#the thing is rowling fairly often WAS intending the bad things to be bad

[whetstonefires]

Honestly I think the main reason is the people in control of wizard society need it to be cult-shaped the way it is is so they can control their own, first and foremost.

Without the masquerade situation, the ability of a given practitioner to provide unique services to their ordinary neighbors would constitute a solid economic and social power base, easily expanded through networking and cooperation, that would make it very hard to keep all real power concentrated in the upper echelons of wizard society.

Without the secrecy, either they take steps to rule everyone, or they lose their position of power. Controlling the entire population would be very hard; it would take work and carry risks and be in constant danger of breaking down. But controlling the wizarding minority is pretty easy.

When all economic opportunity runs through a very few institutions, and it's generally accepted that stepping out of that tight patronage network without exquisite care to obfuscate who you are and what you're doing and generally remain isolated entitles those institutions to give your friends and colleagues brain damage and have you tortured. Like.

Generally people fall in line, go to jail, or quietly drop out of the wizard society. The hierarchy is preserved intact.

I think the rest of it is really just gravy.

Most stories about secret, underground supernatural societies make them an underclass. "Society sees us as monsters, and would treat as such, so we must stay secret." Or they have them be suppressed in some way - "we have superpowers, but a mysterious organization is after us!" Or they make the secret society evil or aristocratic/exclusive etc etc

Harry Potter doesn't have any of these explanations (I mean wizarding society as described is evil but that's not intended) but it like. Could've? There's a natural explanation, say "hey, Muggles used to hunt witches, and they still will if given a chance". Okay, secrecy explained. But instead she just had someone go "teehee, when the witch hunts happened, witches used a spell to fake being burned alive and just walked off unharmed! Teehee, Muggles are silly and we sure got one over on them! No we couldn't help any of the falsely accused Muggles not be burnt alive we have to stay secret. To avoid the persecution it's trivially easy to avoid & that we treat as a joke"

[lucy-moderatz]

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone: Chapters 1-4.

Upon examining my thoughts about this section that I’ve fairly arbitrarily chosen to talk about, I find that what I remember most is how I felt when Hagrid had finally scared the living hell out of the Dursleys and Harry, as well, as the reader, was finally able to read the letter. The Hogwarts letter. I got goosebumps. Again. 13 or 31, apparently, it doesn’t matter. I was elated by just that simple block of text alone. This whole magical world, the letters, the books, the wands, Diagon Alley, was always my absolute favorite part of the books as a kid. I felt so transported, so uplifted and happy thinking about that world, imagining walking by all of those shops myself. Of course, in this reread I haven’t got to that part yet. No, I chose to stop and do a mish-mash of a recap of my random-ass thoughts and feelings up to this point because it seemed like an appropriate place, seeing as Harry and the reader are now leaving one world for another.

So, here are my random musings and thoughts on the first sixty or so pages of the first Harry Potter book. Going under a cut because I am both polite and rambley.

One of the only things I was dreading about this re-read was the Dursley’s parts. They were always my least favorite parts to read because believe it or not reading about an orphaned child behind mentally and physically abused is kind of a downer. And it still is. But I noticed this time more than last just how Roald Dahl-esque these whole chapters are. There is a definite strangeness to the Dursley’s insistence on complete normalcy that comes off much more to me now than it did when I was younger. It’s more absurd than I remember, more laughable and pitiable. The reality of the situation is still readily apparent to me, but I ended up rolling my eyes at the Dursleys more than I feared them, as I feel like I did the first time. This is probably largely a function of my age. It’s not that I find them humorous. I don’t and they’re not. I’m just not as menaced by them as I felt when I was younger.

However, turning my brain in a much more serious direction, I did have an interesting thought that occured to me fairly early on while reading. I’ll try to be brief because it’s not much more than a “wouldn’t that be interesting” idea. I know J.K. Rowling has become rather infamous for adding canon after the fact, and a whole lot of other stuff I don’t want to get into. I say that because what I’m about to suggest is not really to her (or anyone else’s) credit. I think there’s room to read Harry as a person of color. Authors often describe their protagonist’s physical characteristics vaguely on purpose, and I don’t have a huge problem with that because there’s value in keeping it open ended so anyone can see themselves in the main character. There’s no real intentional subtext, just intentional absence. The thing that got me thinking along this line was actually rooted in the vehemence of Vernon and Lily’s hatred for Harry, his parents, and the world they come from. Again, I think this was intended to be read simply. Vernon and Lily are bad people and hate Harry and his parents because they hate anything that isn’t “as it’s supposed to be”. They want order and rules and Harry represents the opposite of all of that to him, so they dehumanized and abuse him at every turn. Racism is very clearly used as subtext in the wizarding world later. That’s meant to be read into, whereas I don’t think this is. This was a book meant for 12 year olds in 1997. But as a 31 year old in 2019…I can’t help but see the possibility that there might be more going on there. Like I said, though, it’s just a thought. That was brief, right?

