Replies

Deglassco, 10 months ago to blackmastodon

On July 15, 1944, in Bristol England, the "Park Street Riot" occurred as 400 Black soldiers confronted 120 MPs over pub access. Observers later recounted that locals rooted for the Black troops. Like the Battle of Bamber Bridge a year earlier, this event underscored the racism Black troops faced as well as the disconnect between how they were treated overseas vs in their own country.

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@blackmastodon @BlackMastodon #BlackMastodon #Histodons #History #BlackHistory #Military
#WW2 #UK

stephenwhq, 10 months ago

@Deglassco @blackmastodon @BlackMastodon

very sound. the UK had racism, but not racist laws by and large. As a Bristol schoolboy we were taught nothing of this but 'folk memory' is that we were grateful for the black soldiers but the more honest old people said interracial relationhips caused issues. Some pubs famously barred white soldiers when told to discriminate. i'm grateful for this expansion of my home city's history

stephenwhq, 10 months ago

@andreaslindholm @CommonMugwort @lunalein @bookstodon

I am fascinated by people who think the solution to thinking like people in the future, is to write either more like people did in 1940 or 1840. FWIW I don't recognise the criticism of books published now as universally true.

stephenwhq, 10 months ago

@andreaslindholm @CommonMugwort @lunalein @bookstodon

I'm 60, and I have moved on from some (not all) the writers I admired. New science fiction and fantasy are going to new places. Some of it is tropey - lots of the old stuff was too - but not all of it. You're missing out.

Also, if some stuff is aimed at young women, read it.

BTW Hunger Games talked about state violence and media complicity at a time when 'grownup books' were 'Oh, sleep with my pilates instructor, or not?'

stephenwhq, 10 months ago

@lunalein @CommonMugwort @andreaslindholm @bookstodon

agree.

stephenwhq, 10 months ago

@andreaslindholm @sentient_water @lunalein @CommonMugwort

Ursula Le Guin described
J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter series as "stylistically ordinary, imaginatively derivative, and ethically rather mean-spirited." Fair.

I'd add with some of the chonkiest worldbuilding in history.

They were enormously important to my kids generation, they got people reading, I read them aloud at bedtime, and she needed an editor.

@bookstodon

stephenwhq, 10 months ago

@meshell @lunalein @bookstodon

While scientists who don't talk feelings and scientists who don't need other people much happen, so does the opposite.

Alan Turing was described as 'rather good company' by Alan Garner who knew him, and he suffered no issues at his work after his arrest, which accepted him back without question.

stephenwhq, 10 months ago

@AnnieTheBook @libraries @librarians

his fiction is fiction and his theology/commentary etc is not. We don't keep Alice in Wonderland next to Caroll's maths textbooks?

stephenwhq, 11 months ago

@lunalein @bookstodon

I threw a Gore Vidal novel from a train once. Some of his work, I liked.

franciscawrites, 11 months ago (edited 11 months ago) to bookstodon

Books make the world better.
This week I'll be posting about some of my favorite books YA, their covers and their fabulous opening lines.

“The island of Gont, a single mountain that lifts its peak a mile above the storm-racked Northeast Sea, is a land famous for wizards”
-A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula K. Le Guin

#BooksofMastodon #AltTextCoverDay #WritingCommunity #YA #BooksWorthReading #fantasy #favoritebooks @bookstodon

stephenwhq, 11 months ago

@Penguinflight @franciscawrites @bookstodon

let's be clear, an orphan raised by an aunt, who runs into entitled aristocrats at his wizard school, and causes havoc by taking them on.

although very different and of course, much better

stephenwhq, 11 months ago

@DavidTomashek @lunalein @bookstodon She is a wonderful author, I preferred The Daughter of Doctor Moreau because pure gothic horror is not wholly my bag.

stephenwhq, 11 months ago

@lunalein @Funktious @bookstodon
It's Regency, not Victorian.
And it's very impressive.

stephenwhq, 11 months ago

@DavidTomashek @lunalein @bookstodon
me too.