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polaroidcats · 3 months

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Breadcrumbs and broken families – a very scientific analysis of “Savour It (I’m Tasty)” by epicblueblanket

One of the most complex literary works of the 21st century is without a doubt “Savour It (I’m Tasty)” by epicblueblanket, also known by the pseudonym @kaaaaaaarf on the popular blogging website tumbler dot com. In less than 1000 words, the author manages to write a story that is not only captivating to any reader, it is also packed full of inspiring and deeply philosophical metaphors.

In this essay I will explore how the sausage rolls and breadcrumbs serve as a metapor for Sirius’s broken family, which might be one of the reasons why Remus feels so familiar to him even if they barely know each other - they're surrounded by broken pieces of something that should have been wonderful but has now been destroyed beyond recognition.

One of the most emotional moments of the story is at the beginning, when Sirius asks Remus if he eats sausage rolls when he is not at work, to which Remus replies with: "Well, I take home the leftovers at the end of my shift. It’s wasteful to throw it away, you know?", causing the following reaction from Sirius: “Sirius shakes himself. ‘Right, yes, of course—makes sense.’", obviously affected by the parallels between his own life – being thrown out and disregarded by his family as a teenager for reasons beyond his control – and the sausage rolls at Gregg’s being thrown out at the end of the day for health and safety reasons, no longer wanted or needed, through no fault of their own at all. The scene leaves the reader breathless with emotion, and it is impossible not to feel sympathy towards Sirius, as well as the sausage rolls at Gregg’s, who now both rely on Remus to help them fill the emptiness they feel from their respective rejections. And Remus seems more than willing to fill any sort of emptiness Sirius needs him to, acting as a very firm support system for Sirius, something he likely has been lacking up to that point, his life most likely as structured as a sausage roll that has been lying in the warm shop window of a bakery for a little bit too long.

Obviously affected and embarrassed by the sheer intimacy of sharing such an intense moment with his new lover, Sirius is quick to belittle himself (“I’m being stupid”) when Remus asks him if he wants to stop their sexual activities in the name of the sausage rolls. Remus is delighted by Sirius’s refusal to stop their activities, stating he has been looking forward to it since Sirius gave Remus his telephone number the previous morning. An interesting detail here is Sirius making the first step, not only in giving Remus his number but even before that, by coming into the shop and consuming “his own weight in vegan sausage rolls”, which not only shows his consideration for other living creatures, but also hints at possible future acceptance towards his difficult situation with his family. Through eating the sausage rolls - on a daily basis - he is helping them fulfill their destiny, something his family has failed to help him achieve. But Sirius’s selfless acts help the sausage rolls reach their goal of being eaten and not going to landfill, something Remus also seems very passionate about, so it is no wonder that the two of them seem like such a perfect match.

Sirius describes watching Remus eat Yum-Yums, and occasionally also sausage rolls, with so much passion, and it is not hard to imagine how this affects Sirius, who sees a piece of himself in every bit of pastry Remus consumes. While on a surface level Remus seems oblivious to the deeper meanings behind the sausage rolls and even misguidedly asks Sirius if it is some sort of sexual fetish, one can speculate that on a more subconscious level, Remus also knows about the healing power of eating sausage rolls in bed with one’s lover, allowing each other to create a mess of crumbly pastry pieces, and finding joy in the brokenness and vulnerability of it all.

Remus understands that not everything needs to be perfect or whole in order to be devoured, a philosophy he applies to sausage rolls as well as Sirius. The hopeful ending of the story sees Sirius enjoying a post-coital cigarette, Remus enjoying a post-coital sausage roll, both of them covered in sugar as well as pastry flakes, and Sirius starting to see Remus’s perspective through all the pastry flakes, feeling the healing powers of sausage roll consumption and sex.

#me?? committing to the bit?? more likely than you think!#k tag #just some ridiculous fake science for you #because apparently my idea of fun after a long day at work is wiritng fandom fake science posts heheh :D #savour it (I'm tasty)#also the way this is about the same length as the actual fic ahahahah

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joswriting · 3 months

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•❅───✧❅ joswriting ❅✧

: ̗̀➛ writeblr intro

Hello there! My name is Jo (shocker!), I am in my 20s and I write stories and poems in my free time. I used to have a writing account on here many moons ago and I really miss the community, friendship and support of talking with other writers about our projects, so I am trying to rebuild what I've lost.

: ̗̀➛ about me

very interaction friendly. we're all just people on here (also please tag me in games forever)

science fiction! science fiction is my everything. it's whatever. I'm normal about it

themes I write about a lot include: death anxiety, internalized bigotry, general dissatisfaction and the complex and confusing nature of existence

scifi flavour wise i like doing weird time or multiverse stuff

I'm also queer (lesbian, aromantic, whatever), if that matters. This comes up a lot in my writing be it explicit or not.

I write in German and English

: ̗̀➛ my wips/projects

⸻ On the end of everything 🌠

An "essay" on how the multiverse died, those who noticed, and how they learned to live with their fates

[reblog tag] [posts tag] [wip intro]

⸻ Poetry 🗒️

I don't post my poetry on tumblr, instead I self host it here. I love writing poems I get such a kick out of it!

My favourite poem of mine atm is this one: Lines Out Of Context

⸻ Starship Lovelace 🚀

The Starship Lovelace is an Earth vessel far from home. The human crew mysteriously disappeared decades ago - now a small group of aliens has claimed the ship.

[posts + reblog tag]

A collection of half-assed short trips, I'm trying to build my own kind of space ship show here. It mostly serves as a way for me to keep writing and get ideas out of my head without much drafting or anything. I've got a pretty good vague plot for it in my head and I'm trying to do it justice with my newer, more thought out chapters. You can see all entries: here.

The stories are hosted on the space story collection pubnix/website Cosmic.Voyage, which i just know some of you would get a kick out of.

: ̗̀➛ inspiration

on the comedy side: the two Dirk Gently books, the Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy, the Red Dwarf novels and Doctor Who and the Krikkitmen in particular (British people are grim, I like it)

on the more serious side: Frankenstein (my favourite book everr), many Doctor Who hiatus novels but especially Dead Romance by Lawrence Miles, the works of H.G. Wells (love that guys scifi that just completely misses the mark but was properly scientifically researched for its own time) and, to an extent, Der Tod und andere Höhepunkte meines Lebens by Sebastian Niedlich, which is a book I remember liking a lot as a young-ish teen

generally I'm a huge fan of Doctor Who and Star Trek

I sometimes reblog posts about media i really like on here too so for more check out the tag: good media

So. The first thing I’d better do is invent my audience. I'll pretend there are thousands of you out there, and I'll pretend you're all just like me; young, smart, pretty, and sarcastic (NB I’m probably being ironic here, although I’m not really sure any more). Just so we’ve got some common ground, I'll pretend you were born sometime in the late 1940s… No, sod that. I'll pretend you were born on 15 August 1948. All of you.

Well, why not? If you’re going to invent an audience, why not invent one in your own image?

-- Dead Romance, First Notebook

#writeblr #writeblr intro #writer #first book #poetry #anthology #scifi writing

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poppitron360 · 2 months

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"Poison"- Hazbin Hotel: trochees, repetition, and genre.

