Mulling over the logic behind characters in cartoons having to be voiced by an actor of the ethnicity portrayed, isn't it more 'problematic' that the words spoken are written by someone of different ethnicity?
And will Bart have to be voiced by a male actor now, along with Nelson, Ralph, Todd etc?
The same debate is going on in drama, art, publishing - eg the idea is forming that white writers should only write white characters, Asians can do Asians, gays can do gays.
It is utterly toxic. Goodbye the new Othello
Goodbye female authors writing about male characters next?
Quite possibly.
There is definitely a move to ensure white writers do not feature leading BAME characters.
It will probably end up with entirely white novels/sitcoms/movies about white middle class people, which people will call racist for being so white.
Alternatively, as Lionel Shriver has suggested, it will end with the only permitted form of writing being memoir, as that is your story and only you can tell it. Once.
I usually hedge my language, but the approach suggested by that tweet is utterly demented.
Mulling over the logic behind characters in cartoons having to be voiced by an actor of the ethnicity portrayed, isn't it more 'problematic' that the words spoken are written by someone of different ethnicity?
And will Bart have to be voiced by a male actor now, along with Nelson, Ralph, Todd etc?
The same debate is going on in drama, art, publishing - eg the idea is forming that white writers should only write white characters, Asians can do Asians, gays can do gays.
It is utterly toxic. Goodbye the new Othello
Goodbye female authors writing about male characters next?
All books should be written by diverse committees. The concept of a single author is an abuse of power and reflects assumptions about cultural hegemony in society.
And in the 25th Century, the history teacher said ".... and their civilisation was toppled when a cartoon series employed a few extra actors. The shock of this was so immense that it crushed their ability to cope..."
Not!
Look - there are always people crying for stupid stuff like books to be written by committees and so on. Most people will simply ignore them and they will fade into the sort of irrelevance that that sort of person always winds up.
Last week, it was the toppling of statues that was going to end western civilisation. This week the streets seem free of pieces of public sclupture littering gutters and harbours and most people have forgotten it and moved on.
If you really want to worry about the end of civilisation, worry about Eadric's latest story that the Chinese have somehow made the virus worse.
You simply don't understand. This censorship by Wokeism isn't some fevered dream of lunatic rightwing poets, it is already happening
Books are being cancelled, authors are self-limiting, publishers are employing "sensitivity readers" - to make sure books are Wokeishly correct
Mulling over the logic behind characters in cartoons having to be voiced by an actor of the ethnicity portrayed, isn't it more 'problematic' that the words spoken are written by someone of different ethnicity?
And will Bart have to be voiced by a male actor now, along with Nelson, Ralph, Todd etc?
The same debate is going on in drama, art, publishing - eg the idea is forming that white writers should only write white characters, Asians can do Asians, gays can do gays.
It is utterly toxic. Goodbye the new Othello
Goodbye female authors writing about male characters next?
In that case JK Rowling better watch out in case she's...oh wait...
The Simpsons thing is particularly stupid and regressive. The whole point of voice acting is that the performer doesn't have to look anything like their character, hence the sixtysomething Nancy Cartwright can play a 10 year old boy and James Earl Jones can be Darth Vader. Taken to its logical end actors will be forbidden to use anything other than their own accent, which would be particularly bad news for Black British actors in Hollywood.
In retrospect it started last year with the predominantly black cast of "The Lion King" remake on the grounds of it being set in Africa despite the fact Lions aren't people and the human concepts of skin colour/ethnicity simply aren't applicable.
Mulling over the logic behind characters in cartoons having to be voiced by an actor of the ethnicity portrayed, isn't it more 'problematic' that the words spoken are written by someone of different ethnicity?
And will Bart have to be voiced by a male actor now, along with Nelson, Ralph, Todd etc?
The same debate is going on in drama, art, publishing - eg the idea is forming that white writers should only write white characters, Asians can do Asians, gays can do gays.
It is utterly toxic. Goodbye the new Othello
Goodbye female authors writing about male characters next?
All books should be written by diverse committees. The concept of a single author is an abuse of power and reflects assumptions about cultural hegemony in society.
And in the 25th Century, the history teacher said ".... and their civilisation was toppled when a cartoon series employed a few extra actors. The shock of this was so immense that it crushed their ability to cope..."
Not!
Look - there are always people crying for stupid stuff like books to be written by committees and so on. Most people will simply ignore them and they will fade into the sort of irrelevance that that sort of person always winds up.
Last week, it was the toppling of statues that was going to end western civilisation. This week the streets seem free of pieces of public sclupture littering gutters and harbours and most people have forgotten it and moved on.
If you really want to worry about the end of civilisation, worry about Eadric's latest story that the Chinese have somehow made the virus worse.
You simply don't understand. This censorship by Wokeism isn't some fevered dream of lunatic rightwing poets, it is already happening
Books are being cancelled, authors are self-limiting, publishers are employing "sensitivity readers" - to make sure books are Wokeishly correct
Mulling over the logic behind characters in cartoons having to be voiced by an actor of the ethnicity portrayed, isn't it more 'problematic' that the words spoken are written by someone of different ethnicity?
And will Bart have to be voiced by a male actor now, along with Nelson, Ralph, Todd etc?
The same debate is going on in drama, art, publishing - eg the idea is forming that white writers should only write white characters, Asians can do Asians, gays can do gays.
It is utterly toxic. Goodbye the new Othello
Goodbye female authors writing about male characters next?
Quite possibly.
There is definitely a move to ensure white writers do not feature leading BAME characters.
It will probably end up with entirely white novels/sitcoms/movies about white middle class people, which people will call racist for being so white.
Alternatively, as Lionel Shriver has suggested, it will end with the only permitted form of writing being memoir, as that is your story and only you can tell it. Once.
I usually hedge my language, but the approach suggested by that tweet is utterly demented.
People should no longer be allowed to imagine another perspective, however imperfectly, nor should actors, you know, act as though they are a character who is not like themselves.
In all seriousness, it's one of those approaches that makes me genuinely angry. I find it hard to understand how someone might get to a position from a desire to confront racial issues (or other discriminatory issues) without seeing the flaws, see how disproportionate a reaction it is.
