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A Heavy Weight: On Takashi Shirogane

There’s a book full of plans 
at the feet of poor Atlas 
titled For Man, 
but the architects only drew blanks… 

Dessa, ‘Poor Atlas’

Let’s open with the obvious, the one thing that all fans of Voltron: Legendary Defender can agree on: 

Takashi Shirogane has been through a big damn lot, my friends. 

The one where we may immediately differ, however, is whether the show knows it, but it’s still true. Shiro has been under a lot of pressure, even for the show’s standards. The challenge, however, is that Legendary Defender struggles for the most part to find ways to navigate those pressures, for a lot of the cast. This is, in a lot of ways, the result of both strictures of time and navigating the boundaries of heterosexual boys’-club television, but I don’t say that to make any excuses for it. Things have gotten in the way of making the – at least – least unpalatable thing. This is where we are.

We can talk, then, about where here is, how we landed, and whether it is hostile territory. But we can also perhaps afford some patience to who was piloting when we crashed while also taking a serious look at the poor landing itself. 

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Out Now Patch Notes

Things That Are Going On: August 2018

Hey there! I may not have a lot to show for how busy I’ve been in the past few days–lots of performance preparations and private writing sprints to make some short things longer. But here are some things you can look out for in the future: 

  • I’m one of the commissioned poets for Year Five of Uncanny Magazine! Uncanny is one of my favourite genre outlets, and I’m really glad that they would have me on board. The Kickstarter for Year Five is still on–you can check it out here! If you’re into it, at one of the pledge levels I’ll give you a poetry manuscript critique! (Also, psst, they’re open for subs, but I’mma just tell you that window closes quick so get on it!)
  • I’ve also already contributed to some other Kickstarter campaigns! I have an essay and some poetry coming up in The Outliers, the companion zine to the splitbook for Avery Alder’s Dream Askew and Benjamin Rosenbaum’s Dream Apart. I can’t wait for you to see the zine, and the book itself! Both games are radical in every sense of the word. 
  • I’m also presently cooking up poetry for the launch of John Silence, a weird-fiction RPG about psychic detectives of colour warding off interdimensional beings as nonviolently as possible. I’m having a lot of fun thinking deeply about this, and taking my time, but I think you’ll like what comes of it. 
  • Also, expect some more of Ben Paragraph choosing his words wisely in the next installment of How to Unmake It in Anglia, coming soon. If you want a sense of what this serial novel is all about, I did an interview with the publisher, Scott Gable of Broken Eye Books, that you can read here.
  • In the meantime, I have a poem in the July-September issue of CULTUREGO Magazine. It’s called ‘Gretels’, and it’s about how unsuspecting the fearsome things are. If you wish, you can read it from the site demo for free, but the entire magazine is definitely worth a read.

There are other things that are yet unknown, but I am sure you’ll like… some of them? In the meantime, let me just point you to a project by my friend and comrade-in-the-word, Shivanee Ramlochan.

Other Kinds of Men is a speculative poetry reader she’s undertaking on her blog, where each day in August she endeavours to read, discuss, and share a speculative poem by another poet. As a speculative poet myself, I’m always eager to see my favourite genre verse shared with others, but I’m also so absolutely pleased by her selections, especially the ones that I hadn’t read before. Shivanee is one of the deepest readers I have ever had the luxury of knowing, and I hope especially that those of you who may not know what speculative poetry is or what it can do will peruse this list–I can guarantee you that you will find something you love so much that you will hold it close against you as it opens a gate to another world.

And it should also go without saying that if you haven’t read Shivanee’s debut collection, Everyone Knows I Am A Haunting, then you should fix this severe self-injustice as immediately as you can. It’s an absolutely arresting little volume, one of which I insist everyone should have a copy, worn at the outer corners by rereading. 

So that’s all I have to say tonight, I think–wait! Also, if you’re into talking about your favourite fandom things with nice, respectful, considerate nerd strangers, I have a Discord server that I’m slowly populating! Join it and talk me in/out of hosting a large rewatch of Voltron: Legendary Defender as I fight the urge to write an entire treatise on Takashi Shirogane!

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Blog

Hello world!

Don’t mind me – I’m just tidying up this place so you can come visit soon!

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About me

Hello there! I’m Brandon O’Brien. I am a performance poet, science fiction writer and teaching artist living and working in Trinidad. This is my blog, where I share work, talk about my process, and generally geek out. Never miss out on new stuff.

