http://therem.net/blog/ en-us Nucleus CMS v3.51 ? Weblog http://backend.userland.com/rss http://therem.net/blog//nucleus/nucleus2.gif http://therem.net/blog/ http://therem.net/blog/index.php?itemid=126 Panel Description: While James Cameron's film Avatar contains a strong anti–imperialist message, it is yet another movie where a white character joins an indigenous people (the Na'vi) and then becomes the "most awesome" member of that group. Adding to this dynamic, most of the Na'vi are portrayed by actors of color, and much of the Na'vi culture seems to be appropriated from indigenous cultures on Earth. What are the effects of cultural appropriation in this film, and what is the difference between cultural appropriation and cultural sharing? How is the militarism in the film related to race and gender? How are issues of environmentalism raised in the film, and how is concern for the environment linked to racial and social justice?

Panelists: Cabell Gathman, Nick Murphy, Annalee Newitz (moderator), Terry Bisson, Nnedi Okorofor

Annalee gives some background on her io9 story (When Will White People Stop Making Movies Like "Avatar"?), white guilt and its American history. But also how people who aren’t Americans are taking the story for their own.

Cabell hated Avatar, but wants to learn how to talk about it without offending people.

Nnedi went to the movie not knowing anything about it except that people kept telling her it reminded them of her book Zahrah the Windseeker. She ended up loving everything about it.

Annalee asks the panelists for their thoughts on the colonialist themes of the movie.

Terry Bisson: Deeply informed by American themes. Not just colonialism and white supremacy, but also Intelligent Design. “The whole movie is a refutation of evolution.”

Nnedi doesn’t see the white supremacy in the movie. She sees Jake as being acted upon as well as being an actor in the drama. Jake knew he couldn’t die in his Avatar body, so he had a different approach to taking risks.

Cabell felt there was a “wannabe Indian” vibe to Avatar. She decided she hated the movie when Jake got to ride the turok instead of Neytiri.

Nnedi: He was the only one dumb enough to do it.

Annalee: Except for their great leader who did it generations before.

Nick quotes the Playboy interview with James Cameron where he says that Neytiri had to have tits, even though it makes no sense because the Na’vi aren’t placental mammals.

Nnedi says that’s funny, because Neytiri actually wasn’t that well endowed. Being a tall, thin person, she identified with her freakish physique.

Nnedi says that even though the story wasn’t new, it wasn’t the worst version of it. She lists various things she liked about it, including the leaders being both male and female, Jake’s joy in his avatar body after being paralyzed -- she has been paralyzed before, and wept watching this scene.

Another woman of color in the audience says that she hated Dances with Wolves, and was surprised to love Avatar. She identified with the Na’vi and felt represented on screen in a way she never had before.

Terry: “As a piece of science fiction, it takes us back to Burroughs.”

Nick Murphy: Jake asks how he will know which ikran he should bond with, and is told, “It will be the one who tries to kill you.” To me, that implied that the flying creature did not give consent.

Terry Bisson: Cameron is really a green activist. That is the real message of this film.

Claire Light: great overview of the messiah concept and how Jesus was actually one of the colonized. Real stories of colonizers who have “gone native” and helped the natives to triumph don’t exist. Instead, anyone who goes in with a crusading impulse inevitably ends up writing narratives of total despair, because they realize they can’t fix the problems.

Na’amen in audience: There’s a scene at the end where [Neytiri] sees [Jake's] human body, and I kind of wanted her to say, “You’re so damn ugly.”

Annalee asks if people think the movie is successful as an environmental story?

An audience member mentions the movie Yanomamo, a musical documentary about a Brazilian rain forest tribe and the destruction of their way of life.

Terry: What’s the emotional message of the film?
Cabell: Strip mining is bad.

tags: wiscon 34]]> Fandom http://therem.net/blog/index.php?itemid=126 Sun, 27 Jun 2010 13:38:48 -0400 http://therem.net/blog/index.php?itemid=124 Panel Description: Love it, hate it, love/hate it, Joss Whedon's Dollhouse definitely has feminist and racial issues worth talking about. What were its good points? Its bad points? Does the good outweigh the bad, or vice versa? Was it canceled too soon or not soon enough?

Panelists: Kater Cheek, Sigrid Ellis, Anastasia Salter, Charlie Jane Anders (moderator), K. Tempest Bradford

Rundown of people’s reasons for being on the panel. Anastasia and Charlie Jane both loved the show, while acknowledging that it had its problems as well. Anastasia was particularly intrigued by the show’s dissociation of identity from body. Kater loved Firefly, but got fed up with Dollhouse and didn’t even watch it to the end. Tempest watched Dollhouse because she was reviewing it for Fantasy Magazine, but she never liked it. Sigrid is mostly in the “liked it” camp, but has quite a few criticisms as well.

Sigrid explains the concept of the “Big Sexy Hospital”, a show that fans watch because they love the actors and want to see them play an essentially similar character with different notes. “Helo’s playing another big dumb hunk of meat, tries to do good and makes bad decisions.”

Someone asks how the professor (from “Belle Chose”) could afford the Dollhouse’s services. Tempest says he’s probably one of those professors who assigns a single text book to all the freshman, and there’s a new edition every year. Audience LOL.

There is a lot of ragging on Eliza Dushku on this panel, which I don’t think is really fair.

Charlie Jane asks: Was the show feminist? Was it trying to be?

Anastasia says yes, and that the treatment of sexuality was usually supposed to be harrowing. Tempest says she doesn’t think Joss Whedon’s feminism is as developed as people say. An audience member points out that Tempest already admitted she hasn’t seen a lot of Joss’s shows, implying that she might not be in a position to make an informed judgment on this question.

Tempest lists three levels of “getting it” regarding racism:

1) Totally racist.
2) I was taught that racism was bad, but it’s still there in my head and I haven’t really examined it.
3) Personal and social examination leading to true ally behavior.

Tempest says the same breakdown applies to sexism, and says she thinks Joss Whedon is at level 2. Others disagree. Charlie Jane relates an account of a conversation with Joss in which he said that we ought to root for Echo and the other dolls because they have been disempowered and are going to get their identities back.

Tempest says that there have already been enough shows that depict female exploitation, and that there is absolutely no reason to do any more. They just aren’t feminist.

