http://feeds.nature.com/~r/news/rss/most_recent/~3/gPa5SGhGg3M/nature.2015.19034

Temperature rise outpaces warming of atmosphere, and threatens aquatic ecosystems.

Nature News doi: 10.1038/nature.2015.19034

http://whatever.scalzi.com/2015/12/16/i-was-gonna-write-some-things-about-stuff-but-then-i-didnt-so-look-kitten/

http://whatever.scalzi.com/?p=27668

Specificially I was gonna write something about politics, but then a large wave of ennui swept over me and the next thing I knew it was, like, 5pm. So, here, have a kitten. Maybe I’ll write about politics later. If not, there are always more kitten pictures to take.

http://www.armscontrolwonk.com/archive/1200664/global-warming-up-arms-control-down/

http://www.armscontrolwonk.com/?p=1200664

http://www.teachingushistory.co/2015/12/reflecting-on-hybrid-electives.html

http://www.teachingushistory.co/?p=2981

This semester I offered my first U.S. elective as a hybrid. The course, America Meets the Modern, 1920-1945, met once a week for an hour and fifteen minutes, with the other “half” online.

Eschewing Blackboard, I had the class meet online in a wordpress blog. Each week, students produced one of two types of posts: a reading reflection or a movie analysis. They blogged about a supplementary reading, which tended to be lenghtier essays, evaluating the arguments and making connections to the documents discussed in class that week. For the movie analysis posts, they watched a feature-length film and analyzed it as a product of its moment. Films included several famous Chaplin productions, The Golddiggers, It Happened One Night, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, and Casablanca. I also assigned supplemental readings regarding the Hays code and some readings about film and depression-era culture.

Grading for the blog posts was by participation, but every four posts I would write a summary post elaborating on what students did well and what they were missing, with the idea that these reflections would be applied to their formal writing projects, which were a formal movie analysis paper and a final research paper based on a series of digital archives, a thematic exploration of the course, or a project to add to the Living New Deal (no one chose the last option, sadly).

For this course, what made it successful was the size. Had I had a group of twenty-five, it would have forced me to use a rubric to grade the blog posts, and would have made the individualized sessions on their research papers more complicated to schedule and perform.

So the question remains, is hybrid teaching in electives worth it?

• A hybrid course made me feel freer to assign films as additional course materials. I assigned films that could be rented through Amazon or other sources.
• The weekly writing assigned online provided a low-stakes environment to focus on mechanical issues and analytical skills.
• Students were able to have a true seminar-style experience — while this was more a matter of circumstance than design, I think the hybrid format lends itself to more active learning in the classroom.

• Less time for historiography. Because I focused on primary sources and analytical essays in class, I found I had less time to go into the historiography of the New Deal or the welfare/warfare state.
• That feeling that I’m missing some key points. Having them in front of you more often provides more opportunities to explore the course themes, to reflect, and to have students engage more in small groups with readings and arguments. I often felt rushed to get to the big points of a topic and felt that some of the nuance of topics (the discussions of nativism and welfare capitalism in the 1920s, as well as the in-class discussions about Depression culture, got particular short shrift). Perhaps if I recorded lectures this would be less of an issue for future offerings.
• The online environment. Don’t get me started on Blackboard. And while I like giving students the opportunity to learn a new web-based skill like WordPress blogging, finding just the right tools still eludes me.

https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/evolution-the-self/201512/want-avoid-blow-ups-your-partner-heres-how

https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/one-among-many/201512/lightmans-universe

http://www.tor.com/2015/12/16/book-reviews-meeting-infinity-edited-by-jonathan-strahan/

http://www.tor.com/?p=199760

I read short fiction seldom, which makes me an odd choice to review an anthology of it. Let me get that caveat out there before everything else: although I know what I like, my ignorance of the form is vast.

Meeting Infinity is the fourth in a series of science fiction anthologies out of Solaris, curated by award-winning editor Jonathan Strahan. It comprises sixteen pieces of short fiction by James S.A. Corey, Benjanun Sriduangkaew, Simon Ings, Kameron Hurley, Nancy Kress, Gwyneth Jones, Yoon Ha Lee, Bruce Sterling, Gregory Benford, Madeline Ashby, Sean Williams, Aliette de Bodard, Ramez Naam, John Barnes, An Owomoyela, and Ian McDonald, as well as an introduction by the editor.

Strahan suggests in his introduction that the theme of the anthology is the impact of profound change on human beings:

“I asked a group of science fiction writers to think about the ways in which profound change might impact on us in the future, how humanity might have to change physically and psychologically, to meet the changes that might be thrown at us in the next fifty, the next hundred, the next five hundred years and beyond.”

Profound change should have a profound impact. I wish, then, that I could say that more than a handful of the stories in this anthology stuck with me once I closed the covers on this volume. But out of sixteen stories, only five left any real impression—and in two of those cases, the impression was decidedly unfavourable.

Simon Ings’ “Drones” is about a near-future Britain where all the bees have died and pollination has to be carried out by hand. Alongside the loss of bees, a combination of sickness and social factors have led to men substantially outnumbering women. Dowries for women and arranged marriages between wealthy men and a handful of women appear commonplace. The main character of “Drones” is a bland bloke who spends the length of the story musing about women and remembering his brief brush with marriage, and longing for a family of his own, until his dying brother passes on to him his own wife and children at the conclusion.

Oh, and spitting at other people, and consuming piss, appear to have some kind of ritual significance. If there was a point in here anywhere beyond patriarchal existential angst and (wish-fulfilment?) fantasy, I missed it.

Sean Williams “All The Wrong Places” is a story of a stalker. It’s probably not supposed to read as the story of a stalker, but it really does. (A lot like Greg Brown’s “Rexroth’s Daughter,” that way.) After a relationship lasting a little over a year, the narrator’s girlfriend leaves them. And they follow. Multiple iterations of themself, following her to the furthest reaches of human space and time, until they’re the last individual human left and they can’t even remember their own name.

That’s the straightforward reading. The reading made possible by the last pages is that the narrator is the girlfriend, forever trying to catch up to herself. Which turns a stalker story into something that, while less conventional, is a Moebius strip without an emotional core. Where’s the bloody point?

I like stories to have some kind of emotional catharsis or thematic point.

Apart from these two, the majority of the stories in Meeting Infinity are diverting but not memorable. At least, not to me. (I might be a difficult reader to satisfy.) But three—Benjanun Sriduangkaew’s “Desert Lexicon,” Aliette de Bodard’s “In Blue Lily’s Wake,” and An Owomoyela’s “Outsider”—left a real mark. In very different ways, they’re about choices and consequences—making them, living with them, the sheer dialectical ambiguity of being human—in ways the other stories in the anthology are simply not. “In Blue Lily’s Wake,” for example, a young woman and an old woman come to terms with their responsibility for decisions that caused a significant amount of suffering, eleven years after a terrible plague. In “Desert Lexicon,” a terrible journey across a desert filled with war machines becomes a character-study in choice and moral ambiguity. And in “Outsider,” a society that has engineered itself—and its members—to remove conflict by reducing autonomy finds itself threatened by the arrival of a refugee from Earth.

The thematic and emotional weight of all three stories lies in the unanswerable ambiguity of their moral arguments: what is it to be human? What, being human, are the consequences of a person’s choices? What do we take responsibility for, and what responsibilities do we refuse? It doesn’t hurt that all three authors have a very deft facility with their prose.

