coffee and ink

( Spoilers for Volume 8 )

What? I know some of you care. I would care if it were you. It's books.

Michelle Cliff, Abeng//Ali Smith, Girl Meets Boy = 1 book because both short
Elizabeth Hand, Generation Loss
Natsumi Itsuki, Jyo-Oh-Sei (manga)
Adam Lebor, City of Oranges
Juliet Marillier, Wildwood Dancing
Ekaterina Sedia, The Alchemy of Stone

Books I will definitely bring:

Adam Lebor, City of Oranges, because I'm not going to finish it by tomorrow

Books I am contemplating bringing:
Poll #1240477
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All

You should take the following books:

Arguments for/against books and/or other suggestions even more appreciated than votes. I am indecisive.

Yesterday I knelt on my right knee to reach books on a low shelf. This was a bad idea.

Let us discuss happier topics!

Poll #1240421 trip
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All

How many books should you bring on a five-day trip with two 2-hr. plane flights?

I wrote and deleted a furious and impolitic post and all that's left is the icon. Be grateful.

Instead, three things:

1. I had a terrific Sunday brunch with oyceter at Bogota Bistro, even though we had to remind them to bring Oyce's coffee and the side of fried sweet plaintains. In addition to the plaintains, we split eggs scrambled with tomatoes, chorizo, and scallions over a fried arepa with a generous scoop of guacamole, and plaintain-stuffed cinnamon french toast with fresh fruit (strawberries, watermelon, pineapple). I am not big on french toast, because usually it is too greasy, but this was crisp and light and perfect. And they were very generous with the chunks of fruit. Also, it was fried plaintains stuffed in fried bread. There is no bad there.
   
   
2. The Strand Annex on Fulton Street is closing down. It's selling off stock at an additional 50% discount until August 31. Oyce and I went twice. She got more books than I did both times. I think my collection may be reaching surfeit.
   
   
3. Dinner at Red Bamboo (vegetarian and vegan food) with Oyce, ktempest, nojojojo, and littlebutfierce. I had oxtail soup which succeeded in tasting very beefy even though there was no meat in it. The Red Bamboo chef is apparently a genius at recreating meat textures and tastes with soy or seitan protein, which is admirable but peculiar, because I should think vegetarians would really rather have things that taste like vegetables.
   
   Also split delicate fluffy dragonfly dumplings (not made with actual dragonflies) and collard green spring rolls with Oyce, and had an apple ginger lemon drink that tasted sort of like lemonade plus ginger ale.
   
   Vegan desserts still can't truly approximate whipped cream or chocolate.
   

Quick Links

Jewel of Medina controversy (Islam, Islamophobia, cultural appropriation, representation, freedom of speech)
Shahed Amanullah, Free Speech Is A Two-Way Street
shewhohashope: Intersectionality, Cultural Appropriation, and Trashy Books
slit: Someone Is WRONG on the Internet (dissection of Islamophobia in operation in mainstream responses)

For mainstream positioning, see Asra Q. Nomani's Wall Street Journal article, You Still Can't Write About Mohammed and Smart Bitches, Trashy Book's post on the book being removed from sale and the book's prologue, especially the comments threads.

Other Links
yennega: Women of Color and Beauty Carnival
sparkymonster: Fatness and Uplift: Not A Post About Push-Up Bras
troubleinchina: Let's Not Talk About It: Being Black in Canada
nyssa23: The Tannest White Girl I Know: Life in the Passing Lane
sparkymonster: That Voodoo You Do
shati: Secret Asian Man, a vid about the Chinese-dominated universe of Firefly
veejane: Black Slaves and Settlers in the US West; Awesome People You Have Never Heard Of (I keep telling her she should write a YA novel about Brit Johnson, because that is one of the coolest stories I have ever heard); and Rape on the American Frontier

( Like we didn't already know GWB was a Consortium member )

Wow, I can get wireless in the movie theater! I could live blog The X Files movie! But I won't.

Isn't Nick gay in the book version of Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist? Because I do not think his sexuality made it to the big screen intact.

