Sidetracks - April 7, 2014
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ladybusinessSidetracks 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 all your Captain America: The Winter Soldier review needs,
coffeeandink is collecting reviews/commentary. I've read a few professional reviews and a handful of fan reviews, but I really need to see it again ASAP because I have too many Steve feelings to deal with right now to process other opinions very well. STEVE. ♥➝ Final Fantasy VI turned 20 recently and Aidan marks the occasion. Feel free to feel old now; I sure did.
➝ The second week of Women in SF&F Month is already underway, but Kristen wrapped up the first week and talked about the guests for the second. Check out the awesome list of books by women writers. :D
➝ You're Always Coming Out by
thefourthvine.➝ Anne Perry stabs The Proposal (2009) in the face. I love this premise in fanfic; clearly whoever wrote this shitshow should have come to fandom and asked us how to do it without screwing it up so utterly.
➝ Kevin Standlee just posted a copy of the 1964 Hugo Final Ballot results and talked about them a little. I find this stuff fascinating and wish there was data for all the conventions. My burning curiosity about the things that almost made the ballot in 1983 would finally be rewarded! (DOES ANYONE KNOW?? Also, where are all the fan academic texts studying Worldcon/The Hugos? WHERE?)
➝ Yes, Sexuality Changes, and Yes, That Is Okay by s.e. smith
➝ Clare reviews Frozen. While she didn't love it quite as much as we did, she raises good points that even if we love it we should keep expecting more and demanding more from Disney, especially in regards to animation of female characters. I loved Frozen, but I find the animation in Tangled so much better.
➝ A collection of reviews of The Goblin Emperor that everyone should check out and read if it sounds up their alley:
- Ana reviews The Goblin Emperor and says some great things about how the women are handled.
- Ana and Thea give the book the joint review treatment. Being able to do ratings is beyond me, but if they rate something an 8 or above, it merits checking out.
- And Nathan pointed out that in a field of grimdark, stories like this about warm-hearted protagonists can thrive, too!
➝ I finally got to listen to the Ancillary Justice episode section of The Writer and the Critic released in March. They pointed out that some of the larger discussions of colonialism and empire that the book raises are getting brushed aside for the conversations about gender, which has sort of been my experience, too. Does anyone know of critical reviews/discussions that engage with the colonialism theme?
➝ And while Clare didn't like Ancillary Justice as much as I did, I'm still calling it a win because she ships Breq and Seivarden! \o/ \o/ \o/
➝ Justin's new podcast, Rocket Talk, hosted by Tor, dropped in late March with an episode about The Lego Movie, which I haven't seen. Episode #2 is about awards and features Jared Shurin and Anne Perry, who are awesome. They also run their own awards, the Kitschies, which recently announced winners (and Ancillary Justice was one of them; I don't think I'm supposed to feel as smug as I do every time it wins an award). This discussion about awards goes around every year, and I'm still not tired of it, so this was great fun. Justin is awesome and I always enjoy listening to him speak, so I'm excited for the future of this podcast. :D
➝ Memory has also reviewed The Goblin Emperor and she's done it beautifully.
➝ The Bailey's Women's Prize for Fiction shortlist is out — go Americanah!
➝ This week I'm going to start with a nice story from the retail world. Sometimes people are genuinely wonderful.
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➝ Hello Tailor offered some interesting commentary on"Timeline: How Chris Finally Got Tired of Being Famous":
I think most people understand that when Maggie Gyllenhaal goes on the Daily Show to promote a money project like “White House Down,” she doesn’t seriously think she’s announcing the release of a masterpiece. But for stuff like Avengers and Star Trek etc, we expect the actors to love the source material as much as we do, because it’s difficult for us to imagine The Avengers or Star Trek being "just a job" to anyone. Which creates a kind of feedback loop of supply/demand for enthusiastic celebrity promo material, meaning that actors in this type of franchise are now expected to be even more enthusiastic and fannish and geeky than before. For example, Clark Gregg would not be in the position he is now as an actor/personality if people weren’t aware of his fanboy status.
I've been thinking how interesting this idea is if you think about Robert Pattinson's open dislike for his part in the huge SFF "Twilight" franchise (almost no one cares, and he's actually often celebrated for it). So, how do fans decide which mega SFF franchises feel like they should be more than "just a job" for actors?
➝ I haven't had time to lay these through yet, which is why they're here and not in "Fanwork Recommendations" but look, LOOK — people made "Bletchley Circle" and "Bringing Up the Bodies"> fanmixes! It's just the best feeling when people make things in your tiny corner of fandom.
➝ Famous male actors dressed in women's clothes.
➝ Scientifically accurate cake planets. And with that I believe we may be done for the day.
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Date: 2014-04-08 02:56 am (UTC)I kinda thought about this too. I wonder if it's because the people who celebrate Pattinson's dislike for his part in Twilight are the same people hating on Twilight themselves? I could be wrong, but I don't think the Twilight fans were the ones who were praising Pattinson for his disdain. I always got the feeling that the media was giving him props for being in on the joke. (And Kristen Stewart perpetually just got told to smile more on the red carpet; her apathy was treated very differently, because I don't her apathy was for her character so much as for the whole public performance of being a starlet, which nobody forgave). But Marvel is a huge huge fandom, and the people who think Chris Evans ought to fanboy like they do love the MCU. Basically, we think the actors ought to share our feelings on their work, whatever those feelings are?
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Date: 2014-04-08 02:28 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-04-10 02:45 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-04-10 03:40 am (UTC)I do get really excited when actors seem to enjoy their work as a fan, too, especially in the case of book adaptations, because it then feels like you're sharing some special even more (ah, parasocial relationships—!;) and it's sort of humanizing to realize, oh, this is a person, who likes things, just like me! But I'm also okay with them not caring (and honestly sometimes wish they would go a little easier on interviews/press, because seriously).
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Date: 2014-04-10 12:53 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-04-10 12:54 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-04-10 03:37 am (UTC)