Hi

So here is a hypothetical question I’m apparently going round the tumblr asking people. Imagine you have a novel about to be published by a moderately successful publishing house and they have given you an advance that would just about allow you to take a sabbatical from your job and focus on writing full time. Netflix have got hold of a press copy of the novel and offer you a life changing amount (let’s say it would buy you your dream home and give you a little to spare). But you will have no creative control over the show Netflix will make and you will have to agree to withhold publication of the novel until Netflix want it released. Would you take the money and let the show possibly be made? Or not? Why?

♥️♥️♥️s

Hi!!!

I took a while to answer this because it was basically impossible to do it before (work), but I've been rotating this scenario in my brain ever since getting this ask.

I think that if a) Netflix actually gives me the money, as they're apparently given to try to steal content from people (and I suppose that goes for most corporations one deals with, sadly) and b) I've not yet signed anything with the publishing house, I'd sell the novel to Netflix. In the end, even if I end up hating the finished product, a life-changing amount would mean I got to write as much as I ever wanted for the rest of my life! Never mind a sabbatical, I could quit work and just dedicated myself to it.

I guess it all comes down to artistic integrity, but to me, that's not irreconciliable with giving up creative control? Maybe I'm cynical or just greedy and irresponsible, but to me artists adapting to their circumstances is just part of that life. Artists have always had sponsors and patrons, and we're not all Tchaikovsky, most people that come offering money also come with opinions and their own agenda. Of course in the ideal world, we'd be able to have complete creative control over our own creations, but that can never happen. Corporate greed aside, even if you're completely independent, the reader, the audience, they'll come with their own subjective baggage and have their own interpretation of your work... it's an illusion to think we can keep our work 'pure' and limit the way it'll be read, so making a deal with a company that will give you enough money to resolve your life in exchange to do something that would happen anyway in some form sounds good to me.

I suppose this opinion comes with the knowledge that most writers are unlikely to be recognized on the street, much less get so famous that people will only ever associate them with one thing - obvious exceptions like GRRM and JKR are too rare to count - and that Netflix is more on the 'woke' side of the spectrum than the alt-right side. I would not do it if you sent this ask using a platform that produces fascist content as an example. Also, I've done plenty of shitty things under my own name, so it's like, no matter what Netflix pulls, I can always do worse! Hell, rather than buy my dream house, I can settle for a small flat and then open my own publishing house, and publish my own garbage forever, campaign to make it part of the public school curriculum, sell it to other companies that are not Netflix, etc. What I mean is, once you're in a comfortable place financially, the sky is the limit. You can keep writing, keep creating, and what you do from then on can be as completely controlled by you as humanly possible.

neck + chest appreciation post ✨️

my favourite drawings of 2023

Whenever Gold has to leave his workshop for business that can't be conducted via drones or in the comfort of his own home, he usually just throws on a cloak.

His "business deal" stuff usually involves him scuttling to the shadiest parts of Earthbread and either making bank or making an example of an ex-customer. Which is why his physical appearances are few and far in-between. So, he tends to put on, say... a "show" for when he does bother to leave home and why there are so many crazy rumors about him.

Yeah, Gold doesn't like leaving his workshop or places of work if he can help it...

Hello may 31th anon! Look at that, another year behind us and a new one to come. Have a nice day! ₍՞◌′ᵕ‵ू◌₎♡

guys i need you to know that like.

if you see a charm you like on somehing i've made and you're thinking to yourself "aw damn i love those earrings but i don't have pierced ears i'd love it on a necklace though" or "yo that's so cute but i don't wear necklaces i wish it was a phone charm" or whatever

just ask me. it's no inconvenience to me to put charm A on component C instead of component B i promise. there's no custom order charge. whatever it is will be the same price as whatever other equivalent things i've made already.

that's the beauty of making stuff and not being a factory production line. i can just make something else

as i'm typing this i'm reminded of a guy who came by the stall next to mine a few weeks ago (crafty dark aunty. she's on facebook. she's cool) lamenting to his friend that he loved the little dragonfly charms on a pair of earrings but only wore single earrings and also didn't like the additional bead. so Babs just piped up like "i can take the bead off right now and just sell you a single earring, if you like"

he looked at her like this was some sort of witchcraft like. bestie if you put 2 things on a piece you can just as easily remove one of them. a new earring can easily be created to replace the one you are taking.

