Gaming/Tabletop/Tabletop Role Playing Games

Race & Racism in Dungeons & Dragons (pt. 4) [Updated]

Posted on by nwilson

[Eugene Marshall’s system] does everything that Wizards of the Coast swore they were going to do in their recent press release and more…. [So] the big question is, will WotC simply annex Marshall’s system (hopefully paying him an insane amount of money), or are they even now trying to reinvent the wheel (and can they possibly do it better)?

Another twist! I’ve previously dealt with Wizards of the Coast’s announcement regarding increasing diversity in their D&D division, some reactions to it, and the resignation of one of their diverse staff members. Now, Charlie Hall of Polygon.com posted up a review of a new zine called Ancestry & Culture: An Alternative to Race in 5e [the D&D 5th edition rulebook] by author and designer Eugene Marshall (2020). Marshall is a tenured Associate Professor of Philosophy at Florida International University, he received his Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin, and has taught at Dartmouth College and Wellesley College. Although his C.V. is mostly about Spinoza, he teaches classes in Philosophy and Science Fiction, and then there’s this piece: “An Attempt at a Philosophy of Role Playing Games, (In Progress).” I obtained a copy of the zine, and I’ll review it here.

This $14.95 softcover ($9.95 PDF) does everything that WotC swore they were going to do in their recent press release and more. As a reminder, here’s WotC’s proposal regarding rule changes:

Later this year, we will release a product (not yet announced) that offers a way for a player to customize their character’s origin, including the option to change the ability score increases that come from being an elf, a dwarf, or one of D&D’s many other playable folk. This option emphasizes that each person in the game is an individual with capabilities all their own.

Ok, sounds great, but as Hall notes:

D&D spent decades codifying a ruleset that reinforces the racism already endemic in our culture, even when the rules of the game were revised across five editions and more than 40 years. The original RPG is the Ur-game, from which modern video games and even movies now flow. We have all been influenced by it. Ancestry & Culture works to upend that, while keeping the game that millions of people love to play around the world whole.

And it does it in 26 pages. The other 50 pages are full of adventures and other great stuff.

Marshall’s system is already in print, and critics like Hall have nothing but good to say about it, so the big question is, will WotC simply annex Marshall’s system (hopefully paying him an insane amount of money), or are they even now trying to reinvent the wheel (and can they possibly do it better)?

Marshall spends the first three substantive pages (4-6) discussing the concept of race he’s invested in dismantling:

Scientists and philosophers who study race reject the concept of race as a biological fact that discretely individuates groups of people. Race is not a biological reality; rather, it is a social concept constructed and employed differently at different times in history and in different places in the world. It is not like eye color, but like citizenship: something that is based in social relations and concepts, not biology.

In other words, the concept of race as it has been used from at least the Enlightenment forward to the twentieth century is, frankly, bankrupt. This is not to say there is no such thing as ancestry, heritage, and genetic difference, of course. Indeed, our genetics are real, but they are a function of our individual ancestry, not our race. What folks call racial differences simply do not map cleanly onto anything in our biology as simplistic as the concept of race. What’s more, that concept in the real world has been used to justify historic atrocities.

Indeed, racists still use these bogus, faux-scientific justifications to support their prejudice. Because these harmful concepts have no place in our world, they need not be in the stories we tell with our friends either (4-5).

You might say, “Well sure, in OUR world, but elves are completely different from orcs, etc.” Some people pointed out in their comments that orcs were created to be evil, and what’s wrong with that? Marshall throws it out to author N.K. Jemisin who says this about orcs (and half-orcs):

Orcs are human beings who can be slaughtered without conscience or apology…. Creatures that look like people, but aren’t really. Kinda-sorta-people, who aren’t worthy of even the most basic moral considerations, like the right to exist. Only way to deal with them is to control them utterly a la slavery, or wipe them all out. Huh. Sounds familiar…. The whole concept of orcs is irredeemable. Orcs are fruit of the poison vine that is human fear of ‘the Other.’ In games like Dungeons and Dragons, orcs are a ‘fun’ way to bring faceless savage dark hordes into a fantasy setting and then gleefully go genocidal on them…. They’re an amalgamation of stereotypes. And to me, that’s no fun at all (5).

And are orcs and elves different from humans in the fantasy world? Are they different species? Then why are there half-elves and half-orcs, etc.? And if there are those, why aren’t there half-elf/half-orcs? If D&D races are only as different as coyotes and wolves (who have mated to produce the coywolf) then are they really THAT different? And what’s to be gained by throwing out race and replacing it by ancestry and culture?

Well, first off, highly creative, individualized characters that grant freedom of expression. Instead of making a simple decision on race, players have to choose both their ancestry and the culture in which their characters were raised. “Ancestry provides those heritable traits that a character might receive from their biological parents, such as height, average lifespan, and special senses like darkvision”–and Marshall’s system rewards characters of mixed ancestry, giving them more flexibility in choosing these traits and special abilities (4).

A character can have an elven parent and a human parent, or a dwarven parent and a halfling parent. Other characters can have parents who themselves have mixed ancestry. The rules in this section provide mechanics to generate such mixed ancestries. Of course, almost all characters in a fantasy world probably have some degree of mixed ancestry. These rules are intended to allow players to make characters that have two primary ancestries, however, rather than one dominant one (26).

“Culture, on the other hand, is an integrated system of beliefs, values and symbolic practices shared by a particular group or community. Cultural traits include language, skill training, values and education” (4) [Intelligence, Constitution and Charisma]–as it should, since early development, education and likeability may be highly determined by your society (nurture, not nature). If you have good schools and early education you get smarter (as the Head Start program–which I participated in as a child–proves). If you have proper nutrition and exercise growing up, you are going to be healthier. I’ll deal with Charisma in a moment.

However, culture also affects physical attributes (Strength and Dexterity). What’s wrong with saying heredity affects your physical abilities? Marshall cites game designer James Mendez Hodes that:

D&D, like Tolkien, makes race literally real in-game by applying immutable modifiers to character ability scores, skills and other characteristics. The in-game fiction justifies these character traits as absolute realities; they also just happen to be the same cruel and untrue things racists say about different ethnicities (5).

Instead, Marshall argues that although your heredity tells us that you will be tall and broad shouldered, you actually have to work out to be athletic, and the incentive to do that is cultural. If your culture values archery–and you participate–you’ll develop more dexterity. If your culture values Greco-Roman wresting–and you participate–you might develop more strength, etc.

The traditional rules also encourage thinking in terms of “ghettoization”, “the segregation/isolation of a group [usually based on concepts of race] and placement of that group into a figurative or literal position of little power,” thus halflings live in halfling communities, dwarves in dwarven communities, etc. And half-breeds are supposed to be particularly mistreated and ostracized from both their parent cultures. Perhaps these groups choose to self isolate–the elves are aloof and think they’re better than humans–that’s the sunny, perfect picture we tell ourselves [a “bogus, faux-scientific justification”?]. And it leads to translations into our world–“All the brown people really feel safer around other brown people”–not that their choice of residence has anything to do with redlining and practices systemically imposed to create the situation. Not that these communities suffer from location in food deserts, lack of adequate transportation, poor schools based on income taxes, etc.

Marshall’s concept of Culture, on the other hand, embraces diverse, multicultural communities, granting special bonuses, like “Diverse Cultural Traits,” which Hall explains thusly:

Diverse Cultural Traits grants players +2 to their charisma, because diversity is beautiful. They gain the character trait whereby they value personal freedom and creative expression. They have an inner strength whereby they have “neither love of leaders nor desire for followers.” They gain proficiency in two skills of their choice, and they can speak two extra languages that might be spoken in their community.

Basically, characters from these communities develop a better toolset to get along with people different than themselves, and they appreciate those people; they have more diverse cultural resources to draw from–and incentives to do so. If half your community speaks Spanish, you learn to speak Spanish. That all makes you more charismatic.

