Considering that over twelve hours had passed since Mayor Bloomberg announced that the Occupy Wall Street protesters had until 7 am today to clear out of the park, I had arrived in Zuccotti Park early this morning expecting to see an organized resistance. But as I pressed into the tightly-packed crowd surrounding, the mood looked to be one of uncertainty. In the center of the square, the General Assembly was doing a mic check, but the most of the chants became incomprehensible once they reached the edges. Only an hour remained until the announced deadline and no one seemed sure what exactly was going to happen at 7. Continue reading
achilleselbow
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Gawker has an article today about three women who were arrested in Zimbabwe for alleged sexual assault and were found to have 31 condoms – “some with semen” – stashed in a boyfriend’s car. The author appears entirely baffled as to the nature of the crime, but her description of the press coverage as “slightly witch-hunty” is more accurate than she may realize.
Ritualistic sexual assault is actually just one particularly disturbing aspect of the larger phenomenon of witchraft and ostensibly magical practices that are commonly referred to as “juju” and remain widespread even in relatively developed and educated nations such as Zimbabwe. According to a recent study, sperm (in addition to blood, hair, and worse things) is collected for ritual purposes, often by force: Continue reading
Given that the mainstream American Left has been scared of its own shadow since the Reagan revolution turned “liberal” into a dirty word, I suppose I shouldn’t have been surprised that many of these self-professed “progressives” have responded to the first genuine sustained mass youth movement my generation has seen by heaping scorn, doubt, and criticism upon it. I arrived in Zuccotti Park late Sunday afternoon hoping to catch a glimpse of the chaotic and disorganized mass of dirty hippies, drugged-out punks, and other standard bogeymen of the “get off my lawn” crowd. I was sorely disappointed. Continue reading
HBO’s critically acclaimed Game of Thrones TV series introduced George R. R. Martin’s brilliant A Song of Ice and Fire series to a mass audience who may never have been interested in fantasy fiction. But it also happened to air at a particularly auspicious time, with the first season ending shortly before the long-awaited fifth book was released.
Considering that the 1510-page length of A Dance with Dragons (available on Amazon
I must admit that the Angry Birds phenomenon has largely passed me by, due to me being one of the few people in the world who uses a Microsoft KIN phone. Without the appeal of playing it on the hand-held touchscreen for which it was clearly designed, it just seems like a poor man’s Worms or Scorched Earth. But today I learned that my stubborn refusal to keep up with the latest trends in gadgetry and gaming has actually been keeping me safe from terrible harm. Continue reading
First came the boy wizards, followed by sparkly vampires, tween demigods, and most recently, girl gladiators. Unless you’ve been living under the proverbial rock, chances are you have more than a passing familiarity with some or all of these multi-volume series. And yet, if bookstore shelves and library labels are to be believed, they were not written for you.
Why do so many adults read children’s fiction? Fans will be quick to cite the richness and complexity of the Harry Potter series as well as its progressively darker tone. Similarly, Suzanne Collins’ Hunger Games trilogy has been praised for its mature themes and bleak, uncompromising approach to storytelling. But this sort of reasoning only raises another question: if these books are mature and complex enough for adults, why are they marketed as young adult fiction in the first place? Continue reading
In today’s media landscape, when something like the rioting in London happens, you can be sure that each side of the political spectrum will draw their own conclusions from it.
Current discussion of the riots generally falls into two camps: those on the left who connect the riots to economic inequality and recent austerity cuts to social services, and those on the right who scoff at any such attempt to “make excuses” for what they believe to be nothing more than a mob of subhumans spoiled by the welfare state. Of course, the predictable racial invective is there too, as a quick scan of the comments on any article about the riots will reveal. Continue reading
What do you think of when you think of metal? For many, it remains a 1980’s punchline: Spinal Tap, big hair, and leather pants. Others with a slightly more recent frame of reference may instead imagine barely comprehensible noise. Both are correct descriptions, but only partially so.