so about the header that proceeded today's statement:

Viability as agent: Low

Viability as subject: None

Viability as catalyst: Medium

i didn't know what to think of this part of the entry at first, but the longer the statement went on... was the institute in this universe trying to manufacture avatars?

the dice can't do anything without someone to use them, they can't be an "agent" by themselves, but might be capable of manipulation, so in that aspect their viability is "low."

the dice could be a "subject" in the sense that they could use further studying, but the statement itself was a very thorough investigation of their workings, so in that aspect their viability is "none."

the dice seem to influence their holder to roll them, or at least find more victims to roll them, and could therefore be described as a "catalyst" for someone's becoming. but, as seen in the statement, their owner can give the dice to someone else (albeit not without consequences), so in that aspect their viability is only "medium."

so what about the line following all this, what does "Recommend referral to Catalytics for Enrichment applicability assessment" mean? if we go by this interpretation, i'd say it could mean the institute wanted to find a way to make the dice even more potent as an artifact, maybe even remove that pesky ability for their owner to reject them.

imho all of this this brings a whole new level of context to the events of episode seven, of unknown violent agents going after an influx of objects that seemed straight out of artifact storage. was that the nature of the titular "magnus protocol" first mentioned in episode four, the one that involved the starkwall group? containing or destroying potential artifacts before the institute could get their hands on them?

it also makes their "gifted kids program," and sam's link to it as one of the kids being studied, all the more horrifying to think about. was it not just avatars in general they were after, but child avatars specifically? no wonder gertrude got so defensive over the possibility of sam and celia dragging gerry back into the institute's business last episode, we all picked up on her clearly knowing more than she's letting on but now we might know the shape of that information a bit better.

and one final bit of food for thought... this statement had a lot of familiar themes, didn't it? free will or the illusion of it, gambling and not-so-random chance, the statement giver being done in by one final hit from what feels like a bit of an addition... all hallmarks of a certain mother of puppets. doesn't it seem fitting that "chester" would use this kind of statement to warn sam about what harm pursuing the magnus institute could bring to him, considering the one his voice might draw from? and doesn't it seem so painfully ironic that his warning seems to have only driven sam further into that web?

Can you pls also share sleepy lwj and wwx bc I know the perfect place for them to nap as well!! 🤩

The sleepy lads, at your whims! Transparent too!

they're so childhood friends to lovers bodyguard au coded to me 😌✨ (they have killed so so many people)

A piece I did for Future Islands on the late show

swatchvember: 90′s, rainy day, sleeping

cramming some of these prompts together to be silly <3 they spent a lot of time back then keeping some rich up-and-coming little salesman entertained, he’s one of their best customers. maybe you’ve heard of him...

When I started writing 'lessons in tea making', I set out to make it a longfic that following ATLA Book 2 and 3 in its entirety but now its been almost 5 years and I'm realising that I'm probably never going to get around to finishing this monster of a wip

HOWEVER, I do have around 15k of chapter 2 collecting dust in my google drive so.... what's everyone's opinion on authors uploading (signposted) unfinished chapters....

I become 300% more of both a lover and a hater when I'm on my period. just a time of the month when I have strong opinions I would say

i can't really make fun of käärijä for doing all these ads and hustling on airbnb and onlyfans - it's not too long ago that he was completely broke and i know how stressful and depressing it is to be stuck in a financial pit with no way out, how embarrassed and guilty you can feel when you have to rely on friends and family for help and money. i don't find it off-putting or even strange at all that he's very focused on making some cash, and that he's capitalizing on the käärijä 'brand' to this extent.

...but it does make him turning down €20k to hop on bojan's dick a lot funnier.

Kombat Kids keychains I designed a little while ago

speaking as a hater and having been one my whole life i do not want to hear anyone's theories. or headcanons. if we're strangers i don't trust your ability to interpret any given character correctly. not to say it can't be good. it can. it often is. but it often isn't. you have to earn my respect as someone able to read before i trust your narrative analysis. and listening to your thoughts on thematic parallels. is like. third base. at least.