That would be “Bitchy Literary Criticism”. John & I were having a conversation about good books and the concept of “strong female characters”, as a reason I might want to explore the Sabriel series. My response was that I had been recommended Miyazaki’s manga/movies for the same reason, that the author writes “strong female characters”, […]

[Read more →]

I just read this, so I didn’t really get tagged, but I hereby tag: John, G, wren, Brian (who I can’t link to), & Cobwebs. Feel free to link to your own (whether I tagged you or not) in the comments
1. One book that made you laugh: I, Lucifer, by Glen Duncan. DH […]

[Read more →]

Delivered at the Sunstone Symposium on August 9th, 2008.  A portion of this appeared in an earlier post.

I believe in the power of storytelling. Specifically, I believe that I have the ability to shape my relationship to the universe and insert beauty into my world through the life narrative I co-opt and create.
Once upon […]

[Read more →]

“Could It Be? Did Hollywood Execs Get The Memo?” speculates on the reason for the number of movies-about-women (which seems to correspond with movies-by-women). I would take issue with her assertion that Mama Mia! or Kit are any great leaps forward for womankind, but I’ve not seen either, so I won’t get into that here.

[Read more →]

By now, many of you will have heard that one of the Vatican’s astronomers has indicated that there might be life on other planets. Even that they might be without sin. Many of my favorite science fiction books involve the intersection of religion and space travel (Dune and Ender’s Game chief among them). But really, […]

[Read more →]

Liminal states are not happy states. Take zombies. Zombies are transitional, miserable beings–not quite dead, not quite alive. They shuffle about–no standing still or purposeful striding. Instead of killing you with ninja stealth or a mighty barbarian beserker yell, they mumble and moan. “Nnnnnnn ggahhh brrrrrrrrrr aeeeeeeeeee nnnnnnnssss,” they say, […]

[Read more →]

I don’t think I’ve ever been quite so busy.  I applied to a prestigious writer’s workshop last night.  I should hear back in the next couple of weeks.  I’ll reveal more details then, for better or for worse.
Reading takes time, and since my free reading time is at a premium,  books are investments.  I’d rather […]

[Read more →]

Sisters and brothers and everyone in between, welcome to the Church of John!  [insert organ riff] One of the great blessing of being a skeptic is that you can find your scripture anywhere. Emily Dickinson, Bad Religion, William Gibson and Joss Whedon are my prophets. When I was lost in the darkness […]

[Read more →]

Jana just told me about the death of Iris Chang. I was already melancholy, but now I’m on the verge of tears as I write this.
I met her in 1998 when she was on a tour promoting her book, The Rape of Nanking: The Forgotten Holocaust of World War II. I knew about […]

[Read more →]

In solidarity with Women’s Space, I have decided to take her advice and call this post “Britney Spears’ Crotch” and add that link to her post of a similar name. This is partly to eff up (in deference to the owner of this blog) search engines for those particular search terms (I didn’t realize that […]

[Read more →]