The desire to have much more, all the glitter and the roar

[sovay]

The mail this evening brought my contributor's copy of Transcendent 2: The Year's Best Transgender Speculative Fiction, edited by Bogi Takács. It looks like a splendid collection and I am honored to be part of its table of contents. Plus it got a starred review from Publishers Weekly. My contribution is "Skerry-Bride," on the theory of more Norse queerness. The nine daughters of Ægir and Rán are called the nine skerry-brides by the eleventh-century skald Snæbjorn: níu brúðir skerja.

The same package contained a small sealed envelope bearing the logo of the Monster Rangers, which looks like Scouting for people who miss Gravity Falls. I now have a Lanterna Badge. I am seriously thinking of ironing it onto my coat. We can use more light.

(I was asked this afternoon for pointers to weird, creepy Christmas traditions in North America. I couldn't think of any that weren't facetious, but I could say that the first thing that comes to mind when looking at Christmas darkness is the way the holiday functions as a weighing of the soul in two of the most famous British and American stories, A Christmas Carol (1843) and It's a Wonderful Life (1946). Religiously, wouldn't you expect that sort of thing at Easter, harrowing and redemption? But it's the dark time of the year, the turning away of the sun: it makes sense. You want to believe the light is going to come back. You want to believe people are, too.)

Comments

[ethelmay]

I've always thought Handel's Messiah ought to be an Easter tradition, but here we are with it firmly entrenched in December.

[sovay]

I've always thought Handel's Messiah ought to be an Easter tradition, but here we are with it firmly entrenched in December.

I would love to know when and how that happened. I assume relatively recently, because so much Christmas tradition codified in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, but I don't know (if I ever did, I have forgotten) the details. I do know it was not commissioned as a Christmas piece.

[ethelmay]

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/the-glorious-history-of-handels-messiah-148168540/ does not have a complete explanation, but does say "It took time for Messiah to find its niche as a Christmas favorite. “There is so much fine Easter music—Bach’s St. Matthew Passion, most especially—and so little great sacral music written for Christmas,” says Cummings. “But the whole first part of Messiah is about the birth of Christ.” By the early 19th century, performances of Messiah had become an even stronger Yuletide tradition in the United States than in Britain."

[sartorias]

I think the Giftmas overlay is pretty terrifying overall. Beginning on 'Black Friday' the consumer glut and crush begins, ending in mountains of trash at the end of the year. Accompanied by some of the most godawful and glutinous muzak ever perpetrated outside of hell.

[sovay]

Accompanied by some of the most godawful and glutinous muzak ever perpetrated outside of hell.

I don't disagree. The person who asked me was looking for the North American equivalent of Krampus, about which I had no idea. A lot of what I know about the history of Christmas in the U.S. is that for a long time it wasn't even a thing.

[sartorias]

It wasn't a monster commercial thing as it is today, but then that can be said for weddings, birthdays, Valentine's Day, Halloween, etc.

For Christians it meant music, candles, food, decorations of holly, maybe a small gift or two. all centered around church. For anybody else, of course, another day.

[sovay]

For Christians it meant music, candles, food, decorations of holly, maybe a small gift or two. all centered around church. For anybody else, of course, another day.

I don't even think of it as ubiquitous among American Christians until the mid-to-late nineteenth century. It was not a Puritan observance and, in New England, the societal disapproval if not the official ban lasted well past the Colonial era. My understanding is that it took writers like Washington Irving and Clement Clarke Moore to start the nationwide revival. This is one of the reasons I find the whole war-on-Christmas rhetoric disingenuous as well as pernicious. There has never been a true, unbroken, religiously Christian continuity of observance of Christmas in the U.S. The very first Christians in this country thought it was a bunch of popish, heathen nonsense and pointedly non-celebrated the first occurrence in their new country.

[sartorias]

You're right about the puritans. I was thinking of later groups, specifically pioneers (many of whom were from Europe in later waves) and women's pioneer diaries. Also family stories. Like, in my mother's side of the family, Swedes who came over after the Napoleonic war, Christmas was a church-heavy period, beginning with advent and its candles and ending with Epiphany. On the day, my great grandmother told us, if they were lucky they each got an orange, a rarity. They decorated the wagon with boughs and brought food along for the church service celebrations. For the girls, St Lucia's day was a far bigger deal.

[kenjari]

I'm not sure that it's confined to North America, but the whole idea of Santa as always watching children to catch misbehavior, and of Christmas gifts being all about reward and punishment based on how a child has behaved all year. The current manifestation of this via Elf on the Shelf is extra icky.

[sovay]

I'm not sure that it's confined to North America, but the whole idea of Santa as always watching children to catch misbehavior, and of Christmas gifts being all about reward and punishment based on how a child has behaved all year.

The gift/punishment is definitely not confined to North America, but I want to blame the surveillance part on "Santa Claus Is Comin' to Town."

