#i'm just being a pedant now
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i get recommended a distressing amount of ai art on instagram, specifically for those romance fantasy books that has the internet all athrall (a.cotar, f.outh wing, etc). and these are like...popular accounts, who do a lot of images of the main characters just...standing there looking beautiful.
it bothers me on the base level that ai art always bothers me, but i couldn't put a finger on why this, specifically, both bothered me and seemed absolutely natural. if we take it one step further: it is just another mark that these series are all about aesthetic over substance. i knew nothing about the plot of f.ourth wing going into it, all i knew was the aesthetic (girl with ombré hair, black dragon and gold dragon) and that it was about a war academy. the plot, the driving force, none of it matters — all you need to know is it's a fantasy world and there's hot people having sex. and we're going to build a culture around it that is driven just as much by shallow aesthetics as the books themselves.
not everything needs to be deep, of course not. but i cannot help but feel upset at the lack of creativity in a genre defined by its creativity
#ignore me#anti ai#i don't want to put this in my book tag lol#shoutout to f.ourth wing's author for saying that x.aden is a poc and then not 'rising to the bait' to elaborate on that#is there something here about how they're not even depicting scenes from the book or anything?#it's literally just what the characters look like?#are we so unimaginative an audience we need a visual guide to see that?#i'm just being a pedant now
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examining a seemingly normal image only to slowly realize the clear signs of AI generated art.... i know what you are... you cannot hide your true nature from me... go back where you came from... out of my sight with haste, wretched and vile husk
#BEGONE!!! *wizard beam blast leaving a black smoking crater in the middle of the tumblr dashboard*#I think another downside to everyone doing everything on phone apps on shitty tiny screens nowadays is the inability to really see details#of an image and thus its easier to share BLATANTLY fake things like.. even 'good' ai art has pretty obvious tells at this point#but especially MOST of it is not even 'good' and will have details that are clearly off or lines that dont make sense/uneven (like the imag#of a house interior and in the corner there's a cabinet and it has handles as if it has doors that open but there#are no actual doors visible. or both handles are slightly different shapes. So much stuff that looks 'normal' at first glance#but then you can clearly tell it's just added details with no intention or thought behind it. a pattern that starts and then just abruptly#doesn't go anywhere. etc. etc. )#the same thing with how YEARS ago when I followed more fashion type blogs on tumblr and 'colored hair' was a cool ''''New Thing''' instead#of being the norm now basically. and people would share photos of like ombre hair designs and stuff that were CLEARLY photoshop like#you could LITERally see the coloring outside of the lines. blurs of color that extend past the hair line to the rest of the image#or etc. But people would just share them regardless and comment like 'omg i wish I could do this to my hair!' or 'hair goallzzzz!! i#wonder what salon they went to !!' which would make me want to scream and correct them everytime ( i did not lol)#hhhhhhggh... literally view the image on anything close to a full sized screen and You Will SEe#I don't know why it's such a pet peeve of mine. I think just as always I'm obsessed with the reality and truth of things. most of the thing#that annoy me most about people are situations in which people are misinterpreting/misunderstanding how something works or having a misconc#eption about somehting thats easily provable as false or etc. etc. Even if it's harmless for some random woman on facebook to believe that#this AI generated image of a cat shaped coffee machine is actually a real product she could buy somewhere ... I still urgently#wish I could be like 'IT IS ALL AN ILLUSION. YOU SEE???? ITS NOT REALL!!!!! AAAAA' hjhjnj#Like those AI shoes that went around for a while with 1000000s of comments like 'omg LOVE these where can i get them!?' and it's like YOU#CANT!!! YOU CANT GET THEM!!! THEY DONT EXIST!!! THE EYELETS DONT EVEN LINE UP THE SHOES DONT EVEN#MATCH THE PATTERNS ARE GIBBERISH!! HOW CAN YOU NOT SEE THEY ARE NOT REAL!??!!' *sobbing in the