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09 Oct 03:04

Meal Planning

by Doug

Meal Planning

And more food.

08 Oct 17:57

Blackward by Lawrence Lindell

by Tara
Blackward

A

Blackward

by Lawrence Lindell
September 26, 2023 · Drawn and Quarterly
Contemporary RomanceLGBTQIARomance

CW: Homophobia

Blackward is a graphic novel that snuck up on me. I was excited to read a story about a group of Black, queer friends and was thrilled to end up with that, plus a beautiful message about how you can’t build a community without help.

Eight years prior to the main story, Lika, Amor, Tony, and Lala met at a reading camp at their local community center. Today, they still hang out at the center and are trying to build a space called The Section for other people like them — Black, queer, and weird. The group hits a roadblock when they’re banned after an altercation with a homophobic, older, Black man and the White “ally” who follows him around. So, the rest of the story is about how they find the right space and event programming that will help them build The Section the way they’ve always dreamed. And what could be more perfect than throwing an all-Black, queer-friendly zinefest named Blackward?

Lika is the closest this band of buds has to a leader. She’s sweet and anxious, so badly wanting to do a good job with their community organizing. Amor is the smooth one of the group, living up to their name as they flirt with strangers and pump up the rest of the friend group. Tony is always skateboarding and down for anything his friends are interested in doing. Lala is a goth punk with a reputation in the neighborhood for being scary, and she isn’t afraid to call out bullshit or fight when the moment calls for it.

Left to right: Amor, Lika, Tony, Lala

Of the main group, I identified most with Lika. She so keenly wants The Section to become the space she’s needed for so long and sometimes her anxiety gets the better of her. We really see that come to light as rude, throwaway comments from strangers feel like big, scary attacks.

As much as I love Lika, Lala is the one I’d want with me if I was ever walking into a tense situation. She is punk as fuck, both in her outward appearance and her demeanor, and she isn’t afraid to punch someone who is bigger and meaner than her. Lala’s edge is balanced by her heart, because she clearly loves her friends and would never let anyone from outside the group mess with them.

My favorite character, however, is hands down Mr. Marcus. He was their facilitator at reading camp all those years ago and they’re still in touch with him. Mr. Marcus runs a local independent bookstore called Books ’N Thangs and he also runs regular book fairs to give local kids a safe and clean space to connect with books. At a couple of points, he tells the group to let him know if they need his help and it’s through him that the key theme of the story comes out: you can’t organize and build a community without leaning on others. As much as I love everything else about this book, this theme made me fall truly in love with it. While we’re all looking for a place to belong and sometimes we have to build that place, we don’t have to do it alone because there’s probably a Mr. Marcus in our orbit.

I also found it really interesting that the event they throw as a way of getting the word out about The Section is a zine fest. For anyone not familiar, zines are self-published works that can include stories, poetry, recipes, or anything really (Book Riot has a great short piece on the history of zines if you want to know more). Zines have had an important role in community building in the punk scene of the 1980s and the queercore scene of the 1990s, so to see a zine fest focused exclusively on Black creators who don’t always feel like they belong is exciting.

The art style brings all of the above to life, which is especially important because there isn’t a ton of dialogue in Blackward. The use of color is incredible, shifting from vibrant shades in the story’s main timeline to muted and/or pastel shades in flashbacks. The art style is like a mood ring, too, because it often shifts from panel to panel, depending on the emotion of the characters or what will deliver the most impact in a scene. This includes aspects like the line width used in panels, shading techniques, exaggeration of features, and more. I found the ever-changing art style so interesting that I read Blackward very slowly my first time, just to take it all in (I’ve read it three times, so far).

