Will Shetterly's Blog, page 64

Two quibbles with the American Gods TV show

1. Where are the kickass female gods? So far, female gods stick to sex and fortune-telling. I'd like an Athena or an Oya, a female god who is any male god's equal in might as well as sex or trickery. 2. The trickster Anansi would understand the African slave trade in all its complexity—Africans sold Africans to Europeans, then many black Americans stayed slaves while some became slaveowners in

Why there's no statute of limitations on spoilers

Funny, but wrong, and if you don't want to know how King Kong ends, skip this joke for what follows: There's no statute of limitations on spoilers for the general public—everyone should have the chance to experience a story as the writer intended. If you don't know how Oedipus Rex ends, I won't be the one to tell you. I envy people who don't know the endings of great stories. There is a

On people who object to being mistaken for clerks

When people object to being mistaken for clerks, you know what they think of clerks. (I've been a clerk and been mistaken for one.) I shared that comment on Facebook. To my surprise and delight, people began telling about times someone had mistaken them for clerks. Perhaps the most useful advice: Jonah Earl Thomas said, "If you just tell them Aisle 3B they'll go away." Perhaps the funniest:

A little about Warpship Victoria

Warpship Victoria will appear daily for week, and then the schedule will be Monday through Friday. Here's the first page: If you'd like to read more, click for Page 2.

A warrior in the whisper wars

I've spent the last few days dealing with an unpleasantness that may never go public but is undoubtedly fodder for fandom's gossip mill. For now, I'll share this bit from a letter I sent to address it: I know that I have a long history of disagreeing online with the genre's more vocal neoliberal identitarians, but so far as I know, my only offline manifestation of that has been to ignore a few

Two black people on the Titanic in fact and a third in folklore

The Titanic had at least two black passengers, and more if you count one passenger's children. The story of Joseph Laroche is in Was a Black Man on the Titanic? His white wife and their daughters were saved. He was not. Don't blame race for his death—many of the men stayed behind so more of the women and children could survive. There's some debate about whether the Laroches endured racism on

An article to cite when you want to show Fox News, the Mirror, and the Daily Mail are unreliable

Media fooled by fake news item about married twins: While more reputable sites like the New York Times or Washington Post don’t appear to be running with this nonsense story, many other widely read news outlets like the Mirror and the Daily Mail ran with it. Even Fox News ran a Sun article on their site. Of course, this doesn't mean the Times or the Post are reliable either. No site is perfect,

On Charging Bull and Fearless Girl, and the ethics of creators

Re: 'Charging Bull' sculptor says New York's 'Fearless Girl' statue violates his rights | US news | The Guardian Putting Fearless Girl in front of Charging Bull made a clever mash-up, but as a creator, I have more sympathy for Charging Bull's artist than many seem to. He made a great piece of art. Then another artist came along and placed her work where it made his subordinate to hers. Would

A farewell to politics on this blog

One of my favorite pieces of advice is Rilke's "You must change your life." It's always true, but it's harder to do with every day that passes. So I'm changing my blog instead. Because my definition of politics is quirky, I can't guarantee there won't be anything after this that you would consider politics. I have always loved Robin Williams' definition: Politics: “Poli” a Latin word meaning

Everyone who claims to care about social justice should hear Sally Kohn's short Tedx talk