I'm going to come back to the question of intended audience on this one, because I think it's really important to how one evaluates literature about minority groups, especially when that literature carries a didactic message. A good book will be written in such a way as to make it available to a variety of audiences, but in the end the author makes certain narrative choices that make it easy to determine who the book is for. I usually look at the point of view character, the plot, and the way other characters think about the minority character in question, as well as which characters are portrayed with any amount of agency and which ones get active character development.

I usually contrast Luna and Parrotfish in terms of YA trans lit, and interestingly, Rockefeller and I seem to have somewhat differing opinions on these books. I don't think Luna is as wonderful a portrayal as it is often lauded to be, and the reason for this is that it reads very much as a Sympathize With The Victims book to me. The protagonist of the book is a straight teen girl, Regan, whose sibling, whose given name is Liam but who increasingly adopts the female identity of Luna, is MTF trans. The book focuses largely on Regan's coming to terms with her sibling's transition (and often fails to use appropriate pronouns as part of this confusion). The book very much focuses on how someone might adjust to having someone important in their life transition, and Luna's preternatural perfection in most things make her a somewhat abstract character, and the moments in which she develops are often more concerned with Regan's emotional response and development than Luna's, as Regan witnesses increasing strife with the family, helps Luna on a shopping trip for women's clothing, etc. In the end, Luna pays a heavy price for claiming her identity--she moves away, effectively estranged from her parents who do not accept her. This kind of literature can be instructive for readers who are trying to understand the trans people in their lives, but its message of hope to trans youth directly is... not very hopeful. In general I find Peters writes Victim Stories around LGBT topics, especially trans--the short story in grl2grl is somewhat brutal and forbidding for the trans guy protagonist.

I think Parrotfish is a much stronger book because it provides a fairly well-adjusted and convincingly, if not universally, accepted transgender protagonist/point of view character. I do take Rockefeller's point that it dwells too much on gender stuff to the detriment of the pacing and plot development. I think it's important to have books that portray trans characters that speak *to trans youth* and not primarily or, it sometimes feels, ONLY, to straight readers curious to learn more about trans life.

Siva Vaidhyanathan's speech to Columbia University students as part of their Open Source Culture Lecture series, 'Copyrights and Copywrongs"

Alan Brodsky's interview with Francesca Coppa, "We Are Creators, Too"

Lawrence Lessig's TED talk, "How creativity is being strangled by the law"

Francesca Coppa's 24/7 DIY Video Summit talk, "A Genealogy of Vidding" (which was also written by Laura Shapiro and introduced by Henry Jenkins):

Eric Faden's "A Fair(y) Use Tale", which remixes copyright giant Disney's overprotected content into an educational short film about copyright and fair use:

"Us" by lim.

"Remix Culture vs the DMCA" (Rebecca Tushnet audio). I think this is by the Electronic Frontier Foundation
.

Footage from the documentary "Rip! A Remix Manifesto", which you can download. Parts of it are also available on YouTube.

"Closer" by T. Jonesy and Killa. [Note: This includes some adult material and also implied sexual violence]

"Chad Vader" by Aaron Yonda and Matt Sloan. The clips I used here are taken from "Remix Culture: The Early Years", but you can see more of the actual series at their website.

Francesca Coppa and Henry Jenkins talk about fan vids.

"Shatner of the Mount" by Fall on Your Sword--a remix of an interview Shatner gave for Star Trek V (in which Captain Kirk tries to climb Yosemite).

I also included the songs "Make Your Own Kind of Music" by the Mamas and the Papas and "Fight the Power" by Public Enemy

I didn't really try to hide my identity from you, but... good luck!

Honestly I think this is the creepiest assignment I've ever been assigned--keep a blog that no one will read except one random stranger who will be doing their best to unearth everything about you. I don't know about you, but that's not really what blog culture has been about for me... I've had stalkers before, actual ones, and this whole thing is just scary to me. So, have fun, but I would appreciate if you didn't use your powers for evil--ie., don't turn up on my doorstep or come round my job without introducing yourself or anything. But, you know, do the assignment.

I am a big SF geek, I'm heavily into feminism, queer rights, anti-racism, analyses of media and media fans, vids, copyright, farming, cooking, reading, watching silly shows and tearing them apart, etc. I'm involved in a lot of different things, from working a Community-Supported-Agriculture work trade in the summer and fall to being on the concom of a local feminist science fiction convention. Obviously I also go to school--I'm a special student in the graduate section of LIS201, and I'm trying to get into SLIS to become a librarian in the future. So that's mostly what I wrote about here.

Also, just because you're stalking me doesn't mean you can't leave me comments and introduce yourself, if you're so inclined, or if you totally agree or disagree with any of my posts or want clarification or just want to say hello.

And with that, I'll leave you with my favorite vid of the moment,
Buffy vs. Edward

Thanks!

