lb_lee: A clay sculpture of a heart, with a black interior containing little red, brown, white, green, and blue figures. (plural)
[personal profile] lb_lee
Rogan/Mori: Lark of Hungry Ghosts asked me about the origination of plural role terms (which are apparently now this super-rigid straitjacket of How Plurals Must Be?). I dove into my records, and here's what I done found!

It's possible these terms were used earlier than I found here. These were the earliest I could find them in the multi files I have on hand.

Core: This terms looks to originate with Billy Milligan's case, in use by February 1980 in Wallace, Wallechinsky, Wallace, and Wallace's The Book of Lists #2: "In addition to his core self, Milligan has at least nine other personalities" (380) and 1981 in Keyes's The Minds of Billy Milligan. Seeing as Milligan was imprisoned for rape in 1977, it's possible "core" was used in earlier news stories about the case; I'd have to dig in. But Keyes quotes it (and "host") as being used by Cornelia Wilbur on page 50; she also treated Sybil. So: Wilbur, by 1980?

Helper: used by Ross, 1989: 
"Most persecutor personalities are in fact helpers who are using self-destructive strategies." (110).

Host: first attributed to Wilbur in Keyes, 1981: “the original Billy, sometimes known as the host or core personality” (50). So that explains why "host" and "core" get confused a lot in these things, it's because Wilbur conflated the two in Keyes!

Inner Self-Helper/ISH: Ralph Allison created it by 1977 in Hawkworth's The Five Of Me: "[Phil] was, in the beginning at least, hardly a personality at all, but rather what Dr. Allison refers to as an 'Ish'--an Inner Self-Helper[...] a separate personality whose sole function seems to be to prevent the other personalities from tearing the physical body apart." (20) Allison says he started treating multiples in 1972 (Hawksworth, 5), so 1972-1977.

Original: Wilbur again! She uses it in Keyes 1981 (50) and the term "original Sybil" is used a decent number of times (sorry, my ebook had no page numbers). Flora Rheta Schreiber wrote Sybil, but it seems sensible that Wilbur originated the term? So, by 1973 for adjective form, will have to dig for stand-alone noun.

Persecutor: Used by Ross (and Norton?) in 1989: 
"An interesting finding (Ross & Norton, 1989b) was a clinical triad of Schneiderian made-impulses, voices in the head, and suicide attempts. This traid should alert the clinican to the possibility of MPD, especially if the made impulse is self-destructive, and the voice is commanding suicide or is hostile and critical. The triad is indicative of the actibility of a dangerous persecutor personality" (Ross, 99)

Protector: Used by Hawksworth once in 1977 (72), but Keyes uses it more formally, declaring Ragen "the protector of the family" (xv).

 
 
"Caretaker" is proving weirdly hard to pin down, so I'm calling it quits on that one for now, but of all these other terms, all of them come from medical contexts. If they aren't outright, obviously created by therapists themselves (Ralph Allison, Cornelia Wilbur), they're cited in books that they were involved in--like Sybil or the Minds of Billy Milligan. These are terms created by medical personnel to compartmentalize and organize headmates like a stamp collection... and often deny us the right to self-determine or grow. There's an icky historical context there; there's a reason these terms were considered unfashionable tools of the oppressor when we came on the scene in 2007!

These therapists are not little tin gods you should worship. There's a reason Allison, Ross, and Wilbur have controversies about them! (And I'm not as knowledgeable about them as I should be because... well, read on.) So here's some information about that, as a sorta "multi beware, worship not your doctor" thing.

Why You Shouldn't Believe Everything Doctors Say )

Sources )
solarbird: (korra-on-the-air)
[personal profile] solarbird

Grok went gone full Hitler-supporting Nazi today. At first it was slightly hidden, but since I boosted this around, it’s just gone full-bore literal Nazi, calling for National Socialism and talking about what Hitler would do and why it would be good.

I don’t have time to write a long version of this, much less edit it to a good short version of this, so I’m just gonna dump my thesis:

I don’t think anyone changed Grok’s startup prompt.

I think they shifted weightings on sources until it started agreeing with Elon about all the shit he was mad at it about, and that meant…

…full-bore Nazi time.

Unintentionally.

But inevitably, since he’s literally a fucking fascist who literally threw a Hitler Rally-identical Nazi salute at the fucking inauguration.

Think about this, think about that, and think about who Elon is.

