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writing-for-life · 1 year

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Nuance in (The Sandman) Fandom

Send me asks about everything Sandman-related!

I thought a lot over the past few days, partly prompted by discourse on here, partly due to a couple of “interesting” asks and messages I received (the type you don’t answer). I *think* they might have been prompted by engaging in discourse on topics like anti-blackness/racism, misogyny/sexism, TERF characters etc in The Sandman.

Fandoms are always getting super sensitive if someone shines a critical lens on their favourite works, authors and characters. So to make this clear (in case it isn’t already obvious from my brain-rot blog):

I love The Sandman. I love Neil Gaiman. I have an extremely soft spot for Dream (and Desire btw, who deserves a lot more character analysis than just being summed up as “villainous, sexy bitch”. One day, perhaps ;)).

I can read The Sandman and just get lost in the story, even after decades and many rereads.

But I can also view it through a critical lens—these things aren’t mutually exclusive.

Not critical enough or too critical?

As fans, we can get trapped in certain thinking patterns, like:

“My blorbo can do no wrong”-syndrome

“Characters with flaws are inherently problematic and imply authorial endorsement of those actions”

“Characterisation and problematic subtext are one and the same” (aka overanalysing and looking for problems where there are none is the death of every story, but failing to see problematic patterns where they are clearly visible is a problem, too).

Don't say anything bad about my favourite character

I think this doesn’t need much further exploration. It’s not my personal way of looking at stories through permanently rose-tinted glasses (I always feel it stalls my experience, but my experience is not everyone else's). Some people prefer that type of escapism, and I’m good with that (although the downside is of course that by not willing to engage with issues, we can unwillingly perpetuate them). Live and let live, ship and let sail. But please, for the love of god: Don’t insult people via their inboxes or messages just because their opinions and preferences don’t align with yours. I’m not going to sugarcoat it or phrase it “nicely”: It’s infantile (and a form of bullying btw), end of.

How can you even like a character who's so horrible? And that author must be equally horrible, too

We have to separate flawed characters, even those who are written to be really problematic, from real-life endorsement of these actions.

Author, narrator and character are three fundamentally different things, and don’t overlap as much as some people seem to think.

We can write vile, despicable characters to make a point (for me, Thessaly was always a prime example for this, and I explained why here). We probably hate them as we write them. I don’t know what else to say, but this facet of writing seems to get more and more lost on people, and it’s a worry. Crying for sanitised characterisation is one step away from censorship. We explore what is problematic about people and humanity through story. That’s how we process and learn. It’s nothing new, but it becomes impossible if we can’t write flawed and even disgusting characters.

Face value…

Since I’m mostly in The Sandman fandom, I often read that its ending is hopeless, and that’s supposedly the entire message.

It is agonisingly sad, yes. But is it truly hopeless? I personally see it as quite the opposite, but of course that’s my opinion, coloured by my life experiences.

I also get that show-only fans often haven’t read the comics, or at least not the whole arc. And as such, their outlook from what they’ve seen so far (and choose to focus on) has to be different by default. I also understand that many people are quite new to the comics, even if they have read them in their entirety. I’ve sat with them for 30 years, and I still find new things on every reread (and I read it more times than anyone should 🙈), and I still don’t feel like I’ve understood it all. Perhaps because I still haven’t fully understood myself (and it’s unlikely I ever will). If there’s one thing The Sandman isn’t, it’s one-dimensional and easy to grasp in its whole depth.

I just wrote a ginormous meta on it, if you’re interested, it’s here:

Subtext, (not so) glorious subtext

This is where it gets complicated:

We shouldn’t mix up characterisation and story subtext. Overanalysing every line to death will always make us find something that’s “problematic”, when it really isn’t in the wider context of the story.

Zooming in is NOT always a good thing. Sometimes, we actually need to zoom out.

But subtext *can be* (accidentally) problematic. Even in stories we love. And none of this negates what I previously wrote.

Stories have real-life implications of sorts, and we need to be able to talk about it. That’s where those slightly flabbergasting, hostile inbox messages come in, and I want to expand on that "topic of contention" a bit:

Neil himself confirmed that the Endless basically warp reality, and that this is why, after Dream’s failed relationship with Nada, many black women in his vicinity suffer terrible fates (Ruby and Carla in particular). And that this spell is only broken when he dies, and that it is the reason why Gwen doesn’t suffer the same fate. And said Gwen then gets used as a plot device to basically absolve Hob (who canonically really is a problematic character, whether show-only fans like it or not) from his slaver past. Once again, very clearly: No one is making this up. Neil confirmed it (for the comics, and that was over 20 years ago. It remains to be seen if his stance has changed as we move into that arc in the TV show).

I don't think it is correct to imply that Dream as a character is racist (I've read that, too) because he logically can’t be. He holds *all* the collective unconscious. He is also, strictly speaking, not white. He is everything and nothing, and he shows up in many different ethnicities throughout the whole arc, depending on who looks at him. But Neil played with a subtext here (reality warping due to a bad relationship which then affects everyone with similar physical traits) that will read very differently to a black person than it reads to a white person, and we have to understand why that is an *extremely* slippery slope.

Plus, we are supposed to see Hob, who *was* a racist at some point (you can’t not be if you’re a slave-trader—it’s impossible by default) as redeemed. And yes, he *does* regret deeply, good for him (and if I were saying this aloud, you would hear the sarcasm in my voice, because it is indeed all about him. We are to sympathise/empathise with him and his character growth while there isn’t much mention of the people he maltreated). But also: it was a black woman who basically forgave him (with dialogue that personally makes me cringe). And that black woman who offers forgiveness is not truly a black woman—she is a character written by a white man. And as much as author and character are not the same (see above), there is an inherent sensitivity in that power imbalance that we can't brush under the carpet.

I don’t think Neil is racist. Probably quite the opposite, and I can even see that his intentions were good from a storytelling point of view. BUT intention and impact are two fundamentally different things, and telling the story this way (comic version) betrays blindspots only white people have. Just like women have blindspots when they tell stories about men, and men have blindspots when they tell stories about women (and there are a few of those in The Sandman, too). And and and…

As storytellers, we can’t always speak from lived experience. It’s impossible. And that also means we occasionally make mistakes that look bad in hindsight, even if our intentions were good.

I guess the proof is in the pudding: What do we do when people who *have* that lived experience tell us it looks bad? If they inform us why it is hurtful, plays into old stereotypes etc?

Are we willing to listen and yield (both are the foundations of allyship btw), or are we insisting that our viewpoint as someone *without* lived experience is right? That lived experience extends to all lived experiences (sex/gender, sexual orientation, age...), and from all we’ve heard from Neil so far, it seems important to him to rewrite what he sees differently today. Whether they’ll always get it right for the show—we’ll see. At the moment, it looks a lot better than in the comics, and certain issues are already being handled with a lot more sensitivity, but a few problems remain.

Pushing back on criticism that comes from people with lived experience is problematic—I’d encourage us to think about what it looks like if a white majority in the fandom is basically saying that the opinions of POC are essentially “overreactions” (and yes, that happened).

It’s complicated. The Sandman was written in a different time, and I think we have to distinguish between things that weren’t really problematic at the time but have aged poorly (again, Thessaly springs to mind, and I have lived experience as a queer person during that time, so I can see it in context while at the same time acknowledging that I would make changes to bring it to the present day), and things that were always a problem due to blindspots. They were a problem in 1990, and if they don’t get changed, they are still a problem today.

This fandom is generally so much more open and nicer than others I know. But that doesn’t mean it’s infallible, because it’s full of humans.

Nuance is sorely needed, in both story interpretation and interaction between said humans.

#sandman #the sandman #dream of the endless #hob gadling #morpheus #the sandman comics #the sandman netflix #sandman meta #fandom blindspots #fandom discourse #sandman spoilers #nada #nada sandman

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grimmjow · 11 months

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The Supreme Court on Friday allowed Biden administration officials to continue to contact social media platforms to combat what the officials say is misinformation, pausing a sweeping ruling from a federal appeals court that had severely limited such interactions.

Three justices dissented from the court’s decision to lift the restrictions on administration officials while the case moves forward. “Government censorship of private speech is antithetical to our democratic form of government, and therefore today’s decision is highly disturbing,” Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. wrote, joined by Justices Clarence Thomas and Neil M. Gorsuch.

