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Jul. 24th, 2016 12:33 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
gwydion* Hillary Clinton has picked Tim Kaine.
I have turned any number of ways of writing about this around in my head. I'm not sure this is the right one and I'm tossing a lot of things out because I'm not convinced they'd be productive or because the thoughts are not well enough formed. So here goes wit my apologies in advance.
I was not in the camp pushing Elizabeth Warren or Sherrod Brown. This is because relegating some of our heaviest hitters to the VP role would be a terrible waste. I want Warren in particular in the senate. I'd love her as President, sure, but she was very clear on that not being what she wants. If she changes her mind some day, I'll vote for her with pleasure, but for now she is fighting the good fight where she is.
I was in the camp that she should pick a strongly progressive VP. It's what I'd have liked personally, sure, but I honestly think it would have been better politics for a host of practical reasons which I'm frankly too tired and borderline feverish to write about today.
The thing is, I knew we weren't going to get that. I knew we weren't going to get that because this is Hillary Clinton. I knew we weren't going to get that because the campaign telegraphed the pick, I'm guessing so the press could help with the vetting.
I am not best pleased. I give the whole corporate Democrat/pro-TPP thing the side eye. I have a bunch of reasons not to trust him I'm not getting into here, but I'm betting if you even skimmed the press coverage you'll know what they are. It could be so much better, but it could also easily have been so much worse. His record on Immigration and Health Care sounds good. He's got a decent record in a bunch of other areas I care about. He's been a Governor and has practical political experience. I can see why she thinks him a good choice from several directions.
I am not best pleased, but it's not even close to disastrous. I can still vote for the ticket in good conscience, and there is a lot of room for him to surprise me in a good way once we get to see properly what he's like. I honestly would love to be surprised. So I'm willing to wait and see how it goes.
* This rant is brilliant. "Jon Stewart Takes Over Colbert's Late Show Desk:"
* Today's lilies: http://gwydionmisha.tumblr.com/post/147818658162/lots-of-pinks-today
* Mira Grant's Rise is stunningly good. As I mentioned before, I had read the first two pieces in other venues, but the others were new to me. There are no trans people that I noticed in the collection, but otherwise it's quite diverse as to race, gender, orientation, and occasionally ability. It felt very welcoming and looked a lot more like America than any other zombie apocalypse I can think of. The collection as a whole is some of Mira Grant/Seanan McGuire's best work from an art of writing perspective and the characters and situations are gripping and occasionally outright haunting in the linger in my thoughts and seep into my dreams sense. It's the best thing I've read in months at least, and good enough I have to restrain myself from grabbing acquaintance and demanding they read it.
-Countdown: Originally published in serial form in livejournal as a promotion, this is the story of how the old world ended in brief, bold, tragic lines.
-Everglades: More a mood expressed in poetic language than a story, to be honest. It is beautiful in it's way, but my least favorite of them. The imagery is beautiful, but I never really connected with the main character for whatever reason. YMMV.
-San Diego 2014: The Last Stand of the Browncoats: Ouch. OMG, ouch. I can't tell you how many times I had to set the book down and cry for this one. I ended up weeping earlier this week during a San Diego comic Con promo because it got me thinking about this one. I've never been to San Deigo comic Con, but I went to a different con for 15 years or so until my body and my finances es couldn't handle it anymore. This was so very, very real both in the culture and the characters, and so easy to feel on a tactile and emotional level. Damn this one is good and everything I ever wanted from a zombie story compressed into a dense little package. Damn it, I'm tearing up again and the theme song for Firefly is playing in my head as sung by attendees at a different con, but in the mouths of characters that only exist on a page. Seriously, even if short stories aren't your thing, read this one.
-How Green This Land, How Blue This Sea: How the Aussies adapted to the post KA world. This fascinates me and has been haunting my thoughts and dreams all week. It is brilliant and makes complete sense and I want more zombie kangaroos. It's also got really important information in it for the way the world is developing that plays into my response to some things later in the book. I loved this story as a stand alone, but the ways the implications impact my view of the rest of the Newsflesh universe are apt to be far reaching. It is at this point I realized I need the reread the trilogy ASAP.
- The Day the Dead Came to Show and Tell: Ouch. Again, Ouch. Maybe this one was extra personal to me because I was a teacher, though my kids were bigger. (People who taught/teach Middle School on purpose represent!) I have, in real life, listened to class change chaos and thought to myself, "If a zombie apocalypse happened, none of us would know until the kids started trying to eat us." I am also someone who has frequently said that Kindergarten and first grade teacher deserve combat pay.
I've spent enough time working with younger kids for all of this story to ring true. I've also spent way to long under desks with 6-8th graders during active shooter drills to not grasp how impossible silence is and how fucked we'd have been in a real situation given the physical realities of class room design. This particular peril as written felt pretty damned real to me and the things that went wrong were exactly the sorts of things that would go wrong in a real situation. The consultants that have never served in a classroom and know fuck all about situations on the ground, the school design, the teacher psychology, and the kid behavior were all spot on. Throw in the givens of Kellis-Amberlee and the Newsflesh world adaptations, this was completely believable. It was hard to put down and utterly heart breaking.
