tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5837660608809488753.post7192123574206760530..comments2024-03-28T20:53:49.167-04:00Comments on The Adventures of Roberta X: Rant Mode: ONRoberta Xhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09956807794520627885noreply@blogger.comBlogger19125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5837660608809488753.post-26360917566061348772014-02-06T00:39:02.027-05:002014-02-06T00:39:02.027-05:00I love a good Clark Savage, Jr., reference. Peopl...I love a good Clark Savage, Jr., reference. People don't trot out Monk, Ham, Renny, Johnny, or Long Tom often enough, and that means for sure Pat Savage hardly ever slips back for a while either. And I could stand to see a bit more of her any day, even if Bronze Guy always steals the show.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5837660608809488753.post-78682802435497696672014-02-04T22:44:40.964-05:002014-02-04T22:44:40.964-05:00Bob: Off-topic, but where in heck does a phrase li...Bob: Off-topic, but where in heck does a phrase like "polite as cattle" come from? That's assuming it wasn't intended to mean "not at all polite."<br /><br />In my experience (helping my Dad raise a small herd of beef critters), cattle are large crude creatures that will turn right just because they think you want them to go left. And that's just the ball-less ones (heifers and young steers). If the castrating rubber band happens to slip off before the young male becomes a steer, "bull-headed" will become a gross understatement by the time he's half-grown. (That point, about 500 pounds, was when Dad realized Billy was becoming too dangerous and took him on a short trip. Billy came back as a large pile of paper-wrapped freezer packages. I don't know if it was the young age, the mostly grass diet, or the testosterone, but Billy was some of the best meat I've ever tasted.)<br /><br />markmnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5837660608809488753.post-22161885446395830442014-02-04T14:12:40.620-05:002014-02-04T14:12:40.620-05:00Yeah, I didn't say it was better... ;)Yeah, I didn't say it was <b>better</b>... ;)perlhaqrhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01920117742664645165noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5837660608809488753.post-38304063024969641092014-02-03T22:05:52.015-05:002014-02-03T22:05:52.015-05:00Ummmmmm.... No, geez-dammit, that "default&q...Ummmmmm.... No, geez-dammit, that "default" as you have descrobe is in the reader's heads. There's no "ending" that, not even with mandatory Hungarian. People do sort out their fellowbeings by...well, gender-as-presented. This is gonna happen, among other things because we're hardwired to play instant games of "Kiss, marry, kill" in our interactions with the other humans. <br /><br /> Heck, it's even <i>worse</i> by your read -- the critic doesn't wanna just though-police SF/F writers, but *everyone* who ever read the stuff.Roberta Xhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09956807794520627885noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5837660608809488753.post-18060656820132481122014-02-02T10:02:26.941-05:002014-02-02T10:02:26.941-05:00Uh, that last one was me.
-perlhaqrUh, that last one was me.<br /><br />-perlhaqrperlhaqrhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01920117742664645165noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5837660608809488753.post-3013124154213533312014-02-02T10:01:03.224-05:002014-02-02T10:01:03.224-05:00Some nitwit wrote an essay about how she or he (or...<i>Some nitwit wrote an essay about how she or he (or whatever) wants to never again pick up an SF or fantasy novel and find in it characters who are nothin' but girly-women and big ol' boy men, and who lust for nothing but their binary opposite.</i><br /><br />Oh. Well, technically, that's not what the article said. The article said that they wanted to end the <b>default</b> of binary gender, i.e.: that people would pick up an SF&F book, and in the absence of other descriptors, <b>presume</b> that the women were girly-women, and the boys were big-ol' burly boys.<br /><br />Yes, it's pedantry, but there's been enough misrepresentation of the content of the article (by the author herself!) that I figure it's worth correcting the record about what the article actually said.<br /><br />I thought the original fisking that Larry did was worthwhile, because he really does get a lot of budding authors looking for advice from him, and if they're looking for advice from him, they're probably looking for advice elsewhere as well, and the advice in that column was (IMO) bad. So counteracting it was a worthwhile task.<br /><br />I'll agree that the intervening kerfluffle almost certainly unnecessarily took up good writing time. ;)Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5837660608809488753.post-85432855912790653322014-02-02T09:55:56.841-05:002014-02-02T09:55:56.841-05:00Bob Clampett was a GOD!