Mulling over the logic behind characters in cartoons having to be voiced by an actor of the ethnicity portrayed, isn't it more 'problematic' that the words spoken are written by someone of different ethnicity?
And will Bart have to be voiced by a male actor now, along with Nelson, Ralph, Todd etc?
The same debate is going on in drama, art, publishing - eg the idea is forming that white writers should only write white characters, Asians can do Asians, gays can do gays.
It is utterly toxic. Goodbye the new Othello
Goodbye female authors writing about male characters next?
Quite possibly.
There is definitely a move to ensure white writers do not feature leading BAME characters.
It will probably end up with entirely white novels/sitcoms/movies about white middle class people, which people will call racist for being so white.
Alternatively, as Lionel Shriver has suggested, it will end with the only permitted form of writing being memoir, as that is your story and only you can tell it. Once.
I usually hedge my language, but the approach suggested by that tweet is utterly demented.
Mulling over the logic behind characters in cartoons having to be voiced by an actor of the ethnicity portrayed, isn't it more 'problematic' that the words spoken are written by someone of different ethnicity?
And will Bart have to be voiced by a male actor now, along with Nelson, Ralph, Todd etc?
The same debate is going on in drama, art, publishing - eg the idea is forming that white writers should only write white characters, Asians can do Asians, gays can do gays.
It is utterly toxic. Goodbye the new Othello
Goodbye female authors writing about male characters next?
All books should be written by diverse committees. The concept of a single author is an abuse of power and reflects assumptions about cultural hegemony in society.
And in the 25th Century, the history teacher said ".... and their civilisation was toppled when a cartoon series employed a few extra actors. The shock of this was so immense that it crushed their ability to cope..."
Not!
Look - there are always people crying for stupid stuff like books to be written by committees and so on. Most people will simply ignore them and they will fade into the sort of irrelevance that that sort of person always winds up in.
Last week, it was the toppling of statues that was going to end western civilisation. This week the streets seem free of pieces of public sclupture littering gutters and harbours and most people have forgotten it and moved on.
If you really want to worry about the end of civilisation, worry about Eadric's latest story that the Chinese have somehow made the virus worse.
Half right. Last week it was the toppling of statues, yes. This week it was smashing up police cars and waving swords in policemans faces
I know! Telling people what they want to hear, govt by opinion polls, incompetence, petty corruption, looking after themselves and a lack of honour. HTH.
Mulling over the logic behind characters in cartoons having to be voiced by an actor of the ethnicity portrayed, isn't it more 'problematic' that the words spoken are written by someone of different ethnicity?
And will Bart have to be voiced by a male actor now, along with Nelson, Ralph, Todd etc?
The same debate is going on in drama, art, publishing - eg the idea is forming that white writers should only write white characters, Asians can do Asians, gays can do gays.
It is utterly toxic. Goodbye the new Othello
Goodbye female authors writing about male characters next?
All books should be written by diverse committees. The concept of a single author is an abuse of power and reflects assumptions about cultural hegemony in society.
And in the 25th Century, the history teacher said ".... and their civilisation was toppled when a cartoon series employed a few extra actors. The shock of this was so immense that it crushed their ability to cope..."
Not!
Look - there are always people crying for stupid stuff like books to be written by committees and so on. Most people will simply ignore them and they will fade into the sort of irrelevance that that sort of person always winds up.
Last week, it was the toppling of statues that was going to end western civilisation. This week the streets seem free of pieces of public sclupture littering gutters and harbours and most people have forgotten it and moved on.
If you really want to worry about the end of civilisation, worry about Eadric's latest story that the Chinese have somehow made the virus worse.
You simply don't understand. This censorship by Wokeism isn't some fevered dream of lunatic rightwing poets, it is already happening
Books are being cancelled, authors are self-limiting, publishers are employing "sensitivity readers" - to make sure books are Wokeishly correct
And next week the crisis will be white people must not buy brown cars and the writers thing will be forgotten and my mother will still be buying romantic fiction no matter who writes which character...
Besides, it is always interesting to watch a bloke trying to write as a woman or a woman's viewpoint. Do you have any suggestions for such authors?
Mulling over the logic behind characters in cartoons having to be voiced by an actor of the ethnicity portrayed, isn't it more 'problematic' that the words spoken are written by someone of different ethnicity?
And will Bart have to be voiced by a male actor now, along with Nelson, Ralph, Todd etc?
The same debate is going on in drama, art, publishing - eg the idea is forming that white writers should only write white characters, Asians can do Asians, gays can do gays.
It is utterly toxic. Goodbye the new Othello
Goodbye female authors writing about male characters next?
Quite possibly.
There is definitely a move to ensure white writers do not feature leading BAME characters.
It will probably end up with entirely white novels/sitcoms/movies about white middle class people, which people will call racist for being so white.
Alternatively, as Lionel Shriver has suggested, it will end with the only permitted form of writing being memoir, as that is your story and only you can tell it. Once.
I usually hedge my language, but the approach suggested by that tweet is utterly demented.
Look her up. She appears to have a few self-published novels; it requires an exceptionally strong telescope to discern her place in the literary firmament.
Utterly bonkers to read her tweeted opinions as representing some fundamental shift in the zeitgeist.
Mulling over the logic behind characters in cartoons having to be voiced by an actor of the ethnicity portrayed, isn't it more 'problematic' that the words spoken are written by someone of different ethnicity?
And will Bart have to be voiced by a male actor now, along with Nelson, Ralph, Todd etc?
The same debate is going on in drama, art, publishing - eg the idea is forming that white writers should only write white characters, Asians can do Asians, gays can do gays.
It is utterly toxic. Goodbye the new Othello
Goodbye female authors writing about male characters next?
In that case JK Rowling better watch out in case she's...oh wait...
The Simpsons thing is particularly stupid and regressive. The whole point of voice acting is that the performer doesn't have to look anything like their character, hence the sixtysomething Nancy Cartwright can play a 10 year old boy and James Earl Jones can be Darth Vader. Taken to its logical end actors will be forbidden to use anything other than their own accent, which would be particularly bad news for Black British actors in Hollywood.
In retrospect it started last year with the predominantly black cast of "The Lion King" remake on the grounds of it being set in Africa despite the fact Lions aren't people and the human concepts of skin colour/ethnicity simply aren't applicable.
