Inside the Little Plastic Castle

BROAD BAND: The untold story of the woman who made the Internet—Claire L Evans( 5 of 5 )

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1493—Charles C Mann ( 5 of 5 )

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Recently Finished: Two winning science-y books

Too Big To Know by David Weinberger. For a very long time, human knowledge was what fit on paper (no mention of oral cultures). Now the Net removes the requirements of publishing contracts, printing limits, salability. Everybody can be a publisher. And so, there's a whole lot of knowledge; so much that it's ... Too Big To Know.

Author brings lots of Internet, journalism, and librarian experience to the question of, "How will we know what to learn?" Challenging, intriguing, probably 30 ways wrong but very enjoyable.

Delusions of Gender by Cornelia Fine. Stacks up the various studies that claim that male and female differences are hardwired into the human organism, and demolishes them one-by-one. Author is funny, provides tons of footnoted details, doesn't mention some statistical issues that even statistically-illiterate me think relevant. Nothing so delicious as the deconstruction of Simon Baron-Cohen.

Currently Reading: Many megabytes of Sherlock BBC fanfic

I prefer my works not-in-progress, and several of my fave authors have finished up novel-length narratives. In particular:

The Art of Seduction by flawedamythyst
Sherlock maintains his intense focus on data and experiments, but the field is human sexual congress. Hilarious with tender and sad bits. Also lots and lots and lots and lots of sex, which ends with Sherlock emitting yet another "Dull!" and swirling away.

Not What Is Said But What Is Whispered by sirona
It's the good old "characters read the fanfic" trope, but this one didn't squick. Instead I laughed and giggled at the (can you still call it 'epistolary' if it's) email.

Next Up: Many more megabytes of Sherlock BBC fanfic

And when I'm not on a bus, I have Consider the Fork by Bee Wilson (audio read by Alison Larkin) which claims to consider kitchen tools and gadgets from the beginning of history and their impacts on how we cook. Perhaps the mystery of the vegetable slicer will be unveiled?

And when I want to hold an actual book in my hand, I've got How To Be Sick: A Buddhist-Inspired Guide for the Chronically Ill and Their Caregivers. I'm not really at all Buddhist (or even JewBu), but I want to read this book in honor of my acupuncturist Kate Behrens. She surely is a Buddhist, and has improved my life greatly. Easier first step than joining a meditation community.

Rachel Hartman's fabulous comic book Belondweg Blossoming is so wonderful you should rush right out and read it today. It is, sadly, out of print, but available at libraries and many used booksellers. It's set in the generic 13th century British fairy tale milieu, but the heroes do the sorts of things I find heroic — take care of each other; accept the more difficult path for the greater good; face up to lies told and return to straighten things out. One of the principal themes is what women's lives are like when they can't own property. A truly life-changing gift for a girl approaching menarche: I think it's important for all women to understand how far we've come.

This reviewer provides a much better description than I can. Hartman was drawing at GirlAMatic for a while, so you can admire her excellent drafting and elastic fiddling with narrative conventions in Return of the Mad Bun

Sally French makes the case that assistive technology can get in our way. Her brief paper is well worth reading in its entirety

 begin quote  On various occasions when, as a student, I have struggled to read something on the blackboard with a small personal telescope, lecturers have enthusiastically remarked "You're doing really well with that little gadget"--a conclusion reached more through wishful thinking than knowledge (French, (10)). A. T. Sutherland believes that this type of response is very convenient to non-disabled people because it means they do not have to help or adapt. quote ends 

She also addresses the "independence double-bind": how disabled people must sometimes spend more effort doing things ourselves than simply asking for help. The North American ideal of being able to do it all myself is deeply rooted. Unless it's in the hands of one of my intimate friends, I'm very uncomfortable with people holding open doors. I think this is partly due to second-wave feminism's rejection of formulaic male chivalry, but at heart I feel I must upend nondisabled people's expectations of what I can and can't do.

Laurie & Debbie over at Body Impolitic manage to condense all that is wrong with "can't you take a joke"? harassment (along any dimension) while also giving the bright-pink "Keyboard for Blondes" the authoritative torching it so desperately needs.

Read it and cheer!

ETA correct the weblog names

Yes I'm totally late to the party when it comes to the delightfully cantankerous blog called

I Blame the Patriarchy

but at least I finally got a clue. What's making me jump up & down and go whee! right now is this excellent rant about cancer.

In which the fabulously cranky blogger spews forth on just how shitty it is to survive cancer and then have to deal with all kinds of crappy "side effects" of the treatment, and be expected not to whine.

So, go read it already, OK?