Like its punk and hardcore cousins, the term ‘metal’ encompasses a multitude of sub-genres and micro-genres, some of them ludicrously specific, and many of them sounding nothing like each other. In an attempt to bring some order to the chaos, I have combined my encyclopedic knowledge of metal with the graphical skills of the wonderfully talented tomqvaxy to bring you this genealogical chart: Continue reading
Well, it finally happened. Considering the slew of broken promises that George R. R. Martin fans had dealt with in the last few years, and the general awfulness of on-screen adaptations of fantasy novels, few of us had held out much hope when he first announced tentative plans for a pilot episode to be possibly picked up by HBO. But as the date drew near and the unprecedented marketing blitz of subway posters, food trucks serving medieval fare, and the Iron Throne itself being wheeled around the city, it started to dawn on me: this is really going to be a Thing.
With that, I give you my reaction to the premiere: HBO’s Game of Thrones is an ambitious yet faithful adaptation of what is perhaps the best-written and most genre-transcending example of fantasy fiction, boasting pitch-perfect casting and a masterful use of dramatic tension that– BOOBIES!!! I SEE BOOBIES!!!
*Ahem* sorry about that. As I was saying, the casting is so spot-on that it’s almost frightening. While usually everyone has their own ideas about what characters in books should look like, Martin’s descriptions are so detailed leave little room for interpretation. Furthermore, many fans’ preconceptions were colored by the amazing series of character portraits by Amok, which gained semi-official status when they were linked to by every major ASOIAF fan site. There were some minor quibbles on my part – Sansa and Cersei were not quite as striking as the books described and Theon Greyjoy looked far too old – but overall, my expectations were exceeded.
As for other similarities to the source material, the series is faithful without being slavish. I was a little disappointed at the cutting of the prologue. In the book, Ser Waymar Royce, the bossy and arrogant leader of the expedition, is given a bit of character redemption as he bravely faces and duels the white walker before meeting his inevitable end. Further on, all fans were pleased by the inclusion of Ned’s famous dictum: “The man who passes the sentence should swing the sword.” But the continuation that was left out was equally classic: “If you would take a man’s life you owe it to him to look into his eyes and hear his final words. And if you cannot bear that, perhaps he does not deserve to die.” Finally, to touch on an uncomfortable subject, the last scene with Daenarys and Khal Drogo was far closer to rape than in the book. On the one hand, this is a more realistic and frank representation, considering the circumstances of her forced marriage. On the other, it’s the result of the series having so far skipped over her gradual internal transformation as she grows to love the Khal and accept her place among the Dothraki.
Having watched the premiere with three friends who had not read the books and had little interest in fantasy, seeing them become immersed in the world of Westeros was almost as pleasing as the show itself. And while I was afraid of being “that guy”, I found that they actually appreciated my occasional brief explanations of who was who and what was what, as they found it hard to pick up the many names being thrown at them. Thus I leave you with this handy guide I made for them so they weren’t tempted to go to Wikipedia and stumble upon awful spoilers. Print this out for future viewings and thank me later.
The world:
- The seven kingdoms are on one huge continent called Westeros. They take up most of the continent, except whatever is north of the Wall. There is another larger continent to the east “across the narrow sea” which is where the exiled girl and her brother are.
- The Wall is the northern border, guarded by the Night’s Watch. Beyond it there are outlaws known as wildlings, and other things unknown.
- Seasons last for years. Right now it has been an unusually long and prosperous summer, but as Ned says, “Winter is coming”.
- The seven kingdoms are ruled by one king from the capital city of King’s Landing, and each individual kingdom has its own Lord. They each have their own culture and were independent in the past, so the strength of the union depends mainly on the strength of the king.
The main characters:
Sean Bean is Eddard “Ned” Stark. His wife is Catelyn Stark (nee Tully) The children, from oldest to youngest are:
- Robb: Red-haired bloke, oldest legitimate son.
- Jon Snow: Ned’s bastard son, same age as Robb.
- Theon Greyjoy: the asshole who wanted to kill the wolf pups and acts like a dick to Jon snow. Not Ned’s son but a ward of the Starks – taken as a permanent hostage from a family defeated in an unsuccessful uprising, and raised along with the Stark children.
