kathleen_dailey

Interesting video by Jessie Gender on the "redemption" of Syril Karn in Andor. It prompted some thinky thoughts I'd rather put here than throw at YouTube. (Andor S2 spoilers)

Watch on YouTube

I agree with Jessie's contention that white men are often treated with kid gloves when it comes to creating space for them to see the error of their ways, while marginalized people's lives are dismissed and errors castigated. Jessie cites the difference in fan discourse between sorrow that Syril died without a chance at redemption and near silence that Cinta (a queer woman of color) got summarily killed off. I'd add that this is partly because Syril is a better written character—but, then, white men have long been better written characters. That is evidence of her point.

But I'm frustrated by recent fandom's/leftwing YouTube's discourse on "redemption." I love a good redemption story; it's my favorite kind, but I think we need to dig deeper into the concept because, too often, it gets used without being explored.

"Redemption" is (at least primarily) a Christian concept. Traditionally, it refers to being saved from damnation, and this entails is a mix of personal responsibility and external acceptance. It requires personal responsibility in the form of actions like repentance of sins, penance, baptism, truly reformed behavior, etc. It requires external acceptance because ultimately it's God's to accept or withhold, and in many versions of Christianity, it cannot fully be attained without God's grace, that is, without that mystical quality of salvation that one cannot earn but is given.

When we use in secular discussions, as of characters like Syril Karn or DS9's Garak, or real people (Jessie mentions JK Rowling), we often end up with formulations like video commenter elanthys makes: "But not everyone deserves redemption, and not everyone who does gets it...." What does this actually mean? "Deserves" according to whom? "Gets" from whom? In the theological context, the answer is God. God can grant grace to someone who doesn't "deserve" it. (In traditional Calvinism, no one deserves it.) All redeemed people ultimately "get" it from God.

So who grants redemption in secular society? I think, by default, it usually translates to "us," the people having the conversation, the good people, the good leftists, the anti-fascists, etc. "We" judge that some do not deserve redemption. "We," sometimes in error, withhold it from those who may. What does it mean to be redeemed? In Christianity, it means heading to heaven. In the secular context, it means being socially forgiven, I guess? No longer cancelled, etc.? Slate wiped clean?

I do not trust myself to determine who metaphysically "deserves" anything. There are people I have not forgiven, but that says more about me than them. I do believe in accountability, which is, in essence, what Jessie is calling for. Accountability is a comparatively easy concept, if hard to achieve. If you've done harm, own it and take proportionally appropriate steps to repair it or—if it can't be repaired—do other, ideally related work to bring more good into the world.

Syril is never accountable for his actions. If he hadn't died and was to have a "redemption" arc, I think he would have had to spend the rest of his life trying to repair the damage or, more accurately, change the system so similar damage does not continue. But did he "deserve redemption"? I don't like the God-like insight that question presupposes.

Personally, I'm a Buddhist, and I prefer a Buddhist framework: that we are all on the path to awakening. We're just in different places, going at different rates, and taking different "side trails" to get there. The question of what we "deserve" is fairly meaningless. We are where we are; we carry the karma that we carry and work through it as best we can. And we can, to an extent, recognize that in each other and help each other through it.

dewline

Amplifying this tonight, just in case it can get to someone who really needs to see it:

https://elainegrey.dreamwidth.org/990198.html

Current Mood: worried

annavere

1. My mother gifted me the complete Penny Dreadful on DVD. Judging by trailers, I will definitely not be watching this while I'm eating, but it looks very promising. Please chime in with opinions if you've seen it!

2. More of The Raven and the writers clearly decided Nick was not going to fit the Duncan mode after all, as his appreciation of culture clearly died with Claudia and in the two following episodes he's a total dick. He's rude and belittling, heavy-handed, oafish, angry, uncouth and occasionally drunk. He breaks down Amanda's door and then doesn't even hold his gun properly on entrance (I laughed, and I don't think I was supposed to). His bangs keep getting in his eyes. He bitches and moans and is stubborn as a mule and won't listen to reason. He's been catapulted into a world whose rules no longer make sense and he is Not Happy about it. He's hysterical to watch. I want popcorn.

