While We Wait: Writer's Block & Other Lame Excuses

[das]

We have a (local) student in our group here who studied in America for a bit. He came away with the impression that Russia is a free country by comparison, if only because people here aren't such sticklers for rules, no matter what those rules are. He had plenty of stuff to say about history textbooks in particular; sure, ours can be just as silly if not worse, but a Russian history teacher wouldn't flat out say that a student's answer is wrong because it isn't in the textbook (that has also been my own experience). An American one did just that, apparently.

I also found it darkly amusing that he came back from America a communist. You Godless American Communists are corrupting our nation's youth.

 

[Angst]

Masada, things like "Christmas", "birthday" and "dinosaur" should be kinda readily available to everyone that study in America. The reasoning was that some of those kids could "feel bad". Which is completely idiotic.

You know that many translations of Lovecraft today about the Mad Arab don't mention him as such, but rather the "Mad Poet" or something similarly non-elegant-sounding? Because it might be politically incorrect to display an Arab as mad?

I weep for America.

 

[das]

To be honest, from what little I understand of it America's public sphere is a powder keg more than a melting pot these days. It's not exactly difficult to understand why they'd want to regulate it somewhat.

I think Masada had a fine point, too, with regards to it being about standardised tests. This frankly seems like a reasonable part of those tests being made standardised.

That said, I also liked the sound of excluding items that indicate wealth disparity, but in a different way. It's inspirational - I could easily imagine a culture with a taboo on mentioning items of wealth, so as not to inspire greed or envy. Actually, it sounds somewhat like something that an Ancient Greek philosopher or lawgiver may have come up with.

 

[Masada]

Discrimination is a bad thing? Also, what Das said.

Also, Lovecraft was a serious bigot.

 

[Angst]

The problem with the Mad Arab was that it's not discriminatory to call an Arab mad, but rather to assume all Arabs are. You don't change that view of a person by wording. People are intelligent enough to discern from the two. It's not like the Mad Arab was the standard of his kind in Lovecraft's stories.

The term Mad Arab is like saying a Mad Dane, a Mad Frenchman or a Mad American. The Mad Arab is simply more exotic as word-play which they've removed because of political correctness. I'm all against discrimination, but discrimination is also a problem when you can't negatively brand a nationality when you can do that on others. I actually find it demeaning to the nationality in question.

Heh. Have to say, though, that we really had no problem with standardized tests of problems or words we've never even heard about. I'm not sure I trust the sources you cite. But sure, present them to me?

 

[Tee Kay]

Standardised tests in general are a bad thing. Humans aren't standardised.

Edit: lj, to be fair, Denmark is a pretty compact country. It's more problematic in large countries with lots of ethnolinguistic/socioeconomic groups.

 

[Masada]

In Lovecraft's case, the Arab part was the problem. The man was a raging bigot and that's reflected in his works. But here's the man himself!

Race prejudice is a gift of nature, intended to preserve in purity the various divisions of mankind which the ages have evolved.

Now the trickiest catch in the Negro problem is the fact that it is really twofold. The Black is vastly inferior. There can be no question of this among contemporary and unsentimental biologists… But, it is also a fact that there would be a very grave and very legitimate problem even if the Negro were the White man’s equal.

Of course they can’t let use the beach at a Southern resort – can you imagine sensitive persons bathing near a pack of greasy chimpanzees? The only thing that makes life endurable where Blacks abound is the Jim Crow principle, and I wish they’d apply it in New York both to and to the more Asiatic types of puffy, rat-faced Jews!

Heh. Have to say, though, that we really had no problem with standardized tests of problems or words we've never even heard about. I'm not sure I trust the sources you cite. But sure, present them to me?

Native Dane speaking Danish? Of course there's not going to be problems. But w/e.

 

[nutranurse]

Masada. Many of these words that they are removing are actually very common words in use in American society/pop-culture. It seems more so that they are removing them to be politically correct towards the Christian Right that do not want to evoke 'Class-Warfare' (that has always existed since the beginning of human history) or be 'un-Godly'.

Of this list of words:

Abuse (physical, sexual, emotional, or psychological)

Alcohol (beer and liquor), tobacco, or drugs

Birthday celebrations (and birthdays)

Bodily functions

Cancer (and other diseases)

Catastrophes/disasters (tsunamis and hurricanes)

Celebrities

Children dealing with serious issues

Cigarettes (and other smoking paraphernalia)

Computers in the home (acceptable in a school or library setting)

Crime

Death and disease

Divorce

Evolution

Expensive gifts, vacations, and prizes

Gambling involving money

Halloween

Homelessness

Homes with swimming pools

Hunting

Junk food

In-depth discussions of sports that require prior knowledge

Loss of employment

Nuclear weapons

Occult topics (i.e. fortune-telling)

Parapsychology

Politics

Pornography

Poverty

Rap Music

Religion

Religious holidays and festivals (including but not limited to Christmas, Yom Kippur, and Ramadan)

Rock-and-Roll music

Running away

Sex

Slavery

Terrorism

Television and video games (excessive use)

Traumatic material (including material that may be particularly upsetting such as animal shelters)

Vermin (rats and roaches)

Violence

War and bloodshed

Weapons (guns, knives, etc.)

