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| Wednesday, May 16th, 2012 |
rachelmanija
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10:32a |
Mental illness in fiction
Asakiyume had a post about romanticism and mental illness with some good discussion in comments. I wrote, "I have mixed feelings about that one. Yes, it's obnoxious to write stories in which mental illness is actually nothing but magical specialness, whether the magic part is literal or metaphorical. On the other hand, the flip side of the "mentally ill people are better and more special than the rest of us tools of the system" myth is the "mentally ill people are doomed to a miserable, squalid existence filled with nothing ever but loneliness and pain" myth. I think there's room for realistic depictions of mental illness in which the intent is to de-glamorize, focus on the pain, and have the hope be in the slow, difficult work of healing. But maybe there's also room for non-realistic in which people live with mental illnesses and have those be part of the fabric of their lives as they have romanticised adventures and pursue villains and do magic and get the girl. Why should the non-mentally ill get all the escapist literature? The key, I think, is not to take some painful and unpleasant mental illness and pretend that the illness itself is not painful and not unpleasant, and just looks that way because the mundane world doesn't understand how magical and awesome it really is. That's not cool. But I'd love to see, say, a paranormal romance with a heroine in therapy for social anxiety torn between a bipolar vampire and a werewolf with Asperger's. Why not? Very few of us are out on the streets murdering people because the voices in our head told us to. Most of us are living our lives - with struggle and pain, but who doesn't have that?" I am interested, too, in stories in which mental illnesses and non-neurotypical states are dealt with not unrealistically by accident, but with extrapolation and deliberate fantasy applied: Walter Jon Williams' breathtaking space opera Aristoi ($4.99 on Kindle; also has excellent martial arts), in which people deliberately induce multiple personalities in order access the full richness of their psyches; the later books of Scott Westerfeld's Uglies , in which the characters take on various cognitive/neurological templates, raising the question of whether identity is something separate from brain chemistry. Very similar questions come up in Westerfeld's novel Peeps , in which vampirism-causing parasites create OCD-like irresistible compulsions and aversions. And, of course, the many, many, many magical or science fictional versions of brainwashing and de-programming, from Cyteen to The Avengers to Mockingjay.There is sometimes a tendency to see any non-realistic treatment of serious issues as inherently trivializing or even insulting. But I think it depends on the individual work, as well as the judgment of the individual reader. I would like to see more extrapolative works dealing with the subject, as well as more stories in which mental illness or non-neurotypicality is part of a character's character, not the subject of the story. I would like to see fewer soft-focus, romanticized depictions of beautiful fragile mad girls. What do you think? Good examples? Bad examples? Things you'd like to see more of? Things you'd like to see less of? Crossposted to http://rachelmanija.dreamwidth.org/1038072.html. Comment here or there. |
oyceter
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9:54a |
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sartorias
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10:17a |
Request for Tire Kickers
Book View Cafe is a consortium of writers, as I've mentioned before. The last four months, several people have worked really hard on completely redesigning the book store from scratch. This is what companies pay big bucks for, but since none of us have big bucks, it's all volunteer labor. If you have the time, we'd appreciate it if you would try this link and poke around. There is a place for comments, if something is buggy, confusing, you think something would be better. If you choose to buy a book, great! Let us know how that goes, but just poking around is a big help. Here is the comments link where the designers will actually see them. (I don't think any of them read my blog, so I am going to try to close comments here.) Thanks! |
glvalentine
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12:55p |
Nebula Weekend!
I'll be attending the Nebula Weekend in DC, starting in a number of hours that is much shorter than the number of hours actually required for me to prepare for it! Good times. I'll be in and out (especially as I'm not staying on-site), but here's where you can find me for sure: - Friday, 5:30-7:00pm: Book Signing. Does what it says on the tin, only more illegibly and with a pen that will probably run out of ink halfway through. - Friday, 9:00-11:00pm: Reception! Jackets will be worn, Shirley Temples will be consumed. - Saturday, 6:30pm-10:00pm: The Nebula Reception, Banquet, and Awards. (This will be an exciting evening, though right now it's looming largely as the cause of me cursing a blue streak at my carry-on, which can hold my regular clothing but is not prepared for a formal event and seems confused at what I'm asking it to carry.) See you this weekend! |
little_details
[ miss_shad ]
|
3:58a |
Child abuse from beyond the grave?
One of my stories set in Japan features a ghost as the villain, and not just any ghost either: she's the main protagonist's ancestor.
In life she was pretty nasty; she was obsessed with having amazing descendants. When her son failed to live up to her expectations, she treated him like crap. Now, as a ghost roaming the earth, she continues to make life miserable for all her descendants (as none of them have ever reached her crazy ideals), namely siccing her unsavory "friends on the other side" on them.