Years ago, when that teacher in California died saving his kids from an active shooter, an ex said to me, "There is a special place in Valhalla for him." If Mrs. Tessler were real, there would be a special place in Valhalla for her. Damn. I'm crying again.
Anyway, this one, "Please Do Not Taunt the Octopus," and "Coming to You Live" form a sort of triptych that felt rather like a novel to me, a companion to the other three, even though "Show and Tell" could most definitely stand alone.
- Please Do not Taunt the Octopus: I love Doctor Abbey. I've always loved Doctor Abbey. I loved getting to visit her again and this story tied up a loose end from the novels it never occurred to me was loose, but boy did I appreciate finding out the rest of the story.
- All the Pretty Horses: How the Masons Got that way, basically. This one is a valuable contribution to the Newsflesh world (rather like Countdown), and can stand alone quite well, but wasn't as personally compelling as the best in here. Like Countdown, it is good, but a bunch of the others in here hit it out of the park, and I think it suffers from being Sandwiched between "Octopus" and "Coming to You Live," which are clearly telling parts of the same story. I get that it's likely here instead of right after "Everglades" or "San Diego", where I'd have put it, because of its ties to the Masons, but I think I'd have loved it better earlier in the collection.
- Coming to You Live: This is Aftermath. It's the place that the trilogy and most of other stories in the book come together for closure. I loved it.
</lj-cut * So I've been rereading Preacher. I'd forgotten how casually homophobic it was. I an still see the things I loved about them when they were new, but it's twenty years later and I simply ran out of tolerance for this particular set of flaws in the interim. I really need to dig the memorial collection out of storage and see if I can sell mine. I can use the money and I doubt I'll want to read them again once I'm finished the library copies. * "How to help Flint, Michigan:" http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/how-help-flint-michigan * Help pay for cat food, litter, meds, medical copays: Paypal Lethran@gmail.com * Donate to help refugees: http://donate.unhcr.org/international/general * A list of LGBTQA Charities: http://awkward0w1.tumblr.com/post/126399233673 * Want Game of Thrones without the creepy? We desperately need new players. We are very inclusive. "Game of Bones MUSH:" gobmush.wikidot.com
I have turned any number of ways of writing about this around in my head. I'm not sure this is the right one and I'm tossing a lot of things out because I'm not convinced they'd be productive or because the thoughts are not well enough formed. So here goes wit my apologies in advance.
I was not in the camp pushing Elizabeth Warren or Sherrod Brown. This is because relegating some of our heaviest hitters to the VP role would be a terrible waste. I want Warren in particular in the senate. I'd love her as President, sure, but she was very clear on that not being what she wants. If she changes her mind some day, I'll vote for her with pleasure, but for now she is fighting the good fight where she is.
I was in the camp that she should pick a strongly progressive VP. It's what I'd have liked personally, sure, but I honestly think it would have been better politics for a host of practical reasons which I'm frankly too tired and borderline feverish to write about today.
The thing is, I knew we weren't going to get that. I knew we weren't going to get that because this is Hillary Clinton. I knew we weren't going to get that because the campaign telegraphed the pick, I'm guessing so the press could help with the vetting.
I am not best pleased. I give the whole corporate Democrat/pro-TPP thing the side eye. I have a bunch of reasons not to trust him I'm not getting into here, but I'm betting if you even skimmed the press coverage you'll know what they are. It could be so much better, but it could also easily have been so much worse. His record on Immigration and Health Care sounds good. He's got a decent record in a bunch of other areas I care about. He's been a Governor and has practical political experience. I can see why she thinks him a good choice from several directions.
I am not best pleased, but it's not even close to disastrous. I can still vote for the ticket in good conscience, and there is a lot of room for him to surprise me in a good way once we get to see properly what he's like. I honestly would love to be surprised. So I'm willing to wait and see how it goes.
* This rant is brilliant. "Jon Stewart Takes Over Colbert's Late Show Desk:"
* Today's lilies: http://gwydionmisha.tumblr.com/post/147818658162/lots-of-pinks-today
* Mira Grant's Rise is stunningly good. As I mentioned before, I had read the first two pieces in other venues, but the others were new to me. There are no trans people that I noticed in the collection, but otherwise it's quite diverse as to race, gender, orientation, and occasionally ability. It felt very welcoming and looked a lot more like America than any other zombie apocalypse I can think of. The collection as a whole is some of Mira Grant/Seanan McGuire's best work from an art of writing perspective and the characters and situations are gripping and occasionally outright haunting in the linger in my thoughts and seep into my dreams sense. It's the best thing I've read in months at least, and good enough I have to restrain myself from grabbing acquaintance and demanding they read it.
