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By: Kirsty,
on 4/7/2011
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By George Levine
How could Darwin still be controversial? We do not worry a lot about Isaac Newton, nor even about Albert Einstein, whose ideas have been among the powerful shapers of modern Western culture. Yet for many people, undisturbed by the law of gravity or by the theories of relativity that, I would venture, 99% of us don’t really understand, Darwin remains darkly threatening. One of the great figures in the history of Western thought, he was respectable and revered enough even in his own time to be buried in Westminster Abbey, of all places. He supported his local church; he was a Justice of the Peace; and he never was photographed as a working scientist, only as a gentleman and a family man. Yet a significant proportion of people in the English-speaking world vociferously do not “believe” in him.
Darwin is resisted not because he was wrong but because his ideas apply not only to the ants, and bees, and birds, and anthropoids, but to us. His theory is scary to many people because it seems to them it lessens our dignity and deprives our ethics of a foundation. The problem, of course, is that, like the theories of gravity and relativity, it is true.
At the heart of this very strange phenomenon there is a fundamental crisis of secularism. Secularism is not simply disbelief; it is not equivalent to atheism. Many supporters of secularism, like the distinguished Catholic philosopher, Charles Taylor, are believers. The most important aspect of secularism is that it is a condition of peaceful coexistence of otherwise antithetical faiths. In a secular state, diverse religions must agree that on matters of civil order and organization there is an institution to which they will all defer in what Taylor has described as “overlapping consensus.” They may disagree about God but they have to agree that in civil society they will adhere to the laws of the country.
But what happens when the overlapping consensus doesn’t overlap? This brings us to a very complicated problem: the authority of the specialist. In a democratic society, it is the responsibility of each of us to stay informed on issues that matter to the polity, and to make judgments, usually through established institutions, school boards, for example, or national elections. At the same time, our society usually sanctions the training of professionals, and forces them to undergo rigorous training, tests them to be sure of their qualifications.
Within professions, there will inevitably be learned and crucial squabbling and exploration, and new theories piled on top of old ones, or revising them. But these squabbles are part of what it is to be professional and they rarely reach the ears of the lay population. When science as an institution sanctions evolutionary theory (and squabbles about how it works), and its most distinguished practitioners insist that evolution is the foundation of all modern biology and by way of that theory make ever expanding discoveries about our health, a significant portion of the population accuse them of mere prejudice against doubters. People insist they don’t “believe” in Darwin, when they haven’t read him, don’t understand the theory to which they object, and seem unaware that evolutionary biology, though perhaps founded on Darwin, has long since made the nature of Darwin’s belief irrelevant to the validity of modern science.
Imagine a scientific community that allowed published papers to be reviewed by lay people, or simply published them without being reviewed by experts in the field. Imagine if The New England Journal of Medicine, or Nature, accepted papers which had not produced adequate evidence to make their cases, or distorted and misrepresented the evidence. Would that be a reasonable and democratic openi
By: Lauren,
on 3/21/2011
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By Bernard Schweizer
There’s a lost tribe of religious believers who have suffered a lasting identity crisis. I am referring to the category-defying species of believers who accept the existence of the creator God and yet refuse to worship him. In fact they may go so far as to say that they hate God.
No, I’m not talking about atheists. Non-believers may say contemptuous things about God, but when they do so, they are simply giving the thumbs-down to a fictional character. They may as well express dislike about Shakespeare’s devious Iago, Dickens’ scheming Uriah Heep or Dr. Seuss’ Grinch who stole Christmas.
For atheists, God is in the same category as these fictional villains. Except that since God is the most popular of all fictional villains, New Atheists – those evangelizing ones such as Christopher Hitchens and Richard Dawkins – spend a considerable amount of energy enumerating his flaws.
But someone who truly believes in God’s existence and yet hates or scorns him is in a state of religious rebellion so perplexing as to strain our common understanding of faith to the breaking point.
Although these radical dissenters could steal the thunder from the New Atheists, they have remained almost unknown to date.
When it comes to God-hatred, a collective blindness seems to settle on us. First, we lack a generally agreed-upon name to refer to this religious rebellion. And anything that doesn’t have a word associated with it doesn’t exist, right?
