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"We hope your rules and wisdom choke you..."

  • Dec. 14th, 2012 at 1:09 PM
Mary Sue
Comments, they do a body good.

Here in Providence, our weirdly "warm" winter (well, pre-winter, late autumn) continues. Presently 46˚F. Miserable, but hardly cold by Providence standards. Bright and sunny. Leafless trees.

On Wednesday, I wrote 1,464 words on Black Helicopters. Yesterday, 1,869 words. There is some possibility that I may finish the novella today, and if not, then tomorrow for certain. I have quite a lot to get done before Monday, when my vacation begins – my genuine vacation – which will extend until January 2nd...or 3rd. I need to get Sirenia Digest #84 out first, though, and that will likely happen on Sunday. I also have to get some work done on one of the Alabaster: Boxcar Tales scripts. But all these things have to be done by Monday. Long weekend. Sadly, it will not also be lost, not in that merciful Charles R. Jackson sense of "lost weekend." Likely I will be sober. Well, at least during the daylight hours. I make no promises after sunset.

My thanks to Brit Mandelo and Niall Alexander, who have both chosen The Drowning Girl: A Memoir as their favorite book of 2012, over at Tor.com. You can read the article here. Note, Mr. Alexander is the same Mr. Alexander spoken of in my entry of December 12th, that speculative Scotsman who left me flattered, but baffled.

And, changing the subject, touching on a pet peeve...why the fuck is everyone so goddamned obsessed with community? Whatever happened to a simple and loose assemblage individuals given to cooperation in certain prescribed circumstances? I say, fuck desires for community. Double fuck the bizarre longing for tribes. Worse still, and more laughable, the belief that tribes can be created and fostered on the internet. Also, while we're at it, while I am raining down condemnation, fuck Camille Paglia. Just because. She pisses me off. Always has, always will. I get that way about academic phonies and charlatans. No communities of delusion. No sham tribes. No pseudo-intellectuals. Also, no Justin Bieber. Thank you. My spleen feels much better now.

Later, kittens.

Righteous,
Aunt Beast

Postscript: Please note that I am not a bad person. I am a wicked (yet righteous) person.
  • Current Location:Frogmorton
  • Current Mood: okay Wash us all away.
  • Current Music:How to Destroy Angels, "Ice Age"

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Comments

( 30 comments — Have your say! )
vulpine137
Dec. 14th, 2012 05:18 pm (UTC)
Also, no Justin Bieber. Thank you.

Well damn, there goes my idea for a Cthulhumas dinner...
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greygirlbeast
Dec. 14th, 2012 05:25 pm (UTC)

Well damn, there goes my idea for a Cthulhumas dinner...

If cannibalism is involved, you have my blessings.
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handful_ofdust
Dec. 14th, 2012 05:32 pm (UTC)
I've never wanted a "tribe", since that implies tribal dynamics, putting me pretty squarely on the bottom of things. I do like having a sounding-board and/or series of other like-minded individuals to liaise with...even unalike-minded, if we can agree on whatever it is we're doing or discussing at the time.
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greygirlbeast
Dec. 14th, 2012 05:34 pm (UTC)

I do like having a sounding-board and/or series of other like-minded individuals to liaise with...even unalike-minded, if we can agree on whatever it is we're doing or discussing at the time.

That's different.
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handful_ofdust
Dec. 14th, 2012 09:36 pm (UTC)
Very much so. And that's what I get from my Livejournal experience, at the best of times. That's why I'm not ready to give up on it, no matter how hard its owners seem to want to try and make me.
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homewardangel
Dec. 14th, 2012 05:36 pm (UTC)
Where was your title quote taken from?

Also, how would you differentiate a pseudo-intellectual from a real one?
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greygirlbeast
Dec. 14th, 2012 05:43 pm (UTC)

Where was your title quote taken from?

Radioheads "Exit Music for a Film," which was written for Baz Luhrman's Romeo + Juliet.

Also, how would you differentiate a pseudo-intellectual from a real one?

I haven't time just now to write an essay, as an essay would be required for the explanation. Though, I wish I did have the time. Of course, I could simply point point out that Paglia is a moron with spouting nonsense, and be done with it.
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sovay
Dec. 14th, 2012 05:39 pm (UTC)
My thanks to Brit Mandelo and Niall Alexander, who have both chosen The Drowning Girl: A Memoir as their favorite book of 2012, over at Tor.com.

It's very well deserved.

Double fuck the bizarre longing for tribes.

I don't know: I've never had one. I have people I make connections with, one by one. The real ones are rare. If I have more than one person I can trust as much as another, I'm lucky. But I don't think of them as my people. I ran into this when I first started going to conventions. No, actually, we just read some of the same books.

I'm glad to hear vacation is going to happen.
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greygirlbeast
Dec. 14th, 2012 05:45 pm (UTC)

The real ones are rare. If I have more than one person I can trust as much as another, I'm lucky.

I ran into this when I first started going to conventions. No, actually, we just read some of the same books.

One of the groups the concept is very popular with, I have found, is convention goers.

I'm glad to hear vacation is going to happen.

It may save my life. Not hyperbole. Wish I could see you.
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sovay
Dec. 15th, 2012 10:46 pm (UTC)
It may save my life. Not hyperbole. Wish I could see you.

If you're on vacation till the 3rd, I don't see why you shouldn't.
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andrian6
Dec. 14th, 2012 05:41 pm (UTC)
Every time I hear the word "community" I keep thinking of Robert Redford and Cliff Robertson's conversation in Three Days of the Condor:

"Community?"
"The Intelligence Field."
"'Community...!' Boy you people are kind to yourselves. Community!"