As I mentioned in the CW and the synopsis, there are a few villains in Blackward. Thankfully they were developed carefully enough that we can see and understand the harms that these people represent, without having to spend a ton of time with them. One is the older Black man who is extremely homophobic to the group at the community center. He’s very loud and proud about being a strong Black man, and is especially proud when he gets them banned from the center. His sidekick is a skinny, man-bun-sporting White guy in a Black Lives Matter t-shirt who practically trips over himself to support the older Black man because he’s so proud of his allyship, while either ignoring or missing the fact that he’s NOT being an ally to the four other Black people who are being harmed in the moment. Later in the story, some rando shows up at one of their meetings just to tell them they’re sinners and to repent.

Through these interactions, we see the extra layers of discrimination that some Black queer people face that straight Black people or queer White people won’t experience. As a White person who’s given up on the term “ally,” because I don’t believe it’s a title that can be claimed (read more on that), I especially appreciated that Blackward lays out the absurdity of performative allyship with clarity and humor.

The “ally” character’s words and actions highlight how some White people will claim gratitude for learning without actually doing anything to help the group we say we’re an ally to. Moreover, that character clarifies how “solidarity” can make things worse when we don’t look more closely at the dynamics at work in a situation. Also, in case anyone else has religious trauma like me and is worried about the random bible thumper, I found him so over-the-top ridiculous that it wasn’t triggering at all.

One final note, before I wrap this up: the dialogue is largely written in African American Vernacular (AAVE). AAVE is a set of dialects, each with their own regional differences. I had some familiarity with the grammar rules, but it had been awhile and I was struggling to remember some of them. If you don’t know much about the grammar rules of AAVE, I recommend checking out this resource before reading Blackward. It was very helpful as a refresher of rules and meaning, plus it’s only 6 pages, it’s super digestible, and it will make your reading experience so much better.

Blackward was the balm I needed for these scary times we’re living in. The art enthralled and inspired me, and the message about building community by getting support from others gave me hope. And, it was a happy surprise that my 8-year-old loved it just as much as I did. Blackward’s recommended reading age is 14 and up, but if you have a precocious reader in your life and are up for talking to them about meaty subject matter like homophobia, mental health issues, and belonging, I recommend reading it with them, too. Now excuse me while I ask my local library to stock it, so more people will have access, because everyone needs inspiration these days.

24 Oct 18:50

my entry-level employee gave me a bunch of off-base “constructive criticism”

by Ask a Manager

A reader writes:

I am a manager in a smaller group (less than 20 people) in a huge firm. The hierarchy is pretty firmly established by my firm, but within my group my directors have given me a lot of freedom and I oversee all of the staff and on occasion other managers (who do not have the same authority over the junior employees). The expectation is that I will be the head of our group in a few years if I want it.

I have a junior staff person (who has been with the group less than two years) who recently took it upon themself to give me some “constructive criticism” about my management, none of which was actually relevant or constructive (I did consider it and actually discussed it with said bosses and they were all confused as to where it came from, as well as displeased this employee thought it was somehow appropriate or relevant).

The criticism was along the lines of — I get in the office too late (I get there at 9, for what it’s worth, like everyone else, but I actually don’t have set hours nor do I punch a time clock). I let people spend too much time in my office, which related to a new hire who I was training. I hog the spotlight by training new people myself (a big part of my job since I have two advanced degrees, and I’m training entry-level grads) and not letting others do it. I talk to my bosses confidentially too much (!!). I undermine my bosses when I help staff finish something before a big deadline if they’re struggling (again, part of my job, our deadlines are firm and if someone can’t finish a project I will help them finish however necessary, but somehow this is rude to whomever assigned the work even though scope and difficulty level isn’t always apparent at the outset of the project and sometimes there’s just no way the staff could finish it on their own).

We already have twice yearly reviews where this employee could give feedback to my boss about me but they “thought that my boss wouldn’t do a good enough job” (which, what?). I usually welcome feedback, especially if it makes the office run more smoothly and I know I don’t know everything, but this seemed petty and like a personal attack. I’m also very careful to treat all my coworkers equally — no favorites, no cliques, no gossip.

When it happened, I was shocked and not sure how to respond, so the conversation happened and I thanked them for bringing their concerns to me.