Maybe it’s all hippie, liberal preaching. But what if it’s closer to the way the world works? Maybe it won’t have any effect on The Real World. But what if it does? What’s the worst that could happen? Our children could grow up “soft,” ready to think the best of other people, and therefore open to being taken advantage of. And yes, they might be. But that’s short-term thinking. In the long-term, if people aren’t mistreated, told there’s only so much to go around, and then placed in impossible situations–if everybody had at least a minimum amount of resources and respect–they might stop thinking about trying to “get one over on” other people, and work harder on getting along with other people.

Humor Theories/Stand Up Comedy/Theories About Audiences/Theories About Comics

Pagan Rhetoric

Posted on by nwilson

Pagan Comedians and Their Results

For me, the comedians (or comics) and audiences alike are not like Lyotard’s republicans, bona fide politicians or activists bound by litige, but like his pagans, unknown and questionable elements of whom we can never expect truth or even logical, rational thought. We can never definitively pin zir to any motive other than achieving humor. But just because we can’t expect these elements doesn’t mean political work doesn’t happen. Truth, logic and ulterior motives may still show up–if only in our interpretations.

Christine Harold borrows Friedrich Nietzsche’s model of the comedian.  She suggests that unlike the ascetic, who seeks to expose truth, “comedians diagnose a specific situation, and try something to see what responses they can provoke” (194). Harold’s comedian jams or improvises, interprets and experiments with the forms of commercial mass-media, opening a space for the audience to act–to have agency–they are invited to participate and interpret mediated messages in divergent and often contradictory ways.  This view sees humor as a productive political act on the part of the comedian in that it invites political action, which takes the form of audience uptake–their interpretations and reactions. 

When a comic tells a story about a situation where their behavior is so outrageous that we cannot believe it happened let alone condone the behavior, but yet we also cannot dismiss that it quite possibly did happen, we are presented with a moment of possibility born of this irreconcilability. 

If we abandon litige with its necessity of the closure of getting the intended joke, of an intentional telos (goal, point or end) that the audience and critic must uncover/decipher in order to “get it,” we find a much more complex model in which the humor lies not in the decision of “did ze mean it?” or “didn’t ze?” but in the possibility encapsulated by the questions “might ze have?” and “what if ze did?” 

Our inability to decide on a single tenable position need not fall to relativism, but provides opportunity for audience agency in the form of meaning-making. We can decide the statement is meaningful and/or we can decide it’s meaningless. We can decide it’s political and/or that it’s funny

This presentation of pagan, ironic figures brings up another way of looking at irony and parody – as possibility that comes from irreconcilability and therefore requires supplementation [I’ll go into this later–if I haven’t already; still getting back into the swing of things]. Thus, in their purest forms, humorous irony and parody might best be called pagan tactics; they are différends, examples of the radically incommensurate.  In this ironic economy, motive is not diminished, but rather motive becomes all that matters.  But this motive is never taken at face value – determined; it must be inferred. 

References:

Harold, Christine. “Pranking Rhetoric: ‘Culture Jamming’ as Media Activism,” Critical Studies in Media Communication 21.3 (2004): 189-211.

Lyotard, Jean François.  The Postmodern Condition: A Report on Knowledge.  Trans. Geoff Bennington and Brian Massumi.  Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota, 1984/2002.

—.  The Différend.  Trans. George Van Den Abeele.  Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota, 1988.

—.  “Lessons in Paganism.”  The Lyotard Reader.  Ed. Andrew Benjamin.  Cambridge, MA: Blackwell, 1989/1993. 122-154.

Nietzsche, Friedrich. On the Genealogy of Morals, (1989).

Wilson, Nathan. Was That Supposed to be Funny? A Rhetorical Analysis of Politics, Problems and Contradictions in Contemporary Stand-Up Comedy. Dissertation in partial completion of the Ph.D. August, 2008.

Dr. Who (Reboot, 2005-)/Series 2/Television

Dr. Who, Series 2: Best Quotes/Exchanges (pt. 1)

Posted on by nwilson

[Spoilers!] I LOVE a good quote, and there are some truly great lines in this show. I tried to get it down to my top three contenders from each episode (courtesy of www.planetclaire.tv), but sometimes less, sometimes more. I’ve added some commentary, but here they are in episode order. I’ll soon follow this with a ranked list.

Episode 0: “The Christmas Invasion” (Russell T. Davies)

It’s a bit long, but we really do need the context, Doctor #10’s/David Tennant’s first full dialogue, and his priorities are 1) saying ‘hi’ to his friends, 2) talking about tea, and then 3) how he looks. It’s pretty classic

Sycorax Leader (Sean Gilder): …then your world will be gutted and your people enslaved.
Alex [Translating]: Hold on, that’s English.
Harriet: He’s talking English.
Rose: You’re talking English.
Sycorax Leader: I would never dirty my tongue with your primitive bile.
Rose: That’s English. Can you hear English?
Alex: Yes. Definitely English.
Sycorax Leader: I speak only Sycoraxic!
Rose: I can hear English. It’s being translated. Which means it’s working. Which means— [The TARDIS opens]
The Doctor: Did you miss me? [The Sycorax leader attacks] You could put someone’s eye out with that. You just can’t get the staff. Now you, just wait. I’m busy. [Turns to his friends] Mickey, hello! And Harriet Jones, MP from Flydale North! Blimey! It’s like This Is Your Life! Tea! That’s all I needed. A good cup of tea. A superheated infusion of free radicals and tannin. Just the thing for heating the synapses. Now, first thing’s first. [To Rose] Be honest. How do I look?
Rose: Um… different.
The Doctor: Good different or bad different?
Rose: Just… different.
The Doctor: Am I ginger?
Rose: No, you’re just sort of brown.
The Doctor: I wanted to be ginger! I’ve never been ginger. And you, Rose Tyler! Fat lot of good you were. You gave up on me! [Taken aback] Oo! That’s rude. Is that the sort of man I am now? Am I rude? Rude and not ginger.

The next part of the dialogue is equally classic: the only thing we know for sure about the Doctor is that he can talk.

Sycorax Leader: Who exactly are you?
The Doctor: Well, that’s the question.
Sycorax Leader: I demand to know who you are!
The Doctor: I don’t know! See that’s the thing. I’m the Doctor. But beyond that I just don’t know. I literally do not know who I am. It’s all untested. Am I funny? Am I sarcastic? Sexy? Right old misery? Life and soul? Right-handed, left-handed? A gambler, a fighter, a coward, a traitor, a liar, a nervous wreck? I mean judging by the evidence I’ve certainly got a gob.

The final bit reminds me a lot of Evil Dead 2, where Ash Williams cuts his hand off. Rather, it’s what I wish would have happened, and how Ash might react.

The Doctor [about his regenerated hand]: Of course I’m still The Doctor then.
Rose: No arguments from me!
The Doctor: Wanna know the best bit? This new hand? It’s a fightin’ hand!

Episode 1: “New Earth” (Russell T. Davies)

Say that 10 times, fast.

Rose: What’s the city called?
The Doctor: New New York.
Rose: Oh come on.
The Doctor: It is. It’s the city of New New York. Strictly speaking, it’s the fifteenth New York since the original. So that makes it New New New New New New New New New New New New New New New New York.

Russell T. Davies, as I’ve mentioned, likes to wax poetic about humans, but here is one of his briefest bits:

The Doctor: The human race just keeps on going—keeps on changing. Life will out. Ha!

This dialogue with the Face of Boe spans multiple episodes and covers quite the plot twists. Here, it’s just textbook enigmatic.

