February 2012
41 posts
“No, you can’t deny women their basic rights and pretend it’s about your “religious freedom.” If you don’t like birth control, don’t use it. Religious freedom doesn’t mean you can force others to live by your own beliefs.”
—President Barack Obama (via ithedivine)
"The Dangers of Gamer Entitlement: Why BioWare's Jennifer Hepler suffered a vicious verbal attack at the hands of gamers this week." →
gamespot.com
“This week, a small subset of the gaming community humiliated, defiled, and verbally attacked a female BioWare employee for the suggestion that video games should place more importance on narrative.
The attack on Jennifer Hepler, which continues with a consistent, unrelenting, and deep-set conviction not unlike religious fervor, points to an escalating manifestation of gamer entitlement, the idea that gamers have the right to do and say without suffering the consequences of their actions”…(Follow link for the whole article.)
here is the transcript i took down myself at the event, fwiw (it's paraphrased a bit because obviously i couldn't write while he and i were speaking)
- Me: Hi Mr. Martin; I really love -- wow, this mic is loud -- I really love these books, so thank you so much for this opportunity. One of the things I've enjoyed most about the series is the way that the viewpoints keep expanding. [GRRM nods.] Like, in Feast I really appreciated the Dornish characters, because it was interesting to get another racial perspective on the events -- [George nods again, other fans start yowling about spoilers] -- I'm not spoiling anything! (sheepishly, muttered) It's six years old, for god's sake. [some laughter at that] Anyway, um. So I am gay [I get a 'woo!' here], if you couldn't tell by my voice [laughter from the crowd] and I just... ugh, people are gonna yell at me! I'm trying to figure out a way to say this without spoiling, um. Okay, so one of the new POVs, I got the sense that he was gay? And I was wondering if I am crazy and reading into that or if like, that thing was actually a thing. That was happening. [crowd laughter]
- GRRM: You mean in Feast?
- Me: No, I mean in the new one.
- GRRM: Oh in the new one!
- Me: Yeah, I finished! Um. I'm talking about "The Lost Lord." Sorry, sorry! Trying not to spoil anything, ugh. [laughter]
- GRRM: If you are talking about what I think you're talking about, then you're right. [applause]
- Me: Awesome! Well thank you for doing that, because it's something that's important to a lot of people.
- GRRM: There have been gay characters before, of course.
- Me: Yeah, but I mean, a perspective character.
- GRRM: I try to be a little subtle with these things, like with Renly and Loras, I mostly hinted around it. I mean -- I didn't think they were subtle hints! [raucous laughter at this] HBO of course took it to another, more overt level, which was good, but a lot of fans were upset about that, which is a curious thing. The thing is that the sexual scenes, gay or heterosexual, are what I always get the most complaints about. I think that has to do with the Puritanical attitude toward sex here in America. [applause] Because I will always get a ton of letters angry at me over any given sex scene, and I say 'I have a vivid description in here of an axe entering a face, and you don't care about that. But the second I talk about a penis entering a vagina, all hell breaks loose.'
- [crowd laughter]
- GRRM: I think it's important to represent the full rainbow of humanity, whether it's male or female, gay or straight, characters of color, et cetera. And with those characters who are part of those [marginalized] groups, I always try to have different types of people within those categories -- some nice, some mean, some good, some bad -- because at the end of the day I believe what we all are, fundamentally, is human. [thunderous applause at that]
Reading Hurts
That moment when you finish a book, look around, and realize that everyone is just carrying on with their lives as though you didn’t just experience emotional trauma at the hands of a paperback.
Waking up and checking your Tumblr like its the morning paper
