i like the phrases “it’s not for me,” “it’s not my thing,” and “i’m not the target audience” because they’re the most concise way to express “this thing that you enjoy has merits but idgaf about it” without being aggressive
it is vintage times. the old hollywood studios, captivated by the electorate’s previous casting of cinema classic dracula, have decided to celebrate jane austen’s 250th by releasing an all-new vintage motion picture extravaganza based on her celebrated romance pride and prejudice. whoever is cast will impact the picture’s tone and genre, so they are counting on you, the electorate, to deliver cinema magic.
you are the casting director for this star-studded epic. choose your players wisely.
I voted Bette Davis, because among all of the Old Hollywood female stars, she was one of the few who was willing- even eager- to play “unattractive” parts. She reportedly had her injury makeup done elsewhere during Marked Woman because the studio wanted her to appear only delicately injured. She played “plain” women, older women, even scary women as in Baby Jane and seemed to enjoy it.
Thus, I believe she would not only be happy to play the “not as pretty friend who is fully ready to settle for a sub-mediocre husband” role, but she would bring a wry, cool-headed confidence that would steal all her scenes.
If Pratchett were alive, he’d make a thing about Troll boba tea, which would literally contain marbles, getting really big, and all of the dwarves being too embarrassed to admit they like it
The irony is that waking up in a violent postapocalyptic world after she lost everything will end up making Maeve a better person. From Billy Flynn to Furiosa!
I’m trying to do more of the Brotherhood of Steel plotline this Fallout 4 playthrough, as I do think it was a compelling idea to mess with players of Fallout 3 by slowly revealing that they aren’t the good guys in this game, but so many of them actively insult me when I try to talk to them. I’m just going to have to roleplay and quite them at the moment that I think Maeve would decide they weren’t worth her time. We’ll see what that moment turns out to be!
Since I decided that on this playthrough of Fallout 4 I would be more “morally grey” than last time (read: I use sarcastic dialogue and sometimes ask for money) I decided that my Sole Survivor, Maeve, was a sleazy criminal lawyer with mob ties hence her willingness to marry a war criminal.
I have also decided that the Mysterious Stranger who keeps rescuing her is in fact a bunch of ghouls for whom she got really good plea bargains back when they were human crooks 200 years ago.
I have started chugging Charisma-boosting substances before any time there might be a speech check, and I like to think she did this before her cases.
General Maeve of the Minutemen: Nice little settlement ya got here. Don’t want to join the minutemen? I think you need some convincing…
Pro tip is you can literally just read more books and get curious about books instead of generalizing about Publishing Today. There are thousands upon thousands of books out there being published by all kinds of presses from the big 5 to tiny indie presses. Go to your local library or independent bookstore or Bookshop.org and browse. Writing off the entirety of contemporary publishing for being too whatever is just as much anti-intellectualism as complaining that books are too hard for the average reader.
To everyone on reddit saying that Caesar in Fallout New Vegas was only instituting violent misogyny and homophobia as heavenly decree because this is the frontier and life is hard and this is the way to get maximum efficient value out of his army- did it work? Did he conquer the Mojave with that maximum efficiency army without having to ask a Fedex employee to steal another warlord’s computer passwords? And did this maximum efficiency army manage to save him from said Fedex employee and one (1) friend of her?
This is kind of an inconsistency in the writing, although it may be intentional- when you meet Jimmy, he says that homosexuality is punished by crucifixion, although the NCR (whom Knight says are cool back at home but bigoted in the armed forces) deride the Legion as gay. Whether you think the writers disagreed, the NCR is ‘slandering’ the Legion in a bigoted way, the Legion defined 'homosexuality’ as being the 'passive’ partner, or if it’s both forbidden in theory and common in practice, is another question.
Someone on reddit was saying that “women are property and you don’t get to have a family” and “there’s a homoerotic military culture but if we ever catch you acting on it we’ll kill you” have the effect of banning any kind of loving relationship. Your only love must be for the Legion.
Since I decided that on this playthrough of Fallout 4 I would be more “morally grey” than last time (read: I use sarcastic dialogue and sometimes ask for money) I decided that my Sole Survivor, Maeve, was a sleazy criminal lawyer with mob ties hence her willingness to marry a war criminal.
I have also decided that the Mysterious Stranger who keeps rescuing her is in fact a bunch of ghouls for whom she got really good plea bargains back when they were human crooks 200 years ago.
I have started chugging Charisma-boosting substances before any time there might be a speech check, and I like to think she did this before her cases.
The Earth is ruled by the authoritarian Mandate, which like all such governments is constantly alert for threats to its stability. This extends to its scientific research: although the Mandate has explored space and discovered a number of exoplanets (a few of which have some form of life), it still insists that scientific discoveries must support the philosophy of the Mandate, which holds that human beings are the pinnacle of creation and that other life forms must all be in the process of striving to achieve that same state of being.
Ecologist and xeno-ecologist Arton Daghdev chafes against both these mental manacles and the Mandate in general. Some time before the story opens, he becomes part of a cell of would-be revolutionaries. After discovery of his improper views and rebellious actions, he is sentenced to what is meant to be a short life assisting research on the planet Imno 27g, casually known as Kiln for the strange clusters of pottery buildings scattered over its surface.
Life as a prisoner on Kiln within the research enclave is brutal in all the ways any such prison can be, when the prisoners are nothing but human-shaped machinery to accomplish the goals of their jailers. The Mandate's leadership has absolute control over who among their prisoners lives or dies, and if anyone should harbor the intent to escape, the environment outside the base is all too lively. The death rate among the workers is appalling, but new shipments of convicted crooks and malcontents arrive all the time, so it hardly matters.
None of the weird aliens seem to be builders of the sort needed to create the clusters of mysterious structures or indeed intelligent in any way beyond, perhaps, the level of social insects on Earth. Yet somehow the small, dysfunctional cadre of scientists on Kiln must serve up the desired tidbits of discovery to keep their commandant happy with them: evidence that there once were intelligent humanoids on Kiln.
I am an emotional person, and I want to like at least some of the characters about whom I'm reading. Daghdev is prickly, snarky, and fatalistic — but then, he has cause. He's also an unreliable narrator who only reveals to the reader what he wants, when he wants. The situation is really excruciating: people with a deep dislike of body horror might want to avoid this book. And there is not, in fact, a happy ending (at least not IMO).
On the other hand, this is very well written. For me, it moved along at a fantastic clip, and when I went back to check some particulars for this write-up, I found myself reading far more than I had intended because the story caught me up again. Some of the scientific ideas reminded me of other works (Sue Burke's Semiosis surfaced in my thoughts a couple of time), and sometimes I was reminded of something more elusive, a source that I can't recall. Does anyone else who has already read this have thoughts on the book's likely ancestors?
From my viewpoint, this was one of the most "science fictional" of this year's finalists. I think it might be my first choice in the vote.
![[syndicated profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/feed.png)
textsfromsuperheroes_feed) wrote2025-06-30 09:01 pm
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
chomiji) wrote2025-06-30 09:58 pm