It certainly did not start there, people have raised that kind of issue for a long time, but the actual problems of representation in the media are not addressed by an approach which makes adhering to a character bio more important than anything else (though if that was part of the Lion King reasoning it makes even less sense).
People who should know better do it all the time - Samuel L Jackson initially criticised the casting of a black british actor for Get Out rather than a black american who would have a different, more relevant experience of the issues of the movie. A truly great actor apparently had difficulty with the concept of someone acting.
WIth the recent moves if voice actors don't want to continue the roles anymore, fine, that's their choice, but I found the family guy example strange since he referred to having done the role as an honour. If they think it is wrong for a white guy to do it and so won't anymore, then I don't see how it was an honour, but rather a mistake they regret.
People knew Boris was mecurial. There's a reason MPs did not initially back him. Certainly anyone expecting die hard rigid conservatism would have been fooling themselves.
Mulling over the logic behind characters in cartoons having to be voiced by an actor of the ethnicity portrayed, isn't it more 'problematic' that the words spoken are written by someone of different ethnicity?
And will Bart have to be voiced by a male actor now, along with Nelson, Ralph, Todd etc?
The same debate is going on in drama, art, publishing - eg the idea is forming that white writers should only write white characters, Asians can do Asians, gays can do gays.
It is utterly toxic. Goodbye the new Othello
Goodbye female authors writing about male characters next?
Quite possibly.
There is definitely a move to ensure white writers do not feature leading BAME characters.
It will probably end up with entirely white novels/sitcoms/movies about white middle class people, which people will call racist for being so white.
Alternatively, as Lionel Shriver has suggested, it will end with the only permitted form of writing being memoir, as that is your story and only you can tell it. Once.
I usually hedge my language, but the approach suggested by that tweet is utterly demented.
Mulling over the logic behind characters in cartoons having to be voiced by an actor of the ethnicity portrayed, isn't it more 'problematic' that the words spoken are written by someone of different ethnicity?
And will Bart have to be voiced by a male actor now, along with Nelson, Ralph, Todd etc?
The same debate is going on in drama, art, publishing - eg the idea is forming that white writers should only write white characters, Asians can do Asians, gays can do gays.
It is utterly toxic. Goodbye the new Othello
Goodbye female authors writing about male characters next?
Quite possibly.
There is definitely a move to ensure white writers do not feature leading BAME characters.
It will probably end up with entirely white novels/sitcoms/movies about white middle class people, which people will call racist for being so white.
Alternatively, as Lionel Shriver has suggested, it will end with the only permitted form of writing being memoir, as that is your story and only you can tell it. Once.
I usually hedge my language, but the approach suggested by that tweet is utterly demented.
Look her up. She appears to have a few self-published novels; it requires an exceptionally strong telescope to discern her place in the literary firmament.
Utterly bonkers to read her tweeted opinions as representing some fundamental shift in the zeitgeist.
I didn't, but many people have raised similar points over many years, and whether it becomes the norm or not is irrelevant to it being demented.
Mulling over the logic behind characters in cartoons having to be voiced by an actor of the ethnicity portrayed, isn't it more 'problematic' that the words spoken are written by someone of different ethnicity?
And will Bart have to be voiced by a male actor now, along with Nelson, Ralph, Todd etc?
The same debate is going on in drama, art, publishing - eg the idea is forming that white writers should only write white characters, Asians can do Asians, gays can do gays.
It is utterly toxic. Goodbye the new Othello
Goodbye female authors writing about male characters next?
All books should be written by diverse committees. The concept of a single author is an abuse of power and reflects assumptions about cultural hegemony in society.
And in the 25th Century, the history teacher said ".... and their civilisation was toppled when a cartoon series employed a few extra actors. The shock of this was so immense that it crushed their ability to cope..."
Not!
Look - there are always people crying for stupid stuff like books to be written by committees and so on. Most people will simply ignore them and they will fade into the sort of irrelevance that that sort of person always winds up.
Last week, it was the toppling of statues that was going to end western civilisation. This week the streets seem free of pieces of public sclupture littering gutters and harbours and most people have forgotten it and moved on.
If you really want to worry about the end of civilisation, worry about Eadric's latest story that the Chinese have somehow made the virus worse.
You simply don't understand. This censorship by Wokeism isn't some fevered dream of lunatic rightwing poets, it is already happening
Books are being cancelled, authors are self-limiting, publishers are employing "sensitivity readers" - to make sure books are Wokeishly correct
I'd be interested what people are basing that on. People flocking to beaches cannot be that, since that would happen whenever lockdown ends, not as a result of it being early or not.
Mulling over the logic behind characters in cartoons having to be voiced by an actor of the ethnicity portrayed, isn't it more 'problematic' that the words spoken are written by someone of different ethnicity?
And will Bart have to be voiced by a male actor now, along with Nelson, Ralph, Todd etc?
The same debate is going on in drama, art, publishing - eg the idea is forming that white writers should only write white characters, Asians can do Asians, gays can do gays.
It is utterly toxic. Goodbye the new Othello
Goodbye female authors writing about male characters next?
Quite possibly.
There is definitely a move to ensure white writers do not feature leading BAME characters.
It will probably end up with entirely white novels/sitcoms/movies about white middle class people, which people will call racist for being so white.
Alternatively, as Lionel Shriver has suggested, it will end with the only permitted form of writing being memoir, as that is your story and only you can tell it. Once.
I usually hedge my language, but the approach suggested by that tweet is utterly demented.
Look her up. She appears to have a few self-published novels; it requires an exceptionally strong telescope to discern her place in the literary firmament.
Utterly bonkers to read her tweeted opinions as representing some fundamental shift in the zeitgeist.
I didn't, but many people have raised similar points over many years, and whether it becomes the norm or not is irrelevant to it being demented.
OK. When Salman Rushdie expresses such views, then I’ll be worried. But frankly, to describe this woman as merely obscure is to vastly overstate her significance.
Mulling over the logic behind characters in cartoons having to be voiced by an actor of the ethnicity portrayed, isn't it more 'problematic' that the words spoken are written by someone of different ethnicity?
And will Bart have to be voiced by a male actor now, along with Nelson, Ralph, Todd etc?
The same debate is going on in drama, art, publishing - eg the idea is forming that white writers should only write white characters, Asians can do Asians, gays can do gays.