I occasionally get the urge to write an in-depth analytical essay about whatever song or soundtrack I’m currently obsessed with. Y’know, for fun.

My BFF recently said that he thought “Poison” from Hazbin Hotel was overrated, so I am going to prove him wrong with science because that song goes so fucking hard.

The first thing I noticed was that the word “Poison” is a trochee (A word that has one stressed syllable followed by one unstressed syllable)- the opposite of an iamb. Because trochees end on a weak syllable, they often feel like they’re rolling, or more fittingly, falling into the next word or syllable. Because of this, they are often used to convey feelings of despair and death.

Interestingly, this is reflected in the melody. In the line “‘Cause I know you’re Poison, you’re feeding me Poison” the melody stays on the same note, C, except on the word “Poison”, which moves from an F# down to an E: the melody is falling down.

The word “Poison” is repeated over and over again, highlighted by the fact that it is the only word not on a C, creating a sense of constant, inescapable, repetition. There is no getting away from Valentino's "Poison".

The entirety of the song is comprised of only two chords, C minor, down to Ab major, (with the exception of the bridge, which is one singular F minor chord). This reflects the “falling” motif (although it varies on how you play it).

Also, the constant repetition of the same chords over and over and over and over reinforces that feeling that Angel is trapped in a cycle.

This all accumulates to reflect Angel Dust’s descent into utter desperation. It gives the impression that he’s constantly tripping and falling and repeating the cycle of addiction/abuse over and over again with no escape.

As the chorus repeats and repeats, the vocals get more and more desperate. He’s literally “trapped and it get’s worse with every hour”.

The repetitive melody and song structure is not the only reason why bubblegum pop works so well as a genre for this song.

Similar to “All You Wanna Do” from Six, this bright, flashy, upbeat style of music juxtaposes the unpleasant content of the lyrics, although it might not initially be obvious that the writers have made this stylistic choice, which is, in my opinion, why I think people are complaining that the song glorifies abuse (And those complaints are totally valid, I’m just sharing my interpretation of why I think the writers made these choices). I personally think that ubeat pop works best for this particular song, as the juxtaposition makes the audience feel uncomfortable and uneasy more than any haunting piano ballad would.

The genre also reflects how both Angel in Hazbin in and Kathrine in Six are in denial about their abusive relationships, until the very end of the song, when they both finally break.

The constant repetition of melodies, lyrics, and choruses reflecting the cycle of abuse is a technique also used in “All you wanna do”, and both songs can be compared musically, stylistically, structurally, lyrically, and in theme.

Anyway, I hath used my music theory brain to scientifically prove that this song slaps.

#hazbin hotel #vivziepop #vivzieverse #angel dust hazbin hotel #hazbin angel dust #hazbin hotel angel dust #poison hazbin hotel #hazbin hotel poison #hazbin hotel music #musical #musical theater #musical theatre #musicals #hazbin art #hazbin hotel fanart

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journalsouppe · 4 days

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APOLLO JUSTICE!!!!! AHHHHHH!!!! What i would literally give to have a true AA4 sequel. I wholeheartedly believe if Yamazaki's team could ignore aa4 canon to make 5 & 6 then Shu Takumi should absolutely be allowed to ignore any 5&6 canon to make an aa4 sequel. I'm dying out here pleaseeeeee

The Phoenix sticker is from Peachcott. The Klavier sticker is from Ayabit from the Turnabout Cinema zine. The Apollo and Trucy stickers are from astarsor.

Writing typed below!

rating: 9.8 played: Fa 2023 port: 3DS favorite? Y replayable: Y recommend? Y series: Ace Attorney

Comments

THE JUDGE PAINTING

apollo's such a dork <3

ooo i like the perceive function

i love the music

DONT SAY THAT TRUCY T_T

there's so much going on in this investigation

wow i love how uneasy i feel even after the trial ended

LMAO I FORGOT ABOUT THE PHOENIX SEX PHOTO

i dont think y'all want your panties back...

klav's a bill and ted fan i see lol

LOVE mr eldoon's design 10/10

klapollo meet cute moment LMAO

oops ^^; i accidentally wrote a 600 word essay about the first case

i like how apollo cried over trucy

IT'S JUSTICE TIME??? T^T

i like klavier's hands a normal amount

alita must have some dirty fucking feet

the animations are so smooth

apollo being jealous of klavier at the concert and thinking he's cool LMAO

apollo is WHIPPED

trucy is KILLING it in court, she really is nick's daughter

klavier's shoe print *skull emoji*

out of pocket shiny forehead comment LMAO

lamiroir has similar vocal tones as malon!

THE PENIS FIRE AND KLAV PUTTING IT OUT IN THE BKGD

the smile and hair twirl klavier LMAO

why am i doing this music recording thing T^T

i dont like looking at daryan T_T

letouse kazuma moment lmao

capcom loves the face down death with writing on the ground huh LMAO

wtf is the judge talking about

i love all these scientific tests with ema! :)

i love the snackoos SFX

klav does not miss an opportunity to take a short at apollo's big forehead LMAO

APOLLO YOU DUMBASS

faking blindness is crazy

I KNEW IT WOULD BE DARYAN'S VOICE

klav's office is so much more normal than edgeworth's

WAIT IS IT GRAMARYE AND NOT GRAYMAYRE??

THE ANIMALS??

i love apollo and lamiroir goofing on klav

similar tech opening to brc

WTF WAS THAT KRISTOPH JUMPSCARE T-T

LORD DADDY???

oh he's insufferable

HOLY SHIT THAT'S WHY VERA IS STARING AT KLAV??

"rip off" phoenix is so real for that

are they injecting magnifi with piss??

im curious why kristoph would do this to phoenix

he just left his daughter???

tf is going on

T^T THE KRISTOPH ZOOM IN

why does klav have that egg from dragon tales

apollo understands me with mascots

this is so gay omfg

daryan not liking trucy means he goes even more into the shit book than before

apollo the journaling king

the x-ray function is a really fun addition

BABY TRUCY

omg phoenix with out the ugly hd redraw

GUMSHOE

he said it!!! he said 'ace attorney' lmao

i love and hate that i have to present the journal page

why does the screen shake when mr misham speaks T_T

THAT SCAR IS FREAKY

siblings omgggg

Summary:

I love this game so much. I love it so much that I am heartbroken knowing that AA 5 & 6 butchers the story it setup and I'm considering not even playing them unless AA7 is announced. I love all the main characters so much, the whole story was so well built and I can def see the influence the story had on DGS. Apollo is such a good protagonist, he's relatable but also so unique. I love seeing his character progression in the game: a new attorney who is easily manipulated to a confident and determined attorney who trusts in his own judgement. I LOVED Klavier oh my god. I love how much he respects Apollo and although he doesn't hesitate to tease him, he doesn't bully or abuse Apollo in any way. They both have a mutual admiration and rivalry where they try to play as fairly as possible. Klav doesn't maliciously withhold or change evidence, but he does spend hours reviewing his arsenal and thinks of all the counter arguments the defense could bring up. I really like Apollo's ability, it continues the mystery and mysticism from the original trilogy but with new mechanics. I adore Trucy so much. She honestly might be my favorite AA character. She's determined, strong willed, and above all -- extremely silly. I couldn't of asked for a better character to be Phoenix's daughter. I also LOVE the sibling reveal at the end but gdi if only they actually figure it out T^T T^T. I think Apollo and Trucy's dynamic is probably my favorite Defense and assistant dynamic. This who game was so fun, I know 4-3 is not everyone's favorite and it is a little all over the place but I also enjoyed it and loved the premise. There's so much to say, I haven't even talked about Nick and Kris - what an incredible feud, what a genius development for Nick. I cannot recommend this game enough, I am so obsessed with it and cannot wait to make art <3 <3.

