The Awl http://www.theawl.com/ Be Less Stupid Fri, 27 Jan 2012 14:10:12 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0.2 "There Isn’t Anything Inherently Unfeminine About Science Fiction" http://www.theawl.com/2012/01/there-isn%e2%80%99t-anything-inherently-unfeminine-about-science-fiction http://www.theawl.com/2012/01/there-isn%e2%80%99t-anything-inherently-unfeminine-about-science-fiction#comments Fri, 27 Jan 2012 14:10:12 +0000 Choire Sicha http://www.theawl.com/2012/01/there-isn%e2%80%99t-anything-inherently-unfeminine-about-science-fiction
In 1962, when “A Wrinkle in Time,” after 26 rejections, was acquired by John Farrar at Farrar, Straus & Giroux, science fiction by women and aimed at female readers was a rarity. The genre was thought to be down-market and not up to the standards of children’s literature — the stuff of pulp and comic books for errant schoolboys. Even today, girls and grown women are not generally fans. Half of 18- to 24-year-old men say that science fiction is their favorite type of book, compared with only one-fourth of young women.... “A Wrinkle in Time,” the first in a trilogy that was later extended to include two more books, also defied the norm. Though a major crossover success with boys as well (with more than 10 million copies sold to date), the book has especially won over young girls. And it usually reaches them at a particularly pivotal moment of pre-adolescence when they are actively seeking to define themselves, their ambitions and place in the world.

—Just blow past the 2/3rds of this piece that consist of weird gender social-essentialism, because the rest of it is true. (Also, you know, Hunger Games?)

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In 1962, when “A Wrinkle in Time,” after 26 rejections, was acquired by John Farrar at Farrar, Straus & Giroux, science fiction by women and aimed at female readers was a rarity. The genre was thought to be down-market and not up to the standards of children’s literature — the stuff of pulp and comic books for errant schoolboys. Even today, girls and grown women are not generally fans. Half of 18- to 24-year-old men say that science fiction is their favorite type of book, compared with only one-fourth of young women.... “A Wrinkle in Time,” the first in a trilogy that was later extended to include two more books, also defied the norm. Though a major crossover success with boys as well (with more than 10 million copies sold to date), the book has especially won over young girls. And it usually reaches them at a particularly pivotal moment of pre-adolescence when they are actively seeking to define themselves, their ambitions and place in the world.

—Just blow past the 2/3rds of this piece that consist of weird gender social-essentialism, because the rest of it is true. (Also, you know, Hunger Games?)

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]]> http://www.theawl.com/2012/01/there-isn%e2%80%99t-anything-inherently-unfeminine-about-science-fiction/feed 19 A Koch Foundation on Campus http://www.theawl.com/2011/11/the-koch-foundation-on-campus http://www.theawl.com/2011/11/the-koch-foundation-on-campus#comments Mon, 21 Nov 2011 14:10:37 +0000 Choire Sicha http://www.theawl.com/2011/11/the-koch-foundation-on-campus A small liberal arts college was recently rocked to discover that a visiting lecture series was funded by the Koch Foundation. Whitman College, in rural Washington, hosts "The Classical Liberalism Lecture Series" each year, which is supposed to bring "more conservative ideas to campus." It was formerly funded by a private donor and then last year, it was funded by the Kochs, after the school applied for a grant from one of their foundations. But the story, as the student paper tells it, is confusing. It's all put together as "liberal college worried about conservatives on campus," basically, but that's not the real story at all. The story, from what we can tell, really goes like this: "There were no undesirable strings attached" to the grant money, says one professor—but then the faculty "perceived the [Charles G.] Koch foundation as overstepping its bounds." (Perceived!) Apparently, to be vaguely specific, that particular Koch Foundation "started wanting all sorts of other things, like student emails." Like what else? Oy, student newspapers! Love you, and here's some tips: demand a copy of the correspondence between the school and the Koch Foundation! Demand a copy of the school's grant paperwork! Ask the trustees and the school president to lay it out! This sort of vagueness is untenable.

