2007-09-26 A rather elven thing to say

[Boss Out of Town]

"Ghetto booty?" Exactly which ghetto do you think it is that Bani's late mother was from?

I dunno, most of Farrell looks pretty ghetto to me. Meji seemed to share the same opinion. "No indoor plumbing" and all that.

That ain't a ghetto, dude. What you are describing is a slum. Ghettos can be any level of wealth.

I wonder, if there are 'races' as we know them amongst humans in the Poeverse, when did they arise? Way back when they were created, or sometime in the god-knows-how-long its been since? Ditto the Elven races. I wonder if different Elven races differ in skin tone; we already know that they differ in hair color. I also wonder if the distribution of human races across the world mirrors the old division of Elven lands, and what that might suggest about the halfelvenness of humans in general...

Since this is a created world and does not appear to be all that old, humans pretty much had to have been created with a variety of ethnic types. Deities are funny about things like that.

Understanding how biology, geology, and selection work through time puts a lot of awkwardness in discussions about created worlds. I recall that this is a issue that also troubles Tolkien Society articles. If Eru created Arda flat less than 10,000 years ago and the world became round only at the end of The Second Age, then why bother to do an article about continental drift and how it created Mordor? When we tried to go into deep time working on the Iron Crown backstory for Middle-earth, I pulled the local version of "A Wizard Did It." In Middle-earth, a "Maia" did it, presumably on a whim. So, Mordor was thrown up as a refuge for certain powerful spirits of fire who liked to live in volcanoes. When humans "awoke" in Middle-earth during the Age of the Stars, they were already varied in their physical appearance and culture.

Why did Eru or Exitalis create humans in pre-packaged tribes, complete with varied customs? Because he wanted to!

[Viking-Sensei]

[Admin Hat] I suspect you're all making far too much of what I perceived as little more than a bad joke. Instead of going off on a politcally incorrect tangent about other horrible racial stereotypes and how they might be represented in the Poeaverse, we got bogged down on terminology and analysis of the word "ghetto" and it's application to the situation.

While it certainly says something for the board and it's level of maturity (compared to the rest of the internet and the world en masse), it doesn't make for a lively discourse of thoughts and ideas. In other words, we've got a forum for the heavy stuff... try to keep it at least sorta light here, ok? [/Admin Hat]

Besides, if Poe really wanted to delve into the realms of Blaxpolotation, it's not like he doesn't have experience with other forms of exploitation, now is it? At this point, he's just diversifying... and as I've always understood it, diversity is supposed to be a good thing.

[BloodHenge]

Maybe Bani and her mother just had really dark tans. After all, Tsuiraku is a hundred miles above the ground. Not much air between them and the sun.

I thought we had cleared that up as being highly unlikely, and probably a figure of speach. If nothing else, look at the floating part of the city in the recent view from below...does it look like it's 100 miles away from the point of view at ground level? Never mind the fact that 100 miles up is about 4 times higher than the highest peaks in south Asia on Earth, and most people need bottled oxygen when climbing even to that altitude.

I was being facetious. But thanks for killing the joke, though. That doesn't happen to me all that often.

[Michael Poe]

Maybe Bani and her mother just had really dark tans. After all, Tsuiraku is a hundred miles above the ground. Not much air between them and the sun.

I thought we had cleared that up as being highly unlikely, and probably a figure of speach. If nothing else, look at the floating part of the city in the recent view from below...does it look like it's 100 miles away from the point of view at ground level? Never mind the fact that 100 miles up is about 4 times higher than the highest peaks in south Asia on Earth, and most people need bottled oxygen when climbing even to that altitude.

I was being facetious. But thanks for killing the joke, though. That doesn't happen to me all that often.

Any statement of '100 miles up' was probably an error and I had meant to write '100 feet up' instead.

[Forrest]

That ain't a ghetto, dude. What you are describing is a slum.

Ah, Wikipedia corroborates your story. I've always heard the terms used synonymously. Apparently the association of "ghetto" (a minority ethnic enclave within a larger area of different ethnicity) with "slum" (an underdeveloped or decrepit area) is itself a product of racial stereotypes, stemming from the economic collapse of black urban ghettos in the United States after desegregation and the civil rights movement, when the wealthier black folk moved out to the formerly-white-only suburbs. I learn something new every day...

I suspect you're all making far too much of what I perceived as little more than a bad joke.

Agreed, but wish to except myself from this category. I was just making another, perhaps slightly less bad joke.

I was being facetious. But thanks for killing the joke, though.

His name is Killjoy. That's his thing.

Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain.

Hail Poe!

[BloodHenge]

That ain't a ghetto, dude. What you are describing is a slum.

Ah, Wikipedia corroborates your story. I've always heard the terms used synonymously. Apparently the association of "ghetto" (a minority ethnic enclave within a larger area of different ethnicity) with "slum" (an underdeveloped or decrepit area) is itself a product of racial stereotypes, stemming from the economic collapse of black urban ghettos in the United States after desegregation and the civil rights movement, when the wealthier black folk moved out to the formerly-white-only suburbs. I learn something new every day...

Good point. In one of the books I had to read for my current Anthropology class, the term "golden ghetto" was used to refer to the areas where the staff of American embassies in Southeast Asia lived (as part of the phrase "social incest in the golden ghetto", referring to the Americans' cocktail parties).

[Boss Out of Town]

Another interesting point: since Bani's mom is from Farrel, what Farellian class and/or and ethnic segment is she from? The few Farellians we've seen do not seem to have her hair. Further, Tsairaku seems to be a century ahead of the other human societies in technology. Was part of the tension in that marriage due to the cultural gap between late 20th Century America/Japan and 19th Century psuedo-Europe?

[Killjoy]

Another interesting point: since Bani's mom is from Farrel, what Farellian class and/or and ethnic segment is she from? The few Farellians we've seen do not seem to have her hair. Further, Tsairaku seems to be a century ahead of the other human societies in technology. Was part of the tension in that marriage due to the cultural gap between late 20th Century America/Japan and 19th Century psuedo-Europe?

Where was it stated that Bani's mom is from Farrel? I missed it.

[Graybeard]

Where was it stated that Bani's mom is from Farrel? I missed it.

Suggest you go back and read this whole thread, but to summarize: Bani herself says she's half-Farrelian; her dad has a typically Tsuirakuan name as well as Tsuirakuan skills; conclusion follows.

[Killjoy]

Where was it stated that Bani's mom is from Farrel? I missed it.

Suggest you go back and read this whole thread, but to summarize: Bani herself says she's half-Farrelian; her dad has a typically Tsuirakuan name as well as Tsuirakuan skills; conclusion follows.

Sir, I salute your ability to remember shit from three years ago. Huzzah.