When it rains, it POURS

[jhameia]

So like, this month, I was going to do the novel writing thing right? Jazz Fest, pfft, I only need 16 hours to be considered a full volunteer. I was gonna write one chapter a night, steadily, all the way until mid-August, then revise, and register for SIWC.

Oh nooooooooo. No, pride and academic nerdiness dictated that I commit to revising Intersection of Race and Steampunk for an anthology, due August 10. I predict several evening hours spent in the Killam library, as I won't be able to borrow books out of uni libraries without a student ID. But that's okay, it's grad school work in something that interests me without the actual grad school tuition fees!

And not only that, but I'm stage-managing. Four shifts. Each of them six hours, and a possible two more hours (which I hope not, because Dinuk Wijeratne is performing that night and he's a genius so I don't want to have to miss a minute). I don't know why I'm stage-managing so many shifts. Jazz Fest is only one week, thankfully. I'll be lucky if I come out of this without my brain seeping out of my ears.

So. I may have to take a break from the internetz for a while.

Comments

[dmp.livejournal.com]

Cool. I had a revelation on the subway today and so I think I have a better understanding on where I'm going. I'm still keeping the topic of American steampunk perspective, but expanding more on the history Americans and anglophilia and how that applies to the current fascination with steampunk. I'm going to also talk about the political symbolism of the colonizers' fashion in history and include my thoughts about past cultural approbation and orientalism. But I'm arguing that by co-opting British colonial fashions, steampunks are subverting the colonial symbolism those fashions once possessed.

[fantasyecho.livejournal.com]

Nice! I'll be arguing the other way: Using the alternate history aspect of steampunk, steampunks can assert and re-connect with their heritage by mixing in aspects of their own cultural fashion into colonial fashions, creating a more visibly diverse space. I'll be hitting the costume vs. clothing angle in this, tying it in with the lifestyle aspect of steampunk.