It is utterly toxic. Goodbye the new Othello
Goodbye female authors writing about male characters next?
All books should be written by diverse committees. The concept of a single author is an abuse of power and reflects assumptions about cultural hegemony in society.
And in the 25th Century, the history teacher said ".... and their civilisation was toppled when a cartoon series employed a few extra actors. The shock of this was so immense that it crushed their ability to cope..."
Not!
Look - there are always people crying for stupid stuff like books to be written by committees and so on. Most people will simply ignore them and they will fade into the sort of irrelevance that that sort of person always winds up.
Last week, it was the toppling of statues that was going to end western civilisation. This week the streets seem free of pieces of public sclupture littering gutters and harbours and most people have forgotten it and moved on.
If you really want to worry about the end of civilisation, worry about Eadric's latest story that the Chinese have somehow made the virus worse.
You simply don't understand. This censorship by Wokeism isn't some fevered dream of lunatic rightwing poets, it is already happening
Books are being cancelled, authors are self-limiting, publishers are employing "sensitivity readers" - to make sure books are Wokeishly correct
People knew Boris was mecurial. There's a reason MPs did not initially back him. Certainly anyone expecting die hard rigid conservatism would have been fooling themselves.
Boris? How the heck did a conversation about politics get into a PB thread?
No, I don't think it was planned by Starmer. His position in the party is not yet secure enough for that. I think that Starmer was simply pushed into a corner by Long-Bailey when she refused to withdraw the tweet and Starmer then took the only course that would have ensured that his authority remained intact. He may well have wanted to be shot of her some time further down the road, but now was not the time.
Starmer has a precarious majority on the NEC but to consolidate that he will need to win a key vote on the use of STV to elect constituency representatives that is coming up next month. If he loses that vote, there is still the possibility that the far left could pick up all 9 NEC CLP representatives ratherthan the 7 they have now, in which case Starmer will lose his majority. If he wins, his majority on the NEC will be secure. So if there was any planning in the fact that this came to a head now, it is probably came from Long-Bailey and McDonnell, who judged that the time to try and provoke a reaction was now, ahead of that key NEC meeting.
On the other hand, I think the cock-up theory is more plausible. Long-Bailey habitually felt the instinctive need to continue to snipe at the new leadership, misjudged the likely reaction to retweeting and endorsing such a divisive article and the controversy that would ensue, and then decided that it was better to become a martyr of the far left than to back down herself.
I don't think it was planned by Starmer either those that think this was some master plan and he promoted her to the shadow cabnet in the hope of sacking her are giving him far too much credit
Mulling over the logic behind characters in cartoons having to be voiced by an actor of the ethnicity portrayed, isn't it more 'problematic' that the words spoken are written by someone of different ethnicity?
And will Bart have to be voiced by a male actor now, along with Nelson, Ralph, Todd etc?
The same debate is going on in drama, art, publishing - eg the idea is forming that white writers should only write white characters, Asians can do Asians, gays can do gays.
It is utterly toxic. Goodbye the new Othello
Goodbye female authors writing about male characters next?
Quite possibly.
There is definitely a move to ensure white writers do not feature leading BAME characters.
It will probably end up with entirely white novels/sitcoms/movies about white middle class people, which people will call racist for being so white.
Alternatively, as Lionel Shriver has suggested, it will end with the only permitted form of writing being memoir, as that is your story and only you can tell it. Once.
I usually hedge my language, but the approach suggested by that tweet is utterly demented.
Look her up. She appears to have a few self-published novels; it requires an exceptionally strong telescope to discern her place in the literary firmament.
Utterly bonkers to read her tweeted opinions as representing some fundamental shift in the zeitgeist.
I didn't, but many people have raised similar points over many years, and whether it becomes the norm or not is irrelevant to it being demented.
OK. When Salman Rushdie expresses such views, then I’ll be worried. But frankly, to describe this woman as merely obscure is to vastly overstate her significance.
What's the relevance? I'm critical of the idea, not the woman. I need not wait for an idea to be mainstream to criticise it. And while people not being allowed to write characters who are not of their race is hardly mainstream yet, actors taking on roles which are deemed to be required of a certain race, even animated ones, is more mainstream, when unless the nationality or race is central to the character it should not be a big deal (though underrepresentation of some groups remains an issue).
I'd be interested what people are basing that on. People flocking to beaches cannot be that, since that would happen whenever lockdown ends, not as a result of it being early or not.
In my family unit, the images of beaches have certainly changed minds.
He is indeed - but on this he had a point. It was the decision of Acting Labour Leader - Harriet Harman - to abstain on Osborne's Welfare policy changes announced post-2015 election which effectively gifted Corbyn the momentum he gathered in that year's Leadership Election campaign. The other three contenders - Burnham, Cooper and Kendall - were bound by Shadow Cabinet collective responsibility and felt obliged to go along with Harman's decision. Corbyn as a backbencher was free to oppose it and benefitted massively from the resulting uproar within party ranks. It proplled him to the leadership - and in my mind the blame for that has to be firmly pinned on Harman rather than Margaret Beckett et all who simply nominated him.
Up to a point. The election is four years away, Johnson won't necessarily be Prime Minister at that point, and Starmer is a blank canvas right now, onto which potential supporters can project an image of their choosing. All he's had to do is look serious and not blunder across the political landscape like Corbyn, setting off elephant traps and landmines every twenty yards.
Once the man is obliged to draft and sell a manifesto, which might actually upset some people outside of the hard left of his own party, then we'll see whether the approval numbers hold up.
If the election takes place on 2nd May 2024 - as presently stipulated by the FTPA - Dissolution would occur 3 years and 9 months from now at the end of March 2024.
Mulling over the logic behind characters in cartoons having to be voiced by an actor of the ethnicity portrayed, isn't it more 'problematic' that the words spoken are written by someone of different ethnicity?
And will Bart have to be voiced by a male actor now, along with Nelson, Ralph, Todd etc?
The same debate is going on in drama, art, publishing - eg the idea is forming that white writers should only write white characters, Asians can do Asians, gays can do gays.
It is utterly toxic. Goodbye the new Othello
Goodbye female authors writing about male characters next?
