tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31573780459770822252024-03-04T21:27:10.058-08:00CP SlayerCara M.http://www.blogger.com/profile/10979781599548365989noreply@blogger.comBlogger67125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3157378045977082225.post-18477895952277184942018-06-20T20:28:00.001-07:002018-06-20T20:28:23.206-07:00Uprooted by Naomi Novik and the Dangerous Ideals of Exclusionary Feminism
<br />
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: Plantin;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Plantin;"><span style="font-style: normal;">In
recent days I have been thinking deeply about the concept of
'</span><span style="font-style: normal;">exclusionary</span><span style="font-style: normal;">
feminism' and what it means, both on a theoretical and a practical
level. At first I was surprised to encounter it. Isn't any feminist worth their salt aware of the problems of intersectionality and glad to embrace our trans sisters? Apparently not.<span style="font-family: Plantin;"><span style="font-style: normal;"> </span></span></span></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: Plantin;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: Plantin;"><span style="font-style: normal;">The inability to see things from others' points of view is pervasive in our culture. The hashtag #Idon'tneedfeminismbecause revealed the
entitlement and lack of empathy of so many young women who felt that because they personally had never suffered anything they considered sexist that no one had.</span></span></span></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: Plantin;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: Plantin;"><span style="font-style: normal;">Though these women do not claim to be feminist, there is a subset of feminist ideology that has very similar attitudes. It's conciliatory. It suggests that women are 'special', not because they are equal to men, but because they are strong in different, feminine, ways. It asks for the trappings of respect without demanding the content of it.</span></span></span></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: Plantin;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: Plantin;"><span style="font-style: normal;">While being concerned with these issues and questions, I read <i>Uprooted</i>. And to my horror, I found in this resoundly praised book, an attitude about resistance that I found insupportable. This tells me that these ideals have, like the dark forest in the story, taken root in our culture, and if we cannot even see them, it will be so much harder to rip them out.</span></span></span></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: Plantin;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: Plantin;"><span style="font-style: normal;">I only have the greatest respect for Naomi Novik as an author, and adore the first Temeraire book. In no way do I think that she supports these ideas. Nevertheless, as a conduit for our culture, they appeared in this book and left me very unhappy after finishing it.</span></span></span></span></div>
<div style="font-style: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: Plantin;">There are three ideas I would like to focus on:</span></div>
<div style="font-style: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: Plantin;">1) Women and men are inherently different</span></div>
<div style="font-style: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: Plantin;">2) The right form of resistance to oppression is
submission</span></div>
<div style="font-style: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: Plantin;">3) An outsider is the right person to reconcile
opposing groups</span></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: Plantin;"><span style="font-style: normal;">On
first glance, </span><i>Uprooted</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
appears to be a decidedly and intentionally progressive, feminist book. The main character, a young woman,
discovers that she has a deep well of power inside her and uses it to
overcome the evil corruption of nature that is invading her home.
This young woman, however, reveals to the reader that she has magic
in the first chapter, but fails to comprehend idea or learn how to use it for many, many
more pages. The reason for this seems to have to do with the type of
magic she ha</span><span style="font-style: normal;">s</span><span style="font-style: normal;">--intuitive
magic--which disregards books and intellect and learning, preferring
to feel </span><span style="font-style: normal;">its</span><span style="font-style: normal;">
way towards the solution to the problem she is trying to solve.</span></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: Plantin;"><span style="font-style: normal;">This
again, on the surface, appears to be progressive and feminist. Why not reject the male
hegemony of collected power and retake the mantel of 'witch'? We
women can be better than men because we are not trapped by their
foolish habits of thinking. Even as a grumpy intellectual I allow
that we must always revolt, reexamining our canon, questioning our
habits of mind that give power to our prejudices. </span><span style="font-style: normal;">But
I find </span><span style="font-style: normal;">intuition</span><span style="font-style: normal;">
to be a poor substitute for critical analysis. </span></span>
</div>
<span style="font-family: Plantin;"><span style="font-style: normal;"> </span></span><div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: Plantin;"><span style="font-style: normal;">And
worse--and more relevant--is that intuition has always been coded as
female and intellect male</span><span style="font-style: normal;">--</span><span style="font-style: normal;">by
those virulently anti-woman as well as the women who want to reclaim
the value of emotion and empathy and kindness. There is no
contradiction in valuing both intellect and empathy. The issue lies
with the idea that one is the province of women and one men. This
reinforces two negative ideas:</span></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: Plantin;"><span style="font-style: normal;">1)
Women should not compete with men</span><span style="font-style: normal;">
in male spheres</span></span></div>
<div style="font-style: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: Plantin;">2) There are only men and women in the world,
binary, opposed, and biological</span></div>
<div style="font-style: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: Plantin;">So where should we not compete with men? For
jobs? For pay? For the love of bisexual women? Where does our feminine strengths make that competition a foregone conclusion? In
child-rearing? In cooking? In caring for our spouses?</span></div>
<div style="font-style: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: Plantin;">And what does it mean that men are crass and
intellectual and women are kind and emotional? Does it mean that a
man like the Dragon has a right to berate me and mock me? Does it
mean that there is no way to be both masculine and feminine? Does it
mean that we are assigned our character along with our birth sex?
Where does that leave our trans and non-binary siblings? Where does
that leave any of us?</span></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: Plantin;"><span style="font-style: normal;">One
thing Novik has been accused of is erasing queer narratives from her
stories. As a fellow fanfiction writer, I can understand the pressure
she might feel to do so, now that she has gone professional. But as a
lesbian, I feel the betrayal. She grew as a
writer using queer narratives for her development. A
community--though the slash community is heavily weighted with
straight women--which claims inclusivity and has a sizable queer
contingent, supported her, and she chose not to give back. </span><span style="font-style: normal;"></span></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: Plantin;"><span style="font-style: normal;">In this particular case, the lack is sharply telling. The one female character who does male-type magic is heavily coded as queer, and is also black and masculine. There is space for queerness in Novik's world, but that space is the margin. All differences belong in the margin. The main space is reserved for cis white straight men and women who perform their cisness through their magical orientation.</span></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: Plantin;"><span style="font-style: normal;">I
gave </span><i>Uprooted</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> the
benefit of the doubt. </span><span style="font-style: normal;">The
implications of the magical narrative and the unpleasant
relationship were frustrating, but not something I hadn't seen
before. And the rest of this is also something I had seen before, but
when I read it this time, it felt so deeply wrong that I could no
longer let it slide.</span></span></div>
<div style="font-style: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: Plantin;">At the end of this book it is revealed that the
reason the wood is evil is that a tree person, a woman of the wood,
married a human and then was betrayed. She was locked in a tower and
felt the humans invade the living wood with axes and fire and saws,
kill and damage her loved ones. She was angry. The wood became angry.
And it fought back.</span></div>
<div style="font-style: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: Plantin;">The images of fighting back are those of
'infection'. People become infected by her anger and lust for
vengeance. They embody the poisonous madness in her mind.</span></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: Plantin;"><span style="font-style: normal;">But
what is so wrong with her anger? What is wrong with the anger of
anyone who has been betrayed, who has had to feel her friends, her
family, her people suffer? She is </span><i>righteous</i><span style="font-style: normal;">!
And yet she is the villain of the piece. Her sister, the other queen
of the wood, is noble and gentle and good. And she leads her entire
community into letting go of their agency and complexity and becoming
trees. They become blocks of wood. The message I received here was
simple: It is wrong to fight back. Instead, succumb, humble yourself,
die.</span></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: Plantin;"><span style="font-style: normal;">I
do not want to see what is in essence a suicide pact be presented as
the correct response to oppression. If even kneeling is beyond the pale, we know that there is no validity to this argument at all. I do not want any more of the
most innocent and vulnerable people in this country to die. I do not
want to hear about another suicide, another damaged child, another
</span><span style="font-style: normal;">quiet submission because we
are told our anger, our desire to fight, our need for justice is
</span><i>ugly</i><span style="font-style: normal;">. It's an
</span><i>infection</i><span style="font-style: normal;">. You're
being </span><i>too emotional</i><span style="font-style: normal;">. </span></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: Plantin;"><span style="font-style: normal;">Our
trapped tree-princess is given kindness by our heroine, and is
ushered into joining the suicide-by-becoming-a-tree contingent.</span></span></div>
<div style="font-style: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: Plantin;">And that is essentially all our heroine does.
She heals the world by taking away anger. We see her later on, using
her privilege as a magic user and a child of the local villages, to
travel around to treat the people--heirs of the intolerant tree-murderers of the past--and think, hopefully, of reconciling humanity with the wood one
day.</span></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: Plantin;"><span style="font-style: normal;">She
doesn't wake the wood up. No, that would be shaking things up a
little too much. You can't </span><i>force</i><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
people to confront their prejudices and tell them that they're wrong.
You just have to be kind, and they'll learn to be kind too.</span></span></span></div>
<div style="font-style: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: Plantin;">I'm sorry. It doesn't work.</span></div>
<div style="font-style: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: Plantin;">Trees have no voices. She doesn't ask them
what would want. She doesn't let them decide whether to fight for themselves. She
thinks that this is her place, healing what was done by that nasty,
angry, wood woman, and thinking about an ideal future that will never
come to pass. When will the villagers be ready to accept a whole
community of people who are 'different' in their midst? When will
their happiness be so sufficient that they're aching to share?</span></div>
<div style="font-style: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: Plantin;">No one is ever so content that they will give away
rights. When will we give suitable reparations to all the families of
African Americans who suffered under slavery and still suffer under
institutionalized racism? When will we make certain the Native
communities have the respect and opportunity that they would have had
if white people hadn't come and taken their land? </span>
</div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: Plantin;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">Do
these events seem unlikely to you? Perhaps the ending of </span></span><i><span style="text-decoration: none;">Uprooted</span></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
was meant to say 'there's always hope.' But hope isn't enough. We
have to try also.</span></span></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: Plantin;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">And
every time we tell someone that 'we shouldn't riot' or 'we should
respect the flag or the anthem' or 'all lives matter', we are saying,
'why won't you just shut up?' </span></span><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">'why
can't I just put you in a tree and pretend that everything is just
fine, even if I know it could be better, just shut up and hope,
because I don't want the stress of watching you try to do something
about it.'</span></span></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: Plantin;"><span style="font-style: normal;">This is not an attack on </span><i>Uprooted</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> or anyone who enjoyed it. I enjoy many books where I disagree with
the ideological underpinnings, and I too often repeat the shortcomings of my culture in my writing. Saying that being female can be strength is good! But is it enough? I say it isn't. Feminism must be inclusionary and active or it is nothing more than a slogan on a t-shirt. </span></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: Plantin;"><span style="font-style: normal;">Gender is a construct. Assuming that men are intellectual and women are intuitive and making this part of a magic system makes the claim that this construct has a concrete reality to it. We have to queer our view of the world. Not men and women, but people, struggling with a social structure that makes strange demands of its members.</span></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: Plantin;"><span style="font-style: normal;">Resistance is valuable. Suggesting that conflict infects a place and makes it sick is TRUE. Suggesting that we must acknowledge the wounds of the past is TRUE. Giving people peace is GOOD. But restitution, justice, and hard work are how we get there, not hiding away the combatants, not making people swallow down generations of trauma and <i>hope</i> that some day we will all be friends. </span></span></div>
<div style="font-style: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: Plantin;">The principles above are easy to slip into
believing. We are told that it is bad to be angry, bad to fight, bad
to take the things of men, and instead of rejecting these messages we use them to police the behavior of the people feminism is supposed to protect. </span></div>
<div style="font-style: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: Plantin;">People need to be
angry, need to fight, need to take the excess of others away so they
can have enough for themselves.</span></div>
<div style="font-style: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: Plantin;">There are only a few things in this world that
are potentially limitless: Justice, Hope, Freedom, Anger. And right now we
are too greedy to let others have even that.</span></div>
<style type="text/css">p { margin-bottom: 0.1in; line-height: 120%; }</style>Cara M.http://www.blogger.com/profile/10979781599548365989noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3157378045977082225.post-7956802318863890312018-06-20T19:40:00.001-07:002018-06-20T19:40:32.458-07:00Why the (literal meaning of) 'Bury' isn't the important part of 'Bury your Gays'For me, bury your gays is indicative of a much more pervasive issue
which is essentially tokenism. Those guilty of bury your gays are in
essence saying 'this character isn't important enough for me to be
interested in finding out how their story turns out, so instead I will
milk their existence for some cheap drama.'<br />
<br />
The people writing these storylines are often trying to be progressive
by including the characters at all and feel strongly about how the
character is Sympathetic, so killing them will be Moving and Effective.
The truth is, they aren't wrong. They just don't understand that to the
audience most greatly pissed off by this, these characters aren't just
sympathetic minor characters, they're Main Characters, and killing them
abruptly is not just insensitive, but violates narrative expectations,
and, in fact, ruins the plot. It is like reading Harry Potter and
getting to book 2 and at a key moment Harry is killed by the basilisk
and then that annoying minor character you tried not to pay too much
attention to must save the day. <br />
<br />
What I find terrifying about the anti-bury your gays movement is that it
is filled with people who don't take a nuanced approach and immediately
assume gay+dead=bad and gay+alive=good regardless of the real issue
which is that the queer characters are being sidelined. Being casually
written out of a show when the writers couldn't think of how to work
this character into a plot is the same problem as the stray bullet,just
less violent. And because of this, instead of doing what we actually
want, which is Give Your Gays a Storyline That Isn't Tokenist, people
just get scared of writing queer characters.<br />
<br />
Where the question gets sticky is when we discuss the genre of Tragedy.
The fact that most of queer lit is both #ownvoices and Tragedy is a
weird fact that both complements the bury your gays discussion and adds a
complication to it. People have argued that queer lit is tragic because
everyone used to believe that there was no way to happily live in the
world as queer, that it was more palatable to straight gatekeepers as a
morality play, etc.. A lot of tragedies are morality plays. The main
character is in some way Wrong and therefore must suffer. In queer lit,
either the maintext or the subtext is that the Wrongness is the
queerness. Many of these books are #ownvoices, which to me means that
that particular issue isn't really relevant. Whoever you are, if you are
writing about how being queer Must Lead to Suffering, we are tired and
we know that because we also read the news. But, if you're writing about
how something else that is both _specific_ and potentially universal
leads to suffering, there is something interesting there, and I would
like to see that explored with queer characters.<br />
<br />
If you are writing a Tragedy and your main character is queer, there is
nothing intrinsically wrong with that. That is a good thing! It says
queer characters deserve to be centered in a narrative and have
interesting stories! But readers will come at expecting queerness to be
the culprit. Bi and poly? If there is any way that indecisiveness could
be an issue (hi, Hamlet's monologues), it's easy to read that as
inditing the queerness. If there is too much depression because of not
fitting in, then it's the old story of how it's impossible to live a
happy life and be queer. And if you don't signal that it's a tragedy
early on, and readers are unsatisfied by the ending, then it feels like
piling on.<br />
<br />
Execution is important. And it's also important to be aware that there
will be like 6 reviews debating whether or not it counts as bury your
gays, and already hurt people feeling more hurt, and the problem of
'When there's only one Xs, this X = All Xs.' But until there are more
than one X, this will always be a problem. So I say write the X--and
then, yes, get some sensitivity readers on it, but ones who believe that
that Tragedy is a valid genre and also that queer tragedy lit is a
tired genre. Circling all instances of a dead queer character and
hitting delete is like circling every passive voice construction and
hitting delete. It might liven up the piece, but it doesn't always make
it better. Cara M.http://www.blogger.com/profile/10979781599548365989noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3157378045977082225.post-43124960410056402442016-06-19T08:34:00.003-07:002016-06-19T08:48:19.840-07:00How Understanding Privilege Helps Your Worldbuilding<div style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; line-height: 24px; text-indent: 0.5in;">The idea of privilege is a hot and contentious topic in the world today, especially because with social media it's become easier to share our experiences, and people are beginning to be exposed to how the world looks through different eyes. Truth is: It looks different. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; line-height: 24px; text-indent: 0.5in;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; line-height: 24px; text-indent: 0.5in;">Now, to paraphrase something Ed White once said, writers are the type of people who are gathered at a deathbed, with all the crying relatives, and are like, "dammit, where's my notebook?" Yes, we grieve; yes, we understand that some things are really serious and very important. But the world is material. We're just paying attention.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; line-height: 24px; text-indent: 0.5in;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; line-height: 24px; text-indent: 0.5in;">So, when confronted with people saying, "hey, you've got privilege! Check it!" Don't waste time denying it and being offended. This is not a problem. This is an opportunity! It's time to gain a more nuanced understanding about the world, and replicate it in your fiction.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 24px;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 24px;">So, privilege. What is it?</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 24px;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 24px;"><b>Privilege</b> is any advantage that is unearned, exclusive, and socially conferred.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 24px;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 24px;">Having privilege can feel like nothing. Why would I be scared to hold hands with my romantic partner while walking down the street? Why would I think anyone would accost me when I'm heading home through my own neighborhood? Why would I ever consider missing class to celebrate my religion? Holidays are on Sundays, and we always have those off.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; line-height: 24px; text-indent: 0.5in;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; line-height: 24px; text-indent: 0.5in;">Not having privilege, on the other hand, can feel like everything. Just going about your normal business--having a job and a relationship and a home--is a source of stress and distress.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; line-height: 24px; text-indent: 0.5in;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; line-height: 24px; text-indent: 0.5in;">Being aware of this, of how whether or not a character is considered 'normal' by society shapes the way they see the world, can really improve your characterization.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; line-height: 24px; text-indent: 0.5in;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; line-height: 24px; text-indent: 0.5in;">But this blog post is not about characterization, it's about worldbuilding. For worldbuilding, the most important part of the definition of privilege above is 'socially conferred.' What does that mean?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 24px;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 24px;"><b>Socially conferred</b> means that the benefits of privilege and the costs of its lack are an intrinsic part of a social system. So when you are creating a society for your world, don't forget to pay attention to who has privilege and who doesn't. </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 24px;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 24px;">But just saying that 'the Mages are the privileged upper classes' doesn't actually give you a good sense of the world. How does privilege shape a society?</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 24px;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 24px;">First thing: privilege and its opposite, oppression, are both <b>institutionalized</b> and <b>systemic</b>.