Talkin about Tumblrs, man

17677798182246

Comments

  • Smee, Maiman, Doktar, Pavelier, Button-Lee, Juan Ovyu
    Well I'm a Spaniard and Spurdo is Finnish. If I followed my country's Internet culture I should be posting ola k ase or something
  • Ron Weasley’s character is consciously written as somewhat racist. Not as racist as Malfoy, of course - he doesn’t scoff at mudbloods and halfbloods, and he doesn’t see himself as superior at all. Still, he unquestionably accepts the inferior position of house elves (they love serving), when he finds out that Lupin’s werewolf his reaction is not only scared but also disgusted (Don’t touch me!) and he is clearly very uncomfortable finding out that Hagrid is half-giant (giants are wild and savage).
    And this is brilliant. Because it demonstrates that racism isn’t only present in clearly malicious and evil people, in the Malfoys and Blacks - it’s also there in warm, kind, funny people who just happened to learn some pretty toxic things growing up in a pretty toxic society. And they can unlearn them too, with some time and effort. Ron eventually accepts Hagrid’s parentage, lets Lupin bandage his leg and in the final battle, he worries about the safety of the house elves.
    Some people are prejudiced because they are evil, and some people are prejudiced because they don’t know better yet. And those people can learn better, and become better people. And that’s an important lesson. The lesson taught about discrimination shouldn’t be “only evil people do it”, because then all readers will assume it doesn’t apply to them. Instead old JK teaches us “you too are probably doing it, and you should do stop ASAP”.
  • It's not a perfect comparison, and I doubt that this was intentional on Rowling's part, but I appreciate the message behind it.

    Prejudice tends to be treated as a 'evil only' thing, and it would be better if we recognized that we all have it to some degree.
  • socially progressive masterpiece Harry Potter
  • I have always felt that the harry potter series is best described as "consistently above average"
  • Munch munch, chomp chomp...
    It's definitely fun, though I haven't read through it in some time.
  • My dreams exceed my real life
    Mo' said:

    socially progressive masterpiece Harry Potter

    I have it on good authority that HP is fasho calvinist propaganda
  • Munch munch, chomp chomp...
    Who.
  • The sadness will last forever.
    social justice studies
  • Mo' said:

    socially progressive masterpiece Harry Potter

    You know, just because Tumblr is overzealous doesn't mean they're always wrong when they notice a progressive moral in a work.
  • More people have said that and been killed than there are thorium decay products.
    Who.
    I don't think you want to know. ^_^ Odradek has an amazing ability to find the most frightening pseudo-intellectuals the internet has to offer.
  • Munch munch, chomp chomp...
    Yes, I know. So I definitely want to know.
  • Munch munch, chomp chomp...
    A certain while.
  • edited 2013-08-03 22:15:23
    More people have said that and been killed than there are thorium decay products.
    ^^^ Well, *I* don't. ^_^ And you are a lurker. :3
  • edited 2013-08-03 22:16:27
    Munch munch, chomp chomp...
    See, Miko gets it.

    That's beautiful. Thanks.
  • But Kex, tumblr has the tendency to take a single good thing and attribute it to virtue rather than unintentional action.

    It's like the contrapositive version of Occam's Razor
  • Kexruct said:

    Mo' said:

    socially progressive masterpiece Harry Potter

    You know, just because Tumblr is overzealous doesn't mean they're always wrong when they notice a progressive moral in a work.
    It is not so much that they are wrong, more that they seem incapable of grasping the concept of "reading into" something, and thus assume that anything they see is there by authorial intent and that alone.
  • Odradek said:
    for a thing odradek has linked to this seems pretty ok so far
  • But Kex, tumblr has the tendency to take a single good thing and attribute it to virtue rather than unintentional action.

    It's like the contrapositive version of Occam's Razor

    But Kex, tumblr has the tendency to take a single good thing and attribute it to virtue rather than unintentional action.

    It's like the contrapositive version of Occam's Razor

    Mo' said:


    Kexruct said:

    Mo' said:

    socially progressive masterpiece Harry Potter

    You know, just because Tumblr is overzealous doesn't mean they're always wrong when they notice a progressive moral in a work.
    It is not so much that they are wrong, more that they seem incapable of grasping the concept of "reading into" something, and thus assume that anything they see is there by authorial intent and that alone.
    I don't think you're giving JK Rowling enough credit.
  • Munch munch, chomp chomp...
    Not to contribute to any negativity and whatnot, but I've seen the opposite way more (but that's just my experience): Only they are the authority (collectively or otherwise) on a certain subject, no matter what anyone else says. Of course, this isn't every Tumblr blog within the social justice sphere.
  • you know, this brings up something i have noticed


    on tumblr a there seems to be a near unanimous rejection of literary analysis as taught in school, but then many people turn around and attempt to analyse things in a much more slipshod fashion than any english teacher ever would
  • My dreams exceed my real life

    you know, this brings up something i have noticed



    on tvtropes there seems to be a near unanimous rejection of literary analysis as taught in school, but then many people turn around and attempt to analyse things in a much more slipshod fashion than any english teacher ever would
    Still true.
  • My dreams exceed my real life

    Odradek said:
    for a thing odradek has linked to this seems pretty ok so far
    It would be big if JK Rowling was Orson Scott Card
  • Munch munch, chomp chomp...
    Definitely seen that. It's pretty interesting, really. I think a decent bit is not wanting to get caught up in the rules, just guessing.
  • Odradek said:

    you know, this brings up something i have noticed



    on tvtropes there seems to be a near unanimous rejection of literary analysis as taught in school, but then many people turn around and attempt to analyse things in a much more slipshod fashion than any english teacher ever would
    Still true.
    heh


    also having read that whole article you linked, the fact that the author was able to back up what he/she was saying with mrs rowling's own words made his/her points seem fairly convincing, at least to me that is.
  • you know, this brings up something i have noticed



    on tumblr a there seems to be a near unanimous rejection of literary analysis as taught in school, but then many people turn around and attempt to analyse things in a much more slipshod fashion than any english teacher ever would
    "analysis" is the wrong word.

