Friday Ephemeraren’t
Because I’ve been assured that making your own is always more satisfying. I’ll set the ball rolling with, via Damian, some scenes of human cunning; a search tool for film stills; life skills for ladies; a brief history of ketchup; a museum of antiquated electronic games; and, via Elephants Gerald, the thrill of Lego gear ratios.
Oh, and this, it seems, is a thing that exists.
My contributions for this week include an architecturally elegant public convenience:
https://twitter.com/CharlestonArchi/status/1366750882235375617
I will follow it up by posting this externally unremarkable mid-terraced house with an extremely quirky internal feature:
https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/76533279#/
Finally, I will end by linking to this Twitter thread of all of the classical music featured in the well-known Warner Brothers cartoons:
https://twitter.com/NonsenseIsland/status/1366449816042102787
And I think that’s quite enough to be going on with.
Our public school system: Student ranks near top half of class with 0.13 GPA. Let’s give the teachers unions a round of applause.
I saw it, so you must too.
Please be gentle.
Happy #WorldBookDay everybody!
Koeiendans: When the cows dance.
Let’s give the teachers unions a round of applause.
There are plenty who should share in that round of applause including the boy and his mother. From the article:
Also from the article: “we can see in his first three years at Augusta Fells, he failed 22 classes and was late or absent 272 days.” He passed three courses in 4 years and earned 2.5 credits and the mother thinks he’s doing okay and believes he’s really trying.
What’s happened to this kid, what he has done to himself and what the system and his mother have allowed to happen is inexcuseable. I appreciate her cry for help but nothing will change until she and her son accept some level of accountabiity. If her son can’t be bothered going to school nobody is going to care.
I suspect that the system once policed and punished truancy but it was probaby seen to be racist so I’m sure it’s now applied with a very light touch if at all. I fear that the current environment is such that this problem can’t be fixed. Even a good charter school can’t help a child who won’t go to school and a mother who lets it happen. One can’t help but notice that there is no mention of a father either.
Iowahawk puts a NSFW rating on a clip from a 1937 movie.
“How about a nice game of chess?“
Iowahawk puts a NSFW rating on a clip from a 1937 movie.
“Finally, I will end by linking to this Twitter thread of all of the classical music featured in the well-known Warner Brothers cartoons:”
Thanks to Carl Stalling. Silly Symphonies (including Steamboat Willie). “Mickey Mousing”. Merrie Melodies. Looney Tunes. One of the three people credited with the invention of the click track. And the greatest musical quoter and punster who ever lived.
He’s the reason you know this tune, even if you’ve never heard of Raymond Scott. Stalling used it all the freakin’ time.
I’m confident that in years to come he’ll be recognised as vastly more important than most of the unlistenable smartarses feted by the cognoscenti during his lifetime.
antiquated electronic games
Oh, I had a Master Merlin as a tad. Got a lot of use, and I’m sure my parents appreciated that there was a mute setting.
a search tool for film stills
[ gasps ] I didn’t know there was a film adaptation of The Black Swan! [ googles ]
https://www.myheritage.de/deep-nostalgia
I generally hate comic books, but for this one*, I’ll make an exception.
*(Shamelessly
stolenfortified from Ace)Animieren Sie Ihre Familienfotos!
Es tut mir leid aber das ist schrecklich.
There are plenty who should share in that round of applause including the boy and his mother
Potemkin schools. It’s all just for show.
If this were just one kid, I’d expect this to be soccer mom clickbait of the “aspiring rapper” variety, but if “0.13 GPA, 62/120” is true – and that bell curve isn’t massively slanted to the right – then I’m not sure there’s any coming back from this. So many different parts of the system (and I include the parents in that) have to have all failed so many students for so many years that nothing short of razing it to the bedrock and starting over will suffice, and that will never happen.
Still, though, the biggest factor in a child’s academic success is parental involvement – more than socioeconomic status, language barriers, school district, school budgets, etc., etc.
