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[Neonivek]

Ahh Metal Gear Rising

A game where you tear our people's spines to drink the Gatorade within.

[KingofstarrySkies]

It's also a game I'm actually really good at? I like that sort of game.

[Yoink]

I have a sudden craving for a custard tart. Haven't had one in years.   
No idea if there's anywhere that sells such things nearby.

[hector13]

I would suggest a bakery, or a grocery store with a bakery.

The tiny-ish (though one of the largest retailers in the U.K.) convenience store I worked in had a bakery that did custard tarts. Usually a good idea to go before lunch-time, since most of he stuff gets baked in the morning.

[Teneb]

I recently finished reading Hour of the Dragon, Conan the Barbarian's original story, plus two other stories that came with it (it's the original + 3, but I'm only starting on the last one), and holy crap is the author racist. Seriously, there's a scene where Conan is horrified that the usurper who stole his throne is selling white people as slaves... yet is totally ok with people of any other skin colour being slaves several times over the damn thing.

I mean, I knew Howard (the author) was racist going in, but I didn't think it'd show this blatantly in the story.

[Truean]

Please do not quote:

I testified against some very bad men who did unspeakable things to kids. They tried and failed to silence me. Cost me between 1/2 and a whole million and counting, plus severe non monetary costs.... Several are in prison. One was ... going for a life sentence. Was. Committed suicide in cell with shoe laces. They don't give people in that situation shoe laces.... Anyhow, I'm kind of in shock.

I had specifically arranged to be at his sentencing, which never happened for obvious reasons. After years of his retaliation, I wanted to stare at him across a court room and demand answers. Never happening now. Part of me (I imagine a justifiably upset side, like the rest of his victims) is upset I don't get to confront him.

I don't know how to feel about this. Just wanted to move on with my life. I wanted to scream at him in order to do that. Lots of people did. Can't now.

Please do not quote:

[smirk]

I mean, I knew Howard (the author) was racist going in, but I didn't think it'd show this blatantly in the story.

Oh hells yeah, Howard was racist. If you think those first couple stories are bad, just wait until you get to any of the ones set in the far southern Black Kingdoms (south of Stygia, the land where swarthy big-nosed people worship evil snake gods in giant pyramids).

Howard was doing the 'alternate earth history' thing with those stories, and he had some odd ideas about how humans progressed and regressed. He wrote a brief historical overview somewhere about the history of his world pre-Conan, and it's full of various groups of humans developing cultures and civilizations and then being torn apart by wars or other events and devolving back into apes - for example, early groups of humans who moved further and further north, becoming more warlike in the harsh arctic environment and eventually devolving into a species of aggressive heavy-furred ape. And the more advanced and civilized his humans are, the whiter they are. *shrug* 

It's worth noting that Conan himself is from Cimmeria, a gloomy land full of uncivilized and rather violent people, so Howard wasn't necessarily praising high culture and order as the best thing, but damned if he didn't like writing darker folks as evil half-human half-ape monstrosities.

[MetalSlimeHunt]

Re: Truean That's the weird part about life. The intensity gets cranked up to maximum sometimes, and then it just...keeps going. It's almost like we're evolved to see things in terms of a story structure, with a beginning and an end, but in reality none of it ever actually ends.

On the bright side, at least there was some level of justice, albeit very unrefined. I'm sure you know more than most that rotten bastards often just end up living in luxury instead.

[Neonivek]

So Howard wrote Game of Thrones? (Joke! though to admit... same thing kind of happens... Lets just say "White European is where it is at yo!" and even includes "White woman teaches civilization to a bunch of savages")

[BorkBorkGoesTheCode]

So Howard wrote Game of Thrones? (Joke! though to admit... same thing kind of happens... Lets just say "White European is where it is at yo!" and even includes "White woman teaches civilization to a bunch of savages")

Savages?

[hector13]

'cept the most sensible ruler is the gout ridden Middle Eastern equivalent. At least imo, heh.

Though I will say a lot of the white folks, in particular the Lannisters, aren't exactly painted nicely. Incest and backstabbing galore. Also the Boltons.

[Yoink]

So Howard wrote Game of Thrones? (Joke! though to admit... same thing kind of happens... Lets just say "White European is where it is at yo!" and even includes "White woman teaches civilization to a bunch of savages")

This made me think, Dany (can't be bothered working out how to spell the full name) really is like some rich, vapid white tourist going to a (very) foreign country and trying to impose her ideas of how one should behave on the people there. And subsequently failing completely, of course. Kind of funny to consider the similarities there.

...Man that show sucks.

[Neonivek]

One thing I find interesting is...

You know how a movie that tries to be hip and now becomes dated almost immediately, often before the movie comes out?

Progressivism kind of works in a VERY similar way...

Anything that tries to be really progressive will look regressive (racist/sexist) rather quickly as well.

[KingofstarrySkies]

GoT's great, fuck you on about. Dany's plot is just the weakest and most boring shit in it.

[Teneb]

I mean, I knew Howard (the author) was racist going in, but I didn't think it'd show this blatantly in the story.

Oh hells yeah, Howard was racist. If you think those first couple stories are bad, just wait until you get to any of the ones set in the far southern Black Kingdoms (south of Stygia, the land where swarthy big-nosed people worship evil snake gods in giant pyramids).

Howard was doing the 'alternate earth history' thing with those stories, and he had some odd ideas about how humans progressed and regressed. He wrote a brief historical overview somewhere about the history of his world pre-Conan, and it's full of various groups of humans developing cultures and civilizations and then being torn apart by wars or other events and devolving back into apes - for example, early groups of humans who moved further and further north, becoming more warlike in the harsh arctic environment and eventually devolving into a species of aggressive heavy-furred ape. And the more advanced and civilized his humans are, the whiter they are. *shrug* 

It's worth noting that Conan himself is from Cimmeria, a gloomy land full of uncivilized and rather violent people, so Howard wasn't necessarily praising high culture and order as the best thing, but damned if he didn't like writing darker folks as evil half-human half-ape monstrosities.

Yeah, I'm in the far south/east stories right now, in the equivalents of Africa and Iran. A black man gets literally compared to an ape demon, so... yeah. Though in Beyond the Black River he gets a bit... confused as to what colour picts are supposed to have. Toward the beginning, it is stated that they are white, but towards the end he keeps describing them as black. It's jarring, especially since if you removed all the racial stuff these stories would really good, instead of being good as long as you are ok with having to stop one per chapter to sigh at the racism.

For the record, the stories in the book are The Hour of the Dragon, Beyond the Black River, Shadows in Zamboula, and The People of the Black Circle. The last one is the only one I've yet to read.

Anything that tries to be really progressive will look regressive (racist/sexist) rather quickly as well.

Something tells me he was not trying to be progressive at all.