Inside the Little Plastic Castle

In Uncanny Magazine, Sid Jain explores how Seth Dickinson's Baru Cormorant Masquerade trilogy helped him understand how British imperial rule colonized his thinking and experience as a first-generation American:

Shame washes over a colonized culture in layers: first the shame Indian students were made to feel towards their vernacular in the 19th century, then the shame for their poor English. Finally, the shame we force upon ourselves after becoming too Anglicized. Like with the worst of all colonial exercises: it’s not what it does to you that you should fear, but what it convinces you to do to yourself.

[… snip …]

Shame is unhelpful. Learning is helpful. What I do with the education and the voice it gave me matters. This is part of what I find ironic about the genesis of this essay. Dickinson, while not writing from a colonized perspective, still told this powerful story from an accurate anti-colonial perspective, managing to get the conflicted feelings of a post-colonial youth so right. I imagine it took a lot of learning, curiosity, and humility.

https://uncannymagazine.com/article/seduced-by-the-rulers-gaze-an-indian-perspective-on-seth-dickinsons-masquerade/

WisCon offers pronoun-preference stickers for our member name-badges. (Their use is completely optional.) I spent the long WisCon42 weekend in a space where physical appearance was disconnected from gender assumptions. One of the many things I love about the con is we dress exactly as our fancy takes us, from PJs to three-piece suits to tutus to ballgowns to geek fatigues¹.

Protip: Don’t assume gender. Pause when someone raises their hand: many years of gender essentialism are imprinted in the lizard brain. Instead, refer to items displayed on the body², for example “The person in the yellow shirt” or “You, with the flashy fingernails.”

( I share my experience of misgendering someone in hopes of educating other cis people )