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| Remember the whole "only read books by specific peoples" thing going around this time last year? Well, while I felt that "only read" was a tad restrictive, I did agree that it certainly wouldn't hurt to broaden my reading outside my defaults. I just wasn't sure what my defaults were so I decided to keep track of who wrote what I read for pleasure in 2015 – excluding their sexual orientation or gender identity because unless they're public about it, it's none of my business. I read 30 books for pleasure. No rereads this year, which is a little strange for me. DATA: 6 were non-fiction: 4 memoirs, 1 biography, 1 history/travel 24 were fiction: 10 fantasy, 8 science fiction, 4 mystery, 2 mainstream 20% non-fiction / 80% fiction * Two were co-written so 30 books, 32 authors. And although in two instances, I read multiple books by the same author, I'm identifying the writer of each book independently. 22 were written by people identifying as women 10 were written by people identifying as men 68% female / 32% male * according to author photo and/or Google and/or personal knowledge, 5 of the women are POC, 0 of the men 16% POC / 84% white * 10 were written by authors identified either by jacket copy or Google as British 7 by authors identified either by jacket copy or Google as Canadian 14 by authors identified either by jacket copy or Google as American and 1 Australian (I'm guessing that publishers or Google are going by which passport the author in question carries but it's equally possible they used 2D20 and faked it.)(Except for the Canadians, that's accurate because I know all of them.)(Lots of geography here, not many people.) * Conclusion: If I'm wondering what to read next, it wouldn't hurt to pick up a book by a person of colour who doesn't live in the – for lack of a clearer designation – first world. I might also want to shift more a few books into the Canadian column. And it's possible I could read one or two more male authors. Only 30 books though? That's pathetic. I definitely need to do more reading for the joy of reading. * It is what you read when you don't have to that determines what you will be when you can't help it. ~Oscar Wilde | |
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| Remember the whole "only read books by specific peoples" thing going around this time last year? Well, while I felt that "only read" was a tad restrictive, I did agree that it certainly wouldn't hurt to broaden my reading outside my defaults. I just wasn't sure what my defaults were so I decided to keep track of who wrote what I read for pleasure in 2015 – excluding their sexual orientation or gender identity because unless they're public about it, it's none of my business. I read 30 books for pleasure. No rereads this year, which is a little strange for me. DATA: 6 were non-fiction: 4 memoirs, 1 biography, 1 history/travel 24 were fiction: 10 fantasy, 8 science fiction, 4 mystery, 2 mainstream 20% non-fiction / 80% fiction Two were co-written so 30 books, 32 authors. And although in two instances, I read multiple books by the same author, I'm identifying the writer of each book independently. 22 were written by people identifying as women 10 were written by people identifying as men 68% female / 32% male according to author photo and/or Google and/or personal knowledge, 5 of the women are POC, 0 of the men 16% POC / 84% white 10 were written by authors identified either by jacket copy or Google as British 7 by authors identified either by jacket copy or Google as Canadian 14 by authors identified either by jacket copy or Google as American and 1 Australian (I'm guessing that publishers or Google are going by which passport the author in question carries but it's equally possible they used 2D20 and faked it.)(Except for the Canadians, that's accurate because I know all of them.)(Lots of geography here, not many people.) Conclusion: If I'm wondering what to read next, it wouldn't hurt to pick up a book by a person of colour who doesn't live in the – for lack of a clearer designation – first world. I might also want to shift more a few books into the Canadian column. And it's possible I could read one or two more male authors. Only 30 books though? That's pathetic. I definitely need to do more reading for the joy of reading. It is what you read when you don't have to that determines what you will be when you can't help it. ~Oscar Wilde | |
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| I read a blog today about THE FIRE'S STONE in which the blogger was reading Chandra as asexual but wished I'd been more explict about it.
This isn't a reply to that blog. It's more of an extrapolation.
While Kinsey created a categorey "X" for individuals with "no socio-sexual contacts or reaction" in 1953 it never achieved the kind of public awareness of "the Kinsey scale" -- which most of us play with but almost none of us have read the actual document unless required to by various institutes of higher learning. Mostly because the interesting bits have been paraphrased so many times. Further studies in psychiatric journals over the 1970s and 1980s didn't filter down to my part of the world.
The World Wide Web opened to the public on August 6th, 1991. As far as I can tell, and my google fu could be failing me, the first asexual organization Asexual Visibility and Education Network (AVEN) was founded in 2001 but casual visibilty didn't happen until social networking allowed for safety in numbers. There may have been asexual USENET groups, back in the day, but they weren't public forums.
Social media created a very public forum.
How long have I known about asexuality as it's defined by those who claim the identity? Five years? Maybe?
THE FIRE'S STONE came out in 1990.
If I were writing Chandra now, I'd handle her differently but in 1989 when I wrote THE FIRE'S STONE, I didn't have the words. | |
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| The Aged Uncle, who some of you may remember me posting about, died last summer. He was 93, so it wasn't exactly a surprise but I still find myself remembering things I need to talk to him about later. Later's just moved a little further ahead...
The Child Bride, however, is still with us and is living in a local nursing home. I visit her Wednesday mornings. She has Alzheimers now so I don't stay long, but mornings are usually pretty good. Today, she was playing percussion at a music workshop. She still has a better sense of rhythm than I do.
Leaving this morning, I thought to myself that visiting a nursing home is a little like being temporarily and specifically precognitive. This is the future. In time, unless we check out early, we all come to this. Loss of strength, loss of sight, loss of hearing, if you're really unlucky, loss of self. All flesh is grass. Although around here, given the way quack grass takes over a garden if you look away for ten minutes, that means it's tougher than it seems and is damned near impossible to kill. Which isn't so much a bad thing...
