garyfischy
I feel claustrophobic (I feel cool!)
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Re-reading Enderās Game: Racism, blogging and video games
I loved Enderās Game the first time I read it, as a pre-Internet pre-teen without any knowledge of Orson Scott Cardās bizarre and homophobic vitriol. I even liked the first sequel, before the second one convinced me that maybe some stories were better off as one-shots. Then I found out about Cardās personal beliefs, and mentally classed the book with early Mel Gibson movies and other entertainment I feel vaguely guilty about liking. But as the new, rather-joyless-looking movie adaptation arrived, I decided to reread Enderās Game, to see how much of what I liked about it remained and how much I could pick up on Cardās prejudices as an adult reader. The short answers: Not as much as I remembered, and more than I expected! First of allā¦
1) Surprise N-word: Orson Scott Card, would you like some racism to go along with your homophobia? I read an old copy of the book, an early printing that includes a part where, in some routine trash-talking, Ender calls his friend Alai by the n-word, and then jokes about how his great-great-grandfather would have sold Alaiās grandfather to another slaveowner for not liking that term. Kids these days!
āAnd Shen.ā
āThat little slanty-eyed butt-wiggler?ā
Ender decided that Alai was joking. āHey, we canāt all be niggers.ā
Alai grinned. āMy grandpa wouldāve killed you for that.ā
āMy great great grandpa would have sold him first.ā
Card edited that exchange in later editions, but apparently not because heād regretted using the word or even realized that maybe having your white, super-genius, messiah-like hero use racial epithets and joke about slavery isnāt a great way to develop a sympathetic protagonist. No, according to Orson Scott Card, āprudesā forced his hand.
Ā āEven as the old obscenities dealing with sex and excrement were unleashed upon the public, new obscenities moved from the realm of the merely indecorous to the sinful. What f* and s* (and worse words) had once been, now n* has become. And, just as there were prudes who screamed in outrage and demanded that any work containing those old bad words must be banned, so we have a new group of prudes making identical demands about works containing the new bad word,ā he wrote in 2000, in response to a question about why he had edited that passage. (Card begins that answer by comparing himself to Shakespeare, which gives you an idea of the rest. He also goes onto to assert that truly sophisticated readers would understand that Enderās racism was really about teaching Alai tolerance and rebuking his friend for being racist about Asian people ā an argument which requires a whole separate critical takedown.)
2) The invention of blogging: Forget the Big Twist. The parts I most remembered from the book over the years, and the parts I was most impressed by, were Cardās prescient depiction of political blogging and the influence that Internet writers would have on world events. Okay, maybe Matt Drudge or Nick Denton havenāt become world dictators, as Enderās blogger/psychopath brother Peter eventually does. But I was very impressed at how Card, in my memory, predicted the rise and the influence of personality-driven online writers, who become famous based largely on their (carefully-calculated) inflammatory rhetoric. When I went back to reread Enderās Game, I was most looking forward to spending time with Peter and sister Valentine, who make themselves famous by getting into anonymous online debates with each other.
Unfortunately, it turns out that the Peter/Valentine/blogging plotline takes up about half a chapter, plus a few lines towards the end for plot resolution and sequel setup. I donāt know what it says that throwaway subplots formed my most enduring memories of the book, but itās not a great recommendation.
3) Video games are about as interesting to read about as they are to watch other people playing. Enderās Game is a very readable book, which is a big accomplishment considering its reliance on poorly-described virtual combat. The ābattle simulations,ā first at Enderās school and later when heās tricked into destroying the enemyās homeworld, were pretty opaque to me during this re-read ā I finished those scenes with no real visual of what the children gladiators actually accomplished or physically did during the battles. It was much easier to visualize the arenas in the Hunger Games books, for example, or the Quidditch matches in the Harry Potter books. I think Suzanne Collins and J.K. Rowling had a bit of an advantage over Card, in that both of them described battles that were more in the physical world than the video games that make up so much of Enderās Game. But world-building or big-picture description of any sort isnāt a strength of Cardās ā thereās a slapdash civil war shoved into the bookās resolution, between superpowers that have never been clearly delineated. And itās a problem when you do choose to set a book in what is essentially a series of video game championships and then canāt describe them clearly enough for a reader to do much more than skim for dialogue and outcome.