I'm on the fence with this scenario though. I can see her haunting her descendants and making life hell for them, but the using other ghosts/demons to carry out her deeds seems to be stretching it a bit (though she was a medium in life and had a kitsune as an ally) So I guess what I'm asking here is, does anyone know of any other ghost/supernatural myths or legends with similar themes? (And they don't necessarily have to be Japanese in origin)
I've done Wikipedia research on ghosts etc in Japanese folklore but nothing really seemed to fit. Current Mood: sleepy |
beth_bernobich
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10:43a |
misc.update
Feedback on ALLEGIANCE is showing up. (Yay! Thank you!) I'm thinking about plot issues, but I don't want to start any serious revisions until 1) we've moved, and 2) my official editorial letter also makes its appearance. My short story idea died. Again. I wrote up some notes and filed them in my idea folder. I am getting images and such for a follow-up River of Souls novel. It's about secondary and minor characters from QUEEN'S HUNT and ALLEGIANCE, set in Karovi, in the aftermath of MAJOR SPOILER. A draft of this novel exists, but several plot lines have shifted when I wrote ALLEGIANCE, so it needs a complete rewrite. Alas, I can't start anything new at the moment, but I might indulge myself by writing that scene with Maryshka and a shirtless Jannik. House renovations are in progress. Bedrooms repainted. Pool repairs nearly complete. Contractor engaged for exterior painting and the new kitchen. Move-in date in two weeks. |
buymeaclue
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10:12a |
non-country songs that creep me out
One Direction, "What Makes You Beautiful" The chorus includes the immortal lines: You don't know you're beautiful
That what makes you beautifulYou know what's sexy, kids? Self-loathing! I'm glad we had this talk. |
sparkymonster
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9:50a |
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sartorias
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6:36a |
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msisolak
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6:27a |
omg
Mirrored from Marsha Sisolak. Trader Joe’s dark chocolate bar, caramel with black sea salt. Run, do not walk, to the nearest TJ’s.
This commercial brought to you by my delighted taste buds. You may thank the Eldest Child’s girlfriend. I know I am. |
stephanieburgis
|
2:13p |
Parenting and Writing, Imperfectly
Over at the Smack Dab in the Middle author blog, I just posted a really personal blog entry on this month's theme, Parents. Mine is called "Parenting and Writing" and it begins: Parenting is one of those issues in life that suddenly takes on completely different angles when you start doing it yourself. It was a shock, when I had my baby, to find myself suddenly a "mom", expected to be ever-nurturing, ever-compassionate, ever-strong. When you have a child, you stop being just a person - in a lot of ways, socially, you also become a construct: The Mom (or: The Dad, which has its own intimidating set of cultural ideals).
When I studied American Women's History in college, I remember my professor, with a wry quirk to her mouth, writing the phrase: "It's all Mom's fault" on the chalkboard, as she discussed the rise of that psychological approach. There can be a real sense of betrayal for a child (even a grown-up child) whenever we see a mother who has done something that isn't objectively right (or in other words, the way moms are supposed to behave).
I think the years of MG fiction are the years when many kids first start really noticing the ways their moms are failing to live up to that cultural standard. I know that my friends and I were vocal in those years whenever we noticed our moms' failures.
Well. Now I'm a mom, and guess what? I fail to live up to that cultural standard every. single. DAY... You can read the full blog entry, and I'd love to read any comments, either there or here. (I'm also really hoping that this is not TOO personal a blog entry...MrD is still sick, and I'm so tired, it's a little hard to judge stuff like that today!) |
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twolumps_feed
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12:00a |
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nwhyte
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12:00p |
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| Tuesday, May 15th, 2012 |
jdeguzman
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10:03p |
Tumbl’d – Week of May 6-12, 2012
Originally published at Possible Impossibilities. You can comment here or there. Did you know I have a Tumblr? I do! It’s where I share little bits of the world that strike my fancy at the time. I’ll be rounding up my Tumblr posts at the end of the week to tell you a little bit more about what inspired me to post or reblog. TEXT: The [...] |
stillsostrange
|
11:50p |
A wild child appears!
