#tj's thesis

[fintensifies]

one of the things i love about Magnus Chase series is how people have canonically gone mad in Valhalla. How they take art classes to help keep their shit together. Immortality can be kiinda jarring to receive and take a while to get used to. Canonically, Halfborn knits. He's fluent in 12 languages. He has a PhD in German literature.

It's also headcanon fuel. TJ is working on a thesis on American History. Mallory's a master monopoly player. Alex learns a bunch of card magic tricks. Magnus can't figure out how to register into any classes and everyone is being extremely unhelpful for the sole reason of his suffering being hilarious.

[hopeworth]

seeing TJ reblog mcyt but ONLY because of the tubbo and tommyinnit marriage/divorce bit(?) is so funny. “blog thesis” yeah tumblr user @divorce-enjoyer it sure fucking is

[torpublishinggroup]

5 Literary Encounters with Legendary Beings

by a cat

Many mortal constructs began as stories, we say, confident in spite of our unwillingness to invest the research hours necessary to prove such a thesis. Why else would we tell time? 

Anyway, having thus established the relevance of myth within our lives, let’s talk about something more fun than the ticking of the clock. Let’s talk about vampires, werewolves, and other myth-folk* by running down some awesome books within whose pages they reside. 

Check it out!

Wolfsong by TJ Klune

Werewolves are for kissing. Don’t believe us? Let the gay lycans of TJ Klune’s Green Creek series melt your heart, and then achingly break it. These books are about a pack of werewolves, yes, but it’s important to remember that many mythical beings are people too: Given to all the messy yearning, loving, and hurting that comes with being alive. 

Masters of Death by Olivie Blake

Vampires kind of have an image problem, unhelped by numerous depictions of bloody splatterfests and exploitative aristocratic legacies. Now who better to act on an image problem than a real estate agent? Viola Marek might be a vamp but she’s also got houses to sell. Unfortunately, one of them is very inconveniently haunted, and this is the inciting incident in Masters of Death by Olivie Blake—a story about (among other things) how immortality doesn’t actually spare the indignities, gifts, and difficulties of life. It just gives you more time to experience them. 

Ebony Gate by Julia Vee & Ken Bebelle

And the next entry in our rundown of legendary entities is an urban fantasy full of assassins and dragon magic in San Francisco. Here’s a partial list of the mythical beings encountered within this thrilling debut: 

a guardian foo lion

a shinigami in a business suit

a cat yokai

a LOT of ghosts

Spring’s Arcana by Lilith Saintcrow

The mythical and magical entities that populate our stories often embody aspects of our mortal lives. From this oblique angle, we as narrative-enthusiasts can sneak up on emotional and abstract truths otherwise inaccessible. But our lives change, and so do our stories, and Spring’s Arcana by Lilith Saintcrow is an excellent candidate to demonstrate this phenomenon. Nat Drozdova’s mother is sick, and she must cross an America full of modern divinities (the God of Money, Law and Order, the King of Thieves, etc.) in order to procure a stolen relic for a winter goddess in a skyscraper office who has the power to save her ailing mother. 

Thornhedge by T. Kingfisher

“Toadling was, more or less, lucky. She was not harvested by the flesh-smiths nor devoured by redcaps, nor raised in the retinue of a great lord of Faerie. Instead she was thrown to the greenteeth, the slimy swamp-dwelling spirits who devour unwary swimmers. Boy-children they eat, always. Girl-children they eat, mostly. But occasionally their numbers will fall, or one of them will be seized with some murky maternal instinct, and they will raise a child instead.”

This snippet comes from the beginning of T. Kingfisher’s twisted fable, and already we are blessed with a dearth of fae folk. If you like mythical beings in fiction, pick this one up as soon as you can!

━━ ˖°˖ ☾☆☽ ˖°˖ ━━━━━━━

*Tor Blog-cat’s Note: Diligent readers may note that the introduction to this book roundup seems to imply the veracity of werewolves, vampires, and other beings of legend. While this question certainly lays beyond the scope of the Tor Publishing Group to answer, we do heartily encourage all readers to show kindness to any vamps, wolves, etc. that might or might not exist <3

[landwriter]

🌹

Hob remembers he’s still clutching Dream’s doctoral thesis in his hand, and he brandishes it like an explanation, like the fucking torch he didn’t realize he’s been carrying for the past four years, years of dwindling emails and then guilty late nights on social media and then nothing at all. “I’m in the dedication,” he says voice cracking a little. “He put me in the dedication.”

She snatches it out of his hands, skims the first page, and raises her eyebrows. “Oh, you’re so fucked,” she says, with a bit more glee than sympathy.

“Will you cover my lecture?” he asks, again. He has a strange urge to snatch the thesis back and clutch it to his chest. “He's teaching at McGill now.”

She whistles. “Fuckin' wunderkind, eh? Of course I’ll cover your lecture for something this ridiculous. Try not to break any speed limits.”

“Right. Yes,” says Hob. He won't. Not on the Quebec side at least. “Thanks.”

“God, look at you. Get out of here, Hob. Go to him.”

Hob jogs down the hall, locks his office with shaking hands, and goes.

---

tj! have this freshly-written bit of my third-oldest fic idea, the classic academic AU!! dream is a hot problematic grad student who is casually absolutely brilliant and hob is a newly minted professor known for being an absolute piece of ass while also being outstandingly thoughtful and approachable. they are both sluts who fall in love with one another but are trying to be professional about it, in part because they think it's unrequited, featuring the oh moment during late night essay marking, mutual pining, proxy fucking your insanely hot TA by taking home emo twinks, getting caught with an emo twink by said TA, a very near miss, a sexually frustrated office wank, gratuitous epistolary yearning, moving on, and then a dramatic motorcycle ride through canadian countryside in the glory of fall to burst in on your number one what-if/if-only regret's third ever lecture like an absolute fool.

