Some Random Blogginess (Rally to Restore Sanity, + NPR Hates Steampunk)

[the_gneech]

As most of the folks reading my journal prolly know, Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert had their "Rally to Restore Sanity"/"Keep Fear Alive" event downtown on Saturday, and it was a huge success. lythandra and I didn't attend ourselves, but provided some dinner for confusedoo after the event and he related some of his thoughts and impressions.

Today, the Overthinking It blog has an interesting article about it, including a YouTube video of Stewart's excellent keynote speech. It's a bit on the "tl;dr" side, as is everything from Overthinking It (it's pretty much their shtick, really), but if you've got the time and the mental bandwidth, I heartily recommend it. If nothing else, watch the keynote speech. It's good stuff. :)

I think my favorite sign of the ones I've heard about was, "I made a sign -- and I vote!" which just edged out "You're mad as hell, and I'm not gonna take it any more!" by a slim margin.

In other news, you may remember my little rant last week about "Deconstructionists." Although it's a grievance I've long held, this particular rant was triggered by a blog post that sneered at the steampunk genre basically for being fantasy with an 1800s skin rather than being All Man's Inhumanity to Man All the Time. It appears that some others share my annoyance about this particular topic. Nice to know I'm not alone!

-The Gneech

Comments

[shockwave77598.livejournal.com]

Deconstructed, Moby Dick is a story about fishing :)

[the-gneech.livejournal.com]

...and not enough of a condemnation of the whaling industry or western culture generally, at that.

-TG

[maxgoof.livejournal.com]

I gotta agree with you on the Deconstructionists. I mean, come on, it's fantasy, we all know it's fantasy. Just let it go.

[the-gneech.livejournal.com]

Actually, the deconstructionist urge[1] reminds me more than anything else about the old SNL skit about the game show, "Make Joan Baez Laugh."

-The Gneech

[1] For lack of a better term. Proper deconstruction is a worthy and valid tool in a writer's arsenal.

[athelind.livejournal.com]

Even leaving aside my thesis that Steampunk is far more a craft aesthetic than a literary genre, the steampunk "backlash" I've seen so far doesn't seem to have read the same steampunk literature that I have. I'm sure there's a lot of superficial bandwagon fluff out there that just has a wood-and-brass veneer slapped hastily over it, but that happens with any subgenre. All the works I've read, including the fun and fluffy Girl Genius, touch on the social issues of the day.

Geez, the Gaslamp Fantasy world of Girl Genius is a wretched place to live if you're not a Spark -- or even if you are.

I've always looked at the gears-and-top-hats crowd as the progenitors of the Neo-Victorians from Stephenson's The Diamond Age, who explicitly stated that their intent was to recapture the positive parts of the era and reject the negative.

I think it's telling that, thus far, the naysayers don't feel obligated to cite specific works.

[kendokamel.livejournal.com]

I'd totally forgotten about that rally until I had a layover in DC en route back from a wedding down south. I really really wanted to get on the earlier flight back to Indianapolis, but everything was full. Then, I saw people carrying signs and had a lightbulb moment.

On a related note, I can finally say I have now been to my nation's capitol. Or near it, at least. I was genuinely surprised to be able to see Teh Famous Monuments from my seat in the terminal.