Locals, if you are looking for a way to honor the day, there's an event tonight at 6pm--Trans Monologues, held at A Room of One's Own--and evening of theater, poetry, music and all other kinds of expression, followed by a vigil. It's free and sure to be good.

In honor of the day will take this opportunity to plug a book I really enjoy-- Like Son by Felicia Luna Lemus. The protagonist is a trans man living in NYC, and it's a story about his tempestuous and occasionally luminescent relationship with his girlfriend, his obsession with the mystery of his grandmother who had a scandalous queer affair in hedonistic upper class Mexican society of the 20s, idealized through a photograph, and a story about the joys and dangers of nostalgia. I consider it significant because it is a novel that goes beyond the narrative of transition, exploring a man's life as refracted through his present and his history. It's a beautiful book, and I think it deserves more attention.

I've put off writing about this book because it is one of my favorites I've read this year, and it's not even out yet. It is so good I'm intimidated just writing about it, in case I don't do it justice. It has many of my favorite tropes: country girl in the city, lost heirs, intricate politics, queer epic love, a past and future that stretch beyond the timeline of the book but influence its events. A really awesome set of gods and goddesses who are uncanny--that is, not simply humans with extra powers, but actually fundamentally alien, though they seem all too human at times. Difficult metaphysics, high stakes, (almost) nobody is purely good or purely evil. Stunning visual descriptions. Plot twists so intense and so frequent it's like riding a giddy whirlwind to read. One of the best parts is that Yeine is a protagonist whose voice isn't just that of an American transplanted to a fantasy land, but whose thought patterns and metaphors unapologetically reflect her heritage, a culture which we only see a few glimpses of outright but which is rich and layers and affects her decisions and perspectives throughout the book. It's got sharp, often violent action that lends urgency to every moment we see.

The writing is tight and often luminescent--there are a few phrases and passages that made me gasp in appreciation of the craft. It's difficult to pull this kind of book off well--to leave enough hints about the many mysteries that are unfolding without revealing the twists too soon. Conversely, you don't want to give too little information, or the reader will check out. I felt like each twist was doled out at just the right time, and I continued to be surprised and delighted as each new piece of the story revealed hidden emotional or political depths. The plot is beautifully constructed through taut, lean prose. The first person narration is engaging and the character's voice is capable of sustaining it throughout, with tension between the story-as-told and the speaker's moments of mad self-doubt. It's riveting storytelling.

It's a truly remarkable book, and I eagerly await the sequel. We get a couple of pages of it as a teaser at the end of the ARC, and just from that it's obvious that the series will address the few issues I had with this first installment--namely, that it focuses primarily on the concerns of the rich and powerful, despite its protagonist of 'barbaric' roots.

I highly recommend this book to anyone who enjoys original, character-driven fantasy that doesn't pull its punches. It comes out in February--you can pre-order yours through your local independent bookstore! If you're not sure where yours is, have a look on Indiebound.

I was unimpressed. There were some arguments I appreciated, a few points I hadn't seen yet, but on the whole it wasn't a very comprehensive piece.

I am, of course, on board with the central premise of the film--that copyright laws are restrictive and are damaging to free expression and serving to quash creativity, not foster and promote it. I don't think it's ideal to do away with copyright altogether, but I do think the laws as they stand are excessive, and there should be more protections for fair use and transformative work, and some attention to the right of the public to engage with collective culture and entertainment in an active way.

My biggest problem with the movie was how limited it was in scope, especially with regard to race and gender. It seemed to assume from the outset that we-the-viewer already agree with him (which, as it happens, I mostly do), I don't see it doing much to sway someone who didn't already agree (think Michael Moore). It also focused way too much on one (white) performer, Girltalk (I hate that name on a straight boy) who was a pal of the filmmaker's. It was a documentary that focused primarily on remixing music (with nod to film remix basically inasmuch as it applied to the making of this documentary itself, and almost nothing about print remix). He didn't talk about modern hip hop or rap at all, and the only mentions of musical communities of people of color were the old blues guys (Muddy Waters etc.) and modern Brazil. There were almost no women in the movie--there was the copyright office lady who was basically set up to be laughed down, and there was Girltalk's girlfriend whose only comments in the film were about when Girltalk doesn't wear pants. We also saw one woman later on in the film who'd been sued for downloading music, so at least her story was relevant even if it was all about her as a victim of the system, rather than an active participant in remix culture. Because obviously women and people of color aren't creative enough to be included in this movie as artists. /sarcasm

It just wasn't a very nuanced argument, and ignored issues of race and gender--and we all know how I feel about that.

I'm also reading Siva Vaidhyanathan's Copyrights and Copywrongs, and I think I'm going to use that as my book for this class, and remix Rip! to a) bring attention to the people of color and women who ARE artists worthy of celebration (the book does mention several hip hop and rap artists that I'll mix in), and b) bring in the more sophisticated arguments Vaidhyanathan is making. So, that will be my class vid.