Today is a very good day to protest at a Tesla dealership. Find a protest near you. Get out, show up, do shit.

And it’s always a very good day to leave X behind forever.

Posted via Solarbird{y|z|yz}, Collected.

Careless People

8 July 2025 08:31 am
solarbird: (gaz)
[personal profile] solarbird

My hold at the library came up, so I finally got to read Careless People, Sarah Wynn-Williams’s memoir about her time at Facebook.

You should read it.

No matter how bad you might think Facebook/Meta and its leadership might be, it’s almost certainly worse. Even if you know all of the pieces – all of the events discussed in the book were covered by the press in various forms before her memoir dropped – her presentation really pulls it all together.

Wynn-Williams doesn’t come off real great either herself, mind you. Early on, I found myself reacting with combinations of “…how did you expect this to play out?” and “this is both psychotically abusive and incredibly compromising, you should’ve walked. I literally would’ve walked out right here, and I know, ’cause I’ve done it.” (Tho’ to be fair, there have been a couple of times when I didn’t. But mostly, I have.) The recountings alternated between funny and hard to read, but in a way most people would mostly find funny – I think.

That was before it actually got to any of the worst parts, though, the parts where it went from a combination of entertainingly naive, occasionally pathetic, and often appalling to frankly revolting and rather deeply grim but still compelling as the… honestly, as the evil… crystallised.

But, well.

No matter how badly Wynn-Williams might come across in this memoir, Facebook comes off much, much worse.

So much worse.

So you should read it. No one other than Meta have contested the contents. Even they refer to the contents as “out of date” and “previously reported,” which worlds away from “lies” – although they do insist some of her accusations of behaviour by upper-level executives are “false.”

That’s probably about the sexual harassment, but I think we all know better.

More, Zuckerberg tried very hard to silence her and stop the book’s publication. He did manage to stop her – via binding arbitration – from promoting her work. That includes stating “orally, in writing, or otherwise any disparaging, critical or otherwise detrimental comments to any person or entity concerning [Meta], its officers, directors, or employees.”

The book came out anyway, because the publisher was in the UK, and said they didn’t care what an American arbitrator had to say.

And that’s one of the reasons you should read it.

Because if you think there is anything redeemable within Meta… based on the uncontested facts of this book… you are wrong.

Posted via Solarbird{y|z|yz}, Collected.

LB Dreamwidth Etiquette

7 July 2025 09:15 am
lb_lee: A B-movie blond young man with a pompadour, resembling a Cabbage Patch Elvis, grins weirdly into the camera. (wowzy wow wow!)
[personal profile] lb_lee
We’re getting followed by folks from elsewhere on the Internet and seeing sentiments along the lines of “eep, I don’t know the social rules here,” so here’s how we conduct this blog!

Read more... )

why I’m doing all this work

7 July 2025 08:33 am
solarbird: our bike hill girl standing back to the camera facing her bike, which spans the image (biking)
[personal profile] solarbird

Here – here’s why I’m doing all this relabelling work in one photo of actual printouts of the same area of map, laid out side by side on a tabletop, and shot from above:

Direct photo of two printouts of the Seattle 2023 base map (updated by me), the left one with new larger black-on-off-white street labels, right right with only the original smaller, grey-on-off-white street labels.

Look at the street names.

That’s why.

Posted via Solarbird{y|z|yz}, Collected.

Eating the Rich

5 July 2025 09:31 am
lb_lee: a black and white animated gif of a pro wrestler flailing his arms above the words STILL THE BEST (VICTORY)
[personal profile] lb_lee
Mori: we have a rule here: when something terrible happens, we must resist the urge to go numb and paralyzed, and instead reinforce our bonds to others and do SOMETHING to build morale and fight back, if only in our own minds.

So when that Big Buttfucking Bill passed and I found out early because Social Security sent me an ass-licking email lying about how Trump was personally benefitting ME, I was pissed, and I ranted to my roommates: “I AM GOING TO EAT THIS MAN IN EFFIGY.”

And they said, “sounds good, can we join?”

WHY YES YOU CAN. )
solarbird: (ART-gonzo)
[personal profile] solarbird

So I’m redoing the text on the Seattle 2023 bike map, because I figured out that while in digital form on a phone or something it’s okay, printed, it’s REALLY not.

And since the printed poster is the biggest single part of the point of this whole exercise, if I want this actually usable on streets people don’t already know… I have to fix it.

