![[sticky entry]](http://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/entry/sticky_entry.png){kind=small}
Hi, I’m C.
This Dreamwidth account started off mainly posting snippets of fanfiction I wrote, with the occasional (access restricted) post featuring my “original” writing and thoughts, but now it contains a mixture of semi-personal posts and fic snippets.
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Stickied post.
This is the old succinct introduction, a more verbose one can be found here! (for those viewing the first page, it's the very first sticky post)
Theme Credit - "Bluer Skies" by![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
baud (Note: I currently use Monokai by ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
plainstyles as of Jan 4 2024)
Comments are welcome anytime, on any post. IP logging is off. More stuff under the cut.
Disclaimer: Unless stated (eg; the post is labelled with original and clearly titled/written as such in the text) I do not own any copyrighted works/characters present in the posted fics.
Thanks for stopping by, and I hope you enjoy what I've written.
This is the old succinct introduction, a more verbose one can be found here! (for those viewing the first page, it's the very first sticky post)
Theme Credit - "Bluer Skies" by
baud (Note: I currently use Monokai by plainstyles as of Jan 4 2024)Comments are welcome anytime, on any post. IP logging is off. More stuff under the cut.
( Read more... )
Disclaimer: Unless stated (eg; the post is labelled with original and clearly titled/written as such in the text) I do not own any copyrighted works/characters present in the posted fics.
Thanks for stopping by, and I hope you enjoy what I've written.
(no subject)
Sep. 1st, 2025 03:30 pmRecently saw a discussion on a Discord server I’m on regarding The Guy She Was Interested in Wasn't a Guy At All (AKA the Green Yuri), and because it occurred about 7 hours before I logged onto Discord I had absolutely no desire to revive the conversation, but it did get me thinking. And writing, since I saw this discussion somewhere on Twitter before (I think), and because I’ve been thinking about narratives a lot recently… and I wanted to add my 2 cents.
Three talking points I’ve seen tossed around:
Three talking points I’ve seen tossed around:
- Green Yuri is a manga extremely popular and widely talked about on social media;
- [Therefore] Green Yuri is overhyped, despite the overall straightforward narrative
- Green Yuri is the "face"/representation of the Yuri genre today because it’s so widely talked about on social media/IRL, hence mainstream (at least in the animanga community — this point, as I have written here, is an oversimplification of the talking point as seen elsewhere)
- The narrative format is constrained (intentionally or otherwise) by its format as 4-image Twitter posts;
- Hence the mangaka/artist focuses primarily on visual expression instead of narrative structure/content,
- Which tends to cause the viewpoint I’ve mentioned on the second point above - a tendency to criticize the GY narrative as being "weak" when what should be prioritized when making criticism is first the VISUAL content instead of a perceived failure of narrative complexity.
(no subject)
Aug. 29th, 2025 03:20 pmJust reread my Of the Devil prologue review and it still makes me mad that Steam won't display it in the overall review count because "this is a review of a temporary free license" AKA I'm assuming it's because I didn't add the game demo to my steam library before posting the review. even editing the review didn't help. but idgaf enough to send a ticket to Steam Support, so I'll just re-post the review here.
...and it took me like 4 hours on and off to write this short review, but this is really embarrassing to admit
This is only a review of the prologue/episode 0. The spoiler tag has been retained (but slightly modified for clarity). Review was originally posted in January 2025. You can find and play Of The Devil here. The prologue is free and subsequent episodes can be purchased as DLC.
A good, short introduction to this mystery game with a cyberpunk setting.
It nails that gritty yet stylish feeling so prevalent in cyberpunk settings, both in terms of visuals and prose, complete with the unchecked growth of capitalistic societies, big corpos and cybernetics. However, a twist comes in the form of constant, near-perfect surveillance, which means crimes are handled much differently than they are in settings like Cyberpunk 2077.
The main character, Morgan, is a criminal defense lawyer with a strong, insightful personality and her own hidden motivations. As ep.0's narrative progresses, it's clear there's something more than making money from cases at stake for her.
( Read more... )
...and it took me like 4 hours on and off to write this short review, but this is really embarrassing to admit
This is only a review of the prologue/episode 0. The spoiler tag has been retained (but slightly modified for clarity). Review was originally posted in January 2025. You can find and play Of The Devil here. The prologue is free and subsequent episodes can be purchased as DLC.