And I guess the last point i want to make is about Dumbledore. I don’t actually remember a lot about him. I know there’s a lot of very visceral dislike for him around tumblr, but I’ll reserve my own judgements for what I have a more complete picture of his actions in the grand scheme of things. Which is gonna take about seven books. For now, all I can say is, he knows a lot more than he’s telling anyone. Maybe that’s for the best, maybe it’s not. I don’t know yet. I’m basically forming my opinion of him from scratch, so we’ll see in the long run how I end up feeling. At this point, I’m just suspicious of his true motivations for leaving Harry with the Dursleys, as well as distrusting of the front of the kindly, but wise old man that he puts up for people.

[squirenonny]

Clone Shiro Theory in Season 5

Okay, so this mess was inspired by talking with several people on Tumblr and discord about the Clone Shiro Theory in the wake of Season 5, as well as seeing posts in the fandom tags. And...I’ve noticed some common themes in arguments against this theory.

Please note that this is not meant to be a direct rebuttal to anyone, more... working out for myself why I’m so convinced that Shiro is a clone because I’ve got all these nebulous thoughts running around in my head and I need to organize them somehow. So feel free to read, respond, reblog, ect, but also feel free to ignore this completely if Clone Shiro isn’t your thing.

Season 5 spoilers and a very long post under the cut.

I’m going to break this down into three parts:

I. Why a clone and not something else (mind control, magical spyware, ect)

II. Why I won’t accept anything but clones at this point without crying foul

III. Clone Shiro vs Galra Keith

I. Why a clone?

I think at this point there’s no way to deny that something happened to Shiro in Operation Kuron. We’ve seen Haggar spying through him, the headaches are a recurring theme, and his behavior has changed to the point that he’s going behind his team’s back and lashing out at the team in ways he hasn’t before.

With most of the proof, you can make several arguments. Haggar’s mind-controlling him directly, but he still is Shiro. Haggar’s spyware is giving him headaches that’s making him more testy than usual, but he’s still acting under his own free will. Ect. But I think there is enough evidence to give the clone theory specifically an edge over other explanations.

Shiro’s hair grew roughly a foot during his captivity between seasons 2 and 3. There’s no clear answer on how long this was, but it seems like a fairly short time period. At the start of the season, Keith is still raw over Shiro’s disappearance, and though they’ve done a few missions without Shiro, they haven’t run up against anything that required Voltron. Which... considering how often they form Voltron both before and after this period, suggest to me that we’re talking a time frame of weeks at the longest. Then episodes 1-3 happen in pretty quick succession, with the lion switch and Keith immediately charging off, almost out of spite. We pick up with Shiro a day or two before episode 3 (which is where Shiro finds Voltron and then loses them.) He spends another week chasing them before Keith and Black find him. All told, this is probably in the realm of one month since his disappearance, maybe two. For reference, human hair grows on average half an inch per month. Shiro is shown to have significantly more hair growth in this time frame than anyone else gets in the entire series--even people who have been prisoners for extended amounts of time. Matt and Sam each get maybe a few inches, and Shiro’s hair was kept short during his stint in the Arena. This tells me that Shiro’s hair growth for The Journey is not an artist’s exaggeration to show that he’s had it rough. If it is, then it’s sloppy, and the animators on this show are typically pretty attentive to detail. If this is intentional, I can only conclude that Shiro has been in captivity for far longer than the timeline allows and/or the clone was grown in a short time and the accelerated growth also affected his hair.

