metanews | Meta Links 2014/05/29

Notices
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General Fandom

Alternate Visions: Some Musings on Diversity in SF: (blog) Vandana Singh - "What I am really interested in is the fiction of authors from different countries, cultures, races, genders, sexual orientations, physical abilities and experiences. "

topic:diversity

Wiscon 38 Guest of Honor Speech: N K Jemisin(blog) - "And indeed we have seen science fiction and fantasy authors and editors and film directors and game developers become much, much more explicit and hostile in their bigotry"

topic:race, warning:abuse, warning:non-con, topic:sexism, topic:racism

From Metaphysics to Teen Wolf Meta: The Evolution of a Word: Annalee Newitz (blog) - "How did this Greek prefix meaning "beyond" come to mean so much to so many of us?"

topic:fandom,

Superman Will Seduce You to The Good: The Hooded Utilitarian by Noah Berlatsky (blog) - "So sex and violence, in media, are commonly seen as continuous. But should they be? "

topic:violence, topic:sexuality, topic:movies

Oh, My Pop Culture Jesus: Nuns in Geek Culture: Lady Geek Girl and Friends by stinekey (blog) - "In anime, a nun is usually a miko, aka a Shinto shrine maiden. Those women get to be spirit mediums or shamans with cool powers or weapons. Not so much in Western geekdom."

topic:religion

Wishbabies should be a thing: beatrice-otter (DW) - " If you and your partner wish for a baby, one appears floating down out of the sky in a little basket with the parents' names on it."

topic:fanfic

Specific Fandoms

A Song of Ice and Fire
Arya Stark & Value of Death/Desire to Kill: donewithwoodenteeth (tumblr) - " There is a very distinct difference between wanting certain bad people dead and taking pleasure in killing."

fandom:asoiaf

Arya and Grief: ariannenymerosmartell (tumblr) - "I’m entirely tired of reading about Arya’s “maniacal laughter” and how it just makes her seem psychopathic or sociopathic— two terms that Tumblr, as a collective, uses entirely too lightly and inappropriately."

fandom:asoiaf

ableism in GoT: lunaplath (tumblr) - "In the show we hear characters describe Robin as “sickly” but … Nowhere do they mention the tremors that were described in the books or the very strong medications/substances that are used to treat them. "

fandom:asoiaf

Untitled: benedictable (tumblr) - "I actually don’t hate the changes to Sansa’s story. In fact, I quite like them. "

fandom:asoiaf

BANISHMENT AND THE “MHYSA” COMPLEX: khaleesa (tumblr) - "In the wake of one of Dany’s harsher decisions - banishing her closest friend - I think it’s important to consider how far back her anger at Jorah’s betrayal goes, and what motivates it."

fandom:asoiaf

Sansa and Theon Comparison: Hostage Situations and Identity Changes (Spoilers): evelynvincible (tumblr) - "Situational changes in identity are a common occurrence in ASoIaF, but the Sansa/Theon comparison is most compelling to be because their situations mirror one another so well. "

fandom:asoiaf

Untitled: mariajonsson18(tumblr) - "I don’t understand the costume decisions for Catelyn Stark on Game of Thrones."

fandom:asoiaf, fandom:vikings

CHAPTER-BY-CHAPTER ANALYSIS: ACOK, JON I: racefortheironthrone (blog) - "Not a lot actually happens in Jon I (as opposed to establishing a mood), which makes it a fairly slow introduction to what is actually one of my favorite Jon plotlines in ASOIAF. However, there’s a lot of thematic groundwork and worldbuilding going on that I feel deserves some consideration."

fandom:asoiaf

Chapter-by-Chapter Analysis: ACOK, Jon I: Race for the Iron Throne by stevenattewell(blog) - "Given GRRM’s well-known bibliophile, I have a suspicion that these books are important for more than just world-building purposes (and how interesting that Tyrion, who’s no mean scholar of the written world himself, never seems to have visited one of the great unexplored intellectual treasures in existence) and the dozen maps Sam finds for the Lord Commander. "

fandom:gameofthrones, fandom:asoiaf

In Brightest Day: Robert Arryn from A Song of Ice and Fire: Lady Geek Girl and Friends by MadameAce (blog) - "I think we can all agree that Robert Arryn from A Song of Ice and Fire is one of the most obnoxious kids to ever appear in literature or television. I can find hardly anyone who doesn’t dislike him. And watching Sansa slap him in “Mockingbird” was probably one of Game of Thrones’s more satisfying occasions since Joffrey died."