[butchjess]

can’t believe that i have to point this out to people (in general, not you) but jess never starts fights. i mean, sure, he mouths off and he’s sarcastic and very very good at pissing people off, but he’s never the guy that throws the first punch. not with that jerk in season 2 who he warns to back off. not with dean, even when he tries to pick a fight on thanksgiving. not even in keg max after rory comes crying down the stairs. and maybe it’s just cause he’s 5’8” and a small scrappy guy, but he clearly has the power to land a solid punch, he just never ever punches first and i love that about him.

YES!!! it's actually so funny he never throws the first punch he just is an instigator purely by being bitchy and snarky and then he immediately gets hit. even the smallest things he does makes rory's bfs so unreasonably mad (WAVING at dean in the inn, taking the trash out, working at the diner, writing a BOOK). logan tries to do this to him in Balalaikas but he SEES through the bait okay he settles for a bitchy comment and then removes himself from the situation like his theoretical therapist probably told him to do. and he always has a reason to be in a fight with someone too, he's either defending himself or the guy he's fighting is being a jerk. like with TJ he tackles him but it's out of an instinctual reaction to probably being pushed around by liz's boyfriends in the past since it's implied she didn't exactly date the greatest guys nor did she care how jess felt about them. in general jess + violence is very interesting to me bc he's scrappy in the sense that he's used to getting in physical altercations with people and also because he acts like a cornered animal in a way that makes me to stick him with needles and look into his brain. What happened to you boy Why are you so prickly as a self defense mechanism. like for some reason jess just cannot help himself he HAS to say something and poke the bear he's that painting of the jester on top of a wall mocking a pack of dogs trying to kill him except he falls off the wall every time. Slay little boy honestly

jess + violence thesis personally i think he was justified in every single one of these you shouldn't be punished for being a little shit if you're objectively funny about it

[notallsandmen]

WIP tag game

Tagged by @tharkuun @beatnikfreakiswriting, @reallyintoscience, @gabessquishytum — thank you everyone!

Rules: list the WIPs ya got with a brief description

-An Experiment in Tribology (E) My contribution to the No-pen challenge: Hob fucks Dream’s chest. Also known as the “slick seal” fic. I have no excuses

-The English Vice — aka, the 1889 soft dom Hob flogging fic (E)

-The final two chapters of License my roving hands (E) Hob convinces Dream to try out this whole sleeping thing. Wet dreams, nocturnal emissions, misunderstandings, invasive powerpoints, morning wood, and confessions ensue.

— Moulin Rouge AU @academicblorbo ’s brainchild and my next obsession

— Fern-fevered (ficlet) Set in 1901, Hob tends to a rare, endangered flower, and can’t help but feel a certain degree of kinship with it. Hob being the lone survivor among extinct specimens. Hob being left behind after everyone who remembers him is already gone. Hob learning not only to change or die, but to adapt and thrive.

— Mourning Glory (Victorian mourning jewelry ficlet) The morning after the 1889 meeting, Hob buys a brooch that reminds him of his stranger. (Or: Hob collects memento mori ironically for himself, and mourning jewelry pathetically for his stranger.)

— My PhD thesis. Ahem.

Tagging everyone who would like to play (apologies if you’ve already posted) @issylra @chaosheadspace @quillingwords @cuubism @hardly-an-escape @staroftheendless @virgo-dream @littledreamling @tj-dragonblade @karalynlovescake

[tricornonthecob]

Title Line

LK 106: Hey Man, Nice Shot Heard Round The World

(pt1)(pt2)(pt3)(pt4)

She just said Fuckit and fell asleep, but like. Having once stayed awake for 72 hours straight, I can't blame her. Pro tip: don't stay awake for 72 hours straight unless you're invested in carrying on a conversation with your paralysis demon.

Welp. Just gonna let these two teens sleep in the same room together without a chaperone. Its not like teens are known for hormonal urges and poor decision-making and the people here certainly aren't going to assume they're automatically going to canoodle. Nope. Just gonna walk away.

I can't tell if she was power napping or just faking it so she could sneak out.

turns out ya boi sleep-mutters. Like a beagle/great dane puppy muttering while it dreams of chaos and well-reasoned but incendiary rhetoric.

Can confirm, drank the tap water in Massachusetts and wanted to fight a seagull. also is that TJ lurking back there...?

Possibly due to the more than 100 years of the British government being fairly hands-off until George Number 3 inherited all the war debt from the 7 Years War and him and Parliament looked up and said "hang on a minute..."?

Britain was pretty fucking invested in it, too, Sarah, lets not forget which group of people were the ones hellbent on a dick waving contest with the French.

Oh god oh no oh honeyyyyyy

...Wait what was the question?

Also I really wish they had gone more in depth into the Phillips family I am so weirdly invested in them. Welp, guess I just gotta make more fan content of them now.

Yes hello I'd like to make a complaint, the nerds are respectfully debating politics in the lounge during quiet hours again. Hmmm? Well, yes, I suppose their arguments are sound enough, not a fallacy or strawman in sight, but I really wanted to sleep in.

Idea. Speech and Debate club but like Dueling Pianos: with an audience that is completely trashed and made up primarily of bachelorette and 21st birthday parties. Dueling Thesis Statements. We could revolutionize academia and University education!

Girl just elegantly collapses to her knees, damn you didn't need that flourish.

Sarah I think they already know that? And somehow I don't think you want to send the Yankee Dude Dandies to Parliament I think they might throw punches in-between verses.

Danger is half the reason she's doing this, you knew that about her James.

Man it really didn't take him long to adjust to Sarah also being a journalist, did it. Ride or Die.

