“A Wizard of Mars” by Diane Duane

This is the ninth book in the “Young Wizards” series and it’s actually one that I’ve written about before. (You can read posts on the first, second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh, and eighth books. My previous post onthis book is also available.) I’m also going to try and write this before going back to that other post to see if my perspective has shifted at all. (Alright I went back and read it and it's not a very good post, I was trying to introduce everyone to the series more than anything else. But I also wasn't a huge fan of the book back then either.)

The book opens with Mamvish, a very powerful alien arriving on Earth and going with the squad of Earth wizards to Mars. Kit is ecstatic, because they found something they’re calling a superegg on Mars and it could have clues for what happened to the Martians. Ronan, Darryl, Nita, and Carmela are all there as well. Nita is juggling her dad keeping an eye on Dairine (who is looking for Roshaun) along with all this, and Carmela brings news that Kit’s older sister Helena is coming home early from college too. Kit comes back on his own and accidentally activates the superegg, which then sends out signals to other areas of Mars. He pings Darryl and Ronan and they all head to Mars. There they are confronted with these projections of pop culture depictions of Mars. Kit decides to face the last one alone, and he heads off as Nita catches up with them. Nita meanwhile was exploring an old cave with Carmela and S’ree, allowing Carmela to pick up what some of the writing means. She heads off on her own to find the boys. Kit at the final site though is met with a gorgeous alien princess who appears to recognize him. He learns to play along with the vision, but it is ended prematurely by the presence of Nita.

Back on Earth, Kit gets grounded for going off on his own. However his consciousness is being invaded by the alien he was playing in the vision, and he heads back to Mars independently. Mamvish returns and grabs Nita to go to Mars and figure out what’s going on. They find Kit taken over by this other character, in theory an old version of him, and Nita battles the princess he was talking to. Mamvish manages to send this whole people that Kit woke up back in time so that they wouldn’t interfere with Earth. The book ends with Nita calling Kit her “boyfriend” and him being pleased about this.

Alright well there’s a lot going on in this book. I think I understood it more this second time around, but there’s just so much to keep track of. This race that gets woken up is fighting with a second city also on Mars but they also came from a different planet originally. So it’s a lot to remember when reading about them. I think the other sub-plots suffer as a result, there isn’t as much about Dairine or Kit’s family as I would have liked. And while I love seeing characters like S’ree she was mostly a cameo here.

I do think a strength of this is how it incorporates pop culture images of Mars. The whole idea is that the things happening on Mars have found a way to infiltrate the presence of it, the people on Mars are constantly fighting and therefore a lot of depictions of Mars involve war. It would be nice though to hear about how that gets filtered through the lens of the people on Earth as well, like how early depictions were more fanciful and there was an increase in optimism in sci fi in the 50s and things like that. The series is usually pretty good about not focusing on Earth, but this one felt more so, probably because it is so close to home.

The time travel thing with sending the aliens back in time is also amusing to me. There’s a whole conversation at the end of the book that’s just like “it’s complicated, but we’re fine, so don’t worry about it.” Which I kinda appreciated, at least the author isn’t getting too bogged down in the details (after a book that was very detail heavy) and just accepting that things are fine. Less is definitely more!

There’s one more book in the series, and I hope that Nita and Kit’s relationship gets fleshed out more since that definitely ended on a cliffhanger. And hopefully there’s more to the series after that as well!

This Is Beautiful: New Season of Shakespeare in the Arb!

 Auditions happened last week! And I got cast! It's the first time I haven't been super worried about getting cast, even though I did get a smaller role. But what makes this the beautiful thing that made my week is that I had a really hard week last week. And even though I was feeling shitty and had a headache and just didn't feel like talking to people, I still had a good time. It's nice to be back at acting and to know that it'll be another summer of hanging out outside again!

“Ending the Pursuit: Asexuality, Aromanticism, and Agender Identity” by Michael Paramo

This is a book that I backed on Unbound ages ago, and also kind of forgot about. It finally arrived pretty recently, and I’ve been so excited to dive into it! (You can see my name at the beginning as one of the backers!)

