interesting things

Non-random links

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There have been some brilliant, and touching articles posted online recently. These don’t deserve to be shunted to a “Randomness” post, which is for fun weirdness and simple beauty. These are deeper than that. So, here are some articles you might want to read:

First, everyone has been linking to Ta Nahisi-Coates’s post on “Compassion” and for good reason. If you haven’t read it, you should.

In this society, we view compassion as a favor, something along the lines of forgiveness extended to the humble and deserving. No. My compassion is utterly selfish, and is rooted in a craving for power. It is compelled by my curiosity, itself, just another name for hunger, for desire, for want of the great power of knowing.

Second, a post by Shweta Narayan called “Dissimilation”, about her experience as an Indian in British schools, and the way she was pressured to assimilate by people who would never really accept her.

My friends, in this period (maybe just the first 10 years of it) were the people who sometimes did not torment me, who sometimes let me sit with them without wrinkling their noses and edging away and tossing my books around the room, who sometimes called me Shweta rather than Pakkie or Shwetterpants or shitface.

Third, Myra McEntire writes “Speak Loudly – In Defense of Laurie Halse Anderson” about her Christian faith and her outrage that people are trying to ban YA books about troubling subjects from schools, in particular a book called Speak about a young girl who is raped and does not speak up about it.

Because for Christians, there is one Boss. Mr. Scroggins might need to surrender his Junior God badge.

Fourth, in the NY Times, Nicholas Kristoff sends a “Message to Muslims: I’m sorry.” If we expect moderate Muslims to apologize and denounce extremists, shouldn’t moderate American citizens do the same?

I hereby apologize to Muslims for the wave of bigotry and simple nuttiness that has lately been directed at you. The venom on the airwaves, equating Muslims with terrorists, should embarrass us more than you. Muslims are one of the last minorities in the United States that it is still possible to demean openly, and I apologize for the slurs.

That’s about it for today.

Randomness for 9/17

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1) Parents offer baby-naming rights to corporations.

2) Top 5 Regrets of the Dying.

3) Speed-dating in the Marvel Universe.

4) Eight historic symbols that mean the opposite of what you think.

5) A TED talk about sleep patterns, and it’s only 4 minutes long. Video.

6) I’ve changed my mind: e-books will ruin everything. E-comics allow users to leave comments. Yeah, it’s bad.

7) Why you should never date a writer.

So many subgenres

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At our dinner on Wed, Kurt Busiek mentioned the story of Howard Moskowitz, a market researcher for food companies, and it reminded me that I wanted to post the TED Talk Malcolm Gladwell gave on him.

It’s a long one, about seventeen and a half minutes, but it’s worth watching. For one thing, it’s interesting. For another, it’s funny. For a third, it not only explains why there are so many different varieties of tomato sauce or mustard on the shelves, but why there are so many sub-genres in sf/f (not to mention mystery and romance).

Author photos and online dating profiles

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I’ve been thinking about author photos for a while. Mine is this one:

Author Photo Harry Connolly

Yeah. That’s me. It’s not a great photo, but it’s hard to take a good picture of me. At least it’s better than this one or this one. So it’s not great, but it’s the best of a long day of shots. However, look at this one. I’d love to have a photo like that. Hell, I’d love to have an empty, uncluttered table to work at.

And authors have to fuss a little over their photos. Catherynne Valente wrote a post a few months back about her own picture, and how people thought she looked “mean” because she wasn’t smiling. Jeff VanderMeer took a swipe at the “male author with his arms crossed” pose.

So, hey, maybe I should wipe the smile off my face and cross my arms. Or I should look at stats on what sort of photos are most attractive.

That’s right, that’s the blog for OK Cupid, the online dating site. I’ve linked to them before, because they have a huge data set to draw on, and some of their statistics are pretty interesting.

In studying their profile pictures, they’ve found that men are much more likely to post an unsmiling photo as women (by 61% to 35%). Let’s ignore that flirty Facebook kissy expression; writers, don’t make that face for your book jacket. What’s more, they looked at the number of contacts each user received, broken down by photo type. For women, the flirty face (and smiling) while looking directly at the camera were the best choices. For men, it’s looking away from the camera that gets the most interest, especially if he isn’t smiling. Forget about the abs pictures. I have abs, but you can’t see them under all this damn fat.

