sundries

[rm]

Patty leaves today. I'm super busy. Talk amongst yourselves.

Yeah, I totally booked a little spa thing for us at the St. Davids last night. Hahahahahahahaah. I know.

As breast cancer treatments get more effective, mammograms may be less helpful. This and the choices that go with it is the sort of stuff that keeps me awake at night.

You should read reannon's morning random today for her coverage of the impending execution of Teresa Lewis, a woman living with a mental disability. You should know I oppose the death penalty, because even if we can agree there are some crimes people should die for, it's not a business I want my government in. This case is one example of why.

eredien wrote a really long post that expands on what I was trying to say the other day about the lack of queer representation in media and how it's a legitimate part of whether or not I respond to an entertainment property with interest. I'm still really upset about that entire situation, btw, but so it goes. Let's have some Covert Affairs fandom, right here!

I may have cadged the ticket I want to the Paley Center thing, in a standby sort of way, which makes me wonder just how early I should get on that line -- it's a fine line between effective and crazy. But I'm not even sure of this much yet.

There's this random sentence in the Pam Cook book, that while making perfect sense, sort of comes out of nowhere and immediately recedes back to same. I assume there may have been another tangent that came off of it that then went away in editing, such that the sentence just hangs there:

"... cinemas as illusion, and the construction of imaginary worlds into which one could escape without being incarcerated."

Um, is that generally a concern with imaginary worlds? Also, could an Aussie tell me if incarceration implies prison or mental-health related hospitalization more in your English? Is this the author's version of referencing Snape's Wives?

Everything is performance, maybe: Stephen Colbert will be testifying before Congress, on a serious issue, and some are claiming it will happen in character.

Has anyone seen Catfish? Do I need to care? Or is this just another installment in this year's on-the-Internet-no-one-knows-you're-a-dog there's-no-such-thing-as-the-truth movie meme?

There is way too much video porn and shoe shopping spam on LJ today. WAAAAAAAAAAAAAY too much. LJ is also being somewhat uneven with comment delivery today.

This may be more of a challenge than I'm up for and not really my format (short is not my forte) or medium, but I'm still very tempted.

Comments

[shehasathree]

could an Aussie tell me if incarceration implies prison or mental-health related hospitalization more in your English?

My one-data-point Aussie brain says jail.

[rm.livejournal.com]

Which makes that throwaway sentence all the more random to me.

[shehasathree]

Yeah, weird...
The only thing I can think of is that perhaps it has something to do with Foucualdian notions of the carceral society. But I really have no idea.

[rm.livejournal.com]

It's really not in a paragraph that makes you feel like you need to go there at all. I'm also not sure anyone else would track on it, but since I spend so much time thinking about how people play and how people react to other people's play, it stood out to me as a really bold remark to just have lying about.

[shehasathree]

Yeah, I got nothing.

[meirion.livejournal.com]

In British English, in a sentence like that, it would mean confined to a mental institution. Which isn't much use as a data-point, but I have certainly described my father as having been incarcerated for three months, meaning he';d been forcibly locked up in a mental institution.

[adelheid-p.livejournal.com]

Everything is performance: Stephen Colbert will be testifying before Congress, on a serious issue, in character.

In reading through the article that you referenced above, it is the Republicans that are claiming he will be in character, not Colbert himself. Apparently he did, in fact, spend a day working as an agricultural worker and that's what he is invited to testify about.

[rm.livejournal.com]

I have made an edit.

[adelheid-p.livejournal.com]

Oh okay. :-)

[nancylebov.livejournal.com]

Tentatively recommended: Easy A-- it's about (among other things) what happens to the truth when almost everyone prefers lies.

Pretty much against slut-shaming and solidly against low-quality Christianity (no other kind portrayed).

I wanted to line the audience up against a wall and shoot it because they thought it was really funny when the fat guy was humiliated.

On the whole, pretty funny and intelligent.

[redstapler.livejournal.com]

Emma Stone and Amanda Bynes are comedy geniuses. I'm so excited to see them together on-screen.

Amanda Bynes is a special favorite of mine. She's got Carol Burnett-style physical comedy chops.

[girlingoldboots.livejournal.com]

it's a fine line between effective and crazy. But I'm not even sure of this much yet.

Crazy=effective.

Fixed that for you.

[p-zeitgeist.livejournal.com]

You know (I hope you know!) that I completely agree that queer representation, or lack thereof, is a perfectly legitimate component of whether you have any interest in an entertainment property.

What I don't get -- and this is probably the Bad At Being A Primate thing once more -- is why it matters to you on a personal, emotional level (as opposed to it mattering in terms of politics and social change). Because, who sees themselves represented in entertainment properties? Ever? Mass entertainment properties shoot for a tiny band of archetypes and mostly hit their targets; it's not especially likely that any such property will ever feature a character who resembles any of us in a more than accidental and passing kind of way. If being represented in an entertainment property (or even a literary work, where the parameters are looser) were of primary importance to me, I'd never be able to watch anything at all.

