Kestrell

Right off the bat, I need to tell you, this isn't a review. I could have reviewed the first three/quarters of this two-part film, the part where George Carlin hones his persona--because we get to hear, through George Carlin's own words, that this isn't just an act, it's his own transformation we're being witness to--as a standup comic, where he's cracking jokes, making the audience laugh, playing with words.

And Carlin didn't just play with words: he frolicked, he capered, he staged a three-ring semiotic circus.


But along about the mid-eighties, and definitely by the '90s, George Carlin stopped playing, and his words turned deadly.

While watching the recordings of Carlin's live shows in the 1990s, I kept thinking of those Celtic bards who could curse a king with their song.

But it gets darker than that, much darker, because at one point near the end of the movie there is a montage of all the things George Carlin raged against and his words play over a visual montage of our recent news stories, and you realize this is a man who was seventy-one when he died, and he knew he was dying, and he spent the final decade of his life yelling at us to stop fucking up, because he wanted to warn us that we don't have that many chances left to stop fucking up.

You can read more about the film at this link, and also catch some sound clips. I'm also not surprised at NPR actually censoring and refusing to utter the dirty words, even now, and doesn't the "On Air" show air at night anyway?

https://www.npr.org/2022/05/20/1100342905/american-dream-documentary-examines-george-carlins-triumphs-and-demons

Readercon 31
https://www.readercon.org/
will be taking place August 13-15, and will be virtual.
The guests of honor are Ursula Vernon and Jeffrey Ford, with the Memorial Guest of Honor Vonda N. McIntyre.
YouTube will be used to view panels, talks, readings, performances, and events, via links shared in our members-only Discord server
Discord will be used to participate in Q&As, visit virtual fan tables, attend launch parties, chat in kaffeeklatsches, and otherwise interact with program participants and other attendees during and between sessions.

The program can be downloaded in several formats, including an accessible plain text file,
here
https://www.readercon.org/program

I'm on two panels:

Saturday - 2:00 PM
Main Track 1 - I'm In: Infiltration Techniques for Writers - Toni "Leigh Perry" Kelner, Catherynne M. Valente, Kestrell Verlager, Elizabeth Wein, Fran Wilde (mod)
How can characters get into spaces they aren't supposed to be, whether physical or virtual? What makes these scenes feel plausible? Panelists will analyze the literary possibilities in various infiltration techniques--including those that rely on technical skills (such as lockpicking or hacking) and those that rely on social engineering--and suggest useful reference works and successful fictional depictions.

Sunday - 10:00 AM
Main Track 1 - L'État, C'est Quoi? Social Organization in SF/F - Terri Bruce, Ian R. Macleod, Kathryn Morrow, Malka Older (mod), Kestrell Verlager
Let's talk about modes of social organization in science fiction and fantasy: nations, kingdoms, empires, anarcho-syndicalist communes, hives, necromantic capitalism, and more. How do shifts in real-world politics change how we read speculative fiction's use of both real and imagined forms of government? Why is it so hard to make up truly novel social systems, and what does that tell us about how we perceive human (and inhuman) nature?

Here's a great list by the BPL
https://bpl.bibliocommons.com/list/share/1224854357_bostonpl_veronicakm/1299669927_bostonpl_celebrate_indigenous_authors_19_titles_for_national_native_american_heritage_month

which includes one of my favorite authors of 2020, Rebecca Roanhorse, and her new book _Black Sun_.
Another Native American author of spec fiction, Darcie Little Badger, also has a book which came out recently, _Elatsoe_.

Remember: you can send Hoopla items to your Kindle Fire
https://library.austintexas.libanswers.com/friendly.php?slug=faq/96435
I just used this method to borrow
Trickster: Native American Tales, A Graphic Collection
by Matt Dembicki
24 Native storytellers were paired with 24 comic artists, telling cultural tales from across America. Ranging from serious and dramatic to funny and sometimes downright fiendish, these tales bring tricksters back into popular culture.

Kes: I had made up more notes of material than I actually said during the panel, so some of this will be new.

Recommended book: _Trickster Makes This World: Mischief, Myth, and Art_ by Lewis Hyde
Recommended story: Buffalo Girls Won't You Come Out Tonight by Ursula Le Guin - A must-read featuring a female coyote

My top 3 tricksters in speculative fiction:
1. Miles Vorkosigan in the series by Lois McMaster-Bujold, especially as Miles is disabled, but unstoppable: Miles was a real inspiration for me, be afraid, be very afraid.

2. "Repent Harlequin, Said the Tick-Tock Man" by Harlan Ellison
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gpzRHX78TqE f

_Rainbowz End_ by Vernor Vinge - has a hacker character whose avatar is a white rabbit, rabbits also being a traditional trickster in the southwest and Louisiana Cajun culture


Gillian Daniels, the moderator, asked panelists to name their favorite trickster, but I never met a trickster I didn't like, so I really can't just name one, so
Hermes, because he is the god of language and technology, and because he travels between
Coyote, because he can get out of or into anything, plus, as a person with prosthetic eyes, coyote and his detachable body parts has to be in my personal pantheon, especially in the story "Coyote Juggles His Eyes" (lots of versions in text and video form all over the Web)
and Loki, because he is such an instigator, full of scathing language, a shapeshifter, and possesses definitely qualifies as queer

My other favorite tricksters:
Hermes' kids and grankids: Pan, Autolykus, Odysseus, and Iambe (see below)
Puck
pooka, puca - an Irish shapeshifter often appearing as a black horse (_Tamsin_ by Peter Beagle) or a black dog (_War for the Oaks_ by Emma Bull). "Harvey" (1950), Harvey is a six foot tall invisible rabbit that accompanies Jimmy Stewart's character around.
tanuki - Japanese racoon dog, a trickster and prankster associated with kitsune, shows up in manga, often shown as a fat jolly old man with ridiculously large testicles, statues of which are set outside Japanese sake bars
Tanuki at TV Tropes
https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/Tanuki
Tom Robbins wrote a novel, _Villa Incognito_, featuring Tanuki as its protagonist.

The Green Knight in "Sir Gawain and the Green Knight" (proposes a "game" at Christmas, a traditional time for jokes and games, and can walk about with his head underneath his arm--again with the detachable body parts)

( Read more... )