hey friends I’m looking for some reading recommendations!

I’ve just been rereading old favorites, which is a joy, but I’m hankering for something new to surprise me and capture me. I’m open to anything but have particular soft spots for:

- narrators or POV characters with distinctive, atypical voices, perspectives, or assumptions who make an ordinary or extraordinary world more interesting by being seen through their lens (ex. Martha Wells’ Murderbot, owlet’s This, You Protect)

- clever, precise plotting and storytelling such that final conclusions or reveals click together like delightful, unexpected but perfectly predictable clockwork— the sort that you can see obviously in the first chapter but only after you’ve read the last page; stories where the authors trust the reader to pay attention and figure stuff out (ex. Megan Whalen Turner’s The Queen’s Thief series, The Westing Game, Pamela Dean’s The Secret Country)

- worldbuilding with depth and texture — it feels explorable, immersive, like you could study it, like you could get lost, like other stories are going on just off the page (The Secret Countey gets a second honorary mention here, great book, I highly recommend)

- characters you can root for, especially ones that are slowly, quietly, unregretfully tearing themselves apart for something they care about (Kip Mdang from Hands of the Emperor, Newt from Designations Congruent with Things, Nico D’Angelo from the Percy Jackson books, Arthur in rageprufrock’s Presque Vu)

I like stories with momentum, stories that swallow you. I like beautiful things. I like stories that surprise me and make me think. Help a gal out? What stories have captured you?

slowly but surely… 😔🥀🥀 another wip of my wintersberg piece

i made a writing server! let's see how this goes 📝

the basics: a server for writers of both original and fanfiction (although i'm really hoping this motivates people to work on original stuff!). sprints, feedback, references, talking craft. creator channels so you can scream about your work. more stuff that i haven't figured out yet, i'm very new to this.

please make sure to read the rules under the cut before following the link below to join. i'm sorry if you're under 18, but this an adults-only server.

this server is for people over the age of 18 who are writing original and fanworks*. these works can be prose fiction, poetry, graphic novels/comics, screen and stageplays, and probably more. we'll figure it out when we get there.

we're not looking for professionalism here, but please be mindful about how you communicate with fellow creators. you can still say fuck, though. that's actually encouraged.

for now i'll just say that most topics are fair game, especially if your writing concerns them. please warn for sensitive subjects such as suicide and animal death, and put graphic text and images under a spoiler in the main channels. this is an 18+ server so sex in fiction is fine as a topic of discussion, and if you're writing pure erotica we can start a nsfw channel. until that happens (if it is something people want), please refrain from posting explicit erotica in the main channels.

*The line between original fiction and fanfiction is very blurry, and for those of us who do both I think it makes the most sense to allow discussion of original and fanworks here. No need to compartmentalize our identities as writers, especially when that blurry line is where wonderful standalone art often begins. Just try to keep the focus on craft, asking for feedback, and hype about the story you're telling, rather than discussing the media that inspired the fanfic itself.

Ok, here's an Idea I've had:

U said you coded gravel back into the game right? Well, why not code one of lilacpaw's Siblings into the game! It would Cool to see!

(btw, this is just a suggestion!)

Coding a character in seems to me like a much more involved and complicated process that id rather not bother with at all, as opposed to literally just changing “dead: true” to “dead: false” in the games files. I really don’t wanna bother lol

“What a delightful library you have at Pemberley, Mr Darcy!”

“It ought to be good,” he replied, “it has been the work of many generations.”

“And then you have added so much to it yourself, you are always buying books.”

“I cannot comprehend the neglect of a family library in such days as these.”

This conversation is intriguing because, as is often the case in P&P, there is so little narrative framing or comment that you have to make quite a few assumptions based on how you read the characters. We don’t even hear Elizabeth’s reaction to this interchange and don’t know how she takes it (though when Darcy later tries to talk to her about books, she’s sure that their tastes are so wildly different that they won’t have anything to talk about).