I know that this isn't the way other people feel and react, and I don't mean to suggest that it ought to be. I just, in my space-alien kind of way, want someone to explain this to me in some way that allows me to wrap my brain around it. It may be hopeless -- like describing a scent to someone without a sense of smell -- but I'm not quite ready to give it up. And so periodically I ask my plaintive question: aside from the practical social-engineering considerations, which I understand and agree with, why do you care? Especially given that you know -- you know -- that a genderqueer character would at best be written exactly like a cis character of the same archetype?

[weirdquark]

That's something I've never really understood either, or at least I don't remember ever wishing for more characters from [group] because I felt under-represented. On the other hand, I would often see characters from [group] and wish they were more like actual people and less like stereotypes.

It's also possible that I most identified with the "outsider" archetype while growing up, and there are plenty of books about teenagers that don't fit in.

[hoyland54.livejournal.com]

at least I don't remember ever wishing for more characters from [group] because I felt under-represented.

The only time I've ever felt this was reading Harry Potter and the characters all start pairing off--I was thinking, "Why are there no gay people at Hogwarts?" But I think I only thought that because I was getting fed up with the relationship drama/plots, so I started thinking about them, if that makes any sense.

However, the actual point of this comment was to wonder whether this wishing is done subconsciously and we perhaps only notice it when it's fulfilled. In a real life example, it really does matter to me that Owen Hargreaves plays for England, for if he is English enough, so am I. But it took me ages to realise that that's why I cared about his career. I had no idea I was secretly waiting around for someone born and raised overseas to play for England.

[weirdquark]

However, the actual point of this comment was to wonder whether this wishing is done subconsciously and we perhaps only notice it when it's fulfilled.

Could be.

But I think it has a lot to do with what interests us about stories. And if I were going to analyze the characters that I find most interesting that I've found or made up, they either have aspects of myself that I like a lot but don't let out much, or are things that I would hate to become, but could possibly. So not like me, but what I wish I was or what I fear to become. Characters that I think are actually like me don't interest me as much. I don't know if this is me not finding myself interesting (from a fictional standpoint or in general) or if it's more that I'm too familiar and I like to have my fiction be about things that are different. If I'm not interested in stories about me, I'm not going to be sad when I can't find them.

[hoyland54.livejournal.com]

I agree that, for the most part, people don't want to read about or watch their own lives. I think, also, that I'm attracted to characters much in the way you suggest. On the other hand, there's a tiny group of mystery novels with gay protagonists (with an awful lot of them sharing a publisher (http://www.echonyc.com/~stone/Contents/Backlist4.html)). The quality seems to range between mediocre and lousy. I can only assume the crappy ones were published due to what would otherwise be a nearly complete lack of mysteries with queer protagonists. If nothing else, someone noticed this lack and decided to fill it (either on the authorial or publishing level).

[weirdquark]

I remember a period in my housemates lives where we would buy really bad yaoi. It was manga with gay characters, even if "gay" sometimes actually needed the quotation marks and tends to be full of stereotypes about how such relationships work, and really, they're more like bad slash relationships because yaoi is largely marketed towards women and has nothing to do with gay men.

But we would buy it because we wanted to read yaoi, there wasn't very much of it, and everything that was coming out was crap. But then more yaoi started coming out, and some of it was good. Like, actually good, with good writing and interesting characters who acted more like people. And we now only buy bad yaoi when it's hilariously bad. (Though it did take a while to get out of the habit of buying everything just because it existed. ::g::) There is still a lot of bad yaoi, and actually most of it is still not very good. But at least we can be more selective now.

[rm.livejournal.com]

Well, I'm odd enough that I never feel like there will be that many characters like me, and that's okay.

But to go back to two shows I keep talking about:

On Covert Affairs everyone is, as far as we know, straight. And, until various interpersonal relationships became integral to the "everyone is a lying liar who lies" plot that I now really like, there was a lot of time wasted on girls worrying if a boy would like their hair or a married couple feeling alarm about whether they're having enough sex or whether the wife will still respect the husband if he loses his jobs. Gender and sexuality then drove the discussion of these things, and to me it's not just boring (as it is for a lot of straight people who aren't those straight people), but so weirdly prideful. And it makes me react like I'm some sort of failure for not having those anxieties.

On the other hand, theres Torchwood, which, to be fair, in a lot of ways in its first two seasons is a terrible show. Queerness is everywhere in it as background noise (only ocassionally rising to the level of plot point) and while the dramas many of the queer relationships have also aren't mine, they don't instinctively feel to me like a value judgment. That value judgment issue is largely about my own damage living in this world we do, but the fact is, it's nice to watch TV that doesn't, even if it's all my fault really, make me hate myself.

