Read the previous post HERE.

These issues I had with the plotting and characters in Longbourne were really very small, and most of the time reading I was in awe of not just the spare perfection of Baker’s prose, but the brilliance of her observations. Many times I found myself doing the thing I really do know better than to do, and speculating on ( Read more... )

Dear Readers! It has been, like, three and a half months! But it’s still Winter (but not Still Winter, which is a distinct season around here), so it feels like no time at all has passed! I still have not figured out how to maintain a Schedule, such that I get all my work done and post regularly to the blog-probably in large part because I ( Read more... )

Dear Readers,

In my post reviewing OCD, The Dude, and Me, I said that one’s experience doesn’t have much material bearing on one’s ability to write on a given subject.  Here’s what I mean:

1. Everyone is an expert (indeed the only expert) on their own lived experience.
2. People can become experts on things they’ve studied extensively.
3. If your subject of ( Read more... )

Before I write a book review, I want to remind myself that someone spent months or years of their life writing the book.  Which should not be taken to mean that I didn’t like this one, only that I want to remember that like the book or not, a lot of people had to love it for it to get published in the first place, and the author presumably did the ( Read more... )

[Warning: this post includes for purposes of discussion innapropriate metaphors that rely on misogyny, homophobia, and ablism.]

I just read Joshua Foer's article about a year in the life of John Quijadaarticle about a year in the life of John Quijada, creator of the constructed language IthkuilIthkuil, in the December 24 & 31, 2012, edition of The ( Read more... )

sitive, unconstitutional...]

[Note: This post has a few ablist slurs used as examples of my point.]

Today Melissa McEwan had a brilliant insight into how (dis)ablist* slurs impede the Left's ability to confront the bad policies of the Right.  I mean, I know all the reasons of courtesy, accuracy, and social justice to purge one's vocabulary of ( Read more... )

1. I said in my last post that I love "discovering" writers writing cleverly about things I find interesting.  Here is Ana Mardoll whose feminist "Deconstructions" are all good. (Click on "Index" at the top to get to a list of all her "Deconstructions") Some examples:
Deconstruction of The Beauty and the Beast (by Gabrielle-Suzanne Barbot de ( Read more... )

Representative Todd Akin (R-MO), who is running for the U.S. Senate against Democrat incumbent Claire McCaskill, over the weekend made a statement claiming that "doctors have told him" that a person in possession of a uterus and ovaries cannot get pregnant following a (reproductively compatible*) rape.

This line of thinking was not knew to me.  Some ( Read more... )

Dear Readers,

I am not dead, though I have been having some health issues (how severe and how long they'll last remains to be seen), and I am also extremely busy right now--not only is it already The Busiest Time of the Year, but I've been watching a ton of Olympics coverage too**--which is why I haven't posted anything in, uh, more than six months ( Read more... )

( Heroin addict? Well at least he's not bi. Also hyena teeth and heroic orcs and more! )