#probably doesn't help that most of the books I'm into aren't that popular

[scholar-of-yemdresh]

It's frustrating being a person who's really only interested in diverse adult science fiction and fantasy books and has no interest in YA/kidlit or romance.

Frustrating because on one side the people who are into primarily adult sff are only talking about the generic medieval euro cishet mantasy slop; the Wheel of Dragon song light storms by Brandon Mcwhite dude, then the other side is primarily only about YA or "NA" romantasy.

I'm stuck between a rock and a hard place. It's near impossible to find diverse adult sff book people that aren't like 90% into YA/ YA books masquerading as adult with majority of the adult books they read are romantasy smut 💀

So as relatively romance/sex repulsed asexual and someone who doesn't care for narratives centering teens/kids, I'm just in my lonely little SFF corner. I can't interact with the broader book fandoms because both sides of it don't interest me much

It's the same issue I have with anime/manga fandom which is 99% about infantile battle shonen and then Berserk as the token adult manga. For God's sake where are the grown adults interested in adult stories where the only thing that marks them as adult is smut?

I like to read about adults with adult problems I also like to read about queers & POC in Interesting fantasy/sci-fi worlds

[shinesurge]

Webcomic rings run by people within the community are cool and you should support them

I've been loudly struggling a little bit with corporate webcomic Stuff lately so I want to mention something positive to balance it out: webrings run by small groups of creators earnestly trying to support each other are slowly making a comeback and I for one am delighted.

If you weren't around for them in the before times, webrings were just some folks who hang out a lot who feature each other on their websites. That's literally it lmao. There's generally no money involved and it only really functions the way it's supposed to if people have control over their own websites AND genuinely want to participate and get excited about other folks' work, which means the practice has pretty well fallen by the wayside over the years in webcomic culture given. Everything. In the rare event someone decides to do something like this it's usually in the form of a link list somewhere on their website; this doesn't usually indicate any sort of mutual support, it's just a list of what the creator is reading themselves.

A webring, though, is an official banner or hub that people gather under intentionally where each member is more or less on equal footing. It's essentially the concept of "a rising tide lifts all boats" put into practice, each creator brings their own audience to the table in a passive, opt-in sort of way that's different from working for a publisher since there isn't necessarily a Top Spot or a paycheck everyone's vying for, and individuals retain autonomy over both their own work and how (if) they promote each other. You're all at your own tables in an artist alley rather than fighting over the table in the front of the book store, essentially.

I have two rings and one collective for you today!

Webcomic Ring was brought to my attention AGES ago by Holly, one of the artists featured there, and I might have brought it up at some point but I'm doing it again lmao. This is exactly the kind of thing you ought to be looking for; a small group of enthusiastic folks having a good time making their weird little comics. You probably haven't heard of much in the catalog, that's PERFECT in the context of webcomics that's where the GOOD SHIT is. Finding something like this is A Gift go dig around in the longboxes for a while.

Then a few people have pointed me in the direction of the KNIFEBEETLE collective and that's neat too! Most of the comics there are already fairly well-known, but the vibes are excellent and I haven't seen a lot of talk about the collective /itself/ outside folks already in the know. I think it's important for this sort of thing to be more visible to folks who aren't terminally steeped in webcomic culture already so here I am telling you about it. You were probably reading several of these before I suggested it, but that's how a webring works! For it to do its job you should take those bigger creators' tacit recommendation of the less popular titles as a sign to go read something new and strange. Wild, I know these are practices held over from the old internet, but I think we should try and bring them back.

Lastly, I want to mention Spiderforest, which is a collective (slightly different from a webring) BUT still a very cool project readers starved for new stuff should pay attention to.

You've probably seen Spiderforest kicking around for a long time already; they're wonderful and have always been an overall positive force in the community in my experience. They really focus on building up a community, and especially welcoming newcomers and helping them get their feet under them. Full disclosure, I've been asked to apply by a few different folks over the years and the only reason I never did is I don't have the ability to participate in their forums and such as frequently as they want their creators to; it's a very good system (from my outside perspective) that might contribute to the community staying mostly healthy in ways that art communities usually don't and I appreciate it a lot!

ANYWAYS that's all I got for now, just trying to balance out some bad feelings I've been having by talking about some good stuff. Please go binge an archive this week.

[demigodpolls]

Why do you think Frank gets so little attention from the fandom at large?

although I don't fault anyone individually for not having interest in a given character, I do think it's pretty sad that not much mind is paid to frank. it's not the best metric to measure things by, but on AO3, frank has the fewest fanfics of the prophecy 7 by a pretty wide margin.

there's no point in comparing him to the likes of percy, annabeth, and nico, who have existed for way longer, but the lost hero trio have well over 10k works for all three individually, while hazel has 8.7k (her popularity is surely bolstered by her relation to nico, the second most popular pjo character on ao3) and frank has about 7k. interestingly, will solace has over 15k fics--and that of course has to do with the popularity of solangelo (the second most popular pjo ship on ao3, as you see above), but considering how recently tsats came out (and how little material/information about him existed before that), I still think that number is pretty remarkable.

with all of this in mind, here are some of the reasons why I think frank doesn't get a ton of attention from the fandom below the cut.

- part of it probably has to do with shipping. while frazel is a well-accepted canon ship, I don't think it actually garners a ton of real interest. when a pairing is very popular, its individual parties will inevitably share that popularity; i.e., will solace, as observed previously. furthermore, frank doesn't really have any popular non-canon ships. online fandoms heavily favor mlm pairings over any other kind of pairing (this is just a very neutral, well-observed fact, so I hope no one is bothered by this acknowledgement), but if a male character is not popularly shipped with other men, they tend to fall to the wayside. to be honest, I think it's a little surprising that frank/leo doesn't get more favor; maybe it's because people just don't like to acknowledge the love triangle they were in, but the enemies-to-lovers material that people usually enjoy is right there, you know? jason/leo is fairly popular on tumblr at least, but no one really ships its SoN counterpart percy/frank either, which is interesting.

- part of it probably has to do with the fact that, compared to others, frank does not appear to be a very angsty character. fandoms tend to prefer characters who have tragic backstories and/or highly-animated personalities, and while frank undeniably has his individual struggles, they probably seem quite small compared to the bulk of the principal cast. for reasons like this, a lot of people will likely tell you that they don't find frank (or his powers) very interesting, and prefer to devote their attention to other characters.

- part of it probably has to do with frank (in my opinion) being neglected by HoO books. I wish he had gotten to do so much more! but of the things that he did do, I don't think many people consider them to be very memorable.

- I think there's also no point in ignoring the fact that frank is a chubby POC, and well, these types just aren't often so beloved by fandoms. that his only popular ship is with another POC probably doesn't help matters, to be honest...! it's just a well-documented phenomenon that, unless they're anime characters, POC characters and POC x POC ships tend to be much less popular in online fandoms than their white counterparts (i.e., 2010s star wars comes to mind). of all 10 percy jackson POV characters on ao3 (I'm including will in this figure and excluding apollo, who I consider an outlier), piper, leo, hazel, frank, and reyna make up the bottom 5 in that order in terms of popularity. this page is a great resource for more data on race, queerness, gender, etc on ao3. (unrelated - fascinatingly, percabeth is the 8th most popular m/f ship on ao3 of all time, and jiper is 96th!)

that's just my two cents as to why I think frank doesn't get a ton of attention. I hope no one is upset by my observations, I mean all of them in a pretty neutral, analytical way. to anyone else reading this, here is a reminder that character hate and ship hate is not tolerated on this blog. if you post unkind things, your comments will be deleted and your account will be blocked. we don't need to bash other characters or ships in order to uplift others. save it for your own blogs, please!

thank you for asking and engaging with this blog!

-demigodpolls

[pasta-in-the-pudding]

ONGOMG I HAVE AN IDEA!!

How abouuuuut, a Creepypasta (you can choose It’s okay!!) with a reader that has DID/OSDD? Like, the Creepypasta gets to meet someone new literally everyday and get confused on who is who. YEAH‼️

I am DEVOURING, not eating, DEVOURING your writing like DAMN😦

TAKE CARE AND STAY SAFE AWWOWIWOW

-🐰

Just a heads up, I don't have DID or OSDD, but I do have a few friends who do, so i'm basing this off of what I know from them, as well as some reasearch i've done, so if anything is inaccurate please let me know!

