Day in the Life of an Idiot

 I bet y'all didn't know that my father has a vlog. He invited me onto his show ostensibly to talk about my book release, though we, in many ways, ended up chatting more about Sherry Turkle's Reclaiming Conversation: The Power of Talk in the Digital Age and other ways that the Internet has changed conversation and thinking. 

I would normally embed the video here, but that option has been restricted. Regardless, if you're curious what my dad looks like and/or want to otherwise check out  our rambling conversation (and the thumbnail that makes me look like a wanted criminal) you can follow the link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bjSix3rLWF0

Otherwise, it is reading Wednesday and I have very little to report, although I did just finish a manga called Mermaid Scales and the Town of Sand by Komori Yoko, which I enjoyed tremendously. It's the kind of story that I'd call fantasy-adjacent, as there are a lot of fantastical elements, though most of them end up being metaphorical or allegorical. I described it on my manga blog as a sophisticated slow burn slice-of-life about the kind of grief that nearly all young kids experience--that moment when you realize that your parents are human beings, riddled with faults of their own. The story begins as the middle school-aged heroine is relocating to a small seaside town because her parents are divorcing (due to her mother's infidelity) and ends in a place of acceptance, at least the acceptance for now. It's a very grown-up book, honestly.  Surprisingly PROFOUND. (Which is why the review, if you go off to read it, starts with a rant about frustrated I am that the gross pedophiles of the world have ruined anime and manga for so many mundanes.) People should read this book!

Anyway.

I am up at the a$$-crack of dawn because I just took our family friend, John, to the airport, so that he could catch a flight for home. He was staying with us for a few days on his annual Midwestern tour to see his mother (in Iowa.) He's always a very easy houseguest, basically family, so it was lovely to have him while he was here. 

Reading stuff, first. Last week I read the tankoban of Blue Exorcist, Volumes 21 and 22, by Kazue Kato, which is probably all for the good because the plot is rushing towards some level of conclusion and I've been having trouble keeping all the players and their various agendas straight, as I read the monthly scanlations.

After a late night conversation with naomikritzer after my yaoi panel, I started wondering if the same sorts of jobs that make appearances in Western (or at least American) porn, were the same in Japan. I was specifically thinking of the scenario where one calls for the plumber/handyman and you end up banging. Baka-Updates, which is a fairly exhaustive catalogue of manga, including ones without pirated scans or English-language release, had NO CATAGORY for "plumber." I found several fire fighter yaoi (one, technically a 'bara' title)i, though far more seinen that seemed to specifically be historical.I didn't try any of the historical ones, though I might, since I'm curious if there's a specific time period that is attractive to manga writers for whatever reason. What I did read was: Jounetsu no Young Man by Takahashi Yuu (which only has two chapters devoted to fire fighters,) and Fire Code by Ichikawa Kazuhide. (If you're curious what I thought of them, I have provided links to my Mangakast review site.)

Under the tag of "handyman," I found and read Simple Days by Miyamoto Kano. Handyman (benriya) does seem to mean something slightly different, which I sort of knew from my days of reading Gangsta.When I think of a handyman, I imagine someone (who isn't always a man) who wears a tool belt and is good with their hands, ie., skilled in physical labor trades, like carpentry, electrical work, plumbing, etc. What handyman seems to mean in Japan is something more akin to "jack of all trades," but heavier on the "just a person you hire for odd jobs," like if you need help lifting furniture, rather than painting your house or something that requires a trade skill. The difference is subtle, but distinct, I think.

With Gaylaxicon and my writing deadline, that's about all the reading I managed last week, alas.

The other big news of the day is that Eleanor and I went to go visit Terry Garey at Walker Methodist. ( Some might find the description of Terry's mental state disturbing )

Ugh.

Anyway, after all that, I'm not expecting to get much writing done tonight. I have to go pick up Mason from work tonight (he's at the Science Museum until 7 pm) but after that I expect to space out to Solitare or possibly I will amuse myself by hunting up other odd-job related yaoi/manga. I didn't pick up a new series at the library, which perhaps I will try out while soaking in a hot bath. 

