Was trying to figure where Rowling fit in. Is she one of "Every critic over-40 in the contemporary trans-bashing universe had an earlier incarnation as porn fighters"? Did she? I don't like who she encourages, but am really trying to make up my mind about Rowling, herself.
Hi Renard, I agree it is quite the trip down the rabbit hole!
I am not the Rowling Psych expert, *shudder.* Don’t know her story well enough. I didn’t even read Harry Potter, (although I helped many children do so!). It wasn’t out of political boycott, it just wasn’t my bag.
Is she Anti-porn, yes, I believe so, although I don’t know details. And what does that phrase even mean anymore? Let’s just say she would not call herself a “sex positive feminist.” She didn’t have the platform back in the Sex War days to make any impact. Her political voice has come of age with her commercial success, which dovetailed with the British TERF movement. There’s a LOT to read about in that regard, I don’t even know the perfect article to point you to. There are many!
I wanted to make a point about: that the most rancid TERF wing has antecedents that are not progressive in any way; it goes way beyond “sex,” but that’s their favorite bait. They use these hysterics as a wedge and then they start grifting. That’s the way.
Number 2, at the risk of using myself as one subject, I wanted to share a little bit about what it means when there is SO LITTLE media in a culture, so few alternatives, such nepotism in the few crumbs we do have. The whole “you’ll never eat lunch in this town again” thing is ludicrous yet real.
I don’t need people like Paul to shut up or stop writing, nor JK Rowling. They have a huge platforms. We need more relevant media, representative intellect, and access to all of it, we need hundreds of substantial ideas that one can readily dive into! The same-ness, the echo chamber of Upper Class Twits repeating the same brainfarts over and over… I can’t take it any longer. TV news is the worst, followed by the dearth of newspapers and periodicals.
I read authors all the time whose politics are unknown or repellent to me. I get tempted to learn more about their biographies, and then I sometimes am sorry I peeked. There are lots of crazy people with storytelling gifts, eh? And if they become isolated in wealth, it gets even worse.
Thanks. I haven't ventured, but this podcast (haven't read the text of this) is the rabbit hole I'll start with. NYT mentioned it somewhere https://www.thefp.com/p/the-witch-trials-of-jk-rowling . The linguistics interests me, particularly, as I know where I am politically.
(Yes, which side the podcast comes down on is clear, but all of what I've read so far is on the other side).
I totally agree, as a reader and watcher, that media seems to have a pretty narrow range in all sorts of easily-visible areas. The one that slaps me in the face is: everyone is attractive (in a certain way, women must have chiseled jawlines; and, in half of everything there is an older guy paired with a younger woman).
I don't thing of the "never...in this town" part, but, yeah, that would explain a lot of it. Stick to the party line.
I'm generally firmly on the side of "appreciate the work not the author" (for negative impressions of author), and have to double take when someone is surprised some author (or celebrity) says something un-befitting a hero. I want my authors and show/movie writers to be good at writing, not necessarily opining on random subjects.
Only Marion Zimmer Bradley (who I loved!) and Orson Scott Card strain my ability to just appreciate the book. Too much of MZB just reads differently when you know what's behind some of the things said in it.
and I'll note that the Wikipedia article fails to mention how Brick includes an entirely unique language/slang that you will still (more or less) understand the first time.
Another awesome post, Susie!! Your item about the movie "Remember My Name" (which I've never seen, and is now cued up for viewing in the Sato-Kornbluth household) got me thinking about (and now listening to) Alberta Hunter's soundtrack album with the same title, which contains one of my all-time favorite recordings, her song "My Castle's Rockin'": https://youtu.be/EmNrO2-djOI. Hunter, as you may know, had an amazing life, beginning her performing career in bordellos and retiring for 20 years to become a nurse after her mother died. Wikipedia tells me that for years her romantic partner was Lottie Tyler, niece of the comedian Bert Williams. What a life!
Wow! Susie thanks for this history. I had no idea because I'd never had lunch in that town in the first place. Ha! Please don't paint all the suffragists with the same brush. A whole lot of them were dykes. I just learned of one who's my new hero: Laura DeForce Gordon. She left a note in a time capsule dug up in SF in 1979 that read "If this little book should see the light after its 100 years of entombment, I would like its readers to know that the author was a lover of her own sex...." Hey, I just watched The Newsroom cause I just got HBO. Aaron Sorkin does a great job of raising the news vs. entertainment discussion. From 2012 but even more relevant now.
Hi Michael! I’m so glad I found your comment again. I got your check -- thank you. I need your EMAIL address to sign you up for a “paid” subscription. Could you send it to me? You can write me at office@susiebright.com
Hi again! I FOUND IT~! I realized you’re in my free subscribers group, so I nosed around until I found an address attached to your acct.. it’s the yahoo one, right? If so, I have “upgraded” you to a free paid sub for a year. Really, thank you so much for your support.