Well, in the case of God-hatred, this principle doesn’t hold because the phenomenon does exist whether or not there’s a name for it. And in any case, I’ve ended the semantic impasse by naming these rebels and their stance once for all. My chosen term is misotheism, a word composed of the Greek root “misos” (hatred) and “theos” (deity).
Why do I care so much about them? They strike me as brave, visionary, intelligent people who reject God from a sense of moral outrage and despair because of the amount of injustice and suffering that they witness in this world.
At the same time, they are exercising self-censorship because they dare not voice their opinion openly. After all, publicly insulting God can have consequences ranging from ostracism to imprisonment, fines and even death, depending on where the blasphemy takes place (Ireland, for instance, imposes a fine of up to 25,000 Euros for blasphemy) and what God is the target of attacks (under sharia law, being found an enemy of God, or “mohareb” is a capital offense).
But I also care about these rebels because they chose literature as their principal medium for dealing with their God-hatred. I am a professor of literature, and the misotheists’ choice of literature as their first line of defense and preferred medium endears them to me.
Literature offered them the only outlet to vent their rage against God. And it was a pretty safe haven for doing so. Indeed, hardly anybody seems to notice when God-hatred is expressed in literature. Such writers cleverly “package” their blasphemous thoughts in works of literature without seeming to give offense in any overt way.
At the same time, these writers count on the reader’s cooperation to keep their “secret” safe. It’s like a pact between writer and reader.
Zora Neale Hurston could write that “all gods who receive homage are cruel” without anybody objecting that “all gods” must necessarily include the persons of the Christian Trinity.
Or Rebecca West could write that “something has happened which can only be explained by supposing that God hates you with merciless hatred, and nobody will admit it,” counting on the fact that, since nobody will admit it, nobody will rat her out for blasphemy.
There lies, in a s
By: Maryann Yin,
on 11/5/2010
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Meet Harper Perennial editor Stephanie Meyers. She has blond hair, an obsession with Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and reserves her editing pen for nonfiction books, not writing vampire novels. If you look closely, you will see that her name is only two letters off from the name of Twilight‘s famous author.
Meyers recently co-edited a book of essays entitled The Atheist’s Guide to Christmas with Robin Harvie and it features an essay by writer Andrew Shaffer (better known as Evil Wylie/Emperor Franzen).
However, if you want to find her on Google, you need to be very specific with your keywords. When asked if she would do an interview, the editor responded: “I’d love to talk to you about my name doppelganger situation—anything to reclaim a tiny piece of the Google search pie.” Our interview follows below…
continued…
New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.
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Justine Larbalestier,
on 1/23/2008
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I will confess that I was nervous about going to High Voltage ConFusion. There were several reasons for this:
- I’m afraid of cold places. And Detroit in winter is COLD.1
- I’d never been a guest of honour before and was worried I’d be crappy at it.
- I was aware that most of the people at the con would not have heard of me or Scott and was worried that they would feel dudded of a proper author guest of honour what wrote adult sf and fantasy.
I need not have had any concerns at all. I was right that most of the people there didn’t know us or our work (unless they were a teen librarian or had teen children—there were precious few actual teens in attendance). But it turned out to be a really good thing. No pressure and no expectations. It was really relaxing. One of the most relaxing weekends I’ve had in ages.
Mostly because of Anne Murphy, our liaison. I had no idea that guests of honour get someone to take care of them. It was fabulous. Anne made sure we were fed and happy. She is the best liaison of all time. Thank you, Anne! Why can’t she take care of us all the time? We’re lost without you, Anne!
There was much fun. The Opening Ceremonies were hilarious. A picture of which below. Scalzi interviewing us was very silly and totally enjoyable. Though I was bummed he didn’t bring up unicorns or quokkas.
We got to design our own panels. Thank you so much con organisers for indulging us! And thus were able to vent about stuff that’s been bugging us for ages. Why is there so little sport in fantasy and sf? Why did our audience turn on us during that panel back in Boston in 2004? Do they really just love wheat?
