#book of freedoms

[litcityblues]

The Big Book of (Problematic?) Freedoms

Occasionally, I like to revisit old reads of my youth either because I just want a break from whatever I'm trying to get through at the time or because I have fits of nostalgia that make me wonder how certain books are doing and if they still hold up the same way I remember them.

Anne McCaffery is one of my go-to authors for comfort reading. I devoured pretty much everything of hers I could get my hands on (with the weird exception of the Killashandra/Crystal Singer books-- for some reason, I never touched those) and I've got plenty of her books on my shelves. (Most of the Talent series, the OG trilogy of the Dragonriders of Pern) but somehow between various moves and parental bookshelf downsizing,g I also ended up with her Freedom Series. (Freedom's Landing, Freedom's Choice, Freedom's Challenge, and the somewhat random and I don't know at all what to think about it Freedom's Ransom.)

I remember absolutely loving these books when they first came out. Having re-read them, I have to revise my opinion downward just a notch and say that I like these books.

The hook is great: we open by meeting our heroine, Kris Bjornsen who is living off the land of a tropical and pleasant planet known as Barevi. Earth has been conquered-- the Catteni (feline-like) invaders swooped down, depopulated fifty cities across the planet, and shipped the population out. Turns out that's their M.O. for colonization: they take a chunk of the population of a new world, ship them out to slavery and subjugation and the rest of the populace tends to get the message and falls in line. Not Earth though! Earth is proving to be a tough nut to crack and Kris is proof of that. She tired of life as a slave, stole the Commander's transport/shuttle, and hid out in the jungle. She's doing pretty well for herself until one day, she sees some Catteni trying to track down and kill somebody.

Kris, who the book establishes pretty quickly is tall, blonde, self-reliant and always roots for the 'little guy' doesn't want to intervene, but eventually decides to only to realize that the 'somebody' that the other Catteni are trying to kill is a Catteni himself! Zainal is his name and he informs her that he killed their patrol leader in a dispute and under the law that governs Catteni to keep them from killing each other off, such disputes only last for 24 hours. Kris, not wanting to be sexually assaulted by him (more on that in a second) dumps him back to town just in time to get gassed as authorities put down a riot.

Then, she learns the other method of Catteni colonization. They take troublesome pain-in-the-ass portions of subjugated populations they don't want to deal with and dump them on potential colony worlds and that's where she ends up on a shiny new world- and somehow, Zainal ends up with her and a lot of other new colonists. Kris manages to convince the others not to kill him (because her fellow Terrans aren't exactly fans of Catteni at the moment for reasons) and Zainal actually did see a brief report on the planet in question so knows enough to be useful.

He stays and the new colonists start figuring out this world they've been dropped on and start making a life for themselves. Very quickly, they realize all is not as it seems with their new planet and someone is farming it very, very efficiently and well using technology that is very advanced indeed. The first book ends with a homing capsule being sent off- presumably to the owners of the planet.

The second book we start to learn more about the real galactic situation. Turns out the Catteni have bosses of their own-- the Eosi overlords and Zainal as a high-ranking Emassi was scheduled to be one of their 'hosts' which is exactly what it sounds like. There is a very, very quiet group of Catteni dissidents that would like to overthrow the Eosi but they don't really have a good way to do that yet. The Colonists of the planet-- now named Botany want to preserve their independence and see about helping free Earth and other subjugated planets. Zainal has some ideas about how to do that and together the colonists start accruing resources- like spaceships and the people to fly them.

Zainal's brother is forced to take his place as Eosi host and the new Eosi develops an obsessive urge to find Zainal and, when the Farmers show up and extend a protective shield around the planet, find out who has better technology than they do.

Some more twists and turns later (and into the third book at this point) they stumble across a plant that proves to be very, very bad for Catteni and by extension, the Eosi and a plan is hatched. Zainal offers himself as bait and gets himself brought before the Eosi and starts spritzing them with this plant dust and taking them out one by one before he finally returns to Botany, because 'he dropped, he stay.'

Okay-- before we talk about Freedom's Ransom, can I just say that re-reading these books gives me all kinds of complicated feelings about Kris Bjornsen. Starts out as a great character, she's awesome, she's self-reliant, she takes care of herself, she carries her buddy (Patti Sue) to the caves in the first book, and is all about exploring and getting out there and getting after it. For the vast majority of the first three books, I'm totally fine with her as a protagonist. But...

