In near-future speculative fiction story, highly politicized faction refuses to use pronouns completely. Including indefinite pronouns. Including first-person pronouns.
Can conceivably be pro- or anti- inclusivity ideology, small group or large group.
Faction's speech is weird and stilted, although similar to English "brevity wording" found on signs and instruction manuals. Surprisingly easy to understand, considering complete restructuring of speech pattern and grammar.
Same group does not use contractions, but unrelated. Abandonment of contractions pure affectation driven by pomposity.
Blog post is self-demonstrating.
There are books now that are specifically used as status symbols: people use them to appear to be the person they want others to see them as.
Consumer culture has the distressing effect of enhancing the human tendency to convince oneself that one liked something, for the sake of conformity and peace of mind. People tell themselves that they liked what they were told they should like.
Reviewers often wind up with extreme biases for and against certain types of works, for similar reasons to the above. It's also not too crazy to consider there may be some corruption in the literary review community.
Marketing is now a powerful discipline with cutting-edge psychology behind it. When used by trained professionals instead of incompetent corporate outcasts, it can essentially function as mind control, even for the well-informed.
Also, "Nobody ever went broke underestimating the taste of the American public."
TL; DR: Don't feel bad about hating something everyone else seemed to love. There are many reasons why terrible books can get good reviews. And your own opinion is still a valid opinion, even if it's contradictory.
the sense of horror when you finish a book that was Ass Bad and you go to see what fellow haters are saying but all the reviews say it is the best thing they've ever read. feel like i just saw my reflection in the mirror move all by itself or something
Other similar things people say are:
"Oh, I was just curious."
"I was just asking a question!"
"Apparently you can't take criticism."
"If you can't take a little criticism, you shouldn't blah blah..."
"I'm just sayin'!"
"You need to touch grass."
"You take everything too seriously."
It's all the same redirection trick.
Complicating matters is the fact that not everyone who redirects this way is consciously aware of what they're doing and may not even have genuine malicious intent. People don't want to admit to any bad qualities... some people redirect like this so they don't have to admit to themselves that they were thoughtless or malicious.
That doesn't justify their behavior, however. It just makes it harder to correct.
You're not "too sensitive" for getting upset when someone purposely upsets you. It's not "just a joke". They know what they're doing. They're just hiding their bullying behind the label of joking so they can play innocent.
rocket man is a better song than space oddity and i will fight you over this
--Hey, didja hear what happened to Brett?
--No, tell me!
--Well, last night, some assholes came out to his dock and ripped off his Johnson.
--What?! Is he gonna be okay?
--Yeah, he was in bed, he slept through the whole thing.
--How can someone sleep through getting their Johnson ripped off?
--Yeah, he's a pretty heavy sleeper, I guess.
--That's... so weird. But is he gonna be okay?
--Oh, he's not hurt at all. They never even came in the house.
--Wait, what?!
--They didn't actually make much noise. But now he needs to borrow your truck.
--To go to the hospital?
--Huh? No, to pick up his spare.
--His spare what?
--His spare Johnson. It's in his shop.
--Okay, why are you messing with me like this?
--What! He's got his spare Johnson up at his shop. He just needs your truck to bring it down here.
--He needs my truck. To pick up his spare Johnson. And attach it, right? After getting his original Johnson ripped off, and he didn't even wake up... or bleed out! Look, what the...
--Well, they didn't actually rip it off, I meant he got ripped off. They had tools, and they unbolted it from the back of the transom.
--...Transom??
--Yeah, you know, the board at the back of the skiff? Where the motor sits?
<long pause>
--You're talking about an outboard motor. A fucking Johnson brand outboard fucking motor.
--Uh, yeah? What did you think I was talking about?
Note that this does NOT say, "If a person cares about you, they will drop whatever they're doing, RIGHT NOW, and rush to your side for any reason you deem sufficiently important, and if they don't, then they don't care about you at all."
“No matter how busy a person is, if they care, they’ll find time for you.”
— Unknown
I kind of doubt that Vivaldi's student orchestra at the girls' school was full of incredibly talented instrumentalists, who could toss off his fast bravura passages without a hitch.
I can't help but imagine them as an ordinary school orchestra, most of whom aren't particularly good or talented... and they all dread orchestra practice, because Fra Antoni refuses to either simplify his masterworks for beginner players, or accept the results. Concerts always sound utterly horrible, everyone slogging through music they barely can play, at various tempos that are all less than Vivaldi is beating, and he's always purple and hyperventilating by the end.
The nuclear war happened so fast, and destroyed so much, that nobody knows, nobody ever knew, whether it was the Russians, the Israelis, President Moncrieff, or Elon Musk who launched the first missiles. And while people may still argue about it, it doesn't matter. The world's irrevocably doomed.
I have thousands of shitposts, rants, and essays sitting in notebooks, left over from decades of not using social media or having many friends. Hold on tight.
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