vaznetti

It is quite nice to be watching a fannish TV show in real time again, since the closest I've come to that for the past year has probably been Primeval, and I only know a couple people who watch that. Whereas lots of people watch Torchwood! And I can read their posts! Yay! (My other appointment TV shows are things like Timmy Time and In the Night Garden. OMG, you guys, CBeebies is TOTAL CRACK! I think I enjoy these much more than Spartacus does.)

And not only that, but this Torchwood miniseries is really good. I haven't seen much of the show itself, because I didn't like the first few episodes, but I am definitely enjoying this season. ( cut for spoilers and general impressions )

Actually, my icon reminds me that Being Human was also watched by other people -- and it has been funny watching Merlin eat through fandom. But watching TV in more-or-less real time with other people is still one of the things I like best about fandom, and a lot of my disengagement and frustration over the past year have come from not being able to participate in that -- and only being able to read meta, not fic (because of spoilers), is a pretty horrible way to experience fandom. Not that I'll be requesting Timmy Time fic at Yuletide or anything, because I know where that would lead...

1. Warnings, since I see people posting their warnings policies.

I view this as mostly a "don't be an asshole" issue, so I try not to be an asshole; I checked my fic page and discovered that I did warn for the most obvious potential trigger-thing, an offscreen rape in an early XF story. My webpage has notation for sex or violence next to story listings. But I also do try to warn as little as possible, and I do expect my readers not to act like idiots. My feeling is that if you are reading an Alias story with a Syd/Lauren pairing, and the summary does not explicitly promise you fluffy bunnies, you should probably not be too surprised if the material contains skeevy power dynamics instead of fluffy bunnies.

I am really, really torn about warning for character death. Sometimes I have, and sometimes I haven't. Sometimes I want that warning as a reader, and sometimes I don't. These two statements are related.

So in short: I try not to be an asshole, and I hope that readers will not act like idiots. If you, the readers, feel that there's something in a story that ought to have a warning, let me know. I promise to listen to you. If you want to know before reading a story whether it contains something that will trigger you, you can always ask me.


2. The one thing I miss about Microsoft Outlook is the todo list function; I relied on it to keep organized at work. Now I need something like that, ideally an online service that I can keep open in a tab. I'd like it to prioritize by date and if possible to have tags for different categories of tasks. Does such a thing exist?


3. I suspect that the level of my irritation with the universe is directly related to the amount of sleep I've been getting -- or rather, not getting. But really, what happened to that hot, dry summer we were promised? The news was full of dire sunstroke warnings, until June hit and it became clear that we were actually having a warm-but-not-too-warm and moderately rainy summer. So much for global warming! I become more of a skeptic about that with every passing day, but see above re: lack of sleep.


4. I feel like I should say something about Farah Fawcett and Michael Jackson both dying, but I'm not, because I can't think of anything. Is this post very grumpy? If so, I'm sorry. The internet is making me cranky these days.

1. I forgot to renew my paid LJ subscription, and am now wondering whether I ever will. The thing I miss most are my icons, of course; if I renew my paid subscription with the additional icons, will my old icons come back? Or have they been lost forever? (I think not, because they appear on my old posts, back when I used them all.)


2. OMG, I had all kinds of things to say, and now that I'm sitting here with the screen before me, I cannot remember what they were. This is so dumb.


3. One of them was that I received an irritating response (by a third party) to a comment I left somewhere. I have decided not to reply, because picking a fight with another LJ user in someone else's post about something totally irrelevant to the post itself is rude and tacky, but I totally want a cookie for not acting like a jerk. ::rolls eyes at self::


4. Oh, I know what else it was! Guys, I won a fanfic award! I was a runner up! I don't think I have ever won a fanfic award! Look, the proof is here at the bottom of the post! And it was for Like love we seldom keep, which honestly, I expected about eight people to be willing to read, because Marita Covarrubias/John Winchester is just never going to be a big crossover pairing. So I am very pleased about that.

That may be enough excitement for the moment.

Now that it's all over bar the wailing and gnashing of teeth...

( spoilers for the season under the cut )

In other media-related news, I am very sad that I have not seen the new Star Trek, and will not get a chance to do so in the foreseeable future, until it comes out on DVD. Of course, I also still haven't seen the last few episodes of the Sarah Connor Chronicles or any of season 4 of Supernatural, so it's not like Star Trek is special.

