Why the Guardian is going down the pan!

[killer b]

Excruciatingly awful.

tbf his interview with Tracy Emin the other week was good, but it's literally the only thing I've ever read by him that wasn't stealing a living.

 

[Ptolemy]

"This is a winning picture. Could it be an election-winning picture? It makes Starmer more accessible because it is not so different from how he is now. He admitted in his interview with Morgan to still being proud of his hair."

Sweet, sincere and humanising: could Keir Starmer’s oh-so-serious student picture win votes?

The Labour leader’s portrait from his Leeds University days reveals a young man with a vision, who might just appeal to that key electoral group: Joy Division dads

www.theguardian.com

I mean, christ.

I came to post this - as soon as I saw that the thread had been updated, I knew it had to be this article.

What planet do these vacuous weirdos live on!?

 

[Pickman's model]

I came to post this - as soon as I saw that the thread had been updated, I knew it had to be this article.

What planet do these vacuous weirdos live on!?

Sadly they live on this one

 

[two sheds]

I read it again to check whether there was a mention of policies at self.

Amongst stiff competition, this is perhaps my favourite paragraph though, about the edgy photograph with a skull:

Yet the look in Starmer’s eyes is sincere. While the other boy is lost in a gloomy reverie, the future politician has a fervent light in his eyes. He may be all too aware of his look, and his looks, but he also projects a romantic dream of some kind – nay, a vision. Young Keir appears to believe in some big idea or better future. He can see it.

 

[teqniq]

Ok, against my better judgement I read a bit more. It's proper shite. Is he taking the piss?

 

[Pickman's model]

I read it again to check whether there was a mention of policies at self.

Amongar stiff competition, this is perhaps my favourite paragraph though, about the edgy photograph with a skull:

Sadness in his eyes

 

[two sheds]

You are not selling it.

Ok, against my better judgement I read a bit more.

HA!!!!

That article makes the whole thread worthwhile

 

[Ptolemy]

Here's another shit article by Jones where he berates Terry Pratchett despite admitting he's never read a single one of his books.

Get real. Terry Pratchett is not a literary genius

Life is too short to waste on ordinary potboilers – and our obsession with mediocre writers is a very disturbing cultural phenomenon

www.theguardian.com

 

[two sheds]

potboiler calling the kettleboiler black

 

[kabbes]

Here's another shit article by Jones where he berates Terry Pratchett despite admitting he's never read a single one of his books.

Get real. Terry Pratchett is not a literary genius

Life is too short to waste on ordinary potboilers – and our obsession with mediocre writers is a very disturbing cultural phenomenon

www.theguardian.com

And it gave them the chance to take up yet more space by publishing a response to their own journalism.

Terry Pratchett's books are the opposite of 'ordinary potboilers'

The moral weight that Jonathan Jones says is missing in the Discworld novels is very much there – but to know this, you do actually have to read them

www.theguardian.com

 

[Steel Icarus]

How can former northern Labour voters see him as a London elitist when he went to university in Yorkshire?

The crux

 

[killer b]

Is he taking the piss?

He is, but doesn't even do that very well

 

[killer b]

He was right about Pratchett though fwiw

 

[krtek a houby]

"This is a winning picture. Could it be an election-winning picture? It makes Starmer more accessible because it is not so different from how he is now."

Best get forensics on the scene, then, that cold case may be warming up

 

[two sheds]

He was right about Pratchett though fwiw

I could agree with you but I've never read him either.

 

[equationgirl]

I respectfully disagree, having read a lot of what he wrote. Awesome books.

 

[billy_bob]

I couldn't bring myself to read the Starmer hagiography past the first few lines - literally stomach-churning stuff.

I look forward to a Jackie-style comic strip in the next Saturday edition, with Angela Rayner batting her lashes unrequitedly at Starmer as he buckles some swash or other. With a big thought bubble reading 'My party leader is so dreamy...'

 

[kabbes]

He was right about Pratchett though fwiw

Pratchett continues to offer me more insight into societies and human structures than any number of celebrated literature I could name. I barely come across anything in social science that Pratchett hasn’t found a very human way to construct a metaphor for. If you can’t see it, that’s on you, not him.

 

[killer b]

I could agree with you but I've never read him either.

I've read loads of them. They're enjoyable formulaic genre fiction for the most part, probably a bit better and a bit more witty than most. Jones is a terrible snob and not as sophisticated as he imagines himself to be, but the pedestal Pratchett fans place him on is ludicrous and it's fine to try and puncture that from time to time.

 

[killer b]

there we go

 

[MickiQ]

Massive Pratchett fan myself, He has the odd off moment like all authors but for the most part, his books are funny and witty with some insightful comment on the state of the world presented with humour. He clearly wrote his books to entertain not change the world and he succeeded in the first and didn't aim for the second. None of them have transfered well to other media though all the TV adaptions have been pretty dire.
As for the article about Starmer's university days and his band, I felt embarrassed reading it even though no-one could see me, The person who wrote it is even more out of touch with the public mood than Starmer is.

 

[kabbes]

I've read loads of them. They're enjoyable formulaic genre fiction for the most part, probably a bit better and a bit more witty than most. Jones is a terrible snob and not as sophisticated as he imagines himself to be, but the pedestal Pratchett fans place him on is ludicrous and it's fine to try and puncture that from time to time.

It’s either ludicrous that loads of people put him on a pedestal or you’re just not getting it. This is left as an exercise for the reader.

 

[killer b]

It’s either ludicrous that loads of people put him on a pedestal or you’re just not getting it. This is left as an exercise for the reader.

No, I got it. I guess I just feel differently to you how profound it all is. that's ok though, we're allowed to disagree about stuff.

 

[kabbes]

No, I got it. I guess I just feel differently to you how profound it all is. that's ok though, we're allowed to disagree about stuff.

You didn’t say we’re allowed to disagree. You said that people with a different view to yours are “ludicrous”. Which is it?

 

[Orang Utan]

You didn’t say we’re allowed to disagree. You said that people with a different view to yours are “ludicrous”. Which is it?

Can’t it be both?

 

[killer b]

You didn’t say we’re allowed to disagree. You said that people with a different view to yours are “ludicrous”. Which is it?

you said people with a different view to you 'don't get it'. I think that is ludicrous.

 

[kabbes]

Can’t it be both?

I would say that at the moment you go out of your way to tell people that not only is "thing they like" actually "not good" but actually that it is ludicrous that they should think "thing good", you are essentially removing the option of "agree to disagree".

 

[killer b]

I didn't say that it wasn't good, I said the pedestal his fans place him on is ludicrous. The kind of pedestal where people who don't think he's as wonderful as you do can be waved away as people who 'don't get it'

 

[two sheds]

I couldn't read Pratchett after Hitchhikers' Guide, I might have enjoyed them if I'd read them first.

 

[killer b]

He clearly wrote his books to entertain not change the world and he succeeded in the first and didn't aim for the second.

is this true? I remember reading an interview with him many years ago where he was quite bitter at not being taken more seriously