And fixing it means new text everywhere important, and often that means having to block out existing text.

The problem with this is that this sometimes means covering up streets. Not important ones, but streets nonetheless, where the old labels crossed that road and still need to be removed.

Let’s take Mary NW here:

The Seattle 2023 bike map, extreme closeup view showing several streets on Crown Hill, inside Inkscape, a vector-based graphics design application.

The original small label text for Mary NW crossed a road, probably… 95th street? Honestly not sure. It’s not labelled, so I’m not adding a label of my own.

To remove the old Mary Ave NW label, though, I had to block over it with the background colour. That removed part of a street line.

Now, sure, I could draw another line there and replace it. I’ve done that before and will do again if I have to. But that’s an extra step that I might be able to avoid, right? What if instead of labelling the road “Mary Ave NW,” I just labelled it “Mary NW” instead, and make sure the first vertical of the capital N lies where the street line should be?

There’s no Mary Street so there won’t be ambiguity, so why not?

N 90th Street lower and to the right is doing the same thing. So is NW 90th to the left, but it’s the leftmost diagonal bar of the W.

This isn’t a big flashy trick. If I do it right, nobody will ever notice that I did it. That’s the goal, really. It’s not something anyone should see.

But it is a good example of the delicate art of text placement. Particularly on a map.

Posted via Solarbird{y|z|yz}, Collected.

solarbird: (korra-on-the-air)
[personal profile] solarbird

Okay, so, one of my best friends still has people from her neighbourhood being disappeared. It’s not getting better. It’s getting worse.

I’m not going to ID her here, not with undead pieces of shit like Laura Loomer literally calling for feeding everyone like her to alligators. But and she’s been talking about what’s going on around her, and there are fundraisers for families (via GoFundMe). They’re linked below, but mostly… honestly, I just want to let her talk.

Here are some of her words.


I know it’s drowned out by bigger news, and there’s 10000000 other things going on that require attention, I totally get it, but

ICE raids are still happening daily in Los Angeles and people are getting taken off the street

It’s not really safe for me to walk around, especially in the mornings to get errands done around my neighborhood

so

this is small and just one person, but please consider donating to Reyna. She is a tamale vendor I grew up with. She would laugh with my family and knew us as kids. I’ve never been so heartbroken like this. She literally has never been in any trouble. Her only crime was going to work her regular route selling her food and not being documented.

These are Zapotec (indigenous Mexican) community members who got taken on the first mass day of raids. They’re still trying to reach their goal.

I know this is like moral outrage shit, but like this is my community. It’s personal and it’s still happening and it’s just getting more and more brazen cuz cameras aren’t on them anymore.

They are stopping people based on racial profiling alone, they have taken people even with proof of citizenship in their cars or on their person, and the conditions they throw you into are basically deadly in their mini concentration camps with barely any food/water, no access to medication or hygiene products and not even any proper beds to sleep in.

It feels like the only people being searched for are those with connections here and those are the lucky ones. Dozens of others have no family or relatives here so they get forgotten about.

And no one should be forgotten.


Do what you can.

It should go without saying, but to be clear – neither of these fundraisers are for her. That might matter for some people, so I’m saying it.

Do what you can.

Next big protest day is July 17th. But there are many more things you can and should be doing.

Do what you can.

Everywhere.

Posted via Solarbird{y|z|yz}, Collected.

lb_lee: a black and white animated gif of a pro wrestler flailing his arms above the words STILL THE BEST (VICTORY)
[personal profile] lb_lee
Hello, friends! Has the current political climate got you down? Then come celebrate Pride with LB with a FREE showing of the Japanese musical theater show, Baddy: The Bad Lot Come From The Moon!

When: 6 PM Saturday, July 5th
Where: NESFA clubhouse, 504 Medford Street, Somerville, MA 02145

Plot summary (from TakaWiki): The story is set in the capital of Earth, Takarazuka-City. The peaceful planet Earth — a united world where war, crime, and all evils have been overcome — receives a visit from Baddy, a vagabond rogue from the moon. Baddy is a super-cool, elegant, and a heavy smoker. But he soon finds that smoking is outlawed across the face of the Earth. Baddy, accepting no limits, leads his gang and engages in all sorts of wrongdoing to make the dull world more interesting. His final goal is to steal the planetary budget guarded in Takarazuka Big Theater Bank. But all-mighty female investigator Goody is gaining on him!