4) The Big Twist makes no sense. When your main character is a tactical genius, the best strategic mind in generations and the savior of the human race, it rather strains credulity that he canāt figure out when heās fighting actual battles against an actual enemy. Especially when heās purportedly hoodwinked by a couple of bumbling mid-level military guys and the washed-up war veteran version of Rip Van Winkle.
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Customer: I AM DOING A RESEARCH ON CHIA SEEDS SO I WANT TO PROMOTE IT
DMV: EAT
Verdict: ACCEPTED
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you criticize one milquetoast game with great aesthetics for being all bark and no bite and suddenly u got people in ur inbox talking to you with a straight face about how adult Japanese men are babies who know nothing about the world or even women
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we've gone beyond driving a dead horse into the ground we're partaking in some kind of ritual meme sacrifice and i am all for it. mass-scale meme purge. the blood raining down on our faces and we're dancing and laughing
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ćć¬ć¹ ćŖć ćć”ć¤ć¢III
Breath of Fire III
(PS1, 1997)
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Saturn Devouring His Son if it were a Draw The Squad meme from 2014
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So there's this idea I've seen circulating periodically of "don't tag your hate", that fandom tags are for being positive about the fandom and if you're going to say negative things about a work you shouldn't tag it and harsh the vibe of the fans.
And this is, like, utterly baffling to me. If I'm a fan of something I want to see critical analysis! And some of that will say good things and some will say bad things. Unmitigated positivity mostly just pisses me off for being shallow.
Like, the first thing I ever really did with the internet was join a Wheel of Time fan community. But I also spent time looking for negative comments about the books. (I just didn't find any that made sense! The two critiques were "it's too long", which like fair enough but I was a bored speedreader in high school; and "all the female characters are indistinguishable", which may be one of the most incorrect claims about a work of literature that I've read.)
If I post meta about a work of literature, I'd kinda like people to argue with me! That's fun and engaging. (As long as the things they're saying aren't stupid, obviously, but stupid responses are annoying regardless of whether they're positive or negative.) And when I search for commentary, I'd like both positive and negative commentary.
I kind of suspect that I just don't do "fandom" in the sense that people who are part of fandom think and talk about it.
Of course, the weirdest one is that in the early days of this blog, I did a lot of criticism of effective altruism, and I got asked not to tag it "effective altruism" because that tag was for positive stuff about EA. Which is why my tag for effective altruism discussion is still "ea cw".
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At Publishing Company, we care about representation. This book is about a gay person (like you!) who falls in love, comes of age, learns to be more compassionate, and has adventures in a setting that--sorry, I was getting off track. Where was I? Oh yeah, the main character has ADHD! The love interest is autistic and maybe has OCD. There are several characters in here who might not be white. Is that exciting to you? A side character is openly nonbinary. The antagonist uses mobility aids. Everyone introduces themselves with pronouns in this groundbreaking queernormative novel written by a Turkish-American trans person who takes Zoloft. Interested? Anyway, the novel itself is about
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The humor in GIDEON THE NINTH isn't just cringe and annoying and outdated- but like, actively harms the book IMO. It sells itself as this quirky fantasy novel (lesbian necromancers in space!! isn't that goofy?? Gay people make things extra crazy!!) but at EVERY goddamn turn it has to have the characters go "isn't that weird? isn't this stupid?" like it's a marvel movie. Nothing can be taken seriously or be given weight. Even the central phrase of lyctorhood "One flesh, one end," returns in the epilogue to be made into an infantile sex joke. It's absolutely unbecoming of a FANTASY NOVEL that's trying hard to make you emotionally invested in these characters and this world especially. No one in Book of The New Sun, or Dune, (books that are SEVERELY more weird than what GIDEON was trying for) ever turns to the camera/reader and goes "riding worms? that's what SHE SAID! isn't this stupid? isn't it weird? Fighting with flowers? You've gotta be kidding me!" It's a fantasy novel!! fantasy!! and you're not as funny as pratchett or even HUSSIE so it just comes off like insecure unfunny DOO DOO ASS
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Hello, I hope everyone has been having a nice New Year so far. Here's a google drive link of numerous Devilman media that I had on my hard drive.