A woman in the audience gives an impassioned rant about how Dollhouse doesn’t have to be a female empowerment show to be feminist.

Pretty much everyone agrees that Boyd was screwed over. His character arc didn't make any sense, and some think his early depiction as one of the few men who isn't attracted to Echo is kind of racist. Because of course a black man who is attracted to a white woman would be too threatening.

I gave up on trying to take notes. Too many people talking over one another, and too much annoyance at ill-informed opinions.

However, this panel featured my favorite quote of the weekend. In response to an audience member who said that Echo’s empowerment came from a man (Alpha), not from herself, Charlie Jane countered with, “Well, she had midichlorians.” A perfect summary of the show’s muddled concept that tripped it up time and time again.

tags: wiscon 34]]> Fandom http://therem.net/blog/index.php?itemid=124 Sun, 27 Jun 2010 12:35:40 -0400 http://therem.net/blog/index.php?itemid=122 Panel Description: In some ways, the gaming industry is the last glass ceiling of geekdom; in spite of its increasing diversity, gaming culture has largely assumed white, male, able–bodied, and heterosexual biases. Gaming communities like XBox Live, MMORPGs, D&D groups, and even retail stores can be noninclusive or even hostile environments to women, people of color, gay people, or the disabled. There are exceptions: Bioware's Dragon Age: Origins was highly lauded by GayGamer.net for its inclusion of same–sex romantic relationships, and won AbleGamer.com's Most Accessible Game of 2009. This panel will discuss how games can get it right (and why they often don't). We'll also explore ways to make the gaming community more accessible, and brainstorm strategies for surviving hostile encounters in the gaming world.

Panelists: Chris Hill (moderator), Jacquelyn Gill, Anastasia Salter, Robyn Fleming, Nonie Rider

Robyn says she started role playing at age 6, when her brother’s friends needed someone to play a paladin, and none of them could do the lawful good thing. She also learned to type at age 12 in order to MUD. She is also one of the founders of Cerise, an online gaming magazine for women.

An audience member quotes a game developer explaining the priorities: “If we made a female character, we wouldn’t be able to have crumbling walls.”

Chris asks the panelists how important it is to them to have representation in video games. Anastasia says that the white men in video games don’t actually look like real people, so realistic representation doesn’t really exist for anyone. Robyn points out that there are some games that allow you to customize your character extensively (e.g. Mass Effect, although you can’t make your character fat).

Nonie is happy that RPGs these days don’t seem to essentialize goodness or evilness by race (because everyone likes playing orc shamans or drow priestesses).

What has gotten better and what still needs to be improved? Everyone agrees that there is better representation of women in general, and racial stereotyping has decreased. But there is still plenty of room for improvement.

Elizabeth stands up in the audience and describes her experience of playing Dragon Age: Origins. It seemed so good, and was getting everything right! And then they totally blew it at the end with the vilely misogynistic and fat-phobic depiction of the broodmothers. And the expansion is even worse. Argh!

Robyn says that Kotaku claimed credit for the creation of Cerise. Paraphrased quote from Kotaku guy: “The editor of Kotaku has a penis, and they [the creators of Cerise] hated that, so they had to make their own magazine.” Lies, damned lies!

tags: wiscon 34]]> Fandom http://therem.net/blog/index.php?itemid=122 Sun, 27 Jun 2010 12:20:35 -0400 http://therem.net/blog/index.php?itemid=120 Panel Description: Back for a second go–round, by popular demand! Writers of color working in F/SF face unique challenges, it's true. But, at the end of the day, being a "person of color" is only one aspect of what makes up our identities as writers and, while it's very flattering to asked to be on panels, most of these panels never crack the ceiling of Race 101. With that in mind, wouldn't it be nice for multiple writers of color to sit on a panel that isn't about race at all? Here's our chance to do just that. So, what are we gonna talk about, instead? Practically anything! Presented in game show format, REVENGE OF NOT ANOTHER F*CKING RACE PANEL brings together writers of color to get their geek on about any number of pop culture topics—none of them race related.

Panelists: Yoon Ha Lee, Cecilia Tan, Shveta Thakrar, Julia/Sparkymonster (moderator), Andrea Hairston, Amal El-Mohtar

Panelists introduce themselves while the topics are taped to the wall. Topics are as follows:

1) Apocalypse A-Go-Go
2) Super Michael Jackson Ballerina
3) Zombie Care Bear Stare
4) What would Johanna Do?
5) KHAAAAAAAN!!!
6) [Blank] in spaaaaace!
7) Sparkle Pony
8) We welcome our robot overlords!

“What is your favorite Michael Jackson song?” (topic 2)

Amal: “Free Willy”, Andrea: Can’t remember the name, and is reluctant to try singing or humming it. Julia: “Beat It”; Shveta: an Indian video version of “Thriller”; Cecilia: “Beat It”, because of the unstated masturbatory reference: Yoon Ha: “Ben”. (she only knows two MJ songs)

“Slow zombies or fast zombies?” (topic 1)

Amal: she is sick of slow zombies, she wants fast ones like velociraptors. Andrea: “I hate binaries.” Julia: slow zombies, because she isn’t a sprinter. A nice old-fashioned, shambling, parts-falling-off zombie. Shveta: “I’m still hung up on the idea of eating brains. Brains are smelly.” Amal: “they’re also delicious!” Cecilia: As a science fiction fan, she finds herself wondering: why are they slow or fast? They’re slow at first because of rigor mortis, then they loosen up and are faster, until they slow down again because their limbs have fallen off. Yoon Ha: Fast zombies would make for a better apocalypse, so she’s in favor of them.

“What small furry animal would make the best zombie?” (topic 3)

Julia: a badger. With Linux installed. Andrea: wallabies or kangaroos, something that can hop and has pouches for body parts. Amal: Bunny zombies. She is trying to imagine them bounce-shambling. Yoon Ha: Ferret. Small, cute and vicious. Cecilia: She also goes for ferrets. Shveta: A peacock zombie.