#journalsouppe #bullet journal #journal #video game journal #ace attorney #apollo justice #apollo justice ace attorney #aa4

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snowyvoid · 9 days

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I love your haunted siphonophore posting so much it's really good. I think it really fits with how the science team and the game and benrey all sort of play off of each other with Gordon always ending up as the victim/'food' but there's a slight dissonance between all of them. Benrey comes back as a skeleton and for the first night he just walks around and talks like normal until after Gordon wakes up where it seems to become it's own creature that is more tethered to the gamespace (I know it clips out and fucks with geometry but it also feels like it starts to slot into the role of 'spooky skeleton to antagonize and frighten the player' instead of 'benrey is around and talking to people when he's supposed to be dead'). Or how the world seems to bend to fit the insane things the Science Team says (Sunkist, Chuck E Cheese, Passport, etc) but Coomer is still seperate enough from the game that he becomes frightened and angry when he realizes that his world is small and painted. They all kind of group up into one thing, which is basically an elaborate bait and trap for Gordon, but there's tension between the individual pieces and they all have unique perspectives on what's happening despite playing into the same greater thing.

Sorry I'm having a hard time capturing exactly what you meant into this I get what you meant it's just. words are difficult. But your hlvrai thoughts make me insane

no this is like. exactly what i mean. you get it.

the thing about siphonophores is that each component of the organism has its own mouths. like. one component will be the stomach, one will make the organism swim, etc etc, but they all have their own mouths. they all feed.

and there is always this kind of dissonance between gordon and the others, and yes obviously he is the one playing a video game, but i always felt like it went deeper than hostile AI being weirded out by the new guy. it felt more,,, natural?? i guess??? it all feels set up on a stage. aside from the fact that its a game and it is has coded events. the AI, the thing that is suppose to think for itself, still seems kinda. within its own limits. stuck within the body of the facility. (for example, coomer and/or bubby freaking out when they go outside of the skybox/into space).

but the dissonance between the science team and the game/facility is!!! oh my godddd!!!! i could write an essay on that shit. so interesting. and i love that the dissonance is often physically manifested. your hatred towards this thing that you hate is real and will be seen and will affect the world outside you.

like. you have this thing, a large container that has events and ideas that are built into it (the game, the organism as a whole, the haunted house), and there are different components within this container that have some kind of symbiotic relationship (good or bad) with the outside container (black mesa, the individual nervous systems of the organism, the rooms/ghosts/humans haunting* the house), and all of these individual components has a manifestation of its difference or hostility (the science team, the individual mouths, the opinions each component of the haunted house has on each other (i need to make another post about this)).

sorry that was probably really complicated. i just needed to get it out of me because its all ive been thinking about since i made that first post.

*this is within the idea that the hypothetical house is haunted by something. which is generally the idea i go for when in reference to sentient AI, the whole this house had a purpose and it changed, this AI had a code and it was faulty. etc etc. pretty sure ive already posted something about that.

weird little mspaint diagram with some other ideas i have not talked about. note; this is not scientifically accurate to siphonophores. i just thought they were a really good allegory. you are definitely gonna need to zoom in for this thing. but it is important to the explanation i guess.

i just find it really fun to put obvious differences between characters/living things and see where they come together. like the science team, gordon, and benry are all separate beings in their own way but they are like a family. blah. hope you enjoy as always this is a bit messy.

#hlvrai #stupid diagram took way to long to make #whatever. i hope this sums it up well. and thank you so much for adding stuff on tjodity i always adore your additions.#they keep this trainwreck of an AU going strong #excuse any spelling and/or grammar mistakes im really bad at this #derealization #unreality #haunted house hlvrai au

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tolkiens-middleearth · 4 months

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Topics & Themes in Tolkien’s Legendarium

The Perilous Realm

“Stories that are actually concerned primarily with ‘fairies,’ that is with creatures that might also in modern English be called ‘elves,’ are relatively rare, and as a rule not very interesting. Most good ‘fairy-stories’ are about the adventures of men in the Perilous Realm or upon its shadowy marches.” – J. R. R. Tolkien. On Fairy Stories.

Tolkien called it the Perilous Realm, Faery or Faërie, and for me these words represent one of the most fascinating theme in Tolkien’s Legendarium. It is both a narrative and a world-building element that can be found in all his major Middle-earth stories and is in a way essential for understanding Tolkien’s approach to his own created world.

Yet I feel it rarely gets talked about, so I want to briefly highlight what it is, how it functions in the narrative, and give a few examples from various stories. Unfortunately can’t go into a deep analysis because doing so would require me to write a book – which I would love to, but I don’t have the time or qualification). Quote sources and further reading recommendations are given at the end.

WANDERING INTO FAERY

“It is common in Fairy tales for the entrance to the fairy world to be presented as a journey underground, into a hill or mountain or the like. [...] My symbol is not the underground, whether necrological and Orphic or pseudo-scientific in jargon, but the Forest […].” – J. R. R. Tolkien. “Smith of Wooton Major” essay.

The core of this theme is the mortal wanderer who comes to or crosses the borders of Faërie, the land of fairies or elves. This idea has been part of legends and myths for a long time, one of the most prominent examples probably being the island of Avalon in the Arthurian legend. Depending on the story, Faërie can occupy a different time and space than our own world, or share the same space or time “in different modes”. Getting into Faërie is not always possible and many things can stop someone from entering: it may be completely inaccessible, it may be hidden and people have to find it, or it may be accessible only to those who know the secret on how to enter it. Once you are there, it may be difficult to leave, or it may take some time. Being there could turn out to be dangerous, but it also doesn’t necessarily have to be. Tolkien wrote that “in it are pitfalls for the unwary and dungeons for the overbold”.

In The Lord of the Rings, there are many examples of such a realm, some barely noticeable and some very clear and detailed.

It starts subtle when Frodo, Sam and Pippin meet Gildor and his Elves near Woodhall. It is no specific realm that they enter, but just wandering with the Elves already lets the Hobbits experience something they are not used to. They have trouble finding words for it afterwards or remembering it clearly, with Tolkien describing it that for Pippin it felt like he was in a waking dream. The next example is then already more direct: the four Hobbits enter the Old Forest. This time it really is perilous for them, they get lost and cannot find a way out. Tolkien describes it as follows:

“They began to feel that all this country was unreal, and that they were stumbling through an ominous dream that led to no awakening.”

Frodo almost falls asleep near an enchanting river, Merry and Pippin almost die. Without the help of an unexpected inhabitant of this forest, they never would have gotten out.

