Links of Interest
Jan. 12th, 2016 04:12 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
meridian_roseI read a lot of articles from various sources. If I've seen the link via Tumblr I usually reblog, or if not sometimes I post a link (though almost no-one ever takes notice). Sometimes I add it to a pinterest board. Occasionally I remember to round up a handful of them and post them to LJ/DW, like now :)
A mixed bag again from the recent to the long ago, everything from labyrinths and pets to sexism and tattoos, and of course, media, writing, and fanfiction.
There's a tumblr version somewhere but I'll link to this one, a comic writers can identify with, the ups and downs of writing: http://rachelraine.com/tag/tangled-for-writers/
Two articles in a series about the spiritual side of Labyrinths:
http://www.terriwindling.com/blog/2015/12/labyrinths.html
Quotes heavily from The Faraway Nearby by Rebecca Solnit:
"A labyrinth is an ancient device that compresses a journey into a small space, winds up a path like thread on spool. It contains beginning, confusion, perserverance, arrival, and return. There at last the metaphysical journey of your life and your actual movements are one and the same. You may wander, may learn that in order to get to your destination you must turn away from it, become lost, spin about, and then only after the way has become overwhelming and absorbing, arrive, having gone the great journey without having gone far on the ground.
"In this it is the opposite of a maze, which has not one convoluted way but many and offers no center, so that the wandering has no cease or at least no definitive conclusion. A maze is a conversation; a labyrinth is an incantation or perhaps a prayer. In a labyrinth you're lost in that you don't know the twists and turns, but if you follow them you get there; and then you reverse your course."
The link is also made to stories, in particular fairytales, in the twists and turns and return to the threshold, changed.
http://www.terriwindling.com/blog/2015/12/wandering-the-labyrinth-monsters-and-magic.html
This article quotes from "The Dance of the Labyrinth" by mythologist & novelist Ari Berk:
" we learn that a true labyrinth is a structure or design whose path can assume numerous forms, but cannot intersect itself. No choices for the traveler. You must enter and exit in the same place… during the Renaissance, labyrinths (and often mazes as well) were called Jardin de Daedalus, and referred merely to any problem that required a quest towards a unique solution. For the composer Alexander Agricola, his 'secret labyrinth; represented his remarkable and unorthodox treatment of hexachordal modulation. Thus, anyone who sets a complex task for himself -- any artist, architect, philosopher, or poet -- enters the labyrinth each time they seek a visionary solution. In this way, many have thought that it is the problem posed, its affect on the mind that is significant, not the actual shape of the structure that represents the process of solution."
http://www.witchesandpagans.com/sagewoman-blogs/priestess-grove/time-out-of-time.html
" As this year ends I have been learning about the time referred to as "time out of time" that exists between the winter solstice or yule and the day we celebrate as New Year's Eve. These days that have felt like a state of limbo for me in the past, are in actuality rooted in ancient belief's as being magical, powerful, spiritually potent days of floating between this realm and the higher realms."
This caught my eye because I feel those days are a limbo. This year I was stuck house-sitting alone, with access to catch-up tv but no internet and it was too cold to sit outside which in summer lets me relax and craft and not feel so cut off from the world. Perhaps in future I should try to look at them from a more spiritual angle and embrace the "time out of time".
http://www.witchesandpagans.com/sagewoman-blogs/druid-heart/beltane-and-the-sensual.html
Sex is not the same as sensuality and vice versa:
" Sensuality is often misinterpreted as relating solely to the sexual experience. What we need to do is bring the sensual back into our everyday lives, seeing how it relates to the whole experience rather than just a sexual one. Sensual – input from the senses. There are so many other senses that are pretty much asleep for most of our day. Sometimes there are very good reasons – we couldn’t really function if all our senses were firing on full all at the same time. But reawakening them, especially at this time of year, and working with them intentionally can help us to rediscover our world through our bodies, rather than just living in our heads."
http://www.theguardian.com/society/2015/nov/02/living-with-a-dog-cuts-childs-risk-of-asthma-by-15-study-shows
In contrast to previous "oh noes keep babbies away from animals or they'll get asthma!" this study finds quite the opposite. As is so often the case, (remember the peanut debacle?) keeping pregnant women, foetuses, children, away from things only seems to make issues worse since no tolerance is built up. So don't get rid of your cats or other furries and maybe go buy a dog!
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/nov/06/religious-children-less-altruistic-secular-kids-study
A rebuttal to the "religion makes people kinder" argument and that secularism is damaging: "[The] findings “robustly demonstrate that children from households identifying as either of the two major world religions (Christianity and Islam) were less altruistic than children from non-religious households”.
