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As an erotica writer who's always attempted to portray both men and women as realistically as possible (yes, even my dragons, centaurs, and so on), I have a deep sympathy with the crisis Kameron Hurley shows in her brilliant essay, We Have Always Fought: Challenging the Women, Cattle and Slaves Narrative. The essay is about how stories have always been wrapped around the narratives of men, and how she's trying, harder than ever, to depict women faithfully, to slough off the cultural baggage of women constrained to romantic, sexual, or subservient roles in any given story, and show women as just as capable of action as men. In a paragraph toward the end of the essay, though, she struggles to re-write her women characters so that they're explicitly not depicted in one of those roles-- even when those roles might be appropriate. I thought about that because I just finished a story where Ken is mourning the death of a beloved friend from a relatively rare (for the Pendorian Corridor) species, and how he encounters another fem from the same species. She plays the role of confidant while he sorts himself out. It is a stereotypically "feminine" role-- but all she is is confidant. The love scenes are all male/male, starting as a dive into explicitly drunken abandon, and ending as something more romantic and holistic. Which was sorta the point of the story. It's a nice arc, not at all challenging. (To me, at any rate: I understand that male/male romance is challenging for some people.) I thought about Hurley's struggle, and applied it to the paragraphs when Ken and Evane are talking. After a few iterations I found myself back at the beginning. Confidant is a fine role for just about anyone. Evane is not explicitly locked into anything in particular. She has understandable and humane reasons for her interest in Ken. The story doesn't pass the Bechdel test, but that's hard to achieve when you have a first-person narrative from a male character. So I reverted back to the original. It's good as is. Another story done. [This post is also posted at: The Woodshed and the Story's End @ Pendorwright. Feel free to comment here or there.] Tags: writing
I am:  thoughtful
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elfs | |
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Ungh. Other than a lovely lunch, I think I spent all of Saturday with my butt in the car, driving Kouryou-chan to two different dance practices, Storm to one, Omaha to office supply place and finally down to a big auction she MC'd for the local Democratic party. With all the to-ing and fro-ing, I was driving everywhere and being driven insane. After five or so, though, Kouryou-chan and I were left alone. I made us roasted burgers and fries, and we spent the next two hours drawing together. My art skills are so f'ing rusty it's not funny. After Omaha and Storm got home, and everyone was in bed, I managed another 400 words. So I am writing again. That's healthy. Sunday was a little better. Other than grocery shopping and the routine weekly accounting phase, we had a D&D game with the lovely LisaKit and Paul, and we spent the time kicking Orc butt and taking names. Sadly, there wasn't enough of it. I think we're into the massive boss battle now, hopefully the end of the adventure. I'm going to have to come up with a new adventure. I think they want me to run next. Still, I'm glad to be at work. Tags: life
I am:  happy
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mizarchivist | |
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You have to have a toddler-to-adult translator, but... nein nose ear eye goose hippo gross hot dog Steve Carol I love you (more like I yah yah) more (old word, but now accompanied with ASL) Also noises: Perry the Platypus's growl rooster's crow I know there's more. The big thing is, you ask him to try to say something, and he usually gives it a shot. Pretty cool. Tags: kid!
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rbarclay | |
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Yesterday I started to dig holes for "point"-style concrete foundations for the gazebo/pergola/whatever-it's-called. The bad back means that I have to lift every shovel from the knees alone - which might be good training, but isn't effective; 3 hours and I had the first hole halfway done. The Poles today finished that, and the other six, in 2 hours flat (they're also doing the rest of the foundation, leaving "just" the wood-work for me). Next up: getting hold of the wood; visited 3 DIY markets today and was none too thrilled by the selection (nothing over 3m long) and quality. Cheap, though, but I guess I'll buy from Zöchling regardless. Guesstimate 1k1 eurobucks. Anyway, what I did myself was to (more-or-less) properly set up the a/c. The Fine Manual said that the couplings were of a design so that only a minimal amount of coolant would be lost every open/close cycle - and that might've been correct, had the valves not been rusted in position. But they were, so it made FOOOOOOOOM, and quite some of the coolant was gone before I had banged on the valves enough to get them going again. But since the couplings were already open, I organized a high ladder, and installed it anyway. And standing on a none-too-stable ladder, 6 meters off the ground, is not my favourite place to work. I know that now. The a/c works, though none too effective - I'll ask the Friendly Mechanic if he can come over with some coolant (R410a, the same as in most cars); no idea if his fill-up equipment is sufficiently mobile, though, if it's not, we'll have to dismount the thing and bring it to him, I guess. Also built stands for some potted plants last weekend - they're not pretty, but stable, which I count as a "win". And the "not pretty" should get better once the SO gets off her behind and paints 'em. Oh, and I finally managed to find an electrician willing to tackle the non-functioning sauna. One capacitor on the control-circuit-board had blown and spread gunk over some of the circuits, causing a short-circuit and blew the fuse. He made a show of poring over The Fine Manual, then just ripped out the blown capacitor, gently cleaned the gunk from the board and now we have a working sauna. Took a first round on Thursday evening (15min at 85°C/185°F), and then hopped into the pool to cool off (it's pretty warm in there (25°C/77°F), actually, but felt perfect after the sauna). Glorious! Original post is at http://rbarclay.dreamwidth.org/573371.html, and has  replies. You can reply there using OpenID.
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Older 
confused
embarrassed