The Face of Boe: I had grown tired of the Universe, Doctor. But you have taught me to look at it anew.
The Doctor: There are legends you know. Saying that you’re millions of years old.
The Face of Boe: Now that would be impossible.
The Doctor: Wouldn’t it just. I got the impression there was something you wanted to tell me.
The Face of Boe: A great secret.
The Doctor: So the legend says.
The Face of Boe: It can wait.
The Doctor: Oh! Does it have to?
The Face of Boe: We shall meet again, Doctor, for the third time—for the last time—and the truth shall be told. Until that day.
The Doctor: That is enigmatic. That is textbook enigmatic.

Episode 2: “Tooth and Claw” (Russell T. Davies)

I’m not certain how the Doctor continues to travel to the wrong place and time, but he always seems to land where and when he needs to be. And his Scottish is hilarious. Rose’s…not so much.

The Doctor: 1979! Hell of a year! China invades Vietnam. The Muppet Movie. Love that film. Margaret Thatcher. Ugh. Skylab fell to Earth with a little help from me. Nearly took off my thumb. [Walking out of the TARDIS] And I like my thumb. I need my thumb. I’m very attached to—[Sees the armed men on horseback]—my thumb. [To himself.] 1879. Same difference.
Captain Reynolds: You will explain your presence and the nakedness of this girl.
The Doctor: Are we in Scotland?
Captain Reynolds: How can you be ignorant of that?
The Doctor: Oh, I’m dazed and confused. I’ve been chasing this wee naked child over hill and over dale. I’nt that right, ya timorous beastie?
Rose: Och! Ay! I’ve bin oot and aboot.
The Doctor: No, don’t do that.
Rose: Hoots mon.
The Doctor: No, really don’t. Really.

So much for his honor as a traveler in time.

Rose: I want her [Queen Victoria] to say “We are not amused.” I bet you five quid I can make her say it.
The Doctor: Well if I gambled on that it’d be an abuse of my privilege as a traveler in time.
Rose: Ten quid?
The Doctor: Done.

And happy is code for…?

Sir Robert: I’m sorry, Mum. It’s all my fault. I should’ve sent you away. I tried to suggest something was wrong. I thought you might notice. Did you think there was nothing strange about my household staff?
The Doctor: Well, they were bald, athletic—your wife’s away, I just thought you were happy.

Episode 3: “School Reunion” (Toby Whithouse)

The Doctor using all the cool-kids lingo. Sounds about as well as when I try it.

The Doctor: It’s very well-behaved, this place. I thought there would be happy slapping hoodies. Happy slapping hoodies with ASBOs. Happy slapping hoodies with ASBOs and ringtones. [Pleased with himself.] Yeah? Yeah? Oh yeah! Don’t tell me I don’t fit in.

The sad truth of the Doctor/companion relationship. Sadly, there’s one companion he could have.

The Doctor: You can spend the rest of your life with me, but I can’t spend the rest of mine with you. I have to live on. Alone. That’s the curse of the Time Lords.

Tennant’s Doctor rarely flexes, but here’s one of those times.

Finch: And what of the Time Lords? I always thought of you as such a pompous race. Ancient, dusty senators so frightened of change and… chaos. And of course, they’re all but extinct. Only you, the last.
The Doctor: This plan of yours, what is it?
Finch: You don’t know?
The Doctor: That’s why I’m asking.
Finch: Well show me how clever you are. Work it out.
The Doctor: If I don’t like it, then it will stop.
Finch: Fascinating. Your people were peaceful to the point of indolence. You seem to be something new. would you declare war on us, Doctor?
The Doctor: I’m so old now. I used to have so much mercy. You get one warning. That was it.

Episode 4: “The Girl in the Fireplace” (Steven Moffat)

I’m going a bit overboard on this episode, but Steven Moffat just nails it. First off, the Doctor backing off his initial statements is pretty common, but always funny.

Mickey: It’s a spaceship. Brilliant! I got a spaceship on my first go.
Rose: It looks kind of abandoned. Anyone on board?
The Doctor: Nah. Nothing here. Well, nothing dangerous. Well, not that dangerous. Know what, I’ll just have a quick scan. In case of something dangerous.

“Temporal hyperlink” is fancy talk for “magic door.”

Mickey: You said this was the 51st century.
The Doctor: I also said this ship was generating enough power to punch a hole in the Universe. I think we just found the hole. Must be a spaceship with a temporal hyperlink.
Mickey: What’s that?
The Doctor: No idea. Just made it up. Didn’t want to say “Magic Door”.

Never listen to reason.

Reinette: You seem to be flesh and blood at any rate, but that is absurd. Reason tells me you cannot be real.
The Doctor: Oh, you never want to listen to reason.

The second bit in the reboots about companions wandering off, and we need this one for context.

The Doctor: Rose? Mickey? Every time! Every time! It’s rule one. “Don’t wander off.” I tell them, I do. Rule one. There could be anything on this ship. [Sees the horse]

When dealing with the Doctor, perspective is key.

Mickey: What’s a horse doing on a spaceship?
The Doctor: Mickey, what’s pre-Revolutionary France doing on a spaceship. Get a little perspective.

The Doctor’s “drunken” put-downs are great: “You’re Mister Thick Thick Thickity Thick Face from Thicktown, Thickania. And so’s your dad.”

[The Doctor sways in, carrying a goblet and wearing his tie around his head.]
DOCTOR: And still have begged for more. I could’ve spread my wings and done a thou. Have you met the French? My god, they know how to party.
ROSE: Oh, look at what the cat dragged in. The Oncoming Storm.
DOCTOR: Oh, you sound just like your mother.
ROSE: What’ve you been doing? Where’ve you been?
DOCTOR: Well, among other things, I think just invented the banana daiquiri a few centuries early. Do you know, they’ve never even seen a banana before. Always take a banana to a party, Rose. Bananas are good. Oh ho, ho, ho, ho, brilliant. It’s you. You’re my favourite, you are. You are the best! Do you know why? Because you’re so thick. You’re Mister Thick Thick Thickity Thick Face from Thicktown, Thickania. And so’s your dad. Do you know what they were scanning Reinette’s brain for? Her milometer. They want to know how old she is. Know why? Because this ship is thirty seven years old, and they think that when Reinette is thirty seven, when she’s complete, then her brain will be compatible. So, that’s what you’re missing, isn’t it, hmm? Command circuit. Your computer. Your ship needs a brain. And for some reason, God knows what, only the brain of Madame de Pompadour will do.
DROID: The brain is compatible.
DOCTOR: Compatible? If you believe that, you probably believe this is a glass of wine.
(The Doctor removes the android’s mask and pours the contents of the goblet into its head. The clockwork seizes up.)
DOCTOR: Multigrain anti-oil. If it moves, it doesn’t.

This should be sub-text for every situation in the show.

The Doctor: Alright. Many things about this are not good.

Episode 5: “Rise of the Cybermen” (Tom MacRae)

Mickey correcting the Doctor; when it happens, it’s magic.

The Doctor: She’s dead. The TARDIS is dead.
Rose: You can fix it?
The Doctor: There’s nothing to fix. She’s perished. The last TARDIS in the Universe, extinct.
Rose: We can get help, yeah?
The Doctor: Where from?
Rose: Well, we’ve landed. We’ve got to be somewhere.
The Doctor: We fell out of the Vortex. Through the Void into nothingness. We’re in some sort of noplace. A silent realm. A lost dimension.
Mickey [looking outside]: Otherwise known as London.

Men do stupid things sometimes, and the Doctor is no exception.

The Doctor: If I could just get this thing to— [The Doctor kicks the TARDIS]
Mickey: Did that help?
The Doctor: Yes.
Mickey: Did that hurt?
The Doctor: Yes.

Tom MacRae waxes a bit sentimental about the multiverse.

Mickey: I’ve seen it in comics. People are popping from one alternative world to another. It’s easy.
The Doctor: Not in the real world. Used to be easy. When the Time Lords kept their eye on everything. You could pop between realities, home in time for tea. Then they died and took it all with them. The walls of reality closed. The worlds were sealed. And everything became a bit less kind.

Episode 6: “The Age of Steel” (Tom MacRae)

Fight the power! With… parking tickets?