Witchcraft, sorcery, etc.

The only one I can honestly say would not be known to someone without a TV/access to internet (which are a very precious few) would be parapsychology.

 

[North King]

That said, I also liked the sound of excluding items that indicate wealth disparity, but in a different way. It's inspirational - I could easily imagine a culture with a taboo on mentioning items of wealth, so as not to inspire greed or envy. Actually, it sounds somewhat like something that an Ancient Greek philosopher or lawgiver may have come up with.

I'm pretty sure a taboo on discussing wealth or class wouldn't have an empowering effect on people. It'd probably just end up [further] cementing stratification.

 

[das]

I'm pretty sure a taboo on discussing wealth or class wouldn't have an empowering effect on people. It'd probably just end up [further] cementing stratification.

Yes, you're right. No one said anything about "empowering" people, though.

This hypothetical culture or philosophy would justify this as preserving harmony and keeping people from growing too incensed at a permanent fact of their existence. A very popular concern in Ancient Greek political thought, from what I have been led to understand - keeping people from being corrupted by wealth or by coveting wealth.

 

[Angst]

In Lovecraft's case, the Arab part was the problem. The man was a raging bigot and that's reflected in his works.

Do you think that literature should be censored if its author wasn't politically correct (or good at all), even if the work in question isn't problematic?

From what I've read of the Mad Arab, he wasn't called so because he was an Arab, he was called so because he was contacted by these Eldritch things that, you know, drive any human mad.

I'll enjoy the paper though. EDIT: Wait, it costs money. Gadamnit. Wondering though, why are you so rude in general?

 

[das]

I actually like the sound of "Mad Dane", by the way. Though something makes me suspect very strongly that that was already taken.

 

[Angst]

I actually like the sound of "Mad Dane", by the way. Though something makes me suspect very strongly that that was already taken.

I wonder by whom.

 

[tuxedohamm]

Wait. How are they going to test on evolution if evolution cannot be mentioned in a test?

 

[nutranurse]

I highly doubt that the very vocal conservative elements of America would allow for standardized tests such as the ACT's or SAT's to include tests on evolution. It would be too unchristian.

 

[SKILORD]

Yeah, we don't teach evolution here in the US. We teach "the controversy."

I mean, science degrees won't make you much money these days. You really need an MBA if you want to see a real return on your education investment. So, I mean, it's totally not necessary. Science is for nerds, everyone believes instead than an invisible man created the universe in a week a few thousand years ago. We teach the controversy.*

*These statements are Completely unfair to a great many good science teachers in the US and are bred of cynicism and academic frustration.*

Started trying to joke, but it didn't come out right. I figure it will be taken much too literally anyways.

 

[Tycho]

I highly doubt that the very vocal conservative elements of America would allow for standardized tests such as the ACT's or SAT's to include tests on evolution. It would be too unchristian.

Yeah, we don't teach evolution here in the US. We teach "the controversy."

I mean, science degrees won't make you much money these days. You really need an MBA if you want to see a real return on your education investment. So, I mean, it's totally not necessary. Science is for nerds, everyone believes instead than an invisible man created the universe in a week a few thousand years ago. We teach the controversy.*

*These statements are Completely unfair to a great many good science teachers in the US and are bred of cynicism and academic frustration.*

Started trying to joke, but it didn't come out right. I figure it will be taken much too literally anyways.

SKILORD is very right, and it irks me completely when someone will say something in my Science classes "Evolution is just a theory!" Due to where I live at, there are quite a few people like the ones mentioned earlier, Christian conservatives who think that if we aren't teaching the *right* thing in school, than "The children will suffer!"

Also, great idea, why doesn't someone base a story or a NES on something like this in the future and lets see what happens?

 

[Gem Hound]

Thing is, why not ban every word then? Because every word makes someone angry somewhere.

 

[SouthernKing]

SKILORD is very right, and it irks me completely when someone will say something in my Science classes "Evolution is just a theory!"

This annoys me to no end, especially because those who say this are completely missing the definition of "theory"

Also, similar but unrelated, I get annoyed when people say "nucular," how hard is it to say "nuclear." Seriously.

 

[Luckymoose]

The main mistake people have about evolution is they think it replaces a creator being. Evolution is not the same thing as biopoiesis.