(no subject)

Had a much more amusing dream than usual. Well, the end bit, after all the running and screaming and such. There was this guy who was taking over the Atlantis research station. It's like 2040 and everyone we've ever met is retiring. Atlantis has been being run by the USA for so long it's turned into kind of a joke, and mostly personnel that go out there don't come back. So they're putting together a team with a nominally US citizen at the center, but without all the politics of letting the US choose their own guy. So the guy pulls in all his friends and puts a team together that includes both his girlfriend (teeny tiny warrior woman with flame red hair - chemically applied, as a warning to others) and his boyfriend (tall dark and handsome - actual dark black man - scientist and musician). Plus a bunch of other people he's bringing along mostly cause they're fun. He doesn't take life too seriously. But he's a supergenius, so he can thus far get away with that.
So he gets the team out there, and the US send him a notice he's re-enlisting. He did the compulsory national service as a kid, until he could earn a passport and then he was out of there. But on paper they can indeed draft him back now he's under their jurisdiction again. And the second notice they send him is one about remedial therapy for his behaviour, citing a whole bunch of rules that are mostly from the 'no queers allowed' section that pretty much every other nation on Earth thinks are completely nuts.
So he turns up to the appointment, and there's this lady general there, looking very severe. And he's got all dressed up in uniform, copying her. But he's gone as femme as you humanly can in drab green, all louche body language and pouting, plus he's fluffed his hair up and exagerated the makeup. And he walks in and he's doing an impression of the general lady, only completely camped up. And it's bloody *hilarious*... and unfortunately I cannot show you it for they have not yet invented a dream recorder, but trust me, I'm totally amused here.

There was also a bit with like hammerhead sharks on hoverboards that turned out to be a special suit invented for investigating the universe, and a kind of hoverboard/skateboard ballet thing where they're trying to figure out a science problem through interpretative dance, but those bits were even harder to describe.

I just liked this team that wasn't entirely unlike the regular Atlantis team except for being a teensy bit pushed further out. It was quite fun.

the book, it gets worse

on the last page of Castle of Wizardry, a few lines that sum up my irritation at Ce'Nedra's part in the story:


For the first time Ce'Nedra accepted the fact that she no longer controlled her own destiny. Something infinitely more powerful than she commanded her, and she must obey.

Polgara and Belgarath, with lives spanning eons, could perhaps devote themselves to an idea, a concept; but Ce'Nedra was barely sixteen years old, and she needed something more human to arouse her deovtion. At this very moment, somewhere in the forests of Gar og Nadrak, there was a sandy-haired young man with a serious face whose safety - whose very life - depended on every effort she could muster. The princess surrendered finally to love.



...*facepalm*

Now if Garion were in turn devoting himself to Ce'Nedra - if he spent as much time vowing to be a good husband as Ce'Nedra does worrying if she can be a good wife - then that would just be a romance, and fair enough. But noooooo. Garion, barely older than Ce'Nedra, has in fact devoted himself to the abstract and gone off to serve prophecy, making the whole thing terminally gendered.

Oh, and Ce'Nedra's definition of 'the best wife in the world'?
'I won't scold or shout or anything.'

*facepalm*
with possible *headdesk*


... this is why I shouldn't start reading long series. I just can't bring myself to quit in the middle. Even if I don't actually like them.

I mean there's sparks and pieces of good stuff in there, but I feel like I'm digging through a swamp to get it.

Ce'Nedra is in charge of the army, which is cool. But she's in charge in that special sense of telling inspiring lies and wearing costume armour while the men do the thinking. Her superpower is being manipulative and pretty.

*shudders*

... I should find something else to do, really really.

Can has equality now?

Gender pay gap rising

in the most equal sector it's about 12%

... and my mum wouldn't believe there *was* a gap until I dragged the textbooks out, because after all, there's a *law*...

Fantasy worldbuilding

women on leashes being sold - who even invents that???
well, David Eddings, apparently.
and no, giving them knives and half the money does *not* make it feminist.
*shudders*

(why is 'challenging' considered sexy? Why is slicing up anyone who tries taken as incentive??)

Reasons I should not read interviews

... it gets harder to think they were being clever.

Torchwood interview here

includes this bit about season 1:
( Read more... )

I don't care if the writers didn't mean it that way, they're wrong. Worryingly wrong.

(no subject)

You know that 37 part Jack/Ianto fic?
Is it *all* written in purple on black???

... is it worth the fiddling with settings to make it nice black on white?

I read up to Ianto apparently shooting at Owen for making snarky remarks and decided 'no'. That's just... No.

It's probably unfair that color schemes involving purple put me off so much, but the thing is whenever I have actually tweaked it into legibility I haven't found stuff to my taste at all. Pink on purple is the worst offender, and usually has bad spelling, but purple on black tends towards purple prose in the unironic sense. It's somewhere between weird and amusing.

I think some of my older fics have fancy color schemes. I've thought about revising them now I'm older and less enthusiastic about such things, but I figure, as is, it's fair warning. Because some of that stuff was written when my age still had 'teen' in it.

... dear god, some of it was written when I was half my age. There's godawful fantasy fic from when I was 15 out there. *shudders*

I have a rule against unsaying stories, but sometimes it do get tempting.