Tldr - Tumblr Posts
What's your favorite thing to write about?
I love fantasy and scifi!
One of the Big Works I'm planning on doing in the future is a big old series set on the same planet across multiple eras and stages of development, which starts off as your typical Fantasy setting, full of various species of people in a lower-technology era of settlements, kingdoms, and a few bigger cities in each region, up to steam technology, then "modern" equivalent, all the way up to space-faring times, etc.
One of my biggest issues with xenofiction (any fiction where the main character is Not Human, usually in fantasy settings but also scifi with Aliens) is that people come up with these really cool designs and concepts that are interesting, but they usually have some form of Biological Essentialism baked into them that is never actually addressed, or if it is, its ultimately dismissed as
"We evolved this [oppressive culture] eons ago, therefore we cannot [do not want to] change it ,and it is in fact *correct* and *natural* for our kind to be this way."
Like, as an example:
Say a fantasy series where there's cool fantasy animals inspired by hyenas with extremely rigid gender roles and abilities, where its matriarichal and the males of the species are commonly beaten up by the females who are asserting their dominance? Neat, I wonder what kind of role they play in the fantasy ecosystem!
But if you take those same hyena-inspired fantasy animals and make them a fantasy sentient species who are *People* and their behavior stays the same...
.. you do, in fact, have to actually put in the work to say that just because their ancient animal ancestors behaved in this way does not make it right or just for them to continue to beat down and oppress literally 50% of their population, and what kind of movements are going on either currently to change the status quo, or decide at what point in the past they mostly stopped such Explicit Behavior, while they perhaps continue it is more subtle ways, much like how misogyny, heteronormativity, and associativity are still widespread even in ""progressive"" countries.
TL;DR:
My favorite thing to write about is taking a generic trope and *Actually Thinking About The Implications* if it were something in an Actual Society of living people.
My other, less complicated favorite thing to write is I am planning on writing some (*cough cough* A LOT *cough cough*) original Arsène Lupin stories in the future once I have finished reading all of the books that are currently Public Domain in my country :D
If you are curious about Arsene Lupin, here is a link to the first book on Project Gutenberg, and here is a link to a fantastic audiobook on youtube made by Games and Gutenberg :)
Fantasy Discrimination, and The Implications
A post on my dash reminded me to share some more writing advice, so here is a very good article by @mythcreantsblog , about how to make sure you're not dehumanizing a species or culture in your writing, which is a good guide on how to avoid accidentally writing racist or ableist tropes:
In particular, I want to talk about the ever-present racist trope in a lot of fantasy and scifi fiction, and that is the decision a lot of creators make where the villains are not just a single person, a faction, or a kingdom -- *its an entire species* who is not only the villain, but are outright, inherently *evil*.
To start out, here's a political cartoon by Tom Gauld you've probably seen all around tumblr with the name cropped out:
[ID: a political cartoon by Tom Gauld, showing two identical cities and boats mirrored on a river, each with a purple or yellow flag; one side is labled "Our Blessed Homeland, Our Glorious Leader, Our Great Religion, Our Noble Populace, Our Heroic Adventuerers", The other side is labled "Their Barbarous Wastes, Their Wicked Despot, Their Primitive Superstition, Their Backwards Savages, Their Brutish Invaders. End ID]
This political cartoon is a very good tool for testing your writing for the trope of demonizing/glorifying your fantasy/scifi species.
Let's use a classic example: your fantasy setting is made up of the following species: Elves, Dwarves, Humans, and Orcs.
