[HN Gopher] When Trucks Fly ___________________________________________________________________ When Trucks Fly Author : acdanger Score : 20 points Date : 2023-08-22 20:21 UTC (2 hours ago) (HTM) web link (www.newyorker.com) (TXT) w3m dump (www.newyorker.com) | spacecadet wrote: | Monster truck engineering, suspensions, dual drive trains. | :drool: | | Where's the Monster Cybertruck with hub motors??? talk about | unsprung mass! | shockeychap wrote: | "Monster truckers obsess over distinctions among types of dirt | the way vintners obsess over terroir." | | Are the author and publication trying to sound as condescending | and uppity as possible? Honestly, this reads like the kind of | thing that "Frasier" mocked so perfectly about upscale | sophisticates living in a bubble. | | I was never a big fan of monster truck rallies, but it's easy to | understand what was so fun about them. Articles like this that | deign to explain the finer points of monster truck rallies (while | using esoteric references to wine sampling) for their audience of | sophisticates tell me just how useless publications like the "The | New Yorker" really are anymore. | olivermarks wrote: | I gave up my subscription to the New Yorker years ago due in | large part to this 'sophisticates' problem | Johnny555 wrote: | It's true though. I say this as someone whose family members | used to compete in mud bog competitions (not quite the same as | monster trucks, but in the same genre). They'd walk the track | and chose tires and set weight balance based on the mud | conditions. | theideaofcoffee wrote: | I don't understand what you're considering as uppity as it was | probably the only highbrow analogy in the entire piece, the | rest being pretty accessible and readable. Also you're | evaluating a line from the ... New Yorker which you consider | useless, may as well stick to Popular Science if you want just | the facts and a little less literary exposition. | | This is the same tired critique that people on HN bandy about | every time a New Yorker article is posted: "just get to the | point!". If they did it would just be a lot less fun to read. | resolutebat wrote: | I'm genuinely confused by what you're outraged by here. The | average New Yorker reader knows more about wines than monster | trucks, so they're trying to put it in terms that will make | sense to their readers. | | If anything, the article reads as the opposite of pretentious | to me: it makes it clear that monster trucking isn't just | brainless amusement for inbred yokels, but a sport where things | like the exact composition of dirt is critically important. | petsfed wrote: | I feel like an article that starts with "A monster trucker is | the kind of person who has a favorite type of dirt." is | trying to say something about "the kind of person who has a | favorite type of dirt", and fans thereof, and its not | positive. | | The whole article reads _to me_ with the same smug | superiority as an Onion article about, well, self-described | sophisticates enjoying things with a smug sense of | superiority[0]. The thing curiously absent from the article | is any sort of enthusiasm for the subject matter. Its all | very clinical, and seems at best bemused about other people | 's enthusiasm, without anything to suggest why that | enthusiasm might be justified. | | 0. https://www.theonion.com/ill-try-anything-with-a-detached- | ai... | JimtheCoder wrote: | "but a sport where things like the exact composition of dirt | is critically important." | | Let's not swing the pendulum too far in the opposite | direction either... | [deleted] | dmbche wrote: | Never driven one, but ai'm fairly certain they weight | absurd amounts and wreck the tracks they go on - the soil | is going to be imoortant to take into consideration for | tires, inflations, setting the suspension. | | Just like setting up race cars or bikes is a lot more than | turning a key and ripping the track, even if it's asphalt! | shockeychap wrote: | "isn't just brainless amusement for inbred yokels" | | The article never made reference to "inbred yokels". It | didn't have to. It can couch its descriptions in the language | of coastal elites who supposedly know more of wine and polo | than they do of simple things like truck rallies. And while | it's ostensibly explaining how "sophisticated" the sport is, | the readers will fully understand the "isn't just brainless | amusement for inbred yokels" part. | | I wouldn't characterize my response as one of outrage. But I | do find it off-putting and pretentious. | ethanbond wrote: | "It can couch its descriptions in the language of [its | primary audience]." This is a weird critique. | shockeychap wrote: | That's fair to say, and I don't deny being a little | hostile toward snobbery and pretension. I always have | been. However, I also don't think [its primary audience] | is quite right. I think [its primary audience's self | image] is a little more correct. | nosefurhairdo wrote: | There is nothing condescending about that analogy. Debatable | whether "terroir" is esoteric, but even without knowing about | winemaking you can understand the point that the quality of | dirt is of surprising significance to monster truck rallies. | | And an article which aims to spread cross-cultural appreciation | for a fun, harmless event is not useless. What is useless is | unconstructive negativity. | shockeychap wrote: | I have to question how "surprising" the significance of dirt | composition is. The characteristics of dirt and mud (and the | tires themselves) will affect all aspects of how the truck | behaves and handles. How is it surprising that one who enjoys | the activity would be deeply invested in the very ground on | which everything happens? | | If the article actually was trying to spread any kind of real | appreciation for monster trucking or why they're so much fun, | I would be all for it. However, it reads like some outsider | describing observations of an untouched tribe in the jungles | of South America. No matter how much they write of their | interesting findings, they're not trying to convince any of | us to give up modern life and join the tribe. | dmbche wrote: | The article is very long and I'm uninterested in reading the | whole thing, but I got tired after reading a couple of | screefuls of explanations and examples of the complexity of | organising these events - dirt being a stricking example since | it sounds like a simple problem but ends up being a massive | hassle - costing 300 000$ when setting up in Miami. ___________________________________________________________________ (page generated 2023-08-22 23:00 UTC)