The Slacktiverse

Updated This week in The Slacktiverse, July 21/22 2012

The Blogaround

Nick Kiddle writes: I updated the Iron-On Line this week: a post about my trip to the sexual health clinic (Trigger Warning: sex talk, sexual anxiety, cissexist microaggressions, polyamory)

This week Ana Mardoll posted:
Deconstruction: Love Is...
(Trigger Warning: Hospitalization, Cancer, Religious and Political Homophobia)
I'm blessed and privileged that the love from my parents and my spouse has social approval and government sanction. And I hope to someday live in a world where that statement will also be true for the millions of QUILTBAG peoples on this earth.

This week Ana Mardoll posted:
(Trigger Warning: Depression, Ableism Language in Text, Ethics of Mind-Reading, Bad Friendships, Disordered Eating)
Twilight: Protagonist-Centered Everything
It's a fantasy that is essentially self-centered, that places Bella -- or the reader -- at the literal center of everyone else's emotional universes. Sexual orientation, personal preference, monogamy, and respect for one's position as a person of authority are all tossed out of the window in order to bolster Bella's desire to be overwhelmingly beautiful.

Literata discussed another writer's take on Christian privilege, tackled the subject of how to speak from (thin) privilege, and described how landbase begins at home.

victoria writes: I wrote a friendly reminder about discussing alleged mental health issues w/r/t the recent shootings at a Colorado movie theater: when the "crazy talk" starts.

Coleslaw writes: The book Lost in Translation, which uses two of my pictures, has been published, so I have Even More Fame (as in more than none). If you like cinnamon flavored candy and gum, like Red Hots, you may be surprised to find out what's in there. There's a bleeding statue in Baton Rouge. It's a Miracle, unless it isn't. Attending a talk by the author of Now and Always: a Louisiana Love Story reminded me of a WWII era letter written by my mother that I got from my dad.

Michael Mock reports: This week at Mock Ramblings: the Deranged Cultist checked in with some Reflections on Meetings; Firstborn and I made up new Skylanders to go with the hypothetical Silly Element and I shared some pictures and video to help explain The Upside of Parenting; I briefly considered Mitt Romney's ongoing battle with Batman in Bane Capital; and I collected some reactions to the popularity of Fifty Shades of Grey in a post called Fifty Shades of WTF.

chris the cynic reports: This week I wanted to write the beginnings to several stories to possibly include in Acacia Moon's anthologies, to let people see what they would be like and see if there was any interest. Unfortunately I only wrote one, the beginning of a ghost story involving computer games, and added one written years before set in a world where mechanical prostheses are considered legitimate grounds for legal discrimination.

When I saw the matching ads I thought I'd just take a picture of each and then make a post about the signals they sent about gender, but then things at the store got much more personally frustrating in non-gender related ways. I recounted the whole experience in: Boys make music - Girls only listen, and other lessons from an unpleasant trip to Walmart.

In .hack//Sign: How not to respond to a depressed kid's first success, I talked about Tsukasa's apparent taming of the Guardian, his general situation from the perspective of limited in-world information, Mimiru's devotion to helping those in trouble, and Bear's mishandling of his meeting with Tsukasa.

In Deus Ex Training: Snippets of Information, I finished talking about the Deus Ex training mission six months after I began, touching on the use of the word “occupation” the phasing out of mechanically augmented agents, the goals of the NSF, and stuff.

TRiG passes on: * An old story, but I like it: A strict Catholic school put out a banned books list, so one of the students took it upon herself to run an illegal library out of her locker.

Last week Ana Mardoll posted:
(Trigger Warning: Discussion of depression)
Health: Depression Diaries and Unconditional Love
If you aren't depressed, but know someone who is, go take a moment to reassure them that you love them, no matter what. Telling them they aren't total suck won't work; the depression has logic and reason and copious footnotes on its side. Telling them that you'll love them forever even if they are total suck is the only thing that the logic can't defeat because logic is helpless in the face of tautologies.

Last week Ana Mardoll posted:
(Trigger Warning: Discussion of depression, discussion of cancer)
Health: Depression Diaries and The Theory of Relativity
One of the "fun" things about depression is how easily it can downplay itself as Nothing Serious and you, the sufferer, as a Big Whiner. It does this by the tried-and-true fashion of somebody else has it worse.

