Friday 13 February 2009

Oops!


I received an unexpected email today. It seems that when I signed up for my exams to be supervised, I missed booking one of them. The pressure is slightly off because I will have to do it in mid-March.

I don't know whether to laugh or cry. I've been at nervous breakdown stage for so long, I can't work out if what I feel is relief or increased hysteria.

Let me assure you, the work still has to be done, and every day there seems more of it. I'm doing 3 software language subjects this semester and some basic scientific mathematics. At the moment, the computing stuff is a bit like learning emmersion Russian. I can't make head or tail of it. The maths I can cope with because during my 20s and 30s I had so many maths exam preparation nightmares (which I suppose were leftovers from school days) that having done maths in my sleep for all those decades, it now seems like a piece of cake. LOL.

Out of left field, I've got a question for you, dear readers. Why was it that it was traditionally men who wrote and who read science fiction? I know it's changing now, but why did women only have token or baddie roles in the genre in the past (usually requiring a stainless steal bra worn like Madonna used to) and almost never the 'superhero' role? Or so says one of my lecturers. I really do need your input on this one to write an essay.

Myself, I'd have thought it quite obvious: men who were out saving the world in the past wouldn't have the multitasking ability to take along the wife / girlfriend and breastfed baby to get in the way. No one in the olden days could save the world, contend with deep and meaningful conversations and balance a baby on his hip like the Incredibles can do today. It was simple maths. The man did it all without accepting help from anyone, except perhaps a side-kick robot. It would have been loss of face in those days, so he needed both hands free! And, then again, the kinds of guys who saved the world in sci-fi back then probably were more like that guy in 'The Librarian' films before he realised he was hot stuff. They were nerds. In the olden days, guys had wives and significant others after they were done doing the dangerous work! The babes or other females other than the mother probably weren't part of the scene at all! Can I use this argument? Chuckle. Probably not!

(An aside: there isn't much evidence of homosexuality in early sci fi, either, but that's another story and one I'm not going to dare to explore under exam conditions!)

What's everyone doing for St Valentine's Day?

The MOTH has booked a table at Brett's Wharf on the Brisbane River. We went there the year we moved to Brisbane for St Valentine's Day and it was lovely!

Happiness & laughter to one and all. Enjoy whatever you do this weekend.

Felicity

7 comments:

Lou's addictions said...

Good luck with the course work, my hubby is doing a degree in computing so i know how full on those languages are.

I like the tarditional stereotypes route for your essay, it seems to fit (the steel underware wearing hot stuff baddie female never had kids either so what else was she gonna do with her time lol...)

Chars said...

Happy Valentines day :) Hope that you have a wonderful night tonight with Paul.

We won't be doing anything tonight as we went out last night to a Victorian bushfire relief function and blew ALOT of money... all for a good cause but it will mean penny pinching for the next 10 days!

Good luck with the exams... I hate them so much! I think this is a major reason why I keep procrastinating about finishing my studies...

Also good luck with the computer jargon - sounds delightful (NOT)

Hugs xx

Rachel said...

For the books, try doing some quick research on Heinlein. In some of his novels; Have Spacesuit will travel, Spaceman Jones, Starship Troopers, the main characters are nerds.

Good luck with the paper.

stitcherw said...

Good luck with your exams, the computer stuff sounds horribly complicated. I'm sooo lost in that area. Your reseach on the writters of early SciFi sounds interesting. I agree that the early style may have been due to the times then, the man did everything alone, he-man didn't need help as that made him seem weak. Therefore, they probably wouldn't have written, or wanted to read, about a strong female lead or support. Also, men seemed to control the money to a great extent, so the writter was probably catering to how the buyers would be also. Hmmm makes you wonder if maybe some of the early authors were women writting under a man's name so that it would sell better. They could make the men like superhero's of their dreams, which would align with how men liked to think of themselves. Women wrote under mens names in other areas, so probably did in in SciFi too.
Sue

Aussie Stitcher said...

Queen of the Seas is looking great, good luck with studies.

CindyMae said...

Good luck with your exams and the computer stuff. I hate both!!! LOL

Cheryl said...

Just checking in to say thank-you so much for the card! That was really kind of you and really nice to hear from you :)