salinea has an awesome rec post about all things Avengers (among other fandoms), special for Loki's fans like me. Man, I'm in love with this analysis.

Have any of you read Witchcraft Works by Mizunagi Ryuu? Heck, let me rephrase it, have you ever read a manga like that?

I think you should. Read it now, I mean.

She is stoic, cool, and the most popular girl at school. He is the awkward, unpopular and shy "regular boy." She is way taller also. He has never talked to her until the day she saves him from supernatural forces and declares he is her princess and her mission is to protect him. I know you have read shoujo like this a thousand times before. Just never with those gender pronouns.

( Spoilers are... AWESOME )

I have no idea how this will go, but man.

Here, in Colonialist Criticism & Culture, thatlitgirl quoted a segment of Chinua Achebe's essay, Colonialist Criticism:

Does it ever occur to these universities to try out their game of changing names of characters and places in an American novel, say, a Philip Roth or an Updike, and slotting in African names just to see how it works? But of course it would not occur to them. It would never occur to them to doubt the universality of their own literature. In the nature of things the work of a Western writer is automatically informed by universality. It is only others who must strain to achieve it. So-and-so’s work is universal; he has truly arrived! As though universality were some distant bend in the road which you may take if you travel out far enough in the direction of Europe or America, if you put adequate distance between yourself and your home. I should like to see the word ‘universal’ banned altogether from discussions of African literature until such a time as people cease to use it as a synonym for the narrow, self-serving parochialism of Europe, until their horizon extends to include all the world. If colonialist criticism were merely irritating one might doubt the justification of devoting a whole essay to it. But strange though it may sound some of its ideas and precepts do exert an influence on our writers, for it is a fact of our contemporary world that Europe’s powers of persuasion can be far in excess of the merit and value of her case. Take for instance the black writer who seizes on the theme that Africa’s past is a sadly inglorious one as though it were something new that had not already been ‘proved’ adequately for him. Colonialist critics will, of course, fall all over him in ecstatic and salivating admiration – which is neither unexpected nor particularly interesting. What is fascinating, however, is the tortuous logic and sophistry they will sometimes weave around a perfectly straightforward and natural enthusiasm. […]

The colonialist critic, unwilling to accept the validity of sensibilities other than is own, has made a particular point of dismissing the African novel. He has written lengthy articles to prove its non-existence largely on the grounds that the novel is a peculiarly Western genre, a fact which would interest us if our ambition was to write ‘Western’ novels. But, in any case, did not the black people in America, deprived of their own musical instruments, take the trumpet and the trombone and blow them as they had never been blown before, as indeed they were not designed to be blown? And the result, was it not jazz? Is any one going to say that this was a loss to the world or that those first Negro slaves who began to play around with the discarded instruments of their masters should have played waltzes and foxtrots? No! Let every people bring their gifts to the great festival of the world’s cultural harvest and mankind will be all the richer for the variety and distinctiveness of the offerings.

My people speak disapprovingly of an outsider whose wailing drowned the grief of the owners of the corpse. One last word to the owners. It is because our own critics have been somewhat hesitant in taking control of our own literary criticism (sometimes – let’s face it – for the good reason that we will not do the hard work that should equip us) that the task has fallen to others, some of whom (again we must admit) have been excellent and sensitive. And yet most of what remains to be done can best be tackled by ourselves, the owners. If we fall back, can we complain that others are rushing forward? A man who does not lick his lips, can he blame the harmattan for drying them?

I had a sudden epiphany about Penguindrum. And I know. It's genius. Thank me later.

( Spoilers for Mawaru Penguindrum. And for inane talk )

---

No. 6 novels are an amazing thing, they talk about social issues/inequalities like whoa, everyone has to read it (sadly, the anime doesn't stand a chance, mainly for its ending), etc., but now I just have to say that woman DID the research in a very different area:

( Spoilers for Vol. 1 quotation )

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Rec me science fiction books, people.

...not academically though, but tired of the people in my faculty.

Recommend me things to read, people. I think I have read everything you recommended me - that I could find, of course. (I haven't watched everything you told me to watch because you know my internet.)

It's so, so sad I'm just waiting for football on the tv. I feel like my father.

So, I know I'm always demanding the same, but rec me things again!

Should I bother with Kannazuki no Miko? Why haven't you recommended it to me? Is it bad?

( Spoilers because I spoiled myself )

sanguinity has an amazing post: Settler Colonialism and the Imagined Indigenous Viewpoint.

--

I just read all scanlated out there of Sasameki Koto and found it most delightful. Does someone has good yuri manga/lesbian fiction (reading material, I have no Internet for anything else, sadly) to recommend?

My mood is... bleh. I'm so bleh at everything. Probably because I start classes again on Monday and I know that will leave me with no live again.

SO THIS IS REC POST AGAIN. Rec me something, anything. &hearts

Kanata recommended it here.

And I can't say much about it because I'm sleepy and my brain isn't working. But it's AMAZING.

Premise: Lesbian woman kills the abusive husband of the straight woman she loves because the latter asks her to do it. Long story: THERE IS SO MUCH MORE THAN THIS. Really, really complex. (I will try to talk about it later because it sure has some amazing themes.)

So have some fic:

starlady wrote Ran/Gingetsu (spoilery as hell, of course)!: Sanctuary. &hearts

And not for Yuletide (I think); wonderful, wonderful murderinghours wrote Oruha/Yuuko: Built of Music and Blood. Ajshajksaksgags. Lovely, hot and lovely.

