#John hench
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(2022)
#space mountain#disney#John hench#1977#anaheim#pop#pop art#2022#crayola#top view#elevation#design#concept
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Sympathy for the spammer
Catch me in Miami! I'll be at Books and Books in Coral Gables on Jan 22 at 8PM.
In any scam, any con, any hustle, the big winners are the people who supply the scammers – not the scammers themselves. The kids selling dope on the corner are making less than minimum wage, while the respectable crime-bosses who own the labs clean up. Desperate "retail investors" who buy shitcoins from Superbowl ads get skinned, while the MBA bros who issue the coins make millions (in real dollars, not crypto).
It's ever been thus. The California gold rush was a con, and nearly everyone who went west went broke. Famously, the only reliable way to cash out on the gold rush was to sell "picks and shovels" to the credulous, doomed and desperate. That's how Leland Stanford made his fortune, which he funneled into eugenics programs (and founding a university):
https://www.hachettebookgroup.com/titles/malcolm-harris/palo-alto/9780316592031/
That means that the people who try to con you are almost always getting conned themselves. Think of Multi-Level Marketing (MLM) scams. My forthcoming novel The Bezzle opens with a baroque and improbable fast-food Ponzi in the town of Avalon on the island of Catalina, founded by the chicle monopolist William Wrigley Jr:
http://thebezzle.org
Wrigley found fast food declasse and banned it from the island, a rule that persists to this day. In The Bezzle, the forensic detective Martin Hench uncovers The Fry Guys, an MLM that flash-freezes contraband burgers and fries smuggled on-island from the mainland and sells them to islanders though an "affiliate marketing" scheme that is really about recruiting other affiliate markets to sell under you. As with every MLM, the value of the burgers and fries sold is dwarfed by the gigantic edifice of finance fraud built around it, with "points" being bought and sold for real cash, which is snaffled up and sucked out of the island by a greedy mainlander who is behind the scheme.
A "bezzle" is John Kenneth Galbraith's term for "the magic interval when a confidence trickster knows he has the money he has appropriated but the victim does not yet understand that he has lost it." In every scam, there's a period where everyone feels richer – but only the scammers are actually cleaning up. The wealth of the marks is illusory, but the longer the scammer can preserve the illusion, the more real money the marks will pump into the system.
MLMs are particularly ugly, because they target people who are shut out of economic opportunity – women, people of color, working people. These people necessarily rely on social ties for survival, looking after each others' kids, loaning each other money they can't afford, sharing what little they have when others have nothing.
It's this social cohesion that MLMs weaponize. Crypto "entrepreneurs" are encouraged to suck in their friends and family by telling them that they're "building Black wealth." Working women are exhorted to suck in their bffs by appealing to their sisterhood and the chance for "women to lift each other up."
The "sales people" trying to get you to buy crypto or leggings or supplements are engaged in predatory conduct that will make you financially and socially worse off, wrecking their communities' finances and shattering the mutual aid survival networks they rely on. But they're not getting rich on this – they're also being scammed:
https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=4686468
This really hit home for me in the mid-2000s, when I was still editing Boing Boing. We had a submission form where our readers could submit links for us to look at for inclusion on the blog, and it was overwhelmed by spam. We'd add all kinds of antispam to it, and still, we'd get floods of hundreds or even thousands of spam submissions to it.
One night, I was lying in my bed in London and watching these spams roll in. They were all for small businesses in the rustbelt, handyman services, lawn-care, odd jobs, that kind of thing. They were 10 million miles from the kind of thing we'd ever post about on Boing Boing. They were coming in so thickly that I literally couldn't finish downloading my email – the POP session was dropping before I could get all the mail in the spool. I had to ssh into my mail server and delete them by hand. It was maddening.
Frustrated and furious, I started calling the phone numbers associated with these small businesses, demanding an explanation. I assumed that they'd hired some kind of sleazy marketing service and I wanted to know who it was so I could give them a piece of my mind.
But what I discovered when I got through was much weirder. These people had all been laid off from factories that were shuttering due to globalization. As part of their termination packages, their bosses had offered them "retraining" via "courses" in founding their own businesses.
The "courses" were the precursors to the current era's rise-and-grind hustle-culture scams (again, the only people getting rich from that stuff are the people selling the courses – the "students" finish the course poorer). They promised these laid-off workers, who'd given their lives to their former employers before being discarded, that they just needed to pull themselves up by their own boostraps:
https://pluralistic.net/2023/04/10/declaration-of-interdependence/#solidarity-forever
After all, we had the internet now! There were so many new opportunities to be your own boss! The course came with a dreadful build-your-own-website service, complete with an overpriced domain sales portal, and a single form for submitting your new business to "thousands of search engines."
This was nearly 20 years ago, but even then, there was really only one search engine that mattered: Google. The "thousands of search engines" the scammers promised to submit these desperate peoples' websites to were just submission forms for directories, indexes, blogs, and mailing lists. The number of directories, indexes, blogs and mailing lists that would publish their submissions was either "zero" or "nearly zero." There was certainly no possibility that anyone at Boing Boing would ever press the wrong key and accidentally write a 500-word blog post about a leaf-raking service in a collapsing deindustrialized exurb in Kentucky or Ohio.
The people who were drowning me in spam weren't the scammers – they were the scammees.
But that's only half the story. Years later, I discovered how our submission form was getting included in this get-rich-quick's mass-submission system. It was a MLM! Coders in the former Soviet Union were getting work via darknet websites that promised them relative pittances for every submission form they reverse-engineered and submitted. The smart coders didn't crack the forms directly – they recruited other, less business-savvy coders to do that for them, and then often as not, ripped them off.
The scam economy runs on this kind of indirection, where scammees are turned into scammers, who flood useful and productive and nice spaces with useless dross that doesn't even make them any money. Take the submission queue at Clarkesworld, the great online science fiction magazine, which famously had to close after it was flooded with thousands of junk submission "written" by LLMs:
https://www.npr.org/2023/02/24/1159286436/ai-chatbot-chatgpt-magazine-clarkesworld-artificial-intelligence
There was a zero percent chance that Neil Clarke would accidentally accept one of these submissions. They were uniformly terrible. The people submitting these "stories" weren't frustrated sf writers who'd discovered a "life hack" that let them turn out more brilliant prose at scale.
They were scammers who'd been scammed into thinking that AIs were the key to a life of passive income, a 4-Hour Work-Week powered by an AI-based self-licking ice-cream cone:
https://pod.link/1651876897/episode/995c8a778ede17d2d7cff393e5203157
This is absolutely classic passive-income brainworms thinking. "I have a bot that can turn out plausible sentences. I will locate places where sentences can be exchanged for money, aim my bot at it, sit back, and count my winnings." It's MBA logic on meth: find a thing people pay for, then, without bothering to understand why they pay for that thing, find a way to generate something like it at scale and bombard them with it.
Con artists start by conning themselves, with the idea that "you can't con an honest man." But the factor that predicts whether someone is connable isn't their honesty – it's their desperation. The kid selling drugs on the corner, the mom desperately DMing her high-school friends to sell them leggings, the cousin who insists that you get in on their shitcoin – they're all doing it because the system is rigged against them, and getting worse every day.
These people reason – correctly – that all the people getting really rich are scamming. If Amazon can make $38b/year selling "ads" that push worse products that cost more to the top of their search results, why should the mere fact that an "opportunity" is obviously predatory and fraudulent disqualify it?
https://pluralistic.net/2023/11/29/aethelred-the-unready/#not-one-penny-for-tribute
The quest for passive income is really the quest for a "greater fool," the economist's term for the person who relieves you of the useless crap you just overpaid for. It rots the mind, atomizes communities, shatters solidarity and breeds cynicism:
https://pluralistic.net/2023/02/24/passive-income/#swiss-cheese-security
The rise and rise of botshit cannot be separated from this phenomenon. The botshit in our search-results, our social media feeds, and our in-boxes isn't making money for the enshittifiers who send it – rather, they are being hustled by someone who's selling them the "picks and shovels" for the AI gold rush:
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2024/jan/03/botshit-generative-ai-imminent-threat-democracy
That's the true cost of all the automation-driven unemployment criti-hype: while we're nowhere near a place where bots can steal your job, we're certainly at the point where your boss can be suckered into firing you and replacing you with a bot that fails at doing your job:
https://pluralistic.net/2024/01/11/robots-stole-my-jerb/#computer-says-no
The manic "entrepreneurs" who've been stampeded into panic by the (correct) perception that the economy is a game of musical chairs where the number of chairs is decreasing at breakneck speed are easy marks for the Leland Stanfords of AI, who are creating generational wealth for themselves by promising that their bots will automate away all the tedious work that goes into creating value. Expect a lot more Amazon Marketplace products called "I'm sorry, I cannot fulfil this request as it goes against OpenAI use policy":
https://www.theverge.com/2024/1/12/24036156/openai-policy-amazon-ai-listings
No one's going to buy these products, but the AI picks-and-shovels people will still reap a fortune from the attempt. And because history repeats itself, these newly minted billionaires are continuing Leland Stanford's love affair with eugenics:
https://www.truthdig.com/dig-series/eugenics/
The fact that AI spam doesn't pay is important to the fortunes of AI companies. Most high-value AI applications are very risk-intolerant (self-driving cars, radiology analysis, etc). An AI tool might help a human perform these tasks more accurately – by warning them of things that they've missed – but that's not how AI will turn a profit. There's no market for AI that makes your workers cost more but makes them better at their jobs:
https://locusmag.com/2023/12/commentary-cory-doctorow-what-kind-of-bubble-is-ai/
Plenty of people think that spam might be the elusive high-value, low-risk AI application. But that's just not true. The point of AI spam is to get clicks from people who are looking for better content. It's SEO. No one reads 2000 words of algorithm-pleasing LLM garbage over an omelette recipe and then subscribes to that site's feed.
And the omelette recipe generates pennies for the spammer that posted it. They are doing massive volume in order to make those pennies into dollars. You don't make money by posting one spam. If every spammer had to pay the actual recovery costs (energy, chillers, capital amortization, wages) for their query, every AI spam would lose (lots of) money.
Hustle culture and passive income are about turning other peoples' dollars into your dimes. It is a negative-sum activity, a net drain on society. Behind every seemingly successful "passive income" is a con artist who's getting rich by promising – but not delivering – that elusive passive income, and then blaming the victims for not hustling hard enough:
https://www.ftc.gov/business-guidance/blog/2023/12/blueprint-trouble
I'm Kickstarting the audiobook for The Bezzle, the sequel to Red Team Blues, narrated by @wilwheaton! You can pre-order the audiobook and ebook, DRM free, as well as the hardcover, signed or unsigned. There's also bundles with Red Team Blues in ebook, audio or paperback.
