The All Is Well with the World Edition

[muccamukk]

So I was really depressed and inclined to be negative and see everything as negative, and was considering eating worms. So I thought I'd take a step back, which is almost impossible to do while still maintaining gchat to talk to Nenya. So I did end up interacting with a pile of people.

I was allowed to go back to work a week ago Monday, which has been really nice, and has improved my mood immensely. I also assisted a couple medievacs, and made the news with one (because the Air Force guys like to ensure their funding by filing a press release for every single rescue they ever do, which is something I've never, ever done. Also, they're being dramatic, as they had at least half a mile of vis).

I'm getting back into writing, which is good, currently working on a Highlander fic, but then will turn my attention back to things Steve/Tony.

Random fact about Steve's backstory: Depending on how old you think Steve is, up until his early to mid teens, movies were a lot different than we think of old movies being. There wasn't really an enforced rating system until mid 1934, so all kinds of things were got up to on the silver screen. Check out this post for more details. Next time you're writing about Steve's reaction to modern cinema, read up on Pre-Code Movies first.

I'm reading Poor People's Movements: Why They Succeed, How They Fail by Piven and Cloward. It's oldish, from the '70s, and very academic, but very interesting so far. It proposes to cover labour rights movements in the Depression, post-war union movements, the Civil Rights movement, and the welfare reform movement.

Just finished Cold Fire by Kate Elliott, which had fantastic world building but an extremely tiresome will they won't they romance plot that made me want to hit everyone involved with a bored, and the heroine basically did nothing until the last thirty pages. I keep reading this series in the hope that someday Cat will be proactive. So far it's been either reaction or miss-fired action that turned out to be other people manipulating her all the way. Maybe next book. Yes, I will read next book because the world and politics are so fantastically drawn, and the characters have so much potential. If they actually live up to it, book three will be amazing.

Read a bunch of comics, and no particular comment save that the last comic in the Ellis run of Secret Avengers sucked balls, but the penultimate one was amazing, Batwoman and Stormwatch ain't what they used to be but are still well worth reading, and Saucer Country, Astonishing X-Men and Daredevil still rock my socks. Still need to catch up on Demon Knights, Ult Spidey and Green Arrow.

Going to town shortly for doctors' follow ups and to drag Nenya to the Vancouver Island Music Fest

Still watching Continuum, which is still the best show on right now. I'm sad that it's only in Canada though. \o/ Canadian TV! /o\ no one else watches it and it has no fandom!

Oh, and Nenya's doing Babylon 5 recs over at crack_van this month, so be sure to check those out.

Comments

[esteven]

For one, I am glad to hear that you have been back to work. It'll do you the world of good. :)

For another, Highlander fic?
*waits*

[muccamukk]

Hopefully in the next couple of weeks. If you could beta for character voice, that'd be great!

[esteven]

I'll give it a go though it's been a while since I watched the series. :D

[gloss]

Congrats on being back at work!

I'm glad you didn't eat (too many?) worms.

I totally agree with you about Steve and films. Pre-Code movies were incredibly racy and really interesting. (Plus, just, the difference in how visuals were framed and presented: that would be way more interesting to explore wrt his unfreezing than the cliched "prude gets shocked".)

[muccamukk]

Thanks! Worms may have been eaten, but no banana slugs, so we're good.

The library, it turns out, has a bunch of Pre-Code movies. I'm going to watch them for um.... research purposes.

[nenya_kanadka]

The library, it turns out, has a bunch of Pre-Code movies. I'm going to watch them for um.... research purposes.

I'd be delighted to assist in this endeavour, or to take recs. It sounds fascinating.

[dorothy1901]

I also assisted a couple medievacs

Rescue!Fan to the rescue! Yay!

Highlander fic, also yay!

I've seen a tiny sample of pre-Code movies, and one thing that struck me about them was how restrained the language was. In a movie (title forgotten) about seduction and adultery, the strongest verbal expression was "golly." It looks like Rhett Butler's "damn" in Gone with the Wind (1939) really was ground-breaking.

[muccamukk]

And another one today. You can tell it's July.

Highlander fic, also yay!
-crawls in cave of shame and pulls entrance of shame over head- yeah

I like in Ults where he's complaining about how all the actors sounded like sailors, but not as much about the content.

[dorothy1901]

No shame, never any shame.

[muccamukk]

-hugs- Thanks for the PM.

I really am about 2/3rds done though.

[nenya_kanadka]

It's lovely to see the bounce in your step again. :D ♥

Well done with rescues. ("Regularly saves the world for real" is I believe how I put it in my author bio for JABR...)

With Cold Fire, I did like the worldbuilding a lot, but ended up disliking the characters (especially the guy, but also her reactions) and possibly the plot to the point that I just Didn't Care Enough to keep reading. Alas.

Pre-Code movies! \o/

[muccamukk]

Did another rescue today.

The guy did get better, in that he stopped making her cry every five pages, and wasn't trying to kill her, but I never really got a sense of why she cared about him, other than he had a woobie backstory and was hot.

[nenya_kanadka]

Woobie backstory and is hot is enough to fangirl someone, but not enough to keep up a real-life relationship if they are being a jerk to you, it seems to me. At least if you have other options; perhaps she didn't.

[muccamukk]

Well the only other guy she had much of a relationship was so much of a cad to her that the Napoleon character called him out on it, so... But that's more of a narrative choice than anything. Better than the rapey dude is a pretty low bar to limbo under.

[truthiness_aura]

/cheer! I'm so glad you're feeling better. And congrats on continuing to do good deeds, save hikers, keep the coast safe, etc. It's nice to see your good work getting a little recognition (even from overeager Air Force folks).

Re: Steve and Pre-Code movies: This is an excellent point. I saw something on Tumblr the other day that made the point that while Steve is frequently written in the style of someone from the American 1950s, his formative years were in the 1930s, which were substantially less conservative (and, I would argue from what little I know of it, more interesting). Makes me want to read up on my history between the Wars.

[muccamukk]

-hugs- the 442 guys are generally really nice (and probably some of the most highly trained rescue specialists in the world), but can be prima donnas at times.

I'm just reading about all the rioting going on in NYC in the early 1930s. It's super interesting stuff, and not at all like '50s America. Super interesting period to read about. I saw speculation a while ago (mightygodking?) that Steve's parents in 616 may well have been communists. It was a pretty popular working-class movement at the time.