The book that broke my heart

Posted on July 20, 2013 | Leave a comment

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I read Green Mansions in high school, and it broke my heart. I don’t remember much about it, only Rima, the beautiful wild girl in the trees. I fell completely in love with her.

(Spoilers for the book coming up.)

She appears first in a tree in the jungle, playing a game of hide and seek with the narrator, running easily along branches that are high in the air. I don’t remember what else there was about her, but that alone was enough to capture my heart. People who live in the trees, oh yeah!

Okay, so here’s the spoiler. After I had fallen deeply and madly in love, she was killed by some men. Why? I don’t remember. I have a vague recollection that they set her tree on fire.

I cried for an hour, and even now I can barely pick up the book.

However, I decided the time was right to try the book again. I have a clever plan, the kind of plan that comes from being a writer. I read the book, just until before she gets chased by the men, and I write a happy future for her.

So far, I’ve finished the prologue and the first two chapters. Turns out it’s full of references to “savages.” That’s imperialism for you. Even so, the characters are well drawn, sympathetic, and full of life.

Wish me luck with the rest. But don’t tell me anything whatsoever about the book! I don’t want to know. I just want Rima to live.

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Doctor Who Series 7 for the Reluctant

Posted on July 16, 2013 | Leave a comment

I loved Series 7 of Doctor Who . . . mostly . . . but I have a friend who lost patience with it during the Stephen Moffat years, and hasn’t watched any of Series 7. So I offered to make a list of what I think are the best of the lot. And here it is:

Series 7 for the Reluctant

“The Doctor, the Widow and the Wardrobe” – skip it. I enjoyed it, but then, I am easy to please.

“Asylum of the Daleks” – watch it. Be forewarned that the scriptwriter doesn’t appear to understand marriage. Clara is a fabulous character and the Daleks were well done. It has depth.

“Dinosaurs on a Spaceship” – watch it because it is fun, especially if you like dinosaurs. Bonus points for showing a father/son relationship with Rory and his dad.

“A Town Called Mercy” – skip it. It has a weird analysis of war criminals.

“The Power of Three” – skip it. It is all angsty over the upcoming departure of Amy and Rory, and if you’re already reluctant, you won’t care.

“The Angels Take Manhatten” – skip it unless you really like the creepy Weeping Angels monsters. This episode was strictly to tug at the heartstrings of fans who love Amy and Rory. River Song was brilliant until she called the Doctor a demigod and told Amy not to grow old in front of him.

“The Snowmen” – watch it. The barmaid/governess character is well done, as is the Jenny/Vastra/Strax team that now has its own following of people who want it to be its own TV show.

“The Bells of Saint John” – watch it. Good comedy, social commentary, and the companion character is great.

“The Rings of Akhaten” – skip it. I enjoyed it, but again, I’m easy to please.

“Cold War” – watch it if you were born after 1975. Because you might not have been exposed to much about the Cold War. Otherwise, skip it.

“Hide” – skip it. Fails the Bechdel test even though more than one woman was present, and has annoying romance.

“Journey to the Centre of the TARDIS” – watch it, especially if you like the TARDIS or interesting explorations of time travel.

“The Crimson Horror” – watch it. It has Vastra, Jenny, and Strax, and it has Diana Rigg (from the Avengers) playing a delicious baddie.

“Nightmare in Silver” – watch it. Neil Gaiman wrote the script. The Doctor’s companion, awesomely, gets to do an important job.

“The Name of the Doctor” – skip it. Why? It is the culmination of a couple of mysteries that have been ongoing in Season 7, and if you’re a reluctant viewer, you won’t necessarily . . . care.

Rating the Winners:

Asylum of the Daleks * * * * *

Dinosaurs on a Spaceship * * *

The Snowmen * * *

The Bells of Saint John * * * * *

Cold War * * *

Journey to the Centre of the TARDIS * * * * *

Nightmare in Silver * * * * *

The Crimson Horror * * * *

What if I didn’t like it?

If you watched one of my three-starred choices and didn’t like it, no harm done. But if you watched one of my four-starred choices and didn’t like it, there’s a serious problem here. You know what it is? I’m the wrong reviewer for you. 🙂

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Orson Scott Card is creepy – and not in a good way. (Spoiler for The Treasure Box.)