Then there's episode four, where the writing steps up and Nick's interactions with Amanda become less eyebrow-raising and more human. Plus: Amanda showing off her emotional perceptiveness. Minus: Amanda not winning her swordfight on screen. I wanted to know what New Age Abacus Man's last words were.

3. Just watched the 2015 Doctor Who Christmas special 'The Husbands of River Song.' I got choked up three times, and the final scene... I don't do happy-sad crying (or at least I never used to, but who knows now). The only episode which has ever wrung such a response from me was 'The Prom' on Buffy. 'Husbands' attains the same rank. Quite striking, as it goes from screwball comedy to an acknowledgement that happy endings do not last but are still profound experiences. River treasured the memory of their night on Darillium and the Doctor doesn't try to take that away from her, honoring her final moments and (even without memory of Clara) her refusal to have her memories removed. Everything ends, and he's able to deal with that in a healthy manner for... Possibly the first time in NuWho?

I needed this episode.

dewline

I mentioned privately last week that I'd been accepted for enrolment into the Canadian Dental Insurance Plan. The one that our federal government hired Sun Life to administer for everyone earning less than C$90K/year and not already covered by their employer or their province?

That one.

I finally got the card in the papermail from Sun Life today.

Orange and pink and white plastic.

It's just hitting me now that, after over three decades of paying out of pocket by instalments for my dental health basics - exams, fillings and repairs of same, that sort of thing - I no longer have to worry about that part of my life's financial juggling. It's already covered through my federal income tax from now on unless I land a sufficiently lucrative job with its own coverage.

Hoping it all works out.

Current Mood: groggy

runpunkrun

They Never Asked: Senryū Poetry from the WWII Portland Assembly Center, edited and translated by Shelley Baker-Gard, Michael Freiling, and Satsuki Takikawa:

An anthology of senryū poetry written in spring and summer of 1942 by Japanese Americans held captive at the WCCA Assembly Center in North Portland, Oregon. Senryū shares haiku's 5-7-5 sound unit form, but deals more directly with the business of being human, whereas haiku's focus is on nature and only tangentially references, or implies, human emotions.

The WCCA is the Wartime Civilian Control Administration, the government body set up to implement the mass forced removal of Japanese Americans from the West Coast. From the Densho Encyclopedia: "In addition to engineering the logistics of removing some 110,000 people from their homes and businesses in a short period of time, the WCCA also quickly built and administered a series of seventeen temporary detention camps to hold those who had been removed through the spring and summer of 1942, before overseeing their transfer to more permanent camps administered by the War Relocation Authority by the end of fall 1942." In North Portland, the temporary facility was previously the Pacific International Livestock Exposition Center, the horse stalls converted into living spaces for those detained there.

This book has a thoughtful design and a conscientious attempt to put this poetry—and the people who wrote it—into context, providing historical background and examining the cultural relevance of poetry in Japanese communities, including an exploration of the individual poets incarcerated at the camps as well as the poetry groups held at WCCA camps, and an explanation of the form itself. The book has several introductory pieces, an afterword, two essays on haiku/senryū, a timeline of relevant events, end notes for references, a full bibliography, and biographies of the poets. The one thing it doesn't have is an index, which I found myself wanting multiple times over the six months it took me to read this.

The poems are presented with the Japanese script given prominence in a bold vertical line down the center of the page, one poem per page, and then a transliteration of the Japanese and, finally, the poem translated into English, in three lines. Each poem has a footnote with a "literal" translation and any translation notes, including occasions where kanji have been simplified since the writing of the poem, or instances where the poet (or transcriber) seems to have made an error. However, the literal translations are anything but. They're of a more conversational nature than the actual choppy bits of language you usually get when Japanese is translated literally into English, and in some cases, I found them more interesting or nuanced than the final translations, which could feel a little melodramatic at times. But it's entirely possible that's just my bias for haiku showing up. Here's a poem by Jōnan that really struck me because of the way it mimics a common structure in haiku and through that offers an extreme understatement of human misery:

even autumn
comes on command here—
assembly center

This book was published in 2023 by Oregon State University Press, and I checked it out of the Multnomah County Library.

susandennis

Volleyball was good this morning. I appreciate the interaction. None of the people I play with are people I would want to spend a whole lot of time with but all of them are delightful to see 3 times a week and play volleyball with and when I don't get that, I miss them. We do have lots of laughs.

