there's an idea i had about the 2 types of readers that I've been thinking a lot about. maybe this is already a thing, plz lmk

there are readers that want the entire story just handed to them. all of the character development, the plot, everything. they don't want to have to think about any of it, they want it all in the book. no cliffhangers, no vague backstory. these readers don't read books for the feeling of the words, they probably don't read poetry, there ought to be a point to what they read. and once this kind of reader finishes a book, they kinda move on. they may think about the plot or foreshadowing or whatever, but it's all review of the book, nothing is added to the book at this point, they just review what they know. one of my sisters is this kind of reader.

then there is the other kind. this kind reads a book and then thinks about potential scenes that a character could have, or the way he might have reacted to hearing that news, or how these characters might act when reunited. this kind of reader is the fanfic writer, the one that adds to a story after they finished the canon story. this kind is the kind that can enjoy books with very bland characters because these readers can place themselves in the characters place and give the character their own personal traits, or the reader can simply fill in the character traits or background, etc; they don't need the character to be fully formed because they will personalize the character. these readers can be entertained by anything because they are actually creating their own entertainment, they just need something to jumpstart the process.

I guess this applies to movies and shows as well as books, but I haven't really thought through the implications

GREAT READING ADVENTURE PART 1 (CW: pictures from the Sandman comics may be disturbing to some)

I started with the Sandman, by Neil Gaiman. A legend in comic spheres, and one that I'd been wanting to read for a while.

I found 10 volumes at my local library and have made my way through two of them so far. First off, as a horror book DAMN. DAAAAAAAAAAAAMN these books do not pull punches. They come at you like a gut punch and just keep going. I like to describe myself as someone who enjoys "horror lite" I love monsters, I love angst and crazy situations and some messed up stuff, but I'm kind of a baby about it. Things like Supernatural, Gravity Falls (It's kid friendly, but there's blood!), Buffy the Vampire Slayer, that's my jam (wow, that list makes me feel about 5 years old, but whatever! I like what I like!). The Sandman Is Not That.

The Writing

Don't get me wrong, it is beautiful in every way, but it's also a lot for a wussy like myself. I'm enthralled, captivated, unable to look away, but there have been multiple times where I've needed to close my eyes for a second and remind myself that this is a comic book, and the world isn't necessarily this dark all the time. I'm pretty triggered by children in danger/getting hurt/dying and these books don't shy away from that. But they're also just . . . so beautiful.

The writing is annoyingly amazing. I expected nothing less, it is Neil Gaiman, but sometimes as a writer you look at other people's writing and just sit back in awe. I wish I could write something like this. Or, if not exactly like this, something as beautiful and poignant as this. The story flows so beautifully. Every scene perfectly blending in with the next. Every word feels like it has a point, which makes you want to pay attention to everything to make sure you're not missing anything.

Writing is my main background, but comic writing is so different from prose. This is what I struggled with the most while drafting up OUTCAST ODYSSEY, how do I get everything across that I need to when I can't just write it all out? How do I pace it when telling a story with pictures vs words feels so different? But Neil does this so well. It felt lyrical, and I could see his influence on every single page. The art was done by someone else, but the ideas, the imagry, the way the story flows from one idea to the next, is all a result of absolutely phenomenal writing.

It reminded me to trust readers to read between the lines. It's difficult to find the line between "subtlty" and "confusing" and I am often guilty of feeling like I need to spell things out to my readers so that they won't miss anything, but more often then not that just slows down the plot and makes the whole experience clunky. You don't want to go too far in the other direction either, but Neil knew who his audience was and trusted them to at least give things a second glance. I was worried at the beginning that I'd be too dumb to figure out what he was hinting at, but he was able to patiently feed me the information without me getting frustrated or lost.

It's a skill that comes with experience and practice, but I feel like this story really really shines at it. I found myself studying the way he handled exposition and wanting to emulate it in my own work.