Your Elves are a long-lived, ethereal people who live in secluded, perfect cities, all of them tall, blonde, and blue-eyed, who are extremely wise and making plans that can stretch out over dozens of human generations, and they're the deciders of 90% of politics in your world. Your Dwarves are a short, squat, species who spend their lives working in forges, mines, and laboratories, tirelessly toiling (because they enjoy the hard work, of course!) and selling their products to the Elves who are their largest and wealthiest customer base; Dwarves work hard and studiously for decades at a a time to complete a piece of work in order to fufill the intricate orders from their Elven customers, which is how the majority of them provide for their families, working 16 hour shifts each day for decades per order. Your Humans are far more seperated, and often live on the fringes of what their longer-lived compatriots consider "Civilized Society", often living as Subsistence farmers and hunters, not out of choice, but often due to poor land and lack of resources; the wealthiest of Human cities are usually the capitals where the royals reside and may live in luxury with rich markets and high-quality products and running water, but the vast majority of Humans live in small, poor villages that must rely on traveling merchants to sell what produce and livestock they can spare from their farms in order to buy the supplies they need to live out another year. Your Orcs.... well, they don't really live anywhere, do they? Orcs strongholds can only maintain their grip in hellish wastelands where living is nigh impossible, with all food and water only obtained from outside sources; occasionally, Orcs will attempt to establish base camps in more fertile land, invading neighboring Human, Dwarf, and Elven territory to do so, who quickly unite to expel these vile, dark, brutish invaders lest they steal their daughters, destroy and taint all of the natural resources and steal the few jobs available to the Humans in Dwarven and Elven cities as manual labour and servants.
And Now, take a step back from this world, and take a long, hard look at these species (outside of humans who are just kinda there in the middle and the only ones capable of change because Humans Are Always Special) and societies and what ideas are being reinforced here, especially when the above descriptions are framed as Hard Facts which are both Just and True?
(archived read-more Here)
Elves are morally superior and are always Perfect and Correct,
Dwarves are happy to spend their entire lives toiling in the forges and mines to please their Elven patrons,
and Orcs are Evil Monsters who will rob, murder, and rape any hapless victim who comes their way, so it's better to slaughter them all on sight and kick them out of your cities and towns, and this is the 100% correct morally right choice every single time and the narrative and characters themselves support this?
Did you spot them already, or does the above just seem like a cool, fun fantasy world where Elves are the cool wise good guys and Orcs are the devil's army and can be used as canon fodder any time your main character needs to mow down some enemies for a Badass Scene?
Let's retrace our steps a bit, shall we, and examine this "perfect" world through a critical lens?
When your elves are all portrayed as Perfect Ethereally Beautiful Blonde and Blue-Eyed wise leaders of the civilized world, what idea is being reinforced here? Who does it harm, and what real world ideas is this mirroring and enforcing? Who is going to have their own biases reinforced by this narrative?
When only the longest-lived people are allowed to decide politics, what group biases are being enforced? Is portraying "young people" as "being incapable of making political decisions" as a correct, logical choice in your story something you wish to enforce? Are there any real world issues this trope mirrors?
When your Dwarves are all Happy Workers and Slaves, bound to and reliant on the superior Elves to live, spending the majority of their life purely in service to these Superior Beings while happy to do it, what idea is being reinforced here? Who might see themselves in the plight of the Dwarves and feel alienated and insulted by the Dwarves happily slaving away in the dark? Who might have biased ideas reinforced by seeing the Dwarves treated in such a way?
When your Orcs are portrayed as evil, dark skinned, brutish savages who will kidnap and rape poor helpless women from the "pure" species, when Orcs are incapable of creating anything of their own and can only steal, what racist messages are being enforced and upheld? Who are the real people and cultures being demonized when you perpetuate this? What real world peoples and cultures have faced *decades of propaganda framing them as such*?
If you spotted these harmful messages in the initial indented description, good job!
But if you didn't, it's time to find and read critical reviews and essays written by marginalized communities of works that include these damaging tropes, because if it your Evil Species are Weird Aliens, because when you characterize and describe your Evil Species, you are undoubtedly going to be drawing heavily on your own internal biases of what makes people Other and Wrong.
Are your Evil Species all dark-skinned, physically-strong and animalistic? Congrats, you have just regurgitated centuries-old racism that justifies slavery, segregation, and discrimination *to this day*
Are your Evil Species all nomadic ~cannibals~ who are incapable of creating anything of their own and have to loot and steal from others to have anything of value? Congrats, you are once again regurgitating racist propoganda that has been used against countless cultures and minorities for centuries.
Are your Evil Species reknowned for kidnapping and raping the women of your Good Guys in order to create Evil Twisted Halfbreed Offspring for ....uh, reasons? Congrats, once again, this is literally just racist propaganda being reinforced by your writing.
Anything you come up with to make your Species Inherently Evil is going to most likely be something that is weaponized against real world minorities that you are now reinforcing with your writing, from racism to ableism to queerphobia and all the ways they intersect.
How do you fix this?
It's incredibly simple!
Don't make an entire Species be Inherently Evil.
