Finished!
Jun 05I finished Holmes on the Range over the weekend. I had to put it aside for awhile, due to work, but plowed through on Saturday. I whole heartedly approve. I don’t know if Hockensmith is in the Baker Street Irregulars already or if he even gives a shit, but if this doesn’t gain him access, it’ll be a crime.
For those not in the know, the Baker Street Irregulars, currently, are a prestigious gathering of Sherlock Holmes enthusiasts in the US. Prestigious to the point that you can join a local chapter, but you can’t just join the main group – that’s by invite only, and to get invited you either have to make a name for yourself in a local chapter (“Bob made cookies for our meetings, every meeting for 25 years. Let Bob in.”) or you’ve made a name for yourself in Sherlockian publications. It’s pretty vague, and since it’s invite only, they’ve never bothered to outline the path to initiation very well – it’s one of those you-have-to-throw-yourself-into-it sort of deals. You know. You have to nerd out – but I seem to recall that authors of notable Holmesian books count.
After all the dreadful pastiche shit I’ve read over the years, Hockensmith deserves a medal. I don’t want to give anything in the book away, but he didn’t just place his characters in the same universe, he actually manages to weave faith, whispy elements of some Holmes stories along the way. It’d be a great story all by itself, but as an homage to the canon, it makes me giggle.
Being a member of the BSI would be ginchy – I don’t have many aspirations, but that one would certainly be sweet (truthfully, I’d also like to be a Blue Blazer Irregular, but I’m not sure how one would go about achieving that.) But frankly, like all fandoms, they’ve been a bunch of spazzes in the past. Rex Stout (author of the equally spiffy Nero Wolfe books) was invited to present a lecture at one of their dinners – they were a men-only group at the time. And he argued, in spectacluar fashion, that Dr. Waston wasn’t who they thought he was (Attacking Fangirls take note – you might find it amusing.) And boy howdy, did it make a stink. So, while I’m sure they’re a fun bunch these days, it doesn’t sound like my cup of tea. That said, it doesn’t change my feelings that Holmes fans everywhere need to stand up and give a nod to Hockensmith.
Yeehaw.
WikiWikiWhack: The Baker Street Irregulars, Rex Stout.
Girl Powah Linkage
Jun 05Some neato stuff to soothe your Monday crabbys.
Cool new site called Girl Wonder right here: “a collection of sites dedicated to females in mainstream comics.” The mascot for the site is Stephanie Brown — Girl Wonder plans to explore Steph’s story and the underlying issues of misogyny in mainstream comics. After slogging through all of Erik Larsen’s idiot rants recently, seeing something like this is quite swell and refreshing.
If you like comics and you ALSO like nifty crafty stuff, like cake-y change purses and festive wrist cuffs and funky stuffed toys, then you should immediately head to Meltdown this Saturday for the second-ever Felt Club. I got some sweet owl earrings last time.
Oh, finally, I don’t know if you’ve heard, but…BATWOMAN IS A LESBIAN. The intarweb goes CRAZY in response! Relevant links compiled at When Fangirls Attack!
Avengers: Regenderize!
Jun 03New webtoy: The Regender.
Here is what a “regendered” Alert Nerd looks like.
Hey, Mary! And Danielle Aykroyd! If you look through the archives, you can read my rebuttal to Erika Larsen’s essay on Why Men Don’t Read Superhero Comics!
Here’s what Great Hera! looks like. Man, I hate that Karl Bosworth!
I found this thanks to Ragnell, who did us all the service of putting Erik Larsen’s latest through the thing. Results here.
Avi 'n' X-Men
Jun 01The Beat has a typically sharp post with a bit of analysis on the Avi Arad situation as well as linkage regarding the future X-Men flicks (or lack thereof — here’s a bit more on that, Wolverine, Young Magneto, etc etc).
Hmm. Lots of mixed feelings going on right now. All I can say for certain is that I hope this isn’t the last we see of certain mutants and I mind not at all if it is the last we see of others.