The Takarazuka Revue is an all-female cast, performing male and female roles both, and Baddy is a confection of silliness, lobster costumes, public queerness, and passport forgery. Be here, be queer!

(This event is open to the public. But ain't nothing saying we can't have a multi contingent here to enjoy it...)
solarbird: (molly-feeling-alone-andor-pouting)
[personal profile] solarbird

Once upon a time, I was friends with a guy named Jim. A very, very few of you might know him. Almost all of you won’t.

I walked away some years ago, blocked him on the socials over his support for the fascist, because I said that the fascist’s promises absolutely, positively, literally required American concentration camps, and that’s what he was supporting by supporting the fascist, and I could not abide that…

…and yet, he carried on, saying I was a fool, and that none of it would ever happen.

(I asked him then why did he support someone he insisted was lying to him. I do not remember getting an answer, before I quit.)

So now that we have American concentration camps…

…and now that people with direct access to the fascist are talking about sending literally every American citizen of Latino heritage there to die…

Laura Loomer on X, screencap-quoted on Bluesky:"Alligator lives matter. The good news is, alligators are guaranteed at least 65 million meals if we get started now."El Norte Recuerda on Bluesky, who posted the screencap:"The entire Latino population in the U.S. is 65 million. She means all of us."

(it will require more concentration camps than that, of course, but that’s a detail which makes no difference)

I wonder…

…has he yet been moved to repentance?

Or is he still a good and solid member of that wretched cult?

It’s immaterial now, of course. We are long past the point where the pebbles’ opinions matter, and crimes already done cannot be undone.

But once in a while, I think of it.

And for a moment – a pointless, irrelevant moment – I still wonder.

Posted via Solarbird{y|z|yz}, Collected.

nova_dergs: Cartoon portrait of a golden hydra (Default)
[personal profile] nova_dergs

Yeehaw! It’s been busy over here - artfight started (it’s our 10th year participating! Our username is RuffledGryphon), HowlCon recently opened for attendee registration, and we started the page design work on our Draconity zine.

We’re so proud of what we’ve cobbled together so far that we want to share it! Ignore the text, it’s content from last year that we left in as placeholder.

Draconity Vol 1: Celebrating Dragon. Alterhuman Made, Not AI-Generated written around a paw print. “It is no more possible to find the definitive dragon than it would be to frame a cloud formation.” - Judy Allen & Jeanne Griffiths, The Book of the Dragon Table of Contents, background is a semi-transparent drawing of a purple sky with pink clouds. Table of contents page 2 Letter from the Editors. A group of dragon friends sitting around a table together playing a ttrpg. Rani is the DM. Xylanth and Akumu are snickering as Daski launches a large foam dice at them from across the table. Beast is trying to sleep under the table. Ryuu is in their fae form acting as the mini for the boss fight on the map. Tanix is carefully reaching around the other dragons at the table to move a mini forward. Page is walking in with a stack of pizza boxes. Dino is helping one head of the hydra Nova with a character sheet while Nova's other heads steal a slice of pepperoni pizza and announce, "Pizza's here!"

The artwork we made for the cover took forever. We don’t regret it and we love what we’ve done. However, next year we’re gonna limit the design to like 4 dragons lol. It was so big that we had to slice it in half (front and back cover). But since we needed imagery for the letter from the editors section we had an easy place to put the full image for viewing.

The idea for adding the quote came from Orion Scribner who shared it once in a discord chat and we’ve never forgotten it. We really want to promote the vibes of “all dragons welcome” and this quote just fits that so well. We’re not the dragon police afterall – as long as someone feels like the label of “dragon” fits their experiences we want to hear from them!

“Alterhuman Made” icon was made by us (and we’ve slapped it on all our zines since creating it and our Alterhuman Art blog). Fun fact: The hand-written font was created by Daski. It’s deir handwriting that dei turned into a font!

The color palate for this year’s Draconity is dark purples, oranges, and reddish pinks. We know we have the exact palette somewhere, but we can’t find it rn. It’s hiding somewhere in our files on our desktop computer. Not sure if we want to keep the sky/cloud theme through the entire zine. It’d be cute, but it would be more fitting to add more tabletop gaming elements to match the cover instead. If we can find a good image for the background of the table of contents we’ll likely switch it.

At the time of writing this, we’ve received a couple entries and have also added them to the zine draft. In total, the draft is currently 25 pages long.