Give it up for ya bois, the Stock Footage Soldiers of Foote. We're gonna be seeing a lot more of them!

Did he not know that his cousin was in the colonies??? And yet they greet each other like they're best cousin-buddies. I want to know more about what happened, did Lady Phillips not inform her sibling(s)-in-law about sending her 15-year-old daughter out to find her husband? I don't think she did. I think Lady Phillips is Going Through It and there's some spicy drama on the Phillips side.

(also why am I picking up gay vibes from him)

oh my GOD HE IS GAY THAT'S HIS LOVER I AM HERE FOR TOM PHILLIPS / BRYAN JOHNSON. The ship name is Philson.

Oh honeyyyyyyy.

Honestly he's taking it pretty well.

His disappointment is immeasurable and his day is ruined by Shockingly Competent New Englanders.

Cousin Tom is kinda sitting like an awkward schoolgirl here. but also just lookit those two. Philson is so cute together!

I want. To know. About. The Phillips. Family. Drama.

[kkgore]

Book Review for: In the Lives of Puppets

By: TJ Klune

Setting

This book takes place in a world of robots. We are introduced first to Giovanni, who has built himself a tree-house settlement deep in the woods, and there he lives with two other robots, Nurse Ratchet and Rambo, and his human son Victor. The fairytale-esque opening gives us a good overview of a world where humans are both rare and facing some sort of persecution, and a sense of the threat that the wider world may pose to this family. I found the setting instantly legible and explicable. It had a logic to it that made it both exciting and yet pleasantly predictable. That logic was coherent throughout the novel, and so there was never any moment where I felt like I truly did not understand this world or where it was taking me, and as such I was eager to carry on with the journey.

Plot

The plot takes liberally from the most prominent plot points of the Pinocchio story, as well as some seasoning from Shelly’s Frankenstein. The plot follows a fairly typical hero’s journey model, with a couple of twists which are in no way obtuse and more a revelation of a building suspicion than an actual twist. On the whole I really enjoyed how Klune managed to hit all the major allegories with Pinocchio, although some seemed a bit on the nose. The Monstro-Whale/Terrible Dogfish-Dirigible analogy was there but felt more wedged in than placed with consideration, unlike the tension within Victor, who at various times takes on the role of both Geppetto and Pinocchio, Victor Frankenstein and his Creation in ways that are skilfully woven into the plot of his journey.

My main problem with the plot is that it follows a trend in storytelling where the Hero makes large, world changing decisions on the behalf of whole nations or races and then… dips. Just leaves, and we get no more than a few lines where he hopes that the revolution has turned out well but no actual insight into what this post-revolutionary world is going to look like or how it is going to be built. There is some thematic justification to this decision in this book, it parallels decisions Vic’s father made at the beginning of the tale, but I still find it somewhat unsatisfying that in a book about how everyone deserves to be fixed in the end we only really care about two specific people being fixed and everyone else is on their own.

World Building

The world building in this novel is done organically and in a way that consistently adds to the feelings of foreboding that Klune skilfully builds throughout the novel. Klune is also very good at using his worldbuilding as an opportunity to draw parallels with, and make commentary on, our current culture. The Coachman, who runs a Museum of Human Curio’s and Curiosities, tells the Hero and his companions of the ancient human tradition of gender reveals. His utter misinterpretation of both the form and the function of gender reveal parties is a wonderful way not only to make a commentary on how history gets distorted by the victors in a conflict, but also to expose the artifice that lies in the gender reveal party as a concept.

The worldbuilding in this novel was not necessarily new, we have seen similar worlds in many sci-fi films and books such as Robots (2005) but the whimsy and charm with which it is built makes this an inviting world to spend time in.

The worldbuilding also felt purposeful, particularly when done through conversation between the characters. As we learned more about the world, we also learned more about the main thesis of the book; that everyone deserves a chance of redemption. Again, it’s not so much that Klune does anything new with the worldbuilding, but that he uses the worldbuilding as a way to talk very directly about the morality of the story, and to engage in meaningful meditation on the nature of humanity and forgiveness and individuality and so on.

Characters

The characters are the real highlight of this book. It is incredibly character driven, and it is delightful how Klune treats each character with a tenderness and empathy that is deeply compassionate towards their flaws without ever excusing them. All of the robots can be read as representative of some form of disability or neuroatypicality, and Victor is quite clearly meant to be understood as autistic. I felt this worked well, particularly as an overarching analogy for how disability is context dependant and how often the experience of disability is more to do with how society lacks accommodations necessary for a life fully lived, than it is to do with the material fact of the disability itself. I also think this worked well as a way to explore how individuals can work to maintain healthy relationship despite conflicting needs.

The dynamic between Nurse Ratched and Rambo reminds me a lot of the dynamic between Scamper and Brian in Igor (2008), and I found the way they both bounced off of each other delightful. They were a wonderful example of a relationship that is fully accepting of the other, warts and all. The fierce loyalty between these two and Victor was a strong theme throughout the novel, which worked well as a supporting thesis for the main themes of forgiveness and redemption. Ratched was well placed as a nurse droid to explain concepts like asexuality in a dispassionate manner.

That said, I did find towards the end that Ratched and Rambo’s continual conjecture of the nature of the relationship between Vic, who is canonically both asexual and somewhat sex repulsed, and Hap to become more and more uncomfortable as it became clear that this aspect of their behaviour was never going to fully be addressed. I had hoped that there would be some sort of commentary on the intrusive and voyeuristic nature of looking at real relationships through the lens of “shipping” but we didn’t really get any thing in regard to a resolution of the conflict there.

Hap is an interesting take on the Creature from Frankenstein. It is lovely to see what might have happened if the Modern Prometheus had been met with love and admiration rather than fear and shame. I really appreciate that Hap is allowed to still be a generally grumpy person, right through to the end of the novel, and that this is seen as a character expression, rather than a character flaw.

