usual over-representation of homosexuality (seriously, who really knows that many gay oeople?)
This is a classic conservative/progressive brainspace difference. Or did you not understand what's going on here by his choice of username and language, Carl-E?usual over-representation of homosexuality (seriously, who really knows that many gay oeople?)Seriously, overrepresentation?
Marten is shown as delighted that he now has "three dads" with no suggestion that abandoning his mother us in any way blameworthy.
That sample size problem is the reason not to sweat it because Jeph hasn't introduced a Jewish/First Nations/Tibetan/Russian/!Kung/Zoroastrian/Elbonian/whatever character. It's a large enough cast that they crowd each other for screen time but not large enough to draw any conclusions from its composition.
It's a classic liberal-left response...
It's a classic liberal-left response...
Oh for fuck's sake.
there is the usual over-representation of homosexuality (seriously, who really knows that many gay oeople?)
It's a classic liberal-left response that I actually raised several points, and all the replies jump on the "gay" aspect.
I'd always understood that people with varying degrees of homosexual leanings represented around 12% of the population, which (as has been pointed out) is statistically about right in QC. However the nature of that representation is another matter.
The British writer and media personality Stephen Fry is about as gay as it gets, if he were any more camp, he'd glow in the dark. However it's noteworthy that his portrayal of homosexuality in school and college life (The Liar, in particular) is extremely dark and negative. Evelyn Waugh portrays several gay characters (notably Sir Ralph Brompton) who were clearly drawn from life, and their over-arching characteristic us their untrustworthiness.
(seriously, who really knows that many gay oeople?)
It's a classic liberal-left response that I actually raised several points, and all the replies jump on the "gay" aspect.Note that an important point of The Liar is that it's full of hilarious bizarre anecdotes that never happened.
I'd always understood that people with varying degrees of homosexual leanings represented around 12% of the population, whic However it's noteworthy that his portrayal of homosexuality in school and college life (The Liar, in particular) is extremely dark and negative.
You know, I always had a similar complaint about "Star Trek." I mean, who knows that many spacepersons?
You know, I always had a similar complaint about "Star Trek." I mean, who knows that many spacepersons?
Marten is shown as delighted that he now has "three dads" with no suggestion that abandoning his mother us in any way blameworthy.
The cast are a fairly predictable Webcomic crew of losers stuck in the usual rut of service-industry non-jobs,That...Actually isn't true. Dora has her own business, Tai is essentially the boss at the library. I don't think the library quite qualifies as "service-industry", either. In fact, the only main cast actually stuck would be Faye, but that is a somewhat importan part of her character. Steve is a goddamn secret agent!
there is the usual over-representation of homosexuality (seriously, who really knows that many gay oeople?)I do know a lot of gay people, proportionally way more than in the comic, as do many other that commented. Gay people exist and are everywhere, they seem "new" for some people because society is screwed up and many of those would never "come out" mere years ago. Many still never do.
sexualised view of lifePeople have sex. Get over it.
and living beyond their financial means with no obvious problems.I don't see anyone in the comic living beyond their means. We can't have half of the comic being money problems, but it's been made clear that buying a guitar broke Marten's finances for some time. Again, the only one doing stuff beyond simply going to a bar is Hannelore, and not only her parents have all the money in the world, but she could make a lot of money herself, as far as we know.
May was a good one-shot as a holo but now she's just tedious, with a side-order of political correctness. She COULD have been interesting, as an exploration of the whole "Robot Jail" scenario but I don't know where that went to. She COULD have been an exploration of the whole issue of robots eroding low-paid employment, but another opportunity lost.May just barely appeared since getting out of prison, and for what she did the issue WAS explored (see her difficulty on finding employment).
Pintsize is a one-joke character that has outlasted his time.Pintsize himself said that long ago, and has developed since. We know he has "hidden depths" and I assume the current storyline will serve to further his character development
Dale and Marigold are interesting. They are outside the whole "hipster" thing and I think I might quite like Dale IRL. Marigold's whole shut-in scenario is familiar to any parent, although the whole "anime porn" thing is overdone, another Webcomic generality it seems.Dale and Marigold went through a lot of development before they became a couple, but since that happened recently, they didn't have much time to develop afterwards. Hard to say we're "done" with them.