And as always when the choice of creeps is left to me, I will be using my most popular creeps at the time of writing

Thank you so much for requesting!!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Ticci Toby

In the beginning, it is a bit hard for Toby to adjust in your relationship

You told him before you got serious, that way he knew to just always check in to see who was fronting at the time, but he was still a bit slow to adjust

He learns all of the names of the alters, their personalities, their interests, their role in the headspace, anything he can to accomodate them as well

While he knows that he is only dating you, and not your alters, he still wants to help them feel comfortable when they are fronting

After he gets adjusted though, it isn't really a huge deal anymore

It just becomes a part of his routine to ask each morning who is fronting, notice when you start to dissasociate, and being there for you during your hard days

He probably wouldn't have interacted with any media or people with DID/OSDD before you, so he will be asking you everything about what its like

"Where do you go when you aren't fronting? Can you hear everyone elses voices too? What does it feel like when you front?" etc etc

If you are someone who falls or goes limp when you dissasociate/switch, he is there to catch you or hold you until someone fronts

He learns all (well, as many as you can) of your alters boundaries and lets them know on your relationship, because he doesn't want it to be a whiplash kind of feeling for them to just wake up in some random dudes arms

The way he sees it, he got a partner and a bunch of new friends for the price of one!!

If one of your alters didn't like him though, he'd be ok with that

It would just be kind of awkward when you start to switch out during something like a cuddle sesh

He just hopes and prays it isn't someone who dislikes him

All around, he's kind of clueless but he is very open to learning about you and your disorder!

Eyeless Jack

Being the medical geek he is, he has read almost every psychology book he could get his claws on

And when he ran out of psychology books he started looking more into specific disorders such as Bipolar, Schizophrenia, etc

He did briefly glance over a few books about DID and OSDD, and he'd be lying if he said the topic didn't interest him

But he just gets so excited to study everything at once he kind of just gets a brief rundown of a certain disorder before going to the next thing, and someday coming back to study it more in depth

When he gets into a relationship with you though, he gathers up all his books on the topic and begins studying heavily

He wants to know everything about this disorder, especially since it is something that impacts your day to day life so heavily

He will run some questions he has by you, because some things you just can't find in a book

"So when you say you "switch"....what does that entail for you?"

"Uhhh... my mind goes blank and I kind of just drift off I guess??"

"Interesting...."

He gets very excited to meet your alters!

But he is also very nonchalant about it at the same time??

"And thats when I said-"

"Who the fuck are you"

"....My love, it's me. Your partner"

"I'm (insert alters name here)"

"Ah, very good! Now, tell me all about yourself, when did you manifest?"

Of course, if someone is uncomfortable with relaying knowledge about themselves to a complete stranger, or even just doesn't like him, he understands and won't press on the matter

Every time someone fronts he has a bottle of water in case they need something to help ground themselves

He will bombarde everyone with questions and research there's no escaping >:))

Jeff The Killer

THIS GUY OMFG

He's only heard of DID/OSDD from those shitty movie representations, and Liu who 9 times out of 10, only switches with Sully

So basically Jeff's whole perception of multiple personalities is "Damn whoever the other guy is must be an asshole"

You try to tell him that there is not a "killer" alter, and most of the time, as long as you are nice to them, they will likely be nice to you, because yk, THEY'RE PEOPLE

And while at the time he's like "got it that's super chill"

He still goes from 0-100 when you first switch out in front of him

You could be cuddling on your bed, when all of a sudden he feels your body go limp against his

At first he thinks you fell asleep, but he sees your eyes wide open

You then begin to blink, then move around and shift a bit

"The fuck happened to you?" he asks with a raised brow

Your brows furrow as you look around your environment "Who even are you???" the new person in the front of the headspace asks

It doesn't even click with him that you switched out for a second, he just thinks you're being stupid

"Damn, am I really that forgettable?" He asks, leaning over to kiss your forehead

You make a face of disgust and shove him away from you harshly

He narrows his eyes at you, seemingly trying to process what even just happened

Then it clicks, and he feels like such an asshole

But he won't let you know that obviously

"Gimmie my partner back!" he says suddenly

You raise your hands up defensively "Woah dude what are you talking about?!"

Needless to say, when you come back Jeff is pouting in his room, angry that your alter can't just ~magically~ bring you back to the front

[littlesparklight]

Since Priam has a like a million kids, which of his siblings do you think Paris was the closest to? And do you have cute Paris and his siblings headcanons that you want to share? :D

hehe <3

Aside from the obvious one of Hektor (they bonded quickly and very well), Lykaon is another one - using the fact that he let Paris borrow his chest armour for the duel.

The others are Pammon and Polites, plus Dios - I chose a couple of the names out of the list Priam harangues in Book 24. Sure, those are presumably just the ones standing nearest Priam at the time, so that means nothing, and he's lashing out, so his insults also doesn't necessarily mean anything.

But, it's useful, and especially the (repeated/doubled) insulting over dancing (peacetime activity as it is, plus the connection to sex...) makes for a nice connection with Paris. I have only one of the brothers Paris is close to being effeminate (Dios), but that's absolutely partly why they're close to each other.

For headcanons...

Paris is rather popular with the younger kids. Whether they keep being as fond of him as they grow or not (some remain so, certainly!), a lot of them are all attached to his personality and especially his singing/playing. He's also all too happy to perform for them.

He and Laodike aren't necessarily super close, but they vibe very well with each other. They look really similar (both because of the simple fact of beauty and because they, even among their full-blooded siblings, look really similar even when not being part of a set of multiples) and share a similar attitude to physical decoration. Laodike, after Hecuba, was one of the female members who very quickly began to help Paris amass his own make-up/perfumes etc.

Lykaon and Paris aren't close because they share a similar gnc presentation or attitude or anything (unlike with Dios); Lykaon is just fond of Paris' personality, and Paris is drawn to Lykaon's steadiness (he shares it somewhat with Hektor, but he's not as down to earth as their older brother). One of their main shared interests is the horses/animals in general. Lykaon has learned a lot about cattle from Paris lol

Paris and Dios aren't the only effeminate ones in that group of 50 brothers lol but Paris is certainly the one most gnc. (The rest are more what you see otherwise with what seems to be the "effeminate-adjacent" characters; they show no apparent aversion for or "anti-heroic attitude" towards the martial culture, compared to Paris.) They have a loose little group, even if they're not all necessarily close! (Probably 5-7 of them altogether?)

I'm sure there's quite a few in that whole large sibling group that play instruments, so imagine them performing all together <3 Paris is either on lyre or lute, and definitely sings together with a couple sisters.

[nicosraf]

hi! :3 I’ve been thinking about the angels (and demons) a lot recently.

I’m unsure how much influence earth and human actions/development would have on hell or the demons quite yet, but from a fashion standpoint, do you think the demons (particularly lucifer!! his wardrobe comes across as very curated and stylish, can’t forget the nipple piercings lol) would be influenced by the humans’ evolving fashion over the centuries?

Same could be said about technology — do you think any of the demons would care to have a tv, phone, computer, etc. or would it be just another human invention that isn’t very interesting? for some reason, i can picture baal with a modern phone very vividly lmfao

I do think so! I think demons would have strong opinions on human fashion regardless of how close they live to them, and I do think they'd be influenced by it. It'd take a long time to get them to adopt pants after billions of year in tunics though sksks. I imagine pants still aren't super popular in their hell. They also probably find modern fashion brands very fun; I can see Lucifer in a Gucci cape and Louis Vuitton sunglasses.

I imagine most technology doesn't work where the demons are. They'd find trains very helpful though, and I think they'd love planes (it makes them remember what the air above the clouds looks like; now I'm thinking about demon involvement in the invention of planes....)

I have this idea in my head that I may explore in the third book about demons immediately being fascinated with technology, especially as something to use against God — but their thoughts would start to change once the development gets too quick and feels aimless, and I think they'd have a discourse among themselves about, say, atomic bombs.