The book aims to look at asexual, aromantic, and agender identity through a decolonial lens. This is mentioned in the introduction and I think gives a great sense of the goals and scope of the work. I also think it’s noteworthy that agender is included here, some 40% of aces identify outside of the gender binary (based on recent Ace Community Surveys) so it makes sense but I have not seen an explicit discussion of it. I also am really into the poetry sprinkled throughout! It makes the book feel very different from other non-fiction books on asexuality/aromanticism.

Alright so there are different chapters looking at different aspects of the ace/aro/agender experience, the first is on coming out. And it is so validating to read about because it is something people who are out experience everyday. Hearing about the different reactions, or even just how queerness is something different that even requires coming out really reflects my own experiences.

From there it gets into attraction and I just really like the line "Dominant understandings of attraction are rooted in Western 'scientific' discourses that ascended through the burgeoning colonial world alongside eugenics." Because yes, this language has had a huge influence on queer experiences and it so rarely gets discussed. This also manifests through the specific focus and prioritization on sexual attraction, where that’s usually the only aspect of attraction that is shared (and the rest are assumed). The section on romantic attraction also talks about how specifically female platonic attraction is frequently overlooked and it is assumed that platonic relationships are stronger between men. Aesthetic attraction includes a good breakdown of how colonialism, racism, and fatphobia have all impacted aesthetic attraction and how that is entwined with eugenics as well. And finally, probably the most in depth discussion of intellectual attraction that I’ve read!

There’s a really interesting chapter on asexuality and how discussions on the internet have changed the definition of asexuality that people are using. I haven’t quite seen ace history framed in that way. It starts with a decentralized identity where everyone is using a slightly different one. There’s also just a comment saying something about how if all the aces got together they would just gatekeep the term to decide who can use it and who cannot and just… that’s the gift of prophecy right there.

The aro chapter covers the history of how romantic love being prioritized is a relatively new thing, and historically it has been used to separate out “civilized people”. Again with the racism and the colonization. There’s also a set of aro poems, which I really enjoy! This goes into the agender chapter, and just the whole section about how there’s an “agender look” is very relatable. I’m non-binary, I even got top surgery, and everyone assumes I’m a girl. It’s so frustrating. There’s also history of Christianity being used through colonization to separate out and solidify gender roles, using witch hunts to eliminate anyone outside of the gender binary. As a result, "What has come to be defined as queerness was thus separated from the whole of humanity through colonization."

The book ends with a conclusion, and in part of it the author states that yes they are asexual, aromantic, and agender, but that’s only when you look through the Western lens. Which is really powerful and highlights how all of the labels are conditional to a certain environment and experience.

This book isn’t long, it’s only about 200 pages, but I think it’s a really welcome addition to the series of non-fiction books on a-spec identities that have come out recently. It’s written by someone with all of these identities and with personal experience in the field through both scholarly work and running an a-spec journal. Even just the addition of gender I think makes this pretty needed and groundbreaking. I hope that this brings a larger awareness of colonization and racism and how those are inherently at work in the queer/a-spec community.

“Baker Thief” by Claudie Arseneault

I picked up this book as part of a book club I was in. We wanted to read something with aromantic representation for Aro Week, and this came up as a book with aromantic and asexual characters in a fantasy setting.

The book opens with a police woman, Adele, being robbed by Claire, a purple-haired thief. Claire has taken Adele’s exocore, a sort of generator or power source. As a new officer, Adele makes it her personal goal to get onto this case as soon as she learns that this is a repeat crime. Meanwhile, Claude is the baker at a local pastry chain who is befriending Adele. His twin is in town, and he is anxious to show her a stack of exocores that he recently stole under his female name, Claire. (Claude/Claire is gender-fluid so I’m going to try and use whatever name is appropriate for him/her, but I’ll swap back and forth.) His twin senses that these are people, that those with powers (witches) are inside the exocores. Witches have been persecuted in this society for ages, Claude keeps his powers secret, but this is a new level of hate. Claire and her twin start investigating together, but when Claire’s twin disappears, Claude is distraught.

