21 OCT 2024 by ideonexus
"Race" in D&D
As a social scientist who studies male-dominated subcultures, I have done research that put me in spaces where I delved into reactions to issues of race in gaming. A key question is this: Given how charged the term race has been, why would games use it to discuss differences that have nothing to do with the way we traditionally use the word? Dungeons & Dragons is not the only game to use the term in this way; so have many other digital and analog fantasy offerings. But the celebrated game...25 JAN 2024 by ideonexus
When Whiteness is the Default for Success
It is now common—and I use the word “common†in its every sense—to see interviews with up-and-coming young movie stars whose parents or even grandparents were themselves movie stars. And when the interviewer asks, “Did you find it an advantage to be the child of a major motion-picture star?†the answer is invariably “Well, it gets you in the door, but after that you’ve got to perform, you’re on your own.†This is ludicrous. Getti...Folksonomies: racism
Folksonomies: racism
25 JAN 2024 by ideonexus
Forgotten Best Sellers
Social values ebb and flow over decades, but the values expressed in a book are fixed. It may be that science fiction is more affected by values dissonance than other genres by nature of being (often) set in the future. A book written and set in the 1950s might have quaint expectations regarding the proper roles of men and women (not to mention the assumption that those are only two choices), but they would be the quaint expectations of the era in which the book is set. A novel written in the...Folksonomies: popculture
Folksonomies: popculture
23 SEP 2023 by ideonexus
Tolkienesque Fantasy is All About Racism
But there was one problem: isn’t traditional “Tolkienesque†fantasy all about racism? Elves are different from dwarves are different from halflings are different from humans are different from orcs and goblins. Yes, orcs and goblins, there’s the rub. Isn’t the notion of a race representing the embodiment of evil a classic definition of racism?27 MAR 2023 by ideonexus
What Would an Atheist Say to God?
Why did you stay hidden? Why did you stay silent? Why did you demand faith instead of providing evidence? Why did you reveal yourself in a book full of historical innaccuracies and theological contradictions? If you knew that the vast majority of humans you created would end up in hell, why did you create them? Why did you create hell? How is infinite punishment justice for a finite crime? What is the point of torturing someone in hell if they can never get out of it and never learn? Why woul...Folksonomies: atheism
Folksonomies: atheism
01 OCT 2022 by ideonexus
Third place
Oldenburg calls one's "first place" the home and the people the person lives with. The "second place" is the workplace—where people may actually spend most of their time. Third places, then, are "anchors" of community life and facilitate and foster broader, more creative interaction.[1] In other words, "your third place is where you relax in public, where you encounter familiar faces and make new acquaintances."[2] Other scholars have summarized Oldenburg's view of a third place with eight...Folksonomies: community
Folksonomies: community
21 SEP 2022 by ideonexus
Race in D&D
Racial bioessentialism is a core design crutch for Dungeons & Dragons. Across fifty years of tabletop roleplaying games, multiple novels, supplements, and additional tie-ins, D&D has continually established monolithic culture building as part of its lore. The alignment charts that Gary Gygax (and many designers) focused on as a method of easy-to-understand character building did not help matters; entire races were designated as Evil using this alignment chart, and Gygax himself can be...17 OCT 2021 by ideonexus
Corporal Punishment in Education
1. He that has not a mastery over his inclinations, he that knows not how to resist the importunity of present pleasure or pain, for the sake of what reason tells him is fit to be done, wants the true principle of virtue and industry; and is in danger of never being good for any thing. This temper, therefore, so contrary to unguided nature, is to be got betimes; and this habit, as the true foundation of future ability and happiness, is to be wrought into the mind, as early as may be, even fro...Folksonomies: education
Folksonomies: education
07 NOV 2019 by ideonexus
Popular Books are Quickly Forgotten
Love your beloved classics now—because even now, few people read them, for the most part, and fewer still love them. In a century, they’ll probably be forgotten by all but a few eccentrics. If it makes you feel any better, all fiction, even the books people love and rush to buy in droves, is subject to entropy. Consider, for example, the bestselling fiction novels of the week I was born, which was not so long ago. I’ve bolded the ones my local library currently has in stock. Hawaii,...Folksonomies: social norms best sellers
Folksonomies: social norms best sellers
07 NOV 2019 by ideonexus