In any case, both fans and critics have come away with a lot of different interpretations of Darcy’s book-buying sprees and, in particular, what he means by “such days as these.”

I just read an article that dismissively characterized it as a stuffy civilization-is-falling-down-around-us-in-these-degenerate-times thing showing the basic conservatism of his mindset, and while that article was particularly hostile, it’s a pretty common reading. And you can read it that way, but frankly, it doesn’t seem the most natural reading in the context of either the scene or his overall characterization.

Darcy is repeatedly associated with books and reading and general intellectualism. The Pemberley library links his family pride and his sense of legacy with his personal inclinations—as an individual, he’s bookish, clever, and fairly cerebral. He reads, he buys new books, he enjoys philosophical debates, his response to Elizabeth’s assertion of their different tastes in books is “cool, then we can argue about them :D”, he encourages his teenage sister’s artistic interests and defends her disciplined approach to them when she’s not even there, he collects fine and apparently borderline-incomprehensible paintings, he’s dismissive about the expected accomplishments of upper-class women in favor of reading (partly bc Elizabeth has been reading, but it’s not surprising that a man responsible from age 23 for the education of a young girl has Thoughts on the ongoing female education debates of the time).

All of this is to say that Darcy is engaged with what was then contemporary culture and discourse. This is especially the case if you go with the time of his creation, 1796, but it doesn’t make a huge difference because these debates were still ongoing in the 1810s, and he rarely refers to specific figures and instead prefers more generally familiar concepts and arguments (or chooses to rely on those in conversation with women), and in any case, the English artistic movements of the 1810s owed a lot to those of the late eighteenth century.

And a big eighteenth-century debate was about the merits of modern art, especially literature, compared to ancient art. Historically, there was a lot of deference in English literature to ancient models and dictates, and controversy over newer forms like the novel (in English) but also in poetry and drama and essays. To some people, it seemed like art was going horribly astray by diverging from the ancients (despite the continuing strong influence of Classicism). Others thought the artistic movements of the time were fucking awesome valuable and important, which is generally Austen’s position (most famously in the defense of the novel in NA).

So when Darcy speaks of “such days as these,” I don’t think this is coming from snooty disengagement from the current literary zeitgeist, but rather, the reverse. He’s seeing all these ideas being hotly debated in various essays and treatises, and the English novel taking modern form, and poetry undergoing changes that will only become more drastic, etc etc, and thinks—this is important. Anybody with a family library should be adding the literature that’s coming out at this time.

TL;DR I think Darcy has an affinity for modern art/literature/culture in any case, but also, is so convinced of the importance of the literary “moment” he’s living in that he thinks he’d basically be shaming his ancestors if he didn’t include it in the collection that he’ll pass down to the next generation as it was passed to him.

so.

home from work

ur post about queerbaiting and the dismissal of people in fandom to critical analysis is so incredibly true thank you. i feel like marcille's writing in the anime has been super misogynistic a lot of the time and every time i bring this up all anyone wants to say is "well maybe this isn't for you! and you shouldn't watch the show!" like. i don't think this is about taste lmao, i am analyzing the text in front of me and coming to conclusions about the craft of it.

[This is in reference to this post]

YES!!! THANK YOU!!!!!

It is so so frustrating!!!!

It's like being at a restaurant and being served a bunch of delicious appetizers, but then one of the bread appetizers is literally just a plate of crumbs; and then when you're like, "Hey, uhh, why are we being served literal crumbs?", a bunch of the other folks eating at the restaurant are like,

"WELL HOW ABOUT YOU JUST DON'T EAT HERE THEN??!? YOU MUST NOT BE THAT HUNGRY, SO JUST FIND ANOTHER RESTAURANT AND DON'T EAT WITH US!!"

And maybe they say it politely, but "Aw, sorry, maybe this restaurant just isn't for you 💖" is just trading out an aggressive dismissive tone for a patronizing dismissive tone. It's the same message.