Calling attention to the difference between Shiro(s1-2) and Shiro(s3+). These, I’ll admit, are more suspicious than damning, but they’re worth mentioning. The animators made a deliberate decision to give Shiro a new look after his return. We’ve seen people in different outfits, and Allura has a few different hairstyles (up, down, mice poofs), but no one has changed their “default” outfit like Shiro has, only their armor or other special outfits (pajamas, swimsuits, ect), and no one has gotten a new haircut, except Pidge (in backstory, as a plot point) and Sam and Matt (compare to Shiro on the Kerberos mission vs post-escape in s1.) They want you to be able to tell the difference between Shiro 1 and Shiro 2. At the same time, they call attention to this change by having Shiro comment about his “weird headache.” The writers also made a point of having the Galra refer to Shiro differently in the context of Operation Kuron (Subject Y0XT39 vs Prisoner 117-9875.) From a writing standpoint, this is a strange choice--not necessarily significant, but likely so because both designations are mentioned in passing and without context, so tossing both out there without reason is more confusing than world-building. And in-universe, it tells us that the people in charge of Operation Kuron couldn’t or didn’t want to refer to prisoners by their already-assigned number. Possibly this is for internal organization--i.e. if not all subjects were prisoners or if they had completely random prisoner numbers. But if it is clones, they would need new ways to identify them, since they’d all have the same prisoner ID. Again, not proof, but suspicious.

Shiro appeared in the Voltron bond. And it seems as though the Shiro with the team didn’t. Not just his head is fuzzy about it. He wasn’t there. Did you notice how Shiro-in-the-bond was translucent, only seen from a distance, and almost completely lacking in detail in the head area? Maybe to obscure the fact that he has his old haircut (both from us and from Lance)? Did you notice that he didn’t appear with everyone else, and how desperate he was to communicate with his team? There are two Shiros. The only question is whether the distinction is physical (clones) or mental (mind control with the real Shiro’s mind completely suppressed by Haggar’s persona)

Following up on this point, Shiro himself is questioning things. If this was a case of mind control, of Haggar taking over Shiro’s body, there is no way she would allow her puppet to question his own identity. If she has direct control, she certainly wouldn’t mention it to Lance, and if the real Shiro is still in there waiting to take his body back, she absolutely would put safeguards in to make sure her controlled personality stays in place.

And of course, the single biggest argument in favor of Clone Shiro: Operation Kuron = literally, “Operation Clone.” This can’t be a coincidence. It can’t. With everyone working on the show (how many of whom are anime fans and have at least a rudimentary familiarity with Japanese pronunciation?), and with Lauren Montgomery having talked about how Laith is a much better ship name for Keith and Lance, because Laith means Lion, I do not believe that they accidentally chose a name for this major plot point that means “clone” in Japanese (which is either Shiro’s native language or at least connected to his heritage.) I also don’t believe that it was chosen as a red herring to make us think this is all about clones when it really isn’t, because the target audience (which is, what 8-12 year olds?) will not pick up on that hint. It fails as a distraction for the core demographic, which makes me think it’s far more likely that it was meant as an easter egg and the writers didn’t necessarily intend for people to pick up on it. It’s like... This post about English name symbolism in FMA. It’s a clever nod to character traits for people who are in the know, but then you give that same name to an English speaker and it’s almost laughably on the nose. For people who don’t speak Japanese (most of Voltron’s audience) and don’t have social media to point it out (unfortunately, comparatively little of the fanbase), “Operation Kuron” is a subtle nod. In a novel, where people likely won’t engage with the fandom until they’re finished, it would work. Hell, for people not actively engaged in fandom, it works. The problem is that we’ve had months upon months and the power of the internet, so now everyone knows that JK Rowling named her werewolf Wolfy McWolfenstein the Galra named their secret clone project Project Clone. That isn’t bad writing. It’s perfectly fine writing tossed to the wolves of a global fandom that loves to theorize.

(Also, I was curious, so I checked, and “Operation Kuron” is called the same thing in the Japanese dub, so lol if it’s not clones, Dreamworks is going to have some explaining to do.)

II. Why having the answer be “Not Clones” at this point would be bad writing

Okay, see, this is way more subjective than part I, which was already pretty subjective. But here’s the thing. Dreamworks has set up Clone Shiro, almost blatantly so. I can forgive the fact that this twist is obvious to the Tumblr fandom, at least, because (a) the show is for kids, so the foreshadowing has to be a little bit more obvious, and (b) you cannot judge subtlety based on thousands of people working together to figure things out. Most of the fandom figured out Galra Keith before season 2 dropped. Some people hated it, but then, some people were incredibly resistant to the Clone Shiro Theory--still are. It feels like everyone and their grandmother figured these twists out way in advance, but if you took away the part where we all screamed about it and laid out our arguments? If you somehow reached out to the viewers who aren’t involved in fandom? I’ll bet you good money that a lot fewer of them have picked up on the hints. (And if they have, they aren’t nearly as certain about it.)