There are some weird moments. In her first encounter with Zainal:

"One of his massive legs had caught on the chair as he fell. It looked uncomfortable that way, and the fabric of his pants were caught against his genitals, outlining the size of them in a way that made her acutely embarrassed for him. And affected her in the oddest way."

Ummmmmm, okay? We find out early on that the Catteni have developed a sexual appetite for Terran women and she conks him out cold because he seems to be ready to 'reward her' for rescuing him and (naturally) she doesn't want any part of that. You, a good person, rescue what turns out to be Large Alien Cat Man and he's ready to have his way with you so you knock him out and notice that he's packing? Ummmmmm... okay?

This gets even weirder when she and Zainal wind up having a romantic relationship and falling for one another. And that gets even weirder when it's revealed that they were sort of flung together and sent out on scouting missions to keep Zainal from catching trouble at the camp and gradually, because of their close proximity, the inevitable happened.

Hhhhhwhat? So, they were kind of match-made? What? But would-be sexual assault aside, the slow build of this relationship worked quite well for me. Weirdness of their first meeting aside-- and I don't want to judge, but if a Large Alien Cat Man made like he was gonna have his way with me, I don't know... perhaps not? Even if he is a pretty good and decent Large Alien Cat Man?

Then, we get the motherhood angle. From a big-picture point of view, it makes sense: they want to stay independent, they have no idea if they can go back to Earth and that means they need a growing and healthy gene pool so that means women of child-bearing age gotta have at least one kid. Very much in keeping with her character: Kris hates the idea. She's not at all maternal. she doesn't want to have kids and it's very much a, 'oh god oh god, noooooooooo' type of a moment for her. The Colonists have anticipated that and set up a creche system, so mothers can be as involved or not involved as they want to be with their kids. (Which from a colonial point of view, makes a certain amount of sense.)

But then we get to the majorly problematic moment of these books: Kris breaks her arm and with Zainal out on a mission and no painkillers, a handsome fella/fellow colonist named Peter Easley-- whom she has noticed is very attractive and apart from this highly problematic moment is actually an okay character, gives her a generous amount of the colony's homemade painkiller: Hooch and when she's in rough shape, takes her home. And one thing leads to another and they have sex.

They try and retcon the highly problematic moment by having him be like, 'Hey, I don't remember much about what happened that day either, I was drinking too' as if a. that makes it okay and b. that was actually true- because not only is there nothing in the text indicating he's drinking, but he drives her home.

This encounter gets Kris off the hook: she gets pregnant and to her credit, she loves her kid. I'm not wild about the 'oh god oh god oh nononononono' initial reaction turning into, 'I'm fine with being a Mom now' so quickly, but I suppose it's possible? Confronting motherhood or parenthood in general could lead to a variety of reactions and people could accept it more easily after a shall we say adverse initial reaction.

But then, here's the crazy thing: she gets drunk (this time on Catten with its heavy gravity) and does it again. With a different dude. This time it's not nearly as problematic because they are both very drunk, whereas the first time feels well, rapey? But still... there's like a cascade of weird decisions for this character that I have no idea how to feel about and almost borders on 'men writing women' type of writing. It's not quite, 'her breasts breasted boobily' bad, but yikes.

Then we get to Volume Four, Freedom's Ransom:

I have no idea what to think about this book. It feels... weird. The POV doesn't seem to be that consistent and shifts around a lot. (The first three books were very Kris-centered, save for the portions where Zainal goes to confront the Eosi) and I don't know how to feel about it. Zainal as the primary POV is... interesting. The POV feels funky in this one and I don't know why.

On the other hand, I love the Aftermath. That scratches a major itch for me on all fronts-- what's it like now that the Eosi are gone and everyone is free? How's Earth doing? I love all of that--- but I have to ask: was this meant to start another trilogy? There are references in the opening part of the book to Zainal still wanting to find the Farmer Homeworld, which... okay, cool, but then it's never really mentioned again.

Freedom's Ransom does close some plot holes from the first trilogy and if it's meant to be a coda like The Tower and The Hive is for that series, I could buy that-- except, it opens up new plotlines that strongly seem to indicate another book or two is possible! What happens to all the Eosi treasure? Do they kept humans on slave planets freed? What about the other alien worlds, how are they doing? Can they get a galactic economy of some kind going to the mutual benefit of all involved? (That last question is essentially what Freedom's Ransom is about-- Barevi merchants have all the technical parts Earth need, but they've got to find something to trade with. Turns out the Catteni have never experienced dentistry, so they get a little dentistry going and they love coffee.)