Also, I happily take gender non-comformity where I can get it -- for all I complain about White Collar not being quite sure what it's on about, the male friendship and the male vanity it showcases alongside competent feminine women (including the awesomest straight wife on TV, and a very cool lesbian character), means that I can watch it and accept its existence in my world because it would clearly accept someone like me in its.

Or, to go back to Torchwood -- Jack's not just a bisexual action hero, he flirts like a girl. In fact the body language on that show not matching gender stereotypes and expectations is nearly constant. And it's a small thing it took me a while to put my finger on, but it's why the show with the inconsistent writing and the rubber suit aliens works for me so much.

I am, at the end of the day, maybe the worst person to ask this question to, simply because I don't ever become engaged with stories I can't, in some way, see as being about me. I don't know if that's mental illness or being an only child, just being vain or ultimately a failure of imagination or what, but it's how I am.

Covert Affairs worked very hard at the beginning to feel a certain way, that for me, felt like a show that could never be about me. White Collar whose lesbian character's lesbianism is pretty much never a plot point, doesn't feel that way. Not just because of the lesbian, but because things happen other than the gender expectations of several decades ago. (which is to say, yes, the first two episodes of Covert Affairs, which ultimately redeemed itself in some ways, were that bad).

[p-zeitgeist.livejournal.com]

Gender and sexuality then drove the discussion of these things, and to me it's not just boring (as it is for a lot of straight people who aren't those straight people), but so weirdly prideful.

Interesting. I think I know the kind of weird pride you're talking about from many other places in television and film (and likely the only reason I don't know it from Covert Affairs is that I'm not watching it), and if so, it's that emotional tone that makes a great deal of what our culture produces as "entertainment" unwatchable for me. But I see it around so many kinds of issues that I find it permeates entire shows; it's not that I'm comfortable with them outside of the smugness about gender presentation, but rather that the smugness is everywhere and drives me from the audience before the characters have even met their eventual romantic interests.

But as I said, I think I'm perceiving the same ickiness you're perceiving, even if we don't react to it in the same ways. And I do understand why a person would want to see that fixed on aesthetic grounds.

Beyond that, though -- well, I think you may have hit the core of the issue when you say I don't ever become engaged with stories I can't, in some way, see as being about me. Far from blaming it on some quirkiness of yours, I'm inclined to think that you're in the majority. At least, a great many people seem to talk about having characters to identify with, and role modeling, and being able to see themselves in stories, and erasure when they don't; and when those conversations happen other people seem to understand what they're saying. You don't find a lot of us saying, "Okay, but why do you even care?"

Which leads me to think that I'm the weirdo here. Not you.

[trinker.livejournal.com]

Does it make sense to you in other contexts, not about queer/cis?


(I know I'm irked by "ZOMG, the killer is TRANS!" storylines, but that's another thing.)

[p-zeitgeist.livejournal.com]

No, alas: it's all a big emotional blind spot for me. So I can't get there by analogy. I tend to think that the whole point of fiction is to allow us to see perspectives that are not our own. I'm totally missing something here, and I don't even know what it is, or what it would be like if I could see it.

I'm irked by those "ZOMG, the killer is TRANS!" storylines too, but as you say, that's another thing. The political and societal reasons to not want to see trans people (or members of any marginalized groups) continually misrepresented as OMG Evil cartoons are clear and compelling. But for me at least, those reasons aren't related in any way to a desire or need for some kind of representation of self in entertainment products.

[trinker.livejournal.com]

The message I get from a lot of shows is, "you do not exist" - Chicago ERs full of white doctors, hello? Where are all the South and East Asians? Stories set in the future where there's only white people? It's like being a ghost. And a constant reminder that I get a lot of practice at seeing myself in white characters, but white people don't get a lot of practice at identifying with non-white characters.

Maybe the shortest version is that I don't need extra practice with perspectives that are not my own. That's pretty much the definition of not being in the majority. I need practice seeing my own as normal - the bits of "my own" that are not personal. I know that the particular grouping of quirks that make up "me" are possibly unique, and I'd be shocked to see it presented as a whole. But when the most visible element of who I am is erased, I feel erased, too.

[elisi]

Yeah, I totally booked a little spa thing for us at the St. Davids last night. Hahahahahahahaah. I know.
This makes me ridiculously happy. :)

[imaginarycircus.livejournal.com]

Covert Affairs Joan/Annie comment fic to maybe cheer you up a little teeny bit.



Watch everything and say as little as possible. Joan operates the way she is supposed to. She trusts no one deeply, and would not insult Arthur by saying she does. He's a spy. She's a spy. They ferret out and keep secrets for a living. She's still trying to figure out how much of Annie's seeming earnestness is real and how much of it's an act. It's a puzzle. Joan is very good at puzzles.