As an anthology, I’m not particularly impressed with Meeting Infinity. But the best of its stories really are very good.

Meeting Infinity is available now from Solaris.

Liz Bourke is a cranky person who reads books and other things. She has recently completed a doctoral dissertation in Classics at Trinity College, Dublin. Find her at her blog. Or her Twitter.

http://www.tor.com/2015/12/16/pull-list-the-top-comic-books-of-2015-part-2/

http://www.tor.com/?p=199364

And we’re back with part two of the 2015’s best comic books! If you missed part one, head over here. This time ‘round let’s get into the nitty gritty subcategories. Hit up the comments to with your top comics of 2015.

Best SFF

Descender (Jeff Lemire, Dustin Nguyen, Steve Wands—Image)
It’s no wonder this series was optioned for a film before it even hit the stands. Descender is a powerful story about an android who looks like a little boy who finds himself in an era where robots are banned. He searches for a family as his enemies hunt him down. I’m not much for science fiction, but Lemire keeps the high concept from getting too techno jargon and grounds it in a heartbreaking story about a lonely little robot boy. Nguyen watercolor-like style adds a vibrancy to the prose and raises a very good story to greatness.

Saga (Brian K. Vaughan, Fiona Staples, Fonografiks—Image)
As long as Saga is still being published it is guaranteed to be on every Top Comics list. There’s not much that can be said about it that hasn’t already been said. It’s topped the bestsellers list for months, is beloved by fans the world around, and has managed to attract non-comic book readers in droves. At its heart, Saga is a story about family, what it means to have or lose one, how we create them, and how we break them apart. And it’s set to a backdrop of Star Wars by way of Lovecraft and the Brothers Grimm on peyote. With Vaughan and Staples driving the story there’s no way it could be anything less than excellent.

The Wicked + The Divine (Kieron Gillen, Jamie McKelvie, Matt Wilson, Clayton Cowles, etc.—Image)
The plot about a murder mystery involving reincarnated gods is only one reason to fall in love with this series. Gillen’s dialogue rivals Joss Whedon in quippy sarcasm and McKelvie’s artwork manages to be both animated and subtle at the same time. They are constantly pushing themselves to make their comic book worlds as diverse as the real one, and it shows nowhere better than here. When left to their own devices, Gillen and McKelvie make some seriously off-the-wall comics. WicDiv is probably the most accessible—and even then it’s still pretty far out there for the average reader—which is why it ended up on the NY Times Bestseller list.

Best Monsters

Hellboy in Hell: Hounds of Pluto (Mike Mignola, Dave Stewart, Clem Robins—Dark Horse)
It was over a year between Hellboy in Hell #6 and #7, but with the 2 new issues this year—comprising the “Hounds of Pluto” storyline, the reunion was well worth the wait. New Hellboys are like meteor showers: while expected, they’re still damn exciting to witness. No one carries more guilt than our titular monstrous hero, and here he gets up close and personal with his hellish relatives. This two-part arc continues in Mignola’s fine tradition of wisecracking humor crossed with dark fantasy. After so many years it’s a relief to see Mignola and Hellboy still feeling fresh and creative.

Monstress (Marjorie Liu, Sana Takeda, Rus Wooton—Image)
I very nearly added this comic to part one’s “Prettiest” category, and for good reason. Where Liu created a densely rich world overflowing with gory history and exotic mythology, Takeda breathed life into it. Also like the other series in that category, Monstress isn’t the easiest thing to get a hold of. There’s a lot going on here, much of it only half-hinted at yet even despite the preponderance of exposition. Nevertheless, it is a haunting, frightening, bloody story of the lengths we go to be cruel and the risks we take to merit out revenge. Perhaps best of all, the main characters are all women of varying races and body types, but it’s treated as a given rather than diversity pandering or worth a clap on the back.

Best Comics Starring Kids

Cursed Pirate Girl 2015 Annual (Jeremy Bastian—Archaia)
Apollonia continues her search for her missing pirate father in this swashbuckling fantasy/adventure tale. The writing is quirky and clever and it’s impossible not to love Apollonia’s sparky determination. Bastian’s art is simply gorgeous. It’s mind-bogglingly dense, the kind of illustrations where you find yourself forgetting you’re supposed to be reading a story because you get lost in reveling in the intricacies.

Paper Girls (Brian K. Vaughan, Cliff Chiang, Matt Wilson, Jared K. Fletcher—Image)
This is hands down my favorite series that debuted this year. A quartet of teen girls delivering newspapers in the 1980s get caught up in a terrifying mystery when their entire neighborhood vanishes before their eyes. Feminist theory seeps in at the edges but just as importantly the kids feel like actual teenagers. There’s a ton of crazy alien/monster/whoknowswhat going on and Chiang renders it beautifully. And of course Brian K. Vaughan. I mean, what more is there to say?

Plutona (Jeff Lemire, Emi Lenox, Jordie Bellaire, Steve Wands—Image)
Living in a world of superheroes sounds fun at first glance, but Lemire shows it’s probably worse than you think. A group of kids stumble across the corpse of Plutona, a superhero in their world, and struggle with what to do about it. There’s clearly a larger story at play, but Lemire is wisely doling out the backstory in bites at a time. Lenox captures the kids and their world with her unique, vaguely manga-esque art. Like Paper Girls, the kids in Plutona come off as genuinely young and confused rather than adults mimicking youthfulness.

Best Action (Anti-) Heroes

Grayson (Tim Seeley, Tom King, Mikel Janin, Jeromy Cox, Carlos M. Mangual, etc.—DC)
No longer Nightwing, Dick Grayson goes undercover as a very acrobatic spy. Not every issue works to perfection, but the creators are treading interesting territory. After all the blergh with the New 52, Grayson rights the good ship Dick. The former Batman sidekick gets some much needed character development. The plot is tight and action-packed, and the series as a whole makes a good start for new Bat Family fans. And if you liked Jessica Jones’ female gaze, you’re gonna love Grayson. Janin knows what he’s doing, that’s for sure.

Midnighter (Steve Orlando, ACO, Hugo Petrus, Romulo Farjardo Jr., Jared K. Fletcher, etc.—DC)
Speaking of Grayson, he temporarily teams up with Midnighter on the latter’s eponymous series. Midnighter is a one-man punching machine with precognition and super strength. He also happens to be gay and while his sexuality isn’t the fulcrum of the story, his relationship with his boyfriend is. He is a man fighting and killing a path through his enemies, but just as important is what kind of man he is outside the brutality. ACO’s artwork is superb. He gives Janin a run for his money with his depictions of Grayson.

Velvet (Ed Brubaker, Steve Epting, Eliabeth Breitweizer, Chris Eliopoulos—Image)
If I were making a list of my favorite comics of 2015, Velvet would be at the top. Not only is Valentine Templeton a badass spy, she’s a middle-aged woman battling the patriarchy in the Cold War era. James Bond wouldn’t stand a chance against her. She is relentless in her quest to clear her name and uncover the truth about why her ex was murdered. She is a keen strategist, driven fighter, and tough-as-nails woman who carved out a place in a male-dominated industry. The art is spot-on and the story ratchets up the tension with every page.