Well, not only is that a thing that exists, but it’s also now something in my YouTube watch history. Thanks a bunch, David.
the thrill of Lego gear ratios.
Genius or lockdown madness?
Morning, all.
One can’t help but notice that there is no mention of a father either.
To even enquire would be taboo. It’s a convergence of pathologies and all but unshiftable.
not only is that a thing that exists, but it’s also now something in my YouTube watch history
No refunds. Credit note only.
Genius or lockdown madness?
He’s not going to able to use that coffee table for quite a while.
I generally hate comic books
It’s really quite brilliant. The writer takes the premise stone cold seriously and leans into it and produces something genius.
Too many comics are written and edited by people who hate the medium or think there’s something wrong with it that needs “correcting”. Taking what ought to be a faintly ludicrous premise and selling it has become all too rare a skill.
Too many comics are written and edited by people who hate the medium or think there’s something wrong with it that needs “correcting”.
As I think you said recently, there are a lot of supposedly ‘edgy’ writers who seem to assume that the readers of superhero comic books don’t understand the conceits required to make the genre work, and will therefore be thrilled by their subversion. Despite them being subverted, generally in the same way, for most of my lifetime. From Mad magazine spoofs to Marvel’s own What If…? series, which I first saw as a wee seedling back in the 1970s. Long before the more recent production line of nihilism, gore, and scowling grittiness.
Iowahawk puts a NSFW rating on a clip from a 1937 movie.
Heh. It’s quite a thing.
“Take that, conservative people!”
This, via Ace of Spades, is one of the greatest “guy thing” videos ever. Me, I was in tears by the end. You’d have to have a heart of stone not to laugh:
https://www.reddit.com/r/PublicFreakout/comments/lqx907/filling_a_hot_air_balloon_with_fireworks_what_you/
Those throws came up a bit short.
https://www.reddit.com/r/maybemaybemaybe/comments/lxkiyh/maybe_maybe_maybe/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3
It’s really quite brilliant.
Absolutely, the way all the Loony Toons characters are rendered as humans is indeed genius.
Meanwhile, however, female George Burns tells us at the Washington
RedskinsInnominates games, no longer will gloriously hot cheerleaders be a thing but instead viewers will be thrilled by an NBA flavor with hard hitting hip hop choreography performed by a co-ed team.Gimme a W
Yo!
Gimme a A
Yo!
Gimme a P
Yo!
That other team
Nothin’ but hos!
“5 yard penalty for twerking in the endzone”.
I suppose I should denounce myself yet again.
No mention of a father
I liked the comment from 2010 suggesting that White Privilege was having a father.
Loony Toons characters are rendered as humans
It’s not obvious at first, but the 2007 film Shoot Em Up is claimed to be a real-life Bugs Bunny cartoon (but with sex, guns, baby-in-peril, a tank, etc).
Finished the slog of WandaVision.
Meh.
The lack of diversity in color is disturbing.
Only 85 imperial dollars.
Spasiba for beating the spam filter.
Meanwhile, Bach’s Cantata No. 140, and related.
There are plenty who should share in that round of applause including the boy and his mother.
Agreed. Also the people in their neighborhood.
I suspect that the system once policed and punished truancy but it was probably seen to be racist
That is indeed true. Strict school discipline used to be the norm, but it was condemned by the left as racist and as insufficiently theraputic. And so black kids will fight teachers and will riot in protest when black punks are disciplined for fighting or even for robbing. Teachers stop trying to maintain order, much less teach, and instead look for opportunities to go to better schools which were not populated with savages.
Strict school discipline used to be the norm…
Did you know that New York public schools used to be the pride of the nation? And public housing projects (which also had strict rules) were good places to live?
Potemkin schools. It’s all just for show.
If you remove the normal consequences of bad choices and bad behaviour, this will tend to have rather dysgenic effects.
If you remove the normal consequences of bad choices and bad behaviour, this will tend to have rather dysgenic effects.
And that was what the left intended to happen.
tend to have rather dysgenic effects
Well it’s been about 5 years since that post, is Tim Newman a complete and utter misogynist yet?