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 24px;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 24px;">This means that when you're creating your society think about what institutions might support privilege and cause oppression. </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 24px;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 24px;">Sometimes its simple, like anti-sodomy laws, or bans on same-sex or interracial marriage. Do you have an alien species that greets its friends by a meeting of ectoplasmic fluids. Is that outlawed? </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 24px;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 24px;">Sometimes it's a flank attack, like requiring photo id to vote, or promoting English-only education and cutting funding to ESL departments. Do you have alien refugees who need specialized instruction to learn to communicate with humans? Can they get this instruction? From whom? Why? Do you have vampires who can't have their pictures taken and are disenfranchised by the photo-id law? Do you have a type of chaotic magic that can destroy whole neighborhoods if not contained? Are the people in those neighborhoods allowed to sacrifice the goats necessary to contain this magic?</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 24px;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 24px;">Sometimes it's inadvertent. The rules were made before anyone bothered to think about what other groups might want, like having Christmas break or Sundays off. But other groups have their own systems and conflicts emerge.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 24px;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 24px;">Think about whether there is pressure to change these things, or pressure to institute more oppressive rules. Perhaps werewolves can only digest raw meat, and there are people saying werewolves shouldn't be allowed to eat in cafeterias so normal people don't have to watch them. Probably most werewolves are already eating in the bathroom because they're embarrassed. </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 24px;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 24px;">Maybe there's a push to normalize these things, to come out as werewolf--I'm hairy and I'm here! (Caution about appropriative language: Supergirl 'came out' as an alien. She also loudly insisted that she wasn't gay. This is taking queer-coded language, using it for pathos, and rejecting the queer community all in one go. It's a slap in the face. Guess how this could be fixed: actually having a major queer character in the show. It can be okay to make parallels and use elements associated with other communities for relevant purposes. It's not okay to do that without paying your debt. If you make a metaphor for queerness, blackness, non-neurotypicality, you had better have queer, black, and non-neurotypical heroes. (Lesbian!Alex Danvers, please!) If you are thinking about appropriating some Native American stuff, though, think again, <a href="http://nativeappropriations.com/">read up on it</a>, seriously, and then talk to actual people about it, and then . . . don't do it.)</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 24px;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 24px;">The other aspect, '<b>systemic</b>' means that this isn't just an issue about government and politics. Society is made up of people and everything that people create replicates their beliefs. </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 24px;"><b><br /></b></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 24px;"><b>The media</b>, also made up of people, plays a huge role in supporting and maintaining privilege and oppression. One way of doing this is through use of stereotypes.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 24px;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 24px;"> <b>Stereotypes</b>, as pointed out by social scientists, are a way humans have of making decisions with minimal data. If we find out that one snake is poisonous, we want to avoid all snakes, even the non-poisonous ones, because better safe than sorry, right? So if you don't have a lot of exposure to people of different races, sexualities, abilities, etc, you will make up a vague idea of what they're like, based on the exposure you do have. And that knowledge is going to be flawed, because there is a huge amount of variety within groups. Which is great for fiction! There are so many stories about a kid getting adopted by centaurs and discovering that they aren't all brutish horse people after all, or an alien integrating into a human culture and discovering that they aren't all murderous greedpots plunging toward their species' impending doom. Only it's not that easy.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 24px;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 24px;">Your centaur friend--how is he going to feel watching centaurs on TV all the time portrayed as brutish horse people? How is it going to be, knowing that everywhere he goes, people will look away, cross the street to avoid him, or follow him in case he decides to attack someone? How will he feel when he can't find a book in the library where a centaur gets the girl?</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 24px;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 24px;">The media is created by people who have grown up in a society inundated by stereotypes and they recreate these stereotypes in their media for three reasons. 1) They believe them. 2) They don't realize they're doing it. 3) They're marketable.</span></span><br />
<h4>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 24px;"><br /></span></span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 24px;">As Lord Vetinari says in The Truth: "People like to be told what they already know. Remember that. They get uncomfortable when you tell them new things. New things…well, new things aren’t what they expect. They like to know that, say, a dog will bite a man. That is what dogs do. They don’t want to know that a man bites a dog, because the world is not supposed to happen like that. In short, what people think they want is news, but what they really crave is olds." </span></span></h4>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 24px;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 24px;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>People don't want their stereotypes challenged. They want to feel comfortable, like they understand the world, and when they are faced with the fact that the world is different from what they expect they can react with anger, fear, and guilt. Often they argue, attack the speaker, or ignore the information and flee. People who are what their society considers 'normal' are especially likely to not be able to take this kind of information. </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 24px;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 24px;">So, if you have a society where the dominant class is tiger people, and you have one tiger person who meets a human who tells him just how hard it is for humans. But the tigers have worked hard at making a good society. Maybe they're refugees from oppression themselves, and every day they tell themselves how good Tiger Country is and how now, finally, they deserve the good life. This tiger isn't just going to believe that there's something wrong with the way humans are treated in their society. They know that humans are stupid and lazy and weak. That's what they're told every day. Just because one human says otherwise--well humans are always whiny, trying to get what they don't deserve. The society is fair. If they deserved better they would get it. But this human is pretty convincing. That sudden doubt, the crack in his worldview, he'd get angry, he'd get scared. Do all humans believe these lies? Are they going to be violent? Do the tigers have to band together to stop them?</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 24px;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 24px;">Here's the third way of maintaining stereotypes and oppression: <b>People</b>. Our tiger goes to his friend. He tells his friend about this human, but he knows that the other tiger believes the same as he does. So he doesn't say, "I think tigers might be mistreating humans." Instead he says, "This silly human, he said that humans are getting ground up into tiger food. That's absurd, right?" And his friend, regardless of what's true, picks up on the fact that he needs reassurance and says, "of course it is. Everyone knows humans are always making things up." This assuages the tiger's fear and he's back into his usual worldview.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 24px;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 24px;">People in groups are very good at supporting each other, even if they end up supporting lies and violence. They talk, they make assumptions, they don't ask questions. When they encounter things that are not as they expect, they even make exceptions. "He's pretty smart for a human." Acknowledging that one human can be smart doesn't lead tiger people to believe that all humans have the capacity to be smart. Instead it picks this one out as exceptional and reinforces the stereotype of the group as dumb.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 24px;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 24px;">Kids hear these conversations and they accept the premises. They grow up, having the same conversations, recreating these ideas.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 24px;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 24px;">The one thing that we know from social science research is that if people are taught about equality and that people are people, etc. they can police their own attitudes. An enlightened tiger person will still think, 'oh, he's smart, how strange for a human,' but then they will remind themselves that, 'no, humans can be just as smart as anyone else.' They might even think, 'as smart as normal people' and then have to go, 'no, humans are normal too.' But those first, second and third thoughts are still going to be there. People have racist, classist, homophobic thoughts thoughts, but if they're aware of their own racism, classism, and homophobia they can have anti-racist, anti-classist, and anti-homophobic thoughts also.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 24px;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 24px;">If you are building a society that has privileged groups and oppressed groups, remember that because privilege is a quality of the society, everyone has these kinds of thoughts. -Isms and -phobias are the default. Characters need a reason to combat these attitudes.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 24px;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 24px;">And this is the fourth way that oppression is maintained: <b>The Self</b>.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 24px;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 24px;">You might think that in our tiger society, humans aren't speciesist toward humans, but of course they are. Living in a society where at every turn you are told you are stupid and weak and lazy, you look at yourself, you ask yourself, am I? Maybe I am. It's hard to not believe the lies that are told about you. It's hard to combat them when you know that even if you succeed you'll be told that you're 'the exception.' Sometimes you're even told you're the exception by your own group. Sure we want to be special, but special isn't fun when it means you don't belong anymore.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 24px;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 24px;">So, when building your society, remember the four common places that privilege and oppression reveal themselves:</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 24px;"><b><br /></b></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 24px;"><b>1) Institutions</b></span></span><br />
<b style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; text-indent: 0.5in;">2) Media</b><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 24px;"><b>3) People in Groups</b></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 24px;"><b>4) The Self</b></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 24px;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 24px;">Figure out what the lies are that people tell about different groups. Why do they tell those lies? Some lies sound positive on the surface, but any generalizations that apply to whole groups are going to be false. </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 24px;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 24px;">Why is there oppression in this society? (The harder question is often why isn't there oppression in this society. If there are multiple groups, there's probably going to be some imbalance, for historical reasons. People make up lies to say that this imbalance is the way things ought to be. The conquerers deserve to oppress the conquered. Migrants should be grateful that they can live here. They chose to come here, so clearly they chose to be treated this way.)</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 24px;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 24px;">It's important to take the <b>why</b> seriously. There are many stories where one group is oppressed because they are 'different.' But the difference is non-significant. Now, from a liberal standpoint, all oppression is based on non-significant differences. But blaming oppression all on simple hypocrisy and selfishness shows a lack of understanding of how privilege works in a society. A story of oppression for oppression's sake, where oppression is bad and only bad people do it, is a comforting lie. It's the same lie that says there is a way to exist in a racist society and be non-racist. Any time there is a belief that a whole society holds and one character denies it--not because of any particular reason, but simply because they are the 'good guy' and 'know better'--the reader is thrown out of the world, because it no longer makes sense. Societies are made up of people, and society influences the way people think. When you're worldbuilding a society, you've got to commit to how it will shape your characters.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 24px;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 24px;">Things to keep in mind when plotting:</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 24px;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 24px;">You can't stop systemic oppression by deposing a tyrant. But sometimes it helps.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 24px;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 24px;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 24px;"><br /></span></span>
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Cara M.http://www.blogger.com/profile/10979781599548365989noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3157378045977082225.post-48247932196488541772016-05-08T06:07:00.002-07:002016-05-08T06:07:42.138-07:00The Girl Has Got it Rough: "Agent Carter" season 2<div align="center" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: Palatino, serif;">In
episode 4 of "Agent Carter" season 2, "Smoke and
Mirrors", the scene flashes back to Broxton Oklahoma, 1920.
Dusty sunshine, a cute kid, frowning intently as she dissects the
radio, making notes, solving problems. She fixes the radio--clearly a
budding genius--and upbeat jazz fills the room. It's a classic Marvel
scene; the comics are full of young geniuses. We could imagine Howard
Stark or his son Tony, Peter Parker, or, more recently, Lunella
Lafayette in that same position. When the girl's mother comes in and
tells her to clean up the mess she made fixing the radio, the feeling
doesn't change. </span>
</div>
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: Palatino, serif;">But
this little girl isn't going to grow up to be a hero. Little Agnes is
this season's villain, Whitney Frost, A.K.A. Madame Masque. The
reasons why she's destined for trouble quickly become apparent. Her
mother gets along by being nice to men. She wants little Agnes to be
nice also. But Agnes already knows that if you give a man a smile,
he'll think you want to be on your back. "I bet you're pretty
when you smile. Why won't you smile for your uncle Bud?" her
mother's boyfriend asks. Agnes is too smart to be groomed by a randy
pedo. She's busy thinking. She wants to think her way out, not live
her life on her back.</span></div>
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: Palatino, serif;">In
a post-"Jessica Jones" world, telling a girl "Smile,"
is simple shorthand for "I'm an asshole." "I think all
you're good for is pretty scenery." "There's nothing going
on in your head that isn't about me." Agnes Cully never gets
told anything but "smile." If I were her, I'd go batshit
crazy too.</span></div>
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: Palatino, serif;">The
best thing about "Agent Carter" season 2 is Whitney Frost,
under-appreciated genius, who uses the only currency her world lets
her have--her pretty face--to put herself in a position where she can
finally exploit her god-given brain. Surrounded by men who use her
and betray her, the touch of real, concrete power that Zero Matter
allows her is like finally reaching land after swimming through an
endless buffeting sea.</span></div>
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: Palatino, serif;">She's
not the only under-appreciated genius. Jason Wilkes, an
African-American WWII veteran, tells his story of struggling to find
employment after the war. Luckily Whitney Frost's company is there to
take him in. And after that goes boom, quite literally, our favorite
charming womanizer Howard Stark picks up the baton, tidying Wilkes
away into a research facility where Stark, as he blatantly admits,
will take credit for his work and become even more rich and famous by
the theft.</span></div>
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: Palatino, serif;">In
a universe where the events of Truth: Red, White and Black--the
Marvel comics series by Robert Morales which explores the preliminary
tests of the super-serum that created Captain America on
involuntarily recruited black soldiers (most successfully Isaiah
Bradley, the first Captain America), written to resonate with the
horrors of the Tuskegee Experiments--has not been actively denied,
Wilkes's backstory feels soft and Disnified. Our token moments in
Black LA only highlight the odd lack of Latinx or Asian characters in
a location that if Philip K. Dick was right, would belong to the
Japanese Empire had things gone the other way during the war.</span></div>
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: Palatino, serif;">All
of this, of course, is "Agent Carter"'s writers' flustered
attempt to combat the criticism that pointed out that it was odd that
the first season failed to have any main characters of color
considering it was set in post war NYC. Somehow, it seems that they
must also have been incisively criticized for focusing too much on
the relationships between female characters. The quiet and yet
resonant building of trust between Carter and her now-roommate, Angie
Martinelli, has no parallel in season 2, and Martinelli herself is
utterly forgotten in the script, save for an appearance as a figment
of Carter's imagination in the musical interlude and one reference as
"my roommate" in the final episode.</span></div>
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: Palatino, serif;">In
spite of this valiant effort, "Agent Carter" season 2
suffers by comparison with season 1. Wilkes, though pleasant enough,
is continually attacked by the script: shot at, insulted, exploded,
disembodied, kidnapped, manipulated, led on, rejected, and ultimately
tidied away. The female characters are given uncomfortably short
shrift. Whitney Frost, the most developed of the group, loses agency
halfway through the season, her behavior attributed to madness and
megalomania rather than the reasoned chess-moves of a woman pushed to
the brink. Ana Jarvis, sassy and charming, is simply there to be a
concerned wife and then a victim, pushing her husband to man up and
express his emotions through violence. Rose is given the occasional
sidekick moment, but must share it with another (how many are there
now?) gormless male scientist, and Violet, the fiancée, has a moment
of personality and then is never heard from again. Everyone's
favorite villainess, Dottie Underwood, is a force of chaos.
Disconnected from her Russian handlers, she has no clear motives
beyond a moderate and possibly unfounded respect for Carter. Carter
herself is the real casualty of season 2. Her backstory, given as a
parallel with Frost's, relies upon a supportive brother pushing her
beyond her dreams for herself, which are 'normal' female dreams,
reinforced by all of the women in her life.</span></div>
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: Palatino, serif;">It
is unfortunate that the writers of Season 2 seem to have missed the
BBC miniseries "the Bletchley Circle." The use of the women
code-breakers of Bletchley Park as nothing more than wedding obsessed
traditionalists seems unfairly reductive when compared with the
stories of these same women straining against the strictures of the
post-war world after testing their mettle at Bletchley. In season 1
we knew that Peggy Carter was making her way in a man's world, but
she was not waiting for a man to hand her the prize. In season 2,
even her identity as the Peggy Carter we know is a gift of a man--her
boss, her brother--and though in this world women might be friends
there is no power nor meaning derived from their mutual support.</span></div>
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: Palatino, serif;">I
am aware that there is often disproportionate pressure applied to the
one primetime female-led Marvel superhero show, encouraging it to be
groundbreaking on issues of gender and race. Some might say it is
unfair to only criticize "Agent Carter" season 2 along
these lines. I can accept that. I can put aside my issues with the
inadvertent messages it is sending. And, in truth, I would be able to
forgive "Agent Carter" season 2 all of these gaffes and
missteps if the main plot weren't so unutterably boring.</span></div>
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: Palatino, serif;">The
first two-parter is a miracle of poor pacing. The inciting incident,
an iced over lake in the baking heat of Los Angeles, brings a
pleasing touch of the superheroic. (Let's just put aside the
unfortunate knowledge that a dead woman is inside it, in fact, a
female scientist who was having an affair with a powerful man. Is it
surprising that television death is the fate of women who are too
smart and too sexual for their own good? No. Of course not. It would
have been nice if that weren't the case in "Agent Carter"
though.) But as Carter and the Hawaiian-shirted-Sousa along with
Detective Henry, a vaguely entertaining sneezy policeman who could
have been culled from any Hollywood detective movie of the depicted
era, very slowly follow the leads toward a political cabal in a
gentleman's club (sadly one without the exuberant licentiousness of
the Hellfire Club), the show drags. In the fissure between seasons,
the one-sided admiration Sousa had for Carter became an amorphous
'something' quickly followed by Sousa ghosting his way out of the
relationship when he is transferred to LA. This banal occurrence
required multiple sideways discussions between otherwise interesting
characters about 'what might have been.' Then the momentum of
Carter's investigation is derailed again by a brief flirtation with a
scientist, Wilkes, and the awkwardness of a one-sided exchange of
phone numbers. The pacing is not improved by cutting back to New
York, where Agent Thompson ineffectually interrogates Underwood. The
actual narrative of Detective Henry's poor decision making skills is
so buried under this detritus that when his life ends in shattered
ice, it has utterly no impact. </span>
</div>
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: Palatino, serif;">Lack
of impact is a theme of "Agent Carter" season 2.
Suspenseful stakes? Only the fate of the world. But, unfortunately,
it is only the fate of the world. When one of the characters is in
immediate danger it is usually due to an unforeseen consequence of
their own poorly thought out plan of attack. Twice they attack a
vortex of doom with a magical machine. Twice they fall into one of
Frost's casually laid traps. Twice, perhaps three times, they
scrounge for nuclear material. Repetition and lack of escalation keep
this season plodding along. The moments of brightness--Frost's
complex motivations, Underwood's sly grin--fade away, leaving only a
beige blandness in the last act.</span></div>
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: Palatino, serif;">The
subtle hypocrisy of Carter and her team's actions do not improve the
situation. They are the good guys, so when they gleefully cause brain
damage to someone in their way, (of course, he's a sleazebag), or
steal hard won research (the researcher is the villain), or hit a
woman with a car (she's resilient, it's no big deal), it is
automatically forgiven by the narrative. There is no nuance here, no
understanding that being a good guy means doing it the hard way, or,
at the very least, acknowledging the ugliness of the easy way. In
spite of Frost's compelling backstory, after episode 4 there is no
suggestion that she might struggle with her choices also. Carter's
team plots and schemes and steals, all in order to punish a sad and
lonely woman for doing what Carter did not do in this season--take
what she deserved instead of waiting for it to be given to her.</span></div>
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: Palatino, serif;">Fans
of the season 1 relationship between Carter and her now-roommate
Martinelli wondered if the lack of Martinelli in season 2 was their
punishment for daring to read the friendship as romantic. Was this
love triangle nonsense a panicked 'no-homo' move by the writers?
Worse, it seems that it was a 'I don't know what to do with a woman
main character besides put her into a love triangle' move. When even
Twilight fans are tired of the love triangle, that shows a sad lack
of imagination. But the truth is, the fans of Carter and Martinelli
as a couple saw something real: a well written relationship between
two very different characters. It developed slowly. Trust was earned.
