wisb-Guardian-Express

The lovely Kay Kenyon joins Jen and I for a discussion about The Entire and the Rose series, worldbuilding (what we love and what bugs us), and women in science fiction.  We get into some heady stuff, too -- like the recent charges of sexual harassment at the World Fantasy Convention.

Amusing as it may be to play the "the liberal media is going after Herman Cain" card when it comes to the allegations recently made against Jesse Jackson, it is also prudent to remember one incredibly important fact:  Jesse Jackson isn't running for President.  Let's also be honest about something else:  if he were running for President, you better believe that liberals and conservatives alike would, in their own way, go after him for his numerous failings as a "moral person."  Jackson is not unfamiliar to the controversy bucket, as his 1984 comments about Jews (shortly after losing the Presidential ticket) and his numerous infidelities make clear.  And I think his history makes him unlikely as a legitimate Democratic candidate for the Presidency in the future.

Of course, The Huffington Post did report on the incident.  But I suppose we can just pretend they aren't part of the "liberal media" or the "media" in general.  Ever so insignificant that Huffington Post... In any case, the predominately right-leaning base will take this oversight as an indictment
of the evil liberal media and its evil ways of leaving out the truth.  This great conspiracy theory falls apart when you actually look at who comprises the liberal media:  corporate-owned, largely conservative agencies who are no more liberals than their right-leaning counterparts.

 While such agencies may espouse liberal values, they do so only by paying lip-service to them, for the moment any challenge comes to the conservative elite, those very agencies flip over like dogs begging to be scratched and pounce on their liberal audience.  We know this because various "liberal" papers supported the Bush post-9/11 narrative in order to justify gross human rights violations -- they did so by changing the language they used to describe "torture."  We know this because the way the Occupy Everywhere protesters have been presented by almost all of the major news outlets has been less favorable than similar coverage by media sources from elsewhere, often at the expense of the messages actually being presented by OWS and her allies.  This is because OE represents a threat to the establishment, who owns most of the so called "liberal media" and is quite apt at putting pressure where it needs to be in order to keep the narrative peddled by the media as divisive, entertaining, and supportive of the status quo as possible.

And that's really where all this rests:  talking about who is a liberal and who is a conservative and who has the right narrative, blah blah blah, is all a giant game of ideology that serves no other purpose than to keep people nipping at one another's throats.  The truth of matter is that very little "truth" gets through corporate media.  If you want to see what's going on in the world, you have to go to independent media sources, or the rare corporate media source that doesn't have its hands caught in the cookie jar (I would look at The Guardian as one such source).
But to return to the original point:  why is Herman Cain getting the shaft and Jesse Jackson a pass?

1. Herman Cain is running for President.  I can't say whether Cain is innocent of the charges, but it goes without saying that a Presidential hopeful should be subject to public scrutiny.  This includes Obama, who I will undoubtedly criticize throughout the next year in my evil liberal circles.  But since Jesse Jackson is not running for President, and remains little more than an activist whose core values are really hard to disagree with (justice for people of color, etc.), I really don't see the point in putting Cain and Jackson on the same public pedestal.
   
2. Cain has a tendency to shove his foot in his mouth whenever he talks, which makes challenging him on allegations of sexual harassment all the more important.  Any candidate who cannot keep his narrative straight deserves the kind of scrutiny Cain is getting.  Did Cain know about the settlement or not?  Should abortion be illegal or a choice?  Whose fault is it for the high unemployment rate -- those without jobs or the system?  I could go on, but I think the point is made.  I have the same misgivings about Romney and Perry, whose rambling and flip-flopping make it rather difficult to determine where they actually stand.  And I have the same misgivings about Obama, who I think betrayed his progressive base by cowering before the opposition.
   
3. Jackson isn't really getting a pass.  Plenty of news sources are covering the incident.  But the truth is that very few people actually care.  That's not because Jackson is unimportant in a general sense.  It's that he's unimportant when compared to the vast array of problems and events happening all around us.  Are we really concerned with whether Jackson fondled someone's testicles or whether Presidential hopeful Cain sexually harassed a woman, or whether the economy will bounce back or Obama's Jobs Bill will get passed (and if it will be good for us), or whether Occupy Wall Street will effect any changes (or if it is really bad for the country), or whether the Arab Spring will produce good results in the Middle East, or whether we'll withdraw troops from Iraq or Afghanistan, and so on and so forth.