Last week Ana Mardoll posted:
(Trigger Warning: Politics, Racism, Jackwagonry, Food Poisoning, Swearing)
Deconstruction: "You Might Be A Racist If..." Special Political Edition
I don't usually do political posts on the blog. However! Today I am holed up in bed with food poisoning, and I made the Very Big Mistake of saying so on Twitter and in doing so I noticed this hashtag: #ThingsRomneyShouldSaytotheNAACP.

In case you missed this

TRiG writes: There are interesting parallels between the Deaf experience and LGBT experiences. The Deaf are a distributed minority, and have to actively form a community. Most Deaf people have hearing parents. And, as is mentioned in the video, at one time Deaf people were discouraged or prevented from marrying (in Ireland, this went so far that boys and girls were taught different sign languages!). Nowadays, parents are often taught to sign, but that was not always the case.

I’ve seen Deaf publications drawing parallels between Deaf culture and queer culture.

Anyway, in the US, the National Association of the Deaf is now supporting marriage equality.

Egypt TV Channel Gives Veiled Women a Face (The New York Times, July 18 2012): [Abeer Shahin] has found a job she hopes will change how Egyptian society views niqab wearers once and for all: she is going to work as a TV anchor for a new channel being managed and run exclusively by women who wear the full veil.

Frustrations of an Asian American Whedonite
A Whedonite asks Whedon why there are so few Asian or Asian-American performers in future Whedon described as a fusion of American and Asian culture.

Laiima has changed the name of hir blog to Fiadhiglas muses and capers.

In case you missed this in The Blogaround section of this post--Coleslaw wrote: The book Lost in Translation, which uses two of my pictures, has been published, so I have Even More Fame (as in more than none).

Things you can do

kisekileia reports: The ex-fundamentalist blogger at The Phoenix and Olive Branch, Kate Townsend is trying to send her mother back to university. Kate's mother spent many years staying home to teach Kate, but wanted to finish her own education and eventually got one semester away from a bachelor's degree. However, a clerical error meant that Kate's mother's financial aid fell through, and the university refused to correct it, with the result that she has been unable to complete her last semester. The online program through which Kate's mother studied is shutting down as of June 2013, so this year is the last chance for her to go back. You can donate here to help Kate's mom go back to school--it's not nearly as hopeless as it looks, because Kate is in the process of renegotiating the amount of the fee, and because the page only went up a few days ago. If you want to help someone finish their education, this is a great opportunity.

kisekileia writes:
(Trigger Warning: graphic anti-LGBTQ violence, including in my description below.)
This is about a woman who was bound, had anti-LGBTQ slurs carved into her body, and had her house set on fire. Nebraska, where she lives, has hate crimes legislation, but she doesn't have health care coverage to pay for her substantial wounds. There's a donation link at the bottom of the page, if anyone has anything to spare.

You can check out the newest addition to Blogs of the Slacktiverse
Laura writes: commentators may enjoy my new blog: Dictionary of Peril. Every couple of days I use a new word from the Collins Dictionary as a prompt for a piece of short fiction about how this noun causes peril. http://dictionaryofperil.wordpress.com/ for the Rules, and short stories about the danger of Aardvarks, Ba's, and Cab's. If any of your readers would like to join in, then I would welcome that!

--Co-authored by the Slacktiverse Community

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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: NRA: Marchons, marchons!

Fred Clark has posted a new post, NRA: Marchons, marchons!, at Patheos.com.

This week Fred writes about pp.24-33 of Nicolae: The Rise of Antichrist

Excerpt:

Yet New Hope Village Church hasn’t been closed down and they haven’t had to take their operations underground. They’ve been allowed to flout the EBOWF^[1] and to continue holding their Sunday morning meetings — probably because Nicolae realizes these do-nothings don’t pose any threat to his reign or to his legitimacy. There’s no reason for him to crack down on this church as though it was a stealthy gathering of dangerous insurgents, because it’s nothing like that. Nicolae doesn’t even mind the sermons they hear at their Sunday meetings — recitations of the End Times check lists that, at this point in the game, amount to little more than a weather report.