A good, short introduction to this mystery game with a cyberpunk setting.
It nails that gritty yet stylish feeling so prevalent in cyberpunk settings, both in terms of visuals and prose, complete with the unchecked growth of capitalistic societies, big corpos and cybernetics. However, a twist comes in the form of constant, near-perfect surveillance, which means crimes are handled much differently than they are in settings like Cyberpunk 2077.
The main character, Morgan, is a criminal defense lawyer with a strong, insightful personality and her own hidden motivations. As ep.0's narrative progresses, it's clear there's something more than making money from cases at stake for her.
( Read more... )
(no subject)
Jun. 11th, 2025 05:09 pmgoing through some of my old posts on here, and found this quote from a 2021 entry:
Well, I blame that on general skill progression... after working at something for so long and looking back on your early works, there really is a humorous but painful feeling. (even just seeing something from 2023, I went, "ugh, what? why did I think the sentence flow should go like that???" honestly, the word cringe cannot even begin to cover the emotions I feel about this)
Though I think participating in writing communities like the GYWO 2024 challenge really helped me brush up my writing skills. Also, I got a bit better at organizing my writings through investing in notebooks and writing on them nearly every day in 2024 (well, more towards the latter end of 2024). I also found the ideal setup in Obsidian for outlining stories, which is to use a 3 part "narrative structure" for the overall story (summary/outline - characters - setting), and using bullet points everywhere.
In other writing-related news, I participated in Duck Prints Press' May Trope Mayhem challenge again, but this time around writing original stories instead of fanfic. (though I tapered off midway thru the month as I got really into drawing practices + sketching fanart lol)
I've been having a bit more energy for writing longform posts on Dreamwidth again, though as I write this I realize it's probably only energy for making comments... I'll think of something!
Man, I am just posting draft after draft here, aren't I? I think they're all pretty meh, but I can see how much I've improved over time. 2020 was the year where I finally went bonkers and started to take my writing seriously.It's been four years now, and I can say with absolutely no hesitation and reservation whatsoever that 99% of my prose from 2020 to 2023 is really mediocre compared to how I write now 😂
To me, all the 2021 stuff I've written so far looks shiny and pretty right now, but next year I will be laughing.
Well, I blame that on general skill progression... after working at something for so long and looking back on your early works, there really is a humorous but painful feeling. (even just seeing something from 2023, I went, "ugh, what? why did I think the sentence flow should go like that???" honestly, the word cringe cannot even begin to cover the emotions I feel about this)
Though I think participating in writing communities like the GYWO 2024 challenge really helped me brush up my writing skills. Also, I got a bit better at organizing my writings through investing in notebooks and writing on them nearly every day in 2024 (well, more towards the latter end of 2024). I also found the ideal setup in Obsidian for outlining stories, which is to use a 3 part "narrative structure" for the overall story (summary/outline - characters - setting), and using bullet points everywhere.
In other writing-related news, I participated in Duck Prints Press' May Trope Mayhem challenge again, but this time around writing original stories instead of fanfic. (though I tapered off midway thru the month as I got really into drawing practices + sketching fanart lol)
I've been having a bit more energy for writing longform posts on Dreamwidth again, though as I write this I realize it's probably only energy for making comments... I'll think of something!
(no subject)
Apr. 21st, 2024 09:14 pmBusy this week, so here’s some story excerpts. The first one is a fic excerpt, and the second is a cleaned up version of a draft for an original story, done during a GYWO Discord server writing sprint.
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This week’s music selection is the album Eliminator by ZZ Top. My favorite track from this album is Thug -- man, that bass!
That’s all for now. Thanks for reading!
(no subject)
Jan. 11th, 2024 01:02 pmSince yatagarasu_merui just finished streaming a story playthrough of the R:1999 1.6 event, I thought I'd be nice to drop this quick fic excerpt I worked on last week.
Series: Reverse: 1999
Rating: General Audiences (PG)
Relationships: Gen
Summary: a poor attempt at piecing together the plot of 1.6 solely through the trailer.
Notes: OOC warning.
