Everything & the Kitchen Sink Post

[neadods]

Literary News
The National Book Festival will continue! It was announced today that the Festival, a Laura Bush initiative, will continue with the sponsorship of the Obamas. The next Festival will be September 26 on the National Mall.

Fannish News
My Firefox News article on the Who animated and the SJA casting spoiler is up.

Speaking of FFN, Tara's got a great article on Reboot Trek, feminism, and refrigerators..

I'm enjoying the book Harry, A History about Potter fandom, but every now and then the author's unfamiliarity with any fandom outside her own grates. At one point (page 93), Melissa Anelli writes: though there were already vocal online fandoms for other works, none were so big or had so many members testing the outer limits of an author's permission.

Hear that phone ringing? It's George Lucas on line 1, Paramount and the Roddenberry estate on line 2, Dame Doyle on line 3...

Personal News
I will be in NYC on June 6. Still not a clue what I'll be doing with myself up there, but I'm still planning on taking the trip.

I'm still working on an effective method of time control... I'll let you know how it goes. Right now I'm treating time like we're told to treat food on a diet - writing down EVERYTHING I want to work on.

And that, I've decided, includes reactivating the missionary project. For those who weren't reading in 2004/5, this isn't about me actually going out and trying to convert people. It's about researching and writing the story of the first Christian mission to Hawai'i, a truth far more juicy than Michener gave any kind of justice. Basic details & people are here, but to summarize, it's a little bit about societies in flux - how the mission was created as a PR move from a church in crisis and about how the mission lucked out by arriving at a time when King Kamehameha II (nee Liholiho) and his co-"king," Kamhemeha I's favorite wife Ka'ahumanu were already rewriting Hawai'ian culture. And it's a lot about how the group of people supposedly displaying the inherent superior virtues of white, Western Christianity ripped itself apart into acrimony, shunning, excommunication, and lawsuits.

There are also side stops on feminism, because it's hard not to when you've got people like Ka'ahumanu (ended Hawai'ian religious restrictions), Lucy Goodale Thurston (protofeminist & teacher), and Lucia Ruggles Holman (first woman to circumnavigate the world, although she was probably too seasick to want the honor). And some color will be provided by other events of the time, such as the Essex... the whaleship sunk by a whale, whose crew tried to avoid cannibals only to run out of food and eat each other.

The travel part of research isn't happening for several years, but but I think it would be a good exercise to start looking over what I've got and making sure the timeline's in order.

And in future, I'll cut-tag this stuff.

Comments

[evil_plotbunny]

I'll be getting a new phone on the morning of the 6th, but it's on the way to the train station and I've got the day free. I'd love to wander around the city with you again.

[wendymr.livejournal.com]

Are you able to edit your FF News stuff? I spotted two typos in the first few lines: Children's BBC is showing as Children's B, and Russell is spelt Russel. I'm assuming an editor was a bit sloppy ;)

[neadods.livejournal.com]

Yes. Fixed. *long sigh* The sloppy editor would be me...

THANK YOU.

[calanthe-b.livejournal.com]

Here via friendsfriends, and...

Hear that phone ringing? It's George Lucas on line 1, Paramount and the Roddenberry estate on line 2, Dame Doyle on line 3...

I believe JRR Tolkien (and Christopher) and the late Verity Lambert and Terry Nation would all like a quiet word, too. :)

[neadods.livejournal.com]

Welcome!

I believe JRR Tolkien (and Christopher) and the late Verity Lambert and Terry Nation would all like a quiet word, too. :)

Yeah. There is a lot that was unique to Potter fandom. But fans testing the limits wasn't. Not the first, and I doubt the most or the worst too. (Russet Moon has got to be a major contender for that last prize.)

[fourzoas.livejournal.com]

Everything here intrigues, but I'm very interested in your missionary project. Hope you continue with that!

[neadods.livejournal.com]

I've picked it up and put it down for years - it's kind of hard to schedule something that requires travel up the coast and then to Hawaii - but what I've got always fascinates me every time I pick the books back up. REALLY juicy stuff. And Michener took the exciting reality and shoved it into a bunch of standard cliches. *eyeroll*

And nobody's ever told just the story of the Holmans because it's considered uncouth. That's the part that interests me!

[starcat-jewel.livejournal.com]

The Trek article talks about how it would be a mistake to play Kirk/Uhura/Spock as a love triangle, and I agree. But what I would like to see happen in the next movie is for Kirk to continue to dangle after Uhura, to no avail, until eventually she looks him in the eye and says, "Stop playing Kobayashi Maru, Captain. You can't hack a person the way you can a simulator."

And then, having clearly drawn the boundary, she walks away... and we see Kirk, slowly and reluctantly, accepting that this is one scenario he can't win.

Unfortunately, they're more likely to use the unrequited-lust angle as a source of dramatic tension, and that will make me want to behead people.

[persiflage-1.livejournal.com]

I vaguely know that Potter author. She really is a bit clueless there.

[neadods.livejournal.com]

She knows one fandom really well, I'll give her that. But Potter fandom isn't entirely the unique thing she thinks it is.

[persiflage-1.livejournal.com]

That's the trouble with some people though - they think their fandom is moar speshul and unique than anyone else's, and really it ain't, 'cos people are people everywhere.

[neadods.livejournal.com]

people are people everywhere

Exactly!