Friends
May. 25th, 2012
05:06 am - Just when you think you're out...
I was so disappointed in God of the Hive that I haven't even read the new Mary Russell book, and now there's ANOTHER ONE coming out! And it looks CRACKTACULAR with an option for good, so I guess I need to catch up.
Originally posted at http://lizbee.dreamwidth.org/1194959.ht comments at DW.
amusedMay. 24th, 2012
01:57 pm - Minor anal protrusion
My Japanese Bobtail kitten's anus is protruding ever so slightly. Well, not really badly anyway. And it's not red. And she's been to the vet recently (last week). I'm not entirely sure when it started, though. Her background: I think she's about 5 weeks old, although the breeder claims 9, she's just too tiny. Her breed is supposed to be large as kittens and her brother is even smaller than she is. She has ringworm. She also has a respiratory illness that we're treating. We just got her last week, and she hadn't been dewormed at all until she was taken to the vet by us last Friday.
If anyone could tell me what might be wrong with her anus, and if a vet needs to look at it straight away, I'd really appreciate it.
( Photos. )
And a normal photo of her. :)
07:43 pm - Question about bangs
Hi, longtime lurker here. I think I've posted... once before? Two years ago? Something like that at least. Anyhow, I have a question I hope some of you might be able to help me with.
About a year, a year and a half ago I noticed my hair was getting pretty heavy and it gave me headaches, which I solved by getting bangs. But that's causing another problem. My hair grows really fast, and with fast I mean really fast... So I started cutting my bangs myself to save myself the expense of having it done every 3 weeks. But I've noticed my bangs actually form a rather ugly mass of hair. My hair is very fine but I have a LOT of it, so it looks pretty horrible if my bangs aren't well kept and even if I keep it short I'm not very happy with how it looks, and if it grows too long the ends start to get wavy and looking even worse. Are there any (easy to cut) styles for bangs I could do? I was thinking about sideswept bangs but I'm afraid the wavyness of my hair will cause it to be less sideswept and more of a coathanger-style. :(
In case you were wondering, here is a pic of my bangs. And for bonus, I noticed I had a pic of a new hairstyle I tried as well, so see here if you want to see that one too. :)
08:13 am
You know how sometimes you can remember one small detail of a book and nothing else about it? In this case, a few weeks ago I had a sudden powerful flashback to a book with a character named Columba who was at some point maybe got turned into a dove? THAT'S IT. That's all I knew.
It turns out the books were Katya Reimann's Tielmaran Chronicles, so the path before me had clearly been prepared for a reread. I was not actually expecting them to be good! But I've now reread the first two and I'm actually enjoying them enormously. I should have remembered the lesson I learned from Tanya Huff: CRACKED-OUT FANTASY NOVELS ARE THE BEST.
The first book is a fairly standard quest saga in which Gaultry, the Shy, Socially Awkward Magical Twin, has to go on a Quest to rescue her sister the Level-Headed, Socially Confident Magical Twin from evil magical forces! (Please note: for once, FOR ONCE, I get to read a book about twins that features NO TWINCEST.) It is mostly notable for the fact that the backstory turns out to be all about how fifty years ago, one unprepossessing but hardcore queen got together a bunch of awesome witches to make her daughter into one of fantasyland's greatest rulers. Which means that the important people in the book are all awesome old women and their descendants, who -- except for the love interest and the villain -- are pretty much also all women. WHICH IS GREAT.
Anyway, the first book happens, and Gaultry rescues her sister and saves the kingdom, and everything's pretty much okay, and then the second book happens, and that's when things get really amazingly weird.
( For mpreg and baby assassins and soulbonded lemurs, read on! )
This entry is cross-posted at Livejournal from http://skygiants.dreamwidth.org/286627.h comments on Dreamwidth.
11:22 am - Somewhat belated ALERT ALERT ALERT
There is a Great Gatsby trailer. ( Read more... )
And my sister is NOT HAPPY about it. This is her favorite book, and she argues that both Gatsby and Daisy are ALL WRONG, and having read it, I see where she's coming from. It kind of looks like an entertaining trainwreck to me (as ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif?v=92){kind=small}
says, "This will either be a stunning adaptation of a classic or a Showgirls style hot mess. There is no in-between"), but then, I've lucked out with Books I Care About. Mostly. If you'll excuse me, I need to go pour one out for the unfinished His Dark Materials movie trilogy.