Vic and Hap have a very tender relationship, which is a joy to watch develop.

Vic himself is a thoroughly enjoyable hero to read. He grapples with deep emotional and ethical questions which are hard to resolve, without ever tipping over into either self-pitying or self-aggrandising. His reactions feel very natural and his motivations and insights are intelligent.

The supporting cast of Gio, Vic’s father, The Coachman and The Blue Fairy are all well drawn characters whose conversations with Vic offer some very poignant and insightful meditations on the main themes of this book. The only somewhat disappointing character was the Coachman, who’s motivational 180 was a bit too convenient and just bugged me for a few chapters after it happened.

Prose

The actual prose of this book is delightful. It flows incredibly well; it’s well paced and it was easy get into a groove of reading it. The only point where I was fully thrown out of the text was early on when there was mention of a “camming device” with no explanation of what that was. I don’t think this is a particularly ubiquitous piece of climbing equipment outside of the climbing enthusiast’s world and so could probably do with some explanation.

The main criticism of the prose I would give is that Klune has a habit of introducing motifs he then doesn’t really do anything with. For example, the Authority (the robot overlords) use the symbol of the cat and the fox, which is immediately identifiable as an allusion towards the Disney cartoon but doesn’t do anything beyond being that allusion. It gives no deeper insight into the Authority and if one were not aware of the Disney cartoon then there would be no clear reason why this symbol is being emphasised repeatedly. When he does use symbolism, like the motif of the clockwork heart that works its way throughout this novel, he does it spectacularly well. There is a richness to his use of symbolism that is so enchanting that it is even more disappointing when there is then such empty symbolism alongside it.

Finally, I would add that the first part of the novel could do with a few paragraph breaks. I did not find the long run-on nature of the opening to be particularly ADHD friendly and that was the only part of the book where I regularly found myself going back to reread a passage to make sure I had the right of it.

Conclusion

Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed this book. I found it engaging and charming and thoroughly enjoyed the dialectical explorations of personhood, forgiveness, redemption and friendship. I found the meditations on these themes insightful and inspiring and had more than one flash of insight into my own WIP as a result of reading this.

That said I was somewhat dissatisfied with the ending. This may be a personal thing as a bit of a policy wonk, but I really would have appreciated even just a little more about how society was going to move forward after the hero’s completed their quest. That is not to say that the ending was not beautiful, it was a wonderfully understated and tender way to end the story, but I could not help but be distracted by thoughts of all the others whose lives were impacted and the uncertainty of their fate.

I would recommend this book to those who enjoy imaginative retellings of classic literature, as well as anyone who enjoys somewhat whimsical sci fi settings. I think this would be a marvellous book for a 14–16-year-old, although it does have some strong language and sexual references that not all parents will be happy with, and it is the sort of book a weird little 12-year-old who already reads beyond their reading level (like me) and hides copies of Neil Gaiman’s Neverwhere under their bed (like I did) would absolutely devour and obsess over for years to come.

[askaniritual]

i feel like it’s so obvious when i finish work because i immediately start frantically posting abt everything that’s been dissolving my brain all day but anyway i was thinking abt how in a hsmtw bonusode somebody asked why queer ppl like hs so much and cameron’s answer was sth like “i think in homestuck there’s this idea that you can have any kind of relationship with somebody as long as you are open and upfront about your needs” (this is like heavily paraphrased i listened to this while i was walking around tj’s like 2 months ago) but anyway i thought that rung very true especially in the way quadrants r explored generally in fic and Especially in this fic, which if it could be said to have a thesis statement would read something like: it is okay to rely on other people, and to feel that you are not always giving equally within a relationship, as long as you are communicating what you need.

like as strange as it is to say abt a fic that again i can’t emphasize enough is ostensibly abt the second signless revolution, the primary preoccupation of the fic is the idea that like it is okay to need support. it is okay to realize you will always need support, and that you might need a kind of support that will make other people judge you. and it’s about like. if all of those things are true it is still okay to want things for yourself, and live your life on your own terms, and to not feel like you need to be constantly self-sacrificing to make up for it.

anyway i’m not saying this fic says any of this stuff in a particularly nuanced or like. interesting way. but it does say those things! which is kind of interesting in and of itself!

[linuxgamenews]

Get Ready for Terrorformer TD Tower Defense: Release Date Announced

Terrorformer TD tower defense roguelite game has a release date for Linux, Mac, and Windows PC. Thanks to the creative genius of onewinter games. Due to test your skills on Steam next month. Earlier this week, solo indie developer onewinter, run by TJ Cioffe, announced their first game debut. Terrorformer TD tower defense roguelite is launching on September 9th. You can check out a playable Linux demo right now during Steam’s Tower Defense Fest. This is also a title where the map changes as you play, but you get to shape it with terraforming tools! Each round, you build up your defenses to survive waves of enemies and then hit the shop for new towers, upgrades, and rewards. As you play, you earn XP, level up, and unlock new abilities, getting stronger with every run.

Terrorformer TD: tower defense Release Date Trailer

What started as TJ Cioffe’s Master of Fine Arts thesis quickly turned into his passion project. He saw a chance to put his own spin on the tower defense genre, adding cool features like procedurally generated maps that you can terraform, roguelike progress, online leaderboards, and weekly tests. The demo for Terrorformer TD just got an update for Tower Defense Fest. Now, you can remap controls, enjoy better weapon and tower upgrades, see unique death animations for each enemy type, and experience a dynamic map that reacts to your base management and terraforming. There are more achievements and new perks to unlock too. The game now supports multiple languages including Simplified Chinese, Korean, Japanese, Brazilian Portuguese, Russian, German, and French. This update makes the game even more fun. While more updates coming before the final release.

