[HN Gopher] When Trucks Fly
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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.
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