Also, I feel kind of bad--I don't picspam costumes on Tumblr anymore (mostly because I despair of trying to image-describe them sufficiently), but I have been using it for the kind of things I probably used to put on LJ. Mostly because there's a nice modular quality to it--a conversation here, a trailer there; you don't have to stop and collect enough stuff to merit a whole entry (or flail around when you have a backlog to deal with). But you can't get a good conversation going for shit over there, given the way commenting is (not) set up. So. I should probably make more of an effort to do a Tumblr roundup here. Thus, for example, we have an Avengers tag with Some cute Avengers fan art, Freakishly Lifelike Loki, and THORGI. (Also: Thorgi and Lokitty.) I also tend to throw any interesting conversations under the "twitter" tag. Which is where you find all the squamous ladies. So. \;;;/
02:58 pm - The Big Idea: Catherine Lundoff
http://whatever.scalzi.com/2012/05/24/th
http://whatever.scalzi.com/?p=18667
For the big idea in her novel Silver Moon, author Catherine Lundoff looks at lycanthropy in the context of a “coming of age” story. What makes it unusual? Which age the protagonist of the story is coming into.
CATHERINE LUNDOFF:
Women have always been monsters.
From Lilith to Carmilla to the femme fatales of the silver screen, beautiful women are shown consuming men, and sometimes other women, as prey. Female monsters are thin and beautiful, ageless, if not actually young, the embodiment of seduction and desire: vampires, succubi, sirens, demons.
Against this backdrop of feminine monstrosities, depictions of female werewolves are rare. It makes some sense, given werewolf mythos. Werewolves are out of control, ferociously strong, unbelievably dangerous. They are, therefore, almost universally assumed to be male. Female werewolves simply aren’t sexy enough.
In a 2006 MTV interview about the Underworld films, actress Kate Beckinsale said that there were no female werewolves in the movies because “…that could be really horrifying. Hairy, thuggish women.”
That well-thumbed health reference, the InternetHealthLibrary.com, lists amongst the signs of menopause: “Psychological instability” and “Violent mood swings” and “…hair growth on the face, which is quite unlikely for a woman.” Or hairy and thuggish, if you prefer.
So I began with the impossible and the horrifying: a woman who is neither young nor thin nor beautiful who is wrestling with both psychological instability and hair growth. Lots of hair growth. A woman who has become a monster in her own eyes, but is otherwise like your mom or your friend’s aunt or perhaps one of your elementary school teachers: familiar, comfortable and ordinary. For a werewolf of “a certain age.”
Like female werewolves, there are very few middle-aged female protagonists in science fiction and fantasy. When middle-aged women appear at all, they are generally background players, secondary and tertiary characters in the flow of a larger tale. Always the monster food, never the monster.
But then, as my protagonist Becca Thornton says, speaking for herself, “Seems to me that when you go looking for monsters, that’s all you see. And sometimes you miss much scarier things.”
What’s scarier than monsters? It depends on your fears. Monsters are relative (and sometimes related, but that’s a different story). You can find them hiding in a graveyard waiting for dark, lurking in an alleyway on a lonely night or sharing your bed. For some people, gay, lesbian and trans people are monsters, to be stopped at any cost, whether that’s killing or conversion. Those people are the models that I used for my werewolf hunters. They don’t care about orientation or gender, but they do care deeply about changes they can’t control. Deeply enough to try and cure the local werewolf pack of being what they are: a Pack of middle-aged women from very different backgrounds, united by some common experiences.
The werewolves of Wolf’s Point are called into being by the ancient magic of the place where they live. It picks and chooses which women will serve as the valley’s protectors, deciding who will change and who will not, based on a logic all its own. Sometimes, it makes mistakes.
Becca thinks she might be one of the latter; it must have meant to pick someone else and somehow got her by mistake. But then, she thinks that about a lot of things. In this respect, Becca was a hard character for me to write. Like her, I’m a middle-aged woman just entering menopause. Unlike her, I’m not terribly introspective or insecure about what I’m doing. Of course, I’m also not dealing with the changes she’s wrestling with.