Older children, usually those with a longer exposure to religion, “exhibit[ed] the greatest negative relations”.
The study also found that “religiosity affects children’s punitive tendencies”. Children from religious households “frequently appear to be more judgmental of others’ actions”, it said…
At the same time, the report said that religious parents were more likely than others to consider their children to be “more empathetic and more sensitive to the plight of others”."
Proof that to be a good person you don't have believe in a deity.
Not that atheism is necessarily any better:
http://www.salon.com/2014/10/03/new_atheisms_troubling_misogyny_the_pompous_sexism_of_richard_dawkins_and_sam_harris_partner/
" People like Dawkins, Shermer and Harris are the public face of atheism. And that public face is one that is defensively and irrationally sexist. It’s not only turning women away from atheism, it’s discrediting the idea that atheists are actually people who argue from a position of rationality. How can they be, when they cling to the ancient, irrational tradition of treating women like they aren’t quite as human as men?"
And, still on the subject of sexism: http://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/aug/06/catherine-nichols-female-author-male-pseudonym
" Author reveals that submitting her manuscript to agents under a male pseudonym brought more than eight times the number of responses". As I pointed out in a Tumblr post which went almost completely unnoticed, the comments on the article only proved the writer's point, the majority falling into the themes of:
she’s lying
she’s exaggerating
the experiment was flawed
women should just publish themselves
I’m a man so this isn’t true
I’m a man and I never read women anyway
maybe women authors deserve to be treated this way
if you submit under your own name it’s your own fault
women writing in non-romance genres should use male names
more women get published in romance and other categories so why are you whining
Tell me again how feminism isn't needed and we have true equality?
And then there's:
http://www.pbs.org/speak/speech/prejudice/women/
" Language Myth # 6
Women Talk Too Much
No, they don’t. Rather, they don’t in every situation. Social context and relative power determine who talks more, men or women. Janet Holmes sets the record straight and establishes the reasons for the lingering myth of female chattiness"; research shows that when women do take up 50% of the time in a seminar, for example, men will think that women had more than that, that women had more than their "fair share".
And finally, just this week:
http://www.theguardian.com/society/shortcuts/2016/jan/11/women-brain-tumour-medical-symptoms-depression-diagnosis-gender
"Women with serious medical conditions are more likely than men to have their symptoms attributed to depression and anxiety, and face delayed diagnosis according to new research."
https://thefanmetareader.wordpress.com/2015/04/16/normal-is-a-social-construct-and-hella-lame-michel-foucault-and-the-quest-for-the-holy-grail-by-schadenfreudessa/
A reading of Monty Python and the Quest for the Holy Grail that examines the themes of the movie " the power of discourse and the rules that control that power".
http://www.witchesandpagans.com/pagan-culture-blogs/intersections/the-sacred-tattoo.html
A nice article on the spiritual side to tattoos:
"Tattooing, in my ignorant head, was in a galaxy far far away from anything spiritual…..Times have changed. I have known more and more people to get tattoos for spiritual purposes. They span across religious traditions and generations. I know people with deeply Christian tattoos and others with beautiful Pagan themes. Large crosses and small tributes to Jesus are just as common around me as are Gods, Goddesses, and pentagrams. I know people with Harry Potter themed tattoos. While that may not be spiritual, it pays tribute to a very special aspect of the person’s childhood- a memory worth keeping through a lifetime.
What I’ve learned from all of these people is that there is something deeper about the tattoo. Our bodies are sacred, and anything we mark upon them is too. When we affix a mark upon our body, we join a current of like-minded souls. And that current stretches no just to the living, but to all who have ever received a tattoo. Each one went through a painful ordeal to give energy to a sacred ideal in their life. Tattoos are a powerful rite of passage."
http://transformativeworks.org/news/cosplay-its-subtlest-fan-and-creator-discuss-disney-bounding
I'd never heard of the concept but I related immediately to it. Who hasn't done this in some way? A coat, some jewellery, a fragrance, something that reminds you of a character and can make you feel inspired.
"To DisneyBound, one simply wears clothes that are inspired by a particular Disney character. This isn’t cosplay, so a person can “Bound” at work, while exercising, on a first date...you get the idea.
Jenn: Any time I love a show now, even if it’s not Disney, I find myself planning ways to Bound it. A few weeks ago I watched Firefly for the first time. Halfway through the first episode I was mentally planning what I could use to bound as Kaylee. Has Bounding stretched beyond Disney for you?
