Here’s something that has been puzzling me. I mentioned a few posts ago that my infant daughter’s first word was “cracker.” Now, nearly every white person I have told this to has immediately made some joke on the order of, “is she talking about her daddy?” (I am white; my wife and daughter are black). No black people to whom I have told this have had any such reaction. Indeed, my wife, and other black people, have expressed complete puzzlement as to why so many white people would spontaneously make this “joke.” So, my own question is this: why do so many white people seem obsessed with black people supposedly calling white people “crackas” (which they freely interchange with “cracker”)? What kind of strange racial imaginary is behind all this?
Here’s something that has been puzzling me. I mentioned a few posts ago that my infant daughter’s first word was “cracker.” Now, nearly every white person I have told this to has immediately made some joke on the order of, “is she talking about her daddy?” (I am white; my wife and daughter are black). No black people to whom I have told this have had any such reaction. Indeed, my wife, and other black people, have expressed complete puzzlement as to why so many white people would spontaneously make this “joke.” So, my own question is this: why do so many white people seem obsessed with black people supposedly calling white people “crackas” (which they freely interchange with “cracker”)? What kind of strange racial imaginary is behind all this?
I kind of think the Harry Potter books are merely OK reading, not particularly great. And I do think they are ultimately right wing and crypto-Christian, as has been recently argued. The great contemporary children’s author is not J.K. Rowling, but the anti-religious humanist, Philip Pullman. But, that said, I have no sympathy for the current high-minded backlash of anti-Potterism…
I kind of think the Harry Potter books are merely OK reading, not particularly great. And I do think they are ultimately right wing and crypto-Christian, as has been recently argued. The great contemporary children’s author is not J.K. Rowling, but the anti-religious humanist, Philip Pullman. But, that said, I have no sympathy for the current high-minded backlash of anti-Potterism…
Continue reading “Anti-Harry Potter-ism”
I’ve been listening a lot lately to Miles Davis’ On the Corner, originally released in 1972. I am in general partial to Miles’ early-70s electronic period, but On the Corner is unique. More than thirty years later, this album still sounds absolutely radical, fresh, and contemporary. It’s swirling, propulsive funk, probably the most abrasive, explosive music Miles ever made. Pure rhythmic bliss, riffs weaving in and out, dense but never murky, atonal but never grating, “world music” (listen to those Indian tablas) but never sounding like mere touristic sampling. On the Corner can be heard behind nearly every interesting musical innovation of the last decade or so, from Aphex Twin to Timbaland to D’Angelo to UK drum ‘n’ bass and garage to microglitch, but in a real sense none of these artists or trends have yet matched its full intensity.
I’ve been listening a lot lately to Miles Davis’ On the Corner, originally released in 1972. I am in general partial to Miles’ early-70s electronic period, but On the Corner is unique. More than thirty years later, this album still sounds absolutely radical, fresh, and contemporary. It’s swirling, propulsive funk, probably the most abrasive, explosive music Miles ever made. Pure rhythmic bliss, riffs weaving in and out, dense but never murky, atonal but never grating, “world music” (listen to those Indian tablas) but never sounding like mere touristic sampling. On the Corner can be heard behind nearly every interesting musical innovation of the last decade or so, from Aphex Twin to Timbaland to D’Angelo to UK drum ‘n’ bass and garage to microglitch, but in a real sense none of these artists or trends have yet matched its full intensity.
I’ve redesigned the blog by using the templates kindly provided by empty pages.
I was alerted by Boing Boing to Warren Ellis’s new issue of Planetary, which is also a Batman (!) comic: Planetary/Batman: NIght on Earth (illustrated by John Cassaday). This is the most hilarious pisstake on the Caped Crusader since Grant Morrison presented him as a schizophrenic unable to resist the logic of a deliriously postmodern Joker in Arkham Asylum. In Ellis’ vision, a passage through a series of alternate Earths, with alternate Gotham Cities, gives us glimpses of a variety of Batman incarnations (Batmen? Batmans?), from raging psychopathic vigilante to empathetic New Ager (well, almost). It’s ridiculous to the point of nearly being sublime. Another direct hit for the incredibly prolific Mr. Ellis. (Did I mention that I am an obsessive reader of his blog, Die Puny Humans, as well?)
I was alerted by Boing Boing to Warren Ellis’s new issue of Planetary, which is also a Batman (!) comic: Planetary/Batman: NIght on Earth (illustrated by John Cassaday). This is the most hilarious pisstake on the Caped Crusader since Grant Morrison presented him as a schizophrenic unable to resist the logic of a deliriously postmodern Joker in Arkham Asylum. In Ellis’ vision, a passage through a series of alternate Earths, with alternate Gotham Cities, gives us glimpses of a variety of Batman incarnations (Batmen? Batmans?), from raging psychopathic vigilante to empathetic New Ager (well, almost). It’s ridiculous to the point of nearly being sublime. Another direct hit for the incredibly prolific Mr. Ellis. (Did I mention that I am an obsessive reader of his blog, Die Puny Humans, as well?)