Just like abortion, there is a problem with rape in this country. And this is a spiderweb with lots of rays coming off of it. Reporting it, cops that do nothing about it, the emotional aftereffects of the victim, of the accused, worries (unfounded) about false accusations, post-rape interaction with the victim, how doctors and judges and other people treat you, etc. But I think the biggest problem is that the definition of rape hasn’t been established. You’d think it’d be basic, but it’s not. Terms like “penetration without consent” and “force” and “deceit or seduction” can get shapeless when you pick them apart (as you do in court trials)…
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The Books I Read: September – October 2013
Libriomancer by Jim C. Hines Jim C. Hines is good at set dressing, but less so with character + plot combos. I wish I could come up with overall ideas like him, but that’s about all I wish for. The story, like his other stories, are very linear and take all place in the immediate present with little thought to backstory or contemplation. I feel like his characters don’t drive the plot, events do. And the result is I don’t have much sense of character. No sense that this matters to the character personally, only immediately. So there’s no literary devices, no foreshadowing, no flashbacks, no Easter eggs, no moments…
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The Books I Read: July – August 2013
The She-Hulk Diaries by Marta Acosta I had high expectations for this book — a novel about a superheroine who usually doesn’t make it past the comic books. I was hoping that, since Jennifer Walters is a lawyer, the book would be about some courtroom drama, a la John Grisham, but with the added complication of superheroes. Despite it being The She-Hulk Diaries, She-Hulk is barely in it. It’s more about Jennifer Walters, her human form, and her “girl problems”. The crux of the story is Jennifer tooling around, talking to her friend, and trying to get a job. She spends way too much time obsessing over boyfriends — past,…
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I Can’t Talk About Rape Retraction
I’ve been reading and re-reading this I Can’t Talk About Rape post I wrote two years ago, and keep referring to when I get in Internet kerfuffles. The content and context is quite sensitive, and recent circumstances has forced me to re-evaluate my words. I write this blog with the attitude that no one is reading. Because really, no one was, and it was more freeing. But it’s no longer that simple. Commenters forced me to rethink about what I had said (see? you guys can change things! You just don’t need to yell.) Should I issue a retraction? Well, that would imply that I didn’t believe in what I…
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I Can’t Talk About Rape, So This Entry Contains Nothing About It
UPDATE: Please read this too. Jim C. Hines, who keeps getting more and more fascinating, has posted another entry about rape. He used to be a rape crisis counselor, so he knows a little better the reality of rape, rather than this collegiate newspaper. I can’t talk about it because one out of four women have been raped. If you haven’t been raped yourself, then that number is lower. If you have been raped, then that number is higher. So let’s say it all averages out to 1/4. That means either my mom, my sister, or my wife has been raped. If it’s my wife, I must have done it,…