Romantic or not, there was a relationship there. In season 2, all we
were given was forced sexual tension. The most charming human moment
was when Sousa botches the proposal to his girlfriend Violet. They
laugh together. They'd be a good fit. Instead, of course, Violet
discovers Sousa's lingering feelings for Carter, sets him free, and
never appears again.</span></div>
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: Palatino, serif;">Perhaps
the moment that leaves the bitterest taste of all is Jarvis's halting
description of the motion picture he is pretending to cast Whitney
Frost in. She will play a spy, a female Agent. "<span style="font-style: normal;">Any
love interest?</span><span style="font-style: normal;">"</span><span style="font-style: normal;">
</span>Frost asks. <span style="font-style: normal;">"</span><span style="font-style: normal;">We
haven't found the right actor yet,</span><span style="font-style: normal;">"</span>
he temporizes, suggesting, unintentionally perhaps, that this might
turn out to be a different sort of movie, one where the lady spy can
carry the plot without a romance. In a world where that movie
existed, Frost would never have had to become a villainess. And in
that world, season 2 of "Agent Carter" wouldn't be bogged
down in unconvincing romantic subplots. The writers might have
thought hard about the characters, discovered what their motives
were, where to hit them where it hurt, and season 2 could have been a
romp and a thrill ride.</span></div>
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: Palatino, serif;">I
do not expect miracles from television, but the abandonment of basic
principles of storytelling, the cavalierly treated characterization,
the forced and unconvincing romance, and the betrayal of the solidly
and carefully built first season left me doing little but sighing,
wandering away from the screen, and yelling at each missed
opportunity and unsupported character moment. </span>
</div>
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: Palatino, serif;">Peggy
Carter may not actually be a telephone operator, but I'm sure she can
tell when someone is phoning it in. She knows her value. And she
deserves better.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: Palatino, serif;">###</span></div>
Cara M.http://www.blogger.com/profile/10979781599548365989noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3157378045977082225.post-11277688611721322292016-03-11T13:19:00.001-08:002016-03-11T13:19:40.965-08:00<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgeg9H4eZzg6HxfwbgYVvLgaUD62bov2sTljjZ67iHoDiCgopVBeUYcO5ArzpsokPheJHaaRgOBGo8cHTp0M-9I9KjbH9ZSqrzOVDWDl2QH-vQ6yFkCgfeFIPBEl_Ko8fD7b50oDZ_a_6s/s1600/MRD.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgeg9H4eZzg6HxfwbgYVvLgaUD62bov2sTljjZ67iHoDiCgopVBeUYcO5ArzpsokPheJHaaRgOBGo8cHTp0M-9I9KjbH9ZSqrzOVDWDl2QH-vQ6yFkCgfeFIPBEl_Ko8fD7b50oDZ_a_6s/s320/MRD.jpg" width="267" /></a></div>
<br />Cara M.http://www.blogger.com/profile/10979781599548365989noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3157378045977082225.post-68124680426495975682016-01-10T09:30:00.002-08:002016-01-10T09:30:25.398-08:00How to Write Fictional Languages<div class="p1">
<i>And then, Amashra, High Priestess of Bouurain said, "Oh, foolish one, don't you know that the the soul is Sol!"</i></div>
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WAIT. Hold up there. Is this lady saying that we know the soul and the sun are related because the words sound the same? Does that mean she’s speaking English? Why would they speak English in Bouurain? Maybe they just mean that the Bouurainian words for soul and Sol sound the same? That would be fine, okay, keeping going.</div>
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Only I’ve already been tossed out of the story. </div>
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So, one thing I’ve been thinking about lately is how to deal with language in fiction. Because worldbuilding is a language problem and language is a worldbuilding problem.</div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Worldbuilding is a Language problem. And Language is a Worldbuilding problem.</span></b></h2>
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A blog post at <a href="http://icapturethesnark.blogspot.com/2016/01/a-typology-of-fictional-language.html">The Hunting of the Snark </a> really helped my thinking on this. This post introduces four terms that really help me think about how to deal with languages in fiction, in particular, made up languages.</div>
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<b>conlang</b>: “a functional language with all the requisite parts,” enough information about sounds, grammar, and vocabulary for eager fans to learn it and communicate more or less intelligibly.</div>
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Think: Dothaki, Klingon, Na’vi, Sindarin and Quenya (elvish)</div>
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<b>burrogue</b>: Words and phrases that suggest the existence of a complete language. Personal and place names and invented concepts often get ‘burrows’ (an individual invented term), which give a sense of the world as a whole, and reminds the reader that this is Not Home.</div>
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Think: Edgar Rice Burrough’s language of Barsoom (the origin of the term ‘Burrogue’), which heavily influenced the Star Wars Burrogue with word parrallels like ‘sith/sith,’ ‘jedi/jeddak),’ and ‘padawan/padawar.’</div>
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<b>barbar</b>: An impressionistic representation of the sounds of a foreign language. These utterances don’t break down into meaningful words or grammatical structures.</div>
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Think: Thermian from Galaxy Quest, or the Droids’ beeps and boops in Star Wars.</div>
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<b>masque</b>: When a work of fiction is written entirely in English (or whichever real language is used as the means of communication between the writer and the reader), but it is signaled that English is only a stand-in for the actual language the characters are speaking, translated for the convenience of the readers.</div>
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Think: any ‘Common’ type language: Gallactic Basic Standard, Westron; or the more nuanced Suomic, etc.</div>
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One point that the Snark makes is that these terms are for fictional languages. But, of course, the portrayal of fictional languages is derived from the portrayal of real languages. I find books which occasionally drop into different tongues to be very surprising, but also very cool. They also often represent the way real people live their lives. Not all of us live in monoglot cultures, and some times we use multiple languages in a single conversation. Conlangs can be used to evoke those feelings too.</div>
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Some of my favorites are <i>Diary of a Provincial Lady</i>, by E.M. Delafield, where the narrator drops into French whenever she has something ‘too shocking’ to say in English, <i>Random Deaths and Custard, </i>where the main character lives in the Welsh Cwms, and has a reputation for being pretty good at speaking Welsh, but actually isn’t. People do actually speak Welsh in Wales! And it’s great to see that bilingual world represented. And, on TV, I’m loving <i>Jane the Virgin</i>, where the realities of code-switching in a multilingual, multigenerational family are shown.</div>
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Other books (Travel narratives, I’m looking at you), use terms from the foreign culture that our narrator is investigating, because the point is to maintain that sense of foreign. Using ‘congee’ rather than ‘Tamil rice porridge’ is a choice. An interesting one, to be sure. The decision to use a burrow in a similar context might have a similar alienating effect.</div>
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Finding a real-world parallel with <i>barbar</i> might be dangerous, but a brief youtube search for "Catherine Tate Interpreter" can both exemplify the concept of barbar as it relates to real languages, and remind you how offensive it is! Luckily, when used with fictional languages, it is often shorthand, or used for non-human entities whose mode of communication might differ enough to not be parseable by the human language faculty at all.</div>
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One thing I’ve considered is using barbars to express the confusion of a non-speaker in a foreign context. But I decided that it would be more interesting to try and express the incomprehensibility by writing down what a non-speaker would hear. Speakers of a language hear things like word boundaries and allomorphs which are completely inaudible to non-speakers. So writing down the actual pronunciation with no spaces between words would respect the language without making it easy to understand.</div>
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<i>dhaetsizitundrstaen</i></div>
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(That’s easy to understand.)</div>
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Masques are obviously the fictional version of translation. Reading Russian lit or Japanese slice-of-life comics in English, you still know that the communication is not happening in English unless it’s explicitly stated that it is happening in English. But for fantasy there aren’t any external cues that the base language is not English, so the author needs to signal that within the text.</div>
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It’s really exciting to have words to be able to think about the use of language in fiction, especially fantasy and scifi. The implications and effects of ‘oh, I’ll just make up a word for that’ are easier to think about, when you know what you’ve done is create a burrow, which implies a burrogue. ‘Do all the words I made up sound like they come from the same language? Should they?’ If you’re using a masque, that doesn’t mean anything goes. Translations often commit the sin (imho) of replacing jokes that only work in the origin language with a joke that works in the target language. But if the joke doesn’t work in the target language that means that it’s probably a joke about the language itself (try translating puns, just try it). So if you have a pun-style joke in your masque, that can break the veil, making the reader think about the fact that you’re only pretending that another language exists. I’d love to see more of the French New Wave style of subtitle translation used in a masque, [[Untranslatable French Pun]].</div>
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Cara M.http://www.blogger.com/profile/10979781599548365989noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3157378045977082225.post-66963238933842818372016-01-09T12:12:00.001-08:002016-01-09T12:12:26.543-08:00Talking about Language<div>
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Philosopher; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.6px;">Here is a repost of my guest blog at <a href="http://heroinesoffantasy.blogspot.com/2014/05/guest-post-lets-talk-about-language.html">Heroines of Fantasy</a>. Here are some places where my Linguist training and my novel writing begin to combine.</span></span></div>
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Philosopher; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.6px;"><div>
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Philosopher; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.6px;"><br /></span></span></div>
<h2>
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Philosopher; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.6px;">Talking about Language</span></span></h2>
<div>
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Philosopher; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.6px;"><br /></span></span></div>
Let’s talk about space. You know, the final frontier, with alien populations and cultures cropping up on every planet. A band of intrepid explorers arrives on this planet, on a Starfleet vessel, through a Stargate, by some means of something beginning with Star, and lo, the aliens all welcome them, or the aliens all try to kill them...and very handily they do this all in English.</span><br style="font-family: Philosopher; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.6px;" /><br style="font-family: Philosopher; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.6px;" /><span style="font-family: Philosopher; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.6px;">Have we noticed the problem?</span><br style="font-family: Philosopher; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.6px;" /><br style="font-family: Philosopher; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.6px;" /><span style="font-family: Philosopher; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.6px;">Language and culture are two things that can make a place come alive. They are highly related ideas. In this blog I want to talk about some of the really interesting ways you can look at language in fantasy and use it to bring the world to life.</span><br style="font-family: Philosopher; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.6px;" /><br style="font-family: Philosopher; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.6px;" /><span style="font-family: Philosopher; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.6px;">Is this scary? It shouldn’t be. This is NOT about Conlanging.</span><br style="font-family: Philosopher; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.6px;" /></span><div class="separator" style="clear: both; font-family: Philosopher; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.6px; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjWDcs7QUF-tjMBb7EHF5Ev_lC255OofKXqPhPtk_3S7zztrTz8pGgHUw63T3HMIunvbSaAawF1tnWtI6jlMq9O4yk-eKZ-Kq-NbuKDGqRNxsdvmw6TMUZE0TZ1SkpYYLd5VpyivW1pQOM/s1600/Silmarillion-cover.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em; text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: black;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjWDcs7QUF-tjMBb7EHF5Ev_lC255OofKXqPhPtk_3S7zztrTz8pGgHUw63T3HMIunvbSaAawF1tnWtI6jlMq9O4yk-eKZ-Kq-NbuKDGqRNxsdvmw6TMUZE0TZ1SkpYYLd5VpyivW1pQOM/s1600/Silmarillion-cover.jpg" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border-radius: 0px; border: 1px solid rgb(153, 153, 153); box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.2) 0px 0px 0px; padding: 8px; position: relative;" width="218" /></span></span></a></div>
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Philosopher; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.6px;">(</span><em style="font-family: Philosopher; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.6px;">Conlanging</em><span style="font-family: Philosopher; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.6px;"> – the act of building a </span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constructed_language" style="font-family: Philosopher; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.6px; text-decoration: none;">CONstructed LANGuage</a><span style="font-family: Philosopher; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.6px;">, i.e. a conlang.)</span><br style="font-family: Philosopher; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.6px;" /><br style="font-family: Philosopher; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.6px;" /><span style="font-family: Philosopher; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.6px;">Now, conlangs have a rich history in the world of fantasy, thanks to J.R.R. Tolkien and his obsession with Finnish and Welsh, but I know, from personal experience, that for some people constructing a language is possibly the most painfully boring and frustrating thing anyone can do. ConNaming, however, every writer has to do at some point, so it’s worth thinking about. But not now.</span><br style="font-family: Philosopher; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.6px;" /></span><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Philosopher; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.6px;">Instead, let’s imagine some worlds.</span> </span><br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="font-family: Philosopher; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.6px;">
<em style="background-color: white;">A vast empire, spanning mountains and seas. But a traveler from the capital has no difficulty communicating with the peoples of the hinterlands, perhaps they have a slight rustic accent, but nothing that impedes his path.</em></blockquote>
<span style="background-color: white;"><br style="font-family: Philosopher; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.6px;" /></span>
<div style="font-family: Philosopher; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.6px;">
<span style="background-color: white;">Languages change over time, and physical separation can create mutual unintelligibility. It’s very likely that an empire would span over cultures with differing native languages. But is this world then deeply flawed? No! This is an opportunity. A powerful and well-organized Empire would likely have a policy of everyone learning the language of the conquerors. Rebels might still speak their local tongues, and suffer punishment if they were caught. An emperor who brought prosperity might also bring a sense of pride and prestige in speaking his language. Young people who intend to go to the cities to look for work would learn the metropolitan language, while their elders grumble in the corners in the old tongue. Rather than having an unbelievable world, we now have more depth and complexity, and a way of showing whether the empire is cruel or benevolent, just by the locals’ attitudes towards language.</span></div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="font-family: Philosopher; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.6px;">
<em style="background-color: white;">A world of many diverse cultures, a traveler visiting each one, and though being thrown by local customs, having little trouble buying his dinner.</em></blockquote>
<div style="font-family: Philosopher; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.6px;">
<span style="background-color: white;">First question to ask: is the traveler likely to know many languages? This is where being an American skews one’s ideas a bit. In most places, it’s totally reasonable to grow up speaking and understanding multiple languages. Although this can happen through formal education, usually it happens because the languages are all around. Did the traveler grow up in court society with ambassador’s children? Did he have a nurse from one place and a cook from another? Did his family speak a different language from the town? Does the village a mile into the wood speak the language of their homeland? Did he grow up on the docks or in a trading outpost where people from all over came together to interact?<br /><br />If not, perhaps his interpreter did. Or, even, if not, perhaps there’s a <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lingua_franca" style="text-decoration: none;"><em>lingua franca</em></a>, a language used for trade and communication of ideas on a supra-national level. Knowing the trade language means there are always a few people he’ll be able to speak to. He’ll have a way of functioning, even if no one is using their native language.</span></div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="font-family: Philosopher; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.6px;">
<em style="background-color: white;">A foreign land with complex systems of kowtowing before royalty, appreciating your elders, and never asking directly for anything, in which your rustic hero enters, and with his cheerful good-naturedness wins over the local populace who are secretly sick of all this stiffness.</em></blockquote>
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Philosopher; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.6px;">Problems! The ways people use language is an intrinsic part of a community. Methods of politeness can vary from context to context inside a society. But if someone violates those norms, it’s very unlikely that people are going to just smile and like him the better for it. If someone came up to you and violated your politeness norms, you’d probably think he was pretty rude, right? This is the same.</span></span><br />
<div style="font-family: Philosopher; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.6px;">
<span style="background-color: white;"><br />Now there are a couple of ways to think about being polite. Two common ones are <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Politeness_theory#Positive_and_negative_face" style="text-decoration: none;">negative face vs. positive face</a>. When you think about negative face, think about a courtier, someone who needs to get people to do things for him without making them feel like he’s imposing. He does not expect people to like him, in fact, he doesn’t even always expect them to be able to figure out who he is. Although he could try to jolly everyone along, make them think that they want what he wants, that isn’t usually the way of things in court society. Usually, he tries to make the imposition as small as possible. He says, “Well, if you wouldn’t mind,” or “If it isn’t any trouble,” to people more powerful than he is. He never talks about how important it is to him, just because it would reveal that they have power over him.<br /><br />Positive face is the opposite, where you try your best to be charming and friendly, and tell people just how much you need their help, and make them feel good and connected with you, so that your wants become their wants. Now, it’s obvious to do something like having the court be all negative face, long sentences, hiding your personal interests, and having the pub be positive face, all about making friends and getting them to take your side. But what if you switched them? What if there was a court that ran entirely on positive face mechanisms, with a surrounding town where negative face was the way to go? How could that happen? What would it be like?<br /><em></em></span><blockquote class="tr_bq">
<em style="background-color: white;">Your rustic hero becomes king. Perhaps he slays a dragon, or has the royal birthmark on his behind. And then he’s king, right? He can suddenly talk the talk of the king and walk the walk of the king, no problem.</em></blockquote>
<span style="background-color: white;"><br />Oh there’s definitely a problem. What happens after your farm boy becomes monarch? How does he learn to speak like a king? Does he have tutors training him in court language and city accents? Is he powerful enough so people try and speak like him, and suddenly the rural hickish accent is stylish and popular and everyone is trying to adopt it? Does he try and fail to change his accent? Do people mock him behind his back for how he says his Vs? Do his supporters pick up his accent and his rivals reject it? What about a suspicious sycophant? How would he try to ingratiate himself with the king by adopting his accent? Would the king find that humiliating? There are a thousand possibilities, each one more interesting than the last.<br /><br />Essentially, here’s the truth of it: questioning your expectations about language and playing with them can put life into your characters. Women/Men/Workers/Hicks, we all think we know how they speak. But those expectations are derived from our own culture. If we are building a new world, we need to break out of our own expectations, surprise ourselves and our readers. Or just really think it through!<br /><br />Language: a danger and an opportunity. What’s that, now? You want to try ConLanging?</span></div>
Cara M.http://www.blogger.com/profile/10979781599548365989noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3157378045977082225.post-68269248639470754542013-03-07T05:10:00.000-08:002013-03-07T05:10:06.486-08:00Road Trip Wednesday # 171<a href="http://www.yahighway.com/"><img src="http://goo.gl/k0hW9" width="150" /></a><br />
<br />
Quarterly Check In!<br />
<br />
I had plans... once. And perhaps they were silly plans. Especially for Winter Break which involves not only travel, but Christmas, and birthdays and Memorial services and sundry other events that are full of crazy. But I had hope!<br />
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I have two novels that are currently: UNDER CONSTRUCTION: HARD HATS ONLY.<br />
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And I was planning, I suppose, to finish both. One just needed to be finished, and the other needed to be refinished, since I had to cut the last 7 chapters and reformulate them.<br />
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I managed to get neither goals accomplished... during break.<br />
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But just last weekend I scribbled down the final scene for novel #2, and wrote a short epilogue. DONE! (Then, of course, I looked back at the beginning and was like - oh god. This needs a lot of work. As well as needing to be cut by 1/3.)<br />
<br />
Novel #1 is still not quite complete, but I'm hoping that Friday/Saturday this week will give me a few solid hours to bang out some words. I have been progressing, and I really think there's only a few more scenes before I hit the end, less than 10k even.<br />
<br />
And then CPs! Be ready!<br />
<br />
<br />
(And at some point I need to find the time to sort out my thesis, but one thing at a time, eh?)Cara M.http://www.blogger.com/profile/10979781599548365989noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3157378045977082225.post-56264167971683488692013-02-13T05:02:00.002-08:002013-02-13T05:02:33.591-08:00Road Trip Wednesday #168: What Do You Love About Writing?What do I love about writing?<br />
<br />
The power.<br />
<br />
It's really as simple as that. When I'm writing I have complete control - over the world, the events, the characters' destinies, and I can create a world that is thrilling and wild and absurd and beautiful if I want. And I can live there. Maybe it's only for an hour at a time, but I can live and feel and experience so many things, just by using my brain.<br />
<br />
And it's not just the power over myself and my characters, but the power over my readers. This isn't a vicious, vindictive sort of power, it's just love. I want to take them and shake them up and make them laugh and make them feel, and then, in the end, make them feel satisfied, whether it's a happy satisfied or a sad one.<br />
<br />
So, yeah, if I didn't have writing I'd probably be a megalomaniac of some kind. :DCara M.http://www.blogger.com/profile/10979781599548365989noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3157378045977082225.post-49494592888013766982013-01-18T16:35:00.004-08:002013-01-18T16:36:53.356-08:00Book Troubles...<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Here's the thing. I've forgotten how my book should end.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br /></span>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Usually, when I'm getting so close that I can SEE it, caltrops couldn't stop me from finishing this thing. But this has been a LONG SLOG. And I let myself get distracted with a side project. And then there's the project that I should actually be working on. (And school - but forget school). So, essentially... I've got problems. But this book, now THIS BOOK. It should be beautiful, and it's a mess.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">I went and found my love list for this book - or my list of themes or something:</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br /></span>
<div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: small;"><i>Gothic</i></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: small;"><i>Romantic</i></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: small;"><i>Erotic</i></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: small;"><i>Bloody</i></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: small;"><i>Cruel</i></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: small;"><br /></span>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: small;">Think Howl, by Florence + the Machine. Think dark fairies and werewolves and evil science. Think Cinderella + Little Red Riding Hood all smashed together, where the prince is actually the wolf.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: small;">Only that's the problem, you see. Because my wolf-prince is being PATHETIC.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: small;">Cinderella's doing well. Her life's falling apart. She's nearly dying for like the sixteenth time. She is completely miserable.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: small;"><br /></span>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: small;">Wolf-prince, however, she's not so desperate. Technically, her brother/father/lover figure has just told her that he was planning on using her body and sticking someone else's mind in there. She's lost her home, has decided to challenge someone way more powerful than her for lordship of the fief. Her brother is burning everything of hers that he can find. So she's upset and scared and off balance and angry - and then goes and drinks tea with a nice lady.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: small;"><br /></span>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: small;">WRONG! WRONG I SAY!</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: small;"><br /></span>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: small;">This isn't good enough. I keep on making sure she has baths and enough to eat when she should be RUNNING FOR HER LIFE. She should go get Cinderella because there's no one else - even though it's drawing her brother to them. </span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: small;"><br /></span>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: small;">THIS IS THE LAST PART OF THE BOOK.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: small;"><br /></span>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: small;">If wolf-prince isn't miserable now, when is she going to be? If she's chirpy and happy, meeting her mom, making out with people, being kind of annoyed - it isn't good enough! And the thing is, Cinderella NEVER CATCHES A BREAK. She's always losing people, upsetting her dad, breaking her ex-boyfriend's heart. Wolf-prince doesn't have a lot to lose, except her life, and yet her life is never in danger. Where is evil brother? Why hasn't he tried to attack her directly?</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: small;"><br /></span>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: small;">She needs to get hurt. She needs to escape by the skin of her teeth. She needs to KNOW DESPAIR.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: small;"><br /></span>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: small;">So that when she says, "No," to Cinderella, "I'm not using you. You need to go and stay gone. Stay out of here. I might die, but I won't drag you down with me." and lets her go, saying 'don't bring me that one thing that might actually let me defeat my brother' it rings true. And then when she turns around and says, to her evil brother, "No, I'm ready now. Take me and put your dead girlfriend in my mind, take me and don't go after her. You win." it sounds right - and sad. But like something she would do. "I've nearly lost you enough times, you need your own life, that doesn't involve people who are after me trying to kill you."</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: small;"><br /></span>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: small;">Wolf-prince - you need to be <i>there</i>. And I know your girl is a woobie, but you don't have enough woobie cred. You get angry. But you've been a victim your whole life, and now the people you had just started to trust are turning on you - not just turning on you, <i>hunting</i> you. What are you going to do about that?</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: small;"><br /></span>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: small;">Cry?</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: small;"><br /></span>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: small;">Go for it.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: small;"><br /></span>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: small;">Then get scared, bleed, and <i>run</i>.</span></div>
Cara M.http://www.blogger.com/profile/10979781599548365989noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3157378045977082225.post-16862960395440340382012-11-13T05:24:00.001-08:002012-11-13T05:27:51.721-08:00Voice & StyleI've been wondering about voice for a while. Being a linguist, I know a lot about language, and teaching writing I've started to figure out what makes writing effective. But voice has always been unquantifiable. People say everyone has voice. What that means, I think, on a basic level, is that everyone has a certain set of words that are their go-to words, they have a certain idea of what makes a sentence flow. It often reflects the way they speak - where they put adverbs, whether they use lots of rhetorical questions. But there are three pits you can fall into with voice.