But if we get to season 6 and suddenly find out Shiro has been Shiro all along, just with magic in his head letting Haggar watch him? I’m going to be disappointed, because that resolution is almost guaranteed to leave plot holes. How did Shiro get recaptured/how did he disappear from the Black Lion in the first place? Why did his hair grow so fast? What’s with the change in behavior (I’m not talking about the snappishness and arguing with Keith and Lance, I’m talking about directly undermining the very teamwork he’s been the single biggest proponent of from the start by going behind the team’s back again and again)? Why didn’t Black accept him at first? Why did he have to prove himself to her again, after they’d been more closely bonded than anyone? Why was the project named Operation Kuron? Why did Shiro see another, hollow-looking, him on the exam table in that flashback? Why hasn’t he used the bayard yet?

The show might explicitly answer some of these, but I think we all know by now that it won’t slow the pace long enough to explain all of them. The clone theory explains or implies answers to almost all of these (especially if you couple it with “the original Shiro is stuck in the astral plane” or some such.)

So, no. Clone Shiro isn’t a twist at this point. Maybe it’s just me, because I’m usually pretty good at picking up on foreshadowing and figure out most twists ahead of time, especially if I’m given time to ruminate. But I’m fine with not having big, shocking reveals. Something doesn’t have to be a surprise to be interesting. I don’t have to feel like I was clever for figuring it out. I can’t wait for season 6 because I’m desperate to know that both my sons (Shiro and Ryou) are going to be okay--because I think, at least, that the Shiro with the team right now is not being set up as a villain. He may become a martyr, but he’s meant to be sympathetic, regardless of where he came from.

In the end, I don’t mind that the Clone Shiro Theory seems obvious, because the foreshadowing is aimed at kids and the adult fandom is bound to pick up on those hints faster. And clones explain everything so well that I honestly don’t think any other answer would make for a satisfying conclusion to the Kuron arc.

III. Clone Shiro vs Galra Keith

Okay, now this is interesting, because these are the two main theories that the fandom swarmed. One turned out to be true, and I honestly think the other will be proven right in June.

Also interesting is that, in terms of episode count, they both are paced about the same. It’s just that the Galra Keith plot happened over the course of 1.5 full seasons, while the Operation Kuron plot is going on 3.5 half seasons. Same number of episodes, but more spread out and with more breaks in between. Galra Keith was dropped into a single seven-month gap with a growing fandom and then confirmed immediately with the next batch of episodes. Operation Kuron was introduced in August, fans jumped on it, season 4 dropped, the fandom was split on it (because, admittedly, s4 didn’t add anything to the argument that couldn’t be explained by trauma and/or mounting pressure on Shiro), fans wrote a shitton of Ryou hcs/fic and drew a lot of Ryou art, season 5 dropped, with major new developments but no confirmation, and now we’ve got another break. At the earliest, it will be confirmed or debunked in June, a full ten months after it was first hinted, and with three season breaks for people to theorize, create fanworks, and otherwise dig into Camp Clone.

Can you imagine if the first two seasons had been done like that? (Note: I know I’m fudging the midpoint of season 1 a little bit, but bear with me here. I want to do a thought experiment.)

Season 1: We get hints of Keith’s knife and the major red flag of Keith opening doors that have been implied to be species-locked, so Hunk has to use a Galra arm to get past one door in the same episode Keith uses Galra tech with no problems. There’s also the word of god that says Keith is an orphan, so speculation runs wild. The fandom is split, with a small but vocal group on Team Galra, a vocal opposition, and a whole bunch of people on Team “Can’t we just wait and see what the writers have in mind, guys? We don’t have to fight!”

Season “2″: Little movement on Galra Keith Theory specifically, and both sides have arguments for what little we do get. Are those purple patches the effect of Galra heritage or is that supposed to tell us Quintessence does freaky things? Does Zarkon’s, “You fight like a Galra soldier,” mean anything (and is there a comma there/does that change the meaning? I can only imagine the comma drama if that had been one of the only new points for debate after three months.) The only major development is explicit confirmation of the species lock on Galra tech. All this is exacerbated by growing concerns in the autistic fanbase who worry that Team Galra Keith is starting to twist the legitimate autistic traits to support their own theory. (Believe me, I was there, and I was scared of Galra Keith for a good long while because of this.) The debate starts to turn bitter.