Reaching Rivendell is another less clear example. Rivendell itself is easier accessible than the Old Forest and less perilous for the Hobbits. But reaching it also includes a river, a river that is under Elrond’s command and that rises “in anger when [Elrond] has great need to bar the Ford”. And within Rivendell, Frodo experiences another kind of “Faërian Drama” as Tolkien calls it: the stories and songs told in Rivendell hold him “in a spell”, and “the enchantment became more and more dreamlike” until in the end Frodo falls asleep once more. Bilbo comments that it’s difficult to stay awake “until you get used to it”.

The most prominent example is of course Lothlórien, a land of Elves that is rarely visited by mortal beings and where the flow of time is indeed different than that in the outside world. It’s also well defended against wanderers, and both in the world and the narrative the fellowship has to pass through: there are guards at the boarders that have to be convinced, there is a river that has to be crossed, a hidden path that has to be taken blindfolded. Tolkien is in no rush to get the fellowship to Galadriel – the reader, together with the wanderers, have to experience this journey.

The purest form of this theme in The Lord of the Rings is, of course, Frodo and Bilbo leaving for the island Tol Eressëa at the end of the story. It is the longest journey into Faërie, a journey that only a few are allowed to take and that you won’t come back from. Tol Eressëa is no longer in the space of the human world, and it’s very telling that Tolkien named the haven on the eastern shore on the island Avallónë.

More examples can be found in Tolkien’s other stories, and I will mention them less detailed when talking about the actual centre of the theme:

THE MORTAL VISITOR

„It seemed to [Frodo] that he had stepped through a high window that looked on a vanished world. A light was upon it for which his language had no name. All that he saw was shapely, but the shapes seemed at once clear cut, as if they had been first conceived and drawn at the uncovering of his eyes, and ancient as if they had endured forever.” – J. R. R. Tolkien. The Lord of the Rings.

All of Tolkien’s major stories have one thing in common: they have someone human at the core who is unfamiliar with Faërie and able to experience it as new and from an outside perspective.

In The Hobbit it is Bilbo who stumbles into a world he is not prepared for at all, and while it is less clearly shown in the narrative of a children’s book, the journey of Bilbo and the Dwarves clearly show signs of this theme – a dangerous forest, an enchanted river, a white deer, and Elven fires that suddenly vanish.

For The Lord of the Rings I have shown above that all four Hobbits experience this in one way or another, although Frodo is probably the one given the most focus.

“This is a history in brief drawn from many older tales; for all the matters that it contains were of old, and still are among the Eldar of the West, recounted more fully in other histories and songs. But many of these were not recalled by Eriol, or men have again lost them since his day. This Account was composed first by Pengolod of Gondolin, and Aelfwine turned it into our speech as it was in his time, adding nothing, he said, save explanations of some few names.” – J. R. R. Tolkien. Quenta Silmarillion.

The Quenta Silmarillion is a different type of story, so here the theme also takes a different form: it’s not a narrative as The Hobbit or The Lord of the Rings and more a historical chronicle in style. It’s written as such, but also given the corresponding context: when Tolkien was first writing the Book of Lost Tales and later the Quenta Silmarillion, the framework he had built for it was that of a mortal men coming to Tol Eressëa and learning of these past events. The one wandering into the Perilous Realm is Eriol or Ælfwine, listening to the stories of the Elves and writing them down for other humans to read. When Tolkien eventually started writing The Lord of the Rings, he was able to change his framing story. There was no longer a need for Ælfwine to reach Tol Eressëa to learn about these tales – now it’s Bilbo who wrote it down in three volumes called “Translations from the Elvish” that he had added to his private diary when he handed it over to Frodo.

This concept applies to the Quenta Silmarillion as a whole, but the main three stories within the Quenta Silmarillion still have a similar mortal visitor as The Hobbit or The Lord of the Rings. In Beren and Lúthien, it’s the mortal Beren who wanders into the Elven Kingdom Doriath and gets enchanted when he sees Lúthien dancing and singing. In the Children of Húrin, it’s Túrin who enters Doriath as well, but also the Elven Kingdom Nargothrond. Both times, Túrin is unable to find the entrance himself; he is lead there by Elven guides – first Beleg, then Gwindor. And in the Fall of Gondolin, Tuor is led by an Elven guide to through many gates under a mountain to the Elven Kingdom Gondolin – one of the rarer cases of a "journey underground, into a hill or mountain".

And even the Akallabêth incorporates this theme, although in a different way than the previous stories. The story of the Fall of Númenor is about wanting to go to Faërie, and not being allowed to. There are other aspects to this as well of course, but looking at it with this theme in mind, that is the core of the story. Ar-Pharazôn is the mortal man who desires to reach Faërie, but when he tries to get there by force it ends in his death.

The mortal visitor as the protagonist in their story is essential for this theme to work. To experience Faërie as a visitor, to enter a “dream that some other mind is weaving” in such a way, it is a uniquely mortal experience that the reader could imagine to have, but that the immortal Elves can almost never share – after all they create their realms, they are the creator of a dream that the mortal wanderer, Tolkien as the writer, and we as the reader are dreaming.

THE CREATOR OF THE DREAM

“Faërie contains many things besides elves and fays, and besides dwarfs, witches, trolls, giants, or dragons: it holds the seas, the sun, the moon, the sky; and the earth, and all things that are in it: tree and bird, water and stone, wine and bread, and ourselves, mortal men, when we are enchanted.” – J. R. R. Tolkien. On Fairy Stories.

The immortal creators are not irrelevant of course, although they cannot be the centre of any story about wandering into the Perilous Realm. The outsider experience, essential for this theme, cannot come from the one living inside the Perilous Realm. The inhabitants in Tolkien’s stories are Elves most of the time – near Woodhall, in Rivendell, Lóthlorien, Mirkwood, Gondolin, Doriath and Nargothrond. But they are of course not the only creators of such realms. Dwarves come in and out of these stories, and in the case of the Old Forest the implication is that Old Man Willow is the main force behind the spell:

“His grey thirsty spirit drew power out of the earth and spread like fine root-threads in the ground, and invisible twig-fingers in the air, till it had under its dominion nearly all the trees of the Forest from the Hedge to the Downs.”

And of course the Valar and Maiar have their part in the story. Especially Tol Eressëa and Valinor are mainly built by the Valar, and in Middle-eath the magical boundaries of Doriath were set by Melian. In moments where Fëarie is not solely or not at all made by the Elves, they may enter the dream of another mind as well. It happened when the Elves first came to Valinor, and a more personal example is Thingol meeting Melian for the first time, where “an enchantment fell on him” in which he was caught for years without moving. This is only possible, however, when Elves meet someone with a creative power far greater than them – one of the Maia or above is required.

However, this was never Tolkien’s focus. In Tolkien’s stories, the Perilous Realm is often a place inhabited by the Fair Folk – but I have also mentioned that sometimes Faërie exists in another mode. Throughout the examples given, dreams have been an important element of the experience of Faërie, and it’s one that Tolkien also thought a lot about. In our own world, we cannot reach Faërie in our space, but it may be approachable in another mode – through dreams. This becomes especially apparent in his texts The Lost Road and The Notion Club Papers, and it was also a part of how Tolkien saw his own relationship with his work: a mortal entering a dream of Faërie.