( Read more... )
After forgetting about it for a little while, I decided to find out why DuckDuckGo was serving what appeared to be AI-generated summaries in search results, and I now have an answer (while not definitive).
I suspected it to be a part of Bing’s fault since I believed DuckDuckGo was using Bing’s search index to provide results (yes, they are using Bing) and serve ads etc., so I looked into it more with a quick search and found this brief article: Some of Bing’s search results now have AI-generated descriptions. - The Verge
Eurgh. Occasionally these “summaries” misrepresent the content the page is actually about, which I find annoying.
(also this post’s title was supposed to be a reminder for myself, but it summarizes what i wrote pretty well, despite lack of punctuation… and general coherence.)
Other articles about Bing using AI-generated summaries:
Snowflake Challenge 2024 Day 2
Jan. 3rd, 2024 01:40 pmI interpreted the prompt as setting creative goals for myself. These goals are mostly fannish and deal with (creative) writing. (also, I’ll try to update this post from time to time depending on how this year goes, and what I’ve done so far)
Creative:
- Post at least one (1) fic to Ao3, story completion status irrelevant
- Post one (1) completed fic to Ao3 (story must have some form of conclusion)
- Post three (3) completed fics to Ao3 (for criteria see above)
- Write for a story and/or creative project at least three (3) times every month for 2024, irrespective of word count (even just getting the idea and a little bit of the story itself down helps!)
- Write at least 10k words this year.
- Write at least 50k words this year. (doable)
- Complete the Get Your Words Out 2024 goal I set for myself (Backpacker, 120 days)
Other:
- Listen to at least 2 albums every month. If not that, then 5 songs/tracks every month. (i might use last.fm for this, even if i use it primarily to track my Spotify streaming habits)
- Read and complete at least one (1) book I added to my TBR list on Storygraph
- TBA…
Creative:
- Post at least one (1) fic to Ao3, story completion status irrelevant
- Post one (1) completed fic to Ao3 (story must have some form of conclusion)
- Post three (3) completed fics to Ao3 (for criteria see above)
- Write for a story and/or creative project at least three (3) times every month for 2024, irrespective of word count (even just getting the idea and a little bit of the story itself down helps!)
- Write at least 10k words this year.
- Write at least 50k words this year. (doable)
- Complete the Get Your Words Out 2024 goal I set for myself (Backpacker, 120 days)
Other:
- Listen to at least 2 albums every month. If not that, then 5 songs/tracks every month. (i might use last.fm for this, even if i use it primarily to track my Spotify streaming habits)
- Read and complete at least one (1) book I added to my TBR list on Storygraph
- TBA…
(no subject)
Dec. 28th, 2023 01:35 amUnfortunately this is more draftposting. not much to show but whatevs
Again: everything (except the first one) is <1k words and rated PG-13.
Untitled
Series: Reverse 1999
Relationship(s): F/F – Tooth Fairy/Ms. Z
Summary: i actually banged this one out without really thinking too much, so it’s all over the place. it’s scene 1 out of 3 loosely connected scenes. also this is around 1k+ words just fyi
( Read more... )
Untitled
Series: Reverse 1999
Relationship(s): Gen (Blonney talking about astrology with a bunch of other characters in the finished fic – for now, it’s just her and Ms. NewBabel in this one dialogue heavy scene)
Summary: Blonney gets into astrology, like really into it. because she’s a star arcanist but this is going to be a character study first and foremost
( Read more... )
Untitled
Series: Reverse 1999
Relationship(s): kinda brief maybe Tooth Fairy/Ms. Z in the finished fic but otherwise Gen
Summary: this is very much unfortunately a wingfic!semi-AU kind of fic. also, it’s part of a series of loosely connected fics about Sotheby giving everyone else potions that cause mayhem, and it’s usually unintentionally. never trust a twelve year old alchemist.
( Read more... )
and surprise BONUS FOURTH that no-one asked for:
Untitled Disco Elysium AU
Series: Bocchi the Rock!
Relationship(s): Gen (N/A for now – if any romance does occur, it’s going to be off-screen)
Summary: as the title implies, this is going to be a Disco Elysium Alternate Universe fic starring everyone’s favorite alcholic and certified failwoman, Hiroi Kikuri.