Dear Susie Bright readers, thanks for recommending the movie Remember My Name. The best thing about it is the music. Songs were written and sung by the great lesbian singer Alberta Hunter. Wow! Love the soundtrack.
I love how Rudolph is so adept at creating plausible alternate universes. He did it in a big way in Trouble in Mind, obviously, but in this film and Choose Me, it’s as if it’s taking place only a few doors down from us in the multiverse, but with things feeling just off enough to give me pause. That 1970s vibe doesn’t hurt, either! 😉
So much great tension and layers in the characters’ restrained reactions and the way they withhold things that one might expect they would simply blurt out. The scenes with Emily in the house were fascinating in that the tension, for me, anyway, had nothing to do with whether she’d be discovered or reveal herself but rather all the interior things that were going on with her as she snuck about the interior of the house.
I love how Rudolph is so adept at creating plausible alternate universes. He did it in a big way in Trouble in Mind, obviously, but in Choose Me and this film, it’s so subtle. Feels like our world, but maybe a few doors over in the multiverse, just off enough to give me pause.
Mild spoilers alert: I liked how the tension was built up in offbeat ways, the way the characters were so restrained in their reactions where one might expect them to simply blurt things out. And the scenes with Emily sneaking about the interior of the house were fascinating to me, because I found the tension there not to be whether she’d be discovered or reveal herself but rather the things that were happening in her interior.
Was trying to figure where Rowling fit in. Is she one of "Every critic over-40 in the contemporary trans-bashing universe had an earlier incarnation as porn fighters"? Did she? I don't like who she encourages, but am really trying to make up my mind about Rowling, herself.
Hi Renard, I agree it is quite the trip down the rabbit hole!
I am not the Rowling Psych expert, *shudder.* Don’t know her story well enough. I didn’t even read Harry Potter, (although I helped many children do so!). It wasn’t out of political boycott, it just wasn’t my bag.
Is she Anti-porn, yes, I believe so, although I don’t know details. And what does that phrase even mean anymore? Let’s just say she would not call herself a “sex positive feminist.” She didn’t have the platform back in the Sex War days to make any impact. Her political voice has come of age with her commercial success, which dovetailed with the British TERF movement. There’s a LOT to read about in that regard, I don’t even know the perfect article to point you to. There are many!
I wanted to make a point about: that the most rancid TERF wing has antecedents that are not progressive in any way; it goes way beyond “sex,” but that’s their favorite bait. They use these hysterics as a wedge and then they start grifting. That’s the way.
Number 2, at the risk of using myself as one subject, I wanted to share a little bit about what it means when there is SO LITTLE media in a culture, so few alternatives, such nepotism in the few crumbs we do have. The whole “you’ll never eat lunch in this town again” thing is ludicrous yet real.
I don’t need people like Paul to shut up or stop writing, nor JK Rowling. They have a huge platforms. We need more relevant media, representative intellect, and access to all of it, we need hundreds of substantial ideas that one can readily dive into! The same-ness, the echo chamber of Upper Class Twits repeating the same brainfarts over and over… I can’t take it any longer. TV news is the worst, followed by the dearth of newspapers and periodicals.
I read authors all the time whose politics are unknown or repellent to me. I get tempted to learn more about their biographies, and then I sometimes am sorry I peeked. There are lots of crazy people with storytelling gifts, eh? And if they become isolated in wealth, it gets even worse.
Thanks. I haven't ventured, but this podcast (haven't read the text of this) is the rabbit hole I'll start with. NYT mentioned it somewhere https://www.thefp.com/p/the-witch-trials-of-jk-rowling . The linguistics interests me, particularly, as I know where I am politically.
(Yes, which side the podcast comes down on is clear, but all of what I've read so far is on the other side).
I totally agree, as a reader and watcher, that media seems to have a pretty narrow range in all sorts of easily-visible areas. The one that slaps me in the face is: everyone is attractive (in a certain way, women must have chiseled jawlines; and, in half of everything there is an older guy paired with a younger woman).
I don't thing of the "never...in this town" part, but, yeah, that would explain a lot of it. Stick to the party line.
I'm generally firmly on the side of "appreciate the work not the author" (for negative impressions of author), and have to double take when someone is surprised some author (or celebrity) says something un-befitting a hero. I want my authors and show/movie writers to be good at writing, not necessarily opining on random subjects.
Only Marion Zimmer Bradley (who I loved!) and Orson Scott Card strain my ability to just appreciate the book. Too much of MZB just reads differently when you know what's behind some of the things said in it.
So very very frustrating all the banning and stupid shaming.
I will now see if i can find and view "Remember my Name"
Also: Have you ever done s review of the (I think) under-appreciated neo-noir "Brick?"
Yes, I thought Brick was outstanding. And so prescient.
FYI for folks coming here later: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Remember_My_Name
Looks like the movie is currently viewable from Amazon Prime, Roku, and Tubi.