That, really, was what I was hoping to capture in this novel: the experience of change, both physical and psychological, that is absolutely earth shattering. I wanted to examine what an ordinary woman does with those kinds of events. Menopause is a time in a woman’s life where her body feels like it’s transforming into something else, something alien, and potentially monstrous. Not unlike changing into a werewolf, only less fun, at least from my perspective.
There’s an element of wish-fulfillment in that aspect of the book. The thrill of being something much bigger and stronger with fewer aches and pains, at least once a month, is pretty appealing to my middle-aged self. Apart from the whole uncontrollable killing-machine aspect of lycanthropy, who wouldn’t want that in some form? The werewolves of Wolf’s Point have some things that a lot of us might envy: a sense of purpose, of belonging, of newfound power at a time of life that can feel most disempowering.
Given that, I think Becca’s right; there are much scarier things out there than monsters. Perhaps monsters are more familiar than we realize. And maybe we’ve all got a bit of one inside us. It’s what we do with it that counts. Welcome to what I do with mine.
—-
Silver Moon: Amazon|Barnes & Noble|Indiebound|Powell’s
Visit the author’s LiveJournal. Follow her on Twitter.
12:02 pm
One of the hardest things about writing Those Who Lift Each Other is incorporating the music. Because the Glee kids burst into song all the time, and the only person who ever really sings on BSG is Gaeta. A lot of times it's not a big deal- I can just say something like "the kids sang a song" or even "The first number was 'The Dog Days are Over'" or something like that, because either a.) the lyrics aren't important, or b.) the lyrics fit thematically, but it's not that important. Every so often, though, they lyrics actually are necessary. Puck singing "Beth" in chapter 3, Blaine singing "Walk to the Water" in in Chapter 7, and the one I'm working on right now. ( Cut for major spoilers for chapter 10, minor spoilers for Chapter 11. )
I can't believe that school is almost over already. It is amazing how much more attractive year-round school looks as an adult. They get so BORED during the summer, and I wish we could set up our travel schedule more easily as well. We have a few camps on the horizon- soccer camp and nature camp (which largely consists of playing in the creek at the nature center), so that should help, but it's going to be a long summer.
Okay. Time to get moving. Hope everyone's having a good one!
11:56 am - I'm gonna be released from behind these lines
Ugh, it's bad enough I had to be at work at 7:45, which meant getting up at 6:30, but waking up every hour before that to make sure I didn't miss my alarm? That was overkill. Bleh.
In between all that waking up, I dreamt that I was on vacation with ![[personal profile]](http://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
devildoll and we went swimming! And then I dreamt that I got a peek at Agent Coulson's notes about the Avengers. They were very neat. All I remember is that it said "Loki? -> Hulk. Hulk? -> Thor?" so I guess he was trying to figure out who would beat who in a fight how to eliminate or minimize threats. Because the same thing that makes Hulk so terrifying ( is this even a spoiler? )
I was also all wound up because of the hockey game - my attention span for anything else when hockey is on is minimal, which is why I spent most of the evening (I got home from work late) organizing my tumblr queue. Ah, mindless indulgence.
The game was just salt in the wound. I finished Code Name Verity right before it started and ( spoilers. mostly of the emotional variety )
Okay, that was the emotional spoilers part. Now I will try to talk a little coherently about the book and how I need to reread it, knowing what happens, because it's really brilliantly done.
ANYWAY. I think most people should go into this book unspoiled though if you have triggers or sensitivities about Nazis, you should probably have someone vet it for you or read spoilery posts about it. Or you can ask me, and I will try to answer.
The basic premise is, in the UK during WWII, two young women become unlikely girlfriends best friends. One is a spy. One is a pilot. The spy is captured by the Gestapo. That's where it begins. (I don't feel like that's spoiling because it's the blurb on the book, and that was basically what I knew going in - actually, I don't think I even knew one was a pilot. I knew there were two young women during WWII and one was a spy.) As a side note, I totally ship them. Girlslashiness abounds.
This is a story about friendship and love and loss and war and loyalty and bravery and determination in the face of tragedy, and it's also a story about stories - how we tell them, how they shape us, how we use them to see the world and to present ourselves to other people - and in this case, specifically written stories. I think it's brilliantly done, in addition to being smart and moving and emotionally involving.
