#tortured metaphors

[bitchesgetriches]

Get Busy Living or Get Busy Dying: Finance Philosophy Explained by The Shawshank Redemption 

The Shawshank Redemption as an extended metaphor for the deficit prison you're trapped in? It's more likely than you think.

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[jonnywaistcoat]

Have you heard of I Have No Mouth And I Must Scream? If you have, do you like it?

Have I heard of one of the seminal pieces of New Wave science fiction? Yes, I have. Do I like it...?

Huh. What a question. Do I like it?

I guess the answer is no, not really. Or at least, I didn't enjoy the experience of reading it: it's heavily locked into a lot of the cultural and sociological outlooks of the 60s and 70s that I find kind of repugnant and while some of what goes down is gross in a way I love to read, a lot of it is gross in a way I really don't.

So I don't like it. But that's one reason why I'm really glad I read it. Only reading and engaging with things you like it eventually leaves your brain a bit mushed. Sometimes you need something to wrestle with, something unpleasant you can sit with in discomfort. And I don't mean "hate-reading" or going in looking for reasons to tear something down - I mean good faith engagement with art that you don't like. Because I always find that people are so quick to ask "what's wrong with this?" they fail to ask what I think is a more compelling question: "what value can I find in here, what is there that's interesting?"

And to be fair that's a very easy task with I Have No Mouth. Harlan Ellison is a great writer tackling some fascinating questions and its an influential enough work that it puts a lot of later sci-fi (that I often enjoy more) into context. Plus I love an evil computer and AM is the absolute GOAT.

And obviously there's no shame in tapping out of a piece of art if you're genuinely finding it too unpleasant to get through, but I'm always in favour of good faith engagement with art you don't like. It keeps the fire hot for the inspiration soup.

[emariedraws]

This man is NEVER beating the dog allegations

[14dayswithyou]

what is ren's schedule for the 28th? 💚☔️🩷

if it's not too much of a spoiler can i ask what the most fucked up thing that can happen involving our pretty boy? is totally ok if you can't answer this!

⌞♥⌝ Wahhh asking me for the most fucked up events feels a bit subjective (as it all depends on the person), but I will say that—

CW: 14DWY spoilers under the cut!! Also minor depictions of gore, torture, etc.

Depending on the Decay meter and everyone's affinity points, the player can potentially unlock a scene where Ren will literally carve off another character's face and wear it like a second skin. (He just wants to be Angel's ideal type, after all!! ^^)

And depending on the Decay and Purity meter, there's also another unlockable scene where Angel can essentially dehumanise(?) Ren and treat him like a wild animal T_T He'll sleep in a cage (or on the floor like in day 1 ghshjg), eat whatever scraps Angel feeds him, and kinda just?? act like how he would around his father in hopes of appeasing them.

I've also mentioned this a few times before, but there will also be an unlockable cannibal scene, a torture scene (Angel is not the one being tortured /gen), a red room scene, and your basic Room Tour After Getting Kidnapped scene <3 But I feel like they're all kinda self-explanatory, so I won't delve further kgjdfjgj

But, again, these are just some things that I personally consider to be the tiniest bit fucked up. However, others might have differing opinions once the full game is published, and I also don't want to reveal everything that will be in the game, as I feel like that takes away the fun of blindly experiencing something for the first time.

Also!! I want to reiterate once more that all these scenes (except one) are conditional and dependent on the player's choices! You can 100% go down a pacifist route where Ren is a Normal Guy With Normal Intentions — and you won't ever be pressured into making certain choices either. At its core, 14DWY is a game that shapes itself around the player's tastes and interests...

...Much like Ren.

[mushroomwriter]

THE UNTAMED episode 20

+ bonus:

[marimbles]

if ive been at a restaurant cheerfully and enthusiastically waiting for the chicken parm to be served for like 5 hours, am I not allowed to be disappointed that it turned out to be salmon instead. sure salmon is really tasty to some people but what if I just don’t like salmon. why are they serving salmon in the chicken parm restaurant? “it’s such an interesting surprise that the chef brought out salmon! I can’t wait to see what’s for dess—” no. bring me my chicken parm .

anyway that’s how I feel in the miraculous ladybug fandom rn lol

[withthewindinherfootsteps]

something about how both wei wuxian and jin guangyao repeatedly say they ‘didn’t have a choice’ in their actions. in both cases, it’s not literal impossibility, instead determined by their mindsets and personal conduct…. but while for wei wuxian that means he can’t do something immoral, even if it means losing all his social power, for jin guangyao it means he can’t do anything to lose his social power, even if it means doing something immoral. the other option is still there, but it’s never one they’d pick.

something about how they’re trying to walk the same path but in opposite directions: wei wuxian willingly left the nice, broad road in favour of upholding morals and debts, while jin guangyao is trying to claw onto it and stay there by any means necessary. in both cases, being parted from it so easily is only possible because this nice, broad road — full of people whose social power is unconditional, given at birth, independent of their actions — was never truly theirs to begin with. but despite how it is possible to be forced off due to nothing, as we see with wang lingjiao, the positions of both these characters were ultimately due to actions they took.

