Because I'm sure that y'all are tired of me keysmashing endlessly about how I want to marry James Joyce's prose and have its babies. Here is some other cool stuff to read.

1. Princess Mononoke vs. James Cameron's Avatar.

I know that pretty much everyone and their dog has compared Avatar to Dances with Wolves, The Last Samurai,, and Ferngully by now. This is the first time that I've seen the film compared to Princess Mononoke, however. Conclusion: Hayao Miyazaki did it better.

Not that that's saying much. Oh no I didn't!

2. Manly Women and Feminine Men (Claymore meta)

In which the_sun_is_up argues that Claymore is the most perfectly gender-flipped shounen manga in existence, and she's right. I would also add that, even after 99 chapters of manga and 26 episodes of the anime, it is astounding that Claymore still manages to completely fail the gender-reversed Bechdel Test. When you think about it, that's pretty extraordinary. Most "chick lit" media still passes the gender-reversed Bechdel Test (or even worse, manages to fail the real Bechdel Test). So the fact that a long-running series like Claymore - a series published in a "for boys" magazine, no less - fails the gender-reversed Bechdel Test is pretty darn awesome.

3. Robot6's 30 Most Important Comics of the Decade: Part One | Part Two

Definitely not a list of the best 30 comics of the decade - there are certainly some titles on the list that one could argue are not actually, you know, good - but a list of the decade's most undeniably popular and influential comics*, for better or for worse.

The English version of Sailor Moon is ranked at #2.

* Asterik: "within the English-speaking world and confined solely to output from the US, UK, and Japan" should be added as a disclaimer here. The list completely excludes titles like Italy's W.i.t.c.h. (available in English and one of the best-selling comics of all time in the Philippines and several European countries), any English edition of manwha or manhua, or anything at all from southeast Asia's enormous comics industry, much of which is also available in English. If Watchmen can get a spot on the list just for being reprinted and becoming a bestseller this past decade, then doesn't Amar Chitra Katha (also reprinted a gazillion times, a bestseller, available in English, and hugely influential in Indian comics history) deserve a mention as well? ETA: More about this in the comments.

ASDFGHJKL;

ASDFGHJKL;

ASDFGHJKL;

Joyce is even more mindblowing when he's being comprehensible.

(Of course it's a bit of a letdown compared to Finnegans Wake, but then again everything ever written is a bit of a letdown compared to Finnegans Wake, so, natch.)

In other news, I am now neck-deep in Joyce's Book of the Dark (my third guidebook for Finnegans Wake so far) and it is so fantastic that I don't even have words for it. In case anybody is curious, I'm reading Finnegans Wake with the help of Joseph Campbell (A Skeleton Key to Finnegans Wake), William York Tindall (A Readers Guide to Finnegans Wake), John Bishop (Joyce's Book of the Dark), the most excellent FinnegansWiki. I have not read but am extremely intrigued by this book, as it would appear - based on the synopsis posted on Amazon.com - that it most closely describes the reading that I'm personally bringing to the book. (I am not entirely ashamed to admit that I'm viewing Finnegans Wake partially through the lens of Soul Eater and that I am also viewing Soul Eater partially through the lens of Finnegans Wake, and yes, THIS IS HOW MY BRAIN WORKS.) I am also dying to read this book because although race is clearly a central issue in Finnegans Wake (esp. the way that xenophobia factors in HCE's downfall early in the book) it amazes me that none of the guidebooks that I've read every really bother to discuss it.

Of course, I realize that there are a gazillion and two excellent guidebooks written about Finnegans Wake and that I'm never going to be able to devour them all. I am, however, utterly enchanted by the fact that there is such a thing as a James Joyce-themed cookbook in existence.

But anyway, back to Dubliners.

In a word: KEYSMASH. It is seriously that good. I haven't been so blown away by prose like this since I first tasted Gabriel García Marquez.

BTW there are some lovely readings from Dubliners uploaded on Youtube.

Maybe it's because I've watched more formulaic romantic comedies this weekend than any sane human being should have to endure, but somehow or other my thoughts have lately been preoccupied with how race usually is dealt with in said romantic comedy formula, and how - although I didn't realize this at the time that I first saw the movie - The Princess and the Frog rather delightfully subverts the usual romantic comedy racial paradigm.

We have to start with, of course, the typical romantic comedy heroine. She is always intelligent, hard-working, good at her job, perhaps too good at her job, slavishly devoted to her career, professing little to no interest in sex/men/dating/having fun, and of course destined - through a series of contrived and utterly ridiculous, unbelievable circumstances - to end up falling into the arms of the movie's leading man-child hero, eventually falling in love with him.