<br />
<br />
1) An inconsistent voice.<br />
2) A sloppily executed voice<br />
3) The wrong voice for the story.
<br />
<br />
If voice is something that everyone has naturally and everyone has only one, then how can there be a wrong voice? Am I saying that some people can't write certain types of books because they have the wrong voice? No.<br />
<br />
When we speak we frequently exploit varying registers. If you're speaking to your little brother, you're not going to speak to him in the same way you would speak to your boss, right? (Unless your little brother is your boss, in which case, I'm sorry.) And if you do speak to your boss in the same way you spoke to your little brother, you might get fired. These registers are basically systems of preferences.
<br />
<br />
Little brother: Prefer 'hey you!' Imperative voice. Casual language. Slang. 'or else!' Short sentences.
<br />
<br />
Boss: Prefer 'please' Subjunctives like 'would, could, might.' Formal language. No slang. 'do you think...?' Longer sentences.<br />
<br />
We can switch between them easily!
<br />
<br />
In writing, though, register becomes more complex and tentative. You don't have a person that you're directing it to, so it's harder to make choices. And often you're writing in a certain style.
<br />
<br />
Style in essay writing is a lot like register. You consider who your audience is. You ask, do we want to impress them or to befriend them? You write.
<br />
<br />
It's harder to figure out what's right for a novel. An MG voice isn't the same as an adult voice, but a comedic voice isn't the same as a mythic voice either. Choosing a style is not just choosing an audience, but figuring out the feel that you want your writing to have.
<br />
<br />
The problem comes when you actually try to write it. We all have registers for friends vs. teachers, but we don't necessarily have a particular register ready to address the emperor, or to talk to baby ducklings. We don't all have a gothic style at our fingertips, or even a comedic style. And if we can't control the style we're writing in, things start to fall apart.
<br />
<br />
When agents and editors say voice, what they mean is this:<br />
<b>Voice</b> - <i>The consistent and correct exploitation of a style.
</i><br />
<br />
The way your style will come out is directly linked to your experience of language. That's why reading a lot of the type of voice you want to master can be helpful. You learn and then you make generalizations. "Use long sentences." "Use creepy words like 'lacework' and 'groan.'" But unless you only read those books and words from the age of two and never speak to anyone else, you're not going to mimic it exactly. It's going to build another layer onto your own language. Your own language is the source, is the bricks. Your language will merge with this new style to create a voice.
<br />
<br />
But that's not enough to create Voice. It has to be consistent. Part of that is controlling the style (rather than letting the style control you). Part of that is controlling the perspective, making sure that you know who you're talking to and what your relative positions are (social positions, but also physical and temporal positions.) Languages take note of who is speaking, who they're speaking to, when they're speaking, when what they're speaking about occurred in relation to the speaking, and where they are in regards to the action, as well as tons of other things. Controlling the perspective (a lot of this goes into the POV) is part of controlling your style.
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<br />
If you can't control the style we often end up with sloppy execution. Sloppy execution suggests not paying attention to the details. And there are a lot of details! Are you referring to your reader as 'you' or 'one?' Are you referring to your reader at all? Have you forgotten what perspective your narrator is relating the narrative from? Slipping in a modern slangy term into a historical, slipping in an old-fashioned word into a modern story. Using the same structures repetitively without any clear reason. Readers have to get used to writing styles. A sudden shift in syntax can be jarring. If you just got used to having post verbal parenthetical adverbs to suggest contrast, "John went, surprisingly, to the store." and then suddenly you shift to 'but' clauses instead, it's going to give the reader whiplash. "John went to the store, but it was unexpected."
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<br />
Styles don't have to be dramatic. You might say, simply, I'm going to write in a colloquial style, as if I were telling this story to a friend. But which friend, when, for what purpose? All of these things go into your voice. Every day, we speak in many registers. We have the ability to write in many styles. But we choose register based on context. Choosing a style is conscious - and often, a whole lot more fun. But pulling off the style - that's voice.Cara M.http://www.blogger.com/profile/10979781599548365989noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3157378045977082225.post-58525206613903677962012-09-28T14:46:00.002-07:002012-09-28T14:46:22.325-07:00<script src="http://www.gliffy.com/diagramEmbed.js" type="text/javascript"> </script>
<script type="text/javascript"> gliffy_did = "3914477"; embedGliffy(); </script>Cara M.http://www.blogger.com/profile/10979781599548365989noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3157378045977082225.post-77981449344760804822012-09-13T15:29:00.001-07:002012-09-13T15:29:20.484-07:00My Unedited Bookshelves<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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N.B. One bookshelf is never enough. Of course I use them for lots of other things as well. :D</div>
<br />Cara M.http://www.blogger.com/profile/10979781599548365989noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3157378045977082225.post-18796308252911440482012-08-26T18:29:00.000-07:002012-08-26T18:29:21.032-07:00Apologies for RantingSo here's the thing, politics makes me unhappy, especially because when any politician speaks, and I mean ANY politician, I can't help but think "where are your sources? Why am I supposed to believe you when you're not an expert on this? You don't have a PhD, you haven't done any empirical work, you've decided that there is 'a way to solve this problem' without asking what the problem actually is." These are all signs of bad scholarship, and it doesn't matter how wonderful your theory is, if your methodology is flawed: bad data, incomplete data, non-realistic approach to the question, no research into related issues, etc; your solution is going to be flawed.<br />
<br />
But when the issue turns to women's health, I get scared. The reason is simple. When do we think it is reasonable to make decisions for other people? Generally, there are two cases, when we think that they are not mentally competent enough to make decisions for themselves, and when we think that they are a threat to our society. For example - dotty old people and children often need other people to make decisions for them, and we want those people to be trustworthy so that they don't abuse the fact that they have power over these people, because, essentially, these people are no longer citizens, they no longer have the rights and protections due to citizens. Terrorists, murderers, pyramid schemers, they fall under the other definition. They are actively attempting to destroy our social stability. (Most of the time people of one party think that members of the opposing party also fall under this definition: 'lefty pinko commie,' 'militant right-wing fascist.' etc.) But under which definition do women fall?<br />
<br />
When we make decisions for other people, take away their choices - whether to buy health insurance or to decide what to do with their own bodies - we are saying that they are not competent enough to make decisions for themselves. It's a slippery slope. Telling someone that their decision is wrong is not the same as taking away their right to make decisions for themselves. Everyone makes mistakes, and some of those have dire consequences, but have we banned SUVs because it's easy to run over children in them? Or skiing because you're lucky to get out of it with only two broken legs?<br />
<br />
In a lot of YA dystopians the main idea is that someone else makes decisions for you, like whether or not you can love, or other odd things, but where it gets scary is not when they whole society is being controlled like this, but when one subset of the society is being told that they are not smart enough to make decisions for themselves. That's when things turn bad quickly. Us and them, chains and ovens. So be <i>careful</i> when you think it's alright to tell someone else that they don't get to choose. Be careful that it doesn't end up turning around and biting you in the butt.Cara M.http://www.blogger.com/profile/10979781599548365989noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3157378045977082225.post-81283527808280854422012-08-10T06:30:00.003-07:002012-08-10T06:30:51.805-07:00Literary Theory is like MagicWhen I think about literary theory it's a natural step for me to think about magic. (When I think about philosophy, I think about science fiction.) And that's because literary theory is the study of the sublime. When I read great theorists, like Walter Benjamin and Erich Auerbach and Roman Jakobson, I can feel the wonder that they have, and how they're struggling so hard to answer the great question: Why is art - verbal, visual, musical - wonderful? What is the great gift that it gives us?<br />
<br />
Now these people work with the idea of language. And language has two intersecting ways of building meaning. There's narrative (syntax) which describes events and happenings and progress, and there's metaphor (semantics), the symbolism and meaning internal to each word and phrase.<br />
<br />
I was reading Steven Rendall on Benjamin yesterday - for fun, and because I'm going to teach Benjamin in the coming semester and I should probably know a little more than my students do - and he was explaining Benjamin's attitude toward translation and toward quotation. There was a lot of crazy complicated stuff, but what stuck out to me was the idea that quotation, in its strict word-for-word accuracy, brings the whole text that it's referencing into view. And at the same time it strips the words from their context and offers them up as something universal, context free, unprosaic. It gives them a claim to being truth - not contextual accuracy, but divine truth.<br />
<br />
And every word in every language also has a claim to divine truth, because they can be used again and again, and still retain a core meaning, a function of communication - 'translatability' perhaps. Isn't the fact that words have this quality of allowing for communication a wondrous thing?<br />
<br />
In linguistics we're very against the divine wondrousness of language. We like qualities like arbitratiness and recursiveness and compositionality. We say no - words don't have any real meaning. Their meaning is given by convention. But what is convention? Convention is the power of community. And community is like the ocean. Members of the community, you and I, are plankton. We are alive. We have agency. But we are inside this huge and powerful creature, and we are tossed by its waves and directed by its moods. But unlike plankton, we create community. We are the origin of power and the victim of it. (Judith Butler figured this one out. Hardcore.)<br />
<br />
My grandfather, Ric Masten, was a poet. In a poem, he wrote about the voice of the hive. There was no queen who directed things. It was community, the buzzing and the closeness and the interconnectedness of the beehive that created this voice and gave the bees their instructions. And this was what he believed God was. That it was the feeling of not being alone. Of being inside the ocean - for better or worse.<br />
<br />
If language and divinity originate from the same source, isn't conventionality itself a divine quality? If I can say a word and refer to something real and you can hear that word and refer to the same real thing - that's pretty amazing - that we can transfer a real thing between us. Conventionality is caused by the fact of community. And like all magic, it is raw power, not good nor evil, but inescapable. It fills the world. It creates the world. And with wit and skill we wield it.Cara M.http://www.blogger.com/profile/10979781599548365989noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3157378045977082225.post-76161940044461171672012-07-26T20:35:00.003-07:002012-07-26T20:35:43.567-07:00Look! Look! I have a nonfiction bookshelf on goodreads now!<br />
<br />
<table border="0" class="table stacked" id="books" style="border-collapse: collapse; color: #181818; font-family: georgia, serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 10px;"><thead>
<tr class="tableList" id="booksHeader" style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 750px;"><th alt="title" class="header field title" style="background-color: transparent; border-bottom-color: rgb(235, 232, 213); border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 2px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-color: transparent; border-top-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; color: #382110; font-family: georgia, serif; font-size: 12px; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 5px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 5px; padding-top: 5px; text-align: left; vertical-align: bottom; width: 182px;"><br /></th><th alt="author" class="header field author" style="background-color: transparent; border-bottom-color: rgb(235, 232, 213); border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 2px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-color: transparent; border-top-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; color: #382110; font-family: georgia, serif; font-size: 12px; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 5px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 5px; padding-top: 5px; text-align: left; vertical-align: bottom; width: 960px;"><br /></th><th alt="avg_rating" class="header field avg_rating" style="background-color: transparent; border-bottom-color: rgb(235, 232, 213); border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 2px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-color: transparent; border-top-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; color: #382110; font-family: georgia, serif; font-size: 12px; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 5px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 5px; padding-top: 5px; text-align: left; vertical-align: bottom; width: 960px;"><br /></th><th alt="rating" class="header field rating" style="background-color: transparent; border-bottom-color: rgb(235, 232, 213); border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 2px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-color: transparent; border-top-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; color: #382110; font-family: georgia, serif; font-size: 12px; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 5px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 5px; padding-top: 5px; text-align: left; vertical-align: bottom; width: 960px;"><br /></th><th alt="shelves" class="header field shelves" style="background-color: transparent; border-bottom-color: rgb(235, 232, 213); border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 2px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-color: transparent; border-top-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; color: #382110; font-family: georgia, serif; font-size: 12px; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 5px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 5px; padding-top: 5px; text-align: left; vertical-align: bottom; width: 960px;"><br /></th><th alt="date_read" class="header field date_read" style="background-color: transparent; border-bottom-color: rgb(235, 232, 213); border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 2px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-color: transparent; border-top-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; color: #382110; font-family: georgia, serif; font-size: 12px; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 5px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 5px; padding-top: 5px; text-align: left; vertical-align: bottom; width: 960px;"><br /></th><th alt="date_added" class="header field date_added" style="background-color: transparent; border-bottom-color: rgb(235, 232, 213); border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 2px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-color: transparent; border-top-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; color: #382110; font-family: georgia, serif; font-size: 12px; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 5px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 5px; padding-top: 5px; text-align: left; vertical-align: bottom; width: 960px;"><br /></th><th alt="actions" class="header field actions" style="background-color: transparent; border-bottom-color: rgb(235, 232, 213); border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 2px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-color: transparent; border-top-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; color: #382110; font-family: georgia, serif; font-size: 12px; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 5px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 5px; padding-top: 5px; text-align: left; vertical-align: bottom; width: 960px;"></th></tr>
</thead><tbody id="booksBody">
<tr class="bookalike review" id="review_377407804" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(238, 238, 238); border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-left-color: transparent; border-left-style: solid; border-left-width: 2px; border-right-color: transparent; border-right-style: solid; border-right-width: 2px; border-top-color: rgb(238, 238, 238); border-top-style: solid; border-top-width: 1px; width: 746px;"><td class="field cover" style="float: none; font-family: georgia, serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 5px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 5px; padding-top: 5px; vertical-align: top; width: 50px;"><div class="value">
<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6987.Saxons_Vikings_and_Celts" style="color: #666600; text-decoration: none;"><img alt="Saxons, Vikings, and Celts: The Genetic Roots of Britain and Ireland" src="http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1165605368s/6987.jpg" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; display: block; width: 50px;" title="Saxons, Vikings, and Celts: The Genetic Roots of Britain and Ireland" /></a></div>
</td><td class="field title" style="font-family: georgia, serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 5px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 5px; padding-top: 5px; vertical-align: top; width: 182px;"><div class="value">
<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6987.Saxons_Vikings_and_Celts" style="color: #666600; text-decoration: none;" title="Saxons, Vikings, and Celts: The Genetic Roots of Britain and Ireland">Saxons, Vikings, and Celts: The Genetic Roots of Britain and Ireland</a></div>
</td><td class="field author" style="font-family: georgia, serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 5px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 5px; padding-top: 5px; vertical-align: top;"><div class="value">
<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/4713.Bryan_Sykes" style="color: #666600; text-decoration: none;">Sykes, Bryan</a></div>
</td><td class="field avg_rating" style="font-family: georgia, serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 5px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 5px; padding-top: 5px; vertical-align: top;"><div class="value">
3.70</div>
</td><td class="field rating" style="font-family: georgia, serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 5px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 5px; padding-top: 5px; vertical-align: top;"><div class="value">
<span class="stars" id="stars6987_5735243" style="white-space: nowrap;"><a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3157378045977082225" rel="nofollow" style="color: #666600; text-decoration: none;"><img alt="didn't like it " class="star" height="15" id="star6987_0" src="http://www.goodreads.com/assets/layout/gr_orange_star_active.png" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; cursor: pointer;" title="didn't like it" width="15" /></a><a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3157378045977082225" rel="nofollow" style="color: #666600; text-decoration: none;"><img alt="it was ok " class="star" height="15" id="star6987_1" src="http://www.goodreads.com/assets/layout/gr_orange_star_active.png" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; cursor: pointer;" title="it was ok" width="15" /></a><a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3157378045977082225" rel="nofollow" style="color: #666600; text-decoration: none;"><img alt="liked it (my current rating) " class="star" height="15" id="star6987_2" src="http://www.goodreads.com/assets/layout/gr_orange_star_active.png" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; cursor: pointer;" title="liked it" width="15" /></a><a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3157378045977082225" rel="nofollow" style="color: #666600; text-decoration: none;"><img alt="really liked it " class="star" height="15" id="star6987_3" src="http://www.goodreads.com/assets/layout/gr_orange_star_inactive.png" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; cursor: pointer;" title="really liked it" width="15" /></a><a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3157378045977082225" rel="nofollow" style="color: #666600; text-decoration: none;"><img alt="it was amazing " class="star" height="15" id="star6987_4" src="http://www.goodreads.com/assets/layout/gr_orange_star_inactive.png" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; cursor: pointer;" title="it was amazing" width="15" /></a></span><span id="reviewMessage6987_5735243"></span><span id="successMessage6987_5735243"></span></div>
</td><td class="field shelves" style="font-family: georgia, serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 5px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 5px; padding-top: 5px; vertical-align: top;"><div class="value">
<span id="shelfList5735243_6987"><a class="shelfLink" href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/list/5735243?shelf=read" style="color: #215625; font-family: arial, verdana, helvetica, sans-serif; padding-bottom: 1px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-decoration: none;" title="View all books in Cara M's read shelf.">read</a>,<span id="shelf_249486900"><a class="shelfLink" href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/list/5735243?shelf=nonfiction" style="color: #215625; font-family: arial, verdana, helvetica, sans-serif; padding-bottom: 1px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-decoration: none;" title="View all books in Cara M's nonfiction shelf.">nonfiction</a></span></span><br /><a class="shelfChooserLink smallText" href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/list/5735243?shelf=nonfiction#" style="color: #666600; font-size: 10px; line-height: 14px; text-decoration: none;">[edit]</a></div>
</td><td class="field date_read" style="font-family: georgia, serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 5px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 5px; padding-top: 5px; vertical-align: top;"><div class="value">
Jul 26, 2012<a class="floatingBoxLink smallText" href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/list/5735243?shelf=nonfiction#" style="color: #666600; font-size: 10px; line-height: 14px; text-decoration: none;">[edit]</a></div>
</td><td class="field date_added" style="font-family: georgia, serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 5px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 5px; padding-top: 5px; vertical-align: top;"><div class="value">
<span title="July 26, 2012">Jul 26, 2012</span></div>
</td><td class="field actions" style="font-family: georgia, serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 5px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 5px; padding-top: 5px; vertical-align: top;"><div class="value" style="padding-right: 10px; position: relative;">
<div class="actionsWrapper greyText smallText" style="color: #aaaaaa; font-size: 10px; line-height: 14px;">
<div class="editLinkWrapper">
<a class="actionLinkLite editLink" href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/list/5735243?shelf=nonfiction#" id="loading_link_827141" style="color: #215625; font-family: arial, verdana, helvetica, sans-serif; text-decoration: none;">edit</a></div>
<div class="viewLinkWrapper">
<a class="actionLinkLite viewLink nobreak" href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/377407804" style="color: #215625; font-family: arial, verdana, helvetica, sans-serif; text-decoration: none; white-space: nowrap;">view »</a></div>
<a class="actionLinkLite smallText deleteLink" data-confirm="Are you sure you want to remove Saxons, Vikings, and Celts from your books? This will permanently remove this book from your shelves, including any review, rating, tags, or notes you have added. To change the shelf this book appears on please edit the shelves." data-method="post" href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/destroy/6987?return_url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.goodreads.com%2Freview%2Flist%2F5735243%3Fshelf%3Dnonfiction" rel="nofollow" style="border-bottom-color: transparent; border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-color: transparent; border-left-style: solid; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-color: transparent; border-right-style: solid; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-color: transparent; border-top-style: solid; border-top-width: 0px; color: #215625; font-family: arial, verdana, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10px; line-height: 14px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; position: absolute; right: 0px; text-decoration: none; top: 0px;"><img alt="Remove from my books" src="http://www.goodreads.com/assets/layout/delete.gif" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px;" title="Remove from my books" /></a></div>
