Eschewed Obfuscation

* Eunoia, a constrained-writing experiment by Christian Bök.

* Via yhlee, the constrained-writing group Oulipo: Ouvroir de littérature potentielle.

* Also via yhlee, 25 subliminal-messaging logos.

* Via mrissa: swan_tower aka Marie Brennan is offering a free novella, Deeds of Men, online.

* Just a call-out to the Secular Coalition for America.

* Helping those with Mormon interests. A parody, although I don't think it makes fun of Mormonism in particular rather than religion in general.

* Lee's Art Shop's 30-second pen primer.

* Via rilina, the top 10 hot Asian actors.

* Via Dave Wolverton's email list, how to sketch a novel in an hour (a free writing exercise). I'm going to try this tonight, hopefully--the Snowflake Method is a bit too overwhelming when I've only got a tiny inkling of what's going on.

* yhlee and rachelmanija have launched springfluff, "a no-stress, no-deadline fandom gift exchange"!

* Why skilled immigrants are leaving the United States--the same reason why my father, who has a Ph.D. and is a Canadian citizen (so not even from the high-immigrant countries of China and India), waited five years to receive permanent residency.

* Jo Walton (papersky) on real world reading for fantasy writers. An old link, but obviously still relevant.

* The Bush Administration's memos regarding the War on Terror.

* For Asian faces, M. Night Shyamalan goes to Virginia--not the most informed news article ever, but it does give aang_aint_white much-needed press coverage.

* Via yhlee, Cake Wrecks on the problem with phone orders. Laugh-out-loud funny.

* Did you know there's a Discworld MUD? I haven't tried it yet, but it tempts me...

Via _riverside: etrangere's eloquent post on the gender of writing, chick lit, and fantasy.

Via fairfeather: A parody of rejection letters. It made me giggle rather strangely, deep in my throat and low. Go figure.

Between Worlds: Women Writers of Chinese Ancestry
by Amy Ling
212 pages (hardcover)
Genre: Nonfiction

I have to return this to the library tomorrow, and unfortunately I'm only on Chapter 3 of 5. But I'll try my best to review it fairly, because it's definitely worthwhile reading for educating oneself on both racism and sexism. A Chinese woman suffered from two major oppressions: by the males of her own race, and by white people regardless of gender. The writing style is academic but accessible.

1. Writing As Rebellion, Historical and Contextual Backgrounds
An introduction of sorts, covering background information. Oriental stereotypes in the West, sexism in China, and the few Chinese-American women writers are all discussed. Very useful overview.

2. Pioneers and Paradigms: The Eaton Sisters
An entire chapter is devoted to analyzing the Eurasian sisters Edith and Winnifred Eaton, also known by the pen names Sui Sin Far and Onoto Watanna, respectively. Ling discusses at length the reasoning, implications, and consequences of the sisters' differing choices--Edith intentionally chose a Chinese-sounding name and aimed to become a martyr for the Chinese cause in America, while Winnifred chose to take on a Japanese identity and thus made a living off writing romance novels. The sisters, born of an American father and Chinese mother, also each wrote an autobiography (but again differing greatly) which sheds some light upon their choices.

In particular, the discussion of Chinese people being seen as heathens "in desperate need of Christian salvation" (48) disturbed me, not least because I don't believe that religion is necessary to be civilized and moral. And miscegnation, that term so debated in recent times, is also mentioned in telling how the interracial romances in Onoto Watanna's novels were acceptable "as long as the couple was white male/Japanese female" (51). In other words, as long as the white male was shown in a position of power and the Asian female as a stereotype.

3. Focus on China: Stances Patriotic, Critical, and Nostalgic
I am only on page 63, a little into this chapter, but it looks to be about exaclty what the title indicates. Detailed discussion of several Chinese-American writers and relevant themes in their writings.

4. Focus on America: Seeking a Self and a Place
From skimming, there is one section that I want to paraphrase. In discussing the autobiography Echo of a Cry by Mai-mai Sze, Ling quotes Sze after she purposefully sits next to a black woman in the cafeteria at college: "['Colored people'] still implies inferiority of a kind, doesn't it, as if 'colored people' were not up to others? When you think of it, we're all colored except the pure white man. And is there such a thing?" (107-8) That made me think of the widely used term POC (people of color), which suffers from the same negative connotation--but there isn't really a term to replace it yet, so we keep using it. (Although yhlee's "chromatic" shows promise.)

5. Righting Wrongs by Writing Wrongs
A difficult chapter to describe, but I will say that the conclusion on pages 177-9 speaks eloquently about the "between-world condition" of Chinese women in America.

The annotated bibliography on pages 191-9 is far too long to reproduce here, but I'll list authors cited under the cut so that the interested may seek out their work (though if you're that interested, I highly recommend reading this book first, at least the annotations).


And I'll note that my own family name appears above. But more importantly--what does it say, that all the known female Chinese-American writers can be named in a manageable list?

I blog because I love books, writing, and connecting to other people with similar interests. I blog because it means I can write about books--what better is there? I blog because it gives me an outlet, a way to vent frustration, anger, shock, and any other emotion you can name (though the more ranty posts tend to be friends-locked). I blog because I love the community. And finally, I blog for myself and the world--to future-me, and to anyone out there like me, looking for the words of a kindred soul.


My own personal meme, because I think it's an important question to ask yourself. Be tagged if you wish.

This is... amazing. Definitely my Hysterical Moment of the Week.

A rewrite of an old poem.

It's official -- I'm attending Alpha!! Just got the email today saying that I was granted a $600 scholarship.

Now that I'm caught up on books, I can post about life. I'm applying to Alpha! I don't know how hard it is to be accepted, and if I don't get at least half the cost covered by scholarship, I can't go because I'm also getting a new wooden clarinet soon (Eeek!) On top of that, I don't even have a suitable story submission written. Test of Faith is already long enough, but I just finished the first non-introduction scene. I should be able to wrap it up under 6k words, though. But the deadline is March 31st! After DSTPs, I'll only have a week, so I'm going to try and finish the first draft before testing ends, and then I can go begging for critiquers the final week. I've already secured Abby's promise, so that's one down! XD

So, anyone want to read and critique a 2-6k (currently unfinished) fantasy short story in like 2-3 days, the last week of March? It's a tight time commitment, but I'd be ever so grateful.