If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:
https://pluralistic.net/2024/01/15/passive-income-brainworms/#four-hour-work-week
Image:
Cryteria (modified)
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:HAL9000.svg
CC BY 3.0
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/deed.en
#pluralistic#late-stage capitalism#end-stage capitalism#feudalism#rentierism#blueprint for wealth#predation#clarkesworld#kindle#kindle unlimited program#kup#pyramid schemes#mlms#multilevel marketing#amway#spam#form spam#enshittification#ai#llms#large language models#chatbots#ucm#seo#search engine optimization#dark seo#passive income#passive income brainworms
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The Disability Library
I love books, I love literature, and I love this blog, but it's only been recently that I've really been given the option to explore disabled literature, and I hate that. When I was a kid, all I wanted was to be able to read about characters like me, and now as an adult, all I want is to be able to read a book that takes us seriously.
And so, friends, Romans, countrymen, I present, a special disability and chronic illness booklist, compiled by myself and through the contributions of wonderful members from this site!
As always, if there are any at all that you want me to add, please just say. I'm always looking for more!
Edit 20/10/2023: You can now suggest books using the google form at the bottom!
Updated: 31/08/2023
Articles and Chapters
The Drifting Language of Architectural Accessibility in Victor Hugo's Notre-Dame de Paris, Essaka Joshua, 2012
Early Modern Literature and Disability Studies, Allison P. Hobgood, David Houston Wood, 2017
How Do You Develop Whole Object Relations as an Adult?, Elinor Greenburg, 2019
Making Do with What You Don't Have: Disabled Black Motherhood in Octavia E. Butler's Parable of the Sower and Parable of the Talents, Anna Hinton, 2018
Necropolitics, Achille Mbeme, 2003 OR Necropolitics, Achille Mbeme, 2019
Wasted Lives: Modernity and Its Outcasts, Zygmunt Bauman, 2004
Witchcraft and deformity in early modern English Literature, Scott Eaton, 2020
Books
Fiction:
Misc:
10 Things I Can See From Here, Carrie Mac
A-F:
A Curse So Dark and Lonely, (Series), Brigid Kemmerer
Akata Witch, (Series), Nnedi Okorafor
A Mango-Shaped Space, Wendy Mass
Ancillary Justice, (Series), Ann Leckie
An Unkindness of Ghosts, Rivers Solomon
An Unseen Attraction, (Series), K. J. Charles
A Shot in the Dark, Victoria Lee
A Snicker of Magic, Natalie Lloyd
A Song of Ice and Fire, (series), George R. R. Martin
A Spindle Splintered, (Series), Alix E. Harrow
A Time to Dance, Padma Venkatraman
Bath Haus, P. J. Vernon
Beasts of Prey, (Series), Ayana Gray
The Bedlam Stacks, (Series), Natasha Pulley
Black Bird, Blue Road, Sofiya Pasternack
Black Sun, (Series), Rebecca Roanhorse
Blood Price, (Series), Tanya Huff
Borderline, (Series), Mishell Baker
Breath, Donna Jo Napoli
The Broken Kingdoms, (Series), N.K. Jemisin
Brute, Kim Fielding
Cafe con Lychee, Emery Lee
Carry the Ocean, (Series), Heidi Cullinan
Challenger Deep, Neal Shusterman
Cinder, (Series), Marissa Meyer
Clean, Amy Reed
Connection Error, (Series), Annabeth Albert
Cosima Unfortunate Steals A Star, Laura Noakes
Crazy, Benjamin Lebert
Crooked Kingdom, (Series), Leigh Bardugo
Daniel Cabot Puts Down Roots, (Series), Cat Sebastian
Daniel, Deconstructed, James Ramos
Dead in the Garden, (Series), Dahlia Donovan
Dear Fang, With Love, Rufi Thorpe
Deathless Divide, (Series), Justina Ireland
The Degenerates, J. Albert Mann
The Doctor's Discretion, E.E. Ottoman
Earth Girl, (Series), Janet Edwards
Everyone in This Room Will Someday Be Dead, Emily R. Austin
The Extraordinaries, (Series), T. J. Klune
The Extraordinary Education of Nicholas Benedict, (Series), Trenton Lee Stewart
Fight + Flight, Jules Machias
The Final Girl Support Group, Grady Hendrix
Finding My Voice, (Series), Aoife Dooley
The First Thing About You, Chaz Hayden
Follow My Leader, James B. Garfield
Forever Is Now, Mariama J. Lockington
Fortune Favours the Dead, (Series), Stephen Spotswood
Fresh, Margot Wood
H-0:
Harmony, London Price
Harrow the Ninth, (series), Tamsyn Muir
Hench, (Series), Natalia Zina Walschots
Highly Illogical Behaviour, John Corey Whaley
Honey Girl, Morgan Rogers
How to Become a Planet, Nicole Melleby
How to Bite Your Neighbor and Win a Wager, (Series), D. N. Bryn
How to Sell Your Blood & Fall in Love, (Series), D. N. Bryn
Hunger Pangs: True Love Bites, Joy Demorra
I Am Not Alone, Francisco X. Stork
The Immeasurable Depth of You, Maria Ingrande Mora
In the Ring, Sierra Isley
Into The Drowning Deep, (Series), Mira Grant
Iron Widow, (Series), Xiran Jay Zhao
Izzy at the End of the World, K. A. Reynolds
Jodie's Journey, Colin Thiele
Just by Looking at Him, Ryan O'Connell
Kissing Doorknobs, Terry Spencer Hesser
Lakelore, Anna-Marie McLemore
Learning Curves, (Series), Ceillie Simkiss
Let's Call It a Doomsday, Katie Henry
The Library of the Dead, (Series), TL Huchu
The Lion Hunter, (Series), Elizabeth Wein
Lirael, (Series), Garth Nix
Long Macchiatos and Monsters, Alison Evans
Love from A to Z, (Series), S.K. Ali
Lycanthropy and Other Chronic Illnesses, Kristen O'Neal
Never Let Me Go, Kazuo Ishiguro
The Never Tilting World, (Series), Rin Chupeco
The No-Girlfriend Rule, Christen Randall
Nona the Ninth, (series), Tamsyn Muir
Noor, Nnedi Okorafor
Odder Still, (Series), D. N. Bryn
Once Stolen, (Series), D. N. Bryn
One For All, Lillie Lainoff
On the Edge of Gone, Corinne Duyvis
Origami Striptease, Peggy Munson
Our Bloody Pearl, (Series), D. N. Bryn
Out of My Mind, Sharon M. Draper
P-T:
Parable of the Sower, (Series), Octavia E. Butler
Parable of the Talents, (Series), Octavia E. Butler
Percy Jackson & the Olympians, (series), Rick Riordan
Pomegranate, Helen Elaine Lee
The Prey of Gods, Nicky Drayden
The Pursuit Of..., (Series), Courtney Milan
The Queen's Thief, (Series), Megan Whalen Turner
The Quiet and the Loud, Helena Fox
The Raging Quiet, Sheryl Jordan
The Reanimator's Heart, (Series), Kara Jorgensen
The Remaking of Corbin Wale, Joan Parrish
Roll with It, (Series), Jamie Sumner
Russian Doll, (Series), Cristelle Comby
The Second Mango, (Series), Shira Glassman
Scar of the Bamboo Leaf, Sieni A.M
Shaman, (Series), Noah Gordon
Sick Kids in Love, Hannah Moskowitz
The Silent Boy, Lois Lowry
Six of Crows, (Series) Leigh Bardugo
Sizzle Reel, Carlyn Greenwald
The Spare Man, Mary Robinette Kowal
The Stagsblood Prince, (Series), Gideon E. Wood
Stake Sauce, Arc 1: The Secret Ingredient is Love. No, Really, (Series), RoAnna Sylver
Stars in Your Eyes, Kacen Callender [Expected release: Oct 2023]
The Storm Runner, (Series), J. C. Cervantes
Stronger Still, (Series), D. N. Bryn
Sweetblood, Pete Hautman
Tarnished Are the Stars, Rosiee Thor
The Theft of Sunlight, (Series), Intisar Khanani
Throwaway Girls, Andrea Contos
Top Ten, Katie Cotugno
Torch, Lyn Miller-Lachmann
Treasure, Rebekah Weatherspoon
Turtles All the Way Down, John Green
U-Z:
Unlicensed Delivery, Will Soulsby-McCreath
Expected release October 2023
Verona Comics, Jennifer Dugan
Vorkosigan Saga, (Series), Lois McMaster Bujold
We Are the Ants, (Series), Shaun David Hutchinson
The Weight of Our Sky, Hanna Alkaf
Whip, Stir and Serve, Caitlyn Frost and Henry Drake
The Whispering Dark, Kelly Andrew
Wicked Sweet, Chelsea M. Cameron
Wonder, (Series), R. J. Palacio
Wrong to Need You, (Series), Alisha Rai
Ziggy, Stardust and Me, James Brandon
Graphic Novels:
A Quick & Easy Guide to Sex & Disability, (Non-Fiction), A. Andrews
Constellations, Kate Glasheen
Dancing After TEN: a graphic memoir, (memoir) (Non-Fiction), Vivian Chong, Georgia Webber
Everything Is an Emergency: An OCD Story in Words Pictures, (memoir) (Non-Fiction), Jason Adam Katzenstein
Frankie's World: A Graphic Novel, (Series), Aoife Dooley
The Golden Hour, Niki Smith
Nimona, N. D. Stevenson
The Third Person, (memoir) (Non-Fiction), Emma Grove
Magazines and Anthologies:
Artificial Divide, (Anthology), Robert Kingett, Randy Lacey
Beneath Ceaseless Skies #175: Grandmother-nai-Leylit's Cloth of Winds, (Article), R. B. Lemburg
Defying Doomsday, (Anthology), edited by Tsana Dolichva and Holly Kench
Josee, the Tiger and the Fish, (short story) (anthology), Seiko Tanabe
Nothing Without Us, edited by Cait Gordon and Talia C. Johnson
Nothing Without Us Too, edited by Cait Gordon and Talia C. Johnson
Unbroken: 13 Stories Starring Disabled Teens, (Anthology), edited by Marieke Nijkamp
Uncanny #24: Disabled People Destroy Science Fiction, (Anthology), edited by: Elsa Sjunneson-Henry, Dominik Parisien et al.