For the less serious part of this question though, I do think they'd own phones / tablets / laptops, but they mostly use them when they're on Earth's surface where the wifi is. I can imagine Rosier playing candy crush with an iPad. Baal spamming Lucifer with heart emojis. Asmodeus tweeting recycled discourse on Twitter just to make people mad. I think a lot of demons have social media profiles, but Lucifer asks them to hide their demon side ofc.

thank u for the ask! :)

[the-bloody-sadist]

Hello! Fellow yanagihara hater here. Please share more of your views on a little life i beg because that book was so promising with its themes goddamn but then the writer had to fuck it up -

OH NOOOOO THE CHANCE TO BE A HATER WHATEVER WILL I DO.....

THANKS FOR ASKING.

I'm really glad to hear from someone who was also angry at the book and its author! I tend to be more bothered than usual when any form of media is popular for so-called "trauma representation", held up as a classic, etc., and then when I consume that media, I find out that the way it's written is more of a pretentious normie's view of "suffering", which, in my opinion, is disgusting. NOW. PLEASE BE REMINDED THAT I HAVE STRONG OPINIONS, AND ALSO TAKE THEM WITH A GRAIN OF SALT, AS I'M PARTICULARLY TRIGGERED BY WHAT I FEEL IS HORRIBLE TRAUMA REP. And a second grain of salt, too, since I did NOT read all of A Little Life (because I got too angry, knew exactly where it was going, and said FUCK YOU YANAGIHARA, I'm going to watch a video essay breakdown of the plot instead so I don't kill myself), and also watched behind the scenes interviews that made me hate Yanagihara even more.

If you're curious what video I watched that broke down the plot and confirmed all of my expectations on this book, it's here! I remember not agreeing with a lot of what that YouTuber said, because some things are silly to complain about in fiction and I don't believe in the whole "sexual abuse should not be shown in graphic detail", which I think was part of his discussion?? Bad memory, sorry. What I think is ugly about the book is the pile-on of RIDICULOUS amounts of trauma for Jude, to a degree that makes it a parody, almost comedically, of real trauma. From a writer's perspective, I'm furious at the way she used it and the way it succeeded at it's one job--NOT to help people understand the effects of trauma and CSA--but to make them cry. It's cheap, it's gross, and it casts all of Jude's trauma (for me) in the light of "this author was proud of herself for how much she could stuff into one boy just to make SURE you were devastated, while paying no special attention to make sure these traumas were handled with care". It's enraging to see how low the standard is for professional books that A Little Life is held up the way it is.

Now, don't get me wrong, her prose, while bogged down by excruciating and needless detail a lot of times, is very engaging. It's part of why I was so mad that it failed in the most important areas. I wanted it to be good! I really did! And I loved Jude, he would've been a wonderful character if not for her amateur decisions. Had she picked one or two traumas to focus on, created a realistic background for him, and had his death make for better impact and purpose to the plot, I'd probably have the book on my shelf as a top ten. But instead, I listened to her speak about how she did ZERO RESEARCH ON TRAUMA for Jude, apparently doesn't have trauma of her own that she's referencing (because then, no matter how much I disliked it, I would be more forgiving if she's pulling from her own experiences), and just...is so FLIPPANT about how she wrote it. Plus, in my personal opinion, I don't like her attitude in general. She comes off like a cringe edgelord for the slop she wrote, and I know so many authors who aren't even professionals that write trauma WORLDS better than she ever could.

Also, I'm so sorry, but the COVER??? What a perfect representation for the book, honestly. That old photo of the dude making an expression of pain that looks fake as fuck to me, just...eugh.

You know those gacha life cringe videos where the characters are all gory and talk about fucked up shit that happened to them, but it's extreme and ridiculous? That's what this book felt like once it dove into Jude.

When I write my own characters, I try to pick a single trauma for them and a couple coping mechanisms. It's important to me that one trauma isn't just tossed in there without regard for how much it changes someone's life, behaviors, and thought processes. Other traumas exist, of course, but they fit within the theme for what the character will represent. And I think it's important to have characters around them that will balance that trauma, a caretaker, a friend, and some sort of hope. Even if it might be true in real life that some people do have out-of-this-world experiences of trauma, there's not a lot of ways to correctly convey that in fiction without coming off as silly or over-imaginative. It quickly feels like the author is jerking themselves off in how "good" they are at making characters suffer, when for me, it's about how good they are at portraying how even a "small" trauma can affect the character deeply. I respect it more when media explores the subtle aspects of trauma, incorporating multiple side-effects instead of just one. Again, I know not everyone is as picky as I am. I'm trying to have more grace for what others think is realistic, but A Little Life is WAY over that line. Whenever I read or watch something that has overdone, overdramatic, or unrealistic depictions of trauma, it's intensely triggering, and sometimes I've become suicidal for like a whole week afterwards LMFAO, so I'm super passionate about this subject, and I think it's because I'm both a writer and a trauma survivor. Having CPTSD and watching shit like Bungou Stray Dogs get praised for "good PTSD rep" with ATSUSHI????? Straying a bit from the topic, but I lose respect for anyone who expresses that opinion.

Anyway, as a closing opinion, Yanagihara just sounds like a teen fanfic writer who crams their story full of misery and thinks she's done a great job just because there was a lot of it and people went “aww, so sad”. It just felt like trauma is a spectacle for her, not a crushing psychological experience.

I already feel misunderstood enough, as is. I already feel like my trauma has been disregarded by anybody who hasn't shared the same type of trauma. The last thing I need is confirmation that it'll continue to be misunderstood because of media depictions like A Little Life.

THANKS FOR LETTING ME RANT, ANON! I hope I shared a lot of the same things you felt about the book!! I don't think I said everything as well as I wanted to, but I pushed the book out of my mind as much as possible after getting triggered by it, so I can't recall all of the details in full clarity. LMAO...

MUCH LOVE TO YOU!! And to leave on a positive note, I recently watched Room (with Brie Larson) and it was one of the BEST realistic representations of trauma I've seen in a LONG TIME. So that was nice!! It's in my favorites list now and I recommend it to everyone so you don't have to think about A Little Life anymore 🫵😡

[zilabee]

Zilabee i love your blog very much, every time you post I get incredibly excited you're so knowledgable about those four randy scouse gits, but I'm trying to get into the book side of the Beatles and I know there are many posts out there to help with that, but I want to know personally, what do you think are the best Beatles books? Not by popularity or the best author, what are your favourite Beatles books you would recommend to people to read? I know you're a Paul girl (which aren't we all at heart? cause even if he isn't your fave he's your faves fave, so by association we're all Paul girls), but please don't worry about favouritism again this is an ask of your fave Beatles books

anon! thank you for nice words; apologies for being so slow

it's hard to recommend people things, I'm not deeply inside the capability of it, and most beatles books, like the beatles themselves, are basically awful

the books on my beatles shelf that I feel most fondly towards aren't about beatles, they're about Tara Browne and Robert Fraser

i want desperately to recommend the books by Maureen Cleave and Iris Caldwell but they never wrote them so I can't, so don't read those

i really like dakota days by john green. that's probably embarrassing to be the first book I can think of that I like but there we go. I think I went in with very low expectations, so that probably helped and I've ruined that for you by saying it's good. it's about john with yoko, not all the beatles, and as with all john books, the author is very 'actually I knew John well, I really got him...' which is what all men do, but then instead of 'we shared this amazing connection! he TRULY LOVED ME!!' he's more 'he was just really fucked up and desperate to be loved' which is not what most men do, so I liked that. Also he storifies it all, which keeps you a bit detached from how heartbreakingly sad it all is if it's remotely true.

i loved the longest cocktail party by richard delillo. I thought it captured apple beautifully, and it's very much of it's time, which is also the beatles's time, so it's very much of the beatles even if they're not often there. it was written in 1970 and it does cover the total death of all happiness, but obviously only from a very close perspective, and he'd left by then and everyone disappeared, so instead of pretending to know things he doesn't, he just drifts into newspaper headlines and reports, and it works really well for a person like me who finds the endings very difficult

i think one of the very first beatles books I read was here, there, and everywhere, by geoff emerick and I have a lot of remembering it being good while now not really remembering it, but i do like books by people who were actually trying to work while the beatles were around, rather than trying to wank all over them, because there is a suitable level of frustration with them, which makes it all feel a bit more bearable. you do have to put up with how much he hates george, but we have to put up with a lot of things

as time goes by, by derek taylor, is very good if you don't mind that derek taylor is living his life in inverted commas and I'm only recommending you books about the terrible aching sadness of the end, sorry. I love the way it's written though, I love the way it's felt, I love how much he hates Paul in 1968... but then as he says, many of the people he likes most are absolutely terrible, and he means brian, but it's true of all of them and I just really like that he feels it

everyone recommends it I know it's not new, but michael braun wrote the beatles's progress and that is very good and earlier and brighter than a lot of what I've mentioned. and it's short! which I think is important in beatles books too, because it means people aren't trying to fill pages. apart from the cocktail party all of these are quite short.

actually that's probably my main advice when you're trying to decide to read beatles books:

pick short ones to start with

pick ones written by people who worked with/for them

pick your favourite era and start there

and you don't have to care whether it's 'trusted' or 'reliable' or whatever, care about whether you enjoy it, and then pick over the bones of the biases later

i have read some of the big full biographies, but they're kind of boring, trying to tell you everything when they don't actually know anything and they weren't there. tumblr's better for that. also they sort of pretend not to have an opinion, which is both a lie and a boredom, because opinions are the best thing. books by people who knew them DEFINITELY have opinions and you get to judge them.