ENDING THOUGHTS

There are many aspects of this that I haven’t touched on, and that I would love to explore or discuss. There is for example the case of Frodo, a mortal who has been in touch with something that belongs into the world of Faërie, that he cannot properly come back: when coming back to the Shire, Marry comments on how it feels like a dream is slowly fading, like he is waking up. Frodo however says: “To me it feels more like falling asleep again.” Already, it is clear he can never fully return.

Then there is the case of reversing the idea of Faërie in the case of Túrin – he is trying to bring Nargothrond closer to the outside world so that he can use its force in war. In return, he makes it accessible and the kingdom falls. In general, it’s a fascinating thing to see Túrin’s relationships with the Perilous Realms.

Or if we talk about dreams, what about the nightmares? Is Mordor basically an anti-Faërie, inhabited by Orcs instead of Elves, where the path leads through a spider lair instead of over a river, and where any mortal being can only end up as a corrupted slave if they stay there for too long?

What about including such an essential theme in adaptations? In Peter Jackson’s The Lord of the Rings movies, flawed as they may be at times, the experience of Faërie through the eyes of the Hobbits is notable – especially in Rivendell and Lóthlorien. Meanwhile in Amazon’s The Rings of Power, this theme is completely absent and the Elven realms in Middle-earth have no more mystery than a Harfoot camp or a random human village in the South.

I hope I get to explore this theme more, I’ve been eager for month to write at least a tiny bit about it and it’s already way too long for tumblr again. But there are other themes that are also very interesting, so we’ll see how it’ll go…

If you have read up to here to the end I would like to thank you for your time and attention – both is much appreciated!

READ MORE ON THIS TOPIC

On Fairy Stories, an essay by J. R. R. Tolkien.

Smith of Wootton Major, by J. R. R. Tolkien.

The Lost Road, fragments by J. R. R. Tolkien.

The Notion Club Papers, fragments by J. R. R. Tolkien.

Faërie: Tolkien’s Perilous Land, an essay by Verlyn Flieger.

A Question of Time, by Verlyn Flieger.

QUOTE SOURCES

J. R. R. Tolkien. On Fairy Stories.

J. R. R. Tolkien. The Lord of the Rings.

J. R. R. Tolkien, edited by Christopher Tolkien. The Silmarillion.

J. R. R. Tolkien; edited by Veflyn Flieger. Smith of Wootton Major ‘Extended Edition’, Smith of Wootton Major essay.

J. R. R. Tolkien, edited by Christopher Tolkien. The Lost Road and other Writings, Quenta Silmarillion.

#Tolkien #Middle-earth #middle earth #The Lord of the Rings #LOTR #The Silmarillion #Tolkien themes #the Perilous Realm #Feary #my posts #essay

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lesbian-disaster-academic · 20 days

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hi!! I really love your blog🥹🥹if it’s okay with you, can you give me some advices how to wire a good essay? I am really struggling maybe due to adhd or is it just because of me it just seems really hard and I would REALLY appreciate your advice (no pressure ❤️) thank you, have a nice day!!❤️

Hi! Thank you so much! This is such a good question, and I'd be happy to help you out as best I can! First of all, I completely empathize with you! Essays can be really tricky, and it takes some practice to get a hang of it. I know how frustrating it can be (cut-scene to me lying on the floor, curled up in a ball and on the verge of tears because I can't get the words to go), but try to be kind to yourself! Take breaks and ask for help when you need it! And remember to eat and stay hydrated! Very important!

Secondly, I'm situating this within the framework of the dominant education system within the West (as that's what I'm most familiar with). I don't necessarily agree with all of these points (e.g., what is considered "credible" according to dominant settler-colonial educational institutions is grounded in eurocentric, classist, racist, sexist, etc. ideologies, which exclude very valuable and important forms of knowledge and learning). Regardless, this advice should hopefully help you write within that general framework! Good luck, anon!

STEP ONE: GETTING STARTED

If you have trouble focusing (as I do!), there are a couple of tricks you can try! These won't work for everyone, and they might not work all the time, but I like to give them a shot when I feel like I'm at a dead-end. BODY-DOUBLING: Get someone to sit with you while you're doing your work. Alternatively, I've heard that joining a "study with me" livestream can help make your brain get into that "writing" mode.

FAKE IT 'TIL YOU MAKE IT: Pretend you're someone else. I know it sounds silly, but bear with me for a moment. When I can't focus, I pretend I'm a world-class scholar who's working on her great manuscript (even though, in reality, I'm some sleep-deprived dumbass scrawling an essay at three in the morning). This can help to shift your perception and give you motivation to keep going

CHANGE IT UP: ADHD brains thrive on novelty. Try switching up your environment a little bit. Sometimes, it helps me to work on the opposite end of my desk. Occasionally, I'll even grab my laptop and sit UNDER my desk, just to add some variety and try to kick my brain into gear.

STEP TWO: BRAINSTORMING

Okay, so you're ready to go! Great! We want to come up with some ideas for the essay! I usually like to do this by making a mind map. I'm very tired, so here's a rough sketch of what it might look like!

And a quick example (again, I'm very tired, so this is just the skeleton, sorry)!

STEP THREE: RESEARCHING

Depending on how you like to structure your brainstorming, this can either come before or after step two! Either way, when you're doing research, you want to look for a few key things in your sources. I'll list some of them here

How recent is this information? If it's something like a historical or literary essay, of course primary sources are best, so it's okay to use very old documents! However, if we're writing a scientific research paper, we want to use more up-to-date info.

Is the author an expert in what they're discussing? Look at their credentials.

What is the purpose of the information? Is the source trying to teach us something, or is it trying to sell us something?

Try using Google Scholar! The "Advanced Search" settings can be particularly helpful!

STEP FOUR: OUTLINING

Now we have all our information, and we have an idea of what we'd like to say! Try placing it in an outline, such as the one I created below (Sorry, this is a very incomplete outline. Again. Very very tired. On the verge of falling asleep as I'm writing this lol). Please note that this outline is more for generating a basic idea of what you want to say. Post-secondary education (at least where I live) doesn't rely on this format as much, so take my advice with a grain of salt.

STEP FIVE: DRAFTING

Time for your first draft! Try putting everything together into one document! Remember: it doesn't have to be perfect. It just has to get written. I'll add some pointers below!

Remember to use transitional terms/phrases. For instance, "however", "then", "first", "therefore", "in conclusion"! These help your writing flow smoothly!

Spellcheck. I'm a professional author, and even I mess up my spelling from time to time, so I treat spellcheck as a dear friend lol.

Always remember to format your proof as a sandwich. The intro to your proof is like the bread, the quote/proof/statistic is the filling, and the explanation and elaboration is the other piece of bread. This will help to structure your writing!

STEP SIX: EDITING

Yay, you made it! Time to edit! You can get someone to read over your work! You can also use a checklist, such as the one I've included below!

(full checklist)

Okay, that's about it! On a final note, REMEMBER TO CITE YOUR SOURCES! Google Docs has a built-in citation tool, if that helps! Software like Zotero can also be great, but my go-to is always Purdue OWL.