The Art

The art is also stunning. It's not "cute" art. It's not something that I would want to hang up in my house or look at for hours. It's amazing from a skill standpoint (which is easy for me to tell just due to my own extremely obvious shortcomings) but it's not concerned with everyone looking like hollywood movie stars.

Which . . . I mean, that's definitely a feature, not a bug. This story is not supposed to be cute, and a cutsy art style would absolutely ruin the atmosphere. It is rough and full of sharp points. it doesn't shy away from nudity or gore. The characters are not attractive, these are not anime stars, but they are compelling, and distinct enough that I was able to easily tell who everyone is, which is more often then not extremely difficult for me (i think I may be a bit face-blind).

The art adds to the horror of everything. Even when things are supposed to be calm, or sexy, or whatever, there's an edge of panic and unease to it. Part of that is the reader knowing that there's more going on behind the scenes then the character knows, but it's also the style. The heavy black shadows, the hard lines, the emphasis on some details while the obscuring of others, it all combines to perfectly compliment the writing. It's not a pleasure to look at, but that's absolutely the point. It's also extremely difficult to look away FROM. How can something simultaneously look jarring, eerie, and unpolished, while also whispering "Yes. This is beautiful art. Look at it. Bask in it."?

I'm a newbie artist. It's way beyond my skillset to even begin to figure out how they were able to accomplish this. But someday I hope I figure out the secret.

The art perfectly compliments the writing, and the two work together to tell the story. I remember feeling a little annoyed on the artists' behalf that the Sandman is always known as "Neil Gaiman's" when the art side of comics is so incredibly important. The art sets the tone and compliments the words. It helps with reading between the lines and helping us know how seriously we should be taking the words.

Characters

All of the characters are great! Except the ones I already knew. I'm not saying they were bad, just bland compared to everyone else. Constantine, the Justice League, every cameo that came up and I was excited for felt . . . not quite out of place, but not quite seamless either. I was most excited for Constantine, and he was fine, but I probably have enjoyed him more in every other comic I've ever seen him in. I know they were all included just to try and sell the first few issues of a new story, and I respect that (the amount of comics that I've read just because my favorite character showed up for a few panels is . . *cough* embarrassing), but I was kind of bummed by how little conflict they added to the story.

Constantine immediately agrees to help Morpheus (which, okay, he can see how powerful Morpheus is and doesn't want to get on his bad side, totally in character. But I like Constantine best when he's being a bit of a dickhead), when I was really expecting a bit of tension or at least antagonism between them. We briefly see Etrigan but he is so quickly outshined by Lucifer that I nearly forgot about him, Scarecrow shows up but I didn't really feel like he added much besides a familiar face, we see Scott Free (who I know very little about) and J'onn (whose reaction to Dream was probably the most interesting) but all they do is immediately tell Morpheus where he needs to go. Why were they so quick to be okay with this obviously terrifying powerful force just grabbing stuff? I guess I understand why J'onn was okay with it, since he knew who Morpheus was, but it still felt weird that there wasn't even a single moment of hesitation or resistance. They basically served as a plot GPS.

Again, there's nothing wrong with any of them, they just didn't feel as vibrant as all of the other characters we were introduced to. Even the woman who gave Dr. Destiny/Dr Dee a ride was more vivid and felt more real and purposeful than the cameos did. At least to me.

The original characters (or at least everyone I didn't recognize. Was Dr. Dee a Gaiman original or had he shown up previously? Cuz he was very much A tier villain for me,) were all amazing and vivid and lively. I cared about them way faster than I normally do, especially at the very beginning of a story. The cameos felt exactly like what they were: Cameos to sell the book.

Final Thoughts

This book is, objectively, better than anything I will ever create. And that's not even a diss on myself, it's just objective fact on the quality of this piece. I learned a lot looking through it, trying to figure out what Gaiman did that worked vs didn't. The lyricism vs crassness of the writing, the way the art complimented the dialogue, how the panels flowed and where it was easy for me to follow vs where I got a little confused. It's a beautiful book and I can absolutely see why it's a graphic novel must read. I'm planning on reading the rest of the series, but I can only read one volume a day, because the horror of it all absolutely follows me after I close the last page.

