Monthly Archives: October 2011

ficnotes: in the beginning there was the word [massive fic round-up]

07 Friday Oct 2011

Posted by in fandom

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

,

I started this post a few weeks ago, when Hanna found a Mycroft/Lestrade fic written entirely in fictional texts. One word: Adorable. This got me thinking about a number of other fics (“Mystrade” and otherwise) that have used love letters, texts, electronic communications, poetry, and the old-fashioned love-letter as means for their characters to finally, finally connect the dots.

So as my gift to you for this three-day weekend, here’s my round-up of fic that uses text-based communication as the wooing-method-of-choice. I threw in a few biblio-centric fics because, well, how could I not?

via

Title: Told In Texts
Author: et_cetera55
Pairing: Mycroft/Lestrade
Rating: PG-13
Why should you bother?: This is the fic Hanna found — the rare story told entirely in dialog (er, text messages).

Title: TBA
Author: blooms84
Pairing: Mycroft/Lestrade
Rating: Gen
Why should you bother?: Notebook!porn is all I’m sayin’.

Title: In which Anthea is helpful and Sherlock discovers the truth
Author: blooms84
Pairing: Mycroft/Lestrade
Rating: Gen
Why should you bother?: Part of the “Anthea Takes Control” series, which is enjoyable in its own right. I’m growing to enjoy the subgenre of “Sherlock reaction” fics that belong to the Mycroft/Lestrade fandom. Plus Anthea-is-a-ninja is always a joy to behold.

Title: Please Confirm You Are a Human Below
Author: mesmiranda
Pairing: Mycroft/Lestrade
Rating: PG
Why should you bother?: Mycroft courts Lestrade by taking control of various technological interfaces and also competes for attention from the DI with Lestrade’s cat.

via

Title: and stand there at the edge of my affection
Author: coloredink
Pairing: Sherlock/John
Rating: Gen
Why should you bother?: Sherlock thinks asking John to help him write a love letter is the logical solution.

Title: Pieces of Eight
Author: sheffiesharpe
Pairing: Sherlock/John
Rating: Explicit
Why should you bother?: Sherlock doesn’t understand why John enjoys re-reading Treasure Island and tries to get John to explain. Things take a turn for the decidedly-less-literary. It’s still bibliophile porn, though.

via

Title: Doing Things the Old Fashioned Way
Author: Sarren
Pairing: Lewis/Hathaway
Rating: Mature
Why should you bother?: Hathaway helps Lewis set up an online dating profile which leads to questions of sexual orientation and, well, other things. “Well, I guess they could fill out two profiles,” Hathaway said, his voice oddly neutral. “Is that what they want me to do for them?”

Title: Punctuation Series
Author: dogpoet
Pairing: Lewis/Hathaway
Rating: Gen, Explicit (six parts)
Why should you bother?: The summary for the first fic reads, “He’d never even noticed apostrophes before he met Hathaway.”

via

Title: Texts From Last Night: A Ridiculous SPN Text Comedy
Author: Xela
Pairing: Dean/Cas
Rating: Mature
Why should you bother?: A series of drunk texts from Dean leads Sam on a morning-after hunt for his brother and Castiel …

Title: Comment Fics: “Untitled Dean/Cas” and “Wrong Number”
Author: twfftw
Pairing: Dean/Castiel
Rating: PG-13
Why should you bother?: twfftw’s fics are hilarious, usually Dean/Castiel relationship fics from the point of view of a long-suffering Sam. In “Untitled Dean/Cas” Sam and Gabriel text back and forth about how clueless Dean and Cas are about their desire for one another. In “Wrong Number,” Dean sends a text to Sam that seems meant for someone else …

Title: Things Dean Winchester Loves
Author: everysecondtuesday
Pairing: Dean/Castiel
Rating: R
What should you bother?: Because of Castiel’s indecision re: whether Dean loves the Impala or pie more, and how Dean answers the question when he finally finds the list and adds his own commentary.

Title: Four Things Not to Do With a Cell Phone
Author: the_trepverter
Pairing: Dean/Castiel
Rating: PG
Why should you bother?: “Technology is so very frustrating to Cas.”

Title: Bible Study
Author: Misachan
Pairing: Dean/Castiel
Rating: Explicit
Why should you bother?: Um … it’s Castiel seducing Dean over the phone using the Song of Songs. What’s not to like?

Title: The (Mostly) Accidental Courtship of Dean Winchester
Author: everysecondtuesday
Pairing: Dean/Castiel
Rating: R
Why should you bother?: Okay, so I cheated a little with this one in that it’s not exactly text-based communication. But Cas tries to communicate with Dean via translating angel texts for him. It’s not his fault that Dean doesn’t get the hint, is it?

via

Title: Paper Monsters [work-in-progress]
Author: Clocks
Pairing: Charles Xavier/Erik Lehnsherr
Rating: Explicit
Why should you bother?: Because Charles gets fucked in the library up against the selected works of H.P. Lovecraft.

Title: Perfection
Author: orange-crushed
Pairing: Charles Xavier/Erik Lehnsherr
Rating: PG
Why should you bother?: When Erik struggles with nightmares, Charles reads him Origin of Species to soothe the night terrors away.

there is no femslash on this list (argh!)
but I promise to write some about these two soon!

