thirdwifeofriversong

[thirdwifeofriversong]

The Lady and the Unicorn  is the modern title given to a series of six tapestries created woven in Flanders from wool and silk, from designs drawn in Paris around 1500. The set, on display in the Musée de Cluny in Paris, considered one of the greatest works of art of the Middle Ages in Europe.

"According to my only wish."

"The lady with the unicorn. Hearing"

"The lady with the unicorn. Touch"

"The lady with the unicorn. Smell." 

"The lady with the unicorn. Vision"

"The lady with the unicorn. Taste"

[thirdwifeofriversong]

it’s always a good time to remember that time Ivan Vorpatril got discreetly dosed with Cetagandan anti-viagra right before being “invited upstairs” by 2 beautiful noblewomen, so he improvised some bullshit about it being a matter of Male Vor Honor(TM) to get a woman off 3 times before he himself came, and proceeded to foreplay so well and so thoroughly that he successfully exhausted all of them to sleep and snuck out; and the next day started getting a flood of invites to “private parties” hosted by more noblewomen, including at least 1 who was married.

[thirdwifeofriversong]

If you’ve read any scientific articles in school or for work that was supported or published by the U S government, please download them and do not delete your copies. URLs may have access blocked. They are deleting datasets and research from publicly accessible sites, and we have to retain this knowledge. Information is power— and the knowledge they are trying to take is what is most important to keep in this moment. Stay strong, and practice self and community care.

[thirdwifeofriversong]

I made even more Vorkosigan memes

Part 1 Part 2

[thirdwifeofriversong]

I’m so glad people like my Vorkosigan saga memes. I made more for a presentation where I explained what happened in every book but I only had 60 seconds for each, and I explained them in the order they were published instead of the order they happen. It was great. There was shouting. I really need to post those

[thirdwifeofriversong]

it’s such a shame that even 30 years into the reign of Gregor Vorbarra, Barrayar’s government is still fundamentally non-transparent with a tight hand on the press, because can you fucking imagine watching Ekaterin tell Richars to fuck off then propose to Miles in the Chamber of Counts live on Barrayaran C-SPAN

[thirdwifeofriversong]

Not what you'd want to see on a dark Ketterdam night

[thirdwifeofriversong]

I finished A Civil Campaign and I will scream about it more later but. For now, simply put: greatest ever fictional deployment of a couch to deal a lethal amount of psychic damage. Cordelia you fucking legend.

[thirdwifeofriversong]

Miles making up the story of his clone on a spur of the moment running-his-mouth-to-save-his-ass situation and then his clone being real is SO FUNNY TO ME

[thirdwifeofriversong]

The Archive will be down for about 3 hours of maintenance tomorrow, Jan 14 at 22:00 UTC. Check what time that is for you: https://bit.ly/4aiO4Cs.

[thirdwifeofriversong]

Made a dark mode skin to go with the light mode version of this one.

[thirdwifeofriversong]

like the first rule of cooking is to have fun and be yourself and the first rule of baking is to stay calm because the dough can sense fear

[thirdwifeofriversong]

One thing I love about Cordelia and Aral is that they come from such different cultures with such different taboos and mores, and they are each delighted by the other's expression of these differences

[thirdwifeofriversong]

we were ROBBED

(Another story in the case of 10, 11 and 12)

[thirdwifeofriversong]

spoilers for Memory from the Vorkosigan Saga by Lois McMaster Bujold

So if you’re in the middle of the series, don’t read this post.  OK, so Miles was fired for (among other things) concealing a medical condition that put himself, his subordinates, and (through that) the Imperium in danger. 

Now…. Illyan has to have known he was getting sick. The earliest one Galeni saw (memo with the wrong date) maybe he never even knew; maybe his secretary corrected it without informing him.  And maybe the second one (requesting a report he’d already received) he dismissed as too small to be a concern, although for Illyan forgetting even that small a detail was probably a warning sign worthy of a check-up. But by the third one (memo with the wrong date addressed to Galeni’s predecessor about a topic out of date, which he then forgot he asked for), this was a clear situation, and Illyan had enough evidence to know it even if Galeni didn’t – especially since it’s exceedingly likely that there were warning signs that happened when Galeni wasn’t around. Now I’m not saying he should have immediately put himself on medical leave or anything. But he did have a clear responsibility to warn Haroche that he might need to take medical leave shortly, and Haroche should be prepared for that. And to inform Gregor of that possibility.   In short, he concealed a medical condition that – to a much greater extent – put himself, his subordinates, and the Imperium in danger.  I can’t believe I’ve never seen that parallel before, and now that I have it I don’t know what to do with it.

[thirdwifeofriversong]

I feel like we need a refresher on Watsonian vs Doylist perspectives in media analysis. When you have a question about a piece of media - about a potential plot hole or error, about a dubious costuming decision, about a character suddenly acting out of character -

A Watsonian answer is one that positions itself within the fictional world.

A Doylist answer is one that positions itself within the real world.

Meaning: if Watson says something that isn't true, one explanation is that Watson made a mistake. Another explanation is that Sir Arthur Conan Doyle made a mistake.

Watsonian explanations are implicitly charitable. You are implicitly buying into the notion that there is a good in-world reason for what you're seeing on screen or on the page. ("The bunny girls in Final Fantasy wear lingerie all the time because they're from a desert culture!")

Doylist explanations are pragmatic. You are acknowledging that the fiction is shaped by real-world forces, like the creators' personal taste, their biases, the pressures they might be under from managers or editors, or the limits of their expertise. ("The bunny girls in Final Fantasy wear lingerie because somebody thought they'd sell more units that way.")

Watsonian explanations tend to be imaginative but naive. Seeking a Watsonian explanation for a problem within a narrative is inherently pleasure-seeking: you don't want your suspension of disbelief to be broken, and you're willing to put in the leg work to prevent it. Looking for a Watsonian answer can make for a fun game! But it can quickly stray into making excuses for lazy or biased storytelling, or cynical and greedy executives.

Doylist explanations are very often accurate, but they're not much fun. They should supersede efforts to provide a Watsonian explanation where actual harm is being done: "This character is being depicted in a racist way because the creators have a racist bias.'" Or: "The lore changed because management fired all of the writers from last season because they didn't want to pay then residuals."

Doylism also runs the risk of becoming trite, when applied to lower stakes discrepancies. Yes, it's possible that this character acted strangely in this episode because this episode had a different writer, but that isn't interesting, and it terminates conversation.

I think a lot of conversations about media would go a lot more smoothly, and everyone would have a lot more fun, if people were just clearer about whether they are looking to engage in Watsonian or Doylist analysis. How many arguments could be prevented by just saying, "No, Doylist you're probably right, but it's more fun to imagine there's a Watsonian reason for this, so that's what I'm doing." Or, "From a Watsonian POV that explanation makes sense, but I'm going with the Doylist view here because the creator's intentions leave a bad taste in my mouth that I can't ignore."

Idk, just keep those terms in your pocket? And if you start to get mad at somebody for their analysis, take a second to see if what they're saying makes more sense from the other side of the Watsonian/Doylist divide.