Now I'm going to talk about actual plot points, including the major climax of the story, so unless you really feel the need to be spoiled, given the subject matter, don't click.
( spoilers )
ANYWAY. I'm not sure any of that actually makes sense? But I highly recommend this book.
Lastly, while I was getting dressed this morning - in dim light because it takes forever for those spirally bulbs to get to full brightness - it turns out that the black pants and the black suit jacket I threw on are not, in fact from the same suit and the blacks don't match. Oops? I don't think anyone else has noticed.
You know I choose my subject lines from whatever song is playing when I finish writing the post right? I am amused at how this one turned out. iPod oracle indeed.
*
This entry at DW: http://musesfool.dreamwidth.org/468254.h people have commented there.
awake09:25 am - a few interesting things
Writing Across Gender - a short and very well-stated blog post about why women are comfortable writing male POVs but many male authors insist it is too hard to write female POVs. Those of you who have known me for a while are likely already well aware of my extreme disdain for male writers who claim they never write women because they "don't understand how women think," which is the accepted self-pitying/self-congratulatory code for "I can't be bothered to view women as fully sentient individuals, so why do you keep bothering me about it?"
On that note - I think I've mentioned this before, but now the deadline is nearing and they are very close to their goal, so if you have a few bucks to spare, please consider making a donation: Kickstarter fundraising for a feminist science fiction anthology. I really want this book to exist, and I want it to be done by these editors, because they'll do it right and it will be amazing.
And now for something completely different: I saw this linked on io9 yesterday with the claim that it's one of the most interesting things I would read all week, and I thought, "No way." But it is! An article on the Smithsonian Magazine website about How the Chicken Conquered the World. It's about the history of the chicken: evolution, domestication, industrialization. It's entertaining and well-written and also it's about chickens.
This entry was originally posted at http://ignipes.dreamwidth.org/725661.ht comments.
11:20 am
The No-Fuss Dessert Generator
By MARK BITTMAN
The dessert bar calls to mind those first-grade birthday parties where the kids get to build their own sundaes. And with the exception of putting Gummi Bears on everything, why would you tinker with such perfection? If you can arrange cookies on a plate, scoop ice cream and slice peaches, you’re ready to go.
( Read more... )
10:18 am - More Question Answers
The Cloud Roads is on this list at Kirkus Reviews of Top 10 Fantasy Novels by Female Authors Yay!
From yesterday:
I'm in Chicks Unravel Time: Women Journey Through Every Season of Doctor Who The sister book to the 2011 Hugo Award-winning Chicks Dig Time Lords. My essay is "Donna Noble Saves the Universe" about Donna's differences from the other companions, and basically being an older woman who is also a hero.
And I did the All About Books meme questions on the Strange Chemistry Blog.
Question answer:misslynx asked:
1. I've heard a number of people talking about getting stuck in the "murky middle" of a story where it feels like you're losing your way, or at least like things are getting a bit out of control, and it's hard to see how you're going to rein it in and push it toward an ending. So I already know it's not just me.... But I'm still not sure how to get out of it. Do you ever find yourself hitting this point with your books? Any advice on how best to push through it, when it's starting to feel like trying to nail jello to a wall?
If your enthusiasm for the book is flagging in the middle, then you may have structural problems. Generally I feel that if the book is not exciting for me, it's not going to be exciting for the reader, either. You may want to get some feedback from a few trusted beta readers and try to see if something's wrong, if you need to add some plot complication or make other changes or cut out some plot complication that just isn't working.
If it's just a fatigue or concentration problem, feedback (especially good feedback) can also help rekindle your interest in the book. And sometimes, you just have to force yourself to push through. (This is basically why agents and publishers don't want to look at unfinished novels from first authors -- some people have great ideas but aren't able to get through the middle and finish.)
2. I know fantasy as a genre is famous for spawning some really long novels, but how long is too long? Especially for a first novel? How worried should I be that I'm closing in 100,000 words and am nowhere near finished with the story?
Fantasy novels for adults can generally be longer, but 100,000 words and not near the end may be a problem. The Raksura books have all been between 120,000 and 135,000 words. It really depends on the book and the publisher, though. I'm sure The Name of the Wind is quite a bit longer than 135,000 words, for example.
07:51 am - Let the water hold me down.