Posted on July 10, 2013 | Leave a comment

I read every single one of the Orson Scott Card novels I could get my hands on, for years. Some are good, and some are excellent. Ender’s Game was excellent. Now they’re making a movie out of it. Which I will not see. Why? Because he crossed a line.

The first time I noticed this was in the novel Hart’s Hope. The hero, Palicrovol, marries and publicly rapes a twelve-year-old girl. He doesn’t want to, but he has to in order to cement his rule as king. She gets her revenge by making him like it.

At the time I didn’t think too much of it. But then I read “The Treasure Box.”

Spoiler alert for “The Treasure Box” (but don’t worry, because Orson Scott Card spoiled the ending first)

The main character in “The Treasure Box” is seduced by and marries a woman who later turns out to be an evil succubus. We find this out at the very end, and we also find out that she was an eleven or twelve year old girl. At the very end. When it is too late to not read it. And re-interpret all the romance scenes in an icky way.

There’s a message I’m getting here, and it’s icky. It has to do with adults being sexually taken advantage of by children. Hart’s Hope has the rather disgusting idea that rape is more okay if the perpetrator doesn’t enjoy it (what???) and the other that a child can intentionally arouse an adult during an act of rape. Meanwhile, “The Treasure Box” has the adult perpetrator being the victim.

So. Ender’s Game movie. I’m giving it a pass.

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Are our schools teaching arithmetic?

Posted on May 11, 2013 | Leave a comment

My dad the mathematician taught me something important about math. Mathematics has two aspects that go hand in hand: arithmetic and concepts. Arithmetic is basic addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division. It’s hard to learn the concepts if you don’t have a good grasp of arithmetic, and it’s boring to learn arithmetic without the concepts. 

Math can be fun. I’m serious here! How come so many people hate it? How come so many women feel like they’re no good at math? 

There are a lot of reasons, but let’s start with ground zero. Arithmetic. How many people have their math facts memorized? I assumed everybody who gets to adulthood has their math facts memorized, and I assumed it was being taught in schools. Now I’m not so sure. 

Here in Seattle there are a lot of the parents I know are paying for math tutoring, particularly for arithmetic practice. Check out this map of Kumon tutoring centers. There are ten centers within nine miles of downtown Seattle. 

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Kumon tutoring centers near downtown Seattle

People are paying for something that really should be the job of schools. However, it’s hard for teachers to “squeeze it in.” How could that possibly be? Is it because high-stakes standardized testing has squeezed it out? 

Now take another look at that map, bearing in mind that northeast Seattle, Bellevue, and Redmond are the most affluent and whitest parts of this area. Where are these tutoring centers concentrated, and where are they completely absent? There are none in southeast Seattle. Guess it’s not so profitable there. 

This is the “opportunity gap” in action. 

In addition to paying for tutoring, many Seattle parents are practicing math facts at home. This would be fine if kids were also getting it at school. But if they’re not getting sufficient math fact practice at school, then parents who are practicing math facts at home and paying for tutoring are masking a significant deficit in our children’s education. 

This is the opportunity gap in action. 

So I’ve been asking around. Math fact practice is not necessarily a daily event in the classroom. If kids haven’t mastered arithmetic and subtraction by the end of grade 2, they’re not necessarily going to get any more practice, but they will be expected to start learning multiplication, division, and fractions. If they are significantly below standard, they will be eligible for some kind of pullout service, where they get math help but miss the regular curriculum other kids are getting. Plus, the stigma of “not being good at math.” So they fall farther behind. 

This is the opportunity gap in action. 

Now, there’s a lot of talk of “accountability.” High-stakes standardized testing is supposed to hold teachers and schools accountable, isn’t it? Well, it doesn’t work. It punishes teachers if they spend too much time teaching what’s not on the test. And I don’t think that basic math facts are on the test. 