Marvel’s own What If…? series
While it started out as a something of a lame title where the low-end talent got stuck, What If… got a retooling in the 1990s with better writers and artists. The result was some very good alt-universe stories, including my favorite: Stephen Strange gets lost in the Himalayas and fails to find The Ancient One. He does, however, find The Hand.
a real-life Bugs Bunny cartoon
A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Forum contains a number of scenes which are live-action versions of the kind of visual gags you get in Hanna-Barbera cartoons.
Finished the slog of WandaVision
I’ve been watching Superstore, mostly because I was curious how sitcoms were doing these days. Despite being cut and paste – you can see the parts lifted directly from The Office, Parks & Recreation, and Community – and every fourth episode being a blatantly political screed, the show still works, and it’s because the writers really understand timing and pacing. For a long time, SNL and its various sitcom progeny had a habit of dragging out a joke/sketch long past the point of being funny, presumably on the belief that “OMG they’re still going” was itself funny. Superstore does the exact opposite – not only will they cut a scene immediately after the punchline, they’ll sometimes cut a scene before the punchline, because they’ve telegraphed it, they know you know what it is, and they don’t need to follow through.
At least one writer on staff isn’t on board with the agenda, though – in the middle of an episode about how evil
WalmartCloud 9 is for unionbusting and not providing better pay/benefits to its employees, one of the tertiary characters points out that everyone at the store is easily replaceable because their jobs are very, very simple.but for this one*, I’ll make an exception.
Inspired. Made my day.
A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Forum contains a number of scenes which are live-action versions of the kind of visual gags you get in Hanna-Barbera cartoons.
Shhh. You’ll give David ideas.
the system once policed and punished truancy
Good riddance I say. The only thing worse than forcing people to fund horrible schools is then forcing them to attend. At least the truant are not at “school” dealing drugs and starting fights.
Re: WandaVision – it isn’t totally awful. Bits of it are quite good – a short scene here, a few seconds there – and it does pick up a little in the last two episodes. Things are revealed, albeit underwhelmingly and in a way that’s morally perverse. Apparently, you can imprison and torture an entire town, including children, for weeks, and not be expected to face any legal or moral consequences. You just fly away to be sad. It’s the Marvel way, apparently.
And by the end, the slog of what has gone before – the slow pacing, the boredom, the reliance on clever-clever nods and unfunny sitcom gags, and a basic conceit that’s overstretched and just doesn’t work anywhere near as well as it needs to – had all taken their toll on my interest levels. The final episode is the most engaging, I think, certainly the busiest; but for me, the investment of time and attention wasn’t worth it.
Ambitious, yes, but never compelling.
https://youtu.be/NBGOryiqZZI
Courtesy of Ace of Spades.
Considering how bad bbc comedy shows tend to be it is surprising that bbc Scotland manages to come up with some very decent stuff (as proved by the excellent “At home with the Thunbergs” – get a look on YouTube if you haven’t seen it).
Ambitious, yes, but never compelling
TV writing has long been constrained by its delivery medium: episodic for syndication, or padded to 23 episodes for a season. Streaming ought not to be, given that a “season” and individual episodes can be exactly as long as they need to be, and yet streaming services seem to have converged on ten episodes as the New Normal. Regardless of whether there’s enough material to fill ten hours.
WandaVision really feels like a movie that’s been stretched (it probably is, given the MCU reshuffling that’s happened over the last few years). And Supernatural managed to do the exact same plot in only 47 minutes.
The phrase ‘ugly as homemade sin’ comes to mind.
WandaVision really feels like a movie that’s been stretched
As I said a few weeks ago, the structure and pacing, and the weekly release format, haven’t done the actual drama, the core of it, any favours. As you say, the thing feels as if its been stretched to fill a schedule. The first three episodes are almost bizarrely uninteresting. You sit through a flat, unfunny recreation of old sitcoms, complete with flat, unfunny jokes. That’s 90% of the first 90 minutes. The sitcom conceit and the ironic nods to comics lore – which I’m guessing we’re supposed to find terribly clever – aren’t in themselves particularly engaging. It’s just surface decoration. And whatever its cleverness, or imagined cleverness, the thing still has to work dramatically, with pace and tension, and a sense of narrative momentum. And it doesn’t – at least, nowhere near enough.