I spent a large part of Tuesday and Wednesday in flames of rage and dealing with emails from the school's principal. I've had several people tell me I'm overreacting (none of whom are moms), and several more people tell me I'm not, and I have this ball of rage sitting so heavily in my stomach. I have, at the request of my son, let the matter drop, but I still have all the emails saved. As I suspected, it's come down to a "he said/he said" argument, and no one's going to win that. All in all, I'm really tired and I'm really glad the school year is almost over.
I came home last night to find that my husband had decided that setting up my new computer was a GREAT idea, only now I have two computers until I can transfer everything, so I have no room and a new keyboard and two computer towers that I keep slamming into and I lost all the tabs I had open to respond to last night/today and so yeah.
Today I'll be at the school from 8:30-6:30 for people to pick up the candy they ordered from our fundraiser. I'm bringing a book, though I'm wondering if a book about the Nazi occupation is really good reading for elementary school.
Also William Beckett announced tour dates on the west coast (good boy), but of course Seattle is on my husband's 40th birthday. Why does William hate me, you guys? I let him have hot sex with all the pretty boys. Plus his sister. Ha. Maybe that's the problem. I AM SORRY, WILLIAM. Also my husband doesn't understand my need to go to both shows. So. Well, that'll be interesting. Or heartbreaking. Or both. Whatever.
Anyway. I am sad and angry and depressed and spiraling and rageful. We're fine. Thank you. How are you? LUKE. WE'RE GOING TO HAVE COMPANY.
07:35 am - Dream a little dream of me.
Last night as I was trying to go to sleep—I'm a slow-sleep insomniac, which means that it can sometimes take me upwards of an hour to power all the way down—I found myself wondering, in that half-place that only exists when you're caught between consciousness and Neverland, whether I'm so reluctant to sleep right now because I'm half-convinced that I'm in the middle of the longest, most detailed linear dream I've ever experienced. And that one day, I'm going to open my eyes and it will be December of 2008 all over again, when I was lonely and scared and had no idea what I was going to do about my future.
Anxiety and mild "my series is over, what do I do now" depression aside, I sometimes look at my life and I'm just staggered by the unlikeliness of it all. I had a book come out on Tuesday. Tomorrow, I'm leaving for Disneyland with my mother, my sister, and my best friend. I have cats that can be charitably called large, and uncharitably called props from a horror movie. I have a movie option. I'm reprinting my fourth album, because it's almost sold out. I have some of the most amazing, interesting, articulate friends and fans and readers in the world. I have an agent who, frankly, could not be more perfect for me if I had been allowed to design my own agent in a lab.
Even the little details are too good to be true. There's an immensely popular line of fashion dolls modeled on famous monsters; Fringe got renewed; Doctor Who is back on the air; the X-Men are awesome again; James Gunn has a video game about a chainsaw-wielding blonde cheerleader who fights zombies with high kicks and snark. Basically, it's like the universe has been rearranging itself to suit my deepest desires, and if not everything is perfect, that's because too much perfection is unbelievable. The world is trying to add veracity to my dream.
This is why I don't like to sleep very much.
I'm too afraid of waking up.
thoughtful10:28 am - UK Events in June (also BEA)
This is just a quick, delighted post to say that I will be briefly in the UK in June, and my UK publishers have managed to squeeze in two public events among the non-public ones. I know it's not very widespread, but I will be back at some point after THE RAVEN BOYS, I swear. Plus, a little part of me is leaping up and down because one of my 2012 New Years' Resolutions was "Go to Wales." Hay-on-Wye just barely counts, but . . . it counts. IT TOTALLY COUNTS.
So here they are:
June 10th, 11:30 a.m., Hay Festival
Hay-on-Wye, UK
This is a ticketed event! Buy tickets early to prevent disappointment.
http://
Facebook event page here.
June 11th, 6:30 p.m., Signing & Discussion
Waterstones, Bath, UK
Timing may be 6:30 p.m. or 7 p.m. — we're finalizing but I wanted to share it ASAP. So please confirm with store before traveling!
Facebook event page here.