Through elementary school, there are two tests Seattle kids get. One is the Measures of Academic Progress (MAP), and it’s district mandated. The other is the Measures of Student Progress (MSP), and it’s state-mandated. The MAP test is untimed, which means that if kids are counting out their math facts on their fingers, that’s fine. As for the MSP, I’ve looked at a practice test  and it hasn’t got much in the way of math facts. It focuses on math concepts and generally uses easy arithmetic. And yet enormous amounts of time and money are spent on these tests. Schools have to give up their libraries for weeks in order for these tests to be given. Schools are rated based on these tests, and the trend is for teacher evaluations to be based at least partly on the results of these tests. 

If parents want math facts to be taught in schools on a daily basis, then we kind of have to stand in line, behind the demands of these tests. 

What’s the answer? To me it’s blindingly obvious. Do these three things.

  1. Take five or ten minutes out of every school day to drill on math facts. But some kids are farther along than others, right? Won’t the kids who already know addition and subtraction be bored? Actually, I think it’s okay for kids to be bored for five or ten minutes a day.  
  2. Take some of the pressure off the teachers. Cut down on the amount of concept material that is required to be taught and eliminate the high-stakes component of standardized tests.
  3. If you’ve got to have insanely expensive standardized tests, at least take part of that test time and use it to measure math fact mastery.

Of course, everybody and their dog looks at schools and thinks they see a massive problem that is blindingly obvious to them. Most people are wrong. Am I wrong? Am I missing something? 

All I know is I’m out of time for today. I’ve got to go drill my son on math facts. 

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Persuasive Writing for Activists: Knowing Your Audience

Posted on May 10, 2013 | 1 comment

This blog post is part of a series on persuasive writing for activists. Check back weekly for new content.

Last week we talked about the purpose:  what you’re trying to accomplish with your piece of persuasive writing. This week we’ll talk about who you’re writing it for. 

Getting to Know Your Audience

Many activists are so dedicated to the issue they care about that they forget that their audience might not be. Here are five important facts about your audience. 

  1. They are probably too busy to read your piece from start to finish. 
  2. They might not know little or nothing about the issue. 
  3. They might not know the jargon. 
  4. They might be skeptical of activists. 
  5. Despite all that, they might care deeply about the issue and want to act! 

Consider the Demographics 

I’m a white woman who is relatively well off and has a bit of free time, which is why I can write and do activism. If I’m not careful, I imagine my audience is too. They’re not. Think about people’s racial heritage, sexual orientation, religion, age, ability/disability, age, occupation, and financial situations.They’re all different! Different people will have different perspectives and care about different aspects of the issue. 

You Have Multiple Audiences 

Bear in mind that you have multiple audiences. Some know a lot about the issue and some know next to nothing. Some like activists and some don’t. Some share your racial heritage and some don’t. 

Go Meet Them 

Get to know your audience. Get out and talk to people about your issue. But don’t lecture. Listen more than you talk. I am surprised every single time I talk to people, and I learn a lot. I learn what people care about and what people don’t. I learn the language they use. I learn how not to act like an activist geek. I learn what they know and don’t know. 

Stay tuned: Next week we’ll talk about targeting your piece to your audience.

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A Feminist Take on Doctor Who’s Zoe Heriot

Posted on May 9, 2013 | Leave a comment

This post is part of a series of feminist takes on Doctor Who companions. I ask these questions: Are they strong? Do they get to be the protagonists? To what extent are they the equal of the Doctor? Which stereotypes do they fit into, and which do they resist?

So far I’ve looked at Amy Pond, River Song, and Clara Oswin Oswald, all characters from New Who. Now it’s time for me to jump back in time to my favorite companion ever: Zoe Heriot.

zoe in front of cyberman

If you’re looking for a critique of feminist aspects of her character, you won’t get any here. Somebody else can criticize this or that. Nope, it’s pure appreciation. I adore her. She was the first female companion I’d ever seen, and if it hadn’t been for her, I doubt I’d have even started watching Doctor Who.

Who was Zoe Heriot?

She appeared in Doctor Who alongside Patrick Troughton, the 2nd Doctor, and Frazer Hines, his companion Jamie.  She was one smart girl:

Zoe Heriot is the Wheel’s parapsychology librarian (which means that she’s received brainwashing-like training in logic and memory), an astrophysicist, an astrometricist first class, and a major in pure maths.