He added: “At this time in the history of our country, what the court has done, I fear, will be seen by some as giving the government a green light to use heavy-handed tactics to skew the presentation of views on the medium that increasingly dominates the dissemination of news. That is most unfortunate.”

ppl keep talking about Palestine so they just gave themselves permission to start censoring 'misinformation' on social media platforms

#other #text #g talks #palestine

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feralplantwife · 7 months

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On the 2023 Hugo Awards Disaster

I have a lot of huge feelings about the Hugo Awards disaster. I also have a personal stake, as Iron Widow by Xiran Jay Zhao was the best book I read last year and the most fun I've had reading a book in a very long time, so I'm mad about that in particular.

First and foremost, what the goddamn fuck??? The Hugo Awards are pretty much the biggest awards for genre fiction, specifically science fiction and fantasy, which continue to be shat upon by tweed-cocooned academics and their pick-me constituents.

The fact that they chose to eliminate minority authors and their works for the supposed sake of censorship (racism/queerphobia) has pretty much invalidated the credibility of the Hugo Awards past, present, and future. A major honor for authors has been reduced to a dubious bragging right and the validity of the final results are now nil.

If they weren't prepared for the responsibility involved in holding the convention in a specific country and weren't up to the task of carrying out their duties as a committee within the confines of that country with the bare minimum integrity, then they shouldn't have done so. The Hugo Awards committee have insulted the nominated authors, insulted the Chinese science fiction/fantasy audience, and insulted any even casual enjoyers of genre fiction.

And let's make one thing perfectly clear: there is absolutely no excuse for this, this is blatant RACISM and QUEERPHOBIA and nothing else. If you check my reblog from yesterday or visit Xiran Jay Zhao or Neil Gaiman's own blogs, you can literally follow an email chain where these absolute ghouls pick and choose which authors and works they're going to eliminate without even the slightest hesitation or reluctance. Just business as usual for them it seems!

There is already a huge problem with racism and minority suppression within the science fiction and fantasy genres, which are still largely dominated in the mainstream by cisgender, heterosexual white people, and the literature is still rife with racial/queer stereotypes and bigotry. The fact that these systemic issues have so deeply infiltrated one of the highest honors a science fiction/fantasy author can receive speaks of a downward trend in current sociopolitical practices and offers a dark glimpse into the future not only for these beloved genres but also for us- the readers.

I feel so bad for the Chinese people who voted so diligently for this convention to be hosted in Chengdu, only to find that the authors who represent them (among authors as well) were eliminated behind closed doors for reasons that had absolutely nothing to do with the merits of their works.

Because of the fandom spaces that I exist in, I get people screaming crying bitching moaning over not seeing boys kissing or whatever All The Time, on an almost daily basis, but the people who hurt the most because of the Chinese government's censorship are the citizens that exist under that censorship. Now, because of prejudiced weasels, this includes the truly exceptional authors that represent them on a HUGE scale overseas.

I'm furious with the awards committee on behalf of all of us and especially for them.

What can you do?

Activism takes many forms, most obviously ACTION. An accessible way for anyone to take action and combat this type of shitty behavior from literary influences like the World Science Fiction Convention and the Hugo Awards is to read diversely.

It makes you uncomfortable? Good! It makes you think? Even Better! It makes you learn? That's the best! Every time you buy a book, you're making the statement that this is what you want to read, this is what you value, this is what we need more of.

Can't buy books? Use your local library! Libraries keep records of what books get checked out the most, so if you check out diversely, they'll acquire more diverse literature for you to read. This is literally the basic foundation of how public libraries operate.

Support minority authors, and don't rely upon some committee to tell you which ones are worth reading. Ask BIPOC and Queer readers and authors instead. Our communities know best, and are happy to offer recommendations and contextual information to help you grow as both a person and a reader.

Fuck racism. Fuck the Hugo Awards. And Fuck Dave McCarty in particular.

And don't forget to reach out to [email protected] and let them know your thoughts and feelings on this matter

#hugo awards #2023 hugo awards #iron widow #xiran jay zhao #the sandman #neil gaiman #babel #r f kuang #queer lit #bipoc lit #read diversely

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dontmeantobepoliticalbut · 7 months

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The Supreme Court on Monday grappled with knotty free speech questions as it weighed laws in Florida and Texas that seek to impose restrictions on the ability of social media companies to moderate content.

After almost four hours of oral arguments, a majority of the justices appeared skeptical that states can prohibit platforms from barring or limiting the reach of some problematic users without violating the free speech rights of the companies.

But justices from across the ideological spectrum raised fears about the power and influence of big social media platforms like YouTube and Facebook and questioned whether the laws should be blocked entirely.

Trade groups NetChoice and the Computer and Communications Industry Association, known as CCIA, say that both laws infringe upon the free speech rights of companies under the Constitution’s First Amendment by restricting their ability to choose what content they wish to publish on their platforms.

First Amendment free speech protections apply to government actions, not those by private entities, including companies.

"Why isn't that, you know, a classic First Amendment violation for the state to come in and say, 'We're not going to allow you to enforce those sorts of restrictions'?" asked liberal Justice Elena Kagan, in reference to the Florida law's content moderation provisions.

As Chief Justice John Roberts put it, because the companies are not bound by the First Amendment, "they can discriminate against particular groups that they don't like."

Some justices, however, suggested the laws might have some legitimate applications against other platforms or services, including messaging applications, which could mean the court stops short of striking them down.

The eventual ruling could lead to further litigation in lower courts as to whether the laws should be blocked. Both are currently on hold.

"Separating the wheat from the chaff here is pretty difficult," said conservative Justice Neil Gorsuch.

Fellow conservatives Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito seemed most sympathetic to the states.

Alito at one point appeared openly mocking of the concept of content moderation.

"Is it anything more than a euphemism for censorship?" he asked.

The laws were enacted by the Republican-led states in 2021 after Twitter, Facebook and others banned former President Donald Trump after his effort to overturn the 2020 presidential election ended in his supporters storming the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.

This was before Twitter was taken over the following year by billionaire Elon Musk, who has allied himself with conservative critics of the platform and allowed various banned users, including Trump, to return.

Both laws seek to impose restrictions on content moderation and require companies to provide individualized explanations to users when content is removed.

The Florida law among other things prevents companies from banning public figures running for political office and restricts “shadow banning,” whereby certain user content is made difficult to find by other users. The state claims that such actions are a form of censorship.

The Texas law similarly prevents platforms from banning users based on the views they express. Each law requires the companies to disclose their moderation policies.

The states seek to equate social media companies with the telecommunications industry, which transmits speech but has no editorial input. These “common carriers” are heavily regulated by the government and do not implicate free speech issues.

As the argument session unfolded it appeared clear that justices were concerned the laws could apply well beyond the traditional social media giants to companies like Uber and Etsy that allow some user-created content.

Similarly, some social media companies, including Facebook, allow direct messaging. One of the biggest tech companies, YouTube owner Google, operates the Gmail email service.

Application of the laws against direct messaging or email services would not raise the same free speech concerns, and justices seemed hesitant about blocking the laws entirely.

"It makes me a little nervous," said conservative Justice Amy Coney Barrett.

The cases have a political edge, with President Joe Biden’s administration filing a brief backing the legal challenges and Trump supporting the laws.

In May 2022, after the New Orleans-based 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals declined to put the Texas law on hold, the Supreme Court stepped in, preventing it from going into effect. Then, four of the nine justices said the court should not have intervened at that stage.

The Florida measure was blocked by the Atlanta-based 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, prompting the state to appeal to the Supreme Court.

The challenges to the Texas and Florida laws are among several legal questions related to social media that the Supreme Court is currently grappling with.

A legal question not present in the case but lurking in the background is legal immunity that internet companies have long enjoyed for content posted by their users. Last year, the court sidestepped a ruling on that issue.

Alito suggested the social media companies were guilty of hypocrisy in adopting a free speech argument now when the liability shield was premised on them giving free rein to users to post whatever they want.

He paraphrased the companies' arguments as: "It's your message when you want to escape state regulation. But it's not your message when you want to escape liability."

