it's not the same moon in the sky

So katzenfabrik and anotherbluestocking have been sharing this essay on Twitter and now I'm obsessed with it. It's all about how women in the literary and artistic canons tend to be defined by the surrounding men, and it took me ten minutes to post a link on Facebook because I couldn't decide which chunk of it to quote, so fiercely was I nodding at all of it.

"I read Mansfield because I was reading Ali Smith, and Ali Smith loves Mansfield and she almost only loves women writers, so I took note. It’s always interesting which women are admired by those women who seem to intellectually prefer women. Katherine Mansfield wrote about being a woman with sorrow and effervescence, in the same way Marina Tsvetaeva did. While Mansfield characters are usually ensconced in ruffled middle class desperation—getting dressed, throwing parties, wanting to die; the material opposite of Tsvetaeva—both refuse to let the world off the hook for what girlhood does to a person. The splitting of self, the doubled being and not-being that femininity necessitates, how words and images stutter over this multiplicity, built for a masculine singular." - Secret Canon, Audrey Wollen.

What's going to die out in the next twenty years because the younger generations simply have no attachment to it?

I've been reading this Reddit thread on and off for the past 48 hours; towards the end it repeats a lot as more people just come in going, "cursive" or "cable TV" over and over, but the first, say, 10 subthreads are fascinating. I think my favourite is the wedding china one (I never knew what its historical significance was re: women's personal assets being untouchable in the event of a bankruptcy), but I like the thing about dining rooms too. Certainly, our dining room's dining function is a long way behind the fact that it's also a library whose table is good for working on and using for jigsaws...

The thing with high school reunions is interesting too: increasingly, the difficulty is not in keeping up with people from your past, but avoiding them online...

First off, there's another Friending Friendzy post here in case you're looking. Secondly, here's a post from back in July: Why Imzy doesn't have ads, and what we're doing instead which has some stuff I hadn't heard before. I'm not altogether convinced all these ideas will work, but it's interesting anyhow.

Finished recently:

Dance of the Tiger: A Novel of the Ice Age, by Björn Kurtén. The author is an expert on Ice Age fauna, so it's interesting to read speculation rooted in deep knowledge, and his afterword, along with Stephen Jay Gould's introduction, really add to it. Since the book is a few decades old, I'd imagine that much then-current information has been superseded by new discoveries (we often seem to hear that we've underestimated the Neandertals, for instance), but the characters, situations and world are compelling enough for this not to matter. But the best pleasure of this book is a piece of narrative boldness: a third of the way through, we switch to hear the story from the antagonist's point of view, before returning to the protagonist for the last third. The only real problem for me is that the ending feels very rushed, which is a pity after everything else has been so cleverly set up and allowed room to breathe.

Currently reading:

Oscar Wilde and the Candlelight Murders, by Gyles Brandreth. I thought that what I'd previously read was the first in the series: actually this is the first, and that was the second. It doesn't matter, though if you're looking for the series in America you need to know that some of the titles have been changed for that market. Here's a nice interview with the author, too, in which he theorises that Wilde may have been the model for Mycroft Holmes.

Good Kings Bad Kings, by Susan Nussbaum. So far this is very good, though harrowing at points. I'm very glad it was recommended to me.

Reading next:

Something digital in a waiting room, probably.

The story of the women's history museum which mysteriously transformed (via the process, often contentious in British life, of getting planning permission) into a sensationalist-looking Jack the Ripper museum is making its way around the world. Here's a few interesting links:

- The Guardian: Jack the Ripper's victims deserve to be commemorated. But like this?
- jesuswasbatman: Fisking the Jack the Ripper Museum
- 38 Degrees petition to Tower Hamlets Council: Celebrate Suffragettes Not Serial Killers
- Protest at the museum opening on Tuesday 4th August! Women's history is not Jack the Ripper!