It would be a different story if this church were actually doing something — if it were the kind of church where Buck’s answering machine message announced an emergency meeting, a midnight vigil, and a call for volunteers to assemble at the church immediately before heading out to respond to the bomb-blasted and war-ravaged parts of the community. That kind of church would be a threat to Nicolae’s EBOWF and to his empire. That kind of church wouldn’t be able to operate freely and openly the way NHVC^[2] does.

[Fred Clark, NRA: Marchons, marchons!, July 20, 2012, 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.

 

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^[1] Enigma Babylon One World Faith↩

^[2] New Hope Village Church↩

At Patheos: NRA: Paper jam

Fred Clark has posted a new post, NRA: Paper jam, at Patheos.com.

This week Fred writes about pp.24-33 of Nicolae: The Rise of Antichrist

Excerpt:

And then, suddenly, we catch another glimpse of what is surely meta-Jenkins briefly surfacing from the author’s subconscious:

Chloe spoke up. “Buck, shouldn’t you try to edit it or shape it into some sort of book form first?” “I’ll take a look at it, Chloe, but there’s a certain beauty in simply reproducing it in the form it’s in. This was Bruce off-the-cuff, in the middle of his study, writing to fellow believers, writing to friends and loved ones, writing to himself.”

The very best writing, you see, isn’t “edited” and shouldn’t be “shaped … into some sort of book form.” It’s just reproduced as is.

That’s either a revealing Freudian slip or else it’s Jenkins explicitly mocking his audience. I can’t tell which.

[Fred Clark, NRA: Paper jam, July 13, 2012, 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.

 

At Patheos: NRA: The man who killed Bruce Barnes

Fred Clark has posted a new post, NRA: The man who killed Bruce Barnes, at Patheos.com.

This week Fred writes about pp.19-24 of Nicolae: The Rise of Antichrist

Excerpt:

This moral logic can get a bit tricky to follow as the series goes on and the body count of the Great Tribulation accelerates. It’s very important for us, the readers, to keep track of the particular source of each ensuing incident of massive, indiscriminate death. Remember: massive, indiscriminate death is, in itself, morally neutral. The morality of such killing can only be determined by discerning who is doing the killing. If it’s the Good Side killing all those people, then such killing is good and righteous and praiseworthy. But if it’s the Bad Side doing the killing, then it’s bad, unrighteous and “maddening."

and

For LaHaye and Jenkins, then, that makes a hospital as legitimate a target as any other place. They cannot make a distinction because their idea of God makes no such distinction. This is what their God does in their story. God kills indiscriminately because no one is innocent. God directs divine judgment at the wounded and the sick and those who care for them because they are no different from any other rebellious, left-behind sinner deserving to suffer great tribulation in the Great Tribulation.

[Fred Clark, NRA: The man who killed Bruce Barnes, July 6, 2012, 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.

 

At Patheos: NRA: Returning the rental car

Fred Clark has posted a new post, NRA: Returning the rental car, at Patheos.com.

This week Fred writes about pp.17-18 of Nicolae: The Rise of Antichrist

Excerpt:

LaHaye and Jenkins aren’t just saying that America will be destroyed. They’re also saying that America should be destroyed.

L&J’s story won’t allow for Will Smith or Bruce Willis to save the day. It says, rather, that the destruction of the world is inevitable and right and just and good. Any so-called heroes opposing that destruction are on the wrong side of the struggle. This is what will happen, so no one can stop it. And this is what should happen, so no one should stop it. The heroes can’t save the day. This story allows for only one Savior, and he shows up at the end not to save the day but to deliver the final, graceless coup de grâce.

That makes this a very odd story.

[Fred Clark, NRA: Returning the rental car, June 29, 2012, 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.

 

At Patheos: NRA: The best coffee at O’Hare

Fred Clark has posted a new post, NRA: The best coffee at O’Hare, at Patheos.com.

This week Fred writes about pp.11-17 of Nicolae: The Rise of Antichrist

Excerpt:

The authors’ intended message there is that the woman is being oversensitive. The authors’ unintended message is a subtle, but powerful bit of characterization that paints a heartbreaking portrait of a marriage — one that could never be understood by two men who think that women’s “oversensitivity” is the source of most marital problems.