The USreadership probsbly haven't seen it, or don't understand it if they have, but one if the huge successes of British tv in recent years has been "Gavin and Stacey", a rom-com of sorts about a rather sweet, and quite unremarkable young couple surrounded by a cast of grotesques and eccentrics. It works much better than it sounds, because you genuinely do care about the eponymous central characters and the secondary characters are genuinely funny.... but it knew when it had done the joke, and stopped.
You can see this in GWS, where the couples - Clarice and Joshua, Maureen and Jameson, to some extent Chrus and Melody - are moving steadily away from the central gag of "anti-social selfish loser and her ditzy friend"
Marten is shown as delighted that he now has "three dads" with no suggestion that abandoning his mother us in any way blameworthy. Of course, this is hand-waved in that SHE is a sex-worker of ample income and Marten has left home, but it's a very soecifuc view, don't you think?I don't see how accepting your father's remarriage has any relation whatsoever with abandoning your mother.
Marten is shown as delighted that he now has "three dads"
That's pretty much what I had thought. I know someone who did that sort of work as a stop-gap, getting work from a website of some sort. It wasn't great money but it kept the wolf from the door until he hit something better
We've never seen anyone else go to her for AnthroPC repair, and knowing more about the subject than most of the cast isn't saying a lot.
White collar yes. Skilled? ehhhhh. A lot of people get by on those jobs with only basic knowledge and commonly available software tools. They don't make great websites, but serviceable, simple ones for people who have even less experience and knowledge. However Marigold has some tech knowledge. Enough to be a go-to person for AthroPC repair. How much she actually does for her father is unknown, but she seems to have a lot of free time. More than anyone else in the comic at least, aside from Sven Pintsize and Winslow.
We've never seen anyone else go to her for AnthroPC repair, and knowing more about the subject than most of the cast isn't saying a lot.
This is a story, not a tediously accurate account of real life. It depicts what's needed to tell the story, and sufficient background to provide an environment for it. Quibbling beyond that is just missing the point.
No, I think you're misreading him. I think he actually likes the strip, but (like me) it's pretty far from his personal experience, so he's questioning it.
With luck, he's finding out just how limited personal experience can be!
you might need to notify your landlord for insurance reasons if someone moves in, but you can have all the house guests you like and it's no-one's business but yours
I had a visit from family based in the U.S, a couple of years ago. They were astounded at the extent and scale of under-age drinking, by which I mean under-18s. They seemed to think the police would come and kick the doors in, because we had beer and wine on the table at meals and allowed a 14-year-old cousin to have some.
Trending back towards comics, if there's an American version of the old style British "sports comic" - Alf Tupper, or Roy of the Rovers - I don't know about it
I've long since come to the conclusion that the U.S. is good fun in small doses but I've never felt the urge to live there.I feel much the same way. I have worked in the USA for periods up to a month, and enjoyed it, but always been glad to come home to Australia. Although I know that I'm highly critical of some aspects of American government policy and society, I have generally positive feelings about America, and as an Australian, I recognise the USA as my country's most important ally. As a "convert" to liberal democracy, there is also still a part of me that thinks of America as something of a "shining city on a hill" too, laughable as that might seem to Americans.
Does QC seem like something from another planet to non-US readers, or are most of the themes universal?
Experiencing America is oddly strange, I find. To an Australian, many aspects of America are instantly familiar as a result of the ubiquity of its cultural products in our media*, and I work in the computer industry where a large proportion of the products and standards that shape it originated in America. I speak English fluently, so there is no language barrier, despite my different dialect and accent. I could almost imagine myself at home, but then something will come along to remind me of how intensely foreign America is, in a manner that is almost jarring in contrast.
I always say Atlanta, just because internationally people know where that is, at least vaguely. I'm actually about an hour out in Athens. Just the college town vibe, and the number of transplants from other places changes it so much from the normal South, once you get outside and into rural areas its just frightening.
I always get offended by Southern stereotypes, because I'm like "its not like that at all" and then I have to correct myself and think "Oh, yeah, I live in Athens. Athens is bizarro-South".
But yeah, really, even to me, there are times where characters do things that don't make since to me. Like the number of characters with no cars. The fact that taxis and other public transit is actually a thing people use. Or the whole distance stuff (small state people are weird).
I always say Atlanta, just because internationally people know where that is, at least vaguely. I'm actually about an hour out in Athens. Just the college town vibe, and the number of transplants from other places changes it so much from the normal South, once you get outside and into rural areas its just frightening.
