Roll Again

Yep, 'nother random thoughts.

• So I've found some—far too few—people who recognize Joss Whedon for the hack he undeniably is. One phrase I enjoyed was "overcompensating reverse misogynist". Another was this:

  Maybe Dollhouse speaks to some people. Joss Whedon is obviously trying to make statements about feminism, and sex consumerism, and how much he learned in Women’s Studies while deconstructing our media. [...] But it would be sad enough taking all that from a 22 year old, from a middle aged man it’s just pathetic.

  Then there was a guy who said if Whedon (apparently involved in Avengers in some way) sticks in his usual actors, plots, or dialogue, he will find Kevin Smith, have him buy the rights to Firefly, and have him remake it with View Askewniverse actors. And he'd have Mal played by Jason Mewes.
  
  It was cleansing.


• What bugs me about Whedon is he's obviously painfully ill-read, so he doesn't know what's been done before. If you think "space western" is a new idea...does "Wagon Train to the stars" ring any bells? How 'bout "final frontier"? How about the cowboy planet in the original Battlestar Galactica? How about some tramp freighter captain (the name's on the tip of my tongue) who's best known for shooting first in a saloon altercation? Yeah.


• Similarly I realized that's something I liked in Halo. It's not really all that hard—though the five words "New Mombasa megacity space elevator", all by themselves, are harder than the entire expanded universes of Firefly and BSG combined—but it just, I dunno, it feels more like the real thing. I honestly couldn't tell you what the literary influences on Firefly are; maybe some old comics. Ditto BSG, since "Aaron Sorkin" doesn't count as a literary influence. But Halo is one big tribute to Niven's Known Space from end to end.


• From the same source as one of of those Whedon remarks, is the question, "Who's the most sexist SF writer?" And it amuses me that, right out of the gate, the guy says not to count female sexism against men, 'cause that's too easy—he then names two big-name feminist SF authors. I'm glad I'm not the only one who noticed feminist SF is like the Black Panthers on race-relations.
  
  Incidentally my money's probably on Pournelle for "most sexist". There's others with weird ideas about sex and gender, but he's the most purely sexist. Maybe Niven? It sure as hell ain't Cherryh, who was this guy's pick, for one story where she was making a somewhat questionable point.


• Am I the only one who questions whether Phil Dick actually even wrote SF? Speculative fiction, maybe, but quite honestly there's probably more science in Battlestar Galactica. Which is a hole with no bottom.


• On a non-SF-related front, Windows 7 is the first Windows iteration to have an official moe anthropomorphism (an "OS-tan" as they're known). Her name is Madobe Nanami (which means "By-the-window 7th-beauty"), and she's the wallpaper of the computer I'm writing this on.


• Turns out Red vs. Blue ended before they ever really made any story with Reach, which kinda bugs me, though they did do some specials with it (Sarge's "new way to greet people"—stabbing Grif in the face using an assassination—was hilarious).
  
  Still, though, I'm sad.


• I was thinking about Twilight and True Blood and indeed Buffy, and I think I might have to do another post about the rampant misogyny of vampire fiction. And yes, Whedon is a misogynist, for all his man-bashing—his brand of "feminism" is about as good for women as Communism was for workers.
  
  But I noticed, the girls in my dark fantasy book are really fairly good. I'm not bragging; lord knows I didn't mean to make them sanely feminist. I just tried not to feel uncomfortable about them while I wrote them.


• The thing about Twilight that a lot of conservative writers have noticed, the smarter ones that is, is that merely nodding in the direction of abstinence doesn't excuse a damned abusive relationship. Quite seriously, with friends like Meyer who needs enemies?
  
  Of course, abstinence is not identical with chastity, and, as in all things, anybody who relies on a reductive interpretation is doomed to failure. A bunch of scandals regarding people who were ever-so-public about "saving it" who ended up fumbling it once they got married, is, I feel, adequate proof of my point. Merely keeping the taboos is not enough without the right spirit; see, e.g., St. Paul or the Buddha.
  
  What's very annoying is the number of people who say "abstinence" when they mean chastity. But then again they say "capitalism" when they mean "private property", "socialism" when they mean "fascism", and "dualism" when they mean "hylomorphism".
  
  I blame thesauruses.