rivkat: Scully with her "bitch please" face on (bitch please)
([personal profile] rivkat Aug. 20th, 2010 10:19 pm)
Jason Mittell on how to rip DVD clips for educators using their new DMCA exemption.

[personal profile] zvi linked to an excellent author website.

A 3-year-old recites Litany, by Billy Collins.

Rich Cohen, Sweet and Low: A Family Story: This entertaining book is the story of Cohen’s extended family, which founded the Sweet and Low business; Cohen also delves into the history of Brooklyn, sugar, dieting, and related topics, but very casually. Basically this is the story of a family that grew rich off of the idea of packaging sugar, and then sugar substitute, to replace sugar bowls and canisters that seemed unsanitary. The factory got caught up in a tax evasion/embezzlement/Mafia-related scandal, surviving weakened but still going, and Cohen’s branch of the family was disinherited, for reasons that Cohen can only ultimately gesture at, but the pleasure is in the telling.

Gillian Tett, Fool's Gold: How the Bold Dream of a Small Tribe at J.P. Morgan Was Corrupted by Wall Street Greed and Unleashed a Catastrophe: Another view of the collapse, focusing on the bankers at J.P. Morgan, who largely stayed out of the stupidest and riskiest decisions but were swept up anyway, in part because they’d played key roles in developing the derivatives that were so badly misused in recent years.

For the record: if, as he’s hanging around a bar, your white protagonist’s response to another character he perceives as (1) Native American and (2) threatening is to worry that he might get scalped, your character is thinking racist thoughts. If you didn’t mean to write a racist character, you at the very least have a writing problem. Also for the record: if that same white protagonist is resentful because he was the only white kid in an inner-city high school and, despite being first in his class, he couldn’t get scholarships etc. because he was white, your protagonist cannot be from actual California. In actual California, any consideration of race in admissions has been banned since 1996, and, in response, the state system adopted extensive measures to get everybody at the top of their individual schools into college, as a means of mitigating some of the huge racial impact of formal colorblindness. Well, I should say: your white protagonist can be resentful if he’s wrong, though I can’t have much respect for his intelligence if he didn’t manage to figure this out. But narratives about white oppression are fact-resistant. And finally for the record: if you put both of these things in your story and see nothing wrong with them, it’s not your character alone who has the problem.


cathexys: Sheppard pouting: bah (bah (by lim))

From: [personal profile] cathexys


Is it bad that I know what story you're referencing just from the anonmeme? :) I haven't even gone anywhere near it!

cathexys: Dean: fights evil (dean fights evil (by neery))

From: [personal profile] cathexys


I know! I can't fathom being an author over there, but as a reader the anonmeme has helped me steer clear of both major and minor things that make me not want to read a story...
cathexys: SGA team: team love (team love (by liviapenn))

From: [personal profile] cathexys


true. but maybe our community has grown both too big and too public? i wish we were having these conversations under names, but i don't see people doing it or criticism accepted well in most cases...
abbylee: (Default)

From: [personal profile] abbylee


Also for the record: if that same white protagonist is resentful because he was the only white kid in an inner-city high school and, despite being first in his class, he couldn’t get scholarships etc. because he was white, your protagonist cannot be from actual California.


Plus, given that it would be a completely different tale if the white protagonist is resentful because he was first in his class at a *different* school, I think it's pretty clear who that in-story institutional racism generally hurts.

(Although I say this without knowing what story you're talking about.)
thefourthvine: Elektra making an angry face. (Elektra is angry)

From: [personal profile] thefourthvine


Eeeeeeyikes. Is there any way you'd be willing to provide a title, so I can be sure to avoid this story? Because OMGWTF really doesn't begin to cover this.
bientot: We have met the enemy and he is us. (enemy)

From: [personal profile] bientot


It's always disheartening when members of a counterculture (such as fandom, feminism, 'liberals', etc. - or others of the many groups one expects better of) turn out to be just as narrow and insensitive as people one doesn't expect better of - and that turned out awkward and circuitous, so nevermind and just enjoy the icon...
mustangsally78: (Default)

From: [personal profile] mustangsally78

I was talking about you last night


The Sherlock BBC comm was getting its panties in a twist over copyright issues and I namedropped your legal page. They seem to think they know what they're talking about. Maybe somebody took a 1st year law class or something. So if you get hits on your website you'll know why.

Seriously, what are the chances that somebody is going to get nailed for writing Sherlock Holmes slash? I think it's absurd to even think about it.

Just tell me I'm right because I don't even play a lawyer on tv.

There's also a slim possibility that I may be writing Sherlock fanfic.

---- Sal

From: (Anonymous)

Re: I was talking about you last night


Fandom in the feral stage. God, I hate that.

From: (Anonymous)

Re: I was talking about you last night


It's certainly unlikely. It's an interesting situation given that most of the original is in the public domain in the US.

I know! I was thinking that it was the least likely to cause any stir due to its age. I tried to point it out and someone patronized me and I came over all "You don't know who I am" and realized that she probably didn't since shelf life is so short in fandom . . .

The BBC 2010 series is charming (if flawed) and full of slashy goodness - Sherlock nearly admits to being gay, and it's rife with UST and a dishy Holmes. I am so shallow.

I'm glad you would read my fic, the question is can I still write it!

Give my love to Z and the spawn. I do miss you!
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