stonebender (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
stonebender) wrote2003-06-07 11:51 pm
stonebender) wrote2003-06-07 11:51 pm
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firecat 1. What was a favorite theater piece that you performed or worked in?
It's a tie. While attending junior college at Laney. I got a chance to direct Butterflies are Free. This isn't a great play, but for obvious reasons it is a play close to me. It was my first attempt at directing. My cast was several of my friends and I had a great time during rehearsal.
For my senior thesis I directed, a shortened version of Hughie by Eugene O'Neill. I really enjoyed putting it on, but my favorite memory is how the attitude of my teacher, changed towards me. The Dramatic Art Department UC Berkeley at the time was very small, maybe 100 people. Everyone knew everyone else. We all knew who were the stars of the department and who was probably going to graduate and never be heard of again. Everyone was nice to me but I felt "humored" in my attempts to work in the department. I never got cast in any of the plays. I tended to be assigned minor backstage jobs. It was clear I wasn't being taken seriously. After I directed Hughie, my professor said I had a fine theatrical sensibility. Many of my classmates seemed to notice me for the first time. It felt wonderful.
2. Describe an aspect of obtaining health care that bothers you a lot.
That hospitals are the most architecturally inaccessible buildings for people with disabilities who would presumably need them more often than the able-bodied. It is also amazing that the medical profession, including doctors and nurses, are remarkably untrained and prejudiced against people with disabilities.
3. What's your favorite Xxxenophile story?
It's difficult to say really. Some of them I like because they play on a particular fantasy of mine, others are funny etc. It's been awhile since I read them, but I remember the one about the cyborg leaving his penis home. Several in issue #2 were fun.
4. Describe an experience you had in your teens where you felt very happy.
Happy as a teenager!? Good Lord, Stef! I didn't have a lot happiness as a teenager. I suppose it would have to be my prom night. I hadn't dated at all until my senior year in high school. I went out a few times with Michelle Beatley. It was getting around prom time and everyone was asking everyone who they were taking and where they were going. Except they never asked me. There was no reason they should, I'd never gone to any other dances, but it bothered me that they didn't. So I asked Michelle to go to the prom with me and we went. Had a great time, I looked like a fool attempting to dance and got a kiss goodnight!
5. How come Lois McMaster Bujold isn't on your books list?
Because I don't like her? I read Falling Free by her. Which I have been told subsequently wasn't her best work. Anyway, it so personally offended me that I have been unable to read anything else by her.
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I did theater in high school (I was in the band) and I know just what you mean about the split between the stars and the others.
Health Care: Yeah, I know, my local hospital is on a fairly steep hill and I'm always out of breath by the time I get to the door. And I've experienced drs/nurses attitude about disabilities second hand through helping the OH navigate the health care system. Sheesh!
Xxxenophile: I think one of my favorites is the one about the giant alien with two penises. It's so...sweet.
Teenage happiness: I figured there might not be a lot to choose from, but thought you might be able to come up with one.
Bujold: If you are willing to talk about it, what offended you about Falling Free?
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I was drawn to read it after hearing Tom Smith's "Falling Free", when I was in Pittsburgh over spring break, visiting with friends.
I would be very interested to know what offended you.
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Hummm!
I did theater in high school (I was in the band) and I know just what you mean about the split between the stars and the others.
Yep.
Health Care: Yeah, I know, my local hospital is on a fairly steep hill and I'm always out of breath by the time I get to the door. And I've experienced drs/nurses attitude about disabilities second hand through helping the OH navigate the health care system. Sheesh!
I'll bet you did! I'm sure you've also experienced their prejudices as a fat woman. Add to that, that much of the equipment and services I need to live independently are dependent on me dealing with doctors and hospitals etc...
Xxxenophile: I think one of my favorites is the one about the giant alien with two penises. It's so...sweet.
I'd forgotten about that one! Yes, a very good one.
Teenage happiness: I figured there might not be a lot to choose from, but thought you might be able to come up with one.
Thanks for limiting it to one I'm not sure I could have come up with a second one. :-)
Bujold: If you are willing to talk about it, what offended you about Falling Free?
The book presents a genetically altered race of beings that are designed to work in the zero G. They are basically slaves. I wanted members of the slave race to be at least a small part of their release from slavery. I remember a long section where one of the (I can remember the race's name) managed to get to a primary planet, (earth?) but could not cope with the high gravity and basically failed to inform the world government of the plight of her people. The message of the book seemed to me to be how the "normal" people needed to free them. I don't mind them getting assistance, but Bujold seemed to be going out of her way to show them as only being able to be freed by someone else and not in any way through their own actions. It seems, to me, to propagate a paternalistic view which bothers me. Does that make sense?
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That's the part that bothers me most, actually. I hate being in a position to have to beg for permission to have something I want, especially having to beg someone who knows a lot less than I do about what I want and why I want it, and who has a lot invested in pretending they know more than I do.
It seems, to me, to propagate a paternalistic view which bothers me. Does that make sense?
Yes. I find a lot of Bujold's work fairly paternalistic and conservative.
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That's the part that bothers me most, actually. I hate being in a position to have to beg for permission to have something I want, especially having to beg someone who knows a lot less than I do about what I want and why I want it, and who has a lot invested in pretending they know more than I do.
exACTly! I guess I lump that all in with the access and attitudinal issues.
It seems, to me, to propagate a paternalistic view which bothers me. Does that make sense?
Yes. I find a lot of Bujold's work fairly paternalistic and conservative.
I thought you were fan. I guess her conservative and paternalistic themes don't bother you?
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Bujold: Those tendencies in her works do give me pause, but I like her books anyway, because I think she's really a talented and skilled novelist.
I'm getting the impression my political sensibilities aren't all that reliably tied to my artistic tastes.
At Wiscon I was listening to several people talk about how they had thrown books across the room after reading certain passages. I was surprised because those passages by themselves would have made me roll my eyes but not put down the book.
On the other hand, I can't read Heinlein because of his attitudes toward women, so like I said, unreliable.