In Life at the Bottom: The Worldview That Makes the Underclass, Theodore Dalrymple points to a curious modern phenomenon: the reversal of cultural aspiration. Continue reading “A Faerie Wood Withering”
Category: Culture
Lies of the Zeitgeist
I am amazed at the sort of things journalists can get away with. Once again, Pratchett illustrates the issue so well. In The Truth, a group of lodgers sit around the breakfast table discussing the newspaper, a new phenomenon in Ankh-Morpork: Continue reading “Lies of the Zeitgeist”
Social Justice Kamikazes
It seems like almost every episode of Doctor Who has the Doctor saving the whole of reality from some threat or another, but on at least two occasions the threat is deliberately leveled by enemies who are aware of what they’re doing. In “The Journey’s End” and “The End of Time, Part 2,” the Daleks and the Time Lords, respectively, try to put the kibosh on the whole thing. In both cases, it seems the Doctor’s enemies have gone insane.
Millennials, Minecraft, and Moronic Arguments
Stories change the way people view the world. Stories are emotional– they don’t tell us facts so much as they tell us the value of these facts, tell us how we ought to feel about them, tell us where we stand in relation to them. Stories don’t give information, they assume it. Stories take place in a certain kind of world, and so implicitly affirm the truth of that kind of world. If a story were to end, say, happily ever after, then we would assume that this is the way the world works.
Continue reading “Millennials, Minecraft, and Moronic Arguments”
The Stories We Tell– Redux
Terry Pratchett reflects on the nature of stories in Witches Abroad: Continue reading “The Stories We Tell– Redux”
Cultus and Culture 