The folks over at Entangled Publishing brought this interesting book to my attention, and so I am passing on the information to all of you.  (FYI:  Lynn Flewelling, author of a whole bunch of lovely books, has a blurb on the back cover!)

Here goes:

Heaven can go to hell. 

Until her cousin slaughtered the supernal family, Anazakia’s father ruled the Heavens, governing noble Host and Fallen peasants alike. Now Anazakia is the last grand duchess of the House of Arkhangel’sk, and all she wants is to stay alive. 

Hunted by Seraph assassins, Anazakia flees Heaven with two Fallen thieves—fire demon Vasily and air demon Belphagor, each with their own nefarious agenda—who hide her in the world of Man. The line between vice and virtue soon blurs, and when Belphagor is imprisoned, the unexpected passion of Vasily warms her through the Russian winter. Heaven seems a distant dream, but when Anazakia learns the truth behind the celestial coup, she will have to return to fight for the throne—even if it means saving the man who murdered everyone she loved.

You can find out more about the book at Entangled Publishing (which includes an excerpt).  The book will be released in print and electronic forms.  The author can be found on her website.

Some interesting stuff is flying through my email.  I can't read it all, so I've offered to toss up some information for all of you who might be interested.

Here goes:

1494 Barcelona. As Torquemada lights the fires of religious fervor throughout the cities of Spain, accused heretics are not the only victims. Thousands of books and manuscripts are lost to the flames as the Black Friars attempt to purge Europe of the ancient secrets of the gods and the bold new ideas that are ushering in the Renaissance.

Nadira lives a dreary life as servant to a wealthy spice merchant until the night a dying scholar is brought to the merchant’s stable, beaten by mercenaries who are on the hunt for The Hermetica of Elysium. To Nadira, words are her life: she lives them as her master’s scrivener and dreams them in her mother’s poetry. She is pursued as passionately as the fabled manuscript for her rare skill as a reader of Ancient Greek, Latin, Arabic and Hebrew that makes her valuable to men who pursue the book to exploit its magic.

Kidnapped by Baron Montrose, an adventurous nobleman, she is forced to read from the Hermetica. It is soon revealed to her that ideas and words are more powerful than steel or fire for within its pages are the words that incite the Dominicans to religious fervor, give the Templars their power and reveal the lost mysteries of Elysium.

As Nadira begins her transformation from servant to sorceress, will she escape the fires of the Inquisition, the clutches of the Borgia pope, Alexander VI and the French king, Charles VIII? And will Montrose’s growing fear of her powers cause her to lose her chance for love?

You can find out more about the book at Knox Robinson Publishing (where they have a magic excerpt).

(I first must apologize to Mr. Smith for the lateness of this post.  The email containing the guest post below got buried, which has happened far more times than I think is fair.  This will be resolved ASAP.)

In 1954, J.R.R. Tolkien published the first of a breathtaking series of books that would go on to become some of the most influential novels of the 20th century. As anyone who has ever read The Lord of the Rings knows, Tolkien's books are so imaginative and unexpectedly powerful that his fantastic tale still captures our imaginations more than a half century after its original publication. These stories gave birth to the modern fantasy genre, and it is perhaps inevitable that so many contemporary fantasy books replicate aspects of Tolkien's writings. So pervasive is Tolkien's influence that the English Dictionary offers a word for it: Tolkienesque. Perhaps this is why we see so many fantasy tales that feature elves, dwarves, wizards, magic rings, and magic swords. The presence of these features is, in many ways, what we have come to expect from a modern fantasy novel.

But over the course of 57 years, these constructs of classical Northern European (or Tolkienesque) fantasy fiction have been imitated to the point of monotony. In tome  after tome, we see elves and dwarves wielding magical swords or speaking in Northern European conlangs (fictional languages) as they follow some particular heroic quest. And let's be honest. Although there are many wonderful and imaginative novels that feature these elements, no one has done it as well as Mr. Tolkien.