It seems to me that the writers were so busy being meta, they forgot the basics.
life skills for ladies
YouTube recommended that after I watch women play the cum-on-my-face game, Nicholas Fairford’s “My Tips For A Special Mother’s Day Breakfast.”
At times like these I try to remember the wisdom of E.Costello: “I used to be disgusted, but now I try to be amused.”
I pity the poor soul in an upstairs bedroom who has to pee in the middle of the night.
It seems to me that the writers were so busy being meta, they forgot the basics.
Watching The Script Doctor dissect the recent Star Trek offerings, including the lower decks cartoon, on YT has been an entertaining lesson in the basics of storytelling.
It’s what you get when you hire for diversity instead of skills, and the result of taking a society that had some elements of meritocracy and wiping it out completely.
As a society, we’ve fulfilled the Peter Principle.
Did someone say Peter Principle ?
Holy frijoles, this isn’t parody
[random obscenities here]
I generally hate comic books, but for this one*, I’ll make an exception.
Thank you, Farnsworth. I have the same attitude, but that looks like it might be fun.
[random obscenities here]
We are not censoring, we are contextualizing.
Another “C” word immediately comes to mind.
It’s been many many years since I read Psycho or watched the movie, both of which I have done, but I don’t recall Norman Bates being trans. He suffered from dissociative identity disorder, not gender dysphoria. While one of his personalities was female, it was a specific woman (his mother). ‘Norma’ was female, but Norman was entirely aware he was male.
Arizona lawmaker opposes stricter punishment for child sex predators, saying it would harm people of color
Do they not know we can hear them?
or a crossdressing character be either something very comedic to laugh at
Guess I’m a hater ..
Cpl Klinger is not amused.
YouTube recommended that after I watch women play the cum-on-my-face game, Nicholas Fairford’s “My Tips For A Special Mother’s Day Breakfast.”
Freud slipped here.
a different modern lens of what does it mean to have a villain who dresses up like his mother
Yes, because Anthony Perkins dressing up as his mother is completely incidental to his psychosis.
Do they not know we can hear them?
No. Just like the “lawmaker” in question doesn’t realize she’s suggesting that people of colour are sex predators.
It’s what you get when you hire for diversity instead of skills
Hmm. My impression of WandaVision and Lower Decks was not diversity-hire problems as much as what might be dubbed “McFarlane’s Disease” – the belief that constant references to TV shows/pop culture from the writer’s childhood constitutes humour. Which is a rejection of meritocracy of a kind, I suppose, but the continued success of Family Guy would imply this is what the market wants.
most American people encounter an image of a trans person through film and television rather than in real lifeBorat than people with severe sexual dysmorphia.
Oh, bollocks.
having a trans character or a crossdressing character be either something very comedic to laugh at or something quite horrific to think of as monstrous
The problem being that, unless they happen to be both young and attractively androgynous, which very few of us are, transgender people will generally risk looking somewhat uncanny or comedic – and not infrequently, grotesque. That’s the territory. That’s how we’re wired. It would be hard for most of us to pass as the opposite sex without risking the unflattering or the farcical.
I scarcely need to share photos of burly trans athletes looming over their much smaller, female teammates, or these delicate maidens.
And this comes to mind.
Dr Cremin is, it has to be said, more than a little League of Gentlemen.
[ Added: ]
That two well-known horror films have featured cross-dressing characters is not the cause of a wider wariness of, or aversion to, transgender people. If anything, the causality runs the other way. Those characters were there, and dramatically effective, because of long-existing connotations. A recognition of something amiss, something broken. To say nothing of the transgender appetite for surgical mutilations and assorted body horror.
