books, politics, fandom, chatter!

[extemporally]

1. So, we had an election! Another one, I mean. Unfortunately the dude I didn't want to get elected got elected, instead of the awesome progressive dude (yeah, they're all dudes) who said stuff about how he supported equal rights for LGBT people, women and racial minorities and also spoke out against the Internal Security Act. Well I guess that's

Comments

[lemniciate]

She does write poetry, I believe! I've got a collection by her buried somewhere in my hard drive. I think I read one book by her when I was a kid--one of her first--and iirc I had the same experience: good but not substantial. Her writing must have improved by then though, I'm sure.

(And re: feisty/quiet girls: YES. I love strong female characters and it'd be nice to read something where the author realises that you don't have to be outspoken and out-going to be strong.)

[extemporally]

Ahh, I didn't know that! I will have to hunt out her poetry sometime, then. Which book was it you read, if you remember?

I think - even the fact that I'm seeing it as a monolithic division is pretty problematic, I dislike that 'but is she feisty?' is kind of the default reaction to a female character. One of my favourite characters on Torchwood (ahaha um)? Toshiko Sato. Quiet and nerdy and not all that great at people! Or if we're talking YA, I loved Gaia in the Fearless series. (I was 12.) Clearly not, um, shy, but also really really really bad at people. Mostly because she hated them.

[harriet_vane]

That is an excellent quote, Emma Stone. And I'm pretty darned excited about this super long fic. ♥

Won't lie, the app I use most on my iPhone is the Starbucks card. Oh, and I play Bejeweled about 9 hours a day.

I loved feisty girls when I was a teen, and was always excited to read one but I also loved smart and nerdy and competent, which is the "strong female character" type in most of my favorite books.

[extemporally]

I am glad someone is excited! ♥ It should be done by the end of the week, and hopefully I'll get it posted soon?

Intriguing! I will have to check out those apps. Although maybe not Starbucks since I'm a tea person, but hey.

Also smart and nerdy and competent sounds right up my alley - do you have any recs?

[harriet_vane]

YAY. I have successfully suckered at least two people into reading fics and they asked me for recs and I have RUN OUT. Plus: FIC. \o/

Oh, re: apps, people LOVE the hipstamatic one. I keep forgetting to dl it.

I was thinking specifically of Dorothy Dunnett's Lymond Chronicles, which are my all time favorite books and feature an amazing smart, sensible, not at all flashy or athletic heroine. But they are not everyone's favorite books. They are also not YA. My sister, who recs YA a lot, says the Aly Carter Gallagher Girls series.

[extemporally]

Dude dude dude, you are super awesome. Also, can I just say again? Your Warped Tour fic was brilliant, and I really really love the way you have with words in general (I read yr poetry! sorry for not replying to the email, but I loved it. syntax and vocabulary, ohmy. ♥). I THINK YOU ARE PRETTY GREAT. And hahaha yes how is it that academic work is so much shorter in the writing of, it must be different centres of the brain.

Anyway, thank you, bb! ♥

[aurora_84]

I liked Mels, who was badass but suffered from way too little screentime, and I was totally slow in that I didn't get that she was River Song until she got shot. Also, huge props to Alex Kingston for hitting the notes of "young and brainwashed and manic but still River Song" just right. Every so often I kind of want to watch her episodes in reverse.
Word and word! I kept WTF-ing at the introduction of this Mels character at this stage of s6 and then she regenerated and I went 'ooooooh!'. Alex Kingston blows my mind.

Other fannish shenanigans I've been getting up to lately: notficced about a Jesse/Andrew/Emma threesome.
Feel free to notfic about them any.time!

Brb reading that Emma Stone interview.

[extemporally]

Is it just me? but for some reason I'm really fixating on the way she was made up in the hospital scene - the pale pink eyelids and lips just made her look so young.

EMMMMMMMMA ♥ I liked her thoughts on ~emoting~ especially. I should watch more of her movies!

[roadmarks]

Can I just say though - as someone who was the exact opposite of that growing up it sure would have been refreshing and important to read stories about quiet girls, lazy girls, girls who are stupid in some way or another while being brilliant in others - etc.

Yes, yes, yes, this a million times over.

[extemporally]

I understand the need for role models? But I know that when I was a kid who was basically uncertain about where she was going and pretty insecure, being inundated with scores of YA lit about girls who were Competent and Clever and Awesome and Feisty was... kind of a double-edged sword, there.