Ask Nathan Anything: Quarantine Edition

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

Are you a communist?

My answer to this is basically what somebody said about Bernie Sanders in an "Is Bernie a Marxist?" thread a while back. I do think Marx had a point with a lot of the descriptive claims he made (base and superstructure, surplus value, his account of primitive accumulation, etc.), but if you're asking if I agree with Marxist-Leninist or what we commonly think of as "commie" policy goals or moral precepts, no, of course I don't.

Opinion of Oliver Cromwell?

Big-league HP who turned early democratic and even early socialist movements into a tinpot military dictatorship and committed genocide in Ireland. The sort of leader who, if alive today, would parade down the main boulevard of a conquered city in an open-topped jeep wearing sunglasses.

[Mr. Smith]

Have you seen Avatar: The Last Airbender? What did you think?

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

Have you seen Avatar: The Last Airbender? What did you think?

I watched it in its first airing on TV when I was in middle/early high school and I rewatched it with friends a couple of years ago. I think it's great. As a writer, I've always noted that it has some wonderful teleplays; I still use "oh no; what a nightmare!" and "I am a fan of [X]" in everyday conversation.

[Wikipedia delenda est]

Another question I just thought of: who and what are your favorite composers/works of the Catholic choral tradition? I like Palestrina, Byrd, and pretty much all the other Renaissance polyphonists. My favorite works are probably Palestrina’s Missa Papae Marcelli and Allegri’s Miserere mei.

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

Another question I just thought of: who and what are your favorite composers/works of the Catholic choral tradition? I like Palestrina, Byrd, and pretty much all the other Renaissance polyphonists. My favorite works are probably Palestrina’s Missa Papae Marcelli and Allegri’s Miserere mei.

When I was in grad school I had a flatmate who was studying jazz piano at one of the music conservatories in Boston. He'd occasionally bring women back to his room (presumably to f**k, but I never actually heard that happening, so who knows), put on "Miserere mei", and get stoned with them. So that's what I associate Allegri with. It's divinely beautiful, of course, but still.

Palestrina, Byrd, et al. are wonderful, obviously, but my taste in polyphony trends slightly earlier. There's an all-women early music group called Anonymous 4 that does a lot of medieval polyphony and I often listen to one of their albums, An English Ladymass. As the title implies, it's a collection of late medieval Marian pieces, most of them in Latin but a few in Middle English. Here is my favorite from that album.

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

What would you say is the single biggest influencer on the accents of New England, and what secondary influences exist?

Western New England English, which is what I speak, is basically a slightly more conservative form of Inland Northern (although my speech does also contain a few quirks picked up when I was living in Boston). So it's influenced by what's going on further west--say, in Upstate New York and the Great Lakes--and, of course, by the monoculturalizing effect of nationwide and worldwide media. My elderly aunts have much more conservative versions of the same accent that sound a lot more like what you think of as "a New England accent" (similar to, as much as I hate to say this, the way Peter and Lois talk in Family Guy).

Eastern New England English (your classic Boston, Mainer, or "Kennedy" accent) I'm less sure about, although my suspicion is that it has some of the same extremely conservative features that have been observed in much of the South.

I forgot to mention that within Eastern New England English there's a north-south spectrum; if you're used to Maine accents it's hard not to hear the difference with people from Rhode Island, and vice versa. The Rhode Island accent in my experience is pretty close to the accent I mentioned my aunts (Springfielders) having, so perhaps we could tentatively call it a "smaller New England cities" accent as of 1950 or 1960 or so.

(There's nominally a difference between "Southwestern New England English" and "Vermont English" too, but personally, I have trouble picking up on it. I'm told I speak the former.)

[President Punxsutawney Phil]

did the accent of western MS and Vermont change in any major way due to migration from New York City and other areas?

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

did the accent of western MS and Vermont change in any major way due to migration from New York City and other areas?

It became less pronounced. Since it's at heart a more conservative form of Inland Northern, it was "sanded down" a bit due to in-migration from areas where Inland Northern was spoken. (Of course, there are also New Englanders who straight-up have pronounced accents from other places, like how Bernie Sanders's accent is pure midcentury Brooklyn to this day.)

[The Mikado]

Did you ever get around to watching Legend of the Galactic Heroes/Ginga Eiyuu Densetsu? If so, do you have thoughts?

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

Did you ever get around to watching Legend of the Galactic Heroes/Ginga Eiyuu Densetsu? If so, do you have thoughts?

I watched LoGH years and years ago. It's awesome. I didn't like everything it did thematically--the "benevolent despot" stuff with Reinhard (which is key to the whole show), certain proto-New Atheist vibes in its portrayal of religion--but it's a really well-done, smart space epic.

Some great memes/reaction images, too. This one's my favorite:

[President Punxsutawney Phil]

did the accent of western MS and Vermont change in any major way due to migration from New York City and other areas?