It seems a very mundane thing to center a book around, but that's pretty much it. They figure out that the Catteni need dental work and love coffee and start to get some of Earth's loot back.

My Grade: First Three, I would say *** out of ****, but you could also talk me into a ** out of **** given how problematic some of it is. Freedom's Ransom is a weird, intriguing little coda to it all, and I would say that more solidly *** out ****

[philsmeatylegss]

I’m super shocked how little I’ve seen people (specifically Americans) care about the Tiktok ban on this website. It officially has passed as a law and I have seen nothing about it on here. I get this site hates Tiktok (for many valid reasons), but this should be terrifying that a country who supposedly loves freedom can ban one of the largest social media platforms in the country because they don’t like it. That should be fucking terrifying. I have yet to see a non-politician American support the ban and it is clearly just about the partial Chinese ownership. I get it, the app sucks, but about 170 million Americans have Tiktok. It is a huge platform that the government is mad they cannot control (like Facebook, Instagram, Google, etc which are all located in America). It’s still unknown if Biden or Trump will uphold it, but the very fact it has passed should be terrifying for every American. Including the ones who don’t have tiktok. Yes, Tiktok is beyond a flawed platform, but a government banning it with no say from the public is even more flawed. And it’s crazy imo that this site isn’t furious.

[that-butch-archivist]

"Untitled" by Katie Niles, 1990

source: Nothing But the Girl: The Blatant Lesbian Image, edited by Susie Bright and Jill Posener

[teaboot]

When I was a kid, I regularly lost reading privileges for "having an attitude" and "acting out".

It wasn't as simple as being told not to read during other activities- one of the first times it happened, I remember being six years old, watching my stepfather pull fistfuls of books off my bookshelf and throw them to the floor in a heaping mess while I cried and asked him to stop.

It was weird. Every other adult I knew described me as exceptionally well-behaved, but at home, it was the opposite, and it was blamed on "learning bad habits from that shit you're reading".

Because I couldn't read at home, I spent all my free time at school in the library, reading with my friends.

When I grew up and moved away, I realized that my family life was toxic and abusive, and the "attitudes" I was being punished for were standing up for myself, standing up for my younger siblings, and resisting actual, real-life psychological abuse. Because I'd learned from what I'd read that my family wasn't normal, not like my parents said it was, and in my stories, the heroes were the people who spoke out when it was hard to.

It is insane to me that there are students right now who can't access books. It is insane that books are being outlawed. It is perverse that we are stealing away an entire generation's ability to contextualize their lives, to learn about the world around them, to develop critical thinking skills and express themselves and feel connected to the world or escape from it, whatever and whenever and however they need.

That is not how you raise a compassionate, thoughtful, powerful society.

That's how you process cattle.

It's fucking disgusting.

[birdie-lou]

Dear friends not in America don’t take this the wrong way but please don’t tell us to just read a book or go outside

This is proof we do not live in the land of the free

We are finally starting to realize how much power our government has

They have taken a platform of free speech and thought and expression away from us

A place we can get extremely up to date news from around the world

And they have taken it

Some of us are on here on tumblr or other platforms but loosing TikTok is proof the government doesn’t care about us

Say it’s for our protection all they want. If they wanted to protect our data or us as people they woudl have banned Facebook and all other social media a long time ago bc that stuff gets breeches all the time

EDIT: hey pls check my reblog of this bc I wanted to clear a few things up since this post got a little more attention than I thought it would.

[tilbageidanmark]

Palestinian resistance fighter reading “Quotations from Chairman Mao”, 1969.

🇵🇸

>>> SEE ALSO <<<

>>> SEE ALSO <<<

>>> SEE ALSO <<<

>>> SEE ALSO <<<

[mummer]

rhaenyra outsourcing motherhood to rhaena and assigning her that passive feminine role was REALLY interesting….. rhaenyra as a character is at her most fascinating when she is forced to navigate and ultimately perpetuate the gendered structures she despises and wishes she could transcend— the seeds of her tragedy already sewn here. just great character work

[rosefires20]

My brainrot today is thinking about just how incredible for a character Eowyn is.

