Wednesday, June 29, 2005
Writing Novels in Tehran
Over the past decade, Iran's best-selling fiction lists have become dominated by women, an unprecedented development abetted by recent upheavals in Iranian society.
The number of women who have published novels has reached 370, said Hassan Mirabedini, a scholar of Iranian literature, whose findings recently appeared in the magazine Zanan (Women). That is 13 times as many as a decade ago, the research showed, and is about equal to the number for men today.
Yes, you read that right, 370.
370 women have published novels in Iran.
This is considered huge.
Bizarre how something that seems so small is perceived as being so huge. It doesn't take a lot of people to make everybody else uncomfortable.
Censors at the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance, which must approve every book before it can be published, ban any explicit mention of sex. They ask for the removal of words like "nudity" and "bosom," even if these appear in metaphors and do not refer to the human body.
Because if God wanted us to walk around naked, we would have been born that way.
Interesting little article. I find it fascinating that so many husbands have trouble with their wives making money this way. Women holding jobs and earning their own income is totally OK as per the Quran.
Oh, I'm sorry, you're not ruling your fundamentalist Islamic country based on the Quran? Dare I say you're skewing it for your own ends?
Blasphemy.
Feed Fish! Fight Aliens!
Why do I love this mindless game?
Bah. I'm behind on the writing... must... do... something... useful.
Tuesday, June 28, 2005
Half of Me Came Straight Out of Prison, Baby
Your Slanguage Profile |
| Prison Slang: 50% |
| Southern Slang: 25% |
| Aussie Slang: 0% |
| British Slang: 0% |
| Canadian Slang: 0% |
| New England Slang: 0% |
| Victorian Slang: 0% |
Though, you know, looking at all these numbers, I wonder where the other 25% went?
Bad quiz.
Political Refugees, Head-Tossing Young Maidens, and Other Madness
Tim Pratt, via Steph Burgis, asks writers to post the pet subject they enjoy putting into their work, and list what they'd never want to write about.
Here's some overarching themes and subjects in my fiction:
1. Civil war as subplot
2. Blood. Lots of it. And screams. Loud ones. Nearby.
3. Big, strong women who wield big weapons and have intimacy issues
4. Beautiful male dancers who are uninterested in said heroine. My most popular side-kick template.
5. Queer and bisexual characters, particularly women within matriarchal set-ups, as well as sexless neuter characters, sex-changing characters, and androgynies.
6. War, baby. All-out, bloodthirsty, pistol-wielding, sword swinging, blood curdling WAR. Including genocide as primary plotline, often within a desert setting. Oh yea.
7. Multi-colored and cultured societies. See aforementioned interest in war.
8. Bugs. Lots and lots of bugs.
Here's some things you probably won't see in my fiction:
1. Matriachal societies who end wars by putting together a big book that Explains Very Politely to the Evil People that Peace is Really Better, and Save the Day through their "natural" nurturing and soft-spokenness, proving that if you let yourself be a doormat long enough, eventually someone will become enlightened and listen to you.
2. Hard SF that's primarily about Big Machines that Go Real Fast
3. Anything where the social structure is exactly like it is in America in 2005, or 1985, for that matter.
4. You're not likely to see anything without bugs in it for some time. South Africa has scarred me for life.
5. Psychic cats
6. A women soldier who goes out onto the battlefield, pulls off her helm, and "tosses her long auburn locks." I'm not particularly sure what she's doing with long, unbound hair in the first place (particularly clean unbound hair that will bounce like it does in a Pantene commercial after being bundled up into a helmet and left unwashed for three months), let alone why the fuck she's stopping her horse in the middle of a bunch of dead bodies on the field to toss her head like Jessica Alba (Gardens of the Moon). Which would be why I wouldn't write it.
Gateways to My Blog
Well, it's about that time again, as google searches acting as gateways to my blog have increased a bunch in the last few months, and I'm always fascinated to see how random people get here.