If you have any more questions, please feel free to ask!

#hi anon sorry for the long answer! hope this helps #my friend is asleep and so i'm answering asks now jaksdjasdla #answered asks #anon #adhd #actually adhd #essay writing #writing hacks #writing advice #asks #executive dysfunction #actually neurodiverse #adhd paralysis #adhd hacks #academia #dark academia #chaotic academia

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katyspersonal · 4 months

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Before you deride anyone for being an "idiot", you should probably shit can the Meyers-Briggs pseudo-science in your description. You know, that way you don't look like an idiot who buys into that stuff.

Naaah, I still think that accusing a very anti-nationalist creator that created a very anti-nationalist movie FOR nationalism just because his movie used trademark brilliant Japanese nonverbal display instead of spelling stuff out like poorly written modern Western media IS pretty "idiotic". Waaaay more "idiotic" than MBTI stuff. 🌛 (retroactive, because I already did take my insult back several days ago)

I'll have you know that whereas MBTI is definitely not as binding and fails in what it tries to do (just like every attempt to strictly categorize people failed), it is actually SUPER handy to communicate a LOT of traits and patterns within a short abbreviation instead of a long essay! For example, people that know MBTI lore will read that I am ENTP and instantly expect me to be a lover of debates and "devil's advocate", be bad at talking about my feelings genuinely and sound hurtful without any intention to do so! If person chose to describe themselves with an MBTI label, it doesn't necessarily mean they are the type to take it super seriously, but often it is a way to communicate what to expect from their personality in a really compact form! Or at least what this person believes about themselves, which is also good for "communicating without communicating" :p Most people that have MBTI in their bio/pinned/whatever aren't as serious about it. Those that tried to choose friends/couple and form a collective according to MBTIs are long ago extinct, trust me!

I also found MBTI useful for some writing stuff. To define a type, you have to make 4 choices between 4 pairs of traits: 1) Introvert or Extrovert; self-explanatory 2) Sensory or iNtuitive; so, oriented more in "physical" reality and present or into past, thoughts and concepts 3) Thinking or Feeling; so, stronger at logic and thinking, or at empathy and tact? 4) Perceptive or Judging; so, an open-minded person that is okay with leaving loose ends or a person that needs clear distinction and final conclusion! Yeah they are very bare-bones descriptions and there is more to say about the 8 'letters', I am just cutting to the chase! I never passed MBTI test, I just figured which one of these aspects applied to me and it made ENTP abbreviation! Then I read the description of this type and could recognize a lot about myself. You can for example do that for a character you want to develop, get the abbreviation, then go read full description of this type and I guarantee you, there will be MANY things in the text making you go "damn this makes sooooo much sense for this character 👀" or otherwise inspire a vision of them!

I agree that people that get too caught up into MBTI stuff can be frustrating, and that accuracy of MBTIs is long ago debunked; again, no way to split humans into clear cut types works and we are all too different! Zodiac signs stuff is a similar problem. But, these things are good for communicating aspects of your personality quickly, for finding which sides of yourself to focus on and get "coherent shape" (very useful for my personality disorder ass!) and are good for WRITING! I've even found using MBTI descriptions as a help a good preventive measure from too much self-protection onto characters I am writing! You know same face syndrome issue in drawing? Sometimes the same problem is possible in writing personalities, MBTI is something that helped me to double-check whether I am doing this. Don't harshly discard a thing just because you haven't found an efficient way to utilize it! MBTI failed at what it intended to do but succeeded at being a good compilation of distinct traits and ways to think, act and react!

On the other hand, believing in anti-scientifical things is not necessarily a sign of being a judgemental, narrow-minded, "idiotic" person: a person is only an "idiot" when they make themselves be.

___________

That being said, I don't blame you for being strictly negative? MBTI craze, Zodiacs stuff and similar things have history of really annoying people wasting their time and being weird about what they tell others but that's not my case. In my country MBTIs are in general 90% fandom of memes xd I might consider removing ENTP from my bio in the future if I estimate people are more likely to expect the worst (like you did) than take it for fun after that """science""" has fallen but I just dunno yet. But I'd appreciate if you didn't use harping on me for a mistake I already apologized for to express your disapproval of MBTI stuff 🌛 Not only it is cruel, but also even UNDER assumption that liking MBTI stuff makes me an "idiot" your logic doesn't work - why would doing one stupid thing remove my right to call out another, irrelevant (!!!) stupid thing? This is like saying that only "perfect" people are allowed to offer criticism and disapproval towards frustrating situations and I am not here for this sort of attitude. Someone can be competent in one area and be a complete moron in another area, does it mean they can't talk about what they're competent at anymore?

#ask replies #personal #anon you are valid to feel strict negativity but you didn't go about it very well #“you can't be upset at fake nationalism accusation if you like an anti-scientifical thing”#*blue screen of death*#I don't know if this is your first time doing something like this or a habit but please realize why its bad #like yeah by choosing idiot as an insult I supposedly claimed that I am on the contrary very smart #but 1) I took that insult back and 2) I don't really do that x)#I know I am a dumbass in many things and ESPECIALLY social and emotional things #people can be morons at one thing but competent at other thing!#so they can offer a good take in one field but kill everyone's braincells in another field!#it is not all so black and white #I really don't think I am smarter than everyone.. g #but I am smarter than SOME people in SOME areas!#just like everyone else is smarter than others in their own areas

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quaranmine · 2 months

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Honestly I'd love to know what kind of comments you'd be adding to the fic for your mother. Very curious :0 (also I'm terrible at knowing what information an outsider would and wouldn't have and/or would need)

Sure, I'll add a few. (Redacted since my google account is my full name.) Also remember that y'all also got the benefit of my author's notes, but I'm not giving my mom the AO3 copy because over my dead body does she look at that account. I'm giving her a document copy. So a lot of the comments will likely be details you guys already got in either a post or author's note.

^^^ This one is written specifically because my mom, like me, has been going to Big Bend National Park since she was young. A member of my family has gone there nearly every single year since....1965? lol. So it's a fun tidbit for her to know I was thinking of it while writing this. (There will be a similar note when the Pinnacles trail comes up, because I named Pinnacles after a trail in Big Bend.)

me trying to explain Scar's general dramatic flair (i also have a comment somewhere explaining that Scar is dyslexic and that is why he occasionally mispronounces stuff in the fic, and why he says the scientific documents the rangers let him borrow were difficult to get through)

nicknames

My mother and I are both Gary the cat stans. Trust me she knows Exactly what I am picturing here.

^^ a few other comments on the story, ranging from "background character details" to "research details" to "totally unecessary personal opinions"

it's also fun for little self-aware asides:

She already knows a significant amount of the plot, including the ending, because I talked to her about it. That is also why she gets to read it, because the moment I opened my mouth about writing it I basically had to. I don't always talk about my writing with her but I really wanted to talk about this one. So! By talking about it I just made the decision for myself that I'd allow her to read it. She is....very excited haha. And I am too? I mean I think I am going to send it to her and then just immediately go back to my apartment so I don't have to be in the same house as her while she's reading it LOL. The embarassment of people who know you too closely reading your things etc etc. But I'm very proud of this story and I don't think she realizes how good of a writer I can be. She knows I'm good at it (like, she's read my essays and newspaper stories) but not how I handle fiction.

