Tansy Rayner Roberts's Blog, page 86

Stranger With My Face 2013

It’s hard to believe you would not know about this awesome Hobart-based indie film festival by now, if you live in Hobart and read my blog, but HEY STRANGER WITH MY FACE IS ON THIS WEEKEND!

Tickets and passes can be bought ahead of time, and there are some good deals on as far as weekend passes go. Also free events, like my symposium about The Rani and other female Doctor Who monsters/villains, and others about female werewolves, zombie comics and stop motion character design!

(even with the free events they ask you to reserve tickets so they have some idea about numbers)

But also check out these events and screenings:

Despite the Gods

Australia

2012

85 min

documentary

DIR: Penny Vozniak

Cinema’s prodigal daughter Jennifer Lynch braves the unmapped territory of Bollywood-Hollywood movie making, where chaos is the process and filmmaking doubles as a crash course in acceptance and self-realisation.

“This is a penetrating, highly entertaining portrait of Lynch as an artist and single mother living through the despairing lows and exhilarating highs of filming on the subcontinent.” – Richard Kuipers, Variety

Jennifer Lynch and Penny Vozniak will be present for a post-screening Q&A.

This is the opening night film of the festival so there will be red carpet drinks beforehand, from 7.30 pm. There will be some brief speeches prior to the commencement of the screening.

Friday 8 March, 7.45 pm

Peacock Theatre, Salamanca Arts Centre

$13 / $10 concession

The one I’m most excited about though is a live performance of an audio play, in the time slot just before my talk on Sunday:

Beautiful Hands

by Hilary Bell

Rehearsed reading of a radio play

As the month slowly goes by, Charlotte becomes more and more convinced that she is not alone with the yellow wallpaper in her room. Charlotte and her husband are spending a month in the country. Is the wallpaper in their bedroom trying to speak to her? Has she been here before?

Inspired by the classic short story The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Gilman Perkins, Beautiful Hands was commissioned by Radio National in 2011. This rehearsed reading with live sound elements is directed by Jane Longhurst and is performed by Jane Longhurst, Guy Hooper and Joan Murray.

There will be a Q & A with Hilary Bell after the reading.

Hilary Bell is a graduate of the Juilliard Playwrights’ Studio, NIDA, and the Australian Film, Television and Radio School.She has written for stage, radio, screen and music theatre and her plays have been performed around the world. Best known works include: Wolf Lullaby, Memmie Le Blanc, The Mysteries: Genesis (with Lally Katz) and Angela’s Kitchen as associate writer. In 2012 her play The White Divers of Broome premiered for Black Swan / Perth Festival, The Splinter for Sydney Theatre Company, Victim Sidekick Boyfriend Me for the National Theatre’s Connections Program in London and Mrs President for Anchorage Opera.

11 am, 10 March

Peacock Theatre, Salamanca Arts Centre

$13 FULL

$10 concession /AWG

Free for festival pass-holders (book using your access code)

Tiptree Time!

It’s that time of year again, when the Tiptree winners (and Honor List) are released. The award is designed to reward (and call attention to) works that explore or challenge the portrayal of gender, as well as being thought provoking and generally wonderful. The jury is always made up of four women and one man, and the award is administered by the Tiptree Motherboard.

Being on the 2011 Tiptree jury was a wonderful experience, and had up until that point been one of my major career goals.

But it’s a new year now, and a new jury have released their winners and honour list! The winners will be celebrated at this year’s Wiscon, and presented with $1000, chocolate, and a specially commissioned piece of artwork.

Hand-made reversible doll presented to Andrea Hairston as part of her Tiptree prize at Wiscon in 2012.

The Winners Are:

The Drowning Girl by Caitlin R. Kiernan

Ancient, Ancient by Kiini Ibura Salaam

THE HONOUR LIST:

Elizabeth Bear, Range of Ghosts (Tor 2012) — A rip-roaring tale with imaginative worldbuilding, convincing exploration of gender, power, and possibility, and an intriguing juxtaposition of procreative energy, wizardly magic, and necromancy. The first book in the Eternal Sky trilogy.

Roz Kaveney, Rituals (Plus One Press 2012) — Tremendous fun while dealing with serious issues around power, gender, class, economics.  Genre-savvy while subverting conventions and tropes. This is the first book in Rhapsody of Blood, a four-part series.

