1. Yes, I'm reading Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. Got it on a lark at Costco, even though I'm not really an Austen fan. Thirty pages in, I have to admit that it's kind of awesome in a total-crackfic way. The Bennet sisters are kickboxing zombie killers, while also being proper Regency ladies. I have no idea how much of Austen's plot remains because I haven't read P&P since college (and had no desire to see the movies, despite Colin Firth.) Basically, it seems to be P&P itself with random zombies popping up, though I do admire Grahame-Smith's ability to mimic Austen's voice. "Jane had not beeng one long before it rained hard, and the soft ground gave way to scores of the disagreeable creatures, still clad in their tattered finery, but possessing none of the good breeding that had served them so well in life."

2. I have cooking mojo! My problem has always been that I know the basics of cooking and enjoy the process, but I never like the taste of the results. Yesterday I got it in my head that I wanted to try some simple recipes in a chef's memoir that I've been reading, so I headed to Publix and spent way too much on ingredients. Hours later, I had two huge pots of minestrone and chicken noodle soup that tasted GREAT. Love 'em! Today I made a loaf of bread that turned out perfectly. I have no illusions that my cooking abilities will last beyond this week, but right now it's fun.

3. queenofthorns linked to a neat story about a pregnant fighter pilot. The first photo made me want to write babyfic. ;)

4. Mental Floss has another hilarious quiz: Harry Potter Character or Hideous Skin Disease? I only got a 67%.

5. And I got a kick out of 101 Muppets of Sesame Street.

Tags: books, cooking

Sorry for spamming! Brain dead, cannot figure out polls.

ETA: Ah ha, brain so dead I forgot to explain. This is just for me to filter my reading lists when I subscribe to people who post both on DW and LJ! I'll still be posting to both and definitely following ppl on LJ.

Poll #1430307
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All

I crosspost ALL my content on DW and LJ

• Help send Verb Noire to WorldCon:
  

  Verb Noire needs to raise some cash to defray the expenses of WorldCon. We thought we could bridge the gap out of pocket, but money is tight and my kid's face is expensive. So, we're hoping book sales, merch sales, and anything else you guys want to suggest can make up the difference. We're already putting together the second book (an anthology of short stories) and I was vaguely contemplating some sort of naming contest, but if that's not what gets you excited then please suggest something. We really want to be there, but finding the money for attendance and such is putting a hurt on ye olde pocketbook.

  
  



• The volunteer theater program rachelmanija works at is in need of help:
  

  The organization I have volunteered with for fourteen years, The Virginia Avenue Project, is holding an auction. It's a mentoring group for kids in Los Angeles. They do amazing work, which I have personally witnessed.
  
  100% of the Project kids graduate from high school. 90% of them continue to college. 85% of them are the first in their family to do so.




• IBARW 4 is from July 27 through August 2 and we are looking for people to spread the word! Especially if you are or know a non-English blogger and/or a non-Western blogger.

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Tags: ibarw, linkage, race/ethnicity/culture

I think this book grew out of Anderson's thesis work about Native women, and in it, she explores the ways Native women's identities have been constructed pre-colonization, how colonization destroyed many of Native women's roles and enforced white patriarchy, and how Native women are reclaiming their identities.

In the introduction, Anderson introduces the idea of the subjective reader and writer. You would think this wouldn't be so revolutionary, but grad school classes on sociology seem to indicate otherwise! Going with this, Anderson introduces herself as a light-skinned Cree/Mé woman who grew up without much contact with Native communities and notes how this affects her as an author and as a researcher. She also asks readers of the book to examine their own motives for reading the book. Are they Native women looking for support or affirmation? Are they non-Native people looking to learn about "Native culture"? Are they white feminist? Etc.

My own personal reading context is as a Chinese woman who knows very little about Native cultures looking for more information on Native feminism (there is probably also a better term for this I do not know) after reading Andrea Smith's Conquest and reading blogs and posts from Native women online. I'm also looking for alternatives to "mainstream" feminism, not to adopt, but to have a better feel for where I'm ignorant.

As I had expected, there were times when it was hard for me to read this book because I had to stomp on the part of my brain that was like, "But! Excluding women from blahdiblah means blahdiblah! Clearly delineated male and female roles means blah!" It helped that Anderson herself was also working through her own understanding of past traditions and how to adopt them to today, on what things have changed and should stay changed and on what things have changed and should be reverted.

As an example: I saw her explanations of keeping women on their period outside of drum circles and sweat lodges as a veiled "I roll my eyes at the white women who keep wanting to join the sweat lodge or drum circle and protest their exclusion while having no idea what it actually means." Anderson's explanation is that women on their period already have a great deal of power, and not as a negative thing. But she also notes that in the present day, keeping menstruating women out of a specific activity can be done in a misogynist fashion not in the spirit of tradition and adds that the menstruating women should have their own area to retreat to, that they should not be ignored or ostracized. It looks like a fairly complicated situation trying to balance imported misogyny and return to tradition and how notions of tradition change over time, and I bet it is not a situation where it is helpful for white feminists to barge in and say, "This is what is feminist."

Anderson structures the book in three parts: examining the past, looking at the present, and envisioning the future. She goes through the general gender equity in many Native societies pre-colonization and talks about exceptions and norms, which was very helpful for me, because I have zero background in this. She also covers what happened once white colonization began and what that did to many Native societies, particularly the use of white patriarchy as a tool of colonization, which was more familiar to me. Although some of the book talks about Anderson's own journey, she has also talked to quite a few other Native women (mostly Canadian) about their own experiences.

I'm not doing the book justice; I found it thought-provoking and challenging. I value it for making me continue to rethink what I normally conceptualize as "feminist" and for offering a non-white feminism, especially one that emphasizes community child-raising, family, and the overall community.



I also posted a list of all the Native authors in the bibliography if people are interested.

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Tags: a: anderson kim, books, books: non-fiction, feminism, race/ethnicity/culture, recs: books

http://whedonesque.com/comments/20982

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/movies/news/article.cfm?c_id=200&objectid=10584587

There are lots of print and online interviews with JM around at the moment in the lead up to the anniversary of the moon landings but this one is especially nice.

James talks about his memories of the moon landing and the experience of playing one of his heroes, Buzz Aldrin. Moonshot airs on Monday 20th July in the UK and US.

http://whedonesque.com/comments/20981

http://www.jamesmarsters.com/qanda.shtml

This month James talks about acting, music, history and, more importantly, about ice cream.

http://whedonesque.com/comments/20980

http://indiepulp.blogspot.com/2009/07/11-with-fallen-angel-reborn-artist-jk.html

The historic Angel/Bete Noir crossover comes out in comic book shops today. And if you want to try before you buy, then there's preview pages over at Comic Book Resources and Newsarama.

The Writercon site has been experiencing a lot of downtime lately, so I'm moving it to a new server today. If you're planning to register, please wait until tomorrow. Everything should be fine (and hopefully a lot faster!) in a day.

Tags: website

So, I agreed to interview an author about Otaku culture, which I know absolutely nothing about. I've just started reading his book, which is interesting, but I think I need more perspectives, so once again I throw open the subject to the Interwebs.

School me, please. I've got 3 weeks to become familiar enough with the subject to prepare a decent list of questions.

Why do I do these things? Why?

Tags: anime, fanfic, manga, otaku, yaoi
Current Location: the salt mine
Current Mood: tired

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