random

May 19th, 2009 7:09pm by rusty-halo | 14 Comments »

random

* Hey, I’ve got two Dreamwidth invite codes. Nifty. Who wants one?

* I saw Star Trek in IMAX this weekend. It was big and exciting and well paced … and in 2009 there is absolutely no excuse for such a dearth of female characters. We are nothing but mothers and wives and if we happen to do anything related to the plot it’ll have to be while taking taking off our clothes and being spied upon by a man. I have no lingering childhood affection for Star Trek so I have no inclination to forgive it for failing so utterly horribly in its representation of women. Say what you will about Battlestar Galactica, at least they had the guts to gender balance their cast by turning a bunch of the men into women. Wake me when Star Trek catches up.

* Lots of Writercon stuff happening!

Are you coming to Writercon? Yes, I’m asking YOU. If you’re involved in fanfic in any way–reader, writer, feedbacker, beta, comm mod, ficathon organizer–Writercon is for you. Think about attending–you can find out more info at Writercon.com or [info]writercon or just ask me and I’d be glad to answer any questions you may have.

* Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps) is awesome. It reminds me of the 80s music I listened to in high school. Which makes sense as it was released in … 1980. Wow, man, it’s like everything in my life is running in one big circle! *is a dork*

* I’ve been spending a lot of time reading Twitter. YEAH I DON’T KNOW, OKAY. It’s addictive, though: behind the scenes snippets from Rachel Maddow, extra jokes from Stephen Colbert, a daily stream of adorkable geekery from Bowie’s son Duncan Jones, fan wank from Trent Reznor, and of course all the latest NYC vegan news from SuperVegan… plus little life updates from various friends, past and present, RL and fannish. And I can read it all on my phone!

* I read just enough Doctor Who spoilers to know that Rose is definitely coming back. YAY!!! I’m not sure what’s better, my joy at getting to see Rose again or the sadistic glee I take from the bitter, bitter tears of the Rose haters. Clearly this fannish experience has corrupted me! (To be fair it’s really 95% joy that I’ll get to see Rose again.)

* Picked up The Disorderly Knights to continue my re-read. I think what stopped me for a couple months there was that it was coming up on what is, to me, the most traumatizing character death of the series. But I got past it. (*sniffle*)

And, wow, glad I’m continuing, because I just hit a couple of my favorite lines of the entire series:

“I would give you my soul in a blackberry pie; and a knife to cut it with.”
(p. 331, and I don’t want to spoil which character says it)

And this whole exchange between Lymond and Jerott, where Lymond finally snaps in the face of Jerott’s relentless, self-righteous, ignorant condemnation:

“You love all this!” said Jerott. [meaning war and power]

“Love it!” said Lymond, and Adam Blacklock looked up sharply.

Recalled to himself, Francis Crawford smiled, a little wryly, and dropped his voice. “An overdose of applied conjecture. I’m sorry. The answer, Jerott, is that I don’t find this particularly enjoyable.”

Jerott’s gaze didn’t move. “What do you miss? Women?”

Lymond looked ahead. “The point you always seem to be making, Jerott, is that I don’t lack them enough. No, I don’t miss fair company. Look what I’ve got instead.”

“Then what?” Jerott pursued, ignoring utterly Blacklock’s silent advice to be quiet.

“Jerott, for God’s sake! Are you doing this for a wager?” said Lymond, his patience gone at last. “What does anyone want out of life? What kind of freak do you suppose I am? I miss books and good verse and decent talk. I miss women, to speak to, not to rape; and children, and men creating things instead of destroying them. And from the time I wake until the time I find I can’t go to sleep, there is the void–the bloody void where there was no music today and none yesterday and no prospect of any tomorrow, or tomorrow, or next God-damned year.”

He stopped. Adam Blacklock, saying nothing, looked down; and even Jerott, after the first moments, removed his troubled gaze. Then, as their horses paced evenly, Jerott Blyth said blankly, “Music?”
(p. 366)

Doesn’t it make perfect sense that I would adore Lymond? *sighs fondly*

Tags: david bowie, doctor who, lymond, movie reviews, writercon

  1. 14 Responses to “random”

  2. Tricia on May 19, 2009 8:19 pm | Link

    Ooooh dreamwidth codes??? *raises hand* =D

    Also, twitter is definitely addicting, Star Trek definitely lacked in awesome females, and Rose coming back makes me grin with fannish glee.