I am usually the last person to comment on lj about egregiously racist failures, so I am a little surprised not to have seen more posts about this; maybe I've been missing them. The archive is here, if you want to trace the discussion. Plenty of people there are far more thoughtful and eloquent than I could be.

If you're wondering, the short version, as encapsulated by me and my husband --
Me: Let's say you were an editor or publisher and were handed a novel where the Europeans got to the Americas and discovered that there were no humans there, but the megafauna had survived the Pleistocene dieout. Would you think (a) mammoths! saber-toothed tigers! cool! or (b) you know, wiping out all the Native Americans from your history and replacing them by literal wild dangerous beasts is deeply, deeply hinky.
Him: Hm. I guess the second thing.
Me: Yeah, you'd think, wouldn't you?

Or, more eloquently, by hermetic, Fundamentally, I cannot escape the idea that [writing such a book is] an act that results in real-world harm because it disappears peoples who have already been systematically removed physically, culturally, linguistically, and spiritually, from their own landscape. It completes their erasure.

Which pretty much says it all, I think. I have pretty high standards for "immoral" as applied to a work of literature, but this one is pushing them.

* * *

I have half-formed thoughts on alternate histories, and why I want to read them and almost always end up horribly disappointed; I guess it's that historical causality is too complex, and I end up waving my hands a lot and saying "but, but, but... once you've changed that, how do you end up there?" I don't have the same problem with fantasy, although most fantasy worlds don't work (historically, economically, whatever), but once people start playing with history my brain goes into overdrive.

I am also reminded of Robert Silverberg's Roma Eterna, one of those books where the Roman Empire never falls; I remember it only vaguely, because it wasn't very good as a novel. It was more a collection of historical sketches, I think -- actually, it turns out that the book is a collection of short stories written over an number of years, which makes sense. But it seems relevant in this context, because IIRC Silverberg decided Christianity caused the fall of Rome, and to ensure that there were no Christians he short-circuited the Exodus: no Jews, no Judea, no Jesus, therefore no Christians. Except that actually there are Jews, still in Egypt, still waiting for the Exodus, which actually occurs in the final story -- in the punchline -- in spaceships. Which is what makes this book an entirely different proposition, I think: history isn't erased but postponed.

* * *

Off and on in comments about this I see people looking for books which deal with America, and American myth, and in this context I keep thinking of Michael Chabon's Summerland, which I read again while in San Francisco. Has anyone else read this book? and if not, why not? People who like (or want to like) Supernatural but wish ithad more folklore and fewer race and gender issues should read this book. I think baseball is boring, but I love it. Which is not to say that it gets everything right; I mean, I'm not qualified to say whether it gets anything right, as far as the inclusion of Native American characters goes. My outsider perspective is that Chabon is trying here and is not failing utterly, but other people may feel differently.

...and the scenes from next week, to which my reaction can be summed up with "OMG, have they gone completely mad?" (The answer being, obviously, yes: someone sat down in the writer's room and said, "Hey, this is a show about time travel. We have no limits!") And this is already a show which will make you turn to your watching-partner and say, in all seriousness, "If we were being hunted down by the private army of a power-mad civil servant, we wouldn't stop to have a random formal dinner in our poorly-constructed secret lair, would we?" The characters really are too dumb to live.

( some comments on the season so far )

I'm sure I had other things to say, but I've been writing this in dribs and drabs all day, so it's a bit disorganized. And now I must go see what kind of mashed food I can make for Spartacus.

I now exist, lemming-like, over on Dreamwidth under the same username: vaznetti. I considered going back to my original pseud (Vanzetti), but I kind of like the new one (OK, more than 5 years old, but you get the picture) because of its total uniqueness.

I am slowly adding people over there, as I have time to look for and find them, but I really have no idea what I'm going to use that account for. Possibly backup, possibly for more fannish material, should I ever start generating that again. I may unsubscribe there from people who are just crossposting, because I don't need to see the same posts twice. I'm definitely not going anywhere -- there are too many people here who are sticking around -- and historically, I have had problems maintaining two different journals. I may crosspost, though.

Basically, I am a big mass of indecision, now in two places!

...I am back from San Francisco, which was wonderful, and I will say more about all that later, I hope. But that is not the point of this post. The point of this post is that I have just started catching up on this season of Primeval, which started just after we left Oxford, and OMG! Best crack ever! Who else is watching this? Is it as hysterically crazy as I think? And when does Daniel Jackson make an appearance?

I really hope the rest of the episodes live up to the opener!