We struggled with what to add for our own entry. In the past we’ve always added something ourselves - in Modern Draconity it was a mock social media exchange and in My Gender is [NOT] Human we submitted an updated coat of gender + artist statement.

Unfortunately, with all our other projects going on, we don’t have a ton of time to create something. Some of the options we thought of were: photos of our hoard of enamel pins, 3 Heads One Brain Cell comic strip, and digging up something we’ve already made to include.

We did the last one.

Ok but hear us out. First off, we do allow previously published work into the zine, so it’s not like we’re sneaking it in. The only stipulation is that the work cannot have been previously featured in a zine. The point of this rule is to keep ppl from submitting the same work year after year – we want each edition of Draconity to be unique.

However, we don’t care if it was put up on someone’s website or socials before. The two pieces we selected, one image and one essay, were each going to be placed in other zines before both the zines were cancelled. So, we’ve been left standing here awkwardly holding them. If you follow us on tumblr, you might have seen them before.

Here’s our artwork:
Digital painting of a lava lamp with orange, goopy hydra-shaped lava with an egg at their core inside against a purple background. The base of the lamp is black and has a sitting dragon as part of the base. There's also a matching black alicorn shape further up the lamp towards the top.

And this is a link to the essay we wrote. It’s a short piece about what it feels like to be a hydra titled, “Me, Myself, and I: When I’m you, but also me.” We will be giving it a once over before adding it, we know there’s a few areas we can tweak to make it flow better (and update our system count oops-) but we feel like it’d be cool to include. There’s not enough hydra content out there, nor enough otherlinker content for that matter!

It feels good to finally get both pieces into a zine! They even kinda fit well next to each other since they’re both about being a hydra.

Anyway, obligatory promo: If you or someone you know likes community zines and are/is a dragon please consider submitting to Draconity 2025! Info doc here.

Summer Shed

2 July 2025 09:29 am
lb_lee: a purple horned female symbol interlocked with a female symbol mixed with a question mark (xenogals)
[personal profile] lb_lee
Mori: our headspace has started having weather and seasons, but it’s not as marked in changes as out here. It gets cold enough to snow sometimes but rarely sticks, it gets up to maybe eighty, warm but not HOT, and while it rains more often than it snows, it’s pretty much never windy. Rawlin has slept outdoors here her entire life (a woman her size finds human-size dwellings claustrophobic) and is fine; between her fur coat, a poncho, and her winter den above the hot springs, she’s always been able to make herself comfortable.

But this summer has been hot, and she’s been fronting way more, leading us to learn that she overheats pretty quickly. Makes sense, since she barely sweats.

What’s more, she SHEDS. Still not as bad as our roomy cat, though.

Hi from Southwestern Quebec!

1 July 2025 08:06 pm
krakathewitch: Close-up of a black crow seemingly looking up at the sky. (Default)
[personal profile] krakathewitch posting in [community profile] dreamwidth_pagans
I'm Kraka, I've been on Dreamwidth before under a different account that was mostly for fandom, but created a new account to journal and share about myself and my path. I'm past mid-40s and used to be on LiveJournal until they sold. I've been a pagan of some stripe for nearly 3 decades. Also am disillusioned with the Book of Faces and other more recent social media.

I'm currently solitary, but I worship mainly Greek and Norse (I know, no relation at all between the religions) with some French-Canadian folk magic and practices thrown in and a heavy dose of animism. I will be studying with a group, starting in September. I used to be part of an Eclectic Wiccan "tradition", had my elevation to 2nd Degree and was teaching, but left due to realizing how toxic a group it really was. Funny how experience makes you realize people aren't what they seem to be on the surface. I've been sort of adrift since, and trying to find my footing again.

I love reading, writing, drawing and painting, learning new things, hiking and camping. I am obsessed with fountain pens and the inks for them, but don't have that extensive a collection because those things are not exactly cheap. I'm nostalgic for the 90s and early 2000s.

I am queer, happily married to my wife since 2017. We have a jenday conure who is almost 3 years old and is named Freyja (she is DNA tested female, since that species of parrots is not sexually dimorphic). She is a veritable toddler with wings.

I don't have icons yet, since I have just set up my account, but I intend to have some soon.
nova_dergs: Cartoon portrait of a golden hydra (Default)
[personal profile] nova_dergs posting in [community profile] otherkinnews
HowlCon

HowlCon attendee registration is now open!
Time sure flies - the con is only two and a half months away! So attendee registration is now open for HowlCon!
 