I clowned myself.

We got our writing assessment back and I got flagged for making up a quote that didn’t exist, but guys.

Guys.

I didn’t make it up; it was a quote from the fanfic I stress-binged the night before my assessment.

why can we have titles on PC now

The whole point of the novel was "truth" ,doubting the world, doubting everything. To be honest, his whole adventure or power trip or trip to opnesss, whatever you want to call it out ,was simply a plot device for the ending. [I wanted to see the impossible story unfold. I wanted to see that impossible story become a reality. Maybe this is why I consider this novel to be within the modern fantasy genre.] -Author’s thought on [The World After the Fall] (chapter 229) After reading until the very last chapter, if you comes back for this chapter 229, every pieces would simply piece itself. The power to doubt which things are true or not, the lectures on parallel worlds or what not isn't meant only for the protagonist but for the readers too. "The nightmare of the beginning" was our reality. Its pretty obvious i know, Jaehwan's(author) adventure to slay big brother was his imagination as a kid, is that it? Nope, this is where the dilemma in the prologue came back, our reality which states that such a thing is impossible and his adventure of Jaehwan who destroyed big brother is simply a delusion. The whole world imposes that reality, and just like in the beginning ,Jaehwan begins to "doubt"(his skill) our world(reality)using what he believes to be the "truth"(another skill) , his own "world"the world after the "FALL" /this novel or his skill called "Fall"he will "destroy" our "World"(reality)

the last chapters you shouldn't look through the perspective of "Jaehwan the one who killed the big brother" but from the perspective of "Jaehwan the author of The world after the fall"

Also during the ending chapters when he gets his kid body back and later writes the novel because of the Doctor telling him to "let more people know about his World so they believe in it" the fact that Jaehwan is the one who supposedly wrote this novel is so that we can believe in his "World" (stated previously in the novel the more people who believe in your world the stronger you get/more it becomes real if i recall). This could be like what you said the 215 chapters or so we read about the world with the tree of imagery and all that may just be his imagination, but maybe what could be happening in some parallel world and we read the novel made by the character of the novel himself. the fact that Jaehwan is actually the author of a novel about himself makes me think of Ouroboros, having no definite beginning or end.

u/ComoNoscope from r/Omniscientreader

100 Days of Dante: Dante Alighieri’s The Divine Comedy – Inferno: Canto 10

Hi everyone! I’m late with this post as I was struggling with the reflection questions (still am!) but I did my best. Enjoy!  Questions for Reflection The sixth circle of hell is dedicated to the punishment of Heresy, a vice of the intellect and the will: it is obstinacy in error. There Dante meets the souls of the Epicurean philosophers who live eternally in burning tombs for having denied the…

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People will straight up lie about what's taught in English classes to make teachers look bad. "They only want you to interpret books one way and think their way is the only correct way." No the fvk they don't. I can post a pdf that was optional reading before my AP Lit class but very clearly was the basis of my English class that year and the year before to prove it.

It's full of stuff like "We want to make strong readers who can create strong readings, in other words readings that go against the grain of the text and the author's intentions," and "Every reader has their own ideology they bring to the text and all interpretations are a dialogue between reader and text and every interpretation that can be properly supported by the text is a valid interpretation because the author's intentions are just one interpretation."

My cousins are now getting into "why are the curtains blue" analysis in school so I thought I'd say more or less the same thing I said to them on here

It does not matter why the curtains are blue. What matters is why the author bothered to tell you.

No one writes 100% of what's going on at all times. They usually only mention what matters

Why are the stars important? If it's a romance it might be to show the metaphorical distance between people. If it's about travel it might just be there for navigation. Maybe if its space travel they really are just stars. Maybe some important memories involve the stars and each time the author mentions it it's to show the events are in the back of the protagonist mind.

