Miscellany!

[lady_ganesh]

Really interesting interview with the young man who plays the son on Breaking Bad, R.J. Mitte. He has cerebal palsy in real life, though not as severe a case as the character he plays.

Angel is free to watch at TNT.TV. In case you are chash curious. (Damn, Gunn's first appearance is hot

Comments

[lindentreeisle]

That post was pretty over the top. But honestly, I spent about 20 minutes untangling the thread that her cite linked for Charles Stross, and I am still not quite sure how he has proven himself so appallingly racist and evil that you would never want to consider a single idea he's had or written about. I guess....he said he thought the original criticism of the author in question was incorrect? And that makes him an Evil Man? *headscratch

[lady_ganesh]

I didn't go back to the thread because I didn't have a List until she opened her mouth, hahah. But the original post was basically someone's List, not their call to action-- though a call to action might be implied by a reader. (Lots of people, for example, have taken exception to the idea of boycotting Tor overall, as it publishes authors of color and people who've said good stuff in RaceFail.)

Probably the simplest way of solving the problem of literary critics wanting to eat your face is to not engage with them.

That's actually what drives me insane about the whole thing. Critics say nasty stuff about authors all the time! Every day of the week! And somehow, authors manage to live. They're expected to put up with this, it's part of the job. And somehow, somehow, when a person of color says 'hey, there are some racist tropes here,' that's different?I don't know if it's the arrogance that comes from being in a small field where there isn't as much pro criticism? Or they're just natural assholes. Whichever it is, I don't get it.

[lindentreeisle]

Well, it's a little different than regular "your book sucks criticism," because if people can't put themselves in the right frame of mind, it's easy to read "your work has some racist overtones" as "die kkk motherfucker." I'm not saying it's okay to react to race-related criticism with a freak-out, I'm just saying I can understand (to an extent) why it bothers authors enough for them to fight over it where criticism on plain ole writing quality might not.

I still have no idea what the fuck Cramer's problem is though. :P

[lady_ganesh]

Well, yes, but still-- dude, how many times have you been called a 'feminazi' or whatever? W*ll S. has apparently been on Usenet-- Usenet!-- so it's still a remarkable thinness of skin.

[lindentreeisle]

That is pretty remarkable. But I guess it explains how he became so wanktastic. Wank is to Usenet what bricks are to a wall.

[lady_ganesh]

Yep.

And I suspect part of the reason I'm harping on some of this is I'm working my way through In the Hunt, and I am going to say some horrible, horrible things about Tanya Huff once I finish it and put up my review. And they will be deserved. (And have nothing to do with race.)

[smillaraaq]

In his case, with all the stories I've been hearing of his years and years of Usenet wankery, sheer bloody-minded obliviousness seems like it might be the problem more than a thin skin and delicate sensibilities. I spent ages in the Usenet trenches myself and from what little I've seen of WS, he reminds of so, so many other uber-wanky Usenet sorts who always HAD to have the last word, could harp on their pet can't-you-see-I'm-right causes until the cows came home, and never seemed to notice or care that they were widely despised...

[lady_ganesh]

Oh yeah, he's clearly ... I don't want to call him 'clueless.' More like 'not wanting to get a clue, even if you handed it to him covered in chocolate and with a nice bow.'

[smillaraaq]

Insisting on clue-delivery clearly shows your inherent class biases!

[lady_ganesh]

I was watching the big showcase Lindsay episode on Angel today, and he has this great/terrible lecture for Angel about how he didn't grow up poor so he doesn't understand and Angel pretends to fall asleep on him. And...hahahah yeah, class isn't everything. (And trust me, I can talk about class.)