In almost every romantic comedy film that I can name, this character is a) white and b) of middling to high socioeconomic status. Also, she is approximately 90% likely to be played by Sandra Bullock and/or Jennifer Aniston.

In The Princess and the Frog, however, that exact role is filled by a poor, black woman.

And next, of course, we have the heroine's Black Best Friend. Sassy, brassy, loud-mouthed and sexy, the Black Best Friend is usually materialistic and man-hungry, although of course she has a heart of gold lurking beneath all of that crass, raunchy exterior. Her role is to cheerlead for the *real* heroine, whether throughout the movie or possibly just at the eleventh hour, not really to get a happy ending herself. Also, at some point in the movie, she must either a) take the heroine shopping or b) give the heroine a sexy change of clothes.

In The Princess and the Frog, of course, the role of the Black Best Friend is fulfilled by a wealthy white woman: Charlotte.

I don't know if Disney did any of that on purpose, but still, how cool is that?!

Stuck in O'Hare for a six-hour layover. Time for linkspam! Whoo-hoo!

First, it wouldn't be Yuletide without Mahabharata fics, and this year's offerings are both about Karna. Suck it, Arjuna. And they are both absolutely amazing works. Go, read! Edited to add: One more heartbreaking and beautiful fic rec, this time about Rama's brothers Bharat and Lakshman.

Next, another succinct response to Avatar that says it all a lot more eloquently then I ever could. Also, a new Internet Law. And finally, this post is several months old, but it's been re-linked around recently and definitely deserves another round of signal boosting. Money quote:

"The conversations about resistance to societal pressures which make me the most uncomfortable and disturbed are often the ones I should note the most because there's a reason they make me feel so uncomfortable. This discomfort and subsequent confrontation of my own privilege is *not* disenfranchisement and I think it's wrong to say that it is. The reproach that troubles me is very rarely, if ever, from the people who are oppressed and suffering and speaking. The reproach comes from within me because I know I should care and in trying to find balance and ease with that reproach and my joy. I like things that are problematic. The problems do not go away if I pretend they are not there; my conscience does not rest easy when I work to silence the voices that trouble me. I am not a bad person for enjoying things that have problems; I am not the good guy who only likes good things and thus, the things that I like must be good. It’s more complicated that that, I am more complicated than that. We are all more complicated than that."

Quoted for Great Truth.

HEY PEOPLE WHO ARE IN IOWA!

I am also in Iowa. Call me. Tomorrow would be a most excellent day for hanging-out-ness.

Also, here, have a link: Jenn breaks down Avatar for all y'all.

Last night I discovered that it is extremely difficult to argue that Avatar is exactly like Dances with Wolves and The Last Samurai to somebody who has never actually seen Dances with Wolves or The Last Samurai.

Those who forget history are doomed to repeat it.

First!

Draw Karna and win a Karna statue! If only I could draw. At all. (*weeps*)

Anyway, money quotes from the Vimanika Comics blog entry:

Become a part of the Legend himself by drawing your own version of India’s very own superhero and send it to us. [...] All you have to do is, sketch and color your version of the legendary warrior Karna, adorn him with his divine Kavach and Kundals and send your entry to us on sketchkarnacontest@vimanika.com.

...only his kavach and kundals? Does he have to be wearing anything else? (Where am I going and why am I in this handbasket?)

A participant can send as many entries as he/she wants.

MAINSTREAM COMICS ARE YOU PAYING ATTENTION. It's the little inclusions like this that count.

Second!

continuity_play is a sweet new fic community for those of y'all who want to play around in your own little universes (or in somebody else's). So if you have a huge work of fiction with your own canon, or a huge AU fanfic with your own canon, or whether you just want to play around with official!canon continuity, please give it a look and consider joining.

Crona? What Crona? Apparently we need to open this chapter with five pages of extraneous failure from Team Failboat first.

( Somebody please tell Noah to stop with the leather fetish already. )

A notice that I found in my mailbox today, from my landlord:

WINTER HEATER NOTICE: When it reaches below 28F, the outside units will not function properly. Therefore, you will need to switch from normal heat to emergency heat. If you have problems with your heater, contact the office.

OMFG.

Clearly I'm not in Minnesota anymore.

28F?! That's like the high temperature on a warm day in March in Minneapolis.

Last week the temperature dropped all the way down to - gasp! - 54 degrees on Monday night. Some of my cohorts were complaining about how insufferably cold it was. I just sat there and LOL'd silently. Oh, ye thin-skinned southerners.