Jane Austen never once has a scene in which men are interacting or speaking with each other in the absence of ladies, it being a form of activity and discourse of which she knew nothing. Dickens does it, mutatis mutandis, but it doesn't work. Shakespeare of course can do it, but he can do everything. And Trollope can do women just with women too.
Think of it as a job creation scheme. Instead of one guy digging a hole then another guy filling it in instead they can have one person to write each role in the book....want a character thats half eskimo half bantu disabled taxi driver then better get advertising for one to write the role
One interesting aside about Youtube is that it cut out the middleman - the publisher. People could self publish on YT without a film company or distributor.
Now, most stuff on YT is dreck, but some of it is very, very good and in some areas YT is watched more than mainstream Broadcasters.
Extrapolating from there...
If Book Publishers continue to restrict writers' freedom, how long will it be until authors just start self publishing on Amazon and relying on social media to do their marketing?
Maybe what will go extinct is not the novel, but the publisher?
One interesting aside about Youtube is that it cut out the middleman - the publisher. People could self publish on YT without a film company or distributor.
Now, most stuff on YT is dreck, but some of it is very, very good and in some areas YT is watched more than mainstream Broadcasters.
Extrapolating from there...
If Book Publishers continue to restrict writers' freedom, how long will it be until authors just start self publishing on Amazon and relying on social media to do their marketing?
Maybe what will go extinct is not the novel, but the publisher?
People do do that now. Amazon's cut is outrageous.
Mulling over the logic behind characters in cartoons having to be voiced by an actor of the ethnicity portrayed, isn't it more 'problematic' that the words spoken are written by someone of different ethnicity?
And will Bart have to be voiced by a male actor now, along with Nelson, Ralph, Todd etc?
The same debate is going on in drama, art, publishing - eg the idea is forming that white writers should only write white characters, Asians can do Asians, gays can do gays.
It is utterly toxic. Goodbye the new Othello
Goodbye female authors writing about male characters next?
All books should be written by diverse committees. The concept of a single author is an abuse of power and reflects assumptions about cultural hegemony in society.
And in the 25th Century, the history teacher said ".... and their civilisation was toppled when a cartoon series employed a few extra actors. The shock of this was so immense that it crushed their ability to cope..."
Not!
Look - there are always people crying for stupid stuff like books to be written by committees and so on. Most people will simply ignore them and they will fade into the sort of irrelevance that that sort of person always winds up.
Last week, it was the toppling of statues that was going to end western civilisation. This week the streets seem free of pieces of public sclupture littering gutters and harbours and most people have forgotten it and moved on.
If you really want to worry about the end of civilisation, worry about Eadric's latest story that the Chinese have somehow made the virus worse.
You simply don't understand. This censorship by Wokeism isn't some fevered dream of lunatic rightwing poets, it is already happening
Books are being cancelled, authors are self-limiting, publishers are employing "sensitivity readers" - to make sure books are Wokeishly correct
Princeton Will Remove Woodrow Wilson’s Name From School
NYTimes
High ranking universities are eating themselves all over the western world.
I've attended both Newcastle University (Russell Group) and Northumbria University (ex poly) and the poly was by far the most focused on actual learning and teaching. The difference is stark.
One interesting aside about Youtube is that it cut out the middleman - the publisher. People could self publish on YT without a film company or distributor.
Now, most stuff on YT is dreck, but some of it is very, very good and in some areas YT is watched more than mainstream Broadcasters.
Extrapolating from there...
If Book Publishers continue to restrict writers' freedom, how long will it be until authors just start self publishing on Amazon and relying on social media to do their marketing?
Maybe what will go extinct is not the novel, but the publisher?
People do do that now. Amazon's cut is outrageous.
If your publisher wont publish you because you were the wrong colour when you wrote the book amazon's cut is moot....better a 70% of something than 100% of nothing
One interesting aside about Youtube is that it cut out the middleman - the publisher. People could self publish on YT without a film company or distributor.
Now, most stuff on YT is dreck, but some of it is very, very good and in some areas YT is watched more than mainstream Broadcasters.
Extrapolating from there...
If Book Publishers continue to restrict writers' freedom, how long will it be until authors just start self publishing on Amazon and relying on social media to do their marketing?
Maybe what will go extinct is not the novel, but the publisher?
People do do that now. Amazon's cut is outrageous.
Really? I cannot say I am surprised. I am not an author, but I am curious enough to ask what their cut is...
Princeton Will Remove Woodrow Wilson’s Name From School
NYTimes
High ranking universities are eating themselves all over the western world.
I've attended both Newcastle University (Russell Group) and Northumbria University (ex poly) and the poly was by far the most focused on actual learning and teaching. The difference is stark.
The polys should never have been turned into universities.
I suppose it will be OK to continue showing Gandhi on TV - because white people can play the part of racists?
Are you commenting on Ben Kingsley playing the leading role. Son of Rahimtulla Harji Bhanji?
You have to get to the root of the pernicious western canon. How can Homer possibly be allowed to portray Trojans? It starts all wrong and gets worse. Before you know where you are Chinua Achebe is writing about white people. To the barricades quick.
Mulling over the logic behind characters in cartoons having to be voiced by an actor of the ethnicity portrayed, isn't it more 'problematic' that the words spoken are written by someone of different ethnicity?
And will Bart have to be voiced by a male actor now, along with Nelson, Ralph, Todd etc?
The same debate is going on in drama, art, publishing - eg the idea is forming that white writers should only write white characters, Asians can do Asians, gays can do gays.
It is utterly toxic. Goodbye the new Othello
Goodbye female authors writing about male characters next?
All books should be written by diverse committees. The concept of a single author is an abuse of power and reflects assumptions about cultural hegemony in society.
Mulling over the logic behind characters in cartoons having to be voiced by an actor of the ethnicity portrayed, isn't it more 'problematic' that the words spoken are written by someone of different ethnicity?
And will Bart have to be voiced by a male actor now, along with Nelson, Ralph, Todd etc?
The same debate is going on in drama, art, publishing - eg the idea is forming that white writers should only write white characters, Asians can do Asians, gays can do gays.
It is utterly toxic. Goodbye the new Othello
Goodbye female authors writing about male characters next?
All books should be written by diverse committees. The concept of a single author is an abuse of power and reflects assumptions about cultural hegemony in society.
