17 May 2021

Late Spring, Not Surprised

Meandering toward the "official" start of summer. Fortunately, after the move it'll be a little easier to find a vegetarian volunteer for a vegetarian barbecue — maybe one of the rabbits under the front bushes <vbeg>…

  • When the book segment of publishing begins showing a self-deprecating sense of humor about its own historical — irrefutable — glitches, maybe I'll start thinking it's worth saving. From economic causes. From its own arrogance.

    I'm not holding my breath. Not even for the Grauniad itself.

  • Copyright news is rather mixed of late. On the one hand, the parody exception has some vitality, even regarding derivative works. Not enough. But there remains the question of who gets paid and how.
  • If only the critics of critical race theory had a single f*cking clue about what CRT is, or does, or how it works, or what it is reacting to. Admittedly, some of the rhetoric in summaries of CRT work is monotonic, unqualified, and overstated; race is almost never the sole relevant factor in complex issues (not even Klan lynchings). But trying to pretend that CRT is "evil" and/or "impossible" is rather like pretending that differential diagnosis doesn't ever work. Both have limits; both are also extremely useful when based on factual inquiry. Of course, "factual inquiry" and "discussion of race issues" seldom occur in the same discussion, let alone same sentence like they need to.
  • CRT, differential diagnosis, influence on authors. Trying to turn complexity into simplicity has its price: Missing things.
  • On occasion, though, overcomplicating things can create problems, especially in the arts. One need not delve into the purported psychology of PRC oligarchs to understand why Chloe Zhao's success in H'wood is a bit ambiguous.