Escaping the Trunk

One of the reasons I haven’t blogged very much recently is that I’ve been so damn busy. I went away for a while to a lake up north, where I worked on the story in this subject heading as well as a couple of others (I even did some foresighting work, if you can believe that). The good news is that all of the stories I was working on were requests from other people — this one came from Rudy Rucker. In his words on the story, Rudy called it “a profound and richly felt piece so closely rooted in reality that it barely feels like SF,” and “an important story-essay on women’s rights.”

This story actually came about as a consequence of my involvement in the Strategic Foresight & Innovation program at the Ontario College of Art and Design. Initially, I wrote a fictional essay about the fall of Shenzhen from a systems theory perspective, invoking Donella Meadows and Jamshid Gharajedaghi and Clayton Christensen. It was an interesting exercise, one that I delayed starting for too long because I was stymied and had been working on my novel re-writes. I was in desperate need to write some short fiction, so (as I have done before) I turned in some instead of turning in a straight paper.

The story linked above has been cut significantly from that first essay, and a new subjectivity has taken the POV position within the story because the footnotes and bibliography and conceptual framing for systems theory has been removed. It took me a long time to re-frame the story appropriately, but I finally settled on a woman in the Quiverfull movement. Quiver-minded people follow Psalm 127:3-5:

Lo, children are an heritage of the LORD:
and the fruit of the womb is his reward.
As arrows are in the hand of a mighty man;
so are children of the youth.
Happy is the man that hath his quiver full of them:
they shall not be ashamed,
but they shall speak with the enemies in the gate.

I felt that a Quiver-minded woman would be uniquely positioned to speak to China’s only child policy, because while she eschewed any form of birth control, the women of China are legally obligated to embrace it. I’ve always been fascinated by reproductive policy, and I thought it would be interesting to bring this dichotomy into focus. I also knew it would mean delving into two worlds that I knew very little about: the factories of Shenzhen, and the farms and households of Quiver-minded families.

Conditions in both environments can be terrible.

The reasons for this should be obvious. In the worst of both cases, rigid patriarchy oppresses women who live almost barrack-style, endlessly performing the same tasks during their sixteen-hour days for very little reward and with little opportunity for open communication or self-expression. I recommend reading No Longer Quivering for insights into the consequences of the Quiverfull lifestyle, and this Fortune City post about working conditions in Shenzhen. (Or you could just read Cory’s latest, For the Win.)

This isn’t to say that I’m some sort of moral authority on either subject. I’m typing this on a Mac, which means I’m a consumer of Foxconn products, products made in factories where conditions are so awful that suicide is a regular occurrence among employees. I also don’t think that the entirety of the Quiverfull movement needs to die. Mary Pride, the author who in many ways began the movement, has since spoken out against Biblical patriarchy. Some might see this as a reversal, but to me it’s a more nuanced understanding of one’s own opinion and its consequences. I felt that I hadn’t really nailed the voice of this story until I read Pride’s post.

I also think that there are a surprising number of connections between the Quiverfull lifestyle and the DIY maker/crafter one espoused at BoingBoing and elsewhere online by avowed atheists. Having a lot of children (some Quiverfull families can have more than twenty) means learning how to stretch a dollar (that’s putting it mildly) and learning how to make consumables as cheaply as possible. In particular, I was fascinated by the women of the West family, who have turned their DIY expertise into a profitable video series for the Christian market. (Their blog is great, too. Warning: music.) Here’s a taste:

This isn’t a lifestyle that I can see myself living, but it is one that I can respect, and it’s part of how I found my way into the story. Personally, I find the idea of life without birth control horrifying, in a screamingly awful “I Have No Mouth But I Must Scream” kind of way. But part of being pro-choice is believing in the sanctity of the choice. Our bodies are ours to do with as we will. Anything less is slavery. And slavery takes more forms than we know.

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Please excuse the over-exposure of this photo. It’s the inevitable consequence of low lighting and late eating. For a recent family birthday dinner, we visited Ferro, and this drink, the Negroni, convinced me to blog the location.
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A while ago, my friend Sara gave me a free sample of Starbucks’ new VIA instant coffee. She’s not much of a coffee drinker, but I am. I take a double-walled thermos with me most everywhere, and I am deeply in love with the Cuisinart Grind and Brew we purchased last year as an anniversary gift to each other, and most often we use it to brew Kicking Horse’s Hoodoo Joe blend. But sometimes, instant coffee is all you have, so one day when we were running low I decided to try the VIA.