Leslie: Absolutely! It's fun to be at a mall and spot a coat that would be perfect for Paddington Bear, or a sweater which Hermione might wear."
http://www.themillions.com/2014/12/a-year-in-reading-elizabeth-minkel-3.html via tumblr
“The books I read this year were great, but then, so was the fanfiction. Over the years I’ve been asked if I’ve read anything good lately, and I’ve always bitten my tongue: I often have, but it’s not “real literature,” after all, but rather some 30-chapter masterpiece that someone has penned for free — for the love of the source material. I’m kind of done glossing over this major part of my reading life: for every good novel I read this year, I read a fantastic novel-length fic as well."— Elizabeth Minkel’s Year in Reading
This pretty much sums up my feelings about fanfic. I've given up on as many classics, mainstream books, indie books, as I've read, and sure there is bad and medicorce fanfic out there too, but I've read beautiful, novel length fanfic, put out there for free, as well crafted and proofed as most of the "mainstream" fiction output.
http://transformativeworks.tumblr.com/post/133739486898/dynamicsymmetry-so-caffeinated-why-are
Another piece on fanfic and it's so good I highly recommend you read the entire thing and reblog it if you have a Tumblr and haven't' already done so:
"Why are people ashamed of writing fanfic… say that fanfic was their ‘secret shame’ on a forum entirely made up of fanfic writers…
I can’t even count the times I’ve seen fanfic disparaged as something for teenage girls or unworthy all together and I think I’ve finally worked out why. And the reason irks me just as much as the fact that this happens.
Fanfic is, by and large, written by women. It’s a creative voice that fills a void left in Hollywood as well as in publishing houses…
I think that shame comes from being bold enough to dare to have a voice. I think we’re viewing our own perspectives as somehow less, unworthy in comparison to the ‘norm’ of ‘real’ storytelling that we see validated by being put on television and movie screens and bookstore shelves. While we might, as a culture, tolerate such daring activity amongst teenage girls, we also view it as childish, something women are meant to outgrow, something shameful to hold onto as adults. But it isn’t just fanfic we’re shaming. It’s our voices, our validity, and that makes me sick…
, a growing number of professional writers were and sometimes even still are active in fandom in this respect. I’m one of them.
Fanfiction taught me how to write and gave me the courage to start submitting my stuff to places. I’ll scream it from the rooftops."
*nodding in agreement*
A mixed bag again from the recent to the long ago, everything from labyrinths and pets to sexism and tattoos, and of course, media, writing, and fanfiction.
There's a tumblr version somewhere but I'll link to this one, a comic writers can identify with, the ups and downs of writing: http://rachelraine.com/tag/tangled-for-writers/
Two articles in a series about the spiritual side of Labyrinths:
http://www.terriwindling.com/blog/2015/12/labyrinths.html
Quotes heavily from The Faraway Nearby by Rebecca Solnit:
"A labyrinth is an ancient device that compresses a journey into a small space, winds up a path like thread on spool. It contains beginning, confusion, perserverance, arrival, and return. There at last the metaphysical journey of your life and your actual movements are one and the same. You may wander, may learn that in order to get to your destination you must turn away from it, become lost, spin about, and then only after the way has become overwhelming and absorbing, arrive, having gone the great journey without having gone far on the ground.
"In this it is the opposite of a maze, which has not one convoluted way but many and offers no center, so that the wandering has no cease or at least no definitive conclusion. A maze is a conversation; a labyrinth is an incantation or perhaps a prayer. In a labyrinth you're lost in that you don't know the twists and turns, but if you follow them you get there; and then you reverse your course."
The link is also made to stories, in particular fairytales, in the twists and turns and return to the threshold, changed.
http://www.terriwindling.com/blog/2015/12/wandering-the-labyrinth-monsters-and-magic.html
This article quotes from "The Dance of the Labyrinth" by mythologist & novelist Ari Berk:
" we learn that a true labyrinth is a structure or design whose path can assume numerous forms, but cannot intersect itself. No choices for the traveler. You must enter and exit in the same place… during the Renaissance, labyrinths (and often mazes as well) were called Jardin de Daedalus, and referred merely to any problem that required a quest towards a unique solution. For the composer Alexander Agricola, his 'secret labyrinth; represented his remarkable and unorthodox treatment of hexachordal modulation. Thus, anyone who sets a complex task for himself -- any artist, architect, philosopher, or poet -- enters the labyrinth each time they seek a visionary solution. In this way, many have thought that it is the problem posed, its affect on the mind that is significant, not the actual shape of the structure that represents the process of solution."
http://www.witchesandpagans.com/sagewoman-blogs/priestess-grove/time-out-of-time.html
" As this year ends I have been learning about the time referred to as "time out of time" that exists between the winter solstice or yule and the day we celebrate as New Year's Eve. These days that have felt like a state of limbo for me in the past, are in actuality rooted in ancient belief's as being magical, powerful, spiritually potent days of floating between this realm and the higher realms."