M.J. Locke, Up Against It (Tor 2011) — On an asteroid world, characters struggle with the social implications of altered biology. The control and betrayal of innocent AI’s are particularly fascinating.

Kim Stanley Robinson, 2312 (Orbit 2012) — A rare and honest effort to examine gender multiplicity in pure hard-SF terms. This vision of freedom from gender assignment could help revise the standard hard-SF future in much the same way that Robinson’s Mars trilogy revised the portrayal of Mars in science fiction.

Karin Tidbeck, Jagannath (Cheeky Frawg Books, 2012) — A beautifully written collection of short stories using Norse myth; the ones that involve gender identities present figures not easily forgotten, from the Aunts to the Great Mother to the characters mooning over an airship and a steam engine.

Ankaret Wells, Firebrand (Epicon Press 2012) — Set in the steampunk era, this fun read shows women dealing with the restrictions of society on their way to gaining political and economic power and considers how definitions of “proper” behavior worked across cultural, class, and species’ boundaries.

Lesley Wheeler, “The Receptionist” (in The Receptionist and Other Tales, Aqueduct Press 2012) — An overt exploration of gender and power in narrative poetry with splendidly drawn characters and pitch-perfect language.

Romana’s Regeneration Fashion Parade [WHO-50—1979]

The regeneration of Romana at the beginning of Destiny of the Daleks was always something of an oddity. Mary Tamm had already left the show, and so the production team decided to go for humour rather than angst in the exchange of actresses.

Lalla Ward emerges, still wearing her Princess Astra dress (that’s quite a lot of trouble to go to for a sight gag, Romana, actual cosplay) and manages to bemuse the Doctor with her presence before mentioning quite casually that she is regenerating.

He is cross at her for blatantly copying the princess’s form, and her cavalier attitude that they’re not going back to Atrios so what does it matter?

(do all Time Lords borrow patterns from other existing people in the universe? Is that why Romana I looked so suspiciously like Princess Strella on Tara, has she done this before?? Does this explain the similarity between the First Doctor and the Abbott of Amboise, the Second Doctor and Salamander?)

The Doctor sends her back to try out another form, and Romana proceeds through a veritable fashion parade of bodies before tricking him into approving of her favourite, the Astra/Lalla body, by covering it in an outfit that matches his.

I always thought this was an interesting scene, and read it as a demonstration of how regeneration is supposed to work – after all, the Doctor always reaches for his new bodies in a time of great stress and physical trauma, not caring what he puts on. Romana, on the other hand, was doing it by the book – a calm and unhurried chance to choose her next body, no mess or fuss, and a great deal of forward planning.

Imagine my surprise to discover much later that a large segment of Doctor Who fandom actually believes that Romana’s fashion parade of bodies each represents one of her lives, and that she burned through five or so on a whim. I just – don’t understand why anyone would read that scene in such a way to the point that yes, there is a YouTube vid that re-edits the clip to include a suicidal bullet sound in between every ‘costume’ change.

I always wondered if in fact there was a ‘missing’ adventure in which Romana I was gracefully fatally wounded and that is why she is now regenerating, I will admit. It was one of those few ‘what if’ aspects of Doctor who that drove me in the general direction of fanfic.

But of course Lalla Ward is Romana II and not Romana VI!

New Who has given us something of a solution to all this, with the idea that a regeneration has a certain period in which things are malleable – the Tenth Doctor’s hand, for example. I see no problem with the idea that Romana can switch her desktop setting around until she finds the one she likes – this is also reflected many years later in River Song suggesting that ‘I might take the age down a little. Just gradually. To freak people out.’

More to the point, if Romana was actually using up lives just on a whim in this scene, it’s not her whim – it is the Doctor who keeps telling her to, sending her back over and over again until he gets one that he is willing to approve. Which is… beyond problematic if her lives were substantially at stake.

I don’t see Romana’s Regeneration Fashion Parade as being a symbol of her frivolity or carelessness (though these are both terms which sum up the new, flightier Romana) but instead yet another sign that she knows how to fly this thing better than the Doctor.