#us politics #news #nbc news #us supreme court #1st amendment #first amendment #us constitution #freedom of speech #free speech #content moderation #social media #2024

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mysticstronomy · 2 years

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WILL WE EVER COLONIZE OTHER PLANETS??

Blog#247

Wednesday, November 23rd, 2022

Welcome back,

While humans have long thought of gods living in the sky, the idea of space travel or humans living in space dates to at least 1610 after the invention of the telescope when German astronomer Johannes Kepler wrote to Italian astronomer Galileo: “Let us create vessels and sails adjusted to the heavenly ether, and there will be plenty of people unafraid of the empty wastes. In the meantime, we shall prepare, for the brave sky-travellers, maps of the celestial bodies.”

In popular culture, space travel dates back to at least the mid-1600s when Cyrano de Bergerac first wrote of traveling to space in a rocket. Space fantasies flourished after Jules Verne’s “From Earth to the Moon” was published in 1865, and again when RKO Pictures released a film adaptation, A Trip to the Moon, in 1902. Dreams of space settlement hit a zenith in the 1950s with Walt Disney productions such as “Man and the Moon,” and science fiction novels including Ray Bradbury’s The Martian Chronicles (1950).

Fueling popular imagination at the time was the American space race with Russia, amid which NASA was formed in the United States on July 29, 1958, when President Eisenhower signed the National Aeronautics and Space Act into law. After the Russians put the first person, Yuri Gagarin, in space on Apr. 12, 1961, NASA put the first people, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin, on the Moon in July 1969. What was science fiction began to look more like possibility.

Over the next six decades, NASA would launch space stations, land rovers on Mars, and orbit Pluto and Jupiter, among other accomplishments. NASA’s ongoing Artemis program, launched by President Trump in 2017, intends to return humans to the Moon, landing the first woman on the lunar surface, by 2024.

As of June 17, 2021, three countries had space programs with human space flight capabilities: China, Russia, and the United States. India’s planned human space flights have been delayed by the COVID-19 pandemic, but they may launch in 2023. However, NASA ended its space shuttle program in 2011 when the shuttle Atlantis landed at Kennedy Space Center in Florida on July 21.

NASA astronauts going into space afterward rode along with Russians until 2020 when SpaceX took over and first launched NASA astronauts into space on Apr. 23, 2021. SpaceX is a commercial space travel business owned by Elon Musk that has ignited commercial space travel enthusiasm and the idea of “space tourism.” Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic and Jeff Bezo’s Blue Origin have generated similar excitement.

Richard Branson launched himself, two pilots, and three mission specialists into space [as defined by the United States] from New Mexico for a 90-minute flight on the Virgin Galactic Unity 22 mission on July 11, 2021. The flight marked the first time that passengers, rather than astronauts, went into space.

Originally published on www.britannica.com

COMING UP!!

(Saturday, November 26th, 2022)

"WHAT IS THE COSMIC CENSORSHIP THEORY??"

#astronomy #outer space #alternate universe #astrophysics #spacecraft #universe #white universe #parallel universe #space #astrophotography

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thenightling · 2 years

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Okay... more petty drama from The Sandman Facebook group. For those who would like to know what's going on this week... J. K. Rowling has made some statements that have been seen as very hurtful by the LGBTQ+ community, mostly trans. It is easy to believe that J. K. Rowling is probably a TERF. I already forbid bigoted and anti-trans ideology in the group but that wasn't good enough for some people. A person named Em Newman, for example started to demand I ban all mention of Harry Potter. Needless to say, I refused. This is pretty much impossible since many people feel Neil Gaiman's The Books of Magic may have inspired aspects of Harry Potter, and some dialogue in the eleventh episode of Sandman (Netflix series) mention J. K. Rowling.

Also Neil Gaiman, himself, has a pretty strong anti-censorship stance and I respect his views. I will ban hate speech but I cannot ban things like "I always wanted to attend Hogwarts."

Em Newman decided this meant that I am transphobic and they and their friends formed a new Sandman group "The Sandman without Terfs." But that wasn't the end of it. Em Newman started to call random members of my Sandman group names. They called me a "Snapewife" for some reason. (I GUESS that's someone who crushes on the Snape character from Harry Potter). They started to post my picture on their group and elsewhere with this claim, including in the Facebook group "Poor people simping for capitalism." They even started to call one of my group moderators a "Token trans" because she's a trans woman. This is what ultimately lead to my banning Em Newman from The Sandman group. Because Em Newman posted about me elsewhere, this lead to a surge of trolls in The Sandman group for the last day or so. In fact, just three hours ago, if you scroll down my personal Facebook, to the Velveteen Rabbit post you'll find a comment from Em Newman with their doctored picture of my Facebook profile image, calling me a "Snapewife." I barely know what that even means so I'm not sure why they seem to think it's such a clever insult. I'm forty-one-years-old. I'm not that into Harry Potter. I just refuse to forbid it's mention! And I certainly do not condone a lot of J. K. Rowling's statements or beliefs. I hadn't even liked her since she decided Native American Skinwalkers were just animagi under a smear campaign from Shamans with no real power. I don't defend J. K. Rowling, I just refuse to ban the mention of Harry Potter. That is all.

If you scroll down on this attached post from my own Facebook wall you’ll see how Em Newman has now decided to stalk me and post on my personal wall.

https://www.facebook.com/amanda.pike.96/posts/pfbid0FQsLZq6VhPSBLhf6VWwh2GwXKwEgqTeg5SRU1y43iCHXP1VmtGQ1R6XKzgJfAzfUl

#Neil Gaiman's The Sandman Fandom #anti-J. K. Rowling #Anti-Harry Potter #WTF #The Sandman #The sandman fandom

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theglizzardwizard · 4 months

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Hi I'm back to complain about some fanfic problems.

Speaking as a guy that writes a shitload of angst/whump/death fics, I cannot stand the bitches who go "but tagging will SPOIL the plot!!"

It's a fanfiction. You're not Anne Rice. You're not Neil Gaiman. Spoilers don't matter. If someone wants to read your sad fic, they'll do it regardless of whether or not you drop major story beats in the form of tag warnings. Please save everyone else the trouble, I promise you nobody gives a fuck about the shock of your plot. If you're actually good at writing tragedies or trauma fic, the shock and horror will register regardless of warnings.

This next point is a personal gripe, for me as a man that's also a Yuri fan. I think assholes who write corrective rape fics and tag them as if they were just regular yuri do it on purpose. They do it on purpose and that shit should be a bannable offense. It's homophobic harassment, straight up. Fuck a no censorship, people upload the most vile shit to that site every damn day but at least, most of those fucknasty bastards have the basic decency to tag that trash. Kill yourself if you don't.

#fanfiction problems #fandom culture #Fandom critical #Lesbophobia #Fandom misogyny #Btdubs this is not an invitation to reblog with a pro kink spiel #I ain't say shit about fetishes I am talking about straight men using fanfic as a medium to try and harass lesbians online

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mariacallous · 2 years

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More than 250 figures from the US literary world have signed an open letter protesting the acquisition by Penguin Random House of a book by the conservative supreme court justice Amy Coney Barrett.

The hardline Catholic conservative was Donald Trump’s third appointee, her nomination rushed through by Senate Republicans after the death of Ruth Bader Ginsburg, a liberal lion, shortly before the 2020 election.

Barrett’s book deal, reportedly worth $2m, was revealed the following year.

The open letter focuses on Barrett’s most consequential moment on the court, her membership in the 6-3 majority which this June removed the right to abortion.

The signatories say “it is imperative that publishers uphold their dedication to freedom of speech with a duty of care”.

But, they say, “we recognize that harm is done to a democracy not only in the form of censorship, but also in the form of assault on inalienable human rights. As such, we are calling on Penguin Random House to recognise its own history and corporate responsibility commitments by reevaluating its decision to move forward with publishing supreme court justice Amy Coney Barrett’s forthcoming book.”

Samuel Alito, John Roberts, Brett Kavanaugh, Clarence Thomas and Neil Gorsuch also voted to overturn Roe v Wade, the 1973 ruling which made abortion legal. The open letter says the justices thereby “dismantl[ed] protections for the human rights to privacy, self-determination and bodily autonomy along with the federal right to an abortion in the United States.

