

1) Near Future Persecution Dystopias are as badly overdone as Amish Bonnet Romances and/or "Elves, Dwarves, Etc". CAN'T ANY OF YOU COME UP WITH SOMETHING ORIGINAL?

2) "Paul Stepola"? "Paul APOSTLE-spelled-sideways, Get It?" Once more, Jerry Jenkins demonstrates his Truly Awful Tin Ear for character names.

[kisekileia]

"Spiritual abuse" for the tag, maybe?

[Mike Timonin]

My name is spelled incorrectly. It's Timonin - just like it sounds. ;)

[sarah]

Huh. Well, I probably wouldn't call it "abuse" myself, but I can certainly see how it could be upsetting to some people.

[Thalia]

Well, it's something I've struggled with, sarah. I have gone into the world trying to cope with lies and emotional triggers, and I'm not sure if I can call it abuse if people who really believed they were doing the right thing for me encouraged me to indoctrinate myself in something it's taken years to unravel... sort of like this sentence. It's the very feeling of being unable to get a handle on it ... If it's not abusive, it's damaging...

[Nenya]

I would call it spiritual abuse. If intent is not magic, and if they treated us in objectively unhealthy ways that fucked us up...I would say abuse.

*offers hugs to Thalia*

Paul Stepola? Truly? *facepalm*

[sarah]

Sorry, let me clarify that. I wouldn't say that what happened to *me* was abuse. I'm certainly not trying to speak for Thalia or anyone else. Speaking of which...

@Thalia: I'm sorry for what you went through. Sounds tough. :(

[Mike Timonin]

Thanks!

[Thalia]

@sarah: I was a sensitive and traumatized child, and what abused me would not necessarily have abused someone who didn't take it as seriously, who wasn't depressed and wondering why they couldn't feel God's love. So I hesitate to phrase it so strongly. I don't take offense.

[Thalia]

Again, thanks for the hugs and consideration, y'all. It's nice to be known, even if it's scary.

[Raj]

{{{{Thalia}}}}

[kisekileia]

Thalia, I have also been a victim of religious abuse that would have been much less harmful for someone without my specific set of circumstances, and it took me a long time to acknowledge that 1) it was abuse and 2) I have PTSD from it. I like what has been pointed out elsewhere here: intent is not magic. Even if the treatment I received wouldn't have hurt someone else as badly, it still hurt me, and someone should have noticed that and stopped it. I imagine your situation is similar.

[Jarred]

I just want to say thank you to everyone from The Slacktiverse who read my blog post(s) this past weekend. It was a joy to watch the stats skyrocket for a few days.

[Jason]

Thanks to everyone who is reading my stuff too. Finding suitable fundy blogs to rip apart takes some work.