Musings: Of Effeminacy, Homosexuality, and Stereotyping

A friend of mine told me today that she had heard that gay couples has normative gender roles - that is, one of them was more manly and the other was more womanly. Now I believe that she spoke of what she heard, and in all probability respects homosexuals. But the ignorant stereotyping still got to me, and here I am typing away about the most talked about, and obvious topics, just to clear my own head.

Cory Doctorow: Final Thesis

So this was the last book I needed to read and prepare for my coursera course. If I pass, I will let you know. But for the time being, let us just enjoy the fact that it is DONE! Ha! I did it! *tap dances*

Ahem. Anyway. Back to Doctorow's Little Brother. Basically it follows on Orwell's 1984 Big Brother, and asks who will put Big Brother in check? In today's world, who fights against the Police State? Whoever this person is, or this outfit, one can assume it has to be a darn hard job to get even with the Big Man with all the power. And yet who but a teenager could have the reckless bravado required? And thus we reach the novel, which you can find on the author's website. Or, you could just read on this post, which summarizes, analyses and (hypo)thesizes this novel. Onwards!

Cory Doctorow: Introduction

To know more about this segment, read on.

Tale Share: The ICHR's Ayodhya Visit

Recently the new ICHR (Indian Council for Historic Research) chief visited Ayodhya, and then went on to make some controversial statements. This of course let to a lot of media coverage and opinion clashes and basically a lot of negative air. However, some expressed their opinion through humous, and one such blog post, by a certain Rajat Datta made my day. I have shared some of the snippets here below.

Ursula K LeGuin: Final Thesis

So this book was a treat to read. There is no free online copy that I can recommend (legally, that is), and so I will simply tell you a story, the story of Gethen and how it came to become a part of Ekumen, a sort of United Nations on a planetary scale in the Hainish universe. And then I will study one aspect that this tale that stood out to me. Capisce?