Season “3″: Ulaz shows up, we see Keith’s knife, we have Keith worrying that Zarkon “imprinted” on him, and though nothing comes of that, it still says something that the writers are even willing to acknowledge the theory. The season ends with no clear answer, but by now most of the fandom is on Team Galra. There’s been fic. There’s been art. There are headcanons and metas galore. The evidence is all laid out, and there’s really no denying it at this point. Some people are angry about it, and lots of people are hoping for Altean Keith or something, just because it would still be a surprise.

Season “4″: The Galra Keith reveal happens in episode one or two, and literally no one is shocked. Some people are angry, everyone is pissed that there wasn’t more fallout after four seasons of buildup. But we all knew it was coming.

Think, in contrast, how the Clone Shiro Theory might have gone if we hadn’t switched to half seasons. (In a hypothetical world where the theory is true, and it’s getting revealed next season.)

Season 3 now covers everything through Naxzela. Operation Kuron is huge in fandom discussion, but it’s partially overshadowed by everything else that happened--Keith joining the Blade, Lotor’s offer of talks, Keith’s near sacrifice, Matt’s return... Fewer people are as adamant about the clone theory because we’ve already seen Shiro back in the Black Lion and fighting alongside the team. There are lingering doubts, and people still lay out all their arguments, but it’s less splitting hairs and more the broad range we saw with Galra Keith, from adamant arguments on either side to a broad, casual fanbase in the middle who doesn’t know if it’s gonna happen and honestly couldn’t care less but sure as hell likes to play around with the idea. Like with Galra Keith, there is some evidence that’s either straight-up confirmation or lazy writing (Keith opening doors vs kuron meaning clone) but for the most part people are still uncertain.

Season “4″ drops and hits us all hard with new evidence. People are getting behind the Clone Shiro Theory in earnest now, but somewhere near the end of the season it’s confirmed, forestalling another round of theorizing. Lots of people are caught off-guard, lots of people are edge-of-their-seats “Holy crap, is that actually true??” The major, irrefutable pieces of evidence (Ulaz, Keith’s knife, his nightmares vs Shiro lying to the team, Haggar’s spying, Shiro calling out to Lance in the bond) are immediately followed up by confirmation.

Can you see how the spacing of the episodes drastically changes the perception of the theory? In all honesty, Galra Keith and Clone Shiro feel extraordinarily similar in terms of pacing, evidence, and alternate explanations--it’s just that Keith’s story happened much quicker, in fandom time. I can’t fault the writers for that. I just think half seasons were a bad idea, especially when the show was clearly written with full seasons in mind.

TL;DR Version:

There’s enough evidence that specifically points to clones that I’m 99% convinced that Shiro is a clone at this point. That last 1% is reserved for skepticism because, while I don’t believe the writers could provide me with a different explanation that fits as well as clones, they might try in the name of pulling one over on the viewers.

Galra Keith and Clone Shiro are set up in a very similar manner, and the latter suffers primarily from half season releases and a fandom who knows what tricks to look for.

The fact that the show is geared at a younger audience and so isn’t going to be super subtle is not a mark against it, but unfortunately if you’re active in the fandom, there’s a good chance you’re going to see a solid argument re: upcoming plot twists that spoils the surprise.

[thefeministbibliothecary]

CW - general transphobia, sexism, all the JK Rowling shit, etc

So. I have some thoughts. Most of you are surely aware that JK Rowling has had some heinously bad takes, and that recently she has doubled down on a campaign of disseminating transphobic bigotry. Her words and actions lately have been truly appalling, and it's something I've definitely been struggling with privately (separating the art from the artist, whether or not I can continue to enjoy a series of books that not only improved my childhood and influenced me immensely but that also were there for me when I struggled a lot despite knowing that the author is bringing harm to a huge swathe of the public), but it's something that I have largely chosen to deal with on my own rather than write about it. I don't have any words that haven't been said by other readers and writers, and probably better than I could say it, and many have certainly spoken from a greater position of impact than I ever could. I have shared on facebook, retweeted on twitter, and reblogged on tumblr posts that I hope make clear that I think her behaviour and words have been heinous, and that this page will never tolerate transphobia in any way. The things she has been saying have gone down a path of not just intense transphobia, but have emphasized incredibly ableist narratives as well, which are definitely hard to read as a disabled woman. Some of her most recent posts regarding what she will and will not ignore on social media (note: will ignore porn sent to children sharing their art; will not ignore people misrepresenting her in her eyes), have been disturbing to say the least. If I'm honest though, I feel wholly unqualified and inadequate to give these issues my own words. I do intend to continue to uplift others, and I wholeheartedly condemn the things she is saying and doing. 