“How many bad fics did you write after reading Mercedes Lackey when you were a child?” (topic 7)

Some back history on the blue-eyed telepathic sparkling ponies that choose the saviors of the kingdom. Amal: “I didn’t realize this was the bare-all panel.” She wants to read Mercedes Lackey now. She never wrote fantasy fanfic; Star Trek was her stuff. She used to write stories about being BFFs with Deanna Troy. Andrea: She used to act her fanfic. She does her Spock imitation. “Fascinating, but incorrect. Why would you think of making such an assumption with so little data?” Julia: she has a long history of embarrassment with Mercedes Lackey. She summarizes the plots of some of the books to much laughter from the audience. Shveta: she is not sure if she is happy or unhappy to have never read Mercedes Lackey. She used to write stories about getting together with Link from the Zelda video games. Cecilia: she came to Lackey too late and was just fed up with it. When she was younger she used to play Batgirl/Catwoman with a friend. There was a lot of tying each other up. Amal (sarcastic): “That was not an indication of anything to come.” When Cecilia was in high school, she was the president of the largest Menudo fanclub in the world! Ricky Martin was pretending to be asleep in the next bed when she lost her virginity. Later he said that that was what turned him gay! Yoon Ha: Pern fanfic. Unicorn riders who fought dragons. The dragons were mutant unicorns.

“Tell me about mutant unicorn dragons.” (topic 7 again)

Julia: I am concerned about how this affects the children. I think they should practice safer riding. Andrea: they were the results of artificial insemination. They are circling the convention even now, waiting to have their way with us! Amal: “I made this mutant to please you, but you don’t seem to like it. What’s with all the screaming?” Shveta: I AM a mutant unicorn dragon. Cecilia: It is totally plausible that dragons are mutant unicorns, just like orcs were mutant elves. Yoon Ha: Does this count as talking about race?

“Can you remember a time you tried to adapt a recipe to make it vegan or gluten free, and it went horribly wrong – or surprisingly right?” (topic 4)

Julia: Yes. Her mother is celiac, and she made a cake soaked in bourbon that her mother didn’t want to share with anyone else. Andrea: Her father was a red meat fan and hated bananas. Rather than catering to his desires, she made him a tofu meal with banana cream pie as dessert and didn’t tell him what was in the food. He ate large amounts without knowing what was in it, then acted sickened when he found out. His wife called him on his bullshit! Amal: She is only a vegetarian by association. A lot of her friends have a lot of other dietary restrictions besides being vegetarian. One friend is a vegetarian, but hates vegetables. She subsists on pasta and cheese. Shveta: she has no funny stories; she passes. Cecilia: in charge of making dessert for a seder for vegans. Almond cookies with vegetable shortening. The cookies looked beautiful, but tasted like nothing… until drenched in chocolate! Yoon Ha: she is a terrible cook, but managed to make a vegan meal out of only three ingredients. She has learned not to disrespect cornmeal!

“If the robot overlords come and insist that we all get a cybernetic enhancement, what would you choose?” (topic 8, and also a repeat question from last year)

Amal: “Is it too much to ask to have a Tardis inside me?” Now that the show is getting crappier, the Tardis is all she cares about. Andrea: I want to BE a robot overlord, so fuck just having a single enhancement. I want to go all the way! Julia: She wants a jack in the back of her neck. Yoon Ha: A gun. Shveta: She’d like some eye implants so she can read in boring meetings and look like she’s paying attention.

“In your favorite SF TV show, who do you think is hard done by, and why?” (topic 5)

Amal: a toss-up between Guinan and Worf. They both have war-torn backgrounds. Guinan was an underused character with an amazing backstory who should have gotten more development. Andrea: “I feel for the redshirts. If you’re going to die for me, I’d like to have at least 30 seconds of backstory.” Julia: she was just rewatching the Wrath of Khan: Carol Marcus, the mother of Kirk’s son, and the pathetic son who dies. Uhura. She has untapped depths of awesomeness. Cecilia: Sulu. The only guy on television besides Bruce Lee who looked like her father. Yoon Ha: incomplete data, because Star Trek aired at 1:00 AM when she was a kid, so she hardly ever got to watch it. She wanted to know more about Geordie. Shveta: she has only seen a couple of episodes of Star Trek! Does this mean she loses her geek cred? The audience says yes. Doh!

“What will be the first fast food franchise in space?” (topic 6)

Julia: A Dunkies (as they call it in Boston). Amal: Starbucks. She hates them and boycotts them, but she thinks they’ll be first. Andrea: This company doesn’t yet exist. It will go closer to the speed of light. It will not need to be ingested, it will be an experience of calorie enhancement. Shveta: A huge ugly megacorporation, a combination Pizza Hut and Taco Bell. Cecilia: Something like In-and-Out Burger that continues the Gernsback tradition of transportation and eating. No… it will be Soylent Green. Yoon Ha: something non-Western. Cecilia interjects that Pizza Hut is the most popular restaurant in China.

“A Khaaaaan! yell that isn’t Khaaaan? Go!” (topic 5)

The unanimous answer is “WisCoooooooon!!!!”

“Tell us something about Finland.” (topic 4)

Reindeer meat. Lots of Finnish people. Light and dark at different times than we are familiar with. Nokia phones and lots of booze. (I lost track of who said what on this one.)

tags: wiscon 34]]> Fandom http://therem.net/blog/index.php?itemid=120 Sun, 27 Jun 2010 00:21:48 -0400 http://therem.net/blog/index.php?itemid=118 Panel Description: There is a perception that there weren't many women in Doctor Who fandom before the New Series was launched. This is patently false. Women have had a major role in Doctor Who fandom since the inception of the show. Do women approach and experience their Doctor Who fandom (or other media fandoms) differently than men? This panel explores different approaches to media fandom by the women involved in it, functioning within an assumed male–dominated fandom. Approaches to fandom discussed will range from feminist critique to costuming to fan fiction.

Panelists: Evelyn Brown, Lynne M. Thomas (moderator), K. Tempest Bradford, Kathryn Sullivan

The Chicks Dig Time Lords book was intentionally positive in focus, in defiance of the reality that women are quite outnumbered in Doctor Who fandom. Lynne says the fandom is 80% male!

Opinions on the show. Best show ever? Tempest says no, but probably the best thing on television right now. “Which isn’t hard.”