</div>
</td></tr>
<tr class="bookalike review" id="review_355399554" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(238, 238, 238); border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-left-color: transparent; border-left-style: solid; border-left-width: 2px; border-right-color: transparent; border-right-style: solid; border-right-width: 2px; border-top-color: rgb(238, 238, 238); border-top-style: solid; border-top-width: 1px; width: 746px;"><td class="field cover" style="float: none; font-family: georgia, serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 5px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 5px; padding-top: 5px; vertical-align: top; width: 50px;"><div class="value">
<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/282163.The_Peopling_of_British_North_America" style="color: #666600; text-decoration: none;"><img alt="The Peopling of British North America: An Introduction" src="http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1320504729s/282163.jpg" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; display: block; width: 50px;" title="The Peopling of British North America: An Introduction" /></a></div>
</td><td class="field title" style="font-family: georgia, serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 5px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 5px; padding-top: 5px; vertical-align: top; width: 182px;"><div class="value">
<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/282163.The_Peopling_of_British_North_America" style="color: #666600; text-decoration: none;" title="The Peopling of British North America: An Introduction">The Peopling of British North America: An Introduction</a></div>
</td><td class="field author" style="font-family: georgia, serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 5px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 5px; padding-top: 5px; vertical-align: top;"><div class="value">
<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/12808.Bernard_Bailyn" style="color: #666600; text-decoration: none;">Bailyn, Bernard</a></div>
</td><td class="field avg_rating" style="font-family: georgia, serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 5px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 5px; padding-top: 5px; vertical-align: top;"><div class="value">
3.20</div>
</td><td class="field rating" style="font-family: georgia, serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 5px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 5px; padding-top: 5px; vertical-align: top;"><div class="value">
<span class="stars" id="stars282163_5735243" style="white-space: nowrap;"><a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3157378045977082225" rel="nofollow" style="color: #666600; text-decoration: none;"><img alt="didn't like it " class="star" height="15" id="star282163_0" src="http://www.goodreads.com/assets/layout/gr_orange_star_active.png" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; cursor: pointer;" title="didn't like it" width="15" /></a><a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3157378045977082225" rel="nofollow" style="color: #666600; text-decoration: none;"><img alt="it was ok " class="star" height="15" id="star282163_1" src="http://www.goodreads.com/assets/layout/gr_orange_star_active.png" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; cursor: pointer;" title="it was ok" width="15" /></a><a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3157378045977082225" rel="nofollow" style="color: #666600; text-decoration: none;"><img alt="liked it " class="star" height="15" id="star282163_2" src="http://www.goodreads.com/assets/layout/gr_orange_star_active.png" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; cursor: pointer;" title="liked it" width="15" /></a><a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3157378045977082225" rel="nofollow" style="color: #666600; text-decoration: none;"><img alt="really liked it " class="star" height="15" id="star282163_3" src="http://www.goodreads.com/assets/layout/gr_orange_star_active.png" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; cursor: pointer;" title="really liked it" width="15" /></a><a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3157378045977082225" rel="nofollow" style="color: #666600; text-decoration: none;"><img alt="it was amazing (my current rating) " class="star" height="15" id="star282163_4" src="http://www.goodreads.com/assets/layout/gr_orange_star_active.png" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; cursor: pointer;" title="it was amazing" width="15" /></a></span><span id="reviewMessage282163_5735243"></span><span id="successMessage282163_5735243"></span></div>
</td><td class="field shelves" style="font-family: georgia, serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 5px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 5px; padding-top: 5px; vertical-align: top;"><div class="value">
<span id="shelfList5735243_282163"><a class="shelfLink" href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/list/5735243?shelf=read" style="color: #215625; font-family: arial, verdana, helvetica, sans-serif; padding-bottom: 1px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-decoration: none;" title="View all books in Cara M's read shelf.">read</a>,<span id="shelf_249487011"><a class="shelfLink" href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/list/5735243?shelf=nonfiction" style="color: #215625; font-family: arial, verdana, helvetica, sans-serif; padding-bottom: 1px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-decoration: none;" title="View all books in Cara M's nonfiction shelf.">nonfiction</a></span></span><br /><a class="shelfChooserLink smallText" href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/list/5735243?shelf=nonfiction#" style="color: #666600; font-size: 10px; line-height: 14px; text-decoration: none;">[edit]</a></div>
</td><td class="field date_read" style="font-family: georgia, serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 5px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 5px; padding-top: 5px; vertical-align: top;"><div class="value">
Jun 25, 2012<a class="floatingBoxLink smallText" href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/list/5735243?shelf=nonfiction#" style="color: #666600; font-size: 10px; line-height: 14px; text-decoration: none;">[edit]</a></div>
</td><td class="field date_added" style="font-family: georgia, serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 5px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 5px; padding-top: 5px; vertical-align: top;"><div class="value">
<span title="June 25, 2012">Jun 25, 2012</span></div>
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<tr class="bookalike review" id="review_348306628" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(238, 238, 238); border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-left-color: transparent; border-left-style: solid; border-left-width: 2px; border-right-color: transparent; border-right-style: solid; border-right-width: 2px; border-top-color: rgb(238, 238, 238); border-top-style: solid; border-top-width: 1px; width: 746px;"><td class="field cover" style="float: none; font-family: georgia, serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 5px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 5px; padding-top: 5px; vertical-align: top; width: 50px;"><div class="value">
<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/46890.Ex_Libris" style="color: #666600; text-decoration: none;"><img alt="Ex Libris: Confessions of a Common Reader" src="http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1312015577s/46890.jpg" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; display: block; width: 50px;" title="Ex Libris: Confessions of a Common Reader" /></a></div>
</td><td class="field title" style="font-family: georgia, serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 5px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 5px; padding-top: 5px; vertical-align: top; width: 182px;"><div class="value">
<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/46890.Ex_Libris" style="color: #666600; text-decoration: none;" title="Ex Libris: Confessions of a Common Reader">Ex Libris: Confessions of a Common Reader</a></div>
</td><td class="field author" style="font-family: georgia, serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 5px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 5px; padding-top: 5px; vertical-align: top;"><div class="value">
<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/7982.Anne_Fadiman" style="color: #666600; text-decoration: none;">Fadiman, Anne</a></div>
</td><td class="field avg_rating" style="font-family: georgia, serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 5px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 5px; padding-top: 5px; vertical-align: top;"><div class="value">
4.20</div>
</td><td class="field rating" style="font-family: georgia, serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 5px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 5px; padding-top: 5px; vertical-align: top;"><div class="value">
<span class="stars" id="stars46890_5735243" style="white-space: nowrap;"><a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3157378045977082225" rel="nofollow" style="color: #666600; text-decoration: none;"><img alt="didn't like it " class="star" height="15" id="star46890_0" src="http://www.goodreads.com/assets/layout/gr_orange_star_active.png" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; cursor: pointer;" title="didn't like it" width="15" /></a><a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3157378045977082225" rel="nofollow" style="color: #666600; text-decoration: none;"><img alt="it was ok " class="star" height="15" id="star46890_1" src="http://www.goodreads.com/assets/layout/gr_orange_star_active.png" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; cursor: pointer;" title="it was ok" width="15" /></a><a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3157378045977082225" rel="nofollow" style="color: #666600; text-decoration: none;"><img alt="liked it " class="star" height="15" id="star46890_2" src="http://www.goodreads.com/assets/layout/gr_orange_star_active.png" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; cursor: pointer;" title="liked it" width="15" /></a><a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3157378045977082225" rel="nofollow" style="color: #666600; text-decoration: none;"><img alt="really liked it " class="star" height="15" id="star46890_3" src="http://www.goodreads.com/assets/layout/gr_orange_star_active.png" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; cursor: pointer;" title="really liked it" width="15" /></a><a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3157378045977082225" rel="nofollow" style="color: #666600; text-decoration: none;"><img alt="it was amazing (my current rating) " class="star" height="15" id="star46890_4" src="http://www.goodreads.com/assets/layout/gr_orange_star_active.png" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; cursor: pointer;" title="it was amazing" width="15" /></a></span><span id="reviewMessage46890_5735243"></span><span id="successMessage46890_5735243"></span></div>
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<span id="shelfList5735243_46890"><a class="shelfLink" href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/list/5735243?shelf=read" style="color: #215625; font-family: arial, verdana, helvetica, sans-serif; padding-bottom: 1px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-decoration: none;" title="View all books in Cara M's read shelf.">read</a>,<span id="shelf_249487149"><a class="shelfLink" href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/list/5735243?shelf=nonfiction" style="color: #215625; font-family: arial, verdana, helvetica, sans-serif; padding-bottom: 1px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-decoration: none;" title="View all books in Cara M's nonfiction shelf.">nonfiction</a></span></span><br /><a class="shelfChooserLink smallText" href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/list/5735243?shelf=nonfiction#" style="color: #666600; font-size: 10px; line-height: 14px; text-decoration: none;">[edit]</a></div>
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Jun 14, 2012<a class="floatingBoxLink smallText" href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/list/5735243?shelf=nonfiction#" style="color: #666600; font-size: 10px; line-height: 14px; text-decoration: none;">[edit]</a></div>
</td><td class="field date_added" style="font-family: georgia, serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 5px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 5px; padding-top: 5px; vertical-align: top;"><div class="value">
<span title="June 14, 2012">Jun 14, 2012</span></div>
</td><td class="field actions" style="font-family: georgia, serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 5px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 5px; padding-top: 5px; vertical-align: top;"><div class="value" style="padding-right: 10px; position: relative;">
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<tr class="bookalike review" id="review_341623801" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(238, 238, 238); border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-left-color: transparent; border-left-style: solid; border-left-width: 2px; border-right-color: transparent; border-right-style: solid; border-right-width: 2px; border-top-color: rgb(238, 238, 238); border-top-style: solid; border-top-width: 1px; width: 746px;"><td class="field cover" style="float: none; font-family: georgia, serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 5px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 5px; padding-top: 5px; vertical-align: top; width: 50px;"><div class="value">
<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6289402-early-christian-ireland" style="color: #666600; text-decoration: none;"><img alt="Early Christian Ireland: Introduction to the Sources" src="http://www.goodreads.com/assets/nocover/60x80.png" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; display: block; width: 50px;" title="Early Christian Ireland: Introduction to the Sources" /></a></div>
</td><td class="field title" style="font-family: georgia, serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 5px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 5px; padding-top: 5px; vertical-align: top; width: 182px;"><div class="value">
<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6289402-early-christian-ireland" style="color: #666600; text-decoration: none;" title="Early Christian Ireland: Introduction to the Sources">Early Christian Ireland: Introduction to the Sources</a></div>
</td><td class="field author" style="font-family: georgia, serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 5px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 5px; padding-top: 5px; vertical-align: top;"><div class="value">
<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/22003.Kathleen_Hughes" style="color: #666600; text-decoration: none;">Hughes, Kathleen</a></div>
</td><td class="field avg_rating" style="font-family: georgia, serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 5px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 5px; padding-top: 5px; vertical-align: top;"><div class="value">
4.00</div>
</td><td class="field rating" style="font-family: georgia, serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 5px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 5px; padding-top: 5px; vertical-align: top;"><div class="value">
<span class="stars" id="stars6289402_5735243" style="white-space: nowrap;"><a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3157378045977082225" rel="nofollow" style="color: #666600; text-decoration: none;"><img alt="didn't like it " class="star" height="15" id="star6289402_0" src="http://www.goodreads.com/assets/layout/gr_orange_star_inactive.png" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; cursor: pointer;" title="didn't like it" width="15" /></a><a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3157378045977082225" rel="nofollow" style="color: #666600; text-decoration: none;"><img alt="it was ok " class="star" height="15" id="star6289402_1" src="http://www.goodreads.com/assets/layout/gr_orange_star_inactive.png" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; cursor: pointer;" title="it was ok" width="15" /></a><a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3157378045977082225" rel="nofollow" style="color: #666600; text-decoration: none;"><img alt="liked it " class="star" height="15" id="star6289402_2" src="http://www.goodreads.com/assets/layout/gr_orange_star_inactive.png" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px;" title="liked it" width="15" /></a><a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3157378045977082225" rel="nofollow" style="color: #666600; text-decoration: none;"><img alt="really liked it " class="star" height="15" id="star6289402_3" src="http://www.goodreads.com/assets/layout/gr_orange_star_inactive.png" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; cursor: pointer;" title="really liked it" width="15" /></a><a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3157378045977082225" rel="nofollow" style="color: #666600; text-decoration: none;"><img alt="it was amazing " class="star" height="15" id="star6289402_4" src="http://www.goodreads.com/assets/layout/gr_orange_star_inactive.png" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; cursor: pointer;" title="it was amazing" width="15" /></a></span><span id="reviewMessage6289402_5735243"></span><span id="successMessage6289402_5735243"></span></div>
</td><td class="field shelves" style="font-family: georgia, serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 5px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 5px; padding-top: 5px; vertical-align: top;"><div class="value">
<span id="shelfList5735243_6289402"><span id="shelf_226693707"><a class="shelfLink" href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/list/5735243?shelf=currently-reading" style="color: #215625; font-family: arial, verdana, helvetica, sans-serif; padding-bottom: 1px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-decoration: none;" title="View all books in Cara M's currently-reading shelf.">currently-reading</a></span>,<span id="shelf_249487425"><a class="shelfLink" href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/list/5735243?shelf=nonfiction" style="color: #215625; font-family: arial, verdana, helvetica, sans-serif; padding-bottom: 1px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-decoration: none;" title="View all books in Cara M's nonfiction shelf.">nonfiction</a></span></span><br /><a class="shelfChooserLink smallText" href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/list/5735243?shelf=nonfiction#" style="color: #666600; font-size: 10px; line-height: 14px; text-decoration: none;">[edit]</a></div>
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<span class="greyText" style="color: #aaaaaa;">not set</span><a class="floatingBoxLink smallText" href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/list/5735243?shelf=nonfiction#" style="color: #666600; font-size: 10px; line-height: 14px; text-decoration: none;">[edit]</a></div>
</td><td class="field date_added" style="font-family: georgia, serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 5px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 5px; padding-top: 5px; vertical-align: top;"><div class="value">
<span title="June 03, 2012">Jun 03, 2012</span></div>
</td><td class="field actions" style="font-family: georgia, serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 5px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 5px; padding-top: 5px; vertical-align: top;"><div class="value" style="padding-right: 10px; position: relative;">
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<tr class="bookalike review" id="review_340495575" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(238, 238, 238); border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-left-color: transparent; border-left-style: solid; border-left-width: 2px; border-right-color: transparent; border-right-style: solid; border-right-width: 2px; border-top-color: rgb(238, 238, 238); border-top-style: solid; border-top-width: 1px; width: 746px;"><td class="field cover" style="float: none; font-family: georgia, serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 5px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 5px; padding-top: 5px; vertical-align: top; width: 50px;"><div class="value">
<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/106238.Miss_Manners_Guide_to_Excruciatingly_Correct_Behavior" style="color: #666600; text-decoration: none;"><img alt="Miss Manners' Guide to Excruciatingly Correct Behavior" src="http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1171563399s/106238.jpg" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; display: block; width: 50px;" title="Miss Manners' Guide to Excruciatingly Correct Behavior" /></a></div>
</td><td class="field title" style="font-family: georgia, serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 5px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 5px; padding-top: 5px; vertical-align: top; width: 182px;"><div class="value">
<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/106238.Miss_Manners_Guide_to_Excruciatingly_Correct_Behavior" style="color: #666600; text-decoration: none;" title="Miss Manners' Guide to Excruciatingly Correct Behavior">Miss Manners' Guide to Excruciatingly Correct Behavior</a></div>
</td><td class="field author" style="font-family: georgia, serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 5px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 5px; padding-top: 5px; vertical-align: top;"><div class="value">
<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/61508.Judith_Martin" style="color: #666600; text-decoration: none;">Martin, Judith</a></div>
</td><td class="field avg_rating" style="font-family: georgia, serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 5px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 5px; padding-top: 5px; vertical-align: top;"><div class="value">
4.27</div>
</td><td class="field rating" style="font-family: georgia, serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 5px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 5px; padding-top: 5px; vertical-align: top;"><div class="value">
<span class="stars" id="stars106238_5735243" style="white-space: nowrap;"><a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3157378045977082225" rel="nofollow" style="color: #666600; text-decoration: none;"><img alt="didn't like it " class="star" height="15" id="star106238_0" src="http://www.goodreads.com/assets/layout/gr_orange_star_active.png" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; cursor: pointer;" title="didn't like it" width="15" /></a><a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3157378045977082225" rel="nofollow" style="color: #666600; text-decoration: none;"><img alt="it was ok " class="star" height="15" id="star106238_1" src="http://www.goodreads.com/assets/layout/gr_orange_star_active.png" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; cursor: pointer;" title="it was ok" width="15" /></a><a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3157378045977082225" rel="nofollow" style="color: #666600; text-decoration: none;"><img alt="liked it " class="star" height="15" id="star106238_2" src="http://www.goodreads.com/assets/layout/gr_orange_star_active.png" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; cursor: pointer;" title="liked it" width="15" /></a><a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3157378045977082225" rel="nofollow" style="color: #666600; text-decoration: none;"><img alt="really liked it " class="star" height="15" id="star106238_3" src="http://www.goodreads.com/assets/layout/gr_orange_star_active.png" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; cursor: pointer;" title="really liked it" width="15" /></a><a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3157378045977082225" rel="nofollow" style="color: #666600; text-decoration: none;"><img alt="it was amazing (my current rating) " class="star" height="15" id="star106238_4" src="http://www.goodreads.com/assets/layout/gr_orange_star_active.png" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; cursor: pointer;" title="it was amazing" width="15" /></a></span><span id="reviewMessage106238_5735243"></span><span id="successMessage106238_5735243"></span></div>
</td><td class="field shelves" style="font-family: georgia, serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 5px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 5px; padding-top: 5px; vertical-align: top;"><div class="value">
<span id="shelfList5735243_106238"><a class="shelfLink" href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/list/5735243?shelf=read" style="color: #215625; font-family: arial, verdana, helvetica, sans-serif; padding-bottom: 1px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-decoration: none;" title="View all books in Cara M's read shelf.">read</a>,<span id="shelf_249487228"><a class="shelfLink" href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/list/5735243?shelf=nonfiction" style="color: #215625; font-family: arial, verdana, helvetica, sans-serif; padding-bottom: 1px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-decoration: none;" title="View all books in Cara M's nonfiction shelf.">nonfiction</a></span></span><br /><a class="shelfChooserLink smallText" href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/list/5735243?shelf=nonfiction#" style="color: #666600; font-size: 10px; line-height: 14px; text-decoration: none;">[edit]</a></div>
</td><td class="field date_read" style="font-family: georgia, serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 5px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 5px; padding-top: 5px; vertical-align: top;"><div class="value">
<span class="greyText" style="color: #aaaaaa;">not set</span><a class="floatingBoxLink smallText" href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/list/5735243?shelf=nonfiction#" style="color: #666600; font-size: 10px; line-height: 14px; text-decoration: none;">[edit]</a></div>
</td><td class="field date_added" style="font-family: georgia, serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 5px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 5px; padding-top: 5px; vertical-align: top;"><div class="value">
