"My hovercraft is full of eels."
Political (Monty) Pythonist and baseball fanatic. Other matters as inappropriate.
Monday, January 4, 2010
Dreaming
Shades of brown, beige, gold; auto-da-fe. Images of bound feet; sounds of moaning. Someone who was not Colin Firth sentenced to be burned at the stake.
Your kind of thing, here. Posted by Jessamyn Smith (formerly Theriomorph) on Facebook.
My Facebook comments:
This is fascinating... I am *trying* to write a review/commentary about a book that has a whole chapter in it about a place I worked. I am of two minds about it 1) Nice to be validated that yes, the place really sucked, wasn't just my imagination (I didn't think it was, but still, nice to see it on the page) and 2) I don't like being "field ... See Morestudies"--he talks about the workers like we are pitiful, underpaid migrants. Now I know what it feels like to be talked about like that. The author obviously knows no genuine working class people (Studs Terkel, call your office) and he sounds as if he might be talking about zebras or something. This safe-distance he adopts is part and parcel of what you are talking about, the influence of academia on his attitude and writing. It is the difference between the empathy of Studs Terkel and the antiseptic nature of critical theory...and its too bad, because I really do think the author means well but has no other language/vision to employ; he never learned any other attitude but critical distance from his subject(s).
Always love your posts, Ms Smyth. :)
And then I added:
And right out of the box, this guy writes: "Sure, specific training in a discrete set of skills might prepare you for Day 1 of the worst job you'll ever have (your first)" --my first was a breeze, since I was a teenager and not much was expected of me. I got my hardest job (at the aforementioned company) at age 38. More bourgeois bias. Sigh.
Are you on Facebook? Friend me and I won't tell a soul who you are. Some good conversations unexpectedly take place there since so many non-bloggers are there! (LOL) You can also register under a pseudonym, as I did, as BirdOf Paradox and others have... I looked up my legal whole name on Facebook, and found still another black woman with my whole name! LOL (if you read my viral-post on "having a black name") ... if anybody tries to find me, at least we won't get confused. I already tried to friend a bisexual feminist I knew, who turned out to have the same name as a big born-again music star. She was not amused! (Hey, it was an accident okay?)
OK, I have to read that when my brain isn't bouncing off every third word (it's one of those days, and I have to drive my sister to the train).
Facebook. Um. No. Thanks. (The privacy settings stuff is just One More Thing, but Faceebook as an entity makes me twitch, and they're not getting my school or my old jobs, and there are reasons that even if I did join, I would never post photographs, any personal information, or -- No. Sorry.
(I did read your post about having a black name, and immediately flashed on the name Nadine, which when I was young was pretty exclusively a black woman's name--see Chuck Berry--but in the last 15 years all these blondes...)
3 comments:
Your kind of thing, here. Posted by Jessamyn Smith (formerly Theriomorph) on Facebook.
My Facebook comments:
This is fascinating... I am *trying* to write a review/commentary about a book that has a whole chapter in it about a place I worked. I am of two minds about it 1) Nice to be validated that yes, the place really sucked, wasn't just my imagination (I didn't think it was, but still, nice to see it on the page) and 2) I don't like being "field ... See Morestudies"--he talks about the workers like we are pitiful, underpaid migrants. Now I know what it feels like to be talked about like that. The author obviously knows no genuine working class people (Studs Terkel, call your office) and he sounds as if he might be talking about zebras or something. This safe-distance he adopts is part and parcel of what you are talking about, the influence of academia on his attitude and writing. It is the difference between the empathy of Studs Terkel and the antiseptic nature of critical theory...and its too bad, because I really do think the author means well but has no other language/vision to employ; he never learned any other attitude but critical distance from his subject(s).
Always love your posts, Ms Smyth. :)
And then I added:
And right out of the box, this guy writes: "Sure, specific training in a discrete set of skills might prepare you for Day 1 of the worst job you'll ever have (your first)" --my first was a breeze, since I was a teenager and not much was expected of me. I got my hardest job (at the aforementioned company) at age 38. More bourgeois bias. Sigh.
Are you on Facebook? Friend me and I won't tell a soul who you are. Some good conversations unexpectedly take place there since so many non-bloggers are there! (LOL) You can also register under a pseudonym, as I did, as BirdOf Paradox and others have... I looked up my legal whole name on Facebook, and found still another black woman with my whole name! LOL (if you read my viral-post on "having a black name") ... if anybody tries to find me, at least we won't get confused. I already tried to friend a bisexual feminist I knew, who turned out to have the same name as a big born-again music star. She was not amused! (Hey, it was an accident okay?)
Holly Near friended me, so I am SOMEBODY now.
Love ya. :)
OK, I have to read that when my brain isn't bouncing off every third word (it's one of those days, and I have to drive my sister to the train).
Facebook. Um. No. Thanks. (The privacy settings stuff is just One More Thing, but Faceebook as an entity makes me twitch, and they're not getting my school or my old jobs, and there are reasons that even if I did join, I would never post photographs, any personal information, or -- No. Sorry.
(I did read your post about having a black name, and immediately flashed on the name Nadine, which when I was young was pretty exclusively a black woman's name--see Chuck Berry--but in the last 15 years all these blondes...)
But of course you are SOMEBODY!
Did you have to mention Colin Firth?
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