First, because I know you've all been waiting.... the new podcast is up: Ni-ju kyu, Oetsu.  The title is my attempt at combining the number of our podcast 29 (ni-ju kyÅ«, in Japanese) with the character Oetsu who CONSTANTLY does this kind of number rhyming thing with his name in the current chapter of Bleach.  We also review Fairy Tail, Toriko, and Ao no Exorcist (even though I wrote that one up as well.)



I have to say, for us, this podcast is pretty darned articulate, and since we forget to sing the spoiler song, there's 50% less annoying singing!

All wins, in my opinion.

I also wanted to report on my fan fic class at the Loft, which was part of the Youth/Teen Writers' Conference.  The nicest thing about the conference is that it's free, which means that attendance is huge.  There were probably about 25 teens in my class, which means there was a TON of energy.  It helped that I started class with a "what's your fandom?" question that elicited some squee when people heard their own favorites mentioned.  I also said before we started that this was a no shaming class, so you know, if you wanted to confess to still reading some One Direction bandom fic, no one was allowed to laugh TOO loudly at you.

The thing that I decided to do since everyone seemed keyed up to share was to ask them what THEIR list of fan fic pet peeves were.  I got some interesting results.

NUMBER #1: grammar/spelling errors.

So, for all you grown-ups who think that the next generation doesn't give a toss about language because they're texting all the time, you would be so very, VERY wrong. 

NUMBER #2 (and actually some other ones later could fall under this one): Tagging, Get it Right

The complaints for this one including being surprised by a fic that started out moderately dark that then took an unexpected left-turn, "Mature" rating that wasn't hot enough, and similar things.  

We did discuss how hard "tagging the dark" can be when you're posting as you write... since you might not notice how dark something is getting.  But, a lot of the answers boiled down to: get a beta reader and listen to them.  I learned that there's apparently a beta reader/writer connection place on Tumblr called "Writer's Halfway House", which among its many tips, will connect writers to beta readers.  

NUMBER #3: Self-insertion/Mary Sue.

No surprise there.  Mary Sue has been disliked since the very first fic of its kind was penned.  HOWEVER, I did point out that there's nothing wrong with Mary Sue especially when you're young and first trying things out.  My very first piece of fan fiction (which happened to be my very first piece of fiction, period) involved Han Solo rescuing me from my dreary life.  Nothing wrong with that... IF YOU TAG IT.

Which, by the way, was pretty much a solution to a lot of problems: tag, tag, TAG.

NUMBER #4: Weak endings/Didn't stick the landing.

Far more problematic, especially given the way a lot of fic gets written--which is to say, on the fly.  We talked about general strategies, especially the idea of outlining or starting with an actual point.  (Not required, of course, particularly for drabbles and such, but if you want to have a strong ending, you need a strong start.  A strong start is far more certain when you have a THING you want to say, a point, a theme, a thesis, if you will.)

NUMBER #5: OOC for no reason

If you're a fan and you're writing to other fans about beloved characters, for goodness sake try to keep the characters IN CHARACTER. This lead to a side discussion about the point of AUs.  Some people suggested that Alternate Universes were good for focusing on character, because you're taking them away from the world and it's about the core of what makes them who they are.  I suggested that this can also be the pitfall of Alternate Universes, which I tend not to like, because more often than not they feel, to me, like original fiction with the names stuck in just to trick people into reading it--but that may be harsh.  I have been burned.  But, I've also been pleasantly surprised.  One of my favorite fics is an AU involving Renji and Byakuya were it all starts as a sleazy hook-up in a bookstore's back closet and they're entirely human, living in the modern world.

NUMBER #6: Spearbearers made of cardboard/OC (original characters) who are flat

I felt particularly capable to talk about how to do original characters right because more than once I've gotten complimented on my original characters in my fan fic.  (I suppose this skill comes from inventing characters for, well, novels, but still.) The answer, in it's simplest form is: treat all your characters as human beings. No human being has only one characteristic.  We are all interesting, even the vile ones have something about them that is redeeming and charming, etc.  

NUMBER #7: Evasion of plot

I was very surprised and pleased to hear this one come up.  What is meant by "evasion of plot" is two things, 1) a tendency of fan fic writers not to go for the gold.  They'll get to what should be a very painful moment and they back away out of a desire not to hurt their babies.  But, what ends up happening is that the reader feels cheated of a bigger moment, a bigger payoff.  And, 2) the similar, if different, problem of the author being coy with information that really just needs to be said.  It's the whole 'why didn't they just say that earlier' problem.  Or it's something that the reader should have been told, but is instead held back in the wrong-headed assumption that this makes the story more dramatic.  The solution to that was: yeah, don't do that.

