& that is a line to buy books.
Catch Aliens http://bit.ly/boa_iphone
The Count is Out! Read it & weep.
Here’s the short version: the publication numbers don’t look markedly different than last year’s. But we at VIDA aren’t discouraged by this fact–we know that significant cultural change takes time.
We also know that this is a conversation that’s not going away; when we talk to other writers, when we talk to our writing students, we know things are in the process of changing for the better, that our literary culture’s consciousness has been raised. And we believe we’ve begun to see hopeful signs. Yes, many literary outlets still produced their phallocentric Best Books list this year. But notice how careful most of them were to create some context for their lists’ inherent subjectivity. The word “Best” now has a permanent asterisk next to it, no matter where you line up in our writing community’s gender debate. And to acknowledge your bias is one step toward opening your mind. We’ve come a long way since Publishers’ Weekly breezily dismissed the total absence of women in their top ten list of 2009.
All work created by VIDA, all work belongs to VIDA, all work courtesy of VIDA.
"We cannot excuse this as a cultural tradition. There are many cultural traditions that used to exist in many parts of the world that are no longer acceptable. We cannot excuse it as a private matter because it has very broad public implications. It has no medical benefits. It is, plain and simply, a human rights violation"
— Clinton says “culture” is no excuse for female genital mutilation
DIY Miniature Paper Craft Typewriter. This has already sold on Jacqueline Wagner’s Etsy page here, but she also has a tutorial for making it on her blog here.
(via fuckyeahbookarts)
"Most of the writers I know are weird hybrids. There’s a strong streak of egomania coupled with extreme shyness. Writing’s kind of like exhibitionism in private. And there’s also a strange loneliness, and a desire to have some kind of conversation with people, but not a real great ability to do it in person."
— David Foster Wallace (via tarts) (via unicornology, sometimesagreatnotion) (via tothepersoninthebelljar) (via pinkeezy) (via libraryland) (via peaceloveandbadwords)
"A global recession, cheap labor in developing countries, a soaring U.S. budget deficit, high rates of unemployment and foreclosure, political polarization – these are the forces, he said, that are conspiring against the country’s most vulnerable, threatening to push the next generation toward a dubious place in American history: the first faring worse than the previous generation. Patrick McCarthy Annie E Casey Foundation“The most disturbing trend I see is the sense of social mobility being diminished,” McCarthy said, echoing the Foundation’s latest Kids Count report, one of the nation’s most authoritative annual examinations of America’s well-being. “You work hard, you use all the talents you have to do okay, and you’re seeing more and more kids in poverty or in very low income families. The recession has stripped away from the trends of the last 20 or 30 years that allow our kids and grandkids to do better than we did. And what worries me most about that is that that’s what has always held us together as a country, the American creed, that if you work hard, you can make it."
—
Help for At-Risk Kids: ‘We’re in it for the long slog’ | The Center for the Next Generation
Ooooh, myth of merit.
"So, when men do femininity they feel ridiculous and when women do masculinity they feel awesome. This is what gender inequality looks like."
— Sexy Femininity and Gender Inequality » Sociological Images (via sociolab)
(via peaceloveandbadwords)
Dualism in Storytelling by Hiroko Matshushita
Hiroko’s accordion fold book reflects the dualistic elements commonly explored within fairytales, such as good vs. evil and old vs. young. She then cleverly illustrated both sides of the long strip of paper with two versions of the same story- one with a happy ending, and the other with an unhappy one.“The point is that these two stories are connected to each other through holes represented as windows and a mirror, reversing inside and outside, and giving the perspective of different points of view.”
An e-book version of the unhappy ending can be viewed here!
Sleep at work on an open book:)
Sneaky sneaky!
A lot of people write in to me saying they’d love to practice book arts for themselves, and wonder what kind of books would help them work from home. For anyone wanting to learn some core book arts/book design skills, general knowledge and book-making tutorials without taking a course, these books (which I happily received myself for Christmas) are a great starting point and cover all the basics (and more!)
I’d recommend them to any artists, illustrators, graphic designers and writers out there wanting advice on how to self-publish their work :)
Anyone else got a few other handy book-arty titles to recommend?
"Fine, it may not be legal to flip the bird on television, but that’s simply a remnant of the fifties we haven’t shaken. Unless somebody was handing out Xanax with the foam fingers, Lucas Oil Stadium was ringing with the music of profanities last night. More to the point, television viewers were submitted to ad after ad that likened women—negatively—to sofas, cars, and candy. Mr. Winter didn’t have anything to say about that, so I’d like to raise both of my middle fingers to him and anyone who thinks profanity is somehow more harmful to our children than images of violence and misogyny."
— Culture Desk: M.I.A. Shouldn’t Have Apologized | The New Yorker | Sasha Frere-Jones
"Deschanel agrees. “That people equate being girlie with being nonthreatening … I mean, I can’t think of a more blatant example of playing into exactly the thing that we’re trying to fight against. I can’t be girlie? I think the fact that people are associating being girlie with weakness, that needs to be examined. I don’t think that it undermines my power at all."
— Can Indie Heroine Zooey Deschanel Carry the Fox Sitcom ‘New Girl’? — New York Magazine
