I think that argument strengthens itself by virtue of being pretty much unreadable to me. If that's what gamers get effortlessly, then they are more of a breed apart than I'd considered, but I think accusing Scalzi of "cultural appropriation" gives the gaming community too much of an effective equivalence, to say, Native Americans, or any actual groups for which I think cultural appropriation is actually a real issue.

I think accusing Scalzi of "cultural appropriation" gives the gaming community too much of an effective equivalence, to say, Native Americans, or any actual groups for which I think cultural appropriation is actually a real issue.

Yeah, I thought that was a real stretch.

I also think she over-sold the argument. Gamers are no better at identifying systematic oppression than anyone else. What's that saying about how stupid a man can be if his job requires him not to understand something? I think that applies in this instance, as well: people are very good at not seeing how a system benefits them at the expense of other people, and that certainly includes gamers.

Not to mention the fact that the target of the article was far beyond gamers, just that Scalzi happened to use gaming as a metaphor.

I didn't know what a "dump stat" was until I asked around, but everything else was really easy to understand. Maybe that's part of her point? That you have to speak to her culture in gamer-specific code, because if regular people can understand...

Which, really, fuck off. It's *English*. I don't see why English speakers should need things made *more* complicated so they can understand. Still, the ultimate goal is increasing comprehension, so I guess-knot yourself up into tangles, if that's what it takes to change a mind or turn on a light bulb.

But, fuck, that's kinda dumb.

Need some help here, folks: Am I interpreting this totally the wrong way round or have I only just noticed the really nasty violence-against-women in Gaiman's "Murder Mysteries"?

As Gaiman (basically) says in the introduction, there's a reason the title is plural.

I need some book recs for a high school senior boy who loved Fear and Loathing by Hunter S. Thompson and Confederacy of Dunces.

What else is dark and snarky and anti-authoritarian?

What else is dark and snarky and anti-authoritarian?

Vonnegut?

Chuck Palahniuk?

Good suggestions.

I'm leaning towards Katherine Dunn's Geek Love, but I'll compile a list of possibilities.

Anything by Flannery O'Connor? (Granted, practicing Catholic and thus not exactly anti-authoritarian in a, well, catholic sense, but she does give the general stink-eye to human authority; the more one of her characters thinks s/he knows it all and has gamed the system, the more spectacular the cosmic bitchslap)

Oh, that's a good one, too.