Men's Rights Get It Wrong, Again

I already learned what happens when you post something accurate about GamerGate and MRAs on Twitter but what happens when you post it on Reddit?

Someone asked why feminists are angry. I said that if you consistently have your point dismissed, ignored, or redirected so no man actually has to think about his power and, gods forbid, change his behavior, it's frustrating. Then you have groups like GG and MRAs whose sole purpose is the antagonize feminists rather than do good in the world, you start to get a little angry.

I have read multiple articles about GamerGate and MRAs from pretty reliable sources (Washington Post, NYT) and I fail to see any good they're doing. Those sources also do some impressive things like actually citing their research rather than spouting off facts and expecting everyone to take them at face value.

I also made sure to note that I have had personal experience with both of these communities and none of them have been pleasant. I posted something positive to Ann Wheaton on Twitter while she was under fire for saying something not positive about GamerGate. Despite do nothing to provoke any of these individuals, I got several antagonizing tweets. In the world of GamerGate logic, supporting their enemy means taking up a sword for their side in battle. 

"So what you're saying is your opinion on gamergate and MRAs is formed by listening to people that already hate them talk about them?

MRAs have opened shelters for men and continue to push for recognition of male rape and domestic violence victims despite opposition which extends all the way to outright criminal violence and shootings.

Gamergate has achieved significant reforms in ethics policies at many major journalistic outlets as well as raised literally hundreds of thousands of dollars for everything from funding female game developers to anti-bullying and anti-suicide charities.

The people telling you that both are the devil incarnate are literally racists, pedophiles, and rapist defenders like Sarah Nyberg, Arthur Chu, and Leigh Alexander."

"MRAs literally can't even try to talk about lowering the catastrophic suicide rate among men without large groups of feminists flooding the venue with death and bomb threats, blocking the doors, attacking people trying to get in, and pulling fire alarms to shut the whole thing down.

Which side is really the one that tries to make life harder for anyone who dares disagree with them here? The side that tries to open shelters, or the side that shoots peoples' dogs for sheltering male DV victims?"

I asked both users to show me proof of their evidence. If there's anything both of those groups seem to love, it's throwing out facts without citations and expecting everyone to take them at face value. If you want to change my mind, the burden of proof is on you.

I have yet to see anyone in either group defend their side without resorting to vitriol and ranting. They're consistently bad listeners and incapable of find fault with anyone on their side. Both groups have horrible reputations and it seems very well earned.

PopSugar Reading Challenge Book 29 or Name of the Whatever

For a book over 500 pages, I read Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss. I’ve had several friends sing me the praises of this book and, at 722 pages, it fit the bill. The description on the back is pretty vague so I didn’t really know what to expect. Based on the hype all my friends gave it, I foresaw an action packed story with a lot of adventure and interesting characters. I really should have known better.

I’m going to preface this by saying I’m not a big fan of high fantasy. There’s A LOT of new rules that have to be established very quickly in order for you to make sense of what’s going on. Is it just humans or are there other races/sentient species like elves, orcs, etc.? What about dragons, minotaurs, unicorns, and other beasts? Is magic common place? Is there more than one kind of magic? Do some people have inherent powers? Is the societal structure/hierarchy based on medieval British aristocracy or something totally different? How different is the geography and the weather? What about the monetary system? How do people travel? How many different languages do I have to use context clues to decipher?

I prefer urban fantasy since you go in with a lot of the fundamentals already established. You don’t wonder if Harry Dresden will get around by flying carpet or talking horse. Is his favorite bar run by a half-Orc speaking Caeldish? No. It’s contemporary Chicago. He’ll drive a car, have his American dollars in a bank, and his favorite bar is run by a human. To conform to contemporary society, most beasties have to keep a low profile so they’re not taken as a given.

While not the most complicated fantasy novel out there, I definitely had to shrug and fake it more than a few times. Overall, Name of the Wind was a well-written and entertaining book. It drags in some places but that’s the most negative thing I have to say about the book. So why didn’t I like it more?

The hype. Everyone I know who has read the book said it was amazing and I had to read it. They all said this with the same sort of near-crazed reverence in their eyes.  That should have been a warning. It didn’t have the action I expected or the cast of characters I was anticipating. I spent most of the book waiting for something more interesting to happen. Kvothe is a good character with an interesting story but I still don’t see what the big damn deal is.

It finally picked up in the final 75-50 pages but that was a long slog. People are saying the second book is better but writers need to stop using the first book as a staging ground. I almost quit after the first 100 pages because I had no investment in the book, the characters, any of it. If it's going to be a slow progression, people need to stop selling it to me as the pinnacle of fantasy literature. 

Let this be a lesson. Even if you love a book, don’t overhype it. I'm in it enough to finish the series but I'd have liked it more if everyone else had loved it less. 

A Graphic Year Ends Early

I am admitting defeat. I will not be able to complete A Graphic Year challenge. It got away from me sometime in July. I was scraping by toward the very end of the month but with my new gig and move in August, it all collapsed.

I'm still going to keep reading graphic novels because it's an excellent genre. Currently sitting on my shelf is the final installments of Fables, My Friend Dahmer, Rat Queens 1 & 2, The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl, Legenderry, Smut Peddler 2014, Lumberjanes 1, Paige by Paige, The Wicked + the Divine 1, Leaves on the Wind, The Underwater Welder, Quantum and Woody 1, The Adventures of Apocalypse Al, Black Canary & Zatanna, TNG & Who, Archie Meets KISS, Saga 1, and several different Deadpool stories. 

Plus, with the new Archie and the classic Deadpools all coming out, there's a lot more out there for me to find and enjoy. Below I have the final reviews I was able to generate before everything got away from me.

Week 24 

This week I took on an old Baltimore Comic Con purchase, Peril at Summerland Park.

I love choose your own ending novels and this was no different. A mix of comics and full page text, Peril lets you and 2 of your friends navigate the turn of events when you check out an abandoned amusement park.

I was impressed with the amount of adventure and twists and turns that were packed into such a small book. Charging jungle animals, disappearing roller coaster tracks, paralyzingly arrows, friends, foes, and mystical critters I haven't even heard of.

There was an excellent balance of endings where everyone lives, you meet your doom, or only a few of you make it out alive. I look forward to tackling more of the series.

Week 25-30 

A friend lent me Deadpool and Cable 1-6 which I've been very curious about. While entertaining, it reminded me why I stayed away from superheroes for a long time.

The scope of each story arc was so large, its impact so great, that it felt like it should have been extended. Cable grow in his power and influence so rapidly in the first two trades that I wondered how much else there could be to tell. The further into the series, the more it became what I don't like about superhero stories. 

It became convoluted and harder to follow. Once they started bouncing through worlds following Cable's soul, it started to lose me. I feel like these stories could have been stretched longer, the characters becoming more developed rather than throw one epic storyline into each trade.

Deadpool gets to remember his past and we barely touch on what that means. I've only read a little bit of Posehn but he definitely tries to explore the importance of that. It stopped being character driven and became driven by these extreme plots which meant little because of the shallow characters. The beginning was great, the middle was OK, and the end just felt tedious.