Amazon link: https://www.amazon.com/gp/video/detail/B0B7BD2739
Oh and folks interested in "Brick"
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brick_(film)
Rent/buy from a whole bunch of places: https://www.justwatch.com/us/movie/brick
and I'll note that the Wikipedia article fails to mention how Brick includes an entirely unique language/slang that you will still (more or less) understand the first time.
JustWatch has been a godsend eh?
I actually just discovered it 5 minutes ago :-)
Oh wow. Well, go do the setting so it’s ONLY the services you use, and then it’s amazing. I used their “watchlist” instead of 50 others.
Great article Susie, and spot on with the recent spate of attacks and bans on LGBTQ+ stuff in particular. Thanks for the heads up on Remember My Name. Here's a free way to watch it via Internet Archive: https://archive.org/details/remember-my-name-1978-movie/RememberMyName_1080p.mp4
Omg, I love the Archive, such a treasure. I’ve been listening to a whole series of classic Bonnie Raitt live concerts lately, thanks to them.
Another awesome post, Susie!! Your item about the movie "Remember My Name" (which I've never seen, and is now cued up for viewing in the Sato-Kornbluth household) got me thinking about (and now listening to) Alberta Hunter's soundtrack album with the same title, which contains one of my all-time favorite recordings, her song "My Castle's Rockin'": https://youtu.be/EmNrO2-djOI. Hunter, as you may know, had an amazing life, beginning her performing career in bordellos and retiring for 20 years to become a nurse after her mother died. Wikipedia tells me that for years her romantic partner was Lottie Tyler, niece of the comedian Bert Williams. What a life!
Ooo thanks for that music video treat. She is a big big part of the film’s vibe. All her music.
Wow! Susie thanks for this history. I had no idea because I'd never had lunch in that town in the first place. Ha! Please don't paint all the suffragists with the same brush. A whole lot of them were dykes. I just learned of one who's my new hero: Laura DeForce Gordon. She left a note in a time capsule dug up in SF in 1979 that read "If this little book should see the light after its 100 years of entombment, I would like its readers to know that the author was a lover of her own sex...." Hey, I just watched The Newsroom cause I just got HBO. Aaron Sorkin does a great job of raising the news vs. entertainment discussion. From 2012 but even more relevant now.
Dear Susie: Is there a PO address I could send in for a paid subscription? I'm not crazy about leaving my credit card up for one.
Yes, you can snail mail to Susie Bright, POB 8377, Santa Cruz CA 95060. I’ll let you know when I get it, and then I’ll sign you up.
Hi Michael! I’m so glad I found your comment again. I got your check -- thank you. I need your EMAIL address to sign you up for a “paid” subscription. Could you send it to me? You can write me at office@susiebright.com
Hi again! I FOUND IT~! I realized you’re in my free subscribers group, so I nosed around until I found an address attached to your acct.. it’s the yahoo one, right? If so, I have “upgraded” you to a free paid sub for a year. Really, thank you so much for your support.
Dear Susie Bright readers, thanks for recommending the movie Remember My Name. The best thing about it is the music. Songs were written and sung by the great lesbian singer Alberta Hunter. Wow! Love the soundtrack.
copyright? do we worry about these things? I would love to have the sound track.
but now that I think about it I should look online. maybe its been done
Molly, I found it! The soundtrack is for sale, on MP3 or streaming, at least: https://amzn.to/3ZlhGIt
Yay! Thanks!
Thanks so much for “Remember My Name”! Watched it immediately. So great!
Ooo, i love spontaneity. That’s what I did too. Watching it within minutes of hearing about it, haha. What did you appreciate it about it?
I love how Rudolph is so adept at creating plausible alternate universes. He did it in a big way in Trouble in Mind, obviously, but in this film and Choose Me, it’s as if it’s taking place only a few doors down from us in the multiverse, but with things feeling just off enough to give me pause. That 1970s vibe doesn’t hurt, either! 😉
So much great tension and layers in the characters’ restrained reactions and the way they withhold things that one might expect they would simply blurt out. The scenes with Emily in the house were fascinating in that the tension, for me, anyway, had nothing to do with whether she’d be discovered or reveal herself but rather all the interior things that were going on with her as she snuck about the interior of the house.
(Trying this again after accidentally deleting.)
I love how Rudolph is so adept at creating plausible alternate universes. He did it in a big way in Trouble in Mind, obviously, but in Choose Me and this film, it’s so subtle. Feels like our world, but maybe a few doors over in the multiverse, just off enough to give me pause.
Mild spoilers alert: I liked how the tension was built up in offbeat ways, the way the characters were so restrained in their reactions where one might expect them to simply blurt things out. And the scenes with Emily sneaking about the interior of the house were fascinating to me, because I found the tension there not to be whether she’d be discovered or reveal herself but rather the things that were happening in her interior.
Yes, I had this feeling of “sliding around the glass” like an absinthe rinse!