rain like in some drama movie*#Sorry I'm a pedantic hater who loves truth and accuracy of interpretation and collecting information lol#I think moreso the lacking of context? Like for example I find the enneagram interesting but I nearly ALWAYS preface any talking about it#with ''and I know this is not scientifically accurate it's just an interesting system humans invented to classify ourselve and our traits#and I find it sociologically fascinating the same way I find religion fascinating'. If someone presented personality typing information wit#out that sort of context or was purporting that enneagram types are like 100% solid scientific truth and people should be classified by the#unquestionaingly in daily life or something then.. yeah fuck that. If these images had like disclaimers BIG in the image description somewh#re like 'this is not a real thing it's just an AI generated image I made up' then fine. I still largely disagree with the ethics behind AI#art but at least it's informed. It's the fact that people just post images w/o context or beleive a falsehood about it.. then its aAAAAAA
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i have thoughts about your most recent fic and tumblr’s comment character limit has brought me to your ask box again 🙈
omgggg it’s so good to know sylus’s POV during that wine night!! and i don’t know why and how, but sylus’s thoughts about mc here, esp how he feels about her selfless tendencies (to her detriment), makes me feel vulnerable and seen. when i read reader-insert fics, i tend to imagine a separate character for mc even though it’s technically supposed to be me in my head. perhaps the character i made up resembles me (but better lmao), but different enough that she’s like an individual on her own. but when i read this fic, it’s like sylus was talking about me, as in the real me, which made me emotional. it could be that the way mc handles herself poorly in here resonates with me due to some irl stuff, but honestly it’s primarily how good you write about a character’s emotions and thoughts. it’s like the words reached across my screen and tugged at my heart. you’re such a great writer when it comes to expressing a character’s innermost thoughts. it’s like i’ve been placed inside a character’s mind to bare witness their raw self.
again, i love how your sylus x mc dynamics, at least for this series, revolve around an mc oblivious to how much sylus cares about her. it seems she doesn’t even believe she’s deserving of such affection, nor is she fitting to be the object of such primal desires. in a way, she’s kind of self-sabotaging in the sense that she thinks she doesn’t deserve kindness, help, and affection. she’s genuinely fine with taking the brunt of the pain and suffering – and not even in the hero, martyr kind of way. it seems it’s how she’s always been, such behavioral tendencies of hers seem to be as normal as the sky is blue, which is sad and concerning because she deserves so much. i’m honestly excited to see sylus try to knock down her hardened walls and have her realize how deserving she is of so many things. i hope she realizes she can relax, rest, take it easy, and feel safe. especially with him.
i actually laughed out loud about how unhinged sylus can be about his sexual desires for her. like the man is blue-balled to heck, but he isn’t the kind to succumb to his base urges. he really respects and loves mc. i think i would even say he reveres her, given the fan theories around their past. it’s like his urges are just something that come with his intense adoration and care for mc, which is so so admirable and attractive.
maybe i’m just a tad sensitive today, but i completely zeroed in on the emotional aspects of this fic – quite a difference as to how i salivated over your previous fic in your ask box LMAO. coincidence is such a funny thing because i feel like i really needed to read this fic today. i feel much better and more ready to face the day. this has been such a good read, and i humbly offer my apologies for yapping at your ask box yet again 🧎♀️🫣
First off, you never have to apologize for sending me your thoughts. I'm so happy every time I receive an ask, it's always an unexpected surprise. And your asks are always really thoughtful and fun to read! I wasn't just patronizing you when I said last time that it was really fun to receive such a spicy ask about the NSFW aspects of Sylus's character and dynamic with mc in these stories. A huge part of his appeal is his physicality and how he shows his affection through actions. Hot, hot, actions.