(From the TARDIS Data Core wiki entry on “The Wheel in Space.”)

She was emotionally underdeveloped at first. But after she met the Doctor and Jamie, who taught her the power of intuition and instinct, she decided to set out on a journey of personal growth by stowing away on the TARDIS and becoming an Adventure Hero.

She was an Adventure Hero par excellence. Brave, smart, thoughtful, full of initiative, curious, you name it. And she developed emotionally pretty darn fast, building warm relationships with Jamie and the Doctor. She was a bit of a screamer. That’s the 1960s for you. But honestly, faced with the horrors she saw, I’d scream too. And her screaming wasn’t at all out of place: her Doctor was the panickiest Doctor ever.

Zoe was also Jamie’s equal. Jamie was a Highland Scot from the 18th century. He’d left a war for independence to travel in the TARDIS, but he was ready any minute to jump back into the fight. They complemented each other nicely: Jamie fought with his hands, and Zoe with her mind. Both were young and depended on the Doctor at times, but took initiative whenever needed.

She was also a match for the Doctor, intellect-wise. In “The Krotons,” she beat the Doctor on a computer-based test. I think this was my very favorite moment. As a young woman myself, in school, I was so excited to see a woman be smarter than the Doctor. At other times, she conversed with him in scientific gobbledygook — something few of his companions have done since.

Her ending was not ideal. The Time Lords wiped her memory, just as the Tenth Doctor later did to Donna Noble. That was unfair! But at least she got to retain the memory of her first adventure with the Doctor. She resumed her life on the spaceship, and in my mind at least, her character development stuck and she led a full and happy life.

A taste of her character

Here’s a snippet of dialogue in which Zoe interrogates the Doctor:

Zoe: [to the Doctor] How did you pilot the rocket ship? You see, I’ve calculated its original course. It was a surface and supply station for Number Five Station, overdue and presumed lost nine weeks ago. Well the rocket couldn’t have drifted eighty seven million miles off course.
Dr. Who: So what’s your theory?
Zoe: Well, there is a record of the last contract with the Silver Carrier rocket. It had seven million miles to touchdown, and enough fuel for twenty million. Well, it couldn’t have drifted here off course in the time involved. It must have been driven and piloted.
Jamie: Och, you are a right wee space-detective!
Zoe: There’s only one solution. That rocket was re-fuelled in space. – Provided for at least with another twelve fuel rods.
Dr. Who: Well, it is an interesting theory…
Zoe: Oh, it isn’t a theory. You can’t disprove the facts. It’s pure logic.
Dr. Who: Logic, my dear Zoe, merely enables one to be wrong with authority. Supposing there was a faulty automatic pilot?
Zoe: To drive a rocket eighty seven million miles on fuel for twenty million?
Dr. Who: Well, it’s a possibility.
Zoe: That rocket was driven here somehow. I know it was.

Smug, isn’t she? She doesn’t back down if she thinks she’s right.

Oh, did I forget to mention?

Zoe is also a computer programmer. Here she is giving a computer an insoluble problem in ALGOL.

 How about the actress?

The actress who played Zoe, Wendy Padbury, went on to become a theatrical agent. In a bit of a quirk of fate, she was the one who discovered Matt Smith, the actor who plays the current Doctor. She tells the story in this Youtube video. She was also a theatrical agent for other actors who appeared in Doctor Who: Nicholas Courtney, Colin Baker, and Mark Strickson. Small world, eh? I wonder who her other clients were . . .

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Fan Reactions — What’s Sacrosanct About Doctor Who?

Posted on May 7, 2013 | 3 comments

A friend of mine just complained that the latest Doctor Who episodes, “Journey to the Centre of the TARDIS” and “The Crimson Horror,” put her to sleep. She doesn’t like Clara, she doesn’t like the Matt Smith characterization of the Doctor, she doesn’t like the TARDIS being infinitely big, and she doesn’t like the kiss that the Doctor gave Jenny. It just doesn’t feel like Doctor Who to her any more.

