- Bibliography | Chromatic Aberration Everywhere – As I tend to read a lot of more “academic” texts when it comes to studying anime, fandom, and interpretation, I thought it might be a good idea to throw up a list of all the things I’ve either read/seen so that anyone else interested in these types of ideas has a place to start.
- Japan’s Cute Army – The New Yorker – This stressful, ongoing debate fuels the seeming paradox of an “endearing” military force. In Japan, where indirect communication is highly valued, cute illustrations have long played the role of tension-breakers and mediators in situations of conflict. Thus kawaii mascots, whether miniskirted girls or bunny-rabbit decoy launchers, are both a reflection of pop-cultural trends and a way to defuse the very touchy issues surrounding the military’s undeniable presence.
- The Tyranny of Stuctureless – This means that to strive for a structureless group is as useful, and as deceptive, as to aim at an "objective" news story, "value-free" social science, or a "free" economy. A "laissez faire" group is about as realistic as a "laissez faire" society; the idea becomes a smokescreen for the strong or the lucky to establish unquestioned hegemony over others. This hegemony can be so easily established because the idea of "structurelessness" does not prevent the formation of informal structures, only formal ones. Similarly "laissez faire" philosophy did not prevent the economically powerful from establishing control over wages, prices, and distribution of goods; it only prevented the government from doing so. Thus structurelessness becomes a way of masking power
- A Piece Of Toast – YouTube –
- Otaku Philosophy | Public Seminar – Its origins are in cultural forms imported from the United States after the war. “The history of otaku culture is one of adaptation – of how to ‘domesticate’ American culture… Otaku may very well be heirs to Edo culture, but the two are by no means connected by a continuous line. Between the otaku and Japan lies the United States.”
Articles with the Tag video
Your Happening World (August 26th through September 1st)
- [GUEST POST] Crystal Koo on Spaces for Speculative Fiction in Hong Kong – SF Signal – A lot of people expect speculative fiction in Hong Kong to be a little hard to distinguish from Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. That retinue of berobed, be-sworded warriors with noble hearts is the Chinese water chestnut for all things speculative and it’s part of a very old genre called wuxia. Wuxia‘s imagery and principles can be found in popular Hong Kong fantasy films like Clarence Fok’s The Iceman Cometh and Tsui Hark’s steampunk Detective Dee series, both set in Imperial China. This imagery gets repeated time and time again, and for good reason – it’s familiar.
- World Science Fiction Course | Bowdoin College — Spring 2015 –
- Finding The Best Science Fiction Books To Read | Auxiliary Memory – Why read an average book when you could read a great book? With so little time to read, why waste time on a so-so book? But how do you find the best books to read? Most people read whatever they stumble across at the moment. Other folks read book reviews and get recommendations from friends. Even fewer join book clubs.
- All of the Books – recommended reading | Nine Worlds GeekFest –
- South African SF | –
- SF in SA (23) African SF Rec List from Nine Worlds (August 2014) | –
- Ten Medieval Inventions that Changed the World – Ten Inventions from the Middle Ages that have had lasting importance, even to the present-day.
- Fyodor Khitruk 1968 Film Film Film – YouTube –
- The Litany of Earth by Ruthanna Emrys | Tor.com –
Your Happening World (August 2nd through August 6th)
- The 50 best Skyrim mods | PC Gamer –
- ▶ Janelle Monáe – Electric Lady [Official Video] – YouTube – Janelle Monáe
- ASCE | 2013 Report Card for America’s Infrastructure –
- Robotic suit gives shipyard workers super strength – health – 04 August 2014 – New Scientist – The exoskeleton fits anyone between 160 and 185 centimetres tall. Workers do not feel the weight of its 28-kilogram frame of carbon, aluminium alloy and steel, as the suit supports itself and is engineered to follow the wearer's movements. With a 3-hour battery life, the exoskeleton allows users to walk at a normal pace and, in its prototype form, it can lift objects with a mass of up to 30 kilograms.
- Bowlers, ballads, bells, and blasters: Living history and fandom | Soderstrom | Transformative Works and Cultures – As Scottish SF writer Ken MacLeod said, "history is the trade secret of science fiction." The two disciplines cross paths often and sometimes even seem to merge. In many people's lives the disposition to create community around historical interest or reenacted historical community practices, or even just entertainment in a mythic-history setting, intersects with a related and similar interest in science fiction/fantasy literature and participation on some level in the related fandoms and social activities of SF/F. The bowlers, ballads, bells, and blasters of my title come together not just in current steampunk scenes but also in the storied and genred lives of many reenactors and fans. Or, as a friend of mine suggested when discussing this essay, "historical reenactment is the trade secret to fandom."
Lazy comix video Tuesday
You know what they say (but what do they know): three videos makes a post, so let’s have it then. Three Youtube videos on a common theme: comics. The first is a very suitable song considering the date, showcasing brilliant but unknown to me until now seventies feminist funk group Isis, over a montage of seventies superchicks, to stay in the vernacular of the day. Isis sounds like a cross between Jethro Tull and Funkadelic, with a dollop of Davis, both Miles and Betty. Thanks to Palau (of Prog Gold fame) for finding this.
Another brilliant Youtube marriage of music and comics is Thor – GOD OF METAL!. No, it’s not the one you might be thinking of, the this Thor, it’s the real one, the blonde surfer dude with the faux-Shakespearian speech patterns, rocking out to some Slayer. Watch out for the Beta Ray Bill and Eric Masterson cameos.
The same people behind the first video also did a homage to secret agent/detective heroines, featuring a real find: the Kane Triplet’s version of the Mission Impossible theme tune, with lyrics. Very catchy it is as well.
Finally, something with no redeeming value at all and nothing to do with comix other than that its creator, David Campbell, is a dancer for comix:
All because Dave runs one of the more popular comics blogs and needed some scans from this man. He’s evil I tell you, evil.