One thing I like about gremlins is that no encyclopedia can talk about them straight-faced, including Wikipedia.
The idea of gremlins getting loose in the Laundry IT system, especially if Bob's been promoted to management and can no longer directly join the hunt, would be absolutely delightful. Throw in CASE NIGHTMARE GREEN conditions, and...
]]>Not quite...
Firstly, there's a difference between "Front Line" and "Dismounted Close Combat". Women are allowed to do the former, but still not the latter (search "Kate Nesbitt MC"). Yes, it's a subtle difference, and yes, there have been grey areas along the way. Put bluntly, women are expected to kill when necessary, but aren't allowed to list "bayoneting the enemy" as a primary job description.
The SRR and its forebears have employed women since the 1970s (for examples, see "The Operators" by James Rennie). For nearly twenty years now, there have been female artillery forward observers, and combat engineers - front line by any definition. There have been women posted to infantry battalions, but in administrative roles (the female Assistant Adjutant of one Armoured Infantry battlegroup deployed with it on Op GRANBY in 1991, ended up leading its A2 Echelon across the desert - and at one point was forward of its rifle companies). Female friends of mine have been an infantry company commander in the TA (although it was HQ Company, not a Rifle Company); and a troop leader in a regular tank regiment (although it was the demonstration squadron at Warminster).
]]>Hm, I guess we have read different accounts of the incubus myth...
In general, an incubus is a demon trying to have or having sexual intercourse with women in a male sexual role. I guess demonological gender studies is a somewhat neglected area of scholastics, but if we go with the identification of demons with fallen angels, quite common in fiction, but actually more Word of Dante and some apocryphs than Word of God if you go with the Verbal Inspiration theory of biblical inspiration or, if you go with the RC variant, Word of Divine Inspiration,
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biblical_inspiration
the demons have no sex, just like angels, have a certain predisposition for male gender roles and can change their bodily attributes somewhat.
As for the incubus, this specific variant was going after women, but there was a female variant going after men called succubus:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Succubus
Guess that one is hardly more feminist, but then, it might depend on interpretation. No idea what's in tow for homosexuals, zoophils, objectophils etc., BTW. Nevertheless, well, it's somewhat equal oppurtunity seduction.
And tnen, some stories say succubi can change into incubi to impregnate females with the sperm thus gotten; might be a nice explanation if the neighbours child looks somewhat similar too you and nobody believes "a wizard did it".
As for what really happened when some women or men said an incubus or a succubus was coming for them, besides explaining away unexpected pregnancies and like, it seems there are quite some possibilities, e.g. dreams and fantasies, seduction or physical attack, e.g. what most of us think of as rape. For the actual happenings, well, we know what happens when young people are isolated from their usual sexual partners too long, and some of it might be rationalization of traumatic rape experiences.
Also note that there are some similar creatures,
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mare_(folklore)
quite often associated with sleep, and there are quite similar things happening with hypnagogia,
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypnagogia
AFAIR there is actually a story of some guy being visited by a witch in Siegel's "Fire in the Brain". And it might be that people prone to hypnagogic hallucinations have a tendency towards other problems, e.g. motoric ones like cataplexy in narcolepsy, automatic behaviour or even psychosis in bipolars
http://dx.doi.org/10.1212%2FWNL.52.6.1194
which might also beget a disord.., err, somewhat unusual sexual life besides.
As such, yes, incubi and succubi might be a sign of somewhat troubled ideas about human sexuality, but than, I guess with certain circumstances both male and female members of HSS get sufficiently removed from general societal specifications that operating with the notion of free will makes only limited sense. Or at least many members for both sexes can get that way.
And as already said, OGH was somewhat bound by the mythology with unicorns and virgins, some of which might be doubling for the incarnation of Christ, which makes for, err, somewhat interesting ideas with Mythos deities.
Besides, I guess it might be an interesting comment on a certain romantisation of potentially troublesome sexual relationships in some strains of modern urban fantasy. Am I the only one who thinks romantic relations with mysterious, emotionally challenged loners have a certain correlation with DBT later on in life,
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dialectical_behavior_therapy
and not all of this is just correlation or mere indirect causation...
BTW, if we go with mythological creatures associated with horses and abductiong children, there is the kelpie,
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kelpie
though that one is more after males. And if ERS went after bronies,
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/My_Little_Pony:_Friendship_Is_Magic_fandom
I guess quite a few nerds I know would welcome that. Come to think about this, I guess quite some bronies would, too, but let's not speak about the overlap between My Little Pony, Elfen Lied and other Tentacle erotica fandoms...
]]>I will note, though, that last time I went back to some of her works, I found it rather difficult; either my tastes have changed, or I've become a little more discerning about the quality of writing, or something ... but I do remember one acquaintance complaining about this particular trilogy that the ideas were great, but the execution was appalling. Or something like that.
So not exactly an endorsement of the series as being worth a read, but possibly worth looking into at the local library if you don't have anything more interesting queued up.
]]>(As a gauge for how dangerous; Capt. Barnes calls in other OCCULUS units, when he felt secure in taking on a decommissioned warship and the remnants of a Cthonian with a single team in the previous book. [He had better backup in that situation, yes, but still])
]]>Come to think about it, I might even indulge into creating something like this myself. I guess 30C3 needs t-shirts with Lovecraftian not-quite-My Little Ponies indulging in unspeakable acts of pain, death and pleasure. Just like me lynched by a mod of Bronies...
]]>I'll look forward to whatever Charlie does with this in the future. Basic point is that there's no organic reason not to have mixed gender combat squads, and it makes a minor plot just waiting to happen: How will Alan feel about the lassies kicking some of his boys out of the action head first?
I just reread TAA/CJ, and if I remember right, there was at least one woman on Barnes' team in The Atrocity Archives (who drove a robot). And at least once Angleton refers to Barnes' "boys and girls". I always figured they were about but in those days wouldn't have been doing as much front line fighting, or maybe just didn't happen to be named/described.
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