She’s not the only one. A lot of people are unhappy. Here’s are some complaints from the Doctor Who community on LiveJournal. In the post “The contempt of the show-runner” by ed_rex, who wrote: “The whole of Steven Moffat’s Doctor Who has been a long series of insults dressed up as Big Ideas, punctuated by apologies from the likes of Richard Curtis and Neil Gaiman.” Commenters said things like:

  • “Worse, Moffat’s women issues have gone from a ‘hint and a wink’ to f* it, let’s just smear it on the wall. . . . the Doctor is totally acting like a stalker.”
  • “. . . sometimes he [the Doctor] seems like just not a very nice person at all. Very cold and cruel and calculating.”
  • “until recently I’ve viewed the show as being relatively progressive in terms of its view of women. I thought the female characters were strong and empowering . . . I think Clara has a chance at being another strong Companion, but if SM keeps letting his own issues get in the way, then I think the show is going to dive bomb pretty quick.”
  • “a part of Eleven’s personality is a prepubescent boy who has naive sexist views on girls.”
  • “I can’t watch ANY of the Eleventh Doctor without feeling completely sick to my stomach. I’ve been a Whovian since the Tom Baker series and wasn’t sure how I’d react to the the new takes…LOVED it until Moffat took over. He needs to reign in his overblown ego and stop ruining this show”

And here’s something from the post “The Crimson Horror and Sexual Assault” on the blog doctorher.com:

“I think some of us are in mourning.  The Doctor as an asexual character is officially dead. This is not my Doctor.  This is not the Doctor of the last 50 years. . . [this] is the most aggressive and only instance of predatory behavior on the part of the Doctor.”

I’m watching all these comments with great interest because none of the incidents mentioned “break” the Doctor for me, but I too have my breaking point. And it’s been reached at times. Here were my top five moments when something I found sacrosanct was broken.

  1. In “The Two Doctors,” the Doctor killed someone out of revenge / for fun.
  2. In “Mindwarp,” the Doctor betrayed a companion and then she died. We were later told (not shown) that she survived, and that just wasn’t enough for me.
  3. In the 1996 TV movie Doctor Who, the Doctor kissed a woman. I remember sitting on the couch with my friend watching it in great excitement and with high hopes that the movie would revive the series. We both yelled at the screen when that happened, because up until then the Doctor had been portrayed as asexual.
  4. In “Family of Blood,” the Doctor took revenge on four people in rather horrible ways that also made him out to be pretty darn omnipotent.
  5. At the end of “Flesh and Stone,” when the Doctor let Amy kiss him despite a clear power differential and “girl-women weirdness.” 

Why did these things “break” the Doctor for me? Because I started watching in the Patrick Troughton era, and all through the Peter Davison years the Doctor was a good guy, powerful but not a demigod, and he took on the role of mentor/teacher/father figure to women. I identified with the female companions and above all had the sense that they were safe traveling with him. They were safe from the Doctor, and they were safe from the other monsters too. I would have walked into the TARDIS with him in a heartbeat. I wouldn’t do it now.

To me those were some pretty serious lines that were crossed. (All but #3. I would be okay with a kiss between equals.) And yet I keep watching. Why do I keep watching? I guess I still believe in the guy. I guess I still believe that those breakages are the exception, not the rule. I guess that guy the Doctor used to be is still rattling around in my head.

But I am afraid that at some point the show will go too far even for me. That would be a sad day.

Readers, what about you? What do you find sacrosanct about the Doctor?

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Update #2 to the Feminist Take on Doctor Who’s Clara Oswin Oswald

Posted on May 5, 2013 | 1 comment

For the last few weeks I’ve been doing a feminist take on the character of Clara Oswin Oswald in Doctor Who (here and here). How well does her character measure up to expectations of twenty-first century feminists?

I must admit defeat. Her character is a mystery. She is “the woman twice dead.” The Clara we are seeing now (Modern Clara) is for all intents and purposes a normal young women. However, we’ve met her twice before in other times and places (Dalek Clara and Victorian Clara). Both times, she’s died. If you put all three Claras together, what you get is an incredibly rich characterization. If you take Modern Clara by herself, though, she looks to me like the cardboard cutout of a strong female character. Too clever, too perceptive, and too fearless to be believable as portrayed. (Please don’t misunderstand me. I’m not saying I don’t think a woman could be this clever, perceptive, and fearless. I believed Dalek Clara and Victorian Clara would be. Just not Modern Clara.)