Key Features:

Terraform the Battlefield: Unlock new procedurally generated maps, each with unique terraforming and base buildin. Adapt your defenses to the changing battle.

Assemble a Home Tower: Customize your Terrorformer TD Home Tower defense with components you unlock. Get special abilities, upgrades, and weapons! Earn perks as you play, due to make each run easier.

Choose Your Own Adventure: With random unlocks, upgrades, and map erosion each round, every play through is different. Try harder difficulties or see how long you can last in the Weekly Challenge!

Take on Enemy Hordes: Counter enemy abilities with 25 unique towers that earn XP and level up. While you mix and match to find the best combo for each test.

The Terrorformer TD tower defense roguelite demo is available now on Steam, with the full game launching on September 9, 2024. Download the demo and add it to your wishlist! Coming to Linux, Mac, and Windows PC.

[summersizedme-ee]

I was tagged by @alosyair thank you so much, I'm so sorry for how long it's taken me to get to do this :')

Rules: List ten books that have stayed with you in some way, don’t take but a few minutes, and don’t think too hard - they don’t have to be the “right” or “great” works, just the ones that have touched you.

In no particular order:

1. Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe by Benjamin Alire Sáenz. Was (still maybe is?) one of my most favorite books and played an instrumental part in me discovering my queer identity.

2. The Infernal Devices series by Cassandra Clare. From my pre-teen big reading phase. I don't think I'd cried as much over any book before the third installation The Clockwork Princess. Still holds a dear place in my heart, should reread it one of these days.

3. The Paul Street Boys by Ferenc Molnár. Actually, I might have lied in the previous question. I think this must have been the first book that made me sob and bawl from how sad it was. A staple of my childhood. My friends fell asleep while reading it though so take from it what you will :'D

4. The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern. Got it as a gift and was very skeptical at first, but oh my God it is so good. Please read it. Go into it without expecting anything. It's a truly fantastical read.

5. The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold. I found this book because I randomly saw the movie on TV and was absolutely captivated by it. Despite the uh.......subject matters discussed in the book and considering how young I was, I'm surprised how little it "scarred" me. It deals with death and grief in a very gentle (?) way that I still admire.

6. The House in the Cerulean Sea by TJ Klune. Obviously this popped into my head, I wrote my freaking Bachelor's thesis on it. Found family at its best. Makes me incredibly happy and will probably remain one of my favorites for a long time to come.

7. Lexicon by Max Barry. This is still one of the most random books I have ever stumbled upon, I don't even know why I decided to buy it?? I was like 13 or 14 when I got it and even though it's not one of my favorites or anything, something about it still pops into my head from time to time. Very strange. Another one I should pick up again one of these days.

8. Twilight by Stephanie Myer. Okay. It kept popping into my head and I guess that means I really do have to mention it. Yes, I had a Twilight phase. Yes, I still really like the series even though it's garbage. I know. I have accepted my flaws.

9. Beautiful Creatures and the rest of the Caster Chronicles by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl. The first book series I finished reading fully in English! I found it because we went to see its movie adaptation at the cinema for a friend's birthday and I was hooked. Really recommend, at least based on what I remember of it.

10. House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski. Even though I read this very recently I Can't Stop Thinking About It. It has burrowed its way inside of me and I don't know what to do with it. Truly one of the best pieces of literature/fiction? that I've ever read. I'm already planning to gift it to two of my friends to spread the word hehehe >:3

I'm gonna tag @babesies and @bumble-buddy even though both of you are probably not gonna see it :D

[lord-morpheus-ravens]

Tagged by @tj-dragonblade . Thank you!!! I haven't done one of these in a Very Long Time! Since my ST days methinks..

Favourite colour: I don't really have one! But lately I've been very into every shade between lilac and deep purple/dark violet when drawing!

Currently reading: Commedia by Dante Alighieri for my thesis. Also cause it's good and I've loved it and him so much for so long!

Last song: Hero by Heather Dale.

Last series: His Dark Materials! The third one drove me up the wall with the way they were kinda shifting the focus from the protagonists of the novels to ...random characters... but! I loved it very much!

Last movie: Nimona! Showstopping heartbreaking magnificent etc.

Currently working on: My thesis ! And the next chapter of My love will testify. I think I'll be done tomorrow at the latest! And this is the last angsty chapter :')

Tagging @seiya-starsniper and @zigzag-wanderer . Absolutely no pressure of course!!

[suzypepper]

Britney Spears acting visibly upset when people are filming her without her consent eating at a restaurant (and then lol everybody and their mother sharing said video filmed without her consent with captions like “don’t do this” 24/7). Some people say “yeah that’s what you get when you decide to go out in public it’s not illegal she’s rich so it’s fine to harass her” but it’s trendy to be pro-Britney right now so other people say “she has been through major trauma don’t fucking do that to her and don’t fucking ridicule her natural response!”

And several months ago Amber Heard is filmed without her consent shopping at a TJ Maxx and everyone either says “that’s what you get when you go out in public it’s not illegal she’s a cunt so it’s fine to harass her” or because it was trendy to be anti-Amber then they say “actually she planned this she wanted this she planted cameras on herself to create a narrative she paid corrupt invasive humiliating misogynistic tabloids to exploit her she’s such a narcissist she just wants attention she is literally legitimately asking to be harassed”

I don’t have a thesis I’m just saying. It’s crazy how misogyny is a trend. How defending women from overt misogyny is conditional. Makes you think it never actually goes away

[nonbinaryezrabridger]

Thesis: sgu is horror sci fi rather than just sci fi and that’s why people don’t like it

Evidence:

In sci fi, the heroes fight impossible odds (goa’uld, wraith, etc) but almost always win, albeit with sacrifices (*spoilers* rip janet and Carson)

In horror, you don’t win (nakai), or if you do, you barely survive (fighting for resources not to suffocate or starve), lose everyone you love (all their family at home, TJ’s baby, etc) , and are deeply traumatized

Sgu was never intended to give you warm fuzzy found family feelings because it’s at least partially horror!!!!

