badgerbag

Set in 19th century China, this is the story of Lily, a girl of low birth who becomes a laotong, or “old same” with Snow Flower, a girl of higher birth. A laotong is a lifelong friend who is closer to you than anyone else, and two laotong seem to be essentially regarded as two parts of one person.

The book chronicles their love story (I find it difficult to call it anything else, as their love, rather viewed as platonic or romantic, is the strongest emotion and guiding force in either’s life) from when they meet at age seven, undergoing the footbinding process on the same day, and covers all the highs and lows of love. In addition to the laotong relationship, See also focuses on the intricacies of nu shu, a secret language that Chinese women used to communicate with for centuries. The nu shu is fascinating, especially in its ability to have multiple meanings.

Like Peony in Love, this felt like “the average American’s guide to Chinese history and culture,” and I found it difficult to like any of the characters, but found See to be a good enough writer, and her stories interesting enough, to compensate for that. I don’t think, though, that See does quite as good a job of differentiating her views from those of the characters as she does in Peony in Love, and I should warn that there’s a fair bit of detail given to the footbinding ceremony and its consequences, though it’s not nearly as graphic as it could be.

PHILADELPHIA — A suburban swim club accused of discrimination last summer after revoking the memberships of mostly black and Hispanic children plans to declare bankruptcy, a newspaper reported Saturday.

Valley Swim Club president John Duesler sent an e-mail to club "friends and families" Friday saying the board of directors had voted to file for Chapter 7 bankruptcy this week, The Philadelphia Daily News reported.

Duesler wrote in the e-mail that many would blame the bankruptcy on legal proceedings and negative media exposure, the newspaper said. But, he said, "the truth is that the club has struggled to stay out of the red for at least the last decade" and owes more than $100,000 in operational expenses and legal fees, the newspaper reported.

Duesler declined to comment to The Associated Press on Saturday.

Members "are all tired and beaten down and just sickened by how our club has been improperly portrayed," he said, according to the Daily News. "After speaking to many members, my sense is that mostly everyone wants to move on."

( Read more... )

Source

I was a bit hmmmm about something in a review of The Great Silence 1918-1920 by Juliet Nicolson the other week, but wasn't sure whether it was just typical reviewer carelessness or the book itself.

When another review makes the same error - assuming that Marie Stopes' Married Love gave its initial readers the lowdown on the state of the art in contraception as at 1918 - one does incline to the conclusion that the author herself hasn't read Married Love or much of the relevant recent historiography (wot, me bitter?).

Because Married Love is about women's right to sexual ecstasy and how to achieve it. There is a passing and less than detailed or helpful allusion to the possibility of birth control in one of the later chapters.

Her book on birth control was Wise Parenthood, published several months later in 1918 and containing the full skinny on birth control methods.

If you attribute that to Married Love, or at the very least fail to make this all clear in the text, I think you're probably faking your other knowledge too, and I am really, really, disinclined to read your 'revelatory social history' of Britain immediately after the Great War, unless I'm sent it for review, in which case, bring out the fine-tooth comb.

Married Love has recently been republished as an Oxford Classic (not to mention the plethora of cheap secondhand copies around), so it's not hard to get hold of. It's short. It's an easy read.

Research FAIL.

This entry was originally posted at http://oursin.dreamwidth.org/1130812.html. Please comment there using OpenID. View comments.

Dear Yuletide Writer:

Thank you for volunteering to write me a story. No, really. As far as I'm concerned, getting a story in any of these fandoms would be a total win. So pretty much, if you're worried about making me happy, you're already there by volunteering to write fic in any one of them.

And if you've already thought of an awesome idea based on the details I gave you (or not based on those details but on your own knowledge of the fandom(s)), well, go right ahead and write that. I want you to have fun writing the story. I'll put the details behind the cut so you don't even have to look if you don't want to.

If you do want more info, I've tried to give some more detail behind the cut below, but I have to admit that my fandoms are kind of all over the place this year. So, um, seriously--if anything below stresses you out in any way, ignore it and go with your gut.

( details below the cut )

But really, if the story makes me believe the world it's built, I'll read just about anything. I used to say that I hated MPREG and then there was that popslash seahorse story and Astolat's "A Beautiful Lifetime Event." Good stories will prove me wrong about just about everything but the bigotry, so short of that, just write in a way that will make me believe your story and that you have fun doing.