Today the stork CPS delivered to us a nine-year-old girl. We spent the rest of the day enrolling her in school, buying some furniture, conducting an inventory of her clothes for the adoption agency*, and beginning the long slog toward bedtime. Agent F, as I will refer to her until I get the foster care privacy rules figured out, spent much of the day trying to speak cat. She seems to be picking it up fairly quickly. Siggy--always glad to have more monkeys to dominate--seems to have taken her under her iron paw. I already have many OPINIONS about the medications some genius put her on. Luckily, we see her new psychiatrist on Thursday, and perhaps he will join the litany of WTF that has been uttered today.** I'm also very glad we only have two weeks of school left, because the hour of 6:00 a.m. and I are not friendly, but will be forced to get to know each other very well for those two weeks. I'll probably keep further posts about this under f-lock, but if anyone has any questions about the process, feel free to email or message me. If I'm not dead of exhaustion, I'll try to answer. * How many pairs of socks does a nine-year-old need? A lot, apparently. ** Two caseworkers, both of us, and three different people at her new school all looked at her list of meds and made emoticon faces, including o.0, O.O, and >:(. Current Mood:  exhausted |
cranky_editors
[ thatwordgrrl ]
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6:11p |
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| Wednesday, May 16th, 2012 |
little_details
[ taste_of_water ]
|
1:52a |
Fatal poisoning or ideas
Terms searched for: various combinations of; poisonous plants, animal poison, Japan, organ failure, infection like symptoms, blood poisoning. Working my way through the '~medicine: poisoning' tag. Setting: Warring States period (Sengoku) Japan. Our world. I need a character to murder a healthy female in her mid-teens and to get away with it. The female character is recovering from or newly recovered (I haven't decided on which yet) from two broken legs. Ideally I want her death to appear to be due to some complications connected to her injury, and for it to work quickly enough/be serious enough for her not to be able to tell anyone. I'm thinking of some kind of poisoning, but the girls' private doctor would intervene if he noticed any obvious tampering with the wound and I also haven't found a poison that would give symptoms similar to an infection. Does anyone have any idea of what sort of poison I could use or is my scenario impossible? I'm more than open for suggestions, thank you in advance for any help. Current Mood: tired |
| Tuesday, May 15th, 2012 |
little_details
[ citrinesunset ]
|
7:15p |
American movies in 1940 England, and popular male stars
I've been working on a story about a sixteen-year-old girl in London during WWII. Specifically, during the Blitz, so I'm thinking about 1940. However, I'm having some trouble because some important parts of the plot depend on what sort of access she has to American films and information about Hollywood and American stars. I want her to be very enamored with Hollywood and American movies, but would she realistically have much access to this stuff during the war? Would she have any access to American media? I've read that UK theaters were closed for a time due to concerns about safety, but I haven't found anything more specific than that, and it didn't say anything about films being imported from other countries. Secondly, assuming her having access to Hollywood movies or at least news is plausible, I wanted her to have a crush on a popular American actor, but could use some ideas about who it could be. I'm looking for a Johnny Depp or Leonardo DiCaprio sort of figure -- an actor who would have been popular with young women at the time, and would have been seen as a heartthrob. Obviously, my character could be attracted to anyone, but the point here is that she's more attracted to this guy's image and popularity, so I want the 1940 version or equivalent of your stereotypical teen heartthrob. I know a decent amount about movies and actors from that period, but I don't know a lot about how different demographics perceived them at the time. That is, who was popular with young people vs. older crowds. Would someone like Errol Flynn work? I've done some searches like "Hollywood film distribution, 1940s, UK," "1940s teen idols," "Movies in London during WWII" and variations thereof, but I'm not finding a lot of stuff that seems to address these questions, and I don't honestly know what to search for. So I'd appreciate some input -- even a nudge in the right direction. I don't need a ton of background. I mainly need to know if my plot is plausible, and find a few specifics like an actor she can like and a few films she might have seen. So thanks a bunch to anyone who can help. |
ellen_kushner
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6:21p |
Overhead on Riverside Drive
Delia ( to extremely sulky, broody EK): You are my darling one. EK ( sulkily): No, I'm not. I'm not anyone's darling anything. Delia: So what am I, chopped liver? EK: Oh..........OK. Delia: Good; because I don't think there's any statute anywhere about marriage being between chopped liver and a woman. |
helen_keeble
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10:14p |
FANG GIRL at GoodReads: An update
So FANG GIRL has had a page up at GoodReads (one of the biggest social sites for avid book readers, for those who haven’t been following this saga) for a while. One of the things that people do on GoodReads is to add books to their “to-read” list. As of last month, about fifty people had tagged FANG GIRL in this way, which put me in a state of mind best described as “well chuffed” (translation from English to American: “YEEEEEAAAAAH! *air punch*”).
As those of you who’ve been following along will know, this month I decided to run my monthly giveaway of a FANG GIRL advance copy on GoodReads rather than here on my blog as usual. This turns out to have… slightly boosted interest in the book:
(screenshot of current status page for FANG GIRL, complete with artist’s impression of author’s face)
The giveaway itself?