Additional Notes: (also once i finish this i might look for beta(s) so if you’re interested feel free to contact me here,there, or the other place when i’m ready i’ll make a post about it and then share my other socials but. iykyk. for now just look around you might find the links somewhere)
( Read more... )
This is probably going to be the end of these posts for now. (aka i’ll focus on actually writing them… a goal is still a goal)
That’s all for now, thanks for reading!
Again: everything (except the first one) is <1k words and rated PG-13.
Untitled
Series: Reverse 1999
Relationship(s): F/F – Tooth Fairy/Ms. Z
Summary: i actually banged this one out without really thinking too much, so it’s all over the place. it’s scene 1 out of 3 loosely connected scenes. also this is around 1k+ words just fyi
( Read more... )
Untitled
Series: Reverse 1999
Relationship(s): Gen (Blonney talking about astrology with a bunch of other characters in the finished fic – for now, it’s just her and Ms. NewBabel in this one dialogue heavy scene)
Summary: Blonney gets into astrology, like really into it. because she’s a star arcanist but this is going to be a character study first and foremost
( Read more... )
Untitled
Series: Reverse 1999
Relationship(s): kinda brief maybe Tooth Fairy/Ms. Z in the finished fic but otherwise Gen
Summary: this is very much unfortunately a wingfic!semi-AU kind of fic. also, it’s part of a series of loosely connected fics about Sotheby giving everyone else potions that cause mayhem, and it’s usually unintentionally. never trust a twelve year old alchemist.
( Read more... )
and surprise BONUS FOURTH that no-one asked for:
Untitled Disco Elysium AU
Series: Bocchi the Rock!
Relationship(s): Gen (N/A for now – if any romance does occur, it’s going to be off-screen)
Summary: as the title implies, this is going to be a Disco Elysium Alternate Universe fic starring everyone’s favorite alcholic and certified failwoman, Hiroi Kikuri.
Additional Notes: (also once i finish this i might look for beta(s) so if you’re interested feel free to contact me here,
( Read more... )
This is probably going to be the end of these posts for now. (aka i’ll focus on actually writing them… a goal is still a goal)
That’s all for now, thanks for reading!
(no subject)
Dec. 26th, 2023 10:27 pmAs promised, the fic drafts posts i've been meaning to uh. post but haven't already done!
All fics are <1k words and PG-13 (in Ao3 terms, General audiences or Teen & up audiences) unless otherwise stated.
An-An Lee’s Casefiles: The Suitcase Spooks (title is tentative)
Series: Reverse: 1999
Relationship(s): Gen
Summary: (straight from da word processor) A ghost is haunting Vertin’s suitcase, so An-An Lee is on the case!
( Read more... )
Untitled
Series: Reverse: 1999
Relationship(s): Gen (the intent of this fic when it's finished, anyways. Blossica if you squint)
Summary: the finished fic is going to be relationship study kinda, but this very brief excerpt is all about Blonney falling asleep against Jessica's body.
( Read more... )
Untitled
Series: Reverse: 1999
Relationship(s): Gen (the finished fic may include slight Vertin/Schneider, but it's not going to be in-your-face, if you catch my drift)
Summary: inspired by this fanart. Role-swap AU (shall we call it a role reversal?) where Schneider becomes the Timekeeper.
( Read more... )
All fics are <1k words and PG-13 (in Ao3 terms, General audiences or Teen & up audiences) unless otherwise stated.
An-An Lee’s Casefiles: The Suitcase Spooks (title is tentative)
Series: Reverse: 1999
Relationship(s): Gen
Summary: (straight from da word processor) A ghost is haunting Vertin’s suitcase, so An-An Lee is on the case!
( Read more... )
Untitled
Series: Reverse: 1999
Relationship(s): Gen (the intent of this fic when it's finished, anyways. Blossica if you squint)
Summary: the finished fic is going to be relationship study kinda, but this very brief excerpt is all about Blonney falling asleep against Jessica's body.
( Read more... )
Untitled
Series: Reverse: 1999
Relationship(s): Gen (the finished fic may include slight Vertin/Schneider, but it's not going to be in-your-face, if you catch my drift)
Summary: inspired by this fanart. Role-swap AU (shall we call it a role reversal?) where Schneider becomes the Timekeeper.
