Revolutionaries in refrigerators

Okay, Moon is a Harsh Mistress. I'm trying to get into your swing. I'm cool if people have a fond nostalgia for you. I thought I'd mention some of the points you make about gender on the Moon.

* women are "equal"
* women are "cherished"
* women rank somewhere between beer and horse racing
* women are scarce (10% of society) (why?)
* women are always sexy, and act sexy for the male gaze
* street harassment of women is totally fine and doesn't bother anyone
* as soon as girls hit puberty, they go out and have sex with whoever
* there is prostitution called being a "slot girl"
* there is higher class prostitution, not described
* normal man-woman relations include exchanging sex for gifts and dinner
* custom, but not law, decrees that non-consensual touch (man to woman) = rape
* for which the penalty is, likely as not, death by mob
* Therefore there is NO rape on the Moon. Ever.

Therefore right smack in the middle of the book, the spark that ignites the revolution is some soldiers presumably from Earth brutally gang raping and abusing an 18 year old woman "in other ways" (which I couldn't even parse; is that meant to mean torture, or other kinds of rape than PIV?) and then they presumably brutally rape and kill another woman. (("If rape it was") <<<<--- WHAT? ) It works perfectly; gang rape, a rumor and a poem or two, then about 20 minutes later "Luna was ours".

Some "revolution"!

Her name was Marie Lyons; she was eighteen years old and born in Luna, mother having been exiled via Peace Corps in '56. No record of father. She seems to have been a harmless person. Worked as a stock-control clerk in shipping department, lived in Complex.
Maybe she hated Authority and enjoyed teasing Peace Dragoons. Or perhaps it started as a commercial transaction as cold-blooded as any in a crib behind a slot-machine lock. How can we know? Six Dragoons were in it. Not satisfied with raping her (if rape it was) they abused her other ways and killed her. But they did not dispose of body neatly; another civil service fem found it before was cold. She screamed. Was her last scream.

The Moon seems to be a gang raped prostitute, not a harsh mistress.

I am annoyed by stories that use Women as nationalist symbols, women = The Land and rape as the fuel for patriotism. I get it, this is all the case and rape IS a tool of war, but -- this isn't my revolution.

Nicest day ever

I read and messed around in the morning, Rook made french toast and bacon that was incredibly perfect and we both laid around blogging; me and Rook and Moomin played Blokus Trigon.

I think that 3 player Trigon would be improved by passing out a few of the 4th color to everyone:
- not sure how many, but give everyone at least 3 pieces, balanced for size
- These are the "blocking pieces"
- on your turn, you can choose to play as usual but then play a blocking piece
- blocking pieces must be played off your own color as if it were your own color
- But you can't play off them as if they're your own color.

That would make the 3 player game have some good strategy to it.

We picked up Zond-7 and A. and went to the rehab pool for all ages swim. It was crowded but great. I swam some laps until I couldn't move my leg anymore. I did a lot of laps of pseudo-backstroke. My hip is doing something very odd and so is my low back, like a lot of popping and grinding. In between the easy backstroke: laps of creaky painful slow sidestroke with floaty thing which I could do while watching Z and R looking extremely cute towering over the crowd of kids. I hope we can all go again some time - it certainly makes PT less boring and I also feel more inspired to work hard. The kids had a great time! Moomin is like a little otter now! I'm so impressed! Also in between actual laps, I hung out with two older ladies who are doing rehab (in the lap lanes away from kids) and we discussed having silly hair. They were egging each other on to be the first to have a strange colored mohawk, which they both confessed to have always wanted. "What have we got to lose?" Anyway, then my leg just completely gave up. After a while sitting on the steps I could deal with moving again. We had lunch... Then played "World of Goo" and Zar and made playdough (animals, with beds, blankets, and matching food: the alligator had a human for its food) I can't remember what else, but it was super relaxing and also exciting to have 4 of us playing World of Goo on 3 different computers. (Moomin prefers to watch video games, except for Coloroid and lately, Bejeweled.) We all watched the Alphabutt song some more.

I highly recommend World of Goo! You can download the demo and play quite a lot of levels, and then when you're hooked on it as you surely will be, it's only 20 dollars to buy. This is the best game I've seen in a long time.