Doris Lessing, and not saying thank you:
For Lessing the problem was never the ideas behind feminism; it was the way the name pinned her in place, attached expectations of redemption and deliverance to her work that I think she was never quite sure it could actually bring about. And Doris Lessing, whatever else she was, was not a woman who liked expectations.
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Roxane Gay, on why we need internet outrage:
Whenever there’s a new wave of responses to something online, we start to see exclamations of “outrage exhaustion.” People rush to judge the way others choose to express their outrage. Some ask, “Why must you exhaust me with your unruly emotions?” when the better question might be, “Why can’t I look away from your unruly emotions?”
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“I’m already fat, so I might as well be smart.”
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Denmark. Royal. Family. Demons.
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Consider adopting older kids from the 1940s. Or just looking at their pictures and imagining their lives.
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The strange, true story of Kathy Bates’ American Horror Story character, Delphine LaLaurie.
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BUT can these new robot ponies do dressage?
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If you’re getting increasingly scared about antibiotic resistance, don’t read this.
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Every Pixar Movie Summarized In Terrible Microsoft Paint Drawings: it’s what it claims to be, and is sufficient unto itself.
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Bye, Winamp.
Tags: feminism, link roundup, the internet
I love having the link roundup, and having some of the best articles brought to my attention by The Toast. It’s so great to be challenged and inspired.
I opened the ones that interested me, and prepared to read them, but then looked at the “Pixar MS Paint” summaries first and I think I’m done with the internet for today. That was simply perfect.
Love,
Noodge
…but then I read “Denmark Ruled by Demon Family” and it’s only gotten better.
CAN’T EVEN I.
Denmark has both the most attractive and the creepiest royal family ever, apparently.
They’re only creepy in the photo – the Australian media reports on them constantly because of Mary and they are seriously SO BORING AND NORMAL.
And attractive, rawr @ Frederik.
seconded on the link roundup awesomeness! Somehow I don’t think google news is going to be linking me to MS Paint summaries anytime soon..
I can’t stop laugh-sniggering at my desk. I really wanted to make the toy story one my desktop background but I don’t think the language would pass the acceptable usage policy we have.
Enter at Awkward Shuffle
List left
Working Clank 1/2 circle left 20m diameter
1/2 circle right 20m diameter
Change rein showing lengthened pistons
Medium crawl
Circle right 20 m diameter, crush onlooker’s foot
Medium Shuffle
Haunt dreams
Halt, collapse
Leave arena on flatbed truck
That’s more or less what I’ve occasionally done on the actual pony, to be honest.
I’m pretty sure that no internet comment will surpass this today. Thank you.
Though I bet when you tell a robot 20m, you get EXACTLY 20m. (And not the oblong, collapsing shoulder, this-was-20-meters-but-now-it-is-more-like-35-OOOHHH IS THAT THE GATE!?)
NO MORE OVALS. I’m concerned about my free walk, though.
One of my Danish friends once told me proudly about how he saw the Crown Prince biking around in his neighborhood, which sort of threw me because he didn’t seem to be the kind of person who would care.
I mean seriously. That royal family portrait could be used as a poster for a horror film.
I think it looks like the inside cover of a VC Andrews novel!
Is this a good place to talk about American Horror Story? I’m so uncomfortable with the way they’re portraying Lalaurie!!!!!!!!
I can’t speak for AHS, since I’m not watching, but I’m into talking about the LaLaurie story. I used to tell that story on my ghost tour in New Orleans and I’m fascinated by how it’s been picked up in the media later (Mental Floss had a piece out before Halloween, too).
I wanted to tell the story at my Halloween party but I couldn’t find my notes on my tour company’s version, so I downloaded George Washington Cable’s Strange True Stories of Louisiana (for free on Kindle) and his version is more or less what I remember. Plus some gorgeous architectural description.
What makes you uncomfortable about it?
I love the show, but Lalaurie was real and did really really horrible things to black people, and I think it’s fucked up for a white guy to take that and repurpose that as like, realllyyyy sscccaaarryyy, in a show that’s kind of exciting and sexy–it’s taking atrocious REAL pain and repurposing it for our entertainment. and THEN he turns her into this kind of “cute” racist like aw she’s SO UPSET that Obama is president it’s FUNNY–you’re even supposed to feel kind of sorry for her as of last night.
I agree that it’s problematic. But they have also elevated her to a level of mythology (the real LaLaurie’s daughters weren’t hanged; obviously the real LaLaurie isn’t immortal), as they have with Marie Laveau. I am curious to see where they’re going to go with this, since this is the first time they’ve used real historic figures as major characters. (I’m not counting the Black Dahlia in season 1.)
Yeah–hard to really place judgment since the show is always so complex and planned in advance. I think it’s a smart show and a PHENOMENAL cast, and it’s so cool that it’s almost entirely women. But I do think Ryan Murphy has a tendency to be like “YEAHHHH pushing the ENVELOPE bein’ TABOO” and for a white guy to do that about racism is tricky.