And it's like! I was honestly happy to move on from the crumbs once my complaint was acknowledged because the meal overall is still delicious, but then all these folks got SUPER WEIRD AND DEFENSIVE ABOUT IT, so now I find myself double-checking all the other dishes -- and, actually, you know what those eggs DO look a Iittle misogynistic undercooked!!!!

had a day that made me think oh that was a bit heavy on the symbolism, wasn't it

Genshin things that I will ignore in canon:

Diluc and Kaeya exchanging letters to each other during his 3-4 year revenge quest

Kid Kaeya was a perfect angel who never did anything wrong

Adult Kaeya is a perfect angel who never did anything wrong

(Let the man be morally dubious that’s when he’s most interesting. Plus his recent characterization is inconsistent with his earlier one and his bio lore)

Yae Miko tormenting every single Inazuma guy character (her silly rivalry with Itto can stay it’s funny)

60% of the Venti alcohol jokes (they aren’t funny most of the time. The only time it’s funny is times like when Beidou wouldn’t let Venti and Kazuha drink despite them both being of legal drinking age)

Paimon being the travelers voice (I’m in the minority where I like Paimon as I feel she’s the travelers annoying little sister and with that in mind she’s written rather well but I do agree with everyone who’s annoyed with how she speaks for the traveler. While I’ve never published any fanfics in a lot of my ideas Paimon ends up getting a bit shafted due to me not really knowing what to do with her because outside of being the travelers voice she doesn’t do all that much.)

Most of the Inazuma main story (if I want to I can be willfully ignorant and enjoy the story but after reading gold-rhine’s Inazuma re-write I can never go back)

The traveler being a jerk to Furina at the beginning of her story quest. (In character for Paimon but the traveler I think would at least be a little more understanding and would try to get Paimon to stop guilt tripping her)

Finally, the traveler fails to get Charlotte any scoops from the fortress of meropide. (I know why but they did waste a bunch of her money and that feels mean)

I tried to imagine which other au I could fit dojoshipping into without it being cursed and the only one I could find was the ghost worm au. Imagine somehow he sticks around in the past for a bit and Zisu kisses his shiny metal head

hey check out this ask i got the other day

The thing about Miw's - idk how to put it - very 2010s brand of girl power is that it is such a front and such an epidermic reaction to being constantly sexualized and having no real recourse against that. Of course she's all "I'm not a bitch I'm THE bitch" and "eyeliner sharp enough to kill a man" and "men will be bewitched and hand over their wallets" ! She can't escape any of this shit so might as well spin things to make it about what she can do with it ! She doesn't want to feel or be perceived as powerless ever again. And on the other side of that feeling is her constant emphasis on sisterhood, either real - with the other girls at the bar - or desperately wished for. That's what she appeals to in order to connect with the hotel manager, even though for this woman Miw is nothing compared to the freedom she's seeking. It's also what allows her to - however briefly - connect with Mae and sincerely apologize for the pain she caused her. Miw, unapologetic as a matter of principle (because Lean In, girl !) recognizes she hurt another woman even though she was only protecting herself and is truly, genuinely empathetic about it. And even though 3 will be free is a love story, Miw "girls rules !" front partially being a response to her hard life isn't a transparent excuse to heal her with the love of a Good Man (that's the entire point of Luang's character). This is why her non-romantic relationship with Shin is so important ! It was never about a Bad Girl going Good for the love of an honest man, it's about a woman constantly having to deal with objectification - and being scolded and/or punished no matter how she does so - finally being seen as a full person, and loved both for her sharp edges and her soft ones.

Was Anyone But You a good Much Ado About Nothing adaptation? No, not at all, but fuck it was fun!

domino twins

Q: I know that you are angry at me right now, Picard. But I want you to know that no matter how mad you are right now, in a couple of hundred years you will have understood why I did what I did.