On Free To Be... Straight White Males
@Choire Sicha@facebook I'm just having fun being a little bit sarcastic. I certainly don't intend any insult, and I certainly didn't think my previous comment was insulting anybody. Don't you think there's something funny about specifically referencing discussions on the internet that turned into online disasters? That Kotaku thread that turned into a disaster referenced Scalzi's thread, that was already a disaster. It's self-perpetuating, which I find funny. So I wrote something gently sarcastic. I guess the tone maybe isn't right for this website.
EDIT: You know what? Actually, that's fine Choire. I'll go back to lurking. I'm perfectly happy being a reader. Apologies to anyone who was offended by my putting text in front of other text in front of sarcasm.
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On Free To Be... Straight White Males
"Mom, every other website has a racism/feminism troll-inviting thread, can the Awl have one too? MoooOOOOMMM?"
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On Flashback! Sexy Lady Tells All, Sells Self, In 1997
Highlighted without comment:
"If you're a novelist, you're pretty much cooked, unless you can come up with a nonfiction thing to hang it on" says literary agent Mary Evans.
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On The Past Actually Is Past
@dntsqzthchrmn Eh.... It's the internet.
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On The Past Actually Is Past
So while a writer’s nuts and bolts may change, the act of writing has never ceased to mean a chance to connect with readers on some level. That’s true for both “Paradise Lost” and “The Corrections.” And if you’re an up-and-coming novelist, which influence is more relevant today?
Fuck you, Peter Enzinna, you insufferable idiot! Paradise Lost is a work of absolute, eternal genius. A piece of philosophy, theolgoy and fiction so indescribably brilliant that it actually RE-WROTE Liturgical Canon and influenced all Judeo-Christian thought and literature that came after it. I don't even remember what the Corrections was ABOUT except that an old woman or man fell off a cruise ship at one point, and some lady made sauerkraut. Whoopee.
Bullshit. Infuriating bullshit from an imbecile.
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On Get Ready For The Future, It Is Fires
@Lockheed Ventura Yes... That's... true. Your point apparently being that since wars have happened before, we should ignore why wars will happen again, and not care about them?
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On Get Ready For The Future, It Is Fires
I got to write an article once about Gwyn Dyer's "The Climate Wars". Dyer is a very famous Canadian journalist who covers mostly military/political affairs. The book is basically presenting the studies made by different world militaries that conclude the same thing. That the world instability is inevitable, and vast wars are likely after the mid-century as countries destabilize. It's weird when militaries and scientists agree on a thing. Makes it seem extremely real.
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On Gerhard Richter Is A Famous Painter Of Expensive Paintings
@Jane Hu Ugh. It's difficult to not lose my temper with you because you're purposefully reading tangential and often imaginary offensive statements into everything I say. It's like arguing with a family member about politics.
Yes I made a simple statement, about a simple thing, in a simple way. Saying that the world is "more complex" than that is obvious. OF COURSE IT IS. I'm basically saying "the sky is blue", and you're replying with "oh you old poop, the molecular properties of refraction in atmospheric science are....". Obviously I'm not grappling with intricacies.
The real world meaning the world of simple conversation with other people, in contradistinction to your essay above. What you decide to write in your essays is entirely your business. All I'm suggesting is that when you're talking to other human beings in a colloquial way, you might consider LOSING THE JARGON. Period. I don't honestly care, as I live jargon with the best of them, but what is precision in academic essays can often be regarded as ridiculous in conversation, and worse: posturing. Jargon is used to be precise, but jargon is also used as a shield and a sword. It's why the world in general hates and distrusts academics. You should be careful which one you're using.
And of course I don't belittle the academic world. Do you honestly think that if I bothered to complete an MA, I would magically have a lack of respect for academics? I spend my spare time pitching and writing freelance arts articles. It doesn't get more "unreal" than that.
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On Gerhard Richter Is A Famous Painter Of Expensive Paintings
@Jane Hu I'm sorry, but my comment never said any of those things. I'm happy you're so adept at employing your words, but you might want to begin an argument by attending to my words, by separating those things that I'm actually saying from those things that you'd like me to be saying in order that you might fully explain your argument.
I never equated the different forms of racism, or made any such claims about the nature and flow of power in any structure. I merely made the extremely basic observation that in illustrating racism you were being very ironically racist. By reducing all whiteness to Great White, it echoed every other form of reductive thinking. Just because they are unequal in power and agency doesn't imply that there isn't an "occidentalism" as much as there is an "orientalism". Both categories exist, as every category exists, upon the decision that it does. But I'm certainly not arguing that we actually experience anti-white sentiment, because that would be ludicrous. I'm merely making a very categorical kind of observation.
Also, you might want to consider not saying things like "positionalities" and "normative subject-identity" in blog comments. It's fun to say while doing your Masters Degree, God knows I talked that way during mine, but it sound silly out in the real world. Strunk and White would say that you're sacrificing clarity in your speech.
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On Free To Be... Straight White Males
@Gef the Talking Mongoose No, commenting on the Awl isn't for me. I thought it was for a brief time, but even the gentlest of comment disagreements is too much for this site, as Choire's very slight rebuke has shown me. Everyone's in too much of a hurry to agree with each other here. Which is weird because: y'know. Internet. I'll never understand why people have to wrap their whole identities up in the ideas they hold, or the writing they do, as if those things determine your worth as a human being and aren't simply efforts, mechanical products of a life lived. To be able to fully discuss ideas you have to be able to let them be attacked without taking it personally, and to understand that disagreeing with a product is not insulting a person.