( If you're going to argue about a text's metaphorical or allegorical representations of race, you may want to take a look at how it treats *actual people of color* before forming your conclusions about the subversion of racial stereotypes. )

Today is the sixty-third anniversary of the only verified deliberate use of what George W. Bush likes to call "weapons of mass destruction" on a civilian population. Previous and later testing would have significant mortalities and long-term health impacts on other populations, but these are perhaps better classified under "depraved indifference to human life" than "military attacks on civilian populations". It's notable that these "tests" disproportionately affect people of color, particularly indigenous people in areas controlled by external, particularly European colonizers: the United States continues to carry out tests on Indian lands and/or lands whose government ownership is disputed by Indian claims, and has conducted tests on the Marshall Islands with results so severe it has effectively been a genocide of at least one tribe, who have collectively decided not to reproduce because the incidence of fatal birth defects* became so high (see Andrea Smith's Conquest for details); with the permission of the Australian government, the UK conducted nuclear testing on Aboriginal lands; China conducts nuclear testing in Tibet.

In Hiroshima, sixty to seventy thousand people were killed by the bomb's immediate effects. Total deaths by the end of 1945, from radiation poisoning, burns, "incidental" damage (it's estimated the bomb destroyed 90% of the city's physical infrastructure), and the destruction of civil infrastructure are estimated at 90-140,000. The number of long-term deaths due to cancer via radiation poisoning is disputed: US reports, which I assume would be on the low end, put the total death toll at 200,000 by 1950, and attribute only 9% of cancer deaths in the area from 1950-1990 to effects of residual radiation. I am not an expert, but I must admit that percentage strikes me as suspiciously low. [eta: Some possible explanations for this.]

The U.S. bombed Nagasaki three days later.

* Expanding on this because I want to explain why I don't think this is a case of discrimination against the disabled, but would also like to cut-tag it for those reading who don't want to deal with pregnancy horror stories right now:

( Explanation )

( SPOILERS; ID; LACK OF REAL CONTENT )

This is the third annual International Blog Against Racism Week.

To participate:

1. If you use a blogging system that allows post icons/pictures, change your default icon to an antiracist icon.
   
   
2. Blog about race or racism: in media, in life, in the news, personal experiences, writing characters of color, portrayals of race in fiction, review a book on the subject, etc. The exact topic is up to you, although this year we suggest intersectionality as an optional theme. Posts from previous years are collected at the ibarw LJ community and in the IBARW delicious bookmarks.
   
   
3. Comment on the appropriate ibarw post with your post's URL, title, and tag suggestions for it to be included in link compilations.

Watchmen trailer. I'm thinking it may be the first movie based on an Alan Moore comic I will bother to see, but also I'm thinking, "It is not really fair to say, 'Oh, Alan Moore, only in a marketplace that gives a home to Frank Miller and David Sim could your treatment of women look good,' but it is awfully tempting anyway."

Women fall in love with their rapists! Bright young things sleep with skanky old men for mystical superpowers! Women are love and grace and forgiveness and when you cut us we bleed sugar and spice! Yeah, well, whatever.

Latest thought: Umbrella Academy: unauthorized mashup of The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen and Tom Strong, Y/N?

ETA: Spoilers for various comics by Alan Moore in the comments.

ETA2: Apparently not that unpopular an opinion, either. Huh.

A group of present and former Helix authors have put together Transcriptase, an alternate site archiving stories and poetry and responding to the controversy.

Current list of authors:

Elizabeth Barrette
Beth Bernobich
Maya Bohnhoff
Eugie Foster
Sara Genge
Samantha Henderson
Janis Ian
N.K. Jemisin
Vylar Kaftan
Ann Leckie
Yoon Ha Lee
Margaret Ronald
Jennifer Pelland
Vaughan Stanger
Rachel Swirsky

Everything Lianne Sentar has to say about Vampire Knight is 100% TRUE.

I will admit that the way mangaka Matsuri Hino keeps the melodrama ball rolling is nothing short of brilliant. This manga is basically a dramatic, sexy shoujo series with all the non-awesome parts cut out. The stupid premise building and bad opening only last about a chapter - then it’s headfirst into Kaname’s smoldering gazes and Zero hugging his naked body and screaming about how he’s a monster, what has he done, damn you, vampires.