Uncanny #30: Disabled People Destroy Fantasy, (Anthology), edited by: Nicolette Barischoff, Lisa M. Bradley, Katharine Duckett
We Shall Be Monsters, edited by Derek Newman-Stille
Manga:
Perfect World, (Series), Rie Aruga
The Sky is Blue with a Single Cloud, (Short Stories), Kuniko Tsurita
Non-Fiction:
Academic Ableism: Disability and Higher Education, Jay Timothy Dolmage
A Disability History of the United States, Kim E, Nielsen
The Architecture of Disability: Buildings, Cities, and Landscapes beyond Access, David Gissen
Being Seen: One Deafblind Woman's Fight to End Ableism, Elsa Sjunneson
Black Disability Politics, Sami Schalk
Borderline, Narcissistic, and Schizoid Adaptations: The Pursuit of Love, Admiration, and Safety, Dr. Elinor Greenburg
Brilliant Imperfection: Grappling with Cure, Eli Clare
The Cambridge Companion to Literature and Disability, Barker, Clare and Stuart Murray, editors.
The Capacity Contract: Intellectual Disability and the Question of Citizenship, Stacy Clifford Simplican
Capitalism and Disability, Martha Russel
Care work: Dreaming Disability Justice, Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha
Catatonia, Shutdown and Breakdown in Autism: A Psycho-Ecological Approach, Dr Amitta Shah
The Collected Schizophrenias: Essays, Esme Weijun Wang
Crip Kinship, Shayda Kafai
Crip Up the Kitchen: Tools, Tips and Recipes for the Disabled Cook, Jules Sherred
Culture – Theory – Disability: Encounters between Disability Studies and Cultural Studies, Anne Waldschmidt, Hanjo Berressem, Moritz Ingwersen
Decarcerating Disability: Deinstitutionalization and Prison Abolition, Liat Ben-Moshe
Demystifying Disability: What to Know, What to Say, and How to Be an Ally, Emily Ladau
Dirty River: A Queer Femme of Color Dreaming Her Way Home, Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha
Disability Pride: Dispatches from a Post-ADA World, Ben Mattlin
Disability Visibility: First-Person Stories From the Twenty-First Century, Alice Wong
Disfigured: On Fairy Tales, Disability and Making Space, Amanda Leduc
Every Cripple a Superhero, Christoph Keller
Exile and Pride: Disability, Queerness and Liberation, Eli Clare
Feminist Queer Crip, Alison Kafer
The Future Is Disabled: Prophecies, Love Notes, and Mourning Songs, Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha
Growing Up Disabled in Australia, Carly Findlay
It's Just Nerves: Notes on a Disability, Kelly Davio
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, Rebecca Skloot
Language Deprivation & Deaf Mental Health, Neil S. Glickman, Wyatte C. Hall
The Minority Body: A Theory of Disability, Elizabeth Barnes
My Body and Other Crumbling Empires: Lessons for Healing in a World That Is Sick, Lyndsey Medford
No Right to Be Idle: The Invention of Disability, 1840s-1930s, Sarah F. Rose
Nothing About Us Without Us: Disability Oppression and Empowerment, James I. Charlton
The Pedagogy of Pathologization Dis/abled Girls of Color in the School-prison Nexus, Subini Ancy Annamma
Physical Disability in British Romantic Literature, Essaka Joshua
QDA: A Queer Disability Anthology, Raymond Luczak, Editor.
The Right to Maim: Debility, Capacity, Disability, Jasbir K. Puar
Sitting Pretty, (memoir), Rebecca Taussig
Sounds Like Home: Growing Up Black & Deaf in the South, Mary Herring Wright
Surviving and Thriving with an Invisible Chronic Illness: How to Stay Sane and Live One Step Ahead of Your Symptoms, Ilana Jacqueline
The Things We Don't Say: An Anthology of Chronic Illness Truths, Julie Morgenlender
Uncanny Bodies: Superhero Comics and Disability, Scott T. Smith, José Alaniz
Uncomfortable Labels: My Life as a Gay Autistic Trans Woman, (memoir), Laura Kate Dale
Unmasking Autism, Devon Price
The War on Disabled People: Capitalism, Welfare and the Making of a Human Catastrophe, Ellen Clifford
We've Got This: Essays by Disabled Parents, Eliza Hull
Year of the Tiger: An Activist's Life, (memoir) (essays) Alice Wong
Picture Books:
A Day With No Words, Tiffany Hammond, Kate Cosgrove-
A Friend for Henry, Jenn Bailey, Mika Song
Ali and the Sea Stars, Ali Stroker, Gillian Reid
All Are Welcome, Alexandra Penfold, Suzanne Kaufman
All the Way to the Top, Annette Bay Pimentel, Jennifer Keelan-Chaffins, Nabi Ali
Can Bears Ski?, Raymond Antrobus, Polly Dunbar
Different -- A Great Thing to Be!, Heather Alvis, Sarah Mensinga
Everyone Belongs, Heather Alvis, Sarah Mensinga
I Talk Like a River, Jordan Scott, Sydney Smith
Jubilee: The First Therapy Horse and an Olympic Dream, K. T. Johnson, Anabella Ortiz
Just Ask!, Sonia Sotomayor, Rafael López
Kami and the Yaks, Andrea Stenn Stryer, Bert Dodson
My Three Best Friends and Me, Zulay, Cari Best, Vanessa Brantley-Newton
Rescue & Jessica: A Life-Changing Friendship, Jessica Kensky, Patrick Downes, Scott Magoon
Sam's Super Seats, Keah Brown, Sharee Miller
Small Knight and the Anxiety Monster, Manka Kasha
We Move Together, Kelly Fritsch, Anne McGuire, Eduardo Trejos
We're Different, We're the Same, and We're All Wonderful!, Bobbi Jane Kates, Joe Mathieu
What Happened to You?, James Catchpole, Karen George
The World Needs More Purple People, Kristen Bell, Benjamin Hart, Daniel Wiseman
You Are Enough: A Book About Inclusion, Margaret O'Hair, Sofia Sanchez, Sofia Cardoso
You Are Loved: A Book About Families, Margaret O'Hair, Sofia Sanchez, Sofia Cardoso
The You Kind of Kind, Nina West, Hayden Evans
Zoom!, Robert Munsch, Michael Martchenko
Plays:
Peeling, Kate O'Reilly
---
With an extra special thank you to @parafoxicalk @craftybookworms @lunod @galaxyaroace @shub-s @trans-axolotl @suspicious-whumping-egg @ya-world-challenge @fictionalgirlsworld @rubyjewelqueen @some-weird-queer-writer @jacensolodjo @cherry-sys @dralthon @thebibliosphere @brynwrites @aj-grimoire @shade-and-sun @ceanothusspinosus @edhelwen1 @waltzofthewifi @spiderleggedhorse @sleepneverheardofher @highladyluck @oftheides @thecouragetobekind @nopoodles @lupadracolis @elusivemellifluence @creativiteaa @moonflowero1 @the-bi-library @chronically-chaotic-cryptid for your absolutely fantastic contributions!
---
Submit a Book:
#disability resources#disability#chronic illness#disability books#books#resources#book list#disability literature#literature#disability representation#disabled characters#information#informative#disability education#disability history#disability rights#please add to this#to be updated#long post
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Scott's World of Tomorrow
It was February 1956, a young Scott Heyward had just turned 16 years old. His father, Duster Heyward of Heyward Oil is about to spoil him.
"Well son taday's yer birthday. What do ya wanna do?"
"Can we go to Disneyland Pa? They have a whole section called Tomorrowland and a race car track called Autopia."
Mr. Heyward smiles as he claps Scott's shoulder.
"Tha's mah boy. Disneyland's gonna be a great client ta have. Can't be runnin no rides without oil."
"Yeah and maybe if they have real cars there I can take some notes for the research department."
Mr. Heyward chuckles as he goes to the phone.
"Ah'll just let yer tutor know yer goin on a field trip. That oughta make 'em happy yer doin yer science project."
"Ok, Pa."
Time Skip
"Alright then son. Ah'm gonna be talk with some a Disney's people. They said some fella named Bob Gurr's gonna be walkin ya through Autopia."
"Wow. Thanks Pa!"
Scott sits down on a bench with his camera and notepad. A young man his 20s approaches him.
"Are you Scott Heyward?"
"Yes. Are you Mr. Gurr?"
"That I am. Just call me Bob today. It's really an honor to have you and father come to the park today."
The two shake hands and start to walk to Tomorrowland.
"Now as you can see, the Moonliner was designed by one of my colleagues, John Hench and of course sponsored by Howard Hughes of Trans World Airlines."
Scott takes some pictures as they walk through the attraction. They get to the Monsanto Hall of Chemistry.
"Are you familiar with Monsanto, Scott?"
"Oh yes. I was only 7 when they had that explosion down in Texas City. Pa sent a crew to bring oil down to the site. He managed to get a deal where we can have a couple ships down at the port."
Bob nods. Eventually they make it to Autopia.
"Now this is what I helped design. I used what I learned from working with Ford."
"You worked with Ford? What did you do?"
"Well I helped design the Lincoln Continental. I published a few books on automotive design and that's what brought Mr. Disney's attention over to me. He wanted me to analyze the chassis for these cars. Originally designed by Hartmann Engineering, they were having issues regarding the ability to be mass produced. Too noisy and smokey with a lot of vibration. Eventually the company dropped out so I was brought on permanently to come up with a different design."
Scott's writing all of this down the best he can. Mr. Gurr's slowly turning into an idol.
"So where did you get the design for the cars? They don't look like anything I've ever seen."
"Take a closer look. If you're familiar with Porsche, I took the idea of their 54 550 Spyder and combined it with the recent custom made Italian Ferraris. Of course the Chevrolet Corvette also served as inspiration."
"Wow."
Bob continues telling his story. Scott listens to every word including everything about engineering he has yet to learn.
"What make are these cars now?"
"Currently these are the Mark II's. I had to fix the chassis so they can accommodate a sturdier, smoother-running engine. We've been getting a lot of youngsters so it was necessary to add booster seats and extensions on the peddles. I just finished a prototype for the Mark III and already started work on the Mark IVs"
"Why? What's wrong with these models?"
"Longevity and ease of repair. With how popular this attraction is getting it's only a matter of time before these cars will need repairing. Every month we're learning something new about what people like and don't like about the car. Just goes to show that even when a product is a success, there's still a lot that needs to be done to perfect it."
Scott writes this down as Bob finishes talking.
"Would you like to ride in one of these, Scott?"
"Yes! I'd love to."
Bob chuckles as they wait in line to ride in one of the cars.
Time Skip
"How was yer trip son?"
"I loved it Pa. Mr. Gurr let me take so many pictures and showed me all of Tomorrowland."
