This is all I'm going to say on this topic, and I doubt this will ever go up on Facebook, because this is probably as strident as I will ever be. So read or not, as you like, in case you're interested in understanding and empathizing with me.
Thursday, November 10, 2016
Wednesday, October 12, 2016
Continuing Confusion Concerning Consent
I'm not sure why this needs to be explained to adults, but based on the utter tripe I've seen on Facebook for the past week, it clearly does.
Incidentally, this assumes said tripe was posted because you really don't get this concept, not because you were deliberately minimizing despicable statements and attitudes simply for political reasons. I can't even deal rationally with that possibility.
So here you go. Two simple rules:
Incidentally, this assumes said tripe was posted because you really don't get this concept, not because you were deliberately minimizing despicable statements and attitudes simply for political reasons. I can't even deal rationally with that possibility.
So here you go. Two simple rules:
Friday, October 7, 2016
Survivor Bias Makes Fools of Us All
Survivorship bias or survival bias is the logical error of concentrating on
the people or things that "survived" some process and inadvertently overlooking
those that did not because of their lack of visibility.
We’ve all seen the Facebook memes:
“Share if you rode in the back of a truck as a kid and didn’t die!”
“Like if you played in a spent nuclear fuel pool as a kid and turned
out fine!”
“Who else rode their bike without a helmet as a kid?”
(Okay, I may have made one of those up.
And yet it’s way safer than you probably think.)
Wednesday, October 5, 2016
The Meaning of Symbols, Again
At
the moment of abstraction, when the man was imagining his life and his
existence as a metaphor of the three candles, he was free: not free from rules
of conduct or social constraints, but free to understand, to imagine, to make
metaphor.
There's a lot (like, a LOT) that's
been said already about the National Anthem protests this year that were
started (or at least made known and popular) by Colin Kaepernick. It's
not my intent here to rehash that; I’m much more interested in the reactions. To wit:
Saturday, September 17, 2016
Contagious Confusion Concerning Consent
Dear Mr. Bieber,
It has come to my attention, through one of your
inexplicably-popular-and-utterly-inescapable songs, that you have some
questions regarding the concept of consent.
I speak, of course, of your ode to jazz flute and the crocodile from Peter Pan, “What Do You Mean?” (By the way, I was relieved to
note that the song title truly does have a question mark. This is by no means a given.)
While a good chunk of this song consists of you being whiny and vaguely threatening
about receiving mixed signals, in a far inferior (though admittedly titularly
superior grammatically) knockoff of Katy Perry’s “Hot N Cold”, the first few
lines (which are repeated throughout the somewhat lyrically-challenged song)
deserve some special attention and discrete answers. So let’s break those down, shall we?
Monday, March 28, 2016
The Irritation of Infrastructure Infirmity
(This was going to be my next post, but to be honest, I got bored writing it, so I can't imagine it would be very interesting to read. However, I spent enough time on it to not want it to just sit in my drafts folder forever, so if you happen across this (it won't be posted to Facebook until and unless I finish it someday) and actually, y'know, care, you can read this partially-completed and in-need-of-a-lot-of-work post on transit and infrastructure. Sadly, it'll probably be the last post until summer (when I'm done with school for probably ever!).)
Sunday, March 13, 2016
Metaphorical Beverages
So Selena Gomez has a new single out, “Hands to Myself”. Yes, I pay attention to these things, and no,
it doesn’t make me a teenage girl, no matter what certain people may try to
claim. It just means I have eclectic
musical tastes. So there. (Except for Ed Sheeran. Can’t stand his music, especially since I
read this article, which rang a few bells.)
I actually really like this song, and it keeps getting stuck in my
head. Plus, I’m a sucker for the chord
progression, regardless of how utterly common it is (well, there’s
a reason for that, isn’t there? Kind of
like the Pachelbel’s Canon chord progression, some things just work
better than others). And as far as I can
tell, it’s not a song about Justin Bieber, so hooray for moving on!
But there’s one GLARING problem with this song. I suppose you could say two, but it’s just
the same line a second time.
The verses to the song are done in a rather sparse, staccato (or at
least detached; it’s hard to sing staccato without sounding like you’re spitting
the words out) style. It’s a little
unusual, but it’s a neat sound once you get used to it. And for the most part, the lyrics stick to
one- or two-syllable words, which works just fine.
And then you get to the line.
The dreaded, cringe-worthy line that nearly made me hate the song before
I had a chance to like it:
“You’re metaphorical gin-and-juice”.
Wow.
This line is terrible on both stylistic and lyrical
levels. There’s really no redeeming
feature to this line other than the fact that it actually fits the meter. (That’s always a plus.)
Stylistically, if you’re going to be using this detached style, you
simply cannot use five-syllable words.
One syllable? Fine, you’re just
spacing out the words. Two
syllables? Still works; you don’t lose
the flow of the word too much with the break.
But five syllables? You sound
like you’re sounding out the word, or very carefully overpronouncing it to make
sure you get it right, kind of my like 4-year-old saying the word “archipelago”. It’s just not… no. Don’t do that.
Lyrically, it’s just completely unnecessary. Of course it’s a metaphor! Songs use metaphors all the time! Everyone knows that, and is familiar with the concept of metaphors. Spelling it out (nearly literally, given the
enunciation) is just awkward and makes the line feel even weirder. No one (except maybe Jimmy Buffett?) is going
to be singing a song about actual gin-and-juice (although if he did, it
would probably have the word “archipelago” in it).
BUT! Selena Gomez is someone whose bigger hits include two songs basically about songs. Like, the
songs are using songs as metaphors. This
is either brilliantly meta, or a giant red flag about her competence with
metaphors.
Plus, looking at the lyrics, there’s literally no reason why this
couldn’t actually be a song dedicated to gin-and-juice. Every line works equally as well in a literal
or a metaphorical context! Including the
lines that don’t really work in either context, because they don’t really make
sense. (Pre-chorus, I’m looking at you
here. “All of the downs and the uppers
keep making love to each other”? What
does that even mean?)
So maybe it’s a good thing after all that she’s clarifying that this is intended to be a metaphor.
So maybe it’s a good thing after all that she’s clarifying that this is intended to be a metaphor.
Or maybe I’ll just have fun substituting the words “my most-fav'rite
drink” for “metaphorical” the next time I hear it.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)