Best Webcomics Published as Books

Nimona (Noelle Stevenson—HarperCollins)
This simple, sword and sorcery with a twist webcomic began in 2012 and quickly outgrew its britches. By the time the fable wrapped up in 2014, Nimona’s once playful antics had taken a turn for the dark and she became less of a wannabe hero and more of a teenage anti-hero. Nimona turns the genre upside down so no one behaves in the way their trope says they should. Stevenson also improved her artwork and skills at storytelling…not that the tale wasn’t addicting from the very first panel. The full webcomic is no longer available online, so print is your only option.

The Private Eye (Brian K. Vaughan, Marcos Martin, Muntsa Vicente—Panel Syndicate)
Set in a future of our world where the internet is dead and everyone hides in costume, the creators blend futuristic sci-fi with old school pulp detective mysteries. The layered plot is brought to life by stellar, intensely detailed artwork. The 10-issue series was recently released in print after Vaughan, Martin, and Vicente made a deal with Robert Kirkman to do an issue of The Walking Dead in exchange for getting a hardcover. Otherwise you can buy a digital version online. You can’t go wrong with a series that won both a Harvey and an Eisner this year.

Step Aside, Pops: A Hark! A Vagrant Collection (Kate Beaton—Drawn and Quarterly)
This semi-sequel to Hark! A Vagrant, does what its predecessor does, that is collect together some of the strips from the webcomic into a book. The strips are random non-sequiturs but with with a strong intersectional feminist bent that takes no shit. Hark! A Vagrant is ongoing.

Best Adaptations

The Flash and Arrow
The CW is cranking out some of the most consistently good SFF television in general, but these two DC superhero shows are the cream of the crop. These are shows that trust their audience, understand the genre inside and out, and push their stars to be better. On Arrow, Oliver Queen and Felicity Smoak have a complex, realistic relationship built on trust and undermined by their own insecurities. Laurel Lance and Thea Queen have had the most character development in the shortest amount of time, going from what rags to firecrackers in a single season. And on The Flash, Barry’s portrayal of PTSD is evocative while the Wests deal with with emotional crises in very human ways. The Flash goes light and fun where Arrow turns dark and serious, making them a wonderful pair, especially on crossovers. I’m usually wary of spinoffs, but after watching The Flash get backdoored out of Arrow and seeing how they’re building the Legends of Tomorrow roster out of guests stars has me giddy with excitement for the new series. Did I mention that Arrow and The Flash are also very diverse and feminist? That’s what happens when DC keeps out of showrunners Greg Berlanti, Marc Guggenheim, and Andrew Kreisberg’s kitchen.

Jessica Jones
Every thinkpiece has already been written about how amazing Netflix’s Jessica Jones is—plus Tor.com’s Tansy Rayner Roberts great recaps—so you already know why you have to watch this show. In short, not only is it a well-written and beautifully shot with talented actors putting in powerhouse performances, but it’s also a vivid take on domestic abuse, rape, and microaggressions. While both Daredevil and Jessica Jones are concerned with “micromanaging the shit out of 10 blocks in midtown Manhattan,” Jessica goes beyond getting the crap beat out of her to drown out the guilt of failure to stand up against the torments the patriarchy inflicts on us all regardless of race, class, or gender expression.

Alex Brown is an archivist, research librarian, writer, geeknerdloserweirdo, and all-around pop culture obsessive who watches entirely too much TV. Keep up with her every move on Twitter and Instagram, or get lost in the rabbit warren of ships and fandoms on her Tumblr.

http://www.tor.com/sweepstakes/robert-jackson-bennett-prize-pack-sweepstakes/

http://www.tor.com/?post_type=sweepstakes&p=199852

Robert Jackson Bennett’s new book, City of Blades, comes out January 26th from Crown—and we want to send you an advance copy of it, along with a copy of City of Stairs!

A generation ago, the city of Voortyashtan was the stronghold of the god of war and death, the birthplace of fearsome supernatural sentinels who killed and subjugated millions.

Now, the city’s god is dead. The city itself lies in ruins. And to its new military occupiers, the once-powerful capital is a wasteland of sectarian violence and bloody uprisings.

So it makes perfect sense that General Turyin Mulaghesh— foul-mouthed hero of the battle of Bulikov, rumored war criminal, ally of an embattled Prime Minister—has been exiled there to count down the days until she can draw her pension and be forgotten.

At least, it makes the perfect cover story.

The truth is that the general has been pressed into service one last time, dispatched to investigate a discovery with the potential to change the world—or destroy it.

The trouble is that this old soldier isn’t sure she’s still got what it takes to be the hero.

Comment in the post to enter!

NO PURCHASE NECESSARY TO ENTER OR WIN. A purchase does not improve your chances of winning. Sweepstakes open to legal residents of 50 United States and D.C., and Canada (excluding Quebec). To enter, comment on this post beginning at 2:30 PM Eastern Time (ET) on December 16th. Sweepstakes ends at 12:00 PM ET on December 20th. Void outside the United States and Canada and where prohibited by law. Please see full details and official rules here. Sponsor: Tor.com, 175 Fifth Ave., New York, NY 10010.

http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/scotusblog/pFXs/~3/_4ykU30DkII/

http://www.scotusblog.com/?p=236114

Helen M. Alvaré is Professor of Law at George Mason University School of Law.

It seems a safe bet that a post-Burwell v. Hobby Lobby Stores Court will have little difficulty concluding that the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) contraception coverage mandate “burdens” religious freedom for purposes of the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA). Otherwise, the Court would be opening the door for lawmakers, regulators, and judges to evaluate the theological verity of claims about the conflict between a particular state action and a religion’s scripture or traditions.

What seems highly uncertain, however, is what a majority of the Court would say respecting the federal government’s “compelling interest” in forcing the Little Sisters of the Poor and other religious institutions (which are not houses of worship) to insure contraceptives and early abortifacients for their employees and their female children. The Hobby Lobby majority skipped over RFRA’s compelling state interest prong and proceeded directly to a strongly worded conclusion about the government’s failure to employ the “least restrictive means.” Only one of the five Justices in the majority – Justice Anthony Kennedy in his concurrence – suggested substantive agreement with the government’s claim that the mandate served a compelling interest in the health of female employees. But his six-line treatment of the subject did not even allude to the legal standards for proving a compelling state interest, and accepted at face value the government’s conclusory representations about the links between free contraception and women’s health.

Of course it remains possible that an opinion in these cases would again dwell upon the “least restrictive means” prong. The Court could bless the existing “accommodation,” or even agree with the religious institutions that the government could find a way on its own to provide free contraception to their employees, without any longer using the religious institutions as a delivery vehicle.

For several reasons, however, it would be both disappointing and problematic to receive from the Court an opinion devoid of a “compelling state interest” analysis. First, although the standard is not yet sufficiently specified by the Court in the religious freedom context, it will increasingly figure in the near future in cases involving growing demands for religious institutions to cooperate with abortion, same-sex marriage, and, likely, euthanasia. Second, the government’s case for a “compelling state interest” is exceptionally weak. Yet for years the government has often carried the rhetorical day with generalized references in both legal and popular sources to a relationship between the mandate and “women’s health” and “gender equality.” The following paragraphs treat these two points.

First, fleshing out the contents of the “compelling state interest” requirement will provide much-needed guidance in future religious freedom cases. Lawyers are accustomed to encountering compelling state interest analyses in due process and equal protection cases involving fundamental constitutional rights and suspect classifications. There are a significant number of cases interpreting the meaning of a “compelling state interest” in the areas of speech or racial discrimination. But there are fewer in the area of religious freedom since the Court’s 1990 decision in Employment Division v. Smith severely restricted the number of free exercise challenges able to provoke such analysis. This is true even following the passage of RFRA, which once again mandated that laws burdening religion must be justified by a compelling state interest, realized by means that are the least restrictive of religious freedom.