For those of you headed to BEA this year, I have two signings at the show:
In-booth signing for THE RAVEN BOYS
June 5, 3-4 p.m. Booth 25
In-booth signing for THE CURIOSITIES with Brenna Yovanoff & Tessa Gratton
June 7, 12-1 p.m. Booth 2357
As always, all of my events are here. I know that I don't get EVERYWHERE, but I do my best to share the love. I do travel about half of the year, and I need some time to write and spend time with my family too!*
*I say this because I am guaranteed at least a dozen "BUT WHY DON'T YOU EVER COME TO SMALLVILLE, OH?????" "DO YOU HATE THE NORTH????" and "WHAT, NO CANADA?????" comments on every event post, ever. **
**I don't come to Smallville, OH, because it's inefficient for my publisher to send me to smaller towns. I do not, in fact, hate the north, of anywhere. In fact, the north of the UK is my favorite part. And Toronto treated me exceptionally well last time I was there so I'm sure I will be there again.***
***"WHAT, NO VANCOUVER??"
08:44 am - Warner Brother's Upfront party
Last night, Warner Brother's held their Upfront's party on the Warner Brother's lot where BARTKRESAdesign redesigned the NY Street lot into an an Afro/Asian bacchanal (according to their facebook). Southland castmembers including Ben McKenzie and Michael Cudlitz attended the private event.
( Michael Cudlitz shared a blurry red photo of himself and Jensen Ackles on twitter. )
source: http://www.facebook.com/pages/BARTKRESAd
06:05 am - ugh why don't I have any avengers icons yet
So james_davis_nicoll just linked to these two "reviews" of Thor and The Avengers. (The one-note joke is that the writer is analyzing them as if they were based on the Norse Myths and not Marvel Comics, and therefore any plot hole and/or inconsistency, mostly caused by the characters being stupid, is actually evidence of Loki's REAL plan being fiendishly subtle and clever.) I found the review of "Thor" mostly annoying, but the review of "Avengers" does point out some inconsistencies that I think we're *supposed* to notice, in Loki's case-- anyway, the second review also includes this idea--
( Cut for spoilers )
.... I want at least seven Loki/Tony dubcon stories involving this scenario right now. GO, WRITERS, GO.
This entry was originally posted on my dreamwidth journal. There are comments there. You can comment there using OpenID.
01:13 am - Volume 007, Issue 125
This issue covers May 23 in crossover fandom.
All fan fiction has been listed at least twice, once for each fandom represented in the story. Some links are for stories off Live Journal. As the list is very long, a lj cut has been implemented. Enjoy!
( Crossover Fan Fiction )
We don't pretend that what you see in this newsletter covered everything in the world of crossovers on Live Journal for the dates in question, though we have done our best. Please feel free to comment with suggestions on ways to improve the newsletter. Also, please let us know of any content we have overlooked or if any of the links are broken.
~Your editor,goldenrat84
03:34 am - Ocarina Of Bedtime
Speaking of modern fairy tales, this dad is as modern as it gets. Right down to stopping in the middle of the story to check his memory with Wikipedia.
While I could probably get the sequence of events a lot more in order because I live in a basement without friends and still play this darn game pretty consistently, I am pretty sure I told stories in exactly this manner all the damn time when I was a kid.
I don't anymore, because I've learned I am a super-boring storyteller. That's why I write things instead. I am much more interesting on paper.
I applaud this family's taste in mirrors, though. And also their adorableness in babies. Damn, that kid is cute.
Lemon Rose05:30 am - I Have Fought My Way Here to the Castle Beyond the Goblin City
Ten years ago, not long before the Queen’s Jubilee, I boarded a train at King’s Cross Station for Edinburgh.
It wasn’t Platform 9 3/4, but it might as well have been. My life changed the moment that train pulled out of the brick archways and into the rolling green countryside beyond London–it was just beginning to be autumn then, and the trees were full of crows. I remember thinking about bird magic, auguries, every story I’d ever heard about England and Scotland. I was a tiny thing, a maiden in all but the technical sense. I knew, as the old novels say, nothing of the world. My EuroRail photo looked absurdly, hilariously, preposterously like an illustration of Snow White. I had a bacon sandwich. My mother was with me, a psychopomp in knock-off Prada sunglasses, bearing me across the wall and into the life I didn’t yet know I was in for. It was the first time I wanted something with that desperate, pure fire–and made it happen, by myself, with will and work. After all, if you grow up loving fairy tales and King Arthur and saints who battle monsters, you want the British Isles the way some kids want boyfriends. I lived there for something over a year. I came back to America for stupid reasons–but that’s what you do in your twenties. Make stupid decisions while meaning so earnestly well.
