shadowkat

This season is so good, and tonight's episode was amongst the best. First off, I continue to adore you, Emma, you do everything I'd have done. And well, Regina or rather Whingina...karma, babe, it's a bitch and it's coming straight for you. Although this episode did a rather good job of layering the character.

( spoilers of course )

Good news for anyone who has ever posted an original work and/or fanfiction or meta on the internet?

From: http://fyeahcopyright.tumblr.com/post/45190020519/things-we-didnt-expect-to-joyfully-type-at-least (OR fandomlawyers) and oh, something you can all thank 50 Shades of Grey for.

Defendants do not and cannot provide any legal authority for the proposition that an earlier version of Ms. Mitchell’s work is now in the “public domain.” They can hardly defend their infringement of Plaintiffs’ copyrights in the Fifty Shades Trilogy by claiming that it is substantially similar to Ms. Mitchell’s own earlier work.

Yes, Universal & their lawyers have basically stated that there is no legal authority for the proposition that fanfic posted online is in the public domain.

How is this relevant to your interests, fanfic writers, and fanartists?

As we posted last week, as a user of the internet, you still own the copyright in your work, even if it is posted online for other people to access, and even if the Terms of Use for the site you’re posting on say that the site has a license to use your work on specified ways.

This right exists, even if it’s based on something someone else wrote; you still hold a copyright in your original, specific words. Online and available does not equal Public Domain.

2. Answers and Questions about Disclaimers - example of a disclaimer: "I don't own anything here, Rights to the House of Mouse and ABC"

You might want to rethink disclaimers. Here's why:

By using this, the author does not state that any copyrights are being abandoned or stories are being placed in the public domain.

ANYWAY, a disclaimer that says “I own nothing” might actually not do anything as a matter of law, according to the Copyright Office, as per Public Domain Sherpa:

There is no specific provision in the copyright law for disclaiming rights in copyrighted works, and of course, no obligation to do so. However, the Copyright Office will record a statement of your intention to relinquish rights in our official records because the document pertains to a copyright within the meaning of the statute. A statement of abandonment should identify the works involved by title and/or registration number. The office does not provide forms for this purpose.

The legal effect of recording a statement of abandonment is not clear. Moreover, its acceptance for recordation in this office should not be construed as approval of the legal sufficiency of its content or its effect on the status or ownership of any copyright.

Even if you use “I own nothing” language a court might not think that’s unequivocal enough to satisfy the vaguries of the statute, especially if the fic author (or fanartist, or vidder) was a teenager or misinformed about what the sentence meant or otherwise didn’t actually mean to place the work in the public domain. Also, if you place a work in the public domain, someone else can come along and, say, submit it to Lulu or Amazon’s self-publishing arm, etc., and give full credit to you, but make money off of the distribution of the story. We can’t imagine many fanfic writers wanting that to happen to something they’ve written. It would be totally legal, though! Look what all the bookstores and publishers do with novels that are old enough to put in the public domain. They add zombies, vampires, sex scenes, pretty covers, or a vlogging platform (often getting very creative) and then they’re able to make money off of it.
If you don’t want that to happen to your fanfic, then don’t say your fanfic is released into the public domain.


However, what people generally mean when they add disclaimers to fic is “please don’t sue me for creating things based on your characters.” This myth that you will be sued for fic is still pervasive in fandom, over a decade after these disclaimers became a common thing.
For some people, putting disclaimers on their fics is at least partly a reaction to Warner Bros. and J.K. Rowling sending out Cease and Desist letters to websites publishing R/NC-17 rated fic. (This is actually remarkably close to how I fell into fandom. I was 16 at the time -HL.)

The thing is, these disclaimers aren’t legally necessary. The nature of fic means that the author is using source material that they did not create, so if the ficcer makes that clear by the summary and/or tags, starting a disclaimer with a “who owns what” statement is redundant.

The second part, the “no infringement is intended” bit, is what everyone thinks is important. The legal analysis gets long, but it boils down to the fact that fic could be infringing on copyright, except that fair use means it isn’t, which means that there is no liability for the infringement (if any).

Yippee Kia Yay!

My views on this have finally been validated, after fighting people on and offline for years. Fanfic is only a violation of copyright - if you are continuing someone else's story for profit without their permission and using their trademarked characters and world. But just because you posted it as fanfic and it's for free - does not mean that anyone can take or use it, it's not in the public domain - it is your story, just as a spec script is the property of the person who wrote the spec script or a spec novel (a la novel based on an original work - sent to the publisher as a potential sequel is the intellectual property of the person who created it.
In short, selenak's fanfic about Once Upon A Time is her's. Disney can't grab it. It's not in the public domain unless she expressly states it is (Do NOT Do THAT!) and you require her permission to use it, if you don't get it - you are infringing on copyright.

And people, friends of mine, we now appear to have an actual court case stating it.

Go here for original links and notice.

2. Worried that I've slipped a disc or have a bulging disc in my spine - because I appear to have a sciatic nerve issue. This means doctor. But my doc is an internist and sucks at referrals regarding insurance. He refers me to people solely in Manhattan, and not carriers of my insurance.
So I don't know what to do. Hence procrastinating and hoping stupid thing will go away on its own without a physical therapist. Parents are suggesting doctor and do what I can.

3. Apparently Veronica Mars Kickstarter Campaign to Become a Movie
is getting as much fan support as Firefly did, possibly more. It's passed the 2.5 million mark.
I didn't know there were that many VM fans? Neither did WB apparently. Gotta love the internet - it makes guerilla marketing so much easier. Actually I think the internet was made for marketing people - they don't have to leave home - or dress up, just sit all day in pajamas and post stuff.

That said? Veronica Mars did sort of leave off on a cliff-hanger for both Logan and Keith Mars characters. It's pure noire - which is why it was so controversial with the fandom, a lot of fans don't know how to deal with noire - noire for one thing doesn't end well, romantic relationships tend to be dark and twisted, and you often aren't supposed to like the hero/heroine - they are anti-heroes. Also noire is by its very nature politically incorrect. Actually most art and expression tends to be... or the better stuff at any rate. Those no such thing as nice art, well there is but it tends to be fairly forgettable and bland.

I wouldn't mind a movie. It's amongst the few tv series that I think they could do one for...since the storyline was not restricted to "coming of age" or "high school setting" and you could realistically have an adult Veronica Mars. Also the series star did age well. Not true of everyone.

4. Dead tired. Week has been a tough one. Training was harder than work in some respects. Imagine being stuck with the female version of Archie Bunker for four days? Very sweet, loves animals, but still Archie Bunker. Beginning to feel sorry for Meathead. (If you don't know what I'm talking about - look up All in the Family by Norman Lear).

Anyhow, taking a break from people for two days. Crashing. Have to do laundry, so there is that.

1. Day 09 – A book you thought you wouldn’t like but ended up loving

Eh. What often happens is I'll hate a book the first time I try it and then will pick it up months later and enjoy it. It's so dependent on my mood. And this has happened with so many books over the years...that I'm sort of drawing a blank.

It surprised me that I liked James Joyce's Ulysess as much as I did. It also surprised me that I enjoyed..Harry Potter, which I'd avoided when it was first released, because of the hype. A co-worker talked me into trying it. Loved it to pieces. Same thing happened with 50 Shades of Gray actually - thought I'd despise it. Tried a sample and it hit my mood - it was like reading an absurd parody of all the bad contemporary romance novels and fanfic that I'd read in the last three years. I was laughing my head off, and oddly moved by the crazy hero of the piece. Granted I was the only I've met who saw it that way, but such is life.

I think...it surprised me a bit that I fell in love with Dorothy Dunnett's Chronicles of Lymond - not my genre. Also surprised me that I loved Song of Ice and Fire, although love is too strong a word.


( rest of the days )

2. TV SHOW MEME: Day 12 - An episode you've watched more than 5 times

This category is much easier than the last one under the TV Meme. Less controversial.

Which one to choose? Because here's the thing, I've watched a lot of episodes more than 5 times. Actually I think I've watched both Buffy and Angel more than 5 times. Although granted not the entire series, there are quite a few episodes I've skipped over after the first two viewings (such as pretty much most of Angel S1 and S3). When I say I was an insane Buffy fan, I'm not kidding. Granted...I had good company.

So which one to pick? I think I have Fool for Love and Beneath You memorized. There's a reason for that - both episodes worked for me. Another episode that I have memorized is Restless - which I thought was a crazy puzzle with lots of forshadowing for future episodes. Loved the fact that the writers did reference Restless in various ways, but disappointed that it wasn't as neatly planned as I thought. (Discovered this through interviews...which pretty much goes to show you, you should not read writer interviews. I don't anymore. I really do not want to know what the writers are thinking or what they intended. I agree with the writer of The Kite Runner who stated that once the story is out there it becomes an interactive work of art, readers minds are interacting and perceiving bits and pieces of it differently. Something he may have meant literally or thought nothing of at the time, a reader may come up with a brilliant metaphor for. Often, he stated the readers come up with better stuff than he ever intended. The problem with our current culture - is there is too much interaction with the writers/creators of the art we enjoy. We spend too much time interviewing and talking with them or reading their interviews - to the point that we only see the Doylist version and not the Watsonian. I prefer the Watsonian, it's more often than not, more interesting and compelling, not to mention satisfying - than the Doylist. I lost my Buffy fandom by reading Whedon and various other writer's and actor's interviews and listening to commentary. One of the pitfalls of becoming an obsessed fan is that you feel this need or compulsion to read every interview or bit you can find on your favorite series...until eventually the writers/actors/collaborators views either piss you off or disappoint you. It will eventually happen. It's inevitable. It was a mistake that I'm attempting to avoid repeating. That said - I love Neil Gaiman's blog more than I like his books...so there are exceptions to this rule. LOL!)

Sorry for the aside.

I think I watched the final scenes of Beneath You a hundred times, almost killing the DVD with the rewinding. It's a weird episode. The tonal quality doesn't quite match. We have bright techn-color, then faded blue light...with everything washed out. It is almost as if you are watching two different shows at the same time. This happened quite a bit with Buffy and I always found it compelling and jarring at the same time. Almost as if we had two different production writing staffs. Production quality sometimes varied from episode to episode - some had better quality than others. Which is understandable. But when it happened in the same episode...I was thrown by it. Examples? Seeing Red (which is an episode that is admittedly very hard to watch multiple times but it does have that weird tonal shift in quality), Beneath You, Fool for Love, actually a lot of the Spike centric episodes for some reason, which may explain part of my obsession with the character?

At any rate the ending of Beneath You is pure poetry, a prose poem delivered as monologue. Marsters delivers it well..in a restrained performance. And the words ...can mean many things. You can literally interpret it various ways. Hence the rewatching. I tended to rewatch episodes that could be interpreted more than one way. (Seeing Red and Lies My Parents Told Me - are difficult episodes to re-watch - but also fit in that category. You can interpret both multiple ways.) This may explain why I was obsessed with the series - I like things that you can watch a million times and see something new, interpret differently each and every time you watch it. Particularly things that deal with moral quandry's or emotional arcs of characters. I'm not really a plot person - more character oriented, so the episodes that I got obsessed with were about characters.

I remember re-watching the Angel episode "Destiny" multiple times for much the same reasons. Also re-watched "Home". Once More With Feeling was rewatched multiple times, along with Tabuleh Rasa, HUSH, and Intervention. As great as The Body was...it couldn't be interpreted in multiple ways and it was too bloody painful to watch it more than once, unless of course you like bawling your eyes out.

Buffy had a lot of episodes that you could look at it in more than one way...which is also why I joined the fandom and got involved in writing and discussing it online. The episodes I watched more than five times - had one thing in common - they could be interpreted multiple ways and be discussed to death.

( the rest of the days )

Once Upon a Time rocked tonight - surprise, surprise, it basically gave me everything I wanted in one episode. Amazing. And answered several questions, along with filling a few plot-holes that I never thought they'd answer.

This just does not happen on tv shows people. Normally they drag this stuff out for three episodes. Rarely do we get what we got in this one episode. (See LOST, Alias, BSG, Buffy, Angel, and pretty much everything else for examples. Not to mention S1 of Once Upon a Time.)

Am impressed. Love the episode...it satisfied all my story kinks big time. Well except for one too many commercials (evil marketing people there's no stopping them) which I could have done without and well the side story with Regina and Belle. Regina and Belle are beginning to grate on my nerves again. But the side story was minor...so we can ignore that for now.

( spoilers of course )

Well, I've hit the offensive Gwen arc on Merlin. Flist you were right to be offended. IT's beyond bad. It's repetitive and cliche. Ugh. Tell me it gets better? There isn't that many episodes left, so I have my doubts. Can totally see why this is the last season, the stupid writers have run out of ideas. Morgana is beginning to remind me of Wile E. Coyote with Arthur as the Road Runner.

( eh vague spoilers )

1. Beautiful day today, 50 degrees, sky a pristine blue, not a spot of clouds until evening. So took a rather long walk and ended up buying bed linings at Macy's in Downtown Brooklyn, which is a poor cousin to the Manhattan version.

2. Day 04 – Favorite book of your favorite series

The book meme from hell continues. I think this is easy only if you don't read that much or that varied.

Yes, I choose Harry Potter as favorite series but don't really have a favorite book in it. Like the series more as a whole.

So...

* Dorothy Dunnett's Chronicles of Lymond: Checkmate - the last book in the series is my favorite, for many reasons, mainly though the political maneuvering and how the heroine, the hero's wife, Phillippa manages to unravel his past history and discover who his father truly was.
She saves him in the book at great cost to herself, and sacrifice, which I found rather fascinating.

*Jim Butcher's Dresden Files - two favorites Dead Beat about Harry's father issues, and the wonderful Changes - where various plot points and revelations are made and resolved, opening up brand new ones.

* A Song of Ice and Fire by George RR Martin - Storm of Swords - that book has so many twists and turns and really fleshes out several of the characters, while getting rid of several characters that I'd gotten weary of, or changing them in a rather interesting way.

* Rachel Morgan/The Hollows series by Kim Harrison - The Outlaw Demon Wails and Pale Demon - for the exploration of the demon/elf war and the intriguing love/hate friendship between Rachel and Trent, that goes back to their childhood.

( the rest of the days )

3. Day 07 - Least favorite episode of your favorite TV show

I like this meme much better.

Least favorite Buffy episode...ah there are so many to choose from. But the only one that really has no redeeming value in my opinion and truly screwed up the arc, is ...As You Were. At the time it aired, way back in 2002, I did my best to fanwank the heck out of it. Because it should have been brilliant, it should have been the counter-part to "Into the Woods". In fact to see how As You Were failed, all you have to do is look at Into the Woods and what was done right.
By no means a perfect episode, Into the Woods looks rather brilliant in comparison to As You Were.
And that's saying something.

I don't dislike As You Were because I'm a fan of Spike or a fan of Spuffy. But rather...for the following reasons:

* The demon egg plot came out of nowhere. Unlike Riley and the vamp whores in Into the Woods - which had been built up to over the course of at least four episodes, the demon egg bit dropped in out of the sky with Riley. There was no build up. Suddenly Spike is smuggling demon eggs in and out of his crypt, while he's having sex with Buffy either in his bed or above ground? Alrighty then. It's not that I don't think Spike would smuggle demon eggs, but this comes out of nowhere.
And it's never really addressed again, except as a joke.

* The monster that the demon eggs turn into is amongst the lamest monsters on the planet. Sam and Riley describe it as a scourge that killed an entire crew, yet it looks like the creature from the black lagoon, except less real. And they defeat it fairly easily. Hardly a dastardly weapon. After half a season with the Trio, who are actually more creepy and frightening than the demons or demon eggs or Spike for that matter, it was hard to take Sam and Riley's mission seriously.

* Sam and Riley act literally like Action Figures. Actually Action Figures have more life and are less stiff then these two. I've seen both actors in other things - this wasn't their fault. It was the writing and direction. Here - they came across as Mary and Marty Stu get married and take on monsters. Proof that writers should never write for characters they have crushes on, at least not without supervision.

* This episode will forever be known for the immortal Spike line: "Slayer, if I knew you were coming I'd have baked a cake". Proof that no one edited or proofed this climatic episode.

That's not all...we also have the chat between Willow and Sam about Dark Magic which is filled with cliches, and makes no sense - because why on earth would Willow confide in Sam or discuss such things with her?

The only good thing about the episode was the Xander/Anya scenes and they are actually the only characters that work in this episode. But even their scenes at this point are somewhat repetitive, more fighting, more listening to Xander's relatives fight, more worrying over the wedding. If you hadn't figured out by now that the wedding was not going to happen, you weren't paying attention.

Fans tried to make this episode work...in meta, in fanfic, etc, but it just doesn't. And it really needed to - for the rest of the season to work. If it had been written better or even directed better...it could have worked. There were ways they could have fixed it. Dropped hints about Spike smuggling the eggs earlier...maybe in Older and Far Away or Doublemeat Palace or even Dead Things?
It's almost as if the writers hadn't really plotted out the season ahead of time, they just knew the gist of it.


( rest of the days )

1. I'm still getting annoying pharmaceutical marketing spam on my lj - now one daily, so am trying to do cross-posting from DW again to see if this makes a difference.

2. Eh, someone, I ganked it from frenchani but I have no idea if she invented it, has come up with a 30 day book meme to equal the 30 day tv meme. I think I like the tv meme better, I'm less indecisive about television than I am books. Books? I read a lot. Can't remember half of it. And can't choose which one I loved or which was most memorable, and it tends to depend on my mood. Also my memory of books is wonky - I remember the Great Gatsby which I read over 30 years ago, but I can't remember the book I read two months ago. In short, I've read more books and far more widely than tv shows.

So with the caveat that I'm agnostic about my opinions and while most likely change my mind next week...here goes nothing:

Day 01 – The best book you read last year

The Fault in Our Stars by John Green - ( Read more... )

( the rest of the days, which aren't done yet, and just so you know...it's highly unlikely I'll be able to answer day 30 in this lifetime. )

3.Day 04 - Your favorite show ever

Buffy the Vampire Slayer
(Angel the series - sort of necessary to watch with it, just to give it texture.)

( Read more... )

4. Watching the State of the Union Address or half-watching. Not a huge fan of these things. Less talking, more doing. Never been a fan of grand-standing and marketing and speechifying. I don't think I quite understand it...I'm the sort who likes to do things quietly behind the scenes, where they get mysteriously done and no one knows I did.

5. Finished Judith McNaught's Paradise. Eh. Liked it well enough, but I Don't recommend. It's a best-seller. About the VP of an upper class Department Store Chain in Chicago and a Corporate Raider who is a self-made man. 1980s. Enuf said.

Speaking of best-seller's and books, I sent my book to another friend to read. Only first 104 pages. Not quite sure why. I don't know what I should do with it I guess. Told her that. And she made an interesting comment.

I was contemplating the whole self-publishing thing and the feedback you have been getting. I guess my question is what your ultimate goal is. If you love to write and can't not, then there's no problem. But if you are hoping to create best-sellers, then you might need to integrate the feedback you're getting.

But it's completely up to what your call is for you-and everyone is different...not that you haven't considered this all before....it's just my 2 cents :-)

( Read more... )

And we're back to below 30 temps. It's 22 F, or below 0 C. Wind Chill today was in the teens. (Still not as bad as it gets in the midwest and northeast, where it often got to 30 below 0, and I'd look at the weatherman and think, seriously? (well not seriously - we didn't use that word in the 1990s and 80s) When it gets below 0 , who cares - it's cold and I don't want to venture outside. Feel much the same way when it got above 100 - it was like a competition or something - how high can we go?
It was 115 yesterday, today it is relatively chilly at a 105.

Temp in apartment fluctuates between 64-74 degrees.

Anyhow, just finished watching a rather fun and mindless juke-box musical flick, entitled Rock of Ages. Needless to say I liked it a bit more than the NY Times Reviewer - although generally speaking I agree with the reviewer and I'm also not a)film critic, b) had low expectations, c) saw it on DVD not in the theater (so paid less), and d) happen to like cheesy 1980s rock ditties by bands like Foreigner, Journey, REO Speedwagon, Twisted Sister and Poison. The film is based on the Broadway Smash Juke-Box Musical "Rock of Ages" - that reminds me a great deal of Mamma Mia in that it's just a party musical. In short, just plain mindless fun.

Highlight? Alec Baldwin and Russell Brand singing REO Speedwagon's "I Can't Fight This Feeling Anymore" as they realize they are in love. Also Tom Cruise singing "Steel Cowboy". Cruise is amazingly good as the whispering, somewhat crazed "Stacee Jaaxx". Say what you will about Cruise, he can act. Baldwin just mostly phones it in.

It's hilarious in places, and a lot of fun. Plus the tunes are just hummable, earworm, ditties.
A lot of the 1980s music was great hummable earworm stuff. I love hard rock 80s music.

My favorite bands of the 80s, though, weren't really represented.

* Depech Mode
* Berlin
* Rush - Today's Tom Sawyer is a classic
* The Cure
* The Clash
* The Smiths
* The Moody Blues
* Duran Duran - Hungry Like a Wolf and A View to a Kill
* Led Zepplin
* Queen

Although I admittedly was into REO Speedwagon, Journey, Foreigner, and others of that ilk. Didn't buy their albums though - I taped off of other people's CD's and the radio. By 1987, I had over 1000 tapes. Got rid of all of them recently - they don't hold up well. Apparently records hold up the best - which no one knew back then. We all thought CD's did, silly us. In fact, all these people thought CD's had better sound than records, now they are all saying the opposite, and denying they ever said anything different.

If you decide to ever rent this musical - it helps if you happen to like cheesy 1980s music like "I Can't Stop This Feeling Anymore" or "Sister Christian" or "Don't Stop Believing". If you don't?
Don't wast your time. In short, leave the brain at home and just go with it. It's like the musical Burlesque and Mamma Mia - it ain't looking for any awards, it's just having fun.

Me by email to coworker: So turns out that Tom Baker was the 4th Doctor Who and Davison from All Creatures Great and Small was the 5th. Which Doctor appears in the book you are reading? Guessing 10? [Courtesy of online flist, I didn't google it.]

Coworker: Well it was published in 2012 but the companions are Zoe and Jamie, so Doctor Who 2.

Me: Wow. They are actually writing books for Doctors from that long ago?

Coworker: It's lost on me ...I just see David Tennant or Tom Baker in the role. Apparently the Doctor can only regenerate 11-12 times.

Me: Sort of interesting that - a good way around actor unavailability. If an actor wants out, the show doesn't end we can just have the Doctor regenerate...so it can go on forever.

Coworker: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_actors_who_have_played_the_Doctor - there's over a 100 people who have played Doctor Who.

Me: 100? So apparently Doctor Who is like daytime serials...it doesn't care. Someone leaves, we just replace them. Someone dies, we just replace them. The actor's availability has little affect on the fictional character's survival. Neat that.

Coworker:Johanna Lumely one of my favorite Brit-com actresses played it.

ME: There was actually a female Doctor Who?

Co-worker: See the link I provided.

Me: Oh, not official, she played an Alternative 13 in a parody of Doctor Who in the Red Nose charity function. Doesn't count.

Co-worker: That's why there's only 100.

Me (he actually counted them???): So I guess you just subtracted the unofficial ones?

[On a personal note - 70 year old mother called:

Mother: I can compete with you on stars.
Me: What?
Mother: And I'd win.
Me: What?
Mother: I tripped over the garden hose and my face got butchered by the house. Scraped my nose.
My cheek. 12 stitches inside and outside of my eyebrow.
Me: Wait, what happened again?
Mother: on the way back from picking up the morning paper, my foot got caught in the garden hose and I hit the wall of our house hard. Had to wake up your father to get him to take me to the emergency room.
Me: Any broken bones? Sprains?
Mother: No. Just 12 stitches. My eye is swollen and black and I look a mess. Plus I'm caught up on all my tv shows - should have done something yesterday and done the tv stuff later, I guess.
Me: Well, thank god nothing is broken or sprained.
Mother: My knee is badly bruised though. The left knee, they don't think the bone is bruised.
Me: Good. So just the stitches then. Does it hurt?
Mother: Not really. No headache or anything. He did numb it, but that would have worn off by now.
I'll have a worse scar than you do - I can compete with you on "scars" and I'd win.
Me: Oh, "scars", thought you said "stars" - had no idea what you were talking about.
Well yes on the scar, not on the rest - I had a sprained ankle, banged up knee, broken finger, and a headache with the six stitches...it's going to hurt like hell though tomorrow.
Mother: Not so far.
Me: Let's hope.

Sigh. I'm sort of glad I live over 100,000 miles away...on the other hand, sort of wish I was there so I could help.]

1. Watched this week's The Good Wife - which apparently shocked some folks on lj - when one of the lead characters admitted to being an atheist. (Actually she admitted to this about three seasons ago, but apparently I'm the only one who noticed? Here she merely does it in front of reporters.) They think this is a rarity on American TV. Folks, you watch too many procedurals, fantasy and sci-fi shows. Most "mainstream network" tv shows either don't address religion at all, or if they do - there's always a great and nice character who is atheist. It's really not that rare. The religious shows of the 1980s-1990s are a thing of the past. I wonder sometimes how we see each other, and other countries - we are so tribal a species, that our perception of people who live outside our neighborhood, country, vicinity seems to be somewhat warped. What I've noticed interacting with people around the world online, through letters in the 1980s, and my own nomadic travels is people really aren't that different around the world. We share more in common than we wish to admit. The US really isn't as religious and into God as you think - yeah, the National News Media leads you to believe it is - but they sort of embellish the truth to get ratings and sell papers. Journalistic integrity, my foot. Church attendance has been down for quite some time in traditional churches and religions. And it's always varied. The number of out-spoken atheists I know in the US is about equal to the number of religious theists. Actually, I struggle, because I'm an odd theist - I believe in a God, but not in the God the atheists don't believe in and the theist's believe in. I've given up trying to explain it. You ever get it or you don't. Personally, I agree with Alicia Florick, it really doesn't matter. (Well unless of course you are using your religion as an excuse to hurt others, that is. Then yes, we have a problem. But that's really not the religion's fault so much as the interpreters or practioner's)

At any rate, it was amongst the better episodes.

( The Good Wife - spoilers )

2. Brain is still playing with Kim Harrison's latest Hollows novel Ever After, wish there were more Harrison fans on flist, or any for that matter. I have Dresden and Martin fans, but no Harrison fans dang it. This is one of those stories I want to read fanfic for. She's teasing me.

* Harrison does a fascinating and innovative bit on what it means to be a slave or enslaved, and how we demonize or belittle those that we disempower or enslave and abuse. She shows the complexity of the relationship, how it comes about, and more importantly what it does to both sides and the tragic ending. In some respects Harrison's Rachel Morgan tale feels allegorical or like a complex metaphor of various ways humans have enslaved each other over time.

I wish her writing technique was a bit better - because this would be an excellent book if it was.

The only other writers that I've seen tackle the topic of slavery and its long-term after-effect half as well are Toni Morrison in Beloved and Octavia Butler in Kindred.

It doesn't go away. This is an evil that will taint every generation after you for hundreds of years.

* She also tackles racism in an interesting manner - discussing how we demonize the other by their traits or what we believe their traits to be, and place value judgements upon those traits. And even the effects of ingrained or internalized racism - and what that does to an individual, how it tears at them.

As a biologist she knows that there are different traits between people, but is also wise enough to know that they do not mean one person or individual is better or superior to another. We are different and equal. And this theme is expressed deftly and subtly through her books, as well as gradually.

* In addition she paints a universe that is not black and white or morally clear-cut. People do horrible things, and wonderful things for various reasons, you can't neatly define them.

Would write a lengthy meta, but seriously what is the point? I'd only be talking to myself. ;-)