-Countdown: Originally published in serial form in livejournal as a promotion, this is the story of how the old world ended in brief, bold, tragic lines.
-Everglades: More a mood expressed in poetic language than a story, to be honest. It is beautiful in it's way, but my least favorite of them. The imagery is beautiful, but I never really connected with the main character for whatever reason. YMMV.
-San Diego 2014: The Last Stand of the Browncoats: Ouch. OMG, ouch. I can't tell you how many times I had to set the book down and cry for this one. I ended up weeping earlier this week during a San Diego comic Con promo because it got me thinking about this one. I've never been to San Deigo comic Con, but I went to a different con for 15 years or so until my body and my finances es couldn't handle it anymore. This was so very, very real both in the culture and the characters, and so easy to feel on a tactile and emotional level. Damn this one is good and everything I ever wanted from a zombie story compressed into a dense little package. Damn it, I'm tearing up again and the theme song for Firefly is playing in my head as sung by attendees at a different con, but in the mouths of characters that only exist on a page. Seriously, even if short stories aren't your thing, read this one.
-How Green This Land, How Blue This Sea: How the Aussies adapted to the post KA world. This fascinates me and has been haunting my thoughts and dreams all week. It is brilliant and makes complete sense and I want more zombie kangaroos. It's also got really important information in it for the way the world is developing that plays into my response to some things later in the book. I loved this story as a stand alone, but the ways the implications impact my view of the rest of the Newsflesh universe are apt to be far reaching. It is at this point I realized I need the reread the trilogy ASAP.
- The Day the Dead Came to Show and Tell: Ouch. Again, Ouch. Maybe this one was extra personal to me because I was a teacher, though my kids were bigger. (People who taught/teach Middle School on purpose represent!) I have, in real life, listened to class change chaos and thought to myself, "If a zombie apocalypse happened, none of us would know until the kids started trying to eat us." I am also someone who has frequently said that Kindergarten and first grade teacher deserve combat pay.
I've spent enough time working with younger kids for all of this story to ring true. I've also spent way to long under desks with 6-8th graders during active shooter drills to not grasp how impossible silence is and how fucked we'd have been in a real situation given the physical realities of class room design. This particular peril as written felt pretty damned real to me and the things that went wrong were exactly the sorts of things that would go wrong in a real situation. The consultants that have never served in a classroom and know fuck all about situations on the ground, the school design, the teacher psychology, and the kid behavior were all spot on. Throw in the givens of Kellis-Amberlee and the Newsflesh world adaptations, this was completely believable. It was hard to put down and utterly heart breaking.
Years ago, when that teacher in California died saving his kids from an active shooter, an ex said to me, "There is a special place in Valhalla for him." If Mrs. Tessler were real, there would be a special place in Valhalla for her. Damn. I'm crying again.
Anyway, this one, "Please Do Not Taunt the Octopus," and "Coming to You Live" form a sort of triptych that felt rather like a novel to me, a companion to the other three, even though "Show and Tell" could most definitely stand alone.
- Please Do not Taunt the Octopus: I love Doctor Abbey. I've always loved Doctor Abbey. I loved getting to visit her again and this story tied up a loose end from the novels it never occurred to me was loose, but boy did I appreciate finding out the rest of the story.
- All the Pretty Horses: How the Masons Got that way, basically. This one is a valuable contribution to the Newsflesh world (rather like Countdown), and can stand alone quite well, but wasn't as personally compelling as the best in here. Like Countdown, it is good, but a bunch of the others in here hit it out of the park, and I think it suffers from being Sandwiched between "Octopus" and "Coming to You Live," which are clearly telling parts of the same story. I get that it's likely here instead of right after "Everglades" or "San Diego", where I'd have put it, because of its ties to the Masons, but I think I'd have loved it better earlier in the collection.
- Coming to You Live: This is Aftermath. It's the place that the trilogy and most of other stories in the book come together for closure. I loved it.
</lj-cut * So I've been rereading Preacher. I'd forgotten how casually homophobic it was. I an still see the things I loved about them when they were new, but it's twenty years later and I simply ran out of tolerance for this particular set of flaws in the interim. I really need to dig the memorial collection out of storage and see if I can sell mine. I can use the money and I doubt I'll want to read them again once I'm finished the library copies. * "How to help Flint, Michigan:" http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/how-help-flint-michigan * Help pay for cat food, litter, meds, medical copays: Paypal Lethran@gmail.com * Donate to help refugees: http://donate.unhcr.org/international/general * A list of LGBTQA Charities: http://awkward0w1.tumblr.com/post/126399233673 * Want Game of Thrones without the creepy? We desperately need new players. We are very inclusive. "Game of Bones MUSH:" gobmush.wikidot.com
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Date: 2016-07-25 09:55 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2016-07-26 01:19 am (UTC)