Fandom, Dragon*Con, The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern and why I love Labor Day weekend in Atlanta

First, I loved The Night Circus. There a lot of reviews on Amazon.com and Goodreads that are clearly split between "loved it" and "hated it" camps.

Reasons I loved it:
1. Nothing was as I expected.  The contest was not what I expected.  The protagonists were not what I expected. I didn't expect the deaths to happen the way they did.  I didn't anticipate the ending until very close to the end. I kept reading because I wanted to see what happened next.
2. The Circus sounded so cool.  Yes, there are long stretches of description and atmosphere.  They are necessary for you to understand why the circus was so popular.  And it's so unusual, like the Cloud Maze, where attendees can climb a 3 dimensional maze. I want to climb that.  The Ice Garden sounds like something I would love to see. And who wouldn't want to visit the regrets pond (not what it's called) where you drop a stone in a pond and with it, release a regret you hold in your heart.
3.  The description of the fandom. The novel spends time with fans of the Circus who travel from city to city to see it and send telegrams to alert each other when it shows up.  Who share their stories at cafe meet ups and in newsletters. As I am a participant in a few fandoms, I love that our part in it was included.

On a related note, Ms. Morgenstern was a speaker at the Decatur Book Festival this Labor Day weekend.  She spoke on Saturday.  But I missed it because I was at Dragon*Con.

We didn't buy a membership to attend Dragon*Con this year, because of the baby.  Though I think she would have done okay. My mother-in-law was in town, so we went to the Dragon*Con parade, then had lunch at Durango's on Peachtree Street, on the outside patio, which is prime people watching.  There are the people in costumes going from hotel to hotel for Dragon*Con.

There are the college football fans in town for  some bowl game, staying in the same hotels as Dragon*Con.  Husband's a football fan so that's fun for him too.  He would call out "War Eagle!" to any Auburn University fan walking by.  It would startle his mom every time a group would shout back "War Eagle!"

It was also Black Gay Pride Weekend in Atlanta, though up the street a bit.

Labor Day weekend in Atlanta is a great weekend of fandom of many kinds.  I love it.

The heroines I'm reading

I recently finished “The Snow Queen” by Joan Vinge, who lives in Madison, WI (I used to live there!).  It’s a sci-fi novel, about a planet ruled by a Winter Queen who exploits a local species to achieve longevity.  However as summer comes (seasons last for decades), her rule will end and so she tries to use cloning to extend her rule.  It’s a fast paced story about power and control.  I like that there are several female protagonists and everyone is drawn in shades of grey. 

On the feminism and culture blogs I read, there has been a lot of discussion about how many authors, directors, etc. will have the heroine suffer sexual assault as a catalyst for turning her stronger or to provide impetus for action.  What I like about The Snow Queen is that all of the heroines face challenges and reach a breaking point, but in none of these instances are the tests sexual or violent. 

The Queen’s challenge is to hold onto power in the face of death.  The federal police chief’s challenge is to maintain authority within her force despite the overt and covert sexism by the men above and below her in the police hierarchy.  And the challenge of maintaining federal law over the locals.  And fighting depression caused by a subsonic device planted in her apartment.  Wow.  I’m really liking the police chief more and more.  The Winter Queen’s clone’s challenge is to survive a psychic break.  See, no sexual violence anywhere.

It is interesting to note that Vinge wrote The Snow Queen in 1980. 

The other book I’m reading is “Hot Ice” by Nora Roberts. Yes, the romance writer.  I’ve only just started but so far so good.  It’s got a “Romancing the Stone” vibe to it.  It’s about a thief who steals some documents that he thinks will lead to a legendary lost diamond formerly owned by Marie Antoinette.  As he’s running from some thugs, he jumps into a car driven by a bored smart heiress who manages to shake the thugs.  She decides she likes the excitement and the quest so joins him as a partner.  Of course, sparks fly and but other things, like being pursued by bad guys keep them from acting on it.  Plus, it’s more fun that way. 

What’s also fun is that this book was written in the 1980s as well, so they have to use the library and books to figure things out, not the Internet and GPS.  Reading about the old tech is fun too.

I like Nora Roberts because her stories make sense with and without the romance.  As with any story, the characters have to be fully drawn characters to be enjoyable.  The plot has to make sense and be driven by internal and external forces, not just coincidence.  What brings the heroine and hero together? What keeps them apart? Does it all make sense?   

Another thing I like about her books is that her protagonists are often entrepreneurs, running book stores, pizzerias, bakeries, a wedding consultancy, an inn, etc.  These are settings where the heroines clearly are in charge and have a lot of agency, and also meet a variety of people, for instance neighbors/customers who need help which sets the plot in motion, and the hero so there can be a romance.

It seems every few years I start writing a book but only get as far as setting –thinking about who are the characters?  What do they do? Where do they live? How do they live?  And there’s always a romance in there. But never get as far as thinking about the plot.  Once I populate the story with people and a setting, what are they supposed to do and why?

I’ve got notes about these characters and images in my head about them.  I may just draw them and not bother writing the stories. 

The Oscars and the Bechdel Test

Feminist Frequency is awesome.

Guess which *1* movie passes the Bechdel test?  And whether any pass the Johnson test?

http://www.feministfrequency.com/2012/02/the-2012-oscars-and-the-bechdel-test/

Beginning of her blog post:

It’s been a few years since I’ve checked in with The Bechdel Test for Women in Movies so I thought it would be a good time to look in on Hollywood and see if there’s been any substantial improvement in women’s representations on the big screen.  In this updated video, I go through the 2011 films nominated for Best Picture at the 84th annual Academy Awards and see how they measure up to the Bechdel Test. Keep watching because I also propose a small addendum to help clarify the spirit of the test and provide a solution on how Hollywood can fix the glaring problem that the Bechdel Test exposes. I’ll also address the question, “What about the reverse test?” and I’ll show an alternative test that has been adapted by critics to identify the presence of people of colour in films.  Sprinkled throughout this video I offer a few movie recommendations.

New fave author: N. K. Jemisin

It started a few months ago. I saw a tweet by Felicia Day (a pop culture geek goddess, though I've only ever seen her Whedonverse work) recommending it, especially for the strong female characters. The first book of Jemisin's Inheritance Series trilogy, The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms, happened to be on sale as an e-book for about $3 so I bought it. See a tweet, download an e-book from home. I felt like I was living in the future!

Jemisin's created a very interesting world where there are gods, godlings, humans, power struggles, love, hate, action, wisdom. I guess it would count as fantasy, as there is magic, coming from the gods. In terms of plot, there was a war among the three gods that resulted in one god becoming dominant, another killed, and the third enslaved to the human ruling family.

Yeine, the heroine of book one, has been summoned to the capitol because she's in the running to inherit the ruling crown (not that there's a literal crown). She's been raised in another part of the country/ another kingdom where the women are the warriors. Her claim to the crown comes from her mother who left the capitol and married a man from a different culture. So Yeine has lots of challenges due to a different cultural upbringing, being the upstart, being the reluctant participant in the intrigues among the humans and gods.

Up to the end, it's not clear who's going to get the crown and what's going to happen to Yeine.

Jemison does a great job describing the different cultures and ethnicities of the Hundred Thousand Kingdoms (we only really see one), by describing hair texture and color, describing freckles, skin color. And I love that Yeine is a strong female character (as is Oree, heroine of the second book The Broken Kingdoms), and they don't resort to physical violence. Yeine, the trained warrior, uses her head first to figure things out, and to think about the consequences of using violence. I know! When's the last time you saw that?

Also, it's clear that Yeine is of a brown ethnicity and Oree definitely of African descent. Except that the Kingdoms aren't on earth, so there's no Africa.

NK Jemisin's website is really interesting also, with posts about gender and race in speculative fiction (new term for sci-fi/fantasy? I like it) and creating cultures for the books, and other stuff. It's right up my alley.

Stayed up late reading book 2, so happy book 3 is out later this year.

Now off to look up the manga and anime she references as her influences.

ETA: This morning I sent a tweet to @feliciaday, thanking her for the recommendation and tagged @nkjemisin in it as well. Then at lunch, I get a tweet back from FDay saying she's glad I liked the books, do I know when the next one is out? *squeeeeee!* So I looked it up on NKJ's site and wrote back to FDay. I may also have squeed a little. Fortunately in the tweet back saying thanks for the info, FDay overlooked the squeeage.

squeeee!

Sibling Reunion 2011 and Buffy rewatch

This month, Brother One came to the US from Taiwan for a visit. As a legal permanent resident but not a citizen of Taiwan, he is required to leave Taiwan once a year. As a citizen of the US, he decided to come to the US. He's stateside about 3 weeks and staying with me and friends in Atlanta for about 2 weeks of that time.

It was also Brother Two's birthday this Monday, so we all met up at Sister's place in the DC area. Brother One and I drove from Atlanta to Sister's. Brother Two took the bus from NYC to DC and Sister picked him up.

Sister lives in a one bedroom 800 sq ft condo with her husband. It's a good thing we were only there 2 full days.

Much of that time was spent eating (Korean BBQ, Papa John's pizza, Popeye's fried chicken, Maryland blue crab -- things Brother One missed about the US) and playing mahjongg while eating snack foods and drinking beer. It was great.

Sister's husband was working.

On the drive up, I borrowed Ananci Boys by Neil Gaiman on CDs to listen to in the car. I had also loaded American Gods by Gaiman onto my iPhone, but that didn't work so well.

When we got back to Atlanta, Brother One and I unwound by beginning the Buffy the Vampire Slayer rewatch, by watching the first 2 episodes of Season One: Welcome to the Hellmouth and The Harvest.

Topics of conversation during our reunion:
sexism, gender discrimination, the Supreme Court decision striking down the sex-discrimination case against Walmart, what our parents are doing, racism, comic books, air guitar (Brother Two has been competing), and of course, eating.

Sister and Brother-in-law's first anniversary is coming up so I offered to knit them a blanket. I took a Knitpicks catalog to get their input about colors. They (really, Sister) choose medium blue, dark red, and cream. The pattern and size I will figure out. I will start with using the superwash worsted weight that I have set aside for the Babette Blanket and then fill in from there.

We also went to Uniquities yarn shop in Tysons Corner. I got Brother Two a skein of superwash worsted weight yarn from Lorna's Laces in blue, green, black to make him a scarf, and one skein each of superwash worsted weight yarn in light grey and tealish blue. Not sure what I'll do with it yet, but they were so pretty together.

Since we were driving, I packed a lot of yarn. Half my luggage was yarn: for Husband's City Quilt blanket, a brimmed sunhat for me, and my portable-ish shawl.

All in all it was a great reunion.

The haters will hate genre TV, Game of Thrones edition

So tonight is the premiere of the Game of Thrones, HBO's adaptation of George RR Martin's epic low-fantasy book. And so the haters have started hating. Apparently the New York Times reviewer showed only contempt for it, calling it "boy fiction" which threw in sex and rape to get women to watch. Yes, my fantasy-and-sci-fi-loving head exploded, because men hate sex and women love rape. What. The. Hell?!?!? The Slate.com reviewer hated it as well. I read the Slate review, but not the NYTimes review. And apparently both reviews were more about making fun of the fantasy genre, and less a review of what the show is about. Which I believe is what a review does, at its most basic. The interwebs exploded as well, with many responses, especially to the NYTimes' reviewer's assertion that women aren't also fans of fantasy genre, because apparently because she doesn't personally know any woman who is. The one response I like most is by Tightrope Walker, link here. Another good one is at Salon.com, link here. Personally, I do want to see the show, have read all the books and do not have HBO. So will have to wait for the DVD so I can watch them all in one marathon.

