So Vividcon has happened. I haven’t watched ALL THE VIDS or even downloaded them but there is one I’d like to talk about.

On the Prowl by sisabet and sweetestdrain

( Peeping Tara or this vid has ALL THE PAIN )

Having been following the open policy revision process being hosted by
( Read more... )

There’s a post I’ve thought about making several times but my thoughts on the issues always start out chaotic and unfocused and by the time I’ve thought them into line the moment has passed. It’s a post about ablism/disablism and language, about the rights and wrongs of using words like blind and deaf and retarded and lame and autistic (the one I ( Read more... )

Some thoughts about fic in response to a now friendslocked discussion of the relative merits of Buffy S8 and Buffy fanfic ( Read more... )

There are phrases that stick in the mind in spite or maybe because of not knowing quite what they refer to when you first stumble across them. “Women in Refrigerators” is one that crops up relatively quickly when browsing around comics fandom in a spirit of idle curiosity. Thanks to the wonders of google it then only takes a few clicks to hit the ( Read more... )

Someone on metafandom made a post about finding it difficult toget vids and parts of the subsequent discussion turned to accounts of ‘why we vid’ or why vids make sense. This would have been my contribution except that it got too rambly and off-topic.

A while ago the ipod was playing an old Joni Michell song from her jazzy experimental era. Hejira to be ( Read more... )

This is what I wrote for the buffyversemeta metathon

Title: Reader, I destroyed him.

Summary: The special treatment of girl’s stories in BtVS

Source texts: All of BtVS including the S8 comic issues 1-4. AtS S1 The Prodigal, S3 Lullaby, S4 Inside Out and S5 Damage

Word count: 2642

Notes: The original prompt was azdak’s "People are gonna die. Girls are gonna ( Read more... )

An article in Tuesday’s Guardian talking about how the possibility of gene therapy for various forms of congenital blindness raises issues about ‘disability’ and identity.

Do I want my sight back?From physical to political blindness a whole series of recent posts on colour blindness and racial stereotyping in the UK and other places outside the US ( Read more... )

This season has certainly inspired much thought and looking back it’s difficult to argue that that wasn’t intended. Other people have pointed out the recurrent themes of power in naming (the Shakespeare Code) or seeing (Blink) a thing, of hope and the will to survive and how the latter can be both a virtue and the most (im)mortal of sins. I still ( Read more... )

So catching up with the weekend papers at last a review of Barbara Gowdy’s new novel Helpless about a paedophile reminded me of the whole still-puttering-on ‘responsible writing’ debate.

The novel throws up many issues. Such dubious territory, for example, should arguably not be navigated in what is essentially entertainment. But, on the other ( Read more... )