NUMBER #8: Fucking up the fucking

Yeah, we went there.  There were a number of very interesting complaints about sex in fan fic.  Firstly, the teens in my class do NOT want you to use inappropriate lubes. Please, people, do your research. A quote from class: "Peanut butter?  JUST NO.  So much NO." Similarly, do not break the laws of physical possibilities, which we labeled "parts doing the NO."  I recommended the classic fan fic resource: Minotaur's Sex Tips for Slash Writers.

My students also really craved sex scenes that skipped all the purple prose of "his alabaster skin" (guilty as charged!) but to the excision of actual feelings.  We discussed, actually, the similarity between writing a good fight scene and writing a good sex scene.  I told them that in a fight, what you want to concentrate on is a singular point of view and remember that a fight isn't just about  the dimensions of the instrument, what part goes where, and for how long (like sex) and that it's actually a highly emotionally charged event (like sex.)  So parts are important (like sex), but ultimately it's about feelings (like sex.)  So make sure your fight scenes aren't gratuitous either.  Make sure there's a reason for the fight and for the sex.  

Similarly, we discussed romance and how they want it to be so much more than love at first sight (which this generation firmly believes is crap.)  They also absolutely hated when a write had a gay man who spent any time wondering "when they turned into a girl."  They found this offensive on so many levels it wasn't funny.  

Foreplay was discussed as both something that could go on too long and that there sometimes wasn't nearly enough of.  So we ended up spending a lot of time discussing ways in which we could work to make the romance and sex feel REAL.  I said that, even though part of the appeal of fan fic is its fantasy element, there is some value in considering real life situations while writing about sex.  It can make sex cute, funny and resonate more deeply when you take some time to try to add the people parts of sex that make it awesome--an example I used is consider breaking up the hot and heavy action with the classic... and now the cat has wandered in and is sitting on someone's butt or staring at you from the dresser.  This makes the moment (potentially if you can pull it off) funny and real feeling.

NUMBER #9: The art of the Summary

We didn't get to this one because sex and romance ate up the majority of our class period, but people want better summaries from you, oh fan fic writers everywhere.  Please take some time to figure out how to best summarize your fic.  (This may be something that Rachel and I can spend some class time teaching because I believe it's an art that can translate to original fiction skills, as it's the same one that you use when you write synopses for agents and editors.)

Those were the major ones.  We got kind of specific, like "wanton" versus "wonton" but obviously that falls under grammar and spelling. Likewise, there were a lot of specific questions about sex, which I fielded like a pro, that ended up as part of the list which I combined into a giant #8 above.

Yeah... we had to shut the door.  No only were we screaming about lube, there was just a lot of general excitement to get to talk to someone about this sort of thing--not just the sex parts but the whole "oh and this drives me insane" thing.

So I would say the class went well.  It'll be interesting to see what the various evaluations say.

I'm working this whole week at the Roseville Library from 9am to 1pm... which is kind of both awesome and a bummer.  

Obviously, the money is awesome and, honestly, Roseville is one of my favorite libraries to work at.  I like the people and it's always busy enough to keep me hopping and the time flying by.  The bummer is that this is the week that my collaborator Rachel had off to work on our joint project, I'm pretty much going to be unavailable to help get things launch-ready except in the evenings.  But, I try to remind myself I used to work like that all the time before I was lucky enough to stay home and write. In other words, suck it up, Lyda.

I've been reading a lot lately.  I'm still trying to find a fun new weekly manga to review for our podcast and I keep reading full runs of things.  This latest one is a shojo manga:  mangakast.wordpress.com/2014/09/14/tora-to-ookami-review/.  It's another one I don't quite know why I ended up getting so sucked into it.  I try to figure that out in the review. (The answer seems to be that I'm a sucker for manga about writing, art, and food, and this one has elements of all three.)

My friend Kyell Gold was in town over the weekend for Furry Migration, so I caught up with him and my buddies from SofaWolf Press. Kyell and the SofaWolf guys are always a tremendous amount of awesome, plus I dragged Naomi Kritzer along and so we talked Marvel movies, Furry cons, writing, and all the things.  The guys at SofaWolf encouraged me to consider writing a story for them, so I'm in the process of ruminating about what that might be.... Hmmm... time to put the thinking cap on.  