Oh, bollocks.
Nice save.
Is anyone following this James Younger case in Texas where mother is trying to transition her young son, I think he’s 9 now, to female? Finding it hard to search out reliable information. Nothing that I have found seems to add up except the father’s version. Which I definitely want to believe. Why in Texas would this be happening?
https://thetexan.news/james-younger-case-effectively-comes-to-a-close-mothers-legal-team-signals-future-appeals/
Let me explain a few things, Frida.
One, many many people of both sexes and from one end of the political spectrum to the other can relate wholeheartedly to the frustration of physiognomy that diverges from prevailing cultural norms of physical attractiveness. It’s not just you, princess.
Two, wanting someone willing to look past those norms and see you is understandable, even laudable.
But three, that willing is not unique to, or even predominantly found on, the left. Indeed, most on the left are incapable of seeing anything but superficial physical characteristics, so this is only going to end for you in tears.
I can remember a time when Google’s motto was ‘Don’t be evil‘:
https://twitter.com/ConceptualJames/status/1367887090634080262
There are probably more Kazakhs in North America deeply offended by Borat than people with severe sexual dysmorphia.
I dunno, the Kazakhs probably have a sense of humor.
My news feed was abuzz with this story.
I can remember a time when Google’s motto was ‘Don’t be evil’:
Apparently helping society reach a more fair an equitable state might take a little bit of evil.
when Google’s motto was ‘Don’t be evil’
You never asked whose definition of ‘evil’.
I think he’s 9 now
Cripes, is that still going on? He was six last time I heard of it. I have to assume there’s more to the case than what we’re hearing because Texas shouldn’t be this insane, especially since puberty blockers are now part of the proposed treatment. Then again, Austin is as batsh*t moonbat as any coastal city so who knows. From The Texan‘s coverage it looks like the mother’s legal team is mostly playing technicalities, which means they know they don’t have a case. I wonder if it’s nothing more than a local family court judge wanting to avoid an attention-attracting precedent.
Let me explain a few things, Frida.
It’s one thing to demand that an absolutely irremediable condition be redefined as attractive, but permanently lasering off all your unwanted facial hair costs less than a medium sized tattoo.
Nice save.
Get that lighter fluid away from my coat.
Cripes, is that still going on? He was six last time I heard of it. I have to assume there’s more to the case than what we’re hearing because Texas shouldn’t be this insane, especially since puberty blockers are now part of the proposed treatment.
Well exactly. Whenever I see stories this far out there with as little coverage, especially in the “conservative” media, I ask myself, WTMFLF? How is this not bigger news oneway or the other? Which is why I ask…
My news feed was abuzz with this story.
How “interesting” that it turns out that the author who claimed the vibrator was invented to pleasure women was, um, ah, well, lying:
[Re: Rachel Maines’ The Technology of the Orgasm (1999)] “According to a 2018 report in the Journal of Positive Sexuality, researchers Hallie Lieberman and Eric Schatzberg share their copious findings, which disprove much of Maines’. They write, having examined every source Maines cites, ‘We found no evidence in these sources that physicians ever used electromechanical vibrators to induce orgasms in female patients as a medical treatment.’ After their report was published, Maines seemingly backtracked and said to The Atlantic that her claims were only ever an ‘hypothesis,’ adding that, ‘It was ripe to be turned into mythology somehow. I didn’t intend it that way, but boy, people sure took it, ran with it.’ For the record, her book never notes any of this as hypotheses, but very clearly fact.
So, does that make Rachel Maines the Michael A. Bellesiles of sexology? Should the title of her book be changed to Vibrating America? Oh well, she made her money and that’s all that matters.
My impression of WandaVision and Lower Decks was not diversity-hire problems as much as what might be dubbed “McFarlane’s Disease” – the belief that constant references to TV shows/pop culture from the writer’s childhood constitutes humour.
I was thinking of the Script Doctor’s dissection of the Star Trek’s below decks show, and his discussion of who they hired. Generally, they were people who had little knowledge of the show’s canon but ticked the right diversity boxes.