I always feel weird writing Dear Yuletide letters because exactly what's going to work for you isn't something I can predict which is why I want to stress that you should run with whatever story idea excites and inspires you the most. My general impression about all kinds of writing is that if you do that, you absolutely won't go wrong.

And also, yay! Yuletide!

I watched a couple of FTM videos on YouTube and then I ran across this person (interview here and here). He started off as a female model, transitioned to male and now is a drag queen!

I have heard of a couple other people, both MTF and FTM who do drag not as their chosen gender but as their birth gender. That is to say, MTFs who are drag kings and FTMs who are drag queens.

I have dressed up as male for fun a few times. Last year, we were supposed to wear ties at work to celebrate Father's Day (I worked at a clothing store). Most people, male and female, just wore a tie over a t-shirt but I went all out and wore a suit (it is really hard to find a small men's suit!) and tie and tucked my hair up under a hat. My coworkers hardly recognized me at first and they thought it was amazing how well I could pull off being a man (little did they know, of course, that I "pulled it off" for 19 years!). It was fun!

Anyone else successfully living as their chosen gender dress up as their given gender either in a stage performance (drag king or queen) or just for fun (like me)?

( Photo )

Brand's annotations

[Yeah, not much there now but that will change in a month or three]

( Read more... )

Okay, here's the latest from the SFWA about Nebula Rules:

In January of 2009, SFWA adopted a new set of Nebula Rules. This year is their first in effect so we thought we’d review the process for those who are curious.

From November 15th – February 15th, Active and Associate members may nominate up to 5 works in each category of the Nebulas, the Bradbury and the Andre Norton Award.

Members may change their ballot at any point during the nomination period.

Only works published between July 1, 2008 and December 31st, 2009 are eligible.

The 6 items in each category that receive the most votes go on the ballot. (The Norton Jury may add up to 3 works on the Norton ballot.)

By March 1st, the final ballot is sent to Active members only.

The Nebula ceremony is in May

What is eligible for a Nebula?

Works published between July 1, 2008 and December 31, 2009 are eligible in the following categories.

a. Short Story: less than 7,500 words;
b. Novelette: at least 7,500 words but less than 17,500 words;
c. Novella: at least 17,500 words but less than 40,000 words
d. Novel: 40,000 words or more.
( At the author’s request, a novella-length work published individually, rather than as a part of a collection, anthology, or other collective work, shall appear in the novel category. )

This is the confusing bit. As part of the transition rules, works which received at least five (5) recommendations under the previous Nebula Awards® rules and were published after July 1, 2008, but didn’t make the 2008 Preliminary Ballot get to have those nominations added to their total for this year. Members who recommended these works last year will not have their total number of allowed nominations reduced, but they may not nominate these works a second time.

Works which received less than five (5) recommendations under the previous Nebula rules and were published after July 1, 2008, may be nominated but their nominations don’t carry over from last year.

According to the last published NAR, the following works and members are affected by this.

Novelette
6 Kosmatka, Ted: Divining Light (Asimov’s, Aug08) DWGoldman, STourtellotte, EJStone, NKress, MMcGarry, CDeLancey

Short Story
5 Burstein, Michael A.: I Remember the Future (I Remember the Future, Apex Publications, Nov08 ) JPelland, CArdai, MResnick, PLevinson, RSawyer

So my question is--if there was a story that was orginally published 2007, but then was included in an Anthology after July 2008--is it still eligible?

I admit that I'm an odd reader; I love the English 19th-century novel, from high to unbelievably low (Ouida); I also love British social history. This makes me likely to pick flaws that the ordinary romance reader may miss.

Or maybe not. Regency readers, after all, are saturated in the prose of Georgette Heyer. Hers is an invented prose, but founded on scrupulously-researched period sources. It is inimitable, but can serve as a model. There is also, slightly earlier, Jane Austen, with which we have been pounded over the head for twenty years. (I remember when liking Austen and Mozart wasn't a cliché.) You would think, then, that the bar for a Regency would be fairly high.