Thus the wheat panel which was FABULOUS therapy for me and Scott, though audience members expecting us to follow the panel description might have been disappointed. Sorry about that! But thank you for not turning on us. You were the best audience ever. Actually, all the panel audiences were smart and engaged and awesome. Me and Scott were dead chuffed that as the weekend went on more and more folks were showing up to hear us gasbag and pontificate. Yay!
The sport panel was also wonderful. Though we had way too much to say and not enough time to say it in. I especially loved that the audience was almost entirely women. Hah! There was also a sports writer, Dave Hogg, in the audience (he really should have been on the panel) who turned out—along with his partner—to be a huge Detroit Shock fan. Go, WNBA! We had an excellently geeky women’s hoops gossip.
I’ll admit that my last few cons had left me with panel fatigue. But now I love them all over again. I wish I’d gotten to see some of the panels I wasn’t on. I heard that all of Kevin Dunn’s (the science guest of honour) were brilliant. He explained soap and and all sorts of other Caveman Chemistry. I can’t wait to read his book.
You’ll be shocked to hear, however, that the best fun was not had during the panels, but at the parties and in the bar, and just generally hanging out. The ConFusion organisers and regulars are the best people on the planet. Seriously I got into so many great conversations and arguments and teasing contests. I can’t wait to go back!2
May I share with you the three best words in the world?
Roaming Pirate Party
Thanks again, Hugh, for the photo.
I haz met the Roaming Pirate Party. They haz rum3 and pirate hats and jollity by the galleon load. Best pirates ever! I shall treasure my pirate hat and t-shirt for ever!
We got to catch up with old friends like Karen Meisner, John & Krissy Scalzi, and Doselle Young. Why don’t they all live MUCH closer to me? I miss you all already. Waahh!! Not to mention making stacks of new friends. You know who you are! Yanni! Brian! Aaron! And SO MANY OTHERS! You all made it the best weekend ever.
Hell, we even got to see a movie: Cloverfield and it were good. Very good indeed.
If anyone needs a guest of honour me and Scott are so up for it!
Quick thoughts:
A 6am diner breakfast with my dad is a nice way to start the day.
Sarah Dessen's North Carolina Tar Heels basketball team is still dominating. Sadly. But my Hoyas don't completely suck.
Yesterday's run was long, slow, and lovely. And I woke up with a sore right knee. I checked the mileage and sure enough, I've put in 325 miles in this pair of running shoes. The last time I had knee trouble, it was when the previous pair of shoes got to 325. You are supposed to only have to get new shoes every 400 miles, but I think I have a snobby knee. (Think Princess and the Pea. Or Knee.) So it's off to the store we go. Thank you, darling children, for the gift certificate at Christmas!
Along with working on my book and keeping various family plates spinning in the air, I am preparing for my workshops at Kindling Words next week. Are any of you going to be there? If you are, help me out: this is my first KW (I've been wanting to go for years). What is your favorite part of KW?
Writing note - I keep circling around the description of a character's room, putting stuff in, taking stuff out, walking into it, walking out of it, etc. Why am I struggling with this? Because I am still trying to understand this (secondary) character. Hmmmmmm.
. . . but I am hundred per cent in favour of the
WGA strike.
Doris Egan, who’s a writer on
House,
1 eloquently explains why. And, yes, a lot of it is about dosh. Why the hell shouldn’t writers be adequately compensated for their work? Here’s my favourite bit:
By the way, I’m not at all sure this understanding [about money] goes up to the CEO’s office; how can it, when that CEO can be handed sixty million dollars just for quitting? Someday I must tell you the story of the famous exec who said, “Why not make this character middle-class? Let’s say he makes $300,000 a year—” and the writers all stared at him.
That’s right the folks who are keeping the writers from having a fair cut of the work they create think $300 grand a year for one person is a middle class wage. Words completely fail me. It’s like those people who crap on about the outrageous amount male basketball players earn but don’t say a word about the insane earnings of the people who own and run the teams and leagues. An athlete’s career is short and physically dangerous.2 Execs get to keep on raking it in when they’re old and grey.
You really have to wonder at a world where it’s the executives around the creative folks who make the obscene amounts of money while most of the creatives are grateful to be paid at all.
Now, to be clear I am not referring to the producers or any of the other staff who are currently out of work because of this strike. That’s right, this strike means lots of people, not just writers, are going to be without pay for the duration. And most of those people—unlike the writers—don’t have a strike fund to keep them going. Not that the big bosses up top give a damn about any of them.
