tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-56598962011-09-04T23:44:38.177-07:00Stories by Eve TushnetFictional stuff I've writtenEvehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10072598901082683876noreply@blogger.comBlogger261100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5659896.post-64181464560509631962011-08-28T13:20:00.000-07:002011-08-28T13:26:58.543-07:00NEW HERO: A couple comments on Attack the Block, re my post here:
Hi Eve, I just saw your post on Attack the Block and I wanted to clarify what I was saying about its attitude toward heroism. (I'm beginning to see the downside of not having my own blog to write out this stuff anymore...)
I agree with you that the movie doesn't really *overturn* the action-hero fantasy, since in fact it affirms Evehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10072598901082683876noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5659896.post-53791332056663065952011-07-18T01:21:00.000-07:002011-07-18T01:22:58.818-07:00THE PLANTS UNDER THE RUGS ARE MOVING. Have I done this post before, where I talk about what you should read if you want to read Stephen King? I'm not sure. Anyway, I haven't done it in a while. So here are your recommendations, if by "recommendations" you mean warnings. In alphabetical order because there's no other order, is there?Carrie: I hate this book, but it's effective and short. Ignore Evehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10072598901082683876noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5659896.post-64273650048541451732010-09-13T11:56:00.000-07:002010-09-13T12:41:55.428-07:00ALL ALONG THE WATCHTOWER: I started watching the new Battlestar Galactica because I'd heard that it did interesting stuff with religion and with post-9/11 issues of wartime exigency. In the end neither of those aspects of the show resonated especially strongly with me (although I do like Sean's point about how Baltar's seemingly scattershot theology actually hangs together and plays into the Evehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10072598901082683876noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5659896.post-55888029245311345932010-07-16T21:43:00.000-07:002010-07-16T21:51:41.664-07:00ONE GOD, THREE OPINIONS: There's a moment in David Ives's New Jerusalem: The Interrogation of Baruch de Spinoza in which the goyische interrogator--one of the few non-Jewish characters in the play--quotes the old Jewish joke about “two Jews, three opinions.” A sincere and self-questioning Jew says that he doesn't think it's very funny! But Spinoza giggles.And Spinoza is right. This play, in a Evehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10072598901082683876noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5659896.post-39567778706836778192010-07-14T13:55:00.000-07:002010-07-14T14:10:51.032-07:00A THOUSAND GIRLS, A THOUSAND THRILLS: A few exchanges about Gay Catholic Whatnot, for those who care. Responses to my post, "Order from Confusion Sprung."1. From an anonyreader:I just have some vague thoughts/reactions, just from a straight woman's perspective. You probably have no shortage of people giving you feedback, but I thought I'd add mine to the cacophony.(This isn't very philosophical, Evehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10072598901082683876noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5659896.post-289905579072436132010-06-07T21:49:00.000-07:002010-06-07T22:03:10.484-07:00MY FACEBOOK STATUS IS ALWAYS "RUNNING WITH THE HARE AND HUNTING WITH THE HOUNDS": A long exchange about complicity, closets, and Catholics, with Jendi Reiter.Jendi: Hi Eve, I love your latest post about coming out. I've experienced the distortions of the closet, having had to participate in my two moms' cover-up of their relationship when I was a child, and it's just as you describe. (Though in Evehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10072598901082683876noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5659896.post-73136942079972163712010-05-09T21:41:00.000-07:002010-05-09T23:14:35.274-07:00SAVE IT FOR THE MORNING AFTER: First thoughts on Iron Man 2. Contents may shift when I see it again!1. I'll see it again. I liked it! And superhero movies usually grow on me.2. Platypus. I liked Terence Howard as Rhodey so much in the first movie, you guys. I really think I gave Don Cheadle a chance, but maybe I didn't. Anyway his voice (and to a lesser extent his face) seemed so much less Evehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10072598901082683876noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5659896.post-70332481476398317872009-11-07T15:32:00.000-08:002009-11-07T15:37:27.580-08:00YOU WILL GO DOWN IN DARKNESS BEFORE YOU DIE: Wow, I loved The Descent. It is one of the scariest modern movies I can name. So here are comments. Spoilers. First, caving is one of the very, very few sports about which I have positive memories. As a dyke, I make a very good fag! But no... I've canoed Class Four [ETA: or maybe three?] rapids, and also spelunked (in the John Brown caves, if memory Evehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10072598901082683876noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5659896.post-4945406371055690032009-10-19T22:20:00.000-07:002009-10-21T22:38:51.573-07:00JUST A SLOWER WALK WITH THEE: I watched Night of the Living Dead in high school and really got nothing from it. In