Sunday links, the non-fiction part
May. 13th, 2012 10:14 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
selenakNot only of interest if you've watched him as Mr. Eko in Lost (or Simon Adebesi in Oz): a fascinating article about Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje, who was born Nigerian, fostered by a (white) British family and struggled with conflicting race and class identities as well as a great many other things. He comes across as compelling as the characters he portrayed as an actor.
Also in this Sunday's Observer was something that ticked me off: the ten best historical novels. With the exception of War and Peace, there's not a single novel among them not written in the English language. So even leaving alone the extreme questionability of the "best" criterium - I always prefer titling such lists "my ten favourite etc." because that's more honest, and nobody can argue about personal preferences - I have to wonder why the critic in question didn't simply leave Tolstoy off the list and call it "my ten favourite historical novels written English". Either that, or he's truly ignorant of non-Anglo literature. I mean, for God's sake - no Dumas or Victor Hugo, who founded the genre more than Walter Scott did? No Princesse de Cleves? No Lion Feuchtwanger, Heinrich Mann, Stefan Zweig? No Mika Waltari? Boooooooooooo. Hissssssssssss.
While I'm in combatitive mood: what she said, "she" being the brilliantlegionseagle, in relation to the use of a certain scene in The Avengers and some fannish reaction to same. The comments to her post are also good for the most part, but contain one of the most irritating examples for attempted argument derailment I've seen since catvalente posted about the difference of reactions had Christopher Priest (apropos his Clarke award rant) been a woman and had to deal with a troll. Also, every time I read someone declaring it to be ooc for Loki to use a gendered insult towards Natasha, I wonder whether they somehow missed that Thor established: a) movieverse Asgard to be a sexist society (the dialogue between Sif and Thor early on makes it clear Sif is the first female warrior of her status and had considerable obstacles to overcome because of her gender), b) Loki making a barely veiled rape threat against Jane Foster near the end of the film. Yes, he does it to goad Thor into fighting him. Exactly. He insults Natasha to get a reaction out of her, too. But if you believe that Loki should be somehow above using gendered insults, you haven't been paying attention to what the movieverse established about him personally and the society he grew up in.
Also in this Sunday's Observer was something that ticked me off: the ten best historical novels. With the exception of War and Peace, there's not a single novel among them not written in the English language. So even leaving alone the extreme questionability of the "best" criterium - I always prefer titling such lists "my ten favourite etc." because that's more honest, and nobody can argue about personal preferences - I have to wonder why the critic in question didn't simply leave Tolstoy off the list and call it "my ten favourite historical novels written English". Either that, or he's truly ignorant of non-Anglo literature. I mean, for God's sake - no Dumas or Victor Hugo, who founded the genre more than Walter Scott did? No Princesse de Cleves? No Lion Feuchtwanger, Heinrich Mann, Stefan Zweig? No Mika Waltari? Boooooooooooo. Hissssssssssss.
While I'm in combatitive mood: what she said, "she" being the brilliant
legionseagle, in relation to the use of a certain scene in The Avengers and some fannish reaction to same. The comments to her post are also good for the most part, but contain one of the most irritating examples for attempted argument derailment I've seen since catvalente posted about the difference of reactions had Christopher Priest (apropos his Clarke award rant) been a woman and had to deal with a troll. Also, every time I read someone declaring it to be ooc for Loki to use a gendered insult towards Natasha, I wonder whether they somehow missed that Thor established: a) movieverse Asgard to be a sexist society (the dialogue between Sif and Thor early on makes it clear Sif is the first female warrior of her status and had considerable obstacles to overcome because of her gender), b) Loki making a barely veiled rape threat against Jane Foster near the end of the film. Yes, he does it to goad Thor into fighting him. Exactly. He insults Natasha to get a reaction out of her, too. But if you believe that Loki should be somehow above using gendered insults, you haven't been paying attention to what the movieverse established about him personally and the society he grew up in.