My interviewer in Finland asked me: you’ve written about everywhere you’ve lived but Edinburgh. Where is Scotland in your books?
I laughed a little, pressed my lips together as I always do when I’m thinking, looked out the window of our car at the swans nesting in the golden Nordic estuaries. This is what I told her:
A poetry professor once told me that you can never name the thing you’re writing about. If the poem is about death, you can’t say the word death. Poems about memory shouldn’t go on about the thing itself. If you’re writing about grief, you can’t actually say grief, or sadness, or even tears. If you want to talk about love, love is the one word you can’t use.
Edinburgh is the thing I am a poem about and do not name.
Today, not long before the Queen’s Jubilee, I boarded a train at King’s Cross Station for Edinburgh. It was Platform 7. It’s just beginning to be summer now, and the fields are full of chartreuse flowers. The old churches spring up out of them like strange, huge blossoms. The train rushes over a stream so full of swans the current is pure white.
I think about bird magic again. Auguries.
I am no longer small. I know something of the world. Maybe not much of a something, but something. I have made things with my hands and heart. I look a bit pugnacious in my passport photo, like I still have something to prove. I had a bacon sandwich. My husband is with me and this time I am bearing him across the wall, to show him this object that sits at the bottom of my mind, a grey stone city with a castle and a mountain, a place that was once wholly full of fairy fruit and temptation and the rich mess of becoming bigger, becoming grown. That fairy fruit made everywhere else look dimmer for awhile. My goblin city, that swallowed me whole. I think it took falling in love with Maine to fix me–before then I always had the idea that of course I’d go back, that somehow, somehow, this was where I’d live when I could choose.
I’ve been near tears most of the morning, riding north through sheep and cattle and chapels and flowers. When you love a place, it’s hard to leave, and harder still to come back. You hope it will be proud of you, of all you became when you left to seek your fortune. You hope it will be as you remembered; you hope you are still as it knew you.
You hope it will forgive you long neglect, lines in your once-clear face, a hard blue edge of cynicism.
O goblin city, I hope you will forgive me for never writing a book about you.
Mirrored from cmv.com. Also appearing on @LJ and @DW. Read anywhere, comment anywhere.
03:51 am - The accusations that arrive when you are a black man demanding personal space.
I've talked a lot about this in my Tumblr but I'm still irked thinking about it.
For those that don't know what happened, Will Smith had been in a "Men In Black III" premiere for Russia. A male reporter went on the red carpet, tried to kiss Smith by trying to keep him in place with a headlock. Will Smith responded by flinching and shoving the reporter away.
Now people are calling Will Smith a homophobe for doing that.
Really? You serious? I've had to deal with two separate incidences, one with a gay guy, the other a straight woman. Both had jokingly grabbed my breasts without my consent. I slapped their hands away and raised my voice at them to tell them that that was not okay.
Now if these were two heterosexual men, would you call me a hateful bitch? If you're a halfway decent person, no. Because this was a heterosexual woman and a gay man, would you accuse me of being a misogynistic homophobe? NO.
What really grosses me out is the way (mostly white" people easily latched onto the idea of Will Smith, a black man, is a homophobe. This article really brings up great points on that idea.
A lot of the outrage over this incident is rooted in the Angry Black Man narrative and the assumption by a lot of white people that black guys are more homophobic than anyone else.
To quote what I said already in the comments for the article above :When white people use this narrative on black people like they're doing on Smith, it makes me think it's because they're trying to detract their own play in systematic oppression. Which, not to be too off-topic, is why I'm starting to hate the whole "all or most homophobes are themselves secretly gay, they’re all self-hating and projecting" thing with a passion.
Internalized homophobia does exist, but thinking that that is always the case is just there to erase the fact that systematic oppression is real. It places the onus of homophobia on its victims/treats it like it’s somehow just an intra-community problem that straight people don’t need to worry about or challenge each other on. That’s not how identity and oppression works; it’s as ridiculous as saying all racists are secretly PoCs.
I see something like that playing similar to here with Will Smith and his race being played into that. It's really just another excuse for white people to say, "look at those black people! We're so much better than that!"
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