And in the 25th Century, the history teacher said ".... and their civilisation was toppled when a cartoon series employed a few extra actors. The shock of this was so immense that it crushed their ability to cope..."
Not!
Look - there are always people crying for stupid stuff like books to be written by committees and so on. Most people will simply ignore them and they will fade into the sort of irrelevance that that sort of person always winds up.
Last week, it was the toppling of statues that was going to end western civilisation. This week the streets seem free of pieces of public sclupture littering gutters and harbours and most people have forgotten it and moved on.
If you really want to worry about the end of civilisation, worry about Eadric's latest story that the Chinese have somehow made the virus worse.
You simply don't understand. This censorship by Wokeism isn't some fevered dream of lunatic rightwing poets, it is already happening
Books are being cancelled, authors are self-limiting, publishers are employing "sensitivity readers" - to make sure books are Wokeishly correct
People dont see what is going on. They equate wokeism with what until recently was liberalism (freedom, equality etc). It is actually something that benefits a few people (an aggrieved revolutionary elite), and is less good for everyone else because we can now get cancelled at will, have no freedom of speech, our history is getting trashed and rewritten, etc.
This feels a bit like Brexit. People were seduced in to voting for it by visions of restored sovereignty and funding for the NHS, not the chaos it has become.
Fortunately or not, dependent on your perspective, the jokes going to be on the woke (if you excuse the terrible pun). 80 seat majority conservative government, 4 + years left to run. They can set up a process which claims to be about addressing racial and historic grievances; but ends up reversing the 2 decades of woke legislation which has fuelled the current mess. And all in the name of equality and anti racism!
Think of it as a job creation scheme. Instead of one guy digging a hole then another guy filling it in instead they can have one person to write each role in the book....want a character thats half eskimo half bantu disabled taxi driver then better get advertising for one to write the role
Princeton Will Remove Woodrow Wilson’s Name From School
NYTimes
High ranking universities are eating themselves all over the western world.
I've attended both Newcastle University (Russell Group) and Northumbria University (ex poly) and the poly was by far the most focused on actual learning and teaching. The difference is stark.
The polys should never have been turned into universities.
(Ducks for cover)
Why? It's only a name at the end of the day. It's simply an institution for higher education.
Mulling over the logic behind characters in cartoons having to be voiced by an actor of the ethnicity portrayed, isn't it more 'problematic' that the words spoken are written by someone of different ethnicity?
And will Bart have to be voiced by a male actor now, along with Nelson, Ralph, Todd etc?
The same debate is going on in drama, art, publishing - eg the idea is forming that white writers should only write white characters, Asians can do Asians, gays can do gays.
It is utterly toxic. Goodbye the new Othello
Goodbye female authors writing about male characters next?
All books should be written by diverse committees. The concept of a single author is an abuse of power and reflects assumptions about cultural hegemony in society.
Indeed. And the concept of the individual reader is itself classist, ableist, and discriminatory.
What about people who can't afford books, and can't get to a library? And what of the people who don't have a quiet room in which to read? And, of course, what about illiterate people, why should they be excluded?
In future, reading will be done in enormous government reading halls, into which we will quietly file, and sit, in our masks, 2 metres apart. Then a Person of Many Colours will read out the approved text, authored by the Official Writing Committee, and at the end we will mutely signal our appreciation by doing jazz hands, because clapping is not fair on the deaf.
Then we will file out again. One by one.
Any chance of an end to this stream of utter drivel?
It's like being trapped in a lift with Jimmy Tarbuck.
Mulling over the logic behind characters in cartoons having to be voiced by an actor of the ethnicity portrayed, isn't it more 'problematic' that the words spoken are written by someone of different ethnicity?
And will Bart have to be voiced by a male actor now, along with Nelson, Ralph, Todd etc?
The same debate is going on in drama, art, publishing - eg the idea is forming that white writers should only write white characters, Asians can do Asians, gays can do gays.
It is utterly toxic. Goodbye the new Othello
Goodbye female authors writing about male characters next?
Quite possibly.
There is definitely a move to ensure white writers do not feature leading BAME characters.
It will probably end up with entirely white novels/sitcoms/movies about white middle class people, which people will call racist for being so white.
Alternatively, as Lionel Shriver has suggested, it will end with the only permitted form of writing being memoir, as that is your story and only you can tell it. Once.
I usually hedge my language, but the approach suggested by that tweet is utterly demented.
I suppose it will be OK to continue showing Gandhi on TV - because white people can play the part of racists?
Are you commenting on Ben Kingsley playing the leading role. Son of Rahimtulla Harji Bhanji?
You have to get to the root of the pernicious western canon. How can Homer possibly be allowed to portray Trojans? It starts all wrong and gets worse. Before you know where you are Chinua Achebe is writing about white people. To the barricades quick.
To be fair, The Iliad has a discernible bias in favour of the Greeks. Whereas Virgil gives them a very bad press.
This is but one poll , but for what it is worth I am sure Labour will be pretty content with it. The fieldwork is just a little later than this week's other polls and may have picked up some initial reaction to the RLB sacking.More significant is that Labour appears to be hanging on to the gains it made five weeks ago in the wake of the Cummings incident.I rather disagree with Mike about Labour 'breaking through'. A poll rating of 39% is pretty good compared to the 30% and lower being recorded by the party prior to Starmer's election. It is well above the 33% obtained by Corbyn last December - and indeed the 36% won by Blair in 2005.For the moment, the Labour is outperforming where the Tories were in the Parliaments of 2001 and 1997 - and its own ratings at the same stage of the Parliaments of 1987 and 1983. It is also stronger than Heath and Gaitskell were enjoying at the same point in the 1966 and 1959 Parliaments.
This is definitely revenge of the Blairites after 13 years of drift since Brown took over.
Was Brown really that different to Blair? He went on record saying he would have done everything Blair did regarding Iraq.
Very different personality but barely a cigarette paper between them politically. Tony a touch more in favour of free markets, EU integration and western imperialism.
I suppose it will be OK to continue showing Gandhi on TV - because white people can play the part of racists?
Gandhi was SUCH a RACIST!
I mean, fancy leading 400 million NON-WHITE people to Independence in 1947!
