Will Shetterly's Blog, page 161

how to convince someone to support gay marriage

The title of this post was a popular search string for this blog yesterday. Since I like to try to make people happy, here's my attempt:

1. If the person is politically conservative, point out that if they believe in small government, either every adult or no adult should be allowed to legally marry. Any other option just creates more bureaucracy.

2. If the person is fiscally conservative, point out that more people marrying provides income for the government from marriage licenses and boosts t...

Does good fiction give us empathy?

Neil Gaiman says good fiction gives us empathy, but if so, why does the gap between rich and poor continue to grow? Is it that we simply don't have enough good fiction about the need to share? In Road to Wigan Pier, written in the 1930s, George Orwell argues that there haven't been any truly great socialist writers. I look at the success of Webber's Les Miserables and laugh bitterly—millions for its producers, but life in the trickle-up economy doesn't change.

Similarly, I doubt...

Amelia E. Barr on the importance of enemies

"Our enemies often help us more than our friends. Besides, a head-wind is better than no wind. Who ever got anywhere in a dead calm?" —Amelia E. Barr

via 9 Rules for Success by British Novelist Amelia E. Barr, 1901 | Brain Pickings

feminist or equalist? or What kind of feminist am I?

A friend who proudly identifies as a feminist emailed me recently, asking why I criticize the label and some of the things contemporary feminists accept without question. Here's my reply:

I've always loved the '80s definition of feminism: “the radical notion that women are people.” Though , when you give them a definition like the Oxford English Dictionary's "the advocacy of women’s righ...

the eleven female incarnations of Dr. Who

Fans usually talk about the eleven male incarnations in Dr. Who, which is about as sexist as sexist can be. In my opinion, the women were every bit as good, and were arguably better.

Here are some of my favorite pictures of the Doctor's feminine side.

1. Hermione Gingold

2. Honor Blackman

3. Diana Rigg.

4. Nichelle Nichols

5. Joanna Lumley
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6. Miranda Richardson

7. Michelle Yeoh

8. Emma Thompson

9. Helen Mirren

10. Helena Bonham Carter

11. Whoopi Goldberg

I'm looking forward to the twelfth.
ETA: My comment...

I have pure fanboy love for Samuel L. Jackson

Samuel L. Jackson Insists Reporter Say N-Word in 'Django Unchained' Interview - YouTube:

women of the USSR: combat soldiers, cosmonauts, and engineers

Because the US has finally allowed women soldiers to officially serve in combat, here are a few links about Soviet women who officially served in combat, starting with Woody Guthrie's song about Lyudmila Pavlichenko, who regularly appears in lists of history's ten greatest snipers. As Woody notes, over 300 Nazis died by her gun.



Lest anyone think sniping was a safe occupation because snipers usually shot from distant hiding places, of 2000 female Soviet snipers in World War II, about 500 survi...

Martin Luther King: one dream down, two to go

We live in a time when a black man leads the most powerful nation on Earth, but King's dreams of ending war and poverty continue to be dreams.

King supports a Guaranteed Annual Income in a short clip:



And opposes the Vietnam War in a long one:



If you're in a hurry, here's the text for Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence: By Rev. Martin Luther King.

there was nothing brave in Brave

I'd heard Brave was disappointing, so I waited to get the DVD from Netflix, thinking I would enjoy the art and trusting I would think the story was good enough.

It wasn't. It was barely there. This should've been the story of a young woman striking out on her own, saving her kingdom while dealing with family issues and finding true love. Instead, it's the story of a girl learning she should trust her mom. There's nothing brave about the story, and the heroine never really has her bravery teste...

Django Unchained should be nominated for the World Fantasy Award: historicity vs world-building

Friends wanted to see Django Unchained, so I saw it a second time. I think I liked it more this time, because I knew the conclusion was going to be nothing but spectacle. Tarrantino's a master of genre artistry: he creates worlds that are true to themselves, dreams or nightmares where humans behave by the logic of their genre—in this case, the spaghetti western—rather than the real world.

A quick breakdown of the historical inaccuracies in Django Unchained, focusing on slavery:

In the film's op...