Anyway, being precognitive is kind of a mental time travel and that made me think of Dicken's A Christmas Carol. If the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come had really wanted to scare the crap out of Scrooge, he wouldn't have shown him a gravestone. Dude, we all die, that's inevitable. You want him wailing? Show him his body turned into a tiny birdlike creature curled into a padded chair, smelling of stale urine, trapped in a world he can't see or hear, dependent on the underpaid and overworked.
Me, I'm taking vitamin D and eating more fibre and getting more excercise. And maybe learning to play percussion. Can't hurt...
"Men's courses will foreshadow certain ends, to which, if persevered in, they must lead,' said Scrooge. 'But if the courses be departed from, the ends will change. Say it is thus with what you show me." | |
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| As a Canadian writer writing in what became popularized as an American genre (although the world has certainly claimed it) I end up on a lot of "difference between Canadian and American SF&F" panels up on this side of the border. We, as Canadians are constantly on a search for our identity. Actually, the search for identity has become a large part of our identity. The one thing we're sure of, and it may be the only thing we agree on, is that we're not Americans. It's not that we don't like Americans, it's more that there's over 300 million of them and about 31 million of us and they're a little... exuberant. We're more than a little afraid of being lost in the crowd, swept away by MacDonalds, and Starbucks, and Wallmart, and HBO so we hang on, knuckles white (well, the knuckles of the hand not currently holding a McRib), and keep repeating the one thing, the only thing that unites the nation. We're not Americans. We don't know exactly what it means, but we know we believe it. When the OWS protests started in America, Canadians looked at their economy and said, "Well, our banks didn't fail, and our CEO aren't as WTF greedy as theirs, and our political system works completely differently but a very few companies seem to have one heck of a lot of power and maybe we should nip this in the bud before it gets that bad. There's a hell of lot of people in this country not being heard, let's be a voice for them." And OWS protests started up in most major, a few minor, and a couple of very small cities in Canada. A few days ago in NYC, as I'm sure you're all aware, the police were ordered out in the middle of the night to remove the OWS protest from the park where they'd set up camp. First, they got rid of the press, arresting those they couldn't order away, then they ripped up the camp, tossed it into dumpsters, and just generally acted like jackbooted thugs. There's a lot video out there on the internet; you want to see what people were recording and uploading as this happened, it's not hard. Toronto, likes to think it's Canada's NYC. A few days ago, the police walked through the camp, taping eviction notices to the tents of the OWS protesters. Oh, and there's pictures in the mainstream press because the press was there. The protest (as an entity) challenged the eviction notices in court and got a stay while the situation is studied in reference to rights laid out in the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. From the CBC news article linked below: Ultimately, the burden shifts to the city to justify the measures that it's taken — in this case, issuing eviction notices — and determine if that’s "proportionate or is this overkill? Are there other alternatives?"Yes, the courts are going to determine if taping an eviction notice to a tent is overkill. We're not Americans. I'm pretty good with that actually. ETA: According to @newsdude1 on twitter the overkill refers to the total dismantling of the camp. My opinion on it stands. ETA2: I'm not saying that Canadian police aren't capable of acting like jackbooted thugs, I think what happened at the G20 proved fairly conclusively that they can. This time, however, they aren't. When OccupyNS was evicted, it was the middle of the afternoon and the press were there. When OccupyLondonOn was evicted it was at night because they were enforcing a bylaw that prohibits staying in the park between 10pm & 6am which they could only enforce well, between 10 & 6. But again, the press were there and there were no reports of violence and no arrests (according to CBC reporter Kerry McKee) Will charter protect OWS protesters from eviction? | |
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| Yesterday, a friend of mine wrote about meeting an author she'd long admired and how the response to her passionate enthusiasm was, essentially, dickish. I will never understand writers who disdain the passion of their fans. Not only is it so rude it sets my teeth on edge, but it's so stupidly arrogant... well, let's just say my teeth are taking a beating. Passion is the coin of the realm in the arts. Why do you think Rowling and King make millions? It's not because their words turn lead into gold, it's because people are passionate about what they write. ( I love it when people are passionate about something.Collapse ) | |
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| Some thoughts about that depression meme that's going around. Since it does ask for age and gender, I wonder if it takes into account that interrupted sleep, weight gain, memory loss, inability to concentrate, and mood swings are also symptoms of menopause and changes the scores accordingly. It's rather surprising how many health professionals don't get that out of the way first. If a woman's over forty-five, it's the first thing I'd consider -- as your body adjusts to lower estrogen levels, life can become a physical and mental roller coaster.
Dear lord, the lack of sleep alone can account for the weight gain and the mood swings and the inability to concentrate. Primary source research; I don't remember the last time I slept through the night. If I had to work outside the house, I'd be on HRT so fast it'd make your head spin.
When the beloved used to work in group homes, there was a woman under their care who'd suddenly starting having health problems right out of the blue. She wasn't sleeping, she'd wakeup three or four times a night soaked in sweat, she was forgetting how to do things she'd known how to do for years, and was violently moody. They couldn't figure out what was wrong. So I asked how old she was. (I did volunteer work with the client at the therapeutic riding stable) She'd just turned fifty. I said, "You think she might be in menopause?" Hadn't occurred to any of them. And some of them were in their fifties. Some of them were having the exact same symptoms. ("I am NOT in menopause!" "Honey, if you're sweating like a duck, odds are good you're a duck." "I am NOT a duck!" "It's a meta... never mind.") And guess what? She was. Once they knew what the problem was, they could start dealing with it. (To the extent that their drastically reduced budget allowed but that's another story.)
There's a 100% guarantee that 51% of the population will be going through an estrogen adjustment with varying symptoms to varying degrees. And apparently the other 49% is doomed to endure an enlarged prostrate and erectile dysfunction. No wonder everyone's depressed... | |
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