- Sansa: The boy-crazy airhead girly-girl.
- Bran: The kid who likes to climb.
- Arya: The tomboyish troublemaker.
- Rickon (may not have shown up yet): The youngest child at three years old.
-Lyanna Stark is Ned’s dead sister that King Robert had been engaged to.
-Benjen Stark is Ned’s younger brother who serves in the Night’s Watch at the Wall.
-Lysa Arryn (nee Tully) is Catelyn’s sister who had been married to the late Jon Arryn.
The king is Robert Baratheon. His wife is Cersei Lannister. Jaime is her twin brother, Tyrion the dwarf is their younger brother. Tywin Lannister (who hasn’t shown up yet) is their father. Joffrey is the prince and oldest child. There are also two younger children: Tommen and Myrcella. King Robert also has an older brother named Stannis and a younger one named Renly.
The two exiled royal children are Viserys and Daenarys Targaryen. Their father was King Aegon Targaryen II, overthrown by Robert and Ned over a decade ago. Khal Drogo is the horselord Daenarys marries.
That should be all. See you next week!
Correction: Though the observations below were correct at the time of writing, they have now been rendered somewhat moot as Jezebel acknowledged International Women’s Day in an article posted at 12:35 P.M. My apologies.
In what must have surely been a lack of judgment borne of caffeine deficiency, I checked Jezebel for the first time in months this morning to see if they’d have a post about the 100th anniversary of International Women’s Day, seeing as how they are supposedly a feminist blog. The sound of crickets was as palpable as it was predictable, though they did have some lovely posts about Lily Allen’s eating disorder and how sharing photos on Facebook affects your self-image.
But I’m not here to compare Western feminism to the late Roman Empire or lament its decadent decline into a trendy and degenerate blogosphere variety that is devoid of any sense of history or intellectual underpinnings and relies mainly on shallow sarcasm and a fixation on policing the most vapid aspects of our culture as an attempt to justify and intellectualize one’s interest in them. Because today is not about that. Today is about the achievements of women worldwide, and the serious struggles many of them still face.
To say it’s ironic that many in the United States have never heard of this holiday would be an understatement. For although the first official celebration of International Working Women’s Day took place in 1911 across several German-speaking nations, its origins lie in the National Women’s Day organized and celebrated by the Socialist Party of America in 1909. Rosalind Rosenberg, a history professor at Barnard College traces it back even earlier, to a protest held on March 8, 1908 by 15,000 female garment workers in New York City’s Lower East Side. It was in 1910, at an international women’s conference in Copenhagen, that the day acquired its international character.
As the holiday gained recognition and popularity across Eastern Europe, particularly in the newly established USSR, it quickly lost ground in the United States, first with the unpopularity of the Socialist Party’s opposition to US participation in World War I, and later when the Red Scare made the word “Socialism” into anathema. But even in the Soviet Union, where I grew up, the socialist character of “8 Marta” was never in the forefront – at least no more than it was in any of our other holidays. Rather, we mainly celebrated it as an all-around “Women’s Day” – Valentine’s Day and Mother’s Day rolled into one. But we also remembered the unimaginable sacrifices and hardships our mothers and grandmothers had endured during World War II and their invaluable contributions to our victory.
International Women’s Day was not formally recognized in the United States until it was established by the UN in the 1970’s, and even since then, it has barely registered on the radar. However, on the eve of today’s centennial celebration, President Obama not only called on Americans to observe the day, but proclaimed the entire month of March to be Women’s History Month. On the same day, Secretary of State Clinton launched the “100 Women Initiative”, gathering 100 women from 92 countries for a three-week professional exchange program in the US.
It is as important today as on any other day to take note of the injustices that still keep one-half of the world’s population in a subordinate state. But in light of recent events in Wisconsin and Ohio, I think it is also particularly relevant to remember this holiday’s origins as International Working Women’s Day, and to stand against the obstacles that workers – especially female workers – face in their struggles for a more just and equal society.
Now if you’ll excuse me, I’ve gotta go call my mom, and then my grandma.