I believe I’ve ranted enough.
Day 11 of the tour:
Tonight’s appearance at Books Inc (Opera Plaza) was fabulous. Lots of rabid, smart, enthusiastic Scott fans and passionate arguments about David/Zane. For the record I like Zane better than David but prefer Shay to either one of them.
The most wonderful part of the evening for me was meeting London, who’s a guy from Sacramento, who drove all the way to San Francisco (which is at least two hours!) to tell me how much he loves my books. Isn’t that awesome? Also turns out he’s a Sacramento Monarchs fan and has even met their big star Yolanda Griffiths. I was deeply impressed and we got to talk women’s hoops which always makes me happy.
Equally happy making was the lovely Liset who gave me a beautiful piece of fan art:
What a wonderful day. Thanks to Jennifer and Shannon for all your hard work. You guys are deeply splendiferous!
There’s lots more to say. And a tonne of your comments I want to respond to, but I’m completely knackered.
Tomorrow there are more events. Also we fly to Seattle.
Sleep now!
Phoenix won the WNBA finals. I am so very happy. I LOVE their style of play. I love Penny Taylor and Cappie Pondexter and Kelly Miller and Diana Taurasi. They are awesomeness personified. They SO deserved to win.
And Detroit totally dogged it. They have not looked that good these playoffs. They barely got past the New York Liberty. Same against Indiana. They did not deserve to win overall. Plus Bill Laimbeer drives me insane. That said Deanna Nolan is probably the most gorgeous shooter I have ever seen. I’d happily watch her play all day long. And Cheryl Ford is crazy strong and brave.
Next year the Liberty are going to knock Detroit out. Oh, yes, we will!
Libba Bray1 is the best friend a girl could have. Look what she done gived me:
I screamed.
Do you notice the choking hazard warning? And that the evil uni***n is call “Destructicorn”?
Happy sigh.
Have any of you seen High School Musical? I think it may be the most conflict-free movie I’ve ever watched. Quite astonishing. I admit I was a tad disappointed by the choreography. The dance sequences were much better in She’s the Man. Also how come there were so few songs? And is that the richest high school in all of the US of A? The size of the gym! and the theatre! and the gorgeous patio! Wow. Also the basketball team had about twelve different uniforms. Way more than the New York Liberty have.
Speaking of the WNBA. The last of the finals is on tomorrow. Let’s go Phoenix!
The worst thing about DragonCon—other than the way too many people thing—is that it’s on the exact same weekend as the WNBA conference finals. I missed seeing Phoenix sweep San Antonio (woo hoo! Amy—sorry, Rebecca) and will miss all the Indiana-Detroit games (please Indiana win tonight!)
Seeing all those insanely brilliant costumes is some compensation I suppose. Riding on the train with Holly, Theo, Cassandra, Maureen and Scott ditto. Sitting around in a hotel room with them telling ghost stories also not too foul.
Which reminds me what are your favourite urban legends? Feel free to leave a link in the comments if you don’t feel like telling the whole thing. So far we’ve done the finger nails one, the hook, the headless roommate, the evil clown statue, and the finger licker.
Three quarters of the WNBA playoffs have gone exactly how I want them to. Phoenix beat Seattle (two Aussies against one); Indiana beat Connecticut (one Aussie against Satan’s own team); San Antonio beat Sacramento (one Aussie—assistant coach Sandy Brondello + 2 ex-Liberty stars against no Aussies and no ex-Libs).
Now we just have to beat Detroit and my basketball year will be complete. Seriously, I didn’t think we’d make the post-season so for the Liberty to get past the first round would be a second miracle. I love what Shamika Christon, Janel McCarville and Loree Moore have been doing in the post-season. I’m so stoked for the 2008 season. The New York Liberty is going to be insanely good.
This year’s WNBA season and post-season has been the best I’ve ever seen. I cannot believe how amazing the games were tonight. I am in heaven.
Let’s go, Liberty! (And the Opals for gold next year.)