ELSEWHERE ON 1979:

Romana II [Marlow Inc]

Destiny of the Daleks Re-enacted with Dolls [Fabric of Time and Space]

City of Death [Wife in Space]

Creature From the Pit Part 1 [Chronic Hysteresis]

Nightmare of Eden [Radio Free Skaro]

Getting into Sharon’s Head [Doctor Her]

PREVIOUSLY:

Also in March

I have a couple of appearances scheduled this month, along with my GLITTERING BOOK LAUNCH for the first Livia Day novel, A Trifle Dead, on March 28th at the Hobart Bookshop.

This Sunday, I am presenting a paper (or, apparently, a SYMPOSIUM) at the Stranger With My Face Film Festival.

Sunday March 10 2013



MONSTERS AND MAD SCIENTISTS:

Female Villains and Monsters in 30 Years of Dr Who

WITH TANSY RAYNER ROBERTS

It’s the 50th anniversary of a TV show famous for debonair villains, invading aliens and all manner of scary (or slightly wobbly) monsters. But what about the women? Do Daleks or Cybermen become less intimidating if they’re female? Why did the Silurians change gender in the 21st century? Is it as simple as… the ugly monsters are male and the pretty ones are female? What are the secrets to creating complex, original monsters that aren’t played or voiced by male actors?

Tansy Rayner Roberts has a PhD in Classics and writes fantasy novels for a living. She also writes (and talks) a lot about Doctor Who.

SUNDAY 10 MARCH, 12.00 PM – 1.00 PM

Peacock Theatre, Salamanca Arts Centre, Hobart

Free but please book to ensure a seat and so we have an idea of numbers.

Also, for anyone planning to attend AI Con (Anime Island) at UTAS (the Stanley Burbury Theatre) later in the month, I’m appearing on an author panel there, on Saturday the 16th March. This text is cribbed from the Tasmanian Writers Centre newsletter:

This year, AICon will be featuring a panel talk with four Tasmanian Science Fiction and Fantasy authors. AICon is a pop culture and anime convention held at Sandy Bay over the weekend of the 16th and 17th of March.

Featured authors include Bob Ashby, author of the Airmen Series and the forthcoming Kingbreaker Chronicles, Aurelis Award winner Lian Tanner, author of the best-selling Keepers Trilogy, Finegan Kruckemeyer, a multi-award-winning playwright of 57 commissioned works, Tansy Rayner Roberts (pictured), the author of the Creature Court fantasy trilogy, and Michael Fletcher, author of Kings of Under-Castle.

The subject of the panel is the role of research and the “Real World” in their work, and there will be plenty of opportunities to meet the speakers. The panel will speak from 12:30 until 1:30 on Saturday the 16th. For details, see http://www.aicon.org.au

Insert Strong Male Protagonist Here

Kate Elliott writes about strength, and writing “strong” characters, and how that ties into our societal preconceptions about the definitions of female vs. male strength. It’s a great post, and I highly recommend it.

There have been many additions in the last year to the conversation about strong female characters in SF/comics/movies and the problematic idea that ‘strong, female’ is so often defined as ‘acts in a traditionally masculine way while having a great rack.’ It’s a good conversation, and I’m thoroughly enjoying it, even though it feels like there isn’t a LOT left to say once you’ve read Kate Beaton’s take on the trope.

Kate raises a really interesting question, though, of the perceived strength of male characters. How far can we get from traditional masculine behaviour before our (male) hero starts to feel, well, not heroic enough? Why is it that so many beloved, ‘romantic’ male lead characters actually behave like arseholes?

What kind of role models are these heroes?

Why did mainstream media latch so enthusiastically on to the idea that Bella sucks as a role model for girls, and yet fail to properly disseminate the critical concept that Edward is a manipulative, patriarchal stalker-dude, and Jacob isn’t a whole lot better?

(Apart from the awesome And Then Buffy Staked Edward t-shirt, of course)

While we explore and analyse female roles (and lack of role) in popular culture, I think we also need to pay attention to the fact that a whole lot of our cultural expectations about male characters need some attention. Much of the male heroic behaviour of pop culture, from the 19th century adventure heroes through to everyone Bruce Willis has ever played, is kind of problematic. Not to mention all the romantic heroes who turn out to be uncomfortably ignorant of basic issues of consent (and I’m not talking about Regency romance here, I’m talking about modern romantic comedies).

In short, we’ve been talking a lot about the definition of “strong” as it applies to female characters, but let’s not neglect the menz. Most good fiction requires a nice variety of both.