Today is house cleaning day. Yesterday, I changed the bed linens and did all the laundry. So after the house cleaner leaves, we'll have a whole new start.

Yesterday afternoon, I found Clarkson's Farm on Prime Video and, of course, as I am wont to do, I am now obsessed. I watched the first few episodes before it finally dawned on me that this dude, Jeremy Clarkson is somebody. Google tells me that he is a British TV guy who does car show and other stuff. So my British friends, particularly, will get a giggle that I figured he was just some dude with few farm clues and lots of $$. The show is great, tho. I know less about farming than Clarkson did when he started. Still, hooked am I.

For at least a few, maybe a dozen, years, my left ankle has been way larger than my right. My left one looks like an old lady's bloated ankle and my right one looks normal. Last week my right one decided to join the fat parade. Now I have two old lady bloated ankles. For some reason this just bugs the crap out of me. Isn't it better to have two ankles that match? Who the fuck every looks at my ankles anyway?? Etc. Anyway, this morning, my right ankle is now down to normal and the left one is the same fatty he's always been. Soooo weird.

And that's the thrilling news from overheated Issaquah, WA. For this morning anyway.

selenak

About a month ago, I bought the Big Finish episodes around the War Doctor in which the late John Hurt reprises his role. They're basically three episode storyarcs - "Only the Monstrous", "Infernal Devices", "Agents of Chaos" and "Casualties of War" - all set during the Time War. Now, because of the setting, the usual Doctor-Companion combinations are out, though the Doctor meets a likeable idealistic person in each of these three episode adventures (and can save some though not all). But the great charm of any Doctor Who tale are those relationships. So what did Big Finish do? It had the inspired idea of pairing up John Hurt with Jacqueline Pearce, playing, no, not Servalan, but a ruthless female politiician nonetheless, a member of the Gallifreyan War Council named Cardinal Ollista. She and the Doctor are the sole characters in all the four story arcs I've listened to, and the way their relationship develops was probably my favourite aspect in these stories.

Because this is the Time War, and this regeneration of the Doctor specifically is on a self loathing maximum while fighting it, Ollista is initially a good foil because she, who really does only prioritize Gallifrey and initially sees everyone not a Time Lord as expendable, shows that despite what he's telling himself, he is still the Doctor, he still has ethics and lines he won't cross and will fight for and have another way. But Ollista isn't simply an Evil McEvil megalomaniac, either, hence me saying "Gallifrey" and not "her personal power", and so the Doctor in the course of those stories develops a grudging respect for her while she while denying she does so finds herself defending, in the last story arc, precisely the kind of (non-Gallifreyan) people she in the first story arc would have dismissed as necessary casualties of war. Whether they argue or work together, all the Doctor-Ollista scenes are golden, and with both John Hurt and Jacqueline Pearce now gone, I am really glad they had the chance to work together near the end of their lives and create two more remarkable characters for us to appreciate.

Current Mood: impressed
Current Location: Bamberg

dewline

I found out today - or was reminded today, I'm not entirely sure as I've downloaded resources from the IAU on the subject of star names in the past year and then neglected to review them carefully - that in 2015, a star in Monoceros - HD 45652 - was named "Lusitânia", in connection with their Name ExoWorlds programme. The one known planet orbiting it is named "Viriato". For the purposes of the projects I'm working on with the Tranquility Press fanfic gang, it's in Klingon space as of 2240-2410.

I love that this astronomical naming process is picking up speed in my lifetime!

Current Mood: geeky

senmut

*\o/*	Word Count	Step Count	Headache?
Daily	409	9,888	no
Monthly	6,693	92,290	1 days

senmut

Started re-reading Red Star Rising also known as Dragonseye.

