Have You Tried Storing Them Upright?
From the Telegraph, on crime, incarceration, and dubious conclusions:
The law change, recommended by an independent review headed by David Gauke, the former Tory justice secretary, will order courts to only jail offenders for less than a year in “exceptional circumstances,” including domestic abuse, stalking, and breaching orders linked to violence against women and girls.
The analysis also reveals that up to 1,500 killers, rapists and other serious sexual and violent offenders will be eligible for early release each year under the shake-up, which is designed to free up nearly 10,000 prison spaces.
Readers will note the odd implication that the level of serious criminal behaviour at any given time should somehow conform to the amount of prison space you have at that time. As if the moral gravity of a criminal act, and likelihood of recidivism and danger to the public, should be determined by whether or not you can be bothered to build another dungeon.
Speaking of recidivism, it’s perhaps worth revisiting this:
Other, related statistics, linked above, may widen the eyes.
Update via the comments:
Regarding burglary and its devotees, this came to mind:
An illustration, one of many, of how a very large fraction of crime could be prevented by dealing decisively with a surprisingly small number of persistent offenders.
Needless to say, there’s more to chew on in the linked piece. Likewise here, where friends and relatives of the three burglars – the ones with over 200 convictions between them – claim, somewhat improbably, that the deceased were “too good for this stupid, shitty world.” As if the trio – whose other activities included assaulting and mugging elderly couples and bedridden cancer patients – were, unlike their numerous victims, somehow deserving of public sympathy.
And which, I suspect, tells us something about the quality of those friends and relatives, their moral orientation.
In the comments, Geoff quotes this from the recidivism link, above:
Then adds,
Well, indeed.
Via Tim Worstall.
Previously in the world of crime and punishment, a trilogy of sorts – parts one, two, and three.
This blog is kept afloat by the tip jar buttons below.
Again, that.
I can’t say much on this point as I’m not steeped in Star Wars lore, and wouldn’t care to be, so I may be missing some clever nods and subtleties. But the writing has yet to make me go, “Oh, that’s a good line,” and the early episodes have some stinkers that should definitely have been spotted and binned. (The scenes with the bandits, or bad actors pretending to be bandits, come to mind.)
These rough edges can be seen throughout the early episodes – jarringly naff line delivery, edits that fall flat, that kind of thing. In episode 3, there’s an attempt to wring high meaning from repeatedly cutting between two very different scenes – the assault of Cassian’s girlfriend on a backwater world and an upscale, supposedly joyous wedding-cum-rave, complete with techno soundtrack. You can sort of see what they were trying to do, but it just doesn’t quite work.
At the moment, more than halfway in, it’s… okay. Things are finally happening, or at least are likely to happen in the foreseeable future. Which is progress, I suppose. But getting to this point has been way more of a slog than it needed to be.
I believe someone here has said once before that the police and the justice system, in general, do not exist to protect the public; but rather, their purpose is to protect criminals from the public and “natural” justice.
[ Considers moving to El Salvador where violent crime is almost non-existent ]
Bukele has been putting the lower-risk prisoners to work rebuilding schools. Where there had been corrugated tin shacks, there are neat little buildings, brightly painted.
Here’s the video where he explains what they’ve done. English subtitles.
Isn’t most of the ‘lore’ just bafflegab intended to paper over the gaping holes in Lucas’ storyline?
I’d never heard of combat juggling before, and I must say I don’t understand it at all.
IIRC, that is a fairly recent development and, if the history of Spain’s former colonies is any guide, one that may not last beyond Bukele’s time in office.
Claims that Patriot Front are not feds.
Nope, don’t believe it.
I fear that’s true, which is why the worst gangstas should be summarily executed.
That counts as unwatchable for me.
Exactly.
Classic advice, heard from various accomplished writers: If your story is starts very slowly, you should consider starting the story later in the events and cover what happened before in flashbacks and recollections/allusions.
I’ve met a lot of those idiots who love the world-building but are virtually blind to characterization, plot, pacing, style, etc. Only the barest minimum of fictional skeleton on which to hang the “ideas” is all that’s needed to make them happy. And they are utterly incapable of understanding anyone’s dissatisfaction with poor writing.
My brother!
My dear, dear, brother!
Subtlety in Star Wars? A contradiction in terms, like death metal chamber music.
On the other hand, I have read some superlative stories which contained no lines which were memorable standing by themselves, although in the context of the pages that led up to them they were perfect.
At least they’re not juggling hand grenades.
They sure raise my suspicions, but I’m still waiting for documentary evidence that they are false flags. Most recently I saw a claim that they were funded by Soros and/or USAID, but with no supporting links.
Interesting, that the “exceptional circumstances” meriting jail time seem to involve disobeying the government (breaching orders) harassment that hasn’t risen to the level of violence (stalking) and what must be, in the scheme of things, relatively minor domestic abuse (since it doesn’t merit an assault charge),while actual violence does not.
“And I’d do it again” says tortoise.
I don’t trust those shifty eyes…
This is a real failure to model the minds of working class people. They don’t feel inferior to academics. Rightly or wrongly, they really do have the impression that academics are studying increasingly stupid things. They have a sense that academics may be smart in some narrow way that makes them able to do some things that the ordinary person can’t, but that this brings with it a certain kind of stupidity.
Triggernometry with Richard Miniter is a real banger. Starts out with Roundheads and Cavaliers.
No, really.
Fair enough. I’m not famed for patience myself.
