This is a re-blog from Sidonie’s site, but she’s so cute I could not resist:
OK, so it’s not the best “hello†she’s said yet – often she actually manages to do the full “h†sound, and doesn’t go up at the end, so you can really hear it enunciated properly (like mother, like daughter); but we thought it was great to finally get something on video – and it’s in context, so you know it’s real, people! Click to play.
I’ve just finished reading my friend Justine’s first trilogy, Magic or Madness – Young Adult Fiction – and it’s great. Mostly intended for teens (without condescending to them), and widely read by adults — her husband, an old friend of my wife’s, Scott, has been on the NYT bestseller list a few times – I’ve been enjoying YAF since the two of them introduced me to the genre.
spoiler warning
The basic premise is simple in that “clear and easy to understand, but I never would have thought of that and it’s so cool” kind of way. Here it is: magic (for those who have it), tho wondrous, drains your life any time you use it – most magic folk consider themselves extremely lucky if they reach the age of forty; but if you don’t use it, prolonging your life, you go mad. Oh, and you can steal magic from others, shortening their lives while making your own longer.
As you can imagine, this creates all kinds of interesting (and horrible) relationships, especially among magic friends and family, and we follow 15-year-old Reason Cansino over the course of (I think it’s about) 2 weeks, from her discovery of magic, her learning how to use it, her wielding of massive amounts of power, her unfolding of the lies and deceit in her family because of (and through) magic, and finally the destruction of magic (at least across the hundreds of living magic-wielders in her own family).
Aside from being well-written, surprising, suspenseful and fun, the final book left me in awe of just how much Justine trusts her readers – children and adults alike. Cory Doctorow (boing boing) called the ending very risky, “really disturbing and thought-provoking… a direction I hadn’t expected and that has me thinking about it still.” Magic becomes an allegory for money, power and greed, where a little is needed to live (once you enter the system – like capitalism, perhaps?), but the more you have the more you want, and of course, there is only one top dog: isolated, and without humanity.
But it’s also not so simple as it sounds – some of her characters are stripped of their magic without them wanting to be, others are left magical without knowledge or choice. And while Reason opts out of magic, one of her friends, Tom, does not; he keeps his magic, and his foreshortened life. Justine is careful in her writing of his justification (“magic is who he is”), and leaves us hanging as to how he will turn out (he is the only character in the book that is never selfish with his magic, has never attempted to steal anyone else’s, and has even given it away when others needed it — but then again, he’s still young). We as readers are not meant to judge, and we only hope he will walk the lines between need and greed, power and responsibility.
Nice, J. Recommended.
Fantastic interview. Available in Windows Media Player or Quicktime.
via Joy at NewsGrist, who got it via email:
via email:
WASHINGTON, D.C.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
HIGH CRIMES AND MISDEMEANORS – WE WILL NOT BE SILENT
Multiple actions occurred in the early afternoon today inside the Hart Senate Office Building. Eight New York
activists were among the 15 plus arrested.
TODAY, APRIL 26, 2007, A.R.T.* OCCUPIED THE HALLS OF CONGRESS IN A DRAMATIC TWO-PART ACTION.
First, in a massive distribution, A.R.T. hand-delivered a 20-page tabloid petition to every representative. It contained documentary evidence for indictments, literally putting impeachment back on the table.
Then, at 1PM, in a spectacular visual feat, A.R.T displayed the full text of Article II, Section 4 to the Senate as a 30-foot banner drop in the Hart Office Building atrium. A second 30-foot banner read “YOUR SILENCE YOUR LEGACY”. Organizers said, “We must magnify the refusal of Congress to uphold the Constitution. Their silence equals complicity in the flagrant crimes of this administration.”
Contact: *A.R.T. (Activist Response Team)
email: stateofemergencyaction@gmail.com
There’s the “Body in Quotes” panel at the Borders, Boundaries & Liminal States conference in Second Life. Sponsored by Ars Virtua New Media Center, and the CADRE Laboratory for New Media, and hosted at the Amphitheater on Learning (NMC Virtual Worlds). From stage left to stage right is Xerxes Druart (Stuart Bunt of SymbioticA) , Wirxli Flimflam (Jeremy Turner), Natberg Sternberg (me) and The Unknown (Carlos Castellanos – moderator). I think I’m cool cuz I know that Pling Ping, the avatar up front and on the left from the camera lense, is Jo Greene of Turbulence. We like her.
WIrxli has a fantastic summary of his talk and some images of the panel etc over at his blog. I had no idea he had so many avatars, and it was fun to have a bodyguard protecting the guy sitting next to me in SL. He also says my audio kept crashing, which sucks. I had no idea. Oh well. I’m not gonna paste my notes, like he did, cuz they are mostly disorganized, but I will say that a draft of the short paper where most of my ideas come from will be online in the next few weeks. It mostly looks at affect and body-environment coupling in and around the space of the computer, network, crying babies and spouses, all between RL self and avatar self, and how those might disperse and interfere with one another. Next time I try to use ventrilio and SL at the same time, I will go into the office rather than trying to use my home connection….
Stuart’s work blew me away – he is a bio-engineer that works on a team facilitating art and artists (the likes of Stelarc). Some of his recent work includes pigs with wings, and attaching a homegrown ear to Stelarc’s forearm; oh and, the one my veggie wife likes, they “grew” a leather jacket so as not to harm a cow!
Thanks to all on the panel, and to Carlos…