I’m worried this employee now feels they can give me “performance reviews” whenever they have a grievance, which is definitely not how my organization works and has never happened before that I know of. In the future, how do I head off this kind of conversation from the staff I manage? How do I impress it is completely inappropriate for an entry-level employee to do this type of thing to any boss they have without throttling them?

For what it’s worth, this person has a huge entitlement and attitude problem, which I have addressed with them several times but they refuse to try to improve. They’re actively resentful of other employees and we had to address very recently their bullying another coworker who they thought “had it too easy” — not that the work was too easy but they didn’t have to fight for their job (neither has this problem employee so…). I’m inclined to just write it off as projecting, but I know this person pretty well and I think I will need to shut it down hard next time or they will think they are entitled to scold me and keep doing it.

We can talk about what to say if this happens again, but the bigger problem is that you have an employee who’s out of control and who you probably need to fire.

This is an entry-level employee who you describe as having a huge attitude problem, who has bullied another employee, who has ignored multiple conversations about their behavior, and who is now giving you laughably off-base “feedback” about your own work. Why are you keeping this person?

The right answer here is either to let this person go, or to have one final conversation where you clearly explain that their behavior isn’t acceptable and that you will need to let them go if it continues (and then follow through on that). If you don’t do that, this kind of thing is going to continue being disruptive … and meanwhile, your other staff are going to get increasingly frustrated and demoralized that it’s being allowed to continue.

But to answer your actual question: In the “feedback” conversation itself, you could have said something like, “Let me stop you there because you don’t have the vantage point you’d need to be able to give this kind of feedback. For example, it sounds like you don’t realize that Jane has been spending a lot of time in my office because I’m training her, or that the reason I train new people myself is because it’s a core part of my job here — as is helping people finish projects when they need that support so that we make crucial deadlines. My own manager is fully in the loop on that and appreciates it. I certainly welcome hearing from you if there’s something that directly affects you that you’d like to speak to me about, but you’re not in a position to credibly give input on things outside your scope — you don’t have the context or the perspective for it, as this conversation has underscored.” Frankly, I would also add, “I’m surprised that you thought these issues were in your purview, and this has deepened my concerns about your judgment that we’ve talked about previously.” And then I might say, “Let me lay out what your role here is, and then we can talk about whether it’s the right fit for you.”

Now, in a different context, if a generally good but junior employee approached you with off-base feedback, I’d encourage you to listen to it and then give an open, non-irritated answer without worrying that it will lead to them trying to give you formal performance reviews or so forth. You want people to feel that they can approach you with input and ideas, even if it’s a little outside the scope of their role (as long as it’s not constant or wildly inappropriate like with this person). Listening with an open mind and responding in a genuine way ensures that you remain approachable, and it can be a really useful learning experience for people to hear your perspective about their input, and can help them to hone their instincts in the future.

I don’t think you need to worry about heading this off in the future, because most people aren’t going to do what this person did. That’s just … not usually a thing. It happened here because you have a ridiculous person on your staff, and the solution is to deal with that, more than with this one specific piece of it. However, you can use this piece of it as an entry point into dealing with the broader issues, in that you could have the conversation I outlined above as a lead-in to “let’s figure out if this can work or not.”

my entry-level employee gave me a bunch of off-base “constructive criticism” was originally published by Alison Green on Ask a Manager.

21 Jun 18:55

the all-time best trends in visual art! these are them; there can be no others

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June 21st, 2017: Awesome Con was a great time! Thank you to everyone who came by to say hello: I'd never done a show in Washington DC before and it was really terrific to meet everyone! YOUR CITY HAS AMAZING STUFF IN IT TOO, NOW YOU KNOW.

I am Kickstarting a new book! It's called WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE PUNCHES A FRIGGIN' SHARK and/or other stories and it's gonna be great, in my not-at-all-biased opinion!!

– Ryan

21 Jun 18:52

The Institutional Impact of Maryville's 1:1 iPad Program

by Joshua Kim

Some data.