Part of the reason that Doctor Who is so popular with the geek community (and a big part of the reason why some male fans are still adamantly protective of the Doctor staying male) is because he is a hero who exists outside so much of the macho bullshit that we see in most science fiction media. He’s allowed to be clever and use words and try to avoid getting people killed. He rarely goes armed (except for when he does), and he wears a nice coat.

Of course, not all male characters can be (or should be) the Doctor, but I rather like the mix of male character types you get in the show – Captain Jack, Mickey, Wilf and Rory (and my personal favourite, Canton) for example, are all complex and layered men who are allowed to have squishy feelings and skills other than (or as well as) killing people effectively. Though I noted that for all their attachment to the Doctor as the ultimate non-traditional male hero, Doctor Who fandom did tend to get a whole lot more supportive of Mickey and Rory once they ‘levelled up’ and started being badasses.

In our household, our latest obsession is Eureka, which we are coming to far too late but at least in the safe knowledge that it’s finished, we can watch all of it, and it lasted for a whole five seasons (though that’s feeling less awesome now we only have one season left – please don’t mention anything about season 5 in the comments!)

There are many cool things about Eureka, which is set in a town that has ALL THE RESEARCH FUNDING IN THE WORLD and is every bit as much about the awesomeness of scientific discovery and education as it is about all the crazystupid things that happen when mad science goes wrong. It’s like the anti-Doctor Who. Imagine if you lived in the town where everyone from the cafe owner to the postmistress was a PhD, a certified genius, and a little bit more obsessed with quantum theory than a person has any right to be… Imagine if you were the one ordinary person living in a town where everyone else is THE DOCTOR.

While Eureka does rely a lot on its hero Sheriff Carter, the traditional Everyman cop who manages somehow to solve most of the problems by making people much smarter than him explain scientific concepts in words of one syllable and coming up with well-timed metaphors, it helps a lot that his character falls in love with the town and all the mad science stuff, and like Ben Browder did with Crichton in Farscape, the actor who plays Carter brings in a bemused sense of humour as he falls further and further out of his depth.

It’s not the ‘everyman’ qualities of Carter or Crichton that make them likeable or interesting as characters, it’s the fact that those traditional heroic qualities are often subverted by situations that peel away their male privilege to see what else they’ve got.

(in both cases, they also score major character points for being attracted to and supportive of the intelligent and violent women in their lives, rather than competing or belittling them. Carter in particular is surrounded by women who are vastly more competent than he is in all kinds of areas, up to and including his smart-house who has a better love life than he does, and he admires them for those strengths – I particularly liked his supportive reaction when his deputy, the wonderfully brutal Jo Lupo, was promoted sideways to a far more high status position than his own)

In Eureka, intelligence is generally prized above any more traditional gender attributes, and status is measured accordingly. Sheriff Carter, then, is regarded as something of an adorable pet by most of the town, while Henry the scruffy mechanic (and volunteer firefighter and pathologist and wedding chaplain etc.) is so prized for his past career that he wins the mayoral race based on a write-in vote. Criminals are pardoned if their work is deemed more important than their crimes, teenagers can acquire adult privileges regardless of their age, and APPARENTLY sexual harassment is at an all time low. (it’s a fantasy show, ok?)

Dr Stark is more of an alpha male than Carter, not because of his muscles, confidence and suave suits (okay, partly because of that) but because he has all that AND a Nobel Prize.

One of the strengths of Eureka for me (apart from the science and the banter) is the wealth of interesting, complex women who are strong (and flawed) in interesting ways, but the range of male character types and the fact that gender equality is taken as a given in this weird, wonderful town of theirs is just as much a part of the winning formula. All the relationships are basically feminist, the work of women is seen as equal to that of men, and parenting is factored into that too.

And then, coming out of that, I’m reading A Game of Thrones. So, um. A bit of contrast going on there!

It’s a little bewildering to be back in a world with such stark (ha, see what I did there) gender roles laid out by a society. I think I’m coming down on the side of readers who say that the world is sexist but the books themselves are less so – certainly there’s at least 50% fewer brothel references than in the TV series which feels like a far more reasonable balance.