(about how no matter the similarity of the paths, no matter the narrowness of the choices, the direction you take is still up to you.)

[wavesoutbeingtossed]

Marriage and children on TTPD:

My husband is cheating, I want to kill him / Your wife waters flowers, I want to kill her / At dinner you take my ring off my middle finger and put it on the one people put wedding rings on and that’s the closest I’ve come to my heart exploding / You swore that you loved me, but where were the clues? I died on the altar waiting for the proof / I’m having his baby— no I’m not, but you should see your faces / No, you can’t come to the wedding / Ain't no way I'm gonna screw up now that I know what's at stake, here at the park where we used to sit on children's swings wearing imaginary rings / My friends all smell like weed or little babies / Your cheating husband disappeared, well no one asks any questions here / You and I go from one kiss to getting married / You shit-talked me under the table, talking rings and talking cradles, I wish I could un-recall how we almost had it all / Whether I'm gonna be your wife or gonna smash up your bike, I haven't decided yet but I'm gonna get you back / So if I sell my apartment and you have some kids with an internet starlet, will that make your memory fade from this scarlet maroon like it never happened? / Didn't you hear? They called it all off / Are you gonna marry, kiss, or kill me? It's just a game, but really I'm betting on all three for us two / Way to go tiger, higher and higher, wilder and lighter for you / He said that if the sex was half as good as the conversation was soon they'd be pushing strollers, but soon it was over

[roxannepolice]

And then along comes this noise. All day long, this relentless noise.

OH YEAH AND HOW DOES THAT FEEL, DOCTOR????

[bleue-flora]

Ok, I recently wrote an essay [here] talking about the definition and duties of civil engineering as well as the ethics because of the brain rot @swordfright gave me with calling Dream Sam’s ultimate engineering project. So, because I actually am a civil engineer I took it upon myself to design the title and summary of quantities sheets just like I do at work for roads but with Dream as the project instead. And in honor of angst day sponsored by @sixteenth-day-event, I figured I’d share it because I feel like it kinda works for the prison of the mind prompt.

“Sam’s “ultimate engineering project” he deemed too damaged like a bumpy road or crumbling building that wasn’t worthy of patching and filling in the cracks or reinforcing, that’s too eroded to be fixed and preserved. So, Sam strived to tear him down to the bedrock so he could remake, remold, and reengineer Dream according to his design for the common safety, public health and well-fair.”

{These are very similar to the actual sheets I make day to day, which I shall not share for the sake of doxing my location, but yea pretty much everything has a significance. Some of it doesn’t necessarily make sense but that was because I was more so taking inventory of what we see in lore (so you know I counted ;) lol)}

[bitchesgetriches]

The Shawshank Redemption as an extended metaphor for the deficit prison you're trapped in? It's more likely than you think. Learn more.

[ocevomit]

ive been thinking that Saejima is the most well adjusted but I got to the tripe scene in y5 and no there's something deeply wrong with him as well

[soulsunpoets]

(I've never known a love so tempest like)

[pulsingvoid]

killing eve 🤝 yellowjackets 🤝 kevin can fuck himself

stories about women who become aware they are stuck in a Narrative and begin fighting against their constraints that fall short of being good storytelling because the storytellers seem more concerned with depicting the futility and unfairness and cruelty of the narrative than letting these female characters do something revolutionary and break out of their narrative constraints in any meaningful and intentional and non-incidental way

[lambmotifz]

something something dean + penetration metaphor/motif. the amount of times he killed/tried to kill someone by brutally penetrating them….

[shorthaltsjester]

"And you loved her once, too. You were inseparable. I remember the day the Featheringtons moved in across the square. From that day on, it was, “Penelope this,” and “Penelope that,” and “Penelope and I are going to read Don Quixote, and we are going to be knights.”"

Eloise Bridgerton & Penelope Featherington in Bridgerton // We're In Love by boygenius