thene | (no subject)

-I've been reading A Good Old Fashioned Future by Bruce Stirling and kinda want to go rant on my actual proper blog about how, back in 1998, he got totally the wrong idea about 4chan except for the fixation on cats. TBH I've only just bothered to look at the publication dates of the 6 short stories therein and am a little horrified at their recentness (between '93 and '99) given that I am encountering much more than enough orientalism and homophobia to make me want to stab myself in the face. If I do write such a rant, I shall link it here so's you will all witness my wild conflations of present, past and future.

-I patched over most of the remaining holes in introthing last night; I have no fic energy but nurse full-moon hopes that if I can finish it soon then the weather here will finally get cooler. It is almost fricking october ffs :/ One of the few outstanding issues is the first sentence; it is epic run-on and has not so much clauses as codicils. I still hate most of my prose tbh, it's so clunky and over-modified.

-Nakki has started reading my dw again. Hello, Nakki! *plot plot plot plot plot, with plot*

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Oh, well, there goes my vague intention to seek out Bruce Stirling's stuff (he's never on the shelves here, so I tend to forget about him). I've heard his name spoken among those of Gibson and Stephenson, but it does not sound like he belongs in their company. I would enjoy reading your rant!

Also this is a grand phrase: "it is epic run-on and has not so much clauses as codicils".

Yeah, I picked this up at a second-hand shop because of the same sorts of mentionings, and because I quite liked The Difference Engine (Stirling and Gibson's collab). Orientalism; he's using Japan to stand for a collectivist approach to information (complete with traditional cat statues) that a white character is finding personally intimidating, and it's both a bit 'wat'* and a bit evocative of faceless hoards of exotics. Hello, Japan is not the opposite of American individualism.

I can't even detail the homophobia, just point at the entire second story and *boggle* The really weird part is that this is all futurism, things that are meant to be decades away, and Stirling can't even imagine the end of his own homophobia & stereotyping, let alone that of his characters and their setting (eg. using 'not married' as a euphemism for gay. Wow. Just, wow.)

*it strikes me that the part of planet earth that consistently punches above its weight when it comes to collectivist internet services - Linux, Kazaa, Piratbyrån - is Scandinavia. Why anyone would peg this trait on Japan other than due to creepy stereotyping is beyond me.

Huh. While I'm no expert on Japanese culture, I get the impression that, if anything, Japan possibly exceeds America at valuing and supporting -- especially creative (in both the artistic and more fundamental senses) and intentional* -- individualism. The heroism portrayed in anime is usually someone acting in social isolation overcoming just as many -- if not more -- internal obstacles as external ones, and the hero is rarely (I can't think of an example off hand) a demagogue (not meant pejoratively here, I just can't find the word I actually want for the messianic extroverted leader sort of hero**). Miyamoto Musashi, as an historical example and IIRC, was nothing if not an individual! As I type this I am also reminded of how it was the collectivists in Ghost In the Shell SAC 2nd Gig that were the (ostensible) antagonists***, and it was sacrifices of individuals specifically as individuals that saved the day.

In fact, introversion, often seen as vaguely pathological in the United States and decidedly individualistic, seems functional, even desirable and necessary for a good life, in Japanese culture. It seems he might be confusing the sort of stoic and self-disciplined image we often get of the Japanese with being a culture of drones? Which would be a mistake. Or he can't tell the difference between the 1990's Communist China and Japan. I mean they all look the same... >.<

But really, having a developed social conscience does not make one a member of a faceless hoard, although I am certain Glenn Beck and his Tea Party would disagree. Clearly anyone with a social conscience is a communist and demagoguery (definitely meant pejoratively here :P) is the finest expression of individualism****. :P

Of course I could be suffering from my own latent Orientalism due to skewed exposure to Japanese culture, but that's the sense I get from the anime, manga, and film I've consumed. ^^;; I really must read more in Japanese history and start using my Rosetta Stone to learn Japanese language.

'not married' as a euphemism for gay

WTF? o.O And he's not being ironic? That is messed up. IDEK.

--
* Our anime heroes are often exhorted not to "go kick ass" or "win one for the team" but to do their [personal] best.

** Unless we count Treize a a heroic rendition of the Magnificent Bastard trope, which I would kind of tend to do, because I have a ~~twisted~~ soft spot for that kind of altruistic villainy.

*** Never quite as simplistic as that word implies though ^^

**** ~~Beck~~ Brian: "You are all individuals."
Crowd: "We are all individuals"
Man: "I'm not!"
--

Regarding your footnote! If we're talking Open Source kind of collective, it's weird to me that he would portray such a thing as sinister and anti-individual in the first place! That is a bit of a futurist fail. Or maybe I'm just too anti-corporate in my old age to see anything sinister in the creative commons and open source arenas.

And a last disclaimer. I took painkillers with codeine. I am even more flurpy than before. I blame all tangents, non sequiturs, and the excessive use of parentheticals on my present blood chemistry.

I think I at least partly gave you the wrong impression - his idea of Japan as a nexus for online collectivism was a positive one, and he was using it to criticise American knee-jerk suspicion of collectives, but I was still skeeved that he was using Japan in that way. It seemed like a 'look at what we can learn from the brown people!' thing. It ended with the Japanese characters trying to send an American character to a Japanese monastic retreat. This trope, it is overdone at the very least.

I get you - while I had flu the other week I had a total can't grammar phase and o god the brainhurty. GET WELL SOON <3

Ah, okay, please forgive my blathery codeine infused blather. I really shouldn't have babbled on without knowing the story myself. I thought maybe it was one of those evil Other, "Asians are all communist drones trying to take over the world" kind of trope. ^^;; I am ashamed; thank you for being so nice!

trying to send an American character to a Japanese monastic retreat. This trope, it is overdone at the very least.

Yes it is. Oi.

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tl;dr (you got me thinking)

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