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***Transmission Received***
WELCOME TO THE SPACE ARCHIVE
This episode we're looking at Harpy's Flight (1983) by Megan Lindholm - who is better known as **NAME DROWNED OUT BY HARPY SHRIEKING**.
Featuring harpies, your elderly Catholic mum, and only one bed (UH OH!)
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N.b. this book contains some somewhat exploitative representations of Gypsy/Roma/Travellers. Lindholm stays away from a lot of the worst tropes and is clearly trying to give a sympathetic portrayal, making this not as terrible as you might imagine for a book from the 1980s. Nevertheless, when you're publishing a book where one of the hooks is that the protagonist is a "gypsy" and this is foregrounded in the marketing, it's kind of integral to the whole thing.
GRT communities are punitively marginalised in the UK, where prejudicial attitudes and an institutional unwillingness to support traditional nomadic cultures abound.
GRT groups face obstacles to education, health, and accessing the various institutions governing life in the UK. The state also does not provide adequate legal camping space for nomadic Gypsies and Travellers. This means that many families are forced to camp illegally. Since the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act was passed in 2022, those who do so can face fines, imprisonment, or even having their homes stolen from them by police.
If you're interested in finding out more about the actual people behind the pastiche, you can learn more at https://www.gypsy-traveller.org/. Please consider showing your solidarity by donating.
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Intro and outro by Scivias
https://sciviasdomini.bandcamp.com/
Also featuring:
'Local Forecast - Elevator', Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
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Music by SCIVIAS