That's not what I wanted to talk about in the moment, but it is relevant, and I don't feel that I can adequately say what I came here to say without first making clear that transphobia is not acceptable under any circumstances and the transphobia that has led me to write this post is heinous and harmful. Any transphobic comments that might appear will lead to the commenter being blocked as the safety of my trans followers is of the utmost importance to me. 

The tweet in the image below is what I wanted to talk about. While many of us condemn the things Rowling has said, unfortunately there are still many transphobic bigots who support Rowling, especially in the name of women's rights. Naturally this has led to a lot of TERF takes online, written on a variety of subjects. In this case, we see a person argue that women authors before Rowling were unheard of. Women authors before 1997 did not exist. This is not true, obviously, and while I have seen others criticize this user for not having at least googled this basic fact, I think it's actually fairly clear that this user had no interest in fact checking, but was more interested in reminding readers of the impact Rowling has had on the literary world post-Harry Potter. While her impact and influence is undeniable (and is the reason we are all aware of her horrendously bad opinions), I think this notion is insidious specifically because it ignores the realities of the women who laid the groundwork before, during, and after Rowling that has given us the literary landscape we have today. 

I have constructed a blog and social media presence under the name The Feminist Bibliothecary. This is because feminism is important to me, books are important to me, and the only way I can be totally satisfied is when the two are combined. For me, this looks like understanding a diverse and broad history of literature, especially written by women and by a broad variety of marginalised groups and people. It can be easy to feel hurt and overwhelmed when someone so influential, someone so many of us were personally influenced by, has posted something so harmful so many times. It can be especially frustrating to see her awful statements supported by so many, and to see people support her specifically because she is an influential woman is frustrating when people specifically identify her as though she were the only, the first, or the most important influential woman. 

And so we come to the reason for my post: This is a reminder that women have been writing for as long as writing has been a tool of humanity. Women have influenced literature for millennia. While it’s okay to be sad that these things are being said, this is a great chance to remind ourselves of the ways women have influenced the world through literature across hundreds of generations. This is both because the poster of this tweet is very wrong, and because I think it’s important for readers to acknowledge the vital history of literature that we can all hold on to.

The earliest recorded poet and the earliest author whose name we know was Enheduanna, a Sumerian High Priestess whose work writing poetry and hymns took place roughly 4300 years ago. 

Murasaki Shikibu lived in eleventh century Japan, and she was a lady-in-waiting at the Imperial court. Her book, The Tale of Genji, is based within the Imperial court, and it is the earliest known novel in history. 

Many 19th century English language works of literature were written by women, although most courses on 19th century English language literature fail to mention more than a few women authors. Jane Austen, Mary Shelley, Harriet Ann Jacobs, Anne Bronte, Charlotte Bronte, Emily Bronte, Harriet E. Wilson, Elizabeth Gaskell, George Eliot, Kate Chopin, Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Louisa May Alcott, Francis Watkins Harper, and countless others. 

Women are among the earliest science fiction and fantasy writers. These include Margaret Cavendish (1623-1673), an English writer known for her sci-fi utopian novel The Blazing World; Mary Shelley (1797-851) famously wrote Frankenstein when she was only a teenager and published it at the age of twenty; Gertrude Barrows Bennett (1884-1948) wrote novels ranging from dystopian to lost world and is considered to have invented dark fantasy. 

In more recent decades, many women have created many modern classics of science fiction and fantasy, including the authors Octavia E. Butler, Ursula K. Le Guin, Madeleine L’Engle, Jane Yolen, and Anne McCaffrey, all of whom have been publishing since at least the seventies (many since before that), all of whom wrote for decades, and some of whom are still living and writing today.

The first young adult novel was The Outsiders (1967) by S.E. Hinton when she was only a teenager. In the decades since, women have continued to have a strong presence in young adult literature, often dominating the category. 