Sometimes the color of the characters clothes are to show how well or how poorly they match the people and mood around them. Sometimes it's just so the author can help you paint a better picture.

There is never a single reason why the curtains are blue

I've seen pieces from this extra comic before, but never read the full thing until today. And holy shit does it hammer home just how much the story is about class.

Multiple times, when food comes up in this comic, it’s also in context of money:

I've seen this last panel on the right brought up before in context of like, dungeon meshi's relationship with fat and eating, but in the full context of the comic it really hits how much adventuring directly consumes bodies for money.

As much as this has been part of the story the whole time, showcased as early chapters 19 and 20...

It never fully hit me before how often adventuring comes down to having no other way to make money but to throw yourself into death repeatedly. To be used, whether it’s by individual selfish people (like the resurrection group that is happy to try and get Kabru's group to kill each other to get extra gold from them in chapter 32), or by the greater cog of the Dungeon Economy in general.

Which, to be clear, is all too often how things work in the real world, too. So many jobs burn through the health and lives of workers. Dungeon Meshi just makes it literal in a new way: by making the healing and resurrection, a core part to the adventuring loop, directly use fat, muscle, and energy from the body being healed.

Imagine Amazon, but if you got injured at work, they could literally burn up some of your body to get you back to working sooner. And that was seen as an advantage of the job.

And then you have Laios, thinking about eating monsters:

Not just because he likes monsters a lot. But because it would help. He says something similar in the actual manga too, during the chapter discussing his dream with the Winged Lion

Laios wants to be able to make a home for Falin. He wants to give her a place where she never has to eat alone. And when he gets a party, he wants to give them a way to eat well. And when he runs a country, well…

He wants to ensure that everyone has enough to eat.

Food is political. Food ties into class, and money. What is deemed "proper" to eat, what is a luxury, what is crass… so much of it comes down to money.

Being judged for eating what's available, when what is “proper” isn't affordable, is already a thing that happens. People forced into work that consumes their energy is already a thing that happens.

Dungeon Meshi has a lot of fantastical elements, but boy is its examination of food and class very real.

Real question and I’m not here 2 argue about ppl’s favs—

Can someone explain me the difference between a morally gray character and some dude who just wears black/has black hair/powers vaguely in the area of “dark (colour/theme”?

Back in my day, morally gray meant not a good guy. In the slightest. He just happened to be on our side, is absolutely doing the worst rn.

Like, babes, put the knife down it’s fine it’s not worth the 🔪🔪🔪 right now.

guys. going insane.

in these scenes, his hair gets way spikier than normal, they look like knives for gods sake. this only happens when he wants to seem THREATENING

but when around people he trusts like ROSIE his hair (probably unintentionally) gets ROUNDER and SOFTER, even his coat has less spikes than usual.

GUYS HE HAS A LITERAL SOFT SIDE IM GOING INSANE

I don't think people realize that critiquing the media you enjoy is fun too.

Introduction to my blog:

I will blog and reblog whatever, but I do have a couple fandoms and a couple topics I come back to.

Fandoms: Ninjago, The Hunger Games, Percy Jackson (sometimes and rising), Carmen Sandiego (rarely), Shadow and Bone/Six of Crows (sometimes), The Summer I Turned Pretty (sometimes and declining).

Topics: I love analyzing, including books, movies, media, fandoms. Sociology and psychology.

My posts are getting increasingly deranged. Please excuse the occasional bouts of insanity.

Writing blog @olivevermore

The Watchmen

The Great Reading Adventure Part 3!

It's time for the Watchmen, guys and hooooooooboy did I have a lot of expectations going into this one. Buckle up!

The Writing

I took notes the entire time I was reading this. It's only 12 issues long, so I decided to read it in its entirety.