The two leading cases specifying the “compelling state interest” test – Holt v. Hobbs (upholding a Muslim prisoner’s half-inch beard) and Gonzales v. O Centro Espirita Beneficente Uniao Do Vegetal (upholding a religion’s use of a banned narcotic) – seemed to indicate the following requirements at a minimum:

• The government must assert more than “general” or “broadly formulated” interests in maintaining its rule.
• There must be “evidence” linking the requested exemption to specific harms; the government’s case is stronger if Congress considered these.
• There must be a “focused inquiry” – e., a demonstration that the compelling interest is satisfied through application of the challenged law to the particular religious claimant.
• The rule should not be underinclusive; if many exemptions already exist, it is evidence that the government’s interest is not particularly compelling.
• A commonsense – “on its face” – inquiry should demonstrate the relationship between the rule and the asserted state interest.
• The inquiry is “context specific.”

In a free speech case in which the Court lavished attention on the “compelling state interest” analysis, Brown v. Entertainment Merchants Association (holding that a California law banning the sale or rental of violent video games to children violates the First Amendment), however, the majority articulated even more specific requirements, which seem well-suited to rules like the HHS mandate. This is because lawmakers in both cases claimed that their rules could produce specific empirical outcomes. Brown’s additional “compelling state interest” elements included, inter alia: specifying the particular problem in need of a solution; producing research and data – more than a few scattered pieces – demonstrating causation (not merely correlation) between the state action and the desired outcome; and showing that the law could close the gap between the existing and the desired situation by more than a few percentage points.

There seems little reason not to apply the more detailed requirement of Brown beyond free speech claims, given O Centro’s reminder that the “compelling state interest” test is “context specific.” In the present cases, the government is claiming that mandatory contraception coverage will produce fewer unintended pregnancies, fewer abortions, and better health and greater social equality for women.

Second, a “compelling state interest” analysis in the context of a mandate case would shed light on the government’s tendency – especially when contraception programs are concerned – to make extravagant claims without empirical foundation, while threatening the religious freedom of institutions providing unparalleled amounts of service to women. Governments at both the federal and state level have fallen into the habit of using contraception to “signal” their commitment to women’s rights. The facts on the ground, however, are much more complex.

HHS asserts that mandating religious institutions to provide free contraceptives and abortifacients will result in fewer unintended pregnancies, fewer abortions, and healthier babies whose mothers will be less inclined to smoke, drink, and have pregnancies that are too closely spaced. They are also maintaining that women with certain disorders for which pregnancy is contraindicated will be healthier, and that birth control can help prevent some forms of cancer. Finally, they claim that women’s different health needs generate additional costs, among which birth control is singled out as the most significant.

The empirical problems with all of these claims are overwhelming, and I can only scratch the surface here. The Institute of Medicine report underlying the mandate, as well as the government’s briefs in the mandate cases – based largely on the report – refer to studies and statements that are either entirely inapposite, contradictory, or quite insufficient. Empirical data pointing in the opposite direction is ignored.

To name just a few of the problems with the government’s case: it fails to mention scientists’ lack of agreement regarding how to measure unintended pregnancy, or to account for the forty- to fifty-percent rise in unintended pregnancy (as the government defines it) during the decades that the federal government was dramatically expanding contraception funding and programs. It fails to account for the dramatic rise in abortion rates during this same period. It overlooks the fact that abortions and unintended pregnancies have risen most among the less-privileged women who were the exact intended beneficiaries of government contraception programs. It claims contraception’s ability to prevent particular cancers without simultaneously noting its causal link with other kinds of cancers. Its claims regarding contraception’s ability to improve the health of women and children rely upon studies overtly disclaiming “causal” links, or even suggesting that factors unrelated to contraceptive usage, are responsible for their outcomes. It suggests that contraception will help women with a few named and rare disorders, but these disorders contraindicate for any contraception save the cheapest, non-hormonal, barrier or natural methods. It claims that free contraception will close a gap between the cost of health care for women and men, without any credible studies pinpointing contraception as the culprit.

All of this is on top of the fact that the ACA and HHS have exempted millions of Americans from the contraceptive mandate already, thus communicating its less-than-compelling status. The upshot is this: in a country of nearly universal contraceptive use among women who don’t choose to reject it for reasons of health or side effects or religion… In a country where women who are not employed have access to enormous quantities of contraception from multiple government and private sources…In a country where women are actually suffering and dying from a long list of diseases and disorders for which they do not receive free medicine… And in a country where rates of unintended pregnancies and abortions have grown large alongside expanded access to contraception… the government’s campaign to force the Little Sisters and others to facilitate contraception at the cost of their institutional existence seems strictly ideological, strictly a matter of cementing political alliances with particular interest groups, and not at all empirically compelling.

http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Sfsignal/~3/9Gq_5calPLk/

http://www.sfsignal.com/?p=131158

Devotion by Ros Barber caught my eye, and is coming up in 2016. Check it out!

About the book:

The new novel from the award-winning author of THE MARLOWE PAPERS,
winner of the Desmond Elliott Prize, and long-listed for the Women’s Prize for Fiction 2013

It is the near future, and moves have been made to classify religious fundamentalism as a form of mental illness. Criminal psychologist Finlay Logan must assess the sanity of a young woman who has committed a religiously-inspired atrocity, but in a state of grief after the death of his daughter, he is struggling with his own mental stability.

In an attempt to reach his patient, an elective mute, Logan seeks the help of Gabrielle Salmon, a cognitive scientist whose experimental procedure — “the process” — is said to alleviate guilt, shame and suffering by creating a direct experience with God.

After seeing the results of “the process” in his patient, Finlay must choose either to medicate his grief or undergo “the process” to try to save himself.

With nimble, provocative thinking at the intersection of science and religion — as well as brilliant storytelling through use of a dual narrative — award-winning author Ros Barber creates a daring novel unlike any other.

Book info as per Amazon UK [Also available via Amazon UK]:

• Paperback: 288 pages
• Publisher: Oneworld Publications (April 12, 2016)
• ISBN-10: 178074921X
• ISBN-13: 978-1780749211

The post Coming Soon: DEVOTION by Ros Barber appeared first on SF Signal
Copyright © SF Signal

http://feeds.nature.com/~r/news/rss/most_recent/~3/A2vBARpLaug/nature.2015.19054

Proposed legislation had threatened the use of genomic and clinical data in medical studies.

Nature News doi: 10.1038/nature.2015.19054

http://feeds.nature.com/~r/news/rss/most_recent/~3/oLuOAl7D2N8/nature.2015.19038

Satellite images show some mountains unscathed.

Nature News doi: 10.1038/nature.2015.19038

http://feeds.nature.com/~r/news/rss/most_recent/~3/BBjixJtPpKM/528317a

Debate surrounds relative importance of environmental and intrinsic factors.

Nature 528 317 doi: 10.1038/528317a

http://feeds.nature.com/~r/news/rss/most_recent/~3/anjsJ0zJlaE/528312a

Fusion machine fires up; chemicals mega-merger; and AIDS funding is cut.