Because today I must share the negativity, a list of my current hates:
- Referees who only seem to see the fouls committed by my team
- Bill Laimbeer*
- Friends who are always late—especially when we’re meeting for dinner and I’m starving and the stupid restaurant won’t seat us until the entire party is there
- Restaurants that won’t seat you until the entire party is there—What gives? The table is empty and just sitting there. We’ll order stuff. Lots of it! You’ll make more money off us if you seat us straight away. What does not seating achieve except to make us really really really pissed off at you for keeping us hanging in the crowded, noisy bar area?
- People who never answer the important emails I send them**
- email
- Microsoft Word
- Computers
- good bloggers who don’t blog every day
- Bad bloggers who do blog every day
- Books with female protags who are helpless and passive and can’t walk two steps without falling over
- Badly written crappy books that sell millions or everyone else I know seem to think are the best books ever. You are all very very wrong! Stop buying crap!
- Plane travel***
- People who feel they must share how much they hate sport (and the people who like it) when the conversation has just been all about sport and clearly the other people in the convo love sport. There are other people who share your opinions—go talk to them!
- People who love the Connecticut Sun
- The Connecticut Sun
- ESPN for showing little league baseball instead of most of the Indiana-Connecticut game and right now for showing women’s golf instead of the start of the Phoenix-Seattle game. You suck ESPN!
- Running out of nectarines
- AFDs
*Though I do love hating him. Don’t ever change, Bill! You were eerily calm and unaggro during today’s game. A game where you don’t get a technical foul is a just plain wrong
**I am aware that my email responses have been, um, less than optimal this year, but I’m busy! The people who are sposed to be responding to me but don’t are lazy goodfornothings. It’s totally different.
***Have I mentioned how happy I am that we’re going to Atlanta by train?
Can you hear that screaming? That’s me yelling myself hoarse with joy because we beat Detroit in Madison Square Garden last night.
BEST. GAME. EVER.
Almost all the punters predicted Detroit would sweep us. Ha ha ha! Instead Detroit played awful. It was like they’d been cursed. And after an awkward messy first half we played great.
Of course mean old Bill Laimbeer didn’t say a word about how well the Liberty played he just went on about his own team’s suckiness. Whose fault is that, Bill?
Now I think we’re a more than even chance to take Detroit on their home court and I’m cranky that me and Scott’re going to be at smelly DragonCon cause it means we will miss our next home playoff game. At least we’ll be back in time for the finals!
And how about Phoenix’s rout of Seattle? They took Lauren Jackson out of proceedings (yes, I am an LJ fan, yes, that made me sad, but also wow—not many teams have managed it this year) and ran and shot at will. Wow, they are an entertaining team. I also enjoyed the triple overtime Connecticut-Indiana game. Bummer that Connecticut won. At least the next two games are in Indiana. Here’s to Indiana beating the annoying Sun.
I love the playoffs.
And how about Janel McCarville being named most improved player? Woo hoo!!! And LJ defensive player of the year for the first time. Happy sigh.
Washington won their game which meant they were one game ahead of us, but we won our game, which meant we’re tied, but we’ve beaten them 3 times this year so we go through to the playoffs!
YAY!!!!!
Let’s go, Liberty!!!
I’ve been
New York Liberty season ticket holder since 2003 (though I saw my first game in 2000) and this year has definitely been the most discombobulating. We started off with that
5-0 winning streak then later in the season we had the horrific 0-7 streak and looked to be no chance for the playoffs. Yet here we are one game left and if we win we’re in. In fact, even if we lose we could still make the post season—if the
Washington Mystics lose their game.
This year I have seen the Liberty lose an astonishing number of games they should have won. They’d have a lead at the end of the first half only to come back out in self-destructo mode. I’ve wanted to strangle Cathrine Kraayeveld (her stats don’t list anywhere near as many turnovers as she’s responsible for: Standing immobile when the ball lands on top of you and not getting it—surely that should count as a turnover?) and Coach Patty Coyle (why did it take her SO LONG to give Janel McCarville, Tiffany Jackson and Jessica Davenport more than a handful of minutes?!)