[tjmystic]

Thesis Snippet

Hey everyone! I know that many of you have been waiting for years for me to post about my thesis, and I figured, “No time like the present.” So, here’s a snippet from the first chapter in my thesis in which I attempt to codify the various genres of fanfiction. 

The actual snippet is under the cut for length. I’ve tagged everyone I could think of who has asked me about my thesis. I sincerely apologize if I missed anyone.

@disappointed-dadfriend @dragonflyswing @smorg-the-destroyer @ssirius-blackk @katieamnesiaandrews @kelyon @woodelf68 @wayamy27narf @anonymousnerdgirl @stealing-your-kittens @slytherin-ginny @justforza @thisisfreaky @itsnotteaitsdrugs @undergreatwhite

Also, considering that this was written by me and is (as far as I know) only privately published within the college I attended, I doubt that I need to leave any disclaimers. That said, note that all of these ideas are original and have existed in print since I wrote it between 2013 and 2015.

What Is (and What Is NOT) Fanfiction

Limitation 1:  Plot

Generally speaking, the first factor anyone considers when attempting to define a genre is plot.  Fantasy, for example, consists of those stories that have magical or unrealistic elements.  Crime novels are those which revolve around mystery and intrigue.  Fanfiction, though, is unique in this aspect because its only plot constraint is its existence in another author’s universe. In other words, the story itself cannot be an entirely original endeavor—either the setting or characters from a pre-existing universe must be employed in order for a work to be considered fanfiction.  This also means that sequels, tie-ins, or other stories in that universe written by the original work’s author cannot be considered fanfiction. As Henry Jenkins—professor of communication, journalism, cinematic arts, and education at USC Annenberg—states in his article Fan Fiction as Critical Commentary, “Fan stories are in no simple sense just ‘extensions’ or ‘continuations’ or ‘extra episodes’ of the original series” (Jenkins).  They are purely the work of fans, just as the name would suggest.  

All of that considered, fanfiction is actually a very lenient genre in terms of plot.  Authors are given almost complete carte blanche when it comes to writing a “fic” (the popular, shortened term for an individual work of fanfiction).  As such, it is possible to find fics over subjects as varied as romance, horror, and tragedy side-by-side on any fanfiction database.  Characters can die, develop romantic attractions to one another, have children, murder someone, pull a convoluted practical joke, or any number of other plot devices as the author sees fit.  Nothing is off the table, no matter how controversial or seemingly convoluted—if it can be imagined, it can be written, and it can be posted.  The only requirement in writing is that the author stay true to the characters of the original story.  

Limitation 2:  Characterization

Because of this requirement, characterization is, quite possibly, the most integral defining trait of fanfic.  Fanfiction authors can do whatever they want in terms of plot, but the characters absolutely must be true to the source material. In the interest of ease of explanation, the best example for describing this is the Harry Potter series by J. K. Rowling, which is not only internationally well-known but enormous in its fanbase.  Severus Snape, one of the main characters of this series, is described as a sallow-skinned man with greasy hair and a hooked nose who treats his students with disdain at best and outright cruelty at worst (Rowling1 100, 108).  Were a fanfiction author to describe him as being traditionally handsome, kind, and fair, then, that author would be accused of writing OOC (“out of character”). Understandably, this is never a good thing to be accused of as a writer of fanfiction.  

That said, the fanfic genre does allow for a variety of different interpretations of a character.  To pick on Severus Snape again, there are any number of alternate beliefs a fanfiction author might have of him.  Some might focus on his aforementioned cruelty and write him with sarcastic interior monologue and degrading remarks about everyone around him.  Others might instead seek to emphasize his ultimate bravery and write about his guilt and self-loathing for choosing so often to stray down the wrong path.  Neither of these interpretations is incorrect.  On the contrary, an adept fanfiction author might employ both interpretations in order to show the whole picture of the mysterious potions master. This rarely occurs, though, and debates (friendly and aggressive) will sprout amongst fans who disagree with each other’s conception of a character’s attitudes and behaviors.  In this way, it might be best to think of fanfiction as a sort of creative exercise in character analysis.  Henry Jenkins, also an advocate for the respect of fanfiction as a genre, gives the same impression in his own beliefs about this phenomenon. In his own words, “Unlike the model critical essays discussed by the various university writing centers, the insights about the work get expressed not through nonfictional argumentation but rather through the construction of new stories.  Just as a literary essay uses text to respond to text, fan fiction uses fiction to respond to fiction” (Jenkins).

...

Limitation 4:  An Active and Current Fanbase

Although effective in explaining where fanfiction lies, the above boundaries apply to basically every other genre of literature is well.  The specifics are different, of course, but all genres without fail rely on specifications of plot, character, and quality.  This is excellent for proving that fanfiction is just as viable a genre as any other, but it does limit the ability to see fanfiction as a genre of its own.  If there is one thing that sets fanfiction apart, though, it is its need for an active and current fanbase.  

The fanbase (or fandom) part of this definition is rather easy to explain.  It is, of course, the conglomeration of all fans of a particular work of fiction.  Examples include the Harry Potter fanbase in literature, Supernatural in television, and the Elder Scrolls fanbase in video games.  (This also brings up the interesting point that fanfiction is not necessarily confined to literature, a facet which will be examined further on in this thesis.)  This would seem to suggest that book clubs should be considered a part of the fanfiction community, but there is one key factor they are missing.  Namely, book clubs do not tend to write addendums to whatever book they are studying.  Obvious though it may seem, it is prudent to point this out, because a fanbase is nothing to the fanfiction community if that fanbase does not create additional material.