I didn't like the first little bit. Don't get me wrong, I could see the crumbs in there, and I could see why people were drawn to it, but as far as gripping premise that pulls you in, it was a little lackluster to me. There were interesting moments in the beginning, but I didn't really become invested until Issue 9, which is 3/4 of the way through the story.

That said, once these guys gripped me, they GRIPPED ME. Issue 9 was beautiful, by far my favorite issue of the whole thing.

Part of the reasons things were confusing to me was because all of the "good guys" kept being compared to far right wing extremists and Nazis. Like, Rorschach is definitely supposed to become cooler and cooler throughout the books, and be kind of the moral backbone in a lot of ways. But like . . . I dunno. Hard to sympathize with someone who repeatedly got called a Nazi and blamed the dedregation of society on jews and communists. Like, I get it was the 80s, but the people in universe who defended him also defended the KKK. I just . . .I'm not down with that. I can't make myself think he's the good guy.

However, I had no idea that the famous quote "None of you understand. I'm not locked in here with you, you're locked in here with me." Came from the Watchmen. That moment . . . man. It gave me absolute chills. It was excellently built up to and brilliantly executed. I loved it. If I EVER have a moment in my writing career where I hit people as hard as that, I'll have more than achieved my dreams.

I also think that they pretty much nailed the ending. At least the atmosphere and feeling that I think they were going for. That horrible, sick feeling that the day is saved but actually everything is ruined and all it'll take is another day for everything to have been for nothing. It was a powerful ending, I liked it a lot.

That said, I did not like Adrian's solution. Maybe it's because I've lived through Covid, maybe because it's been 40 years since this was written and some tropes have been done more than others, but pretending an alien threat is coming in order to unite the world just . . . I dunno. It didn't hit for me. I didn't feel compelled by it. I get the reasons he did it, I understand what the writer was going for, I even can acknowledge that it does the job. But it felt incredibly lackluster to me, and not worthy of the really fun villain they had made to execute it.

The Art

The art is better than anything I am currently capable of, and I want to acknowledge that first, but also admit I didn't love it. It's ugly, which of course was by design. This is not a pretty story, it's not meant to give you warm and fuzzies. It also very much is in the style of many other comics I've seen from the 80s, which is just one I'm not as fond of. It did the job, but isn't something I'll be combing over looking for ways to emulate it.

The way the panels were laid out was also interesting to me. It was very repetative, just multiple square panels in a row. I imagine that this is also a result of being from the 80s, and as comics evolved so did the many different layouts, but it was kind of comforting to me as well. If it serves the story best to just have four panels in a row exactly the same size and shape to tell your story, by all means do it. I didn't even notice anymore once the story picked up for me.

As far as things I can learn from the art? Perspectives and the use sof perspectives were MASTERFULLY done here. Both with zooming in on specific details or zooming out. How it was used for emphasis. How it made you feel sick when something horrible was being said and something as mundane as the side of a coffee pot was being shown. It was truely masterful. It also helped make long conversations more interesting.

The Characters

This is probably where I have the most thoughts. The characters in this story are INTERESTING, full caps definitely needed. I mentioned in the writing section that it was kind of hard to root for the main characters when they were being compared to Nazis all the time. But over time they did grow to, at the very least, compel me, even if I still didn't "like" them.

My favorite character probably ended up being Laurie, who out of all of them seems to be the least crappy person. Not that she wasn't crappy, but she was at least trying, you know? I also liked her as Jon's tether to humanity. I feel like she was the audience surrogate in a lot of ways.

Jon was extremely fun, but it creeps me out that humans are like ants to him and he was having sex with them? I dunno, maybe it's the ace in me, but I don't understand when things like that happen. I love that he killed Rorschach at the end, I think that was absolutely the right call. I like how they showed us who he was and how he thought, all compelling and interesting.