( Read more... )
(and i just realized, wow, i haven't done one of these in a while, actually. might share some more tomorrow, but it's not guaranteed.)
That's all. Thanks for reading!Reverse 1999 Questions Twitter Thread
Nov. 12th, 2023 04:08 pmFrom here.
Answering the thread questions here, because I like typing up longform response. Besides my twitter account is a mess anyways.
( Read more... )
Answering the thread questions here, because I like typing up longform response. Besides my twitter account is a mess anyways.
( Read more... )
(no subject)
Nov. 12th, 2023 11:02 amStill feeling a bit off with how I write so… continuing this weekly thing as promised, here I go.
Let’s get straight to the point: I haven’t finished the previously mentioned novels by Upton Sinclair, yet, because life gets in the way sometimes y’know. Also, the pacing in Oil takes its time, not necessarily in a bad way, but it does get description-heavy when it comes to drilling.
However, I did pick up a few interesting poetry-novels along the way from Standard Ebooks: Crane by Jean Toomer (wonderful sharp portrayals of life in the American South and vivid African-American characters) and Mirèio by Frédéric Mistral (a translation from the Langue d’Oc it was originally written in, a long tale spun in rhyme, or a poem-epic, think the style of Rime of the Ancient Mariner, but it’s about Provencal peasants – it just has a similar format).
I’ve also been reading “Tender is the Night” by F. Scott Fitzgerald (specifically the 1934 edition) on the side. Coincidentally it happens to also be set in the French Riviera (or rather the Provencal region, I suppose there’s a difference).
Today I read the Pluralistic post (by Cory Doctorow) titled “"Brand safety" killed Jezebel (11 Nov 2023)”, which brings up various points about news outlets being (to put it nicely) killed off by advertisement companies because of so-called non-compliance to “safe, advertising friendly content”, or in other words non-compliance to junk news.
Here’s my favorite excerpt from this article, which quotes Orwell’s passage about duckspeak in 1984:
It’s a perfectly apt comparison: regurgitated nonsense specifically to please somebody, a “higher power” perhaps, someone that you’ve probably never met before.
This did remind me of a tweet I saw recently: specifically this one, by Spencer Johnson, in reply to a tweet about Dreamworks co-founder Jeff Katzenberg’s comments about AI. (i’m not sure what Johnson's policy on quoting words are, but if the tweet link is gone I’ll try to get an archived version up.)
I would have more commentary about this excerpt in relation to Orwell’s 1984 and the other forms of “severely condensed speech as to be unrecognizable and stripped of all nuance”, but I don’t really have that much time for it right now, and besides it’s been around 2-ish years since I last read 1984 (back in 2021 btw).
(Brief tangent: I’m not fully over reading 1984 yet – my epub copy (the specific version I was reading you can find here) was filled with highlights, and like one annotation about a specific quote very far in the novel. I still think about the novel from time-to-time.
Truth be told I originally read it specifically for the imaginary intention to “own” people on twitter who were posting that one cartoon of a guy flipping his calendar to 1984 – you’ve probably seen it already – but the reading experience became its own thing outright.
I ended up not owning anyone on twitter (yet!) because 1. I’m still technically on social media hiatus, 2. the cartoon itself became a meme, and 3. the novel is just really hard to digest all at once.)
Ok, brief tangent aside.
I recently broke my NaNoWrimo streak a few days ago due to carelessness, oops. But I did make up for it by writing this instead. Which doesn’t really count for the lost days, but hey! it’s something, isn’t it?
I also hope to participate in the Snowflake Challengethis next year.
In fannish news… not much, lately. I read (and played) through Theft of the Rimet Cup. I think the ending (of the main story) was a bit rushed. (I guess the story does get better as the updates come along – I didn’t think Green Lake Campsite was necessarily rushed at the end, just the characters weren’t fleshed out enough. …which is a general complaint I currently have with the entire storyline as it is right now.)
Pickles is a good boy (the dialogue between him and the other dogs was truly surprising and also a bit hilarious), Melania is best girl (apparently getting her to portray 2+ is good but I don’t feel like rolling the gacha anymore), and Diggers’ personality gets way better once you read his voice lines (and profile).
