Speaking of people on my blogroll: Pop culture critic, blogger, and transgendered activist extroardinaire Roz Kaveney of Silence Exile and Crumpets was just in town, promoting her new book Superheroes!: Capes and Crusaders in Comics and Films — which I’m hoping to crack the covers of eventually.
Roz is brilliant at analyzing the various mechanics and conventions of TV shows and movies, especially the complexities of science fiction and fantasy, and frequently saves me the trouble of figuring out what I want to say about whatever’s happening on Doctor Who by having already said it better herself.
I discovered Roz mainly through my pal Jorjet Harper, who was hosting Roz on this trip. (I think Roz truly won my admiration the day I discovered that she was actually cited in the Wikipedia article on Rose Tyler — although sadly, that citation now seems to have disappeared from the article. Well, that’s wiki-life, I suppose.)
Roz did one appearance at Women and Children First and another at the Center on Halsted, the latter of which I was fortunate enough to attend. In addition to hearing Roz read from her work, the group of us who turned out had a lovely salon-style coversation that included discussions of Doctor Who, Jeanette Winterson, Joss Whedon, Steven Spielberg, and (naturally enough, given those conversational nodes) sex with robots. Roz was charming and fun to talk with, and had lots of great stories to tell. A very lovely evening indeed, complete with mushroom pizza procured from the Whole Foods downstairs.
For those of you who couldn’t be there, you can still read Jorjet’s interview with Roz (extended online remix!), which ran in the Windy City Times the week Roz was here.
And of course, catch up with Roz at Silence Exile and Crumpets.
I didn’t know you knew Roz! We just saw her when she passed through New York.
Well, this was the first time I met her … so before this I only knew of her.
It’s very cool that you got to see her too!