<span title="June 01, 2012">Jun 01, 2012</span></div>
</td><td class="field actions" style="font-family: georgia, serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 5px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 5px; padding-top: 5px; vertical-align: top;"><div class="value" style="padding-right: 10px; position: relative;">
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<a class="actionLinkLite smallText deleteLink" data-confirm="Are you sure you want to remove Miss Manners' Guide to Excruciatingly Correct Behavior from your books? This will permanently remove this book from your shelves, including any review, rating, tags, or notes you have added. To change the shelf this book appears on please edit the shelves." data-method="post" href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/destroy/106238?return_url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.goodreads.com%2Freview%2Flist%2F5735243%3Fshelf%3Dnonfiction" rel="nofollow" style="border-bottom-color: transparent; border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-color: transparent; border-left-style: solid; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-color: transparent; border-right-style: solid; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-color: transparent; border-top-style: solid; border-top-width: 0px; color: #215625; font-family: arial, verdana, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10px; line-height: 14px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; position: absolute; right: 0px; text-decoration: none; top: 0px;"><img alt="Remove from my books" src="http://www.goodreads.com/assets/layout/delete.gif" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px;" title="Remove from my books" /></a></div>
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<tr class="bookalike review" id="review_340493000" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(238, 238, 238); border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-left-color: transparent; border-left-style: solid; border-left-width: 2px; border-right-color: transparent; border-right-style: solid; border-right-width: 2px; border-top-color: rgb(238, 238, 238); border-top-style: solid; border-top-width: 1px; width: 746px;"><td class="field cover" style="float: none; font-family: georgia, serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 5px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 5px; padding-top: 5px; vertical-align: top; width: 50px;"><div class="value">
<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/19618.What_Life_Was_Like_Among_Druids_and_High_Kings" style="color: #666600; text-decoration: none;"><img alt="What Life Was Like Among Druids and High Kings: Celtic Ireland, AD 400-1200 (What Life Was Like)" src="http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1321076126s/19618.jpg" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; display: block; width: 50px;" title="What Life Was Like Among Druids and High Kings: Celtic Ireland, AD 400-1200 (What Life Was Like)" /></a></div>
</td><td class="field title" style="font-family: georgia, serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 5px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 5px; padding-top: 5px; vertical-align: top; width: 182px;"><div class="value">
<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/19618.What_Life_Was_Like_Among_Druids_and_High_Kings" style="color: #666600; text-decoration: none;" title="What Life Was Like Among Druids and High Kings: Celtic Ireland, AD 400-1200 (What Life Was Like)">What Life Was Like Among Druids and High Kings: Celtic Ireland, AD 400-1200</a></div>
</td><td class="field author" style="font-family: georgia, serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 5px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 5px; padding-top: 5px; vertical-align: top;"><div class="value">
<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/3227.Time_Life_Books" style="color: #666600; text-decoration: none;">Books, Time-Life</a></div>
</td><td class="field avg_rating" style="font-family: georgia, serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 5px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 5px; padding-top: 5px; vertical-align: top;"><div class="value">
3.46</div>
</td><td class="field rating" style="font-family: georgia, serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 5px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 5px; padding-top: 5px; vertical-align: top;"><div class="value">
<span class="stars" id="stars19618_5735243" style="white-space: nowrap;"><a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3157378045977082225" rel="nofollow" style="color: #666600; text-decoration: none;"><img alt="didn't like it " class="star" height="15" id="star19618_0" src="http://www.goodreads.com/assets/layout/gr_orange_star_active.png" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; cursor: pointer;" title="didn't like it" width="15" /></a><a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3157378045977082225" rel="nofollow" style="color: #666600; text-decoration: none;"><img alt="it was ok " class="star" height="15" id="star19618_1" src="http://www.goodreads.com/assets/layout/gr_orange_star_active.png" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; cursor: pointer;" title="it was ok" width="15" /></a><a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3157378045977082225" rel="nofollow" style="color: #666600; text-decoration: none;"><img alt="liked it " class="star" height="15" id="star19618_2" src="http://www.goodreads.com/assets/layout/gr_orange_star_active.png" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; cursor: pointer;" title="liked it" width="15" /></a><a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3157378045977082225" rel="nofollow" style="color: #666600; text-decoration: none;"><img alt="really liked it (my current rating) " class="star" height="15" id="star19618_3" src="http://www.goodreads.com/assets/layout/gr_orange_star_active.png" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; cursor: pointer;" title="really liked it" width="15" /></a><a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3157378045977082225" rel="nofollow" style="color: #666600; text-decoration: none;"><img alt="it was amazing " class="star" height="15" id="star19618_4" src="http://www.goodreads.com/assets/layout/gr_orange_star_inactive.png" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; cursor: pointer;" title="it was amazing" width="15" /></a></span><span id="reviewMessage19618_5735243"></span><span id="successMessage19618_5735243"></span></div>
</td><td class="field shelves" style="font-family: georgia, serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 5px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 5px; padding-top: 5px; vertical-align: top;"><div class="value">
<span id="shelfList5735243_19618"><a class="shelfLink" href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/list/5735243?shelf=read" style="color: #215625; font-family: arial, verdana, helvetica, sans-serif; padding-bottom: 1px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-decoration: none;" title="View all books in Cara M's read shelf.">read</a>,<span id="shelf_249487264"><a class="shelfLink" href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/list/5735243?shelf=nonfiction" style="color: #215625; font-family: arial, verdana, helvetica, sans-serif; padding-bottom: 1px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-decoration: none;" title="View all books in Cara M's nonfiction shelf.">nonfiction</a></span></span><br /><a class="shelfChooserLink smallText" href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/list/5735243?shelf=nonfiction#" style="color: #666600; font-size: 10px; line-height: 14px; text-decoration: none;">[edit]</a></div>
</td><td class="field date_read" style="font-family: georgia, serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 5px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 5px; padding-top: 5px; vertical-align: top;"><div class="value">
May 31, 2012<a class="floatingBoxLink smallText" href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/list/5735243?shelf=nonfiction#" style="color: #666600; font-size: 10px; line-height: 14px; text-decoration: none;">[edit]</a></div>
</td><td class="field date_added" style="font-family: georgia, serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 5px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 5px; padding-top: 5px; vertical-align: top;"><div class="value">
<span title="June 01, 2012">Jun 01, 2012</span></div>
</td><td class="field actions" style="font-family: georgia, serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 5px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 5px; padding-top: 5px; vertical-align: top;"><div class="value" style="padding-right: 10px; position: relative;">
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<tr class="bookalike review" id="review_330503398" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(238, 238, 238); border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-left-color: transparent; border-left-style: solid; border-left-width: 2px; border-right-color: transparent; border-right-style: solid; border-right-width: 2px; border-top-color: rgb(238, 238, 238); border-top-style: solid; border-top-width: 1px; width: 746px;"><td class="field cover" style="float: none; font-family: georgia, serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 5px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 5px; padding-top: 5px; vertical-align: top; width: 50px;"><div class="value">
<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/577167.The_Life_and_Death_of_a_Druid_Prince" style="color: #666600; text-decoration: none;"><img alt="The Life and Death of a Druid Prince" src="http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1175958488s/577167.jpg" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; display: block; width: 50px;" title="The Life and Death of a Druid Prince" /></a></div>
</td><td class="field title" style="font-family: georgia, serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 5px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 5px; padding-top: 5px; vertical-align: top; width: 182px;"><div class="value">
<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/577167.The_Life_and_Death_of_a_Druid_Prince" style="color: #666600; text-decoration: none;" title="The Life and Death of a Druid Prince">The Life and Death of a Druid Prince</a></div>
</td><td class="field author" style="font-family: georgia, serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 5px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 5px; padding-top: 5px; vertical-align: top;"><div class="value">
<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/315123.Don_Robins" style="color: #666600; text-decoration: none;">Robins, Don</a></div>
</td><td class="field avg_rating" style="font-family: georgia, serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 5px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 5px; padding-top: 5px; vertical-align: top;"><div class="value">
3.61</div>
</td><td class="field rating" style="font-family: georgia, serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 5px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 5px; padding-top: 5px; vertical-align: top;"><div class="value">
<span class="stars" id="stars577167_5735243" style="white-space: nowrap;"><a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3157378045977082225" rel="nofollow" style="color: #666600; text-decoration: none;"><img alt="didn't like it " class="star" height="15" id="star577167_0" src="http://www.goodreads.com/assets/layout/gr_orange_star_active.png" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; cursor: pointer;" title="didn't like it" width="15" /></a><a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3157378045977082225" rel="nofollow" style="color: #666600; text-decoration: none;"><img alt="it was ok " class="star" height="15" id="star577167_1" src="http://www.goodreads.com/assets/layout/gr_orange_star_active.png" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; cursor: pointer;" title="it was ok" width="15" /></a><a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3157378045977082225" rel="nofollow" style="color: #666600; text-decoration: none;"><img alt="liked it " class="star" height="15" id="star577167_2" src="http://www.goodreads.com/assets/layout/gr_orange_star_active.png" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; cursor: pointer;" title="liked it" width="15" /></a><a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3157378045977082225" rel="nofollow" style="color: #666600; text-decoration: none;"><img alt="really liked it (my current rating) " class="star" height="15" id="star577167_3" src="http://www.goodreads.com/assets/layout/gr_orange_star_active.png" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; cursor: pointer;" title="really liked it" width="15" /></a><a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3157378045977082225" rel="nofollow" style="color: #666600; text-decoration: none;"><img alt="it was amazing " class="star" height="15" id="star577167_4" src="http://www.goodreads.com/assets/layout/gr_orange_star_inactive.png" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; cursor: pointer;" title="it was amazing" width="15" /></a></span><span id="reviewMessage577167_5735243"></span><span id="successMessage577167_5735243"></span></div>
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<span id="shelfList5735243_577167"><a class="shelfLink" href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/list/5735243?shelf=read" style="color: #215625; font-family: arial, verdana, helvetica, sans-serif; padding-bottom: 1px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-decoration: none;" title="View all books in Cara M's read shelf.">read</a>,<span id="shelf_249487313"><a class="shelfLink" href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/list/5735243?shelf=nonfiction" style="color: #215625; font-family: arial, verdana, helvetica, sans-serif; padding-bottom: 1px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-decoration: none;" title="View all books in Cara M's nonfiction shelf.">nonfiction</a></span></span><br /><a class="shelfChooserLink smallText" href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/list/5735243?shelf=nonfiction#" style="color: #666600; font-size: 10px; line-height: 14px; text-decoration: none;">[edit]</a></div>
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May 15, 2012<a class="floatingBoxLink smallText" href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/list/5735243?shelf=nonfiction#" style="color: #666600; font-size: 10px; line-height: 14px; text-decoration: none;">[edit]</a></div>
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<span title="May 15, 2012">May 15, 2012</span></div>
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<br /><br />
So, it kind of looks like there's a theme, doesn't it? Celts, random, random, Celts, Miss Manners, Celts, Celts. And I suppose we must say there is. A lot of the Celtic stuff has to do with my schoolwork, but though the Saxons, Vikings and Celts definitely pushed me down an interesting academic route, none of these were read for school (except maybe Hughes - and honestly, I haven't finished it yet, but over all, it's the best and the most reputable.).<br />
<br />
I have an odd relationship with non-fiction. I respect it immensely. But I don't seek it out. I tend to read articles and short academic pieces for school, rather than books. On occasion I have trolled the depths of Jstor for something to read when I was bored. But so many academic articles are embroiled in some disciplinary debate that many aren't accessible to the common reader (especially linguistics. Linguistics gets so knotted up that it's impossible for anyone who isn't familiar with the subfield at the relevant moment to parse.) But books directed toward the Average Reader can also get irritating. Saxons, Vikings and Celts was not only written to the Average Reader, it took it upon itself to address them, and relate personal anecdotes to them, and congratulate them for making it so far into the book. Note that I felt it was addressing 'them,' not me. The author seemed to be a charming and friendly guy, who I would enjoy very much getting ice cream at Conti's with and talking about the implications of his research to linguistics. But he wasn't writing to me. <br />
<br />
It reminded me a little of movies like Shrek. Sometimes a great movie will come out and it will pay careful attention to it's audience, making sure it's interesting to the little tyke and their parents. But different aspects will be interesting for either one. And then there are movies like Ratattouille, where the whole story is interesting for everyone. And that's the sort of non fiction I want to read. I want it to be explained clearly enough so that if I'm a novice, I can figure it out, and yet I want it to not skimp on ideas. Take me to the farthest reaches of the research. If you make sure the climb isn't too steep, I can keep up with you!<br />
<br />
Hughes does this. And honestly her topic is not ever going to hit the bestseller list. But I never feel lost while reading her book, and yet I never feel patronized either. She's telling me this because it might be useful to me. That's what I want to hear.<br />
<br />
And perhaps, that's how I should try to write as well.Cara M.http://www.blogger.com/profile/10979781599548365989noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3157378045977082225.post-67128384630363076492012-05-23T07:09:00.000-07:002012-06-03T15:09:32.636-07:00I HEART YA #17: Let's Talk About Passion<br />
<br />
<br />
<center><a href="http://www.suzereese.com/p/i-heart-ya.html"><img alt="Suze Reese" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgGkRtB_aBlMXDhtELVDJdyMbG06W0jm0PK_kDHjRgKG0ZKyy0kD4NS6gXtJJdqZsTQVjvdwY9ELD-4DNBRviwadsO8BdXjtEoR-sLrPxKxeuTgqYh7OjkCxDjWn13nAAOE3I1WaXCebnk/s800/iheartsmall.jpg" /></a></center><center style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">So, Suze Reese on her fun I <3 YA Blog Carnival has offered a new and interesting topic, and I'm not just saying that because it's based on my ramblings from last week. As she put it:</span></center><center style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #2a1a22; line-height: 20px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #2a1a22; line-height: 20px;">"Thanks to Cara M. for suggesting this week's topic. Cara pointed out that while '</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #2a1a22; line-height: 18px;">a lot of people are very rah-rah about sex in YA...I doubt they would be so happy if an erotic romance subgenre started up.'</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #2a1a22; line-height: 20px;"> I have to agree with that, though I'm sad to say I've seen hints of just such a subgenre."</span></span></span></center><center style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #2a1a22; line-height: 20px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #2a1a22; line-height: 20px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></span></center><center style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #2a1a22; line-height: 20px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #2a1a22; line-height: 20px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I have to say, to some extent, I agree with Suze. I like a clean read. I like a book that if it says its going to be sci-fi or fantasy is actually sci-fi or fantasy, and isn't sex-sex-sex all the time. It's actually why I read more children's and YA than I do adult, because I couldn't stand being hit over the head with sex all the time. I didn't want there to even be the idea of sex in my books. That's what turned me off of Tamora Pierce and Anne McCaffery when I was young, because I couldn't bear the onset of puberty narrative. (Amusingly enough, I've gone back to Tamora Pierce and now I have a different point of view, which is that it's a rather boring narrative compared to the, say, fighting Spidrons option. I also realized that while some people are horrified by the casual mention of the existence of birth control in a fantasy world, I was horrified by the casual mention of the idea that any of these characters I identified with might ever want to not use it.) Then, of course, there was the dragons-mating which caused an overwhelming urge to couple in their </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #2a1a22; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; line-height: 20px;">human bonds in the Anne McCaffery books, which made me ill.</span></span></center><center style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #2a1a22; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; line-height: 20px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #2a1a22; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; line-height: 20px;"><br /></span></span></center><center style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #2a1a22; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; line-height: 20px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #2a1a22; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; line-height: 20px;">But I also know that when I was a little older, 13, 14, I wanted to read about sex. I wanted the information. And I ended up on the internet reading fanfiction. Fanfiction is very informative, but it's also very diverse. Things are well marked. You can choose what you want to read and you're not going to be tricked. Ratings and warnings are for the reader, so that they won't be shocked by what they find inside.</span></span></center><center style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #2a1a22; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; line-height: 20px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #2a1a22; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; line-height: 20px;"><br /></span></span></center><center style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #2a1a22; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; line-height: 20px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #2a1a22; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; line-height: 20px;">So honestly, I think I would prefer that there actually was a well marked (brown paper covered) erotic subgenre for YA. I would much rather that than to set off into what ought to be an innocuous book and discover it halfway through when I wasn't prepared. I doubt this will ever happen unless the publishing companies lose all grip on the market, but if they do, it's natural evolution. And what I would really like is for these books to contain positive, safe, and healthy depictions of sex and sexuality, of a variety of types of sex and sexualities. My real issue with 50 Shades of Grey is not its nature as fanfiction, nor its shoddy writing, but the fact that it is currently the most common exposure anyone has to D&S.</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #2a1a22; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; line-height: 20px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #2a1a22; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; line-height: 20px;"> D&S as a political culture has one of the most healthy attitudes to sex anywhere, which is that it is all about planning and communication and safety. That attitude is the one that needs to be shared, but right now only the titillation is being communicated. </span></span></center><center style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #2a1a22; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; line-height: 20px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #2a1a22; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; line-height: 20px;"><br /></span></span></center><center style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #2a1a22; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; line-height: 20px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #2a1a22; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; line-height: 20px;">50 Shades is mostly known for being read by adults, but I don't doubt a lot of its original popularity came from YA readers. When you're writing about sex for a YA audience I think the most important thing is to be honest, about the realities of it, about the dangers and the risks. But that doesn't mean it can't be erotic. If people can explore their sexualities through fiction it may make it less necessary to explore it physically right away, and being informed about the safe way to do things and about your own preferences and your responsibilities is always going to be better than going in blind and stupid.</span></span></center>Cara M.http://www.blogger.com/profile/10979781599548365989noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3157378045977082225.post-57887583318268542582012-04-30T04:51:00.000-07:002012-04-30T04:51:56.853-07:00PacingWhat is Pacing and how do I fix it?<br />
<br />
In nearly all of my WIPs at one point or other, or over the whole thing, readers have frowned and said the pacing was off. But no one was able to explain how to fix it. Changing scene length didn't work. Shorter sentences didn't work. What was to be done?<br />
<br />
In my current critique group we read 3000 words or less at a time, and we meet every two weeks. How are you supposed to keep up momentum with such small chunks over a two week interval? I wondered. But actually, doing that showed me exactly what was wrong with my pacing. For me, pacing is simple. Every scene, every 3000 word chunk, has to do two things. <br />
<br />
1) It has to contain an event that is relevant to the plot.<br />
2) It has to contain or continue the characters' plan for what happens next.<br />
<br />
This is my formula for momentum. It may not work for anyone else, but for me, one of my main problems is that I tend to write lovely scenes that dispense important information, and are inherently boring. To keep my characters active and dynamic, I need to keep them actively thinking about the situation, let them make plans and take action, even though I know those plans will fail and their actions backfire.<br />
<br />
