I know that looks like spam mail, but it's a list from the Open Culture project of 500 movies including classics, independent films, and films made with government funds. Check it out, it's pretty cool.
Wednesday, June 27, 2012
Tuesday, June 26, 2012
Racist Books and Your Little Ones
This article is mostly middle class (presumably white) liberal hand wringing, I'll admit, but it's got an excellent point at its core, which is the question of "how much is it right to shield your children from the ugly parts of the world?" And after that the question of "how do you explain things when you do decide to explain?"
I know when I was growing up, my parents erred on the side of keeping my childhood a happy, safe place as much as they could. I actually remember the first time I heard about the Holocaust from friends, which should show you how old I was. I didn't believe it was real, because 1. it made no sense and 2. I couldn't believe there was something that big out there and I hadn't heard about it.
My personal experience is that not having more direct contact with these issues allowed me to hold on to some ultimately racist assumptions (like how blonde white women (like me) are the most universally desired thing in the world) way past the point where that was reasonable. Stuff someone told me when I was a kid and not very good at critical thinking, and which I then carried around without questioning because I was not often exposed to things that forced me to question it. It's a large part of the reason I seek out racial equality blogs nowadays and read as much as I can.
(This is not at all a slam against my parents. They're wonderful people who tried their best and, I think, did very well, and to their credit, whenever they caught me doing or saying something unacceptable, they'd sit me down and tell me no, that's not okay).
Stuff is coming up now with my nephews. We sat my younger one down recently and had a talk about 9/11 because it was the 10th anniversary and it was something they were discussing in school. My stepsister, whose parents had been less sheltering, showed him video footage and we talked about who did this and why. Or how the older one was running around enthusiastically and incorrectly quoting Madagascar in a way that made us all cringe.
I love these kids. They're wonderful little people, and I hate to break their hearts with how ugly things can sometimes be.
But that's really how you grow up, isn't it?
I know when I was growing up, my parents erred on the side of keeping my childhood a happy, safe place as much as they could. I actually remember the first time I heard about the Holocaust from friends, which should show you how old I was. I didn't believe it was real, because 1. it made no sense and 2. I couldn't believe there was something that big out there and I hadn't heard about it.
My personal experience is that not having more direct contact with these issues allowed me to hold on to some ultimately racist assumptions (like how blonde white women (like me) are the most universally desired thing in the world) way past the point where that was reasonable. Stuff someone told me when I was a kid and not very good at critical thinking, and which I then carried around without questioning because I was not often exposed to things that forced me to question it. It's a large part of the reason I seek out racial equality blogs nowadays and read as much as I can.
(This is not at all a slam against my parents. They're wonderful people who tried their best and, I think, did very well, and to their credit, whenever they caught me doing or saying something unacceptable, they'd sit me down and tell me no, that's not okay).
Stuff is coming up now with my nephews. We sat my younger one down recently and had a talk about 9/11 because it was the 10th anniversary and it was something they were discussing in school. My stepsister, whose parents had been less sheltering, showed him video footage and we talked about who did this and why. Or how the older one was running around enthusiastically and incorrectly quoting Madagascar in a way that made us all cringe.
I love these kids. They're wonderful little people, and I hate to break their hearts with how ugly things can sometimes be.
But that's really how you grow up, isn't it?
Monday, June 25, 2012
On Identifying With Fictional Characters
An article about research done on how reading might affect your personality.
Saturday, June 23, 2012
Brobdignagian Backlist of Badassery
You know, I don't think I've actually linked Badass of the Week here before, which is a shame, because it's an awesome site. As indicated above, it's got a lot of content built up.
Thursday, June 21, 2012
Zen Pencils
I actually found this site when they quoted Neil Gaiman, but the whole thing is worth a read through. This guy has a great hand at mixing art and words (my personal favorite compositions so far are Dr. Seuss and Buddha. The one from Neil Degrasse Tyson is pretty spectacular too). Yeah, go poke around.
Tuesday, June 19, 2012
Awkward Critique
So, in general, I assume most people reading this blog are either writers or Russian spambots (Здравствуйте, робот тараканов!). Assuming you are the former, you're probably in a critique circle of some kind, either online or in person. And statistics dictate if you are, eventually someone is going to hand you something painful.
