tag:dreamwidth.org,2017-04-10:2997397Dreamer EasyKate Ormandreamer_easy2024-02-08T05:29:04Ztag:dreamwidth.org,2017-04-10:2997397:1619149Firetruck, first draft2024-01-22T01:23:18Z2024-01-22T01:23:18Zpublic3Science fiction short story "Firetruck" (working title), first draft.<br /><br /><img src="https://www.dreamwidth.org/tools/commentcount?user=dreamer_easy&ditemid=1619149" width="30" height="12" alt="comment count unavailable" style="vertical-align: middle;"/> commentstag:dreamwidth.org,2017-04-10:2997397:1618707Books bought, borrowed, and read 20242024-01-10T21:47:46Z2024-02-08T05:29:04Zpublic2<u>Books read<br /></u>James Fulcher. <em>Capitalism: A Very Short Introduction</em>. I found this hard to read. Partly, it was my lack of background in the subject; and partly, it wasn't.<u><br /></u>Ian Rakoff. <em>Shadowboxing: Comics in a Climate of Fear</em>. I'll write a proper review of this, but briefly, it's autobiographical, a child's account of growing up under Apartheid. I keep trying to find a single word to describe its atmosphere of creeping fear and unspoken evil, and failing.<br /><u><br />Notable short stories</u><br />Andrea Kriz. <a href="https://www.lightspeedmagazine.com/fiction/do-the-right-thing-and-ride-the-bomb-the-roundabout-way-to-hell/">Do the Right Thing and Ride the Bomb the Roundabout Way to Hell</a>. Lightspeed 163, December 2023.<br /><br /><span class="cut-wrapper"><span style="display: none;" id="span-cuttag___1" class="cuttag"></span><b class="cut-open">( </b><b class="cut-text"><a href="https://dreamer-easy.dreamwidth.org/1618707.html#cutid1">Books bought and borrowed</a></b><b class="cut-close"> )</b></span><div style="display: none;" id="div-cuttag___1" aria-live="assertive"></div><br /><br /><img src="https://www.dreamwidth.org/tools/commentcount?user=dreamer_easy&ditemid=1618707" width="30" height="12" alt="comment count unavailable" style="vertical-align: middle;"/> commentstag:dreamwidth.org,2017-04-10:2997397:1618307Increasingly obsessive thought2023-04-23T02:04:56Z2023-04-23T02:04:56Zpublic1Gimme that baby monkey right fucking now, you fucker<br /><br /><img src="https://www.dreamwidth.org/tools/commentcount?user=dreamer_easy&ditemid=1618307" width="30" height="12" alt="comment count unavailable" style="vertical-align: middle;"/> commentstag:dreamwidth.org,2017-04-10:2997397:1617988New ideas2023-04-20T00:24:44Z2023-04-20T06:19:16Zpublic1Skim-reading SF book reviews on the treadmill. Three of the books were about how awful social media is. The third book wasn't, but the <em>review</em> was. Can we have a new idea in science fiction, please? I think we all know how beneath us Facebook or whatever is.<br /><br /><br /><img src="https://www.dreamwidth.org/tools/commentcount?user=dreamer_easy&ditemid=1617988" width="30" height="12" alt="comment count unavailable" style="vertical-align: middle;"/> commentstag:dreamwidth.org,2017-04-10:2997397:1617795The razor's edge of safety and terror2023-03-08T22:33:41Z2023-03-08T22:36:19Zpublic0"At the same time, settler colonialism involves the subjugation and forced labor of chattel slaves5 , whose bodies and lives become the property, and who are kept landless. Slavery in settler colonial contexts is distinct from other forms of indenture whereby excess labor is extracted from persons. First, chattels are commodities of labor and therefore it is the slave’s person that is the excess. Second, unlike workers who may aspire to own land, the slave’s very presence on the land is already an excess that must be dis-located. Thus, the slave is a desirable commodity but the person underneath is imprisonable, punishable, and murderable. The violence of keeping/killing the chattel slave makes them deathlike monsters in the settler imagination; they are reconfigured/disfigured as the threat, the razor’s edge of safety and terror."<br /><br />-- Eve Tuck and K. Wayne Yang, <a href="https://clas.osu.edu/sites/clas.osu.edu/files/Tuck%20and%20Yang%202012%20Decolonization%20is%20not%20a%20metaphor.pdf">Decolonization is not a metaphor</a>, Decolonization: Indigeneity, Education & Society Vol. 1, No. 1, 2012, pp. 1-­‐40.<br /><br />This is similar to stuff in my <a href="https://obversebooks.co.uk/product/12-pyramids/">Pyramids of Mars</a> book, the terrifying possibility that the exotic people you have cruelly treated will turn and treat you cruelly -- the mummy, Fu Manchu -- but what a hair-raising way of expressing it. I'm only partway through but this essay is hair-raising in general.