Sidetracks - July 8, 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.

Jodie

1. Samira Ahmed is going to be writing Ms. Marvel.

2. Holly Black moves into adult fiction.

3. Photos of cats in naval hammocks.

4. Related, puppies in trollies.

5. Tiny dog, big stick, huge enjoyment.

6. Enjoy Andrew Cotter's new "wildlife" video.

Renay

7. Please help me in my ongoing campaign to have everyone read Descendant of the Crane by Joan He and tell Kelsey to read it ASAP.

8. Are Booktubers "Real" Reviewers? was a neat video essay about how we classify reviewers. It's so fun seeing the same conversations we used to have on blogs shift to other mediums. Obviously my answer to this is "yes".

9. Fascinating thread and replies from C.L. Polk when a "story gets moving".

10. Dust and echoes:

I do not seek a world absent of critique, negative reviews, or a wide range of reactions to every single story. But I do seek a world in which the first weapon in the arsenal of critique is not identity policing. I seek a world in which the behaviour of people in the SFF and YA communities is given greater weight in determining their character than the community's reaction to the content of their fiction.

11. Very cool essay by nwhyte on the Best Related Work category this year and how he plans to vote, but also some very neat commentary about how Hugo admins determine eligibility. If you like details from ~inside the machinery~ of an award system, this is for you! However, if you're nominated in this category and sensitive to commentary about your work given the tone of Hugo discussion this year, I would not read this post. Even though he's not mean/cruel, this season has been tough on finalists, so I just want everyone to protect themselves!

12. Issues on Tik Tok often move faster than they do on Twitter, which is wild given the speed of Twitter. That means this topic is a little old already, but this article on Teen Vogue by stitchmediamix, Black TikTokers Stand Against Dance Theft in Refusal to Choreo "Thot Shit" sums it up really well. It makes a larger point about the ways in which white culture snaps up Black creative work, repackages it, and then profits personally, and how the Black community on Tik Tok finally said enough and did it in a way that would embarrass the hell out of white folks, too. Good for Black Tik Tok! Good for them.

13. Super interested in the trailer for AWAKE.

14. A voice teacher listens and comments on the cover of "Fix You" by Coldplay that BTS did. It's a great cover and you can listen to the whole track uninterrupted here.

15. If you haven't read the statement Nikole Hannah-Jones released upon rejecting the offer of tenure from UNC, I highly recommend it. You can then follow it up with this thread, which covers the underbelly of the situation that Hannah-Jones referenced.

Susan

16. THE NEW SERIES OF MY NEXT LIFE AS A VILLAINESS: ALL ROUTES LEAD TO DOOM STARTS IN JULY! I'm trying to be calm about this, because the first series is honestly a lot to live up to, but PRECIOUS USELESS QUEERS LIVING THEIR BEST OBLIVIOUS LIVES! \o/