Oh Caprica!

Sat on the couch for 5 hours last night to watch the last 5 episodes of Caprica. It was so good! Random thoughts, trying to avoid spoilers:

1. Many twists and turns -- so many characters were revealed to be different than presented in the past. Stand outs: Joseph and Willie Adama. So totally did not see those twists coming.
2. Compressed storytelling -- I usually like watching multiple episodes at once, but having 5 back to back, without time in between to digest each episode, kind of gave me whiplash. I feel like things moved too quickly, one after the other, that I missed details. And there are scenes I want to go back and see again. I am definitely getting the DVDs. Though I still balk at the price.
3. Good to see Amanda Greystone in action as the plastic surgeon she is. Makes perfect sense that she's that kind of doctor.
4. It felt rushed; I'm sure that's because the creators knew that they wouldn't be renewed and had to get all the storylines tied up. But it's such a rich world, it could have gone on for years. At least 3 if not the 5 that BSG got or Buffy's 8.

The stuff I want to know more about, still:
1. What was Lacy's story? So much about her character's arc was left out.
2. What happened to Tamara? Are we to assume that she traveled the same arc as Zoe?

All in all, a very satisfying prequel to BSG. Just sad it's over.

How Much for Caprica?!?

Caprica 1.5 comes out on DVD today. Amazon.com is selling both 1 and 1.5 together for $73.48 (what kind of pricing is that?).

And what kind of pricing is that? Nearly $74 for less than 15 episodes? I liked the show; it was appointment television for me. But I'm balking at the price. I'm gonna have to Netflix it instead of buying it.

Which makes me wonder: what's the economics at play here? By not buying the DVDs, am I confirming that there was no audience for the show? That there's not chance that another network (oh, like AMC) would pick it up?

Or should I just enjoy it and accept that it was a good show.... and there's only one season. Like it's just one novel, not part of a trilogy, as much as I would like it to be.

I'm getting to that point with Firefly. I keep following Whedonesque and am rewatching Dollhouse Season 2, so will stay interested in the 'Verse, but not hoping that it will continue on the web or in comix.

I feel that Buffy the Vampire Slayer the comics have (has?) wander far, far afield from what I enjoyed about it as a show. Granted, I need to rewatch it, but more slowly, and really pay attention. I'm happy to have Shepherd Book's back story, finally, but I think as a periodical medium, comics don't work as well for me.

I contrast this to graphic novels, like Fun Home, or Persepolis, or Maus, which are written as one piece, and meant to be read as one piece.

Okay, I'm not sure where I'm going this train of thought. It's wandered a bit from the price of Caprica DVDs.

Oh, back to the economics/logic of the Caprica 1.5 release: why do it now, when Syfy won't air the last 5 episodes (presumably on the DVDs) until January? I understand the buy-it-for-Xmas push for pretty much any sale, but it still doesn't make much sense to me.

Buffy reboot movie? Okay.

Certain corners of the interwebs are up in arms about the proposed new Buffy the Vampire Slayer movie, to be done without Joss Whedon. The director of the first movie, Fran Kazui and her husband Kaz Kazui were executive directors of the TV series.

They own the movie rights, not Joss Whedon, even though Buffy is really Whedon's baby.

I have all the Buffy DVDs and the comics. Even so, I have no problem with the reboot.

1. Whedon was not the only creative and celebrated mind on the show and comics. Jane Espenson and Tim Minear are two of the well-regarded writers who have come out of the Whedon writing stable. So it's not like Whedon's got a lock on Buffy.
2. Therefore: It might actually be good. Who knows? The writer for the reboot is a fan of the show so it could be good. I'll go see it and then judge.
3. If it does well, then there's a new group of people who will go looking for more Buffy, then they'll find the DVDs, and there will be more fans. Think of it as more publicity for Buffy.
4. And if they like the TV show, and want more Whedon, they'll find Angel, Firefly (my personal fave of them all), Dollhouse, etc.