This latest episode, “The Crimson Horror,” didn’t change my impressions of Modern Clara. It was a feminist masterpiece altogether. Bechdel wins all over the place, a fabulous critique of eugenics, a mixed-race lesbian couple, and eight strong female characters all in the space of a forty-eight(?) minute episode. The Doctor isn’t even the focus of the show: it begins with a chambermaid rescuing the Doctor and ends with a mixed-race girl confronting Clara with the results of a remarkable research project. Clara, though, stayed mainly the same.

So I give up. There’s no “Feminist Take” here. Clara’s character is clearly headed in some direction or other. I don’t know what it is. No more updates until I find out.

I do know, though, that this journey of discovery is going to be a lot of fun.

P.S. Update #3, from Series 8, is here. 

 

clara with ladder

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Doctor Who: Where Should I Start?

Posted on May 4, 2013 | Leave a comment

So there’s this phenomenon: people are hearing about this Doctor Who thing and wondering where to start. It’s intimidating. The show’s had, what, 700 episodes? There have been 11 characters playing the main part. Should I watch them in order? How ever do you get all the backstory?

That part’s easy. There’s this guy. He has a time machine that also travels in space. He can’t control her. He almost always travels with one or more companions.

That’s all you really need to know.

screwdriver and book2

As for where to start, I recommend the middle. Any episode. The very first episode started in the middle.

Prepare for hokiness, even in the very best episodes, even in the Hugo award-winning ones. It’s supposed to be fun.

How do you know if you’re starting with a good episode? Well . . . maybe you shouldn’t. Maybe you should start with a so-so episode. And if you still like it, mission accomplished!

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Persuasive Writing for Activists: The Purpose

Posted on April 30, 2013 | Leave a comment

This blog post is part of a series on persuasive writing for activists. Check back weekly for new content.

Last week I talked about how to do a prewrite. This planning will give you a better sense of what you are trying to accomplish, who you are trying to reach, and what you want them to do.

This week we’ll focus on purpose. What is the issue you’re concerned about? Why are you writing about it? What do you hope to accomplish? What are your short term and long term goals?

Here is an example of a bad purpose for persuasive writing: “I want people to know about how big a problem my issue is!” What’s missing here? There’s nothing for them to do.

Here’s an even worse one: “I can’t believe how awful this is! I just have to get it off my chest!” Then it’s not even persuasive writing at all. It’s a vent session. There’s nothing wrong with a vent session — just don’t try to make it into something it’s not.

So let’s turn this around. Let’s say that instead of wanting to express how horrifically bad everything is, we want to convince people that it can be made better. If so, how? Do you have a big picture vision? If so, what is a small step that someone can do that will get them involved?

Once you figure all this out, you’ll be ready to persuade your audience of three things: first, that your issue is a big problem; second, that you have at least part of the solution; and third, that they can take an action to contribute to the solution.

Here’s an example from the United Opt Out website. This article has several purposes:

1. To inform people that there is a problem with the release of confidential student records.

2. To persuade people that it’s important to act on this problem.

3. To ask people to take a specific action.

It begins,

Did you know that Jefferson County Public Schools will share confidential and personal student records with a corporation and store them on a data “cloud” without parental consent?

This is already persuasive, because it will immediately concern parents. The entry also goes on to add more details about what kind of information will be released.

One thing that is missing is that this particular article doesn’t work to convince people that they have a solution. There is a broad solution elsewhere on the web site – the group is “dedicated to the elimination of high stakes testing in public education.” So that’s good. But there isn’t a solution presented for this particular issue. Can this release of data be stopped? How? Maybe nobody knows. Activism would be a lot easier if we had all the solutions.

Finally, this article has an ask. The purpose isn’t just to alarm people, it’s to work toward a solution. Here’s the ask:

Please join concerned parents and education activists on May 16th starting at 8:00 a.m., for a rally right outside the front doors of the Colorado Department of Education, and then attend the 9:00-11:00 A.M. public study session, hosted by the CO State Dept. of Ed., to learn more about inBloom.

Check back next week for an entry on knowing your audience.

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