retrospect I used it to confirm my self-image as someone who likes old-school, Haitian-themed zombie flicks, rather than the modern kind.Watched it again. Now I understand why it revived (...) and reshaped a genre.Thoughts, in roughly chronological order: #1: I assume everyone but meEvehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10072598901082683876noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5659896.post-12028407124039081672009-10-14T12:14:00.000-07:002009-10-14T13:56:22.146-07:00WHY AREN'T YOU IN THE HOUSE ALONE?: A series of points about Paranormal Activity, in no order I can quite discern.1) I really liked the dynamic between the lead actors--they reflected two different kinds of awful interaction I've seen in real couples, so their arguments felt totally relatable. First there's the hysteria narrative, where the woman has actual concerns but they're dismissed by the Evehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10072598901082683876noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5659896.post-2465128076088310042009-03-24T05:49:00.000-07:002009-03-24T09:59:47.376-07:00HALFLIFE (now, with links!): When I walked out of Watchmen the first time I saw it--“First We Take Manhattan” still ringing in my ears, and thank you, movie!--I was on a high. They did it, I was thinking. They filmed “Watchmen.”On the way home, I started questioning. My most immediate problem--the lack of existentialist detective-story--is addressed in the NRO review, so I won’t rehash. But when Evehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10072598901082683876noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5659896.post-68251742721969644462009-03-24T05:42:00.000-07:002009-03-24T05:47:01.020-07:00SILENT RUNNING: If you complain about everything left out of an almost three-hour movie, as I did, I think it’s obvious to ask what on earth you would have cut! So here are my candidates--which include some scenes I really liked.#1. Cheesecore. So Dan and Laurie have costumed softcore music-video sex--and yes, the “music video” aspect is at least as dumb to me as the “softcore” aspect. I’ve read Evehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10072598901082683876noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5659896.post-65075825324405261342009-03-24T05:33:00.001-07:002009-03-24T05:40:38.420-07:00AN ANGEL WITH A FLAMING SWORD--AND AN INKBLOT MASK: Barbara Nicolosi at Church of the Masses really hated this movie, and walked out. In her comments box, she explained that the scene where she decided she couldn’t take it anymore and shouldn’t have to was the moment when Rorschach discovers the child-killer’s dogs tugging at a little girl’s shattered leg.Let me try to explain why this isn’t my Evehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10072598901082683876noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5659896.post-29536862559797286522009-03-24T05:26:00.000-07:002009-03-24T05:31:36.493-07:00SO LONG MOM, I’M OFF TO DROP THE BOMB: Completely random notes.• Actually, Laurie is “Laurie Juspeczyk” for approximately .23 seconds in the movie: That’s the name shown when she looks at her own hand through Nite Owl II’s goggles.• Although the acting and dialogue are both subpar, every moment Laurie and Doctor Manhattan were on Mars I found myself thinking, “This is the kind of movie I thought Evehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10072598901082683876noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5659896.post-50835574351910910672007-07-22T04:04:00.000-07:002007-07-22T21:06:52.030-07:00THE INNER LIFE OF VERUCA SALT: This is a post about the Harry Potter series and genre. It isn't especially spoilery for the final book, but yeah, I've read it and that'll show in this post. So if you're avoiding specific spoilers, you should be able to read this post, though not the intensely spoilerific one below. If you're avoiding even very general spoilers, oh for pity's sake close the windowEvehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10072598901082683876noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5659896.post-83351588517028161962007-07-22T02:53:00.000-07:002007-07-22T22:12:32.175-07:00HALO MADE OF SNAKE: This is the really spoilery Deathly Hallows post. If you don't want that, close this window, because this post is more spoilt than year-old milk.I've had a couple hours now to think about the thing, and trawl about the vast Intertubes looking at others' thoughts. And I'm still about as ambivalent as I was when I finished the thing. The parts of this post where I talk about Evehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10072598901082683876noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5659896.post-1148787489168545712006-05-27T20:17:00.000-07:002006-05-28T21:37:28.986-07:00SUPERIORITY COMPLEX: For me, the most powerful image or concept in X-Men 3: The Last Stand was something the movie could not possibly be expected to flesh out. So I don't blame the movie for avoiding it. It probably would have been a worse movie if it had delved into the thing I found most fascinating. Because what got to me was: the line of mutants outside Worthington Labs.A line of mutants, Evehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10072598901082683876noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5659896.post-1132730781764878762005-11-22T22:32:00.000-08:002005-11-23T14:31:08.270-08:00GOBLET