Ricky: I’m London’s most wanted for parking tickets.
Pete: Oh great.
Ricky: Yeah, they were deliberate. I was fighting the system. Park anywhere, that’s me.
The Doctor: Good policy. I do much the same.

Humans falling under alien control is a major theme in the reboot, but that doesn’t make it beyond the Doctor’s commentary.

The Doctor: The human race. For such an intelligent lot you aren’t half susceptible. Give anyone a chance to take control and you submit. Sometimes I think you like it. Easy life.

Brilliantly making it up as he goes along–the Doctor in a nutshell.

The Doctor: The whole of London’s been sealed off and the entire population’s been taken inside that place. To be converted.
Rose: We’ve got to get in there and shut it down.
Mickey: How do we do that?
The Doctor: Oh, I’ll think of something.
Mickey: You’re just making this up as you go along.
The Doctor: Yep. But I do it brilliantly.

And a little bit of the Doctor’s classic modesty.

The Doctor: Oh Lumic. You’re a clever man. I’d call you a genius except I’m in the room.

Episode 7: “The Idiot’s Lantern” (Mark Gatiss)

Shutting down a blow-hard the Doctor way.

Eddie Connolly: I am talking!
The Doctor: And I’m not listening! Now you, Mr. Connolly, you are staring into a deep, dark pit of trouble if you don’t let me help. So I’m ordering you, sir, tell me what’s going on!

The Doctor gets clever.

Detective Inspector Bishop standing over The Doctor: Start from the beginning. Tell me everything you know.
The Doctor: Well. For starters, I know you can’t wrap your hand around your elbow and make your fingers meet.
Detective Inspector Bishop: Don’t get clever with me!

Aliens trapped on Betamax. The thought alone is clever.

The Doctor: What have I missed?
Tommy: Doctor! What happened?
The Doctor: Sorted. Electrical creature. TV technology. Clever alien life form. That’s me, by the way. I turned the transceiver back into a transmitter and I trapped The Wire in here. I just made the home video thirty years early. Betamax. Oh look! God save the Queen, eh?

Too bad using “transtemporal extirpation methods to neutralize the residual electronic pattern” never caught on as a phrase. Now the tech has moved on.

Rose: Will it… that thing, is it trapped for good on video?
The Doctor: That’s right. Just to be on the safe side though, I’ll use my unrivaled knowledge of transtemporal extirpation methods to neutralize the residual electronic pattern.
Rose: You what?
The Doctor: I’m gonna tape over it.
Rose: Just leave it to me. I’m always doing that.

Episode 8: “The Impossible Planet” (Matt Jones)

This should have been the first sign of what we’re dealing with, but the Doctor is too busy being modest.

The Doctor: There we go. D’you see? To generate that gravity field and the funnel you’d need a power source with an inverted self-extrapolating reflex of six to the power of six every six seconds.
Rose: That’s a lot of sixes.
The Doctor: And it’s impossible.
Zach: It took us two years to work that out.
The Doctor: I’m very good.

This tension between the Doctor loving humans and thinking we’re completely mad is also a theme of the reboot.

The Doctor: Excuse me, Zach, wasn’t it?
Zach: That’s me.
The Doctor: Just stand there. ‘Cause I’m going to hug you. Is that all right?
Zach: ‘Spose so.
The Doctor: Here we go. Comin’ in! Human Beings. You are amazing. Ha! Thank you.
Zach: Not at all.
The Doctor: But apart from that you’re completely mad. You should pack your bags, get back in that ship and fly for your lives.

She had to say it.

Ida: Well, we’ve come this far. There’s no turning back.
The Doctor: Oh, did you have to? “No turning back.” That’s almost as bad as, “nothing can possibly go wrong” or “This is going to be the best Christmas Walford’s ever had.”

What dungeon crawler has met a trap door they like?

The Doctor: We’ve found something. Looks like metal, like some sort of seal. I’ve got a nasty feeling the word might be “trap door.” Not a good word, “trap door”. Never met a trap door I liked.

Episode 9: “The Satan Pit” (Matt Jones)

The Doctor waxing philosophical, in the vein of Kenneth Burke.

Ida: What do you think?
The Doctor: He gave an order.
Ida: Yeah but. What do you think?
The Doctor: It said “I am the temptation.”
Ida: But if there’s something in there, why is it still hiding?
The Doctor: Maybe we opened the prison but not the cell.
Ida: We should go down. I’d go. What about you?
The Doctor: Oh! Oh, in a second. But then again… that is so human. “Where angels fear to tread.” Even now, standing on the edge. It’s that feeling you get, hm? Right on the back of your head. That impulse. That strange little impulse. That mad little voice saying, “Go on! Go on. Go on. Go over, go on!” Maybe it’s relying on that. For once in my life, Officer Scott, I’m going to say… retreat.

I really don’t like the premise of this episode, but yet I love it when the Doctor gets called out, and here it’s by the devil.

The Doctor: If you really are the Beast then answer me this: which one? Hm? ’Cause the Universe has been busy since you’ve been gone. There’s more religions than there are planets in the sky. The Arkiphets. Quoldonity. Christianity. Pash Pash. Neo-Judaism. Sanklaar. The Church of the Tin Vagabond. Which devil are you?
The Beast (through the Ood): All of them.
The Doctor: What then, you’re the truth behind the myth?
The Beast (through the Ood): This one knows me and I know him. The killer of his own kind.

The second part of the earlier philosophical discussion.

The Doctor: There it is again. That itch. “Go down go down go down go down.”
Ida: The urge to jump. Do you know where it comes from, that sensation? Genetic heritage. Ever since we were primates in the trees. It’s our body’s way of testing us. Calculating whether or not we can reach the next branch.
The Doctor: No, that’s not it. That’s too kind. It’s not the urge to jump, it’s deeper than that. It’s the urge to fall!

I like “the devil as idea” living in “the things that men do.” And being open to being proved wrong is just basic science

The Doctor: Neo-classics. Have they got a Devil?
Ida: No, not as such. Just, um… “the things that men do.”
The Doctor: Same thing in the end.
Ida: What about you?
The Doctor: I… believe. I believe I haven’t seen everything, I don’t know. It’s funny, isn’t it? The things you make up—the rules. If that thing had said it came from beyond the universe I’d believe it, but before the universe… that’s impossible. It doesn’t fit in my rules. Still, that’s why I keep travelling. To be proved wrong. Thank you Ida.
Ida: Don’t go!
The Doctor: If they get back in touch… if you talk to Rose, just tell her… tell her… Oh, she knows.

Episode 10: “Love & Monsters” (Russell T. Davies)

Only one from this episode. Another moment when the Doctor clarifies his nature.

Abzorbaloff: You see I’ve read about you, Doctor. I’ve studied you. So passionate, so sweet. You wouldn’t let an innocent man die. And I’ll absorb him. Unless you give yourself to me.
The Doctor: Sweet, maybe. Passionate, I suppose. But don’t ever mistake that for nice. Do what you want.
Abzorbaloff: He’ll die, Doctor!
The Doctor: I know.
Abzorbaloff: So be it.
The Doctor: Mind you, the others might having something to say.

Episode 11: “Fear Her” (Matthew Graham)

Olympics, Club Med, what’s the difference?

The Doctor: It only seems like yesterday a few naked Greek blokes were tossing a discus about, wrestling with each other in the sand and the crowds stood about— No wait a minute. That was Club Med.

What did you say?!? Foreshadowing.

Rose: I’ve got cousins. Kids can’t have it all their own way. That’s part of being a family.
The Doctor: What about trying to understand them?
Rose: Easy for you to say. You don’t have kids.
The Doctor: I was a dad once.
Rose: What did you say?

The things he gets hung up on.

The Doctor: I cannot stress this enough. Ballbearings you can eat—masterpiece!