Which brings me to C.S. Harris's What Angels Fear, which I bought on the recommendation of a friend. It's the first of yet another Regency detective series; it's a thriller in which the hero, a psychically wounded alpha male with yellow eyes who can see in the dark -- I say no more -- must defend himself from the accusation of hideous crimes. I cracked the book open on BART, coming home from an exhausting but exhilarating visit to Lacis.

p.1 "It was such a foul, creeping thing, the yellow fog of London." The infamous late-century London pea-souper was caused by coal fires everywhere. The London population in 1887, the publication year of A Study In Scarlet, was between 4 and 5 million. The London population in 1811, when the book is set, was 1,303,564. In 1811 the pea-souper was not yet notorious. That's a nit, the sort of thing that most people wouldn't notice (and that I might be getting wrong; I await the lash of oursin, madrobins, and sartorias.)

p.2 "She hadn't expected to be so edgy." "Edgy" sounded weirdly modern to me; when I looked it up, "edgy" in the sense of "on edge", was first attested in 1837.

p.5 "Maybe he won't show", said Sir Christopher. "Maybe" is a classic Americanism, so much so that it's called out for comedy in late 19th century plays and novels; in any case, "Perhaps" is the more formal word, and the speaker is upper-class.. And "won't show" seems suspicious to me; "show up" is from 1888.

p.7 "Shut up about it when Talbot threatened to call him out -- for naming Talbot a liar." "Shut up", first recorded 1840.

p. 16 "But it seemed somehow disrespectful, a violation of that poor girl lying there against the wall, to be tromping heedlessly through what had once been her lifeblood." Tromp, 1892, variant of tramp; mainly Amer.Eng.

Trust me on this; there are clangers throughout the text. But that's not all; the characters' attitudes are weirdly modern, and there are some physical impossibilities. "The inescapable tang of semen still hung in the air, mingling with the heavy metallic odor of blood and the pious sweetness of incense and beeswax." Hands up everybody who could smell semen at a bloody murder scene in a church. (No, the speaker isn't our yellow-eyed hero, who also has superhuman powers of scent.)

On p. 30 we have this, from a noble speaker who is said to be "the power behind the Throne."

"You're a sophisticated man, Sir Henry. Surely I've no need to explain to you what it means, to have the son of a prominent peer -- a member of the government, for God's sake -- implicated in such a crime. If we are seen to hesitate" -- he swept one well-tailored arm in an expansive gesture toward the streets -- "if the crowds out there believe that being born to a position of privilege is enough to allow an Englishman to get away with rape and murder, and sacrilege --" Jarvis broke off, his arm falling back to his side, his voice dropping to a deep, solemn hush. "I was in Paris, you know, in 1789. I'll never forget it. The sight of blood running in the gutters. Of men's severed heads, stuck on pikes. Of gentlewomen snatched from their carriages and torn limb from limb by the howling mobs." He paused, his gaze sharpening suddenly on Lovejoy's face. "Is that what you want to see here, in London?"

That's not the way it worked. The nobility did not, in 1811, make decisions based on what would please the mob, not when it was a choice between their own class and the vulgar sort. The crime would have been hushed up from the moment it was discovered; the constable would have been told to keep his mouth shut if he valued his position, the investigation quietly quashed. If by some chance the story did get out, the worst that would have happened would have been that the suspected murderer's influential father would have been told in no uncertain terms to get the criminal out of the country, by force if necessary. The trial of an upper-class man for a violent crime would have been seen as far more damaging than his speedy transfer beyond the reach of the law. Earl Ferrers, to whom the text refers, was notoriously insane, and committed his crime in his own home in the presence of witnesses. In the case on which this book turns the only link between the hero and the victim is a monogrammed gun left at the murder scene, a difficult basis for a conviction now and an impossible one in 1811. The hero need only claim theft and the entire case would have collapsed.

Sigh. I think I'll go reread Daughter of the Game.



This entry was originally posted at http://jonquil.dreamwidth.org/898321.html. comment(s) on that entry.

Universal changed "Couples Retreat" marketing material for the film's UK release, and removed the black actors from both the poster's photo and the list of stars typed out.

The film, which features four couples who go on vacation together, costars Faizon Love as a divorced man who takes his new girlfriend along, played by Kali Hawk.