Remember this?

The translation is now complete and available in PDF or Word format. Jabberwock has a fascinating review (and overview of other "unusual perspective" takes on the Mahabharata) here.

Also, the 2009 Lulu Award winners were announced on Friday. So, um, is anybody else really, really, really happy that Gail Simone beat CLAMP for this year's Female Comic Creators Hall of Fame slot? I know I am, and I feel no shame about that.

I'm not dead. I've just been busy, particularly with a) school and b) work. I had to write three long, research-intensive papers last week, and I have to write three more this week. Yay, grad school! Also, I have an obscene amount of prep work to do before I start teaching my first TPR class next week, and now they want me to cross-train to teach ACT courses as well. Oh, and Finnegans Wake is still kicking my ass and ruining me for all future literature for the rest of my life.

GUYS I HAD A MENTAL BREAKTHROUGH. Finnegans Wake is like the early twentieth-century equivalent of all of those stoner shows on Adult Swim. It totally is!! Think about it: Created by a too-cool-for-you mentally ill alcoholic who was so caught up in how clever and funny his own intellectual masturbation sounded to him that he simply didn't care whether any of ended up as impenetrably stupid, asinine, and unfunny to anybody else. Except that Finnegans Wake IS awesomely clever and funny IF you're steeped enough in the pop culture of the time to "get" all of the jokes and references. But even if you "get" the jokes and references, however, the style of humor is very much Your Mileage May Vary, so unless you actually are a) James Joyce himself or b) stoned out of your mind, immortal lines like "All the world loves a gleaming jelly!" just may not actually strike you as terribly funny.

So basically, Finnegans Wake is the original Aqua Teen Hunger Force.

The difference being, once you cut through the dense impenetrability of the surface-level humor in Finnegans Wake, you uncover a truly epic work of fiction that is a universal story about true love, parent-child relationships for good and for ill, sibling rivalry, the inevitability of sin and the possibility of healing redemption, and the rise and fall of all human empires that ever were and ever will be. On the other hand, if you attempt to peel away the surface-level "humor" of something like Aqua Teen Hunger Force, you're left with nothing, as the pop culture references and ironic non-sequitur humor are the entire point of the show.

So maybe Finnegans Wake is not so much like Adult Swim after.

Speaking of Adult Swim! Who here is FRICKIN' STOKED about the Metalocalypse premiere tonight?!?! And who here is still frickin' stoked about how unbelievably awesome the first three episodes of the new season of The Venture Brothers were?!

I know I am!

Oh, goddammit. As I was writing this entry, a little bird just told me that now Fanhistory.com is using a new bot to generate entries from archived Yuletide stories. (*siiiiiiigh*) Goddamit, FH. That is so many levels of stupid and annoying that I don't even know where to begin. Not like it's any less stupid or annoying than any other bot that FH has ever unleashed upon the interbutts, but still.

Bet you never thought you'd see that combination of words in a livejournal subject line!

( You spigotty anglease? )

So like, in case any of y'all were wondering what the heck's been happening to girl-wonder.org this past week or two:

Lately the site has been plagued by malware, the source of which is as yet unknown. After valiant effort at piecemeal destruction, the webmistress finally resorted to asteroid bombardment, and the destruction resulting is pretty extensive.

If any of you are experienced in CiviCRM, and could lend Betty a hand in putting everything back together, that would be excellent of you. Please contact her at sturdyandserviceable at gmail.

If you have as much idea of CiviCRM as I do (which is, it starts with a C) it would be great if you could signalboost this call for help.

BTW, I'm going to get Sequential Smarts back online next week-ish. And possibly be posting a long overdue review of Hikaru no Go, provided that Real Life stops bashing me over the head sooner rather than later.

Also, the Feminist-Friendly Comic Book Store Map is still online and still kicking, even if the submission form is temporarily kaputskies. I know that a lot of people rely on the link from the g-w.org website to find the map, but as the girl-wonder.org website is still temporarily resting and recovering, you can still use the normal Google Maps link to view the map:

http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&hl=en&msa=0&msid=106823881653454526467.0004557e9f4ee44b6f1d0&z=2

Anywhoo, if anybody can help Betty fix up the rest of our website, that would be totally awesome and much appreciated!

1. John Deere fruit snacks.

They exist.

2. An actual headline on the front page of USA Today: "Democrats Push Opt-Out Public Option."

I was going to LOL at the redundancy in that headline, but then I realized that said redundancy is actually sorely needed. Especially when I live in a country where "medical counseling" somehow reads as "death panels" to a frighteningly large percentage of people.