Here are the keywords used by unsuspecting search-engine users who find my blog:
brutal women (the most popular)
brutal (oddly, the second most popular, which sort of pleases me, that people looking for totally different sorts of brutality end up... here)
brutal dildos
fucking fuckers
my uterus
under her heel
blogs women nj
shinanigans
women of deadwood
women boxing snap shots
percentage of women who regret having children
women + boss + fantasy
celibate female pictures (no doubt seeking to answer the all-important question "what does a celibate woman look like?")
hot women boxing free sample movies
brutal women fights
"my abortion" site: blogspot.com
buzzed women
africa women quotes
hollywood thin women
female cops
nick larbalestier (?)
Rita Hurley MA
pregnant jedi (by far my FAVORITE!!!!!!!!!!)
Getting Back Into It, cont.
Been working on figuring out an exercise schedule that doesn't involve me paying out the ass every month. I turned my daily lunchtime powerwalk into a walk/jog yesterday, and that worked well. The route's 40 minutes at my current pace (as I get faster, I can extend it), so if I bring a towel to work to wipe myself down and just go for it, I can get in my daily jog at work every day and not worry about, "But I'm home now," workout laziness.
Add my weight routine (15-20 min) in the morning, and I'm pushing over an hour of exercise a day. The goal is to add in 20 min of pilates when I get home at night (I have two 20 min workouts that I can alternate), and I can push that to an hour and a half of exercise 5 days a week.
Not too shabby.
Still miss hitting stuff, and I'm looking for a cheap punching bag that I can use to work off stress and keep up my punching practice while I try to save up the money I've been spending on the gym.
When the money situation eases off, I can go back to formal training. Until then, I gotta make do.
Kelly Link is My Secret Girlfriend
"I'd really love to read slush for Analog."
Buy her latest short story collection. She rocks the house.
Monday, June 27, 2005
Workaday, Workadoo
I've started getting myself familiar with some very basic Arabic.
It's a fun little exercise. Arabic is a neat language to write. The biggest gripe I've got so far is the right-to-left reading and writing bit.
It's a bitch.
But very pretty.
Just a Little Off
Went to post another excerpt of God's War, and realized something in this section is really off. Raine needs to be scarier, the escape needs to be tougher, and the dialogue's really... off.
Need to re-tool.
So it goes.
Another Beautiful Day In the Neighborhood
And, it keeps going... (good for Chris for getting back on topic).
Here's an interesting study via BFB about dieting and dying younger.
And my question is, why was the firearm unused? These were obviously not native Alaskans. Bears will kill you. In Alaska, there are bears. They are big. They will eat you. I promise.
Sunday, June 26, 2005
Editor's Note
I prefer House of Flying Daggers to Hero.
Of course, knowing my subject interest, this isn't really surprising...
Fucktards
Just... fucktards.
I'm baffled that the way I speak and write freaks out so many people.
This is me. This is what I have. Why is it that men get more wiggle room to be assholes than women do?
Men make careers out of being assholes.
I can't even use the word "fuck" in polite conversation without being lambasted (by men and women) for being "angry" and "white."
WTF?
Saturday, June 25, 2005
This is Getting Old!
Showed the apartment again today.
It's a really fucking great apartment. Rent the damn thing already, OK?
2 bedrooms, hardwood floors, great neighborhood, huge kitchen, 1K a month, coin laundry in the basement, brownstone walkup.
C'mon already, OK?
Friday, June 24, 2005
Virtual Kung-Fu
Oh, Sweet. Sign me up:
Kickass Kung Fu: Like Dance Dance Revolution for martial artists
Kickass Kung Fu is a video-game in which you use real martial-arts moves to control an on-screen kung-fu fighter in order to best both human and AI opponents.
Whooot! Blogger's Got a New Way to Upload Pics
Firefly is going to Kick Ass. Zoe is fucking awesome.
Just wanted to say that.
