A (World) SFF Film Odyssey: Mutant Girls Squad (2010) and Anime’s Excesses
Warning: there are some graphic images in this post. NSFW. Not too long ago, I set myself the goal of viewing every SF/F film released in 2010. It figures that the first non-American film I decided to view would be one of the most ridiculous, violent, and bizarre films I have seen in a while. After being bullied by her classmates, high school student Rin (Yumi Sugimoto) returns home to discover that her father is actually a humanoid mutant known as a HILKO (or hiruko — the subtitles use HILKO, but descriptions of the film use “hiruko,” so I’m not sure which one is correct). But before she can take in this surprising news and its implications for herself, she and her parents are attacked by an anti-HILKO military unit. What follows is an all out bloodbath as Rin tries to escape not only the military, but the blood-thirst of her home town. Later, she is picked up by other HILKO members and trained and indoctrinated into a violent counter-revolutionary force run by Kisaragi (Tak Sakaguchi), who believes his pack of teen girl HILKOs are the perfect fighting force for making Japan a human-free zone.
Feminism in Science Fiction and Being a Feminist Ally
I had an interesting conversation with a good friend of mine the other day. She’s far more educated in Feminism than I — I never took a Women’s Studies course at the University, nor did I have many Feminist friends in college. (I was a geek.) Therefore, I read as much as I can on my own, talk with other Feminists, and form my own opinions. My friend stated that she firmly believes that men cannot be Feminists. They can only be Feminist Allies. She believes that men who claim the Feminist label are prone to use their male privilege to define Feminism, which is, in itself, a form of oppression. In short, when the oppressor defines for the oppressed what is oppressive there’s an instant conflict of interest. I’m conflicted about this, I have to admit. On one hand, she has a point. I think of this argument whenever white people declare whether or not something is ‘racist.’ It swiftly mutates into dictating to another person what their feelings are — dictating to them the words (and situations) by which they’re allowed to be insulted. So. Not. Cool. On the other hand, I believe Feminism must be inclusive in order to work, and telling men they can’t be Feminists is being exclusive.
Saga (a Simon & Schuster Imprint) Picks Up Stina Leicht’s Flintlock Fantasy Series!
That title is a bit of a mouthful, but I wanted to make sure the gravity of the situation could sink in before you read the rest of this post. That’s right. Stina Leicht — one of our lovely hosts — has just announced her two book deal with Simon & Schuster imprint, Saga. And it’s a secondary-world flintlock fantasy. From the author of Of Blood and Honey and And Blue Skies From Pain. If that doesn’t entice you, then perhaps the description will: The future for the ancient Kingdom of Eledore is grim. A small pox epidemic is sweeping through the land. A decadent aristocracy employs immense magical powers to quibble with one another, and dominate the populace, the Regnum of Acrasia has declared a holy war against magic, and an ancient evil living beneath Eledore threatens to break free. Can Princess Suvi navigate her family’s deadly politics, create justice for her people, unify the survivors, and hold back a demon horde at the same time? Disowned and cast off, can her twin brother Nels successfully fight a war that no one is willing to acknowledge against a nation whose technology is far superior? You can read more about the books on Stina’s blog (including a little snippet). Needless to say, we’re super excited about these books and cannot wait for them to be in our hands! Delicate, book-loving hands. After all, Jen and I have spent the last three years handselling Stina’s previous books on the intergalactic scene, so we’re happy we’ll get to handsell some more of her work (this time to the Necrophages of Sirius, who are really into that whole flintlock thing). Congrats to Stina and to Simon & Schuster’s new imprint, which will clearly be successful because they have good taste.
Mining the Genre Asteroid: Rite of Passage by Alexei Panshin
A century and a half after Earth has been wrecked, humanity exists in two spheres. There are the hardscrabble colonies, where survival is the watchword, as man tries to live on alien, often unfriendly environments. The people are often poor, desperate and technologically backward. And then there are the Ships that travel the spaceways. Technologically advanced and relatively rich, the Ships have a strict regime for keeping themselves from being overpopulated. Every person who reaches their fourteenth birthday must train for an ordeal called the Trial.
Fundraiser: Bring The Skiffy and Fanty Show and the World SF Tour to Worldcon in London!
Worldcon is coming! I want to bring The Skiffy and Fanty Show and the World SF Tour there this August. And I need your help raising the funds to travel to London to make this happen! What is the World SF Tour? Throughout 2014, The Skiffy and Fanty Show will focus much of its attention on science fiction and fantasy works from places outside of the United States. This will consist of interviews, movie discussions, the occasional Torture Cinema special, and discussions of World SF w/ locals. It’s a fairly large project, but it’s one I think is worthwhile. Additional details about the project can be found here. What I’m Going to Do:
My Superpower: Gregory A. Wilson
My Superpower is a regular guest column on the Skiffy and Fanty blog where authors and creators tell us about one weird skill, neat trick, highly specialized cybernetic upgrade, or other superpower they have, and how it helped (or hindered!) their creative process as they built their project. Today we welcome Gregory A. Wilson to talk about his paternal hilarity. —————————————————— A quick perusal of previous My Superpower entries on Skiffy and Fanty reveals one essential truth: like rappers, for whom every other rapper is a sucker MC afraid to step to the mic and face the miraculous madness (I’m patenting that, by the way — it’s got just enough street cred to work), many contributors to this guest column are anxious to claim that their superpowers are more badass than everyone else’s — even when they involve creating apparently self-deprecating yet still awesome powers like (I quote) “a Non-Event Sphere” where nothing happens, or (again I quote) being “selectively stupid.” So I wish to go on the record and say, right at the outset, that my particular superpower is not likely to trump anyone else’s. You may well have this superpower yourself, and it may even be more powerful than mine. I may be the sucker MC (I’m certainly afraid of the miraculous madness). It’s not broadly applicable or particularly useful outside of one specific context. But within that context, my superpower is completely MC-style legit. I am funny as hell. To my six year old.