Surprisingly, it wasn’t awful. I wouldn’t drink it every day, but if it were between VIA and a raging migraine, I’d probably go with VIA. I tweeted this, and my friend Tamara Sheehan revealed to me that no, VIA is really just freeze-dried cat piss, and that if I had any self-respect I’d be drinking some of her coffee. You see, in addition to being a writer of GLBTQ fiction for the YA crowd, Tamara works for Discovery Coffee Roasters in Victoria. When I jokingly requested samples, Tamara very generously sent me three blends from Discovery’s lineup.

This, my friends, is what Twitter is for.

What follows are my impressions from the samples that Tamara sent me. I think each is already successful in the Victoria, but I think they would do well in Toronto, too. Although Toronto has plenty of good coffee places, they’re not spread around very well. They’re concentrated in the downtown area, which means that there are inroads to be made further north, east, and west as those areas gentrify. I’ve never visited Discovery’s locations, but they seem like the kind of places I’d enjoy, and if I’m ever in Victoria I’ll definitely drop by. Discovery has the kind of operation that I remember from Seattle’s Caffé Vita: roasting, distribution, and training coupled with a few storefronts. It’s a smart business model, because it means increasing the reach of the brand without investing in a huge number of brick-and-mortars. And offering a training course for baristas means that third parties like hotels, etc. can ensure the quality of their espresso drinks without training every single person on staff in a business with high turnover. But at the heart, there has to be good coffee. Luckily, they have that part nailed.

El Salvador Finca Alaska

Most “medium” blends are a little too light, but this one evolves from its malty whole bean into a strong wash with a sharp, bright aftertaste. That sharpness softens with the addition of milk and sugar, resulting in a surprising chocolate flavour. This coffee feels like a people pleaser, and might make a good brunch offering or Christmas morning brew. Lighter roasts also contain more caffeine, so if you’re looking for more bang for your buck, this is a good choice.

Costa Rica Bioli

This triple blend of Central American beans bills itself as a big, solid cup of drip, and I couldn’t agree more. This is the coffee you want when you enter a diner. Any diner, anywhere, anytime, for any reason. This is the coffee Dean Winchester orders when Dean Winchester orders coffee. The flavour is bold enough to stand up to any combination of milk, sugar, Bailey’s, Jameson, or whatever other flavouring agent you deploy. You could probably also use the dregs to make red-eye gravy, if that’s your thing, or pair it with sweeter recipes where a strong coffee flavour is needed to complement a dark chocolate (as in a flourless torte) or offset a white chocolate (as in a biscotti).

House Espresso Blend:

We brewed this up as drip because our espresso maker has a cracked O-ring. I was surprised at how much I enjoyed it straight. Milk and sugar served only to throw it way off-base, and I think it’s best enjoyed without any accoutrements. I think it would also make a fine iced coffee for this very reason. (Iced coffee is almost impossible to sweeten appropriately without ready access to simple syrup or superfine caster sugar. But with really excellent coffee, this isn’t an issue.) However, my husband found it a little thin and generic. I suspect this was a function of brewing this blend as drip rather than espresso. Concentrated, this blend would definitely have more character and would not falter under pressure from milk, foam, or sweetener.

***

At this point, I should add that I’m obviously open to reviewing any other samples that are sent my way. I’m the kind of person who reads product reviews fairly regularly, and who thinks in granular detail about things like headphones, soap, and knives — the things I deal with on a daily basis. I have a small group of “favourite things” that I love interacting with and will promote to anyone who listens (including my Sony headphones, my Pacifica soap, and my Henckel knives), and I like adding to that list.

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Thank you, Jerry, for sharing this with me.

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Apparently I didn’t wear out my welcome talking about anime, because the folks at SF Signal’s MindMeld column asked me to participate in another round, this one on the coolest robots in science fiction. Snip:

I decided that the robots I love best are the ones who aren’t trying to be human. Why should they? What makes humans so special? Unless robots are built with a Shakespeare plugin that requires them to keep Hamlet Act II Scene ii in mind at all times, they have no automatic inclination to respect us. Not harming us, or through inaction not allowing us to come to harm, is not the same as respect or love. It’s babysitting.

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And Peter, who I saw it with, agrees with me.