We have missed Becky Hammon something fierce. One look at how brilliantly the San Antonio Silver Stars have played this year speaks to that. Last year they were one of the worst teams in the league; this year they’re second in the West. I fantasise about what the Liberty would have looked like this year with Hammon, Loree Moore and McCarville playing together. Don’t get me wrong Davenport and Jackson are fab and they’re going to be even better in a year or two, but we no longer have a reliable shooting guard. We no longer have someone who will reliably roll in and save our arses at crunch time as Becky has done a billion times.
I miss her.
The trade to San Antonio was brilliant for her but we were left with a big ole shooting-guard-sized hole. We better get one in next year’s draft. Though I’d settle for a forward/centre/guard like, say, Candace Parker.
But it has been a joy to see Loree Moore step up and become a very Theresa Weatherspoon-like point guard. She and McCarville are our solid core. Here’s hoping they’ll get us through tomorrow’s game and into the playoffs.
My favourite basketballer in the entire universe is
Lauren Jackson, which every so often puts me in the weird position of barracking for the team she’s playing against. See, I’m a
New York Liberty fan and she plays for the
Seattle Storm, which very confusingly has the same colours as Australia (green and gold).
Last Sunday her team narrowly beat my team, and on the one hand, I was deeply bummed—it was so close! We almost had them!—on the other hand, damn she’s a fine fine player. And, oh, how much I love watching her play. I just prefer, you know, when she’s playing for the Opals and they’re winning the world championships.
How good is Lauren Jackson? So good that we have to triple team her:
That’s Tiffany Jackson, Ashley Battle and Shamika Christon doing the honours. Go Liberty!
She’s 196cm (6ft 5in) but she can run like the wind:
She’s so mighty that mere chairs cannot contain her:
She smiles like a goddess:
And battles like a warrior:
That’s the Liberty’s Janel McCarville attempting to battle back.
She’s my hero:
Cathrine Kraayeveld (obscured by the non-corrupt WNBA ref) and Shamika Christon attempt to shut the mighty Loz down.
Oh, and um, just in case you think I spent the whole game stalking LJ, I also saw this great hat:
All photos by Scott Westerfeld. Thank you, Mr Husband!
Marrije asked over on insideadog if I’ll be following the Tour de France this year. Sadly, I will not.
This year has gotten out of control. I cannot afford to spend hours every day watching the Tour and following it online. I am incapable of following the Tour non-obsessively. So for the first time in years I’m not following it at all. (No spousal pressure was brought to bear in the making of this decision. Well, okay, just a little bit. I am not husband-beaten! I am not!)
Waaaahh!!!!!
The New York Liberty (10-8) will have to sustain my sport-following needs this northern summer.
And now I go back to the myriad tasks that confront me. At this point it’s so bad I’m resorting to triage. “Which of these tasks will most blow up in my face if I don’t do it?”
But, you know, Vive Le Tour!
New York has a sports team that’s opened its season with a five game winning streak, despite not even making the playoffs last year and no longer having its
best and most popular player. How many column inches has the
New York Times given this remarkable performance?
Pretty much none. Unless you count the teeny tiny AP reports.
This is because the team is the New York Liberty and it’s a women’s team. The New York Times is incapable of covering women’s basketball unless it’s a profile of a male coach. Especially if that male coach is ex-NBA and coaches a non-New York team.
The New York Daily has no problem covering the Liberty nor does the New York Post. What’s it going to take for the New York Times to send a reporter down to Madison Square Garden? A perfect season? Sex-change operations for the whole team? Pigs to fly? I understand it’s a hell of a hike from the Times’s headquarters to the Garden. They’d want a really good reason to have to travel so far.
Damn your sexist moronic eyes, New York Times!! Grrrr!!!
Today at the New York Liberty versus Phoenix Mercury game (we won!) the Rutger’s women’s team stood in the middle of the court during one of the breaks. We gave them a standing ovation, stamping, and clapping and yelling for them. At every timeout thereafer they were beseiged by well-wishers and autograph seekers. They may not have won last years’ finals but they definitely won the battle against racist radio announcers. Yay!
Kay Yow one of the greatest coaches of women’s basketball ever and Vivian Stringer the fabulous coach of Rutgers were also there. So was Teresa Weatherspoon the best pointguard the Liberty has ever had. All were applauded and mobbed for autographs. It made me so happy. It made everyone happy. I’m still glowing.
