London, writing, Napoleon Dynamite

[anotherworld]

Links:

???: Otters Who Look Like Benedict Cumberbatch (Thanks, golden_bastet)
Fashion: Steampunk Plague Doctor
LGBT: Lambda (LGBT) Literary Award Finalists Announced There's one book in both the trans* category and the SFF category. Well. This is Relevant To My Interests. However, I read the synopsis (here or here) and it sounds bad. Basically: Damon loves his girlfriend Alex. What he doesn't know is that she is actually a shapeshifter capable of changing her physical sex at will. Her parents implant a device that makes her permanently male, the gender which they view her as. Alex is distraught, but she'd better get used to it, as there's going to be a whole lot of angsty buttsex as poor Damon comes to terms with loving... a man! Having said that, due to the whole nature of the awards, I presume at least one trans* person on the committee has read it and felt that it spoke to them in some way.
Movies: In Michael Bay's Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Movie, The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Will Be Aliens

I went into London on Wednesday (another interview) and headed to the National Gallery beforehand and the National Portrait Gallery after.

I'll hear back about the job on Monday, which starts the following day. If I get it (unlikely...), that will mean an emergency relocation to London. It'd be brilliant if I did though.

My writing is getting back on track and I've started outlining a new full-length story, although what I'm reading tends to influence the voice a lot. I just finished "Storm Front" by Jim Butcher, and that's more deadpan than what I was going for originally.

Napoleon Dynamite was on TV last night, so J and I stayed up late watching it and eating homemade Black Forest gateau cupcakes with cream cheese frosting. I'd never seen the film before, couldn't remember what I'd heard it was about, and the first fifteen minutes didn't help much. Probably I'd filed it in the back of my mind solely due to its status as a cult movie. Anyway, once I got into it, I liked it quite a bit, although it'll never make my top ten. There's a clever bit where they're at the prom watching everyone else dance to "Forever Young" though.

Comments

[gundambunch]

The National Gallery is one of my favourite places, especially the Renaissance galleries.

[anotherworld]

It's a great gallery, although I was thinking ahead to my interview and constantly checking the time. I don't think I managed to see everything.

[gundambunch]

In one of the galleries, there are two "portrait of a young man" pictures from 15th century Italy on either side of the doorway. One's all rich, sophisticated and urban, probably a Medici, the's others darker with a landscape setting. I don't think the boys lived at the same time but the placement always suggested a what-if-they-met kind of scenario.

Alternatively, take off the slash goggles when visiting art galleries.

[anotherworld]

I did see a nice painting by -- I think -- Lucas Cranach the Elder that made me think I wanted to see some fanart in that style. In any case, it was a very sharp gold/orange on black. But I don't get the slash goggles so much!

[gundambunch]

Heh. I have a copy of this print hanging in my living room!
http://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/paintings/lucas-cranach-the-elder-portrait-of-johann-friedrich-the-magnanimous

[narcasse]

I don't know how far you live from London but if you're not in the same county, I believe it is, you can ask the Jobcentre to reimburse you for your travel costs for the interview.

[anotherworld]

Yeah, I was aware of that. The trouble is, I have to hand over all their details to the Job Centre and then they go and ring them up! I can't afford to have them do that, although I may do so if I don't get the job.

[narcasse]

Fair enough. I'm just bitter that I had to go all the way out to a former RAF base for an interview recently, costing me around £40 for the roundtrip, and I probably won't get reimbursed because it's within the same county.

RE. that Lambda nomination

[narcasse]

Having looked at those summaries now, it doesn't quite sound like a trans novel rather than a genderqueer one. If the shapeshifting character identified as female and then got forced into a male body that, strictly speaking, would be a trans issue of being forced to present as something you most certainly are not, but the idea seems to be that said character switches physical sex at will and being unable to do that any more is the issue. They're probably using trans as an umbrella term for anything that isn't cisgendered though really, trans, by definition, references the binary. All of which you know anyway; I'm just thinking out loud here.

The other thing that sets me off a bit from those summaries is that it seems to be pitched at the angle of the difficulties that the straight, cisgendered, (probably white), male has with the situation. I'm sure it could be written really well but don't mind me if I chose something else for my reading material instead.

Re: RE. that Lambda nomination

[anotherworld]

It seems that (nowadays?) transgender and genderqueer are interchangeable. Either way, it seems that the main character does not identify as fully male and the whole situation is a pretext for getting them into m/m sex.

Is it just me or is LGBT fiction just really poor all round? I think I'll stick to my Harry Dresden novels.

Re: RE. that Lambda nomination

[narcasse]

Only to people who don't know or, in this case, more likely, don't care about the distinction. It's to the level of equating lesbian with bisexual. On this particular occasion, I got a heads up from a friend that Lambda had to be argued into even including a trans section at all, so.

There has to be some good stuff out there but I can imagine that it's mostly skewed towards coming out/realising you're LGBT stories. The classic stuff seems like it might be skewed towards the tragic gay love story angle if things like Giovanni's Room are anything to go by. Even historical fiction (fanfiction example but very well written) seems to go down the route of focusing on all the historical barriers mainly, and of course female homosexuality simply flies under the radar (unless you're talking about those Sarah Waters novels, which I can't stand). As for more modern novels, I recall reading Aidan Chambers' Dance on My Grave when I was in high school but I honestly can't recall that being terribly deep anyway.

Re: RE. that Lambda nomination

[anotherworld]

It seems that every blog I've ever read on the internet hasn't cared about the distinction, which has just left me feeling that nothing they're saying really applies to me. In regards to the awards, maybe it is a case of something is better than nothing

There's a lot to be said here for fanfiction where the characters are already fascinating and a gay relationship is overlaid. I think, deep down, I just want a fusion of that, with the emphasis heavily on the original story.

Things to think about.