The Sunday Salon: Like Everything

Blogging

So at some point this week I sort of heard that there's been another case of a blogger plagiarising. You know this is just exhausting and this kind of behavior is ridiculous. There is no excuse for stealing what someone else wrote and pretending it's your own, if you have nothing of your own to say, don't write. And it made me think how despite all of this publishers still work with these bloggers and turn a blind eye and for some reason as I was doing some totally unrelated activity and thinking about this I just got really annoyed. It shows a total lack of respect on their part for what we do.

And someone pointed out to me that some of my posts had been stolen and reposted on some spam blog and it reminded me that a few weeks ago when I was googling spoilers for Borgen's third season (don't judge) I stumbled across something I wrote about the show attributed to someone else on what looked like it could also have been a spam blog. You know, the thing is that I don't want to have to deal with this. I feel like I can barely keep up with my blog as it is, I don't want to have to be thinking about people who are too lazy and too selfish to do work of their own stealing my writing and the negative repercussions that has for my blog. Why can't I just blog in peace? I want to be able to write about stuff and I want that stuff to be publicly accessible. I don't want to have to deal with all this crap. Basically I'M JUST REALLY GRUMPY about this topic. (Having said all of this, this is a fun post!)

Reading

I am progressing in War & Peace! I am on page 48 as of writing this but hope to finish up the first section this weekend. I'm finding it slightly more difficult than Anna Karenina in keep everybody straight, but so far so good. I'll save all my other thoughts for Thursday!

I also read Lenore's Level 2 and will share some thoughts soon. And I read Legend by Marie Lu and I'm also currently reading The Next Time You See Me by Holly Goddard Jones--so far so good! I definitely feel like I'm in a reading phase right now over a watching one...which is good news for the book blog.

Other Stuff

This is an old link now, but awhile back Paul Elie wrote about the lack of faith in fiction for the New York Times. It's an interesting question and discussion. I don't have a lot to say about it at the moment, but I have observed while working on the INSPYs that people seem to think that faith driven fiction=Christian fiction and so far I don't think we've really been able to change that perception. Anyway, I came across another response this week on BookFox.

This post at the Harvard University Press blog gives a good overview of the prosecutorial discretion in the case of Aaron Swartz and why that is a problem.

I'm getting excited for The Americans to premiere and I really hope I like it! This helped to get me excited and the bit about Keri Russell as a casting choice is fascinating.

Madden calls it "a show about trust. At a very personal level it's about how two people can trust each other, and at a very global level it's about whether two countries can trust each other."

I also appreciated this post at Out of Ur about the persistence of prejudice (aimed towards a Christian audience) and how adopting a child of another race has further enlightened them to how it is. The whole thing is worth a read.

Many white Westerners feel that the worst thing they could be called is a racist. We know deep down that we’re not supposed to make value distinctions between people of different ethnicities, as if it’s better to be white or black or whatever. Because we’re hesitant to make value distinctions—and rightfully so—we’re often slow to make any distinctions at all. Thus is goes without being said for many that to be truly equal, everyone must be the same. This is what we mean by being colorblind: the belief that ethnic differences don’t matter. Of course it would be fine if what we meant was that everyone should be treated with equal dignity or enjoy the same rights. But we suspect what is commonly meant is that everyone should be treated as if they were the same.

TV

Nashville--This episode was kind of strange to me. I mentioned last week I was really enjoying the dynamic between Liam and Rayna and in fact the way it ended seemed rushed and abrupt like they hadn't really thought how they wanted to finish up his arc. Even if I follow along their reasoning that Rayna was trying to reinvent herself and this was tied into her feelings about her marriage, it falls apart because Liam was being so secretive about the new imprint he'd get or whatever..it wasn't a matter of just realizing she was happy with what she had or that she wanted to do something new--she's still stuck. I also groaned when they actually had him SAY THE WORDS that being with her old label was like her marriage. I picked up on it on my own, thank you show! Rayna is still a little bit of a mess to me, I don't really understand how I should be feeling about her character. And I don't know, her marriage to Teddy is giving me Nate/Lisa PTSD flashbacks from Six Feet Under, it feels like the same sort of marriage and it's hard to watch.

This in comparison to how well Juliette and even Deacon are written is puzzling to me. I mean maybe it's just because I don't care that much about Rayna, but if anyone else loves her and can help me I'd appreciate it.

But let's get back to Juliette. In contrast to how...messy Rayna's storyline seemed in this episode, everything Juliette was A+. I loooooved her conversation with her mom, I loved Deacon calling her out about how she treats her mom in comparison to how she treats him (and she took his words to heart ♥), I loved how annoyed she was by Rayna being in the spotlight ("It was a thrill to see her contribute a bridge to the song", lol) I just love her.

I also still like Scarlett, but I was laughing about the lyrics she was singing when Avery drove by. It will be interesting to see exactly what ends up happening with Avery. Also Gunnar needs to stop getting angry over everything and taking it out on Scarlett! I really want to be able to go back to enjoying their friendship. At least he apologized!

Deacon's rage issues have a source! His confession that he got sober for Rayna and stayed sober in the hopes of something that would never happen explains how even though he is technically sober he still has a lot of unresolved baggage. I actually enjoy his relationship with Juliette now, but I hope it's never sexual again.

Have I mentioned I love Juliette?

Switched at Birth

I don't have much to say except that I was surprised by how mean Melody was to Regina when she told them about her problem. I like the Noah storyline because I think it contributes to the show's goal of exploring the lives of the deaf and hard of hearing and one aspect of that is losing your hearing later in life. Also he's just cute and likable. The ending scene between Bay and Emmett was tops, I thought her calling out after him was a nice touch.

Women Writing TV

I saw someone link to this piece on Jezebel about about women writers on TV. It deals a lot with comedy, but it's definitely an interesting thing to think about especially with the fail of the Man Booker judges on their gender imbalance. I would say that the piece doesn't do a good job of explaining why the are more enamored with Lena Dunham than anyone else...because there are other female showrunners. In fact, all three of the new shows I'm watching this year have female showrunners: Nashville, Beauty & the Beast, and The Carrie Diaries. (and they all could be cancelled next year, sob) But apart from that minor gripe, great read.

Have a great week everyone!