[Fred Clark, NRA: The best coffee at O’Hare, June 22, 2012, 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.

 

At Patheos: NRA: I need a new car

Fred Clark has posted a new post, NRA: I need a new car, at Patheos.com.

This week Fred writes about pp. 8-12 of Nicolae: The Rise of Antichrist

Excerpt:

This question of anxiety and fear of a futureless world, and how such views affect one’s ability to plan for the long-term also seem pertinent with regard to the followers of apocalyptic “Bible prophecy” teachers like Tim LaHaye. It seems to me that if it’s 1995, and you’re reading Left Behind and believing every word it says about how Jesus is coming back very, very, very soon, then you probably don’t much care that your city’s water mains were built 90 years ago and were originally intended to be replaced after 50 years. They’ve made it this far, you probably think, so they should last until Jesus comes back, right?

[Fred Clark, NRA: I need a new car, June 15, 2012, 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.

 

At Patheos: NRA: Squeezing the stallion

Fred Clark has posted a new post, NRA: Squeezing the stallion, at Patheos.com.

This week Fred writes about pp. 8-10 of Nicolae: The Rise of Antichrist

Excerpt:

Brief detour here back to Creative Writing 101. Let’s say you’re writing a story with a character named Jim and you want your readers to regard Jim as brave. You can go about this in several different ways:

1. Show Jim doing something that requires bravery.

2. Have another character in your story describe Jim as brave.

3. Have the omniscient narrator of your story tell the reader that Jim is brave.

4. Have Jim tell the reader that Jim is brave.

Those are listed in order. The first is the most effective approach; the last is the least effective. The last one, in fact, can be counter-productive.

[Fred Clark, NRA: Squeezing the stallion, June 8, 2012, 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.

 

At Patheos: NRA: Unnecessary secrets

Fred Clark has posted a new post, NRA: Unnecessary secrets, at Patheos.com.

This week Fred writes about pp. 4-7 of Nicolae: The Rise of Antichrist

Excerpt:

I’m not criticizing Jerry Jenkins here. We’ve tracked his strange obsession with telephony for more than 900 pages now, and that’s still kind of hilarious, but I do have genuine sympathy for his plight in beginning a series of a dozen “near-future” novels in 1995. Jenkins probably should have known more about cell phones than he did when he started writing that first book, but basically he wrote one book every year from 1995 through 2007 — a period in which commonplace technology changed dramatically. In 1995, Google was nonexistent. In 2007, it was indispensable.

That would have been a challenge even for a skilled writer who cared about what he was doing. Jenkins had to figure out how to adapt to these changes as the series and technology both progressed. His approach seems to have been just to incorporate the new technology into the story as though it had always been a part of the world of these books. As this passage shows, that doesn’t always work seamlessly, but I’m willing to cut him some slack on this point. No matter how long it takes him to finish A Song of Ice and Fire, this isn’t a problem that George R.R. Martin will ever have to face.

[Fred Clark, NRA: Unnecessary secrets, June 1, 2012, 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.

 

At Patheos: NRA: Switching horses mid-apocalypse

Fred Clark has posted a new post, NRA: Switching horses mid-apocalypse, at Patheos.com.

This week Fred writes about pp. 1-4 of Nicolae: The Rise of Antichrist

Excerpt:

In stories featuring intentionally flawed protagonists, we can read with the hope that these characters will eventually be redeemed. Even when, as in The Sopranos, the repeated rejection of such redemption is the central theme, such deliberately flawed characters help us to explore what the possibility of such redemption or growth might be like.

But here in this series, the authors do not allow for the possibility that Rayford and Buck might require any such redemption. In their minds, explicitly, these characters have already experienced all the redemption they will ever require. They’re not going to change. They’re not going to get any more likeable than they already are.

And where unlovely characters like Meursault, Raskolnikov, Winston Smith or Tony Soprano are never held up as role models, it seems that here the authors are constantly pointing to Rayford “That Guy” Steele and to the insufferable Buck Williams as ideals whom every reader ought to imitate.

[Fred Clark, NRA: Switching horses mid-apocalypse, May 25, 2012, 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.