I liked pete best's book more than I thought I would, I just read it the other week. I can't remember a lot about alistair taylor's book now, but I remember enjoying it, specially to get more sense of brian, and brian's autobiography is written by derek taylor so it snips along. either of george martin's books is nice and quick. chris salewicz wrote the best biography of paul mccartney and it fits in your pocket. cynthia and may are both good.

[heich0e]

hewwo liv i think you mentioned you read nonfiction so i was wondering if you had any recs? i'm trying to widen my repertoire a bit more and start reading more nonfiction (as much as i love fiction i think my brain has started regressing a little), but the only nonfic ive ever dipped into are my econ textbooks haha

also i hope you're having a good day !!!!!

HI GUY!! i think one of the best parts abt non-fiction is how nondescript that classification is, and consequently how enormous and diverse your options are within it. i think it's easy for people to generalize non-fiction as being boring retellings of fact or history, because most people's first introductions to non-fiction reading are academic. but in reality there are so many different types of nonfiction, and so many different styles of presenting it in writing. (for the sake of simplicity i'm gonna just limit this convo to narrative nonfiction, but if u wanna read something expository like a text book or instruction manual power to ya.)

my recommendation would be to start with something like a biography or memoir. to me, reading a really good biography doesn't feel very different from reading a novel. you're still following someone's story, they're just a real person and not a character. from where i'm sitting right now i can see trevor noah's biography 'born a crime' on my bookshelf, and i remember really loving that one the first time i read it. having been a fan of his comedy, his narrative voice felt authentic and familiar throughout the book. setting aside his demonstrated talent for storytelling, it's also just a very interesting look into life in south africa under apartheid, along with its lasting impact, and as a mixed race child, noah's personal perspective is extremely compelling.

(keep in mind, i read that book as someone who was already a fan of trevor noah's so i immediately had a personal connection/interest to the story. if you have any comedians/musicians/actors/artists you really enjoy, maybe see if they've done any writing—that could help find something you connect with! i also recently read david mitchell's 'unruly' and i really enjoyed that one too—but i find him funny, and like learning about the history of monarchies. 'crying in h mart' by michelle zauner is also great.)

true crime is another popular non-fiction genre that i find people have an easier time getting into. i'm not a huge true-crime reader myself, but i've read a few interesting ones! i tend to go for ones that are more local to me, so i won't necessarily give any recs for this one.

i also had a weird phase where i was reading a lot of books about boats and shipwrecks. not sure what that was about. i read walter lord's 'a night to remember' when i was like 10 and i think that really is what it can all be traced back to. 'the wager' by david grann was fantastic (he also wrote killers of the flower moon which was very good, and not about a boat) but i recognize this is a very niche area of interest that u probably do not care about.

i also really like essay collections!! they tend to sort of cross or blur a lot of lines when it comes to genres, because while some would consider 'essay collection' a genre in and of itself, the essays themselves usually as collected around a particular topic or theme. another added benefit of essay collections are u can kind of leisurely pick away at them, or jump around in the book, since you usually aren't beholden to reading them cover to cover and following a single narrative thread. less pressure!!

a couple other recommendations, though at this point i'm sure you've given up on me (fair):

'the patriarchs' by angela saini

'i want to die but i want to eat tteokbokki' baek sahee

'persepolis' by marjane satrapi

ok i'll shut up now!! i don't even think this was helpful!! my advice to you would be to think about something you're already passionate about/interested in, and find a book about it!! or think about something you'd like to know more about or be better educated/informed on. it's out there i promise <3

[thelostgirl21]

You know, it occured to me that I should really let people fight their own battles.

So I've sent this messages (under the cut) here.

If it bothers his publishers, or Mr. Sapkowski himself in any way, given that the Witcher wikipedia apparently gave Netflix their own page when they came asking politely, I'm sure they won't mind doing the same for Mr. Sapkowski.

And if Mr. Sadkowski's people don't see any issue in having a single page blending books canon and games canon in the intro, and/or believe the way that the references are indicated are more than enough to ensure that the people looking at the wiki can quickly and clearly make the difference between what's part of the books and what's part of the games, I'll just have to let it go!

That being said, kudos to that "Wiki Specialist / Bureaucrat" for their patience and kindness in that conversation (and very lenghty answers... I've never had a moderator on any wikipedia devote so much time to answering me. I'm very impressed, actually.)

The fact remains that those decisions don't rely on a single person, and they pretty much have to convince the vast majority of the people working on the wiki that something is problematic and that those changes are indeed needed. So, it's not like they could have just gone "Of course! Just let me go and fix this right away!" whether they agreed with me, or not.

Some of the arguments they gave me might not even have been their own (when you're part of the group, you represent the group).

So yeah, I think that's probably the most productive / potentially effective approach, if I'm remotely hoping to actually fix anything.

And if it doesn't work, well, at least I'll know I've tried...

Hi,

I would like to bring your attention to a particular situation with the way that the current Witcher's wikipedia is run, that I believe is currently contributing to the misrepresentation of the content of Mr. Sapkowski's books in the media.

Essentially, instead of having chosen to adopt the model most often used by fandom wikipedias, where the source material has its own page, and each franchise/adaptation of that source material also have their own pages, the people in charge of the general Witcher's wikipedia have chosen a different approach, quote: "the idea when we started overhauling bios for characters was to make them read like an actual bio. Thus, we refrain from referencing the books, games, shows, and other adaptations within them as the focus is to summarize the character/their importance to the overall lore (the witcher lore is more than just the canon books). The only exceptions are items or crucial gameplay features where bios aren't as important as just providing quick game info for those needing game assistance.

[…] If there's anything to take away from this, you have to remember this wiki is about the witcher, not just the canon books, but the entire witcher lore and universe. We are not purist: that means all the adaptations, both canon and non-canon, are allowed here. Everyone appreciates the rich and in-depth Witcher series by Sapkowski. We also respect his thoughts that none of the other adaptations are canon to those novels and try to re-affirm that whenever it gets brought up. However, the witcher lore has been greatly expanded on by others with his approval/licensing and has also helped not only bring to life the witcher but also greatly expanded the witcher universe. To deny all the work by others (and let's face, many cite the CDPR games as the reason his books even soared in popularity outside Poland) would be a disservice to those who helped bring it to life and those looking for a complete picture of the entire lore (regardless which adaptation it came from)."

This was in response to me pointing out to them that the way their wikipedia has been designed (here is how it looked before I started trying to edit it: https://imgur.com/a/old-version-yZN6sd4 ), with the "game canon warning" placed where it was at some point in the biography, suggested that everything that had appeared before it (including the introduction paragraph that mixed both books lore, and videogames lore) were ALL part of Sapkowski's books, when that is not the case (here is a compilation of every reference that I was able to find about Radovid in the books, for your convenience: https://imgur.com/a/AbGA9eL ).

And that this confusion - regarding what is part of the books and what was written for the videogames by CD Projekt Red on the main Wikipedia page - has lead to at least 7 articles like this one pictured here ( https://imgur.com/a/CmOP41q , source: https://screenrant.com/the-witcher-king-radovid-future-books-games-comparison/ ), where game content has been erronously attributed directly to Andrzej Sapkowski.