<br /><br />Getting a bit of reading done at the moment because I've blocked Reddit. XD<br /><br /><br /><br /><img src="https://www.dreamwidth.org/tools/commentcount?user=dreamer_easy&ditemid=1617795" width="30" height="12" alt="comment count unavailable" style="vertical-align: middle;"/> commentstag:dreamwidth.org,2017-04-10:2997397:1617410Tech and utopia2023-03-07T21:47:42Z2023-03-07T22:20:16Zpublic2Watched <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ASYmRLEyYtc">this clip about Picasso</a> from an unnamed documentary, then read <a href="http://kenmacleod.blogspot.com/2013/07/use-of-calculators.html">this piece about Iain M. Banks' politics</a>. The former talks about how rapid advances in technology affected art in the early Twentieth Century -- science was everything, photography pushed artists out of realism and into abstraction -- and the latter talks about the idea that technology and automation will bring about Paradise, making the power of computing etc available to all, not just the ruling class. My brain decided these were connected and so here I am making this posting.<br /><br /><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/books/2013/jun/10/iain-banks-ken-macleod-science-fiction">ETA</a>: "He likened writing literary fiction to playing a piano, and writing SF to playing a vast church organ."<br /><br /><br /><br /><img src="https://www.dreamwidth.org/tools/commentcount?user=dreamer_easy&ditemid=1617410" width="30" height="12" alt="comment count unavailable" style="vertical-align: middle;"/> commentstag:dreamwidth.org,2017-04-10:2997397:1617402(Just a few) Writing Links2023-03-03T10:24:26Z2023-03-04T00:27:23Zpublic1<a href="https://locusmag.com/2020/05/cory-doctorow-rules-for-writers/">Cory Doctorow: Rules for Writers</a> (May 2020). On the Turkey City Lexicon and why those items are on that list.<br /><br /><a href="https://electricliterature.com/please-just-let-women-be-villains/">Please Just Let Women Be Villains</a> (Electric Lit, 2021). "From 'Wicked' to 'Cruella,' rehabilitated villainesses rely on outdated ideas of women's virtue." <br /><br /><a href="https://reprobatepress.com/2021/07/18/kill-the-cat-the-awful-influence-of-the-worlds-worst-writing-guide/">Kill The Cat – The Awful Influence Of The World’s Worst Writing Guide</a> (The Reprobate, 2021). The roller coaster analogy probably explains why I'm so bloody jaded.<br /><br /><a href="https://poetryarchive.org/poem/prayer-before-birth/">Prayer Before Birth</a> by Louis MacNeice. Found it!<br /><br /><a href="http://www.ursulakleguinarchive.com/Index-Poems-GrownWomenCry.html">Hurt Hawks</a> by Robinson Jeffers<br /><br /><br /><img src="https://www.dreamwidth.org/tools/commentcount?user=dreamer_easy&ditemid=1617402" width="30" height="12" alt="comment count unavailable" style="vertical-align: middle;"/> commentstag:dreamwidth.org,2017-04-10:2997397:1616913Time Enough At Last2023-02-23T22:20:37Z2023-02-25T21:18:27Zpublic3What is the point of this Twilight Zone episode? What is its message? An odd, smug, but thought-provoking Wired <a href="https://www.wired.com/story/coronavirus-cozy-catastrophe-americans-secretly-crave/">op-ed</a> from 2020's lockdown mentioned the story in passing and reminded me that I'm still puzzled by it.<br /><br /><span class="cut-wrapper"><span style="display: none;" id="span-cuttag___1" class="cuttag"></span><b class="cut-open">( </b><b class="cut-text"><a href="https://dreamer-easy.dreamwidth.org/1616913.html#cutid1">Read more...</a></b><b class="cut-close"> )</b></span><div style="display: none;" id="div-cuttag___1" aria-live="assertive"></div><br /><br /><img src="https://www.dreamwidth.org/tools/commentcount?user=dreamer_easy&ditemid=1616913" width="30" height="12" alt="comment count unavailable" style="vertical-align: middle;"/> commentstag:dreamwidth.org,2017-04-10:2997397:1616787Eat Lead Clown2023-02-10T06:47:54Z2023-02-10T06:47:54Zpublic0Now I can fill in the details. I once heard "punk poet" John Cooper Scott read his poem "<a href="https://archive.org/details/gargoyle41gargoy00rich/page/88/mode/2up">Eat Lead Clown</a>" on the radio -- perhaps on Triple J? I never forgot the ending, or his remark afterwards: "You have either just heard or just missed John Cooper Scott reading..."<br /><br /><br /><img src="https://www.dreamwidth.org/tools/commentcount?user=dreamer_easy&ditemid=1616787" width="30" height="12" alt="comment count unavailable" style="vertical-align: middle;"/> commentstag:dreamwidth.org,2017-04-10:2997397:1616634Eric & Us2023-02-08T08:05:33Z2023-02-08T08:05:33Zpublic0I'm so spoiled in this information age. It's so vexing that I can't just put my hands on a copy of Jacintha Buddicom's letter describing a youthful Eric Blair's attempt to rape her. I don't want to read any more descriptions or interpretations of the letter, especially not any more rape myths dragged out to protect George Orwell's honour; I want to read her words for myself. (And I shall, the next time I can get to the National Library.)<br /><br /><img src="https://www.dreamwidth.org/tools/commentcount?user=dreamer_easy&ditemid=1616634" width="30" height="12" alt="comment count unavailable" style="vertical-align: middle;"/> commentstag:dreamwidth.org,2017-04-10:2997397:1616368Books bought, borrowed, and read 20232023-01-28T00:51:04Z2023-12-21T10:19:43Zpublic4<strike>Haven't finished a book so far in 2023. Partway through Kaaron Warren's <em>The Grief Hole</em>. I've only owned it for eight years, along with one of <span>Keely Van Order's beautiful and mysterious illustrations. Sigh.