The “active and current” bits of this limitation are slightly more difficult to pin down, if only because they are so uncommon in other types of literature. With a romance novel, for instance, the reader reads the book, finishes it, and puts it away.  The process is very straightforward with little to no communication.  In fanfiction, however, authors and readers alike actively discuss the original work with each other and make back-and-forth suggestions about what could have been done to make said work better.  They also comment on each other’s fics in much the same way, critically examining the other person’s creative use of the original work.  Occasionally, this can include discussions with creators of the original work via posts, tweets, or emails, which, while not as important as discussion amongst the fans themselves, is another defining element of fanbase communication. There is a thin line, however, in such discussion between fanfiction authors and authors of the original works. If an author is approached by the source creator before they begin writing, he or she will lose all anonymity and never be able to experience the active community aspect so vital to fanfiction.  Writing for hire, then, can never be considered fanfiction.  

Fanbases must also be current, meaning that the active communication explained above happens presently and, more often than not, immediately.  This means that most works of historical fiction, while adherent to the plot and character traits of fanfiction, should not be considered members of this genre.  Exceptions include TV shows like The Tudors and Philippa Gregory’s The Other Boleyn Girl series, both of which have a decent online following and a number of related fanfics.  Likewise, popular modernizations of old tales can be considered fanfiction because, as stated, they are both popular (active) and modern (current).  Amongst those with the largest followings are television shows Sherlock on the BBC and Elementary on CBS (both of which are tweaked and modernized versions of Sir Alfred Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes mysteries) and novels Bridget Jones’s Diary (a contemporary twist on Jane Austin’s Pride & Prejudice) and Beastly by Alex Flinn (a retelling of the fairytale “Beauty and the Beast”).  

Proposed Definition

Based on these limitations and the information gleaned from them, it should be noted that fanfiction is not so simple a term as reference books have made it out to be.  To be succinct, fanfiction can be defined as follows:

Fan-fiction [fæn-fIk-šUn] – a form of writing and communication amongst fans of any given work of media which builds upon that work’s universe as a form of creative analysis; requires immediate feedback and communication, also described as an active fanbase; and is judged by its adherence to the original work’s characterization

Using this definition, we can also begin to break fanfiction into discernable subgenres.  This is exceptionally relevant to the argument of whether or not fanfiction is a “legitimate” genre of literature.  The answer, of course, is that, yes, fanfiction can be divided into a variety of different plot types, just like any media genre.  Readers familiar with fanfiction websites would probably hasten to name “angst” or the more obscure “western” as examples of such plots, considering that this is how fanfiction writers categorize their works (“FanFiction.net”).  The problem with these “subgenres”, obviously, is that they are not unique to fanfiction—angst-riddled storylines are common throughout nearly every genre, and westerns, of course, are an animal all to themselves.  Thus, a different listing should be used to further divide fanfiction into understandable subgroups.  Currently, this list consists of six distinctive items, defined by adherence to both the plot and characters of the original work:

1.     Canon-compliant

2.     Prospective

3.     Universe Alteration (or UA)

4.     Alternate Universe (or AU)

5.     Crossover

6.     Crack

Canon-complaint is, perhaps, the easiest to define and most relatable to readers who are inexperienced in fanfiction works.  As the name suggests, canon-complaint fanfiction addresses scenes the audience knows to have happened but which were not given full detail in the original work.  Continuing with the earlier comparisons to Harry Potter, there is a moment in the first book, The Sorcerer’s Stone, wherein twins Fred and George Weasley spend an afternoon throwing snowballs at a professor’s turban and torturing their older brother Percy.  This moment was described in the book in roughly two to three lines, much as it has been here, so the details of the event and the actual showing of it were absent.  A canon-compliant fic of Harry Potter, then, could flesh out this day of their lives according to what the author already knows about it. It could be particularly humorous to have the twins realize that the turban they assaulted hid the face of dark wizard Lord Voldemort.

Similarly, the prospective subgenre looks at scenes that the audience thinks plausible given the characters personalities and/or the rules set forth by the original work’s world.  The difference here is that the events included in prospective fanfiction are not known for certain by the audience to have happened within the work. Creator interpretations and meta-analyses often lend to this prospective space (refer to my notes on the “death of the author” phenomenon in the following chapter and how seriously that authorial interpretation can be taken in fanfiction). For example, though it is never mentioned in the Harry Potter novels, J.K. Rowling mentioned on her website that beloved character Neville Longbottom married Hannah Abbott, one of his schoolmates with whom he had little if any interaction in the story. A prospective fanfic could explore how their romance blossomed and, ultimately, gave way to marriage. Conversely, a prospective fic could also take a hard detour and describe Neville’s romantic and/or sexual relationships with other characters before his marriage to Hannah. Because neither of these storylines is outright stated within the text of the novels, any fics written about them would belong to the prospective genre.

These two genres are rather simple and straightforward in regards to what they encompass.  Authors of canon-compliant and prospective fanfiction work solely within the limits of whatever universe they have chosen to write in and adhere to scenes, dialogue, and situations given to them by that preexisting work. Universe alterations and alternate universes, however, take a significantly different approach.  In the former, fanfiction authors change one or more details of the world or characters in the original work as a means of describing what could have happened.  This can occasionally veer into what some original content creators derogatorily term “wish fulfilment”, wherein authors who disliked a character’s death, relationships, reactions, etc. will rewrite a scene or entire storyline to fit their own personal belief of what should have happened.  Such fics may also concentrate on the thought-provoking idea of “what would be different if …?”, thereby causing readers to consider the implications of even the most minute change in the world they so love.  For instance, it is made quite clear in the fifth book of the Harry Potter series that Lord Voldemort could have targeted Neville Longbottom instead of Harry himself due to the specifics listed in the prophecy about the child who would eventually destroy him (Rowling2 842).  A good universe alteration fic would use this fact as an opportunity to write Neville as “The Boy Who Lived”, or, conversely, have both him and his parents be killed by Voldemort. UAs are not always this simple, though. They can also create their own alternatives not necessarily evoked in the original narrative. What if Sirius Black and Remus Lupin were in a romantic and/or sexual relationship, for instance? What if Harry was part mermaid or part dragon?