Mr. Heyward smiles as they make their way back to Texas. Scott would recite his notes and Bob's story. His father could only nod along as he never really got into the science side of business.
"Well Ah bet yer science project'll turn out real good."
"Oh yeah Pa. Until science finds a better way, everything needs oil. Even the rockets."
"Thatta boy. Yer gonna be takin Heyward Oil inta space."
Scott smiles and sits back in his seat. He starts to fantasize about making his own world of tomorrow.
AN: Shoutout to @xanatenshi for requesting this story.
Tagging: @mercsandmonsters, @georgefairbrother, @imaginationlast, @hooked-on-elvis, @arrolyn1114,
@teamnefarious, @blighted-star, @ab4eva, @thetaoofzoe, @vintagepresley,
@myradiaz, @jaqueline19997, @kiankiwi, @ahundredlifetime, @mydarlingelvis,
@tupelomiss, @elvispresleywife, @karel-in-wonderland, @tacozebra051, @sillybookmarks,
@dusintv, @velvetelvis, @livelaughelvis, @slayingjd, @anamiad00msday,
@mistyspresley, @i-r-i-n-a-a, @yoooooooh, @southcarolinawoman, @peaceloveelvis,
@squaggleson, and @idk583838.
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every single book I read in 2022. all 129 of them.
jesus christ
let's start with the best of the best; everything else will get listed beneath the read more because I'm not an animal. even just picking out my favorites is honestly probably going to get pretty lengthy, even though I'm trying to keep the synopses short.
batmanisagatewaydrug's noteworthy books of 2022
Complaint! (Sara Ahmed, 2021) - necessary for anyone doing diversity work in higher education, tbh
America is Not the Heart (Elaine Castillo, 2018) - achingly gorgeous novel of heartbreak and healing.
The School for Good Mothers (Jessamine Chan, 2022) - honestly? I feel very good calling this my favorite book of the entire year. sensitive, smart, chilling.
Black Feminist Thought (Patricia Hill Collins, 1990) - truly ashamed to say I didn't read this sooner. Collins' clear-eyed analysis remains crazily spot-on 30+ years later.
Hurts So Good: The Science and Pleasure of Pain on Purpose (Leigh Cowart, 2021) - I read this book so early in 2022 and literally have not stopped thinking about it since.
Batman: King Tut's Tomb (Nunzio DeFillippis, Christina Weir, José Luis García-López, and Kevin Nowlan, 2009) - dare I say the most fun I had with a comic all year.
You Made a Fool of Death with Your Beauty (Akwaeke Emezi, 2022) - a romance unlike any other. queer, fun, sexy, bold as hell, and joyfully life-affirming.
The Dangers of Smoking in Bed (Mariana Enríquez, trans. Megan McDowell, 2021) - DELICIOUSLY creepy short stories that will lurk in your brain forever.
Lesser Known Monsters of the 21st Century (Kim Fu, 2022) - if a more perfect short story collection exists I am yet to find it.
The World We Make (N.K. Jemisin, 2022) - I normally hesitate to include sequels on a list like this, but god DAMN Jemisin is the queen of modern spec fic for a reason.
We Do This 'Til We Free Us: Abolitionist Organizing and Transforming Justice (Mariame Kaba, edited by Tamara K. Nopper, 2021) - excellent collection of Kaba's abolitionist writings, drawing on years of organizing experience and wisdom.
Jade City (Fonda Lee, 2017) - look out! new favorite doorstopper fantasy series alert!
Priestdaddy (Patricia Lockwood, 2017) - about the best damn memoir I've ever read. heartbreaking and hysterical in turns, poetry the whole way through.
Batman: The Long Halloween and Batman: Dark Victory (Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale, 1996 and 1999) - it's always so exciting when something much-hyped lives up to the hype in every way. Batman at his grim and moody Batmaniest with a Gotham that’s deliciously bleak.
Station Eleven (Emily St. John Mandel, 2014) - I didn't think I'd like this book much at all, then ended up proposing on the second date. oops!
I'm Glad My Mom Died (Jennette McCurdy, 2022) - you will also be glad McCurdy's mom died, and also experience every other known human emotion along the way.
Kaikeyi (Vaishnavi Patel, 2022) - SPLENDID mythology retelling + political fantasy.
My Body (Emily Ratajkowski, 2022) - haunting haunting haunting personal essays about Ratajkowski's life as a model and subsequent alienation from her own body.
Batman: Bruce Wayne, Murderer? (Greg Rucka et al, 2002) - genuinely what can I say I'm a messy bitch and I love when the Bats are having a terrible time.
The Batman Adventures Vol. 2 #1-17 (created by Dan Slott, Ty Templeton, Rick Burchett, Terry Beatty, and Bruce Timm, 2003) - a continuation of the Batman: The Animated Series universe that frankly just fucking rules.
Little Rabbit (Alyssa Songsiridej, 2022) - a potent and erotic adult coming of age story.
The Right to Sex: Feminism in the Twenty-First Century (Amia Srinivasan, 2021) - thorny, difficult, vital essays.
Fearing the Black Body: The Racial Origins of Fat Phobia (Sabrina Strings, 2019) - jaw-droppingly thorough research into the role of fatpobia played and plays in the project of race-making.
On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous (Ocean Vuong, 2019) - yeah so it turns out no one was REMOTELY exaggerating. Vuong really is That Good.
Hench (Natalie Zina Walschots, 2020) - wild fun with a ruthless protagonist and her sex villainous beetle man boss; what more could you ask for?
Love Your Asian Body: AIDS Activism in Los Angeles (Eric C. Wat, 2021) - learning about queer history makes me feel like I’m holding something so vibrant and fragile and precious right in my little queer hand. this book is an emotional journey in such a shining way.
Never Have I Ever (Isabel Yap, 2021) - EXCITING short story collection centered on girls having Just The Weirdest Time.
and everybody else:
fiction:
Light From Uncommon Stars (Ryka Aoki, 2021)
Our Wives Under the Sea (Julia Armfield, 2022)
A Tiny Upward Shove (Melissa Chadburn, 2022)
A Prayer for the Crown-Shy (Becky Chambers, 2022)
Disorientation (Elaine Hsieh Chou, 2022)
The Laws of the Skies (Grégoire Courtois, trans. Rhonda Mullins, 2019)
The Monster Baru Cormorant (Seth Dickinson, 2018)
The Tyrant Baru Cormorant (Seth Dickinson, 2020)
Greenland (David Santos Donaldson, 2022)
Dead Collections (Isaac Fellman, 2022)
The Halloween Moon (Joseph Fink, 2021)
A Dowry of Blood (S.T. Gibson)
Nightmare Alley (William Lindsay Gresham, 1946)
The Vegetarian (Han Kang, trans. Deborah Smith, 2015)
The Metamorphosis (Franz Kafka, trans. William Aaltonen, 1915)
Before the Coffee Gets Cold (Toshikazu Kawaguchi, trans. Geoffrey Trousselot, 2019)
Woman, Eating (Claire Kohda, 2022)
Long Division (Kiese Laymon, 2014)
Jade War (Fonda Lee, 2019)
No One is Talking About This (Patricia Lockwood, 2021)
Portrait of a Thief (Grace D. Li, 2022)
Elatsoe (Darcie Little Badger, 2020)
A Snake Falls to Earth (Darcie Little Badger, 2021)
Glitterati (Oliver K. Longmead)
Gideon the Ninth (Tamsyn Muir, 2019)
Harrow the Ninth (Tamsyn Muir, 2020)
Nona the Ninth (Tamsyn Muir, 2022)
The Memory Police (Yoko Ogawa, trans. Stephen Snyder, 2019)
Even Though I Knew the End (C.L. Polk, 2022)
100 Boyfriends (Brontez Purnell, 2021)
Flowers for the Sea (Zin E. Rocklyn, 2021)
Any Way the Wind Blows (Rainbow Rowell, 2021)
Interview with the Vampire (Anne Rice, 1976)
Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe (Benjamin Alire Sáenz, 2012)
Aristotle and Dante Dive Into the Waters of the World (Benjamin Alire Sáenz, 2022)
Into the Riverlands (Nghi Vo, 2022)
Siren Queen (Nghi Vo, 2022)
Strange Beasts of China (Yan Ge, trans. Jeremy Tiang, 2020)
short story collections:
The Memory Librarian: And Other Stories of Dirty Computer (Janelle Monáe, Yohanco Delgado, Eva L. Ewing, Alaya Dawn Johnson, Danny Lore, and Sheree Renée Thomas, 2022)
Walking on Cowrie Shells (Nana Nkweti, 2021)
Terminal Boredom (Izumi Suzuki, trans. Polly Barton, Sam Bett, David Boyd, Daniel Joseph, Aiko Masubuchi, and Helen O’Horan, 2021)
nonfiction:
Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity (Judith Butler, 1990)
How to Read Now (Elaine Castillo, 2022)
Playing the Whore: The Work of Sex Work (Melissa Gira Grant, 2014)
What We Don't Talk About When We Talk About Fat (Aubrey Gordon, 2020)
White Tears/Brown Scars: How White Feminism Betrays Women of Color (Ruby Hamad, 2020)
Belly of the Beast: The Politics of Anti-Fatness as Anti-Blackness (Da'Shaun L. Harrison, 2021)
Some of My Best Friends: Essays on Lip Service (Tajja Isen, 2022)
One Day We'll All Be Dead and None of This Will Matter (Scaachi Koul, 2017)
How to Slowly Kill Yourself and Others in America (Revised Edition) (Kiese Laymon, 2020)
Sister Outsider (Audre Lorde, 1984)
Conversations with People Who Hate Me: 12 Lessons I Learned from Talking to Internet Strangers (Dylan Marron, 2022)
Cultish: The Language of Fanaticism (Amanda Montell, 2021)
World of Wonders: In Praise of Fireflies, Whale Sharks, and Other Astonishments (Aimee Nezhukumatathil)
Histories of the Transgender Child (Jules Gill-Peterson, published as Julian Gill-Peterson, 2018)
Yoke: My Yoga of Self-Acceptance (Jessamyn Stanley, 2021)
A Queer History of Fashion: From the Closet to the Catwalk (edited by Valerie Steele, 2013)
Transgender History: The Roots of Today's Revolution (Revised Edition) (Susan Stryker, 2008)
The End of Policing (Alex S. Vitale, 2017)
The Trouble With Normal: Sex, Politics, and the Ethics of Queer Life (Michael Warner, 1999)
Read My Lips: Sexual Subversions and the End of Gender (Riki Wilchins, published as Riki Anne Wilchins, 1997)
poetry:
Short Talks (Anne Carson, 1992)
Content Warning: Everything (Akwaeke Emezi, 2022)
Prelude to Bruise (Saeed Jones, 2014)
Alive at the End of the World (Saeed Jones, 2022)
Bright Dead Things (Ada Limón, 2015)
Motherland Fatherland Homelandsexuals (Patricia Lockwood, 2014)
Nature Poem (Tommy Pico, 2017)
Night Sky with Exit Wounds (Ocean Vuong, 2016)
Time Is a Mother (Ocean Vuong, 2022)
comics:
Batman: One Bad Day - Mr. Freeze (Gerry Duggan, Matteo Scalera, and Dave Stewart, 2022)
Spandex - Fast and Hard (Martin Eden, 2012)
Harley Quinn: The Animated Series: The Eat. Bang! Kill. Tour (Tee Franklin, Max Sarin, and Marissa Louise, 2022)
Batman: Whatever Happened to the Caped Crusader? (Neil Gaiman and Andy Kubert, 2009)
The Sandman: Preludes & Nocturnes (Neil Gaiman, Sam Keith, Mike Dringenberg, and Malcom Jones III, 1988)
The Sandman: In the Doll's House (Neil Gaiman, Michael Zulli, Mike Dringenberg, Chris Bachalo, Malcolm Jones III, and Steve Parkhouse, 1989)
The Sandman: Dream Country (Neil Gaiman, Kelley Jones, Malcolm Jones III, Colleen Doran, and Charles Vess, 1991)
The Sandman: Season of Mists (Neil Gaiman, Kelley Jones, Malcom Jones III, Mike Dringenberg, Matt Wagner, P. Craig Russell, George Pratt, and Dick Giordano, 1992)
The Sandman: A Game of You (Neil Gaiman, Shawn McManus, Colleen Doran, Bryan Talbot, Stan Woch, and George Pratt, 1993)
Run, Riddler, Run (Gerard Jones and Mark Badger, 1992)
Catwoman: When in Rome (Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale, 2005)
Batman: Year One (Frank Miller and David Mazzicchello, 1986)
Batman: One Bad Day - Penguin (John Ridley, Giuseppe Camuncoli, Cam Smith, and Arif Prianto, 2022)
Batman: Bruce Wayne - Fugitive (Greg Rucka et al, 2002)
Batman: One Bad Day - Two-Face (Mariko Tamaki, Jaiver Fernandez, and Jordie Bellaire, 2022)
Batman & Robin Eternal Vol 1 & Vol 2 (James Tynion IV and Scott Snyder, 2015 and 2016)
Batman: Their Dark Designs (James Tynion IV, Guillem March, and Tomeu Morey, 2020)
The Joker War Saga (James Tynion IV and Jorge Jiménez, 2021)
Papergirls Vol. 1-6 (Brian K. Vaughan and Cliff Chiang, 2016-2019)
Real Hero Shit (Kendra Wells, 2022)
Poison Ivy #1-6 (G. Willow Wilson and Marcio Takara, 2022)
and some gaming guides!