That is, I’d say, my general impression of the series. There are plenty of pleasing visual and aesthetic details – not just the obvious landscapes, droids and pew-pew space stuff, but the design of musical instruments, the title music that gets reworked for each episode, etc. And there are some well-done dramatic moments. However. some of the basic structural stuff – plotting and pacing – is at times quite artless. I’ve yet to see much pleasing economy in the telling of the tale.
That’s kind of my point. Throughout the entire original trilogy, there’s virtually no “worldbuilding”. Events and places are mentioned the way they would be by people already familiar with them. There’s pretty much zero exposition. And nobody had a problem with that; the films worked because of that, not in spite of it. Case in point: you didn’t need to know what the Kessel Run was. That scene worked just fine.
There’s an independent comic book creator who likes to say “every comic is someone’s first comic” and he rails against the trend toward mini-series’ and constant callbacks with no clear jumping-on point. Something similar is happening in most franchised media now; every Marvel/Star Wars/whatever film/show is someone’s first, and there needs to be a clear jumping on point.
That’s a lesson that was only slowly learned in the early days of science fiction writing: Too many of the old pulp writers were very clumsy at worldbuilding. One of the reasons that Heinlein is so justly honored is that he developed numerous techniques for doing exactly what you describe.
See the expression “expository lump” for clumsy chunks of such writing.
The most consequential moments of the Indianapolis 500.
Words in conjunction: lava fountains
Sponsored by PornHub?
“We are currently dealing with reports of a road traffic collision in Liverpool city centre.”
You can’t hate the media enough.
They’re just making it easier for the constabulary and the courts to cover it all up.
Have to wonder though how many Starmer & Co will lock up for noticing.
Indy 500: last year outside a local walmart, a weinermobile was parked. It was in rough shape. Not a good hotdog spokescar.
Word for the day: pejoration
Can’t put my finger on it…
That’s it! Not that I have been watching…ummm..whatever that stuff is but this is (probably) precisely why I just don’t care about these things with series…serieses. I have 2-3 hours to give. Tell me a story or whatever. Get to the point. If I want a long, drawn out storyline, I would read a book. Or a series of books. Not necessarily that I have read too many series besides the Narnia stuff but I like…could…or would…or have…whatevs. I suppose part of it is the arrogance of the creators of these things. I have my own life to live with its myriad of problems, situations, and struggles. If you cannot augment my life experience, give me a perspective without dragging me into…well, whatever TF you’re dealing with…I am not here to validate your being. Though if you get a bunch of other people to do so, well…not so much more power to you but…you doing you shouldn’t be my concern.
Even that’s a bit harsh. I don’t mind the general lore. It has its place and moments. But some of this stuff, especially if you’re not a fanboi, but then they take license to change the lore. And I am expected to keep track of those changes when I drop back into that universe three or five serieses later? Yeah…no.
Common language
Particitrousers: hahaha I saw a translation of something “Abdominal dancer” which should have been “belly dancer”. Also, saw on English parts of chinese menus “Chicken rude and unreasonable”, which for a long time I was just WTF but then I realized the item was Jerk Chicken, translated literally. I feel bad for people trying to learn English.
Somebody once facetiously suggested that Chinese restaurants intentionally put such errors in their menus in order to make their customers feel superior.
Further thoughts:
As has been said many times, the tale is in the telling.
And as has been pointed out, human culture is built on stories, not essays. If you want to persuade people, if you want to move people, if you want to affect their dreams and memories, you tell stories not give lectures. Stories are how we learn and how we remember.
Remember Arthur C Clark’s The Fountains of Paradise? Another writer published a story in the same year about the same technological idea, but although it was a good enough story it’s Clark’s story that sticks in my mind because Clark was the better storyteller.
Interesting ideas are a dime a dozen; what counts is how well they are told. In fact, it seems to be a common misconception among non-writers that the key to success if coming up with a great idea. (Some even go so far as to approach writers with a great idea, offering to share the royalties 50-50, thinking that writing the story will be a cinch now that the author has that idea.)
Update w/ additional irony:
For the unfamiliar, Huntsville, Texas is the home of the oldest Texas state prison, opened in 1849, and houses the most active execution chamber in the United States.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, this came to mind.
Following the links to Instapundit, we see:
He’s like a Woody Allen stereotype of a hyper-neurotic New York Jewish liberal.
@David: FYI: You might want to fix the Instapundit link, removing the “pjmedia” portion to give this.
Fixed. Thanks.
You’d think PJMedia could have implemented an automatic redirect.
In the comment thread, @TomJ quotes Terry Pratchett:
It’s ambiguous whether Terry regarded “conservative” as a good thing or a bad thing. Or maybe the ambiguity is intentional because he thought it was both.
When I was very young, I regarded “conservative” as a bad thing, but the older I got the more I realized that it was generally the wise and prudent stance from which to approach many things. And I found that clever people were no wiser than the rest, and in fact were very frequently less wise because their cleverness allowed them to argue themselves into all sorts of absurdities.
As with everything Pratchett writes, this is a rehash of a better writer, specifically Brecht. Pratchett’s early work was parody of classic fantasy, but quickly turned into a kind of YA-simplified version of political and social ideologies Pratchett happened to think were best. The kind you can make work when you can write everything turning out splendidly and give your favourite agents of the state supernatural powers.
I’m sure Pratchett considered himself a conservative, but what he wanted to conserve was that particular form of British soft socialism where tyrants you agree with tell everyone what to do.
I’m going to start a Bay City Rollers tribute act called the Part City Trousers.