Episode 12: “Army of Ghosts” (Russell T. Davies)

Too true.

Jackie: But you can see them. They look human.
Rose: She’s got a point. They are sort of blurred, but they’re definitely people.
The Doctor: Maybe not. They’re pressing themselves into the surface of the world. But a footprint doesn’t look like a boot.

If Obi wan Kenobi taught us anything, it’s “always seize the high ground.”

The Doctor: Hm. There goes the advantage of surprise. Still, cuts to the chase. Stay here, look after Jackie.
Rose: I’m not looking after my mum.
The Doctor: Well you brought her.
Jackie: I was kidnapped!
Rose: Doctor, they’ve got guns.
The Doctor: And I haven’t. Which makes me the better person, don’t you think? They can shoot me dead but the moral high ground is mine.

Hmph. Humans!

The Doctor: So you find the breach, probe it, the sphere comes through. Six hundred feet above London. Bam! It leaves a hole in the fabric of reality. And that hole, you think, “Oh, should we leave it alone? Should we back off? Should we play it safe? Nah!” you think, “Let’s make it bigger!”

Episode 13: “Doomsday” (Russell T. Davies)

Maybe belief is all you need.

Pete: Doctor, help us.
The Doctor: What? Close the breach? Stop the Cybermen? Defeat the Daleks? Do you believe I can do that?
Pete: Yes.
The Doctor: Maybe that’s all I need. Off we go then!

So those are the top for me. True, there are others that didn’t make the list, but I had to make some cuts.

Did I miss any? Which are your favorites? Comment and I’ll respond. Stay tuned for my Top 10 rankings.

Big Theories/Postmodern Theory

Jean-François Lyotard and Maurice Charland on the Rhetoric of the Republic, Litige and Pagans

Posted on by nwilson

Republican Rhetoric of the Polis, and Litige

[Note: A version of this argument appears in my dissertation and on this website where I deal with Ironic Satire, and Satiric Irony.]

Jean-François Lyotard talks about rhetoric’s republican roots–as coming from the citizens in the Republic, living within the city walls (or polis; as opposed to the pagans–inhabitants of the pagus outside of it).  This republican system presupposes that dispute resolution will take place via litigation or litige (“Lessons”).

Maurice Charland describes litige as “a dispute where both parties articulate their claims in a language they mutually share with a court or judge whose legitimacy they both recognize,” in which “the decorum of the court is known and respected by both parties, and the judgment imposes closure” (221-22). This description thus requires shared language, shared notions of decorum, a shared estimation of and respect for authority.

Because of litige, we infer a lot whenever we talk (or listen), including when we tell (or hear) jokes. Generally, we think that everyone communicates like we do, and therefore, everyone knows exactly what a person means when they say something, either because of the words they’ve chosen or the way they say it–we know how they’re supposed to act, the decorum, and how we’re supposed to respond, and therefore we think we can all judge the way they did act. These judgments close a discourse–they fix its meaning to “what it really means. In terms of jokes, we get it, and it only means one thing (or perhaps a couple of/few things).

If only it were that simple.

The Pagus

As I mentioned, for Lyotard, there is an alternative to the city (or polis) with it’s rules (litige). Lyotard calls the godless, open space or nomos outside the city walls the pagus, (“Lessons”).  We might label the pagus, following from Deleuze and Guattari, a smooth space in contrast to striated, highly delineated space of the polis (McKerrow).  These are the wild areas, peopled with unknown elements.  In this space, there are no pre-set groups, no enduring logics or rules, only spaces of interaction and friction among ad hoc and ephemeral individuals and groups. I argue that this is the space comedians occupy. They are pagans.

References:

Charland, Maurice.  “Property and Propriety: Rhetoric, Justice, and Lyotard’s Différend.”  Judgment Calls: Rhetoric, Politics, and Indeterminancy.  Ed. John M. Sloop and James P. McDaniel.  Boulder, CO: Westview, 1998. 220-36.

Deleuze, Gilles, Guattari, Felix. A Thousand Plateaus. Capitalism and Schizophrenia. London: Continuum, 1980/1987.

Lyotard, Jean François.  The Postmodern Condition: A Report on Knowledge.  Trans. Geoff Bennington and Brian Massumi.  Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota, 1984/2002.

—.  The Différend.  Trans. George Van Den Abeele.  Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota, 1988.

—.  “Lessons in Paganism.”  The Lyotard Reader.  Ed. Andrew Benjamin.  Cambridge, MA: Blackwell, 1989/1993. 122-154.

McKerrow, Raymie E. “Space and time in the postmodern polity,” Western Journal of Communication 63:3 (1999): 271-290,

Wilson, Nathan. Was That Supposed to be Funny? A Rhetorical Analysis of Politics, Problems and Contradictions in Contemporary Stand-Up Comedy. Dissertation in partial completion of the Ph.D. August, 2008.

Dr. Who (Reboot, 2005-)/Series 2/Television

Dr. Who, Series 2: Best Alien(s) (pt. 1)

Posted on by nwilson

[Spoilers!] Virtually every episode features some new alien race or beastie that the Doctor and his companions must overcome, and this season is no exception.

Sycorax

Episode 0: “The Christmas Invasion” (Russell T. Davies): In this episode, the Doctor is out, recovering from the regeneration, and Mickey and Rose must first defend the Doctor from Santa robots, which are just the forerunners of the “real threat”: Earth is threatened by the Sycorax, a Klingon-esque race that wants to enslave half the population, or it will kill roughly a third.

Episode 1: “New Earth” (Russell T. Davies): The Doctor and Rose travel to New Earth, and enter a hospital staffed by Cat-nuns, the Sisters of Plenitude, who are artificially creating humans to test their cures. After they are cured and liberated, they become the new humans. The Doctor and Rose also re-encounter the Face of Boe, and Lady Cassandra O’Brien.

Episode 2: “Tooth and Claw” (Russell T. Davies): Werewolves! Ok, really it is a “lupine wavelength haemovariform,” an alien entity that infects humans through bites, has an aversion to mistletoe, and likely infects the royal family through Queen Victoria.

Episode 3: “School Reunion” (Toby Whithouse): Krillitanes have taken over a school and fed the students Krillitane oil to make them smart enough to decode the “Skasis Paradigm,” a theory of everything.

Episode 4: “The Girl in the Fireplace” (Steven Moffat): Ok, no beasts here, but droids that mistakenly believe that their 37 year-old ship, Madame de Pompadour, needs the brain of the historical Madame de Pompadour when she reaches 37.

Episodes 5 & 6: “Rise of the Cybermen”/”The Age of Steel” (Tom MacRae): The Doctor, Rose and Mickey Smith are cast into a parallel universe and face off against John Lumic and his creations, the Cybermen. Cybermen take many forms over the years, as they are classic Dr. Who nemeses, first seen opposite the 1st and 2nd Doctors (William Hartnell and Patrick Troughton, respectively) in The Tenth Planet (1966).

Episode 7: “The Idiot’s Lantern” (Mark Gatiss): An entity calling itself “the Wire,” has converted itself to electrical form, and wishes to use televisions to consume minds (and faces), hoping to rebuild its body.

Episodes 8 & 9: “The Impossible Planet”/”The Satan Pit” (Matt Jones): The Doctor and Rose arrive on a planet orbiting a black hole, and encounter a contingent of humans trying to drill to the center of the planet and unravel its mystery with the help of their subservient aliens, the Ood. The Doctor also encounters “the Beast,” which is thought to be the origin of myths of evil incarnate, Satan, etc. While “the Beast’s” body is kept on the planet, its consciousness might be able to escape if it finds a host.

Episode 10: “Love & Monsters” (Russell T. Davies): A bit of a one-off, this episode is told through the video diary of Elton Pope, who has had a couple of encounters with the Doctor. Elton finds a group of like-minded people on-line and forms the group LINDA (London Investigation ‘N’ Detective Agency) to investigate the Doctor. This group is largely ineffectual, and devolves into other interests, until they are taken over by Victor Kennedy, who we later learn is a creature called an Abzorbaloff, which absorbs people into its body, and desires to absorb the doctor.