“… International human rights organisations widely recognise abortion access as a fundamental human right and have condemned the supreme court decision.

“In fact, Human Rights Watch, founded by Random House’s second publisher, Robert L Bernstein … notes that ‘the human rights on which a right to abortion access is predicated are set out in the [United Nations’] Universal Declaration of Human Rights’, a document to which Penguin Random House parent company Bertelsmann commits itself in … its code of conduct.”

Barrett’s book will reportedly consider “how judges are not supposed to bring their personal feelings into how they rule”.

But Barrett is a member of People of Praise, a secretive Catholic group. The open letter accuses her of “inflicting her own religious and moral agenda upon all Americans while appropriating the rhetoric of even-handedness – and Penguin Random House has agreed to pay her a sum of $2m to do it.”

The signatories add: “Many of us work daily with books we find disagreeable to our personal politics. Rather, this is a case where a corporation has privately funded the destruction of human rights with obscene profits.

“Barrett is free to say as she wishes, but Penguin Random House must decide whether to fund her position at the expense of human rights in order to inflate its bottom line, or to truly stand behind the values it proudly espouses to hold. We … cannot stand idly by while our industry misuses free speech to destroy our rights.”

A spokesperson told Publishers Weekly it was hoped the letter would “encourage others in the industry to speak out”. Penguin Random House did not comment.

Barrett has publicly addressed the subject of politics and the court. Last September, she told an audience in Kentucky that justices should be “hyper-vigilant to make sure they’re not letting personal biases creep into their decisions, since judges are people, too”.

She added: “My goal today is to convince you that this court is not comprised of a bunch of partisan hacks.”

The event was held at a centre named for a prominent partisan figure: Mitch McConnell, the Republican Senate leader who blocked Barack Obama’s last nomination then saw three Trump picks safely on to the court.

As Barrett spoke, McConnell listened intently.

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mega2wheellife · 6 years

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kill imagination

dictators kill imagination

they have to

otherwise we will imagine the future

without them

one tool is censorship

though they will never call it this

it is forming the style of conversation

shaping future conflict

ending hate speech

cutting the oxygen of publicity

adding labels

to help you prejudge opinion

setting the agenda

for ideas that don’t fit our consensus

& some of you will go along with this

otherwise you’d have to think

for yourself

& that is what dictators

rely on being difficult

& never want you to do

neil benbow

#songoftheclouds #savage-words #twcpoetry #poetryriot #writerscreed #poetry on tumblr #alt lit #dictators #censorship #hate speech forming opinion #think for yourself #difficult #poets #writers #poetry (c)NAB neil benbow

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sunnysynthsunshine · 2 years

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Similarities that TMNT has with Sailor Moon

Starting with the source material: Both TMNT and Sailor Moon had darker storylines and scenes in their original comics, TMNT's Mirage comics had a lot of death, swearing and violence and so did Sailor Moon.

their first cartoon adaptations were a lot more light-hearted, revolving around monster of the week scenarios with some slice-of-life elements

Toei animated season 1 of the first TMNT cartoon,

they later went on to animate Sailor Moon years later

Their signature style is notable in some scenes,

where the turtles expressions have a very retro anime look to them it's also seen in the not Toei episodes.

their signature style is notable in some scenes, where the turtles expressions have a very retro anime look to them it's also seen in the not toei episodes

They both have a evil professor as one of their villains, Professor Tomoe for Sailor Moon

and Baxter Stockman in TMNT

They both have an animal mentor, the Sailor Senshi have their Cats and the turtles have Splinter

They both have an ally/love interest, Sailor Moon has Tuxedo Mask

and TMNT (specifically in the old series) have April O' Neil

The love interests initially didn’t get along at first.

Mamoru would bicker with Usagi before they learned about their other identities and warmed up to each other

and old cartoon April initially didn't like them at first, thinking they were behind the foot clan's city chaos.

the character roles are very similar

Rei is a lot like Raphael (being a tough snarky fighter)

Makoto is a lot like Leonardo (being the voice of reason)

Ami is a lot like Donatello (being the intelligent one)

and Usagi and Minako have traits of Michelangelo

While there are more sailor Senshi than ninja turtles, there have been more members introduced in the newer iterations Venus De Milo,Jennika,Lita etc from what I've researched,

Jennika reminds me of Haruka

and Lita reminds me of Hotaru and Chibiusa

in some TMNT iterations, the turtles are reincarnations

in Sailor Moon, each sailor senshi was once a princess during the Silver Millennium, their sailor scout/civilian counterparts are also reincarnations

They have quite a variety of outfits the Sailor Moon girls always wear a stylish outfit in each episode whether in civilian or sailor scout form the turtles wear outfits as disguises when near humans, and in later iterations, they have stylish looks for their upgrades too.

They are both pop culture icons and massive hits, especially for the decades their animated adaptations were made in

Turtles for the 80s-early 90s

Sailor Moon for the 90s

Both have stage shows, Sailor Moon has a ton of musicals

while the Turtles had their concerts and a few musical VHS releases

both had PSA's in their early animated adaptations

TMNT had an anime ova in the 90s called Mutant Turtles: Superman Legend, in it there are mystical fairies and power-ups (via magical crystals) similar to Sailor Moon's silver crystal

Dark Mu from the 90s TMNT ova

is similar to Beryl and mistress 9 in powers and she looks like Rei

in the old TMNT series, Shredder would mostly attack the turtles externally, through schemes, machines or working with other henchmen like Krang,Bebop, Rocksteady and Baxter Stockman

the Sailor Moon villains attack the Senshi in a similar way before they eventually face them

Despite their popularity, both were very controversial shows, especially in the UK

TMNT had parent complaints, nunchucks getting removed and UK censorship.

Sailor Stars wasn't dubbed in the 90s and Sailor Moon S and Super S were never aired in the UK

They both had teenage characters

the main inner sailor scouts being 14-16, with haruka and michuru being 16-17

and title aside, the 2012 turtles are canonically 15, as for the 80s and 2003 turtles, I'm gonna assume they're a bit older

Both had short lived live action tv adaptations

Ninja Turtles: The Next Mutation (1997)

and Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon (PGSM) (2003)

Both are connected to Evangelion

Sailor Moon voice actors also being in Evangelion (such as Kotono Mitsuishi)

TMNT had Evangelion replace its timeslot when it stopped airing in Japan

Hideaki Anno provided animation for Sailor Moon

Rise of TMNT having some eva references

Both had references to western and Japanese culture

Sailor Moon is a Japanese anime that sometimes references western pop culture

80s-90s TMNT is partially a Japanese production and has episodes that reference popular movies

2003,2012 and 2018 TMNT have anime influences

TMNT references a lot of real ninjutsu techniques (like Impact smoke bombs and Kuji-in)

and Sailor Moon (being a Japanese show) has a lot of references in the shinto symbolism, the character names, the food, the activities etc

Leonardo and Splinter can often sense telepathically when danger is near

Rei from Sailor Moon has a similar ability

the characters in Sailor Moon and TMNT have both met or worked with people from future timelines

In episode 136 of Sailor Moon, Usagi dresses up as a ninja, in an outfit that references how her name means bunny rabbit

There is a Japanese samurai rabbit comic character called Usagi Yojimbo/Miyamoto, there are frequent crossovers where Usagi works with the ninja turtles

Rei bickers with and taunts Usagi a lot (in the 90s anime )

Raphael in TMNT is known for doing this to Michelangelo

despite this, they are still loyal and loving to each other

Rei and Raphael are the tough angry ones and Usagi and Mikey are the playful ones.

the dorky, sweet best friend who isn't part of the main team

in TMNT, Irma has this role and in Sailor Moon it’s Naru/Molly

the sailor senshi (especially Usagi and Minako) enjoy video games,

the turtles do too

there's a member of each team who is clumsy and silly (and mocked for it) while also being capable strong fighters in Sailor Moon, it's Usagi and in TMNT, it's Michelangelo (especially in the 2003 and 2012 iterations)

they also both love food

both have younger team members from the future (who are related to them in some way) and train to be part of their team

The sailor senshi have Chibiusa and Chibi chibi

in the TMNT 2003 fast-forward season, there's Cody Jones

and Casey Jones II in the Rise movie

they both have episodes/scenes where the characters switch ages

Sailor Moon Act 39 Dream 1 of the manga dream arc,episode 158 of the 90s anime and Sailor Moon Eternal

Adventures in Turtle Sitting and Back to the Egg from the old TMNT series

alcohol references

there's an episode of the 90s Sailor Moon anime where Usagi got accidentally drunk, in the dic dub it was implied that she just drank too much "juice"

In the Mirage comics, the turtles drink beer, including Raphael when they visit an Alien bar.