Alternate universe fanfics are considerably different in that, rather than changing details within the universe, they move prevalent aspects of that universe somewhere else.  To be more specific, authors of such fics will typically take the characters of an original work and place them in an alternative setting. This subgenre can further be split into two parts:  displacement and mimicry.  In displacement AUs, the characters are simply displaced to different settings or time periods.  The options here are limitless.  For instance, though Harry Potter takes place in modern-day Great Britain, a displacement AU could deposit the characters in modern-day America or, perhaps, take them back to the Middle Ages.  They could also have them exist in a Britain where magic simply does not exist. Note here that two things are necessary to make this type of AU work:  one, the characters cannot be aware of being displaced (i.e. there isn’t a time-travel or vacation plot in play, the characters just exist in this alternate world instead of the one from the original work), and, two, it is very rare to alter both the time and setting within an AU.  Mimicry AUs are much more specific than this.  As the name would imply, these types of alternate universe fics place the characters in the world of another work of media and have them play out the plot of that other work instead of the plot of their own story. A good example of this would be an AU of the Harry Potter characters being involved in the Hunger Games.  The characters of The Hunger Games series would not be present and would, instead, be replaced by those from Harry Potter.  Katniss Everdeen, the title character, could be replaced by Ron Weasley, as an example, with her sister Prim being replaced by Ron’s sister Ginny, and so on.  The similarity between these two types of alternate universe fics, of course, is that they still take place in a world separate from that of the original work.  

Similar to mimicry alternate universe fanfics, crossovers tend to place one universe’s characters in another universe’s world. The dissimilarity here is that crossovers will include the characters from both universes, not just one, in order to examine how they might interact. To employ the above situation, Harry and his friends might be transported via magic to Panem, the country where The Hunger Games take place, and be forced to fight alongside Katniss and the other victors in order to take down the villainous Capital.  This could also work backwards, with The Hunger Games characters being taken to Hogwarts due to some sort of scientific experiment gone wrong.  It should be noted here that crossovers can include multiple sets of characters, not just two as explained in these examples.  

All of the above five categories constitute what most fandoms consider “good fanfiction”.  This is because, if they adhere to the aforementioned measures of quality, all of them provide insightful, intriguing viewpoints on the characters and settings so loved by the original works’ audiences.  The last category, however, commonly referred to as “crack” within the fanfiction community, does not.  Like “bad fiction” in other genres, crack is distinguished primarily by three traits:  excessive use of incorrect grammar (note the exception of authors writing in a language other than their native one, most commonly English), occurrences classified as nonsensical according to the universe’s rules, and characters who do not act true to their descriptions (or, to use the common fanfiction term, characters who are OOC).  This is rather hard to explain without an example, but, for better or worse, there is a multitude of examples from which to choose.  One of the most famous (or, perhaps, infamous) crack fanfics ever written is the 2006 “epic” My Immortal by Tara Gilesbie.  Examples proving this fic as “crack” include such memorable dialogue as, “‘I MAY BE A HOGWARTS STUDENT’ Hagrid paused angrily. ‘BUT I AM ALSO A SATANIST!’” and “I could see him crying blood in a gothic way” (Gilesbie).  This fic also incorporates self-insertion, which, as previously stated, is a major faux-pas in the fanfiction world.    

In general, fandoms and individual fans will tend to agree with this break-down of the fanfiction genre.  That being said, they may not necessarily agree with the examples given for each subgenre.  As in all other genres of literature, fanfiction readers and writers alike will have differences of opinion in regards to what is accurate characterization, acceptable plot, and “good” writing.  This means that, essentially, any fic can be awarded to any subgenre if there is a strong enough argument to support that classification.  Furthermore, a fic which is deemed “crack” or “bad” will not always be disliked.  Indeed, many of the fics considered to be atrociously written are the most popular. The aforementioned My Immortal is, again, an excellent example as nearly every fanfic reader in creation has read it.  This can be problematic to the effort of legitimizing fanfiction because so many people relate this fic, in particular, and others like it to fanfiction as a whole.  Amateur though the endeavor of fanfiction may be, this is hardly the case (see examples in Chapter 2 of this thesis).  

There are also some fans who will defend a crack fic because they genuinely enjoy it.  Because of differences in character interpretation and “shipping” (this term will be better defined in the following chapter, but, for now, it can be briefly described as an extreme enjoyment of the idea of two or more characters being romantically and/or sexually involved with each other), some fanfiction writers and readers will differ in opinion from their peers.  Take, for example, the shipping of Hermione Granger and Severus Snape in Harry Potter fanfiction. Many fans of the series would consider this bizarre, as the latter character expresses disdain for the former (and, moreover, is deeply obsessed with another woman throughout the majority of the series), and the former expresses only a begrudging respect and defense of him because of his cruelty towards her.  These descriptions are undoubtedly true, and, yet, this is one of the most popular ships in the fanfiction universe, clocking in with well over 162,000 individual stories on fanfiction.net alone (“Fanfiction.net”).

[scoobydoofenshmirtz]

Dean likes Cas, and not just as a friend confirmed.