Episode 11: “Fear Her” (Matthew Graham): The Doctor and Rose land in London just prior to the 2012 Olympic games, and discover a number of children have apparently been abducted. They find out that a girl named Chloe Webber has been possessed by an alien called an Isolus, which is trapping the children in her pictures because it is lonely.

Episodes 12 & 13: “Army of Ghosts”/”Doomsday” (Russell T. Davies): Initially appearing as “Ghosts,” we eventually learn that the Earth is being invaded by the Cybermen–the same ones from the parallel universe in episodes 5 & 6. Of course, the Cybermen can only manage this by following a Void ship, piloted by four Daleks comprising the Cult of Skaro, a small band tasked with improving the Dalek species. These Dalek have captured Time Lord technology, a Genesis Ark, which turns out to be a space-time prison containing millions of Dalek, and thus begins a battle between Dalek and Cybermen, with humans caught in the crossfire.

In the spirit of the new format, I’ll take comments and suggestions before revealing my favorites.

In Series 1, I chose interaction with the Doctor over classic creatures, most dangerous and most frequently appearing. That might or might not work here. Let me know what you think the criteria should be in the comments.

Dr. Who (Reboot, 2005-)/Series 2/Television

Dr. Who, Series 2 (2005-2006)

Posted on by nwilson

[Spoilers] At the end of Series 1, the 9th Doctor, Chris Eccleston, absorbs energy from the Time Vortex and to keep from actually dying, he transforms into the 10th Doctor, played by David Tennant. Billie Piper stays on cast as his companion, Rose Tyler, which means we keep her mother, Jackie (Camille Coduri), and Rose’s boyfriend Mickey Smith (Noel Clark). In this Series, we see the birth and rise of Torchwood, and a whole host of new aliens and other threats to the universe.

Series Bests

I’ve started to congeal what’s important to me for the purposes of this website, so look for upcoming posts about this series “Best Alien(s)” (pt. 1/pt. 2), “Best Quote/Exchange” (pt. 1/pt. 2) and “Most Disturbing Premise” (pt. 1/pt. 2). When we get a bit deeper into the series, I’ll start to offer some opinions on comparing the Doctors, the companions, the aliens/quotes/premises across the entire run. It keeps me busy. I hope you enjoy.

Gaming/Tabletop/Tabletop Role Playing Games

Race & Racism in Dungeons & Dragons (pt. 3)

Posted on by nwilson

A new wrinkle:

Game Designer Orion D. Black recently quit their job at WotC’s D&D department, and blasted the company on TwitLonger. Among other things, Black alleges that the department pays lip service towards diversity and change while exploiting BIPOC, especially Black freelancers, and silences and ignores criticism of systemic problems. They express they felt like a diversity hire in the most pejorative sense; only hired to be a token employee, not to actually have them express opinions, much less have those opinions impact company policy. They note,

Most people in that group were not ready for me to be there, a nonbinary Black person who would actually critique their problems. Idk what they expected.

In their tenure at WotC, Black was given “2 assignments in over 5 months,” and they had to seek out projects to work on. Black’s work was also stolen by someone in leadership, and the only acknowledgement was a second-hand apology for “‘[forgetting]’ that we had a meeting where I gave them my ideas, and then a follow up document the day after.”

Black sees the company statement as more lip-service, so that the company can continue “business as usual.”

Will they change?

I want to believe good things about D&D. I want them to live up to their 6-point plan, and actually fix the problems in their system, trying to make the world a better place. Black is with me on this, but cautions:

Trust actions, not words. Not “look at how much we freelance so and so”, because freelancing is exploitation of diversity with no support for the freelancer. Not “here we finally did what we KNOW we should’ve done a long time ago”, because they only care about how optics turn to dollars. EVERYTHING involving D&D will continue to farm marginalized people for the looks and never put them in leadership. They wont be put on staff. They will be held at arms length. I hope they prove me wrong.

I too am hoping they prove Black wrong. Only time will tell.

Comments? Questions? Thoughts?

Dr. Who (Reboot, 2005-)/Series 1/Television

Dr. Who, Series 1, Most Disturbing Premise (pt. 2)

Posted on by nwilson

[Spoilers] Once you really start getting into the premises and logical extensions of the episodes (i.e. doing criticism), sometimes things break down. Premises can be disturbing because, if true, they’re scary, or they can be disturbing because they don’t make sense. Previously, I roughly laid out the premises that bothered me from each episode. Ultimately, I decided that things that don’t make sense are worse than things that are merely conceptually scary. And then there’s the “ring of truth” aspect that makes some things qualitatively more scary. Here’s my list:

10. Landmarks have secret, nefarious purposes

In Episode 1, “Rose,” we learn that relatively innocuous structures like the London Eye could be secret transmitters for nefarious parties. Not impossible, but such claims must be issued by people in Tinfoil Hats.

9. Nuclear Power will destroy us all

In Episode 11, “Boom Town,” the Slitheen are back, running Cardiff and trying to destroy the earth by using a nuclear power plant to open the rift. So here we see new dangers for nuclear power–“It can open a rift in space-time and destroy the planet? F@#$ that!”

8. Creepy old men are everywhere!

I can’t think of anything new to say here: In Episode 1, “Rose, we are reintroduced to this elderly professional–and I’m talking about the Doctor here–who goes in for 20-year old shop girls. There’s a lot of #MeToo and Class critiques available here. True, “age is just a number,” and the Doctor’s number is somewhere around 900. The TARDIS is dangled as a panel van containing all the candy in the universe. It’s more than a little creepy, though ultimately platonic.

7. Time paradoxes aren’t really patrolled by Time Lords, but by Reapers

In Episode 8, “Father’s Day,” We get a Time Travel Paradox: What happens when you go back in time and do something that contradicts your history? Reapers. That’s what happens. Reapers feed off cracks in space-time caused by a Blinovitch Limitation Effect, or “crossing your own time line.” Basically, if you change your past, your present will be different as well, and you can write yourself right out of existence. While the timeline can absorb a lot of minor changes, there are certain “fixed points” that must remain unchanged or the whole of space-time unravels. So we need Time Lords like the Doctor to parse out which moments need to remain fixed and which can be massaged without bringing on the Reapers–which, by the way, the Doctor can do nothing about, save ensuring that events unfold as they need to. So that’s what Time Lords do. Sure, they create and try to enforce a bunch of rules that they personally don’t feel the need to follow all the time, but when push comes to shove, the ultimate arbiters will be the Reapers.

6. Capitalism is alive and well in the future.

In Episode 2, “The End of the World”: We learn that wealthy planets can survive indefinitely; bankrupt planets gotta die. This idea of a monetary basis for decisions is taken to be so natural, the death of the Earth isn’t even worthy of the Doctor’s intervention, he’s there as spectator.

Episodes 4 & 5, “Aliens of London”/”World War Three” feature Capitalism run amok. The profit of a tech-savvy few (e.g. the Slitheen) outweigh the needs of the indigenous (Earthlings). The same thing happens in Episodes 9 & 10, “The Empty Child”/”The Doctor Dances,” We once again see the splash damage of Laissez Faire Capitalism. Once again, the message is that the Capitalists are doing illegal things and harming people, even if unintentionally, so Caveat Emptor.

Also in Episodes 4 & 5, although the Doctor steps in to stop the Slitheen, there has to be a contest, which again places the logic of the episode in the category of Might Makes Right, which is itself an extension of Capitalism. Similarly, in Episode 6, “Dalek,” we are reintroduced to the Doctor’s nemeses, as the series apparently needs these opponents, because everything has to be a contest–a zero-sum game–that’s the essence of Capitalism.

5. “Ze who controls the media, controls the world.”