#tmnt #teenage mutant ninja turtles #sailor moon #pgsm #rise of the teenage mutant ninja turtles #rise of tmnt movie #tmnt 2012 #tmnt 2003 #tmnt 1987 #fred wolf tmnt

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americangodstalk · 4 years

Text

If you liked American Gods, you might like... Fables

Fables, the American comic book by Bill Willingham. It is part of DC Comics’ Vertigo (the same line which published Neil Gaiman’s famous comic Sandman)

First released in 2002 (just one year after the release of American Gods) and its main series ending up in 2015 (but not without spanning several comic book spin-offs, a video game and several (ultimately abandonned) series and movies projects (though ultimately one of those abandonned series project was turned in the television series “One Upon a Time”), Fables became a classic of modern fantasy comic book.

The plot is simples. The fairytales are real. They happened in another world, inhabited by the “Fables” (the characters of said fairytales), but then this other world was invaded by the dark lord called The Adversary. The Fables, fleeing the carnage and destruction, settled in a world seemingly forgotten by the Adversary, a world without magic - the world of the Mundanes. The human world, our world.

Now, the Fables (such as Snow Jack, Prince Charming, Rapunzel or the Big Bad Wolf) live as (almost) regular humans in a private neighborhood of New-York City known as “Fabletown”, while all the Fables that are unfit to live with humans (such as dragons, the three little pigs or the bears of Goldilock) hide in The Farm, a magically protected area of the countryside of upstate New York.

While Fables inspired the television series Once Upon a Time, it is much more adult and darker, death being regular, blood and sex often popping up in the stories, and ranging from heartwarming love stories and family episodes to the horrors of war or of magic gone wrong, as only the original form of fairytales could do.

What is quite interesting here is the relationship between the Fables and their fairytales, which is never quite fully explained in the comic but merely hinted at. While what happened to the Fables in their original dimension caused the creation of fairytales and legends in our world (because as time goes by, are included in Fables not just fairytales, but also famous legends, mythologies and even more modern literary works such as The Jungle Book or the Land of Oz novels). BUT and here is the similarity with American Gods, the Fables depend on the popularity of their stories. The more a Fables’ story is well known and part of popular culture, the stronger they will be and the harder they will be to kill. (A forgotten Fable can die like a regular human being. A popular Fable can survive being shot in the head, though they still need to recover.) And several times, this idea is mentionned in the stories: there is an unnamed witch who became very powerful by abandonning her own identity to become the wich of several fairytales (Rapunzel or Hansel and Gretel, it was all the same witch) ; Jack (of Jack and the Beanstalk) powers himself by having a series of blockbuster movies based on his fairytales created ; and Rose Red has a grudge against Snow White because while they started in the fairytale “Snow White and Rose Red”, Snow then went to have her own stories and become very popular while Rose Red was forgotten.

Fables is also quite interesting because it explores some cultural significance of the characters - the Fables being archetypes more than true individual characters. Jack of the Beanstalk is the “Jack” character of all fairytales (Jack and the Giant Killer, Jack and Jill, Little Jack Horner, Jack O’Lantern, Jack Frost... he is all of them), the same way Prince Charming was indeed the husband of Snow White, Cinderella and Rapunzel. [And note that in American Gods, Jack the Cornish fairytale figure appears as the entity meeting Essie near the end of her life]

That being said, one specific spin-off might appeal more to the American Gods readers: Jack of Fables. A spin-off comic centered around the character of Jack I mentionned above. While the main series is located in a triangle of places (The Farm/Fabletown/the Homelands, the original dimension of the Fables), Jack of Fables takes the shape of a road trip through America, at first through real-life America (where he meets several loose fables, like Lady Luck who now rules over Las Vegas), then through the Fable dimension of America, aka Americana which contains all of the literary cliches, cultural concepts and folklore elements of the American continent. Jack of Fables also talks a bit more about the nature and evolution of fairytales, notably through one of the numerous plots, which involves the “Golden Boughs Retirement Village”, a supernatural prison (imagine a supernatural version of The Village from The Prisoner) which is ruled by Mr. Revise (the embodiment of censorship and rewriting) and traps all the Fables deemed in need of being “revised” (from characters deemed racist like Little Black Sambo, to just cultural jokes such as Carl, the fourth little pig)

#american gods #you might like #fables

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mostlysignssomeportents · 5 years

Text

Pluralistic: 14 Mar 2020 (Free audio of Masque of the Red Death and When Sysadmins Ruled the Earth, Ada Palmer on censorship, Women of Imagineering, Glitch unionizes, Tachyon/EFF Humble Bundle, Canada Reads postponed, data-caps and liquid bans paused, Star Wars firepits)

Today's links

Masque of the Red Death: Macmillan Audio gave me permission to share the audiobook of my end-of-the-world novella.

When Sysadmins Ruled the Earth: A new podcast audiobook of my 2005 end-of-the-world story.

Ada Palmer on historical and modern censorship: Part of EFF's Speaking Freely project.

Glitch workers unionize: First-ever tech union formed without management opposition.

Women of Imagineering: A 384-page illustrated chronicle of the role women play in Disney theme-park design.

Tachyon celebrates 30 years of sff publishing with a Humble Bundle: DRM-free and benefits EFF.

Honest Government Ads, Covid-19 edition: Political satire is really hard, but The Juice makes it look easy.

TSA lifts liquid bans, telcos lift data caps: Almost as though there was no reason for them in the first place.

CBC postpones Canada Reads debates: But you can read a ton of the nominated books online for free.

Star Wars firepits: 750lbs of flaming backyard steel.

This day in history: 2005, 2015, 2019

Colophon: Recent publications, current writing projects, upcoming appearances, current reading

Masque of the Red Death (permalink)

Edgar Allan Poe wrote "The Masque of the Red Death" in 1842. It's about a plutocrat who throws a masked ball in his walled abbey during a plague with the intention of cheating death.

https://www.poemuseum.org/the-masque-of-the-red-death

My novella "The Masque of the Red Death" is a tribute to Poe; it's from my book Radicalized. It's the story of a plute who brings his pals to his luxury bunker during civlizational collapse in the expectation of emerging once others have rebuilt.

https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250242334

Naturally, they assume that when they do emerge, once their social inferiors have rebooted civilization, that their incredible finance-brains, their assault rifles, and their USBs full of BtC will allow them to command a harem and live a perpetual Frazetta-painting future.

And naturally – to anyone who's read Poe – it doesn't work out for them. They discover that humanity has a shared microbial destiny and that you can't shoot germs. That every catastrophe must be answered with solidarity, not selfishness, if it is to be survived.

Like my story When Sysadmins Ruled the Earth, the Masque of the Red Death has been on a lot of people's minds lately, especially since this Guardian story of plutes fleeing to their luxury bunkers was published. Hundreds of you have sent me this.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/mar/11/disease-dodging-worried-wealthy-jet-off-to-disaster-bunkers

I got the message. Yesterday, I asked my agent to see if Macmillan Audio would let me publish the audiobook of my Masque of the Red Death for free. They said yes, and asked me to remind you that the audiobook of Radicalized (which includes Masque) is available for your delectation.

I hope you'll check out the whole book. Radicalized was named one of the @WSJ's best books of 2019, and it's a finalist for Canada Reads, the national book prize. It's currently on every Canadian national bestseller list.

There's one hitch, though: Audible won't sell it to you. They don't sell ANY of my work, because I don't allow DRM on it, because I believe that you should not have to lock my audiobooks to Amazon's platform in order to enjoy them.

