limyaael.livejournal.comlimyaael - Profile - LiveJournal

? LiveJournal Find more Communities RSS Reader Shop Help Login Login CREATE BLOG Join English (en) English (en) Русский (ru) Українська (uk) Français (fr) Português (pt) español (es) Deutsch (de) Italiano (it) Беларуская (be) limyaael — Subscribe Readability Log in No account? Create an account Remember me Forgot password Log in Log in Facebook Twitter Google No account? Create an account > recent entries > calendar > friends > My Mirror > profile > previous 20 entries Wednesday, August 8th, 2007 11:49 am - PSA: This journal will no longer be updated. I'm not comfortable with LJ's customer service, and especially the way that they're handling their latest PR disaster. The part that bothers me most is near the end: ( Read more... Collapse ) ETA : I've checked now, and only paid LJ users can add syndicated feeds of a journal. Since I don't want to give LJ any more of my money, this is a conflict of interest for me. If someone does want to set up an RSS feed of my InsaneJournal, that'd be great; tell me so I can point others to it! Thanks to the brilliant and lovely tortoises and pointytilly , there is now an RSS feed of the InsaneJournal. limyaael_ij will display all future public entries, which includes all the rants. Friend it if you want the new entries to drop in on your f-list. Natural Child of ETA : This feed displays only public entries. If you would like to read friends-locked entries, please friend me on InsaneJournal; then you can read f-locked entries on the feed, as long as I add you back. If your username is not the same as your LJ one, please comment on one of the public posts to tell me who you are. Third Child of the Son of ETA : Comments made to the feed will not show up in my journal. I will, though, check the feed regularly so that I don't miss them. Grandson on the Wrong Side of the Sheets of ETA : kutsuwamushi is awesome and provides a link to familiarizing yourself with RSS feeds here. Yet Another ETA, Its Family Is Getting Tired of Reproduction : I know some people are uncomfortable with IJ's layout, so the GreatestJournal will indeed be a backup of everything, including friends-locked posts. That won't happen until next week, but I can promise it'll happen. current mood: uncomfortable ( 129 startled dragons | Sing to the dragons ) Thursday, July 19th, 2007 10:51 am - Science fiction and fantasy hybrids Once again, I want to define some terms. I’m talking here about books with the “equipment” of both fantasy and science fiction: elves and lasers, for example, or magic and anti-gravity. I wouldn’t consider it a hybrid if there were a few machines that resembled magical artifacts but were fully explainable by any scientific laws and in any case were just named after the magical artifacts to be cute, or if there’s magic that seems like physics in disguise but turns out to be plain supernatural magic after all. And saying that a work can mingle the “attitudes” of fantasy and science fiction will just involve me in endless arguments, because you can always argue about what attitudes a book actually expresses. Equipment is the easiest standard to judge by, so I’m using it. ( So why use them at all? Collapse ) The next rant is apparently on “happy things about urban fantasy.” I’ll get to thinking of those right away. current mood: cheerful ( 72 startled dragons | Sing to the dragons ) Wednesday, July 4th, 2007 4:49 pm - Turning idealistic characters gray Before I start, I just want to make it clear that, in this case, I’m not lumping all characters who have strong beliefs into the idealistic set. This rant deals, instead, with protagonists or secondaries who have both strong ideals and a lack of information about how they apply to the pragmatic world, or about their consequences. ( So this rant is about moving them towards seeing those applications, or those consequences Collapse ) The next rant will be on fantasy-and-science-fiction hybrids. current mood: satisfied ( 50 startled dragons | Sing to the dragons ) Saturday, June 30th, 2007 6:08 pm - Showing different cultural viewpoints as not 100% correct Sorry for the very long delay. On the other hand, my written qualifying exams for my Ph.D. are done. ( Some ideas on culture clashes Collapse ) The next rant is slated to be on turning idealistic characters gray, and should be up in a few days. current mood: hopeful ( 72 startled dragons | Sing to the dragons ) Tuesday, May 22nd, 2007 9:12 pm - Book review post for May (part 1) So this is part one of a post logging the books I’ve read so far in May, because if I did all of them at once, this would be extremely long. ( Julie Phillips, James Tiptree Jr.: The Double Life of Alice B. Sheldon Collapse ) ( Roger Zelazny, Lord of Light Collapse ) ( Susanna Clarke, The Ladies of Grace Adieu and Other Stories Collapse ) ( Meredith Ann Pierce, Birth of the Firebringer Collapse ) current mood: cheerful ( 42 startled dragons | Sing to the dragons ) Sunday, May 20th, 2007 9:46 pm - On possession, mind control, and hypnosis This is a broad general topic, admittedly, but each one by itself would probably be too narrow for a rant. Thus, we’re doing it this way. ( Interesting, but not when they’re used as an escape clause Collapse ) And I suppose that, for now, that’s all I really have to say, since each point covers a lot of ground. current mood: cheerful ( 85 startled dragons | Sing to the dragons ) Tuesday, May 15th, 2007 7:25 pm - On nonhumans living with their nonhuman attributes Apologies that this is so late; I’ve had spotty Internet access for most of the last week and a half. ( So, on to the subject of nonhuman attributes- whether those be immortality or infinitely flexible stomachs Collapse ) More could be done with this, always. A story like James Tiptree Jr.’s ”Love is the Plan The Plan is Death doesn’t work for everyone and has not a human character in sight, but that doesn’t mean it’s not a good story. current mood: cheerful ( 83 startled dragons | Sing to the dragons ) Sunday, May 6th, 2007 8:43 pm - Rant on whores. And courtesans, harlots, streetwalkers, ladies of negotiable virtue, and other various hangers-on. ( Here we go Collapse ) I think fantasy could use more whore characters— with their own voices, thanks. current mood: bitchy ( 97 startled dragons | Sing to the dragons ) Wednesday, May 2nd, 2007 8:43 pm - Class/caste systems So the little poll said, so shall it be. ( About both kinds Collapse ) current mood: bouncy ( 79 startled dragons | Sing to the dragons ) Monday, April 30th, 2007 2:29 pm - Books I read in April (Along with others, but these are the ones I had interesting reactions to). ( Guy Gavriel Kay, Ysabel Collapse ) ( Virginia Woolf, A Room of One’s Own Collapse ) ( Ian McDonald, River of Gods Collapse ) ( Ursula K. LeGuin, The Left Hand of Darkness Collapse ) ( Cherríe Moraga and Gloria Anzaldúa, This Bridge Called My Back Collapse ) ( C. S. Lewis, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader Collapse ) ( Susanna Clarke, Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell Collapse ) ( Ursula K. LeGuin, Changing Planes Collapse ) I have a whole pile of books and am not sure what I’ll begin with next. Maybe the biography of James Tiptree, Jr. Or Joanna Russ’s The Female Man . Or Roger Zelazny’s Lord of Light . current mood: cheerful ( 63 startled dragons | Sing to the dragons ) Friday, April 27th, 2007 8:05 pm - Attitudes towards killing and violence. Since this deals with attitudes , I won’t be addressing strategy and tactics here; it’s mostly about the social and cultural associations of battles, duels, and other methods of killing. Also, it has few separate points; most of the ideas I wanted to present are gathered together under general ones. ( You can’t swing that sword that way Collapse ) Class/caste systems is next, according to the poll. current mood: contemplative ( 84 startled dragons | Sing to the dragons ) Friday, April 20th, 2007 6:23 pm - On using non-Western influence in fantasy. ( So here we are Collapse ) And so f...