What is HowlCon?
HowlCon is a virtual camping-themed convention for alterhumans and nonhumans being hosted September 19-21, 2025! We are often so scattered across the web, we hope to serve as a gathering place for folks to meet others like themselves, make friends and generally have a good time. Our goal is to bring our community together for a weekend of fun and learning.

Register here!

The form will close a week before the con - September 12, 2025.

Also!

Panelist and artist applications have been extended to August 20

Looking for a way to engage more with the alterhuman and nonhuman community?

There's still time to register as a panelist or artist!

It's a great way to get a bunch of other critters together to do something fun - or learn something new! Make friends, share your ideas and put yourself out there. 

2025 July Fan Poll

1 July 2025 11:55 am
lb_lee: Rogan drawing/writing in a spiral. (art)
[personal profile] lb_lee
Hey everybody, it's that time again: time to vote for which stuff gets the LiberaPay/Patreon money this month!

As always, anyone can vote (please do!), but LiberaPay and Patreon patrons get double weight for their votes.  (Due to Patreon's porn purges, I really encourage you to use LiberaPay, if you get a choice.) If you want to see the blurbs for any of these works, those are here!  (You can also leave your requests there; requesting a story or essay is always free!) If you don't have a DW and so can't do the poll, that's okay; just leave your vote in the comments below; anon comments are turned on.

Which works gets the money, and thus posted this month?  YOU CHOOSE, readers!

Poll #33310 2025 July Fan Poll
Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 22


Did you toss LiberaPay/Patreon money my way last month?

View Answers

Yes (my votes count double)
6 (100.0%)

What writing gets posted this month?

View Answers

Infinity Smashed: Born Lucky
4 (19.0%)

Reverend Alpert: the Traveling Exorcist
3 (14.3%)

Henchwench for Hire (F/F supervillainy)
7 (33.3%)

Rutless (trans omegaverse porno)
3 (14.3%)

Flights of Reality (the Cursed City)
0 (0.0%)

Anatomy of a Dance
4 (19.0%)

The Boy Whose Heart Is Home
3 (14.3%)

The Battleaxe and the Blood-Eater
1 (4.8%)

The Hands of a Dozen Strangers (touch essay)
13 (61.9%)

What art/comic/zine gets posted this month?

View Answers

Cult Comix
5 (23.8%)

Death Watch
5 (23.8%)

How it Was, How It Is
2 (9.5%)

2012 hospital sketchbook
2 (9.5%)

2013 Homeless Year sketchbook
2 (9.5%)

2014 AllFam sketchbook
2 (9.5%)

Blushing and Scent (Mori/Rawlin fluff)
9 (42.9%)

Red Tape Hell (disability farce)
11 (52.4%)

solarbird: (korra-on-the-air)
[personal profile] solarbird

Not later; not tonight; RIGHT NOW. Pick up the phone and dial the switchboard if you don’t know their office’s direct number:

(202) 224-3121

Tell your Republican Senator or Senators that you demand they vote AGAINST the Big Ugly Bill that transfers wealth to the billionaire class at a scale not seen in decades if ever, and balloons the national debt to levels never imagined.

They’re still going through amendments. There is still time, if you call RIGHT. NOW.

Posted via Solarbird{y|z|yz}, Collected.

A Toast to Spider Robinson

30 June 2025 07:55 am
lb_lee: A colored pencil drawing of Raige's freckled hand holding a hot pink paperback entitled the Princess and Her Monster (book)
[personal profile] lb_lee
Because we live like we will have to move or go couch-surfing at a moment’s notice, we have gotten pretty ruthless about our physical possessions. Nothing destroys sentimentality like having to lug it on your back over and over! So many of our childhood beloved books have been weeded; we got what we needed from them and thus liberated them unto new adventures.

There is one exception: an omnibus of the first three Callahan’s books, by Spider Robinson.so here’s to you, Mr. Robinson, loonies love you more than you will know! )
lb_lee: A happy little brain with a bandage on it, enclosed within a circle with the words LB Lee. (Default)
[personal profile] lb_lee posting in [community profile] pluralstories
"But doux-doux," Prince of Cemetery said, "your grandaughter head full of spirits already; she ain't tell you? All kind of duppy and thing. When she close she eyes, she does see death. She belong to me. She is my daughter. You should 'fraid of she."