Nature 528 312 doi: 10.1038/528312a

http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Ta-nehisiCoates/~3/CvTpMp0oZbo/

It’s obviously not the case, but T’Challa—the Black Panther and mythical ruler of Wakanda—has always struck as the product of the black nationalist dream, a walking revocation of white supremacist myth. T’Challa isn’t just a superhero in the physical sense, he is one of the smartest people in the world, ruling the most advanced civilization on the planet. Wakanda’s status as ever-independent seems to eerily parallel Ethiopia’s history as well as its place in the broader black imagination. Maybe it’s only me, but I can’t read Jason Aaron’s superb “See Wakanda And Die” and not think of Adowa.

Comic book creators, like all story-tellers, get great mileage out of myth and history. But given the society we live in, some people’s myths are privileged over others. Some of that is changing, no doubt. In the more recent incarnations of T’Challa you can see Christopher Priest invoking the language of the Hausa or Reginald Hudlin employing the legacy of colonialism. These were shrewd artistic decisions, rooted in the fact that anyone writing Black Panther enjoys an immediate, if paradoxical, advantage: the black diaspora is terra incognita for much of the world. What does the broader world really know of Adowa? Of Nanny and Cudjoe? Of the Maji-Maji rebellion? Of Legba and Oshun?  Of Shine? Of High John The Conqueror? T’Challa’s writers have always enjoyed access to a rich and under-utilized pool of allusion and invocation.

I would not have always considered this an advantage. When I first started writing, I was anxious that I would be pigeon-holed into the “race-beat.” Eventually I realized that the “race beat” was actually the “humanity beat,” and that questions about “racism” are really questions about the exercise of power. Perhaps more importantly I realized that “race” was an essential thread of American society, and questions about race were questions about the very nature of the Western world. I wasn’t pigeon-holed, I’d fallen into a gold-mine. America is the most powerful country in the world. You simply can’t understand how it got that way without understanding “race.”

And beneath that political conversation about “race,” swirling around it, sometimes directly related, and sometimes tangentially related, are the incredible myths and world-views of black people and the black diaspora at large.To the extent that this society has not been able to engage with those myths, with that world-view, it has not only lied to itself, but it has also robbed itself of some beautiful art. Racism isn’t just morally wrong, it makes for poor story-telling.

Incidentally, so does didacticism. T’Challa won’t be yelling, “Hands Up! Don’t Shoot!” There will be no policy papers on the slave trade, nor any overly-earnest, sepia-tinged “Black History Month” style of story-telling.  The culture and politics can’t be on top; they have to baked in. So yeah, you might see some Walter Rodney in the royal library, or a sample from Robert Hayden. Or you might get a variant cover that pulls from our present moment. But there’s no need to over do it. The facts are in: T’Challa is black. This is not a declaration. It’s an opportunity.

https://warriorwriters.wordpress.com/2015/12/16/holidays-got-you-down-choke-them-out-with-yule-jitsu/

http://warriorwriters.wordpress.com/?p=18348

We writers are a crazy lot. If you look at my author pic with the viking helmet? I KID YOU NOT, Hubby was home sick. Walks out and I am dressed like a viking. Doesn’t miss a beat. Where’s the NyQuil? The week before, my mom stopped by and I was dressed as Alice in Wonderland for a vlog. Again? Nothing.

They are used to my insanity.

So wrestling holiday decorations? Nothing on the scale of Kristen’s Weirdness.

For those who don’t know, I also do the blog for my Jiu Jitsu dojo. Yes, I am a blogger but what am I going to blog about? I am a WHITE BELT.

10 Ways to NOT PEE YOUR Pants When Grappling a Black Belt

5 Ways to Work the Fetal Position

How to Tap Out Like a Boss

Needless to say, even though tomorrow I test for my blue belt? I only have a year and a half on the mats, so my lack of experience really limits my topics. So, I decided to share my passion for Jiu Jitsu with the world the same way I do with writing. By making people laugh. Anyway, I put a lot of work into this post, so I figured I’d get more mileage out of it and share it here as well because I want you guys laugh and to be safe as well ;) .

I’ve lived a remarkable life and now I can add, “Inventing a new form of martial arts” to my resume.

I bring you.

Yule-Jitsu

Gracie-Barra Mansfield, Texas is all about serving the greater community and we believe Jiu Jitsu is for everyone. But, we also believe in innovation, which is why we are the ONLY dojo in the WORLD to offer martial arts to keep you safe specifically during the holiday season with—Yule-Jitsu.

Yes, you read correctly. Yule-Jitsu. Because let’s face it…the holidays are trying to kill you so why not CHOKE THEM OUT?

Maybe you think I am nuts. You’d be correct. Maybe you think I simply want attention and blog content. Also correct. But here’s the thing.

Millions of people are killed by their own Christmas decorations EVERY DAY, but more so during Christmas. In fact, holiday decorations are the LEADING cause of death among all people of all ages in EVERY country according to an article I just published on Wikipedia.

But how much of this tragedy could be prevented with just a little bit of preparation? How many other forms of martial arts have been blind to this vacuum in combatives training?

NO MORE.

We at Gracie Mansfield could not allow this kind of reckless irresponsibility to continue, so today I bring you the foundational moves of YULE-Jitsu.

The Fir Mount Escape

The unthinkable happens and you are attacked by your own TREE. This escape is named The Fir Mount escape namely because I really dig clever word play. This escape will work on more than just fir trees and is effective on any evergreen real or artificial.

Maybe you are hauling in that “natural tree” and trip over the cat. Maybe you have too much egg nog and lose your footing. Maybe your home is invaded by a burglar with a record and since he is on parole? He cannot have a GUN and so he uses a TREE.

You are trapped. WHAT…DO…YOU…DO?

Remain calm.

The key is not to panic. If you feel wetness? It is probably not blood. If it’s a natural tree, likely you just spilled water down your leg…or you’ve wet your own pants. But the thing is? Stay calm.

The force of being crushed by your own tree probably will not kill you, but it will give you really awkward carpet burn that could lead to serious couples counseling.

Breathe. Create distance. Work your hands between you and the offending spruce to get the weight off your chest.

You should now be free from your tree and can now change pants.

Holiday Light Choke Escape

Holiday lights. We love them. Strands of lighted beauty? Or ELECTRIFIED AESTHETICALLY PLEASING DEATH ROPES? All perspective. Again, DO NOT UNDERESTIMATE YOUR ENEMY. That is a foundational teaching of Yule-Jitsu.

Some see eight tiny reindeer. In Yule-Jitsu you learn to see the STAMPEDING HERD OF INFLATED NYLON ‘MADE IN CHINA’ DEATH.

To demonstrate this escape, I’ve had my two assistants help me with an active attack scenario.

Let’s say you are forced to decorate a tree with young people. A teen who is supposed to be helping but is listening to music videos on YouTube. His little sister is enamored with decorations and thus not paying attention.

Meaning when trouble comes sniffing you better be a BEAR WOLF OF YULE-JITSU…because you are on your own.

In a vain attempt to keep the lights from twisting into one giant mangle only good for throwing in the trash, you get the bright idea to “loop” the Electrified Aesthetically Pleasing Death Rope (E.A.P.D.R.) around your neck. Then something goes horribly wrong…

Trouble. First, assess if there really IS trouble. Can you simply slip free of the E.A.P.D.R.?

DEFINITELY trouble. Again, remain calm.