Monster of the Week (Michael Sands, 2012) - great game. so cool. cannot wait to actually play it someday.
Thirsty Sword Lesbians (April Kit Walsh, 2021)
special shame zone because I want you to know how bad this sucked, do not read this:
Rethinking Sex: A Provocation (Christine Emba, 2022). patronizing, puritanical, reductive, painfully cisheteronormative. weirdly afraid of group sex. not actually that provocative, just aggressively Catholic.
and last but most certainly least, a comic that I want to remind you all fucking sucked just one more time before the year is done.
Batman: One Bad Day - The Riddler (Tom King and Mitch Gerads, 2022)
Tom King, go fuck yourself. Mitch is cool though, the art slapped.
#bookblr#if you find a typo in here no you didn't xoxo#feel free to tell me your thots or ask about any of these i love to talk about my unhinged reading habit
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32 of Our Favorite Sci-Fi Reads for National Science Fiction Day
Duck Prints Press LOVES kicking off the new year with one of our favorite annual recommendation lists: science fiction stories (ideally queer, but it wasn’t required) to celebrate National Science Fiction Day! For this year, 14 Duck Prints Press contributors suggested a whopping 32 awesome science fiction books. Note that there’s no overlap with last year (by design) so make sure you also check out Our Ten Favorite Science Fiction Reads of 2022 for some more titles to add to your 2024 TBR.
Our 2024 Science Fiction Recs:
The Kaiju Preservation Society by John Scalzi
Hench by Natalie Zina Walschots
Little Mushroom by Shisi
Always Human by Ari North
More Than We Deserve by Nicola Kapron
Sorcerer to the Crown by Zen Cho
Ocean’s Echo by Everina Maxwell
Aurora Rising by Amie Kaufman
Iron Widow by Xiran Jay Zhao
CrashCourse by Wilhelmina Baird
Light from Uncommon Stars by Ryka Aoki
We Have Always Been Here by Lena Nguyen
Emergent Properties by Aimee Ogden
Victories Greater than Death by Charlie Jane Anders
Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir
The Fever King by Victoria Lee
All Systems Red by Martha Wells
Infomocracy by Malka Older
Zero Sum Game by S. L. Huang
Binti by Nnedi Okorafor
Unconquerable Sun by Kate Elliott
Psalm for the Wild-Built by Becky Chambers
This is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar & Max Gladstone
Trigun and Trigun Maximum by Yasuhiro Nightow
Legend of the Galactic Heroes by Yoshiki Tanaka & Katsumi Michihara
In the Lives of Puppets by T. J. Klune
Mega Man by Ian Flynn & Pat Spaz Spaziante
Mega Man Megamix by Hitoshi Ariga
Ghost in the Shell by Masamune Shirow
Once & Future by A. R. Capetta & Cory McCarthy
Five-Twelfths of Heaven by Melissa Scott
The Big Sigma by Joseph R. Lallo
Want to come read some of these books with us? Join our 2024 Queer Book Challenge on Storygraph! One of our challenges there is to read a queer science fiction book, and there’s a lot on this list that’d count!
You can check out all our sci-fi recs on this Goodreads shelf.
Wish you could contribute to these lists? Back our Patreon, join our Discord, and you can!
#duck prints press#national science fiction day#book recs#queer book recs#book recommendations#recommendation list
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Disabled Characters in the Showdown Currently
Notes:
1.) This list is subject to change, so if you see it off a reblog, please check the link to this post here. At some point this will probably stop updating, as we tend to forget to. Before we kick off the showdown there will be another post. Characters are under the cut, the list is currently unorganized, but might get organized later.
2.) If you see a character on here and you want to submit propaganda for them please feel free to, there is no submission limit or character per fandom limit. Here is the link to the submission form. Characters from the prior round of this showdown are fair game except Toph, Toothless and Hiccup. Additionally, most characters from @gay-disabled-characters-showdown are also fair game.
3.) The amount of submissions will not affect how likely a character is to get into the showdown. If you submitted a character and they are not here, we probably just haven’t gotten to verifying your character yet. If it’s been more than 3-4 days since you submitted the character you can shoot us an ask as to why they are not on the list, it might be an error on our part.
4.) When will submissions close? We have no fucking clue. At the earliest sometime October, as we are still working on setting up over @gay-disabled-characters-showdown which is still accepting submissions here. Additionally, as we need to write image descriptions it takes us a ridiculous amount of time to get set up.
5.) If you think a character doesn’t qualify you can send us an ask or leave a comment, and we can show you the explanation we have for the character as to how they count.
7.) If there is a character or media on here you think is problematic you can send us an ask and we will evaluate. That being said it’s not about being the best most perfect representation.
Tougou Mimori- Yuuki Yunna is a Hero
Olivia- Fear and Hunger 2: Termina
Edward Elric- Fullmetal Alchemist
Takashi ‘Shiro’ Shirogane- Voltron: Legendary Defender
Narti- Voltron: Legendary Defender
Shirou Emiya- Fate Stay Night
Red Haired Shanks- One Piece
Neil Watts- To the Moon/ Finding Paradise/ Imposter Factory
Harrowhawk Nonagesimus- The Locked Tomb
Wei Shi London Arelius- Cradle
Clint Barton- Marvel Comics
Barbara Gordon- DC Comics
Anna Tromedlov- Hench
Chirrut Îmwe- Star Wars: Rogue One
Imperator Furiosa- Mad Max: Fury Road
Long John Silver- Muppet Treasure Island
David- Four Weddings and a Funeral
Kaz Brekker- Six of Crows
Wu Zetian- Iron Widow
Cassandra Cain- DC Comics
Entrapta- She-Ra and the Princesses of Power
Bran Stark- A Song of Ice and Fire
Heart- Moonlight Chicken
Wen Kexing- Faraway Wanderers
Hartley Rathaway/Pied Piper- DC Comics
Wen Kexing- Word of Honor
Zhou Zishu- Word of Honor
Baiken- Guilty Gear
Draal the Deadly- Trollhunters: Tales of Arcadia
Petra- 1992 Summer Paralympics/ Cobi Troupe cartoon series
Twyla Boogeyman- Monster High
Kaladin Stormblessed- The Stormlight Archive
Nath- 100% Orange Juice/Sora
John D. Cort- Baywatch
Ming-Hua- Avatar: The Legend of Korra
Takane Enomoto (Ene)- Kagerou Project
Sylvette Suede- Tegami Bachi
Sunny- Omori
Basil- Omori
Stone- ONE by Cheesyhfj on YouTube
Parker- Leverage
Eustass Kid- One Piece
Fujitora- One Piece
Nog- Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
Ashton Greymoore- Critical Role
Geordi La Forge- Star Trek: The Next Generation
Nicholas Benedict- The Mysterious Benedict Society
Hermann Gottlieb- Pacific Rim
Johnny Joestar- JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure
Linh Cinder- The Lunar Chronicles
Percy Jackson- Percy Jackson and the Olympians
Genya Safin- Grishaverse
Dimitri Alexandre Blaiddyd, Fire Emblem Three Houses
Wylan Van Eck- Six of Crows
Jesper Fahey- Six of Crows
Havelock Vetinari- Discworld
Stiles Stilinski- Teen Wolf
Charles Xavier- X-Men
Hitori Gotoh- Bocchi the Rock
Vash the Stampede- Trigun
Gintoki Sakata- Gintama
Big Boss- Metal Gear
Black Raisin Cookie- Cookie Run Kingdom
Daan- Fear and Hunger 2: Termina
General Amaya- The Dragon Prince
Anakin Skywalker/Darth Vader- Star Wars
Sir Alastair Hammerlock- Borderlands
Alinta- DC Comics
Norma Khan- Dead End: Paranormal Park
George Mullner- Stardew Valley
Rani- Disney Faries
Joey Wilson/Jericho- DC Comics
Pit- Kid Icarus
Chai- Hi-Fi Rush
Sarah Sharpe- The Sea Beast
Gregg Lee- Night in the Woods
Arthur Lester- Malevolent
Kim Kitsuragi- Disco Elysium
Zee- Total Drama Island Reboot
Ignis Scientia- Final Fantasy XV
Komugi- Hunter x Hunter
Cheza- Wolf’s Rain
Maedhros- The Silmarillion
Ballister Boldheart- Nimona
Doom- Mashle: Magic and Muscles
Ianthe Tridentarius- The Locked Tomb
Talbot- Curse Words: Spellcasting for Fun and Prophet
Aka Ashi no Zeff- One Piece
Charlotte Webber/Sun-Spider- Marvel Comics
Zolf Smith- Rusty Quill Gaming podcast
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I know there's a lot of talk about Disney princess' hanging out, but I was wondering what villains you think would get along with each other, and also what hench people, for reasons that are beyond me I'm absolutely taken with the idea of Iago and Creeper interacting.