When I sat down to write Antiquitas Lost, I promised myself there would be no magic rings, magic swords, elves or dwarves. A major goal was to create a fantasy novel where the creatures and setting were fresh. Pangrelor, the fantasy world described in Antiquitas Lost, is envisioned as a pre-industrial, medieval society with beautiful artistic accomplishments set in a savage and magical natural environment -- the Renaissance meets the Pleistocene, with magical beings and crypto-zoological creatures. Devoid of elves and dwarves, Pangrelor is inhabited largely by creatures that we are familiar with, but different from the usual fantasy fare -- gargoyles, Bigfoot creatures, Neanderthal types, Atlanteans and dinosaurs, to name a few. These differences give Pangrelor a much different feel from Middle Earth and the countless, adherent worlds that have followed. Hopefully the reader will find this refreshing. Over time, I have come to think of Antiquitas Lost as more of a "North American" tale, with many references to new world mythologies, as well as a hint of Native American influence.

 Although Antiquitas Lost is not immune to Mr. Tolkien's sweeping influence, it is unique in many ways. When you take your first journey to Pangrelor, it is my sincere hope that you will experience a hint of the joy that accompanied your maiden voyage to Middle Earth, and that you will connect in a meaningful way with this unprecedented new cast of characters as you explore an altogether unique fantasy destination.


For more information please visit http://www.antiquitaslost.com/ and follow the author on Facebook and Twitter

The title is intentionally provocative.  Why?  Because I think it is utterly ridiculous that an organization claiming to be about "the news" needs to do a story about a guy who threw a party to prove female comic book geeks exist in order to put this whole B.S. argument to rest.  And here's why I think that:

It was all of the hubub on the Internet about women not being part of the hobby at all. Day in and day out, I can see that’s an utter lie. I see customers walking in my door who are female and of different ages every single day — everyone from women in their 60s to teenagers. I see lots of daughters coming in with their moms and dads, and they love the stuff.

The above, by the way, is Brian Jacoby's response to the first question.

Perhaps I'm being unfair to CNN, but it seems to me that this whole story could have been avoided if someone had simply walked into a comic book shop, spent more than three seconds inside during "rush hour," and then went home to report, "Women enter comic book shops.  Myth busted.  Goodbye."

Of course, CNN's correspondent (Erika D. Peterman this time around) had to ask this question:
Why do you think the idea that women don't read comics persists?

Jacoby responds by referring to the lack of demographic studies on the comic book industry.  I think that has something to do with it, but I also think it has a lot to do with the fact that comics have been and continue to be seen as the "domain of men."  By saying that, I in no way think such opinions are accurate.  In fact, any assumption that a "thing" can be the "domain of men" should be taken with a grain of salt (or as patriarchy trying to announce its existence the same way a racist announces him or herself by saying "I'm not a racist, but").
The point is this:  anyone who goes to comic book shops knows that there are, in fact, plenty of women who read comics.  And we know this in part because there are comics written specifically for the female market.  Comic book companies are in it for the profit just like other publishers.  And they're not going to create comics for women if they don't think there are women there to read them.  But women are there.  Plenty of them.  They read Buffy and Twilight comics.  They read X-Men and Iron Man and The Avengers and Batman and indie comics and violent comics and comics with bunnies.  Because women like stuff.  Go figure.  They like lots of stuff.
So now that this stupid myth is put to rest, can we move on to more important discussions?  Such as:  What is the demographic makeup of creators vs. readers in the comic book industry?  What kinds of things most appeal to women in comic form?  What do women think of their position in the comic book community?  Do they feel included?  Do they feel excluded?  And what comics are out there for all readers that don't resort to stereotypical images of women?

That's what I want to know.  How about you?

If you haven't heard about the latest pile of B.S. already, then you need to read this, this, and this.  The short version:

A man at the World Fantasy Convention made several women incredibly uncomfortable by a) inappropriate comments made towards them, b) groping or touching them inappropriately, and/or c) blatantly disregarding their complaints and the complaints of others who had witnessed his behavior.

To start, we should probably get a few things out of the way:

1. The man in question is most likely mentally ill, as comments he made about his magical abilities seem, in my mind, to extend well beyond typical masculine bravado about one's prowess with the opposite sex.
2. Being mentally ill doesn't excuse bad behavior.
3. Conventions in our community must have a clear, printed, and official policy and procedure for dealing with any instance of harassment, sexual or otherwise.