I always get offended by Southern stereotypes, because I'm like "its not like that at all" and then I have to correct myself and think "Oh, yeah, I live in Athens. Athens is bizarro-South".
But yeah, really, even to me, there are times where characters do things that don't make since to me. Like the number of characters with no cars. The fact that taxis and other public transit is actually a thing people use. Or the whole distance stuff (small state people are weird).
It's easier for people not from the state, yeah. I lived in Athens for 10 years. I miss the place. But I couldn't afford rent on my house when my hours were slashed, so I've kinda been moving around, rooming with people for a few years now. I still wish I could afford to move back to Athens on my own.
The US is large enough that Marten couldn't afford to visit his mother. (Or at least that was a convenient excuse).
One way to get a feel for how big it really is is to ride a train. Amtrak through Montana, 79 mph with no restaurant stops, takes almost 12 hours.
QC-land is an anomaly in US terms, in that everybody's home, work, and hangouts are all inside walking distance.
It's not cost-effectiveness (well, it is when you ignore that the roads are subsidized), it's actually racial tensions.
In the US, the suburbs exist because white people were afraid of black people. Much opposition to effective mass transit is actually along "but the scary black people can come here if there's mass transit!" lines.
Hey, I know the feeling - I grew up in Charlotte and have lived in Raleigh and Durham, three islands of sanity in the mess that is North Carolina.
What, American trains don't have dining cars?
There are no longer smoking cars, and smokers are warned that if they light up on board they will be left at the next stop.
How does smoking on US trains work? I don't smoke so I don't care, but most (though not all) British trains have smoking areas.Wow, really? I would not have expected UK legislation to be so tolerant to smoking because I have not seen a smoking area on a train, ever. Not in the Netherlands, Germany, France, Denmark, or Sweden. The very notion seems absurd.
It's like another issue I saw somewhere recently, about a character visiting another in their apartment and having a conversation about "parking in the next street, so the Superintendent won't charge you for me". That is pretty much meaningless to a British or European reader, because the tenancy lease practices differ - you might need to notify your landlord for insurance reasons if someone moves in, but you can have all the house guests you like and it's no-one's business but yours
I renamed the thread to maintain a pretence that's it's still on track... :psyduck:I'm taking that to be a pun :clairedoge: regardless of whether that was the intent.
Smoking carriages used to be quite frequent on trains in the UK, but there haven't been any since the ban on smoking in workplaces which took effect in 2007, and according to my observations at least were becoming less common in the years leading up to that.
Dude, on Amtrak they serve booze. I typically have a drink or two whilst watching films on my laptop.
British trains don't generally have opening windows these days.
Does an American train conductor actually have the authority to put someone off the train? I've never known a British or European conductor even attempt it, although you might get away with it in Germany I suppose. Usually they call the police (civil or railway depending on the circumstances)
Does an American train conductor actually have the authority to put someone off the train? I've never known a British or European conductor even attempt it, although you might get away with it in Germany I suppose. Usually they call the police (civil or railway depending on the circumstances)
Yes, the conductors do have that authority. In addition, the railways have their own police whose jurisdiction matches the railroad right-of-way, crossing state lines and trumping local authorities (who they usually work with anyway).
Most of the cases they get called out for are suicides. I used to play poker with a rail officer.
How does smoking on US trains work? I don't smoke so I don't care, but most (though not all) British trains have smoking areas.
Does an American train conductor actually have the authority to put someone off the train? I've never known a British or European conductor even attempt it, although you might get away with it in Germany I suppose
True, but in many places they've learned to disguise the racism that causes opposition to mass transit. Sometimes the alternate excuses they come up with are hilarious. When I was a teenager in Charlotte NC, there was a guy running for city council who opposed public transit on the grounds that it was "unbiblical". Though he could never point out exactly which verse in Leviticus forbade it.
How does smoking on US trains work? I don't smoke so I don't care, but most (though not all) British trains have smoking areas.
This isn't even slightly true. Smoking on trains, or in train stations, is completely banned as it has been in all public areas since 2007.
Gawds, I remember even when it was technically not kosher to smoke in tube stations that it was tolerated, if not normal.
Really, our cities just aren't built for public trans or walking. The only city I can think of that's not built on a grid is Boston, but that's mostly just because it was built up with no plan 100's of years ago.
