Jared Shurin's Blog, page 12
March 12, 2018
YA Y'all: Moxie, Part-Time Princesses and Sarah Dessen
One more round-up of Young Adult reading - Jennifer Mathieu's Moxie, Monica Gallagher's Part-Time Princesses and a whistle-stop tour through the ouevre of Sarah Dessen. Steel yourself for angst, anxiety, young women finding their agency, and some floppy-haired love interests.
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Moxie by Jennifer Mathieu (2017)
Vivian���s high school, in a small town in Texas, is a hot mess of misogyny and harassment. The administration doesn���t care, the boys are a disaster, and Viv and her friends are le...
March 9, 2018
Our Brave Captain
Many of my friends have been talking to me about Star Trek lately. This makes me very happy, because usually I���m the one starting conversations about Star Trek. Somewhere within me is a kid who���s over the goddamn moon to know that one day, her skin will be clear, her bed will be shared, and her peers will genuinely want to ask her about the guiding principles of Starfleet. I love being in my thirties.
People want to talk to me about Star Trek because of Discovery, a topic on which I am m...
March 8, 2018
Growing up Geek - and Girl
Why is it important to put women on the covers of science fiction and fantasy novels, and why is it important to make sure they're not represented in a sexualized or diminishing posture? Why is it important to ensure that there is more than one woman in the main cast of a film or TV show? Why do people care so much about the Bechdel test?
And why do we keep having these arguments?
Haven���t we geeky women done enough to prove that we like Star Wars and Star Trek and action movies and Asimov...
March 7, 2018
Three Fantasies: The Black Witch, The Empire of the Dead, and The Summer I Became a Nerd
Three reviews - all books with different 'fantasies', or relationships with fantasy, at their heart: The Summer I Became a Nerd, The Black Witch and The Empire of the Dead. One's a romp. One's a long-overdue provocation. One's kind of a mess. Enjoy!
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The Black Witch by Laurie Forest (2017)
A very traditional fantasy with a thought-provoking, revisionist twist.
The Black Witch has a really, really interesting premise: it full-on tackles the fact that many fantasy tropes are inherently raci...
March 6, 2018
Fiction: 'The Second Bullet' by Anna Katharine Green
���You must see her.���
���No. No.���
���She���s a most unhappy woman. Husband and child both taken from her in a moment; and now, all means of living as well, unless some happy thought of yours���some inspiration of your genius���shows us a way of re-establishing her claims to the policy voided by this cry of suicide.���
But the small, wise head of Violet Strange continued its slow shake of decided refusal.
���I���m sorry,��� she protested, ���but it���s quite out of my province. I���m too...
March 5, 2018
Stark Reviews: 49-17 (1917)
Stark says: Go West and find me a population!
In my brief tenure as Dedicated Western Reviewer for Pornokitsch, I���ve tried to take my mission seriously. I���ve wallowed in the bewildering technicolour depths of Soviet-era musical comedy westerns, I���ve crammed Disney���s Robin Hood into a pair of chaps, I���ve burned these hands on the most acidy of acid westerns, and sought out rare and mythical VHS tapes that feature James Earl Jones in a terrible wig, and a cameo performance by Jeremy...
March 2, 2018
Friday Five: 5 Frosty Favourites for Snowy Weather
As #snowmageddon ravages Britain, we're looking forward to the weekend. We have firm plans to camp out - pressed against the radiator, under a dozen blankets (and two cats), with whisky in hand. Also, books. *
Here are a few of our cold weather favourites.
Jared:
I have read David Eddings' Belgariad so. very. many. times. My Mastermind category is Polgara's stitching. I can retell the battle of Vo Mimbre better than Belgarath. My fantasy tattoo would be 'why me?'.
They're littered with rac...
March 1, 2018
Radio Drama: 'Dangerous Assignment: Bombay Gun Runners' (1950)
One time I saw this thing on the internet and it was a guy on a bike and the words said ���lyf is short, be a racist���. Obviously I have decided to apply these words into my daily life, which is why I have chosen to listen to something called Bombay Gun Runners.
Bombay Gun Runners by Dangerous Assignment, August 23, 1950
Thoughts While Listening
IT���S NATIONAL WHEATIES WEEK!!!
We are off to an excellent start already
So some guy just said ���Yeah, danger is my assignment��� and I���m not...
February 28, 2018
Non-Fiction: 'Money in Literature' by Page Fox (1900)
Literature requires the least capital of any enterprise with the possibilities of rich reward and wide renown. A pen, a bottle of ink, a ream of paper, and ��� brains. These are all. There is no occupation so discouraging to the one who lacks the last-named quality and few so alluring to those who possess it.
Authors are supposed to write for fame, but fame and fortune are twin sisters which are seldom separated. Hack writers are indeed hard worked and poorly paid, but in the higher walks of...
Non-Fiction: 'Money in Literature' (1900)
Literature requires the least capital of any enterprise with the possibilities of rich reward and wide renown. A pen, a bottle of ink, a ream of paper, and ��� brains. These are all. There is no occupation so discouraging to the one who lacks the last-named quality and few so alluring to those who possess it.
Authors are supposed to write for fame, but fame and fortune are twin sisters which are seldom separated. Hack writers are indeed hard worked and poorly paid, but in the higher walks of...