#quara asks #hc_firewatch_au #i considered making ANOTHER copy for general friends/family/other audience as well #since i know at least one friend asked to read it back in december #i wonder if she still remembers she wanted to read it. i may not remind her LOL #i'm picky about real life people seeing my work. it's so much more intensely personal than showing them my other creative stuff #it's also just a deeply unhinged hobby to write fanfiction in general #i'm not saying that to denigrate fanfiction. yall KNOW i love it deeply.#but you gotta admit there's a level of derangedness to showing Normal People(tm) something like this #hi yes i spent a large portion of my last year writing deeply researched & angsty fiction about minecraft blorbos. here go cry while u read #anyway the reason it'd be a whole new annotated copy and not just the same as my mom's is that i've got a specific relationship with my mom #that will influence how all these annotations are written #we're besties btw.#i'm not even worried about killing her at all on our upcoming 16 day trip together!#i feel like that reads sarcastic it wasnt meant to be

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atanx · 4 months

Text

Hello and welcome to my meltdown about Subnautica's timeline!

Okay; for context: I'm writing a fic in which Ryley Robinson, my blorbiest of blorbos, hitch-hikes a ride with Robin to escape Alterra (Robin doesn't know this). And I, in ignorance, set this to take place five years after their departure from 4546B.

And then I looked on the wiki and found out that apparently Below Zero is set two years after Subnautica??? I went like 'huh, guess I'm canon-divergencing harder than I thought' and went to construct my timeline in-between the games in detail like any normal person writing gay subnautica fanfiction, and WHAT I DISCOVERED WILL SHOCK YOU!!!

(Disclaimer: the two years figure is from the Wiki and I couldn't find a source for it. So either someone invented it or the devs didn't pay attention to their own lore.)

In this essay I will explain why it is impossible that Below Zero takes place two years after the end of Subnautica!

The Aurora was at 4546B to install a phasegate in that part of space, something that would have been a really big deal because it would have made a far-away part of the universe accessible. They weren't able to, because of giant gun.

The Aurora will travel from spacedock on the edge of Alterra space, making hundreds of consecutive phasegate jumps through nine different trans-gov authorities, and arrive on the far side of the Ariadne Arm in three months' time. From there the command crew will pilot the ship beyond the final phasegate, arriving in the next solar system approximately 18 months later.

~ Databank entry: “Alterra Launches the Aurora”

So in total, the Aurora took 21 months, almost two years, to arrive at 4546B. And Alterra sent the rocket because they could only meet Ryley halfway. Let's say that 'halfway' is halfway from the last phasegate. So logically, since the Aurora launched from the edge of Alterra space, Alterra's rescue ships would also need to make those hundreds of phasegate jumps, which took the Aurora three months. I'm going to assume that the rescue ships are smaller than the Aurora and thus possibly faster, taking 2 months for the jumps.

Then, with a faster ship, they would maybe only need 14 months where the Aurora took 18. Half of that makes 7 months, for a total of 9 months at the earliest when they could meet up with Ryley. Since the Neptune would also need about 7 months to get to the halfway-point (yes, this means Ryley had to spend 7 months cooped up in that small-ass rocket. Best have brought enough rations when leaving 4546B!), this assumes that Ryley only took two months to cure themselves and build the rocket. If they took any longer, you'd have to add that time on top of everything.

So at 9 months, Ryley meets the rescue ships. I'm going to say that the post-credit cutscene was PDA-generated bs and Ryley was very much allowed to come aboard although they owe Alterra 'a trillion credits'. Since I doubt Alterra would send high-ranking personnel into the ass of space where a kilometre-long capital ship, top technology, got fucking obliterated, Ryley only gets interrogated 9 months later, when they have been brought back to Alterra space.

We're at 18 months now.

Now, let's say Alterra goes like 'Huh, interesting planet and cured plague, shut-off gun! Let's investigate!'. The journey back to 4546B takes at least 16 more months if the ship is fast as fuck, so I'm going to push that up to 18 months since a ship loaded with materials and scientific equipment would need to be larger and thus slower. Since the non-realised construction of the phasegate was a multi-trillion credit investment (source: same databank entry as cited above), I'm going to propose that Alterra doesn't care about a small, far-away planet enough to risk bankrupting themselves for another phasegate, no matter how mineral-rich it is on the surface. They're interested in studying any remnants of Kharaa and also claiming the planet symbolically by staying there for an extended period of time and 'setting up base'.

We are at a total of 36 months. Which is three years. Three years and Alterra has just barely arrived at 4546B again.

How did the game arrive at two years??? Even if Ryley were questioned the second they step foot on the rescue ship, and Alterra immediately launches the crew that'll be stationed in Sector Zero, that makes 9+18 months, which is 27! More than two years and the crew has just arrived!

And then the story of Below Zero is also too complex to have taken place in a matter of days, so I would give it at least a few months, maybe like 4, which makes 31. And then Robin will have to undertake that same long journey, although she might not have to start all the way back in Alterra space, but it would take her 5 months at least!! And that's three years again!

The timeline doesn't even add up if a phasegate is constructed. Because let's say that along with the rescue ships, a ship capable of carrying all the materials and equipment necessary of phasegate construction is sent off. It would need to be of a similar calibre to the Aurora and would also take like 21 months to arrive at 4546B. From the same databank entry I've already mentioned like twice, we know that construction (for the Aurora), would take 6 months. So it would take this new ship at least that long, too, for a total of... 27 months! More than two years! Again! And this is also the earliest possible point that the research crew can arrive. So in the end, if we give the events of the story a couple of months, we are at 31 months again, and a couple of months for Robin to arrive, three years!

Now, there is one concern I want to address: the Sunbeam. "If it would take the rescue ships 16 months to arrive at 4546B, how come the Sunbeam arrives pretty early in a playthrough?", you might ask.

And fret not, for I have come up with a solution! We know that the closest phasegate from 4546B is 18 months by Aurora away. However, this says nothing about space-stations without phasegates. Quinn says that they're from a small trans-gov in Andromeda. Now, we don't know where Andromeda is located and what its relation to the Ariadne Arm, which 4546B is situated in, is, but since it's a trans-gov we do know that they own and operate at least one phasegate. It would make sense for that to be the closest, 18 months away from the Ariadne Arm. However, the Sunbeam could have been in the area delivering cargo to a space station without a phasegate.

The Ariadne Arm itself, is supposedly uninhabited, seeing as the databank entry claims the construction of the phasegate will expand inhabited space, but this could be an exaggeration or 4546B might simply not be too far into the uninhabited Ariadne Arm. Or both!

In conclusion, while it is possible to invent a plausbile explanation for the presence of the Sunbeam, there is no plausible explanation for Below Zero being able to take place just two years after Ryley's escape (that I could come up with). The only thing I can think of is that maybe the Mongolians or some other trans-gov built a spacegate in the vicinity, eliminating the 6 months construction time in the phasegate calculation, but this is somewhat of a stretch, since the earliest with that is 25 months. Now this figure would look quite good, but it doesn't account for the fact that the Mongolians wouldn't have built a phasegate right in front of 4546B, because if they had, they would have claimed the planet, and as we can see through the Alterra domination of it, they didn't. So there is inevitably some travel time which adds up to those 25 months. Not to mention that with relatively high likelihood, the new phasegate wouldn't be accessible through the last phasegate before 4546B, since everything we have seen implies that phasegates form tunnels, with two making a pair and having sole access to each other.