Ultimately, I think if it's done well, then it's all good. If it's done badly, then it'll be just another example of reboots gone badly, not Buffy gone badly. I mean, I never saw the original Buffy movie but clearly that didn't stop the show from happening and from doing well.

And it's a sign that Buffy is bigger than any one person and I think that's good.

The Villain's side of the story

Great webcomic that turns the good son vs evil father on its ear.


http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0763.html

Walking Dead, Sherlock Holmes on PBS, and other thoughts on Caprica

I watched the Walking Dead on AMC this weekend, even though I'm not into zombies. However, it's set in Atlanta so I was very interested in seeing what I would recognize. Husband watched with me too. As has been noted everywhere, it's a very good show.

We didn't realize that it was a 90 minute episode so at the 60 minute mark turned off the TV. But it had a sense of closure at that point. I went to bed thinking, "well next ep is where Rick goes to Atlanta." I'm satisfied with what I saw, esp with Morgan and Duane's story arc. Can't wait to see next week's ep."

We'll have to catch up online later. I kind of like that better, because then I can pause to scrutinize the background.

I've been listening to the podcast Talking TV with Ryan and Ryan They mention that the success of The Walking Dead may lead to a slew of zombie shows next year but not as good.

Apparently Mo Ryan and Ryan McGee both like Rubicon, another show on AMC. I've watched one or two episodes but AMC is not one of my go-to channels. They loved Rubicon and do mention that each episode is slow but it delves into the work and lives of national security analysts who have to wade through massive amounts of information and make sense of it. They like that the eps have depth and some may seem unrelated to anything but by the end of the season, it all comes together really well. However, they don't like Caprica.

As I listened to the podcast, I was thinking, all the things they like about Rubicon, are the things I like about Caprica! My previous post was about this, so I won't go over it again. However, I'm thinking "You praise Rubicon for it, but complain about Caprica for it. And you're BSG fans. I don't get this."

Anyway, I don't know that I'll join the send an apple, save Caprica movement. I haven't decided.

And in other BSG news, I have only the last 2 eps of the series at home. Will watch it on Sunday afternoon. I know it's controversial because of some characters being revealed as angels, but I don't know anything else about it. Looking forward to it.

The other night as well, Husband and I watched the PBS series Sherlock Holmes instead of the baseball world series. That's pretty meaningful considering Husband's a baseball fan and had a bet riding on the outcome.

Anyone who thinks serial scripted TV shows are worthless needs to see The Walking Dead and Sherlock Holmes. They are really good shows, so good that this long post is the result. And especially the Walking Dead. The Holmes episodes, being 90 minutes long, are like self-contained mini-movies. The Walking Dead is definitely telling one big long story.

Kind of like Caprica! Yes, I'm still a bit bitter about it. This is the first show that I really liked that got the Firefly treatment. Now I know how the first Browncoats feel, speaking as a later convert.

The Woman King and Four of the Final Five

Progress shot of my Babette blanket. I'm using black as the final round of each square. I really like how the oranges really pop. Makes me think of the juicies vs blahs rule discussed in the first Mason-Dixon Knitting book, about the miter square blanket. You need blah colors like tan, taupe, moss, etc for the juicy colors like lime, fushia, orange, etc to pop against.

I've been watching Leverage for the commentary and listening to the Battlestar Galactica podcasts. I love the discussion about how they decided to tell the story they told.

I finished BSG season 3 and have seen four of the final five cylons revealed. I knew who they were already, since I read up on them on Wikipedia. Still, it was very interesting to see how it happened.

I also watched the Woman King, widely cited as one of the worst episodes. That's all I knew about it, but based on the title, I assumed it had something to do with President Laura Roslin. It was about the ethnic discrimination against the Sagitarrons and was actually Hel0-centric.