Below are the UK (left) and the US (right) poster.




The Mail on Sunday reports:

The studio said it regretted causing offense and has abandoned plans to use the revised poster in other countries... A Universal spokesman said the revised advert aimed 'to simplify the poster to actors who are most recognizable in international markets'.

Yeah, right...

The Thursday, November 12th installment is hilarious!
http://buttersafe.com

WAITING FOR YOUR PHONE CALL

My heart is the colour of a plum
before falling from the tree.
You, bone-stealer
are everything I want,
nothing I need.

The elms outside the window
are still, still
and the streets sag from all this heat.
Tonight, there will be mouths
gliding over nipples, moving

like water beetles down, down.
Surely you speak my name
over tea.
Surely the phone
must be within your reach.

I am worse for waiting,
worse because I am alive
when your hands are.
Because when you say you are falling,
all the coals in me are smouldering.

All the wet wood is temporary, yes
I'm a bundle of blissful kindling.
In the city tonight
there will be mouths telling such lies,
lips without a shred of decency.

But here, I'm counting every last bone.
And surely you are there,
holding the phone as one would hold
a dying baby.
Surely.

Gregory Scofield

Dear Yuletide Writer!

It being entirely possible that you were matched with me on the strength of a single fandom, I will try to give the same amount of detail for each. *g*

( glory, gen x cops, little mosque on the prairie, no. 1 ladies' detective agency )

In other news: my assignment is WACK. Which is the whole fun of Yuletide for me -- being assigned something I offered on a whim, never ever thinking I'd actually be assigned it! Hee!

comments over yonder on http://bossymarmalade.dreamwidth.org/488059.html, y'all.

Kid #1's voice just dipped into the bass range. He is 10. I am not ready. Someone come make it stop. Or bring booze and chocolate. I thought I had another couple of years before this shit started. Puberty 101...any tips for survival?

( You are about to view content that may not be appropriate for minors. )

The Balkan Vulcan DJ shift on Pirate Cat Radio.

We're now in the second day of Open Beta for the Archive of Our Own! It's been a crazy weekend! Here are a few updates on how it's all going, below the cut.

( Read more... )

"Though we didn't make it to the finish line. I am not alone, because you are still my sunshine. My heart is heavy because you left me far too soon; The grief and all the heartaches I am not immune. I will always cherish the memories of our love, when we meshed together like two turtledoves. They are all woven in the tapestry of my mind, where I recall the treasure all our wonderful times. My darling, I will mourn our loss and be lost in despair. But I will go forward alone, knowing you're up there. Twinking in each star, watching me and loving me. I believe your smiling face helps relive memories. I will always cherish the sweet LOVE you left behind, because it was so special; it was truly one of a kind. There is not a single day when I won't think of you, my only regret love is our days together were so few..."- Dossie M. Terrell.

( You are about to view content that may not be appropriate for minors. )

One of the things that I was worried about when I back to work after three weeks off was whether I would be able to maintain the momentum for my getting sorted project. I was still in the middle of sorting out my study, getting the finances finalised and some general household sorting things. Given that these things had gotten to this state, I was worried I would slip back into old habits and not have enough time to finish and then maintain.

But luckily my other theory seems to have held - tidiness forces further tidiness. Just like mess seems to spread. I've also begun enforcing a new set of calendar scheduling which will hopeful reap time for things that need to be done at home, more TPP time and also more personal time.

The TPP finances are very very close to being done. I might have to throw a party when they are. I tell you! The pain, I cannot fully convey it. In sorting through all the paperwork for TPP, I have also begun work on my personal budget which will be the next project and hopefully ready to go by Jan.

I've submitted one deadline for Aurealis judging. As well as one list of recommended reading for this year to another outlet. And I'm quite surprised to report that my kitchen remains pretty much immaculate. Dishes are getting done and all foods are continuing to be packed carefully away. It's pretty darn nice to have a clean kitchen as the norm not as the passing blink in the week. And I also noticed that whilst I've been at home, other things get picked up and put away so the house is progressively getting more and more organised and tidy. This is very restful and uplifting.