All 7 articles can be found here: https://collider.com/the-witcher-season-3-jaskier-radovid-romance/ https://www.looper.com/1364442/why-the-witcher-season-breakup-radovid-and-jaskier-romance/ https://screenrant.com/the-witcher-season-3-prince-radovid-books-games-changes/ https://screenrant.com/the-witcher-king-radovid-future-books-games-comparison/ https://screenrant.com/the-witcher-season-3-king-radovid-age-story-different/ https://www.dualshockers.com/the-witcher-season-3-prince-radovid/ https://www.dualshockers.com/the-witcher-season-3-jaskier-radovid-relationship/

Though there may be more (Let's say I didn't do much digging to find them).

They also argued that "there are more than just Netflix and CDPR game adaptations and not all of them are confirmed canon to each other. For example, there's Polish comics that are also not canon, there is the original Hexer show and movie that the author has distanced himself from (but was created so the info still gets added here), the pen-and-paper games, and even non-canon and non-witcher books Sapkowski has written but still touched on topics within his witcher universe. In short it wouldn't be a simple "just 3 tabs" because the way you're wanting to split all info out, it'd be at least: canon books, CDPR games/Dark Horse comics/Gwent, Polish comics, non-canon books, Netflix's show, Hexer show/movie, pen-and-paper games, etc.. In short, this would be very impractical and create a lot of nearly empty pages (there are times where the books themselves only mentioned a sentence or two of something that got greatly expanded on in other adaptations). The main reason Netflix is its own tab is because that was requested by Netflix and it made more sense as the show progressed as they altered a lot of information to the point they were completely new bios (as opposed to just adding details in where gaps were to fit their narrative, like with CDPR's adaptation)."

So, here was my last answer to them:

Except the books are the source material, they are not adaptations of Mr Sapkowski's work!

In the examples you've given me:

The books and the added material Sapkowski wrote (like the details about legacies) are all part of the same lore / universe.

The videogames / gwent, etc. are all part of CDPR's own lore / universe.

"The Witcher", "Blood Origins", "Nightmare of the Wolf" are all part of Netflix's own lore / universe.

And then, you have "other adaptations", that are part of their own smaller universes, that could either have their own pages, or share one bigger page with a different section for each.

If you want to organize it into tabs, you would have:

Tab 1: The original franchise (with its own world / lore).

Tab 2: The videogame adaptation franchise (with its own world / lore).

Tab 3: The Netflix TV show franchise (with it's own world / lore).

Tab 4: The "standalones".

This is how most fandom Wikipedias are built, actually.

They are usually divided by franchises and recognize that each of them are their own distinct entities.

Not by mixing all together a bunch of different franchises that are not owned by the same people, and are not telling the same stories!

And Mr Sapkowski having sold the rights to videogame writers to create their own franchise from his own work, by borrowing any element from his books that they want, does not give CDPR the right to claim that their videogames are part of the same lore / world / franchise as Sapkowski's books (despite a lot of elements having been integrally borrowed from the books)!

Far from it!

And this shouldn't give the right to fans to blend his characters with the videogame characters, either, by using excuses such as "the videogame writers didn't diverge from what Sapkowski wrote to create their own character, therefore it's okay for us to absorb the book character into the videogame's, and treat that character as a single entity in the Wikipedia, rather than two completely different characters existing each in their two separate worlds".

And/or "since the page on the book section of the wiki would be just a small paragraph, it's better to make the CDPR character absorb them and treat what Sapkowski wrote as a simple template for the videogame character, rather than a full fledged book character, belonging to its own independent world/franchise!"

In the case of Radovid, for example, in the physical appearance section, it states he is bald.

Not:

Book: N/A

Games: Bald.

They aren't the same characters and they do not share the same continuity / world / lore / franchise, and yet, it has been decided that, because the videogame filled in blanks that Sapkowski never filled, he's officially bald!

We are treating the books and the videogames as a single franchise / entity where, if nothing was specified by Sapkowski about a specific aspect of the character, then who he is and what he looks like can be determined by CDPR.

And Sapkowski has never authorized the fans of his books to treat his work as belonging to the same franchise as the videogames, and in filling in any blanks that he didn't fill himself with someone else's work.

You can do it in your own fanfiction and headcanons because those aren't meant to accurately report or describe someone else's work, and they are personal to each fan.

But Wikipedia pages aren't supposed to be fanfiction.

Right now, regardless of all those added references, that's what Radovid's main page looks like: fans taking a character from an independent book franchise (the original material, no less) and using material from one of its adaptations (the CDPR one) to fill in the blanks and create their own mixed together version of the character!

Sapkowski is not David Gaider, that wrote stories and characters directly for "Dragon Age", and then published novels (prequels, sequels, etc.) that all exist as part of the same franchise.

In that situation, it makes perfect sense to put all the information gathered across books and games together as a single "Dragon Age" Wikipedia page for a character.

They share the same lore/world/franchise.

But here, we have three big franchises (Sapkowski's books a.k.a. the original, the CDPR games, and the Netflix TV show), that all belong to different people.

Even I only personally learnt that Mr. Sapkowski was not a "Polish David Gaider" thanks to the show, because until then, I thought that he was something like "The Witcher's lead videogame writer" that had written novels about it!

A lot of game fans are still under that impression and, the way "The Witcher" 's Wikipedia is built, treating everything as a single franchise all sharing the same lore on its page (if that's what you're saying), is extremely confusing for fans because they start thinking that the books and the games are all part of one single big franchise all sharing the same lore, that "Netflix has the chosen to disrespect"!

Netflix asking for their own page sadly only reinforced that belief.

But, at the same time, they are not part of the same franchises, so what were they supposed to do?

I don't remember having ever come across a Wikipedia that had appropriated the source material (the books) to give it to another franchise/universe (the games) in such a way as it is done here, to attempt to integrate game content into Sapkowski's universe.

Usually, on a fandom wiki dealing with more than a single version of a world/franchise based on a series of novels, you will have a specific section for the novels (source material), a section for the TV show and any graphic novels or novels written specifically for the world of the show (the adaptation), a section for the movie (another adaptation), etc.

For example, see "Jace Herondale" here ( https://shadowhunters.fandom.com/wiki/Jace_Herondale )? Under his info box you have:

Jace of Thule ( https://shadowhunters.fandom.com/wiki/Janus )

TV Jace ( https://shadowhunterstv.fandom.com/wiki/Jace_Herondale )

Film Jace ( https://shadowhunters.fandom.com/wiki/Film:Jace_Wayland )

This is usually how it is done when you want to respect and honor the integrity of the source material, and ensure it doesn't accidentally get erased / confused / absorbed into other people's work (or other people's work don't end up being added to it when the author has explicitly said they want to avoid it happening), and even avoid potential legal troubles (should the owner of the original material realize that their own original work is being absorbed into other people's work).

Because authors tolerate fandom activity as long as it benefits them and does not threaten the integrity of their work.

If characters from the books had their own pages, things like these articles I showed you would be a lot less likely to happen.

Because a quick search in "The Witcher" wikipedia would have brought these authors right to the "Books Radovid" 's page, and the way he's portrayed in the books would have been clearly written there.

I genuinely do not understand why "The Witcher" fans apparently care so little about preserving the integrity of the author's work in the fandom and in the media, that they think giving Andrzej Sapkowski's franchise (characters, lore…) its own standalone page for his characters, locations, etc. would be the same as giving "Gwent" its own page!"

Gwent belongs to CDPR!

"The Lady of the Lake" doesn't belong to CDPR! It belongs to Andrzej Sapkowski.

Do you see the difference, and how that argument fails to stand?

The books, as the source material, are more than deserving of their own Wikipedia pages.

If Sapkowski's books do not deserve their own pages on "The Witcher" wiki, free of additions taken from other people's adaptations (that the author keeps insisting are not part of the stories he wishes to tell), who does?"

And the answer I got was:

"I do really appreciate your thoughts on this, however as noted previously, we've already discussed this topic several times at length among admins and moderators over the years, and each time the majority have agreed it's best to keep the information as it is currently set/on one cohesive page with markers and refs. If anything changes in the future, we’ll be sure to revisit this topic and make any necessary adjustments as needed. For now though, most people reviewing the wiki (i.e., not those using bots to auto summarize) can easily distinguish between the canon books and other adaptations, and many in the community already know Sapkowski's stance so any newcomers to the lore generally are quick to learn this themselves. I thank you for your understanding!"

