Pope, what pope? There were two pieces of news past my Twitter feed yesterday: Google is cruelly taking Google Reader away from those of us who RELY ON IT AS OUR LIFEBLOOD, and Veronica Mars made a Kickstarter record by hitting its $2 Million target in 12 hours or so which means we get a movie. A MOVIE. A tenth anniversary Veronica Mars movie. So… emotions, all over the place!
(Also OMG run don’t walk to watch the fundraising vid it’s hilarious. NO SMOULDERING.)
In other news, this review of the new Tomb Raider game made me very, very happy. It’s long but worth reading for what it has to say about the role of the female protagonist in violent action games, and what THIS game is doing absolutely right.
What has changed for women in (literary) publishing since Virago Books was established 40 years ago?
David McDonald’s Writers Wednesday posts are usually worth checking out, but I particularly wanted to draw attention to this piece looking at fantasy writer Jane Routley, and her hard yards as an Australian author published in the US, and the journey that has brought her to the recent reissues of her original books. Which BTW I loved when I first found them back in the 90′s!
Grant at The Angriest blogged about the 1970′s radio series of Asimov’s Foundation books which I totally listened to when I was a kid! And now I kind of want to again.
Sean the Blogonaut posts about grimdark fantasy and particularly the weird idea that the rape of women adds realism to fiction, but mysteriously that realism doesn’t equate to any male characters being raped.
Is anyone else excited that Willow is coming out to Blu-Ray? Considering I’ve never been able to find it on DVD, I am!
Australians, if you (like me) missed Josh Thomas’s new comedy series Please Like Me then all the episodes so far (four) are up on iView for catchupability. I mainlined the first three on Wednesday night and really enjoyed it – I hate to use the word quirky, but there’s an offbeat realism to the show that I like a lot, and the characters feel far more real than sitcom people usually do. There is Much Gayness, a really adorable male friendship, a truly brilliant cast, and a whole lot of genuine narrative exploration of how mental illness (in this case extreme clinical depression and at least one suicide attempt) can affect a whole family. Sure, it’s emotionally gutting at times, but it’s also really awkward and inconvenient! Aunty Peg made me cry in Episode 3. I also really like that the comedy pulls back from being about really hardcore embarrassment, which tends to make me cringe. Though admittedly the characters are generally in a constant state of mild embarrassment… worth checking out!