Ok! Took a bit but I think I figured out how they’d all line up
So Queen Grimhilde, Maleficent and Lady Tremaine I think would actually all get a long. Not really friends but they do respect each other’s power (and pettiness against young innocent girls) and I can see them being allied in any sort of dark plans.
( Maleficent’s definitely the most powerful but she can respect a woman with power as long as they’re not going up against her. And Lady Tremaine if we include Cinderella 3 actually also has a pretty powerful dark magic ability once you get a wand in her hand so I think she fits here as well)
After them there’s the group I actually think would have fun together though they’d also totally all be down to stab eachother in the back if needed and they all know it:
Ursula, Yzma, Jafar, Dr Facilier, and sometimes Hades. He wants to be the Boss since he’s a god so he has a harder time working together but they all have the same sort of ‘wealing dealing having fun while ruining lives energy’ and I think they’d have terrible evil fun
Gothel, Cruella and Madame Medusa I can kinda see in this too. They’re looked down on by the others as they don’t have magic (or arnt very good at it in Gothel’s case) and they’re all so self obsessed they don’t play well together but they gravitate together because of this?
The Queen of Hearts finds Madam Mim hilarious and Mim likes her manic energy and the Morva witches sometimes hangout with them too when they deign to hangout with anyone besides themselves.
Hook and Long John obviously bond over being pirates though they have very different views on children—though John kinda gives leeway for going after an immortal kid who cuts your hand off
Rourke, Clayton , Radcliffe and Sykes all get drinks together sometimes though they’re not really friends as each thinks they’re secretly better then all the others—Gaston sometimes gets in on the group to talk guns and the army and making shady deals to get what you want but his running egotistical dialogue usually gets him booted out after a while
That’s when he usually gets taken aside for more drinks by Mcleach who also tries to talk to Clayton and non half drunk Gaston about hunting but Clayton thinks he’s a low class tramp and doesn’t give him the time of day and sober Gaston finds his lizard creepy.
The only person who actually likes Mcleach’s company is Alameda Slim, (the only fun part of that aweful cow movie) and Mcleach is the only one who likes his yodeling
The Horned King is above anything so mundane as friendship with any of these petty sorcerers and wouldn’t deign to hangout with mere witch women, let alone human mortals, so he just molders somewhere. Sometimes he’ll speak with the Coachman as a fellow demon.
Frollo also sees himself as above everyone else for a mirad of reasons and so keeps to himself—though he usually does end up glaring (ogling) various of the witches. Gothel and him would honestly probably get along great if he could get over the witch thing. They have similar parenting styles.
Edgar and Amos Slade, despite being very different types of men bond over being the only actually normal sane-ish people in the villain pub and hating animals
(And Scar, Shere Khan, and Ratigan are all in the back hanging out as well—the first two probably try and eat Ratigan at some point)
Per the sidekicks, I offer this video, to which I would add Mr Snoops but is honestly how I see them all getting along:
youtube
Edit: Oh Yeah Hans!
Ummmm honestly I think Hans (pre my Frozen 3 storyline where he learns the follies of making shady deals with spooky magic users) also thinks he’s above the rest of the villains being a prince and all but he definitely tries to get in good with any and all of them he thinks could help him get him power and honor and such. I think Gaston actually likes him tbh, the rest of them either think he’s fake and look down on him for it or think he’s fake and can admire his initiative/ acting skills
#disney#disney villains#disney sidekicks#Disney henchmen#disney crossover#patty cake productions#disney headcanons
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On my last post, I introduced Captain Smark, but I haven't explained much of who he is as a character, so basically Captain Smark is a space captain who travels through the stars and goes on adventures with his side kick John-o (The indigo creature on the right). Smark has a heroic but screwball esque personality while John-o is much more timid.
But you must be wondering...Who are those other aliens and why is Captain Smark attacking one of them? Well you see, they are the Henches, a group of evil aliens who plan to take over the galaxy, maybe even the entire universe! In this picture, smark finds out about the Henches invading a planet and decides to immediately take action!
The following screenshot is from an adventure that I have yet to finish, which centers around Smark and his first of many battles against the Henches.
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Concept art for Space Mountain by John Hench, 1964 or 1965. At the time it was imagined they would build a giant “space roller coaster” attraction. As seen in this preliminary version, portions of the ride would be outside.
Walt wanted this new rollercoaster, which he called ‘Space Voyage”, to be the focal point of Disneyland’s renovated Tomorrowland planned for 1967. But his death in 1966 and the emphasis on preparing for the newly announced Disney World project forced imagineering to put aside the design of Space Mountain.
After the initial success of WDW, it was decided to build the attraction at the Magic Kingdom. Disney got RCA to sponsor the ride, which included $10 million to help build it; Space Mountain finally opened in January 1975.
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Ink's 2023 Fic
It’s the end of another year, and you know what that means! Or you joined me this year and don’t, one of the two. At the end of every year I post a list of everything I wrote to become my blog’s pinned post for the upcoming year. However, this year, it’s a bit different. We’ll get to that in a minute.
According to my AO3 stats, I posted 709,908 words of fic in 2023, across 8 fandoms and spread over 64 individual works. That’s a 765.784% increase in word count from last year! I’m unwell!
Normally, I post everything I wrote, split up by fandom and in chronological order, with basic stats and descriptions that vary between synopsis, liner notes, excerpts, or all of the above. However, 45 of those 64 works were written for Whumptober this year. Since they’re mostly for The Magnus Archives (dominating the list as usual) and many of them are very short, I’m not going to list all the TMA fics. I’ll list my favorites and ones I think got less attention than they deserved, as well as all fics for other fandoms, and since that’s my most popular stuff I’m listing it last/under the cut. Wordcount and relationships (romantic or platonic, healthy or not) are listed, but check the AO3 tags, warnings, and notes, as I won’t be including the content warnings here.
Batman
Mom’s Been On a Parenting Kick Lately- 9k, WIP, Talia/Bruce, Talia & Batkids;This is still getting off the ground (I need to get back to it), but I’m excited about the future of this fic! It’s my take on Jason’s post-resurrection time with the League of Assassins, but with timelines turned into spaghetti to facilitate bonding. Talia is currently in possession of 3 batkids, but she isn’t done stealing Bruce’s kids yet :)
i'd walk a wire, jump through a fire for you- 800, complete; literally just just shy of 1k about Dick have feelings about falling and parents
The Locked Tomb
lyin’ on our backs and countin’ the stars- 900, complete, John&Gideon; I’m actually shocked there aren’t way more John and Gideon “bonding” fics out there. This one also has a backstory for Gideon and Ianthe’s friendship bracelets!
The Adventure Zone- Balance
old worn out suit and shoes- 600, complete, Taako&Lup; Post-finale nightmares for Taako, now that he can remember he has a sister to lose
Malevolent
Please Come Back To Me- 2.9k, complete, Parker&Arthur; Parker lives and goes to hunt down and kill whatever used Arthur to try to kill him.
You’re here. That’s all I need to know.- 300 complete; Arthur finds Faroe in the bath.
Living, Dead, or Undecided?- 1.7k, complete; Arthur is sacrificed to the King in Yellow as punishment for what happened to Faroe.
His head and limbs were heavy with ornaments, much of his flesh left unprotected from the elements. It was far too mild a summer evening for that; he deserved to freeze or burn at the freedom of open air. His thoughts were fuzzy with the overpowering cacophony of scented oils and chanting. He was deposited at the top of the hill, too gentle in slope to burn at his atrophied muscles, on a stone slab. They chained him in place, the seeping stone finally sapping enough warmth from his bones to feel appropriate.
Dracula
i still see your ghost- 200, complete, Jonathan/Mina; Some fill-in angst about Jonathan seeing Dracula on September 22… which I did actually write on September 22.
Hannibal
I can’t remember if I cried- 1.7k, complete, Abigail/Marissa; This is actually a concept I came up with in high school lol. Hopefully, someday I’ll write a fic expanding on the shipping kernel of the concept.
Hench
The Kind of World Where We Belong- 1k, complete, Anna/Quantum; AU where Leviathan dies and femslash ensues.
The Magnus Archives
The Vampire Saga- 68k, 6 works, Jon/Martin; The first of several shared universes with @suttttton on this list. Vampire!Elias snacks on Jon until Vampire!Martin gets hold of him instead, fluff and romance ensue. The new works this year both feature Gerry!
The Vampire Saga Route 2- 38k, 7 works, Jon/Martin, Jon/Elias, Jon/suffering; Shares a few fics with its predecessor, up to Martin entering the picture, this is the darker version. Fic this year mostly focuses on Jon meeting Tim and Sasha, and the gang rescuing Danny from the Circus. And the aftermath thereof. I’m really proud of the Circus stuff I wrote!
Bird-Verse- 37k, 7 works, Jon/Beholding, Jon/Martin;Spin-off of cult au, also with Sutton, featuring a happier resolution to many of Jon’s problems, so he gets to live with all his friends and marry Martin. Except for how this year’s additions are about him dealing with the lingering cult intrusions and trauma :)
Indent AU- 50k, 2 works, Jon/everyone;My first foray into writing smut. I’m very proud of it, and I’d say it deserved more love than it got, but I’m realistic about the content being very much not for everyone.
Cult AU Bad Ending- 9k, 2 works, Jon/Beholding, Jon/Jonah; This is a good time to mention that, as I have 10,000 Cult AU derivatives, they have their own AO3 Collection now. This one is a far future fic where Jon is immortal with Jonah and sad about it. It’s a crier.
