{"id":4018,"date":"2009-06-04T06:14:03","date_gmt":"2009-06-04T10:14:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/?p=4018"},"modified":"2009-06-04T15:26:59","modified_gmt":"2009-06-04T19:26:59","slug":"move-along-no-internet-to-see-here","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/move-along-no-internet-to-see-here","title":{"rendered":"Move Along. No Internet To See Here"},"content":{"rendered":"

To me, the most fascinating aspect of the 20th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square Massacre is that China’s government has blocked a number of western websites and services<\/a> \u00e2\u20ac\u201d Twitter, Facebook, Flickr and more \u00e2\u20ac\u201d to keep its people from reading anything about the historical event.<\/p>\n

Can the absence of something speak more loudly than the thing itself? It sounds like something out of a Samuel Delany novel, in which the\u00c2\u00a0 very language of protest is subtly excised from a people.<\/p>\n

One problem with wiping out history like this is that subsequent generations have so little idea of what happened that they inadvertently let the truth out simply because they don’t even know something was suppressed, as happened on the 18th anniversary<\/a>.<\/p>\n

I also wonder how “the people” will interpret the week-long shuttering of their favorite social networking sites “for maintenance”. If this becomes an annual occurrence, will the week of June 4 eventually become known in China as Dark Internet Week? Will they start to develop conspiracy theories as to why this keeps happening? Will they infer motivations more sinister than the Tiananmen Square Massacre itself?<\/p>\n

Anyway Here’s a neat New York Times<\/em> piece on That Guy Who Stood In Front Of The Line Of Tanks<\/a>, which still ranks as the greatest f*** you moment ever caught on film.<\/p>\n

And here’s a post about the anniversary in Beijing<\/a> from James Fallows, the Atlantic’s correspondent in China. You can go check out his excellent blog<\/a> for a bunch of posts about how arbitrary China’s media censorship has been this week.<\/p>\n

(UPDATE! Maybe the original Tiananmen Square Protests were meant as an anniversary celebration for ten-cent beer night<\/a>.)<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

To me, the most fascinating aspect of the 20th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square Massacre is that China’s government has blocked a number of western websites and services \u00e2\u20ac\u201d Twitter, Facebook, Flickr and more \u00e2\u20ac\u201d to keep its people from reading anything about the historical event. Can the absence of something speak more loudly than … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Move Along. No Internet To See Here”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[17],"tags":[717,231,716],"class_list":["post-4018","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics-explicit","tag-james-fallows","tag-samuel-delany","tag-tiananmen-square"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4C7K-12O","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":13044,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/covid-check-in-with-samuel-r-delany","url_meta":{"origin":4018,"position":0},"title":"COVID Check-In with Samuel R. Delany","author":"Gil","date":"April 1, 2020","format":"audio","excerpt":"Virtual Memories Show COVID Check-In: Samuel R. Delany \"I may be one of those people who operates fairly well in chaos. So the very fact that there's chaos around gives me something to fight against and focus on what I'm doing.\" Happy birthday to legendary science fiction author Samuel R.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Art"","block_context":{"text":"Art","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/art"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/covidchipcomp.jpg?fit=1200%2C522&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/covidchipcomp.jpg?fit=1200%2C522&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/covidchipcomp.jpg?fit=1200%2C522&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/covidchipcomp.jpg?fit=1200%2C522&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/covidchipcomp.jpg?fit=1200%2C522&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":10264,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/episode-212-samuel-r-delany","url_meta":{"origin":4018,"position":1},"title":"Episode 212 – Samuel R. Delany","author":"Gil","date":"April 3, 2017","format":"audio","excerpt":"Virtual Memories Show 212: Samuel R. Delany \"The most important thing I thought students needed was the one thing you're never allowed to teach.\" Legendary author (and longtime pal) Samuel R. Delany (a.k.a. Chip) joins the show to talk about the sex lives of older gay men, how he's taken\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Comic books & strips"","block_context":{"text":"Comic books & strips","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/literature\/comics"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/IMG_6683.jpg?fit=1200%2C1200&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/IMG_6683.jpg?fit=1200%2C1200&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/IMG_6683.jpg?fit=1200%2C1200&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/IMG_6683.jpg?fit=1200%2C1200&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/IMG_6683.jpg?fit=1200%2C1200&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":2142,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/a-chip-off-the-old-karadzic","url_meta":{"origin":4018,"position":2},"title":"A Chip off the Old Karadzic","author":"Gil","date":"July 22, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Last weekend, I wrote about my Sunday sidewalk brunch with Samuel Delany. I should have known something was wrong, the way Chip kept looking down the sidewalk and back into the restaurant, the way he kept nervously fingering his beard, the way he patted me down and confiscated my phone\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "literature"","block_context":{"text":"literature","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/literature"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/karadchipweb.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":5546,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/when-youre-a-bear-youre-a-bear-all-the-way","url_meta":{"origin":4018,"position":3},"title":"When You’re a Bear You’re a Bear All the Way","author":"Gil","date":"August 19, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"I cleaned out the attic and our storage room this weekend, and have uncovered a bazillion photos I need to get around to scanning and writing about. Here's a pic from around 1999 or 2000 from a birthday diner for Samuel R. Delany. Chip is probably just holding his cane\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Chip Delany\"","block_context":{"text":"Chip Delany","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/tag\/chip-delany"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1978,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/hot-chip","url_meta":{"origin":4018,"position":4},"title":"Hot Chip","author":"Gil","date":"April 1, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Happy birthday \/ April Fool's day to Chip Delany! Thank you for keeping faith in my abilities as a publisher, long after a sensible man would have given up.","rel":"","context":"In "literature"","block_context":{"text":"literature","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/literature"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":10433,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/readercon-pre-game","url_meta":{"origin":4018,"position":5},"title":"Readercon pre-game","author":"Gil","date":"July 13, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Getting ready for Readercon 2017? Then check out my podcasts with some of this year's guests: Samuel R. Delany\u00a0\u2022\u00a0mp3 John Clute 1\u00a0\u00a0\u2022\u00a0mp3 John Clute 2\u00a0\u2022\u00a0mp3 Liz Hand 1\u00a0\u2022\u00a0mp3 Liz Hand 2\u00a0(brief) \u2022\u00a0mp3 Michael Dirda 1\u00a0\u2022\u00a0mp3 Michael Dirda 2\u00a0\u2022\u00a0mp3 Michael Dirda 3\u00a0\u2022\u00a0mp3 Scott Edelman\u00a0\u2022\u00a0mp3 John Crowley\u00a0\u2022\u00a0mp3 Theodora Goss\u00a0\u2022\u00a0mp3 (I think she'll\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Classic Comics Criticism"","block_context":{"text":"Classic Comics Criticism","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/literature\/classic-comics-criticism"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/readercon.gif?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4018","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4018"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4018\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4020,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4018\/revisions\/4020"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4018"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4018"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4018"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}