It became less pronounced. Since it's at heart a more conservative form of Inland Northern, it was "sanded down" a bit due to in-migration from areas where Inland Northern was spoken. (Of course, there are also New Englanders who straight-up have pronounced accents from other places, like how Bernie Sanders's accent is pure midcentury Brooklyn to this day.)

Where would you find a good audio example of the speak of, say, mid-1950s VT?

[FEMA Camp Administrator]

Some great memes/reaction images, too. This one's my favorite:

This thing is amazing and I guarantee I've seen it before. You said "smart space epic". Sounds cool. Wonder if it's streaming anywhere...

[FEMA Camp Administrator]

Do you notice that a lot of animes seem to have “beta” main characters? And if so, why do you think this is?

[FEMA Camp Administrator]

Also, are the integration of Western references—Jazz, Shakespeare, the Bible—in Japan-produced anime’s the result of a deliberate marketing strategy, or an organic cultural assimilation of Western works?

[President Punxsutawney Phil]

Also, are the integration of Western references—Jazz, Shakespeare, the Bible—in Japan-produced anime’s the result of a deliberate marketing strategy, or an organic cultural assimilation of Western works?

this is a good question.

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

did the accent of western MS and Vermont change in any major way due to migration from New York City and other areas?

It became less pronounced. Since it's at heart a more conservative form of Inland Northern, it was "sanded down" a bit due to in-migration from areas where Inland Northern was spoken. (Of course, there are also New Englanders who straight-up have pronounced accents from other places, like how Bernie Sanders's accent is pure midcentury Brooklyn to this day.)

Where would you find a good audio example of the speak of, say, mid-1950s VT?

Here is an hour-long, shamelessly hagiographic documentary about George Aiken, which includes archive footage of Aiken and people who knew him speaking about his life and times. (The narrator also has a somewhat old-school accent.)

Do you notice that a lot of animes seem to have “beta” main characters? And if so, why do you think this is?

It makes them easier to relate to for the typical hardcore Japanese anime fan, who is not a socially adept person even to the limited extent that the typical hardcore Western anime fan is. (And yes, I'm including myself in that last remark.)

Also, are the integration of Western references—Jazz, Shakespeare, the Bible—in Japan-produced anime’s the result of a deliberate marketing strategy, or an organic cultural assimilation of Western works?

Mostly the latter, with a few notable exceptions. The most famous exception is probably the omnipresent Jewish and Christian imagery in Neon Genesis Evangelion and its various spinoffs and elseworlds, which by all accounts was thrown in to create an atmosphere of ~cool foreign occultism~ the way a Western show might throw in mandalas or something. Jazz in particular has been fully assimilated into the Japanese music scene (to the extent that when I was in Japan I actually got sick of hearing so much jazz over intercoms and store radios; even lots of Japanese classical and soundtrack composition--Hisaishi, Sakamoto--shows a jazz influence), and some of Shakespeare's and even Dostoyevsky's more #iconic plots and characters are quite well-known in Japan.

[President Punxsutawney Phil]

did the accent of western MS and Vermont change in any major way due to migration from New York City and other areas?

It became less pronounced. Since it's at heart a more conservative form of Inland Northern, it was "sanded down" a bit due to in-migration from areas where Inland Northern was spoken. (Of course, there are also New Englanders who straight-up have pronounced accents from other places, like how Bernie Sanders's accent is pure midcentury Brooklyn to this day.)

Where would you find a good audio example of the speak of, say, mid-1950s VT?

Here is an hour-long, shamelessly hagiographic documentary about George Aiken, which includes archive footage of Aiken and people who knew him speaking about his life and times. (The narrator also has a somewhat old-school accent.)

Thanks for the great find! I'll listen to every second of it.

[The Mikado]

Some great memes/reaction images, too. This one's my favorite:

This thing is amazing and I guarantee I've seen it before. You said "smart space epic". Sounds cool. Wonder if it's streaming anywhere...

Check your PMs.

Also, obligatory "WATCH LEGEND OF GALACTIC HEROES IF YOU HAVEN'T ALREADY" note. And not the remake, the real LOGH from the 80s and 90s.

If you need to be talked into watching it, PM me and I will explain in detail why you need to watch this show.

[President Punxsutawney Phil]

Update: I watched the entirety of it. Do you personally think it is incorrect at any point? Should I take it at face value?

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

Update: I watched the entirety of it. Do you personally think it is incorrect at any point? Should I take it at face value?

I admire Aiken myself (fun fact: we share a hometown, and I knew some of the Putney old-timers in the video when I was a kid), so somebody with a more critical overall view of him would probably be a better person to ask this question. (ETA: It does go into his opposition to Lend-Lease, which is my main problem with him.) I didn't notice any factual errors, no.

