#The Forgetting

[crochet-and-creatures]

If I had a nickel for every time I developed a new psychosomatic symptom pertaining to an otherwise innocuous scent after consuming a piece of media about the suffering caused by a difference in ability to remember the past, I would have two nickels, which isn't a lot, but it is weird that it's happened twice.

[orphancookie69]

Disney Dreamlight Valley...Then and Tomorrow...

I was looking at my drafts and realizing we are at the end, nearly, of the next free roadmap for Disney Dreamlight Valley. Realizing I am on the lookout for a next roadmap a thought came to me, we should think about where we have been and where this game could possibly be going. So, I went through my old post and found all the roadmaps I could find. Throwback!

Every time there is an update, this loading screen changes. But this is the first image most of us saw, so expectations were set up from this one. You already see characters like Scar and Walle and Stitch.

The game is released as early access launch. You have your main starting bunch but Scar is one of the first ones to join you. He is teased in the loading screen. Woody and Buzz Lightyear are next. This has us in 2022 content wise.

2022 becomes 2023. The roadmap turns more into how we know it to look like today. You get Mirabel from Encanto, Simba and Nala from The Lion King, and The Forgotten. While this game is a good mix of new and old Disney-the forgotten is the new innovative character it made for the times. Well done really.

Still in 2023 content wise, but we really start working quality of life updates in the game. The bulk of the main story is out at this point so the developers get to have fun and refine at this point. Venelope from Wreck it Ralph comes, and then Beauty and The Beast. The end of the story teases the expansion.

Here the free content timeline and the paid content timeline start to overlap a bit. Lots of people complained about the fact they had to pay for more content, but this is a business for some. The expansion isn't bad, a little slow. You get Walle before this but eve gets to join him. You get Mother Gothel before, but Rapunzel joins her from here. And of course, its not a party without...Gaston! Jafar is your big bad, who saw that coming? And my favorite so far...Oswald the Lucky Rabbit!

Catching up to the current times, at least for when this is being written. Jack Skellington comes from The Nightmare Before Christmas, they timed him well. Mike and Sully from Monsters Inc. Daisy joins her boyfriend, Donald Duck. Mushu and Mulan take a break from training to hang out too. Tiana is coming up next.

As I am typing this, this is also a way to play the game-as one of us who have been playing it from the start-to play in a sense of "proper" order. I also realize, even by looking at the roadmaps-it doesn't show every door opened in the castle, or even the doors yet to be open. The opportunity for other DLC's you see when going to the first expansion.

But this game, even with being about halfway done with doors and 1/5 of the way done with expansions-is not so simple. There are in game events, star paths, and weekly/daily challenges. As the game has progressed-quality of life has changed (mostly) for the better. Some people love it, some people hate it, and some people have way more money and time to play it than I do.

What do I think is coming next? Well, Summer should see the end of the first expansion. Expansions at this point will progress the overall story along. Doors in the castle spice things up in between updates. I have often said, Disney is a modern day monopoly and owns way too much content. For the purposes of this game-any future DLC's have lots of options to pick from. We already see Remy doing a DDLV Doordash, and Tiana is all about cooking. It could add value to the game but it also easily borders on too much to do-busy work instead of relaxing.

While I appreciate that most of the characters are old school, this game is also a marketing machine for Disney's movies and other business ventures. I could see future stuff being newer content. I could also see a Marvel DLC for this game. The bigger question will be, what do they think the people want to see? Who shows up in the valley that people are willing to put their money where there mouth (or fingers typing comments) to? I know how I would answer that, what about you?

[the-knights-who-say-book]

finished The Forgetting yesterday! it was so The City of Ember if it was YA (positive) — dystopian but more sci-fi thriller like The Loneliest Girl in the Universe than Divergent.

the worldbuilding was soooo solid, the main character was like written for Me, and the romance really sold me on “oh these characters LIKE each other!”

definitely recommend. grabbed the companion novel from Hoopla and I have pretty high hopes for it, though The Forgetting sets a high bar to clear

[pizzamunchbite]

I keep getting quests randomly for The Forgetting and all I could think of was The Forgetting reminds me of Orin, just always kind of popping up. So I made a meme

[divorce-fiction]

The Forgetting by Hannah Beckerman

Opening Tally

Marriages: 2 Divorces: 0

The Forgetting feels like an odd book, when you first pick it up. The story is set in England, so I found myself, as an American reader, googling things like 'lorry' (semi-truck) and making sure that yes, they do indeed spell "curb" as "kerb". There's also the distinct choice of writing one protagonist in First Person POV and the other in Third, but this wasn’t the first time I'd encountered a book with this writing choice, so I rolled on. Some chapters are so short that they feel unnecessary, to the point of quite literally being the front and back of a page. Even when we were down to the final confrontation between one woman and her husband there were still so-called chapter breaks interrupting this linear conversation in a park.

Livvy is a new mom on her LEGALLY MANDATED YEAR OF MATERNITY LEAVE (screaming that part loudly for the Americans to have their minds blown). Her husband, Dominic, is a freelance contractor whose current schedule only allows him home on the weekends. She's eager to get back to work and has good relationships with her sister and parents, who all live in Bristol close to her.

Anna is an amnesiac. She has just woken up in a London hospital with no memory of her life and especially no memory of Stephen, who introduces himself as her husband of 12 years and has to leave town on weekends for work. Over the course of the story and her recovery you learn she has no family (only child, her parents died), no friends (withdrew from social life after losing her job), and no children (she and Stephen were infertile).

Or.....wait no that's not true, because she finds pictures of her with a baby. Stephen lied, to protect her! And oh wait, she didn't lose her job as a librarian because of budget cuts, she left it after being depressed by the loss of the baby.

As for Dominic, you get the early sense that he's too good to be true: a gentleman who stepped up to the plate after an accidental pregnancy and has nothing but love in his heart for his new family, an adult replacement for the family he says abused him in childhood.

I won’t bury the lede: This is a slowburn domestic abuse story. Nothing feels too abnormal, too outside the bounds of common marital strife. Yes, couples sometimes lie to each other. Yes, couples can have different ideas of what their perfect family looks like. Yes, couples can have arguments that get heated. But it's the slow creep of toxicity that gives this story its tension. You ask yourself if YOU are susceptible to the same things Anna and Livvy begin to resign themselves to living with: lies and manipulation and browbeating and negging and isolation and, eventually, physical violence. This is a horror novel where you're screaming at the women to get out of there, RUN! But the boogeyman isn't under their bed-- he's in it.

The small details pileup overtime like grains of sand in an hourglass: white flowers, special nicknames, platinum wedding rings, short hair, classical music (Schubert, The Trout Quintet). It's not an instantaneous reveal but a slow peel, the revelation that Stephen and Dominic are the same man. His work trips align so that he can be in Bristol for the weekend with his wife and child, and London during the week with his other wife. He even has Livvy's love letters hidden in a box in the attic. A bigamist, that most foul of liars.

It is not a peel but a cacophonous crash, to discover Anna and Livvy are also the same woman.

Livvy's third-person chapters are told concurrently, but all happened in the past. Anna's first-person chapters are the present and tainted with the garbage heap of lies her husband has fed her since the car accident, a road rage incident that he caused. It's smart, a twist I've seen before, but can't say I saw coming. Bravo, Beckerman. There is a bit of nonsense about middle names as first names, relayed clumsily in the epilogue to explain the Anna/Livvy, Dominic/Stephen switch, but I can see why the explanation was built in to undercut any discussion of "plotholes".

This book clocks in at over 300 pages, and there's definitely some points where the pacing could have been picked up and moved things along faster. Chop 50 pages out of it and you’d have a much tighter story.

I enjoyed reading this, but won’t be picking up any of her other works. The novel lived up to its name and I forgot about it immediately after reading. There’s also the matter of JK Rowling's transphobia running rampant in the UK, and I find it hard to trust English artists who have made no definitive statements about trans rights. I recommend picking this one up at a library if you can, and if you can forgive me for spoiling the book’s twist.

Livvy/Anna gets a restraining order against Dominic/Stephen, with the implication that she will be filing for divorce soon after.

Closing Tally

Marriages: 1 Divorces: 0 (technically) Restraining Orders: 1

Rating: ★★★★☆ (4/5)

[veryslowreader]

The Forgetting by David Shenk

Away from Her

[zeravmeta]

hello weary traveller there is no longer the original post rather I invite you to play the critically acclaimed by me game proverbs of hell made by the wonderful @saifdev

[nyxi-pixie]

'wah wah everywhere is falling to the right wing the whole world is doomed' literally like 6 months ago we were talking about how there was a trend in countries getting rid of their right wing governments. poland at the end of last year, france voted in a unified centre left/left alliance, even the UK finally got rid of the tories after 15 years (right wing splitting be damned, it still happened). outside of europe, bangladesh removed a dictator in like 2 seconds, india may have reelected their Evil Guy but on a DISTINCTLY reduced majority, theres been queer rights successes in thailand, with gay marriage set to be legal by 2025, and thereve been positive court cases on it in japan. and this is just stuff i vaguely remember hearing about. im sure theres more if you care to look for anything aside from more reasons to make yourself miserable

the US has a distinct effect on everyone, so this won't be fun for anyone (least of all its population. sorry guys), and there ARE a lot of people sliding into right wing extremism, but presenting this like its an unchallenged worldwide phenomenon is inaccurate, its damagingly bleak, and all it does is encourage despair and apathy. you DO have political power, and you shouldnt forget that just because of bad election results and the media's desperation to make you lose hope

[clownmitts]

Momokarun save me, save me momokarun

[4thefreaks]

made this gem on Sunday. had to wait all week to post it

[nothazellevesque]

a man self immolated in front of the israeli embassy in washington dc yesterday. not just any man. an active member of the us air force. he live streamed his death, and said that he refused to be complicit in a genocide any longer. he said that compared to what palestinians were facing every day, setting himself alight was nothing.

let me reiterate. an active duty air force member burned himself alive because he was so disgusted by what the us government was openly supporting. he live-streamed his own suicide, so the whole world could bear witness as a man in his military uniform set himself on fire to protest his government’s complicity in the horrors that we have all been forced to watch happen in real time. he became a new horror. footage of the immolation blurs him out the moment the fire catches, but you can hear him. it is over in seconds, really, but you can hear him screaming. he shouts “free palestine” until his body physically cannot make any sounds other than guttural screams of agony. and then he falls silent. a police officer arrives and points a gun at his still burning body, shouting at him to get down on the ground. and it is over.

his name was Aaron Bushnell. he was twenty five years old. and he isn’t here anymore because the political ruling class has decided that genocide is perfectly fine as long as it preserves imperialism. in the coming days, people will try to discredit him. to say that he was mentally unstable. they will try to bury his actions to save face and defend israel’s propaganda. do not let them. aaron knew what he was doing. he knew what he was doing when he put on his military uniform, set up his twitch stream, and made his final walk up to the embassy. he knew what would happen to him when he flicked that lighter. do not let them forget. aaron’s blood is on the hands of the political ruling class.

[anartisticdreamer0]

not my usual stuff but remember:

if/when tiktok comes back,

it is not the same place. it is not the same. and most importantly do NOT under any circumstances forget that The Tangerine was the one who wanted it banned in the first place and he is no savior, he, like everyone else in government, is doing what benefits him.

DO NOT FORGET THIS.

pick up the patterns, look at history.

[anonymocha]

it’s on the mouse - barmaid edition

[pimsri]

I make art about grief again

[lovely-v]

okay okay i can close some tabs i don't need this google image search of "pear trees"....well you never know actually