Before creating Yule-Jitsu my first instinct was to simply gnaw through the E.A.P.D.R. Let’s just say that is a really bad plan. Using a knife? Equally bad plan. Throw water on it to lubricate and wriggle free?

No, though I thought that would work too.

WHICH IS WHY WE NEED YULE-JITSU…

Work free from the choke.

E.A.P.D.R.s are a genuine threat. No one is required to register them, get a permit for them and I am proof any idiot can be in possession of these so please. Practice your Yule-Jitsu.

Moving on to the final move in Yule-Jitsu. This move is helpful throughout the year but VERY useful during this time of year to take on our greatest foe…Commission Only Sales Clerk.

AHHHHHHH!

The Hair Iron Throw (or H.I.T.)

Ladies, you know what it’s like. You are shopping for gifts and if your hair is curly, some salesperson at a kiosk with a flatiron is after you. If your hair is straight? The assault will come in the form of a curling tool.

Some fools see a mall? I see a poor tactical position with no cover. YULE-JITSU TRAINING.

Though this move was developed to take out an enemy with a mad hot hair tool, it is also effective against clerks wielding perfume, cheaper cell phone plans, artificial hair pieces and wrinkle creams.

Again, my assistant is helping me demonstrate the Hair Iron Throw (H.I.T.).

Notice my assistant sees the coming threat and is immediately in her ready stance.

Trap the attacker’s hand. This keeps your hair straight (or curly) and also keeps the hot iron contained so you don’t get burned as you further execute the H.I.T.

Rotate the arm. Again, this creates more space to keep your hair the freaking way you STYLED IT WHEN YOU LEFT.

Also it will throw the attacker off balance and this permits a much smaller person to take out a far larger aggressor. Children who study Yule-Jitsu can also help maintain a parent or guardian’s current hair style and keep any adult from purchasing some overpriced “Ionic Tool” and why do we need IONS in our hair anyway?

Follow through. Notice as she rotates, I go over. Maintain control and finish. Keep control of the hair tool during the H.I.T. Finish the move as needed.

Stay safe! Know your Yule-Jitsu. Merry Christma-Hana-Kwanza-kah from Gracie Barra Mansfield!

What are your thoughts about Yule-Jitsu? Are you shocked there has been such a glaring hole in self-defense? Are you even MORE SHOCKED that people like me are allowed access to computers? Do we need other forms of holiday inspired martial arts? Come on, y’all are writers. Impress me!

By the way, we DO have the best (or at least weirdest) job in the world. I never thought part of my job would involve actually wrestling with a fake Christmas tree.

Thank GOD I won. Could have been embarrassing.

We love hearing from you! Come join us for a free month of Brazilian Jiu Jitsu and we will throw in some Yule-Jitsu for FREE!

Remember to check out the new classes listed at W.A.N.A International. Your friends and family can get you something you need for Christmas. Social Media for Writers, Blogging for Writers, and Branding for Authors. 

Also, I have one craft class listed. Your Story in a Sentence—Crafting Your Log-Line. Our stories should be simple enough to tell someone what the book is about in ONE sentence. If we can’t do this, often there is a plot problem. This class is great for teaching you how to be master plotters and the first TEN SIGNUPS get their log-line shredded for free, so you will be agent ready for the coming year.

Enough of that…

I love hearing from you!

To prove it and show my love, for the month of DECEMBER, everyone who leaves a comment I will put your name in a hat. If you comment and link back to my blog on your blog, you get your name in the hat twice. What do you win? The unvarnished truth from yours truly. I will pick a winner once a month and it will be a critique of the first 20 pages of your novel, or your query letter, or your synopsis (5 pages or less).

For those who need help building a platform and keeping it SIMPLE, pick up a copy of my latest social media/branding book Rise of the Machines—Human Authors in a Digital World on AMAZON, iBooks, or Nook. 

https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/nurturing-resilience/201512/is-the-kid-next-door-terrorist-12-questions-consider

http://www.tor.com/2015/12/16/sounds-of-star-wars-the-audio-dramas/

http://www.tor.com/?p=199235

A long time ago in a world far, far different from our world today, there was more than music and talk on the radio. There were dramatic adventures; soap operas, science fiction, westerns, mysteries and more. The shows had a full cast of actors, sound effects, and background music—basically, the equivalent of a TV show or movie, but without the picture. These shows faded away, and were almost forgotten, until for a brief time, the power of Star Wars brought them back to life. First the Original Trilogy and then adventures from the Expanded Universe were brought to life in audio format, and fans had a chance to experience the adventures of Star Wars in a whole new setting.

Back in the 80s and 90s, as a Coast Guard Reserve officer, I did a lot of driving around southern New England on weekends, at all hours of the day and night. And late one Saturday night while driving home from Boston, I was surfing around the radio dial, trying to find something to listen to that would keep me awake on the drive home. Suddenly, I was listening to a Star Wars movie—The Empire Strikes Back, to be specific. After all, that was Mark Hamill’s voice I was hearing. At first, I thought I had somehow tuned into a TV station that was running the movie. But no, the dial confirmed that I was listening to WGBH, the local NPR station. And as I listened, I realized that this was not a movie soundtrack, this was something prepared specifically for radio. And the script, the sound, the acting; everything was simply superb. In the space of a single episode, I was hooked.

Back in those pre-Internet days, there were more opportunities for geeks like me to be surprised by something new. While we had magazines, newsletters, and fanzines, information on the latest SF books, movies, and other projects were scarcer than they are in these modern days of websites, blogs and newsfeeds, where every detail of every new project is hashed out in detail throughout the development process. You never knew when you would discover a new movie, book, or other delight. And after hearing this new radio play, I did what one did in those days when they were looking for something—I headed for the local superstore. Those were also the days when stores competed over customers by showing who could put the most inventory on their shelves. And sure enough, there were two boxed sets of cassettes on the shelves, thirteen half-hour episodes of the first dramatization, simply titled Star Wars, and ten half-hour episodes of The Empire Strikes Back. I bought them both, and over the next few years, I wore those tapes out. Not only did I play them on my long drives, but I listened to them while finishing the basement, working around the house, doing paperwork. I missed more than one highway exit because I was lost in another world. After a while, the radio versions of the saga were more familiar to me than the versions in any other format.

Anthony Daniels and Mark Hamil during the recording of the Star Wars audio drama

The NPR Radio Serials: New Hope and Empire

Star Wars came to the radio in 1981. George Lucas made the whole endeavor possible by donating the radio rights to NPR station KUSC-FM. And Star Wars, modeled as it was on the old radio serials, proved to be perfect for the format. The project got a great script from the late Brian Daley, excellent direction from John Madden, and top notch treatment from Tom Voegeli, the sound mixer and producer, who had full access to the original sound effects and musical score. Mark Hamill reprised his role as Luke Skywalker, and Anthony Daniels took another turn as C-3PO, with both of them doing a great job of voice acting (in fact, this was the start of a new career for Hamill, who has done quite a bit of voice work over the years). Bernard Behrens was Obi-Wan, Perry King was Han Solo, and Brock Peters was Darth Vader, and all succeeded admirably in filling the shoes of the movie actors. Of particular note was Ann Sachs, who did excellent work as Leia, and was aided by the expanded script, which gave the character a lot more agency. And there were also a number of noted actors who had smaller roles or cameos in the production (Adam Arkin, David Paymer, David Alan Grier, etc.)

