What Happens When Rudolph Comes?

If you ever think about adopting dogs, you know about the concept of hybrid vigor. And it’s a concept that people in all kinds of fields understand.

Specific breeds of dogs become inbred and develop a lot of predictable problems. For example, Golden Retrievers have a high occurance of cancer of the blood vessels, and Pointers have a strong tendency toward anxiety. But their offspring can be spared these problems if owners would be willing to accept breeding with non-pedigreed partners. The purity of the breed would be lost, but the offspring would be so much better off.

The Island of Misfit Toys

This is the time of year when families gather ’round to watch Rudolph The Red Nosed Reindeer, and in its own awkward way it championed the idea that misfits and mixed up people had a special place in the world, including a dentist elf, a squirt gun that shoots jelly and a cowboy who rides an ostrich.

So dear Deadsplintermisfits, let’s talk about oddballs and mutants we like.

For example, Afro-Cuban Jazz is a famous combination and mishmash of two types of music into something new and vibrant. Just imagine how incredible it would have been to be there when Dizzy Gillespie recorded Manteca.

When the Japanese automaker Nissan was first building vehicles for the US market, they were known as Datsun and they gained a loyal following for their compact pickup trucks. Datsun trucks were much smaller than what was sold by GM, Ford and Dodge. They were also cheaper and a better fit for people who only wanted to haul small loads, they got better mileage, and their owners were willing to accept the noise, rough ride, and less powerful engines they offered.

While it’s true that corporations can take different food traditions and turn them into mush, there are also a lot of places where different communities take different traditions and organically make something new and exciting. Tex-Mex food at its best is a great example. Hawaii is famous for taking traditional native foods and mixing them with food from Japan, The Philippines, the mainland US, China, and other places and making something new and exciting.

What Misfits and Mutants Do You Like?

Over and over again through history, great things have emerged when people lose their need for purity.

Gaugin created incredible art when he left France and began incorporating what he learned in places like the Carribean and Pacific Islands. In the1870s, the Impressionists gained incredible inspiration from Japanese art.

Maybe you enjoy movies that mix Western traditions and Anime. Maybe you have a favorite Asian fusion restaurant in your town. There are a zillion great albums which combine elements from Africa, Brazil, or India with Western pop, and of course Lemmy’s DU!AN: Friday Night Circle Pit often features bands from Scandanavia, Japan, or other points on the globe who love metal. Or maybe you play a video game which draws from the folklore or media of another country, and turned it into something new and exciting on its own.

There are people who insist that purity makes us strong, but deep down we’re all misfits and mutants in one way or another. Immigrants and refugees don’t weaken us, they are us.

So tell us about your Island of Misfit Toys, your spam musubi, your West Side Story, or anything else you like that mixes and matches and makes something new and good.