12 Apr 13:45

Rereading the Vorkosigan Saga: Ethan of Athos, Chapters 3-5

by Ellen Cheeseman-Meyer

This week in the Vorkosigan reread, Ethan faces the wider world for the first time in his life. Ethan is the kind of introvert who finds it easier to form a partnership with Janos than to meet new people in clubs on his home planet. Kline Station is going to be a challenge.

For new readers and anyone who needs reminding, previous posts in the reread can be found in the index. To find everything Tor.com has ever published about Bujold’s works, including Jo Walton’s thoughts on Ethan of Athos, check out the the Lois McMaster Bujold tag. Historically, the comments thread has not been terribly spoiler-y but the current policy is that spoilers for the entire series are welcome where they are relevant to the discussion.

SUMMARY

Elli Quinn disposes of a corpse.

COMMENTARY

What you really should be asking yourself here is why? Why are we reading this light and amusing story in which Elli Quinn feeds a Cetagandan agent to some newts and then sends a bunch of newts (DIFFERENT newts) to her comrades in the Dendarii Free Mercenary Company?

We need this story because Ethan has gone to war, and we need to know the terrain. So does Ethan. I think he was honestly expecting to connect with some suppliers, buy some eggs, and head home. He is not prepared for this.

In my excitement about book covers and the Athosian cultural milieu, I neglected to mention that Ethan of Athos was published in 1986, and although it is now seventh book in the recommended reading order, it was the third Vorkosigan novel to hit the shelves. The events in Ethan take place some time after Rian answers a phone call while meeting with Miles in Cetaganda – at that time, L-X-10-Terran-C had been tracked to Jackson’s Whole. Ethan will not be going to Jackson’s Whole; The committee back on Athos decided that further dealings with House Bharaputra would not be cost-effective. Jackson’s Whole certainly would not have been safer. In keeping with the pattern established by previous Bujold protagonists, Ethan spent his time in transit to Kline Station reading. He read obstetrical journals. I appreciate his reflections on his own understanding of gender, but they aren’t adequate preparation for either Kline Station or the war. And in fact, when Ethan disembarks on Kline Station, post-microbiological control inspection, he doesn’t even know what women look like. This is an interesting time to encounter Elli Quinn.

My heart started beating a little faster when I saw the words grey and white. Taken in publication order, the early stages of the Vorkosigan Saga are a little heavy on the Vorkosigans. That’s not a problem, exactly, but sometimes you go a long way without seeing a Dendarii. Elli’s uniform foreshadows the coming war, but right now, before the plans have been revealed, that seems fun. The way my brain connects gray and white and improvisational covert ops mercenary excitement is so strong that I sometimes catch myself thinking of baby penguins as Dendarii Special Equipment. This is a space station and a Dendarii Mercenary is on it! We are in for a good time!

When we last saw Eill, Ivan described her as looking like an onion. Elli is the galaxy’s most vivacious traumatic facial burn survivor. Ethan is interested in this from a medical standpoint, not an aesthetic one, and frankly, the rest of us should be too. Yes, Quinn’s is a face that could launch a thousand ships, if that was something she felt like doing, but the bigger picture is that she suffered a truly horrible, life-altering injury, and now she’s back on combat duty. Yes, she was back in combat before the facial reconstruction back in The Warrior’s Apprentice, but that was an emergency situation. This is detached duty on continued assignment with a mercenary company no one would have blamed her for quitting. Ethan finds her intimidating, and also possibly a source of evil. Ethan wields his loyalty to Janos as a ward against her feminine wiles. He’s new here.