In the end, I think my figure of 5 years, 60 months, is much more realistic. It gives ample time for research proceedings and relationship development within the research crew, as we have seen exists. With this calculation, it takes Robin maybe (since she is traveling on a small, lightweight and fast ship) 14 months to get to 4546B, and from Lil asking her kids to send her art, we know that a form of fast-ish digital communication probably exists (although messages are probably inspected and need approval before send-off, meaning the reason we only get Sam's messages on entry to 4546B might be that some simply weren't sent), so she could have left immediately after learning of Sam's death. It taking this much time also explains how calm she is in the game: she's had a lot of time to process.

That brings us up to 50 months, leaving a 10 month window for any research crew bonding. This actually looks rather tight considering Alterra shipped an investigator to 4546B, but said investigator might have left shortly before Robin arrived, so that gives a larger time frame for her.

Thanks for coming to my TED talk! :D

#subnautica #below zero #that moment when all you wanna do is construct a timeline to explain your increasing canon-divergence #and suddenly you realise canon doesn't make sense #did i overthink this? probably! but eh!#i made this entire rant into a post because i realised that this is kind of too long for an author's note if i ever publish the fic #so this is a thing to like link to like 'hey! if u wanna know the behind the scenes here it is!'#atanx.txt #also if im missing anything feel free to tell me and correct me and such! i havent put too much effort into researching this so its possibl #:P

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phoenix-is-the-hottest-thing · 1 year

Note

hello!! ive been meaning to get into writing, but i really have no idea where to start, so. do you have any tips for absolute beginners? thank you in advance and have a good day ^-^

Sure! Let me try... Ten tips in no particular order:

Have fun It should make you happy to write your stories. Doing it for the views/kudos/comments/etc will only bring frustration and disappointment. Either rely on intrinsic motivation or give yourself a break! That said, do give me comments. I love comments. :3

Start small Your first fic is not going to be perfect, and it's going to be difficult to write because writing is a muscle of sorts. It gets easier and easier as you do it, so when you're just starting out, you'll struggle. Make the process easier on yourself by having small goals to begin with.

Know how the story ends and write an outline One big issue when writing is having a cool concept and no damn clue how to end it, so you end up dropping it halfway. Honestly, that's fine, it's still a learning experience, but I think you'll feel better about yourself with finishable works. Your outline can be as concise or as verbose as you'd like, but especially for a beginner it'll help you keep track of what you're doing and prevent writer's block to an extent. When you know what happens next, it's easier to get there!

Don't hesitate to change your ideas halfway Just make sure you adapt what happens later down the line, too. New ideas are inevitable and they are good. The risk is to get an incoherent mess or to write yourself in a corner. Keeping the ending in mind while accepting that it can change (and changing it accordingly every time you need to) is a good middle ground.

It's fine to skip the boring parts YOU write your story. You're allowed to just go "and then they traveled to Japan in a plane". You don't need to describe the plane ride. There are better ways than others to write timeskips (or other kinds of skips) but they rely on exactly the same principle: it's okay to focus on the Fun Stuff, in fact, the reader probably wants you to focus on the Fun Stuff. You don't need to write the story linearly. Too bad for them, you're going to focus on what YOU find fun, not them.

Get an AO3 account now, not when your work is written Not only do you unlock more features, it can take a few grating days to get the account open. Why AO3? It'll protect your fanworks with its own lawyers. If you need the option to get paid, use and link social media, and keep your fics safe on your AO3 account.

Do NOT type your story in AO3's submit form If you refresh the page it'll get deleted. Use Google Docs or Word instead. Keep your work safe!

When you're writing a sentence, make sure it's clear who's who Use a lot of names if you need to and don't change who the subject is before you've "reset" a common address. Epithets are not to be abused either— repetition isn't THAT big a deal, I promise (and repetitive sentence structure is a bigger monotony issue in my eye). This is a mistake I see around a lot so I'll mention it directly. Example: Anne loved planes. Her friend Jessica loved trains. Her blue hair complimented Anne's red very well. See, you can't tell the "her" is Jessica until you mention Anne, because she was the subject's friend in the previous part, not the subject. A correct and unambiguous sentence would be: Anne loved planes. Her friend Jessica loved trains. Jessica's blue hair complimented her red very well. We know you have blue hair and pronouns, Jessica, but you do have to share!

Read lots Exactly what it says on the tin! Reading feeds your skills and creativity. Read what you love, read outside your usual genres, read essays or textbooks about writing, read scientific articles etc etc. The more you read the more you'll learn, and the better you'll write, with more tools stored in your brain.

(Please) Don't delete old fics This is more advice on your mindset, you may think it's too early, but hear me out. If one day you're cringing that hard, you can orphan or anonymize them to get some distance. It always breaks my heart when fics get deleted entirely. You'll probably think of them fondly someday, so might as well push through, and remember— no matter the quality, your work of art was a friend who helped you grow and let you learn something from it. (See, that's why it's important for a beginner to hear this). You'll never know whose life you've changed, whose tears you've dried with laughter (or whose tears you've caused), whose worldview you've added to, or whose important life lesson you accidentally taught. We don't influence reality very much, most of us never hit it big after all, but no writer is entirely insignificant either. Whether it's fluff, crack, or darkfic, writing can give you the opportunity to change even just one life for the better. I find it amazing. It makes me want to write better and better.

#fanfiction #phoebe rambles #writing tips #ao3 #writers on tumblr #long post #asks

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souryogurt64 · 6 months

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sarah do you have any tips for editing the essays you write and keeping them coherent? i mostly write scientific papers these days but i still somehow manage to write like i’m submitting a 5000 word paper due at midnight no matter what and kinda aimlessly rambling and making very loose associations. i asked my boss for tips and she said she had the same problem lol

So usually I start with a general idea, kind of like a thesis-lite. But I’ve found that trying to start with the whole thesis statement like you’re supposed to is very difficult. For example, I knew the Gray essay thesis was going to be “Pete book good” but I did not have the final thesis until the end.

I usually start by kind of freely writing a part of the paper I feel most inspired to without worrying about it too much to kind of get started. Usually like something that I think is funny or whatever.

Also during this stage like if I find something during my research I want to write about I’ll just let myself do it without stressing about if it “fits” too much.

At a certain point not too far after this you’re going to want to do an outline. They tell you to do the outline first but usually that comes after prewriting for me.

Another thing which is probably the biggest tip for you is like when you have paragraphs with proof you can’t just like say the proof and how your ideas connect, you have to like add sentences at the start and end of the paragraph explaining how these ideas / the evidence connect to one another. I really struggle with this lol

Another thing is like writing the essay in your head for awhile first. You have to actually do this and not just tell yourself you’re doing it and not think about it. I used to wander around campus in the middle of the night listening to music a lot.