For those of you that are ready my serial “The Watchmage of Old New York,” chapter 38 is ready. I also decided to go back to a weekly schedule instead of biweekly. We’re nearing the end, so if you have serial anxiety because you don’t like to wait, you can start now. You won’t reach the end by the time it’s done. Believe me, it’s worth the read.
It’s FREE with registration at Jukepop Serials. If you like history, mystery, fantasy, steampunk, or New York city, you’ll love it.
I’ve mentioned the blog The Middle Spaces before as my go-to site for intelligent discourse about comics. I’m sending you a link to a recent post about Carol Danvers (Captain Marvel) which discusses feminist theory, revisionist history, and the little known WASPs of WWII. I’m including the first few paragraphs below, and then a link. You should read this.
As I mentioned in my post “Captain Marvel and More Black Iron Man,” in 2012 Carol Danvers, aka Ms. Marvel (sometimes Warbird, once Binary) took up the name Captain Marvel in a new (but now discontinued) series by that name written by Kelly Sue DeConnick—one of the few women currently writing mainstream comics. While I developed an appreciation of disappointment felt by some fans regarding Monica Rambeau’s loss of the “Captain Marvel” name, I still like the idea of Carol Danvers using the name and think it works in the scope of her military background and source of her powers.
Rereading the first major story arc in DeConnick’s series I also came to appreciate her attempt to write Ms./Captain Marvel into a revisionist feminist text. It struck me as a laudable attempt to make manifest the purported feminist subtext of the character. The “Ms.” part of her former name alone suggests the kind of Gloria Steinem independence associated with the Second Wave of feminism of the era when the first Ms. Marvel title was published. Of course, being written and drawn by men has undermined this ostensible subtext many times over—starting with her halter-top, sometimes backless, sometime mid-riff showing costume and reaching its height when she was kidnapped, mind controlled, raped, forced to give birth to her own attacker and then allowed to be carried off again “to be happy” in another dimension with her assailant. Luckily, that was all undone (kind of).
It bears mentioning that when I use the words “revisionist” or “revisionism” in terms of history, I do not mean this pejoratively in the least bit. History requires revision, not only because of the various social and cultural forces that obscure the achievements of and the crimes against various people of different races, genders, classes, etc… but also to counteract the ridiculous notion that there is a such thing as a monolithic “history,” as opposed to competing stories comprised of the different ways knowledge is created through analysis, research and story-telling. History needs continual revision because it is not only what is being told, but how it is being told. Some of the historical events that DeConnick uses in this arc are not necessarily newly revealed (to many), but the way in which she uses them are new.
Some of you might know that I am Jewish (I talk about it all the time), and I celebrate Chanukah (with a hard ‘ch’ like you’re clearing your throat). What you may not know is that I, like many other Jews, celebrate Christmas. We do this because we’re “encouraged” to by both society and by business. Schools and jobs close for Christmas, but not Chanukah. The only time that our family can get together is on Christmas. We have to celebrate it by proxy. So much for a “war on Christmas.” It’s actually a war on every other winter holiday.
This year was especially awkward, since Chanukah fell so early. My family had no get together this Christmas or Chanukah. If you’re wondering why Chanukah moves around so much, it’s because the traditional Jewish calendar is lunar, not solar. The Sun doesn’t vary its position in the sky very far in Israel. It was much easier back then to track time by the Moon.
Penguins make it festive
Here’s an imaginary conversation with someone pissed off because I say “happy holidays”:
Me: Happy holidays
Them: I’m Christian, blah blah blah Fox News blah blah blah War on Christmas blah blah blah Obamacare.
Me: Do you celebrate New Year’s?
Them: Of course
Me: That’s two holidays. Plural. Happy holidays.
I do often celebrate Christmas though with a goyish family, or at least I try to. I like the festive nature. I like that people pretend to love each other, if only for a short while. I like Christmas music.
During WWI, the warring sides actually had a truce during Christmas. They say that you could hear the enemy singing Christmas carols from the other side of the trenches, and they joined together in song. Then they went back to dropping mustard gas on each other.
During the American Revolution, Washington famously crossed the Delaware River late Christmas night for a surprise attack early morning on the 26th, the famous Battle of Trenton. No blood on Christmas, plenty the day after.
Forgive me for being bitter, but last year’s Christmas was beautiful. I was with Valerie and her family. I was madly in love (still am), and enamored with my new family. Less than a month later, Valerie was dead, and I have yet to recover. I doubt I ever will.
The photo that I use as an avatar is the photo Val and I took for Val’s mom. We put it in a nice frame.
The point is, wen I was younger, people often said “keep Christmas in your heart all year long,” but no one does. We go right back to hating each other once the clock strikes midnight.
Merry Christmas. Keep it in your heart all year long…in other words, don’t be a dick.
*Professor Farnsworth Voice* Good news everyone! After much soul searching, advice-ignoring, and professional pestering, I have decided to return to the serial version of “The Watchmage of Old New York.” I have a 3rd story arc that is almost ready, titled “The Wild Hunt.”
Previously, I stopped writing the serial so that I can novelize each story arc. The fact is, why must I do one and not the other? I could wait and play for the long term, or I can do things now. If a publisher wants to buy the novels, I’ll worry about that then. No use in stifling myself for a bunch of “what ifs.”
Besides, this story arc is so freakin good, I can’t sit on it any longer.
The projected release for “The Wild Hunt” is Mon, August 26.
In the meantime, catch up on the first two stories at #JukepopSerials. Registration is FREE
casandersdotnet 