I received this yesterday:

I hope I'm within the strict confines of what is acceptable to you in email.  Anyway...Why does a bright, intelligent adult such as yourself give one shit about mindless "Chizumatic" cartoons, cool for a nine-year-old?  Utterly strange and sadly, meaningless.....

Boy, I sure hope I can become cool and smart and sophisticated like you when I grow up!

I didn't respond like that, or in any of the other obvious ways ("What the hell business is it of yours?" "Who appointed you to be my mother?" "It's never too late to have a happy childhood." etc.). Instead, I sent him the URL of the "manifesto" linked in the upper right corner of the page, which explains why I decided to start blogging about anime:

After a couple of months of cooling off, with some of the bruises healing, I thought that I wanted to start blogging again. But I didn't want to go back into that same lion's den again, and face all that horseshit. The solution?

Blog about something totally inconsequential, something so trivial and unimportant that the self-important people who Had A Mission would never pay attention to me. Write about something fun, something I enjoyed, and something that made no difference at all. In so doing, I would attract people with similar interests, I hoped, but chase away all those who suffered from excessive earnestness.

Anime! The perfect choice!

I suppose I can understand why someone might think I was wasting my time on this stuff. What I don't understand is why he felt the need to tell me.

Well, maybe I do. Fashionable cynicism strikes again. What good is it to feel superior to someone if they don't know it?

Anyway, my benefactor is Canadian. Maybe I need to start telling Canuck jokes again eh.

UPDATE: I could make jokes about the Canuck Human Rights Commission, except that deep down it ain't funny.

Posted by: Steven Den Beste in Site Stuff at 02:26 PM | Comments (10) | Add Comment
Post contains 323 words, total size 2 kb.

1 *cough*  Given your reviews have pointed me in the direction of some anime I might never have watched otherwise, I consider your work quite meaningful. 

Also. . . Animation Age Ghetto:  HATEHATEHATEHATE!

*ahem*

Posted by: metaphysician at June 12, 2009 05:29 PM (WPSw+)

2 If my life has taught me one thing, it's this: letting people know that you're superior to them always, always, always makes you look like a jerk. No exceptions. ;p

Posted by: Avatar_exADV at June 12, 2009 06:02 PM (pWQz4)

3 I love the assumption that intelligence and enjoying anime are mutually exclusive, and that one should spend all of one's time with a furrowed brow, thinking Deep Thoughts.  Life is too short for that.  (Even Richard Feynman played the drums.)  There is nothing wrong with having fun, although Mr Sour Persimmons seems to think so.
And as an expatriate Canadian, I give my blessing to you to lob a few Canuck jokes his way.

Posted by: Toren at June 12, 2009 06:16 PM (KzOif)

4 I would be reminded of the occasional arrogant intellectual who views any activity that isn't "productive" as a waste of time. . . but really, I don't think this is even that deep.  Its the Animation Age Ghetto, pure and simple.  Animated axiomatically means "kids stuff", which axiomatically means "crap writing", to some people.

Posted by: metaphysician at June 12, 2009 06:26 PM (WPSw+)

5 I'm green with envy.

BTW, glad you're feeling better (presumably).

Posted by: Pete Zaitcev at June 12, 2009 06:41 PM (/ppBw)

6

I'm still a little dizzy, once in a while, but a WHOLE lot better than I was on Wednesday. I'm back to eating normally, and I can walk without staggering. Really a relief.

Wednesday was absolutely miserable. It's actually a nice advantage to be a caffiend; when I wanted to sleep the whole day, I just stopped using it and was able to get in about 36 hours of mostly sleeping. (And, surprisingly, didn't suffer from a headache.)

Posted by: Steven Den Beste at June 12, 2009 06:54 PM (+rSRq)

7 I've been meaning to talk to Stephen about maybe watching more sophisticated stuff, but I don't have time, I'm about to miss _Pinky and the Brain_.

Posted by: pgfraering at June 13, 2009 08:16 AM (G4kC0)

8

I know some of my friends who share my political views tend to look oddly at me for being into anime, but generally it is along the lines of 'Huh?'

When even National Review Online has writers who are into Dungeons and Dragons, I see no reason to apologize for any diverting interests.

C.T.

Posted by: cxt217 at June 13, 2009 02:07 PM (ibBFq)

9 Holy HELL!

A distraction from the express elevator to hell the world is on!?

Mindless fluff!!? In someones LEISURE ACTIVITY!?!

bEAVURZ!!!!???
dUX?

cCCCC...C..OOOKING?


Dear God Steven what are you thinking?
ZOMG!

Posted by: The Brickmuppet at June 13, 2009 04:16 PM (V5zw/)

10 It is good to hear that you are feeling better. 

Posted by: The Brickmuppet at June 13, 2009 04:17 PM (V5zw/)

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