silveradept | Mar. 6th, 2019

Hi! Let's start with this: how do you envision books when you're reading them? As it turns out for me, the answer is "Not much, you?" Even though when I construct writing, I try to visually block and imagine the things that are happening, I don't actually do it when I'm reading other pieces of prose. At least, not consciously. Unless, perhaps, there's something about the prose that fires my brain, but many times, that's a result of confusion or a suspicion that the action doesn't actually play out as smoothly as the narrative wants to believe it does. My visual sense kicks in as a critical component, not as a fannish one, necessarily.

The use of the Mx. honorific is gathering acceptance (and backlash) about being used in education settings. And in other settings as well, where there's an expectation of gendered language as the norm.

A quick Twitter Thread about the idea of pursuing and recommending excellence instead of becoming obsessed with the best. Which is a much shorter form of the bit I posted earlier about corruptions of fannish experiences. Because if we're all pursuing and recommending excellence, there's room for all of us, but if we're going for "the best," at a certain point, that becomes finite. Witness a list that wants to be the best books of all time in the science fiction genre, but instead is actually a list that provides a good tour of the genre from its beginnings to the present day. There are several authors on there that I would dispute their inclusion for, but I don't doubt that they have importance as signposts of what the genre can do and is capable of. (And possibly even, as warnings of false starts and prejudices and other things that we eventually figure out don't belong.)

Many people who posit they are logical beings as a way of asserting their superiority are neither logical nor superior, but you'll have a hell of a time convincing them of that, because they've invested in their "logic" and "rationality" in the same way that they might sneer at your "beliefs" and "emotions" that supposedly make you inferior to them.

Perhaps a useful set of examples can be found here in fashion trends that men hate, which are captions of reasons that men supposedly hate various fashion trends accompanying pictures where that trend is done really well and looks good on the person wearing it. I personally am of the opinion that clothing and makeup that produces the effect that the wearer wants is correct, regardless of what an observer's opinion is on the matter.

( And behind the cut, there's always more )

Last for tonight, there may need to be more world-building in your story than you think, because culture, social space, and anything that's not a shared default is worth mentioning, even if it's not a plot point. And you may need to put those pieces in if you want your reader to assume something other than their shared default. Or you may end up looking like A Cool Guy, who exists to perform their commitment to social justice, and is in it for the making it about themselves, rather than for the advancement of others, which is often a much less fanfare-laden (and sometimes, remarkably less difficult) activity.

And Buzzfeed pitted eight roast chicken recipes against each other, and it turns out the simplest one turned out best, at least in the department of "stands on its own without saucing or any additional flavors poured onto it or dipped in it."

And finally, nobody can figure out what the Nepalese flag is the way it is, but it does make the flag a standout among all the others in the world.