Also, if nothing happens in the story for 3000 words, or if what happens is repetitive, doesn't offer something new, doesn't let something change, it's time to cut!Cara M.http://www.blogger.com/profile/10979781599548365989noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3157378045977082225.post-79421033749047052752012-04-11T04:53:00.001-07:002012-04-11T04:54:19.879-07:00Road Trip Wednesday #125 Images and Imagination<a href="http://bit.ly/uEulMp" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://bit.ly/uEulMp" width="125" /></a><br />
<div style="font-family: Arial, verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; text-align: center;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #351c75;"><br />
</span></b><br />
<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #351c75;">This Week's Topic:</span></b></div><div style="font-family: Arial, verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; text-align: center;"></div><div style="font-family: Arial, verdana, sans-serif; text-align: center;"><div style="font-size: 12px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="clear: left; float: left; font-size: 12px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"></span><span style="font-size: medium;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #351c75;">What images inspire/ represent your WIP or favorite book?</span></b></span></div><div style="font-size: 12px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #351c75;"><br />
</span></b></span></div><div style="font-size: 12px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #351c75;"><br />
</span></b></span></div>So actually, I did a post quite like this a couple of weeks ago, talking about how finding images to round out the feel of the characters actually changed the story. <a href="http://novellinguist.blogspot.com/2012/03/so-its-uh-been-while.html">Here</a>. To summarize:<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVIcY4ubh_koT1sQiF1PJ4TeneHDq3Lk5qikZYsXYV1gwNNAe9cF3fuZgHp55kPzgdCq_u-8vieXHkgXE5f-VgJWbGAQNiaALim_R08wajHvwwZk9A5bBKfb6Cpn9PlrHsytaJG2bgumo/s1600/Bacon's+Castj.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="208" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVIcY4ubh_koT1sQiF1PJ4TeneHDq3Lk5qikZYsXYV1gwNNAe9cF3fuZgHp55kPzgdCq_u-8vieXHkgXE5f-VgJWbGAQNiaALim_R08wajHvwwZk9A5bBKfb6Cpn9PlrHsytaJG2bgumo/s400/Bacon's+Castj.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br />
But actually, I quite rarely use photos of actual people for my novels. I don't want them to be that concretely defined. I sketch and doodle, I make maps, I work up my own cover art. I even have a thermos which has pen & ink drawings of my characters from one novel decorating it.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgvl4p1vNhsq_tXxN6rCb7552Wen299rDxnUIejzVblzdRd8jkWa6yVZ2-_JAO4XwM0SW9alx8yJeQbkn_5DcxyIGdqyayqz99MKnm_u6NCFHXWxfwavO2n6mc5agAZXSlz2fQOKC1yLcw/s1600/plibmapsmall.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="268" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgvl4p1vNhsq_tXxN6rCb7552Wen299rDxnUIejzVblzdRd8jkWa6yVZ2-_JAO4XwM0SW9alx8yJeQbkn_5DcxyIGdqyayqz99MKnm_u6NCFHXWxfwavO2n6mc5agAZXSlz2fQOKC1yLcw/s320/plibmapsmall.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCmk4Kp9ggxW4ROvWAukYrXyFbGqIN8xkWNv2v2UcCDEtu8eG3g8m77d7Q3mrgiL_0YxP-3FlotoRkZH_L9KNeIk4C2mVxJZR1lA7zN5HA5Brw7K1z6CFs06B_H3LQ3wxrvmkXBmt9WHw/s1600/cover.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCmk4Kp9ggxW4ROvWAukYrXyFbGqIN8xkWNv2v2UcCDEtu8eG3g8m77d7Q3mrgiL_0YxP-3FlotoRkZH_L9KNeIk4C2mVxJZR1lA7zN5HA5Brw7K1z6CFs06B_H3LQ3wxrvmkXBmt9WHw/s400/cover.jpg" width="290" /></a></div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCmk4Kp9ggxW4ROvWAukYrXyFbGqIN8xkWNv2v2UcCDEtu8eG3g8m77d7Q3mrgiL_0YxP-3FlotoRkZH_L9KNeIk4C2mVxJZR1lA7zN5HA5Brw7K1z6CFs06B_H3LQ3wxrvmkXBmt9WHw/s1600/cover.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><br />
</a><br />
Interestingly enough, the books I can't have photos for are my fantasy stories. The one I have photos for is Sci-Fi. But I would love to print the photos and use them as a reference for a sketch. Pictures of real people often crush the possibilities you need to imagine. It may be why I hate reading books with photo-covers. Even a perfectly realistic painting is so much better.</div>Cara M.http://www.blogger.com/profile/10979781599548365989noreply@blogger.com11tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3157378045977082225.post-53958075381428627332012-04-11T04:12:00.000-07:002012-04-11T04:12:36.692-07:00WWW WednedsaySo I've been busy...<br />
What are you currently reading?<br />
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<div class="last col" id="topcol" style="color: #181818; float: left; font-family: georgia, serif; font-size: 12px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; width: 625px;"><div class="col" id="imagecol" style="float: left; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 20px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: center; width: 150px;"><a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/photo/237184.Peril" itemprop="image" rel="nofollow" style="color: #666600; text-decoration: underline;"><img alt="Peril" id="coverImage" src="http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1320488043l/237184.jpg" style="-webkit-box-shadow: rgb(221, 221, 221) 0px 5px 5px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; display: block; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; margin-top: 0px; max-width: 150px;" /></a></div><div class="last col" id="metacol" style="float: left; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; width: 455px;"><h1 class="bookTitle" id="bookTitle" itemprop="name" style="background-color: transparent; color: #382110; font-family: georgia, serif; font-size: 22px; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 1.1; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 2px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; width: 455px;">Peril</h1><div class="stacked" id="bookAuthors" style="line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 10px;"><span class="by smallText" style="color: black; font-family: inherit; font-size: 13px; line-height: 14px;">by</span> <span itemprop="author" itemscope="" itemtype="http://schema.org/Person"><span itemprop="name" style="color: #666600; font-family: georgia, serif; font-size: 13px; text-decoration: none;"><a class="authorName" href="http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/13746.Thomas_H_Cook" itemprop="url" style="color: #666600; font-family: georgia, serif; font-size: 13px; text-decoration: none;">Thomas H. Cook</a></span></span></div><div class="stacked" id="bookAuthors" style="line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 10px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px;">Sara Labriola is a married woman haunted by the shattering secrets of her past—and terrified of the future. Tired of living in fear—and knowing that if she stays in her marriage she'll be killed—Sara decides to do the only thing she can: she makes herself disappear.</span></div><div class="readable stacked" id="description" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(221, 221, 221); border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 1px; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.4; margin-bottom: 10px; padding-bottom: 10px; right: 0px;"><span id="freeTextContainer14987188899157474145"><br />
One afternoon, without telling a soul, she packs a single suitcase and leaves her life in Long Island behind.<a class="actionLinkLite" href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/237184.Peril#" style="color: #215625; font-family: arial, verdana, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; text-decoration: none;">...more</a></span></div></div></div><br />
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I'm reading this because I'm considering de-trunking a trilogy of Mafia novels that I started in college. But one of the things I realized in the years since was that I was trying to write a thriller without ever having read a thriller. I like it so far, but I'm surprised by how literary it is. It's essentially a story of a bunch of very sad people doing terrible things because they don't know how not to do them. But it's a beautiful exercise in character motivation. And each time a character's POV is introduced, it's introduced at a pivotal moment - when the story starts for them. The switching POVs and intense 1st person is very nice, and it's a lot like what I have in my files. It's nice to know that it's a valid writing style for this sort of book. I thought I had to pick a character and stick with her. (Of course, when I was writing the first one, there was no way I could have handled multiple threads and switching POVs. I was still a baby writer. I'm pretty sure I've at least graduated into Elementary school now.)<br />
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What did you recently finish reading?<br />
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<tr class="update" id="update_433050772"><td style="border-top-color: rgb(232, 216, 228); border-top-style: solid; border-top-width: 1px; font-family: georgia, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 5px; padding-left: 5px; padding-right: 5px; padding-top: 5px; vertical-align: top;"><div class="updateAction" style="margin-bottom: 5px;"><strong><a href="http://www.goodreads.com/user/show/5735243-cara-m" style="color: #666600; text-decoration: none;">Cara M</a></strong> gave <img alt="5 of 5 stars" height="15" src="http://d2cnulzsnzwz8f.cloudfront.net/images/layout/stars/red_star_5_of_5.png?1334103375" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px;" title="5 of 5 stars, it was amazing" width="75" /> to:</div><a class="updateImage" href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13737.Sea_of_Shadow" style="color: #666600; float: left; margin-right: 10px; text-decoration: none;"><img alt="Sea of Shadow by Fuyumi Ono" src="http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1268703829s/13737.jpg" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; max-height: 75px; overflow-x: hidden; overflow-y: hidden; width: 50px;" title="Sea of Shadow by Fuyumi Ono" /></a><div class="updateBodyAfterImageShort" style="float: left; margin-top: 1px; width: 355px;"><a class="bookTitle" href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13737.Sea_of_Shadow" style="color: #666600; font-family: georgia, serif; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none;">Sea of Shadow (The Twelve Kingdoms, #1)</a><br />
<span class="by smallText" style="color: black; font-family: arial, verdana, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10px; line-height: 14px;">by</span> <a class="authorName" href="http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/8538.Fuyumi_Ono" style="color: #666600; font-family: georgia, serif; font-size: 13px; text-decoration: none;">Fuyumi Ono</a></div></td><td style="border-top-color: rgb(232, 216, 228); border-top-style: solid; border-top-width: 1px; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 5px; padding-left: 5px; padding-right: 5px; padding-top: 5px; vertical-align: top;" valign="top"><div class="atmb added read" id="review-307412959_2" style="max-width: 132px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Verdana, sans-serif;"><br />
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<tr class="no_border" id="update_comment_stuff_Review307412959" style="border-bottom-style: none; border-color: initial; border-left-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-top-style: none; border-width: initial;"><td colspan="2" style="border-top-color: initial; border-top-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-family: georgia, serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 5px; padding-left: 5px; padding-right: 5px; padding-top: 0px;"><a class="updateCloseLink" href="http://www.goodreads.com/user/show/5735243-cara-m#" id="loading_link_493776" style="color: #666600; float: right; padding-left: 4px; text-decoration: none;" title="Delete this update">x</a><div class="updateActionLinks" style="margin-bottom: 5px;"><a class="updatedTimestamp" href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/307412959" style="color: #999999; float: left; padding-left: 0px; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; width: auto;">Apr 05</a></div></td></tr>
<tr class="update" id="update_431705178"><td style="border-top-color: rgb(232, 216, 228); border-top-style: solid; border-top-width: 1px; font-family: georgia, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 5px; padding-left: 5px; padding-right: 5px; padding-top: 5px; vertical-align: top;"><div class="updateAction" style="margin-bottom: 5px;"><strong><a href="http://www.goodreads.com/user/show/5735243-cara-m" style="color: #666600; text-decoration: none;">Cara M</a></strong> gave <img alt="4 of 5 stars" height="15" src="http://dkt27ch3b0vq7.cloudfront.net/images/layout/stars/red_star_4_of_5.png?1334103375" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px;" title="4 of 5 stars, really liked it" width="75" /> to:</div><a class="updateImage" href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/980456.On_Basilisk_Station" style="color: #666600; float: left; margin-right: 10px; text-decoration: none;"><img alt="On Basilisk Station by David Weber" src="http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1179968277s/980456.jpg" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; max-height: 75px; overflow-x: hidden; overflow-y: hidden; width: 50px;" title="On Basilisk Station by David Weber" /></a><div class="updateBodyAfterImageShort" style="float: left; margin-top: 1px; width: 355px;"><a class="bookTitle" href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/980456.On_Basilisk_Station" style="color: #666600; font-family: georgia, serif; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none;">On Basilisk Station (Honor Harrington, #1)</a><br />
<span class="by smallText" style="color: black; font-family: arial, verdana, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10px; line-height: 14px;">by</span> <a class="authorName" href="http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/10517.David_Weber" style="color: #666600; font-family: georgia, serif; font-size: 13px; text-decoration: none;">David Weber</a><div style="margin-top: 5px;"><div class="greyText" style="color: #999999;"><br />
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<tr class="update no_border" id="update_431705178_2" style="border-bottom-style: none; border-color: initial; border-left-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-top-style: none; border-width: initial;"><td colspan="2" style="border-top-color: initial; border-top-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-family: georgia, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 5px; padding-left: 5px; padding-right: 5px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: top;"><span id="reviewTextContainer306479026"><span id="freeTextContainerreview306479026">Hornblower in space! Lots of weapons specs and delicate politics, and the brutal type of war that you get when you're in a tin can bobbing around in space, or in a hollow log bobbing about in the water. Tons of fun though.</span></span></td></tr>
<tr class="no_border" id="update_comment_stuff_Review306479026" style="border-bottom-style: none; border-color: initial; border-left-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-top-style: none; border-width: initial;"><td colspan="2" style="border-top-color: initial; border-top-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-family: georgia, serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 5px; padding-left: 5px; padding-right: 5px; padding-top: 0px;"><a class="updateCloseLink" href="http://www.goodreads.com/user/show/5735243-cara-m#" id="loading_link_588029" style="color: #666600; float: right; padding-left: 4px; text-decoration: none;" title="Delete this update">x</a><div class="updateActionLinks" style="margin-bottom: 5px;"><a class="updatedTimestamp" href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/306479026" style="color: #999999; float: left; padding-left: 0px; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; width: auto;">Apr 04</a></div></td></tr>
<tr class="update" id="update_423025578"><td style="border-top-color: rgb(232, 216, 228); border-top-style: solid; border-top-width: 1px; font-family: georgia, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 5px; padding-left: 5px; padding-right: 5px; padding-top: 5px; vertical-align: top;"><div class="updateAction" style="margin-bottom: 5px;"><strong><a href="http://www.goodreads.com/user/show/5735243-cara-m" style="color: #666600; text-decoration: none;">Cara M</a></strong> gave <img alt="4 of 5 stars" height="15" src="http://dkt27ch3b0vq7.cloudfront.net/images/layout/stars/red_star_4_of_5.png?1334103375" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px;" title="4 of 5 stars, really liked it" width="75" /> to:</div><a class="updateImage" href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/852721.Ramage" style="color: #666600; float: left; margin-right: 10px; text-decoration: none;"><img alt="Ramage by Dudley Pope" src="http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1328862005s/852721.jpg" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; max-height: 75px; overflow-x: hidden; overflow-y: hidden; width: 50px;" title="Ramage by Dudley Pope" /></a><div class="updateBodyAfterImageShort" style="float: left; margin-top: 1px; width: 355px;"><a class="bookTitle" href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/852721.Ramage" style="color: #666600; font-family: georgia, serif; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none;">Ramage (The Lord Ramage Novels, #1)</a><br />
<span class="by smallText" style="color: black; font-family: arial, verdana, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10px; line-height: 14px;">by</span> <a class="authorName" href="http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/35340.Dudley_Pope" style="color: #666600; font-family: georgia, serif; font-size: 13px; text-decoration: none;">Dudley Pope</a><div style="margin-top: 5px;"></div></div></td><td style="border-top-color: rgb(232, 216, 228); border-top-style: solid; border-top-width: 1px; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 5px; padding-left: 5px; padding-right: 5px; padding-top: 5px; vertical-align: top;" valign="top"><div class="atmb added read" id="review-300376144_4" style="max-width: 132px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Verdana, sans-serif;"><br />
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<tr class="no_border" id="update_comment_stuff_Review300376144" style="border-bottom-style: none; border-color: initial; border-left-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-top-style: none; border-width: initial;"><td colspan="2" style="border-top-color: initial; border-top-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-family: georgia, serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 5px; padding-left: 5px; padding-right: 5px; padding-top: 0px;"><a class="updateCloseLink" href="http://www.goodreads.com/user/show/5735243-cara-m#" id="loading_link_932319" style="color: #666600; float: right; padding-left: 4px; text-decoration: none;" title="Delete this update">x</a><div class="updateActionLinks" style="margin-bottom: 5px;"><a class="updatedTimestamp" href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/300376144" style="color: #999999; float: left; padding-left: 0px; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; width: auto;">Mar 25</a></div></td></tr>
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I do love me some adventure novels, whether sci-fi or nautical, and if they are chock full of Horatio Hornblower references, that's even better. :D<br />
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Sea of Shadow was a re-read, and it was as brilliant if not better than the last time I read it. A member of my writing group was asking about exotic fantasy, and I thought of this, and then just had to read it again. The translation, I think, values faithfulness over flow, but after you get used to it, it's not distracting at all. Oddly, though I love Sea of Shadow, I've never been able to finish the next book, perhaps because I really could sympathize with Yoko, and the MC in the next book just isn't as interesting as she is.<br />
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What do you think you’ll read next?<br />
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Oh my, my pile of TBRs is towering and huge. But whatever it is, it may not even come from that pile. I suppose I will find out when I read it.Cara M.http://www.blogger.com/profile/10979781599548365989noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3157378045977082225.post-13898714710697344362012-03-28T19:28:00.000-07:002012-03-28T19:28:40.930-07:00Road Trip Wednesday #123 Best Book of the Month!In March I read 2 new books. (Plus many articles, some of which were quite good, but not relevant here.)<br />
I read<br />
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<table border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" class="tableListReverse friendUpdates" style="color: #181818; font-family: georgia, serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px; padding-bottom: 5px; padding-left: 5px; padding-right: 5px; padding-top: 5px; width: 603px;"><tbody>
<tr class="update" id="update_414507243"><td style="border-top-color: rgb(232, 216, 228); border-top-style: solid; border-top-width: 1px; font-family: georgia, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 5px; padding-left: 5px; padding-right: 5px; padding-top: 5px; vertical-align: top;"><div class="updateAction" style="margin-bottom: 5px;"><strong><a href="http://www.goodreads.com/user/show/5735243-cara-m" style="color: #666600; text-decoration: none;">Cara M</a></strong> gave <img alt="5 of 5 stars" height="15" src="http://d16kthk4voxb3t.cloudfront.net/images/layout/stars/red_star_5_of_5.png?1332958220" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px;" title="5 of 5 stars, it was amazing" width="75" /> to:</div><a class="updateImage" href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/9464855-the-mostly-true-story-of-jack" style="color: #666600; float: left; margin-right: 10px; text-decoration: none;"><img alt="The Mostly True Story of Jack by Kelly Barnhill" src="http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1291245318s/9464855.jpg" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; max-height: 75px; overflow-x: hidden; overflow-y: hidden; width: 50px;" title="The Mostly True Story of Jack by Kelly Barnhill" /></a><div class="updateBodyAfterImageShort" style="float: left; margin-top: 1px; width: 355px;"><a class="bookTitle" href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/9464855-the-mostly-true-story-of-jack" style="color: #666600; font-family: georgia, serif; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none;">The Mostly True Story of Jack</a><br />
<span class="by smallText" style="color: black; font-family: arial, verdana, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10px; line-height: 14px;">by</span> <a class="authorName" href="http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/945430.Kelly_Barnhill" style="color: #666600; font-family: georgia, serif; font-size: 13px; text-decoration: none;">Kelly Barnhill</a> <span class="greyText" style="color: #999999;" title="Goodreads Author!">(Goodreads Author)</span><div style="margin-top: 5px;"><div class="greyText" style="color: #999999;">read in March, 2012</div></div></div></td><td style="border-top-color: rgb(232, 216, 228); border-top-style: solid; border-top-width: 1px; font-family: georgia, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 5px; padding-left: 5px; padding-right: 5px; padding-top: 5px; vertical-align: top;" valign="top"><div class="atmb added read" id="review-294305775_3" style="max-width: 132px;"><span class="ratingStars"><span class="greyText uitext myRating" style="color: #999999; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Verdana, sans-serif;">My rating:</span><div class="atmbStars"><span class="stars" id="stars294305775_3_5735243" style="white-space: nowrap;"><a href="" rel="nofollow" style="color: #666600; text-decoration: none;"><img alt="didn't like it " class="star" height="15" id="star294305775_3_0" src="http://www.goodreads.com/images/layout/gr_orange_star_active.png" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; cursor: pointer;" title="didn't like it" width="15" /></a><a href="" rel="nofollow" style="color: #666600; text-decoration: none;"><img alt="it was ok " class="star" height="15" id="star294305775_3_1" src="http://www.goodreads.com/images/layout/gr_orange_star_active.png" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; cursor: pointer;" title="it was ok" width="15" /></a><a href="" rel="nofollow" style="color: #666600; text-decoration: none;"><img alt="liked it " class="star" height="15" id="star294305775_3_2" src="http://www.goodreads.com/images/layout/gr_orange_star_active.png" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; cursor: pointer;" title="liked it" width="15" /></a><a href="" rel="nofollow" style="color: #666600; text-decoration: none;"><img alt="really liked it " class="star" height="15" id="star294305775_3_3" src="http://www.goodreads.com/images/layout/gr_orange_star_active.png" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; cursor: pointer;" title="really liked it" width="15" /></a><a href="" rel="nofollow" style="color: #666600; text-decoration: none;"><img alt="it was amazing (my current rating) " class="star" height="15" id="star294305775_3_4" src="http://www.goodreads.com/images/layout/gr_orange_star_active.png" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; cursor: pointer;" title="it was amazing" width="15" /></a></span></div></span><div class="editMessage"><a class="actionLink nobreak" href="http://www.goodreads.com/user/show/5735243-cara-m#" id="loading_link_340367" style="color: #215625; font-family: arial, verdana, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; white-space: nowrap;">edit my review</a></div><span id="reviewMessage294305775_3_5735243"></span><span class="atmbShelfAdded uitext" style="display: block; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="greyText" style="color: #999999;">shelf: </span><span class="atmbShelfAddedShelves" id="shelves_review_294305775"><a class="actionLinkLite" href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/list/5735243?shelf=read" style="color: #215625; font-family: arial, verdana, helvetica, sans-serif; text-decoration: none;" target="">read</a></span></span></div></td></tr>
