andrewducker | Interesting Links for 28-07-2020

The architectural chainmail stuff is very cute! The article doesn't say anything about cleaning or maintenance to keep it looking like that, though. And it's probably only suitable for a really dry climate as is. Though if it is strong enough, it looks as if it might be a nice support for a natural plant wall. Those little crevices would be perfect for moss, fungus, small wind-blown plants, bird's nests etc. You could leave it and then just let it gradually accumulate its own little ecosystem. It could make a great living fence too, if you don't want the accumulated moisture eating into your house.

I don't have a lot of patience with Asians (not westerners of Asian descent, who aren't relevant to me in this particular context) complaining about the occidentricity (I know it's not a word, I have made it up) of western-created stuff. People have the right to make what they want about their own societies. These are consumer products. Don't like, don't buy. Cultural diversity doesn't mean that everything has to be something that you like or agree with. It's not as if modern Asian cultures and societies don't produce massive amounts of art and music and literature of their own. It's like someone from the US complaining that there aren't enough blacks or whites or Latinos in your average Bollywood drama, or a Chinese citizen complaining that there aren't any Chinese in a Nigerian soap opera.

I think I would watch a soap opera about a Chinese family moving to Nigeria.

Re: Korra

I quote :
"But Korra isn’t a wholly new setting intentionally based on the intersections of between Asian and EuroAmerican culture, it is written to be a sequel to The Last Airbender and as such is building on the foundations of being without a EuroAmerica in its world."

I don't have a lot of patience with western-created stuff which plays with Asian-inspired worlds when and how it pleases them only to as the OP said "suggest that Americana is the inevitable future of all worlds. That is no other possibility for modernity and progress. That westernisation is inevitable even in fantasy worlds without a “West.”"

"That Americana is the inevitable future of all worlds" reminds me of the awfulness that was the new Battlestar Galactica (and countless other shows tbh).

Edited 2020-07-30 23:10 (UTC)

By all means. All I'm saying is that I see no reason why anyone needs to get upset about how foreigners choose to entertain themselves.

I was a big fan of the first Battlestar Galactica in my distant youth, mainly because everyone was so pretty, but I don't think I got beyond the first episode of the remake.

So this has nothing to do with Korra or Asians in particular? You don't believe there's anything wrong with cultural appropriation or using another culture however you see fit? (Sincerely trying to understand your position, not put words in your mouth :)

I don't know exactly what you mean by "cultural appropriation", sorry. If a Japanese company wants to decorate its clothes with random roman alphabet text, or a French restaurant wants to use Chinoiserie in its decor, I see no reason to care either way.

Interesting Links for 28-07-2020

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