Critics Are Stupid Elitists

I was thinking about classics and what makes for a classic and all that while humming away to my music and totally showing up first shift, and what I was thinking about was “good” and what made for “classics” in the eyes of modern critics.

Now, I’ve thought about this before in relation to reading the backs of classic works of lit when I worked at Borders and the Library. A very great many of these classics shared something in common, they all caused a clamor about how naughty the work was. Naughty came in different ways, but usually it was in regards to sex. And the clamor was all about how the books should be banned or not read. Which are different things, and I shall talk about the stupidity which is called banned books later.

Creating a ruckus about how the book is naughty and should be banned does not mean a book is good. I’ve read a few of these books, and tried to read a few more, and what they share in common to me is suckiness. They aren’t good books at all. This is nothing new. I find a great many classics to be utter garbage.

However, today my train of thought led me to a slight path I hadn’t really dealt with before. It led to thinking about what makes for good to a modern critic. The first is that is has to be serious and realistic. The second is that is has to deal with “controversial themes” and come down towards the left when dealing with them. A story about abortion that comes down as anti-abortion is not going to get critical acclaim, but one that is pro-abortion might. You can never really tell what’s going to hit it off.

Zingers

At work today one of my coworkers asked me what I was listening to. I answer with, “Sarah Mclachlan,” since that was what I was listening to. I then asked him what he was listening to and he replied with, “Speed death metal.”

My next question was, “Aren’t you too old to be listening to speed death metal.” He retorted with, “Aren’t you too male to be listening to Sarah Mclachlan.”

Good one, good sir.

And I want to know where Borg went to find all the retards that make up first shift. I am shocked and amazed at how poorly those people do stuff and plan ahead. We ran out of materials twice today so that the stock rooms guys had to make two trips to the warehouse specifically for us because first shift couldn’t say, “Oh, we took the last of X.” Or fill out travellers at all. I have yet to run across a traveller that first shift has filled out in regards to final assembly. Not one.

———

And in relation to my mother’s long post on homeschooling freedoms I starting thinking about how our current legal climate deals with consequences in general. All too often we see a problem and say, “Something must be done,” and to hell with any consequences of such action. They are unimportant.

Thinking About Economics Again

Just some words on when updates are likely to come. This is mostly to record what I think about at work, which can be a lot given than on most days I am at work for about 8 hours, much can be thought of in that time.

Well, in unpleasants news, I find that there is going to be mandatory overtime this Saturday. Lots of projects wrapping up and needing doning, so they need people working overtime. I hate mandatory overtime. For one thing, it is mandatory work on a Saturday. I will gladly volunteer that work, but requiring me to give up a day off is not what I dig. The other thing is that voluntary Saturday work is 10am to 3pm. 5 short hours and done early enough that it’s still pretty much all of Saturday left. A nice, full weekend to party. Mandatory is 8 hours and from 3pm to 11pm. It essentially kills the weekend. It’s really no fun. But, on the other hand, it’s 120 dollars before the government gets their grimy paws on it. And 120 dollars is tasty goodness.

———

Now, if you want to know what I was thinking about in regards to economics. Well, it was a whole lot more interesting in my head and required way too much explanation of terms. What it boiled down to was that economics in MMORPGs is weird. Very, very weird.

Why is it weird? Well, that is due to combination of a market free-er than anything I’ve seen in the real world and bizarre supply. It’s weird, and hard to explain clearly.

This Guy At Work

The last two days I worked, Tuesday and Wednesday, I was working with one of the few dudes who is around my age. He’s not an all bad fellow, he can be quite fun to talk with when speaking on some subjects, but he’s a /b/tard and smug about his own intelligence. And not jokingly smug, seriously self-smug.

There’s no doubt the kid is smart, but he’s so very self-righteous about his brain. And then, on top of all that, he ties his atheism to his intelligence. I don’t think he’s quite aware of this, but he’ll often phrase things in such a way to as imply, “I’m an atheist because I am smart,” as if truly intelligent people will be atheists because of their intelligence. This attitude was particularly visible in his comment about how as a child he thought that religion was like Santa Claus. Something grownups made up to frighten children into being good, and then was shocked to discover that people honestly believed that stuff.

The other comment he made, which, I suppose, is true, is his comment about the “stereotypical atheist.” This was brought up in our conversation on Monday about Enthusiast Lady, whom neither of us like. He mentioned how one of the inspectors at work had said, “You don’t look like an atheist.” Now, as he did say, what exactly does an atheist look like? I’m not entirely sure, nor is he. He did mention a list of attributes that a stereotypical atheist has, none of which relate to appearance. Upon thinking about it, the list, which including intellectualism, did fit.

However, I have known a few atheists in my day, and “intellectual” hardly fits them all. The two I know best, this guy at work and a guy in the Strategic Game Club at college, were both smart, but neither of which would I consider exceptionally smart. Just regular, everyday smart.

And a good number of the ones I have ran across have not been smart at all. A good number of retards and pseudointellectuals. Now, pseudointellectuals need to have at least a decently average level of intelligence. You need to have the ability to be verbose and use big words at least semi-properly. You don’t need a shred of common sense or logical ability, though.