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There's probably a very interesting essay to be written comparing fantasy/sci-fi BDSM as depicted in John Norman's Gor novels, Jaqueline Carey's Kushiel series and M.C.A. Hogarth's Kherishdar stories, but as that would involve me voluntarily reading the Gor novels, I leave it to someone else.
Mom: I finished reading Fifty Shades of Gray.
Me: You... what?
Mom: Well my friend had given me the second book so I wanted to read the first one.
Me: (Brain reboots) I'm a little surprised you'd enjoy something like that.
Mom: Well it's not like there was anything in there I didn't know about already.
Me: ...
* * *
I think my weird side is genetic.
Me: You... what?
Mom: Well my friend had given me the second book so I wanted to read the first one.
Me: (Brain reboots) I'm a little surprised you'd enjoy something like that.
Mom: Well it's not like there was anything in there I didn't know about already.
Me: ...
* * *
I think my weird side is genetic.
State of the Royce
Sep. 23rd, 2011 01:03 pmBad
1. Haven't been able to write anything signifigant for a week. All I've got is four pages of angst/fluff with Nez that isn't finished
2. I've got a cold, possibly with a low level fever (feel hot, but not achey or nauseous).
3. It's raining.
4. I'm tired.
Good
1. Rather than do anything useful at home I've been playing massive amounts of Gran Turismo. Finally raised my level enough to unlock the Endurance class races, and I'm playing through the first 300km race, currently on Lap 43. [1]
2. I can now download books for free from the PG County Library onto my Kindle for 14 days.
3. Work is slow enough to let me write whiny LJ entries.
[1] On the subject of Gran Turismo, I do love the game dearly, but I have a couple of nitpicks. One, the ability to save would be nice for the endurance races, given Thomas' tendency to take over when I step away from the controller. (trying to get through the 24 Hours of Nurburgringadingaling is going to be a challenge when I reach level 40).
Two, apparently the typeface for the game was made on the assumption you'd be viewing it on a Hi-Def screen the size of the Enterprise's viewscreen. I'm trying to read through car stats three feet away from a 36 inch flatscreen and getting eyestrain.
1. Haven't been able to write anything signifigant for a week. All I've got is four pages of angst/fluff with Nez that isn't finished
2. I've got a cold, possibly with a low level fever (feel hot, but not achey or nauseous).
3. It's raining.
4. I'm tired.
Good
1. Rather than do anything useful at home I've been playing massive amounts of Gran Turismo. Finally raised my level enough to unlock the Endurance class races, and I'm playing through the first 300km race, currently on Lap 43. [1]
2. I can now download books for free from the PG County Library onto my Kindle for 14 days.
3. Work is slow enough to let me write whiny LJ entries.
[1] On the subject of Gran Turismo, I do love the game dearly, but I have a couple of nitpicks. One, the ability to save would be nice for the endurance races, given Thomas' tendency to take over when I step away from the controller. (trying to get through the 24 Hours of Nurburgringadingaling is going to be a challenge when I reach level 40).
Two, apparently the typeface for the game was made on the assumption you'd be viewing it on a Hi-Def screen the size of the Enterprise's viewscreen. I'm trying to read through car stats three feet away from a 36 inch flatscreen and getting eyestrain.
Talk About Badass Bookworms
Jul. 15th, 2011 06:45 pmLibrary War, a Japanese light novel/anime about fighting censorship, by quite literally fighting censorship.
I hope it's bittorrented somewhere....
I hope it's bittorrented somewhere....
Is there a trope...?
Mar. 9th, 2011 12:56 pmTo describe a fantasy/sci-fi author's insistence on making their made up words stand out by italicising them every single time?
It doens't help that the book I'm reading is suffering from a bad case of Call a Rabbit a Smeerp.
It doens't help that the book I'm reading is suffering from a bad case of Call a Rabbit a Smeerp.
Miles Vorkosigan, Asshole Pick Up Artist
Feb. 24th, 2011 11:21 amJust re-reading the infamous "...there was nothing about this in my Imperial Academy training manuals." bit from Labyrinth for a bit of TV Tropes time wasting research, when I looked at it a bit closer than I ever had before. Here's something that comes a bit after this line, while he's cursing Dr. Canaba's name
Her voice was muffled with grief and the odd shape of her mouth. "You think I'm too tall."
"Not at all." He was getting hold of himself a bit, he could lie faster. (emphasis mine)
Whereapon Miles starts charming the living hell out her, as is his standard mode of operation.