( The first three chapters, mostly negative reactions to the world building/culture )

senmut

Experiencing Pride (100 words) by Sharpest_Asp
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Captain America [Movies]
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Steve Rogers/James "Bucky" Barnes [MCU]
Characters: Steve Rogers, James Buchanan "Bucky" Barnes
Additional Tags: Drabble, Pride Parades
Summary:

Pride Parade for the reunited couple.

Experiencing Pride

"I think you'd look good in that," Bucky murmured in Steve's ear, discreetly calling attention to some of the leather crowd.

Steve snorted. "Not really my style, but maybe for a night," he answered, still taking in the whole pageant of queer life on display, eyes roving over the ones that were shyly experiencing it, and those openly embracing it.

"D'you read the history?"

"Hell of a thing," Steve agreed with that respectful tone. "Still a long way to go," he added as he spotted the trouble spoiling for a fight. Bucky looked, and the pair made their way over.

twistedchick

A look at the events behind what's happening today in LA.

flemmings

I've been feeling bloated and puffy these last weeks, which my ankles tell me is what I am, and anyway, mug and heat and all = summer life as normal. But I woke this morning oddly limber and decided I'd better see what the damage is, so went downstairs and weighed myself. To find I'm ten pounds/ 4.5 kilos less than I'd thought and fifteen pounds less than I'd feared. What I was last February, basically. This is what not drinking will do to you. So I need only lose 20 pounds/ 9 kilos to get to my pre-op weight, not 30.

The problem basically is that my body image hasn't really changed since my mid-30s while my body certainly has. So seeing my reflection in store fronts is a shock. Who's that short thick woman? Why, it's me.

It stopped raining mid-afternoon so I set out for the laundromat and ran into my garbage bin painters coming down the street with their newly purchased 3. So I was able to pay them then, and stop worrying about them coming some morning to roust me out of bed during one of my indulgent lie-ins. Not that I lay in this morning. My exhausted lungs took me to bed at 11 last night, meaning I was wide awake at 8:30.

Today was still not easy on the lungs but miles better than yesterday. Sinuses still fill, throat is still scratchy, eyes still itch. But laundry has been achieved, I have clean towels and hand towels and sleep pants, so count myself content.

umadoshi

Cat Herding: Our beloved Jinksy!bear turned twelve on Saturday. Twelve! He's (by a margin of a good few years) the second-oldest cat I've ever had, and continues to be just the sweetest, softest boy. May he be with us in good health for years to come.

It was also Claudia's birthday, of course, and I always think of her on their birthday. Oh, my darling baby cat.

*The oldest was Jenny, the cat of my childhood who was still with my parents for years after I moved out. She made it to nineteen, most of that time in rock-solid health, and never really forgave me for moving to Toronto and thus straight-up vanishing from her life for months at a time.

Reading: I finished reading Jennifer 8 Lee's The Fortune Cookie Chronicles: Adventures in the World of Chinese Food, which remained an interesting read right through, and read Adrian Tchaikovsky's City of Last Chances, which I think is only the second thing of his I've read? (Elder Race is the other one I'm sure of.) Having finished it, I'm in a position that's annoyingly familiar, where I liked the book quite a bit and am curious about what happens next, but am not sure I cared enough that I'll ever actually get around to picking up the sequel.

(The thing where I've almost entirely been reading books I own for years now doesn't really help, where I've often picked up the first book of a trilogy of series or whatever on sale in ebook because I've heard it's good, and then am not sure I'm invested enough to pay full price on the next one when I own literally hundreds of yet-unread books. Feh.)

Watching:

scruloose and I are up to date on Murderbot and have seen the first episode of Kingdom season 2.