Kathryn: “I like the Doctor because he thinks; he doesn’t always solve things with a gun.”

Evelyn: “I love the scope of it.” If you don’t like the show, you can just wait, and it will soon be doing something different.

Tempest: She likes that it’s an adventure show, and isn’t full of emo stuff like the shows on Syfy. She got into it because one of her roommates was a huge fan, then quickly caught up on the new Who via torrents.

Lynne: She likes the overwhelming positivity of the show and its openness to change.

A poll of the audience is taken to see how many fans there are of each Doctor. I fear I am the only one who never raises a hand at all!

Leah in audience asks the panel to list their favorite companions.

Lynne: Favorite: Ace. Least favorite: Peri.
Kathryn: Favorites: Zoe, Leela & Donna. Least favorite: Adric
Tempest: Favorite: Donna & Martha & Ace. Least favorite: Rose (2nd series)
Evelyn: Favorite: Jamie & Zoe; Tegan and Turlough. Least favorite: Rose, maybe. She likes when there are crowds of companions who can talk about the Doctor behind his back.

Lynne likes the show’s flexibility about sexuality, but recognizes that the treatment of bisexuality (for example) has been problematic at times.

Tempest: “I hate sexual tension! …in fiction.” Whining and pining. David Tennant era bothers her. Why was Martha bothering with this skinny, crazy dude? Everyone agrees that her emotional arc with the Doctor was handled badly and didn’t seem in character.

Lynne asks a question of the audience: “What’s the Tom Baker episode where he fellates an alien?” There is amazed laughter from the crowd.

Someone asks Tempest what she thought of the end of the Martha story (pairing off with Mickey.) She hates it, because it doesn’t follow anything that came before. She wants to interrogate Russell T. Davies about it.

Discussion about historicals. An audience member wants to know if any of the older shows depict historical events in countries besides England. Some examples are given, but Tempest thinks it’s better if the show’s producers don’t even go there, given the amount of fail the show has demonstrated towards brown people. Lynne argues for the story limitations of an extremely small production budget.

Verity Lambert was given production duties on the classic series because she was young and female, and the BBC fully expected her to fail. Here we are 46 years later…

An audience member who is studying media in England reports that she has been told that the reason the new show focuses so much on Britain is because market research says that is what their audience wants. And also that the BBC is trying to target it to children. An audience members protests that the British Empire is pretty big! “Didn’t they own three quarters of the globe at one point?” Chris Hill (English fan) in audience: “We’re sitting right here!” Much laughter.

Tempest gives a hilarious rant about how the Daleks keep coming back again and again after supposedly being exterminated. She wants Davies to stick to the story he has set up.

The doctor’s daughter steps out of the “people making machine with mascara on”. Evelyn says she got it from her father, because he regenerated complete with hair gel.

Sex in Doctor Who. Lynne: “Some say there is no sex in Doctor Who. Others of us say, 'Uh uh. You don’t dress Leela like that if there is no sex in Doctor Who.'”

Lynne: “A millennium-old person might have gotten over some of his hangups about sex.” Tempest: “Or developed more.” Laughter.

Mention of “The Curse of the Fatal Death”.

Chris points out that most British shows at the time of the classic series were asexual. Even the “companion” concept was fairly common, and was usually treated as a father-daughter dynamic.

Last 15 minutes of panel are reserved for discussion of the Matt Smith series.

Tempest: “I’m just tired of people jumping the Doctor’s bones.” referring to the episode with Amy coming on to the Doctor

Lynne’s husband has a theory that Steven Moffat has a checklist of story elements that he would like to correct from the Davies era. For example: Rory as apology for Mickey.

Tempest gives a run-down on Steven Moffat’s issues with women. His two shows before Doctor Who (Joking Apart, Coupling) both based on his own life.

tags: wiscon 34]]> Fandom http://therem.net/blog/index.php?itemid=118 Sat, 26 Jun 2010 23:38:37 -0400 http://therem.net/blog/index.php?itemid=116
This post is a narrative of what I did over the course of the con, with the detailed panel notes separated out into their own posts. More below the jump.Thursday, 5/27/10

Arrived at Madison airport around 6:00PM CDT and saw my first fellow WisCon attendee at baggage claim. (It was Eileen Gunn.) Had a slight scare when my bag didn’t appear on the carousel, but was relieved to see it produced by an airline employee who said it had arrived earlier. The shuttle to the hotel was chock full of other WisCon-goers. It had had to double back to pick me up, and as we were heading away from the airport, the driver received a call to request that he return yet again to pick up someone else. As we were leaving the airport for the third time, someone joked about whether or not we could achieve escape velocity this time, and everyone in the van laughed. Clearly, I was among my tribe.

Moments after entering the Concourse lobby, I saw Na’amen Tilahun, who was animatedly greeting Elizabeth Guzik. He and I hugged hello. Then a few moments later, Tempest Bradford appeared. We hugged, too. Then we all went out to dinner at Noodles & Co. As I was traveling to the con I had worried about connecting with people socially, so it was really nice to be welcomed by such cool people right away!

While we were at Noodles & Co, Nora Jemisin and her friend Ibi Zoboi joined us. I read Nora’s book, The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms, a few months ago and quite liked it. I didn’t want to seem like a fangirl, so I didn’t say anything about it until Elizabeth mentioned asking her local Barnes & Noble to stock it. At that point, I told Nora that I had asked about it at my local Borders, only to learn that they were out of it. She seemed pleased, mentioning that “sell through” numbers were important to the publisher.

After dinner, we broke up. Tempest and Elizabeth went back to the hotel, and Nora and Ibi shortly followed them. Na’amen and I went on to a downtown karaoke bar to join a group celebrating Cabell Gathman’s marriage. A host of people I knew or at least recognized were there, including Candra Gill, Cynthia Gonsalves, and Bill Humphries. Much alcohol was drunk, and many songs were sung. I’ve always liked the idea of performing karaoke, but have never actually done it. I spent quite a bit of time paging through the song books, but in the end did not dare to sing anything.

Around 12:30, I left with Cynthia and Bill to walk back to the hotel (I wasn’t sure I could remember how to get back by myself). We talked a bit about what had happened in our lives in the two years since I’d seen them last. And then it was time for bed!