Not only do writers pave the way for other writers, but activists often pave the way for writers of the future, especially writers of the most marginalised identities. Thanks to these activists, today we also see many more BIPOC authors, disabled authors, LGBTQIA+ authors, and more. 

I think the best thing we can do here is to recognise the countless women who have contributed to literature in the past and continue to do so in the present. We don’t need to excuse transphobia to do that. We don’t need to cling to one deeply problematic person to do that. Instead, let’s take this opportunity to explore the diverse elements of literary history and to support authors changing the literary landscape today. I’ve included some links for ideas for your next novel.

8 Fantasy Novels by Trans and Nonbinary Authors https://electricliterature.com/8-fantasy-novels-by-trans-and-nonbinary-authors/

15 Trans, Nonbinary, and Gender Non-Conforming Writers to Support

https://bookriot.com/trans-non-binary-authors/

25 Black Queer Books to Honour Protests and Pride Month

https://www.lambdalegal.org/blog/20200612_25-anti-racist-black-queer-books

10 #OwnVoices YA Books with Trans and Nonbinary Characters

https://www.epicreads.com/blog/ya-books-with-trans-characters/

20 Books to Read if You Want to Get Into Black Sci-Fi and Fantasy

https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/ariannarebolini/best-afrofuturism-books-black-speculative-science-fiction

Queer and Trans Black Authors Through the Decades 

https://www.portlandmercury.com/blogtown/2020/06/17/28543690/reading-list-queer-and-trans-black-authors-through-the-decades

10 South Asian LGBTQ Books That Changed My Life

https://www.autostraddle.com/10-south-asian-lgbtq-books-that-are-about-more-than-coming-out-393164/

5 Incredible Two Spirit and Queer Indigenous Writers to Read Right Now

https://caseythecanadianlesbrarian.com/2017/05/12/5-incredible-two-spirit-and-queer-indigenous-writers-to-read-right-now/

[Image description: a tweet from July 6, 2020 reads:

"Not long before Rowling was published, women authors were unheard of

Now, your generation gets to take us further than my generation ever could because we aren't living your lives

But at least acknowledge that we laid the groundwork for you to take us on the next step"]

[jakelace]

2016 Film Countdown: 40-31

40. The Finest Hours

I was actually pretty surprised by the quality of The Finest Hours. The fact that it came out in January and is a Disney film based on a true story made me assume that it would be the lowest common denomination kind of feel-good film. Well, in a lot of ways, it is. It has your run-of-the mill overdone sappy music (although most of the score is great), and even an ending that will make you say “really?”, but in the end I found that the performances from the two leads Chris Pine and Casey Affleck kept my attention. The film also has some pretty intense sequences that get ruined if only a little due to the fact that if they didn’t survive there wouldn’t be a movie about it. However, its always entertaining for me to watch characters being so in-tune with their craft, and this picture really did that for me. If you like this sort of thing than I can say with confidence that you’ll like this film.

39. Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice

Here is another film I reviewed on it’s original release. I’ll link my review here, but my take on the film has changed since, so take nearly everything in it with a grain of salt. In my original review I said that Batman v Superman was objectively a good movie even if it wasn’t in so many words. Now I can see that I was wrong. In fact now I’d call it objectively bad. Just like X-Men: Apocalypse it trips over itself when it comes to it’s length and it is completely stuffed with pointless set-up and characters. I mean, they had so many characters that they completely cut Jena Malone from the film and it STILL had too many characters! However, I do stand by the Batman solo scenes, Jesse Eisenberg’s performance as Lex Luthor, and the capitol scene, because even in such a flawed film, those parts were fantastic.

38. Central Intelligence

Central Intelligence is not very good. It does, however, rely on the likability of both of its leads to actually scrape whatever comedy and enjoyability it can out of its concept. It’s a running joke on Reboot Already Underway (a podcast that I co-host) that any movie is ten times better if it includes Dwayne Johnson. While more often than not we’re joking about that, it really does prove true. Okay, maybe it’s not ten times better, but at the very least five (yes, I realize this is an arbitrary number). Overall, the film never ends up being terribly funny, but watching Johnson and Hart pal around for 107 minutes was exactly what I needed in my life at that time.