Contents include:
The Japanese and Italian dubs of the Toei Devilman series. This includes some episodes with the terrible fan sub. (I also uploaded the Spanish, and French dubs. The terrible fan sub of Mazinger Z VS Devilman is there as well.)
Multiple dubs of Devilman The Birth and Demon Bird (English, French, Spanish, Italian and of course the original Japanese dubbing.)
The Japanese and Italian dub of Amon The Apocalypse Of Devilman
The first episode of Cyborg 009 VS Devilman in Japanese and English
All episodes of the CB Chara Go Nagai World OVA
Devilman PSX
And finally
The English dub of the live action movie.
I hope y'all enjoy.
Byeeeeee
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i hate that bernie sanders is just now pushing for military aid to israel to be blocked & talking about israeli war crimes when up until like.. months ago he just refused to even talk about the subject and has a shitty track record on it overall, usually skimming over the subject. Is he doing this for a political ploy?did he have a genuine change of heart? With politicians you can never tell.
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The Very Basics of Not Killing Your Computer
AVOID HEAT STRESS
If you have a laptop DO NOT use it on a soft surface like a pillow or on a blanket, itāll block the vents on your computer and make it get really fucking hot inside.
If you have a desktop you gotta open it up and blow out the dust sometimes.
If you are moving your laptop in a bag turn the laptop off. Donāt put it to sleep, donāt just shut the screen, turn it off, because otherwise itās in the bag generating heat and thereās nowhere for the heat to go in the bag. OFF. Not sleep. OFF.
DO NOT DROP
Okay I know that should be obvious but drop damage to your hard drive is bad bad news. Be as careful as you can to set your computer gently on flat surfaces; donāt leave it hanging out on a bed where it can get knocked off, donāt set it on the roof of your car. And yes, just dropping it a couple inches can kill your hard drive or totally shatter your screen.
DONāT PUT SHIT ON YOUR KEYBOARD
Look Iāve seen four people ruin their laptops because they had a pen on the keyboard and closed the laptop and it fucked up the screen and the keyboard and it sucks so much and you feel awful after it happens because itās so avoidable just donāt put things on your keyboard and always check that your laptop is clear before you close it.
PROTECT YOUR PORTS ON YOUR LAPTOP
Youāve only got one power jack and a limited number of other inputs on your computer and if they detach from the motherboard youāre fucked. USB ports get damaged because people use them a lot and eventually it weakens the connection and then they just stop working and it sucks. You can get around this with USB ports by using a USB hub to connect things like your keyboard and mouse.
For your power plug you just gotta be careful. Avoid tripping over the cord at all costs, donāt yank the plug out of the computer. It will SUCK VERY MUCH A LOT if you have to buy a new computer because the power port lost contact with the motherboard.
Donāt move your computer with things plugged into it. Take the power cord off before you put your laptop in the bag, take out the USB mouse dongle, do not travel with little nubby bits sticking out of your computer that can easily get caught or get tweaked or snap off inside of the thing.
(I really canāt emphasize enough that most of the āit will cost more than itās worth to fix thisā laptops I see are because of USB ports and power jacks. People donāt seem to know that this isnāt something that can be fixed easily; a broken power jack is a āremove the motherboard and resoldier componentsā job, not a āplug a new one in in fifteen minutesā job and most computer repair shops arenāt going to solder things for you and if they DO itās going to be very expensive)
RESTART YOUR SHIT AT LEAST ONCE A MONTH AND JUST LET THE FUCKING UPDATES RUN
You should probably restart more than once a month but whatever. This is actually something that I consider part of reducing heat stress because when your processor is straining to keep up with all the background bullshit thatās running from a program you opened three weeks ago itās going to use up resources and get hot and look just restart it once in a while.