The women of A Game of Thrones (and I’m only at book one so far, no spoilers please) are on the whole more varied and interesting than their society probably wants them to be, and I think that Catelyn and Cersei in particular are fantastic and subversive characters, in that they have their own storylines and power rather than just supporting the plots of the men around them. I’ve read a lot of epic & high fantasy over the years and it’s pretty rare to get the perspectives of the mothers in those stories – especially when written by men. There’s nothing especially subversive or new about Sansa, Arya or Daenerys in genre terms, because there are so very MANY stories about the journeys of women on the verge of adulthood, having to overcome terrible things (they’re interesting, just not new), but I can’t think of many examples other than Marion Zimmer Bradley of the middle-aged women getting to wield such power on the page.

The men, though – oh, those poor men. I actually feel kind of sorry for them, trapped in a world with such a narrow definition of masculinity. I’m certain that like Miles Vorkosigan before him, part of the reason Tyrion Lannister is such a massive fan favourite is because he offers a different narrative, showing how hard it is for a nobleman who isn’t tall and physically strong to navigate a world in where that is the primary way to acquire status. (it’s certainly not because he’s, you know, less horrible than anyone else in this book)

Even taking Tyrion into account, the men of A Game of Thrones offer a far less varied range of characterisation than the women. The entire book is one big pissing contest – it’s all swords and violence, boasting of sexual exploits, siring bastards, threatening women, throwing their weight around, armour, swords, hunting and staring moodily off walls. Those like Tyrion and Littlefinger who can’t effectively express themselves through grand acts of violence, talk constantly about sex to make up for it.

There are a few attempts to question the defaults of masculinity beyond the Tyrion scenes – young Bran dealing with not being able to walk, for instance, and Jon Snow defending his friend’s ability to serve the Order of Staring Broodily Off Walls despite being rubbish with a sword because SOMEONE has to do the sums and cook the meals.

But honestly. They may be “strong” by medieval standards, but if ever a cast of characters needed a men’s support group, possibly involving drum-beating in the woods, alternative career counselling, and encouragement to talk about their feelings, it’s the fur-wrapped, sword-swinging blokes of A Game of Thrones.

Double Launch for A Trifle Dead

A Trifle Dead by my alter ego Livia Day will be officially launched on Thursday 28 March 2013, in two different states!

The Tasmanian launch is at 5:30-7pm at the Hobart Bookshop, Salamanca Square, Hobart. No need to RSVP, just come along and see my book off in style! Wine is provided.

Tehani Wessely will be our MC, and Stephanie Smith is launching the book.

If you can’t make it to the Hobart Bookshop in person, you can order a copy directly from the publisher, Twelfth Planet Press.

Or, if you’re in Western Australia, you can join Alisa, Terri and Tamara of Twelfth Planet Press at the Perth launch of A Trifle Dead, on the same day at Stefen’s Books. This launch is from 5:00-7:00pm and promises delectable desserts as well as a chance to schmooze with Perth’s coolest bookerazzi. (Facebook invite here)

If you’re in another state, there’s no reason you can’t have an A Trifle Dead party too! Pre-order your copies from Twelfth Planet Press and indulge in a trifle or two with your friends.

Friday Links is Calling from the Echo Chamber

A great piece from Angela Slatter on the writing life as a really big echo chamber – and how being with a smaller publisher and having to do a larger share of the book publicity is not the scariest thing in the world. (as Nicole mentions in the comments and I endorse wholeheartedly, being with a big publisher does NOT guarantee you any level of publicity support)

N.K. Jemisin talks about the misogyny & racism on Oscar’s night, as symbolised by (but not entirely represented by) That Tweet from the Onion: Fantasy Fans, Where’s Your Outrage?

Over at Tor.com in the Sleeps With Monsters column, Liz Bourke asks: Is Epic Fantasy Crushingly Conservative? As with many Tor posts there is some interesting discussion in the comments. I made a few which can be boiled down to ‘if Epic Fantasy is conservative, you’re reading too narrowly in the genre – check out some books by ladies.’

The legendary Mary Doria Russell on making a comeback after being dumped by her publisher. Sigh, it happens to us all, even the greats.

Over at Verity! Podcast, I talk with Erika, Deb and Liz about the Eighth Doctor, the TV movie, and how Doctor Who reinvented itself in the mid-90′s. For Fandom recs about the Eighth Doctor era, check out our companion post: Things We Like: The One With the Kiss Edition. Take particular note of the link to the Big Finish sale on the Lucie Miller Eighth Doctor Adventures – these are HEARTILY recommended by me, and the sale is a great deal, but the sale will be over by the time the second half of our podcast, talking about the Eighth Doctor in audio & other media, goes live.