People, I'm very busy, but I think I will have some time soon. So, please, rec me something OF QUALITY.

And I mean... I have been reading so much crap lately.

Things on my reading list: Lair Game, Eden (manga), FMA's manga. I swear I'm going to start reading these some day.

It doesn't have to be manga or anime. Maybe some damn good book I can steal find online. Things I can watch. Anything that made you say, "omg, THIS IS DAMN GOOD I think I'm going to marry it."

Thank you.

Today is Blogging Against Disablism Day 2010:



Amazing, amazing links.

Via starlady: torachan is hosting a fest for trans characters.

Here is a Facebook group to recommend: Stop Racism in Spanish-language TV and Media.

Recibí esto de Carlos Quiroz. Si pueden también denuncien estos grupos (ya que Facebook no tuvo problema para quitar el de Racebending...):

Organización afro peruana LUNDU recibe amenazas de violencia después de suspensión de personaje racista “Negro Mama“ en Lima [VIDEO]

La organización LUNDU Centro Afroperuano de Estudios y Promoción, ubicada en Lima, ha denunciado que está siendo objeto de amenazas verbales de violencia, a través de mensajes recibidos vía telefónica, email, correo e internet.

[...]

Mónica Carrillo, la directora de LUNDU y Sergio Molina, el director de prensa, confirman vía email que hay hasta cinco grupos de Facebook que promueven odio y racismo contra los indígenas y afro peruanos, sumando un total de más de 8,000 miembros en conjunto:

"La mayoría de estos sitios web tienen mensajes que son extremadamente violentos y racistas, incluso hay una página de Facebook con mi nombre, y esto me hace pensar que yo podría estar expuesta a situaciones de violencia física" denuncia Mónica Carrillo.

Please report these groups for abuse, the reason is "Racism" obviously, even if you don't understand Spanish, the pictures are pretty obvious:

http://www.facebook.com/pages/El-Negro-mama/126689486888?ref=nf

http://www.facebook.com/pages/NO-SUSPENDAN-AL-NEGRO-MAMA-los-de-LUNDU-solo-son-NEGROS-ACOMPLEJADOS/117448921598747?ref=ts

http://www.facebook.com/pages/No-a-la-censura-de-la-Paisana-Jacinta-y-del-negro-Mama/110362488983249?ref=ts

http://www.facebook.com/pages/DEJEN-TRABAJAR-Al-negro-mama-la-paisana-jacinta-/108705192485333?ref=ts

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Y-porque-no-censuran-a-Monica-Carrillo-por-censurar-al-negro-mama/113177932036784

ALL OF OOKU (translated to english until now) IS UP ON MANGAFOX PEOPLE! (Also. TRIGGER WARNING: vol 2 has a lot of rape scenes. A lot. (Spoilers in the comments.)

Also, thanks to pseudo_tsuga for pointing this to me. Let's do a "follow Monday"... something:

animanga_news:

This is intended as a Dreamwidth-oriented newsletter for anything anime/manga related. Fan art & fiction, meta & discussion, icons & graphics, release dates and more. Because there is animanga content on DW, only sometimes it can be hard to find.

THE SECOND CHAPTER OF OOOKU IS UP ON MANGAFOX.

I'm not, like, making it obligatory for you to read it or something. Like. At all.

ETA: Awww, it was kinda short. I thought that chapter covered more. Well, anyway, it gets better.

Recommend me something to read, oh uber amazing reading list. Please. Anything. Something that is available online?

Because you see, I have no main fandom right now, so I'm sticking to a fandom full of 12 year-old weaboos who have no idea about anything.

Because seriously, why do people have to use this icon where I can see it?

So give me something or I may come back to this shit like I do every day.

Anything. Please.

DW is still under attack of trolls because they showed some ethics that LJ never had with their users.

In a repeat of last month's situation, we have once again come under attack by the same group of people attempting to extort us out of business. We've been back and forth in discussion with Google Checkout, our current payment processor, but they've decided to terminate our business relationship unless we alter our Terms of Service to prohibit all adult content.

This means that we are once again temporarily unable to accept credit cards to buy paid time for your Dreamwidth account, since prohibiting all adult content on the site goes against our Guiding Principles of free expression. We're really sorry about the problem, believe me, but we think it's important to stick to our promises to you. More than important, really: it's a requirement. We're not going to go back on our promises simply because Google and PayPal are unwilling to work with us.

We are in discussion with several alternate payment processors who share our commitment to free speech, and we will have another -- hopefully more permanent -- solution implemented as quickly as we can. In the meantime, the offer we extended the last time this happened still applies: if your paid account is about to expire, email us at accounts@dreamwidth.org and we'll extend your paid time for you.

So meanwhile, via rydra_wong: 101 Ways to Help Dreamwidth Grow. (They aren't things you have to do by any means, just things that will help if you do them.)

I have seen people doing Friday recs of people to read online. It's interesting, but I just want to say that if you have to read someone on internet, I will always maintain that that person has to be the_future_modernes. Oh Great Linkmistress.

Here, read her at the_world_around_us. Or watch one of her hundred of comms, she has a lot of them. I guess I will miss something if I try to name them.

Dude, etrangere has written an spectacular essay about Shoujou Kakumei Utena. Go read it if you have watched all of the series (or don't mind spoilers)!