Saturday Storytime: Falling Leaves

Liz Argall, among other things, plays roller derby and writes “A comic about creatures who are kind“. Don’t let that fool you, though. This story is one of the hard ones.

Charlotte and Nessa met in Year Eight of Narrabri High School. Charlotte’s family were licensed refugees from the burning lands and the flooded coast, not quite landed, but a step apart from refugees that didn’t have dog tags.

Charlotte sat on the roof, dangled her legs off the edge and gazed at the wounded horizon, as she did every lunchtime. Nessa, recognizing the posture of a fellow animal in pain, climbed up to see what she could do. The mica in the concrete glittered and scoured her palms as she braced herself between an imitation tree and the wall and shimmied her way up.

She had to be careful not to break the tree, a cheap recycled–plastic genericus — who’d waste water on a decorative tree for children? The plastic bark squished beneath Nessa’s sneakers, smelling of paint thinner and the tired elastic of granny underpants.

Nessa tried to act casual once she got to the top, banging her knee hard as she hauled herself over the ledge and ripping a fresh hole in her cargos. She took a deep breath, wiped her sweaty hands, and sat down next to Charlotte.

“’Sup?” said Nessa.

“Go away.” Charlotte kicked her feet against the wall and pressed her waxy lips together.

“You gonna jump?”

“No. I’m not an attention seeking whore like you,” said Charlotte.

Nessa shrugged her shoulders, as if that could roll away the sting. Rolling with the punches was what she did. “You look sad.”

Charlotte bared her teeth. “I said, I’m not like you. Leave me alone.”

Nessa wanted to say, “Fuck you,” but she didn’t. Nessa wanted to find magic words to fix Charlotte in an impatient flurry. She couldn’t. Nessa scratched her scars for a while and felt like puking, but she didn’t think that would help either. Neither would hitting Charlotte’s head against a wall and cracking Charlotte’s head into happiness, although Nessa could imagine it so violently and brightly it felt like she’d done it. Nessa had banged her own head against walls to get the pain out of her head and chest, but it never worked — or rather it never worked for long enough, leading to a worse, moreish pain.

Nessa didn’t know what to do, so she just sat there, feeling chicken shit, until the bell summoned them into class.

Keep reading.

Saturday Storytime: Falling Leaves
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TBT: A Little Too Alive

This post was originally published in May 2009. It still creeps me out.

Rick pointed me at this video, a hand-cranked automaton of the “Don’t tase me, bro” guy. I expected it to be funny. It almost was–the first time. After that, it just got more disturbing. Seeing how the gears work made it even more so.

The artist, Jon Haddock, seems to specialize in rendering violence (including metaphoric violence, like his sculpture of the 107th Congress voting for the Patriot Act) in cartoonish ways. Some of his work actually is cartoons. Some of it just simplified, isolated in time or with pieces missing. Somehow, though, the extra work required to fully understand what you’re seeing just makes it worse.

This video of another automaton, titled Testimony of Sgt. Cortez (This Kind of Monster), is a case in point. It begins with watching a set of noise-makers. You never see what makes the noise. Only the perpetrators of the crime are ever seen. The victims are not. It doesn’t help.

TBT: A Little Too Alive

The Reading List, 5/21/2014

I share a lot of links on Twitter and Facebook that I don’t blog about because I don’t have much to add. The reading list is a periodic feature where I share those links with my blog audience too. Of course, you’re still welcome to follow me on Twitter.

Around FtB

  • The video game that would REALLY keep you up at night–“But what if I was to tell you the story of a video game that was literally designed to steal your ability to sleep… among other things? Sounds far-fetched, right? Read on, gentle reader.”
  • Support Bread and Roses: We need your help–“Reaching our fundraising target of £15,000 will help us produce quality and timely programmes that will continue to bring free-thought to Iran and the region as well as the west where it is sorely needed for many years to come!”
  • Apologizing For Others–“When you do that – when you try to explain – you are treating your friend/loved one AND your audience poorly; you are assuming an incompetence on one side or the other that likely doesn’t exist.”
  • Introduction to “Redneckaissance: Honey Boo Boo, Tumblr, and the Stereotype of Poor White Trash”–“My first realization that Here Comes Honey Boo Boo had become a complex discursive phenomenon came with the appearance of an image from the show in my social media feeds.”
  • How the Purity Myth Perpetuates Rape Culture–“A lot of people think they have abandoned the idea of female sexual purity simply because they are liberal and/or nonreligious. As a person who runs in liberal and nonreligious circles, I can tell you that this is not necessarily the case.”

The Wider Web

The Reading List, 5/21/2014

A Very Funny Lady

If you followed the Women in Secularism hashtag this weekend, you saw Leighann Lord being smart and funny. But if you didn’t attend the banquet Saturday night, you missed her standup–and people in tears in the audience. Luckily for you, she’s been doing this for a while and has plenty of clips out there.

There’s plenty more where that came from too. Plus, if you’re in or near NYC, you have plenty more chances to see her for yourself.

