Ben's Top Ten, May 15, 1988


1. For a Friend... The Communards
2. The Flame... Cheap Trick
3. You Little Thief... Feargal Sharkey
4. Dreaming... OMD
5. Don't Believe in Me... Feargal Sharkey
6. Apeman... The Kinks
7. Heart of Mine... Boz Scaggs
8. Face to Face... Foreigner
9. Amanda... Boston
10. Maybe Tomorrow.... The Black Sorrows

For a Friend is actually a sweet sad song that I still find myself singing in the shower...(lyrics)

in fact the whole album Red, by the Communards, is pretty cool.

So in addition to the albums I blogged wanting this morning, I went browsing this afternoon and discovered new albums by Isobel Campbell and Mark Lanegan, and Robert Forster.

Both are now safely encaptured upon my itunes.

Word.

Ravi Mangla has awarded Dog Versus Sandwich first prize in his contest:

First Annual Strangest Name for a Literary Journal.

I am delighted to be represented in such auspiscious company. I've long loved Bust Down the Door and Eat All the Chickens as a title, and now I am equally enamoured of Stanley the Whale and Mungbeing!

Love the Dog and Sandwich picture, too!

So there's been a bit of a debate over at Fantasy magazine regarding Lisa Mantchev's story, which evolved into a discussion on being offended by writing, and covered a lot of different ground in different directions.

I want to make it clear up front that this post is *not* a response to that story, or that discussion. None of the positions summarised below are based on anybody in particular; they're generalised positions. The discussion got me thinking off on a trail about the idea of finding a story offensive, for whatever reason, and saying so. It cuts to the heart of debates about intent, reception etc.

So I'm trying to come up with a position in my head, I guess, regarding the general issue.

What I've come up with so far is this. If I'm offended by a story, I can have several different reactions. I've summarised four general positions, which aren't meant to be comprehensive:

(1) I was offended by the story, and I think the author acted with ill intent, and should apologise.

(2) I was offended by the story, but do not judge the author's intent. However I would like them to apologise/recognise the offence they have caused me, intentionally or not.

(3) I was offended by the story, but do not judge the author. I do not desire an apology, but I express my offence in the hope that the author and/or others might avoid such instances and consider their actions more carefully in the future.

(4) I was offended by the story but do not judge the author, and do not require any reaction or response from them. My feelings and interpretations are my own, and my responsibility.


Now, it seems to me likely that, when a person expresses the fact that they are offended by a story, in a large number of cases they are probably feeling (2) or (3).

However, when an author, or somebody on the author's behalf, takes offence at the reader's opinion, it is often because they *believe* that the reader is expressing proposition (1).

Similarly, when, in turn, the reader is hurt by the author or author-proxy's response, it is usually because they feel that that person is arguing that the reader should embrace proposition (4). Where often the author/proxy is in fact arguing for proposition (2) or (3).

Of course, there *will* be times when these assumptions are right, and there will be times when the reader and author genuinely cannot come to agreement on which proposition to embrace. But it's my belief that in a large number of instances, the conflict and hurt is caused by one or both members of the discussion assuming that the other is supporting a more extreme proposition than they in fact are.

In other words, a communication issue rather than a genuine conflict of beliefs.

I could be wrong. It's just my theory.

Writing has slowed to a standstill. Need to work out some "plotte". Bugger.

I am abristle with anticipation, because three of my favourite "rock and roll"ing bands are scheduled to release albums in the near future:

Sloan
Death Cab for Cutie
Weezer

Rock my soul.

Someone on my f-list (maybe buymeaclue?) tipped me off regarding the National Geographic photo feed, and it is way way awesome!

If you're not friending it, get over there right now and do so! Purrtiness abounds.

Apparently opening in New York is a musical version of Neil Gaiman's Coraline, with music and lyrics by Stephen Merritt of Magnetic Fields.

Chances of us ever seeing it out here are minimal, but still, cool.

You know people most often see the grouchy disillusioned side of the Last Short Story reading project, but there are some days, like today, where I feel so totally excited and honoured to be part of this whole world reading-writing thing, this amorphous blobulous jelly of artistic miscellany, this twelve-tentacled dancing thing of variety and substance, of gentle moments and wonder.

To think, that there are people in the world who think that the things we as a species think up *with our brains* and write *with pens or puters or other implements* are actually important. How fucking cool is that? That amid all the stupid and the fighting fucking and fear that our primal ancestors bequeathed us, we take time out to play at being humans, that we share ideas and try our hardest and succeed or fail we try to make each other think or feel or just smile. That's cool, right?

And one of the things I love about doing LSS is the little moments where you suddenly realise how much of the jellyfish you can see, how all the little bits fit together and how they grow and shift and change, how one thing gains perspective from its reflection against another, how the parts that seem useless can be vital over the long term, how you can become entranced by a single limb, a single hair, a single cell, how it wiggles in the wind and how it does its little task...

I love that there are so many people trying so hard to add beauty to the world, and I love that I have had the opportunity to appreciate so much of it.

Now, back to being curmudgeonly :-)

I just finished my healthy yoghurt dessert only to realise it contained twenty grams of fat!! I'm the original outraged consumer!

I could of eaten a jellymouse!

(actually I realised a little earlier in the process than the first sentence suggests)

(but I kept eating)

(it tasted mostly like cream cheese)

I don't really have the greatest understanding of US politics, but is the theory this?