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]]> A small liberal arts college was recently rocked to discover that a visiting lecture series was funded by the Koch Foundation. Whitman College, in rural Washington, hosts "The Classical Liberalism Lecture Series" each year, which is supposed to bring "more conservative ideas to campus." It was formerly funded by a private donor and then last year, it was funded by the Kochs, after the school applied for a grant from one of their foundations. But the story, as the student paper tells it, is confusing. It's all put together as "liberal college worried about conservatives on campus," basically, but that's not the real story at all. The story, from what we can tell, really goes like this: "There were no undesirable strings attached" to the grant money, says one professor—but then the faculty "perceived the [Charles G.] Koch foundation as overstepping its bounds." (Perceived!) Apparently, to be vaguely specific, that particular Koch Foundation "started wanting all sorts of other things, like student emails." Like what else? Oy, student newspapers! Love you, and here's some tips: demand a copy of the correspondence between the school and the Koch Foundation! Demand a copy of the school's grant paperwork! Ask the trustees and the school president to lay it out! This sort of vagueness is untenable.

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]]> http://www.theawl.com/2011/11/the-koch-foundation-on-campus/feed 3 Hometown Paper Has Tip for Dealing with Onslaught of Film Shoots http://www.theawl.com/2011/08/hometown-paper-has-handy-tip-for-dealing-with-film-crews http://www.theawl.com/2011/08/hometown-paper-has-handy-tip-for-dealing-with-film-crews#comments Wed, 03 Aug 2011 10:00:32 +0000 Choire Sicha http://www.theawl.com/2011/08/hometown-paper-has-handy-tip-for-dealing-with-film-crews Today's New York Observer editorial page, as always, does not disappoint, in the form of this editorial in praise of movies and TV filming in New York City.
Some New Yorkers may grumble about the inconveniences that are inevitable when nearly two dozen film crews are on location in popular neighborhoods or near trendy nightspots. Here’s a bit of advice for those iconoclasts: It’s August. Chill out. Take a long weekend in the Hamptons.
DON'T MIND IF I DO?

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]]> Today's New York Observer editorial page, as always, does not disappoint, in the form of this editorial in praise of movies and TV filming in New York City.
Some New Yorkers may grumble about the inconveniences that are inevitable when nearly two dozen film crews are on location in popular neighborhoods or near trendy nightspots. Here’s a bit of advice for those iconoclasts: It’s August. Chill out. Take a long weekend in the Hamptons.
DON'T MIND IF I DO?

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]]> http://www.theawl.com/2011/08/hometown-paper-has-handy-tip-for-dealing-with-film-crews/feed 14 Three New Morrissey Tracks http://www.theawl.com/2011/06/three-new-morrissey-tracks http://www.theawl.com/2011/06/three-new-morrissey-tracks#comments Wed, 15 Jun 2011 10:20:11 +0000 Choire Sicha http://www.theawl.com/2011/06/three-new-morrissey-tracks
Morrissey's last album, 2009's "Years of Refusal," was so much better than it had to be—with at least three tracks that were actually terrific, A+ Morrissey material, and at least three more that were solidly really good. So the advance from his new album (which does not yet have a label??) is disappointing—he played three songs live on BBC Radio 2 last night and they were not so enjoyable! (Despite each of them having pretty terrific Morrissey titles.) Above is "The Kid's a Looker," the one I like best. Perhaps these songs will be formulated, in their final versions, into wonderfulness?

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Morrissey's last album, 2009's "Years of Refusal," was so much better than it had to be—with at least three tracks that were actually terrific, A+ Morrissey material, and at least three more that were solidly really good. So the advance from his new album (which does not yet have a label??) is disappointing—he played three songs live on BBC Radio 2 last night and they were not so enjoyable! (Despite each of them having pretty terrific Morrissey titles.) Above is "The Kid's a Looker," the one I like best. Perhaps these songs will be formulated, in their final versions, into wonderfulness?