Genuinely. The series might not have many female characters but the ones we do get go so fucking hard.

To me, Eowyn is literally the definition of defining being a woman for oneself. She rejects the roles she is given despite acknlowdging the importance and its mostly because she knows part of the reason is that she is a woman.

The reason why she is obsessed with Aragorn isn't because she loves him but because she wants what he has. She wants the freedom and courage and bravery that Aragorn has at every turn. She literally has multiple conversations during the Two Towers about how what she fears most is a cage. All this girl wants is the freedom to be and not be forced into a role. The best thing is that she literally gets that.

The segment of Return of the King about Eowyn and Faramir is literally about her piecing together what she truly wants. She doesn't want Aragorn. She wants freedom and the ability to choose. Faramir does nothing but encourage that in her. Their love story is literally one of the healthiest love stories I've seen in a long time because at the heart of it, their love is a place to return home to for both parties. Both go off to lead and help their people for a considerable amount of time before returning to each other but that does not diminish their bond. Even Faramir, I believe, falls in love with her bravery and dedication to her loved ones. The reason she went to Pelenor Fields and Gondor with the troops of Rohan was because she had things she wanted to fight for. She wanted to fight for herself, her people, and her loved ones. She is the one who protects Theoden after he is killed so that his body gets the treatment it deserves. She encourages Merry and helps him go to the battle because she sees her struggle in Merry. They feel helpless standing around when there are things to be doing.

Let's also not forget the fact that she was around Grima Wormtounge just as much as the King was. She was exposed to the same poison and awful words that eroded the king. It's even implied that her care for him is part of the reason why Theoden was savable when Gandalf showed up. She had the same power and bravery as everyone else even if she didn't see it in herself.

Then at the end of the day, SHE decides where she wants to go and what path she wants to walk. She walked the path of a warrior. The path of a princess/ruler. The path of a caretaker. But in the end she decides which elements truly mean something to her outside of gender definitions. That is what makes her character so incredible to me. In this she literally kills one of the biggest enemies in that battle with such a badass line.

[fuckingpajamas]

“DON’T JUST DO NOTHING: 20 THINGS YOU CAN DO TO COUNTER FACISM— YES, YOU! YES— NOW!”

A free to print, post and distribute zine for communal goals towards fighting facism.

This is ABSOLUTELY free to READ, PRINT and GIVE AWAY! No permission needed (as stated by the organization)!

You DO NOT need to ask to repost or share this, please, please share this everywhere.

Shared and created by itsgoingdown.org

FIND THE ZINE HERE

[sdpubliclibrary]

Book Banning is just another form of Bullying...

[nobeerreviews]

The prison is not outside, but inside each of us. Perhaps we simply don't know how to live without it.

-- Olga Tokarczuk

(Warszawa, Poland)

[that-butch-archivist]

"Bear and Aphra 2" by Jessica Tanzer, 1989.

source: Nothing But the Girl: The Blatant Lesbian Image, edited by Susie Bright & Jill Posener

[from-the-dead]

Red Death has come to take what is rightfully his own.

Version without wings under the cut:

[erinwantstowrite]

thoughts on the disney+ pjo show??

i was a little disappointed but i have to defend it with my entire heart and soul because the most annoying people on planet earth have to be weird about leah playing annabeth

[thebanishedreader]

Oh, what the hell, Florida.

Heyyy so I just looked at my spreadsheet of banned books and...

There are 1,402 BANNED BOOKS in the state of Florida ALONE.

To put that in perspective, on that very same spreadsheet, the number of banned books in California is: one (1).

If you guys have been following this (very new) blog and my posts, then you will know that the number of banned books in Colorado is: eight (8).

In Arkansas, it's four (4).

So. Just to reiterate, to repeat.

As of June 2023,

THE STATE OF FLORIDA HAS BANNED 1,402 BOOKS.

NEARLY HALF OF ALL BANNED BOOKS THIS YEAR, AND NEARLY THE TOTAL AMOUNT OF BANNED BOOKS IN 2022 IN TOTAL.

FLORIDA. HAS. BANNED. 1,402. BOOKS.

Please read banned books. Support libraries. Support authors. And please, please please please please, for the love of everything, stay safe. I love each and every one of you. Stay safe.

Support the American Library Association here.

[hhhhleb]

inspired by The Rebel by Albert Camus (just an excuse to draw Sci :D)