Other things:

- Jacqueline Wilson has written a new take on What Katy Did.
- Twitter, unable to grasp that endless growth might not be possible or desirable, considers being more like Facebook.
- arcadiaego informs me of the existence of a longstanding fan project at read_lotr_aloud, where a small group of fans have spent most of the last decade building up a chapter-by-chapter audiobook. Sean Astin even reads the first section! Is anyone aware of other projects like this?
- ladysisyphus has an epic post on The Blair Witch Project and the movies that tried to emulate its impact without really understanding it. So delicious to see a good chunk of horror meta on LJ!
- In other news, shoestring film production company Mansfield Dark have come up with a beautiful 12-minute shadow puppet version of Count Magnus by M.R. James. You can see the trailer here and also find a link to buy the DVD, which comes with a lovely piece of art on the slipcase. Mine arrived this morning, to my considerable delight. The Mansfield Dark guys are both talented and ingenious, making everything from this gorgeousness to comedy to LGBT thrillers, so go check them out.
- A friend recommended browser extension FB Purity as a solution to the man ways in which Facebook is annoying. I haven't installed it yet, but perhaps some of you feel like trying it too.

...at least, insofar as it furnishes me with gems like this video:

A Horse Says 'Benny Hill' In LOTR

I originally typed "too hired to think", which I think says it all really.

Inspirograph - go and play with it!

I've been gathering up links on Mad Max: Fury Road for the past couple of weeks, and I think it's time to actually post them!

Imperator Furiosa: The Hero We Need - David Mack talks about character functions and storytelling mechanics in an interesting way that has wider implications.

Mad Max: Fury Road is less radical than its b-movie influences - for the Guardian, Noah Berlatsky looks at women's prison exploitation movies and how their tropes have percolated down to Fury Road. (Actually, my biggest question about the approach to race in the movie is where it is set - I'd assumed Australia, and in that case you'd expect their world to be heir to the very specific history, and present, issues of racism there. Does anyone know more about this?)

Mad Max as Feminist Ally - a deliciously detailed personal response by Tansy Rayner Roberts.

Crone Wars: on the mythology of Fury Road at Lashes and Stars. I am SO into this Maid/Mother/Crone archetype in the movie and I'm really happy someone wrote about it!

Mad Max is a Feminist Playbook for Surviving Dystopia, by Laurie Penny is typically snappily written and made me go, "YES! YES! YES!"

Mad Max: Fury Road - Furiosa #1 - YOU GUYS, THERE IS A COMIC ABOUT FURIOSA. WHY DID I NOT THINK TO PICK THIS UP IN TOWN ON THURSDAY. WHY.

And last but by no means least, Elizabeth's Mad Max meta masterpost by arcadiaego over on Tumblr has SO MUCH MORE STUFF; this is the roundup that inspired my roundup and it is glorious.

I have tabs to close, and miles to go before I... shower.

People trying to boost their DW/LJ flists might be interested in a couple of friending memes: mapping_stars is hosting a New Year's Friending Meme, and there's also a yuletide-specific one here.

Meanwhile, ruuger's come up with the perfect meme for people trying to post more often:

When you see this, make a post in your journal or in a community. It can be anything: a crosspost something you've posted on Tumblr, a few words about the last thing you read/watched, or just a "Hi, how is everyone?" Then go read your f-list and leave at least one comment.

She also pointed me to the snowflake_challenge, which still has a week to run and is a fun way to get to know more people/do more in fandom generally.

Reading-wise, jesuswasbatman has come up with "Doctor Who: A Guide For The Overwhelmed", a great, approachable primer on the televisual history of Doctor Who's different eras/Doctors/production teams: part 1, part 2, part 3 and part 4.

The vc_media Queen of the Damned group read schedule is up! Still need input from someone who has the US Ballantine paperback to hand to check page numbers...

Sad news this morning is that The Last Ship is to close on Broadway, though apparently they have hopes for licensing, so we might yet get to see it here... /nurtures fragile hope

ETA: This is too hilarious not to share: Ted Turner's Doomsday video has surfaced (or, as I suspect, has been circulating for some time, but has now splashed on my particular internet shore again). It was intended to be played in the event of... well, the end of the world. Unfortunately for our household, we just rewatched Mars Attacks last night, and this feels like a cut scene from that movie...