My impression of WandaVision and Lower Decks was not diversity-hire problems as much as what might be dubbed “McFarlane’s Disease” – the belief that constant references to TV shows/pop culture from the writer’s childhood constitutes humour.
Daniel, do you remember a sf novel The Flying Sorcerers, by Larry Niven and David Gerrold? I bought and read it because the reviews and buzz said that it was very funny and a good read. It turned out to be an example of what your cite: An excuse for endless jokes based on names of popular writers: Finelein the god of engineers (Heinlein), Elcin the midget god of thunder and lightning (Harlan Ellison), and so on.
How “interesting” that it turns out that the author who claimed the vibrator was invented to pleasure women was, um, ah, well, lying:
Bearing in mind that hysteria and hysterectomy share the common origin in the Greek word hyster for uterus, a quick spin around PubMed and a couple of bounces winds us up at this article, and though I don’t consider Psychology Today an absolute authority, I’d trust it over that other mess.
Still better than tasting urine to see if it has sugar.
Sigh. I have no more energy for attending to the various contemporary sillynesses.
Instead, I am contemplating a version of that Lego geartrain. Serious stuff, you understand.
I’m thinking to build one, and attach tiny mirrors various gears. Then, bounce lasers off them, to try measuring the tiniest movement.
Maybe interferometer techniques. Analog (of course, you heathen) filters to see if there’s any secular movement in amongst the universal vibrations and noise.
Sigh. The old days are gone.
‘We found no evidence in these sources that physicians ever used electromechanical vibrators to induce orgasms in female patients…’
I found it much more interesting that “they would round up a husband, a midwife or ‘the business end of some tireless and impersonal mechanism’ to throw on gloves and take a quick dip.”
I believe the current expression for “take a quick dip” is “rub one out”.
Publican, a wee dram, if you please. Maybe two.
[ waves arm ]
Put Fred’s on my tab, barkeep. We’re all having a rough week.
ping
they were people who had little knowledge of the show’s canon but ticked the right diversity boxes
I’ll check it out. Comics Matter, Red Letter Media and Critical Drinker are entertaining me now that I’ve cancelled all my streaming services, and Script Doctor sounds a propos. I confess I simply don’t understand the Lower Decks marketing at all. The CalArts style and format are designed to appeal to a demographic far too young to have ever seen much of the source material. Long-time Trek fans don’t watch it. I wonder if it’s one of those things like Star Wars or D&D that millenials and zoomers claim to be into for geek cred.
It turned out to be an example of what your cite
This has always been a thing in F/SF, I’m afraid, although good authors do a better job of concealing it. Tanya Huff routinely writes her friends into her books, Silverberg and Zelazny both waste page count writing their personal hobbies and acquaintances into theirs, and the less said about Spider Robinson the better. I think much of it is how the insular, ghettoized nature of the market persisted for so long. There was a good chance that anyone reading the book would know the author’s circle well enough that they’d know exactly who they were referring to.
Amazon owns goodreads.com. I wonder if there’s somewhere else I could set up a circle for people to share genre book reviews.
I think much of it is how the insular, ghettoized nature of the market persisted for so long.
The persistence of socially retarded geek behaviors, subsidized by a loyal geek audience. Even more painful are the ones who treat a favorite author as some sort of demigod who can do no wrong. But, even worse than that, have you ever been subjected to someone’s fan fiction? Face-to-face or in a xeroxed fanzine?
Amazon owns goodreads.com.
That is a good reason to look for another venue: sooner or later almost any politically incorrect facts and opinions could get purged.
Publican, a wee dram, if you please. Maybe two.
A bottle, please, landlord.
Yes, and ?
Yes, and ?
The left demands that we “see color”. I certainly see it in the crime statistics. Sometimes I see it in person.
Yes, and ?
The obvious recruiting pool for fascist death camp guards are black Americans:
White People Aren’t Human
Black woman goes on tirade because neighborhood store owners carry firearms to protect their stores from looters
How is this not bigger news oneway or the other?