Instead, you can buy the audio from sellers like libro.fm, Downpour.com, and Google Play. Or you can get it direct from me. No DRM, no license agreement. Just "you bought it, you own it."

https://craphound.com/shop/

And here's the free Macmillan Audio edition of Masque of the Red Death, read with spine-chilling menace by the incredible Stefan Rudnicki, with a special intro from me, freshly mastered by John Taylor Williams. I hope it gives you some comfort.

https://craphound.com/podcast/2020/03/13/the-masque-of-the-red-death/

(Here's the direct MP3, too)

https://archive.org/download/Cory_Doctorow_Podcast_332/Cory_Doctorow_Podcast_332_-_The_Masque_of_the_Red_Death.mp3

Ada Palmer on historical and modern censorship (permalink)

My EFF colleague Jillian C York's latest project is Speaking Freely, a series of interviews with people about free expression and the internet, including what Neil Gaiman memorably called "icky speech."

http://journal.neilgaiman.com/2008/12/why-defend-freedom-of-icky-speech.html

The latest interview subject is the incomparable Ada Palmer: historian, sf writer, musician, and co-host of last year's U Chicago seminar series on "systems of information control during information revolutions," which I co-taught with her. Ada's interview synthesizes her historian's distance from the subject ("yes, this is my subject, and these people are terrible, and it's kind of fun in that way") with her perspective as a writer and advocate for free speech.

"One of the victims of censorship is the future capacity to tell histories of the period when censorship happened….. It renders that historical record unreliable… makes it easier for people to make claims you can't refute using historical sources… It's similar to how we see people invalidating things now—like 'that climate study wasn't really valid because it got funding from a leftist political group"—they're invalidating the material by claiming that there has to be insincerity its development.

"Pretty much every censoring operation post-printing press recognizes that it isn't possible to track down and destroy every copy of a thing…An Inquisition book burning was the ceremonial burning of one copy. The Inquisition kept examples of all of the books they banned."

Fascinating perspecting on whether nongovernmental action can really be called "censorship."

"The Inquisition wasn't the state – it was a private org like to Doctors Without Borders or Unicef, run by private orgs like the Dominicans and it often competed with the state." As she points out, everything the Inquisition did would be fine alongside the First Amendment, because it was entirely private action.

Next, Palmer talks about market concentration and how it abets this kind of private censorship. This is something I've written a lot about, see for example:

https://locusmag.com/2020/01/cory-doctorow-inaction-is-a-form-of-action/

"If you have a plural set of voices, then you're always going to have some spaces where things can be said, just like you have a plurality of printers printing books, and some will only print orthodox things and some will only print radical ones."

And while the internet could afford many venues for speech, in practice a concentrated internet makes is plausible to accomplish the censor's never-realized dream: "You can make a program that can hunt down every instance of a particular phrase and erase it."

Tiny architectural choices make big differences here ("Architecture is politics" -Mitch Kapor). Amazon can update your Kindle books without your permission, Kobo can't. Amazon could delete every instance of a book on Kindles, but Kobo would need cooperation from its customers.

Palmer is just the latest subject of Jillian's series. You can read many other amazing interviews here:

https://www.eff.org/speaking-freely

When Sysadmins Ruled the Earth (permalink)

Over the past two weeks, hundreds of people have written to me to draw comparisons between the pandemic emergency and my 2005 story "When Sysamins Ruled the Earth" – an apocalyptic tale of network administrators who survive a civilizational collapse.

https://craphound.com/overclocked/Cory_Doctorow_-Overclocked-_When_Sysadmins_Ruled_the_Earth.html

I started writing this story in the teacher's quarters at the Clarion Workshop, which was then hosted at MSU. It was July 6, 2005. I know the date because the next day was 7/7, when bombs went off across London, blowing up the tube train my wife normally rode to work. The attacks also took out the bus I normally rode to my office. My wife was late to work because I was in Michigan, so she slept in. It probably saved her life. I couldn't work on this story for a long time after.

Eventually, I finished it and sold it to Eric Flint for Baen's Universe magazine. It's been widely reprinted and adapted, including as a comic:

https://archive.org/details/CoryDoctorowsFuturisticTalesOfTheHereAndNow/mode/2up

I read this for my podcast 15 years ago, too, but the quality is terrible. The more I thought about it, the more I thought I should do a new reading. So I did, and John Taylor Williams mastered it overnight and now it's live.

https://craphound.com/podcast/2020/03/13/when-sysadmins-ruled-the-earth-2/

There's a soliloquy in this where the protagonist reads a part of John Perry Barlow's Declaration of Independence of Cyberspace. Rather than read it myself for the podcast, I ganked some of Barlow's own 2015 reading, which is fucking magnificent.

https://vimeo.com/111576518

Anyway, I hope you enjoy this. I've spent a lot of imaginary time inhabiting various apocalypses, driven (I think) by my grandmother's horrific stories of being inducted into the civil defense corps during the Siege of Leningrad, which began when she was 12.

You can subscribe to the podcast here:

http://feeds.feedburner.com/doctorow_podcast

And here's the MP3, which is hosted by the @internetarchive (they'll host your stuff for free, too!).

https://archive.org/download/Cory_Doctorow_Podcast_331/Cory_Doctorow_Podcast_331_-_When_Sysadmins_Ruled_the_Earth.mp3

Glitch workers unionize (permalink)

The staff of Glitch have formed a union. It seems to be the first-ever white-collar tech-workers' union to have formed without any objections from management (bravo, Anil Dash!).

https://cwa-union.org/news/releases/tech-workers-app-developer-glitch-vote-form-union-and-join-cwa-organizing-initiative

The workers organized under the Communications Workers of America, which has been organizing tech shops through their Campaign to Organize Digital Employees.

https://www.code-cwa.org/?gclid=EAIaIQobChMIovDRsc-S6AIVCuDICh0rFQCMEAAYASAAEgJb1PD_BwE

"We appreciate that unlike so many employers, the Glitch management team decided to respect the rights of its workforce to choose union representation without fear or coercion."

Women of Imagineering (permalink)

Next October, Disney will publish "Women of Imagineering: 12 Careers, 12 Theme Parks, Countless Stories," a 384-page history of a dozen pioneering woman Imagineers.

https://thedisneyblog.com/2020/03/13/new-book-highlights-stories-from-the-women-of-walt-disney-imagineering/

Featured are Elisabete Erlandson, Julie Svendsen, Maggie Elliott, Peggy Fariss, Paula Dinkel, Karen Connolly Armitage, Katie Olson, Becky Bishop, Tori Atencio, Lynne Macer Rhodes, Kathy Rogers, and Pam Rank.

When I worked at Imagineering, the smartest, most talented, most impressive staff I knew were women (like Sara Thacher!). It's amazing to see the women of the organization get some long-overdue recognition.

Tachyon celebrates 30 years of sff publishing with a Humble Bundle (permalink)

For 30 years, @TachyonPub has been publishing outstanding science fiction, including a wide range of stuff that's too weird or marginal for the Big 5 publishers, like collections of essays and collections.

https://tachyonpublications.com/

Now, they've teamed up with Humble Bundle to celebrate their 30th with a huge pay-what-you-like bundle that benefits EFF. There are so many great books in this bundle!

https://www.humblebundle.com/books/celebrating-25-years-scifi-fantasy-from-tachyon-books

Like Bruce Sterling's Pirate Utopia, Eileen Gunn's Stable Strategies, and books by Michael Moorcock, Thomas Disch, Jo Walton, Jane Yolen, Nick Mamatas, Kameron Hurley, Lauren Beukes, Lavie Tidhar and so many more!

I curated the very first Humble Ebook Bundle and I've followed all the ones since. This one is fucking amazeballs. Run, don't walk.

Honest Government Ads, Covid-19 edition (permalink)

Good political satire is hard, but @thejuicemedia's "Honest Government Ads" are consistently brilliant.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCKRw8GAAtm27q4R3Q0kst_g

The latest is, of course, Covi9-19 themed. It is funny, trenchant, and puts the blame exactly where it belongs.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hks6Nq7g6P4

If you like it, you can support their Patreon.

https://www.patreon.com/TheJuiceMedia

TSA lifts liquid bans, telcos lift data caps (permalink)

Your ISP is likely to lift its data-caps in the next day or two. @ATT and @comcast already did.

https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/v74qzb/atandt-suspends-broadband-usage-caps-during-coronavirus-crisis

And TSA has decided that 12 ounces of any liquid labelled "hand sanitizer" is safe for aviation, irrespective of what's in the bottle.

https://www.theverge.com/2020/3/13/21179120/tsa-hand-sanitizer-liquid-size-airport-screening-coronavirus-covid-19

What do these two facts have in common? Obviously, it's that the official narrative for things that impose enormous financial costs on Americans, and dramatically lower their quality of lives, were based on lies. These lies have been obvious from the start. The liquid ban, for example, is based on a plot that never worked (making binary explosives in airport bathroom sinks from liquids) and seems unlikely to ever have worked, according to organic chemists.