This one’s close to my heart, but also a disturbing trend since at least 2015. In Episode 7, “The Long Game,” Satellite 5 represents everybody’s worst perception of the media. Fox News as the only station. The Liberal Media drumming up a race war or pandemic threat to keep everyone living in fear. Without a trustworthy objective voice to listen to, a different station, a third party auditor or independent experts, no one would know truth from spin, and that’s horrific.

4. Amusing Ourselves to Death

In Episode 12, “Bad Wolf,” we’re back on Satellite 5, but instead of Fake News, now we’re treated to Reality TV Death Matches. It’s treated as an evolution driven by the Daleks; however, it has and undercurrent of inevitability based on then-current (in 2005) trends. We love to hate the characters and vote them off, why not go the extra step and watch them disintegrated? As Neil Postman postulated, we are Amusing Ourselves to Death, in both the killing of the contestants and the rising Dalek threat. Scary monsters, but ultimately unlikely.

3. Human beauty standards of the future are off the chain!

Episode 2, “The End of the World” features Lady Cassandra O’Brien. The pinnacle of human evolution [in her own mind], she serves as a critique of female beauty standards, the desire for women who are incredibly thin–Cassandra’s a two-dimensional sheet of skin. To paraphrase Nigel Tifnul from Spinal Tap, “How much more thin could she be? And the answer is none. None more thin.” It’s implausible, and frightening.

2. The Gelth

In Episode 3, “The Unquiet Dead,” the Gelth can consciously come through the rift, enter the gas lines and then leave them to possess a body, but when gas is in the air, they suddenly must leave the bodies and inhabit the gas? How does that work? It doesn’t. It’s a completely illogical premise.

1. Our capacity for sympathy and love (versus hate) is hard-wired in our DNA

In Episode 6, “Dalek,” the Dalek absorbs some of Rose’s DNA, which both gives it the capacity for sympathy that saves her life, and is the source of its own self-revulsion, which causes it to self-destruct. So the capacity for good is hardwired into our DNA. Similarly, in Episode 13,”The Parting of the Ways,” the Daleks admit to using the cells of human beings to create new Daleks. True, unlike Episode 6, where the Dalek is altered/tainted by Rose’s DNA, these Daleks are selecting humans for membership on a cell-by-cell basis [apparently based on our capacity for hate, per Episode 6]. The idea that an emotion is coded into our DNA, and that other species are coded differently, brings about the same kind of Us Versus Them philosophy that underwrite racism and all acts of genocide. Indeed, Doctor #9 is all about wiping the Daleks out of existence, and might well feel similarly about anyone else he may come to view as genetically flawed. So this is scary, and at it’s heart, implausible.

So what’s your vote for the most disturbing premise? Did I miss anything? Let me know in the comments!

Gaming/Tabletop/Tabletop Role Playing Games

Races & Racism in Dungeons & Dragons (pt. 2)

Posted on by nwilson

I encountered the announcement by Wizards of the Coast via my Facebook feed (I’m old). In particular, two posts–one by James Whitbrook of Gizmondo, and the other by Jeremy Blum of The Huffington Post. Luck of the draw, I decided to comment on (and read the comments from) the later article. As expected, it was… problematic.

Most people focused on the racial depictions of orcs and drow as evil (rather than the number of other problems I addressed in the previous article). Many people, even those who have played D&D expressed that old pop culture critique: Nostalgia For a Time When [Games] Weren’t Politicized–as if, because we were too young to understand the politics, they simply didn’t exist.

Others shrugged it off, saying they had modified the rules of their own games to avoid the problem; however, as I noted in my previous installment, they are probably the exception, rather than the rule.

One guy, “James Baldwin,” accidentally hits on what a lot of people do in these types of games:

How about the whole concept of adventuring: “We are going to go into this communal multifamily subterranean dwelling, murder absolutely everything, and take all their stuff…. You know, because we’re the good guys, and they dont [sic] look like us.”

This was meant to be tounge [sic] in cheek, but after writing it out, it’s pretty horrifying.

Yes, it’s bad campaign design, but it’s also the attitude we take when running a dungeon, enforced by pretty much every RPG–including computer and console games–since.

A number of people blamed Tolkien. I first responded to a guy (“Jim Bush”) who noted:

I mean, orcs, as envisioned by Tolkien, were literally created by evil, for evil, through an intentional (and evil!) perversion of elves. They are engineered to be evil. They aren’t an evil culture but are literally just designed to be soulless killing machines that can kinda listen to orders….

This is the strangest, dumbest thing I’ve read on HuffPost in……well, in the last 10 minutes anyway. You guys been jumpin sharks for years.

Blaming a decision by Wizards of the Coast on Huffpost is weird. Or maybe he just thinks it’s weird they’d report on it. In any case, I replied, “I get your point RE: Tolkien’s vision and worldview, but the idea that whole races are genetically predisposed to “good” or “evil” ( or “lawfulness” or “chaotisism”)—even in fiction—is hugely problematic, and divisive, on a conceptual level.”

Besides, Tolkien isn’t to blame. A better synopsis of Tolkien was offered by “Kevin Brown,” who said:

I don’t know a damn thing about fantasy role-playing games, but in Middle-earth it was held by the Wise that nothing was created evil. The Orcs were not even created beings. They were bred from existing races, corrupted, and dominated by the will of Morgoth and Sauron who rebelled against God.

So evil races weren’t a Tolkien thing, just a D&D thing. I got mild props for my own statement, “It’s [a predetermined notion of race is] a concept more contemporary artists, as I aspire to be, are attempting to challenge. Works in the vein of Grendel can shift this.” Grendel, of course being the monster from Beowulf, reimagined by John Gardner in 1971 as a misunderstood anti-hero.

A number of fans went straight to a similar model: Drizzt Do’Urden, hero of R.A. Salvatore’s Icewind Dale trilogy, and several subsequent trilogies. Drizzt is a Drow elf and a sword master who rejects the evil of his subterranean, matriarchal society and strikes out for the surface. Although he faces racial persecution at every turn, he makes a name for himself and gains the support of some powerful friends.

The problem with both of these examples are that it’s tokenism, in the same vein as, “Racism isn’t a problem in America because, this one time, we had an exceptional black man as President.” Pointing out one or two exceptions doesn’t disprove the rule. These types of examples are used to support the “Mobility Myth” that anyone can “pull themselves up by their bootstraps” and better themselves–which is a great idea, if you own boots. The point is, not everyone has the means to effectively improve their situation, and the further down you start, the more likely you are to fail.

What we need are more depictions, and more support to create these types of heroes and characters. Yes, it’s about black and African American (and Asian, and Hispanic etc.) representations on screens (large and small) and in books and games. It needs to become so much a part of our visual and cultural field that we don’t notice particular members or trees for the forest they’re standing in front of. Until the race of an actor or character becomes a thing we wouldn’t think to comment on, because it’s so commonplace. Nick Fury is black now? Yep. Yes, there’s a black Stormtrooper. So what? Yes, members of a Rebel bombing run (and tech crew) look Asian. And? There were black Amazons in Wonder Woman? Of course.

A final category of comments I wish to discuss brings us back to “Jim Bush.” Those both in favor of #Blacklivesmatter and opposed thought that this story was inconsequential. “James Culver” notes,

Oh FFS…D&D has ALWAYS been about diversity…stop trying to change the focus of racial bias and inequality from REAL WORLD issues(like police reform and systemic racism) to a fantasy role playing game. Prioritize.

I’ll repeat what I said in the last post,

I’m happy at least that Wizards of the Coast aren’t just parroting #BlackLivesMatter, nor are they just throwing money at the issue. They’re trying to be better when doing what they do. That makes them role models.

These stories matter. If other company’s would do similar things and fix their own houses, a lot of things might get markedly better. And that makes efforts like these “news-worthy.”

Comments? Thoughts? Something I missed?

