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Jun. 1st, 2013 05:24 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
gwydion* Three people are dead and twelve missing in Oaxaca due to hurricane Barbara. Many more have lost their homes.
* As I wrote this at least five were dead and fourteen injured in a series of Tornadoes that hit Oklahoma City around dinner time. They tried to evacuate in advance, but there wasn't nearly time to get most people out.
Remember that the Red Cross can generally use blood and money if you can spare them.
* "Delaware FINALLY Introduces Anti-Trans Discrimination Bill :" http://transgriot.blogspot.com/2013/05/delaware-finally-introduces-anti-trans.html
* The Straight Dope on what various governmental agencies and lobbyists are up to: http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/3108/do-secret-societies-control-everything
* “Last week Pope Francis suggested that Atheists could get into heaven by doing good deeds, but this week the Catholic Church made an official follow up statement that Atheists are still going to Hell. Atheists everywhere breathed a huge sigh of not giving a shit.” — W. Kamau Bell
* "World's Tiniest Library Pops Up In New York City:" http://www.theatlanticcities.com/design/2013/05/worlds-tiniest-library-pops-new-york-city/5742/
* "A cultural history of the dandy.:" http://www.slate.com/articles/arts/culturebox/2013/05/history_of_the_dandy_liberace_gatsby_david_bowie_and_other_peacocks.html
* Coincidentally, while I was in the library scanning stacks for research materials, I spotted something off topic, but up my alley. I was naughty and read a few chapters for fun to see if it's worth coming back to at a later date. I like the idea of the book and I'm really interested in the topic, but I came across something that bothered me. It's a small thing, or rather literally two words. They describe one of my favorite medieval kings as "a Dandy" and "flamboyant." Clearly, this is code for gay here. It's also wildly in accurate. I have nothing against Dandies and flamboyance. I've played dandies and describe myself as flamboyant. The issue here is inaccuracy. We are talking about an 11th century king who was one of the best generals of his time and who spent a large portion of his adult life out in the field personally cutting people up with his sword. He was intelligent and strong willed enough to give the metaphorical finger to the Pope and the upper clergy who demanded he give up his male lovers and marry a woman. He was tough, intelligent, and very, very busy fighting wars and consolidating his rule. For sure, he liked feasts, entertainment, and fucking much the way he liked hunting and fighting, but so did Henry II in the century after and no one is calling him "Dandy" or "flamboyant." The 11th century in Northern Europe was not a particularly high fashion century for men. I mean you have your court clothes that were nicer than what the peasants were wearing on a daily basis, but to me, dandyism requires way more than that. It's an interest in fancy, rather over the top clothes at minimum. The thing is, straight people can be dandies, but here it's clearly code for "gay." There is nothing mutually exclusive about being a gay dandy and being an excellent field general, as Louis XIV's brother would later clearly show. There is for sure nothing wrong with being both, it's just in this case, using code words like "Dandy" and "flamboyant" instead of simply saying the king was homosexual seems.... It's hard to put into the words. This King in life was about as out and proud as you could be in the Middle Ages. Words like gay and homosexual that express identity didn't exist yet, only words for sexual acts. He went around openly expressing his sexual and romantic interest in men. He didn't try to pass; he didn't back down when excommunicated over it. By going with these coy 1950ish euphemisms instead of saying what they mean, it's like pushing him into a closet he eschewed in life, it's implying there is something dirty and titillating about his sex life, when by all accounts he didn't feel that way about it himself. It was his lack of shame that infuriated the clergy and why they vilified him. Can't we give the man in death the same dignity he claimed for himself in life?
* I've just read "Desperate Upload." The story is a middle grade sf story and comes with a bonus vignette. Once upon a time, they used to publish middle grade sf anthologies and I read them one after the other as a kid. It makes me sad that there isn't much market for such things anymore. One of the things I liked best about this story is the protagonist has serious physical limitations. You don't see many sf protagonists in Middle grade or YA sf/fantasy with disabilities. The protagonist works with what's at hand and doesn't have compensatory super powers.
The story is rather slight and the companion piece is intriguing, but I would have liked to see a much longer piece on the same premise. Still they were quick fun reads and I wouldn't hesitate to pass this one to a young reader who might enjoy them.
* "7 Reasons Child Stars Go Crazy (An Insider's Perspective):" http://www.cracked.com/blog/7-reasons-child-stars-go-crazy-an-insiders-perspective/#ixzz2UxiOW61a
* "Now That’s a Souvenir:" http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/26/nyregion/how-a-worlds-fair-pavilion-became-a-familys-cabin.html?_r=0
* The Clutch:
* As I wrote this at least five were dead and fourteen injured in a series of Tornadoes that hit Oklahoma City around dinner time. They tried to evacuate in advance, but there wasn't nearly time to get most people out.
