The books are unreadable trash. Can attest that Martin is so bad at writing sex that it caused me to genuinely, seriously wonder whether he’d ever even seen a naked human woman, let alone experienced sex of any form. I genuinely do not understand how any of that got published. The power of being a white dude, I guess. 

Still torn as to fell asleep vs. paid off. I can’t decide if it matters in the end. 

Yeah, I totally hear you. We can’t all do the diplomacy shit. And we can’t all do the fighting-in-the-street shit, either. It takes all kinds. Let’s fight on every front there is. <3 

I’m not suggesting we throw any rights under the bus. Or give up any aspect of legislative and legal advocacy work. I’m saying let’s do all that stuff, and do it more and harder and better each day. BUT ALSO, when presented with opportunities to talk to actual people in real life who hold these views, sometimes (the…

Leaning into the black humor here, because how else are we gonna get through this:

Ooh! Pumpkin Heads, a graphic novel collaboration with Rainbow Rowell and Faith Erin Hicks is an absolute delight. A slightly more serious one, but still with lots of fun, is This One Summer by Mariko Tamaki (going by memory, might have gotten the last name wrong).

Funny, I really liked Circe, but I WORSHIP Song of Achilles. Her development of the relationship between Patroclus and Achilles over their years together is one of the best relationship stories I’ve read *in my life.* By comparison, I felt like Circe plodded along a bit, and I wonder if that isn’t because she didn’t…

That’s an apples to robots comparison and just not true at all.

Hey, LuckyMc44, I’ve been turning this over in my mind, and you’re right. I missed the point. The idea that stories about teen girls coming of age aren’t for everybody IS sexist. Whatever discussion and differences of opinion there might be about the relative merits of YA books for non-YA audiences is a separate issue…

For a long time I was one of those people who disdained romance as “lesser” literature and refused to read it. Then I heard a story on NPR about Beverly Jenkins’ groundbreaking in the genre where she was interviewed at the end. The piece ended with her statement: “Improve your life; read a romance!” And I thought,…

I agree! But that doesn’t mean we should be undiscriminating about what YA books we choose. Some just aren’t that good or interesting (to adults).

You and Adrastra are both right. The comment hit me as Nelson just trying to say that the books weren’t very good, and the phrasing was unfortunate.

Damn skippy! I’ve got a punch card and everything. :)

You’re right about that. It’s a split within the forced-birth community. Many are willing to reluctantly concede on the rape/incest/life of the mother exception because the public optics of not making that exception are so spectacularly cruel it has the potential to derail their efforts. Some see it as a necessary…

Why do we have to talk to them? Because we’re losing. The Constitution is only as strong as the people who believe it it and enforce it, and the only time it’s ever been weaker is when we were at literal war with each other. 

Yeah, I get what you’re saying. But in my experience, the number of those “true believers” who are absolutely unable or unwilling to let other people have other beliefs after engaging in good-faith conversation with someone of a different belief system is vanishingly small. I was a “true believer” by most people’s…

I totally hear you on the frustration. It’s hard emotional work. 

I’m not going to answer your first point, because I assume you’re being sarcastic. It’s exactly what I was talking about it my comment above. Our anger against the religious right for their stance on women’s health care is completely justified, but all that kind of comment does is immediately shut down any hope of…

You’re right on that last point, but it’s not like there’s anything we can do about it.

I get that. But you’re delivering health care, not proselytizing. So, see the second paragraph above.