2012 – Page 14 – Wis[s]e Words

Books read September

Published on September 30, 2012Leave a comment

Seven books read this month, three histories and four novels, two fantasy, two science fiction.

Bombers & Mash — Raynes Minns
A social history of the British homefront during World War II as experienced by British women in all walks of life.

the Mad God’s Amulet — Michael Moorcock
The sequel to The Jewel in the Skull, another slab of sword & sorcery.

Bitter Gold Hearts — Glen Cook
The second of Cook’s Garrett, P. I. mix of hardboiled detective and fantasy novels.

Once a Hero & Rules of Engagement — Elizabeth Moon
Two of Moon’s largely enjoyable if lightweight military science fiction novels, somewhat marred by me by Moon’s insistence to use rape as a plot device.

The Kaiser’s Battle — Martin Middlebrook
An exhaustive description of the first day of the last German offensive in World War I, 21 March 1918. What made this book were the numerous eyewitness accounts, both culled from the vast WWI literature already existing and taken from interviews of surviving veterans. Originally published in 1978, this was about the latest that a historian could still do this.

Roger II of Sicily — Hubert Houben
A history of the life and reign of Roger II, the founder of the kingdom of Sicily, translated from the German for the Cambridge Medieval Textbooks series.

What my day has been like

Published on September 29, 20121 Comment

Can best be described by my Twitter feed, from noon to eight o’clock in eighteen beers (and one unofficial one not tweeted) all drunk at the Bodegraven Beer Festival:

*Hiccup*

Rape should not be inevitable

Published on September 28, 2012Leave a comment

It’s not always good for readers to get to know what their favourite writers really think, but the other way around can be painful as well. Seanan McGuire found this out the hard way when one of her readers asked why none of her female characters had been raped yet:

My response: “None of my protagonists are getting raped. I do not want to write that.”

Their response: “I thought you had respect for your work. That’s just unrealistic.”

Verity is the bastard daughter of Dazzler and Batman. Toby is what happens when Tinker Bell embraces her inner bitch and starts wearing pants. Velveteen brings toys to life and uses them to fight the powers of darkness. Sarah is a hot mathematician who looks like Zooey Deschanel but is actually a hyper-evolved parasitic wasp. The unrealistic part about all these characters? Is that they haven’t been raped.

It’s the ultimate thriump of grimdark fiction: rape is no longer optional, but mandatory for a certain type of fan. It’s the inevitable consequence of the increasing use of rape as a cheap plot motivator, either to threaten or traumatise your heroine, or to get your male hero something to avenge, to make your mediocre urban fantasy extra gritty without having to think about it too much. Rape has become the modern equivalent of giving your private dick a knock on the head at a convenient point in the plot.

But of course rape is different from a knock on the head, because it so gender unbalanced, both in real life and (much more so in) fiction happening mainly to women, can be much more traumatic or triggering for readers, while there always is that prurient element that creeps in, that makes rape look glamourous or sexy.

Rape can be used as a plot element, but not if it’s done lazily, if it is now just a checkmark for your urban fantasy construction kit.

Girlschool

Published on September 26, 2012Leave a comment

Have some N.W.O.B.H.M. courtesy of Girlschool:

That was thirtytwo years ago but they’re still going strong, though sadly without lead guitarist and singer Kelly Johnson, who died of spinal cancer in 2007. Here they’re performing live at Wacken:

Finally, here’s their crossover with Motorhead:

Some random comics links

Published on September 24, 2012Leave a comment

It shows the essential childishness of much of the American comics industry that a major “newssite” feel the need to censor Guido Crepax’s art, putting those silly little black bars over every side boob visible (but not the heroine’s arse, I see. Hmmm.)

Alan David Doane, one of the web’s earliest comics reviewers/bloggers is quitting comics cold turkey:

The best advice I can give you is, if you find yourself in a similar place as me, unable to enjoy comics and outraged, disgusted or made crazy by the industry and the community, take a breath. Step away. Do something else. Do anything else. You might find it feels better than you could ever have guessed. For me, I am starting to feel free from something that was really becoming bad for me. I feel like I can breathe a little better. It’s a start.

It’s sad to see what should be a hobby, a passion, so poison somebody that they feel the need to purge themselves so drastically, but I’ve been there myself. In 2000 I just stopped buying and even reading comics, completely gotten sick of them. One month I was spending most of my disposable income (and more) on them, the next one I didn’t. I just stopped caring. That’s the risk of having so much of your own identity wrapped up with what is basically still a disposable commodity. Mind, I never entirely gave up on comics, kept my collection, occasionally even bought a new one if I came across something interesting, then got sucked back in thanks to various blogs, but no longer to the extend I was before. There’s no such thing as Club Comix and you shouldn’t try to become a member because it’ll break your heart.

Finally, Darryl Ayo is unhappy with Benjamin Marra’s appropriation of Black history for his revenge fantasy comics:

It is very self-serving and I’ll go as far to say callous about playing in the sandbox of people whose degradation and oppression you do not share. Not writing about black characters or exploring the pain of black people but rather exoticizing the struggle, the pain, the humiliations, the inhumanity of the road to freedom.