    if you liked it when you were ten, it's socially progressive, end of thought train.
  • But yeah, deep analysis of a three second Rise of the Guardians GIF? Probably a bit silly. Analysis of a major character's arc in a series where the author has been known to sketch out extensive backstories for the most minor of characters? I wouldn't doubt authorial intent plays a part there.
  • Mo' said:

    you know, this brings up something i have noticed



    on tumblr a there seems to be a near unanimous rejection of literary analysis as taught in school, but then many people turn around and attempt to analyse things in a much more slipshod fashion than any english teacher ever would
    "analysis" is the wrong word.

    if you liked it when you were ten, it's socially progressive, end of thought train.
    but the avengers was not out when anybody on tumblr was 10


    (*i am thinking back to some text post + gif where the author claimed that some facial tic on Loki's part in one scene proved conclusively that he was a woobie antihero type guy which i feel is really representative of this sort of thing*)
  • More people have said that and been killed than there are thorium decay products.
    I like hardly go on tumblr anymore.
  • Mo' said:

    you know, this brings up something i have noticed



    on tumblr a there seems to be a near unanimous rejection of literary analysis as taught in school, but then many people turn around and attempt to analyse things in a much more slipshod fashion than any english teacher ever would
    "analysis" is the wrong word.

    if you liked it when you were ten, it's socially progressive, end of thought train.
    That's really not accurate. Like, at all. Unless you're talking about Tumblr users who are, like, fourteen.
  • More people have said that and been killed than there are thorium decay products.
    Also that article on Harry Potter was surprisingly interesting and coherent.
  • Munch munch, chomp chomp...
    I always though the average was a bit higher than that.
  • Miko said:

    I like hardly go on tumblr anymore.

    i left tumblr for a wee bit then i just decided to go back on and just unfollow all of the people who even vaguely irritated me
  • My dreams exceed my real life
    Miko said:

    Also that article on Harry Potter was surprisingly interesting and coherent.

    If JK Rowling ever starts donating to the BNP, it will be big.
  • od i have no idea what you are trying to get at now u_u
  • Mo' said:

    you know, this brings up something i have noticed



    on tumblr a there seems to be a near unanimous rejection of literary analysis as taught in school, but then many people turn around and attempt to analyse things in a much more slipshod fashion than any english teacher ever would
    "analysis" is the wrong word.

    if you liked it when you were ten, it's socially progressive, end of thought train.
    but the avengers was not out when anybody on tumblr was 10


    (*i am thinking back to some text post + gif where the author claimed that some facial tic on Loki's part in one scene proved conclusively that he was a woobie antihero type guy which i feel is really representative of this sort of thing*)
    I speak more of "let me tell you why this character from Avatar The Last Airbender is the paragon of all socially liberal values".

    speaking of Avatar, that blind earthbender girl (Toph I think?) gets this treatment a lot.
  • Munch munch, chomp chomp...
    Yes, Toph.
  • My dreams exceed my real life

    od i have no idea what you are trying to get at now u_u

    It is an interesting take, but unlike the Ender Wiggin Hitler thing, it is doomed to obscurity because JK Rowling is not an exceedingly horrible person.
  • Read a bit of Odradek's article. Again, I feel like it's not giving JK Rowling enough credit.

    For one thing, its statement that the Houses are representative of the Elect is a pretty weak analogy. While Rowling only pays lip service to the idea of a good Slytherin, there is a lot of good that comes out of Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw and it is very obvious stuff too.
  • Mo' said:

    Mo' said:

    you know, this brings up something i have noticed



    on tumblr a there seems to be a near unanimous rejection of literary analysis as taught in school, but then many people turn around and attempt to analyse things in a much more slipshod fashion than any english teacher ever would
    "analysis" is the wrong word.

    if you liked it when you were ten, it's socially progressive, end of thought train.
    but the avengers was not out when anybody on tumblr was 10


    (*i am thinking back to some text post + gif where the author claimed that some facial tic on Loki's part in one scene proved conclusively that he was a woobie antihero type guy which i feel is really representative of this sort of thing*)
    I speak more of "let me tell you why this character from Avatar The Last Airbender is the paragon of all socially liberal values".

    speaking of Avatar, that blind earthbender girl (Toph I think?) gets this treatment a lot.
    Where have you seen this?
  • honestly, I'm not much of a reader, but time spent on the internet has lead me to believe that many, many authors are, at best, depression-exuding stereotypical cynics, and are often far worse than that (eg. O.S. Card and his "I actually hate every single gay person").
  • honestly, I'm not much of a reader, but time spent on the internet has lead me to believe that
  • Where have you seen this?
    On tumblr, periodically, since I started using the site.

    Toph is just the example that comes to mind most easily, but she's far from the only one.
  • honestly, I'm not much of a reader, but time spent on the internet has lead me to believe that
    shhhhhhhhhh

    shhh

    shh
  • image

    meanwhile, on the subject of things about tumblr that I actually like.
  • The sadness will last forever.
    Every time I read something dumb on Tumblr, it makes me lose hope and more of a cynic than I already am. Which is 99% of the time I go there.
  • Honestly, that article seems to have done the opposite-but equally annoying- of what Tumblr does.

    It attributes what are inevitably minor, nitpicky things to deep inherent flaws in the author rather than slip ups in an otherwise good series.
Sign In or Register to comment.