Friday, 5/28/10

Didn’t get up until nearly noon because I was recovering from the drinking the night before. Went to Michelangelo’s for food and coffee. Sat a couple tables away from Bill Humphries, Chris & Penny Hill, and Matt Austern & Janet Lafler. Felt a little awkward, because I think I would have fit in well with their group but didn’t want to intrude. Instead, I just waved at them as I passed by on my way to the bathroom. As I was leaving, I ran into Annalee Newitz and Charlie Jane Anders sitting at a table in the back, both looking very serious typing away on their laptops. (I wish I had taken a photo.) I asked them if they were both posting to io9.com. Charlie said she had already finished her weekend’s posts, but Annalee said she was trying to finish something. Nevertheless, we chatted about what panels we wanted to go to, and talked about Avatar a bit. It was a nice exchange.

Got back to the hotel and visited the dealer’s room. Bought four items: a limited edition printing of a story by Ellen Kushner called “The Man with the Knives”; the Tiptree-winning first 2 volumes of the manga Ōoku: The Inner Chambers; and the latest Eleanor Arnason book from Aqueduct Press, The Tomb of the Fathers. Popped in to The Gathering briefly, then met up with Na’amen’s friend Elizabeth in the hallway and chatted with her about computer games and various other things until it was time for the panel “Chicks Dig Time Lords”, which I wanted to attend to gain some insight into why women like Doctor Who. It ended up being very entertaining! Not least because Tempest was on it, and she delivers some great rants about things that don’t make sense on TV shows. Also, she threatens bodily harm to writers and producers who displease her, which is amusing.

Afterward, I sat on floor 2 near the stairs until Elizabeth passed by and asked if I wanted to join her and some other folks for the “White Allies” dinner. I heartily accepted the offer, and we went downstairs to congregate. Dinner ended up being at Flavor of India. We had to break up into smaller groups to be seated, and I ended up with Elizabeth, Kirsten (from Scotland), and Daedala. We conversed about various topics while enjoying the tasty and plentiful food. Onion chutney: yum.

We arrived back at the hotel just in time for the opening ceremonies. I sat next to Penny Hill and pulled out my laptop to take notes. She asked if I was live-blogging, and I said I wanted to take notes for Liz and Laura, neither of whom could make it this year. The ceremonies were amusing, mostly because of Ellen Klages impersonating a matronly librarian, including wig, flowered cardigan sweater, and high speaking voice.

After the opening ceremonies, I tried to respond to a call for help schlepping stuff to the Carl Brandon Society party, but was too late. All the stuff had already been schlepped. So I went back to my room, thinking I would just drop off my backpack. I ended up lying down and resting for about an hour and a half. Then I girded my loins and headed up to the party floor, where I mostly hovered between the CBS party and the Karen Healey book launch party across the hall, which had some alcohol that wasn’t weird Kahlua shots. I chatted with various people, but the unexpected highlight of my evening was talking to a local fan named John Wardale, who produced some delicious Scotch from his backpack when he discovered that I liked it. He had decanted two different varieties (a Canadian mix and some Highland Park 15 year) into smaller blue bottles, whose sides were obscured in paper. I said they looked like Samuel Adams Triple Bock bottles, and he pulled one out of its sleeve to show me that I was correct. Then we slapped high five. It was hilarious!

I later recounted this story to Elizabeth, and it turned out that she is a big fan of Scotch as well! Then she mentioned it to Victor Raymond, and not only does he love whisky, he does a pretty good Scottish accent as well. Heh heh.

Saturday, 5/29/10

Felt really exhausted again, so didn’t get up in time for a panel I wanted to go to, "Activism: When to Speak Up, When to Let It Go". Instead, I was roused by my old housemate Mike calling me to ask if I was at WisCon and to tell me he was very entertained by my Facebook status updates. “You are such a dork!” he exclaimed. Kind of insulting, but also kind of funny. I was now up, so I slapped on some clothes and headed to the coffee shop for some fuel, then caught the last few minutes of the panel. Afterward, I sat down in the hall and was catching up on internet things on my laptop when Elizabeth and Na’amen saw me and asked if I wanted to join them for the Carl Brandon Society lunch. A group of about 20 of us went to The Great Dane and were seated in a very dim and pleasantly cool basement (we had all become quite hot on the walk over in the unseasonable heat). Most of the talk during the lunch was about “guilty pleasure” books. Many people were intrigued by Na’amen’s description of the Black Jewels books by Anne Bishop, which include magic cock rings that the women use to control the men. There was also some discussion of Anne McCaffrey’s Pern books. Victor Raymond and Claire Light both stood up to ask for volunteers, and a book was passed around for people’s contact details. I volunteered to help with the wiki and other web tasks, though I probably shouldn’t have, given my sadly neglected Alliance Francaise duties...

People returned to the hotel in several different groups. I had to run to catch up with Na’amen, Elizabeth and Lee after belatedly handing over my money for CBS membership. We walked through the capitol building as a short cut. It was majestic and very echoey. We all headed directly to “Revenge of Not Another F*cking Race Panel”, which was quite entertaining. Then I went to the "Diversity in Video Games" panel. After that, I realized I felt kind of claustrophobic and cold, so I headed outside to get some sun and heat. Walked to A Room of One’s Own and browsed for a while. Read most of Bayou by Jeremy Love. By the end I was totally confused about what was going on. A lot of embodied archetypes (Bayou, Jim Crows) acting in surreal ways, and nothing is resolved at the end of book 1.

Came back to the hotel and sat in the bar for a couple hours, reading news and tweets and Facebook updates, and working on these entries. Was feeling kind of lonely and sorry for myself, but felt better after eating some food and having two special WisCon cocktails.

Stopped in to the Tiptree auction briefly before meeting Paige Kimball for an interview. She’s writing her dissertation on "WisCon and Fan Identity" and had asked for interview subjects on LiveJournal. We spent about 45 minutes talking about my interest in science fiction and development as a fan. It was fun!

After that, I went down to the 6th floor and became entranced by the vidding party. I stayed for a while, but eventually the plentiful free alcohol seemed to depress my mood and I began to develop a headache from the loud music. Also, I experienced some socially awkward moments that brought me down some more. So I went to the con suite for some pizza, stopped in to the Tor party briefly, then went upstairs and to bed, even though it wasn’t yet midnight.