Interesting- 3.7k, complete, Jon/Elias, Jon/Martin; This is an old fic of Jon and Elias in the Panopticon that got a new chapter for Whumptober! It took about 2 years to get that draft to publication…
restless soul who always skips town- 900, complete, Jon/Peter; This is the one I most wish got more attention. Peter keeps Jon in the Lonely.
When Peter comes, it's wonderful. Peter is a person in a way the Archivist isn't and, he knows, Peter even sometimes leaves the fog. He knows it because Peter gives him journals that are red and gold and violet, so different from the limited palette of the fog and the Archivist and Peter that they make the Archivist's eyes hurt.
dead if they knew- 6k, complete, Elias/Jon/Tim; I had SO much fun fiddling to differentiate the four POVs from each other!
Familiar AU- 16k, 4 works, complete; Jon is kidnapped by Elias and turned into his familiar; for Sasha, Tim, and Martin, it’s a long, hard road to rescuing him.
no beat, no melody- 600, complete; Canon-compliant fic in between Jon getting the tape of the birthday party from MAG161 and the episode itself, hanging around the safehouse in the Depression Zone.
welcomed you with open doors- 1.6k, complete, Martin/Jon; Spiral!Martin in a role reversal au that swaps him and Michael. Martin is much more proactive as the Distortion (and more liable to fall in love with nearby Archivists)
save some face (you know you’ve only got one)- 1.4k, complete; Sasha is altered by the NotThem instead of killed. Half body horror, half giving her my fibromyalgia, all bad times!
somebody once broke me- 2.7k, complete, Jon&Gerry; Gerry lives! Visibly monstery Avatars! Jon gets kidnapped from a kidnapping! It’s all the hits for my body of work ;)
remember this moment- 3.8k, complete, Jon&Daisy; I initially planned this fic for, I think, Februwhump 2021. It’s been slated for every Februwhump and Whumptober since, and FINALLY finished!
Take Me Through the Darkness- 15k, complete; Superhero AU, ft. epistolary interludes! Several more of my greatest hits! (And also Jon getting kidnapped from another kidnapping.) My personal favorite is Jon thinking Tim is a hallucination and crying.
look upon your greatness (and she’ll send the call out)- 8k, complete; Cult AU AU where Georgie tracks Jon down a few months after his kidnapping.
The chances of Jon being abducted, held somewhere, and still alive are so narrow that they might as well not exist. Checking the resources the charity sent, Georgie realized it's even grimmer than that. She struggles to picture Jon doing anything to appease his captors. It's extremely easy, however, to picture him literally or figuratively daring them to kill him.
Something Wretched About This- 2.9k, complete, Jon&Tim; Jon returns from the Circus without vocal cords, and he and Tim have a moment of peace, if not reconciliation.
just like a real-life thelma and louise- 6.6k, complete, Sasha/Annabelle; Sasha and Annabelle have superpowers and escape from the lab experimenting on them.
Kinky Polychives AU- 70k, 2 works, WIP, Polychives; My second, much fluffier smut verse. I tagged Jon as “horny for predicaments instead of people” and I think it’s the thing that’s been commented on specifically by the most people lol
til the veins run red and blue- 200, complete, Jon/Martin; I really like the Lonely, and I don’t know why I don’t write it more. This one is a little Somewhere Else coda with Jmart
come home (to my heart)- 8.7k, complete, Jon&Gerry; a fusion of Little Archive and cult au where Jon is the specialest boy in the whole Cult of Beholding, and Gerry grew up with Mary. If anything I wrote this year gets a sequel, I think it’s this. The fic is all Gerry POV, but I had a chunk written in Jon POV I cut, ft. Jon convincing Beholding that he can definitely wander London solo and it’s FINE, he won’t disappear in the house of a murderer or anything… ;)
Extras- 18k, Jon/Martin; My fae au is complete, but this is a bunch of little bits that inspired me beyond the bounds of the main story, like meeting Melanie, Martin proposing, and so on.
sitting pretty on the throne, nothing more i want (except to be alone)- 217k, WIP, Jon/Beholding; Cult au wraps up another year! Hopefully, by this time next year, it’ll be complete at LAST!
Beneath the Stains of Time- 98k, WIP; Also a contender for longfic that I hope to finish in 2024! This year, we FINALLY got to the gang figuring out Jon’s identity and now it’s all unraveling…
Little Archive- 85k, WIP; Last but certainly not least! I’ve been so happy to see the warm reception for Cecile and Anika this year 💗
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Dagger Squad Head canon || Part One
Bradley “Rooster” Bradshaw
Bradley is a theater kid,he done musicals and plays such as Willard Hewitt (footloose), Kenickie Murdoch (Grease), Sky (Mamma Mia), John Proctor (The Crucible), Juror #8 (Twelve angry men ) etc.
Bradley plays baseball from when he’s a kid in Elementary up until his College years, In all honesty he could've made a career out of it if he wasn’t so hell bent on being in the navy.
Bradley got the callsign “Rooster” when he was drunk when he was stationed in Japan and drunkenly decided to do a Rooster call on a roof early in the morning unfortunately it was his boss roof who was telling him to knock it off. Hench people started calling him Rooster, his original call sign was little goose.
Bradley has a stuffed duck that he calls him duckie . He has had it since he was a baby.
Bradley knows how to speak multiple languages because of his job as a navy. His languages are mandarin, spanish, italian, chinese etc.
Bradley hated hospitals which really didn’t hold really any good memories until his daughter Elizabeth was born.
Bradley would have laughed if you had told him that he and hangman would become friends, let alone him being his best man and godfather of his daughter.
Bradley knows how to play all types of instruments, the first instrument he knows how to play is piano.
Bradley's favorite color is Blue.
Bradley’s favorite childhood movies are the Aristocats, Oliver and company, Treasure Planet, and The Rescuers.
Bradley’s favorite Disney cartoon shows are The Replacement, Proud Family, The Emperor's new school etc.
Daggers Squad headcanons part 1
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The true post-cyberpunk hero is a noir forensic accountant
I'm touring my new, nationally bestselling novel The Bezzle! Catch me in TOMORROW (Apr 17) in CHICAGO, then Torino (Apr 21) Marin County (Apr 27), Winnipeg (May 2), Calgary (May 3), Vancouver (May 4), and beyond!
I was reared on cyberpunk fiction, I ended up spending 25 years at my EFF day-job working at the weird edge of tech and human rights, even as I wrote sf that tried to fuse my love of cyberpunk with my urgent, lifelong struggle over who computers do things for and who they do them to.
That makes me an official "post-cyberpunk" writer (TM). Don't take my word for it: I'm in the canon:
https://tachyonpublications.com/product/rewired-the-post-cyberpunk-anthology-2/
One of the editors of that "post-cyberpunk" anthology was John Kessel, who is, not coincidentally, the first writer to expose me to the power of literary criticism to change the way I felt about a novel, both as a writer and a reader:
https://locusmag.com/2012/05/cory-doctorow-a-prose-by-any-other-name/
It was Kessel's 2004 Foundation essay, "Creating the Innocent Killer: Ender's Game, Intention, and Morality," that helped me understand litcrit. Kessel expertly surfaces the subtext of Card's Ender's Game and connects it to Card's politics. In so doing, he completely reframed how I felt about a book I'd read several times and had considered a favorite:
https://johnjosephkessel.wixsite.com/kessel-website/creating-the-innocent-killer
This is a head-spinning experience for a reader, but it's even wilder to experience it as a writer. Thankfully, the majority of literary criticism about my work has been positive, but even then, discovering something that's clearly present in one of my novels, but which I didn't consciously include, is a (very pleasant!) mind-fuck.
A recent example: Blair Fix's review of my 2023 novel Red Team Blues which he calls "an anti-finance finance thriller":
https://economicsfromthetopdown.com/2023/05/13/red-team-blues-cory-doctorows-anti-finance-thriller/
Fix – a radical economist – perfectly captures the correspondence between my hero, the forensic accountant Martin Hench, and the heroes of noir detective novels. Namely, that a noir detective is a kind of unlicensed policeman, going to the places the cops can't go, asking the questions the cops can't ask, and thus solving the crimes the cops can't solve. What makes this noir is what happens next: the private dick realizes that these were places the cops didn't want to go, questions the cops didn't want to ask and crimes the cops didn't want to solve ("It's Chinatown, Jake").
Marty Hench – a forensic accountant who finds the money that has been disappeared through the cells in cleverly constructed spreadsheets – is an unlicensed tax inspector. He's finding the money the IRS can't find – only to be reminded, time and again, that this is money the IRS chooses not to find.
This is how the tax authorities work, after all. Anyone who followed the coverage of the big finance leaks knows that the most shocking revelation they contain is how stupid the ruses of the ultra-wealthy are. The IRS could prevent that tax-fraud, they just choose not to. Not for nothing, I call the Martin Hench books "Panama Papers fanfic."
I've read plenty of noir fiction and I'm a long-term finance-leaks obsessive, but until I read Fix's article, it never occurred to me that a forensic accountant was actually squarely within the noir tradition. Hench's perfect noir fit is either a happy accident or the result of a subconscious intuition that I didn't know I had until Fix put his finger on it.
The second Hench novel is The Bezzle. It's been out since February, and I'm still touring with it (Chicago tonight! Then Turin, Marin County, Winnipeg, Calgary, Vancouver, etc). It's paying off – the book's a national bestseller.
Writing in his newsletter, Henry Farrell connects Fix's observation to one of his own, about the nature of "hackers" and their role in cyberpunk (and post-cyberpunk) fiction:
https://www.programmablemutter.com/p/the-accountant-as-cyberpunk-hero
Farrell cites Bruce Schneier's 2023 book, A Hacker’s Mind: How the Powerful Bend Society’s Rules and How to Bend Them Back:
https://pluralistic.net/2023/02/06/trickster-makes-the-world/
Schneier, a security expert, broadens the category of "hacker" to include anyone who studies systems with an eye to finding and exploiting their defects. Under this definition, the more fearsome hackers are "working for a hedge fund, finding a loophole in financial regulations that lets her siphon extra profits out of the system." Hackers work in corporate offices, or as government lobbyists.
As Henry says, hacking isn't intrinsically countercultural ("Most of the hacking you might care about is done by boring seeming people in boring seeming clothes"). Hacking reinforces – rather than undermining power asymmetries ("The rich have far more resources to figure out how to gimmick the rules"). We are mostly not the hackers – we are the hacked.
For Henry, Marty Hench is a hacker (the rare hacker that works for the good guys), even though "he doesn’t wear mirrorshades or get wasted chatting to bartenders with Soviet military-surplus mechanical arms." He's a gun for hire, that most traditional of cyberpunk heroes, and while he doesn't stand against the system, he's not for it, either.