    I’ve yet to read Lymond Chronicles but from all that you’ve written about it, I think I have to bump it up the list a bit :)

    [reply to this comment]

    rusty-halo on May 20, 2009 12:39 am | Link

    Sent. :)

    Definitely read the Lymond Chronicles. I know I keep proselytizing about it, but I only do so because it really is wonderful. I’m so glad that enough people raved about it in my vicinity that I was finally inspired to pick it up!

    [reply to this comment]

  3. redeem147 on May 19, 2009 9:08 pm | Link

    The original Star Trek pilot had a female first officer, but the network told Gene to can her. That’s why original Trek had very few women on the ship (though I just watched an episode where Uhura took over navigation – I’m sure NBC didn’t like that.)

    No excuse now. We didn’t even get Nurse Chapel.

    [reply to this comment]

    rusty-halo on May 20, 2009 12:43 am | Link

    *sigh*

    And this movie would’ve been the perfect opportunity to bring back the female first officer. :(

    [reply to this comment]

  4. shipperx on May 19, 2009 10:31 pm | Link

    Lack of a woman in a command position may be a failing for the movie, but there have been female Captains, female Chief Security Officers, female First Officers, etc. in the canon, so I don’t think it’s a big swipe at the entire franchise. Unfortunately, in the original show there was only Uhura as a regular and her job wasn’t huge. So when going with back to TOS, they sort of start with that primary character limitation.

    [reply to this comment]

    rusty-halo on May 20, 2009 12:31 am | Link

    I’m definitely not swiping at the entire series. I haven’t seen it all, but I know what I’ve seen of TNG and DS9 was better than this (and I assume… whichever was the one with the female captain… is also better.)

    I’m just complaining about this movie specifically, and depressed that the “exciting re-launch” to “make Star Trek cool for a new generation” involved regressing gender relations 40 years backwards. Who said we’re not living in the midst of an immense anti-feminist backlash? :P

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  5. shipperx on May 19, 2009 10:32 pm | Link

    And, actually, Uhura is fourth in command (though I’m stymied to remember who is technically third.)

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    rusty-halo on May 20, 2009 12:27 am | Link

    Regardless of Uhura’s technical rank, if you look at her position in this movie, her character is something like eighth in importance in terms of screentime, actively helping to defeat the bad guys, getting developed as a character, etc.

    And so what if there was only Uhura in the original? That’s just using past sexism to justify future sexism. BSG found a way to fix it; there is absolutely no excuse for the complete lack of female equality in this film.

    I’m waiting for them to really gender balance it. Woman!Kirk, woman!Scotty, etc. 50/50 down the line in terms of character development, action, and importance to the plot. And no, I’m not kidding. They can either introduce new female characters or turn some of the men into women, but there is no excuse for the (appx) 8:1 ratio of male to female character significance.

    *sigh*

    Maybe we’ll have progressed that far in time for the next reboot 40 years from now, though I’m not holding my breath.

    [reply to this comment]

    Lisa on May 20, 2009 2:34 pm | Link

    Trekkies are already bitching. I’d hate to hear the bitching if they had gender-swapped the characters because it’s not just a male vs. female thing. Trek has a huge slashing community (that Rodenberry actually embraced) so any changing of Kirk/Spock or Kirk/McCoy wouldn’t just come with gender wank but slasher wank as well.

    And, I don’t know. I think they’ve tried gender swapping the archetypes with, say, Dr. Beverly Crusher taking the McCoy role in TNG. And they basically had a female Spock in the TOS prequel series “Enterprise” in the form of T’Pol as well as Trek movie canon with Lt. Saavik in Wrath of Khan (which isn’t addressed yet in reboot canon but which producers are already speaking of) and in
    I’m just willing to cut Star Trek slack here. It’s not like they haven’t produced a lot of strong female characters over the years from Lt. Yar (head of TNG security), Capt. Janeway (Star Trek Voyager), First Officer (and Security Officer/Guerilla Rebel) Kira Nerys on DS9, Jadzia Dax (Chief Science officer), another Spock-esque type character in Half-Borg (but all female) Seven of Nine. Even the original pilot for Star Trek was female. Even BSG’s “Cain” Michelle Forbes is pretty much an inheritance from Trek where Forbes as Bjoran freedom fighter, and Star Fleet officer Ro Laren.