(Here is the link to the entire conversation: https://witcher.fandom.com/wiki/Message_Wall:Mechemik?threadId=4400000000000064664 )

From this conversation, we already know that when Netflix came knocking at their door, requesting that they be granted their own page on the Wikipedia, they complied.

So I figured, instead of continuing to argue with them, I would bring this issue directly to you.

That way, you'll be free to evaluate the situation, and decide if any action seems necessary.

Thank you, and wishing you to have a wonderful day!

[the-unconquered-queen]

Well now that you've said there are multiple outcomes you'd like for Aerin in Blades... wanna share what those are?

😅 Ah, well, you asked for it. Disclaimer: they are absolutely just personal wish fulfillment for me (post I will be referencing)

The ending where I see him being the happiest is, as I mentioned, with the goblins. To reiterate what I said about that, he'd probably be better off "[living] a simple life with the goblins—who actually appreciate him and don't judge him for his past—while still getting to be intellectually stimulated by the processes of designing their village and helping people". It's possible if he's completely struck from the line of succession and Arlan either doesn't know about him or is content to pretend he doesn't exist to avoid being associated with him. Anyway, I think in this ending Aerin might be well on his way to becoming the second-ever non-goblin to serve as an elder. He clearly enjoys their company and works to improve their community, so yeah, best case scenario for him.

Another ending is the royal ending. Maybe Arlan realizes that he has no one else to carry on the Valleros line and has to suck it up and reinstate Aerin. Maybe MC ends up in charge and Aerin rules as their prince consort (I prefer this second one mostly just because it's funnier, like I said in the other post). Either way, I think this is a good chance for a full circle moment for Aerin. Moreover, it's the only way he can achieve some sort of wider-scale redemption in the eyes of his kingdom. They all know him as the traitor prince who tried to murder his way to the top, but if he gets to be king now and actually does good in his role, then he can redefine his legacy. If he ends up married to MC, they'd even make a good team, because he brings the insider expertise when it comes to ruling a kingdom and MC brings the popularity and good reputation he can sort of piggyback off of.

The following endings are not necessarily the endings I think are the most in-character and much less the most likely, they're just endings based on the relationship between Aerin and my MC:

3. Since I feel like my MC will always be a Riverbender at heart, I imagine she would want to go back at some point, and so I sometimes picture Aerin going with her. The issue is that, unlike the goblins, the townies do very much remember what he did and are not initially as welcoming. I could see him doing several things there:

For one, I like the idea of him opening up an apothecary shop and sort of becoming the village healer, because 1) it would use his alchemy expertise, 2) it would use the healing expertise he's shown to have, and 3) it would be a job helping people, which not only would make him feel useful and like he's doing a good thing, but it could eventually improve the townies' perception of him.

Another I thought of later that I'm also quite fond of now is him becoming a sort of schoolteacher. I can imagine that one happening completely by accident, like he's just reading a book by himself somewhere some day and a little kid (who doesn't know who he is) goes up to him and starts asking him questions, and a while later he's got a whole bunch of kids he's telling stories to. It would let him put his expensive and very exclusive education to good use and also greatly benefit the people of Riverbend, whose kids could now have a much better education than they might've otherwise had (and hey, he might even take the time to tutor some adults too, if they're not assholes to him—overall this man could have literacy rates soaring in Riverbend for all ages). And if the adults are slow to warm up to Aerin, their kids aren't, which helps their parents like him better in the long run. Just the idea of Aerin working with kids because they have the same traits he values in goblins and that make him protective of them makes me happy.

The last thing isn't anything solid or at all likely, but just if MC goes back home and takes over tending to the farm she grew up on, Aerin helping out with that, because there's something about a lot of time passing and people who either were too young when the whole Baldur/Dreadlord shit went down or aren't as familiar with who Aerin is hearing gossip about how that guy over there used to be a fancy prince, but they look over and it's Aerin doing manual labor or some shit and they're like "that one??? 🤨"

4. Absolutely not likely, not in the slightest, but because I like to imagine that my elf MC at some point takes it upon herself to return to Undermount to restore her house as a way to keep her family's legacy alive, sometimes I think about Aerin going with her. As someone raised in the royal court, he'd have a lot of expertise that would be very helpful, and although I think living a simpler life is what's best for him, there's something deeply amusing about the prospect of King Arlan someday visiting Undermount for whatever reason and attending a grand ball and getting hit with the shock that the loser son he thought was either dead or destitute is the hostess's trophy husband who's actually been doing pretty well for himself the whole time.

So that's about it! Again, I'm not necessarily basing these on what I think is most likely to happen or even what I think is best, I'm just going off of vibes and, like I said, personal wish fulfillment to try to make his and my MC's relationship with the ideas I have for her. Also, sorry for taking so long to answer, I just didn't wanna forget anything :)

[quantumcartography]

I know this isn't what anyone wants to read right now, but I need to gripe about the US election.

I also can't help but look at the global stage and see how much this is gonna fuck everything. It's going to kill so many people. He's gonna pull support out of Ukraine and give his buddy Putin the green light. He's probably gonna increase military funding to Israel and take kickbacks from arms manufacturers. And I cannot imagine that there aren't people China looking at the world and thinking about reclaiming their territory. International politics aren't my forte so I'm sorry if this is all just fear mongering but heaven help me if that's not what I see coming. So many people are going to suffer and die from this. It hurts to think about.

I know we all live in echo chambers but I guess I'm just disappointed to see him win the popular vote. Like that sucks. It's close sure, but still a simple majority. I see a lot of people arguing about why Kamala lost and the bad running she did and blaming people for voting third party or abstaining from voting and all that jazz. Which are fair to varying degrees. But I'm more vexed about why people voted for him. Misogyny? Racism? Or were most people just willing to excuse those things so they could stay in their party colors? Or were there some single ticket issues that mattered most?

Maybe I'm doom spiralling but I cannot help but think this is another marker on the road to civil war. Like it's no secret he's modelling himself after autocrats. And he knows if he leaves office again, he's a dead man. So, he just doesn't leave office. Which would be a blood bath. Reactionary violence, sanctioned police crackdowns, and of course, America being so large, not every state would accept it, military rolls in, etc. etc. Maybe I'm tilting at windmills but it doesn't feel like it.

At the end of the day, I'm just scared that a majority of the people in my state support someone who wants to dismantle my job. As a librarian, I rely on government funds. And his cadre wants to pull funding from any government funded group that has books it deems inappropriate. Maybe I just need to start learning a trade. Take up carpentry or plumbing or something.

I dunno. I'm fiddling between rage and depression. And I won't say I'm hopeless. My hope is there, buried in my chest, nursing her wounds. (Why is hope female in my mind?) I'm just gonna let her heal and wait.

If you're reading this, thank you for listening. I love you. I hope today is easier than yesterday. And I hope tomorrow is easier yet.

[barbwritesstuff]

Hi, Barb! Aspiring writer here hoping to get some advice from you. While reading Blood Moon, I couldn't help but notice just how real and genuine the formable romantic relationships are. Even though the time span of the story isn't very long, the romance that forms doesn't seem the least bit implausible? How do you do that? Like, it's often way too common to have unrealistical depictions with stuff like "love at first sight" or something. But with the romance in Blood Moon, I can actually see it happening.

Thanks so much for the ask, anon. 💙

Unfortunately, I'm not 100% sure how to answer this. What worked for me might not work for you. Also, I think most of my advice is really generic. Still, I hope it helps.

1. Write romances that you would like to read. If you don't understand the appeal of a character or trope, you probably won't be able to do a good job writing it. All the romances in Blood Moon are based on romantic tropes/characters I personally like (the goofy best friend with a secret crush, the scary warrior who's actually really sweet and gentle beneath their hardened shell, etc). I didn't, for example, write a 'rich guy in a suit' romance option, or a 'second chance' romantic plotline because those aren't things I personally like (even though other people do, which is totally fine). So, focus on what you think is romantic, not what you think other people will like.

2. Read. I know this is super basic, but it's still some of the best writing advice out there. Read read read. You want to write romances? Read romances. Can't afford books? Libraries are free. Don't have a library? Read free stuff online. A03 is HUGE. If you read something you like, try to figure out why you like it. If you read something and don't like it, try to figure out what went wrong.