My own City, Wellington (and, to a lesser extent, the Hutt Valley where I live which is for the most part, flat) has it's Transportation issues, not the least of which is the fact that the Wellington City itself is, for the most part, hilly.
Is it wrong of me to think that the most awesome part of your post was that you live in a place called the Hutt Valley?
Now here's the kicker
Wellington City Council, which runs the Inner City Buses, has, in its infinite wisdom, decided to do away with the Electric Trolley Buses and replace its entire fleet with Diesel Buses.
Now here's the kicker
Wellington City Council, which runs the Inner City Buses, has, in its infinite wisdom, decided to do away with the Electric Trolley Buses and replace its entire fleet with Diesel Buses.
Because they've decided to level all the hills and use them for landfill/"made land"? Brilliant!
Oh, they're not leveling all the hills? Brilliant... :roll:
Based on where QC is set, it is far from an over representation of homosexuality. Real life Northampton is very much like it's portrayed in the comics. Lots of diversity of all kinds.
I think you would get derision from Marten (http://www.questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=1919) if you described NoHam as "Portland Lite".
I love the comic and have been reading since a few months after launch (my forum registration is on page 6, of over a hundred), but QC especially in the past year or two, has become not just inclusive but exhaustively inclusive. Off the top of my head, the comic has: gay parents, a sex worker, a lesbian relationship (of which one partner is bi), an interracial relationship, a trans person, a prominent suicide, a person with significant (if often joked about) mental health issues, several people in financial distress, workplace equality issues (albeit addressed through an android), and now, presumably, an addict. Each of these has had fairly significant plot time.
I love the comic and have been reading since a few months after launch (my forum registration is on page 6, of over a hundred), but QC especially in the past year or two, has become not just inclusive but exhaustively inclusive. Off the top of my head, the comic has: gay parents, a sex worker, a lesbian relationship (of which one partner is bi), an interracial relationship, a trans person, a prominent suicide, a person with significant (if often joked about) mental health issues, several people in financial distress, workplace equality issues (albeit addressed through an android), and now, presumably, an addict. Each of these has had fairly significant plot time.
Idk, I mean, I hail from the midwest (near a city, but still not a liberal paradise, by any means) and every thing you mentioned are present in my life.
The thing is that a lot of these are things that people don't talk about. You probably know a few gay people, you probably know someone who has been/is a sex worker, you probably know someone who had a close relative commit suicide, someone who is an alcoholic/addict, you definitely know someone suffering from depression, and people who are poor. These are just things that aren't immediately visible. If someone doesn't choose to share those details with you, you probably won't be aware that those things are going on.
I think Clare's story got off a little easy. That was the closest I've ever come to wondering if Jeff has an agenda.
I wouldn't mind seeing a story arc were a character has some trouble with acceptance.
I think Clare's story got off a little easy. That was the closest I've ever come to wondering if Jeff has an agenda.
I wouldn't mind seeing a story arc were a character has some trouble with acceptance.
It's idiotic bullshit like this that makes me tell people in the real world what a shitheap this forum is. Everybody's got an agenda and they're all trying to attach it to the comics.
For future reference, if you're trying to divine some overarching moral standpoint from my comic: the moral of my comic is that people should try to be nice to each other.
QC especially in the past year or two, has become not just inclusive but exhaustively inclusive.
The racial makeup of the town was 98.1% White, 0.3% African American, 0.2% Asian, and 1.4% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 0.5% of the population.Yup, that sounds about like Lonaconing.
I grew up in an area that is about 60% white, 33% black, with a touch of everything else. I remember when one of my friends I grew up with, went to University at Rhodes College in Memphis, he said one of his classmates from up in the New England area (but not from a major city) was amazed at "how many blacks were in the school." There were like, maybe 100, in a college that has about 2k students. My friend was just like "wut"?
The cities are still majority black though.
Does QC seem like something from another planet to non-US readers, or are most of the themes universal?
The cities are still majority black though.
Cities are majority black? In New England? Are we talking about the same New England? Because here are some numbers:
Hartford CT 38.7% African-American
Bridgeport CT 34.6% African-American
Boston MA 27.3% African-American
Springfield MA 22.3% African-American
Providence RI 16% African-American
Portland ME 7.1% African-American
Manchester NH 4.1% African-American
Burlington VT 3.5% African-American
In fact, I couldn't find a single municipality in all of New England with a majority black population.