Trust me on this. Lucie Miller is awesome. No matter what Liz says.

Dark Eyes, a new standalone season of stories with 8 and new Irish WWI nurse companion Molly O’Sullivan, is also on sale until the end of the weekend. HEARTILY RECOMMENDED BY ME.

Speaking of Verity, a conversation with several Veritesses & friends on Twitter yesterday led to me being QUITE TRAUMATISED ACTUALLY by Michael Thomas’s reveal that there is in this world (but mostly on YouTube and no I’m not linking to it) a dramatised sex scene of characters played by Colin Baker and Nicola Bryant from one of the Doctor Who-ish fanvids of the 90′s. Nooooo, you two are platonic always!

Liz made me feel oddly better with her new Pinterest board of Colin Baker pictures, none of which display him or his Doctor in any kind of compromising position, though there is a splendid array of moustaches from the 1970′s era.

If you’re up to date on Parks and Recreation (and 30 Rock), check out this great post about Liz Lemon, Leslie Knope, and what their relationships say about their feminism. Excellent analysis, and I love that Ben’s arc in P&R is being acknowledged for the great support he provides to Leslie’s career at the expense of his own, without him being mocked for it by the narrative. FEMINIST MEN ARE AWESOME AND THIS IS WHY PARKS AND REC IS ONE OF THE BEST SHOWS ON TV.

Brit Mandelo writes an open letter to Joanna Russ. It’s wonderful.

The Splendid Chaps podcast continue with their live shows here in Australia – the next one is in Adelaide. If you are in Adelaide and you love Doctor Who, this show is totally for you!

In closing, if you didn’t know about the Pulp-o-Mizer which allows you to create fancy fake pulp fiction covers for anything you like, then YOU’RE WELCOME.

Galactic Suburbia 76

A new episode up as we hurtle towards our… third birthday? It’s third, right? Check out Episode 76.

In which we celebrate the real beginning of awards season, taste honey and launch Alisa into her new world as PhD student of publishing…



News

Nebula shortlist

SF Signal Nebula post (with unfortunate comments and awesome responses)

Stella Prize longlist with special appearance by our own Margo Lanagan.

The Kitschies winners announced

Interesting link found after recording: Lavie Tidhar on the Kitschies & diversity

Libba Bray on misogyny at the Oscars

Also, go read NK Jemisin talking about race, misogyny & Quvenzhané Wallis with “Fantasy fans, where’s your outrage?”

We didn’t discuss that one on the podcast because – well, what can we possibly say as three white women that Jemisin didn’t say a million times more effectively? Read her instead.

Thoraiya Dyer interviewed for Cosmos Magazine about how becoming a full time mum was actually great for her writing career.

Splashdance Silver back in e-edition – Tansy’s first novel, now celebrating its 15th anniversary.

Culture Consumed

ALEX: Etiquette and Espionage, Gail Carriger (http://randomalex.net/2013/02/14/etiq... The Chains that you Refuse, Elizabeth Bear; Rainbow Bridge, Gwyneth Jones; Caprica.

TANSY: Perfections, Kirstyn McDermott; For Darkness Shows the Stars, Diana Peterfreund

ALISA: The Honey Month, Amal El-Mohtar



New Segment: Diary of a Publisher – it’s our duty (and that includes all our listeners) to keep Alisa honest as she walks away from her dayjob to take up the challenge of a PhD in creative publishing. Mind the flannel!

It’s our birthday next fortnight – have cake ready for when you listen!

Please send feedback to us at galacticsuburbia@gmail.com, follow us on Twitter at @galacticsuburbs, check out Galactic Suburbia Podcast on Facebook and don’t forget to leave a review on iTunes if you love us!

Perfections, by Kirstyn McDermott

So far this year I’ve been pretty slack on the AWW front, and indeed in the reading books front at all. I blame it on Ford Madox Ford, who sucked me in with the possibility of Benedict Cumberbatch and made me read four books under the guise of being just one book that was so enormous that almost a month fell into it. And that was my experience reading Parade’s End.

Possibly it’s unfair to blame Ford Madox Ford for Benedict Cumberbatch, but then again we have to blame somebody, right?