</span></strike><span><br /><br /><u>Books read</u><br /></span><span>Ray Bradbury. <em>The Martian Chronicles</em>. Probably last read in primary school.</span><br /><span>-- <em>R is for Rocket</em>. Probably also last read in primary school.<br />William Burroughs. <em>Naked Lunch</em>.<br />Diane Dimassa. <em>The Complete Hothead Paisan</em> (re-read). I've been dusting this off every so often since about 1998. (We were all disappointed by Dimassa's 2004 remarks about the Michigan Womyn's Music Festival, remarks which were surprising given <em>Hothead</em>'s explicitly pro-trans content.) Anyway I told myself I'd just bookmark one or two of my favourite bits. <br /><br /><img src="https://i.imgur.com/EduLTBy.jpg" alt="" /><br /><br /></span>E.W Hildick. <em>The Nose Knows</em> (a McGurk Mystery)<br />Richard Hooker. <em>M*A*S*H</em>.<br />Gillian Mears. <em>Fineflour</em>.<br />Herman Melville. <em>Moby Dick</em> (audiobook).<br />Bae Myung-Hoon. <em>Tower</em>.<br />Sylvia Plath. <em>Johnny Panic and the Bible of Dreams</em>.<br /><span>Alex Prichard. <em>Anarchism: a Very Short Introduction</em>.</span><br />Kim Stanley Robinson. <em>Aurora</em>.<br />Charles Stross. <em>The Rhesus Chart</em>.<br />Izumi Suzuki. <em>Terminal Boredom</em>.<br />Kaaron Warren. <em>The Grief Hole.</em> I especially liked this novel's distinctive Australian voice -- amidst surprising, shocking dark fantasy, there's a straightforwardness, even laconicness. I wish I'd read it much sooner.<br /><br /><u>Books borrowed</u><br />Nicola J. Adderley. <em>Personal Religion in the Libyan Period in Egypt</em>.<br />Kasia Szpakowska (ed). <em>Demon Things: Ancient Egyptian Manifestations of Liminal Entities</em>.<br /><span><br /><u>Books bought</u><br />Christopher Frayling. <em>The Yellow Peril: Dr. Fu Manchu and the Rise of Chinaphobia</em>. You know, I've never even <em>liked </em>Talons of Weng-Chiang (unlike, say, Pyramids of Mars, or The Two Doctors). Yet I think I'm going to be dealing with it for the rest of my life.<br />Bruce and Ju-Chan Fulton. <em>The Future of Silence: Fiction by Korean Women</em>.<br />Richard Hooker. <em>M*A*S*H</em>.<br />Alex Prichard. <em>Anarchism: a Very Short Introduction</em>.<br /></span>Kim Stanley Robinson. <em>Aurora</em>.<br />Charles Stross. <em>The Rhesus Chart</em>.<br /><span><br /><u>Notable short stories</u><br />K.J. Aspey. Aspey, I Paint the Light with My Mother's Bones. <em>Fantasy and Science Fiction</em> May/June 2023.<br />J.G. Ballard. <a href="http://sculpture307.blogspot.com/2012/08/the-enormous-space-by-jg-ballard.html">The Enormous Space</a>.<br />Jayme Lynn Blaschke and Don Webb. <a href="https://bcmystery.com/copy-of-black-cat-weekly-32/">It Gazes Back</a>. I'm not sure this is the greatest SF story I have ever read, but the concepts hit me in the head like a cricket bat, at least three times, so I'm gonna shut up and be grateful.<br /></span><span>Isabel Fall. </span><span>I Sexually Identify as an Attack Helicopter. (Perhaps I shouldn't have, but I couldn't resist.) Shocking and sharply intelligent.<br /></span><br /><br /><img src="https://www.dreamwidth.org/tools/commentcount?user=dreamer_easy&ditemid=1616368" width="30" height="12" alt="comment count unavailable" style="vertical-align: middle;"/> commentstag:dreamwidth.org,2017-04-10:2997397:1615957Fat Links2022-12-16T11:29:54Z2023-03-02T09:37:30Zpublic2The science around body fat is constantly evolving, so I had to throw out a bunch of links from like 2015. (Dang, links accumulate worse than books.) The conclusion I draw from what I'm reading is this. Go anywhere online, and it won't be long before you come across someone robotically reciting "calories in, calories out" and simplistically labelling foods "healthy" or "unhealthy". But the actual explanation for why an individual is fat, and why a large (ha ha) majority of Westerners are fat, involves sleep, medications, processed foods, advertising, food availability, which microbes are living in your gut, genetics, viruses, what you ate as a child -- and how these factors interact with one another. And, of course, the inescapable bullying, propaganda, and prejudice: it's critical for the food industry to keep the focus away from themselves and on individual consumers. And we all need someone to feel better than.<br /><strong><br /></strong><a href="https://highline.huffingtonpost.com/articles/en/everything-you-know-about-obesity-is-wrong/"><strong>Everything You Know About Obesity Is Wrong</strong></a><strong> (HuffPost, 2018). Comprehensive and enraging.