OF FIRE: So yeah, I saw it. Quick verdict: worst of the four. (My list, for the movies, is POA, SS, COS, GOF. For the books, HBP, POA, tie between PS/SS and COS, OOTP, GOF.) Longer verdict:I. What I loved:The opening. Scary and spooky and wonderful. And we get Barty Crouch Jr. in the very beginning, so the later revelation isn't quite so "...and that came from where?!"The Dark Mark. Evehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10072598901082683876noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5659896.post-1117766439228570212005-06-02T19:35:00.000-07:002005-06-02T20:32:17.486-07:00For Certain Values Ofthe past and the future are both gayer than the presentromans-a-clef are gayer than bildungsromansenvy is the only deadly sin that might not be gayirony is gayer than sincerityimplicit is gayer than explicitcomplicit is also gayer than explicitillicit is, of course, gayer than licitliberation is never gayof the five senses, sight is the least gay (but watching and looking areEvehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10072598901082683876noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5659896.post-1114989182021468812005-05-01T16:09:00.000-07:002005-05-01T20:46:10.943-07:00YOU KNOW WHAT REALLY MAKES ME MAD? THEY CLEAN ME WITH A BRILLO PAD!: So, "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy."I loved the look of it. Everything looks perfect. The Brazil influence is used to brilliant effect for all the Vogon scenes (which is a lot of them, as Vogons are much more integral to the movie's plot than the book's)--rusty, clunky, stringy, crapped-out futuristic technology. The Evehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10072598901082683876noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5659896.post-1102647214968066582004-12-09T18:52:00.000-08:002004-12-09T18:53:34.966-08:00YOU/SHE: Mandatory Minimum Sentence
That first time, when we met in the green-marbled anteroom of the Social Ministry, she was standing just behind you (heeling, I thought--I was full of myself then and have had ample time to reassess her), blond on blonde, watching as I struggled through courteous conversation with my social betters, watching, as I slid much too fast into something I didn't Evehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10072598901082683876noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5659896.post-1101600773696215012004-11-27T16:12:00.000-08:002004-11-27T16:12:53.696-08:00High Heel/Foot: Stand Tall
He came up behind her quietly at the embassy party. "All right, dear, I think that's enough, don't you?" He winkled the glass from her hand and steered her toward a conversation that could be profitable to both their careers. Her hips swayed as he guided her, with one hand on the small of her back. Everyone looked at her as she laughed. He stood back and admired her asEvehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10072598901082683876noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5659896.post-1101599502641823732004-11-27T15:50:00.000-08:002004-11-27T15:51:42.643-08:00The Life/The Work: Science Fiction Heroine
"What have you got that I don't?"
"Well... I'm not always clinging at him, needing him. I'm a luxury, not a duty. I'm only there when he turns his attention toward me. Try disappearing when he's not interested. Absence makes the heart etc."
"Everyone thinks he's so compassionate."
"That's imagination for you. It's a gift, you should be grateful, thatEvehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10072598901082683876noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5659896.post-1101598958654026562004-11-27T15:41:00.000-08:002004-11-27T15:42:38.656-08:00Bitterness/Repression: Give In
Sardonic kisses move over your wrist; lips nudge your sleeve up, revealing the thin edge of a long deep cut. The tongue hesitates at the sensitive skin just before the scab. The face rises, glares. You haven't been entirely truthful.
"He hurt you." Flat words, as angry with you as with him.
"Oh, no. That's--it isn't important." You reach for the aristocratic, Evehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10072598901082683876noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5659896.post-1100604909067674602004-11-16T03:33:00.000-08:002004-11-16T03:35:09.066-08:00Imposed/Discovered (How They Made the Manticore)
The wind whipped her hair back, almost into his eyes, as they walked along the lower cliffside. He watched the blood sting in her cheeks and wondered why she'd handed him her coat.
She looked up, to the higher cliff. "Oh--oh look! Look!"
Manticores played by the edge of the cliff: little monsters. He laughed. "They'd best be careful they don't Evehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10072598901082683876noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5659896.post-1100603132775857282004-11-16T03:04:00.000-08:002004-11-16T03:55:13.106-08:00Liberty/License (In the Desert, You Can't Remember Your Name)
"California," she said; and I grinned. I pictured our perfect American road trip. On the long blank country stretches, I figured, I could teach her to use the stick shift.
In that first motel she came out of the shower with her hair dark against bare shoulders. I headed in to the bathroom while she bent over to hunt for her nightgownEvehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10072598901082683876noreply@blogger.com