1. Happy Passover! Chag Sameach! We will be trying to balance Spartacus' recently-established bedtime routine with the seder; I'm not sure how well it's going to work. We will also probably try feeding him gefilte fish, if he's awake at the right time for it -- heck, he's liked everything else we've tried him on, including beets (a triumph of ambition over common sense in other respects).

2. All of a sudden I see posts about Dreamwidth everywhere. What's going on? Do I have to move? Are half my friends going to up sticks and move off LJ? I need time to get used to this!

3. We've been in SF for more than ten days, and have yet to turn on the television, largely due to the abovementioned bedtime routine -- but I don't seem to miss it. At some point I'll post about the reading I've managed.

4. But back in Oxford I found myself watching quite a lot of Gilmore Girls on daytime reruns -- since I never watched it when it was on. Emily is my favorite, but what I really want to know is where is all the Paris fic? Where are the stories where she uses her OCD powers for good for evil to take over the universe? Where are the unlikely crossovers where she pairs up with characters like Temperance Brennan or Lex Luthor (hahahahaha! no, really, it would be awesome)? Please tell me all this stuff exists out there somewhere!

This is the one about the vampire, the werewolf, and the ghost all walking into a bar sharing a house, and their wacky hijinks, complete with obligatory peasants with pitchforks (sort of). It was awesome, and has been renewed, and you should all watch it. My love for George cannot be textually rendered. Seriously. Also my love for Annie. I'm a little cooler toward Mitchell, because I feel that the vampire with a crisis of conscience is something I've seen before once or twice, and his relationship with Herrick was very Forever Knight -- except here Herrick is the cop, which I guess was a nice twist. So yes, although Mitchell and his issues drove the series plot, he didn't really interest me that much.

( a little more, with spoilers for episodes five and six in particular, under the cut )

I am so looking forward to series two.

In other news, I let Spartacus play with the keyboard this morning, since he often grabs for it. He promptly his some combination of keys which crashed the computer. ::rolls eyes::

I have not been following The Great Cultural Appropriation Debate, round whatever this is, already, but you should all read this post, by nextian:

What we have are, essentially, four books. We have the Nevi'im and the Ketuvim, our prophets and our poetry and the history we remember. We have the Talmud -- the Mishnah and the Gemarah -- and the commentary that sprung up around it, those footnotes that pile on footnotes and ideas that pile on ideas, divinely inspired or not. And we have the Torah, our beating heart.

Out of four books, you call three of them your own.

* * *

Every now and then, a well-meaning student or colleague will invite me to a Christian service -- evensong for the music, for example. And I will make some kind of excuse, which is nicer than saying what I really think, which is that sitting through a Christian service (for me) is like meeting someone who is wearing jewellery that belonged to your mother or grandmother, and was stolen years ago. Because that would make people uncomfortable, even though it's true: that history is there, it isn't dead.

Happy new year! It seems that 2008 has been a hard year for a lot of you -- may 2009 be a thousand times better for you all.

* * *

I don't make New Year's resolutions, largely because I know I won't keep them, so there's not much point. But in the next year I would like to get back into the habit of reading fic, and leaving feedback, and even writing again. Who knows? It rather depends on Spartacus, who is at the moment celebrating the new year by screaming a lot.

* * *

True story: when Spartacus was born, the midwives handed him to me right away, but after a few minutes they wanted to take him so that they could help me out of the pool. So they lifted him up to hand him to BH, who was right behind me -- but he had a lock of my hair tight in both hands, and wasn't about to let go, so they had to wait and drain the water first, instead.

Pretty cute, hunh? Now, though, Spartacus is getting better and better at holding on to things, and guess what his favorite thing to grab is? Yes, mom's hair. Which unfortunately is not long enough to put back all the time, at this point. Short of shaving my head, I am not sure what to do about this, other than wait until it's long enough to wear in a braid.

...Actually, that's pretty much all I have to say. And that I'm looking forward to the gradual increase in light, now that we've hit the solstice. And that I hope everyone being hit by that massive set of storms in North America is staying safe and warm.

OK, so, three things.

I am not dead, honest -- but small babies are very time-consuming, so I haven't had much chance to post. And then, I haven't been watching the fannish shows much, so I have been feeling out of touch as well -- I do scan my friends list, but it's full of posts I can't click unless I want to be spoiled! Plus, I'm often doing so with a squirming or crying baby on my lap, so I can't type anything anyway.