In the case of the former, I'm skeptical about the nqqvgvba bs n punenpgre jub qbrfa'g nccrne va gur obbxf ng nyy--juvpu V'z abg vaureragyl ntnvafg, tvira gung gur fubj vf pyrneyl vgf bja guvat, naq V'z thrffvat fur'f gurer gb pbairl fbzrguvat gung jbhyq'ir orra gevpxl gb qb gur fnzr jnl va guvf sbezng nf va gur abiryyn. Ohg fur'f naablvat, naq V'yy cebonoyl xrrc svaqvat ure naablvat jurgure fur vf va snpg freivat jung V pheeragyl guvax vf ure cebonoyr shapgvba (rarzl ntrag znfdhrenqvat nf nyyl) be fbzrguvat zber vagrerfgvat. [ROT13] Guess we'll find out soon!

Working: Thank goodness the manga I'm working right now is (as usual) a fairly easy rewrite and not a tight deadline, because scrounging the mental energy for freelance work has been frustratingly hard recently. I'm almost halfway through my draft and have about a week and a half left with it, so it's fine, but. :/

Weathering/Householding: We've had a lot of gray days and some high-ish temperatures combined with humidity (which I hate), and the air quality, while not remotely as bad as it is in a lot of places, has been fluctuating significantly...and the AC function of the heat pumps is essentially nonfunctional. >.< This is crappy timing, given how much of the time over the last several days has required having the windows closed (and the air purifiers running for good measure, although they don't address some of the nastiness from wildfire smoke). And for bonus fun, while the heat pumps are still under warranty, the company we bought them from went under a few months ago, which complicates things. (I think possibly the main person died. :/)

That said,

scruloose made a bunch of calls today and we have reason to hope that someone can come in and take a look at them soon, if that particular company has the parts in stock. And while it's been uncomfortably warm inside some of the time because of this, at least it's not full summer yet. Hopefully we can get things dealt with by the time summer heat arrives in earnest.

And on a purely pleasant note, a couple nights ago we were in a phase of "somehow the air quality is fine outside right now, so we can just open the windows and run fans" while it was pleasantly cool and raining atmospherically and the wind was doing a wonderful job of wafting the smell of the lilacs into the living room.

Current Mood: contemplative

susandennis

My parents had 5 grandchildren. At some point they decided to give each a substantial gift for use after high school. My mother told me years later after Daddy died that the biggest discussion about giving the gifts was me. My brother and sister would benefit from the gifts being given their children and I'd get nothing. Mom said she was fine with that (hahahah Mom!) but that Daddy had really wrestled with the fairness of it. Thanks, Dad - you were always my favorite. Not true, really, Mom.

Anyway... that shit apparently is in my DNA. I have two nephews. One is getting married and I zelled him money for a wedding present this weekend and then thought that was not really fair to his brother who just bought a new house and got no house warming present. So this morning I zelled him. Except. It didn't work. No reason given. Just didn't work. Zelle said he has a valid account but just no send. I checked the limits and I was well within. I have money in my account. I tried sending $5. nope. I finally got him engaged. He sent a QR code which linked to his account successfully but still didn't send the money. Fuckme. The wedding money zelled perfectly the first time. Wild.

So... finally... I called the credit union which is usually a major PIA only this time wasn't too horrible. I explained the issue and was transferred to a guy who knew his shit. He said he could see the attempts and could see that all was fine. "basically, you just hit a zelle glitch". He waved his magic wand And, after a few more log ins and log outs, it worked, he said but I couldn't see it and would not let him go until I did. He was very kind and patient and finally I could see it and so could my nephew. So all's well that ends well.

But a very exhausting way to start the week!

The Annual Window Washing starts next Monday. Right now there are three window washers down in the plaza looking up at our dirty windows. It's quite the endeavor, this window washing. Apparently they have tried it via rappelling from the roof a few times and that was not as good as going from apartment to apartment. This latter is how they do it now. They open the windows and remove the screens and then hang out that open one to clean the others. Move to the next apartment. It takes about 3 or 4 weeks to do them all. The most painful part is listening to everyone conjure on how they are doing it wrong. As a group, old people know best. And those with no real knowledge of the situation, know best of all.

But, it will be fun to have clean windows again.

And it is beyond marvelous not to have a single piece of skin in the operation.