Now, obviously this shit doesn’t track one-to-one. OK Cupid users are looking for luuurrrve! (or sex, I guess) and, although OK Cupid has been better in other posts, those stats are all about the heteronormativity. Authors just want to look interesting–or at least, not so crazy that potential readers decided to give their books a pass. But it is an interesting way to look the photos we put out into the world, and the expectations people have for them.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to look over this post on taking an enticing picture. Golden hour, here I come.

Randomness for

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1) Ghosts in the Hollow, a record of abandoned buildings in the Appalachians. Video. Via Cherie Priest.

2) Have some publishing wonkery: “Sell-through” explained.

3) “YOU! The one who is moving now! ANSWER!” Video

4) Revolt in the Fifth Dimension. Video part one, part two. I loved these Spider-man cartoons as a kid, even the weird, trippy space episodes like this one. This clip is worth playing for the music alone.

5) In Legoland space, no one can hear you scream.

6) Do you love Legos and zombies? Well, this link is for you: Video.

7) Oyster beer? I’d try it.

A short, happy story

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The tale of my very first book sale is up on Jim C. Hines’s blog and LiveJournal. For new readers here, it’s not the usual book sale story: It’s a tale of quitting and shame.

Of course, I’m typing this on four hours of sleep so ‘asli lkasj mnfsi lasl jfasi back to bed. Hope everyone is enjoying their day.

Randomness for 9/7

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1) Author believes publishers ghettoize women readers and writers.

2) The Herald-Sun takes a necessary step. Has there been any doubt that this was coming, and had been coming for a long time?

3) Steam Trek, a parody. Video. Funny and cute. This is what people do when they turn off their TVs.

4) The Book Depository becomes even cooler than you thought possible. Live global tracking of book buying.

5) Common myths about good study habits, and how people (not just kids) learn.

6) Part of the 2008 economic meltdown explained in comic form.

7) This may look like a fake commercial from a horror movie, but it’s a real toy ad from the 1970’s. Prepare to feel your skin crawl. Video.

Randomness for 9/6

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1) While I have pretty much given up on DOCTOR WHO, the chances are you haven’t. In recognition of that, a link: Warren Ellis challenges artists to create a photograph/original artwork depicting the 13th (and final) reincarnation of The Doctor. It takes a while for the art to really start coming in, so be sure to skim through the pages to check it out. Some is pretty cool.

2) “Vampire” skull discovered.

3) 600 Hanna Barbera Characters This pretty much has to be viewed at the original size. And I reject the notion that “Snorkle” was the main character on The Banana Splits. I reject it!

4) Brazillian Legolas of the cell phones.

5) A quick summation of the problems inherent in our student loan system.

6) Seanan McGuire, this year’s Campbell Award winner, lays out the dos and don’ts for folks who want to support an author with a new book out. Like her, I would rather people not send me notes about Amazon.com reviews. Unlike her, it’s because I’ve already read them. The other stuff she says is pretty much spot on, too.

7) Oh. My. God. Why didn’t anyone tell me David Fincher was making an animated movie of THE GOON??!! There’s even a trailer already! Video. It looks incredible! WANT!!!

Randomness for 9/2

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1) Blind soccer championships, 2010. Video.

2) Gail Simone wants the comics industry to open their eyes.

3) Paul Krugman notices that Trantor is less dense than the state of New Jersey. That doesn’t even include all those Jersey Devils.

4) Normally, I’m not someone who laughs a crotch-kicks, but this sketch gallery of Batman being hit in the balls is pretty funny, even if just for the facial expressions.

5) What it’s like to be captured by Somali pirates. I put this here mainly for myself, so I can read it later.

6) “You don’t have to read my book to be my friend.”

7) Getting out of jury duty via Facebook.

Randomness for 8/28

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1) Note to shoplifters: Don’t try to rob a store while they’re in the middle of a police charity event.

2) Deep Fried Beer. Linking is not approval.

3) By the time this post goes online, I expect this policy to be rescinded: School segregates class elections by race.

4) Spontaneous badassery.

5) A treehouse for people who love fantasy and need cardio. Lots and lots of cardio.

6) In case you don’t have enough reason to be sick of TWILIGHT, here’s the toilet decal.

7) Alternative Universe movie posters. Brad Pitt as Plastic Man? Tim Curry as the Joker? Love it. via tor.com