3. Don't wait until chapter six to introduce half your romance options. This is probably one of my biggest mistakes in Blood Moon. Shawnie, Roe, and Farro's romantic routes were much harder to write because I introduced them so late. Don't make the same mistake I did.

4. Make the romantic characters interesting, fun and/or compelling in a way that has nothing to do with romance. Marco ranted about octopus sex and became the most popular RO in Blood Moon for months. Carrie fans always tell me they love how she uses meanness to mask her fear. Sergi exploded in popularity after he experienced a shared trauma with the main character. None of these things are explicitly romantic, but they made the characters more interesting for the readers.

I really hope that's useful, anon. Good luck. 💙

[asksythe]

Thanks for your translation and the footnotes explaining things. Those were a godsend!

If I may ask, you said you had been on the Chinese (and Vietnamese?) side of the fandom up until now, that you've been in MDZS fandom for a few years. I see that you have some MDZS English fics up recently. I love them too! The ideas are so new and fun! Do you have any favorites English fics? Why aren't you on the international side until now? You learned Mandarin just to read MDZS? That's amazing. Is it very hard? How did you do it? What gave you the idea of writing the footnotes? Are there any Chinese MDZS fics that you really like?

Thank you. I'm glad the notes were helpful to you.

Ehh... it's a lot of questions, huh.

1/ I don't have any true favorites on the international side. It's a matter of cultural differences, not the quality of the stories. MDZS... was not written with an international audience in mind. So there are a lot of tiny but deeply impactful details that just... fly over a lot of the international reader base's head. It doesn't help that Chinese is a high-context culture, the polar opposite of most Western cultures (low-context culture). So a tiny detail that doesn't mean anything to English speaking audience can be a really big deal for the Sinosphere audience.

So the English fics are written based on this foundation of cultural value mismatch and thousands of little things that don't quite line up. The result is... really weird and really jarring. So for me, I have tried reading English fics before. But usually, what happened is that I would get distracted by this thing or that thing in the story that didn't fit with the cultural setting, and I would not be able to enjoy the story at all. I'm not quite sure how else to explain this. It's like... if someone in the Sinosphere who only has a very vague understanding of say... modern American culture takes a glance at American media and equates popularity with actual governmental authority (which kinda is true in a way but not all the way) and they write a story with the premise of.. say... a young American with big dreams of becoming the president so this person starts out their career by writing long, thousand-word essays and post them on twitter to gain credibility and followers so they can then stage a coup like Jan 6th and become president, and then they use their position as president to order Amazon be the new headquarter of government and all of this is written super seriously and realistically... Like that, probably...

2/ Why aren't I on the international side of the fandom until now? Well, the reason above plus my work is hectic. I'm perpetually buried in works, scripts, drafts for books, magazine publication schedules, game publication schedules, media projects, client interviews, chasing down clients, etc... that's on top of family and my not-so-great health. This year though, I have made it my resolution to write more stuff for myself (and not paid by someone else). So that's why I'm here now.

3/ Yes, I did start to seriously learn Mandarin to read MDZS in its native language. I can't say it's easy. It's not an easy language by any stretch of the word. But it's probably fair to say it's significantly easier for me to learn it compared to a lot of other people. I'm Vietnamese. Vietnamese is a derivative of traditional Mandarin, even though our modern language is now written in the Latin alphabet. We also have a bridge language between Hanyu (Mandarin) and Vietnamese called Han Viet. This makes it much easier for a Vietnamese to learn Mandarin than most other nationalities (with the exception of Japanese and Korean, probably). Before I even learned Mandarin, with the right tool, I could already understand about 50-60 percent of Mandarin writings, provided it's not ancient writing (which goes by different rules). It also helps that modern Vietnam has really good access to Chinese media, both modern and old.

I practice by translating Chinese MDZS fics into Vietnamese. I translated 10 series in total last year, with each series averaging around 50-80k words. I recently dabbled in translating Chinese poems into English (There's no use translating Chinese poems into Vietnamese. Han Viet is built for that express purpose already.)

4/ There are a ton of Chinese fics that are really good. I can't even begin to list them. I have seen some of the first-generation MDZS fics that were so good they ended up influencing MXTX herself, ending with her accepting the details posited in those stories as part of MDZS canon. They are all on the Chinese side of the internet though, mostly on lofter and weibo.

5/ The idea of the footnotes came from a friend, really. I sometimes spontaneously rant at @erimies about MDZS. Haha, I should thank her for being so patient. Back then, she wasn't even in MDZS. Well, even now, she's only started to read a little. But basically, during my fairly one-sided ranting (or gushing), we would stumble into cultural concepts that she didn't understand and had no basis for. So I would explain these things to her, which sometimes would become entire essays in our chat box. So when I translated, I remembered this point, that international fans probably miss a lot of cultural concepts and references, so I made sure to add in explanations.

[thewingedgoat]

LOREEE

Hehe, I thought I'd copy a friend and write down my characters Lore without revealing to much of the story, so enjoyy

Lucifer/The Devil (Genderlfuid/Pansexual)

The Devil is probably the most powerfull demon on earth, not even his fallen siblings compare to his powers. Why? Nobody knows. He's the oldest of the demons and second-oldest when compared to ALL of his siblings. Although of his tough extirior(?) he is actually just a wittle guy that needs a break of everyones bs desperatly. To him, his most important duty is protecting the family he still has, with his very life. They may have fallen but he still cares deeply about his siblings. All over he may seem like he would kill you in an instant for coughing (wich he will if there's a good reason for it) but he is infact a very logical man.

Beelzebub/Beelze(pronounced like "Bells" btw if there's confusion) (Cisfemale/Bisexual)

Beelze is the mute Princess of Gluttony, she can only talk with the help of a special Collar made by the gatekeeper. She is a very sceptical person who never judges a book by it's cover, that doesn't mean there aren't certain people she just doesn't trust tho. Dice is one of those people, she just does not trust him, maybe she knows something the devil isn't aware of. She is very overprotective of her family and will literally kill someone for making a wrong comment. She will also be a very supportive character of Ink and care-taker of levi.

Leviathen/Levi (laughs in the face of gender/aroace)

Levi; the mentally unstable prince of envy, while he doesn't really represent his sin greatly, he makes up with it with his personality. He's always smiling and generally just very fun to be around considering his child-like behavior at times. Altough in reality he does get overwhelemed very easily and it takes him a bit to calm down again. When Leviathen gets angry you better run, since he is one of the most powerful beings in hell. He's the main characters fun uncle and often plays the role of the comic-relief.

Mammon (Demiboy/Bisexual)

Mammon is the Blind, edgy, grumpy character that just needs some affection. They weren't always like this, while Satan was still alive he was quite good company. The Incident broke him tho. He has a hard time getting around no thanks to his blindness and uses hellhounds as basically guide-dogs. He distanced himself alot from his family and barely talks to any of them. They can never forgive Lucifer after what he did.

Satan/Satanas (Any pronouns/unlabeled)

WE DON'T TALK ABOUT SATAN

Asmodeus/Ozzy (doesn't give a shit/pansexual)

Ozzy is a very cocky person (in more ways than one ;])(okay I'm sorry that one was bad) but a very comfortable dude to hang out with. Contrary(?) to popular believe, he actually does respect boundaries. He is kind of a comfort-person for anyone who is unsure about their Identity, may it be sexual,romantic,gender or just overall. He is supportive boi.

Belphegor/Belphi (Cismale[very confused abt his gender]/doesn't know what He's into He just falls in love with ppl)

Belphegor is the prince of sloth so there's no surprise that he's mostly just relaxing. Other than the other Princes He doesn't have fur, but is covered in feathers. He's just existing and not caring about anything.

Ink/the kid/kiddo/kid/Inky (Cismale/Biromantic/Asexual)

Ink, the main character and the devils and Dice's adopted son. He was found in the back-ally of the casino, badly injured, when he was only 6yrs old. At first it was asumed that he's a toddler due to him being severly smaller than anyone else. He's still pretty small only reaching about 1,3 metres is size (americans google bc I have no Idea) He works as anything the devil needs him to be really, Dealer, Waiter, Barista, Bounty-hunter or Assasin, He doesn't care.