</strong><br /><br /><a href="https://www.newscientist.com/article/2177638-one-bad-nights-sleep-can-make-you-put-on-fat-and-lose-muscle-mass/">One bad night's sleep can make you put on fat and lose muscle mass</a> (New Scientist, 2018)<br /><br /><a href="https://news.utk.edu/2019/09/23/todays-obesity-epidemic-may-have-been-caused-by-childhood-sugar-intake-decades-ago/">Today’s Obesity Epidemic May Have Been Caused by Childhood Sugar Intake Decades Ago</a> (University of Tennessee, 2019)<br /><br /><a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/28093994/">Viral Infection and Obesity: Current Status and Future Prospective</a> (Current Drug Metabolism, 2017)<br /><br /><a href="https://www.ama-assn.org/delivering-care/public-health/how-anti-obesity-bias-hinders-patients-lifestyle-change-efforts">How anti-obesity bias hinders patients' lifestyle change efforts</a> (AMA)<br /><br />A fascinating <a href="https://twitter.com/KivanBay/status/1332570507820953601">Twitter thread</a> about overcoming the body's flaws as a route to salvation, disability, and fat. We're constantly sold the lie that we have complete control over our bodies, if only we buy the right products, so anyone whose body is <em>not</em> rigidly controlled is immoral. (Cf also our duty to be conventionally sexually attractive, enforced especially harshly for girls.) | <a href="https://www.huffpost.com/entry/anderson-cooper-donald-trump-obese-turtle_n_5fa5a221c5b64c88d4005111">When You Talk About Donald Trump’s Body, Every Fat Person You Know Hears You</a> (Huffpost, 2020)<br /><br /><a href="https://www.diabetesaustralia.com.au/blog/healthily-life-weight/">Stop the guilt and live healthily, lose weight</a> (Diabetes Australia)<br /><br /><a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-01-02/the-problem-with-the-body-mass-index-bmi/100728416">The really old, racist and non-medical origins of the BMI</a> (ABC, January 2022)<br /><br /><a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-02-07/calorie-counting-weight-loss-history/100800850">The history of dieting by calorie counting shows why it should stay in the past, experts say</a> (ABC, February 2022)<br /><br /><a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/health/2018-01-21/set-aside-losing-weight-focus-on-healthy-behaviours/9345648">Why we should forget losing weight and focus on healthy habits</a> (ABC, 2018). I also focus on other measures of my health, such as blood sugar and cholesterol, which can be improved whether or not you lose weight.<br /><br /><a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/health/2020-09-23/health-bmi-vs-diet-for-risk-of-death/12688270">A healthy diet is more important than your weight when it comes to risk of death, study finds</a> (ABC, 2020)<br /><br /><a href="https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/in-obesity-research-fatphobia-is-always-the-x-factor/">In Obesity Research, Fatphobia Is Always the X Factor</a> (SA, March 2021). "Contrary to what you’ve undoubtedly been told, you can be fat and fit at the same time."<br /><br /><a href="https://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/what-are-ultra-processed-foods-and-are-they-bad-for-our-health-2020010918605">What are ultra-processed foods and are they bad for our health?</a> (Harvard Health Blog, 2020). Part of the puzzle.<br /><br /><a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-022-04505-7">The ‘breakthrough’ obesity drugs that have stunned researchers</a> (Nature, 2023). "The ability to melt weight away by tweaking biology gives credence to the idea that obesity is a disease. In the past, scientists and the public often thought that those with obesity simply lacked the willpower to lose weight. But evidence is growing that most people’s bodies have a natural size that can be hard to change. “The body will defend its weight,” says Richard DiMarchi, a chemist at Indiana University Bloomington."<br /><br />Wisdom from, of all places, <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/loseit/comments/g1ttsu/comment/fnigkdk/">Reddit</a>: "With women in particular, a huge amount of social worth comes down to performing femininity well. For fat women, the hyper performance of femininity is seen as "making up" for the crime of letting herself get fat."<br /><br /><a href="https://www.psychologytoday.com/gb/blog/wiring-the-mind/201501/whats-wrong-fat-shaming">What's Wrong With Fat Shaming?</a> (PT, 2015). Perhaps most importantly: <em>it doesn't work</em>.<br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><img src="https://www.dreamwidth.org/tools/commentcount?user=dreamer_easy&ditemid=1615957" width="30" height="12" alt="comment count unavailable" style="vertical-align: middle;"/> commentstag:dreamwidth.org,2017-04-10:2997397:1615843Pressure -- original SF short story2022-11-14T00:58:18Z2022-11-14T00:58:18Zpublic0Wrote a whole short story in two days. The draft is less than 2000 words. The deadline looms. Might not be the greatest short story ever written, but I really wanted to give it a whirl.