Roundup (30/03)

[jaggedwolf]

Reading

Sirens of Titan by Kurt Vonnegut

I had...zero feelings when I finished it? Like, that happened. Book club discussion at work helped solidify the few thoughts I had - I liked the moment where Unk reads the letter from himself because I'm a sucker for amnesia narratives, having a purpose is overrated, and I wouldn't have minded more Salo.

Currently a chapter into Americanah and liking it so far.

Other Media

Jane The Virgin: It's amnesia like everyone predicted, but I like how they're going full-speed with opposite Michael - he's even a dog person now. If he ends up secretly working for Rose and all his choices this episode were to deliberately upset Jane as much as possible? I would also be here for that. On the Petra and JR side, y'all, I can't even remember what Milos was last up to before this, I'm just glad it wasn't Krishna after all.

Also, I think Rafael is my favorite character now and I don't know when or how that happened???

Writing

Two TSCOSI ficlets and a Critical Role one:

Heroism - Beauregard makes an easy choice

Disgruntled Adult Who Got De-aged - Arkady is very annoyed, and Violet is very delighted.

Sex with your non-preferred gender - Evil regimes serve their usual fic purpose.

Not writing but also I made a playlist for Sana from Starship Iris.

Random Links

Equitable Cinematography: Director Lexi Alexander on the Politics of Focus - A really illuminating interview about how women are filmed, in the most literal sense of the verb. Full of examples, kind of depressing, a thing I might try to pay better attention when watching live-action media.

On that last show I was on, the big rule was low angle up, never on the women. It’s okay on the guys, but not on the women. It doesn’t look good. Once again, why are you saying this? A low angle shot can be unflattering on many people, yeah. It depends on how their chin is formed. But you know what, they can be just as unflattering on men as they can be on women. What Hurlbut was saying is that we are not accepting unflattering ever from women. That is a huge problem. If you are letting men have flaws but not women, this is incredibly dangerous for the rest of the world outside of a TV set. I don’t understand how people don’t make that connection in their head. The guys can be looking rough with the double chin, with wrinkles and everything. The rougher the better. We’re going further and further with that.

One of Batman’s most singular writers explains why women are so drawn to Gotham City - This interview with only woman to have written for a core Batman title was a fascinating read, even though the closest thing o a Batman comic I've ever read was 52. Also the excerpt below is very similar to how a lot of fic writers approach things, which makes sense since a comic writer for an established character is very much engaged in work of a transformative nature.

And that’s the really fun part of working for characters that have been around that long, is to take everything that’s happened and try to make sense out of it. That’s the game, that’s what’s fun. So if these people really did this and this and this and this, and it’s really related to this and this and this person, and this is the way they shared these experiences, what does that mean? Who are they, then, when they stand in a room together? I love that stuff.