Meanwhile, Adele has not been making much headway in the case. She’s assisting a more senior officer and frustrated that she cannot lead it. A separate journalist puts the pieces together that Claire is stealing exocores, so she also turns her attention to the source of them. Adele also starts up a budding romance with Claude the baker, Claude is aromantic but they have a good time together. Things get kicked up a notch when Adele follows a lead to a manufacturing plant for the exocores and finds many abused witches trapped there. Claire followed and helped her get everyone out, as well as plenty of exocores. They set up base in Adele’s sister’s house for the time being.

Claire then follows a lead right to the manufacturers and gets captured, learning in the process that there’s a witch who betrayed the community and has been kidnapping witches to make into exocores and that the lead officer on the case is behind the whole thing. Adele comes to rescue her, they start kissing, and then Claire reveals her identity as also Claude. Adele is captured, but Claire makes it away. After Adele’s co-workers save her, they all come up with a plan to stop the opening ceremony of a brightly lit bridge that’ll be directly powered by Claude’s twin. They pull it off, everyone ends up ok, and the book ends with Adele and Claude figuring out what a relationship between then could look like.

So the best aspect of the book is the world-building. The characters speak a kind of modified French, with a lot of French words and some messed with a little. The neighborhoods are also very fleshed out and developed, you get a sense of where the characters are throughout the city. Because of what the book gets into, the politics and the political climate are also very present and accounted for as well. It feels very grounded in place as a result.

To get this out of the way though, I do think that the choice of having a cop as the main character is a little odd. For a book that aims to highlight queer experiences and has a pretty diverse cast, it feels out of place. This was published in 2018, so a little before ACAB really took off in the US, but recent enough that I’m thrown off by the inclusion of it. Related, so the characters are pretty diverse, but that doesn’t seem to go too deep when it comes to race. There are characters who are mentioned to have darker skin, but that is all that their race really impacts. There is no discussion of what Black culture looks like in this world, or is there is any racism. So, I don’t know, I’m hesitant to give the book that level of diversity.

There is diversity in terms of queer representation. Claude is aromantic, and Adele is demisexual. Many characters are referenced as wearing binders (including Claude), and Claude’s twin even talks about questioning her romantic identity towards the end. Plus there are instances of neo-pronouns (some that I didn’t even realize were pronouns at first) which highlights the gender diversity as well. And all of these are very natural, there isn’t any real homophobia or transphobia present. There is some explaining in practical terms what the orientations mean, but it doesn’t feel like the book is trying to teach us something.

The relationship between Claire and Adele is a good example. They have a conversation about what a relationship could look like between an aromantic individual and a demisexual (not aromantic) individual. And it is really cool to see that conversation played out! What I don’t love about it so much is that it seems like the relationship is based on adrenaline from them saving each other and things like that. I don’t know if I actually believe that the characters have any chemistry between them. And then also, this is a book that is supposed to highlight aromantic experiences. Why do the protagonists end up in a relationship? It seems to contradict the main point where aro experiences are all about celebrating not wanting a romantic relationship.

Overall it’s a pretty good book, I likely would read a sequel. I would say though that there’s a few too many ideas in it and it could benefit from some focus as well as cleaning up the relationship that for some reason the characters are in. And rethinking the cop thing. Ugh. But we will see if anything else ever comes from this series, right now it’s the only one she’s written.

This Is Beautiful: Lots of Progress This Week!

 A week ago today, I submitted a manuscript to a journal. I had been working on it for several months, and had gotten a bunch of experts in the field to help me out with it, which was incredible, but I then had to coordinate a lot of edits and suggestions. So sending it in was a huge milestone and regardless of what happens next I'm really pleased!

The other thing I did was film the footage for my Dance Your PhD submission. I have also been thinking about this project for about as long, and just being able to get it filmed was a huge step. Now we just have to edit it and put all of the parts together! This is so exciting!

2024 is going to be a great year for me, I'm going to get so much done. I'm ready!