<br /><br /><img src="https://www.dreamwidth.org/tools/commentcount?user=dreamer_easy&ditemid=1615843" width="30" height="12" alt="comment count unavailable" style="vertical-align: middle;"/> commentstag:dreamwidth.org,2017-04-10:2997397:1615478Writing2022-09-30T01:53:35Z2022-10-20T00:19:09Zpublic0Finished off I Object (SF, 5000 words) and sent it to an anthology a couple of days ago. When it bounces back it's going into the drawer for six months. In the meantime I'm working on the outline for the robots novel (which keeps changing its name) and also playing with a possible SF story for a horror antho -- though it's based on a science fact I was sure I remembered but now can't find anywhere. Must take Hot Alphabet (SF, 6000 words) out of the drawer and get that into the Submissions Tracker. Edit: I took it out and it's absolute rubbish 😹<br /><br />I don't blog the way I used to, but there is still a lot going on, in between bouts of illness.<br /><br /><img src="https://www.dreamwidth.org/tools/commentcount?user=dreamer_easy&ditemid=1615478" width="30" height="12" alt="comment count unavailable" style="vertical-align: middle;"/> commentstag:dreamwidth.org,2017-04-10:2997397:1615180First draft of "I Object" (original SF, 4600 words)2022-08-30T13:14:38Z2022-08-30T13:17:06Zpublic0I don't think any story has ever come as close to actually killing me as this one. *faceplant*<br /><br /><img src="https://www.dreamwidth.org/tools/commentcount?user=dreamer_easy&ditemid=1615180" width="30" height="12" alt="comment count unavailable" style="vertical-align: middle;"/> commentstag:dreamwidth.org,2017-04-10:2997397:1614387It's blue blue blue2022-07-06T07:50:02Z2022-07-06T07:50:02Zpublic0... hey, that thing that <a href="https://www.lesswrong.com/tag/orthogonality-thesis">superintelligent AIs</a> will all converge on the same goals, and perhaps the same morality. This is just another way of saying "I'm smarter than everyone else, so my goals are the correct ones, my morality is the correct one", isn't it? (Come to think of it, it's possible to read this as the intended meaning of the title of <span class="LrzXr kno-fv wHYlTd z8gr9e">1963 Flannery O'Connor's story </span>"Everything That Rises Must Converge", whose clueless hero is <em>phenomenally </em>smug.)<br /><br />This comment is a dangerous sign of incipient hypomania.<br /><br /><br /><br /><img src="https://www.dreamwidth.org/tools/commentcount?user=dreamer_easy&ditemid=1614387" width="30" height="12" alt="comment count unavailable" style="vertical-align: middle;"/> commentstag:dreamwidth.org,2017-04-10:2997397:1614163A Disneyland with no children.2022-06-27T12:19:07Z2022-06-27T12:19:44Zpublic1<blockquote><p>"It is conceivable that optimal efficiency would be attained by grouping capabilities in aggregates that roughly match the cognitive architecture of a human mind…But in the absence of any compelling reason for being confident that this so, we must countenance the possibility that human-like cognitive architectures are optimal only within the constraints of human neurology (or not at all). When it becomes possible to build architectures that could not be implemented well on biological neural networks, new design space opens up; and the global optima in this extended space need not resemble familiar types of mentality. Human-like cognitive organizations would then lack a niche in a competitive post-transition economy or ecosystem.</p> <p>We could thus imagine, as an extreme case, a technologically highly advanced society, containing many complex structures, some of them far more intricate and intelligent than anything that exists on the planet today – a society which nevertheless lacks any type of being that is conscious or whose welfare has moral significance. In a sense, this would be an uninhabited society. It would be a society of economic miracles and technological awesomeness, with nobody there to benefit. A Disneyland with no children.</p></blockquote>-- Philosopher Nick Bostrom, quoted by Scott Alexander in a <a href="https://slatestarcodex.com/2014/07/30/meditations-on-moloch/">thought-provoking essay</a>. My own thoughts are AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH<br /><br /><img src="https://www.dreamwidth.org/tools/commentcount?user=dreamer_easy&ditemid=1614163" width="30" height="12" alt="comment count unavailable" style="vertical-align: middle;"/> commentstag:dreamwidth.org,2017-04-10:2997397:1613990Point2022-05-22T04:54:10Z2022-05-22T04:59:54Zpublic0I must tell you: I am wretched, and Mum showed me this:<br /><br /><iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/PsTcuvuL5l8" title="YouTube video player" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen" width="560" height="315" frameborder="0"></iframe><br />I am not really a fan of either Sondheim or Seurat, but as the music bursts there comes the explosive understanding that THE MEMBERS OF THE CHORUS ARE THE DOTS. And shortly after that, the understanding that we are <em>all</em> dots. If we could only take a step back and see the world all at once.