We broke heat records yesterday and probably will again today. I have no reason to go outside and so don't intend to. All is lovely and cool in here.

susandennis

[ooops this is yesterday's entry but someone forgot to post! thank you Draft Saver!!] I moved here 19 months ago. Without a single regret. Until I sold the condo. Maybe it was the finality of it. But, in the past few days, I've found myself thinking about things I'll never do again, never get to see out that front window, missing familiar places I used to go... Not really regret more wistful. It will hit me now and again without warning. Weird.

One of the few reservations I had about moving here was the homogeneity of the whole situation. This is a really white community. We have some residents who are of Asian decent but mostly it's all European white. The community is green. Nearly perfectly green year round. Beautiful trees and plants - so many that it's hard to see the shops. The zoning around here is iron fisted. It's very very pretty everywhere. No road cracks. No butt cracks. No tents. Hardly a soda can on the side of the road. Very Stepford in many ways.

It's actually pretty much the antithesis of downtown Seattle. In all the good ways and all the bad ways. Interesting thoughts.

I had ordered, from Amazon, two storage bins to set on the washer and catch the extra stuff. Then, yesterday, I went out to do my returns and, on a whim, popped into to Target and found an even better solution for cheaper. So for the second time recently, I stood in a retail store and canceled an Amazon order and made brick and mortar purchase. Now, that's something I never did in Seattle.

I have now spent a whole lot of time in the tiny room that is my utility room but I think it's finally hit max functionality. I have new hooks and mounted the hand vac, and fixed the tools situation and moved this and tossed that. This apartment is such an easy place to live. Everything is somewhere and I know where that where is. I can get to it and reach it and find it and put it back with ease. It is less than half the size of the condo but feels so much bigger.

princessofgeeks

( You're about to view content that the journal owner has marked as possibly inappropriate for anyone under the age of 18. )

Current Mood: pensive

kitarella_imagines

I've been reading through the beautiful fic The Coda Series by PFL (msmoat)

We all know that sadly the author is no longer with us, but if you haven't read this long fic, please do.

Summary:

One possible version of the lads' story as seen in codas to all 57 episodes, in transmission order. Each coda follows closely on the episode. It really helps to watch the episodes before reading.

PFL's Notes:

Written for the Great Global Pros Watch of 2008/2009 on LJ. Except for breaks between series, and around Christmas, this involved writing one Coda per week. From February 2008 through May 2009.

***

I must admit, I was sceptical about this fic and a bit wary of it, but by the end I was in tears of happiness, such a beautiful ending for our lads. It is so well written and I always admire the dedication of authors who really push the limit like this.

Current Mood: contemplative

annavere

I figure whenever I reach five books read, I'll make a post to keep track of them. These will be old books, mostly obscure as hell, so I doubt anyone on my list would ever care but click for spoilers and snark. ( Read more... )

flemmings

Looks like the wildfire smoke got me, in spite of there being no air quality warning. Or else I've started having hours-long anxiety attacks. Went up to Loblaws, halfway there began feeling tight-chested and dizzy, couldn't breathe deeply, and didn't get much better inside. Now sinuses are swollen but I can kind of breathe. So much for laundromat, and now of course it's raining.

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kathleen_dailey

June 2025

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Page Summary

labingi - Thoughts on "Redemption" in Left-Leaning Fandom Discourse
dewline - Related to Events in Los Angeles and Elsewhere...
annavere - Three shows
dewline - Health: Dental Milestone Made Official
runpunkrun - They Never Asked: Senryū Poetry from the WWII Portland Assembly Center
susandennis - A regular Tuesday
selenak - Doctor Who: The War Doctor
dewline - Star Trek Mapping: Mapping Rimward Systems - A Surprise in Monoceros
senmut - Daily Check In
senmut - Ah Pern, My love, My loathed
senmut - PRIDE 5: Bucky/Steve
twistedchick - New Substack post
flemmings - (no subject)
umadoshi - Weekly proof of life (belated again): sentimentality, reading habits, household things...
susandennis - It's my father's fault
susandennis - Comparing
princessofgeeks - a hard anniversary
kitarella_imagines - The Professionals fic rec
annavere - Recent Reading
flemmings - (no subject)

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