sundries

[rm]

Wrote the abstract for the comics piece of the fan mourning project and submitted it to the D*C academic conference and the Comics Studies conference that happens in NY in conjunction with NYCC. I am made of awesome.

Death (expound). Something else passes out of the world. It makes me sad. I think it's a fabulous examination. FABULOUS. But then my education was a little odd. Also, the question about "does the presence of Nazi uniforms change the moral character of an orgy?" is pretty amazing too.

A real person needs real help to keep her apartment and her child. The Internet did it. Over $2,000 has been received. $1,200 of that will keep this woman in her house with her child. Of the rest, money that donors did not ask for back if the goal was met will be used to give the woman gift cards for groceries and other necessaries.

A WWII love letter from Brian to Dave.

We're getting a new subway map. I hope it's not as annoying as the one London has (NOT PROPORTIONAL).

Dispatches from the Other. A new edition of The Second Sex is coming out, with material formerly removed and in a much better translation.

A student studying for a PhD related to the Jack the Ripper murders has just been arrested for, you guessed it, killing prostitutes. The article is infinitely more bizarre than that though. It includes both the information that he shot one of the prostitutes with a crossbow to the head and that he liked to take his pet monitor lizards on on leashed walks. I'm not proud, but this is the most riveting thing I've read in AGES.

Why being part of the audience matters. Also, in places, this rant is laugh out-loud funny.

Last night on Angel: Oh my god, Wesley! You try to do the right thing and everything goes to shit, you poor bastard. Also, you all notice how it's Wes who keeps winding up with all the severe injuries? Something is percolating in my head about him as The Hanged Man.

Prediction: time works differently in hell, Connor will be back as an adult, soon, and everyone will try to avoid telling him that Angel is his dad. Also, that fucked up time-hopping demon? I have a bad, bad feeling about him as in he might be one of the team or Connor or something, and his trying to kill Connor was about trying to end his own personal eternal misery.

Comments

[chickenfried-jo.livejournal.com]

OMG that letter! I'm all teary and sad now. Poor dear lovely man. What a story. I'd read that book. Even if it made me cry. Is it bad and wrong of me to see a fanfic made from it? Is it disrespectful? I don't know anymore...

[rm.livejournal.com]

My reaction was wanting to write a play, so no, I don't think creative expression in response to real life events is wrong.

[chickenfried-jo.livejournal.com]

But aren't we just commodifying his grief? I wonder.

[rm.livejournal.com]

Or are we telling stories that need to be told about queer people in the military and/or the fact that the current generation didn't invent sex?

Most stories have short lives whether they are true or fictional or somewhere in between. I don't beleive in allowing a lot of important, interesting, meaningful stories to die out in the name of respect.

Is there a burden on a creator drawing inspiration from this tale? Sure thing. But better the burden than silence, I think.

[bethynyc.livejournal.com]

I agree completely. I'd love to see this play!

[riverrocks.livejournal.com]

yes, so much yes.

Art has so much potential for impacting how a larger audience (be they other marginalized folks or not) understands (acknowledges) marginalized experience. Respect is in how the topics/situations (and the people, fictional or not) are treated in whatever we are creating in response, not in silencing/foregoing the response because it includes pain, grief, and/or other topics we as a society tend to avoid or make taboo.

[heron61.livejournal.com]

Well said. A play based on that could be powerful indeed.