I don’t have much else to say regarding fannish stuff, so I’ll kinda end it how I did last week.
When writing this I was listening to the album “Raindog” by Stomu Yamashta, and this 1978 DVD excerpt of Dixie Dregs’ live performance at the Montreux Jazz Festival. Both are wonderful. Check them out if you have time.
That’s all for now. Thanks for reading!
Let’s get straight to the point: I haven’t finished the previously mentioned novels by Upton Sinclair, yet, because life gets in the way sometimes y’know. Also, the pacing in Oil takes its time, not necessarily in a bad way, but it does get description-heavy when it comes to drilling.
However, I did pick up a few interesting poetry-novels along the way from Standard Ebooks: Crane by Jean Toomer (wonderful sharp portrayals of life in the American South and vivid African-American characters) and Mirèio by Frédéric Mistral (a translation from the Langue d’Oc it was originally written in, a long tale spun in rhyme, or a poem-epic, think the style of Rime of the Ancient Mariner, but it’s about Provencal peasants – it just has a similar format).
I’ve also been reading “Tender is the Night” by F. Scott Fitzgerald (specifically the 1934 edition) on the side. Coincidentally it happens to also be set in the French Riviera (or rather the Provencal region, I suppose there’s a difference).
Today I read the Pluralistic post (by Cory Doctorow) titled “"Brand safety" killed Jezebel (11 Nov 2023)”, which brings up various points about news outlets being (to put it nicely) killed off by advertisement companies because of so-called non-compliance to “safe, advertising friendly content”, or in other words non-compliance to junk news.
Here’s my favorite excerpt from this article, which quotes Orwell’s passage about duckspeak in 1984:
“When investors and analysts speak of "content" (rather than, say, "journalism"), this is what they mean – a warm slurry of platitudes, purged of any jagged-edged fragments to render it a perfectly suitable carrier for commercial messages targeted based on surveillance data about the "consumer" whose eyeballs are upon it.“
It’s a perfectly apt comparison: regurgitated nonsense specifically to please somebody, a “higher power” perhaps, someone that you’ve probably never met before.
This did remind me of a tweet I saw recently: specifically this one, by Spencer Johnson, in reply to a tweet about Dreamworks co-founder Jeff Katzenberg’s comments about AI. (i’m not sure what Johnson's policy on quoting words are, but if the tweet link is gone I’ll try to get an archived version up.)
I would have more commentary about this excerpt in relation to Orwell’s 1984 and the other forms of “severely condensed speech as to be unrecognizable and stripped of all nuance”, but I don’t really have that much time for it right now, and besides it’s been around 2-ish years since I last read 1984 (back in 2021 btw).
(Brief tangent: I’m not fully over reading 1984 yet – my epub copy (the specific version I was reading you can find here) was filled with highlights, and like one annotation about a specific quote very far in the novel. I still think about the novel from time-to-time.
Truth be told I originally read it specifically for the imaginary intention to “own” people on twitter who were posting that one cartoon of a guy flipping his calendar to 1984 – you’ve probably seen it already – but the reading experience became its own thing outright.
I ended up not owning anyone on twitter (yet!) because 1. I’m still technically on social media hiatus, 2. the cartoon itself became a meme, and 3. the novel is just really hard to digest all at once.)
Ok, brief tangent aside.
I recently broke my NaNoWrimo streak a few days ago due to carelessness, oops. But I did make up for it by writing this instead. Which doesn’t really count for the lost days, but hey! it’s something, isn’t it?
I also hope to participate in the Snowflake Challenge
In fannish news… not much, lately. I read (and played) through Theft of the Rimet Cup. I think the ending (of the main story) was a bit rushed. (I guess the story does get better as the updates come along – I didn’t think Green Lake Campsite was necessarily rushed at the end, just the characters weren’t fleshed out enough. …which is a general complaint I currently have with the entire storyline as it is right now.)
Pickles is a good boy (the dialogue between him and the other dogs was truly surprising and also a bit hilarious), Melania is best girl (apparently getting her to portray 2+ is good but I don’t feel like rolling the gacha anymore), and Diggers’ personality gets way better once you read his voice lines (and profile).