That's kind of all the news I have at the moment. Tomorrow's Tate installment will be late, thanks to my work schedule.  Note to self: I'm going to have to buckled down and write tonight so that I can have it ready to go for the AM tomorrow.  And, yes, if you ever wondered if I write right up the last moment... *NODS FURIOUSLY*

We actually got the podcast recorded and posted early this morning, but I had to run off to work at the Maplewood Library, so I forgot to do all the social media-ing to let people know it was out and up. If you want to listen to it, you can find ihere: http://mangakast.wordpress.com/2014/09/05/you-and-me-23/.

Figuring out the new manga publishing schedule as well as Mason's o'heck o'clock school start time is kind of doing a number on us.  We may end up shifting our 'broadcasting' schedule again... to be timely, we may have to post on Thursday nights.  That might work out all around, since I'll be more caffeinated and we won't have to have Shawn breathing down our necks that it's time to get going.  (Though that added a certain otaku flavor that I really liked.)

At the library today my manga find was volumes 1 &2 of : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kingyo_Used_Books (known in Japanese as Kingyoya Koshoten).  I've been trying to find an on-line source for it with no luck.  It's a combination of two genres I like in manga--slice-of-life and manga about manga.  The "main character" (there's kind of couple at the center) is the woman pictured on the cover below, who has taken over general management of her grandfather's legendary used manga store.  Stuff happens around them, manga changes people's lives, and a lot of manga are discussed and quoted.



I haven't decided how I feel about it, but it's a lot of fun.  

Some time ago, I reported that I started watching Witch Craft Works. I'm 10 episodes into a 12 episode series and I still can't quite get over the awesome that is this subversive gender-swapped shounen anime.

The ostensible hero, Takamiya Honoka, is in constant need of rescue. Luckily, Kagari Ayaka, a kick-ass Workshop Witch, is there to do it.



What I consistently love about this anime? It's unabashed ...uh, for the lack of a better word, GIRL POWER. A villain shows up? She's a woman. If a new ally is needed? She's a woman. If Takamiya is asked to think of the strongest thing he can? It's a woman.

There are hardly ANY MEN IN THIS ANIME AT ALL AND I F*CKING LOVE IT. Seriously, there's one other male character who makes very, very rare appearances. He's a science teacher with a fondness for quoting Clarke's Third Law. Super-nerd. Totally ineffectual. I think he's had five lines. TOPS. There are some other boys seen in the background at school, but they're not important.

*I am made so happy*

Takamiya totally embraces the gender-swapped role of 'girl in need of rescuing,' that even when he starts to come into his own power, everything comes from a 'white princess' inside his soul. No power comes from men. None. Zero.

Meanwhile, Kagari kicks so much a$$ it isn't even funny. Even stripped of her prodigious super-powers, she can take out a stone golem with a flying kick. She holds Takamiya while he cries and cajoles him to try to pull it together at least until the fight is over.

Yet, because Takamiya is the 'hero,' he still trains to become stronger (though it's all very 'aw, honey, no') and shows the kind of bravery/superpowers that women are usually only allowed. He holds the mysterious key, you see. (That's why everyone is after him, 'natch, and why he must be protected at all costs.) He has the kind of power that can protect the city by making a contract with his heart and the heart of his town.

*weeps with delight*

I don't know how popular this show is and it's JUST silly enough that I can't recommend it without caveats. I'd say if you're already a seasoned shounen anime fan, you might find this utter reversal to be delightful. Otherwise, it might baffle you.

And, then, for something completely different, I'm also 20 chapters into the historical manga by Makoto Yukimura called: Vinland Saga. This, my friends, is a manly man story with man sauce.