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Popular Posts

Brandon O’Brien’s 2018 Awards Eligibility Post

November 23, 2018

I’m Mad At The Mountain

July 19, 2018
Brandon O’Brien’s 2019 Awards Eligibility Post

Brandon O’Brien’s 2019 Awards Eligibility Post

November 18, 2019

Brandon O’Brien’s Capricon 41 Schedule

January 22, 2021

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Brandon O’Brien’s Capricon 41 Schedule

The System We Could Have Been Driving: Rage vs. Revolution Redux

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Brandon O'Brien's ConFusion 2020 Schedule

Brandon O'Brien's ConFusion 2020 Schedule

November 30, 2019
Brandon O’Brien’s 2019 Awards Eligibility Post

Brandon O’Brien’s 2019 Awards Eligibility Post

November 18, 2019

Brandon O’Brien’s Worldcon 2019 Schedule

July 27, 2019

Tag Cloud

Arisia assault Black Panther ConFusion 2020 COVID-19 fandom Hugo Awards intimate partner violence LGBTQ National Patriotism Month Performance Poetry revolution SFF Awards Season socialism Speculative Fiction Speculative Poetry The 2 Cents Movement Voltron: Legendary Defender

therisingtithes

Poet, writer, tabletop game designer, nerd. Trying to make something of himself. Preferably in pen.

therisingtithes
I did a panel at #PAXOnline2020 earlier this year I did a panel at #PAXOnline2020 earlier this year and it was really rad, so you know your resident pin-obsessed nerd had to get some swag. Including some new locking backs, and some dope pronoun hexes so I can try on ‘they’ more often in public!
Behold, my @fiyahlitmag #IgnyteAwards Finalist med Behold, my @fiyahlitmag #IgnyteAwards Finalist medallion has arrived! Still beyond blessed for all of it: for my poem simply being nominated, for FiyahCon—the very best con of this year—& for FIYAH in general, the best damn outlet in this whole damn genre. 🔥 🔥 🔥
Portrait of An Election Stain, 2020. Portrait of An Election Stain, 2020.
A book I cannot wait to eagerly consume. QUEEN OF A book I cannot wait to eagerly consume. QUEEN OF THE CONQUERED is finally in hand, and the sequel done preorder.
Guess what finally came in the mail! My copy of So Guess what finally came in the mail! My copy of Sovereigns of the Blue Rose! ‘Like Ice And Then Like Fire’ is a little ache of a story about how we mourn, and how we judge mourning. It’s surrounded by so many fabulous tales of the decades of the chosen sovereigns of the Kingdom of Aldis. The book looks amazing, inside and out.
Ordered a #Heckadeck to tinker with, but as soon a Ordered a #Heckadeck to tinker with, but as soon as I opened it, I was supernaturally compelled to #DestroyThisCard in particular. Don’t know what came over me.
One for each generation. ———— These @bozor One for each generation. ————
These @bozorobo pins are my absolute favourites. I just got the Kamen Rider Ichigo one on top, which completes the set. 
Kamen Rider, starting with Ichigo, seems to consistently argue that even when your power comes from a potentially dark place or has cruel origins, dedicating its use to destroying the forces of evil is what slowly turns that power into justice. Fascism denies you your own body? Reclaim it for the sole purpose of destroying fascism, and it becomes justice. Your space suit was made possible by revelations that led to the murder of your best friend’s father? Avenge him by thwarting evil’s plans while always smiling and sowing joy. Have you survived the trauma of unending hopelessness? Spare innocents that same pain by sharing hope wherever you go. Have you become a tyrant, forgetting to do good as power corrupts you? Then justice is the act of *literally* confronting yourself. Is time itself a record of the cruelties and selfishnesses of man? Then even break time against your heel.

I mean… it’s also not shy at all about how several antagonists are just mutant fascism, incapable of argument or compassion, only performing reason to keep their violence undetected, seeking power through force. Resistance, then, is in wielding the parts of you that are on the verge of collapse or corruption, and throwing them against the gears. Forge those dark portions in the fire of your own rage, tie them to your heel, and drop-kick all evil. 
I’m thinking about this as I work. What are the cruelties in my space that my body is unduly bonded to? And what parts of me do I wield in contrast to that cruelty? How do I transform myself, Darkness and all, into justice, resolve, compassion, and solidarity?

#kamenrider #enamelpins #resistance
#ConFusionSF was amazing. I got to give my mother #ConFusionSF was amazing. I got to give my mother the early birthday gift of her first trip to the States, her first live sight of snow, and her first con experience. I got to see snow for the first time, too, and even make a snowball (I’m good on that now, thanks). I got to link up with old friends, meet digital friends in person for the first time, and make brand new ones. I attended panels that actually made me think more deeply about what I make. I got to cohost a Speculative Open Mic, to talk about speculative verse, to ask deeper questions about how we write men with power or men with pain or both. @bogiperson even took us to this really neat black-owned bookstore in the area afterwards, and then @edebellauthor and Chris took my mother and I out for pizza after that! I adored the entire weekend. 
I’m particularly grateful that @miconfusionsf made me their Creative Guest of Honor this year. I tend to feel like I haven’t done enough, haven’t ‘made it’, but just knowing that I’m welcome in a fandom space seems to allay those fears. I’m grateful for those spaces. If ConFusion would have me back, I’d work my hardest to be there, any time.
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