The current manifestation of this via Elf on the Shelf is extra icky.

I live under a rock, so I just had to look this up.

I can see how that happened; I don't think it's a piece of folklore that I like.

I am entertained that the Mensch on the Bench went to the World Baseball Classic this year. (I'm not sure otherwise how I feel about the Mensch on the Bench overall.)

[ethelmay]

I was trying and failing to remember the name of the Mensch on the Bench earlier. The closest I could get was the Reb on the Step, and I knew that wasn't it. I felt like Thurber trying to remember Perth Amboy. ("I had been trying all afternoon, in vain, to think of the name Perth Amboy. It seems now like a very simple name to recall and yet on the day in question I thought of every other town in the country, as well as such words and names and phrases as terra cotta, Walla-Walla, bill of lading, vice versa, hoity-toity, Pall Mall, Bodley Head, Schumann-Heink, etc., without even coming close to Perth Amboy. I suppose terra cotta was the closest I came, although it was not very close.")

[cmcmck]

Glad to hear that you are writing transgender fiction because there is so much awful transgender fiction out there and yours won't be! :o)

[sovay]

Glad to hear that you are writing transgender fiction because there is so much awful transgender fiction out there and yours won't be!

Thank you!

[selkie]

Yes, this is a salient point. I mean, I say this as a cisgender person so probably my point is much less valid, but wow, there's a lot to schlock through for the sake of representation. Better never hurts.

[cmcmck]

I'm trans as it happens and get very tired of people who think they know how I think and feel when they haven't the first clue especially about those of us who made it through things like the seventies!

[selkie]

I'm very sorry if my comment was offensive. My spouse is NB, so it's on me to do better (also, I've been reliably fucking up interpersonal interaction since the Eighties). I was typing from a place of frustration that so much of the writing about trans* and NB people that's out there isn't written by the people living it, but from a gaze that, however well-intentioned, often falls false for me and my spouse when we read: hence, schlock. If you'd prefer me to delete my comments, just let me know.

[cmcmck]

Not at all! :o)

Schlock is a damn good word for it (especially as I have Jewish ancestry!) :o)

Maybe we do need badges.

[tb]

The Monster Rangers links strongly remind me of the tone and feel of the Lumberjanes graphic novels; those might be of interest. Haven't looked further yet to see which came first or whether there's any connection between them.

May your lantern shine brightly in these dark times.

Re: Maybe we do need badges.

[sovay]

The Monster Rangers links strongly remind me of the tone and feel of the Lumberjanes graphic novels; those might be of interest.

I had heard the title, but not much more. That does look of interest. Thanks for the link!

Haven't looked further yet to see which came first or whether there's any connection between them.

The Monster Rangers have existed as such since earlier this year: before that, they were the Monster Scouts, and then the Boy Scouts of America lawyered up. I would guess they postdate both Gravity Falls and Lumberjanes, which does not mean I am any less pleased to have this badge.

May your lantern shine brightly in these dark times.

Thank you. Yours, too.

[selkie]

Huzzah for the writing! Maybe you should open a summer abroad program for bog bodies who want to see tall ships and public transit.

[sovay]

Huzzah for the writing!

Thank you!

Maybe you should open a summer abroad program for bog bodies who want to see tall ships and public transit.

When the royalties roll in . . .

[gwynnega]

I'm looking forward to reading Transcendent 2. Congratulations on "Skerry-Bride"'s inclusion!

[sovay]

I'm looking forward to reading Transcendent 2.

It's a really strong anthology. I hope it gets attention, and I do not say that only because I'm in it.

Congratulations on "Skerry-Bride"'s inclusion!

Thank you!

[dhampyresa]

Congrats! Did you get a physical or eletronic copy?

[sovay]

Congrats! Did you get a physical or eletronic copy?

Thank you! Physical—it's a very nice trade paperback.

[dhampyresa]

Can I ask for a picture of the book? I like pictures of books, hahaha.

[sovay]

Can I ask for a picture of the book? I like pictures of books, hahaha.

I can try!

[dhampyresa]

That would be lovely. Thank you.

[brigdh]

I was asked this afternoon for pointers to weird, creepy Christmas traditions in North America.

I'd never considered it before, but we really don't have many, do we? The only thing I'm coming up with is the 'Nightmare Before Christmas' movie, which has survived these 20+ years well enough that I still constantly see the characters for sale on t-shirts and such, but that doesn't really count as a 'tradition'.

[sovay]

The only thing I'm coming up with is the 'Nightmare Before Christmas' movie, which has survived these 20+ years well enough that I still constantly see the characters for sale on t-shirts and such, but that doesn't really count as a 'tradition'.

Right—I couldn't think of anything that was folk-based rather than pop-culture or fakelore. Which becomes legit if it goes on long enough, cf. most of the current forms of American Christmas, but wasn't very helpful for the discussion.