[mindslight]

> Java's reputation for sluggishness was really formed based on people's experience with Applets and Swing applications

... and contemporary interactive performance.

    python    < /dev/null  0.01s user 0.01s system  96% cpu   0.025 total
    racket    < /dev/null  0.17s user 0.02s system  98% cpu   0.198 total

    java                   0.09s user 0.02s system  94% cpu   0.118 total
    clojure   < /dev/null  2.07s user 0.06s system 170% cpu   1.247 total

There's of course a theoretical point about being shoehorned into the UNIX execution model, and if Java were able to run as a persistent OS (eg nailgun or whatever it is these days) then things get much better. But still, when you start off a project having to suffer and design workarounds for the language's and implementation's flaws...