The Tradëscan Codex

So I've decided on three of my requests for Yuletide:

The ILLUMINATUS! Trilogy - Robert Shea & Robert Anton Wilson (Miss Portinari)
Where on Earth is Carmen Sandiego? (Carmen Sandiego/Player)
Blackadder (Princess Leia of Hungary)

Which leaves one possible request left. I've gone through my Yuletide brainstorming post, and eliminating the potential requests where either the fandoms or characters weren't nominated this year (really, no She's the Man this year? It's not Yuletide without a healthy helping of Viola/Olivia!), I'm left with the following options.

Go to Poll #1: What should Alixtii's fourth request be?

I'm posting the poll from LiveJournal instead of Dreamwidth for the simple reason that my Dreamwidth paid account has expired (and I can't afford to renew it right now) and my LiveJournal one hasn't (yet).

Entries with asterisks after them have the more detailed optional requests already written up for them at my brainstorming post. (Can you vote in LJ polls using OpenID? I don't remember.)

I'm leaning towards either Small Wonder or Mars Attacks! for the moment.

Go to Poll #2: Of the two, which should Alixtii choose?

*starts working on Dear Yuletide Author letter*

Here's the poll, inspired by the "She's-not-straight-they-just-love-each-other" Giles/Kennedy fic I may or may not be working on (when I should be working on one of my five fest fics, but that's another story):

And here's a meme, gacked from my flist:

If I had a warning label, what would it say?

From a WiP:

When Cameron returns, it's in the truck, with John and there's a large mass in the back covered by a canvas which Riley assumes is the remains of the T-101, to be destroyed later.

Cameron pulls off Riley's shirt and examines the bullet wound, a couple inches to the right of Riley's navel.[Poll #1342612]

Well, it also not only fails the Bechdel test so badly that it not not passes it but flunks it so badly it could be sleeping with the professor and still not manage a D. Which is a function of the fact that there are only four speaking parts (at least so far) in the whole thing (and NPH, Nathan, and Felicia are all perfect for the roles)--but explaining away the individual situation is always a bingo card response.

So it comes down to me that it's all about a pattern--Whedon has a good track record on feminist issues and a lousy one on race issues. After Buffy and its (admittedly multi-faceted and contradictory and self-problematizing) messages of female empowerment, and Angel and Firefly with their wonderful female characters in their ensembles even if the protagonists are male (and Firefly/Serenity is ultimately River's story at least as much as Mal's), not to mention Astonishing and Sugarshock (which I still have not read) and Runaways (which Amazon tells me is in the mail!), it's okay to me that he's telling a story with only one female character, and one who is essentially a prize to be won at that (although Felicia plays Penny wonderfully).

"This is the story I wanted to tell," is a bingo card response not because we shouldn't be telling stories like that (I mean, there are times when I think romcom formulas can be doing actual damage, but I'm not sure this one), but because it sidesteps the issue of why other stories aren't being told. The answer is always pluralism, more voices at the table, not less. Because I have a love for stories like Dr. Horrible, too, I've pretty much spent the entire time since I've gotten home work in tears, first crying through The Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement and then through Superman: Doomsday, so the traditional stories are able to affect me in ways that are near and dear to my heart.

Dr. Horrible is so short--about the length of a single (non-musical) episode of Buffy--and simple that I don't think there's really enough to hang a critique on. OTOH, neither does it suddenly earn him points or turn over a new leaf when he should be working to do so. Luckily for me from my position of privilege, I can roll my eyes and just groan, "Oh, Joss" at just how white the show is and go on loving the show (almost three hours until the denouement!--how will I go on after there is no more left to look forward to?)--but not everyone is so lucky.

. . .

So once the canon is closed (or at least flat-lined, if one will be treating Commentary! as canon, which I probably won't be 'cept for RPF), and the possibility of being jossed eliminated, what Dr. Horrible femslash should I work on?

[Poll #1225918]

ETA: I forgot to put Who on the list! I really want a Dr. Horrible/Torchwood crossover. I mean, like, badly.

Philosophers have a paradox known as the Ship of Theseus problem:

According to Greek legend as reported by Plutarch,

The ship wherein Theseus and the youth of Athens returned [from Crete] had thirty oars, and was preserved by the Athenians down even to the time of Demetrius Phalereus, for they took away the old planks as they decayed, putting in new and stronger timber in their place, insomuch that this ship became a standing example among the philosophers, for the logical question of things that grow; one side holding that the ship remained the same, and the other contending that it was not the same.

Plutarch thus questions whether the ship would remain the same if it were entirely replaced, piece by piece. As a corollary, one can question what happens if the replaced parts were used to build a second ship. Which, if either, is the original Ship of Theseus?

( Take a poll )

1. Guidelines for sponsored communities, in which it is established that SA will not sell your children into prostitution. I still don't understand why any corporation would want to spend money on sponsored communities people aren't going to visit, but if they want to give money to LJ I really don't have a problem with that.

2. Two months of birthdays: tinpanalley (4 August, bethbethbeth (6 August), pickuptehpieces (9 August), penknife (13 August) beccaelizabeth (23 August), kindkit (2 September), lillianmorgan (3 September), with_character (4 September), bastardsnow (9 September), brown_betty (14 September), fireflyslash (20 September), spuffyduds (25 September), frogfarm (1 October), and zortified (6 October). Happy Birthday!

3. Unguessed first lines from the song lyric meme:

It starts when we're kids. "The Magic Store" from The Muppet Movie, guessed by frogfarm.
Dear blender, won't you help a first offender? "Bitchin' in the Kitchen" from Shock Treatment, guessed by ficbitca_bear.
Beatta Maria, you know I am a righteous man.
When I was just a lad, looking for my true vocation. . . .
I started on a journey just about a year ago.
If you could see inside my heart then you would understand.
Rot, rot, rot, rot, it's a plot, plot, plot, plot.

4. Take my poll!