Polyamorous heterosexual relationships seem common on Kline Station, but cultural attitudes towards homosexuality are only slightly more welcoming than the prevailing view of mutant fungi. Ethan is innocently looking for a meal, some artichoke beer, and some men to talk to about the only topic he knows how to talk about when he’s attacked by homophobic drunks. This is the kind of thing that could happen to anyone who tries to recruit settlers to an all-male planet in 1986. Elli comes to his rescue. This is not Ethan’s war – it’s just a mild demonstration of the hostility Ethan is facing in enemy territory. So let’s take a second to talk about the artichoke beer Ethan is craving, okay? It’s a thing that actually exists! I have not tried it. Anyone who has should share their experience in the comments. But I am pleased to see that OF COURSE the Planet of Men has a craft beer scene.

Still scared of women, Ethan ditches Elli at the earliest possible opportunity. This is a huge mistake because it leaves him vulnerable to abduction by the Cetagandans, who spend hours torturing him to find out what he knows about Terrance Cee (nothing). In the process, the Cetagandans reveal their plan to attack Athos and destroy the rep centers within the next seven months. Ethan’s death is imminent – a really bad Cetagandan guy is about to break his neck and shove him off a catwalk – when Elli rescues him again. She doesn’t mean to kill the Cetagandan agent, but the momentum of his effort to break Ethan’s neck sends him over the railing when Elli stuns him.

In the short span of time that Ethan spent playing tourist before getting beaten up and tortured, we saw the bright lights of Kline Station. It has amazing public art; Now, we get to look at its working infrastructure. Information crucial to the story:

  • Kline Station’s oxygen/CO2 exchange is controlled by algae.
  • The population of algae is controlled by newts.
  • The population of newts is controlled by people, who eat the excess newts.
  • Kline Stationers eat a lot of newts.
  • Station workers wear color-coded uniforms.
  • Kline Station takes its microbiological controls very seriously.
  • Elli knows the ins and outs of her home station exceptionally well.
  • Biocontrol Warden Helda is extremely unpleasant.
  • L-X-10-Terran-C is a person.

Ethan and Elli also have a chat about the Cetagandans. Elli knows that the Cetagandans are deeply invested in genetic engineering. She does not know about the Star Creche. She sees Cetaganda as a male-dominated militarist society, which is a fair description. Ethan and Elli’s discussion of the economics of raising a clone army is the political core of this book – Ethan asserts that the economic costs of raising a specialized and otherwise unproductive army would be overwhelming. Raising children absorbs most of the economic resources of Athos. Elli points out that this is not the case on many other planets, where the labor invested in parenting is usually not accounted for. Ethan is not the first of Bujold’s characters to make this calculation – this is precisely why Bruce Van Atta was keen to encourage the Quaddies to reproduce without replicator assistance in the beginning of Falling Free. Anyone who wants to raise a clone army from the replicator bank up will have to contend with it, even though most cultures maintain the fiction that the labor of child rearing is free.

At the end of chapter five, the Cetagandan agent has been fed to the newts. A hundred kilos of newts are being packed into a storage cube for the Dendarii. Next week, we meet Terrance!

Ellen Cheeseman-Meyer teaches history and reads a lot.

06 Feb 20:34

Rereading the Vorkosigan Saga: Cetaganda, Chapters 2-3

by Ellen Cheeseman-Meyer

cetaganda-vorkosiganreread

Last week, Ivan got in a fight, and Miles picked up some dropped artifacts. This was all very exciting, and very foreign to my personal experience as a person who has never been in either space or a fight. This week, Miles is going to engage in an activity with which I am much more familiar—he’s going to a party and looking at art. There will also be an elaborate funereal ceremony for the Cetagandan Dowager Empress, which I suppose might not be considered a party in the traditional sense. I am counting it as one because it involves both a large group of people and lunch.

The Vorkosigan series has more parties than it does space battles, and Bujold uses them really well. Miles exposes a lot of his personal insecurities about his life, his future, and comparisons between himself and his cousin at the first one. He starts unpacking Cetagandan politics and culture at the second.

