Sara Raasch's Blog, page 543
June 27, 2013
Atlas Shrugged and We Rose
In the wake of all that happened in Texas, and all that happened in the SCOTUS, I watched Atlas Shrugged: Part 1. I haven’t read the book (I know, I know, *wrist slap*), but watching it got me on a bit of an overload of emotion, and I have to get this overload out all over Tumblr, as one does.
So, one of the many overall emotions of this movie was a sense of…loss. Chaos. The US government going batshit crazy, with thousands of DC Fat Cats controlling everything while the majority of the population suffered in a pre-apocalyptic sort of waste. This theme — that our government will overrun us, destroy us, and control us — is not an unusual theme, and is one I’ve seen in a lot, a lot, of movies/books/shows, as I’m sure you all have. Understandably so — it’s a natural fear, that people stronger/more powerful than ourselves will seize our lives in a way that we can neither control nor stop. And for the most part, these fears can stay safely in our TV sets, in our movies, and we can brush it all off at a safe distance and go on with our lives.
Every so often, something happens that makes those fears real and close — a terrorist attack, a slump in the economy, a law that restricts freedoms — and we gobble up those movies and shows with a new reason — anticipation. Some small part of us wants to feel like we’re prepared, in case our world really does crap out, because those movies are all too real, all too close, all too possible, and it terrifies the snot out of us that we can’t do anything to stop it.
But as Wendy Davis proved, as the SCOTUS proved, that is a complete load of bullshit.
We CAN stop it. We are proving how united we truly are, growing in our resolve and our confidence in what we believe, and as a group we are getting more and more capable of stopping horrific events like economic implosions, horrific laws, and unnecessary wars. We are gaining momentum — we being the majority of people who always get the short end of the stick in pre/post apocalyptic movies, the ones who flop around in poverty while the powerful people dance on our misfortune. We being the ones who are gathering together, developing our voices, telling ourselves and all who will listen that we are more than carcasses on which Fat Cats feed.
So when movies/TV shows/books come out that depict the world crumbling into chaos, the “little people" getting squashed beneath powerful boots, we should not be afraid of this eventuality. We should not fear being swept into oblivion while a select few remain on top.
Because we are becoming strong enough to stop this from ever happening, and the powerful ones should fear us.
June 26, 2013
"There is a concept called body autonomy. Its generally considered a human right. Bodily autonomy..."
There is a concept called body autonomy. Its generally considered a human right. Bodily autonomy means a person has control over who or what uses their body, for what, and for how long. Its why you can’t be forced to donate blood, tissue, or organs. Even if you are dead. Even if you’d save or improve 20 lives. It’s why someone can’t touch you, have sex with you, or use your body in any way without your continuous consent.
A fetus is using someone’s body parts. Therefore under bodily autonomy, it is there by permission, not by right. It needs a persons continuous consent. If they deny and withdraw their consent, the pregnant person has the right to remove them from that moment. A fetus is equal in this regard because if I need someone else’s body parts to live, they can also legally deny me their use.
By saying a fetus has a right to someone’s body parts until it’s born, despite the pregnant person’s wishes, you are doing two things.
1. Granting a fetus more rights to other people’s bodies than any born person.
2. Awarding a pregnant person less rights to their body than a corpse.
- Hannah Goff (x)
SNOW LIKE ASHES Join the Blizzard contest happening NOW!
The summer Join the Blizzard contest is currently under way! Head over there now for your chance to win all kinds of goodies :)
June 25, 2013
sarahreesbrennan:
thenewwomensmovement:
theovarianbarbarian:
k...
Senator Wendy Davis is a fucking badass.
There’s this bill that they are trying to pass in Texas that would make it illegal to get any abortion after 20 weeks of pregnancy, and would make it very difficult for abortion centers to continue doing what they do. Governor Rick Perry has already said that if the bill makes it to his desk, he will sign it. And Wendy Davis said fuck no that is not happening.
So she’s filibustering it. That means she asked to talk on the subject at 11:18 this morning, and if she can continue talking about abortion until 11:59 tonight, the bill won’t reach Governor Perry, and they would have to start all over with the bill next time they meet- 2 years from now.
But Wendy has to keep talking. She can’t pause for even a minute, not for food or a sip of water or to go to the bathroom or sit down. She can’t even lean up against anything, or she’s out. So she’s wearing motherfucking PINK NIKE TENNIS SHOES in the middle of the state senate.