fandom:gameofthrones, fandom:asoiaf

Batman
In Brightest Day: Batman and the Problem with Mental Illnesses in Comics: Lady Geek Girl and Friends by Lady Geek Girl (blog) - "The message seems to be that Batman, as a good guy, couldn’t possibly suffer from a mental illness, and if he ever did he has clearly overcome his illness through sheer force of manly will.."

fandom:dccomics, topic:mentalillness

Comics
How Do Comics Visualize Racist Speech?: The Hooded Utilitarian by Qiana Whitted (blog) - "As the post makes clear, scrutinizing the visual and verbal shorthand that comics use to illustrate abstract ideas like race or sexual orientation can reveal a great deal about how society negotiates changing attitudes, institutions, and avenues of power."

fandom:comics

Final Fantasy XIII
Magical Mondays: Magic as a Curse in Final Fantasy XIII: Lady Geek Girl and Friends by MadameAce (blog) - "I find magic much more of an interesting concept when it has limits and specific rules that it needs to follow. I like those rules and limits to be rather strict, otherwise, for me personally, magic then runs the risk of becoming a deus ex machina—it’s capable of solving any problems our heroes may have. "

topic:magic, fandom:finalfantasyxiii

Harry Potter
it's a wrap!: hp_canon_love (LJ) - "That concludes our posting for Meta Fest. Thank you to everyone who participated, either prompting, writing, or reading/commenting! It was a lot of fun to host, and I truly hope everyone enjoyed it."

fandom:harrypotter

H.P. Lovecraft
The ‘N’ Word Through The Ages: The ‘Madness’ Of HP Lovecraft: Djeli Clark - Racialicious (blog) - "I had come to believe that by now the racism of H.P. Lovecraft, the celebrated author of horror and fantasy, was a settled matter — like declaring Wrath of Khan the best film in the Star Trek franchise. Arguing against such a thing should be absurd."

topic:race, fandom:hplovecraft

Leverage
Leverage Sunday: “The Rashomon Job,” POV: Jennifer Crusie (blog) - " Point of view is important for a host of reasons, but one of the biggest is that nobody sees the world in an unbiased fashion–everybody filters the actions he or she is seeing through his or her own previous knowledge, expectations, assumptions, and prejudices–which means that POV becomes a characterization tool. "

topic:pov, fandom:leverage

Leverage Sunday: “The Rashomon Job:” Structure: Jennifer Crusie (blog) - "A frame narrative is one in which the action story is bracketed by scenes of someone telling the tale. Charles Marlow, in Heart of Darkness, is sitting on the deck of a ship at the mouth of the Thames, telling his companions about a trip he took up the Congo to find a madman named Kurtz."

topic:pov, fandom:leverage

Mary Renault and Dorothy L Sayers
Sayers, Renault and the problem of hetorsexuality: naraht (DW) - "So what is Mary Renault's solution to the problem of heterosexuality?"

fandom:maryrenault, fandom, topic:sexuality, topic:heterosexuality, topic:gender

MCU
Nick Fury + His Avengers aka I Believe In Nick Fury: peardita (tumblr) - "I was inspired by this post, but I’m making this a separate post because I didn’t want to hijack theladymonsters's post on Bruce and turn it into My Thoughts On Nick Fury + The Avengers"

fandom:mcu, topic:relationships

Pain, Personhoond and Parity: The Depiction Of Bucky Barnes in the Marvel Cinematic Universe: Sarah Reads (blog) - "The day before I went to see Captain America: The Winter Soldier for the fifth time, I spent an afternoon in the park with one of my closest friends and her two-year-old son"

fandom:MCU, warning:spoilers, topic:characterization, topic:relationships

Blade
Son of Blade: The Hooded Utilitarian by Chris Gavaler (blog) - "He’s not the first black superhero—Black Panther debuted in Fantastic Four in 1966, the Falcon in Captain America in 1969, and Luke Cage in his own title in 1972—but he beat Brother Voodoo to newsstands by two months. The comic book market was slumping, so Marvel was desperately mixing its superhero formula with blaxploitation and horror."

fandom:marvelcomics, topic:race

Superman
No. No, no, no, no, no.: beatrice_otter (DW) - "So I just came across an "interesting" piece of meta about Superman as a 20th Century Messiah. I get cranky about this, because the religious symbolism of Superman is quite obviously MOSES, not Jesus, as befits a character who was created by a couple of nice Jewish boys."

fandom:comics, topic:religion, topic:history, topic:characterization