Now, in Miles' defense, thirty seconds ago he thought Taura was going to kill him, then about ten seconds after that he was trying his damndest to distract her from killing herself. And he does finally fess up to lying to her about his mission when they're safe on the Peregrine.
But that really doesn't spare him from contempt, when he starts the very beginning of a very loving relationship with Taura by thinking he has to lie to get into her pants. Honestly, every bit of grief he got later about lying in Memory and A Civil Campaign was completely deserved, I think.
Her voice was muffled with grief and the odd shape of her mouth. "You think I'm too tall."
"Not at all." He was getting hold of himself a bit, he could lie faster. (emphasis mine)
Whereapon Miles starts charming the living hell out her, as is his standard mode of operation.
Now, in Miles' defense, thirty seconds ago he thought Taura was going to kill him, then about ten seconds after that he was trying his damndest to distract her from killing herself. And he does finally fess up to lying to her about his mission when they're safe on the Peregrine.
But that really doesn't spare him from contempt, when he starts the very beginning of a very loving relationship with Taura by thinking he has to lie to get into her pants. Honestly, every bit of grief he got later about lying in Memory and A Civil Campaign was completely deserved, I think.
Review: Amazon Kindle 3G
Dec. 30th, 2010 02:00 pmOkay, after about a week's use, I think I've figured out why it's so successful at what it does.
The Kindle doesn't do much, but it does it well.
It's a book reader, and that's all. Unlike say, an I-pad, which is attempting to be a laptop computer the size a manila folder, and only succeeds in being a laptop with a really crappy touch pad keypad (didn't those go out with the Atari 400?) and no mouse. You upload a book and you read it. The interface is reasonably clear, and the ergonomics of the 3G model I own are nice, with it having the weight and size of a trade paperback with the thinness of the latest cell phones, and it fits perfectly in the inner pocket of my coat. As I mentioned before, the "electronic paper" of the display is more clear than many paperbacks I own, the process of reading is only enhanced by the rat-in-a-psych-experiment button clicking game of bringing up a brand shiny new page of text every few moments. I also appreciate the nice touch of the several dozen open source images and author portraits that come up as screen savers when you set it down for a moment.
Oh, and like any good modern web device, it's dangerously easy to surf for something new to read on Amazon's kindle site and just uploading One Little Book or app.
Downsides: It has a web browser function, which is wisely labeled as "Experimental" since trying to look at a full sized website through a 4"x6" b&w screen is a fool's errand. The ability to load up podcasts or other mp3s is a very limited feature, since it doesn't allow you to organize them for easy listening, unlike your text files. Text-to-speech also requires some tweaking. I don't expect it to be all that good anyway, but someone needs to program it so it at least pauses for a moment to let you know it's reached the end of a sentence.
But those are minor quibbles. Overall I like the little thing, and I suspect I'm going to be blowing a bit more money on books and accessories for it in the future.
The Kindle doesn't do much, but it does it well.
It's a book reader, and that's all. Unlike say, an I-pad, which is attempting to be a laptop computer the size a manila folder, and only succeeds in being a laptop with a really crappy touch pad keypad (didn't those go out with the Atari 400?) and no mouse. You upload a book and you read it. The interface is reasonably clear, and the ergonomics of the 3G model I own are nice, with it having the weight and size of a trade paperback with the thinness of the latest cell phones, and it fits perfectly in the inner pocket of my coat. As I mentioned before, the "electronic paper" of the display is more clear than many paperbacks I own, the process of reading is only enhanced by the rat-in-a-psych-experiment button clicking game of bringing up a brand shiny new page of text every few moments. I also appreciate the nice touch of the several dozen open source images and author portraits that come up as screen savers when you set it down for a moment.
Oh, and like any good modern web device, it's dangerously easy to surf for something new to read on Amazon's kindle site and just uploading One Little Book or app.
Downsides: It has a web browser function, which is wisely labeled as "Experimental" since trying to look at a full sized website through a 4"x6" b&w screen is a fool's errand. The ability to load up podcasts or other mp3s is a very limited feature, since it doesn't allow you to organize them for easy listening, unlike your text files. Text-to-speech also requires some tweaking. I don't expect it to be all that good anyway, but someone needs to program it so it at least pauses for a moment to let you know it's reached the end of a sentence.
But those are minor quibbles. Overall I like the little thing, and I suspect I'm going to be blowing a bit more money on books and accessories for it in the future.
