(no subject)

[jack]

I was browsing the newspapers in the kitchen at work.

Cyclists

I happened upon the original opinion piece I recently heard a minor furore over, where a Times columnist proposed stringing piano wire across country lanes to decapitate cyclists.

Or maybe it wasn't coincidence, maybe someone else had looked it up and left that issue out. It doesn't matter. Nor does it matter how scientifically accurate it was[1].

The hyperbole didn't seem particularly unusual; plenty of provocative humorous columns propose physical violence, and I think it's clear without actually advocating it.

Setting aside the generalisations, it seems that a majority of cyclists he sees are acting carelessly, and that's basically what he means by "cyclists". Add people with the exactly reverse experience and terminology, and you have an instant flamewar, given that the way everyone hears each others statements becomes more and more provocative given the difference in terminology.

However, there does seem to be a genuine underlying conflict, in that if sane people A and person B choose to cycle and drive respectively along the same road, their decisions impose a trade-off in inconvenience on each other. Naturally one wants to find a fair balance, but the magnitudes are extremely subjective, so everyone thinks everyone else is being unreasonable, even if they're not being deliberately so.

Most people naturally see their own experience, and that they see, as representative, and even if not, may not have the knowledge to see and generalise other people's situations.

And then it's like the small annoyances of sharing a house with someone -- you recognise your differences on the big issues, but the apparently unimportant ones where the other party is being apparently irrationally intransigent niggle more and more until they flare up into national flamewars.

Comedies

A review of "Balls of Fury" said it was a parody of sports movies like "Dodgeball" and "Blades of Fury". Wait, "Dodgeball" wasn't a parody? Or it's a parody of parodies?

Is there an objective divide between funny films, comedies and parodies? I think there's a spectrum between funny and comedy, though you can generally pigeon-hole it when you see it. And I can see a division between comedy and parody -- Wimbledon is undeniably a comedy, and a romance, but also a sports film, but it does try to depict a genuine tennis tournament. But I can't think of a line that doesn't make Dodgeball a parody as well as a comedy.

Is there a middle ground? Perhaps; even parodies can have tension, but I can't think of any (even theoretical) good examples.

[1] Though if anyone wants to link to any figures vis-a-vis:

* Carbon footprint of recreational cyclist fuelled entirely by imported energy drinks, vs. a car
* Environmental/aesthetic/road-hazard detriment of plastic drinks bottles vs. bleeding cyclist
* Proportion of cyclists vs of motorists who litter thoughtlessly

I'd be curious. I'll provisionally assume he's correct that where he is, whether or not in the country generally, the most litter came from cyclists, as that's what he says he's observed personally.

Comments

[nakedtoes.livejournal.com]

FWIW, Matthew Parris apologised in his next column, stating that he was trying to be humorous but felt he'd missed the mark, judging from people's responses

[pizza.maircrosoft.com (from livejournal.com)]

the times seems to be packed with inflammatory material. After happening across that one I think cyclists got off lightly.

m, whose openid is now working and who wouldn't have just cycled home in the rain without lights*, now would she.

(*) blasted dynamos that don't work when they get wet!
(hurrah for empty back routes)

[sillytrippy.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure if you're aware that the wire incidents have happened (nobody decapitated though). While I realise it was meant to be humorous, and would otherwise have found it mildly funny in an amusingly-excessive-anger kind of way, knowing destroyed it for me. To be fair I imagine Parris didn't realise though.

[captain-aj.livejournal.com]

What boggled me about that article was the idea that anybody on a bike would throw their drinks bottle away - do people actually do that?

Oh yeah, and echoing an earlier comment - generic threat of violent consequence would have been amusing, but the fact that people have used that exact same method for attempted murder in the past did sour the article quite a bit. Sort of like suggesting that we ought to deal with excessively deviant people by setting off nail bombs in their favourite London hangouts.

[zebbiejohnson.livejournal.com]

I've heard the piano wire one in the context of disabling mounted foxhunters - put thin, strong twine high enough between trees and it will miss the horse, but take the rider off its back.
However, the context I heard this in is very much '*our* hunt saboteurs don't do *that*, which other , less scrupulous groups might do' - so it may well be an urban myth.

[ceb.livejournal.com]

IME cyclists are powered by malt loaf, which comes all the way from Manchester.