And I don't just mean the kind of painful where homophone errors proliferate a like spell-check proof rabbit plague across the hot Australian terrain of their story, I mean the kind of painful where it's a story in which black people are all poor because they're lazy criminals, or women exist only to tempt unsuspecting men to evil and ruin, or you WILL go to Hell unless you follow X religious doctrine. And you're going to read this story and have to say something to this person. Because that's what critique groups are there for. (Alternately, their story may make the blanket assumption that anyone religious is pants-on-head stupid, that all men are monsters waiting for their chance to rape anyone they can, or that white people are all rich imperialists who are genetically incapable of compassion, you know, pick your poison).
What often makes this harder is that the person in question will very likely not agree that what you find to be a problematic aspect of their story is in any way problematic. People not listening to you in general is one of the hard parts about a critique group anyway, but it's worse in these cases because it's very hard not to put someone on the defensive with "hey, are you aware this sounds kind of racist?"
So, how do you let someone know that they're being potentially quite offensive? Honestly, the dynamics of your group figure into it a lot. Being polite and gentle always makes bad news easier to swallow, and as a general critique strategy, I find it helps to start with "I think what you were trying to accomplish here is ______, but it isn't working for me as it is because of ________" (eg. "I gather you're trying to show that your main character is kind of a likable rough around the edges guy, but for me as a reader the macho way he bonds with the guys by calling his girlfriend a dirty bitch is really off-putting and makes it hard to sympathize"). It's a hard problem because so much of this is context and tone, and what one writer can pull off in a compelling way (like the above example) another might just not be able to make look like anything other than meanspiritedness.
When possible, I try to bring this up to people privately, especially in an internet group. As hard as it is to keep from being defensive when just one person is telling you this, it's going to multiply for every additional person able to throw their two cents in.
I also try not to argue with people, because you almost never win. I let them know the read I'm getting off it and why (always, always point to specific examples), make my case, and if they say "no, I think you're wrong," that's it. We're both entitled to an opinion and in the end, it's their story, not mine. If someone's not at least a little open to the idea that they might be misrepresenting someone, or subverting a whole group of people for their own didactic narrative purpose, telling them twice is probably not going to be more effective than telling them once.
But I do think it's important to tell them once. After all, you're the critiquer, and it's a valid critique.
And I don't just mean the kind of painful where homophone errors proliferate a like spell-check proof rabbit plague across the hot Australian terrain of their story, I mean the kind of painful where it's a story in which black people are all poor because they're lazy criminals, or women exist only to tempt unsuspecting men to evil and ruin, or you WILL go to Hell unless you follow X religious doctrine. And you're going to read this story and have to say something to this person. Because that's what critique groups are there for. (Alternately, their story may make the blanket assumption that anyone religious is pants-on-head stupid, that all men are monsters waiting for their chance to rape anyone they can, or that white people are all rich imperialists who are genetically incapable of compassion, you know, pick your poison).
What often makes this harder is that the person in question will very likely not agree that what you find to be a problematic aspect of their story is in any way problematic. People not listening to you in general is one of the hard parts about a critique group anyway, but it's worse in these cases because it's very hard not to put someone on the defensive with "hey, are you aware this sounds kind of racist?"
So, how do you let someone know that they're being potentially quite offensive? Honestly, the dynamics of your group figure into it a lot. Being polite and gentle always makes bad news easier to swallow, and as a general critique strategy, I find it helps to start with "I think what you were trying to accomplish here is ______, but it isn't working for me as it is because of ________" (eg. "I gather you're trying to show that your main character is kind of a likable rough around the edges guy, but for me as a reader the macho way he bonds with the guys by calling his girlfriend a dirty bitch is really off-putting and makes it hard to sympathize"). It's a hard problem because so much of this is context and tone, and what one writer can pull off in a compelling way (like the above example) another might just not be able to make look like anything other than meanspiritedness.
When possible, I try to bring this up to people privately, especially in an internet group. As hard as it is to keep from being defensive when just one person is telling you this, it's going to multiply for every additional person able to throw their two cents in.
I also try not to argue with people, because you almost never win. I let them know the read I'm getting off it and why (always, always point to specific examples), make my case, and if they say "no, I think you're wrong," that's it. We're both entitled to an opinion and in the end, it's their story, not mine. If someone's not at least a little open to the idea that they might be misrepresenting someone, or subverting a whole group of people for their own didactic narrative purpose, telling them twice is probably not going to be more effective than telling them once.
But I do think it's important to tell them once. After all, you're the critiquer, and it's a valid critique.
Sunday, June 17, 2012
25 Great Words With No Direct English Equivalent
I maintain if you want to write, one of the best things you can do is speak more than one language. You come to realize how constructed, arbitrary, and completely neat languages are.
Have some great foreign words, most of which seem to be Japanese.
Have some great foreign words, most of which seem to be Japanese.
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