The longer length of the radio drama allowed Daley to flesh the story out quite a bit. The story starts with a full episode on Tatooine that takes place before the events of the movie, and the audience gets to listen in as Luke hangs out with the gang at the power station, races his rival through Beggar’s Canyon in a sky hopper, and meets with his old friend Biggs, who has returned on shore leave to tell Luke about his plans to join the Rebellion. Listeners then follow Leia for another full episode also set before the movie, as she risks Imperial blockades to run supplies to the Rebels, and visits her father on Alderaan, where they deal with a nosy Imperial officer. Even the more familiar parts of the tale are laced with new details; for example, the sound of the TIE fighters during the space battles is explained when Han tells Luke that his radar system is linked to audio synthesizers to help him hear threats coming in from outside his field of vision, making them sound like they are right in the compartment with him. There is a long scene dramatizing Leia’s torture by Darth Vader, which is very gripping, but may be a bit too intense for some listeners. The improbability of a civilian farm boy flying an advanced fighter is explained in a long scene in which Biggs uses flight simulators to bring Luke’s skills up to speed and test his aptitude. In the end, the initial Star Wars serial was a big success for NPR, and they soon began work on the next installment.

The Empire Strikes Back aired on NPR in 1983. A bit shorter than the first movie’s treatment, it added less new material, although there is a heartbreaking scene of a Rebel convoy on its way to Hoth attempting to escape from an Imperial attack. The listeners also get to hear Han and Luke’s conversations during the long night when they are trapped in a tent on Hoth, awaiting rescue. Hamill and Daniels returned from the first series, along with most of the rest of the cast. Billy Dee Williams was aboard to reprise his movie role, and delightfully, the gifted comedic actor John Lithgow joined the cast in the role of Yoda, giving a joyful and spirited reading of the role. The sound quality and editing are equal to the original, and NPR had another success on its hands.

One hard-to-find spinoff of this effort was a Daley-scripted adventure called Rebel Mission to Ord Mantell. But this adventure never appeared on radio, instead being released on LP by Buena Vista Records. For reasons that are not entirely clear (some blame it on NPR budget cuts), Return of the Jedi was not adapted by NPR. But this was not the end of Star Wars Audio Dramas…

The Non-Radio Audios

The success of the full cast NPR audio adventures inspired other ventures that appeared throughout the 1990s. Time Warner Audio Publishing partnered with Dark Horse Comics to give some of their Star Wars comics the audio treatment. John Whitman wrote the scripts, which adapted the material from the comics. The first was Dark Empire, an excellent limited-run comic that put Dark Horse’s Star Wars comics on the map. The sound and music mixing was not quite as precise as the NPR dramas, and some of the acting less accomplished, but the result was a good, solid effort that is fun to listen to. This was followed by Dark Empire II. The third installment of the Dark Empire trilogy, Empire’s End, was released only as an extra in a boxed set that collected the first two installments.

The Tales of the Jedi series, set in the days of the Old Republic, produced two audio installments: Tales of the Jedi, and Dark Lords of the Sith. These are a bit more pulpy than the other audio dramas, and both are fun adventures, but the story ends on a cliffhanger, and was never continued.

The jewel of the Time Warner audios was the Dark Forces trilogy. In 1997 and 1998, Dark Horse produced three hardback graphic novels (Soldier of the Empire, Rebel Agent, and Jedi Knight), based on a popular Star Wars video game, and written by the prolific military SF writer William C. Dietz. Each volume was illustrated by paintings from a different SF artist. The audio dramas were produced by Tom Voegeli Productions, and Mr. Voegeli brought the same high quality and attention to detail to this project that he brought to the NPR radio adventures. The trilogy followed the adventures of Kyle Katarn, a young man who attended the Imperial Academy, but later joins the Rebellion, discovers a connection to the Force and becomes a Jedi Knight. In 1999, Mr. Voegeli produced another adaptation of a Dark Horse comic, Crimson Empire, which was another high quality effort, but unfortunately the last of the Time Warner Star Wars audios.

Also in the mid-90s, Bantam/Doubleday Dell Audio Publishing produced two audio adventures based on tales from Star Wars short story anthologies: Nightlily: A Lover’s Tale, and We Don’t Do Weddings: The Band’s Tale. There were many other Star Wars audios over the years, but the bulk of them have been readings of the books. Some of those had sound effects and music, but they were not full cast dramas. As far as I know, the only other full cast efforts were children’s tales and foreign language projects.

The Trilogy is Completed

In 1996, long after many fans had given up on ever hearing the final installment of the audio trilogy, HighBridge Audio, the company that had produced the tape and CD versions of the first two NPR Star Wars dramas, revived the effort to record Return of the Jedi. Despite the long passage of time, they were able to bring back most of the original crew—both behind-the-scenes talent like John Madden and Tom Voegeli, and the original acting crew. The exceptions, unfortunately, were Mark Hamill and Billy Dee Williams. While Joshua Fardon and Arye Gross did a good acting job as Luke and Lando, the difference in the quality of their voices is a bit jarring. As with the previous installments, there were a number of prominent actors who wanted to be part of the Star Wars saga: John Lithgow reprised his delightful turn as Yoda. Ed Begley, Jr, voiced Boba Fett, Ed Asner voiced Jabba the Hutt, and David Birney voiced Anakin Skywalker.

The final installment fills only six half-hour episodes, which meant there is a lot less original material than in the previous dramas, although the tale starts off with a new scene showing Luke Skywalker assembling a new lightsaber on Tatooine. And later an extra character, a dancer named Arica who bonds with C-3PO, appears in Jabba’s palace—I later learned that this character was a nod to a tale by Timothy Zahn, who had his character Mara Jade infiltrate Jabba’s dancers in an attempt to assassinate Luke Skywalker. Overall, while fans might have wished for more original content and more episodes in the adaptation, it was also gratifying just to have the entire trilogy complete in audio drama format.

For whatever reason, perhaps the decline of CD sales, or the downturn of the economy, or both, there were no Star Wars audio dramas produced after the turn of the century. HighBridge Audio still has the NPR trilogy available on CD, and has licensed and brought out on CD a number of the Time Warner audios, including the Dark Forces trilogy—and they are still worth a listen. If you’ve never experienced a fully produced full cast audio drama, you don’t know what you are missing. So go out and give them a try. As producer John Madden has said, “You may think you’ve seen the movie; wait till you hear it.”

Top image from the poster for the Star Wars NPR Radio Adaptation, art by Celia Strain.

Alan Brown is a long time fan of both Star Wars and audio dramas.

http://www.tor.com/2015/12/16/rereading-the-elfstones-of-shannara-chapters-48-and-49/

http://www.tor.com/?p=199541

Welcome, readers of Shady Vale, to this week’s installment in our reread of Terry Brooks’ classic epic fantasy, The Elfstones of Shannara. If you’re unfamiliar with Elfstones, Brooks, or this reread, be sure to check out the introductory post, in which we all become acquainted.

Las week, the Witch sisters met their fiery end, Amberle woke the Bloodfire, and Wil defeated the Reaper with the help of his friends!

This week, Amberle wakens the Ellcrys seed, and Perk comes to the rescue!

Chapter 48

What happens?

Awash in the flames of the Bloodfire, Amberle confronts her fears, casts aside her personal concerns, and embraces her role in saving the Elven people. The Ellcrys seed is woken by the Bloodfire.

