What is Feminism? Why Do We Need it? and Other Big Questions
Louise Spilsbury and Bea Appleby
Book
What is feminism? Why do we need it? Where does it come from? Why does it exist? The word 'feminism'...
Athens from 1920 to 1940: A True and Just Account of How History Was Enveloped by a Modern City and the Place Became an Event
Book
During the short interwar period of the early 20th century, Athens entered into a process of...
Heather Cranmer (2721 KP) created a post
Jan 12, 2021
All the Ways We Said Goodbye
Karen White, Beatriz Williams and Lauren Willig
8.0
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The heiress . . . The Resistance fighter . . . The widow . . . Three women whose fates are joined...
Win (The Atlantis Grail #3)
10.0
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The Games are Forever! It’s one thing to Qualify and Compete… Now she must Win. Gwen...
Sci-fi Space Adventure Fiction Romance The Atlantis Grail
Win (The Atlantis Grail Book 3)
9.5
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The Games are Forever! It’s one thing to Qualify and Compete… Now she must Win. Gwen...
Fiction Sci-fi Science Fiction Romance YA Young Adult
Suswatibasu (1701 KP) rated Her Body and Other Parties: Stories in Books
Nov 22, 2017 (Updated Nov 22, 2017)
Carmen Maria Machado mingles fabulism, body horror, erotica and 'feminist' commentary in her debut novel. The thrust of this book is perhaps best encapsulated by the second story in the book, 'Inventory'. It starts with the narrator cataloguing everyone she's slept with, taking on that now-near-compulsory clinical tone, that Muumuu House type of thing of talking endlessly about sex but doing so in an affectless style that doesn't communicate any passion or joy or pleasure. It suddenly becomes more interesting when a hidden narrative emerges: as the narrator progresses through her later conquests, she talks of a pervasive virus, family members lost, a quarantine zone, evacuations and refugees. It's an unexpected approach to the dystopian theme and a pleasing subversion of first impressions, yet the story as a whole remains unsatisfying.
Among the weaker stories is 'Especially Heinous', which reimagines plot summaries of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit episodes through a surrealist lens, playing on the ubiquity of violence against women in such shows. Except it was far too long, going through an entire seven series, becoming increasingly bizarre.
My favourite was 'The Resident'. While the subject matter is slightly more staid than some of the others – presumably semi-autobiographical in its portrait of a writer unravelling during a retreat – it's a relief that it isn't told at a cold, impersonal remove. It actually has heart and a personality, unlike so many of the others, and contains one of the few truly rousing scenes in the book, when the narrator lashes out at a patronising acquaintance and defends her right to write about 'crazy' heroines and madwomen in attics.
Nevertheless, there's something I find so depressing about the kind of writing that's ostensibly feminist but seems to focus incessantly on the negatives of being a woman. In fiction such as this, the approach is often paired with candid-yet-detached writing about sex that I also find off-putting (not to mention extremely unsexy). The stories are well-crafted and (when they don't feel workshopped to death) spark with strong ideas and entertaining metafictional touches, but Her Body and Other Parties didn't work for me the way I hoped it would.
TacoDave (3526 KP) rated Captain Marvel (2019) in Movies
Apr 10, 2019 (Updated Apr 10, 2019)
What can I say that hasn't already been said? It's a serviceable Marvel movie. It ranks up there with Iron Man 2 and Thor: The Dark World as well-made, enjoyable, yet forgettable superhero fare. At the end I realized it doesn't really explain anything and doesn't really amount to much except a mouthpiece for feminists raging against toxic masculinity and a cry to help refugees, and that's disappointing.
What are Captain Marvel's powers? It never really explains. She shoots energy beams. She learns to fly, somehow. And apparently she can breathe in space (?). But how or why or what the limits of her powers are is never discussed.
Neither are weaknesses. Superman has kryptonite. Batman and Iron Man are humans using technology to help them, but can be killed. Even Vision died without his infinity stone. But apparently Captain Marvel is just such a kick-ass woman that she can't be hurt. The film seems to suggest that her only weakness is her lack of self-empowerment.
And while I don't mind a movie having a political bent, everything in this movie that is trying to promote a social message is too on-the-nose, too in-your-face to work. "I'm Just a Girl" plays while she beats people up. A man says she should smile. A pilot says "You know why it's called the COCKpit, right?" Ninety percent of the music features a female singer (the only one I noticed that didn't was Nirvana's "Come As You Are"). It's just ... too much. Or too blatant. It kept pulling me out of the movie, as if the director(s) were seated next to me, poking me in the arm, saying "See what we did there? Subtext!"
One of the aliens even refers to earth as a sh!t-hole, a clear, obvious reference to Donald Trump.
So that's Captain Marvel. 10% muddled action, 30% jokes (mostly funny), 5% story, and 55% political message. Oh, and 127% GURL POWER.
I enjoyed it as a prelude to Avengers: Endgame, but I don't think I'll ever watch it again.
VSee Messenger
Business and Social Networking
App
VSee gives you free 4-way group video calls, screen sharing and instant messaging, with a clean and...
Virtual Villagers 4 Lite
Games and Entertainment
App
Virtual Villagers: The Tree of Life is the fourth chapter in the award-winning Virtual Villagers...