38. Lights Out

When thinking about how much I enjoyed a film, the battle of expectations is something that always comes up, so when I first saw the trailer for Lights Out, I had very low expectations due to it looking generic and only stating the name of the producer (James Wan) instead of the name of its director (David F. Sandberg), which is a tactic usually only used when a film is horrible. In fact, it was only on recommendation from my friend Aaron that I ended up seeing it, and I was really glad that I did. Overall, the film acts as a generic PG-13, jump in your seat kind of horror, but it’s the moments when the film breaks from the mold that makes it truly shine (no pun intended). The main antagonist of the film can only appear in the dark, which alone is already a pretty interesting concept, but it’s when the film plays around with the idea of light and where it could possibly come from that you really begin to see what is so special about the concept and even the film’s director. I’m truly excited to see what comes next for Sandberg.

36. Sully

I actually really liked Sully, and considering how much money it made at the box office, I’m guessing the general movie going audience would agree with me. If this film were covered by any director other than Clint Eastwood I’m not sure it would have really worked. Sure it is a touching and incredible true story on its own, but it is the work done by Eastwood here that really puts it over the top, as well as a winning performance by Tom Hanks. The film sets up different points of view of the incident through different characters and when it all gets put together at the end, you’ll remember why it is that Eastwood has become such a beloved director in the first place.

35. Keanu

We’re finally half-way through the list, everyone! So it is safe to assume that everything after this is a film that I personally enjoyed and found worth my time! So here we go, starting the top half of my list is the Key and Peele film: Keanu! As the first film outing for our duo, I have to say that most of the material here is really solid. You have excellent dark humor, one of the most adorable animals I have ever seen, and a really strange cameo turn from Anna Faris, who helps create the funniest scene in the film by far. However, the film does fall into a lot of traps that people often do when transitioning from sketches to feature length films, but it’s never enough to make the film unenjoyable at all.

34. Eye in the Sky

Eye in the Sky is by far the heaviest movie on the list so far. It deals with the moral dilemma of whether or not our enemies should be taken out if there will be civilian casualties and it comes with all of the tense, and heavy moments that you would expect from a premise like that. It features great performances from Helen Mirren and Aaron Paul, while also being the last live action role of Alan Rickman which is reason enough to see it. I also loved how the film left the answer to the over-arching question unanswered. It asks you to draw your own conclusions and never talks down to its audience which I find quite refreshing in a film such as this.

33. Ouija: Origin of Evil

Here is another film that I reviewed upon release and if you want to read my extended thoughts, just click here. My thoughts on the film remain mainly unchanged, so I’ll say that it’s lead actress (Lulu Wilson) and its commitment to the overall aesthetic kept the film fresh and interesting even if the third act is fairly weak. Also, I’ve never seen this big of a leap in quality between an original film (simply titled Ouija) and its prequel, so extra points are awarded for that.

32. Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them

I wanted to love Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them more than life itself. Okay, well that’s a bit of a stretch, but the sentiment still stands. Ever since the final installment of Harry Potter, I have been desperately searching for a film series to make me feel just as much magic as that one did and continues to do. In some respects, Fantastic Beasts does that, especially when it comes to the film’s namesake. However, everything after that feels too much like set-up and not enough like the contained story it should have been. On top of that, it is J.K. Rowling’s first screenplay and it shows throughout. At the same time the film manages to feel much too rushed and way too overlong, creating some sort of strange magical paradox. However, I loved our cast of four main characters (especially Eddie Redmayne and Alison Sudol’s characters) and I’m excited to see what they’re up to when the sequel comes in 2018. It should be called Fantasticer Beasts and Where to Find Them AGAIN...yeah Warner Bros. you can use that...

31. Swiss Army Man

This is the strangest movie of 2016 and maybe of all time. Swiss Army Man follows the story of a man stranded on a desert island named Hank (played by Paul Dano) who uses a farting corpse (played by Daniel Radcliffe) to return to shore and make his way home. So yeah, it’s obviously insane. While the humor can at times be quite juvenile (I mean, we’re talking about a magical farting corpse here), the film manages to bring up interesting discussions of love and what it means to be alive. Also, the original songs here are some of the best and will keep a smile on your face the whole time they’re going. If you can get past the obstacles of such juvenile humor, then Swiss Army Man is truly something special.

That’s all the time I have for today, but join me again tomorrow when I talk about three crass yet clever comedies, two spooky Netflix horror films, and one hilarious Jane Austen novella adaptation.