Rorschach himself could be very cool one minute and a scum bag the next. He's an excellent character, but I'm glad he died. I think I'm supposed to be glad though. I also think he's the most clever of any of the characters. Not the smartest, but the most clever. He dies, but he's the only one who really wins in the end.

Dan was . . . he was fine. He felt like a knock-off batman and was by far the least interesting of all the characters to me personally. He was a good foil for Rorschach AND Laurie. He didn't compel me much though. That said, there was absolutely a lingering hand holding thing between him and Rorschach where i was like . . . "Are they implying something? what's happening here?"

This was after they revealed that two of the old superheroes were gay and a bunch of weird examples of homosexual couples and I just . . . I'm not imagining things here, am I? I thought things were going to go in a very different direction for a second.

Adrian as a character was utterly uninteresting until he was hypercompetant and defeated all of the "good guys" saving the world by essentially doing a really big trolley problem (greater good, and all that.) That said, nothing is sexier than a competant villain. I was on his side by the end, honestly.

The other background characters were all fairly well fleshed out and interesting. A lot of the women ended up being a little 2 dimensional, but every once in a while they'd surprise me. Almost everyone felt like a horrible person, or like they were just waiting to become a horrible person. They were all good characters even if they weren't good people.

Final Thoughts

I could write pages upon pages of analysis on this comic run. Which would probably be me just repeating what people much cooler and smarter than me have already said. I didn't get into the ways it's aged poorly or the homophobia littered throughout it. But, even with flaws, it was absolutely worth the read, if only to understand how it influenced the rest of the comic world. I understand other comics better now because I've read this one.

Concrete things I learned to apply to my own work:

Take advantage of differing perspectives, both to emphasize important background details and as a way to keep the audience engaged during long dialgoue.

If you need to put a few square panels in a row to get your point across, do it. Why fix what ain't broke?

Your characters don't necessarily have to be likeable to be compelling. You can make terrible people still worth reading about.

Oh. Poor child

actually i just realized why interpretations of [atla] characters that are like “aang doesn’t lie” (blatantly textually false) or “katara would be offended by swearing” (sensically false) are so common. aang and katara are the most overtly ethical characters in the show, and people [subconsciously] associate morality with honesty and “clean language.” but none of aang’s principles preclude him from lying (he lies. a lot), just as nothing in katara’s moral code dictates that she must be a square (she is, in fact, the furthest thing from a square, and if you argue otherwise you are simply misremembering her character). i can understand why people think that an ethically principled person would consider honesty a virtue, even if aang clearly doesn’t, but the association between morality and language feels like a very christian (to broadly generalize) conception of “sin” and moral transgression that doesn’t map onto the atla characters whatsoever, and is entirely a projection of the largely american (and otherwise western) viewership. inversely, fanart that depicts “modern au” azula as some kind of goth abg with dyed hair and leather pants also attempts to map our internalized notions of how aesthetics are illustrative of morality onto a character who would clearly never present herself in any way countercultural. if azula were suddenly transported to montclair, new jersey, she would be a conservative and present herself accordingly (most likely scenario she would dress like shiv roy). i’m not saying all this to condemn the activity of projecting onto characters, as i clearly participate and engage in these fandom-cultural practices, but rather that i think it’s important we be mindful of what connotations are carried in certain interpretations and depictions, because even our subconscious associations can stem from a legacy of cultural contexts, often embedded within harmful institutions we may not consciously wish to associate with, or that are simply not useful or relevant associations when thinking through whatever thing we are in the process of fandomitizing.

100 Days of Dante: Dante Alighieri’s The Divine Comedy – Inferno: Canto 12

I’m probably slowing down a lot from now on. I’ve gotten a lot busier, but I’m committed to trying to finish the Divine Comedy. It’s something I’ve wanted to do for a long time, so even if it takes a long time, I’ll get through the 100 Days of Dante, which is helping me understand a lot about the Divine Comedy while reading it.  Questions for Reflection Dante meets many mythical creatures in…

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