UK Amazon Kindle Forum discussion
Blog Roll
>
Will Once - somewhere and back again
Oh lord. I believe I've encountered that bed.
Do you ever look at your author thread, Will?
I do indeed. Good to hear that you're giggling!
Ha! You only looked cuz I said something!Hoping I can finish it on the flight.
Looking forward to reading the other two, as well.
You have writerly talent, young man!
Aw - that's kind! Hope you have a safe journey. Sounds like a lot of traveling for you.
Possibly a controversial one today. This is why I am most certainly NOT Charlie.http://willonce.wordpress.com/2015/01...
Optical delusions - my secret crush for my optician.Which is not such a secret any more.
http://willonce.wordpress.com/2015/01...
Um ... because the cartoon has a title underneath with his name on it?Or because it is obvious that the artist has tried to draw Mohammed (whether accurate or not)?
Or because historic pictures of Mohammed have existed in the past?
I don't think there is much room for doubt.
I'm an atheist who believes in respecting people. If one particular faith tells me that certain pictures are offensive to them, then that's all I need to know. Because of that I would not publish such pictures myself or give any encouragement to anyone else who wanted to publish them.
I have Jewish friends who don't eat pork. I don't quibble with them or question their beliefs either.
Ironically the ban on pictures of Mohammed stems from the Old Testament prohibition of 'Don't make a graven image'. This has also been Christian doctrine at times (which is where we get the term Iconoclast from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iconoclasm )Even more ironically, the Shia, who were more influenced by Persian culture and less by Arab, do produce pictures of Mohammed. Within their culture it's accepted even though it's technically forbidden by Shia clerics.
So part of the storm over these pictures may well be a hangover from the Shia-Sunni feud.
But remember that this feud is actually a secular argument over just who inherited to position of Caliph, and the two disputing factions tended to split on cultural lines, Persian v Arab, and theological differences grew up later :-)
Even more ironic is the fact that Arabs (indeed including early Moslems) didn't segregate women. But once they started conquering places they seem to have had this craving for 'culture' and copied the more settled Arabs of Syria, who in turn had adopted a lot of Byzantine culture.
So it was from the Byzantines that the Moslems picked up their habit of segregating women. With the Byzantines this was a cultural thing, part of their Greek heritage and you can trace it straight back to Hellenic Athens when it was a sign of a good husband if he didn't bring his concubines home.
Yes, I've been researching this too. It's a far more complicated picture than many people are making it out to be.Not all Muslims share the same beliefs about images of Mohammed. But then not all Christians share the same beliefs either. We can't seem to agree between one church and the next about issues such as contraception, abortion, the death penalty, Protestantism.
Heck, we can't even agree within the same church about gay marriage or women bishops.
And don't get me started on the Amish shunning technology.
But jump over the fence to the freedom of speech camp, and we see divisions there too. Difficult issues such as the harm principle and the offense principle. How do we marry freedom of speech with principles around diversity and the prevention of discrimination?
France banned the burqa. Is that a measure designed to promote women's rights? Or an imposition on someone's right to worship?
What does it all mean? Frankly, I haven't a clue. The only easy answer is probably that there are no easy answers.
We do know that millions of people are offended by images of Mohammed. Maybe not all Muslims. Maybe it hasn't always been so. But that's not the issue - not in the slightest. The offence and harm that they have been caused vastly outweighs any perceived need to publish a cartoon.
France banned the burqa. Is that a measure designed to promote women's rights? Or an imposition on someone's right to worship?Wearing the Burka has nothing to do with someone right to worship. It was mainly to cover up from other male eyes. Also to protect the skin from the sun, as in the Middle East and the Indian Sub continent the pale skin is thought of highly.
To truly have freedom of speech we need more tolerance.
More Charlie Hebdo, I'm afraid. Is there really a right to offend? https://willonce.wordpress.com/2015/0...
One day, I'll get back to the funny stuff. The trouble is that it's hard to be humorous in the face of such atrocity followed by so much hypocrisy.
Wearing the Burka has nothing to do with someone right to worship. "I'm not so sure. There are historical reasons for many religious beliefs. Some religions ban certain foods, which may once have been a purely pragmatic decision to reduce the number of people who died from food poisoning. I am not sure that it matters too much to people who follow that religion.
I have heard some Muslim women say that they do want to wear the burqa. I have heard others say that they don't. This article is a good summary:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/women/wome...
I am not a woman. I am not a Muslim. This does not affect me in the slightest. So the only way I can approach this is by listening to the people who are affected. Some view the Burqa as an imposition and would rather not wear it. Some view it as part of their religion and would like to wear it.
For me, tolerance is about listening and not coming to an opinion based solely on my own prejudices. If some women say that the burqa is part of their religion, who am I to argue with them?
I look forward to it.And you're right. More people need to read the ones you've published.
Nudity - a right or something offensive? By way of page 3 and Charlie Hebdo.https://willonce.wordpress.com/2015/0...
Did Elvis have ugly ears? Oh, yes, we're really asking the deep and meaningful questions today...https://willonce.wordpress.com/2015/0...
To quote Monty Python, today we are talk about spam spam spam.https://willonce.wordpress.com/2015/0...
Dammit Will. Yes, you've ruined his ears for me forever!
Patti (baconater) wrote: "Dammit Will. Yes, you've ruined his ears for me forever!"I blame the Mem. When she said it I as about to launch into an indignant bit of Elvis defending. Of course, the King didn't have ugly ears. He's the king. And then I looked and ... um ... yeah, those ears are pretty ugly. Or at least not up to the standard of the rest of him (colon excepted, of course).
That was funny! Enjoyed that. One of my neighbours is in charge of IT at my son's school. Every year he tests how well the children understand about things like spam. He sends a spoof email asking for their details - email addresses, passwords, telephone number, that sort of thing.And each year he catches quite a few who will don't spot that it is spam and cheerfully give away all sorts of information.
Our kids might be good with the internet but they aren't as savvy as we might like.
Ah. I'll have to suggest that to our IT co-ordinator.
It's a clever trick. Because he does it every year, the kids get to know that he does it. That means they are on the lookout for it and treat every dodgy email as if it is from him. Which achieves the aim very nicely.
The robot apocalypse and what you need to do to get more sex.https://willonce.wordpress.com/2015/0...
Enjoyed this, Will, and would like to see more writers blog about things other than writing. It's true you have to write for the people who decide to follow your blog. But we also have the option of appealing to a wider or different group of people. I've posted here because this is the link I followed. (WordPress want other log-in info to comment.)
I've got some catching up to do.
One for writers today (sorry, Lydia!) The fine art of infodumping. Which is not as lavatorial as it sounds
https://willonce.wordpress.com/2015/0...
This may be why I've never taken to sciece fiction.
Which, of course, deserves all its letters. Insert N
My wife is exactly the same! She doesn't like science fiction because of the need to explain the world. Which is a bit of problem because my next book that she is proof reading is science fiction. Well, science fiction ish.The world would be a very dull place if we all liked the same things.
The next book is nearly ready, and that means the traditional expectant father butterflies.https://willonce.wordpress.com/2015/0...
How random is random?Spotify users have complained that the random function isn't random enough, so Spotify have made it less random.
You couldn't make it up. Truly, you couldn't.
https://willonce.wordpress.com/2015/0...
Perhaps they should try it on the national lottery draw...
The tao of technology. Does it matter if our computers are more intelligent than us?https://willonce.wordpress.com/2015/0...
UK Amazon Kindle Forum
Books mentioned in this topic
The Dice Man (other topics)Hero (other topics)
Galápagos (other topics)
PopCo (other topics)
A cracker, eh?