This caught my eye because I feel those days are a limbo. This year I was stuck house-sitting alone, with access to catch-up tv but no internet and it was too cold to sit outside which in summer lets me relax and craft and not feel so cut off from the world. Perhaps in future I should try to look at them from a more spiritual angle and embrace the "time out of time".
http://www.witchesandpagans.com/sagewoman-blogs/druid-heart/beltane-and-the-sensual.html
Sex is not the same as sensuality and vice versa:
" Sensuality is often misinterpreted as relating solely to the sexual experience. What we need to do is bring the sensual back into our everyday lives, seeing how it relates to the whole experience rather than just a sexual one. Sensual – input from the senses. There are so many other senses that are pretty much asleep for most of our day. Sometimes there are very good reasons – we couldn’t really function if all our senses were firing on full all at the same time. But reawakening them, especially at this time of year, and working with them intentionally can help us to rediscover our world through our bodies, rather than just living in our heads."
http://www.theguardian.com/society/2015/nov/02/living-with-a-dog-cuts-childs-risk-of-asthma-by-15-study-shows
In contrast to previous "oh noes keep babbies away from animals or they'll get asthma!" this study finds quite the opposite. As is so often the case, (remember the peanut debacle?) keeping pregnant women, foetuses, children, away from things only seems to make issues worse since no tolerance is built up. So don't get rid of your cats or other furries and maybe go buy a dog!
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/nov/06/religious-children-less-altruistic-secular-kids-study
A rebuttal to the "religion makes people kinder" argument and that secularism is damaging: "[The] findings “robustly demonstrate that children from households identifying as either of the two major world religions (Christianity and Islam) were less altruistic than children from non-religious households”.
Older children, usually those with a longer exposure to religion, “exhibit[ed] the greatest negative relations”.
The study also found that “religiosity affects children’s punitive tendencies”. Children from religious households “frequently appear to be more judgmental of others’ actions”, it said…
At the same time, the report said that religious parents were more likely than others to consider their children to be “more empathetic and more sensitive to the plight of others”."
Proof that to be a good person you don't have believe in a deity.
Not that atheism is necessarily any better:
http://www.salon.com/2014/10/03/new_atheisms_troubling_misogyny_the_pompous_sexism_of_richard_dawkins_and_sam_harris_partner/
" People like Dawkins, Shermer and Harris are the public face of atheism. And that public face is one that is defensively and irrationally sexist. It’s not only turning women away from atheism, it’s discrediting the idea that atheists are actually people who argue from a position of rationality. How can they be, when they cling to the ancient, irrational tradition of treating women like they aren’t quite as human as men?"
And, still on the subject of sexism: http://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/aug/06/catherine-nichols-female-author-male-pseudonym
" Author reveals that submitting her manuscript to agents under a male pseudonym brought more than eight times the number of responses". As I pointed out in a Tumblr post which went almost completely unnoticed, the comments on the article only proved the writer's point, the majority falling into the themes of:
she’s lying
she’s exaggerating
the experiment was flawed
women should just publish themselves
I’m a man so this isn’t true
I’m a man and I never read women anyway
maybe women authors deserve to be treated this way
if you submit under your own name it’s your own fault
women writing in non-romance genres should use male names
more women get published in romance and other categories so why are you whining
Tell me again how feminism isn't needed and we have true equality?
And then there's:
http://www.pbs.org/speak/speech/prejudice/women/
" Language Myth # 6
Women Talk Too Much
No, they don’t. Rather, they don’t in every situation. Social context and relative power determine who talks more, men or women. Janet Holmes sets the record straight and establishes the reasons for the lingering myth of female chattiness"; research shows that when women do take up 50% of the time in a seminar, for example, men will think that women had more than that, that women had more than their "fair share".