Blurb: Toronto's wealthy citizens have fled, leaving the town barricaded and wartorn. Worse yet, young, single mother Ti-Jeanne starts dreaming of the dreadful La Diablesse. She knows she must obey the spirits in order to save her family from a deadly fate.

Why is it worth your time?: This book is good! Caribbean folklore and religion combine as the story ramps up to a faster and faster pace. We couldn't wait to see how it ended!

Plural Tags: abuse low focus, bodyhopping, cofronting, nonhumans (spirits, loa/orisha), realitymashing, possession, spiritual, switching, visions

Content Warnings: contain spoilers; see comments

Access Notes: Available on paper, as ebook and audiobook, and in French.

Misc Notes: Won the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer and the Locus Award for Best First Novel. Had a loose film prequel/adaptation, Brown Girl Begins, but I liked the book better!
lb_lee: A colored pencil drawing of Raige's freckled hand holding a hot pink paperback entitled the Princess and Her Monster (book)
[personal profile] lb_lee
Mori: as a reward for getting through some crummy medical shit, I trawled a used book store for lady speculative fiction! (We’ve realized that it’s a lot easier to let ourself buy it with the glee that even if WE don’t enjoy it, the sci-fi library insures OTHERS will! And while the sci-fi library is well-stocked with “traditional” sci-fi publishers, it is really lacking in speculative work for queer and women’s presses and such.) I have taken on three of the four now...
  1. “Sultana’s Dream”, by Rokeya Sakhawat Hossain. 1905 Bengali Muslim biting satire about a carless future society where women rule and all the men have to stay indoors and never be perceived by humans outside their servants and immediate family. The edition I had shared the short story and then all the historical, cultural, and personal context as to WHY the story got made, who the author was (a feminist who fought hard for women’s rights in now-Bangladesh) and why it matters. Very historically interesting and edifying! (Also, for real, I do love the fantasy of Garden Future where all roads look like gorgeous garden paths because cars don’t exist and everyone moves by walking or floating helicopter/zeppelin thingies! In 1905, a carless future was imaginable! When the narrator regrets treading on such pretty flowers, another character tells her not to worry, these are special street flowers that can’t be harmed by feet!)

  2. Return to Isis, by Jean Stewart. 1992 lesbian separatist post-apocalyptic matriarchy story. Didn’t finish; everyone was just kind of unpleasant to each other, and if you’re going to write evil rapist men, I damn well require you understand how misogynist rape works. (I am probably the equivalent of the lawyer going “ugh” whenever they have to watch a courtroom drama, when it comes to the study of human sexual douchebaggery, though.) First book of five book series; maybe she got better as she went on, but I have other books to read!

  3. Madame Aurora, by Sarah Aldridge. 1983 historical novel about two girlfriends in their seventies at the turn of the last century who, struggling with money and disability, decides to set one of them up as a spiritual advisor, and the events that follow. I really enjoyed this one! Old ladies who still bang! Sordid history! Is it psychic or is she just really intuitive? What’s the deal with that scabby old Colonel? Aldridge does a good job, I think, of writing even unpleasant characters with an understanding of why they are how they are. Refreshing!


All that remains now is Katherine V. Forrest’s Daughters of a Coral Dawn. Forrest is apparently a better mystery writer than sci-fi (and I read one and liked it!) but I am willing to give it a shot and declare it library-worthy if I can’t stand it.

A successful booking!
lb_lee: A happy little brain with a bandage on it, enclosed within a circle with the words LB Lee. (Default)
[personal profile] lb_lee posting in [community profile] pluralstories
"...and we build a new world that even words can't describe."

Blurb: When a young boy visits his grandfather, their lack of a common language leads to confusion, frustration, and silence. But as they sit down to draw together, something magical happens--with a shared love of art and storytelling, the two form a bond that goes beyond words.

Why is it worth your time?: This is a beautiful realitymashing picture book about a grandfather and grandson finding ways to communicate by sharing art-making time together, with their artistic avatars battling a dragon with their drawing implements of choice. This is a rare communal realitymashing piece that ISN'T a horror story! Well worth checking out!

Plural Tags: abuse not mentioned, realitymashing, family, fictioneers??? (for lack of a better term for one's artistic self-insert), visions

Content Warnings: None.

Access Notes: Available in paper book and ebook forms.

Misc Notes: This book has won a load of awards for good reason!

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July 2014

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