RL Anger

[Arkandel]

Here's a question though... how important are the non-essentials for you before you'll like a book less or even more?

For instance stuff like... having an appropriately gendered protagonist (not necessarily the hero) in there to identify with, or starting to ship characters in non-romance novels then getting more/less into it based on whether it goes the way you want. That kind of thing, how much does it influence you?

[Tinuviel]

@Arkandel It depends what I went into the story looking for. If it's something to while away the time, say on a commute, I go for realism (in so far as the characters are realistic, three-dimensional, with development) over anything else. I don't typically hold an agenda when I read, and it sometimes troubles me when the author does.

That said, I often use stories as a way to live lives I'll never encounter - I'm a big fan of historical fiction for this reason. So typically I enjoy stories more centered around my more fantastic interests. Travel, sailing, getting the girl-and-or-boy in the end. I'm a bit of a sap.

I don't usually engage in shipping - and I abhor people that ship real-life persons - but I do like romantic subplots. So long as they make sense.

[Kanye Qwest]

Not so much, thinking about it. I just don't want glaring things slapping me in the face and ruining my immersion in the story. Give me something or someone to sink my teeth into and then don't fuck it up.

[Lain]

I generally just want to see some new angle on things in fiction. You only get that so often. Some weird shit, like House of Leaves. When they break the rules, but in a clever way. It's why, when mockumentaries were still new, I was captivated; because I had not seen one yet.

I'm sick of just absorbing characterization and such. It's trite.

[Ghost]

@Lain I fucking loved House of Leaves. Big thanks to @Auspice for recommending it.

[surreality]

@Arkandel I have to be able to empathize, at least to some minor extent, with at least one character.

Barring that, there has to be some hook of other interest -- for instance, if a book included egregious costume geekery I might like it for that reason.

Some authors I'll give more leeway than not. Clive Barker can almost always hook me in, even if it doesn't happen immediately (rare), so it's worth getting to page 200 before the wow hits, because I have a reasonable certainty that even if delayed, the payoff in terms of 'wow factor' is going to be there.

I don't ship character pairs. Not in books, not in series, not in movies. It's just not my thing. I'd rather see the story play itself out as intended and appreciate it for what it is than set up additional hopes or expectations like this that could otherwise interfere with my enjoyment of it.

[Lain]

I'm mad and worried that America could go through a second civil war, that when that happens it'll get desperate enough to conscript even my fat ass, and that I'll either die from this war or I'll come back from it fully uncivilized due to a combination of shell shock and just being plain sick of this shit existence.

I'm mad at myself because I can't tell if I'm just being neurotic with this concern.

[Ghost]

@Lain

I'm kinda picturing one side of this potential civil war having military BDUs with corporate sponsorship patches based on the modern age Plutarch who conscripted you.

"SERGEANT Bob McBob, United States Marine Corps, 2nd Ronald McDonald house Batallion as brought to you by Blue Cross Blue Shield, Wal-Mart, and Johnson and Johnson reporting for duty SIR."

Next life I wanna come back as a kangaroo. Fuck this shit.

I wanna be a kangaroo that hops around, gets in fist fights with koalas, and hooks up with a wallaby to cross-breed a wallaroo because, god damn it, I believe in diversity

[surreality]

@Ghost "Planet Starbucks."

[Lain]

Which side will you be on? :^)

[Apos]

@Lain God almighty that's cringey af.

[Misadventure]

I choose neither side, 4chan isn't a blip on my radar.

Have fun!

[Lain]

@Misadventure 4chan is actually starting to lose some steam. It's dispersing into lots of little outposts, other chan sites, that run on the same software but have different administrators.

[Thenomain]

@Ghost said in RL Anger:

@Lain I fucking loved House of Leaves. Big thanks to @Auspice for recommending it.

I read it then I promptly forgot about it.

Except I kept thinking about it.

I kept thinking about how it was too long, how it was an obvious and almost trite metaphor, but also how the metaphor changes throughout the book as the fictional author seems to work out what the story is about, and how that there are two stories going on at the same time but I was far too tired by the end to read the extras except the one that you are told you must read now and I remembered the X on the bottom corner of page 164 and that's when I realized the brilliance of the book.

In the end, though, my thoughts end up about how Poe got the shaft from her music publisher and I wish she could release more albums.

edit: And that makes me angry.

[Tinuviel]

@Ghost I had kangaroo for dinner...

[surreality]

My Surgeon
"...you have old scars other places not from antibiotic! Is perfectly good medicine. Not giving you different one... you don't need one any more anyway, is perfectly fine now!"

MOTHERFUCKER, THERE IS NOT A SINGLE THING 'PERFECTLY FINE NOW' UNLESS MONTHS-LONG, EXCEEDINGLY PAINFUL NIPPLE STIGMATA HAS BECOME A THING AND SOMEONE IS ABOUT TO BUILD A SACRED SHRINE TO MY LEFT TIT, THANK YOU VERY MUCH.

[Aria]

@surreality -- Hey! The left one is where I have my biopsy scar from 'discovering I don't have cancer' that I really super hate for a multitude of reasons. Our left tits can be grizzled old drinking buddies trading war stories.

That... that totally makes it better, right?

[surreality]

@Aria Our left tits should absolutely bond over coffee some time and trade war stories, definitely.

It went from 'what in the actual fuck is happening here' randomly lactating (when I am not and have never been pregnant, guys, this is trippy as fuck) at certain hormonal shift times o' yon month, then? Blood. Because that's so much better and less disturbing. Then it backed up, and they've been hacking at it ever since in various ways for the better part of two months.

They are concerned it could be cancer, but can't check with a mammogram until it drains completely, and it keeps filling up with blood faster than anything heals up at this point. Like, I do not have this much blood to spare, I'm pretty sure.

It gets most of the way there! Then that monthly timer kicks in, and it's time to be a blood fountain again as the cycle begins anew. And this shows no signs of stopping, which means the tests never being able to get done. Which... pretty sure that's something to be concerned about!

Y'all, I clearly TL'd werewoof too long, I have developed a Tell in RL apparently.

[Aria]

@surreality -- Personally, with the rate of breast cancer in my family, I'm pretty much just waiting for mine to try and kill me. It's like having squishy time-bombs strapped to your chest that everyone else but you thinks are just fucking fabulous. I cannot imagine having something else that is so awful also going wrong with the damned things. This sounds horrible and I am so, so sorry that you're dealing with this.

[TNP]

@surreality Sounds kind of like that House episode where endometrial cells migrated to other parts of the body of this woman. As cells do, they multiplied and once they hit critical mass, started bleeding on her monthly timer. Not sure if that's actually possible.