Sunday, 5/30/10

Despite going to bed early, I once again awoke very late. Went to Michelangelo’s and kick started my brain with two large cups of coffee before heading to the “Dollhouse: Win or Fail” panel at 1:00. It was quite lively, with much disagreement among the panelists. There were some great comments, but I was frustrated by the fact that the panelists who most disliked the show were making larger claims about Joss Whedon’s work and lack of feminist cred when they admitted they hadn’t watched most of his shows (and one of them hadn’t even finished season 2 of Dollhouse – the show the panel was about!).

Afterward, I went immediately to the "Race and Gender in Avatar" panel down the hall. Another interesting, but more sedate, discussion. I had never seen Terry Bisson on a panel before, and really enjoyed some of his insights. It was also interesting to hear Annalee and Cabell (both white) calling the movie racist, and Nnedi and Ibi (both women of color) defending it on this score. No question, viewer response to Avatar is complex!

Chris Hill and I had attended both panels, so I chatted with him in the hall for a bit, then headed up to the Strange Horizons Tea Party. I hadn’t seen Jed Hartman all weekend and wanted to say hi, but every time I looked over he was talking with someone, and I didn’t want to interrupt. So I drank tea, ate some cake, and ended up having a lovely chat with Karen Babich and some friends of hers. She complimented my “geek” T-shirt. Thanks, Rent-a-Geek! Afterward, I went back to my room to relax for a few minutes and consider what to do for dinner. Feeling a bit more outgoing than previously in the weekend, I tweeted Paige to ask if she wanted to catch a bite together, but she was having another interview. I pondered for a moment, then tweeted Bill Humphries and Cynthia Gonsalves to see if they had plans already. They did.

Oh well! Back to the hotel bar for another meal, more WisCon-themed drinks, and the first volume of Ōoku. I was so into it that I kept reading while standing in line for the Dessert Salon. Nisi Shawl was next to me in line, and taking one look at my shirt and my preoccupation, she laughingly told me that I was definitely a geek. I love that WisCon is a place where this will never sound like an insult. We chatted as the line slowly progressed down the hall, up the stairs, and around the second floor. She was concerned that she might get some flack for losing her dessert ticket, but everyone in the vicinity agreed that as a Very Important Person she would be fine. She corrected me when I called her a former Guest of Honor, saying that she was a Tiptree winner, but had never been GoH. “You will be soon,” I replied, and she said, “Yes, I will.” In retrospect, I find this exchange hilarious, because at the end of the night it was announced that she would be one of the Guests of Honor for next year. She must have known already when we were talking, whereas I just thought it would be a logical course of events. Heh heh.

Bill and Cynthia had saved a seat for me at their table, and we had a nice time chatting about Glee and other TV shows. Then the Guest of Honor speeches and Tiptree Awards began, and I started taking notes on my laptop. The ceremonies ran till past 10:00, and we all took off in different directions afterward. My plane was leaving at 7:30 the next morning, so I planned to make an early night of it, but I still wanted to make at least one pass through the party floor. I’m very glad I did, because I finally got to talk with Jed Hartman and was formally introduced to Mary Anne Mohanraj for the first time. And I witnessed Nisi performing “Billie Jean”, complete with sequined glove. AND, I had a great conversation with Timmi Duchamp about The Secret Feminist Cabal and On Joanna Russ… and then she asked me if I wanted to be involved in a new project she’s thinking of, a regular literary review in hard-copy form (not just online). Wow! The answer was yes! I love Aqueduct Press and think Timmi is awesome!

Head full of happy thoughts, I returned to my room before midnight and set the alarm clock for 5:30 AM.

tags: wiscon 34]]> Fandom http://therem.net/blog/index.php?itemid=116 Sat, 26 Jun 2010 23:11:53 -0400 http://therem.net/blog/index.php?itemid=113
First, the theme of waking vs. dreaming. The very first lines of the script are Jake relating in voiceover how, while he was in the VA hospital, he had a dream that he was flying and was free, only to wake up and face the harsh reality of his paralysis. The mechanics of sleeping and waking are woven throughout the film, as Jake's transfer of consciousness between his human body and his avatar body is depicted as falling asleep in one body in order to wake in the other. (In one of the most frightening scenes in the film, Neytiri tries desperately to get Jake to "wake up" in his avatar body as giant human excavating machines grind through the jungle toward them; meanwhile he is eating breakfast in his human body, totally unaware of what is happening for his other self.) The logistics of this process are left vague; Jake never seems to actually sleep in a way that allows his mind to turn off and rest. How does he stay sane? He says at one point late in the movie that he is starting to lose track of which world is the real one. Is his experience as a Na'vi a literal version of the "dreamtime" of the Australian aborigines? The very last image in the film is Jake's eyes opening in his now permanent avatar body, waking in a sense for the first time in his new identity. There is no way back this time – he has either woken, or abandoned waking life permanently for the dream. Which is it?

Second, the theme of proxies/body doubles. This theme is explicit in the case of the avatars, as they are literally separate bodies operated by the minds of the humans. But it is also implicit in Jake's role as an identical twin (when he first sees his avatar body he says, "It looks like him," meaning his brother rather than himself), and the cyborg relationships between the humans and their AMP suits, and the Na'vi and the animals of their world, which they can control with the neural connections in their queues.

James Cameron is fascinated with the relationships of humans to their machines. Starting with The Terminator, in which humanity's artificial intelligences rise up in an apocalyptic rebellion; and continuing on to Aliens, in which space travel leads humans into deadly contact with an unknown species; and The Abyss, which similarly depicts a "first contact" story enabled by human technology and the complicated outcome of that contact -- the director has always been fascinated with the possibilities of engineering and technology even as he shows again and again how destructive they can be. The machines humans use take them repeatedly to places they should not be… and sometimes get them out again.