To be honest, this message from you is really reassuring, because I've noticed that a lot of the fanfic that gets a lot of traction in (any) fandom is of the NSFW variety (which, duh, I totally understand and appreciate and consume happily), and I worry that because I'm not currently focusing purely on that aspect of Sylus that people will be less interested in reading what I'm sharing, especially the installments that are so mc POV heavy. So to hear that you also like being in this mc's head, and can relate to this mc, that how I have Sylus respond to this mc's issues and hangups and trauma brings you comfort, is amazing for me as a wannabe writer. Although I also want to give you a hug (with your consent of course) if you can really relate to this mc because no one should ever have to feel what you so accurately point out about what this mc feels: that whatever pain you're experiencing is normal, and expected, and you can hardly imagine that someone would be so dedicated to helping relieve it for and with you. Because everyone deserves to feel cherished and demand more than the bare minimum from the world and the people in their life. I'm hoping that I can keep writing this story as an exploration of Sylus teaching mc that, and that you continue to derive comfort from it. Because in the end, fanfic can serve many purposes. And just like it can be a vehicle for exploring incredibly dark and disturbing and cathartic themes using our favorite characters, I think it can also be the ultimate comfort food, and sometimes you should just be able to feel fucking good reading it. I'm so happy to hear that this part did that for you. Thank you so much for sharing your thoughts.
#love and deepspace#sara answers#seriously if you can't tell by now#that i look forward to hearing responses like yours like sylus looks forward to hearing mc enjoy food#then i'm just going to have to step up my game and scream over and over that i love hearing your and other readers' thoughts#my ask box is always open#and clearly i am an insufferable pedantic shit who is happy to listen to other people and then dump my thoughts on them to the point that#they probably regret reaching out to me :)))))#thank you again for reading and for sharing your thoughts!!#also so glad the worshipful devotion i think that sylus harbors toward mc came through#i do think that his feral horniness is deeply linked to how much he cares about and is devoted to mc and i want that to be obvious#in the fic#dude this 140 character limit IS annoying af#oh and if you like being in mc's head#the next part of the story is mc's POV and it ran on for so much longer than intended#i had hoped to resolve the misunderstanding in the next part#but the resolution will be in the part after that and hopefully in a way that doesn't break romantic tension#i'm done writing a novel#mmmkay bye
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I don't want to see animals neglected but it's wild to see >100k notes on a post with the premise "I was correct to steal a guy's pet and now I'm sober." Like imagine if I said "I saw a puppy sitting next to a homeless guy passed out on a street. The puppy was whining and looked miserable in the hot sun so i took him home with me :)"
#not to mention 'now I'm clean' is like the worst form of inspo-bait for addiction stories lmao. i would be shocked if it's that simple#I'm being bitchy and pedantic but like it is just. strange this doesn't seem to be ringing alarm bells
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Cyno and Tighnari: Collei is like a little sister to us
8/10 of posts in these tags: Parents???? Paewnts?,?¿ Parents yes! Hehe mom and dad. Siblings? I don't know her
#oh no she's clearly collei's age that age gap is way too big#windblume#genshin impact#whew I am SORRY for being so pedantic but like. they're not that old y'all. C'mon#tbh this is mostly me being upset that if I were to ever make content with my crackship people will be like#which first of all she can be in between their ages#but also just too much to deal with on top of the hate I'll definitely get for daring to have a het crackship#oh well. maybe I'll get Razor and Collei content at least since he's involved now#OH and to clear things up I'm not shipping Collei with Cyno or Tighnari. i realized my wording was weird there sorry#SORRY ONE MORE THING. tumblr did the thing with quotes so my first tag should have been the 4th
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a wild minion² appeared! he ain't my problem again until next week
#my poor friend was stuck w him + 20 other ppl like him in this giant thesis formulation discussion#why i do not attend those giant circlejerk meetings#academic jerky#he had the audacity to msg me after yesterday's shutdown 'I feel like we are not quite on the same page right now.'#as if it's a semantics error and not just being wrong#(ofc i didn't fucking bitch him out and was very diplomatic in my reply but definitely had to pass out after that)#when you're wrong and you get to learn that's fine#when you're wrong and you 1) make other people confused#2) create more work because of the wrong approach to a problem#3) stubborness of understanding multiple explanations (not just from me to be quite clear)#i'm a pedantic bitch but there are only so many hours in a day and i only have so many spoons#i'd rather we all be correct and just get stuff done#but surprisingly today is good
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“[character] eats people” not in a condemning hannibal or whatever as immoral art kind of way but “they eat people” in a trying to get people to appreciate the lack of easy answers to tokyo ghoul morals way
#i'm back on my 'tokyo ghoul doesn't work and is imo borderline offensive as an allegory for irl social evils' soapbox everyone#actually i'm quite mad at the former group bc do u have any idea how many times i wanna go 'ghouls eat ppl' to a take#but i can't bc 1) not their problem but also 2) it makes me sound like the fun police even though thats the OPPOSITE of what i'm going for#ahhh i have been in this dump long enough to see fandom go full circle from 'blue curtains are depression' to 'blue curtains are blue'#and now back again to the former but if the blue curtains are duct taped to a windowless wall im gonna wonder how the hell you missed that#been having all kinds of fun in a tg server the last few months but now i want someone to talk about the foolishness i suffer THERE with#I'm to the point of hoping someone pops off with something even my new friends think is ridiculous#so i can argue with someone outright bc being diplomatic about ppl dead seriously playing the genocide card hurts sometimes#like guys i am more than content to just be the happy little suzumutsu mascot handspringing down the field#don't try to get pedantic about the irl definition of genocide and expect the doves advocate to agree with you#get it devils advocate but i said doves#also just in general im noticing i don't love having stimulating fandom discussions with ppl who only have lit analysis to fall back on#like... don't you have life experience or vast knowledge on anything BUT themes and motifs and shit to lend you a unique perspective?#that last part is just a me thing and I'm selective about it myseof based on what i like bc fandom is for fun but yeah#been holding that back big time
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How do you fucking. Share art without feeling like it's the end of everything good in your life forever.
#I guess. okay. like. no nothing can ever be perfect. but I don't know exactly what the threshold for 'too many mistakes' is for the average#person. at what point does art shift from 'good' to 'not good.' just HOW imperfect can I get away with being?#yeah yeah there are no answers to this you can't quantify artistic expression I KNOW.#but there IS a limit somewhere. and I keep trying to find a REASONABLE place to imagine where that limit might be.#like maybe something needs to be. idk. 60% as 'good' as it could be for it to register to most people who aren't annoyingly pedantic#as Art Worth Keeping Around. but maybe it actually has to be 90% as 'good' as it could be to reach that. I DON'T ACTUALLY KNOW.#and I can base things off my OWN perceptions but how I view the world is VASTLY different than other people it seems. at least based on#the things I hear people say. so it's just...I need to create and I need to SHARE in the act of creating to stay sane but if I do it BAD#and people TELL me it's bad and people judge me and hate me and act horribly toward me BECAUSE it's bad then well that doesn't#actually do much to keep me sane now does it.#I'm trying SO hard. but I just...hate everything I do. and I don't know how to not do that. I don't know how to evaluate myself with#any degree of accuracy. and then that means it's 3 am and I can't sleep and I want to destroy something.#mc13's complicated relationship with art
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Used the word "ambivalent" in conversation tonight (dude asked if I like my watch strap bcuz we were wearing the same one and I said 'I've only ever had this one so I'm ambivalent lol') and then he asked what it meant and walked away when I explained it. What's up with that. Is that just him being him or was that like actually an inappropriate thing for me to have done lmao
#like. I very much don't wanna seem pretentious or know it all or Super Smart or whatever bcuz I'm not lmao#it's just a good word#and like. I guess it technically wasn't Super correct way to use it bcuz I'm more neutral than mixed feelings but like. it's the same idea#and I Am ambivalent abt it. it's comfy but it doesn't fit super well and the metal bit reacts with my skin. so it's the correct word#just not in the exact sentence I was using it in#and now I'm being pedantic abt it in my tags too. perhaps I am even more socially inept than I thought it was HDSKSJDBDJDJ#it's definitely gotten more noticeable since I got sick. I think I don't have the energy to mask anymore#autism masking. not wearing a mask masking. to be clear I am very much wearing a mask lmao#can yall tell I'm out of it.#armchair speaks
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fucking HATE when someone has a good take but just like has to go and bring up something i'm well versed in and be incorrect about it. like. i'm not gonna be a dick and correct you esp if it's fairly inconsequential to ur argument, but like fuuuckkksaaauauagh can u just not bring up this thing if u don't know about it
#this is very largely about people being incorrect about medical stuff#and i don't mean like i think they're wrong about their own personal medical stuff i would fucking never#but like if someone is talking about anxiety and they're like#'actually u should do x thing bc the PNS innervated ur lungs and the SNS innervates the heart'☝️🤓#and it's like unfortunately ur just objectively wrong about that. and like#wrong in a way that lets me know you don't really know what it means#same thing w like being wrong abt drug classifications in a really insane way#and now drug classifications are actually largley fucking vague bullshit#but sooooooo annoying when someone's like well ofc i'm not gonna like x drug it's a depressant and gives me panic attacks'#like first of all. not a depressant (tho that's more subjective sure#but it's not a parasymathomimetic so i feel my point stands#and just domt attach ur argument abt it giving u panic attacks to it supposedly 'being a depressant' like those two DONT GO TOGETHER#wow that was a long rant okay bye#ugh not gonna re-type that but i meant to say 'wrong abt drug classifications in a really INNANE way' as in silly and inconsequential and#i KNOW i'm being pedantic and annoying i just need to get it out of my system way#also *parasympathomimetic#i cant type oh well
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Writing duels when you haven't fully designed the decks is hard. So now I'm just designing their decks. I've been doing this for like 7 hours and I'm still on the first of like four, maaaaaaybe five that I want.
End me.
#valwrites#valtext#I was originally just gonna skim over the duels but like#they're important to the plot#so I can't rly do that now can I#and it doesn't help that I'm being stupidly pedantic with what I want for each character#so if it doesn't exist yet I'm writing my own card because THEME FOR THE CHARACTER#or smth#aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa
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#tag talk#that moment when someone rudely shuts down an argument with you and suddenly you're eight years old and being dismissed by adults again#perhaps I've discovered a sore spot. years of being a pedantic little autistic child getting told “we're not having this discussion”#anyway. my day is ruined and my crops are full of blight#I hate that “triggered” got so stigmatized/derided because what else do I call it when my sleeper agent trauma gets accidentally activated#I hate to even say trauma but I had to fight the urge to block every single discord friend and pack my mc base full of tnt like I do#and now I'm fighting a six hour mood where I just imagine unspeakable acts of violence#what else am I supposed to call this???#a tiny phrase that reminds me of a lifetime of being dismissed and ignored creating the desire to isolate and self annihilate.#what else am I supposed to call this#and I'm anticipating kickback. I'm inventing attacks to defend myself against. no one is in my notes claiming I'm a fraud.#well. I guess I'm in my notes claiming I'm a fraud. so there's one of us at least
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sometimes I don't give a shit and that's ok <3
#people be pissing me off#so I do actually give a shit but I don't want to because they're my shits and you can't have them#in fact I will be confiscating everyone's shits from now on#people neeed to start caring less about small problems and move on with their lives#or try to see where the other person is coming from in arguments#BOTH OF YOU ARE IN THE RIGHT AND ALSO IN THE WRONG BECAUSE HUMANS ARE COMPLICATED AND FOR PETE'S SAKE JUST HAVE A CONSTRUCTIVE CONVERSATION#or stop being willfully ignorant and pedantic in a dumb way#or stop nitpicking everyone and everything and start giving people the benefit of the doubt online#because NO ONE CAN SEE THE WHOLE SITUATION IF THEY'RE LOOKING AT IT THROUGH A SCREEN#conclusion: I don't normally give any shits but recently people have been giving shits about the stupidest things so I'm pissed#vent post#vent in the tags#random thoughts
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i'm missing coworker!james so much... is he doing okay?
James is poorly :( fem
James is a cruel kind of ill. Desperate to escape the dreaded ‘man flu’, he tries hard to portray the common cold. Doesn’t whine, groan or moan, simply suffers the near constant sneezing and his twinging neck without comment.
Luckily, he has two —two! because you like him enough to be concerned! barely!— nice deskmates who ply him with tea and worry alike.
“Did you take that antihistamine?” Remus asks.
“I did, yeah. You watched me take it an hour ago and try as I might, I haven’t regurgitated it yet.”
“Don’t be disgusting, he’s just worried,” you say.
A month ago, you might’ve said it with deep, genuine ire. James annoys you and his choice of imagery is hardly workplace appropriate, but for some reason you’re good to him lately. You’re softening, and why shouldn’t you be? James is a boy worth softening for.
He sneezes hard into a tissue in his palm and knocks the desk, sending his small crowd of figurines skittering, their light green bodies scuffed with scratches. They fall over each day. You like rearranging them.
You also like feeding James biscuits, and pretending you don’t like him. Or maybe pretending you do. It’s hard to tell what’s real.
“Jesus,” he says, forgetting to be demure as he drops his forehead against his closed fist. “I can’t take it much longer.”
“You need to calm down, is all. Every time you sneeze you trigger the inflammation in your nose, which makes you more likely to sneeze again,” Remus says. He doesn’t sound particularly pitying, but he does then stand to grab James’ mug as he heads to the kitchen.
In an office made up of mostly Brits, it’s extremely common for everyone to make one another a tea or coffee when they get one for themselves, but it’s a sweet gesture for Remus to keep James topped up nonetheless. It also provides for moments like this: you and him alone. Not awkward anymore.
“Do you have painkillers?” he asks.
You open the drawer of your desk and offer him your pouch. “Here.”
Inside are many things. A box of lil-lets, plasters in sterile wrappings, throat soothers, ibuprofen, a treasure trove of cures for little ailments.
“Just, help yourself to anything you want.”
“You’re an angel.” James unveils a shiny purple chocolate bar. “I can have Freddie?”
“Freddo,” you correct. “Come on, James, it’s on the packet.”
He doesn’t truly want it. He doubts he could taste it, and he drops it back in.
“Oh, no, you can have it!” you say, softer. “I’m just being pedantic.”
“Thanks, but I don’t think I can do chocolate right now.”
“Right, um… well, I have a sandwich?”
“What kind of sandwich?” he asks.
“One of those impossible BLT’s. But I can get you a proper sandwich, James. They have those sesame seed rolls in the vending machine.”
James doesn’t understand why you’re being so nice to him. “I must look awful,” he murmurs, letting his aching, pulsing head drop onto the desk. He sniffs uselessly. Fuck, he hates work. Why can’t he go home?
“You never look awful,” you say.
James turns his face to see you’ve lowered your own, resting your cheek in your hand, your knuckles grazing the table.
“You’re being too nice to me. I’m dying.”
“You’re the one who’s mean to me, James. I’m your unwilling victim.”
“As opposed to being my willing victim.” James hates being ill, his lips are dry and his throat feels sharp and he’s changed his mind, he does want the Freddo. “Please be nice to me again.”
“You know what’s good for this? Nasal spray. That’ll fix you.”
“You could fix me,” James says. You don’t answer. He presses his nose to the table. “My days are always good ones when you can't be bothered to pretend you don’t like me.”
“Who says I’m pretending?”
James whines. “That’s worse.”
You tease a bit of his hair behind his ear. James is content to let you, content to never move again, balmed by the softness of your touch as you draw along the outline of his ear to his jaw. “Don’t press your glasses into your nose, you’ll start sneezing again,” you whisper.
James refuses to move. “Stroke my hair,” he demands.
“No way.”
“You’re no fun.”
“But I’m having a much better day than you are.”
He sulks. This is exactly why James hides your stuff and leaves you off of email chains you should probably be in. You’re horrible, awful, evil, with no sympathy for him and no friendliness, either. James was far better off when he was solely annoyed at you, and not whatever useless state of being this is where his mood depends on your willingness to make friends. If James could, he would—
“Are you okay?” you say, your voice as soft as your fingertip where it traces slowly through his curly hair. “Maybe you should go home and rest. I’m worried about you…”
James might fall in love with you if you keep whispering sweet stuff like that. You hesitate at the nape of his neck before dragging your hand up through a tuft of curls.
“If you don’t get better soon, your voice will go and I’ll have to talk to Lang and Co. on the phone again. You know I hate their finance team leader,” you finish.
You sound so pretty that James almost misses your slight. Then decides he’ll allow it as long as you keep stroking his hair. —
coworker james au
#james potter#james potter x reader#james potter x fem!reader#james potter x y/n#james potter x you#james potter fic#james potter fluff#james potter blurb#james potter drabble#james potter imagine#james potter fanfic#james potter fanfiction#james potter scenario#james potter oneshot#the marauders#marauders era#marauders
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It's Bothering me so much that Taylor Swift is so fake smart-girl coded, I need to say this:
I have a degree in both Philosophy and English Literature....
She used the term Soliloquy wrong in her song by using it to refer to people espousing nonsense while complaining in an echo-chamber about her.
Instead, a soliloquy is the most honest and introspective a character will ever be. Often the character will stand to the front center of the stage and, as if in a dream, speak openly to themselves (and in respect to the audience) lay out the truth, or the agony of whichever conflict haunts the plot. So, anyway she's just plain wrong in her usage of the term.
I am not giving a sanctimonious soliloquy. Miss Taylor Swift, you are wrong, and I am speaking honestly.
She finishes the lyric "sanctimoniously performing soliloquies I'll never see" and I just want to mention that a soliloquy requires an audience... so she does not know what she is talking about by saying that there is no audience for a soliloquy.
Also, for the record, I don't think Taylor Swift knows anything of substance about Aristotle. I, on the other hand, took a three-hour long oral exam over Aristotle's life work while out-of-my-mind-high on Dayquil and pain meds after a surgery. I got an "A", and, somehow, I lived through that, I doubt the validity of Swift's claims to know anything at all about philosophy. Especially, considering how all her songs are about as deep as a puddle.
She's completely lost her credibility.
The woman did not even finish High School in a traditional, well-rounded way. I think she read a handful of Joe's books and now thinks real highly of herself.
Edit: I don't mean to make fun of her for being dumb. I'm frustrated that she's "stepping on my lawn" and making her legion of fans think that she totally knows what she's talking about when it comes to literary references in her work or philosophy. It's obvious that she does not actually understand the concepts she attempts to engage with.
Her only real literary skill is name dropping actually talented writers or philosophers in her songs.
Edit 2: Since some people want to come on this post and tell me that I am being needlessly pedantic about her use of words. Go away. A soliloquy is an ancient literary form, one which transcends cultures and centuries, and I, as a scholar of English Literature, am in the position to say that Swift is speaking about the form incorrectly. She obviously did not even google the form, it's clear she has very little real acquaintance with half the literature concept or authors she names drops.
Sure, soliloquies can be unreliable (Hamlet's "To Be, or not to be" is the most obvious example). However, the fact of the matter is that soliloquy hinges on the Honesty of the character. Swift writing that it's actually the opposite of honesty proves to me that she has no real idea about the literary form.
#anti taylor swift#taylor swift eras#taylornation#taylor swift#taylurking#english literature#english lit student#philosophy#joe alwyn#free joe alwyn#the tortured poets department#ttpd#ts ttpd#ts the tortured poets department#ts theories#I'm a professional Taylor Swift Critic
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Errors, "Errors," and Sci Fi: The Nail Gun Gray Zone
I have more thoughts on errors in sci fi, specifically what does and does not count as an error. So I made a graph.
I'm a firm believer that at some point, your story will just be better if you bend certain rules of reality. A story with 100% realistic gun battles will be impossible for audiences to follow. One with ultra-realistic dialog will be boring and impossible to follow.
HOWEVER. Ice floats in water. Residents of now-Phoenix in the 1700s might've not known that, but it's hard to imagine anyone alive today who hasn't at minimum seen an image of a drink with ice in it. So GI Joe (2009) hinging a major plot point on a block of ice sinking in liquid water is widely regarded as silly and world-breaking. Same goes for The Strangers (2008) making a character unable to use her phone while it's plugged in and charging. Even in 2008, a solid majority of U.S. moviegoers owned cell phones and regularly used them as they were plugged in. Errors. Firmly.
But on the opposite end of the spectrum, you have "errors" that only bug a small subset of your audience with relevant expertise. You can always count on some of that subset to take to Reddit and whine pedantically about a 10-round gun firing 11 rounds, but I doubt those count as errors. My personal example is the lack of a character named Surprise in Inside Out — I've studied and taught Paul Ekman's theories, so to me the fact that they included only 5 of his 6 "universal" affects is always going to look weird. But I know that's less an error than a pet peeve, because there wouldn't be much for the character Surprise to do that isn't taken up by Fear or Joy. (The sequel also has a Surprise-ish and a Contempt-ish character, so there's that.) Same goes for the water main not being pressurized correctly in Batman Begins — I'll take city planners' word for it that Scarecrow's plan wouldn't work, but COME ON. It's a sci fi movie about a furry who makes a living punching aliens. If you want realism, watch a documentary.
That said. There's also that middle zone. What I call the Nail Gun Gray Zone, because it really is hard to tell how much some errors are obscure and piddly, how much they're mainstream and obvious. Because. Nail guns can't shoot nails. They're not projectile weapons. Not unless the story takes the time to show a character modifying the tool to override the fact that it has to be pressed flush against a board before it will fire. BUT. If you told me "99% of modern Americans know that!" I'd believe you. If you told me "only professional contractors know that!" I'd believe you. That poll clarified basically nothing — roughly 25% of respondents had used a nail gun, ~25% didn't know much about them, and ~50% had only seen one used. (I didn't ask "do you know that a nail gun can't be used as a projectile weapon" because then anyone who read the question should by definition answer "yes.")
Anyway, I think that a lot of online arguments about errors/"errors" in sci fi can be captured by the Nail Gun Gray Zone. Most of us can agree that only pedantic blowhards would say that the lack of Surprise ruins Inside Out, and most of us can agree that it'd be nice if The Strangers had simply broken Kristen's phone. Nail guns? One person's "oh come on, that looks ridiculous!" is another person's "it's called a nail gun, right? so why not use it like a gun?" and I don't think doing more polls will resolve it one way or another.
#errors#movie mistakes#science fiction#sci fi#movie errors#nail gun gray zone#sci fi errors#inside out#batman begins#final destination 3#gi joe#the strangers#my heart is a chainsaw#don't get me wrong - i mostly enjoyed my heart is a chainsaw#but the hard left turn into BOTH silly camp and horrific realism AT ONCE near the end was a big turn-off for me#the nail gun was just an obvious example of that tonal issue#nothing to do with animorphs#yet#i'm bringing it back around soon i promise
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