She also has to continue talking about the topic. She sent out tweets an other messages last night asking for anyone and everyone’s abortion story, and received a shit load of answers. Her staff is still collecting them, and she’s reading them aloud to the senate. Not only is she making this bill impossible to pass, she may just change some minds while she’s at it.
This is history, guys. Wendy Davis is a motherfucking badass, and we are watching it happen.
She’s putting on for my state and city! Yehyuh!
And she’s doing incredible!
(What a badass.)
Hi Sara! The book description on the Snow Like Ashes page: is it just talking about Book 1 or the entire trilogy? It sounds REALLY good! I'm excited to read it!
That description is just for SNOW LIKE ASHES (and it isn’t the official description that will be on the jacket either — that is forthcoming!). I’m so glad you are excited! I’m excited for it to be out in the world :D
"Because so much of fantasy takes place in settings that in no way resemble the real world, featuring..."
Because so much of fantasy takes place in settings that in no way resemble the real world, featuring species that in no way resemble human, fantasy writers often have trouble dealing with regular people. This is something that, I think, isn’t as much of a problem for mainstream writers, because they can simply describe the world around them and come up with a reasonably accurate representation of humanity. They can also fall back on the plethora of real-world terms used to describe human beings, racially and otherwise. But using these terms makes no sense if you’re dealing with a world that doesn’t share our political/cultural context. You can’t call someone “African American” if your world has no Africa, no America, and has never gone through a colonial phase in which people of disparate cultures were forcibly brought together, thus necessitating the term in the first place.
That said, it’s equally illogical to populate your fantasy world with only one flavor of human being, which is what far too many fantasy stories default to. Granted, many fantasies take place in confined cultural spaces — a single small kingdom in a Europeanish milieu, maybe a single city or castle within that city. (But how did that castle get its spices for the royal table, or that lady her silks? What enemy are the knights training to fight? Even in the most monochromatic parts of the real Ye Olde Englande, I can guarantee you there were some Asian traders, Sephardic or Ashkenazic Jewish merchants, Spanish diplomats or nobles partly descended from black Moors, and so on.) I get that lots of countries on Earth are racially homogeneous, so it makes perfect sense that some fantasy settings would be too. But whiteness is the default in our thinking for Earth-specific cultural/political reasons. So while it’s logical for fantasy realms to be homogeneous, it’s not logical for so many of them to be homogeneously white. Something besides logic is causing that.
So. It’s a good idea for all fantasy writers to learn how to describe characters of color. And I think it’s a good idea to learn how to describe those characters in subtle ways, since they can’t always rely on Earth terminology. Now, doing subtle description increases the chance that the reader might misidentify the character racially — and to a degree, I think there’s nothing you can do about that. You’re working against a lifetime of baggage in the reader’s mind. But you can still insert enough cues so that when combined, they’ll get the idea across.
”- N.K. Jemisin, blogging on Describing Characters of Color for Magic District. (via audreymgonzalez)
Outlander casting currently underway in Ireland
Located in Dublin, Ireland, Gillian Reynolds Casting has begun auditions for Outlander. The company has been associated with feature films such as “Count of Monte Cristo,” “Reign of Fire”and the Starz series “Camelot.” An intern at the company wrote in a blog post:
Yesterday we spent our entire time in a hotel conducting casting auditions. These auditions were pretty cool because they were for an American television series called Outlander. It is produced by Sony and will be run on Starz within the next year. Outlander is a tv series based out of Scotland, which you can see why they came to an Irish casting agency for actors. The coolest part was that the role that was being auditioned for was for one of the lead male roles, therefore, I got to see a lot of beautiful Irish actors throughout the day.
Irish actors? IRISH?
"Outlander is a tv series based out of Scotland, which you can see why they came to an Irish casting agency for actors."
This made me sad.
When you get hacked.
Which is ironic, because Sheldon got hacked in this episode. Ironic, or lazy of me.
hopethefangirl:
derek-hales-butt-cheeks:
hedgeh0ggy:
kyleehenk...
this video is so freaking awkward I cant stop laughing
P
It’s literally saying “no”.
I am snorting and laughing and wheezing fjdsaklfjds IT IS LITERALLY SAYING NO
"That is the sound of pleasure."
"Nooooo."
"It means he’s enjoying it."
"Noooo."
"It builds trust."
"NOOOO."
That’s it. My week cannot be topped.
That’s it. My week cannot be topped.