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]]> http://www.theawl.com/2011/06/three-new-morrissey-tracks/feed 3 You're Welcome, Benoit Denizet-Lewis http://www.theawl.com/2011/06/youre-welcome-benoit-denizet-lewis http://www.theawl.com/2011/06/youre-welcome-benoit-denizet-lewis#comments Thu, 09 Jun 2011 12:00:44 +0000 Choire Sicha http://www.theawl.com/2011/06/youre-welcome-benoit-denizet-lewis Journalist Benoit Denizet-Lewis writes today about, well, the opposite of growing up gay in isolation? He has a Twinkie Defense, essentially, about growing up around too many gays: "Growing up a few minutes from the Castro didn’t make me gay—if anything, it made me less likely to see myself that way. I couldn’t relate to AIDS or leather chaps, both of which seemed to be afflicting many of the gay men I saw on the corner of Castro and Market, where, in middle school, I had to transfer buses on my way home from school."

Yeah. So... it's too hot out for me to flip out over this with real vigor, coming as it does from a fellow in his mid-30s, but I can try!

I do believe I moved to San Francisco while this person was entering high school, and I'm sorry that apparently five years of age difference created a generational divide so vast that it made him unable "to relate to AIDS," particularly at a time when his neighbors and chaps-wearing strangers on the street were dropping dead all around him.

And chances are quite good that my friends and I were actually guest-teaching HIV prevention at his very school at the time, which one hopes didn't make him shove his fingers in his ears too hard in panic (and also hopes maybe made him "relate to" having sex with condoms)? Because while he was running in horror from the community of people who apparently only ever wore chaps (although, most days I showed up for work in nipple clamps and women's shoes, obviously!), they/we were the ones trying to help raise him and keep him from, you know, dying extremely young.

To try to be fair, adult sexuality is a horror to all early adolescents—surely we can all relate and should probably empathize with that. There's nothing worse when you're young than the idea that older people have sex! It's menacing and uncomfortable and alluring and ultimately... gross.

The good news is that he is alive today! So in a way it's actually my fault that he lived long enough to write this.

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]]> Journalist Benoit Denizet-Lewis writes today about, well, the opposite of growing up gay in isolation? He has a Twinkie Defense, essentially, about growing up around too many gays: "Growing up a few minutes from the Castro didn’t make me gay—if anything, it made me less likely to see myself that way. I couldn’t relate to AIDS or leather chaps, both of which seemed to be afflicting many of the gay men I saw on the corner of Castro and Market, where, in middle school, I had to transfer buses on my way home from school."

Yeah. So... it's too hot out for me to flip out over this with real vigor, coming as it does from a fellow in his mid-30s, but I can try!

I do believe I moved to San Francisco while this person was entering high school, and I'm sorry that apparently five years of age difference created a generational divide so vast that it made him unable "to relate to AIDS," particularly at a time when his neighbors and chaps-wearing strangers on the street were dropping dead all around him.

And chances are quite good that my friends and I were actually guest-teaching HIV prevention at his very school at the time, which one hopes didn't make him shove his fingers in his ears too hard in panic (and also hopes maybe made him "relate to" having sex with condoms)? Because while he was running in horror from the community of people who apparently only ever wore chaps (although, most days I showed up for work in nipple clamps and women's shoes, obviously!), they/we were the ones trying to help raise him and keep him from, you know, dying extremely young.

To try to be fair, adult sexuality is a horror to all early adolescents—surely we can all relate and should probably empathize with that. There's nothing worse when you're young than the idea that older people have sex! It's menacing and uncomfortable and alluring and ultimately... gross.

The good news is that he is alive today! So in a way it's actually my fault that he lived long enough to write this.

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]]> http://www.theawl.com/2011/06/youre-welcome-benoit-denizet-lewis/feed 37 Website Targets Hazy, Perhaps Jittery Demographic http://www.theawl.com/2011/03/website-targets-hazy-perhaps-jittery-demographic http://www.theawl.com/2011/03/website-targets-hazy-perhaps-jittery-demographic#comments Mon, 28 Mar 2011 10:00:24 +0000 Choire Sicha http://www.theawl.com/2011/03/website-targets-hazy-perhaps-jittery-demographic Former Radar editor Maer Roshan—along with his partners, Allison Floam (who built Microdialogue, which does consumer analysis, and also sells SunSak, which is "a round towel that transforms into a tote bag") and Joe Schrank (who runs a for-profit addiction recovery program)—have launched a website called The Fix, which covers the wild world of addiction in general and also has rehab reviews. In other new publication news, there is The Atavist, which (more slowly) publishes tablet and reader long-form nonfiction "singles" (that are not necessarily related to atavism).

