Sidetracks - June 24, 2021

[helloladies]

Sidetracks is a collaborative project featuring various essays, videos, reviews, or other Internet content that we want to share with each other. All past and current links for the Sidetracks project can be found in our Sidetracks tag. For more links and commentary you can follow us on Twitter. You can also support us on Patreon.

KJ

1. NPR TV critic Eric Higgins writes about Tom Hanks's recent essay about the Tulsa Race Massacre and explains why it doesn't go far enough as an act of anti-racism. He argues that, as a powerful and respected Hollywood actor who's built a career out of playing "good white men", the best way for Hanks to make a difference is to use his money and influence to make real changes in how films are produced and who gets to tell their stories.

2. Mobilesyrup is running a series of articles asking BIPOC, LBGTQIA+, and disabled folks in the gaming community about representation in games, each focusing on a single question. The first in the series asks whether there is enough representation in video games; the overall answer is a resounding "No", but it's interesting to see different folks take on how things have changed. The second digs a little deeper into why representation is important.

3. This Variety article looks at the Marvel Disney+ series and their decision not to use traditional showrunners, instead putting the head writer at the helm of day-to-day production. Some senior writers in the business are concerned that this doesn't give enough creative control to the production team. I find this interesting, because "showrunner" hasn't even been a concept in Hollywood for that long -- maybe only for the last 10 or 15 years? And it's not a title you ever see in the credits. I'll be curious to see where the balance of power goes.

4. Square Enix has announced yet another remaster series of the first six Final Fantasy games, for Steam, iOS, and Android (so far). Does this mean that I will finally, after something like four tries, finish Final Fantasy VI? Stay tuned!

5. Ten years ago, NPR polled the internet about their favorite SFF novels and came up with a top 100 list that I thought left a lot to be desired. Now they're doing it again, focused specifically on books released in 2011 or later. I'm pleased to see they've corrected some of their errors of last time (not excluding YA or romance, for one), and they've promised to release a supplementary list to correct for some of the holes on the first; I'll be curious to see what they come up with. Anyone can nominate up to five books or series -- the hard part, as always, is narrowing it down.

Renay

6. This essay is a gut punch, but it's something I really needed to read last week.

The world might end tomorrow, and it might not. If we can help it, at all, we shouldn’t let it end. We still ought to act like it might.

We ought to figure out what trees we would plant either way.

7. Adri reviewed The Jasmine Throne by Tashi Suri which has been all over my timeline. Her takeaway: solid book! Read it!

8. I had no idea about Five Nights at Freddy's (and I am, upon looking it up, glad I don't), but the latest drama to overtake my Twitter timeline sure was a wealthy white person reaping some consequences for political donations. There's a write up about Scott Cawthon's financial contributions to lots of anti-queer public officials. The focus when I first stumbled across this and tried to back track on tweets to figure out what was going on was on the contributions to Trump. But I find the money given to Mitch McConnell even more damning in light of Cawthon's claim he treats everyone kindly and his "retirement" (it's a flounce, because in it he's like "I'll still be around!" Classic.). If people are allowed to write history and that history somehow survives, McConnell will be known as the most harmful figure in 20th century American politics. Anyone who has given this man money in the 21st century, during which we've known how ethically and morally hollow this man is, is a fascist. Remember that your large personal political donations are public record, fascists! *blows a kiss*

9. I am not a Leverage fan, to my eternal disappointment. Not because I don't like the show! I just can't watch it. I wish I were better at tension; the show seems really fun but the "will they get caught?!" part is actively triggery for me and I haven't found a good episode-by-episode breakdown of that so I can go into each episode prepared. However, this collection of John Rogers Leverage blog posts by elysdir seems like it would be super useful to other fans of the show!

10. KJ mentioned in her section already that NPR is doing another poll of SFF books, but for the last decade. I agonized over this (here is the proof), but in the end I submitted The Fifth Season by N.K. Jemisin, Leviathan Wakes by James S.A. Corey, Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie, Ninefox Gambit by Yoon Ha Lee, and Infomocracy by Malka Older. There are so many books I wanted to list but just didn't have the space: Cold Magic, Court of Fives, and Black Wolves by Kate Elliott, The Goblin Emperor by Katherine Addison, The Raven Tower by Ann Leckie, Gods of Jade and Shadow by Silvia Moreno Garcia, The Murderbot Diaries by Martha Wells, Binti by Nnedi Okorafor, All the Birds in the Sky by Charlie Jane Anders. I'm honestly considering asking some non-SFF reading friends to do me a solid. >.>

11. New YA series from Yoon Ha Lee in 2023!

Comments

[readingtheend.com]

Ooh what if I recapped all of Leverage on the blog tho

no, I'm not going to do that

what if I did that tho