The Princess Bride Shadowcast

 This past weekend I was in a shadow cast of "The Princess Bride," and it was so much fun! I decided to turn this into a blog post because there ended up being just a bunch of things I wanted to reflect on from the experience.

So many people mentioned to me that a shadowcast of "The Princess Bride" is so different because it was made to be a movie, and isn't based on a stage show the way something like "Rocky Horror" was. There are a lot of fast cuts and transitions that we just have to like approximate on stage and do our best with. But that does mean that there are some gaps, some transitions aren't the most smooth, and sometimes it looks pretty different from the screen. It might not be the most polished, but I was also told that our enthusiasm made up more than enough for it.

People also mentioned that they noticed things more while watching people act it out. A pretty popular one was the relationship between Rugen and Humperdink and how they seemed so much more gay this time around! I think part of it was the cast leaning into it and just making it more obvious by virtue of being there, but also yeah they definitely had something going on. I know for me, I felt like I was picking up so much more on the physicality of the characters since I was seeing someone else mimic it in front of the screen. Same with line delivery, Humperdink has a bunch of kinda awkward pauses that always catch the cast off guard.

I was continuing my type cast as an old lady with a bit part and playing the Ancient Booer. Just sheer shrieking at the freshman playing Buttercup. I got told that I made a bunch of audience members jump, and others didn't even recognize me at first! Just shows you how important the physicality is.

Anyways so a less polished post this week, but shadowcasts have been increased in my estimation, I didn't think much of them previously but now I think it's a really cool way to watch a movie! Especially one that you've seen before, having the cast there really changes things. I hope I'll be able to participate in others.

This Is Beautiful: Manuscript Submitted

 I don't know if I'm going to say much right at this moment, but suffice it to say that I just submitted a manuscript to a journal. It's a project that has been really personal for me, and much of it has been spearheaded by myself personally. I'm so glad that it got submitted finally, because I was reaching my limit of feedback that I could take from the other authors, as grateful as I am that they are helping me out. Next up is feedback from the editor though, haha. Hopefully more good news soon though!

"Single At Heart" by Bella DePaulo, PhD

 This was a great book to read, not the least because the asexual/aromantic group that I run at my university was able to get Dr. DePaulo to speak as part of Aromantic Spectrum Awareness Week back in February! She is such a cheerful, friendly person, and was a very charismatic and engaging speaker. I grabbed the book as part of preparing for her talk, and it is truly such an entertaining read.

The idea of the book is that being single is not something to look down upon, but something to celebrate! There is a subset of the population that actually prefer being single and are happiest this way, these people are called "single at heart" in this work. But throughout, there is evidence that single people are more stable, have huge support networks, and are really flourishing!

I think what was most interesting to me is that the single at heart community is made up of people who are all different sexual and romantic orientations. You can be aromantic and single at heart, but you don't have to be! Similar to asexuality, there are more asexuals and aromantics in the single at heart community than the wider population, but they are far from even the majority! That is just so fascinating to me, and it demonstrates that dismantling amatonormativity and emphasizing all of these things that the aromantic community has been talking about as well for years really benefit so many people.

I also have to wonder if being single at heart isn't just a special kind of like stability or enlightenment or something. Here are these people who are so satisfied with themselves and love solitude and quiet. There is also evidence that the single at heart are less neurotic, more stable. It definitely seems like something to almost aspire to. Personally I relate a lot to the single at heart community, but I'm not completely single at heart. I am in a relationship, and we do live together, and I'm pretty happy that way. I do value my alone time, but I also like sharing the stupid little things I do all day with him. I certainly think I'd be fine being single, but I'm also happy as I am. That being said, it makes me think if I could be single at heart, or if I would get frustrated trying to exist in a world built around couples. And is it something that I could become? Or is it more innate? I'm not sure, and the research isn't really there yet either haha.

This is a great read, for anyone, not just the single at heart. Discrimination against single individuals is rampant in our society, and most people don't even realize that this is an issue because they are so okay with it. Step one to dismantling this is going to be to educate ourselves and everyone around us about singlism, and then working to make the world a better place for everyone to live as they would like.