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]]> Former Radar editor Maer Roshan—along with his partners, Allison Floam (who built Microdialogue, which does consumer analysis, and also sells SunSak, which is "a round towel that transforms into a tote bag") and Joe Schrank (who runs a for-profit addiction recovery program)—have launched a website called The Fix, which covers the wild world of addiction in general and also has rehab reviews. In other new publication news, there is The Atavist, which (more slowly) publishes tablet and reader long-form nonfiction "singles" (that are not necessarily related to atavism).

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]]> http://www.theawl.com/2011/03/website-targets-hazy-perhaps-jittery-demographic/feed 10 Does the CIA Have Any Idea What's Going On? http://www.theawl.com/2011/02/does-the-cia-have-any-idea-whats-going-on http://www.theawl.com/2011/02/does-the-cia-have-any-idea-whats-going-on#comments Tue, 22 Feb 2011 09:05:02 +0000 Choire Sicha http://www.theawl.com/2011/02/does-the-cia-have-any-idea-whats-going-on There's a whole story that we're waiting to hear, and it may take a few decades (centuries?) to get in full. With the murky news that the CIA was bilked out of $20 million for hoax "terrorist-detecting software, software that the CIA suspected was fake for years before anything was done about it, it has to be asked: is the CIA actually not an immense, successful octopus diligently working to rearrange the order of the globe? Are they in fact just a bunch of ineffectual overpaid chumps, who were taken entirely by surprise by Tunisia, Egypt and Libya? Who are too busy using drones to shoot random "militants" in Pakistan to achieve any major goals in the rest of the world? (All the while staffing embassies with "contractors" who poorly promote "instability" ?) Is it really possible that the post-Cold War apparatus, which still costs taxpayers billions of dollars, was diverted entirely to bin-Laden-related issues, with little or at least unknown success over the last decade, therefore deprioritizing all other agendas? When you look back at their documents from the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia, you see a well-informed and active global intelligence network in action. In 40 years, will they be releasing just a few muddled cables related to Libya and Yemen? Or have all of the events of the last month been their doing? (Related: Prime Minster David Cameron is going to apologize for his country's paternalistic (at best!) role in propping up crappy regimes around the world.)

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]]> There's a whole story that we're waiting to hear, and it may take a few decades (centuries?) to get in full. With the murky news that the CIA was bilked out of $20 million for hoax "terrorist-detecting software, software that the CIA suspected was fake for years before anything was done about it, it has to be asked: is the CIA actually not an immense, successful octopus diligently working to rearrange the order of the globe? Are they in fact just a bunch of ineffectual overpaid chumps, who were taken entirely by surprise by Tunisia, Egypt and Libya? Who are too busy using drones to shoot random "militants" in Pakistan to achieve any major goals in the rest of the world? (All the while staffing embassies with "contractors" who poorly promote "instability" ?) Is it really possible that the post-Cold War apparatus, which still costs taxpayers billions of dollars, was diverted entirely to bin-Laden-related issues, with little or at least unknown success over the last decade, therefore deprioritizing all other agendas? When you look back at their documents from the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia, you see a well-informed and active global intelligence network in action. In 40 years, will they be releasing just a few muddled cables related to Libya and Yemen? Or have all of the events of the last month been their doing? (Related: Prime Minster David Cameron is going to apologize for his country's paternalistic (at best!) role in propping up crappy regimes around the world.)

