Will Shetterly's Blog, page 131

Strange logic about race and cognition at New Scientist—and by Vox Day

How your ancestors' farms shaped your thinking - life - 08 May 2014 - New Scientist: "students from all-wheat areas were 56 per cent more likely to think analytically than students from all-rice areas. For example, when asked to match the two closest of sheep, dog and grass, they grouped sheep and dog, which appear most similar. Students from rice-growing areas grouped sheep and grass, as these

Marx believed in the free press

Brendan O'Neill has a short answer to people who think socialists in general and Marxists in particular want to censor:Marx hated press freedom? Er, I don't think so. He was its most passionate champion. As a young man, Marx said:

The free press is the ubiquitous vigilant eye of a people's soul, the embodiment of a people's faith in itself, the eloquent link that connects the individual with

No one "deserves" mockery or ridicule—though bullies and thugs always say their victims deserve what they get

AtThis Needs to Be Said » Balloon Juice, I gave one of my stock replies to someone who claimed Freddie deBoer got“the ridicule he deserves”:

I’ll stick with Malcolm X’s advice: “Be peaceful, be courteous, obey the law, respect everyone; but if someone puts his hand on you, send him to the cemetery.” If deBoer hasn’t put a hand on you, he doesn’t deserve ridicule. Though I realize there are

today's civility thought

If you can't make your point politely, you haven't thought about it enough.

A little about women writers who used men's names or initials

In the comments atBlindingly White: BookCon, John Green, and Knowing When It's Time to Speak Up | BOOK RIOT, McLicious said, "there is such a history of women having to use men's names to publish that is complicated and blah."

I responded,


"Having to use"? It was suggested to Rowling and she decided to go with the advice, but women have been successfully publishing under female names at least

anyone should be able to tell that "social justice warrior" is ironic, unlike "social justice worker", but Poe's Law rules online

Just left this comment atbingo cards go both ways | Fredrik deBoer: "The distinction between the internet meme, “social justice warrior”, and the social justice worker who works in the world is crucial. I want to think anyone would realize a “warrior” for peace is an ironic term, but alas, it’s the internet, where Poe’s Law rules."

And since I'm on the subject, I've seen a person or two suggest

When did the Hugos become the Dancing Bear Awards?

There's an old saying about dancing bears: "The marvel is not that the bear dances well, but that the bear dances at all." The uproar over conservatives nominating conservatives for the Hugo reminded me of that.

When I was young and reading f&sf, people like Samuel R. Delany, Ursula LeGuin, and Octavia Butler won awards because they wrote well. No one promoted them on the basis of their social

When did the Hugos become the Dancing Bear Award?

There's an old saying about dancing bears: "The marvel is not that the bear dances well, but that the bear dances at all." The uproar over conservatives nominating conservatives for the Hugo reminded me of that.

When I was young and reading f&sf, people like Samuel R. Delany, Ursula LeGuin, and Octavia Butler won awards because they wrote well. No one promoted them on the basis of their social

Mark Twain shows politics on the internet are the same old same old

"Men think they think upon great political questions, and they do; but they think with their party, not independently; they read its literature, but not that of the other side; they arrive at convictions, but they are drawn from a partial view of the matter in hand and are of no particular value. They swarm with their party, they feel with their party, they are happy in their party’s approval;

Writing is rewriting: Twain and the first line of Huckleberry Finn

First Half of 'Huck Finn,' in Twain's Hand, Is Found - New York Times: "The manuscript shows that Twain changed the opening lines of "Huckleberry Finn" three times. Twain first wrote, "You will not know about me," which he then changed to, "You do not know about me," before arriving at the final version: "You don't know about me without you have read a book by the name of 'The Adventures of Tom