<br /><br /><br /><img src="https://www.dreamwidth.org/tools/commentcount?user=dreamer_easy&ditemid=1613990" width="30" height="12" alt="comment count unavailable" style="vertical-align: middle;"/> commentstag:dreamwidth.org,2017-04-10:2997397:1613208Links, March 20222022-03-07T11:23:36Z2022-03-08T11:18:23Zpublic0<a href="https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/tv/story/2022-03-02/ukraine-russia-war-racism-media-middle-east">In Ukraine reporting, Western press reveals grim bias toward 'people like us'</a>. (LA Times, March 2022) Oh, shit.<br /><a href="https://rollingstoneindia.com/dont-ashamed-mourn-celebrity/"><br /><br />Don't Be Ashamed to Mourn a Celebrity</a> (Rolling Stone, January 2018) "... it hurts that while they were able to be there for you when you needed it most, there was nothing you could do for them."<br /><br /><a href="https://radiatingdyke.tumblr.com/post/665150736711204864/nodutdols-extremely-thorough-thread-about-the">Squid Game and the real Korea</a><br /><br /><a href="https://www.sixthtone.com/news/1700/q%26a-with-voice-artist-on-why-dubbing-will-never-die">Q&A With Voice Artist on Why Dubbing Will Never Die</a> (Sixth Tone, January 2017). Why Chinese TV series routinely dub the characters' voices.<br /><a href="https://lithub.com/so-gutenberg-didnt-actually-invent-the-printing-press/"><br />So, Gutenberg Didn’t Actually Invent Printing As We Know It</a> (Literary Hub, June 2019) As well as inventing pop music, Korea invented moveable type -- a technology Gutenberg may have known about. | <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/gallery/2017/11/15/the-muslims-of-south-korea/">The Muslims of South Korea</a> (Al Jazeera, November 2017)<br /><br /><a href="https://linguaholic.com/linguablog/doki-doki-meaning/">The Full Meaning of DOKI-DOKI in Japanese</a> (Linguablog, December 2018) Onomatopoeia for things that don't make a sound. (Korean has this too.)<br /><br /><br /><a href="https://www.eruditorumpress.com/blog/a-well-prepared-meal-the-two-doctors">A Well-Prepared Meal (The Two Doctors)</a> (El Sandifer, TARDIS Eruditorum, May 2012)<br /><br /><a href="https://newrepublic.com/article/159662/libertarian-walks-into-bear-book-review-free-town-project">The Town That Went Feral</a> (The New Republic, October 2020). "When a group of libertarians set about scrapping their local government, chaos descended. And then the bears moved in." I can't help feeling like we're all living there. (This article could just go 'neener neener' but it looks more deeply than that.)<br /><p data-qa="drop-cap-letter" data-el="text" class="font-copy font--article-body gray-darkest ma-0 pb-md"><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/carolyn-hax-what-do-you-say-to-a-constantly-tardy-guest-welcome-cmon-in/2021/01/06/74189d88-47a0-11eb-b0e4-0f182923a025_story.html">What do you say to a constantly tardy guest? 'Welcome! C'mon in!'</a> (Washington Post, January 2021.) "Is etiquette important? Yes, emphatically so. It gives us a general idea of how to be considerate. It’s a blueprint for people who don’t want to give offense. But it stops being useful when it’s deployed instead as a blueprint for <i>taking</i> offense."<br /><br /><a href="https://www.kcl.ac.uk/news/50-new-genes-eye-colour">50 new genes for eye colour</a> (King's College London, March 2021).<br /><a href="https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/confirmed-we-live-in-a-simulation/"><br />Confirmed! We Live in a Simulation</a> (Scientific American, 1 April 2021). Fun with mind-bending existential ideas, and an unexpected, poignant conclusion.<br /> </p><a href="https://listing-to-port.tumblr.com/post/151327499179/twelve-unfortunately-comforting-lies">Twelve unfortunately comforting lies</a><br /><br /><a href="https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/42839/i-know-a-man">I Know A Man</a> by Robert Creeley<br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><img src="https://www.dreamwidth.org/tools/commentcount?user=dreamer_easy&ditemid=1613208" width="30" height="12" alt="comment count unavailable" style="vertical-align: middle;"/> commentstag:dreamwidth.org,2017-04-10:2997397:1612816Ack pbbhhht2022-03-04T00:26:19Z2022-03-04T00:26:19Zpublic0It is ghastly revisiting a story you wrote two years ago, and the structure's OK, but rereading it line by line you can see how it garnered all those rejections. Things aren't explained properly (well, <em>I</em> knew what was happening!), etc, and also the curse of the nice, passive Orman protagonist. Fie and bollocks.<br /><br /><br /><img src="https://www.dreamwidth.org/tools/commentcount?user=dreamer_easy&ditemid=1612816" width="30" height="12" alt="comment count unavailable" style="vertical-align: middle;"/> commentstag:dreamwidth.org,2017-04-10:2997397:1612553Links, February 20222022-02-17T01:54:45Z2022-02-26T07:08:32Zpublic0Fact-checking resources:<br /><br /><a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/reality_check">Reality Check</a> from BBC News<br /><br /><a href="https://www.bellingcat.com/">bellingcat.com</a><br /><br /><br /><a href="https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/new-nuclear-power-plants-are-unlikely-to-stop-the-climate-crisis/">New Nuclear Power Plants Are Unlikely to Stop the Climate Crisis</a> (Scientific American, February 2022). "These plants take too long to build and bring online, and we don’t have that much time."