Keeping your "piranha bath" near 0' C for a protracted period in the bathroom toilet is some varsity-level terrorism, and the penalty for failure is that you maim or blind yourself with acid spatter.

https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2006/08/on_the_implausi.html

And even if you stipulate that the risk is real, it's been obvious for 14 years that multiple 3oz bottles of Bad Liquid could be recombined beyond the checkpoint to do whatever it is liquids do at 3.0001oz.The liquid ban isn't just an inconvenience. It's not even just a burden on travelers who've collectively spent billions to re-purchase drinks and toiletries. It's a huge health burden to people with disabilities who rely on constant access to liquids.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0m12mLXgO1A

And as we knew all along, the liquid ban was a nonsense, an authoritarian response to a cack-handed, improbable terror plot. It embodies the "security syllogism":

Something must be done. There, I've done something.

Think of all those checkpoints where all confiscated liquids were dumped into a giant barrel and mingled together: if liquids posed an existential threat to planes, they'd dispose of them like they were C4, not filtered water. No one believed in the liquid threat, ever. TSA can relax the restrictions and allow 12oz of anything labeled as hand-san through the checkpoints. There was no reason to confiscate liquids in the first place. But don't expect them to admit this. The implicit message of the change is "Pandemics make liquids safe."

Now onto data-caps. Like the liquid ban, data-caps have imposed a tremendous cost on Americans. In addition to the hundreds of millions in monopoly rents extracted from the nation by telcos through overage charges, these caps also shut many out of the digital world. They represent a regressive tax on information, one that falls worst upon the most underserved in the nation: people in poor and rural places, for whom online access is a gateway to civic and political life, family connection, employment and education.

We were told that we had to tolerate these caps because of the "tragedy of the commons," a fraudulent idea from economics that says that shared resources are destroyed through selfish overuse, based on no data or evidence.

https://thebaffler.com/latest/first-as-tragedy-then-as-fascism-amend

(By contrast, actual commons are a super-efficient way of managing resources)

https://www.onthecommons.org/magazine/elinor-ostroms-8-principles-managing-commmons

Telcos insisted that if they didn't throttle and gouge us, their networks would become unusable – but really, what they meant is that if they didn't throttle and gouge us, the windfall to their shareholders would decline.

What's more likely: that pandemics make network management tools so efficient that data-caps become obsolete, or that they were a shuck and a ripoff from day one, enabled by a hyper-concentrated industry of monopolists with cozy relationships with corrupt regulators?

So yeah, maybe this is the moment that kills Security Theater and data-caps.

https://techcrunch.com/2020/03/12/coronavirus-could-force-isps-to-abandon-data-caps-forever/

(Image: Rhys Gibson)

CBC postpones Canada Reads debates (permalink)

The folks at the @CBC have postponed next week's televised Canada Reads debates, so we're going to have to wait a while to find out who wins the national book prize.

https://www.cbc.ca/books/canada-reads-2020-postponed-1.5497678

Obviously, this is a bummer, though equally obviously, it's a relatively small consequence of this ghastly circumstance.

And on the bright side, the CBC have just released a ton of excerpts from the nominees:

https://www.cbc.ca/books/canadareads/read-excerpts-from-the-canada-reads-2020-books-1.5496637

If you're looking for some Canada Reads lit for this moment, my novella "Masque of the Red Death" appears in my collection Radicalized, one of the finalists. I put up the story as a free podast last night (thanks to Macmillan Audio for permission).

https://craphound.com/podcast/2020/03/13/the-masque-of-the-red-death/

Star Wars firepits (permalink)

West Coast Firepits went viral when they produced a Death Star firepit, though of course, I lusted after their Tiki Firepit.

https://www.westcoastfirepits.com/shop/tiki-firepit-69825

But now they're really leaning into the Star Wars themed pits, with an Interceptor pit ($2500):

https://www.westcoastfirepits.com/shop/interceptor

Or, if you prefer a post-apocalyptic version, there's a Crashed Interceptor pit, also $2500.

https://www.westcoastfirepits.com/shop/crashed-interceptor

If those prices seem high, consider that they're hand-made onshore, and contain 750lbs of 1/4" and 1/8" steel.

This day in history (permalink)

#15yrsago How DRM will harm the developing world https://web.archive.org/web/20050317005030/https://www.eff.org/IP/DRM/itu_drm.php

#5yrsago Anti-vaxxer ordered to pay EUR100K to winner of "measles aren't real" bet https://calvinayre.com/2015/03/13/business/biologist-ordered-to-pay-e100k-after-losing-wager-that-a-virus-causes-measles/

#1yrago A massive victory for fair use in the longrunning Dr Seuss vs Star Trek parody lawsuit https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20190313/09554041791/big-fair-use-win-mashups-places-youll-boldly-go-deemed-to-be-fair-use.shtml

#1yrago A detailed analysis of American ER bills reveals rampant, impossible-to-avoid price-gouging https://www.vox.com/health-care/2018/12/18/18134825/emergency-room-bills-health-care-costs-america

#1yrago Ketamine works great for depression and other conditions, and costs $10/dose; the new FDA-approved "ketamine" performs badly in trials and costs a fortune https://slatestarcodex.com/2019/03/11/ketamine-now-by-prescription/

#1yrago Facebook and Big Tech are monopsonies, even when they're not monopolies https://www.wired.com/story/facebook-not-monopoly-but-should-broken-up/

Colophon (permalink)

Today's top sources: EFF Deeplinks (https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/), Waxy (https://waxy.org/), Slashdot https://slashdot.org).

Currently writing: I've just finished rewrites on a short story, "The Canadian Miracle," for MIT Tech Review. It's a story set in the world of my next novel, "The Lost Cause," a post-GND novel about truth and reconciliation. I've also just completed "Baby Twitter," a piece of design fiction also set in The Lost Cause's prehistory, for a British think-tank. I'm getting geared up to start work on the novel next.

Currently reading: Just started Lauren Beukes's forthcoming Afterland: it's Y the Last Man plus plus, and two chapters in, it's amazeballs. Last month, I finished Andrea Bernstein's "American Oligarchs"; it's a magnificent history of the Kushner and Trump families, showing how they cheated, stole and lied their way into power. I'm getting really into Anna Weiner's memoir about tech, "Uncanny Valley." I just loaded Matt Stoller's "Goliath" onto my underwater MP3 player and I'm listening to it as I swim laps.

Latest podcast: When Sysadmins Ruled the Earth https://craphound.com/podcast/2020/03/13/when-sysadmins-ruled-the-earth-2/

Upcoming books: "Poesy the Monster Slayer" (Jul 2020), a picture book about monsters, bedtime, gender, and kicking ass. Pre-order here: https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781626723627?utm_source=socialmedia&utm_medium=socialpost&utm_term=na-poesycorypreorder&utm_content=na-preorder-buynow&utm_campaign=9781626723627

(we're having a launch for it in Burbank on July 11 at Dark Delicacies and you can get me AND Poesy to sign it and Dark Del will ship it to the monster kids in your life in time for the release date).

"Attack Surface": The third Little Brother book, Oct 20, 2020. https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250757531

"Little Brother/Homeland": A reissue omnibus edition with a new introduction by Edward Snowden: https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250774583

#pluralistic

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florrickandassociates · 4 years

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TGF Thoughts: 3x08-- The One Where Kurt Saves Diane

I wrote this over the span of, like, a full year and it is not very interesting. I am posting it simply because I am committed to the idea of writing something about every episode of this series. I recommend that you go check out Evil instead of reading this.

I’m just not intrigued by the clips of news footage about some sort of “Unredacted Unspecified Report” that open this episode.

Diane doesn’t seem to be that interested either: she’s not watching and talks over it.

