Doctor Who is NOT supposed to hurt!

Ok, so I loved the last episode of Doctor Who. But it also kicked my ass, emotionally.

See, it's ( Cut to prevent spoilers, though I'm going to be vague as I can -- if you've already seen it or if you care about why it made me cry, then go ahead and read )

Can you imagine? Never before has a SF show hit me that hard. Even Buffy The Vampire Slayer's "The Body" didn't hit me as hard as this. Had Peter died any other way, it wouldn't have mattered so much (though it would definately have been sad), but the way they did it, it killed me.

(no subject)

I love Harlan Ellison.

I'm watching a roundtable discussion of science fiction authors and an inventor, Ray Kurzweil. Kruzweil, who seems to be completely full of himself, is talking about how the Internet heralds a new age of information, and how wonderful it is that the internet has decentralized information. Here's Harlan's reply, verbatim:

The internet, apart from specialized areas, where doctors can learn the cutting edge of medicine, or philosphers can talk about ideas they want, is nothing but a giant back fence full of idiot yentas, who all believe their opinion is as good as everybody else's, when in fact it's not, because everybody is not entitled to their opinion, they are only entitled to their informed opinion. But the internet has done the one thing that I never thought possible: it has made information suspect. You have no way of knowing what is true, what is false, what is absolutely made up, and what is bullshit, and the internet is the "Wild Wild West" and it is not an "untrammeled, wonderful horizon."

The reply is something like "Well, yeah, but it depends on your perspective."

Linguistics Post

Here's an opportunity for people to rant, rave, and debate about African-American Vernacular English, or AAVE -- or, as it is sometimes erroneously referred to, "ebonics."

The full article can be found on this page. I quote an important passage here:

It is perhaps easiest to dispel the notion that Black English and other dialects are "corruptions" of the standard language. Modern linguistics has repeatedly shown by empirical evidence that all languages and dialects are rule-governed (communication would be impossible if they were not) and that while there are important differences in the structures of languages, none from a purely scientific perspective are considered "inferior" to any other. Dialects such as AAVE are not ungrammatical; they have, rather, a different grammar than the standard variety of English, one that may perhaps not be as socially esteemed, but it is a grammar nonetheless. Therefore, any attempt to discredit the Ebonics resolution on the grounds that it is promoting a "defective" or "imperfect" style of speech is made purely from social convention and not scientific fact.

The thing that makes me insane when discussing AAVE is that otherwise open-minded people, who have no trouble accepting moral relativism, or polyamory, or homosexual marriage, go ballistic when exposed to AAVE and call it "ignorant" or "degenerate."

The value judgement in such a thought is extreme and rather vile. "I am the arbiter of what makes you smart," it says, "and if you use anything other than Standard American English, you are an idiot." How rank that is! How elitist! How utterly foul!

Tangent: I've been guilty of similar thoughts in the past, and I'm coming to grips with the fact I was wrong. If I can do it, so can you.

I'm the first to admit that SAE needs to be used in the workplace (though I would submit that working at, say, Dimple Records, does not require SAE), and especially in academia -- no student of mine will ever get away with using AAVE in a paper unless it is specifically assigned as an informal assignment where I want the student's home dialect -- but in everyday life, it's not necessary. Provided I know what the guy in front of me is saying, does he really have to speak just like me for me to consider him smart?

I began to learn this lesson myself when I was listening to a radio call-in show about computers some few years ago. One of the callers was from the Deep South, judging by his accent. I had always regarded that accent as a sign of low intelligence, and until I heard this man, who very clearly knew his stuff and was very intelligent, I was a smug little ass when I thought this. I've also talked to people who use SAE, and found that they are, indeed, stupid as hell.
These days, I know better -- I'm not going to assume you're stupid if you use a non-standard dialect, nor am I going to assume that because you speak SAE pretty well that you're intelligent.

Hell, my ex speaks almost-perfect SAE, and he's about the least-educated guy I know -- he thought the stars were all rocks, for Sagan's sake!

And I'm not saying I don't cringe when I hear AAVE -- I'm not saying "don't have a negative reaction to it," because I can't do that, and neither can anyone else. What I am saying is, don't assume someone is stupid because they speak differently than you do.

And yeah, I am aware that I'm contradicting things I've said before. Deal with it. I have.