A lot of people are whining about this movie and how morally depraved and empty it is. Here’s why:

Kick-Ass Red Band Hit Girl Trailer – Watch more Funny Videos

But you see, those people are wrong. Charlie Jane Anders brings up the important point that superhero films create a context for acceptable violence, but I think her argument, that this narrative frame is similar to the frame surrounding consensual harm in BDSM, needs refining and clarification. Moreover, the Silver Ager bemoaning of a seeming lack of moral centre in this film and other self-aware superhero films is, well, a whole lot of moaning and groaning and little else. Kick-Ass is almost painfully self-aware, yes. But it’s not morally bankrupt. The story makes a compelling statement about cowardice and fantasy, and the danger of both. And that statement is that fantasy can occasionally help us overcome cowardice, but that past a certain point it only serves to enable it. The film is full of cowards: not just the bystanders who see crimes unfolding and do nothing to stop them, but the men who send their children to fight their battles for them. And down to the last man, they all suffer for that act. It’s a neat, tidy statement to make in the context of two continuing wars. It just happens to come in the form of a really fun, bloody film.

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…I think. The time may change, but it will still be Sunday evening. Anyway, show up sometime evening-ish, and I will be there reading stories and answering questions. Here is a map.

I’ve visited InterAccess before for this event, ArtSciSalon, and it was a really interesting. We met someone who had made his own fabber, and I got to pick up the pieces and hold them. (The extruder ribs them for your pleasure. It’s great.) I took pictures with DeathRay’s phone, but forgot to download them to this drive.

Anyhow, I’ll try to think of something good to read, but if you do show up, please make sure to ask me some questions so that I’m not just sitting up there gawping like a goldfish and saying “Um…” a lot. It’s been a hellacious week at OCAD, and I’m not even sure what I’ll be able to knit together from my stretched and fraying threads of neuron. Granted, I should probably count my blessings: last Friday, I had two presentations, and this Friday, I only have one! And next week, only one more! And then I get to re-write a novel!

(You would not believe how excited I am about that last bit. Wow.)

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Charles Tan was kind enough to interview me about The Shine Anthology, and you can read it here.

Snip:

CT: What made you decide to write science fiction?

MA: A lot of things. I was raised in a science fiction household. My dad had this copy of “To Sail Beyond the Sunset” under the bed, the one with Maureen doing her Birth of Venus thing on the cover. We also had the Dune and Foundation novels around, and we watched a lot of media SF on television. But I didn’t really want to write it until university, when I was studying it academically, and when I had already watched a lot of SF anime, which in my opinion is usually far better than live-action SF TV from the States or elsewhere. Plus, I knew it was an area where I could distinguish myself. There are throngs of women in their twenties writing about vampires and angels. But my thing is robots, and the humans who love them, right up until the moment their hearts are ripped from their chests.

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And you can read it here.

I’m slowly figuring out the Tor.com backend. It may sound strange, but at this point I think I’ve worked with just about every major blogging platform there is at one time or another. (I should put that on a CV somewhere, now that I think of it.) Even so, I find that I write most of my posts (for everyone, not just Tor) in HTML. It’s just easier, once you know the tags. Not that I can do anything fancy, but for my purposes it suits.

One thing that’s really surprised me about my posting at Tor is the enthusiasm of the response. When I started, I was a little worried that no one would care. But no — people are commenting, and hauling out their DVD’s, and watching right along with me. Then again, this is Cowboy Bebop, a show everyone loves. (I know there are people out there who don’t get it — those people are psychopaths incapable of empathy.) The real test might come when I write about a show that doesn’t have such a firmly-established audience. Luckily, I have over twenty episodes between then and now to hone my skills.

Speaking of which, I’m really enjoying how re-watching each episode forces me to dissect the plot. I noticed it especially this time, but I hope it continues as a trend. One of the things my own stories get criticized for sometimes is their lack of apparent logic. The plot is clear to me, but not to other people. So hopefully this will prove a useful exercise for me in understanding the gestures of plot and how to clarify the links between events.

I’ve been fighting a cold all week, so there isn’t much more to say. I feel like I’ve spent the latter half of the week wrapped up in a fog, and I spent yesterday afternoon in class coughing and sneezing. I fell asleep last night at 9:30. 9:30. That didn’t even happen when I was a child. Clearly, there’s something wrong. I think it’s in everyone’s best interest if I just go back to bed and try to read until I can go to sleep.

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You can read it here at Tor.com.

It’s been really hard to sit on this news. I’ve only told a handful of people, so it feels really good to show this post off to everyone. For a post regarding a series I’ve watched over and over, it took a surprisingly long amount of time. Frequently, I found myself wanting to cram in another detail or observation, feeling frustrated that I couldn’t talk about everything that makes Bebop as wonderful with anything resembling efficiency or eloquence. Luckily, I have twenty-five more episodes and an OVA to continue commenting on, so hopefully my skills will improve.

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