<br /><br /><a href="https://eu.boell.org/en/2021/04/26/7-reasons-why-nuclear-energy-not-answer-solve-climate-change">The 7 reasons why nuclear energy is not the answer to solve climate change</a> (Heinrich Böll Stiftung, April 2021)<br /><br /><a href="https://www.nationalgeographic.com/culture/article/scientists-say-gmo-foods-are-safe-public-skepticism-remains-1">Scientists Say GMO Foods Are Safe, Public Skepticism Remains</a> (National Geographic, May 2016). Is safety a red herring? "But the academy also found that GE or (genetically-modified organisms or GMO) crops <strong>didn’t increase those crops' potential yields</strong>, and they did lead to widespread and expensive problems with herbicide-resistant weeds." (emphasis mine). What's the point, then? (Potentially, nutrient content.)<br /><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/nov/10/extreme-wealth-polluting-climate-breakdown-rich"><br />Make extreme wealth extinct: it’s the only way to avoid climate breakdown</a> (Guardian, November 2021) | <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/carbon-footprint-wealthy-people-97-percent-cut-un/">Global rich must cut their carbon footprint 97% to stave off climate change, UN says</a> (CBS, December 2020) "The richest 1% would need to reduce their current emissions by at least a factor of 30, while per capita emissions of the poorest 50% could increase by around three times their current levels on average."<br /><br /><a href="https://frjohnpeck.com/permaculture-and-the-myth-of-overpopulation/">Permaculture and the Myth of Overpopulation</a> (Fr John Peck, January 2016). I know nothing of permaculture, but the points in this essay chimed with me. The reminder that this mess is not inevitable and that perhaps humans can and should survive was welcome.<br /><br /><br /><a href="https://www.livescience.com/coronavirus-science-denial.html">Humans are hardwired to dismiss (coronavirus) facts that don't fit their worldview</a> (LiveScience, July 2020). "Our ancestors evolved in small groups, where cooperation and persuasion had at least as much to do with reproductive success as holding accurate factual beliefs about the world. Assimilation into one's tribe required assimilation into the group's ideological belief system — regardless of whether it was grounded in science or superstition."<br /><br /><a href="https://www.yesmagazine.org/opinion/2020/07/16/wear-face-masks-empathy">Mask-Shaming Won’t Work. Try These 5 Things Instead</a> (Yes!, July 2020). Advice useful for any polarised debate.<br /><br /><a href="https://www.psypost.org/2020/10/heightened-susceptibility-to-misinformation-linked-to-reduced-mask-wearing-and-social-distancing-58287">Heightened susceptibility to misinformation linked to reduced mask wearing and social distancing</a> (PsyPost, October 2020). "Reflective and analytical thinking" is our best hope.<br /><br /><a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/science/2020-12-09/social-media-conspiracy-theorists-5g-covid-19-influencers/12937950">How social media influencer tactics help conspiracy theories gain traction online</a> (ABC, December 2020) Influences and conspiracy theorists are businesses out to make money, and do it through similar marketing strategies.<br /><br /><a href="https://www.cjr.org/analysis/covid-19-racism-china.php">The new coronavirus and racist tropes</a> (CJR, January 2020).<br /><br /><a href="https://locusmag.com/2019/07/cory-doctorow-fake-news-is-an-oracle/">Cory Doctorow: Fake News Is an Oracle</a> (July 2019). The problem of conspiracy theories in a world of conspiracies.<br /><br /><a href="https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/how-to-convince-someone-when-facts-fail/">How to Convince Someone When Facts Fail</a> (Scientific American, January 2017). <br /><br /><a href="https://forward.com/opinion/446541/are-americans-as-stupid-as-we-seem-on-twitter/">Are Americans as stupid as we seem on Twitter?</a> (Forward, May 2020). On slogans.<br /><br /><a href="https://neurosciencenews.com/moral-outrage-politics-15516/">How does your body respond to feelings of moral outrage? Depends on your politics</a> (Neuroscience News, January 2020).<br /><br /><a href="https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/pulling-through/202003/the-lazy-poor-or-the-entitled-rich">The Lazy Poor or the Entitled Rich?</a> (Psychology Today, March 2020) "A psychological perspective on wealth, merit, and compassion."<br /><br /><a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.3758/s13423-020-01767-y">Closed-minded cognition: Right-wing authoritarianism is negatively related to belief updating following prediction error</a> (Psychonomic Bulletin & Review volume 27, 2020). Right-wing authoritarian views make it harder to change your mind given new evidence.<br /><br /><a href="https://www.psypost.org/2020/08/supporters-of-religious-violence-are-more-likely-to-claim-theyre-familiar-with-religious-concepts-that-dont-exist-57580">Supporters of religious violence are more likely to claim they’re familiar with religious concepts that don’t exist</a> (PsyPost, August 2020)<br /><br /><a href="https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2017/11/27/the-root-of-all-cruelty">The Root of All Cruelty?</a> (The New Yorker, November 2017). What if, rather than dehumanising our victims, we see them precisely as human beings who are justified targets of our violence?<br /><br /><a href="https://www.thedailybeast.com/furry-panic-is-the-latest-dumb-gop-attack-on-public-schools">Furry Panic Is the Latest Dumb GOP Attack on Public Schools</a> (Daily Beast, February 2022). Rumours about special treatment for furries etc in US schools are proxies for attacks on the more usual groups, and on schools themselves.<br /><br /><br />Science fiction, with a taste of the Twilight Zone: <a href="https://www.lightspeedmagazine.com/fiction/when-you-die-on-the-radio/">When You Die on the Radio</a> by Adam R. Shannon.<br /><br /><br />And finally (image not mine):<br /><br /><img src="https://i.imgur.com/BTCScFY.jpeg" alt="" width="500" /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><img src="https://www.dreamwidth.org/tools/commentcount?user=dreamer_easy&ditemid=1612553" width="30" height="12" alt="comment count unavailable" style="vertical-align: middle;"/> commentstag:dreamwidth.org,2017-04-10:2997397:1612290Books bought, borrowed, and read 20222022-02-05T04:04:54Z2023-01-02T11:25:15Zpublic1<u>Books read</u><br />Carl Banks. <em>Walt Disney's Donald Duck: The Pixilated Parrot</em>.<br />Greg Egan. <em>Permutation City</em>.<br />William Gibson. <em>Neuromancer</em>. (re-read)<br />Derek Jarman. <em>Chroma: a book of color</em>. <br />Arkady Martine. <em>A Memory Called Empire</em>.<br />Marjorie Shostak. <em>Nisa: the Life and Words of a !Kung Woman.<br /></em>Robert Silverberg.<em> <em>Invaders from Earth</em>. </em>My first "grown-up" SF novel, around age 10. Never forgot the description of the aliens with their "hooded eyes", and someone losing their life to Ganymede's atmosphere (though I forgot how). Hmmm, 1958; I wonder what this was all about.<em><br /></em>Susan Sontag. <em>Illness as metaphor; and, AIDS and its metaphors</em>.<br />Ocean Vuong. <em>On Earth we're briefly gorgeous</em>.<br />Peter Watts. <em>Blindsight</em>.<br /><br /><span class="cut-wrapper"><span style="display: none;" id="span-cuttag___1" class="cuttag"></span><b class="cut-open">( </b><b class="cut-text"><a href="https://dreamer-easy.dreamwidth.org/1612290.html#cutid1">Books borrowed and bought</a></b><b class="cut-close"> )</b></span><div style="display: none;" id="div-cuttag___1" aria-live="assertive"></div><br /><br /><img src="https://www.dreamwidth.org/tools/commentcount?user=dreamer_easy&ditemid=1612290" width="30" height="12" alt="comment count unavailable" style="vertical-align: middle;"/> commentstag:dreamwidth.org,2017-04-10:2997397:1612079Links, January 20222022-01-25T01:02:35Z2022-01-25T01:52:36Zpublic0<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2021/sep/07/judith-butler-interview-gender">Judith Butler: ‘We need to rethink the category of woman’</a> (The Guardian, September 2021). Here's the part the Guardian removed (click to enlarge): <br /><br /><a href="https://dreamer-easy.dreamwidth.org/file/349.png"><img src="https://dreamer-easy.dreamwidth.org/file/100x100/349.png" alt="" /></a><br /><br /><a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-12-23/is-dumbness-our-destiny/100679506">Are some of us destined to be dumb and is there anything we can do about it?</a> (ABC, December 2021) How being highly intelligent can make you stupid -- because you're so good at rationalising.<br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><img src="https://www.dreamwidth.org/tools/commentcount?user=dreamer_easy&ditemid=1612079" width="30" height="12" alt="comment count unavailable" style="vertical-align: middle;"/> commentstag:dreamwidth.org,2017-04-10:2997397:1611970Hot Alphabet2022-01-24T08:39:27Z2022-01-24T08:39:27Zpublic05600 word science fiction short story -- first draft completed.<br /><br /><img src="https://www.dreamwidth.org/tools/commentcount?user=dreamer_easy&ditemid=1611970" width="30" height="12" alt="comment count unavailable" style="vertical-align: middle;"/> commentstag:dreamwidth.org,2017-04-10:2997397:1611677dreamer_easy @ 2022-01-05T21:11:002022-01-05T10:15:06Z2022-01-05T10:16:16Zpublic0I wonder if Marvin the Martian's "Illudium Q-36 Explosive Space Modulator" was named for László Moholy-Nagy's sculptures with titles like <i>Space Modulator With Evidence</i> (1942).<br /><br /><img src="https://www.dreamwidth.org/tools/commentcount?user=dreamer_easy&ditemid=1611677" width="30" height="12" alt="comment count unavailable" style="vertical-align: middle;"/> comments