Interestingly though, I do have moments of panic as I see myself get on top of things. It's almost like I prefer to be behind, like I don't quite know what to do if I'm not running to catch up. Cause if you aren't buried in things that are late or need to be caught up on, then you have space to go forward, create, do new things, try news things, relax, conquer. Whatever. But that stuff is scary cause it's unknown. I'm pushing forward through the fear cause, I think I should be out there and not held back by my own tardiness and laziness. Or fear of having to come up with something else (or read a book when I buy it etc).

I have 74 short stories/novellas left to read and I intend to start 2010 reading Dec 1.

http://www.metroweekly.com/gauge/last_word/2009/11/gay-father-handcuffed-family-d.html


Gay father handcuffed, family detained and banned from all Wal-Mart stores for NOT shoplifting?
Posted by duy on November 7, 2009 5:12 AM | Permalink

''They asked if I had Bic lighters. I said, 'Yes,' and handed them over," Paolucci said. "Then they asked if I had a receipt. I said, 'Yes, you're holding it.' Then this group of Wal-Mart employees started forming around us.... Everything they asked us to do, we did. We cooperated 100 percent. We objected only when they tried to get us to go into the detention room.''

It's possible that I really do hate all the people on my flist. Not consciously or anything, but given my ongoing urge to share the crazy and or horrifying with you...it could be subconscious hatred. Really. There is Twilight based fuckery that I started to link and then did not because the thought struck me that some things are just too creepy. On the other hand, we are talking Twilight and really it's kind of fun to mock. I don't know, should I share the things I find with you? Or keep the pain to myself? Oh hell, how bad could it be? I mean, it's just a Renesme doll or two. Was there like a contest to find the creepiest doll possible and slap some Twilight crap on her?

Do you knit? Do you know someone who knits? Are you planning to knit something for a loved one this holiday season? Then go, right now, to IAFAuctions and bid on this yarn. It is knittable and it is fancy and awesome. It must needs be knitted into something cool and I demand that people fight over it in the few hours it has left before bidding ends. This yarn is one of the most interstitial pieces of art I’ve ever, ever seen and it must go on to the next state of its evolution! Bid. Now. Shoo!

Comments | Permalink

( You are about to view content that may not be appropriate for minors. )

Dudes, these Santa Cards I made are available at Topatoco! He is in the festive spirit wink wink.

( You are about to view content that may not be appropriate for minors. )

( You are about to view content that may not be appropriate for minors. )

Title: Rabbit-Proof Fence
Author: Doris Pilkington
Number of Pages: 137 pages
My Rating: 4/5

This is the true story of how three girls, Molly, Daisy, and Gracie, escaped from a residential school designed to turn half-white Aboriginal children into servants for white families and walked 1600 km back to their home.

It's a good story and I enjoyed learning more about Australian history, but I found the writing style sort of hard to get into. It's neither a novel nor a straight historical account, but a mix of both, and that didn't really work for me. There would be bits written in a very fictional tone, including thoughts from characters the author couldn't have known the thoughts of, and then you'd hit a big section with excerpts of historical documents, complete with citations.

Still, I enjoyed it (and it helped that it was quite short) and would definitely recommend it.

I'm curious to see the movie and see how it compares with the book.

She has been deported to Spain, apparently because she wrote "Western Sahara" rather than "Morocco" as her country of residence on her immigration form and refused to change it. In terms of international law she is entirely correct, but to assert that the people of Western Sahara should have their country back is in violation of the Moroccan constitution.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/11/14/AR2009111401147.html

"As a mixed-race girl growing up in this most cosmopolitan of mainland Chinese cities, 20-year-old Lou Jing said she never experienced much discrimination -- curiosity and questions, but never hostility.

So nothing prepared Lou, whose father is a black American, for the furor that erupted in late August when she beat out thousands of other young women on "Go! Oriental Angel," a televised talent show. Angry Internet posters called her a "black chimpanzee" and worse. One called for all blacks in China to be deported.

As the country gets ready to welcome the first African American U.S. president, whose first official visit here starts Sunday, the Chinese are confronting their attitudes toward race, including some deeply held prejudices about black people. Many appeared stunned that Americans had elected a black man, and President Obama's visit has underscored Chinese ambivalence about the growing numbers of blacks living here. "