Dr. Who (Reboot, 2005-)/Series 1/Television

Dr. Who, Series 1: Top 10 Quotes/Exchanges (pt. 2)

Posted on by nwilson

[Spoilers!] I LOVE a good quote, and there are some truly great lines in this show. I’ve previously laid out my contenders. So here are my top 10 from Series 1 (courtesy of www.planetclaire.tv), with some commentary.

10. From Episode 7, “The Long Game” (Russell T. Davies):

The Doctor: Rose is asking the right sort of questions: Why is it so hot?
Cathica: One minute you’re worried about the Empire and the next minute it’s the central heating.
The Doctor: Oh, never underestimate plumbing. Plumbing’s very important.

Perhaps the most universally true statement. Anyone who’s been without it knows, plumbing’s very important. It’s short, to the point and quotable.

9. From Episode 12, “Bad Wolf” (Russell T. Davies):

Lackey: If you’re not holding us hostage then open the door and let us out. The staff are terrified!
The Doctor: That’s the same staff who execute hundreds of contestants every day.
Lackey: That’s not our fault. We’re just doing our jobs.
The Doctor: And with that sentence you just lost the right to even talk to me. Now back off!

A critique of the “Nazi Prison Guard” defense. Especially in this day and age, criticizing people in power who don’t themselves question the nature of their job is particularly important. This quote is flat-out useful in our current situation.

8. From Episode 11, “Boom Town” (Russell T. Davies):

Margaret: I spared her life.
The Doctor: You let one of them go but that’s nothing new. Every now and then a little victim’s spared because she smiled, ’cause he’s got freckles. ‘Cause they begged. And that’s how you live with yourself. That’s how you slaughter millions. Because once in awhile—on a whim, if the wind’s in the right direction—you happen to be kind.
Margaret: Only a killer would know that. Is that right? From what I’ve seen, your funny little happy go lucky little life leaves devastation in its wake. Always moving on because you dare not look back. Playing with so many peoples lives, you might as well be a god. And you’re right, Doctor. You’re absolutely right. Sometimes you let one go. Let me go.

I like it when the Doctor gets called out, and Doctor #9 is DARK, so he needs it. Plus, the insight into people who regularly do bad things rings true. Russell T. Davies has some good lines.

7. From Episode 2, “The End of the World” (Russell T. Davies):

The Doctor: You lot. You spend all your time thinking about dying. Like you’re going to get killed by eggs or beef or global warming or asteroids. But you never take the time to imagine the impossible. That maybe you survive. This is the year 5.5 slash Apple slash 26. Five billion years in your future. And this is the day— hold on. This is the day the sun expands. Welcome to the end of the world.

I like it when Russell T. Davies waxes expansive about the hopes and dreams of the human race. It’s everybody’s not-so-secret fear: Success. “But what if it works beyond your wildest dreams?” Terrifying.

6. From Episode 8, “Father’s Day” (Paul Cornell):

The Doctor to Baby Rose: Now Rose, you’re not going to bring about the end of the world. Are you?

Awww! Who’s the cute widdle world-ender? You are! It’s just so… IDK. Is it dramatic irony when you tell a young incarnation of somebody not to do something their older, time-traveling self has already done? It’s the opposite of prophetic.

5. From Episode 1, “Rose” (Russell T. Davies):

The Doctor: What are you doing here?
Rose: I live here.
The Doctor: Well what’d you do that for?
Rose: Because I do. I’m only home because someone blew up my job.
The Doctor: Must have got the wrong signal. You’re not plastic are you? [knocks on her forehead]. Nope, bone in.

Rose and the Doctor have a number of great exchanges, and this is one of the first. Absurd questions, defensive answers, and unexpected parallels. I just love the line, “Nope, bone in.” Classic.

4. From Episode 2, “The End of the World” (Russell T. Davies):

Rose: Alright. As my mate Shareen says, “Don’t argue with the designated driver.” [Pulling out her cell]. Can’t exactly call for a taxi.
There’s no signal. We’re out of range. Just a bit.
The Doctor: Tell you what, with a little bit of jiggery-pokery—
Rose: Is that a technical term, “jiggery-pokery”?
The Doctor: Yeah. I came first in jiggery-pokery. What about you?
Rose: No. I failed hullabaloo.

The better of the two Doctor/Rose exchanges on this list. Again, odd parallels, digs on language choice, quick comebacks. I don’t use the terms “jiggery-pokery” or “hullabaloo” enough. Awesome.

3. From Episode 3, “The Unquiet Dead” (Mark Gatiss):

The Doctor: You’re a genius!
Coachman: You want me to get rid of him, sir?
Dickens: Ah, no. I think he can stay.
The Doctor: Honestly, Charles—can I call you Charles?—I’m such a big fan.
Dickens: What? A big what?
The Doctor: Fan. Number one fan, that’s me.
Dickens: How exactly are you a fan? In what way do you resemble a means of keeping oneself cool?
The Doctor: No, it means “fanatic”, “devoted to”. Mind you, I’ve gotta say, that American bit in Martin Chuzzlewit, what’s that about? Was that just padding or what? I mean it’s rubbish, that bit.
Dickens: I thought you said you were my fan.
The Doctor: Oh well, if you can’t take criticism.

So much in here. Instant familiarity with an idol gives celebrities the creeps. Then there’s anachronistic idioms, and deep literature critiques (Who’s read Martin Chuzzlewit?!?). [Side note: perhaps if your English teacher is a “Dickens-ophile,” don’t get me started on eighth grade Honors English and Steinbeck. Blech!] And creative types know that even their biggest fans are going to have a few critiques–everyone’s a critic.

2. From Episode 7, “The Long Game” (Russell T. Davies):

The Editor: Create a climate of fear and it’s easy to keep the borders closed. It’s just a matter of emphasis. The right word in the right broadcast repeated often enough can destabilize an economy, invent an enemy, change a vote.
Rose: So all the people on Earth are like, slaves.
The Editor: Well, now. There’s an interesting point. Is a slave a slave if he doesn’t know he’s enslaved?
The Doctor: Yes.
The Editor: Oh. I was hoping for a philosophical debate. Is that all I’m going to get? “Yes.”?
The Doctor: Yes.
The Editor: You’re no fun.
The Doctor: Let me out of these manacles. You’ll find out how much fun I am.

First off, it’s an exchange with Simon Pegg, so that’s great. It’s also a good critique on why we have to watch the media and how easily They can drum up fear to drive public policy. Not that I’m opposed to the mainstream media–but I am opposed to overly partisan news sources–there’s one in particular that ends in an X…. But the one that starts with an H rubs me wrong too. This exchange also has got a bit of philosophy, followed by a veiled threat–that’s layered.

1. From Episode 13,”The Parting of the Ways” (Russell T. Davies):

The Dalek Emperor: Do not interrupt! Do not interrupt!
The Doctor: I think you’re forgetting something. I’m the Doctor and if there’s one thing I can do it’s talk. I’ve got five billion languages and you haven’t got one way of stopping me. So if anybody’s gonna shut up, it’s you!

The Doctor flexing is always great, and this one is near and dear to me, as communication and argument is kind of my thing.

So those are my top 10. I KNOW, RIGHT?!? Other critics put the last line uttered by Christopher Eccleston in the top 10 all-time best Doctor quotes, and it didn’t even make my list. Shocking.

In truth, it is a great line, but I think it only really has its power in milleu. With the possible exception of my vote for #5, the rest of these could be said by someone else and still have some resonance. I threw out all the quotes that were just too easy. And ultimately, my favorite exchange was the one between the Doctor and Captain Jack from Episode 10, “The Doctor Dances” (written by Steven Moffat), but I had to disqualify it, as the payoff took four exchanges stretched over the episode. Finally, Russell T. Davies wrote eight of the thirteen episodes, so I guess he was destined to dominate this list.

Did I miss your favorite? Comment and I’ll respond.