In the podcast commentary, Ron Moore mentioned that he wanted BSG to break new ground and that this episode didn't do that. On the other hand, the Leverage commentaries say "you may call it a trope, I call it a time honored storytelling device."

I liked it anyway because it showed more about the different cultures on the different colonies. I'm a sociologist working with refugees and immigrants from every continent (other Antartica), so culture is very interesting to me. That's what makes Caprica appealing to me.

Also liked the episode "Dirty Hands" which discussed class issues in the colonies and one the ships. And it was written by Jane Espenson who wrote for Buffy, Firefly and now produces Caprica and Warehouse 13.

The BSG podcast mentioned that The Woman King was supposed to be Dualla-focused but became Helo-focused. Dirty Hands was supposed to be Dualla-focused but became Tyrol-focused. I am really disappointed by the way Dualla is treated. Moore talks about her in the commentary as being a very important character but that's not what we see in the way she's actually treated and shown in the episodes.

Even so, all in all, I think BSG ended season three strongly. Just got Razor today from Netflix but will watch it tomorrow, as I work some more on Babette. If only I could do this every day...

Yoga and Belly-Dancing, Buffy and Serenity.

As part of my staycation weekend, I discovered FitTV on cable. I followed along on a yoga show imported from Canada. I realized that my legs are strong, the rest of me is not, and I am very not flexible. Ouch.

Then I followed along on a belly-dancing show called "Shimmy" imported from the UK I think, based on the narrator's accent. Unbeknownst to me, I've been belly dancing all this time. The moves very easy for me.

I liked how the belly-dancers had little pooches of a belly and the clothes they wore, even the low-rise bell-bottom pants, celebrated a curvy body. :) The yoga women on the other hand were not curvy at all.
~~~
I have a friend who's trying to sell a TV series to either Syfy or Lifetime channels. She went out to LA for a few weeks and shopped around her show and got some feedback from someone who works on Eureka (not a show I've watched, tho I've tried). His advice was for my friend to watch Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

She came back to the East Coast and mainlined Buffy Season 1. She's seen Angel but not Buffy. At my urging, she watched Firefly but decided she doesn't like it since it's a Western in space and she doesn't like Westerns. Even though Firefly has Zoe and Wash! I also caught Serenity on Syfy. Almost had to look away when the moment came...

Anyway, she called to say that Buffy was amazing. The other feedback she got was to give her characters more shades of grey, to have some mythology to the series, and to make one of the male characters more heroic, like Angel. And to make the best friend more of an audience-surrogate. I just hope there's someone in her Scooby Gang who does with the wisecrackings.

But then, my type is the "large, semi-muscular" guy who relies more on his wits and (cute and goofy) charm, rather than guns and intimidation. Ah, Wash, and Xander, and Topher, but not as much. And I hope she puts in someone like Willow and Zoe.

But most of all, I hope she gets her show made! I told her I know how to make a good cup of coffee if she ever needed an assistant. Though I think I'd like to help with the casting. Wouldn't that be fun! Seriously, though, I'd love to help with the writing but I don't think I have the skills.

The Kiss -- Adama and Roslin

Watched BSG season 2.5 disc 1. Don't remember what the episode's called, but it ends with the tiniest of kisses between Roslin and Adama. I'm really looking forward to seeing how that relationship develops.

Also, I plan on watching the disc again with the commentary. I love the look on Lee Adama's face when he realizes how ruthless President Roslin can be.

Work is full of emotional highs and lows. We have a national training we're conducting where I'm supposed to be modeling women's leadership. Simultaneously I find out the day the training begins that my own leadership is being called into question.

The training has been wonderful and it's been 12 hour days since Saturday. So I'm taking tomorrow off to rewatch this BSG disc for the commentary. I also bought Leverage seasons 1 and 2, so will be watching those commentary too. Plus there are eps I haven't seen yet. I will be drooling over Eliot's hair.