Henry's pinning down something I've been circling around for nearly 30 years: the idea that though "the street finds its own use for things," Wall Street and Madison Avenue are among the streets that might find those uses:
https://craphound.com/nonfic/street.html
Henry also connects Martin Hench to Marcus Yallow, the hero of my YA Little Brother series. I have tried to make this connection myself, opining that while Marcus is a character who is fighting to save an internet that he loves, Marty is living in the ashes of the internet he lost:
https://pluralistic.net/2023/05/07/dont-curb-your-enthusiasm/
But Henry's Marty-as-hacker notion surfaces a far more interesting connection between the two characters. Marcus is a vehicle for conveying the excitement and power of hacking to young readers, while Marty is a vessel for older readers who know the stark terror of being hacked, by the sadistic wolves who're coming for all of us:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I44L1pzi4gk
Both Marcus and Marty are explainers, as am I. Some people say that exposition makes for bad narrative. Those people are wrong:
https://maryrobinettekowal.com/journal/my-favorite-bit/my-favorite-bit-cory-doctorow-talks-about-the-bezzle/
"Explaining" makes for great fiction. As Maria Farrell writes in her Crooked Timber review of The Bezzle, the secret sauce of some of the best novels is "information about how things work. Things like locks, rifles, security systems":
https://crookedtimber.org/2024/03/06/the-bezzle/
Where these things are integrated into the story's "reason and urgency," they become "specialist knowledge [that] cuts new paths to move through the world." Hacking, in other words.
This is a theme Paul Di Filippo picked up on in his review of The Bezzle for Locus:
https://locusmag.com/2024/04/paul-di-filippo-reviews-the-bezzle-by-cory-doctorow/
Heinlein was always known—and always came across in his writings—as The Man Who Knew How the World Worked. Doctorow delivers the same sense of putting yourself in the hands of a fellow who has peered behind Oz’s curtain. When he fills you in lucidly about some arcane bit of economics or computer tech or social media scam, you feel, first, that you understand it completely and, second, that you can trust Doctorow’s analysis and insights.
Knowledge is power, and so expository fiction that delivers news you can use is novel that makes you more powerful – powerful enough to resist the hackers who want to hack you.
Henry and I were both friends of Aaron Swartz, and the Little Brother books are closely connected to Aaron, who helped me with Homeland, the second volume, and wrote a great afterword for it (Schneier wrote an afterword for the first book). That book – and Aaron's afterword – has radicalized a gratifying number of principled technologists. I know, because I meet them when I tour, and because they send me emails. I like to think that these hackers are part of Aaron's legacy.
Henry argues that the Hench books are "purpose-designed to inspire a thousand Max Schrems – people who are probably past their teenage years, have some grounding in the relevant professions, and really want to see things change."
(Schrems is the Austrian privacy activist who, as a law student, set in motion the events that led to the passage of the EU's General Data Privacy Regulation:)
https://pluralistic.net/2020/05/15/out-here-everything-hurts/#noyb
Henry points out that William Gibson's Neuromancer doesn't mention the word "internet" – rather, Gibson coined the term cyberspace, which, as Henry says, is "more ‘capitalism’ than ‘computerized information'… If you really want to penetrate the system, you need to really grasp what money is and what it does."
Maria also wrote one of my all-time favorite reviews of Red Team Blues, also for Crooked Timber:
https://crookedtimber.org/2023/05/11/when-crypto-meant-cryptography/
In it, she compares Hench to Dickens' Bleak House, but for the modern tech world:
You put the book down feeling it’s not just a fascinating, enjoyable novel, but a document of how Silicon Valley’s very own 1% live and a teeming, energy-emitting snapshot of a critical moment on Earth.
All my life, I've written to find out what's going on in my own head. It's a remarkably effective technique. But it's only recently that I've come to appreciate that reading what other people write about my writing can reveal things that I can't see.
If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:
https://pluralistic.net/2024/04/17/panama-papers-fanfic/#the-1337est-h4x0rs
Image:
Frédéric Poirot (modified)
https://www.flickr.com/photos/fredarmitage/1057613629 CC BY-SA 2.0
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/
#pluralistic#science fiction#cyberpunk#literary criticism#maria farrell#henry farrell#noir#martin hench#marty hench#red team blues#the bezzle#forensic accountants#hackers#bruce schneier#post-cyberpunk#blair fix
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hi i am EXTREMELY interested in bottom John and would like to know your thoughts on this topic
Thank you so much for the ask, which I hope you will not regret after my answer
From a #soft standpoint, the vulnerability. I love this side of John anyway because I think we don't talk about what a vulnerable mess he is enough. And in that, trust - (johndean lens coming up) - the idea of John getting to a point with Dean where he has enough trust in Dean to let him take that vulnerability for himself. I don't think this would be something that happened all the time, even if it happened once - I was word vomiting at @amiwritesthings recently about my unending belief in John's erectile dysfunction (over 50, too much booze, bad diet, seems inevitable to me) and how from that a dynamic could build where John lets Dean fuck him. The ED itself being a stepping stone to vulnerability - its awkward, and John would undoubtedly feel some humiliation about not being able to keep up with his young, hot, red blooded son, getting angry about it and pushing Dean away. But Dean... pushing back. Looking at Daddy with big heart eyes whether his dick works or not. Skirting around the idea until John thinks he thought of it himself. I picture it being pretty awkward - John not being able to relax enough and Dean being nervous - but very sweet and connective and it makes my heart horny. (And that will be the extent of my soft johndean thoughts for the remainder of the year).
Selfish John rights. I actually wrote a (girl!dean) fic about this once - John asking this of Dean simply because... he wants it. This side of it is linked more with my sub!John headcanon (I stand by it) - but he's not bottoming/subbing out of a desire for connection or a mutually beneficial dynamic. He wants a certain headspace. He wants to zone out and forget and he wants his son (or his daughter) to service top his sad ass and fuck him senseless so he can get there and get off, Dean(na)'s enjoyment be dammed. Just another weird fucking thing John asks of Dean(na) that happens occasionally (and in a very mundane way) but is never spoken of again. I think this is my favourite iteration of bottom!John - John's ultimate fixation on his own needs and Dean(na) doing as told, no matter how messed up, to keep Daddy happy. It's the exact kind of fuckery that drew me to this ship in the first place and it makes me drool.
Bi John rights. The idea of John hooking up with pretty twinks who look suspiciously like Dean? Yep, behind it. The idea of John hooking up with hench masculine types like himself and bending over a car hood for them? Behind it even more.
Lastly, my personal view is that John getting fucked is really really hot. And I'm glad to know I'm not alone 🥲
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Buenas Noches 💤💤
youtube
'Destino', el cortometraje que Disney realizó con Salvador Dalí
Destino es un cortometraje de culto, pero que, probablemente, no suena muy familiar. Esta pieza fílmica estuvo guardada muchos años, pero sus creadores Salvador Dalí y Walt Disney, hablaron de ella hasta sus últimos días. Entonces, ¿por qué casi nadie la conoce?
No es sorpresa que un corto creado por estos dos genios del arte sea incomprensible para muchas personas; sin embargo, la forma en que nació es tan surreal como ambos artistas lo fueron. Se dice que en una fiesta dada por Jack Warner, en Hollywood, cerca de 1945, los dos coincidieron en un saludo y unas copas compartidas. Dalí, con su enigmático estilo empapaba a los invitados de risa, gracias a sus ocurrencias y excentricismo. Por otra parte, Walt Disney y su genialidad o empatía para con los demás, destacaba entre lo invitados.
Se encontraron y entre tragos y charlas incomprensibles, nació una idea esperanzadora, pero poco probable: un cortometraje surrealista con tintes infantiles. De este modo, el español contactó a Armando Domínguez, compositor mexicano, para usar “Destino”, una pieza musical de su autoría que escribía perfectamente la historia que el pintor tenía en mente. Mientras tanto, Disney reclutó al mejor de sus animadores, John Hench para darle imagen a las ideas de su amigo. El cortometraje no era una simple charla de fiesta, era un proyecto prometedor, grande y, sobre todo, único.
Pero no todo fue tan bello como ellos imaginaron. Disney estaba pasando por un momento económico bastante crítico. La Segunda Guerra Mundial iba terminando y la economía no fluía como antes. Dalí, no creía en el dinero —al menos no en esos años— y metía muchas ideas nada fáciles de realizar. Así, con 70 mil dólares gastados, más de 200 storyboards y la canción adaptada, el proyecto se detuvo sin previo aviso. Las diferencias creativas se enfatizaron. Dalí insistía en incluir jugadores de baseball en la trama y Disney ya no le encontraba forma. Dalí quería agregar minutos y Disney no contaba con los recursos. Dalí modificaba la historia y Disney la mantenía.
Fue hasta 2003 que el sobrino de Walt Disney lo desempolvó y lo estrenó como habrían querido los viejos amigos. Lo terminaron algunos animadores del equipo y se rehicieron partes que estaban maltratadas. Cabe señalar, que sí se incluye a los jugadores de baseball y la esencia Disney prevalece en toda la historia.
Es probable que los niños no comprendan del todo el grandioso mensaje de los artistas, pero es sin duda, una pieza de colección —virtual— a la que todo fan del cine, del arte y de la cultura pop, puede acceder.
ടҽԋ𝓬σƝ ടɒɳҽᥙẞ
Os quiero 😘
ℜ𝔬𝔰𝔞🖤
#Buenas Noches 💤💤#hasta mañana#'Destino'#el cortometraje que Disney realizó con Salvador Dalí#Youtube
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So this guy (think saggy from Scooby doo) lets call him Marvin was our like guide so basically me and my friend we were speaking Cantonese together and this guy starts turns around and starts speaking in canon and me and my friends are like oh wow surprise number one. His wife is Chinese so makes sense. APPARENTLY HE LEARNED mandarin JUST FOR HER but didn’t know that she spoke Cantonese so that must be a funny family dinner. (It’s the thought the counts 🙏 put respect on Marvin’s name)
Bro he was like the most hench looking guy. His face looked like shaggy from scooby doo but his body was like John cena and the rock combined. HES A PRO TOE WRESTLER LIKE WHAT? Bro might as well become a full on wrestler but he decided to go for toe wrestling. HE HAS 5 DAUGHTERS AND 3 SONS (poor wife) like god damm bro. He’s been living in Australia for like 10 years.
A TOE WRESTLER??? THAT'S A THING???
that is so Hobie core tho, learning a new language for the spouse but it turns out it's a different language 🤣🤣🤣 his heart's in the right place but my god he should've clarified first 😂
Lmao he sounds like a very interesting guy, also so many kids, how in the world???
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