Remember that the Red Cross can generally use blood and money if you can spare them.
* "Delaware FINALLY Introduces Anti-Trans Discrimination Bill :" http://transgriot.blogspot.com/2013/05/delaware-finally-introduces-anti-trans.html
* The Straight Dope on what various governmental agencies and lobbyists are up to: http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/3108/do-secret-societies-control-everything
* “Last week Pope Francis suggested that Atheists could get into heaven by doing good deeds, but this week the Catholic Church made an official follow up statement that Atheists are still going to Hell. Atheists everywhere breathed a huge sigh of not giving a shit.” — W. Kamau Bell
* "World's Tiniest Library Pops Up In New York City:" http://www.theatlanticcities.com/design/2013/05/worlds-tiniest-library-pops-new-york-city/5742/
* "A cultural history of the dandy.:" http://www.slate.com/articles/arts/culturebox/2013/05/history_of_the_dandy_liberace_gatsby_david_bowie_and_other_peacocks.html
* Coincidentally, while I was in the library scanning stacks for research materials, I spotted something off topic, but up my alley. I was naughty and read a few chapters for fun to see if it's worth coming back to at a later date. I like the idea of the book and I'm really interested in the topic, but I came across something that bothered me. It's a small thing, or rather literally two words. They describe one of my favorite medieval kings as "a Dandy" and "flamboyant." Clearly, this is code for gay here. It's also wildly in accurate. I have nothing against Dandies and flamboyance. I've played dandies and describe myself as flamboyant. The issue here is inaccuracy. We are talking about an 11th century king who was one of the best generals of his time and who spent a large portion of his adult life out in the field personally cutting people up with his sword. He was intelligent and strong willed enough to give the metaphorical finger to the Pope and the upper clergy who demanded he give up his male lovers and marry a woman. He was tough, intelligent, and very, very busy fighting wars and consolidating his rule. For sure, he liked feasts, entertainment, and fucking much the way he liked hunting and fighting, but so did Henry II in the century after and no one is calling him "Dandy" or "flamboyant." The 11th century in Northern Europe was not a particularly high fashion century for men. I mean you have your court clothes that were nicer than what the peasants were wearing on a daily basis, but to me, dandyism requires way more than that. It's an interest in fancy, rather over the top clothes at minimum. The thing is, straight people can be dandies, but here it's clearly code for "gay." There is nothing mutually exclusive about being a gay dandy and being an excellent field general, as Louis XIV's brother would later clearly show. There is for sure nothing wrong with being both, it's just in this case, using code words like "Dandy" and "flamboyant" instead of simply saying the king was homosexual seems.... It's hard to put into the words. This King in life was about as out and proud as you could be in the Middle Ages. Words like gay and homosexual that express identity didn't exist yet, only words for sexual acts. He went around openly expressing his sexual and romantic interest in men. He didn't try to pass; he didn't back down when excommunicated over it. By going with these coy 1950ish euphemisms instead of saying what they mean, it's like pushing him into a closet he eschewed in life, it's implying there is something dirty and titillating about his sex life, when by all accounts he didn't feel that way about it himself. It was his lack of shame that infuriated the clergy and why they vilified him. Can't we give the man in death the same dignity he claimed for himself in life?
* I've just read "Desperate Upload." The story is a middle grade sf story and comes with a bonus vignette. Once upon a time, they used to publish middle grade sf anthologies and I read them one after the other as a kid. It makes me sad that there isn't much market for such things anymore. One of the things I liked best about this story is the protagonist has serious physical limitations. You don't see many sf protagonists in Middle grade or YA sf/fantasy with disabilities. The protagonist works with what's at hand and doesn't have compensatory super powers.
The story is rather slight and the companion piece is intriguing, but I would have liked to see a much longer piece on the same premise. Still they were quick fun reads and I wouldn't hesitate to pass this one to a young reader who might enjoy them.
* "7 Reasons Child Stars Go Crazy (An Insider's Perspective):" http://www.cracked.com/blog/7-reasons-child-stars-go-crazy-an-insiders-perspective/#ixzz2UxiOW61a
* "Now That’s a Souvenir:" http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/26/nyregion/how-a-worlds-fair-pavilion-became-a-familys-cabin.html?_r=0
* The Clutch: