alright guys im gonna talk about a comic called Monstress now because its fucking amazing
right, so its basically steampunk fantasy in an alternate 1900′s Asia, about monsters and humans and gods and morality and shit like that, and if you’re not already interested, I have more:
so basically right off the bat you see a hell of a lot of diversity
it’s a story fully driven by women. its almost astonishing, there are no main characters that are men, and very few side characters. they arent condemned or anything, we just dont have many male characters. its never addressed (as far as ive read so far), so i’m guessing the authors just decided to flip the gender tables and give men the treatment women in fantasy usually get. and its kind of refreshing, honestly.
several characters are missing limbs, including the main character
and still kicking ass
theres also a mute woman who uses sign language to communicate
(also there are no relationships established yet where i am, but the author is known for including LGBT+ in her writing, so im guessing there will be lesbians)
and for the love of god, LOOK AT THE ART
these arent even covers, they’re just panels from the comic!
and if you’re still not sold, have this panel:
its literally just ten bucks for the huge first volume, please go pick it up its so good!
India’s rape crisis has a new female face, but it’s not what you think.
A new comic book, Priya’s Shakti, is making waves in India for its unconventional heroine: a rape victim-turned-superhero who fights gendered violence with the help of the Hindu goddess Parvati.
According to the comic’s website, the storyline focuses on Priya, a mortal woman who experienced a brutal rape and ensuing social stigma and isolation. Inspired by Parvati, Priya breaks her silence and reveals her assault, encouraging people around the world to take action against sexual violence.
Maggie Stiefvater recently posted about YA as a genre:
I did a poll last year on my readers’ ages. I got 10k responses. Overwhelmingly they were 18 and up, with the vast majority in the 18-35 range. From a professional writer’s side of the table, I write stories that will please my existing reader base, and my readers are aging. They began reading me in high school and kept reading me. So I age up, up, up — until one could argue I’ve been writing adult books for years now.
But also, I write for me. Stories that intrigue me. Stories that are about questions I’m grappling with, or situations I’ve lived through, or themes I want to live with for a year. And I’m getting older. I began publishing YA when I was 25.
That means I was processing my young adult years. I wrote for myself, which is to say, I was also writing for other young people. However, as I get older, if I still write for myself, without considering my audience … I keep writing for the person I am processing.
If I want to write for teens, I will need to add in a conscious filter to be sure I’m writing a YA story. Because otherwise, guess who loves my books? 18-35 year olds. SHOCKING
YA is no longer an age range, it’s a philosophy, it’s a promise of a certain kind of character-driven story, and that’s why readers come to it no matter what age they are. We [need to] find another way to label them so we understand that these books embody that immediate, close POV, progressive, genre-combining power that draws readers to YA now, without taking teen shelfspace.
I say this at every event I do these days: YA is changing! It’s not fiction for teenagers anymore, because older people read it too. There needs to be a distinction between ‘teen’ and ‘YA’ fiction. We’re in a place where books get criticised for having characters who ‘act like children’, in a book for children, about children, because there are so many books about early-twenties characters in the YA section, that it skews what the genre should be.
A significant subset of YA books are in that genre because there’s no other category where young writers can publish the kinds of books they want to write, without calling it YA. This is really frustrating, because it limits the type of books I can write.
I write characters, not age-ranges. I would write the same protagonist in the same way if they were 17 or 21 – because I’m writing a character who I want to write and read about, who I can relate to, who experiences the world in the way that a 26-year-old like me does now. But there’s currently an upper limit on the age I can give that character, because if they were a few years old, what genre would it be – adult sci-fi? That’s not where my readers are. That’s not where readers who are looking for the kind of books that I am writing are going.
In ten years, will I be writing YA? I think I’ll be writing the same kind of books, but they won’t be called YA anymore. There will be a new category that makes more sense of the chaotic jumble of books being marketed at some nebulous demographic none of us quite understand. The genre is in huge flux right now, which is incredibly exciting from a writing perspective – we’re shaping the literary landscape into what we want it to be.
I don’t have an answer to this – I just wanted to share some of my thoughts here, and Maggie’s, who consistently tweets about this in a thoughtful way that makes me think. Maggie also mentioned some books she loves which are adult but embody the tone of what we currently think of as YA genre (….for now.)
Another observation: I’ve actually read two adult novels in the past year’s time that are classified as adult and felt like YA (philosophically, tonally. They were All the Birds in the Sky, by @charliejane and The Watchmaker of Filigree Street by @natasha_pulley. They belong roundly in adult, but I think they’re also what adult YA readers are looking for when they come to YA. I think …
This was a huge eye-opening moment for me, because a few of these are my favourite books, and this is why I love them. So I thought I’d share some other books which feel like YA, but are shelved as Adult fiction (but I hugely recommend The Watchmaker of Filigree Street too.)
Record of a Spaceborn Few by Becky Chambers – Becky Chambers never fail to make my heart brim with love for humans and her wonderful visions of aliens. Her books always offer such unique and optimistic looks on difficult issues like gender, social equality, racism and hope. I wouldn’t mind living in her future, which isn’t something I say often about science fiction.
The Gloaming by Kirsty Logan – Magic and fairy tales, families and death, stone and water and bones. The writing is so poetic and easy to read, and I swallowed it up.
A Conspiracy of Truths by Alexandra Rowland – An old man is trapped in prison, accused of witchcraft. An old man who has spent his life learning how to tell stories, and manipulate perceptions. An old man who will do anything to get free. An old man, who single-handedley manages to take down an entire government from a prison cell…..
Sorcerer to the Crown by Zen Cho – This is the perfect mix of the magical regency London of Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell, Georgette Heyer’s shamelessly trope-filled romances, and the charm and relationship dynamics of Sabriel. The whole book make me squirm with delight – from the UNICORNS to GIANT FURIOUS MERMAIDS to the CLOUD FLYING. Just – I want to tell you about every scene, because every scene is a delight. If you’re looking for more diverse fantasy, then this is the place to look.
Do you agree that there’s such a thing as ‘YA style’ adult fiction? What books do you think fit that tone? (Because I want to read them all.)
eddie starts doing his gonzo woke journalism thing again, but like, he and venom are also systematically working their way through eating millionaires, wall street bankers and politicians.
by day: earnest interview with protesters and heads of movements
by night: just straight up swallow a dude whole in his penthouse and then get fucked by venom on the plush bed nearby
im a movie genius
To scratch those particular itches, may I recommend the following fics:
Muckraker! by Orphan – case fic that follows an Eat the Rich plot, no actual smut but the plot and the social commentary and the understated romance is so good you don’t really miss it, also some very nice hurt/comfort thrown in for free
How to take care of your human and Understanding your Symbiote by Darke_Eco_Freak – I think the people that get eaten are a mob boss and a human trafficker but the cannibalism scenes are fantastically written and it’s very much date night for them including getting sloshed on the expensive booze their victims have lying around
Rousseau is Right by Skull_Bearer – a series of which I’ve admittedly only read the first work so far but that one was a lot of fun for just about 1000 words, so the rest can only get even better
Muckraker by Orphan is *bananas* it’s exactly what I want in a Venom fix and so beautifully written! Rex fucking seconded!
African-Americans have long pushed back against the notion that
whiteness, and “white medieval history,” are the full story of America’s
foundation. African Americans resisted and subverted the dominant myths
of the nation. Looking at these acts of resistance can tell us a great
deal about alternative—but equally valid—ways of perceiving American
history.
To read more about ways in which African Americans strove
to strove to forge a more comprehensive, difficult, and ultimately
positive conception of the medieval world, read Dr. Vernon’s new book The Black Middle Ages: Race and the Construction of the Middle Ages. It is available through Palgrave McMillan, or on Amazon.com now.
“Steven Caple Jr., the director of Jordan’s next film, Creed II, calls this moment of black solidarity in Hollywood a ‘movement.’ During the filming last March, Jordan and Caple often talked about black historical figures whose stories might make a great movie or TV series, like Fred Hampton, the Black Panther who was murdered in his apartment in 1969, or Mansa Musa, a Malian historical figure of the 14th century known to many African-Americans but virtually unknown to white people. Musa was reputedly one of the richest men in the world. ‘When people look at black people it’s hard for them to think beyond slavery,’ says Caple.
“’We don’t have any mythology, black mythology, or folklore,’ Jordan explains to me as we cruise past billboards for Atlanta and HBO’s Ballers in West Hollywood. DJ Khaled’s ‘I’m the One’ is on the car stereo, and I notice Jordan’s iPhone alias is ‘Bruce Leroy,’ the black martial-arts hero of the 1985 film The Last Dragon. ‘Creating our own mythology is very important because it helps dream,” says Jordan. “You help people dream.’”
Context. I’m assuming he meant we don’t have any Black mythology/folklore in TV and films. It’s half true. There have been movies made, but it’s only a very small handful. Films like Eve’s Bayou, Daughters of the Dust, and Beloved (an adaptation of Toni Morrison’s book of the same name) quickly come to mind that contain folkloric/mythological elements.
The way the writer for Vanity Fair left his statement lingering and didn’t ask further questions so he could fully flesh out his thoughts without leaving one to guess what he was referring to since the mention of popular tv show billboards followed his statement is failed journalism. White journalism. TF we need to know about what was on the radio and his phone in that moment?!…
Here’s some further readings about Black folklore / mythology:
The tweet that mentions the film, To Sleep With Anger, here’s the full thread. Insightful and very detailed.
The Origin of Zombies and More: “Zombie folklore has been around for centuries in Haiti, possibly originating in the 17th century when West African slaves were brought in to work on Haiti’s sugar cane plantations. Brutal conditions left the slaves longing for freedom. According to some reports, the life—or rather afterlife—of a zombie represented the horrific plight of slavery.” (Source: www.history.com)
“The Tragic, Forgotten History of Zombies”: The horror-movie trope owes its heritage to Haitian slaves, who imagined being imprisoned in their bodies forever. (Source: The Atlantic)
Anansi is an Akan folktale character. He often takes the shape of a spider and is considered to be the spirit of all knowledge of stories. He is also one of the most important characters of West African and Caribbean folklore. (wikipedia)
A Boo Hag is a mythical creature in the folklore of Gullah culture. It is a regionalized version of the Hag myth. According to the legend, Boo Hags are similar to vampires. (wikipedia)
The ancient Egyptians famously gave us paper and the pyramids, but were also early adopters of the stripy sock.
Scientists at the British Museum have developed pioneering imaging to discover how enterprising Egyptians used dyes on a child’s sock, recovered from a rubbish dump in ancient Antinoupolis in Roman Egypt, and dating from 300AD.
New multispectral imaging can establish which dyes were used – madder (red), woad (blue) and weld (yellow) – but also how people of the late antiquity period used double and sequential dying and weaving, and twisting fibres to create myriad colours from their scarce resources.
forgot to say that, without Howl chasing girls and Sophie resenting him for it, the film completely erases part of the point of Sophie being old. Wynne Jones is using an idea that Beauvoir talked about – that being an old woman is both tragic (as we lose male attention/attractiveness) and freeing (as we are freed from the male gaze). the idea is that with being old comes liberation, and the true meaning of what it is to be a woman, as society no longer forces gender norms on us.
Sophie is free from Howl’s attentions and therefore safe from harm (a big part of the book is the fact that Sophie believes he eats women’s hearts, and him chasing girls proves this to her). she takes solace in the fact that she’s old, and finds it freeing. when she learns more about Howl (notably: that he doesn’t eat hearts and that he’s not evil), she starts to curse her age and resent him chasing girls. BUT she remains old OF HER OWN VOLITION – Howl notes that she’s perpetuating the spell by wishing to remain “in disguise”. there are SO many layers to this, and lots to do with gender politics – if she’s still old Sophie can’t get hurt, she likes the freedom, etc. but of course on a personal level being old is her denying her feelings for Howl, and also a representation of her low self esteem – being old is a defence mechanism and protection, both on a gender level and a personal one.
and the film kinda… loses this? the only thing that remains is being old = low self esteem. which really sucks. because there’s SO MUCH MORE to Sophie being old in the book (perspective I already mentioned), and a HUGE amount of this is gender politics. that the film just erases.
Also there’s the subversion of that in the book. Sophie’s belief that she’s safe from Howl, isn’t quite true because he fell in love with her while she was under the spell (and in the book, there’s no switching between looking young and old. Sophie is looking ninety the entire time, and Howl falls in love anyway.)
Also, her belief that being old means she can’t go to her stepmother or her sisters, that they’d fail to recognize her or reject her, is also unfounded. Fanny almost immediately recognizes her at the end of the book, and hugs her and cries over her and asks why Sophie disappeared. Sophie’s belief that the love of her family, friends and even her romantic interests is somehow conditional on her appearance is shown to be completely false at the end, which I think is absolutely beautiful.
Like, there’s definitely gender politics and commentary going on about beauty and youth and age and the male gaze and male violence going on, but there’s also this message about how love, real love, transcends all of that.
I actually adore the movie on its own merits, but I think it absolutely did a disservice to Sophie as a character. When I was doing a reread last month, what hit me was that Sophie is every bit as much of a volatile emotional disaster as Howl is, and that’s pretty heckin’ great.
Howl is a pissy, dramatic asshole even when he’s at his best. He dissolves into green slime when his hair looks wrong. He deals with his problems by getting falling-over drunk and makes the walls shake every time he sneezes just so everyone will take pity on him. He’s a self-proclaimed coward who has to trick himself into taking responsibility for anything.
Movie Sophie deals with this as well as she can. She learns to look past his drama and sees his tender heart and noble intentions. She becomes the mature one in the castle, fixing everyone’s problems, essentially taking up a motherly role to all the other characters.
Book Sophie does the same… but she does it while dealing out as good as she takes. Howl is chasing after every woman except Sophie? Sophie meticulously cuts up his suit into triangles. Howl floods the room with green slime? Sophie hate-magics weed killer strong enough to melt concrete, and chucks it at Howl’s head. Howl can’t stop avoiding his problems? Meet the queen of avoidance, who clung to her curse to avoid confronting her feelings for Howl. Howl has to basically trick himself into taking action? I would like you to meet Sophie, who was too scared to leave her home her whole life, but the moment she’s under a curse is like “WELP, GUESS I’D BETTER LEAVE HOME RIGHT THIS MOMENT AND NEVER COME BACK.”
The moment of Howl and Sophie getting together in the book isn’t “Sophie fixes everything through her inherent goodness.” It’s “Sophie realizes that Howl has been secretly scheming to fix all her problems exactly the same way that she has been secretly scheming to fix all his problems because neither of them is a normal functioning adult, and they both look forward to yelling at each other for the rest of their wonderful lives.” And losing that, losing all of Sophie’s flaws and ridiculous moments as well as Howl’s efforts to fix her life as much as she’s trying to fix his, means that we’re left with a typical romance trope of a woman having to fix all of a man’s problems and be the perfect, mature one in the relationship, while he can coast purely on charm. The revelation that half of Howl’s antics were actually schemes to break Sophie’s curse or even just make her happy is important because for once it goes both ways. Not just “woman fixes man with her love,” but “people fix each other with their love, sort of, except for all the parts that will never change and that’s okay because flaws can be just as attractive as virtues, and if he laughs when you throw weed killer at him then he might be the one.”
Omg YES
DIANA WYNNE JONES WAS A FUCKING GIFT AND WE DID NOT DESERVE HER
“Genghis Khan sired four self-indulgent sons who proved good at drinking, mediocre in fighting, and poor at everything else; yet their names live on despite the damage they did to their father’s empire. Although Genghis Khan recognized the superior leadership abilities of his daughters and left them strategically important parts of his empire, today we cannot even be certain how many daughters he had. In their lifetime they could not be ignored, but when they left the scene, history closed the door behind them and let the dust of centuries cover their tracks. Those Mongol queens were too unusual, too difficult to understand or explain. It seemed more convenient just to erase them.”
—
Part of the introduction to The Secret History of the Mongol Queens: How the Daughters of Genghis Khan Rescued his Empire by Jack Weatherford.
To sum up this book in a single sentence – “What would happen is Deadpool wrote a mythology book.”
Yeah, this guy-
Wrote a book. Here are some examples of why I think this.
GREEK MYTHOLOGY
The Greek creation myth.
The story of Hephaestus god of Blacksmithing and Aphrodite Goddess of Love.
The story of the Minotaur.
NORSE MYTHOLOGY
Norse creation myth.
Odin orders Loki to steal Freyja’s necklace. He does. This is so in character for both of them Freyja instantly knows who to blame.
EGYPTIAN MYTHOLOGY
Ra gets mad at humanity and creates Sekhmet Lion Goddess of Killing Stuff.
How Isis retrieves her huband’s coffin from the support pillar it got stuck inside.
MAYAN MYTHOLOGY
How to try and kill the god Zipacna and fail.
CHRISTIANITY MYTHOLOGY
How God made Eve from Adam’s rib.
The story of how King Solomon judges proper maternal instinct.
HINDU MYTHOLOGY
Men ask Shiva to stop Kali’s murder rampage.
And this is how he does it.
JAPANESE MYTHOLOGY
The Goddess Izanami gives birth to the whole island of Japan.
A story about Tanuki.
AFRICAN MYTHOLOGY
Creation myth
SUMERIAN MYTHOLOGY
Creation myth
The Epic of Gilgamesh: Being born
The Epic of Gilgamesh: Meeting his best friend.
NATIVE AMERICAN MYTHOLOGY
Do I really need to explain why I feel the Merc with a mouth was involved in the retelling here?
Listen I will never stop stanning this fucking book, especially because these stories are SO FUN to read aloud.
source: I used to read them aloud to birdie and also did video recordings of a couple, at least one of which you can find linked on the appropriate myth on his blog. SO FUN.
wrennette 