I don’t have much else to say regarding fannish stuff, so I’ll kinda end it how I did last week.
When writing this I was listening to the album “Raindog” by Stomu Yamashta, and this 1978 DVD excerpt of Dixie Dregs’ live performance at the Montreux Jazz Festival. Both are wonderful. Check them out if you have time.
That’s all for now. Thanks for reading!
(no subject)
Nov. 5th, 2023 12:28 amkinda feeling blah about my writing so i’ll try doing this weekly post thing.
Recently I’ve been reading a few of Upton Sinclair’s books, specifically the ones currently in the public domain and on Standard Ebooks (Oil!, King Coal, and The Jungle.)
I’m currently making my way through all three books. Sinclair’s prose is direct and quite vivid, making use of character observations, and lush portrayals of landscapes (especially in Oil! where early twentieth-century California is lovingly described in the early chapters. I especially enjoyed the small town depictions (the billboard slogans!) and freeways before cold war-era highways, where speed cops lurked.)
Upton Sinclair himself was quite interesting – I suggest reading the Encyclopedia Britannica entry on him (his book The Jungle led to the U.S Pure Food and Drug Act being passed, as well as a famous quip: “I aimed at the public’s heart and by accident I hit it in the stomach.”)
He was also a socialist, which tends to reflect in his writing (The Jungle is apparently a good example of this, with its second part and all… however I’m still reading it at the time of writing this post, so i can’t vouch for any Orwell 1984 style “sudden political ramblings” being dropped in the middle of a whole chapter. Maybe Sinclair was the original “drop propaganda in the middle of a chapter” enthusiast-author, not Orwell).
I also finished reading Emily Wilson’s translation of The Odyssey recently – I hope to grab a copy of her recent Iliad translation, perhaps at a local library. Or bookstore. If you’re looking for a Homer translation that isn’t flowery English-bordering-Middle-English (well, I’m just exaggerating here), check out Wilson’s translation(s). Her introductions are really great primers, too.
Currently, I’m obsessed with the theme of “crossing a boundary/crossing boundaries.” I recently read a note about the original Russian title of Crime and Punishment on Wikipedia (yeah, I know) having a alternate, literal translation of crime as a transgression.
Here’s a quick quote from the Wikipedia entry:
I’m also thinking about liminality and liminal deities, which is a legitmate category on Wikipedia and pretty darn fascinating. Something something taboos, geas, and the human fascination with crossing boundaries.
In other news, related to more “fannish” things, I finished watching the plot of the Reverse: 1999 event Green Lake Campsite, say… about 2 weeks ago?
I particularly enjoyed the parodies on horror tropes (especially Horrorpedia’s obnoxious commentary about it), but I really wished they expanded on the “finding yourself/your identity” a bit more. That would’ve made the story over-long, probably. The plot’s emphasis on “sometimes stories can be distorted beyond the truth” was a bit all over the place.
Otherwise, while that theme and message was (in my opinion) not executed effectively, the characters were pretty colorful and I was rooting for Blonney after that one pivotal scene (right before the climax. or dare i say that was the climax? or the pre-climax? wait, this is getting more scandalous…)
I haven’t got to the Rimet Cup event story yet (it’s coming next week on the global server, though) or theAnkh-Morpork Mor Pankh (how do you even spell it) event stories, either.
In other, other news:
For the past 2 years or so, I’ve been listening to matogolf’s soundtrack mixes. They are really good, trust me. You will never notice the transitions between each track (well, usually. there are some exceptions). In particular I’ve been blasting the “Black Rain” soundtrack mix quite a bit, and a motorcycle chase scene is always in the back of my mind while the mix is playing.
That’s all. Thanks for reading!
Recently I’ve been reading a few of Upton Sinclair’s books, specifically the ones currently in the public domain and on Standard Ebooks (Oil!, King Coal, and The Jungle.)
I’m currently making my way through all three books. Sinclair’s prose is direct and quite vivid, making use of character observations, and lush portrayals of landscapes (especially in Oil! where early twentieth-century California is lovingly described in the early chapters. I especially enjoyed the small town depictions (the billboard slogans!) and freeways before cold war-era highways, where speed cops lurked.)