[FEMA Camp Administrator]

Do you notice that a lot of animes seem to have “beta” main characters? And if so, why do you think this is?

It makes them easier to relate to for the typical hardcore Japanese anime fan, who is not a socially adept person even to the limited extent that the typical hardcore Western anime fan is. (And yes, I'm including myself in that last remark.)

Ah, that makes so much sense.

Also, are the integration of Western references—Jazz, Shakespeare, the Bible—in Japan-produced anime’s the result of a deliberate marketing strategy, or an organic cultural assimilation of Western works?

Mostly the latter, with a few notable exceptions. The most famous exception is probably the omnipresent Jewish and Christian imagery in Neon Genesis Evangelion and its various spinoffs and elseworlds, which by all accounts was thrown in to create an atmosphere of ~cool foreign occultism~ the way a Western show might throw in mandalas or something. Jazz in particular has been fully assimilated into the Japanese music scene (to the extent that when I was in Japan I actually got sick of hearing so much jazz over intercoms and store radios; even lots of Japanese classical and soundtrack composition--Hisaishi, Sakamoto--shows a jazz influence), and some of Shakespeare's and even Dostoyevsky's more #iconic plots and characters are quite well-known in Japan.

Yeah, NGE was one of my main references for that question, but also the jazz of Cowboy Bebop (the person who introduced me to it said it was made by "Westaboos") and Shakespeare references found elsewhere.

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

Also, are the integration of Western references—Jazz, Shakespeare, the Bible—in Japan-produced anime’s the result of a deliberate marketing strategy, or an organic cultural assimilation of Western works?

Mostly the latter, with a few notable exceptions. The most famous exception is probably the omnipresent Jewish and Christian imagery in Neon Genesis Evangelion and its various spinoffs and elseworlds, which by all accounts was thrown in to create an atmosphere of ~cool foreign occultism~ the way a Western show might throw in mandalas or something. Jazz in particular has been fully assimilated into the Japanese music scene (to the extent that when I was in Japan I actually got sick of hearing so much jazz over intercoms and store radios; even lots of Japanese classical and soundtrack composition--Hisaishi, Sakamoto--shows a jazz influence), and some of Shakespeare's and even Dostoyevsky's more #iconic plots and characters are quite well-known in Japan.

Yeah, NGE was one of my main references for that question, but also the jazz of Cowboy Bebop (the person who introduced me to it said it was made by "Westaboos") and Shakespeare references found elsewhere.

The thing about Cowboy Bebop is that its creator, Watanabe Shin'ichiro, is ideologically opposed to the nativist and ethnocentric aspects of Japanese society, and makes a conscious effort to depict culturally and racially diverse or "blended" worlds in his work (CB, Samurai Champloo, the more recent Carole & Tuesday, etc.). This is a minority view in Japan--mainstream opinion in the country is actively proud of the ethnocentrism and perceived homogeneity--but he's not totally alone in it.

[All Along The Watchtower]

What have you changed your view on that you wouldn’t have expected to change your view?

[FEMA Camp Administrator]

@Nathan @Mikado I watched about an hour and a half of LOGH today. Liked it. No thoughts yet though except the seeming similarity to some 19th C Russian novel I’ve never read. Beautiful battle animation.

[FEMA Camp Administrator]

Also, are the integration of Western references—Jazz, Shakespeare, the Bible—in Japan-produced anime’s the result of a deliberate marketing strategy, or an organic cultural assimilation of Western works?

Mostly the latter, with a few notable exceptions. The most famous exception is probably the omnipresent Jewish and Christian imagery in Neon Genesis Evangelion and its various spinoffs and elseworlds, which by all accounts was thrown in to create an atmosphere of ~cool foreign occultism~ the way a Western show might throw in mandalas or something. Jazz in particular has been fully assimilated into the Japanese music scene (to the extent that when I was in Japan I actually got sick of hearing so much jazz over intercoms and store radios; even lots of Japanese classical and soundtrack composition--Hisaishi, Sakamoto--shows a jazz influence), and some of Shakespeare's and even Dostoyevsky's more #iconic plots and characters are quite well-known in Japan.

Yeah, NGE was one of my main references for that question, but also the jazz of Cowboy Bebop (the person who introduced me to it said it was made by "Westaboos") and Shakespeare references found elsewhere.

The thing about Cowboy Bebop is that its creator, Watanabe Shin'ichiro, is ideologically opposed to the nativist and ethnocentric aspects of Japanese society, and makes a conscious effort to depict culturally and racially diverse or "blended" worlds in his work (CB, Samurai Champloo, the more recent Carole & Tuesday, etc.). This is a minority view in Japan--mainstream opinion in the country is actively proud of the ethnocentrism and perceived homogeneity--but he's not totally alone in it.

That's pretty interesting, especially given the aforementioned apparent organic infiltration by Western culture.