They need to be just as varied as real living people.
Your Species should not be a Monolith, let alone of *Evil*.
Your Species should not have their only "decent/civilized/kind people" examples come from ""crossbreeds"" [and this term itself should be used only by bigots as a deragatory term] or random orphans who were raised by one of the Good Species(tm)-- this is how your story starts advocating for *eugenics*, which is not something you want to do!
So, instead of having an entire Species be "Inherently biologically" Evil, consider instead:
Making your villain group diverse instead of all one Species.
if your villain group is a Species Supremacist, they're probably still going to have underlings and lower castes who do their dirty work, or have been taken in by the cult ideology.
Making the villains of this Species be a small fraction of a larger whole, who are part of a violent cult, ideology, or political party that not only puts them in conflict with your main characters, but also with the rest of their Species.
Having your main character or their friends be the same Species as your villain group, and they represents the vast majority of the Species, instead of hailing them as "the Paragon of Goodness who emerged somehow pure from of a species forged in hell" or anything similar.
You should also sit down and not only think about the harmful, racist tropes that would come from writing Inherently Evil Species, but also consider:
Why do you want to include an entire species of people who are inherently evil in your novel?
Is your novel gaining anything for including these tropes uncritically?
Does it make it a better, more interesting story to include these tropes uncritically?
What message are you trying to send with your story?
Does including these tropes uncritically in your story *undermine* your intended message?
Another trope in the opposite direction, is talking about "Oppression" and "Fantasy Racism" from the perspective of a character who is part of the oppressed minority, only to spend the entire novel talking about how your Opressed Class are Literally and Factually threats to the population that "discriminate" against them, usually by being rightfully wary in their prescence.
if the Oppressed Minorities in your story in anyway resemble the Orcs in Bright, the Predators in Zootopia, or the Khajiit in the Elderscrolls, where the Racism these peoples face in based on hard proven facts that these people have been and still are threats to most of the population..
... you're less writing a story about how "Racism Against Vulnerable Minorities is Bad"
and sound more like you're saying
"It's bad to be "mean" (afraid of) Nazis who literally want you dead and who can kill you with impunity and no consequences."
If you are writing a story about Fantasy Discrimination, and the basis of your Fantasy Discrimination is based on *cold hard facts that your narrative supports and upholds*, instead of actually basing it on and talking about what leads to discrimination in the real world
(xenophobia and the fear+hatred of The Other, economic gain, mainly),
then you are not making the progressive stance that you think you are, and instead are enforcing the ancient propoganda that racism is based on fact, that racism is "for a good reason", and you need to take care that you are not upholding this idea in your works.
TL;DR:
Instead of making an entire Species of people a trope of Wise Good Guys or Evil Incarnate, consider using *Factions not Races* for your groups, and think long and hard about the implications of your world's politics and how it mirrors our own world, especially in ways *you may not intend it to.* If your story is meant to be progressive and inclusive, but your villains are an entire race of black orcs who slave and rape the good guys species, you need to go back to the drawing board.
So I was thinking to myself one part of me wants cute slice of life stories and then the other part of me want deep political machinations with intrigue and stuff.
And then yet another part of me was like: why not an combination of both?
So I told my dad about this because I like to bounce ideas off of him, and he helps me refine them. However, I was not expecting his response.
My father who I care about deeply and very much respect who is also sometimes a deeply sarcastic and witty man: "So, like Jane Austen?"
And that just. Got me. It was like a punch till the gut. Here I was expecting some utterly strange name or amalgamation and I just get hit with this truth bomb out of left field.
Because he's right. That combination is Jane Austen's works, very much so. The romances of the heroines and the intrigue of their social circles are exactly that.
But I think the thing that was really getting me, the thing that just had me sitting there like some odd gelatinous mass, was that I someone who is very much a fan of Austen(as is my father), a writer and creative by nature, had not considered that very very simple explanation.
And then I realized I wouldn't have considered that possibility. Not at first. It's not in my nature to do so. I look for the odd eccentric answers. However my father, who is quite the excellent storyteller himself, has one important fundamental difference from me when it comes to these things:
He thinks analytically.
It may be obvious by this point that I do not. I think of things very abstractly. I observe the world very differently. My spatial awareness is nothing to write home about. Indeed, my social awareness is nothing stunning either.