Edited to add: Oh dear, I was very very very wrong about the meaning of the "opt-out" in that article headline. It is not, unfortunately, a redundancy. Rather, it is a stunning example of a completely asinine concession to the completely asinine states' rights advocates opposing the bill. Suddenly I am having flashbacks to NCLB. Oh dear Lord.

Who the hell holds a backyard barbecue party at 3:30 a.m. on a weekday?!

Tonight, I finally finished reading through page 316 of Finnegans Wake.

This calls for 80's hair rock.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QUSDS9pkA2Y (Booooo Universal Records and your stupid no-embedding rule!)

BTW, epic litfuck fic is halfway finished now, too.

And after an evening spent slooooowly uploading some doujinshi scans, there are now officially 42 files in the /soul directory in my Badongo account. (*snickers*)

Now if you'll excuse me, I have more Finnegan to plow through. Unfortunately I'm already done with my absolute favorite part (Book II.2 for over forty pages straight of Isabel being epic awesome and also hawt Shem/Shaun twincest action), and now I have to plow through the rest of Book II.3 and the torturous pub scene. Gaaaaaaaaaah.

Also, Joyce managed to pun "Cincinnati" on page 285. So I guess that nowhere is safe from Jimmy Joyce anymore.

the THEME SONG meme

Heck, why not.

Wonder Woman is

1) awesome, and

2) the only female comic book character to have had her monthly comic book series more-or-less uninterrupted since 1941.

That's a pretty big freakin' deal.

Not that most of us would know that, of course, since Wonder Woman has been re-numbered at least twice (possibly more than twice?) over the years. But anywhoo, the upcoming issue #45 of Wonder Woman is actually going to be the six hundredth issue of her series (!!!!). And, in recognition of this utterly-amazing-when-you-stop-and-think-about-it anniversary, some fans have asked Dan Didio to please re-number WW #45 as WW #600, in order to give Diana the recognition that she deserves. DC has repeatedly stated that they consider Wonder Woman an iconic character on the same level as Superman or Batman. And, well, Superman got his monthly Action Comics title re-numbered specifically to recognize his milestone anniversaries, so doesn't Wonder Woman deserve the same?

Thus Didio said, "Send me six hundred postcards, and I'll make it so."

And boy, did he get postcards. Here's the official weekly tally so far. But there aren't six hundred yet. We still need moar!

So if you have a postcard, a stamp, and thirty seconds of free time, please consider helping out. Send a postcard with "Wonder Woman issue #45 should be renumbered #600" or some similar message to:

WONDER WOMAN #600
c/o Dan DiDio
1700 Broadway
New York, NY, 10019

More information: Amazon Princess blog | Westfield Comics blog

(No, I don't have a Wonder Woman icon, so here's some Devi for y'all instead.)

Saying that this epilogue is "better" than last week's ending is like saying that Star Wars Episode II is "better" than Episode I. Trufax, yes, but an utterly meaningless comparison as well. Shit is still shit, even though it may seem preferable when compared to runny storytelling diarrhea. At the end of the day, it's still shit.

Right, so let's recap.

( Baby, you look hawt in that silly, silly hat. )

So like, I just heard that CLAMP got nominated for a Lulu award. I think they definitely deserve a spot in Lulu's Hall of Fame, if not for Cardcaptor Sakura alone, then at least for their phenomenal commercial success. However, I reeeaaaaally wish that the timing were different, as it's hard for me to root for CLAMP getting such an award at a time when they're basically at a creative nadir. It's kind of like Martin Scorsese getting his Best Director win for The Aviator. That movie didn't deserve the recognition, but Scorsese certainly did. The same could be said for CLAMP and the Lulus right now. Tsubasa is a pile of shit, xxxHolic is far from their best work, and Kobato is just silly fanpandering layered on top of silly fanpandering. At least Kobato is fun to read, though. Not like Tsubasa, which in its final hundred chapters wasn't fun to read at all. It was downright painful to read, actually. The final hundred chapters of Tsubasa are practically a literary colonoscopy.

Oh well. Here's hoping that CLAMP's next work will be better.

Edited to add: Once again, the master list of plot holes and critiques is here. Like, only one minor plot hole was actually resolved in this epilogue. Wow. That's pretty bad. I mean, wow.

Edited again: This is the most reasonable and intelligent defense of the series that I've seen yet. And of course, I waded in and disagreed. (*slaps self on wrist*)

Edit the third: Best. Summary. Ever. Seriously.