Doesn't mean he wasn't a racist. Just go look at his views on Blacks in South Africa. Really not pleasant at all. Doesn't mean he didn't do great things later in life but that is no excuse for his attitudes when younger.
Edit: Of course there is a perfectly valid excuse which is his views were the same as the predominant views of the time. They were wrong in our eyes but one of the big issues with the whole woke movement for historical reappraisal is it does judge the views of other times against our own.
Mulling over the logic behind characters in cartoons having to be voiced by an actor of the ethnicity portrayed, isn't it more 'problematic' that the words spoken are written by someone of different ethnicity?
And will Bart have to be voiced by a male actor now, along with Nelson, Ralph, Todd etc?
The same debate is going on in drama, art, publishing - eg the idea is forming that white writers should only write white characters, Asians can do Asians, gays can do gays.
It is utterly toxic. Goodbye the new Othello
Goodbye female authors writing about male characters next?
Quite possibly.
There is definitely a move to ensure white writers do not feature leading BAME characters.
It will probably end up with entirely white novels/sitcoms/movies about white middle class people, which people will call racist for being so white.
Alternatively, as Lionel Shriver has suggested, it will end with the only permitted form of writing being memoir, as that is your story and only you can tell it. Once.
I usually hedge my language, but the approach suggested by that tweet is utterly demented.
If the rule is that you're allowed to write only what you are, I presume that author's works are populated solely by characters so incredibly dense that light bends around them...
Mulling over the logic behind characters in cartoons having to be voiced by an actor of the ethnicity portrayed, isn't it more 'problematic' that the words spoken are written by someone of different ethnicity?
And will Bart have to be voiced by a male actor now, along with Nelson, Ralph, Todd etc?
The same debate is going on in drama, art, publishing - eg the idea is forming that white writers should only write white characters, Asians can do Asians, gays can do gays.
It is utterly toxic. Goodbye the new Othello
Goodbye female authors writing about male characters next?
All books should be written by diverse committees. The concept of a single author is an abuse of power and reflects assumptions about cultural hegemony in society.
Indeed. And the concept of the individual reader is itself classist, ableist, and discriminatory.
What about people who can't afford books, and can't get to a library? And what of the people who don't have a quiet room in which to read? And, of course, what about illiterate people, why should they be excluded?
In future, reading will be done in enormous government reading halls, into which we will quietly file, and sit, in our masks, 2 metres apart. Then a Person of Many Colours will read out the approved text, authored by the Official Writing Committee, and at the end we will mutely signal our appreciation by doing jazz hands, because clapping is not fair on the deaf.
Then we will file out again. One by one.
Any chance of an end to this stream of utter drivel?
It's like being trapped in a lift with Jimmy Tarbuck.
I thought we had already established that this was the only Publisher left who does not censor LadyG's books....?
Mulling over the logic behind characters in cartoons having to be voiced by an actor of the ethnicity portrayed, isn't it more 'problematic' that the words spoken are written by someone of different ethnicity?
And will Bart have to be voiced by a male actor now, along with Nelson, Ralph, Todd etc?
The same debate is going on in drama, art, publishing - eg the idea is forming that white writers should only write white characters, Asians can do Asians, gays can do gays.
It is utterly toxic. Goodbye the new Othello
Goodbye female authors writing about male characters next?
All books should be written by diverse committees. The concept of a single author is an abuse of power and reflects assumptions about cultural hegemony in society.
Indeed. And the concept of the individual reader is itself classist, ableist, and discriminatory.
What about people who can't afford books, and can't get to a library? And what of the people who don't have a quiet room in which to read? And, of course, what about illiterate people, why should they be excluded?
In future, reading will be done in enormous government reading halls, into which we will quietly file, and sit, in our masks, 2 metres apart. Then a Person of Many Colours will read out the approved text, authored by the Official Writing Committee, and at the end we will mutely signal our appreciation by doing jazz hands, because clapping is not fair on the deaf.
Then we will file out again. One by one.
Any chance of an end to this stream of utter drivel?
It's like being trapped in a lift with Jimmy Tarbuck.
Amazingly, I was once trapped in a lift..... with Jimmy Tarbuck.
Yes.
My deepest sympathies.
But look, I sense a touch of corona complacency returning on here - so I think you have a DUTY to get back full time on that.
This other stuff helps nobody. People read it and get the wrong idea. It is pandering to the worst aspects of human nature rather than seeking to bring out the best of it.
Mulling over the logic behind characters in cartoons having to be voiced by an actor of the ethnicity portrayed, isn't it more 'problematic' that the words spoken are written by someone of different ethnicity?
And will Bart have to be voiced by a male actor now, along with Nelson, Ralph, Todd etc?
The same debate is going on in drama, art, publishing - eg the idea is forming that white writers should only write white characters, Asians can do Asians, gays can do gays.
It is utterly toxic. Goodbye the new Othello
Goodbye female authors writing about male characters next?
All books should be written by diverse committees. The concept of a single author is an abuse of power and reflects assumptions about cultural hegemony in society.
Mulling over the logic behind characters in cartoons having to be voiced by an actor of the ethnicity portrayed, isn't it more 'problematic' that the words spoken are written by someone of different ethnicity?
And will Bart have to be voiced by a male actor now, along with Nelson, Ralph, Todd etc?
The same debate is going on in drama, art, publishing - eg the idea is forming that white writers should only write white characters, Asians can do Asians, gays can do gays.
It is utterly toxic. Goodbye the new Othello
Goodbye female authors writing about male characters next?
All books should be written by diverse committees. The concept of a single author is an abuse of power and reflects assumptions about cultural hegemony in society.
And in the 25th Century, the history teacher said ".... and their civilisation was toppled when a cartoon series employed a few extra actors. The shock of this was so immense that it crushed their ability to cope..."
Not!
Look - there are always people crying for stupid stuff like books to be written by committees and so on. Most people will simply ignore them and they will fade into the sort of irrelevance that that sort of person always winds up.
Last week, it was the toppling of statues that was going to end western civilisation. This week the streets seem free of pieces of public sclupture littering gutters and harbours and most people have forgotten it and moved on.
If you really want to worry about the end of civilisation, worry about Eadric's latest story that the Chinese have somehow made the virus worse.