    Carrying all of the Trek canon with it, I don’t see stamping it with a label of sexism or feeling a great need to swap character genders. And I don’t actually want to underestimate Uhura as a beloved figure because even such a personage as the first African American female astronaut (for realz) cited Lt. Uhura as her inspiration as a kid. (And she is actually fourth in the marketing of the movie). I’ve little to no doubt Uhura will be seen more and used more later when the general thrust of the story isn’t setting up the histories of Kirk/Spock (and, again, with having produced so many female equivalents of Spock in other incarnations, I see no point in changing character gender to make first officer Spock a woman… and it would only seek the wrath of the hard core Kirk/Spock slashers).

    I guess, I just don’t see the point in imposing sexism on a canon that has tried so often to be very feminist friendly just because Uhura wasn’t featured more prominently in what is essentially a Kirk/Spock origin story.) JMHO.

    [reply to this comment]

    Lisa on May 20, 2009 3:00 pm | Link

    And, I suppose, there are some differences based on TOS perspective. I kind of thought they did make a nod towards improvement in the fact that the green girl in the original series wasn’t a Star Fleet cadet… but an enslaved stripper. And there were other factors in characterization. In 1966 it was ’shocking’ and a deliberate effort to be anti-racist that Uhura, a black woman, was allowed to be sexy on national tv and (gasp!) kiss a white guy. She was never a bimbo. She was smart, but she was shown to be desirable. That positive racial message was one of the hallmarks of the character.

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    rusty-halo on May 20, 2009 3:08 pm | Link

    So what if Trekkies are bitching? This a mainstream film; Star Trek fans are a tiny minority of the audience, and Star Trek slashers an even tinier minority. (And if they wanted to please the slashers, a canon gay character would suffice nicely.)

    I understand you cutting Star Trek (the institution) slack, but JJ Abrams and the creators of this film aren’t the same people who did all those feminist things. I don’t see why they should get any credit for things they had nothing to do with.

    I see no point in changing character gender to make first officer Spock a woman

    I didn’t suggest making Spock a woman; I suggested making Kirk a woman. Far more subversive.

    just because Uhura wasn’t featured more prominently in what is essentially a Kirk/Spock origin story

    I’m not complaining about Uhura; she was great, but wasn’t enough. It’d have been fine if, in addition to Uhura, we’d have a variety of other strong female characters in place of the endless stream of men: McCoy, Scotty, Checkov, Pike, etc etc. Turning half of those supporting characters into women would have in no way interfered with the centrality of the Kirk/Spock origin story.

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    Dalmeny on May 23, 2009 4:44 am | Link

    I’m a Trekkie and I’m not bitchin’ about continuity. Maybe that means I’m not a real Trekkie.

    I saw the film with my parents today. Practically the first thing my mum said when we left the cinema was there were too few women in it, and I had to agree with her. I like the new Uhura, but one of her main functions in the movie is to show that Kirk and Spock are probably het. And Spock’s mum is there so she can trigger an emotional response in Spock when needed for plot purposes.

    Also, oh God. The comedy Scot! My accent’s funny! Ha ha! (See also: Gimli, Richard Hannah in the Mummy films, even Willie in The Simpson.) Yes, I am Scottish.

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  6. Nancy on May 28, 2009 2:53 am | Link

    Oh – the Trekkie slashers are frothing at the mouth because Uhura comes between them and the Spock/Kirk man-love. If you think that Star Trek is male-centric, try reading some of the Trek lists and fan fiction. There isn’t one woman they like and what’s even sadder is that most of the fan fiction writers ARE women. I like well written fan fiction but I often wonder where these women are coming from. Do they think it would be a BETTER world for women if all the men were in love with each other? They certainly write that way.

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    rusty-halo on June 6, 2009 8:36 pm | Link

    The misogyny in slash fandom is so depressing. I know it’s not everywhere–there are plenty of awesome feminist slash writers. But irrational hatred of pretty much every female character is way more prominent than it should be in this day and age. :(

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