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greygirlbeast
Dec. 14th, 2012 05:46 pm (UTC)

Every time I hear the word "community" I keep thinking of Robert Redford and Cliff Robertson's conversation in Three Days of the Condor

Nice.
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timwb
Dec. 14th, 2012 05:56 pm (UTC)
I'm sorry, but anything with the words "Camille" and "Paglia" in it must mention...
...her poetical criticism "Break, Blow, Burn", because god knows she can't mention anything without pimping her friggin' book.
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greygirlbeast
Dec. 14th, 2012 06:04 pm (UTC)
Re: I'm sorry, but anything with the words "Camille" and "Paglia" in it must mention...

because god knows she can't mention anything without pimping her friggin' book.

Yup.
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ashlyme
Dec. 14th, 2012 06:01 pm (UTC)
I don't know what I'd do with a community, full stop, online or off; I'd just rather have a few good friends.

Agreed, Paglia looks like a (transphobic) jerk.

Good luck with Black Helicopters.
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greygirlbeast
Dec. 14th, 2012 06:05 pm (UTC)

Agreed, Paglia looks like a (transphobic) jerk.

Gods, I didn't even bring that up. Of course, this is the general attitude among the latest crop of "feminists."
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nihilistic_kid
Dec. 14th, 2012 06:58 pm (UTC)
From http://retort.ludd.net/msg00021.html
Community: The maximum shibboleth. A mantra used affirmatively across the entire political and cultural landscape; NPR once interviewed a spokesman from "the organized crime community." There is an implied antithesis to "the state" (with its suggestion of power, authority and central decision), in favor of the local and the face-to-face. The results can be grotesque: the release of asylum and hospital inmates to "the community" often means, in reality, warm ventilation grates. The "communitarian" right would rather nobody noticed that the shattering of communities is a direct effect of capital moving away in obedience to the logic of the very system they endorse.
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greygirlbeast
Dec. 14th, 2012 07:30 pm (UTC)
Re: From http://retort.ludd.net/msg00021.html

The maximum shibboleth.

Damn. That's a good line.
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corucia
Dec. 14th, 2012 08:25 pm (UTC)

I've noticed that the tendency to need 'community' or similar tight-knit groups seems to be negatively correlated with frequency of moves - the more frequently individuals move around, the less likely they are to need or establish those types of associations. No way of knowing if it's merely correlation or if there's a cause-effect relationship. IMO, insularity is not a positive.
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greygirlbeast
Dec. 14th, 2012 11:55 pm (UTC)

Interesting....
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lois2037
Dec. 14th, 2012 09:47 pm (UTC)
It seems as if we're in a time in which the individual, working along quietly and not being a bother to anyone, just cannot be left alone! Everything is community, and "you can't do this on your own," and "No one should be alone," is heard applied to just about everything. The "loner" is an object of suspicion. I love my friends, to be sure, but I also love and treasure my time on my own, working mostly, or reading, neither of which strikes me as community enterprises. It's too bad, and I hope this will all swing the other way, soon.

I used to live in the SF Bay Area, where Camille Paglia was a constant staple for TV interviews and commentary. Horrid woman. But oddly needy, too. She'd make statements like, "I'm a strong, independent woman... OKAY?" or "I believe (whatever)... OKAY?" Always asking for some kind of permission or verification, even though it sounded aggressive and confident. I could do without ever hearing about her again. Ugh!
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greygirlbeast
Dec. 14th, 2012 11:54 pm (UTC)

The "loner" is an object of suspicion.

A desire for privacy is "anti-social."

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lois2037
Dec. 15th, 2012 12:15 am (UTC)
Apparently. I'm just naturally anti-social, then.
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slothman
Dec. 14th, 2012 09:51 pm (UTC)
Is someone abusing the term “community” lately? I seem to have been spared this. (To me it just means looking out for the common good and having a decent respect for your neighbor’s differences so you can all prosper.)
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greygirlbeast
Dec. 14th, 2012 11:53 pm (UTC)

Is someone abusing the term “community” lately?

Community, tribe, family, bleach....
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slothman
Dec. 15th, 2012 12:04 am (UTC)
Oh, it must be one of those seasonal things. For me, family is a matter of love, not blood; my stepdad is more of a father to me than the guy who gave me my Y chromosome, and for the major festive occasions of the season (Thanksgiving, Yule, New Year’s Eve), the policy in my home is “if you don’t already have plans, all friends are welcome at our table, just give us enough warning that we can cook enough food”. (The standing invitation also comes with a convenient excuse for bowing out of any other gathering: we tell our friends they can lie and say “I promised I’d stop by Max and Mara’s gathering and they’d be terribly disappointed if I don’t show” when we would never actually guilt anyone about it.)
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thecoughlin
Dec. 15th, 2012 12:35 am (UTC)
Problem is - reason people doubt evolutionary theory is that we really HAVEN'T evolved beyond the social moraes of Chimps.

We just have better war waging tools than they do.
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greygirlbeast
Dec. 15th, 2012 03:15 am (UTC)

We just have better war waging tools than they do.

Fact.
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esanko
Dec. 15th, 2012 06:56 pm (UTC)
Who the fuck is this Paglia? I should care- Why?

I've been lucky to have friends- most quite different from me, but good people. They help make the journey easier- someone to play pool with, get drunk and laugh, ease the awkwardness of going to a gay bar and trying to seem cool... someone to talk to.

That being said, avoid Tribes at all costs- they tend to want to kill you because you think differently than them- Ohh, you worship the moon instead of the sun? I must bash your skull in... You can take that metaphorically or literally...
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akaten
Dec. 16th, 2012 04:25 pm (UTC)
"I say, fuck desires for community."

And so say we (or at least me) all.
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( 30 comments — Have your say! )