Jedi School and laughing at the sick

My brain is utterly befuddled today. But two links before I forget:

A jedi uni course has opened in the UK

An interesting post about the way talk shows prey on the mentally ill Nothing new, really, but I hadn't quite thought of it that way.

Reading Across the Porn divide and the links on the side from an ex-radical-feminist got me thinking about the way all groups turn into dogmatic orthodoxy, and the difficulty of being someone who is in that group but doesn't want to 100% fit the mould. (Which is me with every group I join ever) Something she doesn't mention is the glee with which some people from the "other side" will embrace you only to reel back in horror when they realise no, you still disagree with/are not one of them, just not in the same rigid way as everyone else in your group. But I guess she was trying to be nice and build bridges, not take potshots at both sides :)

Fledgling by Octavia Butler

Summary: a unique and enjoyable novel from the POV of a young female vampire with amnesia.

This was intended to be the first in a trilogy, but then she died :( I have a thing against unfinished series, but I really enjoyed "Parable of the Sower/Talents" and this was the only other book of hers in the library system. There are a lot of similarities: the POV character is a young black american woman who is charismatic, driven, pragmatic, and wise beyond her (apparent) years. The plot again revolves around the desire to create community in a world of misunderstanding and danger. Something I found incredibly refreshing about this book is that it doesn't fall into the same old cliches about vampires. For a start, we have a female vampire POV, and there isn't that whole thing (as in Every Vampire Romance Ever) of the seductive yet deadly Man As Predator and woman as Willing Victim. Instead you have a weird symbiosis between vampire and "victim", creating a strange, intense, mutually beneficial relationship which is not entirely a matter of choice. It feels like the author is replacing the usual vampirism-as-sex metaphor with one that better explores the actual complexities (and creepy/scary-ness) of sex and relationships.

The major plot points and mysteries of the book were thankfully all wrapped up at the end of the book, though I am still sad I won't get to read any more. One thing I found a bit squicky was that while mentally fairly adult the protagonist has the physical appearance of a 12 year old girl, something I tried not to think about during all the sex scenes (which at least didn't feel like they were trying to be sexy). Overall the various power relationships, including the whole nature of vampire society, are interesting if a bit odd and sometimes creepy.

Still, if the idea of "Pragmatic female vampire protagonist" makes you go "Finally!" rather than "What's the fun of that?" you should give this book a go :) (Are there any other books with such a main character? I can't think of any. The best I can think of is movies about sexy female vampires who spend a lot of time posing in corsets etc, which isn't really the same thing)