andrewducker | Interesting Links for 04-12-2023

5. I'm utterly sure I read years ago about autism and the lip pushing thing (also speaking in written language. Interestingly that last wouldn't work so well in German with actually has grammar (and a verb tense) that's only ever used in written language)
4. Well, duh! Good gods, did anyone imagine geeks hung out with geeks but didn't communicate successfully?

I think that the "Geeks are all autistic" thing is still up for debate. Or hasn't reached the stage of being investigated heavily. Which seems weird to me, but there you go.

well, not all, are but it seems pretty likely for a large majority...

I read this as "Greeks are all autistic", which gave me pause for thought.

No no. The Greeks all have non-bicameral minds.

(This is a joke. I am fairly sure that the whole bicameral mind theory is nonsense. But fascinatingly so!)

Bicameral is a hybrid word and therefore the work of the devil.

Is it?

I checked, and no. "Bi" is latin and "Camera" is latin.

There's a wider discussion about language here too I think.

I think we over-privilege Classical languages as a source of rightness, don't recognise the evolutionary nature of language and under-privilege proto-Indo-European.

At least in my view.

Oh yes.

There's a class thing here, where upper-class kids are taught Latin, and that it makes then stand out, and the Romans and Greeks are the source of all things good.

Also the fannish accents article is one of the most interesting things I have ever read, though I'm not sure why yet.

Possibly connected to our discussions elsewhere?

Oh definitely yes. My point really is not being sure where it fits in.

I wonder if any other groups talk like that.

Board gamers.

Techies.

(Would be my guess/observation. More research needed, obvs.)

I'm thinking anyone who is being careful about their use of language.

4. Hmm, that Christmas game in one office where one person has a word/phrase/movie title on a slip of paper and describes it for the other two to guess, and the data team tore through them and the rest of the marketing/donor relations department wondered if we were reading each others' minds.

Hah!

I am of the view that Die Hard is a Christmas Movie.

It is a film set at Christmas. Traditional Christmas celebrations (the Christmas office party) are a key part of the plot. The Christmas feeling is an important part of the themes - a man is trying to re-unite or re-found his family using Christmas feelings and motivated by Christmas feelings nd the aspiration of a Family Christmas as a driver. The Meaning of Christmas is an important part of the theme and of the main characters' drives. Holly is arguably rejecting or down playing the traditional Meaning of Christmas as part of her career choice and estrangement from John and decides to take a different view by the end of the film.

I would be interested in a definition of a Christmas Movie that excluded Die Hard but included Home Alone or It's a Wonderful Life.

I would tend to agree. I think most people's objections* to it would either also apply to both of those movies, or would boil down to "It's too violent to be a Christmas movie." (and therefore doesn't feel very Christmassy to them)

*for people who do object

Edited (Clarifying footnote.) 2023-12-04 13:33 (UTC)

It definately doesn't *feel* like a Christmas movie because of all the shooting and torture and swearing and stuff but it you replace the Gruber Gang with anthropomorphic robotic toy teddy bears gone haywire and the shooting with custard pies you'd have a Christmas classic.

Or The Muppets Die Hard.

There must a story plotting equivalent of the Melan Diagram

https://thealexandrian.net/wordpress/45711/roleplaying-games/xandering-the-dungeon-addendum-how-to-use-a-melan-diagram

I reckon if you did one for Die Hard and Planes, Trains and Automobiles you'd have a pretty similar looking diagram.

If Disney owned the rights to Die Hard.

Hang on - they do!

Miss Piggy plays Holly McLean and Reginald VelJohnson is a Disney Princess.

1. The conspiracy theory here is, of course, that any end to the war is not in the west's interest, since the longer it continues the weaker Russia ends up.

Which I think is not untrue as a statement of fact but the West gains the maximum advantage if Russia ends up losing the war. A 5 year war that Russia wins is not as good for us as a 2 year war that Ukraine wins. By a long way I think.

And war is inherently risky and uncertain and obscure.

I thought the fannish accent piece looked familiar, and there I am in the twenty-four-year-old comment thread.

And making an excellent point!

Interrupting is not necessarily an autism thing - in fact, the thing my autistic husband is most likely to say to me is "will you let me finish?"

I personally learned interrupting as a means of getting words in edgewise in my very talkative family.

also cultural / might depend on language.

Germans are very down on interruption, probably because German grammar very often puts the verb at the very end of possibly quite long and complicated sentences. So you might have no idea what someone is talking about UNTIL THE END. In combination with cases, which "box you in" structures and word forms, and grammar which demands stuff also going in specific orders including at the end, this all means a German sentence of any complexity takes processing power to assemble, and yo ucant just "start and make it up as you go along" as easliy as in English. So interruption is FAR more troublesome.

I definitely agree that there aren't any traits that are purely an autism thing.

"Christmas cannot begin until the Hans of der Gruber hath fallen from the Tower of Nakatomi

It is known."

(Echoed by chorus)

"It is known."

~ Anyanka

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