In any case, I have officially just finished by first book by an Australian woman writer: Perfections, by Kirstyn McDermott. I’m pretty sure Kirstyn describes this one as a gothic fairytale, or something along those lines. I think I’d go for more of an ‘urban suspense’ line, though if it was in actual bookshops I would hope to see it with more of a Fay Weldon cover than anything with overt genre markers.

Oh, did I mention Fay Weldon? That’s probably because she came to mind while I was reading this novel – something about the realist, cynical tone and themes to do with women’s careers and quiet household despair mixed with sneaky supernatural, magic and horror bits. The tone also reminded me a great deal of Donna Tartt. I really hope Kirstyn reaches the wide audience she deserves with this one.

PERFECTIONS.

Antoinette and Jacqueline don’t have much in common beyond their overbearing mother and their shared dread of the Australian bush. Antoinette is a goth waitress who has just escaped a suffocating relationship after a terrible betrayal, and Jacqueline is a go-getting, elegant career-woman working for a major art gallery in the centre of Melbourne. One drunken, miserable night, Antoinette starts to write the story of her failed relationship, and wakes to discover that she performed a terrible, perfect act of what has to be magic.

At which point, her life and that of her sister both start unraveling rapidly, with revelation after revelation that threatens to destroy everything they love.

Perfections is a sharp, creepy and deeply discomfiting novel full of awkward truths and raw emotions.

Available in e-format only, RRP 9.95 from Xoum.

Reviewed for the Australian Women Writers Challenge 2013.

Mr Stinky, I Presume [Xena Rewatch 4.9-4.11]

4.9 Past Imperfect

While I haven’t loved many of the episodes so far in Season 4, I do appreciate that there’s more of a sense of an ongoing arc than ever before – and not just over a couple episodes. At the very beginning of this one, we see Gabrielle and Xena actually have the conversation they need to have about the vision Xena had of their deaths (and has been keeping secret from Gabrielle since they were reunited).

The conversation doesn’t actually solve the problem, but discussing the issue makes their relationship feel more equal. Gabrielle is very much Xena’s partner now, not her junior sidekick.

“Xena is challenged by an opponent who represents a reflection of herself” is certainly looking like the main theme of this season, as the plot is once again about a female antagonist who once learned destructive lessons from Bad Hair Xena and now uses them against her present, Awesome Hair self. As Xena battles her past and people who represent that version of herself, over and over again, Gabrielle’s own theme for this season is her growing realisation that she might have learned all she can from Xena. It’s time she stepped up as an adult to figure what OTHER things she wants from the world.

Otherwise, this is another story which showcases Xena’s hardcore battle skills in between flashbacks to her Bad Hair past, a narrative trick that’s already getting a little old. Sure, we get some more progression in the epic yarn of Xena and Borias, seeing their relationship become more unstable as her pregnancy progressed and the toxic influence of Alti overwhelmed the already troubled Evil Xena, but I’m not sure we benefit from focusing so much on looking backward instead of forward. No wonder the season is taking a long time to get off the ground!

The twist (there’s always a twist!) is that Xena is actually experiencing these specific visions of her past, as she finds herself besieged in a city in the same manner that she once perpetrated herself. It still feels like an extended clip story, without the benefit of being able to save money on repeat footage. (this does describe all Xena clip episodes anyway)

From a ‘filling in the blanks’ point of view, Past Imperfect presents us with the death of Borias and the birth of Solan. There’s some interesting material here, particularly in the representation of pregnancy and maternity in fantasy – Xena’s refusal to let her pregnancy soften her or become a weakness is a major character development, and Borias’s own emotional vulnerability in the face of that same pregnancy makes for compelling and unusual viewing.

Also, the Xena tradition of combining birth scenes with battles continues! When it comes to gore, this show does at times give Game of Thrones a run for its money. Borias’ death scene is gruelling, heart-rending and horrific.

Borias’ goose was cooked during the production of this motion picture.

4.10 Key to the Kingdom

Of all the Xena lookalike characters, Meg the tavern wench is the one who proved to have the most narrative possibilities – the first thing I noticed about this one was they have dropped the “Warrior… Tramp” title format once and for all. This isn’t a story about many Xenas… it’s actually not a story about Xena at all.