And finally, just this week:
http://www.theguardian.com/society/shortcuts/2016/jan/11/women-brain-tumour-medical-symptoms-depression-diagnosis-gender
"Women with serious medical conditions are more likely than men to have their symptoms attributed to depression and anxiety, and face delayed diagnosis according to new research."
https://thefanmetareader.wordpress.com/2015/04/16/normal-is-a-social-construct-and-hella-lame-michel-foucault-and-the-quest-for-the-holy-grail-by-schadenfreudessa/
A reading of Monty Python and the Quest for the Holy Grail that examines the themes of the movie " the power of discourse and the rules that control that power".
http://www.witchesandpagans.com/pagan-culture-blogs/intersections/the-sacred-tattoo.html
A nice article on the spiritual side to tattoos:
"Tattooing, in my ignorant head, was in a galaxy far far away from anything spiritual…..Times have changed. I have known more and more people to get tattoos for spiritual purposes. They span across religious traditions and generations. I know people with deeply Christian tattoos and others with beautiful Pagan themes. Large crosses and small tributes to Jesus are just as common around me as are Gods, Goddesses, and pentagrams. I know people with Harry Potter themed tattoos. While that may not be spiritual, it pays tribute to a very special aspect of the person’s childhood- a memory worth keeping through a lifetime.
What I’ve learned from all of these people is that there is something deeper about the tattoo. Our bodies are sacred, and anything we mark upon them is too. When we affix a mark upon our body, we join a current of like-minded souls. And that current stretches no just to the living, but to all who have ever received a tattoo. Each one went through a painful ordeal to give energy to a sacred ideal in their life. Tattoos are a powerful rite of passage."
http://transformativeworks.org/news/cosplay-its-subtlest-fan-and-creator-discuss-disney-bounding
I'd never heard of the concept but I related immediately to it. Who hasn't done this in some way? A coat, some jewellery, a fragrance, something that reminds you of a character and can make you feel inspired.
"To DisneyBound, one simply wears clothes that are inspired by a particular Disney character. This isn’t cosplay, so a person can “Bound” at work, while exercising, on a first date...you get the idea.
Jenn: Any time I love a show now, even if it’s not Disney, I find myself planning ways to Bound it. A few weeks ago I watched Firefly for the first time. Halfway through the first episode I was mentally planning what I could use to bound as Kaylee. Has Bounding stretched beyond Disney for you?
Leslie: Absolutely! It's fun to be at a mall and spot a coat that would be perfect for Paddington Bear, or a sweater which Hermione might wear."
http://www.themillions.com/2014/12/a-year-in-reading-elizabeth-minkel-3.html via tumblr
“The books I read this year were great, but then, so was the fanfiction. Over the years I’ve been asked if I’ve read anything good lately, and I’ve always bitten my tongue: I often have, but it’s not “real literature,” after all, but rather some 30-chapter masterpiece that someone has penned for free — for the love of the source material. I’m kind of done glossing over this major part of my reading life: for every good novel I read this year, I read a fantastic novel-length fic as well."— Elizabeth Minkel’s Year in Reading
This pretty much sums up my feelings about fanfic. I've given up on as many classics, mainstream books, indie books, as I've read, and sure there is bad and medicorce fanfic out there too, but I've read beautiful, novel length fanfic, put out there for free, as well crafted and proofed as most of the "mainstream" fiction output.
http://transformativeworks.tumblr.com/post/133739486898/dynamicsymmetry-so-caffeinated-why-are
Another piece on fanfic and it's so good I highly recommend you read the entire thing and reblog it if you have a Tumblr and haven't' already done so:
"Why are people ashamed of writing fanfic… say that fanfic was their ‘secret shame’ on a forum entirely made up of fanfic writers…
I can’t even count the times I’ve seen fanfic disparaged as something for teenage girls or unworthy all together and I think I’ve finally worked out why. And the reason irks me just as much as the fact that this happens.
Fanfic is, by and large, written by women. It’s a creative voice that fills a void left in Hollywood as well as in publishing houses…
I think that shame comes from being bold enough to dare to have a voice. I think we’re viewing our own perspectives as somehow less, unworthy in comparison to the ‘norm’ of ‘real’ storytelling that we see validated by being put on television and movie screens and bookstore shelves. While we might, as a culture, tolerate such daring activity amongst teenage girls, we also view it as childish, something women are meant to outgrow, something shameful to hold onto as adults. But it isn’t just fanfic we’re shaming. It’s our voices, our validity, and that makes me sick…
, a growing number of professional writers were and sometimes even still are active in fandom in this respect. I’m one of them.
Fanfiction taught me how to write and gave me the courage to start submitting my stuff to places. I’ll scream it from the rooftops."
*nodding in agreement*