This was the episode that convinced me that new Who really knew what it was doing.

It's a lovely episode. The Dalek is actually given some real menace. After all the years of being defeated by the Doctor, I must admit that I don't find the Daleks that scary anymore as a rule. But this episode does a great job at demonstrating the threat of one lone dalek. Statton, too, is a great middle-level threat, and he's played with just the right injection of believability amid the meglomania.

The climax with Rose is beautifully orchestrated, and the episode manages to both do something different with the daleks' psyches and also avoid schmaltz by justifying it logically. I've seen the ending three times now, and it still made me cry. *sniff*! So it's either really good or really bad :-)

Seriously though, the final scene is beatifully written and played.

I'll leave the final summation to Jen, who says:

"I loved that dalek! I would have been its friend."

busy busy busy

Have been getting shit done this week, both at work and at home, advancing various projects. Writing has been slowly stuttering back to life. I'm dissatisfied with everything I write. Stupid words. Be more interesting.

In general I've been feeling somewhat distant and.... thoughtful. *shrug* And so on.

Reading about the Spanish Civil War. Good times.

(Buffy Season 2 Episode 4)

In my memories I had this episode somewhat conflated with the other Xander-love-goes-bad episode from series one, but this is a much stronger episode. You can really feel how far the writing and characterisation has come in the space of a season. There's just so much more going *on* here.

This is another classic episode in a lot of ways. For starters, it's funny just about all the way through. There are some awsome lines in here. And unlike previous villains, the inca girl gets our sympathy too. The parallels with Buffy are beautifully made, just to make sure we get it. But even without that, she's not out to cause havoc; she just wants the life she never got to live.

Nick Brendon acts this episode really well, playing the different undercurrents of Xander; his nervousness, bitterness, with a lot of thought. And Alyson Hannigan plays Willow's hurt beautifully too. (Xander: What was that? Willow: I shrugged. Xander: Maybe next time you should say 'shrug'. Willow: Sigh). Willow gets her heart smashed at least a dozen times here, but on the bright side Xander ends up saving her life, and there's a beautiful moment where Oz notices her out the entire dance floor.

Also: Oz!

Head ye to the Olde Sandwiche for delights unforseen!

Tonight, we present for your chastisement and moral dismemberment; Casting by Matt Shaner.

Take and eat.

Of interest to me in the news today, Sudanese rebels approach Karthoum.

Also, courtesy of Boing Boing, the story of a three year old boy who never sleeps!

And from the New York Times, an excellent article on youth in Egypt, particularly on the turn toward religion in the face of disillusionment and despair over economic hardship.

“It brings us closer to God, in a sense,” Mr. Faragallah said, speaking of the despair he felt during the years he searched for work. “But sometimes, I can see how it does not make you closer to God, but pushes you toward terrorism. Practically, it killed my ambition. I can’t think of a future.”

I always find it useful to read over the personality profiles on these sites, especially (cringe) the weaknesses lists, which are all too true too often.

Like this one:

Introverted iNtuition is a personality function that constantly gathers information, and sees everything from many different perspectives. As the dominant player in a personality, it has the effect of constantly bombarding the psyche with new information to consider. Introverted iNtuition is sort of like a framework for understanding that exists in the mind. As something is perceived, it is melded into the existing intuitive framework. If an entirely new piece of information is perceived by the Introverted iNtuitive, that person must redefine their entire framework of reference. So, Introverted iNtuitives are constantly taking in information about the world that needs to be processed in a relatively lengthy manner in order to be understood. That presents quite a challenge to the INFJ. It's not unusual for an INFJ to feel overwhelmed with all of the things that he or she needs to consider in order to fully understand an idea or situation.

When Introverted iNtuition dominates the INFJ such that the other functions cannot serve their own purposes, we find the INFJ cutting off information that it needs to consider. If the psyche is presented with information that looks anything like something that Introverted iNtuition has processed in the past, it uses Extraverted Feeling to quickly reject that information. The psyche uses Extraverted Feeling to reject the ideas, rather than taking the information into its intuitive framework, and therefore potentially causing that framework to be reshaped and redefined.

Using Extraverted Feeling in this manner may effectively serve the immediate needs of Introverted iNtuition, but it is not ideal. It causes the INFJ to not consider information that may be useful or criticial in developing a real understanding of an issue. It may cause the INFJ to come off as too strongly opinionated or snobbish to others.

Because the J-per was doing it, I took the myers briggs again. I'm still gettin INFJ, although my N score is much less extreme, which is cool, cos that was something I was working on. I think I've become more introverted though...

I didn't record my scores last time so for the record: 44, 62, 38, 56.

Anyway there was a clicky link to ask which careers it reckons I should do, based on my score, and here is what it reckons:

Literature/writer, Humanities, Web Design (hahahaaa anyone remember the potato monkey site???), Philosophy, Archaeology, Religious Education, Psychology, Counselling.

Well they're all (mostly) good choices, but not much fricking help in terms of careers...

I am officially grooving to the B-52s! I just bought their best of from itunes and it's great.

They're such loveable goofballs!

The first time that I made coffee for just myself I made too much of it
But I drank it all
Just cos you hate it
When I let things go to waste

And I wandered through the house
Like a little boy lost in the mall
And an astronaut could have seen
The hunger in my eyes from space

And I sang oh
What do I do
What do I do
What do I do

What do I do
Without you?