Avatar is likewise conflicted in its approach to the subject matter. Humanity's need to fuel its mechanistic societies has led it very far from Earth, to a world with its own life forms and societies, in which all the problems of colonialism apply. And the mining base, with its giant bulldozers and helicopters and gray color palette could hardly be more distinct from the lush jungle the Na'vi inhabit. Colonel Quaritch is an out-and-out villain, transformed into an almost demonic figure when he climbs into his AMP suit near the end of the movie. He is so clearly aligned with the heartless megacorporation that is ripping apart and plundering Pandora that the "machines" in this case seem the very embodiment of evil. But… despite their biological nature, the avatars are no less engineered, and the corporation's intentions in creating them are no less exploitative. They see them as diplomatic tools that can get them what they want in a way that will be more acceptable to their shareholders back home than outright conquest. And the very concept of "going native" is fraught with colonialist baggage. Yet without the avatars, humans cannot really engage with Pandora; they can only be Others, interfering from the outside. So are these tools bad or good? The movie offers no clear answer.

And then there is the fact that the Na'vi have their own version of the body-enhancing suit technology: they can plug themselves in to many Pandoran creatures and control them with their minds. This ability appears to have evolved in a "natural" rather than a "technological" way, and could be viewed by environmentalists as less objectionable than the humans' world-trashing machines, but there are many troubling unanswered questions. For example, why is it that the Na'vi have such complete control over the creatures they have bonded with? Once a Na'vi has made "tsahaylu" with a horse or banshee, the creature seems to become just an extension of his/her own body and nervous system, with no control over its own actions -- something which would seem to be very dangerous for the creature and not really in its best interest. How does this work on an ecosystem level? And isn't it somewhat morally suspect? I was struck at the end of the movie by the scene in which Neytiri mounts one of the thanators to fight Quaritch, who is in his powered suit. Each of them makes motions with their hands that then cause their proxy bodies to move in larger, more exaggerated ways; each seems to be controlling an extension of themselves. He's got a metal machine; she's got a living creature, but in a way they are equivalent. And at the end, the thanator is dead, whereas the suit has no life to lose. So which approach is better, really?

I appreciate that the movie raises these questions and doesn't answer them. They make it richer and more thought-provoking... even though I suspect that some of the ambiguity is the unintentional effect of script or editing problems. I'll be interested to see the "director's cut".

tags: Avatar]]> Film and TV http://therem.net/blog/index.php?itemid=113 Sun, 11 Apr 2010 23:10:09 -0400 http://therem.net/blog/index.php?itemid=111 Avatar in 3-D on New Year’s Eve. My expectations were very low as I walked into the theater. Pre-release interviews and pieces like this one by Annalee Newitz gave me the impression that the movie was a science fictional version of Dances with Wolves, a futuristic tale of noble savages and the white man who “goes native” to save them because they can’t save themselves. Grr. I’m also a CGI skeptic, and thought that the effects might irritate me with their blatant fakeness or creep me out by falling into the “uncanny valley”.

My reaction was a lot more complex. There are serious problems with the depiction of the Na’vi, the world building, the dialog and the characterization, but I still found the film to be both thought-provoking and occasionally moving. Spoilers below the jump.To start with the bad, the racial hinkiness is just as objectionable as reports made it out to be. The Na’vi are clearly based on a mixture of Native American, African and Indonesian tribes, without even a token attempt at respecting the cultures referenced or depicting them as realistically complex. (One of the creators admitted that because the Na’vi aren’t technically human, they felt they didn’t have to worry about “political correctness” and could depict them as Edgar Rice Burroughs might have in Tarzan.) They also seem kind of dumb. The humans have had a base on the planet for years, and it is implied that there have been clashes in the past, but the Na’vi don’t believe until the tanks are practically on top of their Hometree that they are in grave danger and have to run away. Once the conflict has escalated, they are helpless until Jake Sully comes to lead them. To be fair, he does bring along some human allies, military equipment and knowledge of tactics, but it just isn’t plausible how quickly he is accepted as the leader of the clan, even by Tsu’Tey, who is next in line for chief. Being able to ride a giant bird is cool, but come on. Jake’s specialness seems to boil down to the same old “what these people need is a honky” trope (with some fantastical “destiny” sprinkled on top). And his rallying cry of, “This is OUR land!” is positively cringe-inducing. The guy has been there what… three months? How does that make him a righteous native who can speak for the whole tribe? Frickin’ poser.

The larger ecosystem is pretty lame, too. As I watched, I could easily translate each animal encountered into an existing or extinct species on Earth. Banshee = pterodactyl. Thanator = panther. Direhorse = …horse. (The sound effects for these were ridiculous. They sounded just like Earth horses!) Those plants that disappear into the ground when touched = sleeping grass, a.k.a. “touch me not”. (I saw some of these when I was in Hawai’i. They are fun to poke!) The list goes on. This is not what I would call world building. It’s slapping a disguise on top of the familiar to make it seem “exotic” but not unnerving in the way the truly alien would be. The worst instance of this is, of course, the Na’vi themselves. Not only are they completely humanoid, but their body plan (4 limbs, 2 eyes) doesn’t even match the other vertebrates on the planet (6 limbs, 4 eyes)! Does evolution not work on Pandora? Did the Na’vi come from somewhere else? And what’s up with those gravity-defying mountains, anyway?

Who knows? I’m pretty sure the real answer is that Cameron wanted everything to be “relatable” and/or “cool” rather than scientific and confusing. A wise choice from a money-making standpoint, but praiseworthy? No. And not really science fiction, either.

However, there was a lot more to the movie. I am really intrigued by cyborgs and mind transfer stories because they’re a great way to explore questions of identity, and the avatar concept provides a lot to think about. Unfortunately, most of it is in the category of Unanswered Questions and Missed Opportunities, but my mind was still a little blown by the scene near the end when Neytiri encounters Jake Sully’s human body for the first time. His avatar body is lying outside mere feet away, unconscious because Jake has crawled out of his pod, desperate for air. Neytiri attaches the oxygen mask, Jake is saved just in time, and as she looms over him we see how huge she is compared to him. Wow. How weird must it be for her to know that this puny alien body produced the mind of the person she loves? And how strange it must be for him to see his lover through a different set of eyes, not metaphorically, but literally!

Even more mind-blowing is the fact that Jake goes on to permanently transfer his consciousness into his avatar and kill his human body. This is an important difference from movies like Dances with Wolves, in which the protagonist can return to the privileged world he came from if he really wants to. Jake not only looks inhuman, he can’t even survive in human-breathable atmosphere. He has chosen sides in the most final way possible.