<tr class="update no_border" id="update_414507243_2" style="border-bottom-style: none; border-color: initial; border-left-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-top-style: none; border-width: initial;"><td colspan="2" style="border-top-color: initial; border-top-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-family: georgia, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 5px; padding-left: 5px; padding-right: 5px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: top;"><span id="reviewTextContainer294305775"><span id="freeTextContainerreview294305775">When I first started to read this book, just picking it up at the library, a chill crept down my spine. A book about a boy who feels ignored by his parents, sent to stay with his aunt, a skateboard, a crumbling old house, a parent who is split in tw<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/user/show/5735243-cara-m#" style="color: #666600; text-decoration: none;">...more</a><br />
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and<br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 12px;"><table border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" class="tableListReverse friendUpdates" style="padding-bottom: 5px; padding-left: 5px; padding-right: 5px; padding-top: 5px; width: 603px;"><tbody>
<tr class="update" id="update_423025578"><td style="border-top-color: rgb(232, 216, 228); border-top-style: solid; border-top-width: 1px; font-family: georgia, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 5px; padding-left: 5px; padding-right: 5px; padding-top: 5px; vertical-align: top;"><div class="updateAction" style="margin-bottom: 5px;"><strong><a href="http://www.goodreads.com/user/show/5735243-cara-m" style="color: #666600; text-decoration: none;">Cara M</a></strong> gave <img alt="4 of 5 stars" height="15" src="http://d2cnulzsnzwz8f.cloudfront.net/images/layout/stars/red_star_4_of_5.png?1332958220" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px;" title="4 of 5 stars, really liked it" width="75" /> to:</div><a class="updateImage" href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/852721.Ramage" style="color: #666600; float: left; margin-right: 10px; text-decoration: none;"><img alt="Ramage by Dudley Pope" src="http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1328862005s/852721.jpg" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; max-height: 75px; overflow-x: hidden; overflow-y: hidden; width: 50px;" title="Ramage by Dudley Pope" /></a><div class="updateBodyAfterImageShort" style="float: left; margin-top: 1px; width: 355px;"><a class="bookTitle" href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/852721.Ramage" style="color: #666600; font-family: georgia, serif; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none;">Ramage (The Lord Ramage Novels, #1)</a><br />
<span class="by smallText" style="color: black; font-family: arial, verdana, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10px; line-height: 14px;">by</span> <a class="authorName" href="http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/35340.Dudley_Pope" style="color: #666600; font-family: georgia, serif; font-size: 13px; text-decoration: none;">Dudley Pope</a><div style="margin-top: 5px;"></div></div></td><td style="border-top-color: rgb(232, 216, 228); border-top-style: solid; border-top-width: 1px; font-family: georgia, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 5px; padding-left: 5px; padding-right: 5px; padding-top: 5px; vertical-align: top;" valign="top"><div class="atmb added read" id="review-300376144_1" style="max-width: 132px;"><span class="ratingStars"><span class="greyText uitext myRating" style="color: #999999; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Verdana, sans-serif;">My rating:</span><div class="atmbStars"><span class="stars" id="stars300376144_1_5735243" style="white-space: nowrap;"><a href="" rel="nofollow" style="color: #666600; text-decoration: none;"><img alt="didn't like it " class="star" height="15" id="star300376144_1_0" src="http://www.goodreads.com/images/layout/gr_orange_star_active.png" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; cursor: pointer;" title="didn't like it" width="15" /></a><a href="" rel="nofollow" style="color: #666600; text-decoration: none;"><img alt="it was ok " class="star" height="15" id="star300376144_1_1" src="http://www.goodreads.com/images/layout/gr_orange_star_active.png" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; cursor: pointer;" title="it was ok" width="15" /></a><a href="" rel="nofollow" style="color: #666600; text-decoration: none;"><img alt="liked it " class="star" height="15" id="star300376144_1_2" src="http://www.goodreads.com/images/layout/gr_orange_star_active.png" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; cursor: pointer;" title="liked it" width="15" /></a><a href="" rel="nofollow" style="color: #666600; text-decoration: none;"><img alt="really liked it (my current rating) " class="star" height="15" id="star300376144_1_3" src="http://www.goodreads.com/images/layout/gr_orange_star_active.png" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; cursor: pointer;" title="really liked it" width="15" /></a><a href="" rel="nofollow" style="color: #666600; text-decoration: none;"><img alt="it was amazing " class="star" height="15" id="star300376144_1_4" src="http://www.goodreads.com/images/layout/gr_orange_star_inactive.png" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; cursor: pointer;" title="it was amazing" width="15" /></a></span></div></span><div class="editMessage"><a class="actionLink nobreak" href="http://www.goodreads.com/user/show/5735243-cara-m#" id="loading_link_873677" style="color: #215625; font-family: arial, verdana, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; white-space: nowrap;">edit my review</a></div><span id="reviewMessage300376144_1_5735243"></span><span class="atmbShelfAdded uitext" style="display: block; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="greyText" style="color: #999999;">shelf: </span><span class="atmbShelfAddedShelves" id="shelves_review_300376144"><a class="actionLinkLite" href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/list/5735243?shelf=read" style="color: #215625; font-family: arial, verdana, helvetica, sans-serif; text-decoration: none;" target="">read</a></span></span></div></td></tr>
<tr class="no_border" id="update_comment_stuff_Review300376144" style="border-bottom-style: none; border-color: initial; border-left-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-top-style: none; border-width: initial;"><td colspan="2" style="border-top-color: initial; border-top-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-family: georgia, serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 5px; padding-left: 5px; padding-right: 5px; padding-top: 0px;"><br />
They were both interesting and fun and I enjoyed them quite a lot. But in March I also reread a book.<br />
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</tbody></table></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 12px;"><table border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" class="tableListReverse friendUpdates" style="padding-bottom: 5px; padding-left: 5px; padding-right: 5px; padding-top: 5px; width: 603px;"><tbody>
<tr class="update" id="update_414515391"><td style="border-top-color: rgb(232, 216, 228); border-top-style: solid; border-top-width: 1px; font-family: georgia, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 5px; padding-left: 5px; padding-right: 5px; padding-top: 5px; vertical-align: top;"><div class="updateAction" style="margin-bottom: 5px;"><strong><a href="http://www.goodreads.com/user/show/5735243-cara-m" style="color: #666600; text-decoration: none;">Cara M</a></strong> gave <img alt="5 of 5 stars" height="15" src="http://d16kthk4voxb3t.cloudfront.net/images/layout/stars/red_star_5_of_5.png?1332958220" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px;" title="5 of 5 stars, it was amazing" width="75" /> to:</div><a class="updateImage" href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/710437.Fly_by_Night" style="color: #666600; float: left; margin-right: 10px; text-decoration: none;"><img alt="Fly by Night by Frances Hardinge" src="http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1177525648s/710437.jpg" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; max-height: 75px; overflow-x: hidden; overflow-y: hidden; width: 50px;" title="Fly by Night by Frances Hardinge" /></a><div class="updateBodyAfterImageShort" style="float: left; margin-top: 1px; width: 355px;"><a class="bookTitle" href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/710437.Fly_by_Night" style="color: #666600; font-family: georgia, serif; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none;">Fly by Night</a><br />
<span class="by smallText" style="color: black; font-family: arial, verdana, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10px; line-height: 14px;">by</span> <a class="authorName" href="http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/119830.Frances_Hardinge" style="color: #666600; font-family: georgia, serif; font-size: 13px; text-decoration: none;">Frances Hardinge</a><div style="margin-top: 5px;"></div></div></td><td style="border-top-color: rgb(232, 216, 228); border-top-style: solid; border-top-width: 1px; font-family: georgia, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 5px; padding-left: 5px; padding-right: 5px; padding-top: 5px; vertical-align: top;" valign="top"><div class="atmb added read" id="review-294311391_2" style="max-width: 132px;"><span class="ratingStars"><span class="greyText uitext myRating" style="color: #999999; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Verdana, sans-serif;">My rating:</span><div class="atmbStars"><span class="stars" id="stars294311391_2_5735243" style="white-space: nowrap;"><a href="" rel="nofollow" style="color: #666600; text-decoration: none;"><img alt="didn't like it " class="star" height="15" id="star294311391_2_0" src="http://www.goodreads.com/images/layout/gr_orange_star_active.png" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; cursor: pointer;" title="didn't like it" width="15" /></a><a href="" rel="nofollow" style="color: #666600; text-decoration: none;"><img alt="it was ok " class="star" height="15" id="star294311391_2_1" src="http://www.goodreads.com/images/layout/gr_orange_star_active.png" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; cursor: pointer;" title="it was ok" width="15" /></a><a href="" rel="nofollow" style="color: #666600; text-decoration: none;"><img alt="liked it " class="star" height="15" id="star294311391_2_2" src="http://www.goodreads.com/images/layout/gr_orange_star_active.png" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; cursor: pointer;" title="liked it" width="15" /></a><a href="" rel="nofollow" style="color: #666600; text-decoration: none;"><img alt="really liked it " class="star" height="15" id="star294311391_2_3" src="http://www.goodreads.com/images/layout/gr_orange_star_active.png" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; cursor: pointer;" title="really liked it" width="15" /></a><a href="" rel="nofollow" style="color: #666600; text-decoration: none;"><img alt="it was amazing (my current rating) " class="star" height="15" id="star294311391_2_4" src="http://www.goodreads.com/images/layout/gr_orange_star_active.png" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; cursor: pointer;" title="it was amazing" width="15" /></a></span></div></span><div class="editMessage"><a class="actionLink nobreak" href="http://www.goodreads.com/user/show/5735243-cara-m#" id="loading_link_700894" style="color: #215625; font-family: arial, verdana, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; white-space: nowrap;">edit my review</a></div><span id="reviewMessage294311391_2_5735243"></span><span class="atmbShelfAdded uitext" style="display: block; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="greyText" style="color: #999999;">shelf: </span><span class="atmbShelfAddedShelves" id="shelves_review_294311391"><a class="actionLinkLite" href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/list/5735243?shelf=read" style="color: #215625; font-family: arial, verdana, helvetica, sans-serif; text-decoration: none;" target="">read</a></span></span><span class="atmbShelfAdded uitext" style="display: block; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Verdana, sans-serif;"><br />
</span><span class="atmbShelfAdded uitext" style="display: block; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Verdana, sans-serif;"><br />
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</tbody></table></span></span></span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>Have YOU read this book yet? Have you?<br />
Because this book is honestly wonderful. And sure, it's an MG, but it's an MG that is a lot smarter than most adult literary fiction. And it's funny and thrilling and exciting, as well as being smart and sharp and Spot On.<br />
<br />
NB. There is no magic in this book. There are unions and kings and geese and the printing press, but no magic. Call it fantasy at your peril. But it's not realism, historical, dystopian, or sci fi either. It's not a genre. It is just an excellent book.Cara M.http://www.blogger.com/profile/10979781599548365989noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3157378045977082225.post-29065188280238107242012-03-27T18:56:00.003-07:002012-03-27T19:06:54.377-07:00I Heart YA #11: You Oughta Be In Pictures<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">So it's, uh, been a while. Academic life is <i>hard</i>. *pouts*</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Suze Reese on her I <3 YA blog tour has offered up the topic of Books being made into Movies. I thought I'd put a little spin on it and toss it back and ask, Writers, what about <i>your</i> book being made into a movie?</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">To some extent there's always going to be a bit of a Hell Yeah! So that isn't interesting. Instead - What do you think about fantasy casting?</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">For me, I always tried to keep myself pure of basing characters off of hearthrob actors. It would pervert and cheapen the character! I thought. (As a fanfiction writer, this is a little hypocritical. Don't call me on it.) So I flailed about, working on my own sketches of the character, trying to get something that felt right.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Then I started working on my Sci Fi novel (a W still very much IP) and I sketched out a few characters, who they were, how to set up the basic situation.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">A quote:</span><br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">"ok 4 philosophers/politicians</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">2m/2f</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">one is a ship's captain – female</span></blockquote><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">one a plantation owner – male</span></blockquote><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">he’s a philosopher. One of his slaves is his lover. He rationalizes slavery as a way to keep us all safe from lazy idle people. He wants to free her and marry her, but he’s already married. </span></blockquote><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">one is a transplanted aristocrat – female </span></blockquote><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">and one is a former trader/explorer who is now a wealthy merchant – male"</span></span></blockquote><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">(Yes, I am older than 12, even if my note taking skills do not support this claim.)</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">I started fleshing out these very basic descriptions, and suddenly, I had an image.</span></span><br />
Transplanted Aristocrat:<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.top-models.com/pics/pics-large/Christa-Miller-72671.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://www.top-models.com/pics/pics-large/Christa-Miller-72671.jpg" width="166" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Christa Miller</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">And then they kept coming.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Ship's Captain:</span></span><br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://images.askmen.com/galleries/actress/lucy-lawless/pictures/lucy-lawless-picture-1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://images.askmen.com/galleries/actress/lucy-lawless/pictures/lucy-lawless-picture-1.jpg" width="153" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Lucy Lawless... as a<i> blonde</i></span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">And then my plantation owner:</span></span><br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgwFWsllzTSTXdLJ21Iwv_eCLotNAaOpMWkKPLYmk46DsAXaJVlmHbzD1a_UETOYaN4D95XmAOUSAmwHf8sBBm9Q9nU49uSWqt85IPgcsAf0gn4d225SMj0Xd-CMrl80CM9DZf-ntcJAwQ/s400/5+CC.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgwFWsllzTSTXdLJ21Iwv_eCLotNAaOpMWkKPLYmk46DsAXaJVlmHbzD1a_UETOYaN4D95XmAOUSAmwHf8sBBm9Q9nU49uSWqt85IPgcsAf0gn4d225SMj0Xd-CMrl80CM9DZf-ntcJAwQ/s400/5+CC.jpg" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Christina Cox in Blood Ties</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Everything was right about that picture, the colors, the glasses. Everything, except that suddenly my nice even gender split was thrown off, because my plantation owner was a woman, <i>had</i></span></span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> to be a woman. And the story just spun out of my fingers.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">(Eventually I came up with this pic for my ex-trader/adventurer:)</span></span><br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.vanishingtattoo.com/images/tattoo_2/martin-ricky-03.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://www.vanishingtattoo.com/images/tattoo_2/martin-ricky-03.jpg" width="172" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">NO JUDGING!</span></td></tr>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Essentially, what I got out of these pictures wasn't an actor and their particular physical make up or their usual expressions, or anything like that. I got an image. I got a sense of color and of attitude. I found a concrete way into these characters that was repeatable. Sometimes people can do it with a song that speaks to them in a particular way. For this story it was images.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">So how about you? Do you use fantasy casting as a way to help along your creative process or does it hurt it? Do you have any other methods? Making mixes? Sketching pictures? Let me know!</span>Cara M.http://www.blogger.com/profile/10979781599548365989noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3157378045977082225.post-15653972534457920262012-03-11T12:19:00.000-07:002012-03-11T12:19:20.017-07:00The Lucky 7 Meme!<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arimo; font-size: 14px; line-height: 28px;"><b>Donelle Lacy from a Little Dversion tagged me in the Lucky 7 Meme. And go and read hers, because it's totally intriguing and cool.</b></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="clear: right; color: #cccccc; float: right; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img class="CSS_LIGHTBOX_SCALED_IMAGE_IMG" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjTP5nl5_XSHwRF7zgOk3aq9bKTgbvClBUXOiBDxV94Z2oSVJfTYNZY06jfnJqx58bDAkLxqe7J4aNV8CQ-WUzGJONFMbOA4DZRhRrzfxmqD_y1qWxJw4Gpe4PxEWHLL1rVo9o1Ce8valA/s1600/Lucky7.jpg" style="height: 200px; outline-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); outline-style: solid; outline-width: 1px; position: relative; width: 200px;" /></span><br />
Here are my 7 lines, from the middle of my current WIP.<br />
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<blockquote class="tr_bq">Deanna’s fingers twitched the edge of the blanket. She stared down at its patterns, as if they were a scrying bowl in which she could see her own past. “I had to beg to learn to fight,” she said. “I had to be the best at it. I had to prove that I deserved to learn, deserved to be my father’s heir. If I wasn't better than the boys, the best of the trainee guards, better than my cousin Garrick, I was useless.<br />
“But all of you could fight. No one said you were just girls trying to do things you weren’t supposed to do. I had had to work so hard to just be allowed to pick up a sword and you all had it so easy. If I couldn’t beat you, just girls from a bunch of countries who had forgotten what war was like, what good was I? I had to win.”</blockquote><br />
And as a bonus, here's 7 lines from the 77th page of my last novel, (massive and ungainly, and on a querying break.)<br />
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<blockquote class="tr_bq">Blaise looked at him and then down at his hand. “A gat-limb? What is that?”<br />
“It’s a replacement.” Tom squeezed his arm. “This is a mine. Often people are injured, and with a replacement limb they can get back to work right away. I have one myself.” He bent and rolled up his pants. One skinny leg was lightly dusted with orange hair, but the other was bare and olive-toned. “The original was crushed in a cave in. But if you don’t work, well.” He glanced away down the tunnel, looking for the insects. “They need to get the gat-limbs from somewhere.”</blockquote>Cara M.http://www.blogger.com/profile/10979781599548365989noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3157378045977082225.post-81067115935998801482012-03-07T05:15:00.000-08:002012-03-07T05:15:05.589-08:00I Heart YA #8: Lovin' Our HeartthrobsAh, the heteronormativity of YA puts me out of it a bit. If I was going to put up my Davy Jones, it would have to be Glynis Johns.<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.virtual-history.com/movie/photo/b00/large/00738.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://www.virtual-history.com/movie/photo/b00/large/00738.jpg" width="284" /></a></div>Frigging gorgeous, and charming, totally sexy voice.<br />
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But within YA you always get the poor objectified boys, and I'm not into objectified boys. To be a heartthrob, the boy has got to be more than a sexy object.<br />
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If there's any YA boy that's been a total heartthrob for me in the past couple of years, it's got to be Rudy Steiner. He won my heart when he did his Jesse Owen run, and played with his sisters, and was proud and innocent, and totally would have joined the SS if it would have saved his father.<br />
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c1/Jesse_Owens.jpg?w=300&h=300" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c1/Jesse_Owens.jpg?w=300&h=300" width="206" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Jesse Owen</td></tr>
</tbody></table>In non-YA books you actually sometimes get guys pursuing awesome women, and a totally awesome female heartthrob has got to be Tilla, from Medicus. She is totally hardcore, a terrible cook but an excellent poisoner, unbearably stubborn and the most arrogant slave you are ever likely to meet. But that book is full of great female and male characters.<br />
There is seriously no image on the internets that accurately represents her awesomeness, but here's something vaguely unobjectionable at least.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.braincandy.uk.com/Content/Images/slideshow/3-druidess-ifx.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="140" src="http://www.braincandy.uk.com/Content/Images/slideshow/3-druidess-ifx.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>(If you assume the green bits on her face are bruises, we've got at least a hint at accuracy.)Cara M.http://www.blogger.com/profile/10979781599548365989noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3157378045977082225.post-3090823732077785552012-02-28T09:28:00.000-08:002012-02-28T09:28:27.479-08:00I HEART YA #7: Dishing Up Male Protagonists<center><a href="http://www.suzereese.com/p/i-heart-ya.html" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Suze Reese" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgGkRtB_aBlMXDhtELVDJdyMbG06W0jm0PK_kDHjRgKG0ZKyy0kD4NS6gXtJJdqZsTQVjvdwY9ELD-4DNBRviwadsO8BdXjtEoR-sLrPxKxeuTgqYh7OjkCxDjWn13nAAOE3I1WaXCebnk/s800/iheartsmall.jpg" /></a></center><br />
Unlike Suze Reese, I actually felt like this wasn't all that hard. But then, if you include Harry Potter, it means you're not really being that strict about what's YA. But if we're saying YA-age male protagonists, Christopher Chant and Miles Vorkosigan are my (current) top 2!<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://pics.livejournal.com/halcyonjazz/pic/000wswg9" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://pics.livejournal.com/halcyonjazz/pic/000wswg9" width="288" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">c <a href="http://pics.livejournal.com/halcyonjazz/">HalyconJazz</a></td></tr>
</tbody></table><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.lizardlounge.com/Natasha/Didodikali/snake/2005/milestaura72.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="263" src="http://www.lizardlounge.com/Natasha/Didodikali/snake/2005/milestaura72.gif" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">c <a href="http://trickofthedark.livejournal.com/">Diodicali</a></td></tr>
</tbody></table>Who doesn't love Christopher Chant and his cocky certainty that he is right about everything, and even when he realizes that he's wrong, he's still right.<br />
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And Miles! Midgety and with cracking bones, he occasionally has bouts of self-doubt, but not often. He knows he's a genius. And when he's in a clinch, he's the smartest dude ever!<br />
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So basically, I have the opposite preferences about my male protags. I don't want humble, I want cocky. I want super smart. I want confidence.<br />
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Basically, I want the same thing in my male protagonists as in my female ones. I want people who know who they are, who are light on the angst, and as smart as hell.<br />
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You know, the same sort of things I like in my friends.Cara M.http://www.blogger.com/profile/10979781599548365989noreply@blogger.com3