Everyone says Annie reminds them of Joan--a younger Joan. But Joan knows she was never that earnest. And the romance with Ben is so pedestrian and really, it reads like something from the paper back section of the bookstore. Joan is almost disappointed in Annie for falling back into bed with Ben in Sri Lanka. It's obvious neither of them know they're being watched. Joan likes to watch. It gives her an almost omnipotent feeling.

Ben and Annie coming together, well, it's like watching a car wreck and Joan cannot turn away from the grainy images. She knows their romance is going to end badly. It has to. Still she watches Annie with her head thrown back and wild noises escaping her throat and Joan crosses her legs to increase the pressure on her sympathetic throbbing. She'll take it out on Arthur later and he'll never know where it came from. He takes it as his due.

Sometimes Joan wonders what it's like to be a man--to take a woman and thrust yourself into her. She'll never know, but she thinks she'd rather lie with Annie as herself and drink her in and have her the way no man ever could.

[brewsternorth.livejournal.com]

Yeah, re: the pornbots, I think they're getting out of control - hijacking any comms where the mods haven't been ban-happy. I mean, we've had spambots on LJ comms before, but these ones seem particularly obnoxious. (For one thing, their video embeds actually subvert my settings on LJ that ask all videos to be replaced by placeholders unless I deliberately click on them. Clearly something wrong.)

...Oh look, they've reskinned the "edit/delete/track" buttons on the comment threads again. I'd bet dimes to buttons that's what caused the wobble in comment delivery. For all that they moved to bigger servers, their system does seem to get... robust... whenever they're making minor changes.

[atrophying]

Since there seem to be a good chunk of UK-expats and -philes, around here, as well as a chunk of gluten-free folks, perhaps someone around here knows the answer.

Has anyone heard of an Irish company called Odlum's or a product called tritamyl flour? I've found several references on the web saying that it's suitable for GF baking, but there's nothing out there explain what it actually is, or how it's produced. The best explanation I found was that it seems to be some mixture of "commercially produced gluten-free flours." That's not exactly a phrase that soothes this paranoid consumer's heart, but the product itself is intriguing.

[marymac.livejournal.com]

Longstanding well-respected bakery company, though some of their recipes are terrible. So far as I can find out, its some kind of gluten-free wheat-starch product, they do have proper EU, UK and Irish certification for it (and no complaints on the Irish gluten-free boards I can see) and they're generally quite good about correspondence, so I would recommend firing off an email to check.

[ladyofthelog.livejournal.com]

Spam porn makes me an unhappy mod. :( Argh.

Also, you might want to say "a woman who has a mental disability" as opposed to "a mentally handicapped woman." Person-first language yay!

[rm.livejournal.com]

I know this and couldn't get the sentece to uncontort and work this morning for some reason. Anyway, thank you and it's fixed. My apologies for my initial offense and delay in correction.

[ladyofthelog.livejournal.com]

Not prob. Thanks for being so speedy and gracious with the correction. :)

[kalmn.livejournal.com]

i read all the studies and articles about mammograms being less helpful than thought, and i know rationally that if i get breast cancer it will likely be the same kind my mom has had (twice) and one morning i'll just notice a pingpong ball in one of my breasts rather than have it detected medically, and hell if i'm not getting mammograms every year anyhow, even if it's got the same effectiveness as throwing salt over my shoulder to avoid bad luck, because i'm doing it to keep the demons away.

[redeem147.livejournal.com]

I liked Catfish, and whether or not it's real, it's interesting.

[qthelights.livejournal.com]

incarceration = jail to my aussie mind.

[tsarina.livejournal.com]

Tim League, who founded the Alamo Drafthouse, wrote about Catfish. I've found in general that when the people from the Drafthouse recommend a movie it tends to be amazing.

[lilacsigil.livejournal.com]

Aussie data point: "incarceration" would usually refer to prison, though it could also refer to involuntary mental-health hospitalisation or institutionalisation.

[coneyislandbaby]

This Aussie says Incarceration = jail to her mind.

Also was wondering a little about why re: Covert Affairs - explanation to p_zeitgeist much appreciated in helping my understanding.

[bodlon.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I totally booked a little spa thing for us at the St. Davids last night.

I just choked on my tea. OMG.

Also, I'm a day behind on the entire world, but the Colbert testimony thing could be amazing.

[rm.livejournal.com]

Turns out Colbert did do it in character.

Re: The St. Davids -- I know! I'm still laughing my ass off. I mean, I've read at least 20 fics set there -- FPF and RPF both.

[bodlon.livejournal.com]

Watching his testimony now. It's kind of brilliant, and I'm a little jarred that the only laugh was at "...as you always do."

Congressional testimony isn't intended to be entertainment, but political theatre is hardly new, and what he's saying is more cogent than a lot of what we're hearing out of the House about this.

Plus, his colonoscopy lives forever.