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]]> http://www.theawl.com/2011/02/does-the-cia-have-any-idea-whats-going-on/feed 18 Writer Takes Stand Against the Writing of Books http://www.theawl.com/2010/11/writer-takes-stand-against-the-writing-of-books http://www.theawl.com/2010/11/writer-takes-stand-against-the-writing-of-books#comments Wed, 03 Nov 2010 15:00:53 +0000 Choire Sicha http://www.theawl.com/2010/11/writer-takes-stand-against-the-writing-of-books Laura Miller takes issue with National Novel Writing Month: her concern is that this is a symptom of the Culture of Narcissism™ and that it means none of these would-be writers reads, or at least, none of them will have time to read throughout the month of November. (Her argument is actually fairly complex, so it's worth reading for yourself; it's also vigorously rebutted elsewhere.) Apparently the world is plenty full of people who write but do not read? This has not been my experience but I have not met everyone, so I won't judge. She has further complaints: "I am not the first person to point out that 'writing a lot of crap' doesn't sound like a particularly fruitful way to spend an entire month, even if it is November." Oh, is it now. (Look, this is me, avoiding a stupid and obvious joke!) But seriously, how about a whole year of crap, cuz lemme tell you about that. Anyway: yeah, we probably should be rewarding book readers in some way! When I was a kid, the youngster who checked out the most books in a month got a little award. Hmm. Though I guess I don't really check out books from the library any more? But I sure do have a craving for awards. Maybe the Culture of Narcissism™ got me too.

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]]> Laura Miller takes issue with National Novel Writing Month: her concern is that this is a symptom of the Culture of Narcissism™ and that it means none of these would-be writers reads, or at least, none of them will have time to read throughout the month of November. (Her argument is actually fairly complex, so it's worth reading for yourself; it's also vigorously rebutted elsewhere.) Apparently the world is plenty full of people who write but do not read? This has not been my experience but I have not met everyone, so I won't judge. She has further complaints: "I am not the first person to point out that 'writing a lot of crap' doesn't sound like a particularly fruitful way to spend an entire month, even if it is November." Oh, is it now. (Look, this is me, avoiding a stupid and obvious joke!) But seriously, how about a whole year of crap, cuz lemme tell you about that. Anyway: yeah, we probably should be rewarding book readers in some way! When I was a kid, the youngster who checked out the most books in a month got a little award. Hmm. Though I guess I don't really check out books from the library any more? But I sure do have a craving for awards. Maybe the Culture of Narcissism™ got me too.

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]]> http://www.theawl.com/2010/11/writer-takes-stand-against-the-writing-of-books/feed 69 Hipsters, the 90s and the Fragmentation of the Mainstream http://www.theawl.com/2010/10/hipsters-the-90s-and-the-fragmentation-of-the-mainstream http://www.theawl.com/2010/10/hipsters-the-90s-and-the-fragmentation-of-the-mainstream#comments Thu, 21 Oct 2010 13:10:48 +0000 Choire Sicha http://www.theawl.com/2010/10/hipsters-the-90s-and-the-fragmentation-of-the-mainstream "In the ’90s, when we were afraid of ‘selling out,’ we hated the gatekeepers, the mainstream corporate culture that assimilated and corrupted the underground. Now that the mainstream has fragmented, we see it as just another tool to get our message across, and our animosity has been forced to move on to another bugbear that is, like mass culture, ultimately a version of ourselves: the fake hipster."

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]]> "In the ’90s, when we were afraid of ‘selling out,’ we hated the gatekeepers, the mainstream corporate culture that assimilated and corrupted the underground. Now that the mainstream has fragmented, we see it as just another tool to get our message across, and our animosity has been forced to move on to another bugbear that is, like mass culture, ultimately a version of ourselves: the fake hipster."

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]]> http://www.theawl.com/2010/10/hipsters-the-90s-and-the-fragmentation-of-the-mainstream/feed 20 Cutting HIV Cases In Half In Twenty Years Would Cost $400 to $700 Billion http://www.theawl.com/2010/10/cutting-hiv-cases-in-half-in-twenty-years-would-cost-400-to-700-billion http://www.theawl.com/2010/10/cutting-hiv-cases-in-half-in-twenty-years-would-cost-400-to-700-billion#comments Fri, 08 Oct 2010 12:00:19 +0000 Choire Sicha http://www.theawl.com/2010/10/cutting-hiv-cases-in-half-in-twenty-years-would-cost-400-to-700-billion "Annual HIV infection rates could be halved by the year 2031, but expenses could reach upwards of $722 billion, researchers are announcing in tomorrow's edition of The Lancet."

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]]> "Annual HIV infection rates could be halved by the year 2031, but expenses could reach upwards of $722 billion, researchers are announcing in tomorrow's edition of The Lancet."

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