(no subject)

WANTED: A moratorium on people claiming that literary fiction is nothing but boring plotless stories of sad failed writers and academics having sad affairs.

At this point I've heard it repeated so many times that whatever grain of truth it had in it has worn off. And how is it different from claiming that fantasy is nothing but reactionary daydreaming about dragons and poor boys who are secretly the heir to the throne?

(no subject)

While I'm at it, a moratorium on crowing "Look! Look! Wikipedia can be wrong!"

We know that Wikipedia can be wrong. We know, also, that reference databases can be wrong, that books can be wrong, that scholarly journals can be wrong, that the guy on the street you asked for directions can be wrong. Saying that Y is dead when he's very much alive is a bad mistake; is it worse than "Most Japanese people have the same opinions"? Is it worse than the Ku Klux Klan pamphlets I had to bind for my bindery job in grad school? (answer: NO.) Is it worse than "Someday, perhaps man will walk on the moon"?

When people assert the usefulness of Wikipedia -- it's not that Wikipedia is never wrong. It's that it's very often a useful place to start research. And if a student treats it as cross between the Pope and Deep Thought, that's not the fault of Wikipedia, that's the fault of the student.