Upton Sinclair himself was quite interesting – I suggest reading the Encyclopedia Britannica entry on him (his book The Jungle led to the U.S Pure Food and Drug Act being passed, as well as a famous quip: “I aimed at the public’s heart and by accident I hit it in the stomach.”)
He was also a socialist, which tends to reflect in his writing (The Jungle is apparently a good example of this, with its second part and all… however I’m still reading it at the time of writing this post, so i can’t vouch for any Orwell 1984 style “sudden political ramblings” being dropped in the middle of a whole chapter. Maybe Sinclair was the original “drop propaganda in the middle of a chapter” enthusiast-author, not Orwell).
I also finished reading Emily Wilson’s translation of The Odyssey recently – I hope to grab a copy of her recent Iliad translation, perhaps at a local library. Or bookstore. If you’re looking for a Homer translation that isn’t flowery English-bordering-Middle-English (well, I’m just exaggerating here), check out Wilson’s translation(s). Her introductions are really great primers, too.
Currently, I’m obsessed with the theme of “crossing a boundary/crossing boundaries.” I recently read a note about the original Russian title of Crime and Punishment on Wikipedia (yeah, I know) having a alternate, literal translation of crime as a transgression.
Here’s a quick quote from the Wikipedia entry:
“In the original Russian text, the names of the major characters have something of a double meaning, but in translation the subtlety of the Russian language is predominantly lost due to differences in language structure and culture. For example, the original Russian title ("Преступление и наказание") is not the direct equivalent to the English "Crime and Punishment". "Преступление" (Prestupléniye) is literally translated as 'a stepping across'. The physical image of crime as crossing over a barrier or a boundary is lost in translation, as is the religious implication of transgression.”
I’m also thinking about liminality and liminal deities, which is a legitmate category on Wikipedia and pretty darn fascinating. Something something taboos, geas, and the human fascination with crossing boundaries.
In other news, related to more “fannish” things, I finished watching the plot of the Reverse: 1999 event Green Lake Campsite, say… about 2 weeks ago?
I particularly enjoyed the parodies on horror tropes (especially Horrorpedia’s obnoxious commentary about it), but I really wished they expanded on the “finding yourself/your identity” a bit more. That would’ve made the story over-long, probably. The plot’s emphasis on “sometimes stories can be distorted beyond the truth” was a bit all over the place.
Otherwise, while that theme and message was (in my opinion) not executed effectively, the characters were pretty colorful and I was rooting for Blonney after that one pivotal scene (right before the climax. or dare i say that was the climax? or the pre-climax? wait, this is getting more scandalous…)
I haven’t got to the Rimet Cup event story yet (it’s coming next week on the global server, though) or the
In other, other news:
For the past 2 years or so, I’ve been listening to matogolf’s soundtrack mixes. They are really good, trust me. You will never notice the transitions between each track (well, usually. there are some exceptions). In particular I’ve been blasting the “Black Rain” soundtrack mix quite a bit, and a motorcycle chase scene is always in the back of my mind while the mix is playing.
That’s all. Thanks for reading!
Here's some rambling about Reverse 1999's plot, to supplement the previous post.
This one's about Vertin's character. Major !!! spoilers for everything up to chapter 3-ish.
( Read more... )
The second and last one here's for chapter 4, which means more spoilers. For those impatiently waiting for the English translation to drop on the global servers: good news, a youtube channel has uploaded the entirety of ch.4 with English voice-overs! also the subtitles seldom transcribe the right thing but it's there, if you need it. Once you're done reading/watching/listening, feel free to stop by again and read this paragraph (and maybe comment on it if you feel like it...).
( Read more... )
Thanks for reading.
This one's about Vertin's character. Major !!! spoilers for everything up to chapter 3-ish.
( Read more... )
The second and last one here's for chapter 4, which means more spoilers. For those impatiently waiting for the English translation to drop on the global servers: good news, a youtube channel has uploaded the entirety of ch.4 with English voice-overs! also the subtitles seldom transcribe the right thing but it's there, if you need it. Once you're done reading/watching/listening, feel free to stop by again and read this paragraph (and maybe comment on it if you feel like it...).
( Read more... )
Thanks for reading.
