james_davis_nicoll | Every day I learn something new

Crossposts: http://james-nicoll.livejournal.com/3539978.html

Every day I learn something new

Today, it's the existance of the Canadian Shack meme.

Not everything I learn about is of equal utility.

But of some entertainment value?

This one seems to be rooted in a basic willful ignorance about Canada.

Ah, I see.

I understood the meme to be less than literal in its Canadian setting, but then, I'm inclined to forgive much for "You can get Mark Vorkosigan into a Canadian Shack, but you can't keep him there long." ( http://archiveofourown.org/works/315793 ). This is, of course, easy for me to say as I am not Canadian.

I think that one goes back to Due South fandom which had a lot of Fraser in a shack in the middle of nowhere when he was in Canada. It's a pretty old meme in internet terms, supposedly 10 years old.

You've seen this post then?

I think most of the Due South fandom has forgotten that the show was supposedly mocking American stereotypes of Canada in the first place. (I dunno how successful it was; I mostly ignored that show.)

It's quite possible that most of the fandom did too...

Maybe I should make Cold War style propaganda icons that implores fandom do to do research/fact-check before they go on writing about places they know jack-all about, if only to avoid international incidents.