If you have read 'till here I can't thank you enough, you get a goat smooch

[ignitesthestxrs]

fuck yeah I'll come talk to you! my goodness. I've long been hesitant to send asks to blogs I don't know or consider popular.

I followed you for your pjo writing, so I was very surprised to find out that your url is from matthew stover's ROTS novelisation. two-ish years ago I watched star wars for the first time and fell in love with the prequels, it is probably still the fandom I most interact with on here.

I notice most (all?) of your star wars fics on ao3 are sequel things. I haven't seen the sequels yet because of general negative internet sentiment towards them. although this is bad logic because the internet feels negatively about a lot of great things, including ("great" is subjective I suppose) the prequels.

as someone who still mainly associates you with pjo, I guess I'm just curious about you and star wars in general. did you watch the movies when they first came out? or did you, like me, discover them later? and would you care to make a case for watching the sequels?

and as an aside - how do you feel about anon asks. do you prefer when people are non-anon?

truly genuinely i dont think i've ever met a person on this website, Popular Online or not, who has been upset about receiving genuine asks. LIKE as someone who prefers to be approached rather than to approach people i very understand the reticence to make contact, but if you ever have hesitance because your brain is like 'ooooh they aren't gonna want to talk to meeeeeee' i really truly think you can let that one go. esp because anon is an option - the worst thing that happens is that someone doesn't respond, which is also not personal and is usually related to brain death on the part of the person receiving the ask

BASICALLY i really think that most people making themselves available on the social media want to use the media to be social - if they didn't, they'd close their ask box.

MAN okok i love to talk about a personal fandom history LOL star wars is a weird one for me! i came into the fandom extremely sideways - while it turns out i had watched at least one of the prequels in theatres as a child, i had somehow wiped all memory of them from my mind, leaving only a residual obsession with padme amidala's lipstick lingering in my hindbrain

so my first Real Encounter with star wars as a fan concept was via Livejournal Role Play lolol, the premise of which is that you would roleplay as characters either in an AU setting, or an isekai-your-character-was-captured-from-their-home-world-somehow setting. so i was playing sakura from naruto in a harry potter/final fantasy fusion AU (there's a fun sentence) when someone joined the game with Jaina Solo from the star wars extended universe, and i just thought the character and player were the fucking coolest?

so that's how i ended up learning about like, the post-original Star Wars trilogy EU books first LMAO and then eventually i watched the original trilogy and re-watched the prequel trilogy (this was back in 2009/10 so sequel series were not on the horizon at all). i rp'd a bunch of star wars characters in a bunch of games (most notably middle aged Leia from the later EU books and a man called Kyp Durron who i refuse to believe was not the template and inspiration for kylo ren), and also played the Knights of the Old Republic games, and eventually helped create and moderate an rp based on those games. so my first star wars creative endeavors were very rp based, and kotor based, and any fic i was writing at the time was like, kyp durron and alyss from a ya novel adaptation of alice in wonderland are falling in love in the harry potter/final fantasy fusion setting where we also included pokemon so kyp has a shuckle for a pet because jaina gifted it to him as a gag. all that fic is littered around the internet - lj accounts and dreamwidth accounts and defunct aim group chats, where you'd write stuff for like the three people who were into your extremely, impossible to replicate cross canon ship instead of doing your stats homework, it was heady shit.

the username came about after i decided to abandon my old internet handle/identity of 'feilyn' lolol. basically i made up 'feilyn' as a name for myself when i was like 15 and used it everywhere, which resulted in most online friends i made at the time calling me 'fei', which in turn got cuteified into 'feibean', which is what i originally called this blog right up until someone sent me an ask going 'hey feibean' and i went oh NO i HATE that, and decided that i needed a username that was like, Poetic and Pretty

the funniest part to me is that i hadn't actually read the stover novelisation at that time? i just knew about the passage it came from because a friend had quoted it at me before and i was like oh that's Beautiful. so i did probably the most pretentious thing in the process of making a pretentious internet handle, which was to refer to a thing i hadn't actually read (i have since read the novelisation LOL and highly recommend it to anyone into star wars i general, but especially if you feel the prequels had Great Themes and Poor Execution - the book does a much better job at the execution part)

SO by the time the sequel movies were announced i had been into star wars for like, 5, 6 years? and it had been a staple part of not only my creative life but also my social and romantic life, so i was primed to be fucking obsessed. at that point i wasn't journal rping anymore, and most of my creative energy was split between fic (pjo and grisha at the time) and trying to make my original book idea work (it did not), and i had gotten into the groove of Writing Fic For An Audience.

and then the first sequel movie came out and i fucking loved it! like sure it was a little derivative, but it had so much of what i loved about star wars in it, and it especially helped that kylo ren really did seem like a kyp durron expy, and i was right in the middle of my weird heterosexual lesbianism phase where all i wanted to write was Overpowered Man Gets Stepped On By Brunette Teenager He Underestimated so reylo hit me like a fucking freight train.

i think in the first month after that movie came out i wrote like, 21 fics in he space of a month. i went to my first ever music festival and was just lying in the tent writing fic on the budget smart phone i had bought so my actual phone didn't get stolen. it was SUCH a flurry of creative energy for me, because star wars before that point had been not a dead fandom, but certainly not a fandom that had a lot of Fic-Centric Life in the spaces i was in, and the movie brought so much new blood and voices and interest and readers to the canon. so if i told people i felt like writing x thing and asked for prompts, i'd get like 10 or 12 requests at a time - more than i could fulfill, certainly, but also so many that it really fed the fire of my interest and determination to Provide Content

and then, you know, the Drama and the Discourse and the weird creation of shipping as identity where people became A Reylo instead of shipping reylo, and this formation of Antis as a thing, and on and on until fandom in general becomes this place of adversarial combat that is supposed to reflect on your ethics and moral as a person and Oh Man i do remember being exhausted by all of these arguments at the time (and now tbh, but these days i am not actively participating in them). eventually i dropped out of star wars as a fandom from like, creative and discourse burnout i think, and also my relationships with the friends i shared the fandom with were changing, and i was also changing as a person and then TROS came out and was really a death knell to any joy i'd gotten out of the fandom or canon from that point.

as for a case for watching the sequels - i think if you can watch them without needing them to Be Anything In Particular, you can have a good time with them. like, for example, i think TROS was an objectively bad fucking movie, but i had a lot of fun when i watched it because i went it with a baseline of curiosity about how or if abrams could pull this off, and the answer was 'by trying to split every fandom argument of the last 4 years down the exact middle' and 'no, he can't pull it off'. that shit isn't a movie, it's a video response to every star wars trending topic between 2015-2019. and at the time of viewing, this was very fucking funny to me. i had a ball.

SO if you can watch them with the contextual understanding of like, these are massive corporate enterprises created by committee, with different people at the helm of different movies who had very different understandings on what the point of this trilogy was, i genuinely think they can be a good time. there's pew pew lasers, there are some real affecting moments, and there is a lot of bewildered amusement to be had at nature of attempting to create Billion Dollar Art.

if you are looking for a story that is going to leave you feeling fulfilled and as though the creators had consideration and respect for either their viewers, their actors, or the story they were telling, then give them a pass. like i really really think there is a lot of fun and interest to be had in watching the sequels for both 'here is a space fantasy laser fun time' reasons and 'what does art look like when it's primary purpose is to create obscene amounts of wealth based off the nostalgia of nerds but also the concept of modernising a franchise for the 21st century' reasons, and these are both big reasons why i engage in any kind of media LOL

but i also understand the special place star wars holds in a lot of people's hearts, and not wanting to engage in material thatg feels like it has sucked a lot of the joy out of that special place is always legit. so like, if you are intrigued, give them a shot, and if you find yourself hating the experience then stop watching. trust ur heart babe

FINALLY i have no strong opinion on whether people are anon or signed in! it's all about your comfort level truly, i do not put emphasis on one mode or another. sometimes people will send me something signed in and ask me to respond privately, which i am always happy to do, and sometimes people will send messages anon, but identify themselves as like 'oh im the anon who asked about sunflowers, i'm sunflower anon'. SO YEAH whatever combination of identifiers is personally comfortable for the person sending the ask is how i prefer people to communicate.

THANK U for ur ask clearly i love to Talk & Engage and i appreciate u giving me the opportunity <3 <3