Our hero, Thorfinn is a classic shounen hero with daddy issues. His father was brutally and (much more importantly) _dishonorably_ murdered by the pirate Viking, Askeladd, who, for REASONS, Thorfinn is now working for. Reasons being: for every task Askeladd sets for our hero Thorfinn--ala bring me the head of that un-defeatable enemy yonder--Thorfinn demands the price of a mano-a-mano duel for HONOR and JUSTICE!!(my two favorite shounen themes.) Thorfinn is, like 15, tops, so he hasn't won any fights with Askeladd yet, and consistently faces humiliating defeats, which, of course, only hardens his heart to strive to be stronger. *imagine music swelling and an anguished fist pumping in the air*

I'm actually uncertain why this manga is compelling to me right now. Maybe, it's because the art and brutal storyline are very reminiscent of Shingeki no Kyojin. Wikipedia tells me that a good number of the historical events that our heroes wander though are fairly accurate. They meet and fight alongside historical characters like Lief Erikkson and contribute to battles that were really fought, like the Danish Invasion of London. I don't know much about the Viking era, so it's all new to me. However, I can't help but enjoy a good battle manga, I guess.

We'll see how long it lasts. Like I said, I'm about 20 chapters into a story that's already 100+ and going....

New Bleach chapters come out on Wednesdays (when Kubo-sensei is not on hiatus, at any rate,) and so I've decided that, for the most part, I'm going to give into my fannish squee one day a week and mostly just spend the day being a fan.

Chapter 570 was good, in case you were wondering.

( Read more... )

Speaking of manga and chapters, last night, at work, I picked up Volume 5 of ÅŒoku: The Inner Chambers. naomikritzer bought volume one of this series for me as a Solstice/Christmas gift this last year because the premise sounds right up my alley (and it sort of is.)  The manga is an alternate history where sometime during the Edo period, the men of Japan are all afflicted with a disease that wipes out a huge percentage of the male population.  Women rise to power and men become, well, breeders, really.  Many are sold off to brothels, etc.  The main plot, however, revolves around the men in the "Inner Chamber," the shogun's own harem/concubines.  So there is political intrigue and lots and lots of men being "debased" for the shogun's pleasure.

YET, despite that fabulous premise, this manga could be a lot hotter than it is, honestly.  Despite the warning of "explicit content" there's only a little hint of m/m and most of the sex is a pan to the left and IMPLIED.

The other problem with the story, IMHO, is that there are a lot of time jumps.  Like, right now, I'm not actually sure where I am in the timeline.  It started when the female shogun was well established, but then jumped to tell a story of the first "Swain" (the concubine in charge of taking the Emperor's maidenhead and then falling on his sword) and then jumped again to tell of the rise of the first female shogun.  I THINK we've been moving slowly back to the "now" from that second story-in-a-story, but I'm honestly not sure.

Unfortunately, this is a two part problem, one that falls squarely on my shoulders, and the other I will blame on the mangaka (a woman named Fumi Yoshinaga).

The problem that's mine is that Japanese names don't stick very quickly in my head.  I have to be hammered with a Japanese name for several issues before I remember it (even when the characters are wildly different looking, like in Bleach--thank fate for the Bleach Wiki and the fact that Byakuya kept saying "Renji" over and over and people introduced themselves at each fight...) and... the second problem is that the mangaka seems to have one image in her head of "hot guy" and so the guys that catch the shogun's eye (even different shoguns) are all kind of the same TYPE.  Worse, everyone is sporting the same hairstyle, purposely copying the Hot Guy.  So, I've had a hell of a time figuring out if I'm following the first Hot Guy or a new Hot Guy.

BUT, despite this criticism, I'm still reading.  I even picked up the last two volumes 6 & 7, with the thought that I'll see this through.  The universe is interesting enough to keep me reading and the titillation is titillating.  (I've got a good imagination, after all.)

Plus, as Naomi well knows, this sort of set-up is a big guilty pleasure of mine.  I really enjoyed (far too much) Catherine Aasaro's LAST HAWK, because it's this same thing, only in that case the Hot Guy is a crash-landed fighter pilot captured and thrust into the harem of a matriarch on a matrilineal planet.  Similarly, I pushed through Wen Spenser's A BROTHER'S PRICE because it was a future where there was another plague that affected only men, and... yada, yada harems and brothels full of desperate men.  Similar-but-different, I really adored ABSOLUTE BOYFRIEND a six-volume shojo manga about a girl who mail-orders the perfect android boyfriend (from the future, but that's kind of a side story.)

Clearly, I love this set-up.  It's like some kind of gender-swap Slave Girls of Gor and I'm really not sure what it says about me.... and I'm not sure I want to know.