Posts by Lucy Stewart
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Up Front: Fairy-Tale Autopsies, in reply to BenWilson,
How to reconcile Russell's guess at 10,000 who read discussions with Nielson suggesting that 53% of readers contribute - surely there aren't 5,300 contributors?
Depends on what "53% of readers contribute" means - if it's "ever contribute" then, well, I get the feeling PAS has a solid core of a few dozen contributors who do a *lot* of the talking (i.e. thousands of posts), more who contribute reasonably often, and even more who may have only actually posted ten or twelve times in several years, but are regular readers. If it's "contribute per thread"....yeah, something's screwy there.
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Up Front: Fairy-Tale Autopsies, in reply to Paul Dowden,
It's a timing = relevence thing. I generally read PAS after work in the late evening, like now: so it's 1:30am in NZ... A witty response is a bit wasted (and so am I, g'night)
Being able to keep up with PAS threads in a timely manner is disturbingly high on my list of reasons I want to move back to NZ when I'm done with this PhD thingy. (So, you know. Somewhere between four years from now and eternity.)
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Hard News: Perverse Entertainment, in reply to Kracklite,
There is what I call HSP - Hippie Parent Syndrome, related to CPS - Celebrity Parent Syndrome - some poor person is cursed with a name like Sunshine or Apple or Moon Unit because their narcissistic git of a parent sees their child as some sort of animate accessory to show the world how incredibly cool they are.
Usually in the name of celebrating their offspring's "uniqueness", of course.
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Hard News: Perverse Entertainment, in reply to glennd,
If they're shouting and screaming crazy stuff like he's a non-citizen (and probably also that he's a muslim marxist macaroni man) it keeps them above the radar and makes the whole "opposition" look barmy.
I really think you're underestimating how seriously the barmy stuff is taken here. I mean, yes, it's crazy, but as I and others have said - it is entirely possible in America to insulate yourself in a world where the birthers are noble patriots championing a shocking truth, and every article and radio show and TV programme you watch supports that view. Really significant percentages of people believe this stuff. Significant percentages of people who vote. Having it out there is not an advantage.
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Hard News: Perverse Entertainment, in reply to glennd,
But as it is by not encouraging them to shut up he keeps them and others occupied.
But nothing Obama could do would encourage them to shut up. There is literally not one single piece of anything approaching evidence that he was born outside America, and yet they go on. George Washington could rise from the dead to swear on a Bible before the combined Houses of Congress that Obama was born in America, and the birthers would still go on. You're buying into the idea that there's some secret evidence Obama's hiding, something more he could do. There isn't. Which is why the best move is to ignore them.
You seem to be framing this as some sort of cunning plan on Obama's part, when let's be realistic - if these people weren't fixated on where Obama was allegedly not born, they'd be fixating on him being a secret Muslim, or him being a secret terrorist, or a secret Marxist, and so on and so forth. The birthers are not a serious opposition who have been cunningly led astray from the real issues. They are conspiracy theorists. The problem is that in the American political environment, conspiracy theories gain real currency - and that's not helpful to Obama at all.
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Hard News: Perverse Entertainment, in reply to glennd,
He'll be giving the appearance of being on-board perhaps, but I can't see he is dumb enough to be actually believing it. Theatre, he's playing a part for some possible role in the near future and maneuvering to flank Obama if needed.Both are playing the birthers for what they are worth, just from opposite sides of the table.
Quite likely, re: Trump, but I really don't understand what makes you think Obama is "playing" them - they're loons. He's ignoring them as best possible. Any attempt on his part to provide more evidence would just result in more calls of conspiracy. The birthers don't need to be "played", they play themselves. Constantly and without encouragement.
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Hard News: Perverse Entertainment, in reply to glennd,
I doubt Trump actually believes Obama is a non-citizen, he’s too smart and canny to be a birther, but is playing the same game as Obama. Obama neatly keeps various nuts occupied looking for an “original” birth certificate that has no legal use, and might not exist any more anyway if he has lost it. Trump lays out his original from Jamaica as if to prove his originality and theatrically asks Obama to do the same. It’s a game and Trump is playing it just as Obama is, just playing the cards (certificates in this case) rather than holding them.
I just watched him being interviewed on a morning TV show. He played the "I'm not saying he is, but...." and "Three weeks ago I believed he was born here!" cards for all they were worth, but he's certainly doing his best to give the strong impression he's on-board with the birthers. And the "My people are researching this, and you wouldn't believe what they're finding!". We wouldn't, of course, because what those findings were was left to the imagination. He dropped the term "Obamacare", too. The interviewer's "Do Not Believe You" face was most entertaining to behold.
Of course, none of this is likely to get him elected President - appealing to the Tea Party might win someone the Republican nomination, but it won't win them a general election, as McCain demonstrated with the proto-Tea-Party types three years ago. But it's certainly indicative of...something.
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On one level it’s sad that a nation that has achieved so much has a political culture so deeply infected with The Stupid. But it really is some fun.
Only the other day I came across the undeservedly-forgotton Bathroomgate, in which, six years ago, Michelle Bachmann ran screaming from a bathroom because two women tried to ask her a question. You really can't make any of this up.
What you can't make up, sadly, is the extent to which it is possible, in this country, to insulate yourself from actual news. I like being informed, and I have to work pretty hard at it - if you relied on the half-hour TV nightly news, it'd be impossible. The impending government shutdown over the budget takes up half of it, yet the simple fact at the core of it - which is that the cuts being argued most fiercely over constitute a minute portion of the actual budget - is ignored. There isn't even the *attempt* to insert facts; it's he-said, she-said, Oh Noes What Have We Come To, goodnight and here's some puppies. It's...really depressing, actually.
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Busytown: A new (old) sensation, in reply to giovanni tiso,
(Besides, the contention that reading a novel requires "deeper" as opposed to "more protracted" reading than a short story or fable strikes me as highly dubious.)
It's entirely dubious. I can think of many short stories which require more thinking and pack a greater emotional and mental punch than entire novels. Quality is not quantity, etc, etc. Of course, many stories deserve or require a novel-length telling, but that doesn't make them necessarily deeper stories. Just longer ones.
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Busytown: A new (old) sensation, in reply to Lara,
All last year (when I did Pols Hons) I only really read (& re-read) Harry Potter, Terry Pratchett & Star Wars. Does this make me a bad person? I used to love reading new books, now its a chore.
Nah. I make a policy of only purchasing books I know I'm going to re-read a lot.If you're hellishly busy and just want to be entertained and/or distrated, there's nothing wrong with reaching for something you know will do the job. Especially if you know what sort of mood it's going to put you in.
But most popular were young-adult novels, especially by Margaret Mahy, Maurice Gee and Kate de Goldi. Why? Nostalgia, yes — but also, I suspect, a joyful re-engagement with stories about recognisable, complicated people on the cusp of brave action.
Also, for me, at least, because YA NZ fiction is the only reliable way to get NZ-based SFF. There are NZ authors who write SFF, but that's not the same thing. If you want aliens in Auckland or enchantments in Christchurch, YA books are the way to go.