sundries

[rm]

A study shows children of lesbians are well-adjusted and have fewer behavioral problems than their peers. Meanwhile, various anti-gay groups flip out; maybe they needed some lesbian parenting themselves?

Long lost silent films being returned to America.

Essay from a country village brothel keeper in the UK.

Rumour has it that Lady Gaga will be appearing on Doctor Who and that it's all Gareth Roberts's fault. Of course, those in the know also blame redstapler who appeared at this years Gallifrey One in a "Lady Gaga as the TARDIS" costume. Hot shit, weird.

Bus changes coming for NYC, but I'm unclear if this means we can still use our unlimited metro cards on surface transport since now we'll need a bus ticket from a kiosk?

gwyd links us to neo_prodigy's list of (I'm paraphrasing here) obnoxious shit not to do when writing gay characters. Jack and Ianto and Tara and Willow get mentioned. As happens when these two couples get mentioned, controversy ensues. I'm pretty much on a page with neo_prodigy on this one, but that's besides the point. Don't let your possibly differing opinion on those two sentences -- especially if you're a straight person who writes queer characters -- get in the way of reading and hearing the rest of the post. Please.

I've written about Sei Shonagon and her relationship to how I read. Today Tiger Beatdown talks about her relationship to blogging.

My stomach hates me.

I am really, really enjoying writing for kink_bingo. As much as I hate the degree to which fandom always makes Ianto the bottom or the sub (and this is a general trend I hate, where it's the short guy or the young guy or whatever) and there are BAZILLION great reasons to write Jack as the most PitA bottom ever (this is actually how IHNIIHBT got its start), writing Ianto being interested in submission is pretty much the most fun ever, because there's so much to work with there. He's young and arguably inexperienced; he's absolutely too smart for his own good; he's seen a lot of shit; he performs deference very well even though his instincts are much more assertive and leadership-y; and he's ridiculously strong not to have cracked up in the face of bizarre and shitty life. There's inner conflict there and complexity and he can take care of his damn self, and that just makes it FUN AS HELL to write heavy kink with him.

Also, Dear Internet: I was enjoying reading everyone else's (almost always never finished) porny training fics. Being cajolled into writing one myself was Not Part of the Plan. But you may just be managing to convince me. Fuckers.

Last night we finished S6 of Buffy, which I have to say wraps up very nicely and confirms that structurally, it knew exactly what it was doing.

I still loathe the magic plotline. The shortcut from "magic is power and power is addictive" to "magic is addictive" really weakens the moral quandries present in the idea of that plot. It also removes for us the fact that Willow is talented. Magic is HARD. It's a SKILL... but now it's not. Basically I feel like magic went from being this great potentially great allegory about how people who are stronger and smarter or whatever have to be really careful not to be total assholes (a lovely counterpoint to the Trio), but instead it was just "junkies!" ARGH.

I am SO GLAD Giles did not die.

Anya is SO AWESOME.

And OMG OMG OMG Spike has a soul now! That's huge. Also, how pissed it Angel gonna be when he finds out? Also, someone alert Wesley, since all the prophecies about "the vampire with a soul" could actually be about Spike now.

Comments

[elisi]

And OMG OMG OMG Spike has a soul now! That's huge.
*points to icon* That precise moment was when I became properly obsessed with BtVS. Not that I didn't watch it religiously before, but that moment? I was lost forever.

I still loathe the magic plotline. The shortcut from "magic is power and power is addictive" to "magic is addictive" really weakens the moral quandries present in the idea of that plot.
Like I said somewhere earlier on - you can make it work if you look at the whole magic = drugs as a red herring, something that gives Willow a pass on all her bad behaviour and means that she never deals with the underlying issues. (Remember how she complained to rat!Amy that Tara had left her 'for no good reason'.) A lot of S6 is quite simply the characters refusing to deal with the real issues (Xander with his fear of marriage, Buffy with her depression etc.) and thus everything blows up in their faces.

I am SO GLAD Giles did not die. and Anya is SO AWESOME.
Yup. (Giles has the best return EVER. "I'd like to test that theory." Damn.)

My stomach hates me.
Hope you get better soon.