However, I did inherit his tendency to ramble. So that's what this is. This is my word vomit about something that just struck me oddly.
Does it have a point? Who knows! Do I just want to ramble about it and hope someone hears me screaming my stray thoughts into the void? Yes. Isn't that the point of this hellsite (deeply affectionate)?
im watching caseoh play "Night Doner" and hearing him say "diner" instead of "doner" as in the turkish(i think it was turkish but we have it in bulgaria too) food set off some type of primal instinct in me
massacre at pride parade in poland
this is a signal boost. please share it, for the love of god, media doesn’t cover this enough yesterday my city held its first pride parade. we were warned by the far right that they won’t allow it to happen, we knew it was going to be bad, but not this bad. nationalists from all across the country took trains here and occupied the area where parade was supposed to start, waiting to begin a massacre. the first people to have appeared at the spot were brutally beaten, there are 4 officially unconfirmed (clarification: this might be fake news, nobody knows anything) deaths of teenagers. they were attacking children they pledged to protect from “gay pedophiles”. i saw them covered in blood. i saw them crying. i saw them running, hiding in nearby shops, chased through the streets by organised groups of nazis that kept screaming: WE’LL KILL ALL FAGGOTS. 50 grown men against a single kid. 10 different men against a 14-year-old girl. she was thrown on the ground, kicked, and beaten, because she had a rainbow on her shirt. the parade was disrupted, but continued to march on. the amount of rocks, bricks, glass beer bottles, bottles with piss, rotten eggs, explosives that were thrown at us, is uncountable. my throat is sore from screaming RUN RUN RUN each time some landed nearby. then they exploded. have you ever experienced the ringing in your ears, so frequently shown in war movies after a grenade detonates nearby? i did, yesterday. people have burns, traumatic brain injuries, broken bones, broken noses, not to mention bruises and cuts. i saw so much blood that day. we were choking because of smoke and pepper spray that police used against those who attacked them. them, not us. people who threw rocks/glass/bricks/explosives/eggs, slicing our temples, cracking our skulls, breaking our bones, are facing no consequences, unless they’ve attacked the policemen. 25 had charges pressed against them. 25 out of thousands who gathered with the sole purpose of attacking us. they outnumbered and surrounded us. they chased people after the parade ended, screaming death threats. screaming that they will find us through the photos, and kill us. do you know what our right-wing media does? they’re claiming we, the peaceful parade whose numerous members are currently hospitalized with terrible injuries, were the ones who threw rocks/glass/bricks/explosives/eggs at “good christians who were protecting traditional values”. do you know what our church does? it’s thanking those who attacked us. the church approves violence. and so does the government. welcome to poland. run.
Seeing the The London Daily Ride series getting rec had me like
Thank you!!!
October 2022 Monthly Reading List
Whumptober and Kinktober are done, and here are my favourite offerings from both! I keep my all time favourite fics on @trekkingaroundficrecs as well, so you can find more great stories there too!
Be sure to read the warnings on each fic, leave comments and reblog to support these great people and enjoy!
Key: ^^ angst, ** fluff, “” whump, hurt/comfort, !! smut, ++ personal favourite
Keep reading
Hi Chrissy! It's obvious you put a lot of efforts into TLDR and I just want to say THANK YOU for making Steven feeling so real! Can't wait to see what's next🥰
Hello dear anon !! Excuse me, how can you be so adorable ?? THANK YOU ! I won't lie, I've lost count of how many hours I've spend watching Steven's mannerisms like a hawk 👀 AND... You won't have to wait long eheh THANK YOU AGAIN 💞
I’m really tired of seeing people broken up into labels of absolutes.
People are not just “good” or “bad”.
People are not a list of labels.
People are complex, situations are complex.
I know, that makes it a lot harder when you want to just write off everything someone’s ever done as bad – but that’s not how people actually are, and it would do everyone good to stop pretending they are.
I am tired of hearing about the fear people have in putting themselves out there. And it is a scary thing! Putting yourself out there means subjecting yourself to people who want a really good reason to tear you down, who will jump at the first chance to feel “good” by labeling someone else as “bad”.
I reject this. I reject the idea that there should be fear in speaking up and talking about experiences and trying to reach an understanding of a situation.
I’m unhappy to see people spitefully urging others to cut off ties with their friends under the guise of “well, that person’s just inherently bad, so if you talk to them you’re bad too.” That is fucked up. You definitely have the right to let the friend know you don’t want to hear about whoever troubles you, but you do not at all have the right to decide who their friends should be. This includes guilt trips.
Anyway, just try to be more aware of others. Everyone else is a person like you. They might not have the same experiences as you. They might not understand how their words are harmful, or how what they’re doing is wrong. They certainly won’t if you never tell them.
Most people are trying to be good, but they’re going to mess it up sometimes. Try to keep that in mind. Even when people do really fucked up shit, sometimes they are trying to do good. “The road to hell is paved with good intentions” and all that.
Nothing gets solved, no growth happens when you put people into a box from which you’ll never let them escape.
Yes, you absolutely must be careful about people who have tendencies and patterns that are harmful to you. Sometimes people try to overcome those patterns and they fail, and you have to distance yourself from them: that is the sad reality of life. Sometimes though, they can overcome it. But they certainly won’t if the first thing you do is write them off after a fuck up.
Be sincere. Use your best judgment.
Sorry that’s mb yall i did have to ask if I could swear in the tags once 😓
playing spot the newcomer is easy because they’re the mfs who censor everything
i just got a pro-ship / anti-anti positive post in my feed i gotta delete my whole account now see yall later
just watched the the last of us 2. ooof
edit - really weird how now Joel is a terrible asshole who killed all those lovely doctors when it was revealed in the first fucking game that they had tried before and it didn't work... so operating on Ellie would have absolutely been meaningless. AND THE FACT THAT THERE’S NO CREATING A VACCINE FOR A FUNGUS?! And even if all that weren’t the case, maybe they should have actually, I don't know, asked her?!
Also how Ellie still can't forgive Joel at the end of 2 for saving her fucking life in 1 but can apparently forgive Abby enough to let her live lmfao! gtfo. also wtf happened to Joel's and actually Ellie's personality?
Just realized I never made the explanation post 😭
HIATUS EXPLANATION UNDER CUT
Hey I'm Dennys! As Ghostly has been fairly open about we are a DID system, this blog has been mostly his but he's let us use it sometimes.
The simple fact of the matter is that Ghost, or as we know him: Alex, isn't the host anymore. He's been the host for years and in recent months it's just gotten to be too much. He's not gone dormant at all, he's still around- just not as the host anymore.
Our gatekeeper and protectors have been doing a great job of keeping us under the radar in Alex's interpersonal life but we needed a more solid new host. That's where I've stepped up, technically I'm a fictive but it's been long enough since I've ~*existed*~ that I've become really comfortable in front and masking.
I know about Agere, and I'm all for it- I've even found it helps me too which is just wild- but I'm probably not going to continue this blog myself. At least not with the same stuff, I'll still rb stuff that's appropriate but I'm clueless when it comes to all the fandoms and Headcannons and oh god don't ask me how Alex makes those boards IDEK 😭
If current mutuals or followers are curious about the situation or want to ask me questions the questions thingy is open- it's just fandom requests that are closed so feel free to ask anything and I'll answer to the best of my abilities. I'll probably make an intro post about me- stuff like my pronouns and interests if you guys care.
Tldr: Ghostly is dropping out as the host, new guy's name is Dennys!
Abundance (XIII)
— summary: You never expected that you would end up adopting a hybrid, and if someone had told you that you would end up with seven? Well, you would have thought they were crazy. But here you are, with three different packs of hybrids that don’t get along – but all want to stay with you. Yeah, it turns out crazy is an understatement.
— pairing: hybrid bts x human f!reader
— genre: fluff, angst, eventual smut
— warning: none
— word count: 7.9k
— tag list: here (the tag list is closed/full!)
Part: I / II / III / IV / V / VI / VII / VIII / IX / X / XI / Find the rest of the chapters here!
You stare up at the hotel with a frown, fingertips thrumming against the steering wheel as you take in the pristine white building. It looks new and modern, the silver letters spelling out Omelas polished to perfection. It appears just as nice as it did online, which is obviously why you even chose it in the first place (that, and that it isn’t your wallet that’s paying for it) – but after driving through town, it just seems too nice in comparison to the slightly run down houses and businesses surrounding it.
Though, maybe you’re just more nervous about the meeting and leaving the boys alone than you first thought, if you’re trying to convince yourself that a nice looking hotel is somehow a bad omen.
You grab your overnight bag with a huff, exiting your car before you can talk yourself out of it. Check-in is easy and quick, and you find yourself walking out of the open and light reception area in just a few minutes, keycard in hand.
You have no idea why your nerves are itching under your skin as you step out of the elevator and head towards your room, your eyes hastily scanning the corridor as you quicken your pace. Everything looks clean and in order, the deep red rug lining the floor contrasting nicely with the stark walls, but still – still, you can’t help but feel wary.
Keep reading
Starting Gideon the ninth: wow, what a great book about complex lesbian necromancers being cool and emo and gay, with a great cast of supporting characters, and an interesting and mysterious plot! Cant wait to see what happens next!
Post Nona the ninth: this book is about humanity. It is about the soul. It is about love and It is about power and every devastating and wonderful emotion the human brain is capable of. It is about the meaningless bags of flesh that hold what is really important. It is about Christianity, and applying real human nature to its laws. It is about the end of the world. It is about a guy named John kickstarting the craziest butterfly effect ever. It is about
AND ITS NOT EVEN OVER YET!
One of our new toys: The iPlug!
Jokes aside. Miss sent me to buy an Airtag, after She scolded me several times for wandering around during our shopping trip. She makes me wear the plug nearly all the time when we're leaving the house. Not only that She can locate me at any time, She can even make it to make a sound! It surely reminds me of my place...
Her breathtaking smile, which brings me down to my knees, every time she has successfully located me. Her grip on my neck saying "Gotcha, pet!"... Uff, how much I love her ❤️
Darf ich vorstellen? Der iPlug!
Spaß beiseite. Ich neige zu einer kleinen "Weglauf-Tendenz", wenn wir gemeinsam einkaufen sind. Miss hat mich mehrmals ermahnen müssen, ehe sie mich einen Airtag kaufen schickte... Nun kann sie mich jederzeit orten und ich muss dieses Ding fast ständig tragen, wenn wir das Haus verlassen. Immer werde ich an meine Position erinnert und dann auch noch die Blicke der Anderen, wenn Miss einen Ton abspielen lässt... Ihr gemeines, triumphierendes Lächeln, das mich regelmäßig niederknien lässt, wenn sie mich erfolgreich geortet hat und auf mich zu kommt. Der feste Griff in meinen Nacken, gepaart mit einem "Hab' ich dich, Fräulein!"... Uff, wie sehr ich sie liebe ♥️
Incredible characterization move on Kubo's part to make Byakuya's theme song an instrumental version of a song called "I Sing to Pass "the Time." [YouTube link, it's very pretty if you like piano music]
I suppose it's possible that Kubo chose it on the sound alone, but I doubt it. The original version, by Léo Ferré, was from an album where he set the work of Surrealist/Communist poet Louis Aragon to music. The lyrics for this one are all about beauty and wonder passing out of the world, just like the rest of Byakuya's dead tree, last-of-his-line, color-fading-into-white schtick.
I have lived marvels during the day You and I, remember it And I have broken through the wall of the years The ears full of miracles Our universe is not the same anymore I have lived marvels during the day
(full lyrics under the cut)
(Translation source) (Here is the poem in its original French, if you prefer)
I sing to pass the time short amount of it that I have left to live Like you draw on the frost Like you make your heart pleased while throwing pebbles on the pond I sing to pass the time
I have lived marvels during the day You and I, remember it And I have broken through the wall of the years The ears full of miracles Our universe is not the same anymore I have lived marvels during the day
Let's have those fingers untangled now Like the forehead from the glory Our eyes were first to see the clouds lower than us And the lark at our knees Let's have those fingers untangled now
We have made moonlights For our palaces and our statues What matters now that we are being killed The nights will fall one by one China turned itself into the Commune We have made moonlights
And I would tell and I would tell So much was this life adventure Where man has become life-size His voice above the forests The mountains, the seas and the secrets And I would tell and I would tell
Yes; I sing to pass the time The bow wears out against the violin The pebble at the game of rebounds And how my love is touching Near me in the leaning shadow Yes, I sing to pass the time
I sing to pass the time Yes to pass the time I sing
tag the idol you think you’d get along with the most