The first party is hosted by the Marilican embassy. It is a reception for visiting dignitaries who have a free evening in their schedule because the funeral ceremonies planned for that time are Haut-only. In addition to the diplomatic corps being at a bit of a loose end, the lower-ranking Ghem have the evening off and need to find something to amuse themselves. I am confident that the process of reading and reviewing Cetaganda with really, really careful attention will eventually create the deep understanding of Cetagandan social classes that I currently lack. Miles doesn’t understand Cetagandan social classes either at this point, so I feel like my confusion is a reflection of the authenticity of my identification with Miles’s perspective.

The Marilican reception was recommended to Miles and Ivan’s attention by Ambassador Vorob’yev, as an orientation to the diplomatic personnel from other embassies to Cetaganda. Vorob’yev offers an astro-political orientation by explaining that Marilac is trying to establish its value to the Cetagandans as an ally, and has perhaps misinterpreted the lessons of the recent situation in the Hegen Hub. Vorob’yev also introduces the boys to Lady Mia Maz, who works on protocol for the Vervaini embassy, specializing in women’s etiquette. No one knows anything about Miles’ role in the Hegen Hub crisis, but Maz expresses her grateful appreciation for Aral’s intervention at the end of The Vor Game. Maz and Vorob’yev are obviously romantically entangled, in addition to having great respect for each other’s work. There’s also a nice moment here when Vorob’yev laments not being able to find a Barrayaran expert in women’s etiquette because no one has the experience, and Miles does that thing he does where he gently suggests that experienced personnel are made, not found. We will be seeing Maz again.

Outside of Maz’s immediate orbit, Miles is feeling awkward and Ivan is flirting with women. This is an activity that typically offers Ivan intermittent rewards, so he’s pretty into it. It’s never done anything for Miles, so he feels like people are only talking to him to be polite to Ivan, and he occupies himself with an inner monologue of self-doubts. Tonight’s self-doubt—will he ever find love? If Miles knew how much worse parties would need to get before he does, would he embrace it and try to ruin all the parties, or would he try to find a way to escape the Surprise Bug Butter and Secret Proposal Dinner like a tragic hero in a Greek play?

In the current moment, Miles and Ivan are introduced to Ghem-lord Yenaro, who has designed a sculpture as a gift to the Marilicans. It is interactive in the sense that viewers can walk through it. As long as the viewers aren’t wearing leg braces. Miles is wearing leg braces—this book is set before he has the surgery to replace his leg bones with synthetics—and the sculpture unexpectedly causes them to heat up and burn. Miles declines to consider this an assassination attempt, but privately feels that it’s shady as heck. So shady that he accepts a party invitation from Lord Yenaro for a later chapter, to facilitate further investigation.

In chapter three, Miles attends a ceremony in which visiting dignitaries leave funeral gifts in a spiral around the Dowager Empress’s funeral bier. A Haut lady in a force bubble pulls Miles aside and asks to know about the object he picked up in the space port. The Lady Rian Degtiar, Hand-Maiden of the Star Creche, also explains who the Ba are—they are a sexless, often-hairless, race of servitors bred by the Haut as genetic experiments. There’s a lot to chew on there. The Ba Lura—who, it turns out, attacked Miles and Ivan at the spaceport—is found dead in the position intended for the first gift. This is the point in the rising action of the mystery where Colonel Hastings sends a wire to his good friend Poirot, or someone writes a letter to Miss Marple. Since Miles is already on site, we already have our chief investigator in place. Since he’s only 22, this still has the air of an exotic intergalactic adventure, and has not yet delivered on the premise of most mystery novels—that the evil that men (and women, Ba, and hermaphrodites) do is universal regardless of the strangeness of one’s surroundings. This is not news to the Cetagandans, who convey their faith in the banality of evil by making a minor adjustment in the schedule and serving lunch before the ceremony rather than after.

Maz, Yenaro, and the Haut Rian Degtiar will go on to play major roles in the story. So do the Ba, and Haut and Ghem constructions of class and gender. I will be spending the week trying to determine if George Bernard Shaw’s Pygmalion could be adapted for Cetagandan audiences.

Ellen Cheeseman-Meyer teaches history and reads a lot.