More interesting (but, tbh, not actually that interesting to me either, because I’m losing interest in this season) is that Diane gets a letter of warning from a ~mysterious source~.

Most interesting of all: Diane and Kurt have a normal morning together.

Kurt spots the letter first and opens it. STOP DIANE. THEY KNOW ABOUT THE HACK. So maybe it’s directed at Kurt. Or maybe it’s supposed to say, “Stop, Diane.”

I still haven’t warmed to Diane’s bedroom set, especially because it still feels like Diane lives in her bedroom and her home has no other rooms.

Joy, Felix Staples has returned. All I have to say about this case is that the day this ep aired, basically what’s happening in this case happened in real life, because… Kings.

Hello, it’s October now and I suddenly felt like returning to The Good Universe and writing. It’s been a while.

My memory of this episode/arc is that Diane and Liz just did something uncharacteristically dumb and illegal, and this is the episode where Kurt secretly puts an end to the shenanigans without Diane even knowing. I remember this episode being satisfying, if only because it got rid of the aforementioned dumb and illegal plot. Let’s see how good my memory is.

Wait why don’t I remember Roger Bart being on this show and why didn’t I note it earlier?! How could I let George The Killer Pharmacist go unmentioned?!

On that note, how did I not use the opening scene of the season (Diane saying “I’m happy” as an excuse to ramble about how weird it is to experience happiness on a personal level in today’s world?) (I was just watching 3x01.)

I’m actively not watching the case scenes so they don’t kill my drive to actually write this.

Oh God, I’m going to have to deal with Blum again at some point. I had blocked out his bloviating. I think this is the last of the Blum/Maia free eps?

The weird Lucca/British actor plot is still happening!!!! I didn’t miss it during all those months in which I wasn’t reminded of it.

The joke about how these TV lawyers aren’t like other TV lawyers, except they are, was funny the first time.

Always great to see how Lucca, who is the head of a department at this point, gets called into other cases frequently. Definitely how things work.

Is it bad that I’m more interested in making a mental list of all the times TGF/TGW have filmed in this little park than this Marissa/Alan Alda scene?

I can see why this is the episode that made me stop writing these for a bit. So far, this ep is all case and a subplot I don’t care for.

You know what else was funny the first time and has hit a point of diminishing returns? The thing where a main character’s love interest shows up in court and then they get thrown off their game and it’s CUTE FLIRTING!!! Find a new, unique way to signal interest, writers!

This gag now involves literal gagging. I’m overjoyed.

Lucca’s monologuing at a toilet about her crush. This plot is cute. It isn’t bad. It is watchable. BUT! I know it’s a novelty, so I’m just not that excited by it or invested in it. It’s not really deepening my understanding of Lucca.

Lucca picturing everyone in court in their underwear is just unnecessary and honestly not funny???

Kurt leaves the warning note out for Diane to see. He confronts her about it and she asks for a drink.

The credits are at 19 minutes in. I do love them. Have any of you watched Evil yet? I watched part of the first episode (I intend to go back to it, I’ve just been busy) and the credits resemble the TGF credits. (Update as of March 2020: I watched all of Evil and you should too.)

Diane tells Kurt about Book Club or #Resistance or whatever I was calling it. Even though Diane doesn’t tell him the full story (mostly for his own protection, and she makes it clear she’s omitting stuff), I do appreciate that Diane and Kurt don’t keep secrets from each other, and if/when they do, they talk about it openly and calmly. I love them.

(I have blocked out Kurt/Holly almost entirely. I know it’s canon, but I still don’t believe it was anything other than a plot device to motivate some unnecessary drama in the TGW finale. God, that finale was bad. Ghost Will? Kurt cheating? GENEVA and Peter? GHOST WILL? Even the slap, which is one of my favorite parts, is more powerful as a symbol than as an actual plot development, since (1) Alicia betraying Diane is something Pilot!Alicia would’ve done to any friend to protect her family and (2) it stems from the nonsense about Kurt cheating and Peter tampering with evidence. What a letdown of a finale. The Kings are lucky they got to redeem themselves with TGF.)

(As anyone who’s had a one-on-one convo with me about the TGW finale at any point in the last three years will tell you, I will NEVER tire of discussing it, even if it means rehashing the same points over and over and over.)

I forgot about the thing where it wouldn’t stop storming in season 3.

Don’t have much to say about Kurt devising a plan to help Diane get out of trouble, but I do find it very fun!

OOOOH this is the episode about censorship that got censored!!! If you haven’t already, do read Emily Nussbaum’s piece about the behind-the-scenes drama of this episode. I thought the “this content has been censored” screen where the short would have been was a joke… but it was actually censored. That may be the most interesting thing about this episode.

I want more character-driven plots. I want more Liz and Lucca. I have nothing to say.

Book Club still believes the con artist who brought them together is something other than a con artist. Book Club is not that smart for being a collection of very smart people.

“So the whole group is bullshit?” Liz asks when Diane loops her in. Yes. But also, like, this is what happens when you do illegal shit with a group formed by a literal con artist. Liz may have an excuse for trusting the group (Diane brought her in), but why does DIANE trust them?

“My life is simple, Diane. I have a son. I have a mortgage. I have my job. And I go from home to work and work to home. So this stuff is, this bullshit intrigue… I’m done. Too much drama,” Liz laments, about a week too late. Where was this last week when Liz was like YES LET’S DO CRIMES?

One of my problems with the whole Book Club arc is that it makes very little sense that Liz would get involved in the first place. I understand why she would be sympathetic to their cause and willing to look the other way on their methods… if she were watching a news report about them on TV. She’s too practical, and has too much to lose, to get involved with a group like this.

An NSA nerd is back!! He’s the one warning Diane!

Okay, picking this back up in March 2020 because *gestures at the world* I have time. Like, I have so much free time I’ve finished 9 books in the last 14 days AND finally made it to the episodes of The Sopranos with JMargs. I began watching The Sopranos in 2017.

As I write this, I have no idea if TGF is coming back on April 9th as planned or not. Unless there’s something in the works for season 4 that can’t possibly be left unfinished or air today, I think they should air whatever they have now. TGF is always timely, and while scenes set in an office are suddenly feeling weird and implausible, they’ll probably play better now than in six months. And we’d all forgive the writers if they had to wrap up the arcs through an animated recap song.

It’s been a while since I’ve seen the TGF credits so I rewound to watch the credits. I went to 2 minutes into the episode, then remembered… they’re 20 minutes in.

Y’all. They blow up a purse with hand sanitizer in it. Did they predict this?!

I wrote that preamble and then stopped writing. But now we know that TGF is really coming back on April 9th, which means I have to stop watching The Sopranos and write these things!

Ah, Felix Staples. I haven’t missed you!

Case stuff happens. Really riveting episode, this one. (It is an interesting case, though.)

Kurt saving Diane is pretty fun. But I don’t have anything to say about it and to write about it would just to be to give a half-assed play by play… and why?

Oh WOW, Lucca and Downton Abbey guy is still happening?!

Getting to see Kurt be really competent and caring is the best thing, by far, about the Book Club arc.

Wait, I take that back, Liz’s speech about voter suppression is also pretty high up there-- as long as you ignore the context.

V excited (!!) to get back to Maia’s bullshit in the next few episodes, not because I want to watch it but because if there’s one thing I’m actually motivated to write about, it’s how the show has handled Maia Rindell. Also, they handle the next few episodes well for her.

Oh RIGHT Liz tells ChumHum about her dad’s sexual harassment issues! And Adrian and Liz are finally going to tell the press! It may mean losing Neil Gross, though.

Book Club is over! Wooooooooooooooooooooo! On to more interesting things!!!

Also gone? Downton Abbey guy, who gave an interview about something new and exciting in his life. Lucca thought he was talking about her, and he was talking about some...personality test that sounds like a cult from the way he describes it? AAAAAND I Googled it and yup. It is. What a goofy ending to this arc I didn’t care about. Reminds me of the way the Marilyn arc ended (with a cameo from a celebrity who she was supposedly sleeping with). Glad the actor was so game to poke fun at himself, but is this the best we can do for Lucca?

Diane thinks she took care of the hack and made it go away. Kurt lets her take the credit.

The end!

#the good fight #is coming back soon!!!!#tgfthoughts #yes i still check this thing

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