(screenshot of current status of FANG GIRL giveaway, complete with textural translation of the sound of one author falling over in shock)
In the past, I was thrilled to get twenty people entering my giveaways. So over nine hundred… that’s, uh, that’s definitely a thing. Wow. Thank you all!
Even more thrillingly, reviews and ratings are starting to trickle in from advance readers! No in-depth reviews yet, but some very gratifying star ratings and comments. One lone soul even wants to have a book discussion about it, but given that GoodReads is hiding this link waaaaay down the FANG GIRL page, I don’t think anyone other than me has noticed, and I cannot overcome my innate British sense of embarrassment to leap into the thread myself like some over-amorous leopard (“U LIKE ME?!?!” *pounce*). So if any of you kind people have a) read the ARC, and b) would like to talk about it, please go on over there?
(and there’s still time to enter the giveaway, if you haven’t already done so… though I admit the odds are now getting a little long)
Originally published at helenkeeble.com. Comments there are open to all; comments here are LJ Friends-only |
coffeeandink
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5:35p |
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little_details
[ clwilson2006 ]
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8:31p |
Math help!
OK, Here is the problem. I'm told that the horizon is approximately 3 miles away, I know this is dependent on height of the person and curve of the earth and what not. I can find numerous formula on the internet. What I need to know. Say my character is six foot tall, and looking across a desert landscape, I need the horizon to be TWO miles away, so is the planet he is standing on bigger or smaller than earth? I just cannot wrap my head around it. Math and science are not my thing, when I google things like "how far is the horizon" I get formula for Earth, not as if he was on another planet. help? |
merovingian
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2:05p |
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matociquala
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4:54p |
our prayers are always answered. that miracles can happen.
I just had one of those labor-saving strokes of genius that I need to share with the world. Which is to say, the easiest method ever in the history of popovers. Here is my basic popover recipe: 2 tablespoons solid fat (butter or animal fat (duck fat, mmm) or solid shortening) 3 large eggs, at room temperature 1 cup (250 ml) whole milk, at room temperature 1 teaspoon salt 1 1/2 teaspoons sugar 1 cup (140 g) all purpose or white whole wheat flour 1 tablespoon vital wheat gluten This tactic assumes you own a wand blender and a wide-mouthed quart Mason jar and a microwave. If not, just make the popovers the way you normally would--or if you are missing the wand blender but have a normal blender, you can melt the butter in a different container and use the normal blender. About an hour or two before dinner, take your Mason jar. Put the butter/whatever in it. Put it in the microwave and melt it. (If you are making Yorkshire pud and are waiting for the roast to be finished before you add the fat, skip this step for now, and stir the fat in before you bake the popovers.) Add the milk, eggs, salt, and sugar to the butter in the Mason jar (or blender)(or just put them in the blender if you are adding the fat later). Do not put the eggs directly into the hot butter before diluting it with the milk. Otherwise you will have scrambled eggs, which are nice, but not popovers. Whiz them all up with the wand blender. Add the flour and the wheat gluten. Whiz that too, until you have a nice smooth batter. Let the batter sit on the counter until dinner is nearly ready. If you are roasting something at 400 degrees, you're good; otherwise preheat your oven to 400 (F). (200 C) Liberally grease 9 cups of a 12-cup muffin tin, or if you are making Yorkshire pud, drizzle a little of the fat from the roast into the bottom of the cups. If you have one of the giant-sized six muffin muffin tins, then you will have bigger popovers and they need to bake a little longer. Using silicon cups for this results in popovers without stumps or a lot of loft, as they just levitate themselves out of the super-slick cups entirely. They still taste good! If you are using fat from the roast you're making, add it now and stir it in. Divide the popover batter between the nine greased cups. You can just pour it from the blender or the Mason Jar. Stick in oven. Do not peek! If you open the door before they are set, they won't rise properly. Bake for 35 minutes or until deep mahogany brown. Pull pan from oven. Tilt popovers in cups, or remove them to a rack or basket. Pierce each one with a bamboo skewer. (careful of the steam!) The purpose of these two procedures is to (a) prevent them from getting soggy and (b) prevent them from collapsing. Eat. However you meant to eat them. Do not plan on leftovers. Wash your one. dirty. dish. Oh, and the wand blender, sure. And the muffin tin. But that was inevitable.
ETA: Nota Bene
For even more loft in your popovers, preheat the muffin tin with the grease in it in the 400-degree oven for a few minutes before pouring the batter in. This is a bit tricky, though, and can be skipped. Current Mood:  i'm a fucking genius |
haikujaguar
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3:56p |
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