Rand al Whore

@uncle_deluge No, but the 2012 Sikh Temple Shooting is Real Life You'd be hard pressed to find a better explanation than Orientalism for why people are too retarded to realize Sikhs aren't Muslims or Arabs

Okay but who is playing Ocarina of Time, seeing the Gerudo, and thinking that's real life?

@pokarnor @uncle_deluge The strongest argument against Orientalism is actually that it's boring bc it has completely calcified Western expectations. You don't even know what you're missing out on bc you've never had a taste Nobody's asking for "pure eastern art", just a different starting point.

@MacabreMacaw @uncle_deluge It's all just the most boring oversimplifications used to make the most pedantic criticisms of art. Imagine how boring Western music would be if we actually decided guitars only go with cowboys. Did Zimmer have a cowboy in his head when he swapped the bagpipe out?

I don't even understand why orientalism is bad. I've seen the term used to scold 2 different things in the last 24 hours and the gripe is "having a fondness for fantastical depictions of the Middle East." We don't have the word "occidentalism" because that's just High Fantasy

@nixonfan23 @uncle_deluge We're grading on a curve man, I don't see how you can deny that English-language media has penetrated the Orient more than the reverse.

@MacabreMacaw @uncle_deluge i don't think you're actually familiar enough with japanese media to even understand how not actually accurate their understanding of european / white culture is lol

@pokarnor @uncle_deluge Do Westerners have this level of knowledge about Eastern instruments? I don't see how you can think they do. That's the core complaint: Orientalism made it harder to acquire equivalent knowledge. Wouldn't it be more fun if the stereotypes we made were at least accurate?

@pokarnor @uncle_deluge The avg westerner may not know a Piano from a Harpsichord, but they know both denote High Culture. They know you don't bring out the Banjo for the Queen of England. They know that Guitars and Trucks go with Cowboys. You know who else does, too? The entire planet.

@nixonfan23 @uncle_deluge Orientalism is bad bc it robs us of the opportunity to enjoy Eastern cultural traditions to the same degree that Easterners understand ours. The Japs have probably seen enough of our shit to know Bagpipes aren't for Mafia movies. Wouldn't you wanna know the equivalent? I would.

@MacabreMacaw @uncle_deluge What are you trying to say here? Because the “stereotypes” (read: incomplete understanding of actual American or Japanese culture) don’t exactly align such that we know the same genre of things about either culture both ways, one of us must be bad?

@pokarnor @uncle_deluge I love Zimmer, it's not a complaint about him. Only the reality his choices reflect He could never score a Mafia movie with a Bagpipe leitmotif. We all know that doesn't jive. I'm only saying few Westerners can clock when Western media does sth just as jarring but for the East

@MacabreMacaw @uncle_deluge Complaining about Hollywood score instrumentation like that is just asinine though. Zimmer also had a guitarist play the "bagpipe" in Dune rather than an actual bagpipe. And he used the duduk in everything from Pirates of the Caribbean to The Last Samurai to Gladiator.

@nixonfan23 @uncle_deluge We agree Japanese people know that Guitars and Rock music go with Cowboys/Trucks? Bc of stereotypes. Well, how many Americans can even *name* a single Japanese instrument, let alone its cultural or class signifiers? What do Samurai play?

@MacabreMacaw @uncle_deluge evil whitey thinks japanese people are all samurai (this is real and evil) but the enlightened, noble savages of nippon (said in accurate accent) who think of americans as cowboys driving f150s are all actually experts in real life american culture

@uncle_deluge Not by virtue of blood, only exposure. I don't see how anyone can deny that Western media is dominant: Arabs watch enough of our stuff to Piano = High Class and Banjo = Low Class, but Americans don't know that the Armenian duduk doesn't belong in Hans Zimmer's North Africa.

@MacabreMacaw There is something more than a little ironic about presenting Easterners as uniquely capable of discerning the tone of a work in a post about orientalist tropes

Justice for the Gays of Hormuz

@uncle_deluge True only to a degree. Aladdin has always been an Orientalist mishmash, but Westerners don't watch it and clock that the Turban is not Arab, nor the Taj Mahal. Sikh's get harassed, and in cases like the 2012 WI shooting, killed for for this conflation.

I think we have the ability to distinguish Aladdin from reality. We know that the whole region isn't fat jolly sultans who lounge around the harem smoking hookah all day but it would probably be better if they did

@461Alfred To be clear, most Americans would agree that's too much meat for one burger. Two of those patties is good.

