Comments for The Ottery

Comment on Texting and Turkish Language Reform by Mink

Mink — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 21:55:04 +0000

Ahem. DK. Hint.

Comment on Texting and Turkish Language Reform by The Muser

The Muser — Sun, 16 Nov 2008 22:49:04 +0000

I’m supposed to be (in 5-7 pages) suggesting a theological solution to the vastly destructive and complex system of racism and dehumanization put in place by colonialism; as I am doomed, I am, instead, reading blogs and quite enjoying yours! Actually, the paper topic is fascinating and life-giving, especially as I think about being a pastor someday and coming up with pastoral responses to human rights atrocities…but 5-7 pages? Come on!!! Moments like these (when I find myself desperately wanting to write a dissertation so I have space to actually discover something useful) make me gnash my teeth in despair (do people gnash teeth in despair?). Ugh. This is where a PhD program would be better than an MDiv program, but perhaps less useful for learning most of what you need to know to actually pastor a church…anyway, thanks for the distraction from my woe. The ottery is delightful.

Comment on Texting and Turkish Language Reform by Mink

Mink — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 17:29:22 +0000

Ohhhhhh. Right. That. I thought it was some new lit-crit technique. Nice juxtaposition of the high-falutin’ and the low-falutin’.

Still, it probably *will* result in a loss of historic national character, though. Not that the U.S. has much of one. National, but not very historic, compared to, say, Albania.

Comment on Texting and Turkish Language Reform by theottery

theottery — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 16:22:40 +0000

Texting: you know, what the youngsters do with their thumbs on their cell phones, creating sentences like, “g2g, l8r.” If I said “text messaging,” would that be clearer?

Comment on Texting and Turkish Language Reform by Mink

Mink — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 13:19:40 +0000

Welcome back, Otterling! You and EW are very comprehensible. You and your academic journals are a little over my head: “texting”?

Comment on Silver-Dollar Stupidity by theottery

theottery — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 19:42:03 +0000

Ah, the twisted eugenics movement. You know what’s a really interesting read? Angelina Weld Grimke (the African American great-niece of the white abolotionist–now THERE’s an interesting family history) has a short story called “The Closing Door” that was published in The Birth Control Review in the 1910s. From one angle, you can read it as a protest against lynching; but, because the main character turns against having children (because she doesn’t want to bring children into a world where they could be lynched because of the color of their skin), the story could actually end up serving the agenda of the racist eugenicists (anything to keep “those people” from reproducing). The story’s in a collection called The Sleeper Wakes, and it’s fascinating for anyone interested in the cultural history of the period.

Comment on Silver-Dollar Stupidity by Mink

Mink — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 16:51:55 +0000

Yup. We're just not that good at researching our heroic icons. Your complaint synchs with a recent post on Dawn Eden's blog about Margaret Sanger (not Dawn's only post, by any means, on Sanger). Sanger, still championed by advocates of women's rights for her insistence on the right to birth control, was an avid eugenicist, whose promotion of contraception had an overtly racist agenda. Ironically, Planned Parenthood's first Margaret Sanger award was given to Martin Luther King Jr. (!!!) Her legacy is awfully confusing, not least because she was herself inconsistent in her beliefs and their expression. I would think that she wouldn't be a very useful figure to pro-choice organizations, nor to feminists, nor to minority communities. But she is to all. Honestly, do some reading, people...

Comment on Indiana Jones and the Girl Who Didn’t Like Him by Icelimbo

Icelimbo — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 23:21:03 +0000

First, a bit of trivia: the scene in Raiders where Indy simply shoots the sword-wielding baddie wasn’t supposed to happen that way – it was supposed to be this big fight sequence, sword vs. fists & whip. But on the morning they shot it, Ford had just gone through a night of mild food poisoning and his stomach was in a bad way. So he decided to take matters into his own hands and improvise so he wouldn’t have to do all the stunt fighting. The actor playing the swordsman just went with it, and Spielberg liked it so much they rewrote the scene on the spot, did a few more takes, and that was that.

Something to also keep in mind about the Indy series is that the adventures were supposed to resemble the serial cliffhangers of the 20s and 30s (also the basic inspiration for Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow). These were B-movies, hastily cobbled together and shot on shoestring budgets, with over the top plots full of holes, and a focus on exotic locations (to the extent the small budget could provide, meaning there was much reliance on swarthy foreign-looking actors in heavy makeup), derring-do, dashing heroes, damsels in distress, and flashy action sequences often involving chase scenes and just-in-time escapes from fire, monsters, etc. Looking at Indy 4 from this perspective, I found it to be strongly rooted in its original concept, and exploited the real fun in that kind of genre in great ways.

That doesn’t mean, however, that I thought it was a particularly good movie. For its genre, I thought it was excellent. As the fourth Indiana Jones film, I found it stale, predictable, and populated with one-dimensional characters. It was great fun, the way a summer blockbuster is supposed to be. But there was no excitement or suspense like was captured in Raiders, or character exploration and real emotion like in Crusade. And very little of it was funny. Even the old serials were supposed to be funny.

Comment on Eat, Pray, Love: “Travel Porn for Women” by Jillian

Jillian — Sat, 31 May 2008 21:38:19 +0000

Julia Roberts??? Ha. Excellent. Anything that keeps her occupied in movies I wouldn’t have wanted to see anyway. *grin*

Comment on Indiana Jones and the Girl Who Didn’t Like Him by Jillian

Jillian — Sat, 31 May 2008 21:37:13 +0000

I still haven’t seen Indy 4… but it was a series of movies that I liked as a kid. Plus I watched/read all the Young Indiana Jones available–which might have been more legit adventures.

I think what is different now is quantity. And from that quantity an opportunity to find quality.

But back in the day, Star Wars or Star Trek had the corner on SciFi (then along came Dune, Stargate etc). And Indiana Jones had the monopoly of that style of adventure (as you mentioned to bring along Pirates–which I did not like, and The Mummy, which I did)… we watched what we had. But, it’s the sentimentalist in me that enjoys the movies now.

Doctor Who held up well though.

*chuckles* Of course it was the lack of my genres in the nineties that drove me into the arms of Japanese culture.