Of course, the Earth of Avatar doesn’t sound like a place anyone would want to return to. This brings me to the other big thing I liked about the movie: its tree-hugging soul. About two-thirds of the way through the movie, Jake utters the most memorable sentence in the film: “They killed their mother.” By “they” he means the humans, the rapacious people he has already dissociated himself from, and “their mother” is Earth -- technically not yet dead, but apparently too far gone to save. Several reviews I have read have complained that the movie is simplistic and preachy on the subject of environmentalism. I suppose that is a matter of perspective. As I see it, Avatar is a science fiction story (actually more of a science fantasy, but let’s ignore that for now), and a time honored function of science fiction is to posit “if this goes on” scenarios to help us think about what we are doing right now. Unless they are foaming at the mouth crazy people, even militant capitalists have to admit at this point that humans have the power to trash the Earth’s ecosystems. The question is whether and/or how we will. Avatar doesn’t get into any of the details of what happened to Earth (though it’s a safe bet that strip mining was involved), it simply posits that it’s been ruined in order to contrast it to Pandora, a planet whose inhabitants -- plant, animal, and humanoid -- interact in a balance that is mediated by a higher power with the ability to smite when necessary. On the one hand, this is an obvious wish fulfillment fantasy: if only we had a strict planet-sized parent to mind us and let us know when we are going wrong! On the other, it’s a sobering reminder: in reality, we don’t, and no one seems to be at the wheel. How can we keep things from going to hell in a hand basket here on Earth?

Preachy or not, if this movie gets its audiences thinking about that question, I’ll be happy.

And about those effects? They won me over. Maybe the uncanny valley wasn’t as much of an issue because the characters being animated weren’t human, but the motion capture and CGI are very well done regardless. The 3-D was cool in a whiz bang kind of way, but I don’t think it really contributed to the story. I’ll be fine rewatching in 2-D.

In sum, Avatar is an interesting and worthwhile movie. Not good, exactly, but rich in theme and implication and things to talk about. I recommend it.

tags: Avatar]]> Film and TV http://therem.net/blog/index.php?itemid=111 Sun, 3 Jan 2010 21:11:57 -0500 http://therem.net/blog/index.php?itemid=110
And yet... if there is one thing I have learned this decade, it's that life is chock full of data of all kinds. At some point, you have to decide what you are going to focus on, because you just can't comprehend it all. And savoring the positives is healthier emotionally than dwelling on the negatives. New-Age-y platitude? Yep, but also true.

Putting on the rose-tinted glasses, I see that the past ten years had some serious good in them, too. I got my driver's license at age 31, ushering in a new era of mobility and independence. Several trips to Europe expanded my mind. I got a well-paying job with a non-profit company whose work I truly believe in. I had quality time with both my parents before they died. I bought a house that I love. The art of television truly matured and gave me some of my favorite shows ever: Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Farscape, Firefly, Ron Moore's Battlestar Galactica, Fullmetal Alchemist, The Wire, and Mad Men. Social networking on Facebook and Twitter revolutionized my internet experience and reconnected me with many old friends. My ties to the world of feminist science fiction grew stronger, WisCon became my spiritual home, and I even got published. Connections with old and new friends and family delighted and supported me through hard times. And last but not least in this hardly-exhaustive list: Obama was elected president. That alone could restore one's faith in a just universe.

As the new year and a new decade approach, I am feeling hopeful. Goodbye 2009, hello future!]]> Slice of Life http://therem.net/blog/index.php?itemid=110 Thu, 31 Dec 2009 15:58:46 -0500 http://therem.net/blog/index.php?itemid=109
Joan Marie Brunelle Dawley, 76, died Friday, Dec. 12, 2008 at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center in Lebanon, NH.

She was born May 25, 1932, in Montpelier, VT, the daughter of Edward Brunelle and Dorothy (Dunton) Brunelle.

She married George Siekierski in 1951. They lived in Montpelier, VT; New Haven, CT; and West Springfield, MA and had a son, Keith. They divorced in 1962 after a period of separation.

For several years she was a reporter for the Barre-Montpelier Times-Argus, writing human interest stories. There she met Lee Dawley, originally of Gowanda, NY; they married in 1963. After their move to S. Ryegate in 1964, she worked at the Caledonian Record in St. Johnsbury and the Orange County Council of Social Agencies. Lee was stricken with multiple sclerosis in the late 1970s, and as his condition worsened she spent more time tending to him. From 1985-2004, caring for him was her sole occupation.

Always an advocate of higher education, she was late to attend college herself. She studied at Goddard College in Plainfield, VT from 1976-1980, first focusing on the visual arts before pursuing a B.A. in Philosophy. She went on to a four-year graduate program at the State University of New York at Albany; she received her Masters in Philosophy in 1990. Studies in linguistics also led her to summer programs at Ohio Northern University in Ada, OH and Kossuth Lajos Tudományegyetem in Debrecen, Hungary. Her engagement with ideas was lifelong, and she continued to read in history, philosophy, and neuroscience until her final hospitalization.

She was predeceased by husband Lee Dawley, son Keith Siekierski, brother Philip Brunelle, and sister Kathleen Haggett. She is survived by brother Robert Brunelle (and wife Jackie) of S. Barre, VT; two daughters, Andrea Sharp (and husband Steve) of Essex Junction, VT and Janice Dawley of Burlington, VT; and son Hugh Dawley of Burlington, VT as well as several nieces and grandchildren.

A memorial ceremony will be held at 1:00 PM in the Fellowship Hall of the S. Ryegate Presbyterian Church on May 25, 2009. Donations in lieu of flowers can be made to the American Heart Association or the American Civil Liberties Union.

-----

The Times Argus created a guest book that anyone is free to sign. I was surprised to see that my mother's childhood friend Claire Buley signed it soon after it appeared, even though they hadn't been in touch in decades. That tells me that out of sight is not out of mind for a lot of people, and that each of us leaves an impression on the world as we pass through it. You are not forgotten, Mutti.]]> Slice of Life http://therem.net/blog/index.php?itemid=109 Thu, 19 Feb 2009 22:33:24 -0500