My TV habits seem centered around reruns of Top Gear and the daily Strictly Come Dancing (= Dancing w/t Stars in the UK) updates -- the latter being some kind of national obsession, as far as I can tell. I have managed to see the first two episodes of the new season of the Sarah Connor Chronicles (about which I have to wonder, is there anyone left in the future at all, or have they all relocated (retemporated?) to the present?) and the first episode of Spooks. But primetime has become prime sleep time for me, or at least, prime rest time, and I have a very short attention span, as well.

You can see just how dull things are from this post!

Spartacus is thriving, as far as we can tell -- although I think I hear him fussing downstairs, so I will go ahead and post this contentless update, and go see what's up.

Hi everyone! This is vaznetti, finally with a spare moment to update LJ to let you all know that I had my baby, a boy, 7 lbs 13 oz, on the 19th of September. He's absolutely beautiful, and given how much he wriggles around and how strong his grip is, I think I might as well keep calling him Spartacus on here!

We're both doing well -- we all are -- although of course I'm very tired and sleep is an issue!

Ordinarily I avoid non-Americans' comments on America as much as possible, and especially in an election year, but this morning I heard a radio discussion that was absolutely fascinating -- it's related to a series that BBC 4 is doing about American History (called America, Empire of Liberty). I have no idea whether people outside the UK can access Radio 4 programs, since they seem to be linked to BBC iPlayer, but if you can, it's here (or here) and I totally recommend it.

Basically, the reason it was great was the dynamic -- Justin Webb (the BBC's American correspondent) would ask his panel (all historians) some question about American history or culture, and Susan Castillo and David Reynolds would say something fairly neutral in response. Then Shelby Steele would say something really positive about America, and Howard Zinn would say something really negative, and Steele and Zinn would argue about whether America is a force for good or for evil in the world until Reynolds or Webb would cut them short by saying, "you do realize how incredibly American you both are?" And I would not be surprised if Webb cut power to their microphones once or twice.

And what I love about this is hard to put into words, but it encapsulates this weird sort of double-vision and double-blindness that I think you get when you live for a long time outside the US -- the special things about American cultural and political beliefs that Americans don't really notice, and that non-Americans don't always understand. And Webb and Reynolds, who see American from the inside and the outside, do notice those things -- the things that make Steele and Zinn much more like each other than they would happily admit.

(Yes, still pregnant. Getting tired of that, really.)

We are about to be overwhelmed with apples. We have 6 trees in our garden, and even though they're dwarf trees rather than full-size, and even though we don't spray or do anything to deter insects and birds from feasting on them, we have a bumper crop this year. BH went out this morning and came back with a flat's worth, and that's just the start. We can eat them, but we can't eat them all.

So send me your favorite things-to-do-with-apples recipes. I can't promise much baking, at this point, but you never know -- the simpler the better. Otherwise it's going to turn into a whole lot of unsweetened applesauce to go into the freezer for babyfood.

Hi!

I am still enjoying my short break from fandom, and especially from SPN fandom. Sorry! In the meantime, I've been reading books, mostly, and watching a lot of the Olympics -- ( stuff about that under the cut )

We're also watching the second season of the Tudors (I never saw the first, but I hear that it was a bit boring.) ( my non-spoilery verdict so far )

We have not been to see any movies, because the chairs at the theater make my back hurt now. We are both playing an old but new-to-us computer game -- Pirates! -- which involves naval battles and romancing governors' daughters and preying on Spanish treasure fleets.

Earlier in the summer I read two books by Christopher Priest, The Prestige and The Separation -- the first of which was made into that movie everyone liked a few years ago. I liked the second better, I think, because it was about alternative histories, but there was a lot of overlap in terms of theme -- or at least, the concerns about twinning and doubling and reality and illusion. Good, but impossible to say anything about without spoiling it. Other things that I remember reading were pretty much all of Lindsey Davis' Falco novels and the latest Dalziel and Pascoe book, which is a kind of homage to Jane Austen's unfinished novel Sanditon, apparently, but with Andy Dalziel in it. (And now that I think of it, I wonder if the writer of Life on Mars is a Reginald Hill fan, because there's a certain similarity in the dynamic between Sam Tyler and Gene Hunt, except that although Sam Tyler is less likeable than Peter Pascoe, his issues are far more interesting than Pascoe's.) At the moment I'm in the middle of Mythago Wood, by Robert Holdstock, which is a very creepy book in the way it layers history and story, and makes them much more dangerous than one would think.

( on the baby front, very briefly )

And that's pretty much it.