I love the fact that they made a “Xena-lite” episode which requires Lucy Lawless to be on set the whole time – the story is actually a jewel-and-babynapping heist adventure featuring the first teamup of Joxer and his on-again, off-again girlfriend Meg with Autolycus, the king of thieves.

Autolycus doesn’t come off as particularly dashing here, largely because it’s his job to say snarky things about Meg and her sexual past while Joxer comes to her defence.

But this is Meg’s story – a woman craving a family of her own despite her inability to conceive (and surprisingly able to access extremely reliable medical knowledge about her fertility) she steals an enchanted baby that has been kept locked in a palace because it is the ‘key’ to the sacred missing crown of Athena. Meg’s motivation is to save the child from a lifetime of misery, and Autolycus convinces her that going after the crown will help set her up financially to raise the child.

Lucy Lawless has way too much fun playing Meg for laughs, but there are still a few genuinely emotional/touching moments here and there, and surprisingly little slut-shaming for a Meg episode. There’s a rather nice scene at the end where Xena (who turns up to save the day shortly after the baby has been transformed into the adult king he used to be) tells Meg to expect more for herself and her future – she will have a family of her own one day, a real one.

And oooh, that’s a bit of foreshadowing that makes me smile. I’ll tell you why in season six.

“You’ve got so much depth that it scares you when it comes out.”

4.11 Daughter of Pomira

Oh, the Horde. I hate the Horde so much. Savage warrior tribe stories are very, very dull. Not to mention, you know, racially problematic. But mostly, DULLLLLL.

Daughter of Pomira is about a cute little blonde girl who was stolen from her family by the Horde six years ago and is now strangely resistant to being returned to said family by Xena.She belongs to the Horde now, she’s all they’ve ever known.

I would have thought the premise of this one would resonate more with me considering I am a parent now but honestly the actual parents of the little girl are so boring and annoying that I totally wanted her to stay with the Horde.

Then of course there’s the obligatory “Xena and Gabrielle teach the lost little girl to be civilised again” scenes which… ugh.

The only good thing about the story is that it goes a long way towards humanising the Horde and showing that they’re not just soulless monsters but have an actual culture and morality from their own perspective.

But… yeah. Ugh. I would have preferred them to leave the Horde out of the Xena mythos altogether, considering it has no connection to any Greek mythology.

CHAKRAM STATISTICS:

People who want romance with Xena: 13

People Xena allows to romance her: 7

Xena dead lovers: 4

Gabrielle dead boyfriends: 2/7

“Adorable” children: 38

Babies: 7

Babies tossed humorously in the air during fight scenes: 6

Xena doppelgangers: 4

Xena sings a mourning song: 6

Gabrielle sprained ankles: 2

Xena dies: 3

Gabrielle dies: 4

Characters brought back from the dead (incl. ghosts and visits to the Underworld): 50

Ares loses his powers and goes all to pieces about it: 2

Xena or Gabrielle earns money: 2

Xena or Gabrielle spends money (or claims to have money to spend): 7

Out of the Pantheon: Morpheus, Ares, Hera, the Titans, Hades, Celesta, Charon, the Fates, Bacchus, Aphrodite, Cupid, Poseidon, the Furies, Discord,

The Celebrity Red Carpet of the Ancient World: Pandora, Prometheus, Hercules, Iolaus, Sisyphus, Helen of Troy, Paris, Deiphobus, Menelaus, Euripides, Homer, Autolycus, Meleager, Oracle of Delphi, David, Goliath, Orpheus, Julius Caesar, Brutus, Ulysses, Penelope, Cecrops, Boadicea, Cleopatra, Crassus, Pompey

Previous Xena Rewatch Posts:

Warlord is a Lady Tonight

I Don’t Work For Money

Amazon Wanna Take A Ride?

Go To Tartarus!

Swashbuckle and Shams

Death In A Chainmail Bikini

Full Moon It Must Be Xena

How Do You Mortals Get From Day to Day?

The Future is Archaeologists

Divide and Conquer

My Sword is Always Ready to Pleasure You

Hide the Hestian Virgins!

Lunatic with Lethal Combat Skills

Coping with Your First Kill

Sweet Hestia, I’m In a Den of Filth

The Bitter and Sweet of It

Because Caesar Was Taken

Armageddon When??

Rolling Around Like Weasels

You Killed Me?

My Fungus Is Spreading

Virtue is Its Own Reward