Legit laughed for two minutes at the end of this

[conuly]

Fandom, man.

Comments

[calimac]

Do the Milton scholars know that the Talmudic rabbis discussed the serpent question centuries before Milton was born?

[conuly]

Do they care?

[nostalgia]

What was their conclusion?

[calimac]

I don't think Talmudic rabbis ever came to a conclusion about anything. But one sage I dimly recall over the years since I read this suggested that the snake had always crawled on its belly, only now it had a reason.

[conuly]

I don't think Talmudic rabbis ever came to a conclusion about anything.

There's a moral lesson in there somewhere, but it's probably not the oft-cited "two Jews, three opinions". Could be that, though. Could be that.

[kengr]

What about the Librarian? <g,d&r>

For those who are not Pratchett fans, the Librarian at the wizard's university was turned into an oranguatan. He's mostly adjusted, but never *ever* say "monkey"in his hearing...

[jessie_c]

OOK!

[kengr]

Out of cheese error

[jessie_c]

+++++++++++MELON MELON MELON+++++++++++++++
+++++++++++Reinstall universe and reboot++++++++++

[conuly]

Hey, random icon, long time no see.

[silver_chipmunk]

I didn't laugh for two minutes straight, but yes i did laugh. Thank you!

[conuly]

No prob :)

[kaffy_r]

We. Don't. Talk. About. the. Orangutan.

*snrfle*

Fandom, indeed.

Reminds me a bit of "The Immortal Storm" by Sam Moskowitz (although I couldn't manage to read most of it, since, man, he made the Second World War an afterthought to fannish fights.

[conuly]

That was published in... 1954? Will wonders never cease. I knew fandom was old, but I didn't know that people were doing fannish histories already then.

[peoriapeoriawhereart]

I ran into this one in its native tumblr habitat. While I was never a Poe (in fact I took exactly one English course in college) I was both a history and an anthropology major. This might have annoyed a department chair.

[conuly]

May have?

[peoriapeoriawhereart]

There were so many possibilities or no reason needed for that chair to be annoyed with me. Just what was the 'reason' is lost to the culture wars.

[sabotabby]

Holy fuck I can’t breathe. Thanks for this.

[conuly]

I sure hope you can breathe now.

[rhoda_rants]

I am loving the phrase "forceful tones of inside voice." Wow. That is priceless.

[conuly]

*g*

[shaddyr]

I laughed so hard for so long, my kids asked me if there was something wrong with me. OMG, thank you for this.

[conuly]

Now I wish I knew where I'd snagged it from, I'd credit whoever it was.

[imhilien]

Oh noes... *giggles*

[siderea]

Oh, that is fabulous!

I love crashing other fields' academic conferences for just this sort of reason.

True story! (Not as funny as that one though.) When I went to the K'zoo Medieval Congress I had abundant opportunity to attend different disciplines' panels, and observe their differing norms – and what happens when they clash. The author of the Orangutang story was wrong that it's academia limited to "poorly concealed passive aggression and forceful tones of inside voice" – that's literature and more broadly media studies. The more objective and sciency a field is, the more directly confrontational the norms are at conferences. At the film theory panel I attended nobody in the Q&A actually asked any questions, they just nonconfrontationally riffed on the topic, and then the panelsts riffed back; at the math panel I attended, the second person called on in the Q&A addressed the second presenter with the opening words, "You're wrong.", and proceeded from there.

So I attended this panel on the songs of Machaut. The panel was hosted by a French literature association, on the topic of Machaut's lyrics. All the panelists, as well as the moderator, were literature people.

Which was a problem, because literature people stop at "poorly concealed passive aggression and forceful tones of inside voice" but Machaut was a hugely important composer, so the music historians showed up.

I... don't remember clearly if we made it to the actual, official Q&A part of the proceedings before the first musicologist started asking a pointed question from the floor. The panelists are literature people, and not able to field musicology questions; I seem to remember a sort of stammered improvised reply about speculations. But then another musicologist in the audience interjected to address the first musicologists' question, in a way that firmly disagreed with the first musicologist. The next thing you know, the two musicologists in the audience are going at it back and forth – cheerfully, like two talmudic scholars, neither in the least bit upset and clearly enjoying arguing – completely hijacking the panel from the floor, and nobody up front is forceful enough to get a word in edgewise or even can participated in the topic for, like, 10 minutes.

And I'm like, "This is AWESOME."

Endowed with this role-modeling, later in the conference, I was able to use my musicology powers for good to heroically rescue a small village of oppressed literature scholars (Irish) from the evil depredations of a music historian with weak evidence. I was greeted as a liberator. Seriously, after the panel, people were turning around to pump my hand and express their gratitude and relief.

Also, as always, that's not actually "passive-aggression", just covert aggression-aggression.

[conuly]

*poke*

Definitely orangutan, even though in English we often pronounce it with a final ŋ.

Which was a problem, because literature people stop at "poorly concealed passive aggression and forceful tones of inside voice" but Machaut was a hugely important composer, so the music historians showed up.

It hadn't occurred to the organizers that this might happen and they ought to have a musicologist or two on the panel as well?

Endowed with this role-modeling, later in the conference, I was able to use my musicology powers for good to heroically rescue a small village of oppressed literature scholars (Irish) from the evil depredations of a music historian with weak evidence. I was greeted as a liberator. Seriously, after the panel, people were turning around to pump my hand and express their gratitude and relief.

And the day is saved!

[siderea]

It hadn't occurred to the organizers that this might happen and they ought to have a musicologist or two on the panel as well?

1) Apparently not. Indeed, maybe they wanted to have a panel about French lyric poetry, and not musicology.

2) Hey, the moderator managed after 10 minutes to re-claim the panel from the musicologists. They may have cast the fiercest literature person they had as moderator, for just this eventuality.

3) How would that have helped? That would have moved the possibility of a musicologist or two showing up to the certainty that there's be at least one musicologist in the room. That just moves the panel hijacking from the floor to the front.

No, what they really wanted to do is bribe a musicology organization to have a concurrent Machaut musicology panel in the next room.

[archangelbeth]

*cracks up at #3*

[conuly]

No, what they really wanted to do is bribe a musicology organization to have a concurrent Machaut musicology panel in the next room.

You should tell them that next time.

[siderea]

What, and ruin the floor show?

[conuly]

LOL

[larryhammer]

Hee.

[naye]

That's an AMAZING story. And it's worse than just fandom: it's academics at it. XD

[greghousesgf]

I always thought if zombie stories symbolize anything it was fear of either overpopulation or homeless people.

[conuly]

Well, yeah, the underclass that's taking over.

[siderea]

My theory is that zombie stories are how the goyim process their awareness of the Holocaust, in that zombie stories confront the horror of being turned on by one's neighbors en mass, because they've been taken over by a contageous force that makes them mindlessly homicidal in a way you can't reason with them about, such that all society falls apart. Also, the survivors are often forced to live in fortified enclaves racked with privation and desperation, not unlike the Warsaw Ghetto.

[conuly]

Definitely possible, but if anybody ever makes that literal and writes a zombie WWII story, I'm not reading.

[amaebi]

That is a totally awesome story. Thank you.

[dragonyphoenix]

This reminds me of a thread in one of Robert Anton Wilson's novels. Two academics are arguing about something - long time since I've read and I don't recall what - but it gets increasingly vitriolic ... to the point where one of them puts in his will that his ashes be thrown in the face of the other. It's all done as comment and is terribly funny.

[elenbarathi.livejournal.com]

Ha ha ha! That's hilarious; thanks!