こういう肉が盛り盛りのバーガー、めちゃくちゃ美味そうな反面、日本人視点だと「バンズのボリューム薄くない？」って思いがちだけど、これって実はパン＝ご飯だと変換するのが良くなくて、実際は手を汚さないようにするためなので、本質的には「おにぎりの海苔」と同じ扱いらしいぜ！！

Ppl have really turned “Death of the Author” into “The Customer is Always Right”

@Danvir47 @foster_type What separates Drones from other weapons that let you kill at a physical distance, is the lack of psychological distance. Archers and Artillery can kill from afar, but they don't give (or require) the up close and personal POV like Drones. All war is butchery but this is new

@foster_type Artillery is of course humane and not evil because you don’t have to watch the destruction! Hopefully these videos help populaces better understand the human destruction that war entails so that they push their leaders to pursue diplomacy.

Anti-personnel drones are an evil and inhumane weapon, turning the death of a soldier into a slasher film or a nature documentary. I understand 100 percent why Ukrainians must use them, but there is nothing to celebrate about the drone era as such. Indeed we should be pushing for technologies that neutralize them to the point of their obsolescence.

@SerenoRosa1 Teixcallan Duology by Arkady Martine Take a dash of Byzantine politics on your Space Aztecs

Recomienden libros de ciencia ficción que no sean trilogias ni tan conocidas como Dune o el problema de los 3 cuerpos.

I think it depends on the author. Take Hemingway's "Hills Like White Elephants," for example. The railroad tracks, the station in the heat vs. the one in the shade, the curtain, the hills in the distance all mirror the before and after of the couple's relationship after this moment in time. And at no point does the story directly mention it's about the termination of a pregnancy, yet everything that happens in the story exists before and after the couple acknowledge the potential for it. The pregnancy itself turns out to be a "white elephant" — something that's treated as worthless and with no value. But you have to read and reread the story to see all those things, which isn't something we do much of anymore. Today, the focus is on abundant interiority. First person or intensely close third that leaves no mystery. Editors reject restrained narratives as “old-fashioned.” Readers shy away from thought-provoking stories. They're overwhelmed and seeking transport and entertainment, not challenge. It's a shame, really. I think now more than ever we need stories that prompt us explain our selves to ourselves.

@Chris_arnade @rorynotsorry Brother, you are living in the best possible time to read Dune. The Hormuz is closed and the theaters will be open for DUN3. These are LotR-tier adaptations 😩

@rorynotsorry despite 60 yrs of geekdom, I've somehow managed not to read DUne

Possibly ignorant question: I’ve read extensively about the spice trade and its importance to ancient and medieval Europe, and its centrality to the Age of Exploitation and other things. Given Europeans had these spices, that some were claimed to be as valuable as gold, and that both periods were sophisticated in farming and botany, why didn’t anyone figure out how to grow their own — even in small amounts in greenhouses, which they had in various forms? Alchemy was supposedly a big deal. Was there an equivalent systematic attempt at spice cultivation? Why didn’t it motivate greater greenhouse innovation?

@TheDPitz @tutitoabura The mismatch is Americans thinking that Jambalaya, however tasty and perfectly salted, will satisfy the Japanese desire for Rice at a barbecue. The rice Japanese people want serves a different culinary function than the rice being offered

@tutitoabura Hold on there. Jambalaya is not a mismatch … it is a magnificent merger of meats, rice, vegetables, and spices. It does NOT have to be overly salty.

日系人部隊のアメリカ人将校が「なんでこいつら味のついてない白米ばかり喜んで食ってるんだ？」と理解に苦しんだなんて話を見たが。 味のほぼ無い米やパンを塩辛い料理と一緒に口に入れる「口内調味」は主に東アジア独特の食文化であり。西洋人はほぼやらない。故に「バーベキューに炊き立てご飯が欲しい」「美味しいジャンバラヤがあるよ！」とまるで噛み合わなくなる。 西洋人に日本食ばかり与えると。おかずや味噌汁を先に食べてしまい。もてあました白米に塩や醤油をかけて食べるので健康に良いどころか塩分過多になるらしい。 逆に明治の日本人が1皿づつ供される西洋料理に困惑し。「どうしておかずしか出さない？米が無いぞ」と豚カツ定食やハンバーグ定食を爆誕させてしまう。 この話をすると「西洋人もスープに固いパンを浸したり。豆やマッシュポテトを肉のソースに浸すぞ？」とよく言われる。 これは恐らく「口内調味」ではなく「皿の上での調味」だろう。インド系の料理も米やナンをカレーやスープにまず浸すのでたぶん「口内調味」ではない。＞RT

@kuma_neko_ No shame in that! It sounds delicious

昔、アメリカ人にBBQに誘われて手ブラもなんだからとビール1ケースとさつま揚げ（葱タコ、生姜、にんにくの3種詰め合わせ）を持っていったら「BBQで肉以外のものを焼く……？！」とカルチャーショック受けてるヤツがいて、ああ彼らのBBQて"肉を焼く儀式"なんだ、と己の不明を恥じた。