Minor Heinlein YA Observation
Dec. 27th, 2010 08:32 amAfter recently reading/listening through my holy trifecta of RAH Young Adult novels, The Rolling Stones, Space Cadet and Have Spacesuit, Will Travel I noticed a common theme concerning school and learning. While only one of them, Spacesuit actually goes into an outright Pournellian condemnation of public schooling [1], one theme in all of them is that a properly trained student can teach themselves subjects with more efficiency than they ever could with the help of an actual teacher. Which is rather odd, I think, given it's a teacher's job to teach students so they don't go rolling down dead ends and help them with concepts they can't comprehend on their own.
There's nothing really insightful in my observation, I've just never really noticed it before.
[1] Has there ever been a time in American history where public schools have actually been praised instead of getting a universal condemnation as "learning warehouses" and giving social security to under-qualified teachers?
There's nothing really insightful in my observation, I've just never really noticed it before.
[1] Has there ever been a time in American history where public schools have actually been praised instead of getting a universal condemnation as "learning warehouses" and giving social security to under-qualified teachers?
Genre Specifics
Apr. 23rd, 2010 09:56 amParaphrased conversation ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
moonshadowed and I had this morning, as she put down the romance novel she was reading
Tracy: It wasn't very good. It was like the author couldn't decide if the heroine was in the modern times or the 40's or 50's. She was all "I'm a career woman, but I like keeping house and kids".
Me: Bad characterization?
Tracy: Even for a romance novel. I mean, even the ones with the Greek billionaires are better.
Me: Did you hear what you said?
Tracy: What?
Me: Billionaires. Plural.
Tracy: Well yeah. Greek billionaires, Italian billionaires. Sometimes Arab Shieks...
Me: Ruritarian billionaires.
Tracy: Now you're being silly.
moonshadowed and I had this morning, as she put down the romance novel she was readingTracy: It wasn't very good. It was like the author couldn't decide if the heroine was in the modern times or the 40's or 50's. She was all "I'm a career woman, but I like keeping house and kids".
Me: Bad characterization?
Tracy: Even for a romance novel. I mean, even the ones with the Greek billionaires are better.
Me: Did you hear what you said?
Tracy: What?
Me: Billionaires. Plural.
Tracy: Well yeah. Greek billionaires, Italian billionaires. Sometimes Arab Shieks...
Me: Ruritarian billionaires.
Tracy: Now you're being silly.
Doug Muir on Kipling
Dec. 28th, 2009 07:37 pmRead while in a hotel room in the Congo.
Kipling was always a bit of an asshole, and he got much worse as he aged. A fair chunk of this, of course, was simply that he was an upper middle class late Victorian Englishman. But that didn't compel him to (for instance) give large sums of money to the Ulster Unionists, a bunch of bigots and religious fanatics who were actively engaged in treason against the United Kingdom. And if you're going to be a bard of Empire, it really behooves you to try to think clearly about what Empire is, and does, and who really bears the brunt of it. If you're reading his stuff while sitting in a hotel room in Lubumbashi, looking out over the utter ruin of imperialism, then it's going to have a fairly hollow ring.
And yet. Kipling managed to take half a step out of himself. He couldn't ever quite see natives, negroes, Irish or Jews as real, fully rounded human beings. But he could see them as sympathetic, clever, honest and honorable, hard-working and worthy. That's a long step further than most of his generation ever got.
I really do need to plow through Kim someday, just to say I've done it. Not to mention Atlas Shrugged, just to so I can knock it a bit more effectively.
Kipling was always a bit of an asshole, and he got much worse as he aged. A fair chunk of this, of course, was simply that he was an upper middle class late Victorian Englishman. But that didn't compel him to (for instance) give large sums of money to the Ulster Unionists, a bunch of bigots and religious fanatics who were actively engaged in treason against the United Kingdom. And if you're going to be a bard of Empire, it really behooves you to try to think clearly about what Empire is, and does, and who really bears the brunt of it. If you're reading his stuff while sitting in a hotel room in Lubumbashi, looking out over the utter ruin of imperialism, then it's going to have a fairly hollow ring.
And yet. Kipling managed to take half a step out of himself. He couldn't ever quite see natives, negroes, Irish or Jews as real, fully rounded human beings. But he could see them as sympathetic, clever, honest and honorable, hard-working and worthy. That's a long step further than most of his generation ever got.
I really do need to plow through Kim someday, just to say I've done it. Not to mention Atlas Shrugged, just to so I can knock it a bit more effectively.