And if fic is your thing, a reminder that Hanna and I — along with our other fic-loving friends — have our fanfic tumblr everything is gay and nothing hurts up and running. This week’s theme was kittens! So if you want regular fanfic recommendations, please stroll on over and join the party.

our bodies, ourselves @ forty (+ me!)

05 Wednesday Oct 2011

Posted by in my historian hat

≈ 5 Comments

Tags

, , , , ,

(photo by Hanna)

The feminist classic, Our Bodies, Ourselves, turns forty this year and has just been issued in a revised edition that was multiple years in the making. How do I know this? Because I got to be a part of the process! Long-time readers might remember when I posted a call for participants in the revision process back in January 2010. Well, in addition to broadcasting the call I also submitted my own name to the editors and was invited to join them in a virtual focus group discussion on intimate relationships. This conversation eventually turned into the “Relationships” chapter in the new edition, and many of the passages that didn’t make it into that chapter have been used in other sections — I found bits and pieces from my contributions in the chapters on sexual orientation and on sexuality, for example.*

my contributor’s copy, signed by the editorial team!
(photo by Hanna)

I don’t think I can adequately convey to you how proud I am to be a part of the OBOS project. My mother’s battered copy of Our Bodies, Ourselves was my constant companion through adolescence and, among other things, was my first exposure to explicitly feminist analysis, my first exposure to the idea of same-sex relationships, and my introduction to masturbation and how to do it. One of the first things I did when I moved out to Boston in 2007 was to visit the Schlesinger library at Radcliffe and browse the records of the Boston Women’s Health Book Collective — the group that put together the first mimeographed edition of OBOS back in 1970. It’s an incredible honor to have had the opportunity to add my perspective to the myriad other voices that have been part of this international endeavor throughout the past forty years.

It’s so strange to see your own words on the printed page…

This past Saturday, women from around the globe gathered here at Boston University for a symposium in honor of the new edition. I wasn’t able to make the gathering because of a scheduling conflict (and, frankly, because it sounded like a long day with too many new people to make small talk with!) … but I’m looking forward to checking out the web video of the talks once those go up online. If/when they become available, I’ll be sure to post a link here!

Here’s hoping that OBOS (and I!) will be around in another forty years to celebrate eighty incredible years of women teaching and learning one another about their bodies, their sexuality, their relationships, their values, and their lives.

Update: Thanks to OBOS for mentioning this post in their introduction to the Relationships chapter online! Welcome to anyone who’s come to visit the feminist librarian via their link. You are most welcome.

*It’s standard OBOS practice to keep all of the in-text quotations anonymous in order to protect contributors’ privacy. For the “Relationships” chapter we all chose pseudonyms; if you know me and you care to figure it out you’ll be able to identify me through my bio at the beginning of the chapter.

from the neighborhood: shirley moves to maine

03 Monday Oct 2011

Posted by in our family

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , ,

This passed Saturday, Hanna and I drove up to the Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens to visit with her mom and dad. Linda was exhibiting at the Maine Fiber Arts Showcase. It was a rainy afternoon, but luckily the fiber arts event was inside the visitor’s center.

As usually happens when we visit with Hanna’s parents, we drove north with things to give/return to them and they met us with more things for us to take south again … a new sweater for Hanna, the tam that Linda knit me for Christmas and finally blocked, and what Hanna has termed “the rudest thing ever”:

Kevin with the rude squash (photo by Linda)

In exchange, we finally allowed Shirley — the stuffed sheep from Michigan that we gave Linda for her birthday in July — to move to her forever home in Maine.

Shirley and Linda at Linda’s display booth (photo by Anna)

The garden is impressive in size and scope, although we didn’t get a chance to see much of it in the rain. One section is the fairy house village. I think this is where these magical creations were headed:

fairy houses in the garden library (photo by Anna)
a fairy castle? tree house? (photo by Anna)
Shirley got a bit chilled (photo by Anna)

When we got home, Geraldine was pissy because we had left her alone all Saturday — but she was somewhat mollified by the four new rag rugs we brought home, courtesy of Linda. Rag rugs are clearly for kitties to sleep on, not for humans to place their feet.

enigmatic cat is enigmatic (photo by Hanna)

Cross-posted at …fly over me, evil angel….

harpy fortnight: not-back-to-school edition

02 Sunday Oct 2011

Posted by in linkspam

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

steampunk wings by lachwen

Anyone else psyched it’s October? Autumn leaves! Apple sauce! Hot cocoa! Acorn squash!

*cough*cough*

In any event, here’s what we were up to during September over at The Pursuit of Harpyness.

I continued my series on Jessica Yee’s Feminism For Real which several folks have encouragingly told me is thought-provoking and useful to them. This month we covered:

I also wrote, as usual, on other related and not-so-related topics:

Other Harpies have written about the abortion story arc in Grey’s Anatomy, the anxieties of self-promotion (or self-advocacy), reflections on the Racialicious roundtables on interracial dating, and an ode to a CEO who understands the delicate balancing act of work and family life.

As always, hop on over to Harpyness to join us in the conversation(s).