gfaBob Clampett was a GOD!<br /><br />gfaAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5837660608809488753.post-62127493079547055852014-02-02T09:19:43.739-05:002014-02-02T09:19:43.739-05:00...Yes, isn't is *amazing* when you set out to......Yes, isn't is *amazing* when you set out to write entertaining stories set in a realistic world, the cast quite often gets all....various. <br /><br /> I would not go so far as claim that SF has led the way in inclusiveness -- try as we might, SF stories are often a dialog with the times in which the writer lives -- but in the face of a green-skinned tentacular horror from the stars, a merely trilateraly-symmetrical, Victoran, overgrown land-crab or even just the unforgiving empty spaces between places with perceptible up and down, the difference between one's own dirt-colored skin and that funny-talking guy or gal over there whose hide is the hue of dirt from somewhere else gets to looking a bit moot.Roberta Xhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09956807794520627885noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5837660608809488753.post-35604437224729294112014-02-02T09:11:43.692-05:002014-02-02T09:11:43.692-05:00Fen make me ill. I haven't been near a conven...Fen make me ill. I haven't been near a convention since the 1980s for that very reason.Fuzzy Curmudgeonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03802539927743643041noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5837660608809488753.post-68235196301262306792014-02-02T07:27:21.030-05:002014-02-02T07:27:21.030-05:00Well, damn. Looks like I went and got accidentally...Well, damn. Looks like I went and got accidentally politically correct. Turns out not all of my characters are '50s-style hetero. And here I thought I did that simply because it made sense for where I was going with the characters.<br /><br />PC... <i>-shudder-</i> It's almost enough to make go rewrite those <a href="http://www.bussjaeger.org/index.html#freebooks" rel="nofollow">books</a>.Bearhttp://www.bussjaeger.orgnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5837660608809488753.post-72115945035984871572014-02-02T02:27:28.619-05:002014-02-02T02:27:28.619-05:00LOL. I'm always entertained when you go off o...LOL. I'm always entertained when you go off on a rant, Roberta. It reminds of what Florence King once wrote of Southerners, quoting SC novelist Blanche McCrary Boyd: <i>Southerners are polite as cattle, except when they're not. When they're not, they might shoot you or chase you around the yard with a hatchet."</i><br /><br />And thanks, also, for <i>lares and penates.</i> Anyone who sends me to the dictionary to improve my vocabulary I have nothing but admiration for.Bobhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11402651457453813639noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5837660608809488753.post-32726870904900239382014-02-02T00:04:34.533-05:002014-02-02T00:04:34.533-05:00The Buckaroo Banzai film is probably the best Doc ...The Buckaroo Banzai film is probably the best Doc Savage movie ever anyway. Roberta Xhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09956807794520627885noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5837660608809488753.post-15061022040126190902014-02-01T23:51:29.488-05:002014-02-01T23:51:29.488-05:00Any day with a Doc Savage reference is arguably a ...Any day with a Doc Savage reference is arguably a good day. (Also, for an amusing twist on a Doc Savage story in different camouflage, I commend the reader to the novelization of <i>Buckaroo Banzai: Across the 8th Dimension,</i> penned by the screenwriter his own self.)Kenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04780425923108876647noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5837660608809488753.post-64657493837683666822014-02-01T23:32:24.110-05:002014-02-01T23:32:24.110-05:00I'm going to spend HOURS chasing these referen...I'm going to spend HOURS chasing these references! Thanks!Wolfmanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10757339335162584002noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5837660608809488753.post-26623536035073795732014-02-01T23:30:03.541-05:002014-02-01T23:30:03.541-05:00Read most of that and in my own way and from a vie...Read most of that and in my own way and from a viewpoint where WTF is normal I only suggest the initial writer needs a lesson in language.<br /><br />A good story is just that. <br /><br />As to the manifesto Corriea fisks<br />well. Because education happens.<br /><br />Eck!Eck!https://www.blogger.com/profile/13890237094647111653noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5837660608809488753.post-26469127773755627042014-02-01T23:25:32.940-05:002014-02-01T23:25:32.940-05:00Preach it sister. Preach it sister. Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5837660608809488753.post-28193004931754371942014-02-01T22:57:39.306-05:002014-02-01T22:57:39.306-05:00I have noted it -- it's just that there's ...I have noted it -- it's just that there's hours and hours of his time, and armies on both sides and... Well, geez. The time and effort would have been better spent getting ice cream or frozen yogurt or witchetty grubs. Roberta Xhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09956807794520627885noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5837660608809488753.post-63883561620443751272014-02-01T22:53:31.505-05:002014-02-01T22:53:31.505-05:00Grrr!
"Bassackwards" =/= "passagewa...Grrr!<br />"Bassackwards" =/= "passageways"!Dranghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08082177597135236652noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5837660608809488753.post-25840019797444508512014-02-01T22:52:21.910-05:002014-02-01T22:52:21.910-05:00Do please note that Larry Correia's point is m...Do please note that Larry Correia's point is mostly that putting the message before the story is passageways. Was it Dorothy Parker who wrote of an author selling his birthright for a pot of message?Dranghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08082177597135236652noreply@blogger.com