A Very Funny Lady

Atheists Are the Worst

They’re also the best, as you’d know if you were at the Women in Secularism conference. Great speakers. Great attendees. Interesting and productive disagreements.

There were a few moments this weekend when Tweets on the conference hashtag really pointed up the difference. If the embed doesn’t work, the Storify is here.

Atheists Are the Worst

The Reading List, 5/18/2014

I share a lot of links on Twitter and Facebook that I don’t blog about because I don’t have much to add. The reading list is a periodic feature where I share those links with my blog audience too. Of course, you’re still welcome to follow me on Twitter.

Around FtB

  • On Evaluating Arguments from Consensus–“On the one hand, this looks like an Argument from Authority, a recognized fallacy. On the other hand, we commonly think it should add weight to a conclusion that the relevant experts endorse it.”
  • I Get Racist and Sexist Hate Mail–“‘Set about destroying civilisation right down to her own ex familys DNA.'”
  • Non-Believer Murdered — Let’s Help Her Kids–“A member of our community has been murdered. She was a victim of domestic violence. And we have a lousy safety net in this country, which is going to make things even harder on her kids in this already terrible situation.”

The Wider Web

The Reading List, 5/18/2014

Camp Quest of Minnesota on Atheists Talk

Camp Quest is a secular summer camp that promotes critical thinking, skepticism, and open discussion among its attendees, campers who range in age from 8-17. Campers get to have fun with exciting activities like field games, swimming, archery, crafts, and campfires, and Camp Quest’s programming is focused on humanist values and ethics, and the encouragement of rational inquiry, free speech and respect.

This Sunday we have three Camp Quest organizers joining Atheists Talk to discuss this popular and well-established summer camp program. August Berkshire – a co-founder of Camp Quest Minnesota – will be interviewing Jeannette Watland, chair of the board of Camp Quest of Minnesota, and Nicole Infinity, camp director of Camp Quest Minnesota. We hope you can join us!

Related Links:

Listen to AM 950 KTNF this Sunday at 9 a.m. Central to hear Atheists Talk, produced by Minnesota Atheists. Stream live online. Call in to the studio at 952-946-6205, or send an e-mail to [email protected] during the live show. If you miss the live show, listen to the podcast later.

Follow Atheists Talk on Facebook and Twitter for regular updates. If you like the show, consider supporting us with a one-time or sustaining donation.

Camp Quest of Minnesota on Atheists Talk

Saturday Storytime: The Gifts of the Giving Tree

When I read Shel Silverstein’s The Giving Tree, I loathed it. A lot of that reaction came from comparing the contents to all the recommendations of the book. The more I learn about Silverstein, though, the less I think he would have appreciated the straightforward praise for his story. I’m pretty sure, however, that he would have appreciated Mallory Ortberg‘s retelling.

Once there was a tree
and she loved a little boy.

And everyday the boy would come
and he would gather her leaves
and make them into crowns
and play king of the forest.

He would climb up her trunk
and swing from her branches
and eat apples.
And the apples stained his mouth a strange color
and it wasn’t green and it wasn’t red
and the stain wouldn’t go away
no matter how much his mother scrubbed his mouth
after he’d eaten them
(she loved the little boy very much)
And they would play hide-and-go-seek.

And when he was tired,
he would sleep in her shade.
(she loved him best when he was asleep)
(he never woke up with quite the same color eyes)
(and his mother hated to hug him after he came home from the tree)
(though she could never explain why)
And the boy loved the tree, very much.

Keep reading.

Saturday Storytime: The Gifts of the Giving Tree

Meeting Creepy

Kate Leth did another great comic for Comics Alliance. This one is for those fans who are afraid of being creepy in expressing their admiration for the creators of the content they love. Here’s a quick taste of the dilemma.

Two panels of cartoon. Panel one: Fan says, "Hi! Um, I'm a huge fan. I've read all your work!" Artist says, "Thank you!" Panel 2: Fan looks stressed and says, "Oh, God, that must sound so CREEPY!"

This comic sparked a discussion between a few of us who are relatively new to speaking and conferences about what we are and aren’t comfortable with at conferences. With Women in Secularism this weekend, this seemed like a good time to talk about where my boundaries fall for meeting creepy with fans. Continue reading “Meeting Creepy”

Meeting Creepy

TBT: The Tyranny of the Original Idea

This was originally published in May 2009. This idea that we have to present new ideas in order for our writing to be useful and good is something I still see in my blogging friends. Let’s just say I disagree. See also.

Two youngsters fall in love. Their love is forbidden because they belong to two worlds at war with each other. Realizing the futility of the feuds that keep them apart, they decide to flee. Confusion follows and our story ends in death.

Romeo and Juliet, of course. Or is this West Side Story? Sung in Shadow? Or Pyramus and Thisbe? Perhaps even Ha-Buah?

Earlier this week, Mike posted about feeling that his writing wasn’t original enough. Bah. I hate it when I see someone denigrating their own work this way. It’s silly and pointless and keeps people from contributing to the world. And may I point out, I’m hardly the first to say so. Continue reading “TBT: The Tyranny of the Original Idea”

TBT: The Tyranny of the Original Idea