Quotable

The Bloodfire enfolded Amberle Elessedil with the gentle touch of a mother’s hands. All about her the flames rose, a crimson wall that shut away the whole of the world beyond, yet did no harm to the wondering girl. How strange, she thought, that the Fire did not burn. Yet when she had pushed away the rock and the Fire had burst forth about her, somehow she had known that it would be so. The Fire had consumed her, but there had been no pain; there had been no heat or smoke or even smell. There had been only the color, deep hazy scarlet, and a sense of being wrapped in something familiar and comforting.

Dramatis Personae

• Amberle

Analysis

There’s a saying: If it looks like a duck, and it quacks like a duck, it’s probably a duck. This in mind, I thought Amberle’s first description of entering the Bloodfire (“there had been no pain … no heat or smoke or even smell”) amusing because, despite all the evidence pointing to the contrary, she hung on to the visualization of the Bloodfire as an actual fire. Human cognition loves to understand things, and Amberle’s mind, assailed by a tremendous force that it can’t understand, likens the Bloodfire to its closest relative, despite it sharing almost nothing with traditional fire.

The Bloodfire scours Amberle clean. In a personal journey very similar to Wil’s in the previous chapter—which itself was reminiscent of Shea’s truth-seeking when he wielded the Sword of Shannara against the Warlock Lord—Amberle must confront herself and the pain that she’s endured since becoming the first female chosen in hundreds of years. It’s painful to see, even here at the very end, how the scarring caused by the emotional attacks of the Ellcrys on an unsuspecting child, still hurt her so much, compromising her ability to openly welcome her fate. Amberle shows remarkable resilience and bravery as she chooses, despite so many reasons to do otherwise, to bathe the Ellcrys seed in the Bloodfire. Heroes do not make easy decisions, and what Amberle does here is heroic.

Chapter 49

What happens?

Amberle emerges from the Bloodfire after having bathed the Ellcrys seed in its flames. In an effort to soothe the wounds he took in his fight against the Reaper, Wil chews a medicinal root, but its side-effects, including confusion and weariness, begin to take effect almost all immediately. Using the power of the Elfstones, Wil reveals the labyrinthine path out of Safehold. All hope seems lost, however, as they emerge into the overworld and the sun has already set on the last day that Perk promised to fly over the Hollows. Wil gives Eretria the Roc whistle. She blows it, but it produces no sound. Against all odds, however, Perk and Genewen appear in the sky. The Wind Rider tells Wil that he saw the smoke from the Witches tower and knew that they still lived, so he kept his vigil even after the promised hour had passed. Wil and Amberle say goodbye to Eretria and Hebel, then climb atop Genewen. Next stop: Arborlon.

Quotable

“Wil…”

It was Amberle! She emerged from the gloom like a lost child, her voice a thin, desperate whisper. Ignoring the pain that racked his body, the Valeman started toward her, Eretria a step behind. They reached her as she stumbled from the shelf, caught her in their arms, and held her.

“Wil,” she murmured softly, sobbing.

Her head lifted and the long chestnut hair fell back from her face. Her eyes burned crimson with the Bloodfire.

Dramatis Personae

• Amberle
• Eretria
• Hebel
• Perk
• Wil

Analysis

I could cry every time I read this chapter. Ostensibly, it should be full of euphoric victory—the Reaper has been defeated; the Ellcrys seed has been fertilized; Wil has mastered the magic of the Elfstones. All is good, yet everything seems so, so wrong.

“Oh, Wil, I was wrong, I was wrong. It was never her. It was me. It was always me. … I didn’t understand. She knew… all along. She knew, and she tried… and she tried to tell me, to let me see… but I didn’t understand, I was frightened…”

…

“I was wrong about her, Wil—about the Ellcrys. She was not trying to use me; there were no games being played. The fear… that was unintentional, caused by my failure to understand what it was that she was doing. Wil, she was trying to make me see, to let me know why it was that I was there, why it was that I was so special. You see, she knew that I was to be the one. She knew. Her time was gone, and she saw…”

She stopped then, biting her lip against the emotions welling up within her. Tears began rolling down her cheeks.

It saddens me to see Amberle take blame for everything that’s gone wrong. She reveals to Wil her realization that becoming frightened of the Ellcrys and fleeing was her mistake, rather than a failing of the Ellcrys to communicate, or of an Elven community that could not properly prepare a girl for her role as the Westland’s savior. What the tree, and the entirety of the Elven nation asks of her is tremendously sad, and her resilience throughout the whole novel should not be met with resignation, with her accepting blame for her mistreatment, but with celebration of her accomplishments. It undermines her character, and minimizes the emotional abuse she survived from both the Ellcrys and her family. Nothing that happened was Amberle’s fault.

Wil recognizes the sacrifices that she’s made, along with her strength and courage:

How much had this cost her, [Wil] wondered bitterly? What had happened to her within the Fire…? But no, there was no time for this. They must hurry. They must climb from these catacombs back to the slopes of Spire’s Reach and then return to Arborlon. There Amberle could be made well again. There she would be alright.

Wil obviously bears a great love for her, but, as I’ve mentioned previously in this reread, I think it’s a love borne of respect and admiration, rather than romance. There are no thoughts here of wanting to kiss her or hold her, no thoughts of a romantic reward  if she survives, no thoughts of how his own future might be different if she should live or die. In many ways, it reminds me of Sam’s desperate love for Frodo. Wil’s concern for her is genuine—pure love for a companion who’s gone through Hell and back, and deserves nothing more than a happy ending. And yet…

There’s so much foreshadowing in this chapter that it only gets better each time you read the book. Amberle’s Bloodfire-soaked eyes are the first giveaway that not all is right. If she must only bathe the Ellcrys seed in the Bloodfire, why has the magic infected her body? Of course rereaders, and astute first-time readers will recognize now that she is the seed that will birth the new Ellcrys, and the object she carried from Arborlon was just a catalyst for her transformation. Amberle has assumed a terrific magic, and, as any Brooks fan knows, magic comes at a cost as hefty as its power.

We also, of course, see this applied to Wil, whose body is changed after breaking through and harnessing the full power of the Elfstones:

The Elven magic stirred in his blood, and, as it did so, he felt himself changing in that same unexplainable way. He was no longer the same, he knew. He would never be the same. The magic burned him through and left an invisible, permanent scar upon hi body and his consciousness. Helpless to prevent it, he let it happen, wondering as he did what effect it would have on his life.

We know that the most resounding effects of the Elfstone magic do not directly affect Wil, but his children, Brin and Jair, who star in Brooks’ follow-up to this novel, The Wishsong of Shannara. The Elven magic changes the Ohmsford line, imbuing in their blood the mysterious, wistful, and ever-changing power of the Wishsong. It’s well-documented how Brooks took tremendous inspiration from J.R.R. Tolkien, but perhaps one of the most fascinating aspects of Lord of the Rings that Brooks explores in The Elfstones of Shannara is the examination of how the often-times traumatic events required to save the world changes the heroes who survive. Frodo is forever scarred by his journey to Mount Doom, and Wil, though he does not manifest the Wishsong, is changed in similar ways.

Next Time on the Reread

Allanon ponders his failures and his future, and the Demon army launches its final assault against the Elves of Arborlon.

Hugo Award winner Aidan Moher is the founder of A Dribble of Ink and author of Tide of Shadows and Other Stories. He regularly contributes to Tor.com, the Barnes & Noble SF&F Blog, and several other websites. He lives on Vancouver Island with his wife and daughter.