Spooky Season is year-round if you're afraid of everything
One consequence of my cat's brief escape into the wilds of Edmonton is that I'm now a member of my neighbourhood's Facebook group. Following approximately six weeks of observation, I've concluded that many people living in quiet residential neighbourhoods are simultaneously terrified they'll be the victim of a crime, but so astronomically bored that they're actually kind of wishing it'll happen. It's been interesting to watch my neighbours react to just about anything as if it signifies impending criminal activity.
A lot of this might stem from a fundamental misunderstanding of what crime is and why it happens. I realize not everyone spends their days researching this sort of thing to write gay little books, but I think a great deal of societal anxiety might be alleviated if, in the minds of your average person, "crime" wasn't a nebulous malevolent force so much as a social construct surrounding certain motivated human behaviours.
Then again a lot of people define "crime" as "kids doing something I don't like" and/or "a homeless person existing," so I guess in the end they're doing it all to themselves.
Halloween Giveaway on itch.io
For the next week, three of my horror/dark fantasy books ("The Scent of Blood", "Possession", and "Move Fast and Break Things") can be downloaded for free on itch.io! You can check out the whole bundle here; the giveaway runs until November 4.
This Week's Links
The Material Basis for Cozy Horror
In the end, SFF settled on telling the same old stories of colonial murder and institutional politics except instead of having white cishet protagonists, its protagonists were non male, non-white, non-straight, and occasionally non-cis. They were still figureheads of murderous extractionist institutions, but the protagonists were diverse in themselves and so the books were presented as progressive.
Huge decline of working class people in the arts reflects fall in wider society
"We know there’s clearly a relationship between who makes decisions, particularly in commissioning, and the kinds of stories that get made," [professor of cultural and creative industries Dave O’Brien] said. TV commissioners and publishers come from a "reasonably kind of cohesive, quite narrow, elite social background" and may have a narrower view about what is interesting. He cited the BBC’s lack of appeal among people who are younger and from less privileged backgrounds.
Ireland is implementing basic income for artists. Could Canada do something similar?
"From a financial point of view, it's hugely beneficial," Elinor O'Donovan said. "But beyond that, I think there’s something intangible that the arts offer to culture and society at large that is harder to measure, but I think it's still extremely valuable."
I would like to point out to all my friends and enemies in Seattle that I've been a very well-behaved hereditary Blue Jays fan.
-K
