C.K. Combs's Blog, page 8
December 27, 2018
The Mixed Feelings of Christmas
I know I’m not the only one who approaches the holidays with a mixed feeling of happy anticipation and dread. I’m also probably not the only one who looks forward to cherished traditions and time with loved ones, while also fantasizing about being somewhere far away for the entire month of December.
Today is Christmas Day and I am celebrating it during the reign of a brutally repressive and oppressive US regime. My social media feeds lately have featured many posts along these lines:
I hate C...
December 18, 2018
FINALLY! Nonbinary Anthology is Almost Here
It’s available on Amazon for pre-order. Publish date is April 9, 2019. It’s been nearly 5 years since I first started working on my contribution for this… well, most of that time was spent waiting between revisions and for a publisher to be found.
Deets:
Paperback: 288 pages Publisher: Columbia University Press (April 9, 2019) Language: English ISBN-10: 0231185332 ISBN-13: 978-0231185332I’m looking forward to seeing my piece in print, of course, and I’m also excited to see the other sub...
December 1, 2018
Book Review: The Kick-Ass Writer
The Kick-Ass Writer: 1001 Ways to Write Great Fiction, Get Published, & Earn Your Audience
By Chuck Wendig, WritersDigest.com, 2013
This book has been my bathroom companion for many months. The book is broken up into chapters that provide 25 tips about some aspect of writing, publishing and earning an audience. Readers of Wendig’s blog, TerribleMinds, will recognize that format – he’s posted these 25 point lists there. That’s how I discovered him, after Googling for something and finding on...
November 8, 2018
Thoughts on 2018 Midterms
I wrote this on November 5th and posted it to Facebook.
The midterm elections are not a battle that will decide everything about the direction our country will take but will be an indication of how much more work we have to do to defend justice and inclusion and compassion. Based on who ends up in the winners and losers columns tomorrow, we’ll know more about what the next steps will be. I want to see some hopeful results tomorrow but I’m having a crisis of faith. The democracy that I grew up...
November 6, 2018
My Reading List
Motivated by the desire to spice up my reading life, I’ve been on a mission to diversify my reading list and learn about cultures other than mine from people who live in them. A review of what I’ve read in recent years shows it to be mostly books written by straight, cis white men from white-dominated countries (US, UK, Canada). Not surprising since my comfort zone is sci fi and speculative fiction, both dominated by that demographic. I was listening to the Origin Stories podcast where Adam...
November 3, 2018
Book Review: The End of Patriarchy
The End of Patriarchy: Radical Feminism for Men
Robert Jensen
When I first saw this book by journalism professor Robert Jensen, perched provocatively on the library shelf, I thought: oh great, a white mansplaining about feminism. I browsed the rest of the ‘new books’ section and came back to its blue cover. I picked it up, browsed it. On the plus side, I liked the idea of a man writing about feminism and trying to bring other men into that way of thinking. On the other hand, he was touti...
October 28, 2018
Book Review: Autonomous
In the spirit of full disclosure, I have a crush on the author of Autonomous, Annalee Newitz. It’s a nerdy crush full of admiration for Newitz’s humor, intelligence and artistic talent. And if that isn’t enough, she’s queer, which is a total bonus on my score sheet.
My crush began when I became a devoted fan of the podcast, Our Opinions are Correct, hosted by Newitz and her partner, Charly Jane Anders. On their podcast, they address topics like capitalism, democracy, transgender and queer...
October 16, 2018
Don’t be Civil, Make a Scene!
ON twitter, from Ethan Grey
[image error]Click the link to read the rest (must have Twitter account)
October 15, 2018
On my mind today: Capitalism
I’m thinking about the relationship between capitalism and patriarchy, especially the white male power version we have running on our matrix in this country. Capitalism is a very competitive system. Does capitalism leave room for an individual being satisfied with their success in life? Success is so often described and measured in terms of continuously accumulating wealth and status symbols. Investors aren’t satisfied with the increase in earnings they got last year, they want to see an incr...
October 13, 2018
No, I won’t be civil
“You libtards can’t even be civil any more.”
If you’re on social media, you’ve probably seen some variation of this thrown out when progressives finally get pissed off enough at the barrage of racist, misogynist xenophobic bullshit being spewed all over the Internet to stop trying to have reasoned and polite conversations with people who’d like to see white supremacy further strengthened.
Any time ‘Be civil’ is thrown at us by folks who favor slavery, rape culture and strategies favored by H...
