Argobot

Yes, I wonder how women learn to identify with male characters. Hmmm.

For my sanity, I was ready to ignore this whole conversation, but I seriously cannot believe some of the stuff that's being said. Please refrain from making reductive generalizations about an entire gender that are absolutely in no way grounded in scientific fact.

A Far Cry 2 Gone (from) Home -- Travel Discussion

I've read a few Mahfouz novels, and I'm not really sure I understand your point. Are you saying non-Western literature doesn't deal with every day life -- because the Mahfouz books I read definitely did -- or are you trying to say something about the use of language? Maybe I haven't read enough international literature, but I'm not sure that I entirely buy the idea that the traditional structure of a novel is a purely 'Western' construct.

Here you go: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=LjImnqH_KwM It was a pretty strong conclusion, I thought. But then again I'll support anyone who continues to hammer home the point that ironic sexism doesn't somehow magically make something not sexist.

That's a shame, I remember absolutely loving that book. Any particular reason why you didn't enjoy it?

Who knows when it got started, but I can only imagine that this will be the eventual result of all the ghost jokes Edit: And then also this

So just a normal date, amirite ladies? *ZING*

August 15!! http://www.gonehomegame.com/

http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2013/07/22/hands-on-the-bureau-xcom-declassified/

TWIST

I read the RPS preview of this game and was really sad to find out that you cannot play as female FBI agents, which ruins my idea of making a Mulder/Scully 1960s era alien fighting duo.

Culminating with this movie (sadly more of Gen Y thing, but whatever): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Idle_Hands

Terminator 2 is full of hand stuff: the robot hand from the first movie is what Cyberdyne uses to build Skynet; the final thumbs up that Arnold gives before he dies; "Talk to the hand."

I hate quitting books because I once I commit to reading something, I like to finish it (plus I cannot handle the book guilt). But the one book that I quit reading and refuse to return to is Anna Karenina. I generally am not a huge fan of Tolstoy, and that book was so infused with everything that I hate about him as a writer -- thinly-veiled author insertion characters, long scenes of peasants tending to crops -- that there was no way I was going to finish it. Give me 1000 pages of Dostoevsky's ponderous philosophy any day.

That article headline is a leading misleading; it's just one Russian lawmaker saying that he believes they shouldn't cherry-pick who they apply the anti-gay law to, not an official statement from the Russian government on how they will definitely be arresting gay tourists. I find it really hard to believe that Russia will actually go to such extreme lengths to enforce the law. The country has been planning for the Olympics for so long that I can't believe they would jeopardize the situation by inciting international boycotts. But who knows.

The 'whats' of Upstream Color are pretty straight forward, but the 'hows' and 'whys' are a little less clear. I think people tend to get too wrapped up in the second category and are bogged down in trying to unravel a 'mystery' that isn't meant to be solved.

What if Elizabeth is actually

Oh jeeze, the reviews for this book were so frustrating and laced with weird gender issues. And Reno has more realistic agency in this book than most female characters in modern fiction. Edit: here's the best review I've read for this book http://thinkprogress.org/alyssa/2013/07/30/2366081/the-flamethrowers-is-the-most-feminist-novel-youll-read-all-year-and-one-of-2013/

The reason I will never personally identify as a gamer: https://twitter.com/jennatar/status/361950293069541377 I have an issue with labels because they tend towards being a way to promote exclusivity in communities. Then again, I have no problem labeling myself as a feminist, so maybe I'm just a big hypocrite. (Obviously there's a difference from pulling a label from a philosophical/political movement -- feminist -- and pulling a label that comes almost entirely from marketing concerns -- gamer -- but I think anyone would be entirely in their rights to call me out for embracing one label while rejecting the other.)

Noir-ish story set in Rapture with Elizabeth as a playable character? Well that's a jumble of words that has certainly gotten me interested in this DLC.

I watched The Thing (2011) one afternoon because I was feeling really crummy and wanted to watch something that I could easily get angry at to distract myself (full disclosure: The Thing (1982) is my favorite horror movie and probably one of my top 5 favorite movies period, there was no I was going to like the reboot/remake). Weirdly, The Thing (2011) is one of the few times I wish that there weren't any female characters in a film. One of the aspects of John Carpenter's film that I love is how it can be seen as an examination of masculine power and relationships. Adding a woman to the mix -- especially when the character is so blandly written that it doesn't matter what gender they are -- doesn't do anything good for the story and ends up being a distraction. I watched that movie with my grandfather when I was six or seven. I didn't sleep for a week afterward.

Flamethrowers discussion is making me want to reread it myself. It is one of the few books that is able to present female-male sexual relationships in a realistic way, which is made even more amazing by the fact that it's all from the perspective of the woman. When I started reading and realized that the central relationship would be between a 20-something woman and an older man, I was afraid that the story would devolve into a clichéd romance, but Kushner's brutal honesty made the relationship seem more than just trite. Despite the obviousness of it, there's something understandable about a young woman falling for an older man that offers to 'teach her something' and large parts of that relationship resonated with me in a strong way. But I'm coming at this book from the perspective of also being a young woman in her 20s. I'd be interested what the male readers thought of the novel's relationships.

I really love Swartz's interpretation, sad that I only discovered it after he committed suicide. What a terrible loss.

I was thrilled to see such positive reaction to that poem on my Twitter feed. Truly great stuff, required reading for everyone who is human.