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Steven Pressfield and Impostor’s Syndrome

By Chris Hall
April 24, 2015
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I don’t actually know who Steven Pressfield is, but this quote sums up a lot of my deepest fears, and the monologues that go through my head all the time. Frankly, I often have a hard time believing that anyone looks at my writing with anything other than kind indulgence. I do ask myself this question — Constantly. The trick is that although my brain understands the truth of Pressfield’s quote, my gut doesn’t quite buy it.

Steven Pressfield quote: "If you find yourself asking yourself (and your friends) 'Am I REALLY a writer? Am I REALLY an artist?' Chances are you are. The counterfeit innovator is *wildly* self confident. The real one is scared to death."

“If you find yourself asking yourself (and your friends) ‘Am I REALLY a writer? Am I REALLY an artist?’ Chances are you are. The counterfeit innovator is *wildly* self confident. The real one is scared to death.” — Steven Pressfield “The War of Art”

-30-

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Filed Under: Quotables, Ramblings Tagged With: fears, quotes, steven pressfield, Writing

When a Song Becomes a Threat: SAE and “Speech”

By Chris Hall
March 15, 2015
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noose photo

Photo by theglobalpanorama

I’m pretty sure that although intent might not be magic, we white people must surely be magic. The proof is in the media response to the SAE lynching chant. Most of it magically turns white racism into something that’s black peoples’ fault. That’s amazing. It can’t be done with rationality or anything else of this world, so it must be magic. For an antidote to all that, here’s a great summary by Ellie Mystal on how the words of the chant go beyond simply being “speech” and turn into a threat when looked at through black history:

Now, I get how a white listener wouldn’t take the threat as a true threat. They weren’t threatening Eugene Volokh. And, I don’t know, maybe when white people are by themselves, they talk like this and they all understand that they don’t actually intend to solicit a lynch mob to go after the black people on campus. Who knows what you say when I’m not around. Maybe white people are just used to chants about hanging people from trees, and intuitively know that the drunk frat boys weren’t serious?

But that’s not really an objective reading of the situation, at least if we dispense with the notion that the white perspective is the only objective one. Objectively, a bus of drunk white people were singing about hanging people. Buses of drunk white people singing about hanging folks is a true threat, because sometimes buses of drunk white people then actually go out and hang people. IT’S HAPPENED BEFORE.

In fact, I’m getting pretty sick of white people telling me how I’m supposed to perceive threats from white people. Of course I perceive the chant as an attempt to solicit a criminal act. How could I not? Don’t most hate crimes committed against African-Americans start with drunk douchebags talking about n***ers?

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Filed Under: Asides, Quotables, Ramblings Tagged With: fraternities, lynching, racism, SAE fraternity, white supremacy

Amanda Marcotte: Our Country Has Value Because The People Have Value

By Chris Hall
November 12, 2014
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By: James G. Milles

Conservatives got their panties into a bunch because Bruce Springsteen played CCR’s “Fortunate Son,” at a concert for veterans. The song famously mocks leaders and members of the privileged classes who expect other people to fight their wars for them in the name of patriotism. Amanda Marcotte has a better definition of patriotism:

Washington Post gathered up a couple of tweets by people complaining about the song being played at “patriotic” events. Again, it’s interesting how the concept of being a “patriot” is tied up in the idea that we should just want some wars, because yea wars! But I would like to offer another definition of a patriot: Someone who believes that her country has value because the people in it have value. Which means that you defend the right of soldiers to live and argue strenuously against going to war unless it is truly necessary. Which is what Springsteen was doing.

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Filed Under: Quotables, Ramblings Tagged With: Amanda Marcotte, Bruce Springsteen, Patriotism, Veteran's Day

Joe Morton is Evil?!? Does Not Compute

By Chris Hall
November 2, 2014
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One of the reasons I finally surrendered and started watching Scandal was I heard that Joe Morton had a role on it. Now that we’ve hit season three, I’m having a really hard time thinking of Joe Morton as evil. The man could read the phone book and make it into a major dramatic performance, but in all his roles, there’s always been a fundamental decency to his characters. Even when he seemed like he was kind of a dick, as in Lone Star, there was still the sense that he was trying to do the right thing.

Joe Morton

Joe Morton

At the very least, Morton’s characters never seemed like the kind of people who would toss you into a hole for months on end because you refused to torture and kill someone else.

Rowan Pope (Joe Morton): Not the kind of person you want to meet in a dark alley -- or even in a brightly-lit, comfortable room with lots of people around.

Rowan Pope (Joe Morton): Not the kind of person you want to meet in a dark alley — or even in a brightly-lit, comfortable room with lots of people around.

Scandal is definitely filling my need for extreme, paranoid conspiracy theory. I know a lot of people might look down on it for being unrealistic and sensationalistic, but seriously — once you’ve accepted that the Republican President has an openly gay Chief of Staff who’s married to another man, you’ve pretty much given up any commitment to realism.

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Filed Under: Quotables, Ramblings Tagged With: Joe Morton, Olivia Pope, Rowan Pope, scandal, television

Lacking that Essential World Series Gene

By Chris Hall
October 28, 2014
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"A worn-out baseball" by Schyler at English Wikipedia - Own work by the original uploader. Licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons.

“A worn-out baseball” by Schyler at English Wikipedia – Own work by the original uploader. Licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons.

I must be lacking some deeply elemental gene that allows you to enjoy professional sports. I don’t know anyone else in the Bay Area who is so totally uninterested in the World Series. It’s not really snobbery. When I was a kid and my dad was watching sports, I really tried to get into it. I just couldn’t. It was like watching physicists lecturing in ancient Greek. Still is. People keep having to remind me that the World Series is happening.

My geek gene speaks to me loud and strong, though. Tonight, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. is on, and that clearly outranks the World Series or any other sports event. Plus, we still have Doctor Who on the DVR. Nerd orgy!

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Filed Under: Ramblings

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