Aidan OGain's blog

:isclaimer:: This post is meant in jest, and to be taken as light-hearted entertainment. It is not intentionally critical of any person's views. It's meant for a laugh. Any deep commentary of social criticism is purely unintentional. If I hurt anypony's feelings or offend anypony, I apologize and beg forgiveness. :iscalimer over::

Someone on another board was commenting on the fact that My Little Pony is a setting where women are the leaders.

Well... I mean, that someone was me, but someone else seemed to raise objection to the fact.

In the magical land of Equestria, every ruler is a woman. Princess Celestia, Princess Luna, Princess Cadence, And Princess Twilight. Even the mayor of Ponyville is a woman. In fact, besides a few fashion moguls and rich privileged ponies, everyone with real power is a mare.

So I thought I would make a new MLP for the objectioners and neighsayers. An MLP for men. Where men can finally have their say. I call it:

My Gigantic Stallion
-At long last, a TV show where the men are in charge!-​

A show that dares to show male Clydesdales and Warhorses taking out their aggression on their enemies and humiliating their remains to prove to themselves and everyhorsie that Violence is Magic.

Starring:
Captain Danger Doublemount - He's not really a captain, that's just his first name.

Also starring:
Blaze Punnishaunch
Ace Rimshot
Hide Sweatstain
Mast Proudheight
and Lance McThrust

When they bring together The Elements of Dominance, nothing is left unexploded or unturned inside-out!
Get ready for some Stallion on Stallion action to see which horsie is the top!

(Now accepting concept art and story proposals)

Okay, so the title says it all. Read at your own risk.

I'm an SF writer. At least that's what I tell myself. I don't have anything published. I'm not convinced anything of mine is really ready for publication. But if you're interested I have a poetry anthology and an intentionally bad flash-fiction piece here: http://www.wattpad.com/stories/search/?q=Aidan+O'Gain&ref=1 I've also got 4 or 5 short stories in various stages of completeness and satisfaction.

So I'm interested in writing from a female perspective, which is part of why I'm so interested in MLP. I also really like its optimism and heart, and I hope to reverse engineer it in my own work and fuse it with things I like in other stories. really, I'm trying to write what I'd like to read and I'm not quite there, yet.

Anyway, having such dubious successes in short fiction I've decided to try a novel. This first novel is basically going to be an alternate history and for the past few months I've been researching and building my "secondary world". It is a super hard, super involved process. In order to do it right I basically have to know all the things. All of history, all of science, all of everything. I've gotten the history of the old world fairly settled. Right now I'm tackling the Americas (where the novel is supposed to be set) and that's monstrously complicated. It isn't even a three-body problem. This is like a twelve-body problem. It's utter chaos and making heads and tales of it is just irksome. So instead of working on it some more I'm venting in this blog post.

The plan is to have all of the background for the setting complete by June or so. Then I'll have a few months to develop characters in context of their universe, set them on the course I expect them to run, develop an outline so that come NaNoWriMo, I'll be ready to plunge into the first draft. If I can get a first draft written, I can hopefully polish it to the point I'm confident in submitting it.

Anyway, that's the plan.

Also, I need to develop some aliens. That's another story altogether.

I wrote this not long ago. I posted it on my blog and a place or two, but figured you guys might like it, so here you go:





Yesterday at work I overheard someone’s loud conversation.

Man: Do you watch Big Bang Theory?
Woman: Oh, no. I’m not into all that dorky sci-fi stuff.

A conversation like this wouldn’t normally irk me, but it did yesterday. Maybe it was the recent passing of Leonard Nimoy, maybe it was the lady looking up at the TV showing Star Trek IV in Nimoy’s honor and saying “Oh, no. What are they making us watch now?”

Actually I was already irritated before she insulted the memory of the recently departed. But why? I’ve heard people tell me things like this throughout my life. For example, here’s a recent conversation I had at work.

Person: Really? My Little Pony? You like My Little Pony?
Me: Sure.
Person: Well, I don’t like that show.
Me: Okay.

That’s my typical response after 20+ years of this conversation. When I was a teenager, someone saying this would have been utterly crushing. Now, I’ve got a pretty thick skin about it. But thinking back, is this actually some form of bigotry?

Person A: Really? A Yarmulke? You’re wearing a Yarmulke?
Person B: Sure.
Person A: Well, I don’t like Jews.

Hold it! Back up. It’s not that bad. A person who is Jewish is born that way. Liking Star Trek is just a choice. It’s a matter of personal taste like what food you like. So it can’t be considered bigotry in the same way. Ignoring the “what exactly constitutes a choice” question, here’s the conversation again.

Person A: Really? A salad? You’re eating a salad?
Person B: Sure.
Person A: Well, I don’t like salads.

At the very least this kind of behavior is rude. Who would say this at a dinner table? Yet we feel we can mouth off like this about people’s taste in music, or entertainment?

I don’t read a lot of romance or thriller novels, but I’m not walking by the romance isles going “Ew, romance! People who read romance are disgusting! I’m not into that gross stuff!” So why do people think it’s okay to do that walking by the Science Fiction and Fantasy isles?

I’m giving this a name: Second Degree Bigotry. It’s not the same as First Degree Bigotry - being a misogynist or racist, but it’s still not nice and it makes people feel bad about themselves. No one has the right to judge the taste of the world. I can like whatever I like and I don’t have to listen to anyone telling me its dorky or weird or disgusting. Lets work together to be polite, end Second Degree Bigotry, and allow people to be free to like what they like without harassment, abuse, or rude unnecessary and unwelcome comments.