Family courts are notorious to making parents shut up about any goings on. IIRC the dad was early on disciplined by the court for even talking to the press.
For your consideration:
I’m going to guess the musicologist is not a musician, but I am not sure what Beethoven has to do with clay pigeons, and I thought the wokerati claimed Beethoven was black anyway.
Meanwhile, some yte supremacists culturally appropriate some music.
the ones who treat a favorite author as some sort of demigod who can do no wrong
Like Marion Zimmer Bradley.
Don’t Google that.
have you ever been subjected to someone’s fan fiction?
Like, say, the Eye of Argon?
I have far too many friends who fancy themselves the next Brandon Sanderson.
Yes, and ?
Oh, that has got to be a 4chan troll job.
dad was early on disciplined by the court for even talking to the press.
Yeah, I get that. More to my point, why isn’t there much other information out there? Why isn’t this story not something of a thing? A little boy’s life is in the balance here. Supposedly…
https://pjmedia.com/news-and-politics/megan-fox/2021/02/28/missouri-judge-sends-14-year-old-girl-to-live-with-allegedly-abusive-dad-while-jailing-her-mom-n1428618
WTP
If you haven’t already seen this series of articles Megan Fox is shedding some light on family court “justice” in Missouri. Similarities to the recent Netflix film “I care a lot” are striking.
ping
Bless you, sir. May your lock-screen to home-screen transition be a thing of beauty.
If anything, the causality runs the other way. Those characters were there, and dramatically effective, because of long-existing connotations. A recognition of something amiss, something broken.
That.
That.
Well, Ms Malone’s argument seems just a little disingenuous. There’s also this:
Given current levels of trans activism and trans visibility in the media, including social media, I very much doubt this is true. Old film images of Jame Gumb from Silence of the Lambs, or Norman Bates dressed as his mother in Psycho – films that are 30 and 60 years old – now have to compete with more recent, real-world offerings, many of which are scarcely less lurid and bizarre. Whether it’s the aforementioned trans athletes whose cheating and selfishness we’re expected to celebrate, or activist drag queens, including a convicted paedophile, reading to small children, all with the ostentatious blessing of the school.
various contemporary sillynesses
To me, the word “silly” implies a sort of innocent, harmless fun (Silly Walk, children being silly). There’s nothing innocent or harmless about most of the activities of the agitated leftist agitators.
For your consideration:
That “Musicologist” has to be a troll account. In fact, I often wonder how much nonsense we see mentioned here is actually trolling and flamebait designed to provoke. How much is non-leftists sarcasming, causing other non-leftist to take it seriously and respond?
Somehow I’m reminded of The Man Who Was Thursday.
I was unaware of The Man Who Was Thursday until the excellent reading of the book by Mark Steyn.
…The Man Who Was Thursday…
At Project Guttenberg, for anyone interested.
Like Marion Zimmer Bradley. Don’t Google that.
I know what you are referring to. Horrifying that there were people who knew and said nothing. But I never read her books, as the excessive enthusiasm of her fans put me off.
The most fanatical seemed to be Heinlein fans who treated him as an infallible oracle of wisdom. The most innocuous were the female Asimov fans who merely squealed girlishly and ran to get his autograph. In between were the John W. Campbell fans who passionately insisted that there was nothing racist in Campbell’s writings. (“Nothing, nothing! Buy my 500 page book and see for yourself.”)
have you ever been subjected to someone’s fan fiction?
Like, say, the Eye of Argon?
Not before breakfast, thank you. 😉
The clumsily written Mary Sue stories were bad enough–and they wouldn’t stop writing them no matter how much they were teased–but the Kirk/Spock/McCoy porn-y stories took fan writing to an appalling level of bizarre that I had not believed possible.
Yes, and ?
Oh, that has got to be a 4chan troll job.
Likely, although I have run into leftists who confidently quoted crime stats that proved the opposite of what they thought.
Here is another that I saw posted at the same time on the same twitter account: