#modified screen

[ahollowgrave]

pinching her cheeks

[incorrectringsofpower]

Adar: "kill them with kindness" WRONG. TEETH AND CLAWS 🐺🐺🐺

[alxastrx]

When you're one of the most selfish mc who only saves people because it's part of a job you never wanted and did not get to chose or you would've died, who took your co-workers' morals and ideals because you didn't have any and desperately wanted to fit in somewhere, be it with the heroes or the villains, who's activelly haunted by one the most tragic past to have been created and suffer from a psychosis so bad (dare I say schizophrenia) that even your enemies acknowledged that you are mentally ill and objectively flawed in your judgement, never hesitated to try to kill anyone and has the most egoistic reason to be a good person but the fandom still thinks you're just a kind crybaby "I don't know what a gun is" homosexual twink.

[longagoitwastuesday]

So so indebted to u for posting those lovely illustrations from Cyrano <333 & even more so for yr tags!! I'm completely in love w yr analysis, please feel free to ramble as long as u wish! Browsing through yr Cyrano de Bergerac tag has given me glimpses of so many adaptations & translations I'd never heard of before! I'll be watching the Solès version next, which I have only discovered today through u ^_^ As for translations, have u read many/all of them? I've only encountered the Renauld & Burgess translations in the wild, & I was curious to hear yr translation thoughts that they might guide my decision on which one I buy first (not necessarily Renauld or Burgess ofc). Have a splendid day & sorry for the likespam! 💙

Sorry for the delay. Don't mind the likespam, I'm glad you enjoyed my tags about Cyrano, and that they could contribute a bit to a further appreciation of the play. I loved it a lot, I got obsessed with it for months. It's always nice to know other people deeply love too that which is loved haha I hope you enjoy the Solès version, it may well be my favourite one!

About translations, I'm touched you're asking me, but I don't really know whether mine is the best opinion to ask. I have read... four or five English translations iirc, the ones I could find online, and I do (and especially did, back when I was reading them) have a lot of opinions about them. However, nor English nor French are my first languages (they are third and fourth respectively, so not even close). I just read and compare translations because that's one of my favourite things to do.

The fact is that no translation is perfect, of course. I barely remember Renauld's, but I think it was quite literal; that's good for understanding the basics of the text, concepts and characters, but form is subject, and there's always something that escapes too literal translations. Thomas and Guillemard's if I recall correctly is similar to Hooker's in cadence. It had some beautiful fragments, some I preferred over Hooker's, but overall I think to recall I liked Hooker's more. If memory serves, Hooker's was the most traditionally poetic and beautiful in my opinion. Burgess' is a whole different thing, with its perks and drawbacks.

Something noticeable in the other translations is that they are too... "epic". They do well the poetic, sorrowful, grief stricken, crushed by regrets aspects of Cyrano and the play in general, but they fall quite short in the funny and even pathetic aspects, and that too is key in Cyrano, both character and play. Given the characteristics of both languages, following the cadence of the French too literally, with those long verses, makes an English version sound far too solemn at times when the French text isn't. Thus Burgess changes the very cadence of the text, adapting it more to the English language. This translation is the one that best sets the different moods in the play, and as I said before form is subject, and that too is key: after all, the poetic aspect of Cyrano is as much true as his angry facet and his goofy one. If Cyrano isn't funny he isn't Cyrano, just as he wouldn't be Cyrano without his devotion to Roxane or his insecurities; Cyrano is who he is precisely because he has all these facets, because one side covers the other, because one trait is born from another, because one facet is used as weapon to protect the others, like a game of mirrors and smoke. We see them at different points through the play, often converging. Burgess' enhances that. He plays with the language itself in form and musicality, with words and absences, with truths masking other truths, with things stated but untold, much like Cyrano does. And the stage directions, poetic and with literary value in their own right in a way that reminded me of Valle Inclán and Oscar Wilde, interact with the text at times in an almost metatextual dimension that enhances that bond Cyrano has with words, giving them a sort of liminal air and strengthening that constant in the play: that words both conceal and unveil Cyrano, that in words he hides and words give him away.

But not all is good, at all. Unlike Hooker, Burgess reads to me as not entirely understanding every facet of the characters, and as if he didn't even like the play all that much, as if he had a bit of a disdainful attitude towards it, and found it too mushy. Which I can understand, but then why do you translate it? In my opinion the Burgess' translation does well bending English to transmit the different moods the French text does, and does pretty well understanding the more solemn, cool, funny, angry, poetic aspects of Cyrano, but less so his devotion, vulnerability, insecurities and his pathetism. It doesn't seem to get Roxane at all, how similar she is to Cyrano, nor why she has so many admirers. It does a very poor job at understanding Christian and his value, and writes him off as stupid imo. While I enjoyed the language aspect of the Burgess translation, I remember being quite angry at certain points reading it because of what it did to the characters and some changes he introduces. I think he did something very questionable with Le Bret and Castel-Jaloux, and I remember being incensed because of Roxane at times (for instance, she doesn't go to Arras in his version, which is a key scene to show just how much fire Roxane has, and that establishes several parallels with Cyrano, in attitude and words, but even in act since she does a bit what Cyrano later does with the nuns in the last act), and being very angry at several choices about Christian too. While not explicitly stated, I think the McAvoy production and the musical both follow this translation, because they too introduce these changes, and they make Christian as a character, and to an extent the entire play, not make sense.

For instance, once such change is that Christian is afraid that Roxane will be cultured (McAvoy's version has that infamous "shit"/"fuck" that I detest), when in the original French it's literally the opposite. He is not afraid she will be cultured, he is afraid she won't, because he does love and appreciate and admires those aspects of her, as he appreciates and admires them in Cyrano. That's key! Just as Cyrano longs to have what Christian has, Christian wants the same! That words escape him doesn't mean he doesn't understand or appreciate them. The dynamics make no sense without this aspect, and Burgess (and the productions that directly or indirectly follow him) constantly erases this core trait of Christian.

Another key moment of Christian Burgess butchers is the scene in Arras in which Christian discovers the truth. Burgess writes their discussion masterfully in form, it's both funny and poignant, but it falls short in concept: when Cyrano tells him the whole discussion about who does Roxane love and what will happen, what they'll do, is academic because they're both going to die, Christian states that dying is his role now. This destroys entirely the thing with Christian wanting Roxane to have the right to know, and the freedom to choose, or to refuse them both. As much as Cyrano proclaims his love for truth and not mincing words even in the face of authority, Cyrano is constantly drunk on lies and mirages, masks and metaphors. It's Christian who wants it all to end, the one who wants real things, the one who wants to risk his own happiness for the chance of his friend's, as well as for the woman he loves to stop living in a lie. That is a very interesting aspect of Christian, and another aspect in which he is written as both paralleling and contrasting Cyrano. It's interesting from a moral perspective and how that works with the characters, but it's also interesting from a conceptual point of view, both in text and metatextually: what they hold most dear, what they most want, what most fulfills them, what they most fear, their different approaches to life, but also metatextually another instance of that tears/blood motif and its ramifications constant through the whole text. Erasing that climatic decision and making him just simply suicidal erases those aspects of Christian and his place in the Christian/Cyrano/Roxane dynamic, all for plain superficial angst, that perhaps hits more in the moment, but holds less meaning.

Being more literal, and more solemn, Hooker's translation (or any of the others, but Hooker's seems to love the characters and understand them) doesn't make these conceptual mistakes. Now, would I not recommend reading Burgess' translation? I can't also say that. I had a lot of fun reading it, despite the occasional anger and indignation haha Would I recommend buying it? I recommend you give an eye to it first, if you're tempted and can initially only buy one.

You can read Burgess' translation entirely in archive.com. You can also find online the complete translations of Renauld, Hooker and Thomas and Guillemard. I also found a fifth one, iirc, but I can't recall it right now (I could give a look). You could read them before choosing, or read your favourite scenes and fragments in the different translations, and choose the one in which you like them better. That's often what I do.

Edit: I've checked to make sure and Roxane does appear in Arras in the translation. It's in the introduction in which it is stated that she doesn't appear in the production for which the translation was made. The conceptualisation of Roxane I criticise and that in my opinion is constant through the text does stay, though.

[peachcitt]

every eye exam ive ever been to has been the most embarrassing moment of my life. i have this thing where i believe everything im doing is wrong the moment i walk in despite going to eye appointments consistently since 8 years old. what do you mean you changed the slide to just one letter whose gargantuan width fills the whole screen after i hesitantly read a single letter from a list of three huge letters on the screen. <- he means i can’t see. (i still couldn’t read the gargantuan letter)

[spiral-down-the-rabbit-hole]

Why my current obsession has to be a console that died before I was born 😭

[emdotcom]

My brain is so full of Bees about Post-Shift 2.

It's a fan game that was delayed for 4 years -- by the time it released, fnaf fangames as a whole were not as popular as they had been, & most people in the scene had forgotten about Post-Shift 1, so not a lot of people heard about it/played it.

Worse still is the people who did talk about the game. Pretty unanimously, the consensus was this: this game is the craziest, most insane fnaf fangame. It's overly difficult with mechanics that have no rhyme or reason to them & tutorials that are wordy, unhelpful, & sometimes actively mislead the player, meaning you need to comb through a lot of text only to be misinformed. It's not as infamous as some other fangames, but it definitely was talked about very poorly.

In general, I think most of these criticisms were blown up out of proportion, but I can't really disagree with most people's problems -- it is difficult & wordy, & rather hard to understand. I think, however, that the game is still 1. Really fun, 2. Not a bad game at all, &, most importantly, 3. Is a free fucking game that was clearly a passion project. Most damn fangames never get off the fucking ground when made in groups because the creators will never make a red cent off the thing -- this game was made by one dude for 4 years & delivered to people for free. It didn't ask anything of you except to accept it as a difficult game & to not go in with wild expectations. The dev just wanted to make a game that was rough, but he also wanted to make a game that felt unique & was fun. & It is fun, too, is the damn thing.

[hyperbolicgrinch]

✨ weekend wip exposure club ✨

rules: post 7 sentences/a snippet of an unfinished work

my partners in crime @theotherwhybietoldmeso & @killerandhealerqueen as always (⁠◕⁠ᴗ⁠◕⁠✿⁠)

Listen. Did I want to post more kidlaw pilled shit on my main? No. Am I going to? Yeah. (Because everything else is too hard to find right now. Why do I always leave these till after the last minute??) Fuck. (⁠ ⁠˘⁠ ⁠³⁠˘⁠)

“I'm a pirate, Trafalgar. Not a fucking show pony.”

With the undecided air of whether he should put the metaphorical barrel to Kid’s frontal lobe or his own, Trafalgar reached back into the drawer. “You’re useless.”

“Watch it.”

“Tch.”

Kid ran his hand up Trafalgar's leg, letting his fingers slide to the inner thigh. The denim kept the warmth from seeping out, giving him less of a confidence boost than he was seeking.

He shifted. Trying to gear himself up. He wasn't used to wanting to elaborate with anything other than violence.

“Does it seem to you like I came from somewhere that had any kind of medical know-how?"

Trafalgar’s fingers paused their search in the drawer. His frown flickered. Something painful making its way through.

Then he blinked it away, and glanced at Kid's metal arm. Sighing, his face cleared of most of its hostility. “No.”

Kid wasn't sure what to do with that. It was easier to clash heads than decipher surrenders.

Tagging any wordsmiths that wanna come onboard. Promise we don't bite, and there's finger food at all the meetings. (⁠◠⁠‿⁠・⁠)⁠—⁠☆

[space-ninja-fashion-show]

Lore site is done! Yippee!

Right here 👀

It is Very simple and maybe someday I'll make it prettier, but for now i'm just glad it exists. Timeline is very sparse so far bc there's still a million things i need to work out and remember

Please let me know if anything is wonky/linked wrong/etc and I'll do my best to fix it

Unless you're on mobile i guess bc i have no idea how to make it actually work on mobile D: sorry

[jacksdegoof]

Oh how I love firefox

[uqb]

new custom keyborb (zoom75)

[worldsofzzt]

Source “Color Revival (Modified)” by Theta14/Zenith Nadir (2007) [COLOR.ZZT] - “Title screen” Play This World Online

[clorofolle]

Mint

[signalhill-if]

KC's intro scene is finally finished! Only clocks in at 6,881 words but those words were all written under such duress it's so nice to finally be done with it 😅

Next on the agenda is a brief scene with Doc, and then the introduction to Levi, which will be very fun to write!

[dialphone-archived]

bouta bash my head thru the wall Forreal

[clavicuss-vile]

thinking about that last post, im really having a debate with my decisions for the inquisition in my worldstate. I've seen that cullen -> loghain replacer mod and it intrigues me. like the people in that post said, loghain is a much much more interesting character imo and cullen WOULD work so much better in samson's place. (i wonder if there's a samson -> cullen replacer?) i never understood why samson was the leader of the red templars when he was actively working to free mages and such during da2 but maybe i just didnt read the codexes enough?

buuuuut im not sure if im ready to commit to figuring out all the kinks and corners in a warden/commander (of the inquisition) loghain as opposed to cullen. It would DEFINITELY be interesting, especially with all the inquisition vs ferelden politics going on (from his own daughter no less). only thing is cullen (IN INQUISITION) is a character i'm very familiar with and i understand his dynamics with josie and leliana and cass and such, those would need a LOT of reworking if we had commander loghain instead. but dear lord i am CONSIDERING.

also makes the whole warden business very interesting, and im leaning towards it purely on the basis of it being incredibly fucking funny that Inquisitor Atlas is doing everything in his power to hide the fact that he's technically a grey warden, and then realises that his commander is. literally a grey warden who was in ostagar at the time of their joining. they probably met.

it would ALSO mean i would need to rework my inquisitor's opinions of him. currently theyre all very wary/aggressive because of cullen's. yk. being a templar. but it would definitely make for some more interesting dynamics i think with loghain - they already hate/distrust Leliana and Cassandra for being part of the chantry, having them think of cullen the same is kind of repetitive and dull. buuuuut loghain? intriguing. potential.

if anyone has comments/thoughts pls pls lemme know in tags or asks i would LOVE to bounce ideas around