You simply don't understand. This censorship by Wokeism isn't some fevered dream of lunatic rightwing poets, it is already happening
Books are being cancelled, authors are self-limiting, publishers are employing "sensitivity readers" - to make sure books are Wokeishly correct
People dont see what is going on. They equate wokeism with what until recently was liberalism (freedom, equality etc). It is actually something that benefits a few people (an aggrieved revolutionary elite), and is less good for everyone else because we can now get cancelled at will, have no freedom of speech, our history is getting trashed and rewritten, etc.
This feels a bit like Brexit. People were seduced in to voting for it by visions of restored sovereignty and funding for the NHS, not the chaos it has become.
Fortunately or not, dependent on your perspective, the jokes going to be on the woke (if you excuse the terrible pun). 80 seat majority conservative government, 4 + years left to run. They can set up a process which claims to be about addressing racial and historic grievances; but ends up reversing the 2 decades of woke legislation which has fuelled the current mess. And all in the name of equality and anti racism!
It's a pleasant fantasy to think a rather spineless British Tory government will be able to reverse 40 years of Wokeist progress through academe, media, law, schools, business, charity, arts.
Not going to happen.
I read a tweet the other day which rather summed it up, if I remember correctly it said:
"Culture war is the wrong description. The culture was is over, and the Left won. Now they are just going around shooting the survivors."
The pendulum WILL swing, but my, it is taking a while and by the time it happens much damage will have been done (along with the original good things done, of course: racial equality, gay rights, and so on)
I think they will. They've already quietly dropped the gender recognition stuff. The woke element of the conservative party were largely purged last year in the Brexit wars. They have a free run at it.
Secondly, you are overestimating the impact of all this. It passes most people by. From a tactical perspective you've got to let the woke go to mad extremes (defacing churchill etc) before you have the political ability to tackle them. Thats what is happening now.
It is all about not interrupting the enemy while it is making a mistake.
Comments
The Simpsons thing is particularly stupid and regressive. The whole point of voice acting is that the performer doesn't have to look anything like their character, hence the sixtysomething Nancy Cartwright can play a 10 year old boy and James Earl Jones can be Darth Vader. Taken to its logical end actors will be forbidden to use anything other than their own accent, which would be particularly bad news for Black British actors in Hollywood.
In retrospect it started last year with the predominantly black cast of "The Lion King" remake on the grounds of it being set in Africa despite the fact Lions aren't people and the human concepts of skin colour/ethnicity simply aren't applicable.
In all seriousness, it's one of those approaches that makes me genuinely angry. I find it hard to understand how someone might get to a position from a desire to confront racial issues (or other discriminatory issues) without seeing the flaws, see how disproportionate a reaction it is.
https://twitter.com/xaliyahpriv/status/1275994004430245890?s=21
Besides, it is always interesting to watch a bloke trying to write as a woman or a woman's viewpoint. Do you have any suggestions for such authors?
Utterly bonkers to read her tweeted opinions as representing some fundamental shift in the zeitgeist.
People who should know better do it all the time - Samuel L Jackson initially criticised the casting of a black british actor for Get Out rather than a black american who would have a different, more relevant experience of the issues of the movie. A truly great actor apparently had difficulty with the concept of someone acting.
WIth the recent moves if voice actors don't want to continue the roles anymore, fine, that's their choice, but I found the family guy example strange since he referred to having done the role as an honour. If they think it is wrong for a white guy to do it and so won't anymore, then I don't see how it was an honour, but rather a mistake they regret.
Tolstoy will be banned next.
The people expounding this view about authors have no understanding of art (in its widest sense).
It is but a step to the State deciding who is allowed to write what.
Weird...
Yup, Starmer is bossing it
https://twitter.com/ChrisMurphyCT/status/1276698773683658754
https://twitter.com/PeteButtigieg/status/1276924593014550528
https://twitter.com/ProjectLincoln/status/1276968788223721475
https://twitter.com/ProjectLincoln/status/1276971140603424768
Now, most stuff on YT is dreck, but some of it is very, very good and in some areas YT is watched more than mainstream Broadcasters.
Extrapolating from there...
If Book Publishers continue to restrict writers' freedom, how long will it be until authors just start self publishing on Amazon and relying on social media to do their marketing?
Maybe what will go extinct is not the novel, but the publisher?
There was a time when Mike got upset when people used subsamples.
Want to see another ridiculous subsample ?
Labour has only a 4% lead among city constituencies.
Tory lead 6.3% (-0.2%)
Tory maj 24 (-5)
NYTimes
I'm surprised Opinium bothered.
I've attended both Newcastle University (Russell Group) and Northumbria University (ex poly) and the poly was by far the most focused on actual learning and teaching. The difference is stark.
https://twitter.com/richdavisphd/status/1276629360212979712
(Ducks for cover)
This feels a bit like Brexit. People were seduced in to voting for it by visions of restored sovereignty and funding for the NHS, not the chaos it has become.
Fortunately or not, dependent on your perspective, the jokes going to be on the woke (if you excuse the terrible pun). 80 seat majority conservative government, 4 + years left to run. They can set up a process which claims to be about addressing racial and historic grievances; but ends up reversing the 2 decades of woke legislation which has fuelled the current mess. And all in the name of equality and anti racism!
Probably unreadable these days
It's like being trapped in a lift with Jimmy Tarbuck.
I mean, fancy leading 400 million NON-WHITE people to Independence in 1947!
Johnson was always set to bankrupt the country.
Edit: Of course there is a perfectly valid excuse which is his views were the same as the predominant views of the time. They were wrong in our eyes but one of the big issues with the whole woke movement for historical reappraisal is it does judge the views of other times against our own.
https://twitter.com/John_Hudson/status/1276983931942965250
@Foxy was warning us of the situation there a week or so ago.
But look, I sense a touch of corona complacency returning on here - so I think you have a DUTY to get back full time on that.
This other stuff helps nobody. People read it and get the wrong idea. It is pandering to the worst aspects of human nature rather than seeking to bring out the best of it.
https://twitter.com/peterswellman/status/1276883249369882625
Secondly, you are overestimating the impact of all this. It passes most people by. From a tactical perspective you've got to let the woke go to mad extremes (defacing churchill etc) before you have the political ability to tackle them. Thats what is happening now.
It is all about not interrupting the enemy while it is making a mistake.
I think that is the calculation.