How is that different from Asylum then? Horrible things happened there as well, and fairly recently too (For example the Willowbrook State School , which they actually reference that season). Or really all horror movies ever? There’s almost always a grain of truth to them. That’s what makes them scary.
Sure, and that does make me uncomfortable–I think the difference, at least in terms of how I feel about it, is that they never then turn things around and show the asylum as being at all benign, or playing it for laughs.
I definitely do not agree that they never played anything for laughs in Asylum.
I’m not saying that there weren’t any jokes in the actual show, but the institution itself is never portrayed as benign. Lalaurie is even sympathetic at this point, whereas the institution itself is played as a purely bad institution throughout, even continuing its damage in a truly scary way in modern times. There was never a moment for me as a viewer where I felt like they were trying to make me say “aw, well the institution wasn’t ALL bad, maybe it was a result of that time period having harmful ideas about mental health!”.
It’s a tough comparison to make, since it’s a person as opposed to an institution, but it just really makes me wince that a white man is asking us to think Lalaurie is SILLY and her racism in this time period is totally played for laughs–even when she hit Queenie over the head I felt like we were kind of supposed to laugh at it.
Not condemning the entire season as I have no idea what’s in store, just definitely feeling discomfort so far. I do really like it overall! I’m really hoping Sidibe can come back next season.
The AV Club is also confused, it seems.
That is a much more eloquent way of explaining some of the things I’ve been struggling with !
I think one thing to keep in mind too is that the character of Lalaurie on AHS is like, a speculative examination of a version of Lalaurie who has been punished, and continues to be, for her actions. (Whereas for the real woman this doesn’t really seem to be the case.) I think the show is primarily more interested in the idea of “can a person who has done such bad things ever change and come to regret their actions,” and they’re less interested in “slavery is a horrible thing” because obviously. This is also a questiont hey asked last season with Jessica Lange’s character (She had a woman locked up in the asylum and tortured for being gay, and for prying, which is equally repugnant).
This is also a show that WANTS its audience to be uncomfortable, and it’s possible that this is the way they’re choosing to do it this season, rather than with gross out scenes and such.
ohhh yeah. I stopped watching for mostly this reason.
The royal family portrait looks exactly like the cover to a VC Andrews novel.
I know I’m showing my internet age, but I’m really bummed about the Winamp thing. It’s the MP3 player I like best out of all of them I’ve tried.
I’ll be internet-old with you. I just backed up my installer and skin files.
I’ll be doing that tonight. I’m so sad. It’s been one of the first things I’ve installed on every computer I’ve had in the past 10 years.
THAT ANTIBIOTIC ARTICLE IS SO SCARY.
I made the mistake of reading that one after the ms paint pixar thing instead of before, and now I have nothing to distract me from the apocalyptic horror of the near future and the dark, bottomless pit of the void :/
If I don’t read it, it’s like it’s not happening, right?
The guy who DIED FROM A ROSEBUSH SCRATCH? My god.
Huh, I’ve only ever heard “outrage exhaustion” to mean when you keep getting angry about things and it gets tiring. Like a sort of empathy fatigue thing. I’m not saying that what Roxane is talking about isn’t a real thing, but it would have been nice if she’d offered some examples of it.
Hahaha, that royal portrait looks like an ad for the next season of Danish Horror Story.
Speaking of the Danish royal family, who else has watched A Royal Affair? (Pretty sure that was Denmark).
NYCers, you should read this: http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/nyregion/real-…
Really great series.
Right now I’m imagining a robot version of Fatty Lumpkin.
Those Robot Ponies escaped from the Danish Royal family picture.
I think one thing to keep in mind too is that the character of Lalaurie on AHS is like, a speculative examination of a version of Lalaurie who has been punished, and continues to be, for her actions. (Whereas for the real woman this doesn't really seem to be the case.) I think the show is primarily more interested in the idea of "can a person who has done such bad things ever change and come to regret their actions," and they're less interested in "slavery is a horrible thing" because obviously. This is also a questiont hey asked last season with Jessica Lange's character (She had a woman locked up in the asylum and tortured for being gay, and for prying, which is equally repugnant).
This is also a show that WANTS its audience to be uncomfortable, and it's possible that this is the way they're choosing to do it this season, rather than with gross out scenes and such.
Oh, the adoption one. It made me cry! It’s wonderful!
The essay on being fat and being smart — I have never read anything that so perfectly sums up the way I felt growing up. That mindset definitely has its downsides, downsides that I didn’t really start to fully appreciate until I was an adult, but at the same time, it was good to younger me. I just want to go link that essay everywhere now, but I’m not sure I know too many people who would appreciate it. Thank you all so much for that link.