Somewhat relatedly, Amy Fiske says she met Michelle Timms. To which I can only say, “Oh my God! You met Timmsie! She’s a goddess!”
Also check out this article about playing women’s basketball in Russia. Incredible stuff.
I seem to have rolled out of the ranty side of the bed every morning this week. First I was peeing on the eighties and now I am cranky on account of a particularly stupid thing that was said to me about basketball.
Viz, “I can’t stand basketball. It’s just a bunch overpaid genetic freaks running around with a ball. Who cares?”
As I had just been talking about the joys of my season tickets to the New York Liberty, I clearly care, and you, Mr Shorty Bald man, were being very rude. I poke my tongue out at you!
But that’s not what’s raised my ire, nope, it’s the phrase “genetic freaks”.
So, what are you supposed to do if you’re naturally good at a sport? If you’re built with extra long legs and arms, super-quick reflexes, or extra-big capacity lungs, and happen to enjoy working hard at the particular sport your genetic advantages suit you for? Huh? Work in a circus? Become an accountant? Cut your legs off so you don’t freak out people who are shorter than you?
Show me a professional sport that doesn’t have freakishly talented people playing in it. That’s what pro sports are about talent (genetic freaks) and hard work. Cause you can be the tallest person in the world but if you can’t run up and down that court, or handle a ball, or get your shots to sink, then you are not going to be playing pro ball. End of story.
Besides show me exceptional people in any field who aren’t in some way genetically gifted. Doesn’t being super smart also mean you won the genetic lottery? Why don’t the top physicists and mathematicians and philosophers piss you off? Aren’t they genetic freaks too for being massively smarter than you the way basketballers are massively taller than you?
And anyway there are pro basketballers who are shorter than you, like Nate Robinson, Mugsy Bogues, Debbie Black and Becky Hammon. (Though maybe Becky’s a little taller than you. My bad.)
Okay, I feel much better now. Why couldn’t I think of any of these responses at the time? Stupid slow brain.
Yours rantily,
Justine
but i really need my sports fix once the nba finals are over, so i may just go to a game, if they’re cheap and someone will come with me. i don’t know much about the silver stars yet, but i imagine i’ll get to know them soon enough.
*thumps e-table in agreement*
300k? Poverty!!!! Probably eats at Olive Garden…
I’m all for the wga stike. as a fellow union member, solidarity forever.
And i used to scoff at some of the comments you made above, I no longer do. I just hope we can avoid the struggles that preceded the making of the unions.
gah! 300k a year? i want that job….
actually, no. i really don’t.
what adds to the infuriating dumbassery of all this is the people who are getting fired to “guilt the writers” into stopping the strike. what kind of fascist strategy is that? ugh.
300k… a year? Oh my… Entertainment and athletes… We really need to see how things have become so diproportionate.
In TV shows or movies, the thing I think most about is: ‘Whoever made up that line was a genius’ or ‘Wow, now I understand! the script writer did such a a great job!’
Sometimes, it’s not just the writers, I pay attention to miniscule detail, like lighting and stuff. This strike affects a lot more people than we can comprehend right now. Maybe the strike will also help with payments for other jobs, raising awareness, for technicians and other people who work on the set and on movies.
Oh, and by the way, the person who did Wilson’s dialogue is episode 1 of the new season- you are my hero.
Justine, you are also my hero. =) Your post made my day.
[…] to Justine Larbalestier, I found this long post from Doris Egan, a writer-producer on the popular show House. Egan is now […]
Yep. I’m totally agreeing with you too, Justine. That is really not fair at all.
Not to mention, what we the writers negotiate with the producers will greatly impact the deal the directors and actors cut next summer. They’re watching us and the producers know that if we cave early, they’ll have greater leverage over the directors and actors. You’ll notice that the producers never come out and try to make their case (an unmakable one) to the public, but rather they keep referring to the writers as “strike happy.” I’m not happy about the strike. I wish it didn’t have to happen. But I also want my residuals checks when my movies make them money.
hmmm… huelga!
ya know, i used to be really down on athletes (maybe just cause i run really slow) but you definitly made a point.
lets just have a revolution, shall we?
hehe