Friday, March 02, 2007

Five who make me thinkful

So, I've been tagged by the excellent Renegade for the Thinking Bloggers Award. As per guidelines, I cut and paste the following:

The idea is to name 5 blogs that make you think. Here are the rules for participation:

1. If, and only if, you get tagged, write a post with links to 5 blogs that make you think,
2. Link to this post so that people can easily find the exact origin of the meme,
3. Optional: Proudly display the ‘Thinking Blogger Award’ with a link to the post that you wrote (here is an alternative silver version if gold doesn’t fit your blog)


Unsurprisingly, several of the many people who immediately leaped to mind (Queer Dewd, brownfemipower, Sage, Black Amazon) have already been tagged. So, here are some of the others that leaped immediately to mind (it's -really hard- to pick just five):

1. Nezua at The Unapologetic Mexican. His is one of those sites that I put off reading, paradoxically, because there's so much I want to read and re-read. His analysis of Falling Down is worth the price of admission alone; also be sure to check out his series, "The Skin of my Soul." Or just start anywhere and keep reading.

2. Trin at the strangest alchemy. Trin writes thoughtfully and incisively on a number of subjects, from disability to BDSM to feminism(s) to spirituality. A number of her posts are friends-locked (it's a livejournal), but there's still plenty of good stuff available to the public.

3. Victoria Marinelli at Vortex(t). Victoria is a thoughtful, empathic, and eloquent radical feminist, with much to say both personal and political. We challenge each other, I do believe; and yet there's enough common ground to make a connection, which pleases me, as she's good people.

4. Little Light of Taking Steps. What can I say? Little Light burns bright. Not only is she a brilliant writer, scholarly and poetic at once, but she is what I would call an "old soul." Even when she's not writing overtly about religion, I find her deeply spiritual, in the genuine sense, a rare quality.

5. Finally, a recent addition to my 'roll: Infra at Skin::filter{}. I met Infra over at Feminist Critics, which itself has been...an adventure. Infra is above all else, I think, very much -not- a dogmatist; his blog is a nice blend of personal introspection and analysis of subjects ranging from the "seduction community" to the occult.

What I particularly like about all of these people, besides the scope of their knowledge and skill with words, is their self-awareness, and ability to consider, and re-consider, the argument from every angle. They are "critical" in the true sense.

Your turn.

11 comments:

antiprincess said...

great list.

I un-did word verification, btw.

Anonymous said...

My first thought on reading this was "Oh no, she didn't."

Ah, but of course, you did.

Thanks, sincerely, for the props. I blame the patriarchy... er... I mean, you for the hiatus I'm gonna have to break to respond in some apt manner over the next few days. (Yeah I know, like I was really taking that hiatus.)

For the record, I don't necessarily describe myself as a radical feminist, as much as I identify with radical feminism and with radfems much more often than not.

Yes, I have recently described myself as "radical" (in the sense of getting to the roots of things... ironically, you're the one who offered that characterization in your comment here), and I'm certainly a feminist and I've posted a great deal of meandering autobiography about my lifelong adventures in radical feminism as such. (For that matter, I've written about my adventures in lesbian separatism, too, yet the bona fide Big Hairy Man I live with rather disproves the premise that I can still be credibly called that.)

Maybe what I mean is something like this: if radical feminism were a country, then I would be one if its most curiously nostalgic exiles ever.

(More on this and related themes in my damned near complete manuscript which, nonetheless, I keep managing to not send out: How the Exile Came to Love the Foreign Land.)

Capisce?

Solidarity & all that - V.

belledame222 said...

Fair enough. D'you want me to edit the description?

Anonymous said...

Nah. I'm having fun blogging a public clarification of my radfemmy status (whatever the fuck that means), which I will be posting forthwith.

belledame222 said...

cool.

Anonymous said...

Agreed on Infra's good commenting (haven't read his blog yet) and can I throw in a word of praise for the equally eloquent Jams?

Trinity said...

EEEEEEEEEEEEEwow I'm flattered.

with extra EEEEEEEE.

But now I'm not sure how to do this myself, as I gather from your entry that you're not supposed to choose someone who's already been chosen, and I'm sure the people I'd choose have been by someone.

Anonymous said...

Also, I have the exact same reaction to the brilliant Nezua. I keep thinking I need to take a week off (or more) from every other damn thing in my life and read his blog in its entirety. Dude thinks big.

Anonymous said...

I don't know what to say, bd. I'm honored, deeply.

But this does present a challenge. Of the limited number of blogs I visit, most have already been tagged (including you, now).

Gah. Not only have you made me think, but now you've made me think.

Trinity said...

Oh and Nezua's blog isn't just a blog, it's an EXPERIENCE. It's so custom and so detailed that you're entering a world when you look at it.

Anonymous said...

i am so very honored. it's not that i didn't see this. i will do it. i promise. i'm thinking. HEY! i'm a thinking blogger, right? SHEESH.