mix the fanfic with the thinky...

[minxy]

eliade via zoetrope has discovered something called the uncyclopedia. She pulled a number of Atlantis references as well as David Hewlett worshipfulness quotes and entertained me muchly here.

janedavitt discusses whether there's a place for POV shifts in good fanfic (and books).

A number of marvelous conversations seem to be popping up all over regarding the rather bizarre racial politics of science fictions shows, notably SG-1, SGA and Farscape. My favorites are at sugargroupie's and ladyjax's here and here, thanks to RW for pointing me to both. Fascinating discussions. There are also discussions of writing race into fic, epithets like 'the dark man' as opposed to 'the older man/younger man' of Jack/Daniel slash, of eroticizing the exotic, about white culture and race as the default common experience, and about characters of color = aliens (or becoming an alien junky). Of why it's all about skin tone represented on Earth and not about the gold paint, tattoos, pouches, scars, wacky facial hair or something otherwise, you know, alien. Shockingly underthunk by TPTB, it would seem.

This entertained me probably too much: the Online Tarot Reading.

I read a John/Rodney piece last night in which there was a really nice thread of Rodney not being able to let go of Cadman and the 'ship with John just being a sort of relevant supporting storyline. It was quite awesome, to my sleepy mind. Letting Go by gaiaanarchy.

Wordgeek has posted the last installment of The Mind Doesn't Decide series. Jack/Daniel, NC-17, S8. The stuff is like crack, it's so addictive. That's your warning.

finisterre, whom some of you may know from her X-files fanfiction (as Marasmus), has posted two extraordinary Harry Potter fics, both gen, both marvelous: The Grangers and the War, and Untitled 1000 Word Fic. Seriously. Thanks muchly to cofax7 for the rec.

Updates from Pepe's Place include some extraordinary challenge responses in short story form from Pepe (April Fool, NC-17) and Berty (April Showers challenge) called Raindance. Both Jack/Daniel, NC-17.

A marvelous NCIS/Dark Angel crossover snippet from nixa_jane, pretty gen, teen. I must encourage these thoughts. Mmmmm..... (eta: link now goes to an unflocked comm, so everybody can read the goodness!)

dustandroses posted a Jack/Daniel smut day fic called 'Eat Dessert First' on the whacked euphemism prompt of 'spelunking sausage' and it's just so endearing what she did with it. Add in phosphorescent spores and I'm enchanted, man. NC-17.

surrealphantast continues her iconficcing with a Sam/Daniel and Cameron/Daniel that I loveeeeeed. Yum. God is in the details. Both PGish, I think.

Also got pointed by thefourthvine to a genderbending, femmeslashy, defies categorization Jack/Daniel fic from last year's ficathon. This is the Alternative by scrollgirl. Who'd'a thunk? Hotness. NC-17, J/D.

Thoughts on Alias: Before I knew of Firefly or the fantasticness that is Zoe who could break you with her little finger (thank goodness she's on our side), I knew Gina Torres as Anna on the first season of Alias (because when she's not on your side? Dangerous badguy and totally worthy of much respect). When they talked about her showing up again in later seasons? I was THRILLED. When she walked into Will Tippin's house and had a scene with Bradley Cooper? My two favorite recurring guest stars suddenly and unexpectedly in a scene together?

I hate that Alias has been cancelled, but I love that they're bringing back these great people as part of the send-off. (also? They let Gina speak with an American accent! And they didn't make Bradley dye his hair! *shallowly gleeful* Not that Gina + accent isn't possibly the most amazing thing ever.)

Thoughts on an NCIS allllll about Abby: I love how independent that girl is. Love that they have a quirky character with faults and vulnerabilities and a life outside of what you see on the screen. Also really adore her interaction with Gibbs. Love that.

Comments

[rydra_wong]

To add to the thinkiness, here's the discussion of epithets:

http://xayeidemon.livejournal.com/129632.html

I think some of the current conversations were sparked by the huge debate that blew up about race in SGA here:

http://tielan.livejournal.com/49532.html

Which precipitated an important post from ladyjax here:

http://ladyjax.livejournal.com/403324.html

And there was the "Absence of Color" panel at Escapade before that - here's a report and a link to the handouts:

http://kassrachel.livejournal.com/371553.html#cutid3
http://community.livejournal.com/escapade_con/17378.html

[http://users.livejournal.com/_minxy_/]

I must admit to hesitancy about reading anything that blew up, but I'm really curious about the Escapade panel...

Thanks for the links, this is awesome.

[rydra_wong]

Well, it "blew up" mainly in the sense of becoming HUGE - at least in the bits I followed, it stayed pretty civil. Albeit, for me and various other people, extremely frustrating at some points.

[http://users.livejournal.com/_minxy_/]

Frustrating I can handle, narrow minded and cruel? Not so much, but the eloquence of several reactions I've read so far is extraordinary, perhaps I should go back and read the primary literature?

[rydra_wong]

There was one thread in particular that made my head go all desky, but there were also a number that were civil albeit extremely frustrating.

IIRC, the point when I cracked and had to walk away was when there were simultaneously people claiming that the SG PTB couldn't cast black actors as scientists because there weren't enough black actors in Vancouver, and that they couldn't cast white actors as alien warriors because there were't enough white actors with fight training.

Or something.

[http://users.livejournal.com/_minxy_/]

Vancouver being an incredibly diverse city, wouldn't possibly have any black actors? They could call me a couple of hours South and I could hook them up with some *actual* scientists who are black or otherwise darkskinned... And for whatever reason, my martial arts class is mostly white. HOWEVER, I find that argument really incredibly spurrious since there is little actual fighting done by the actors.

*shakes fist* See? Don't know if I want to get into it after the fact, I'd just fume. Stupid people thinking they're colorblind but really just turning a blind eye are almost more frustrating to me than people doing something clearly over a line and being called on it. It's so insidious.

Here's a question for you, though: why do you think the GBLT community has a term for friends of the community (allies) but a similar concept doesn't exist in a racial discussion. I was noticing this in LadyJax's post about how sometimes she just doesn't want to deal with white people as a group even though she knows some are really cool... there's no term for friends/allies/people who aren't defined by the community but are supportive and... whatever allies are. Not making things harder. [side note: I'm thinking about some other experiences on the periphery of communities, and there is usually some way to quickly indicate whether someone signs or adapts or an ally, some way to indicate quickly to the community that this person is going to be gracious without having to prove oneself on an individual basis every time.] Race is one of the most difficult things to have a discussion about, I think, partly because there are so many words that have been twisted into something hurtful that it's a minefield and we don't have a vocabulary to communicate with; makes me that much more impressed by the elegant way people were expressing themselves in the posts I've read.