Also the updates are almost always okay and safe and generally running updates is a good and secure thing to do (though maybe follow a blog dedicated to the OS you run because if there IS a problem with the updates that blog will probably talk about it before the update gets forced on your computer)
ANTIVIRUS BULLSHIT
Yes you should probably be running an antivirus.
Sophos is free and itās fine. But donāt pay for it - if youāre using Sophos use the free version.
If youāre looking for something paid and a little more comprehensive I recommend ESET - get the cheap version, renewals cost less than the initial purchase, and feel free to get a multi-year version, the credentials follow your email not the computer so if your computer dies before your license expires you can install the license on a new computer.
DO NOT INSTALL NORTON OR MCAFEE THEY ARE EXPENSIVE BULLSHIT. Kaspersky is whatever. Itās less bullshit than Norton or McAfee but not as good as ESET for about the same cost.
If you think youāve got a virus run the free version of Malwarebytes and get your shit cleaned.
KEEP LIQUIDS THE FUCK AWAY FROM YOUR COMPUTER
Again this should be obvious and yet. But seriously, just make a rule for yourself that drinks arenāt allowed on the same table as your computer and youāll save yourself a lot of headaches.
PLUG YOUR COMPUTER INTO A UPS
Okay I fucking hate amazon but hereās a thing you should be using, just search the rest of the internet for āsurge protector/UPSā and youāll find something that isnāt from amazon - APC is a solid brand for this.
Basically you want a fat surge protector that has a little bit of a battery backup and you want to plug your computer (desktop OR laptop) into that instead of into the wall. The benefit of this is twofold:
1) if thereās a power surge the UPS will prevent your computerās power supply from getting fried and possibly frying parts of your motherboard
2) if thereās a power outage and youāre *at* your computer youāll have enough time to save what youāre working on before your computer loses power (like, youāll maybe only have a minute or two on a small UPS but thatās still time to hit CTRL+S and keep from losing work)
At a bare, bare minimum your computer should be plugged into a surge protector but NOT directly into the wall.
BACK YOUR SHIT UP
[we interrupt this yelling for me to tell you that Western Digital has apparently released their new My Passport line and Iām obligated to inform you that you can get a 2.5ā³ USB 3.0 backup drive with FIVE FUCKING TERABYTES OF STORAGE for $130. Or you can get 4TB for $93. Or you can get 1TB for $53. basically what Iām saying is that it is not only cheap computer season it is also cheap hard drive season.]
[also if youāre getting a backup drive get western digital not seagate seagate fucking sucks and has a much higher failure rate]
Uh, okay, anyway - Do an image backup of your computer every once in a while so that if you get infected or your hard drive dies or whatever you can just restore from backup and move on like nothing happened.
HEREāS HOW TO DO AN IMAGE BACKUP.
SAVE YOURSELF THE WEAR AND TEAR
You know what is cheap? USB Keyboards and USB mice. You know what is not cheap? Fixing the touchpad on a laptop or replacing a laptop keyboard.
Get yourself a USB hub, a USB Keyboard and a USB Mouse (wired or wireless, doesnāt matter) and if youāre using your laptop at home plug *that* into your computer.
Also if your keyboard on your laptop breaks itās fine just to use a USB keyboard instead I promise; if the screen breaks itās also usually cheaper and easier to get a used or inexpensive monitor than it is to replace the screen. Your laptop is basically just a very small version of whatever bullshit is going on inside a desktop, if the peripherals break but the core components are fine you can just use it like a desktop.
Unless itās a piece of shit that doesnāt have any USB ports or video out in which case you got ripped off, friend, demand functionality in your devices Iām sorry.
/rant
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i just canāt recommend venture bros enough. no one has ever queerbaited harder. thereās early 2000ās edgy humor, deep cut references to actual cool media, toxic yuri, toxic yaoi, toxic polyships, endless cycles of trauma where the weight of past generations crushes its descendents, pain, comfort, more pain. seeds planted that grow into something wholly different than whatās expected. consistent exponential improvement in writing and visuals. femdom. endless payoff. if you watched it you would understand why iām so crazy.
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