turboshitnerd asked: physics, philosophy, literature, ideas, anime reblogs
[envisions this as a list of interests in a dating profile, cringes]
turboshitnerd asked: you made me have to go back and look for it!! damn so sneaky, i would literally NEVER have caught it if you hadn't been all "this is what the refrance". Never mind it doesn't make chronological sense, but whatever, lol. Chesscourt definitely seems like the kind of thing she'd positively devour though.
See, I think I have a bad sense of these things – I thought it would be really obvious and was confused when no one pointed it out
As for chronological sense, yeah, it’s definitely meant to be an AU thing. It would be pretty weird if TNC and SU were canonically in the same universe, after all.
turboshitnerd asked: The more TNC i read the more it just seems as though this story is just you trying to come to terms with your feelings about Act 6 by writing about the idea of "Act 6 taken to its logical extreme". Of course it's inspired by more than that, it reminds me of what i've heard about Dave Sim somewhat as well, but still.
Oh, definitely. I mentioned a long while back that I wanted to write a story about this kind of thing (Act 6, Dave Sim, Finnegans Wake, etc.) and this is that story. Colored disproportionately by Act 6 because that’s the one I had the most personal stake in and saw while it was happening.
turboshitnerd asked: the whole "you pervert *slap*" thing isnt there out of formal constraint, its there because Obviously Anime Must Pander To Men At All Times Or Else. But I guess same diff ultimately
I guess I’m confused how it appeals to anyone, though? Like, it is the kind of thing I would have found funny (perhaps as a result of being male) when I was maybe 14, but even then, I would have gotten tired of the joke after seeing it 2 or 3 times. So who is it that is being pandered to by the endless repetitions of that trope and similar tropes?
ETA: I guess what I’m saying is, the best explanation I’ve come up with for stuff like this is that it is just sort of a pleasant cue that reminds people who like anime that they’re watching anime, like Pavlov’s dogs hearing bells. Are these tropes any good? Who knows, but you’ve come to associate them with that cool, refreshing Japanese medium you crave™.
a race of butt people who unearth the code from an ancient temple and decide to play SBUTT
You know, I’d made the Homestuck connection myself, but I hadn’t realized that naturally the species playing SBUTT would have to be, in some way, butt-centric
turboshitnerd asked: I use Chrome, twitch chat works fine for me. Must be something with you.
Huh, weird. I Googled the error message I was getting (something about Flash not loading) and got a bunch results that all amounted to “oh yeah it doesn’t work with some versions of Chrome.” (And I have the latest version)
turboshitnerd asked: what do you think about this potato chip i found that looks like a face
is it the face of a neo-reactionary. are you trying to trick me
turboshitnerdsaid: which evangelion character do you think would be the most into memes
If we’re taking Rebuild into our purview here then obviously Mari.
Otherwise, uh … I dunno, probably Kensuke? Although that’s kind of a cheap answer since Kensuke is an all-around “ubernerd stereotype” figure and could work as an answer for any question of the form “which evangelion character do you think would be the most into [nerdy thing].” Unsure about any of the more major characters
turboshitnerd asked: I thought that said "Spaceships shouting at each other"
Imperial Starship Excalibur: Your antimatter containment fields are shit! I’ve seen better antimatter containment fields on space kayaks!
Trading Vessel Alberich: Oh, like you’re so great – how’s that critically damaged Roentgenium array working out for you?
Imperial Starship Excalibur: I thought we went over this, we do not talk about my fucking Roentgenium array, I have a thing about my Roentgenium array
Trading Vessel Alberich: Oh but you can talk about my fields all day? Fuck you! Fuck you and your stupid sword name and the Class IV wormhole you rode in on!
turboshitnerd asked: it's kind of weird to say "a lot of people like this thing so it's not bad". like, badness is a subjective thing that's personal to whoever is making the judgment, it's not objective and it's certainly not based on popularity. like, if a lot of people see something good in a story that's great, but i don't see why that should stop anyone from saying that in their opinion something is bad.
I think statements like this often come from a populist / anti-elitist sense that “good art” basically means “art that people enjoy.” And therefore that popularity is, if not a perfect one-to-one indication of whether something is good, it’s a pretty informative barometer.
(I don’t know if this is what hot-gay-rationalist was thinking, but it’s something you hear a lot from people who identify strongly as “genre fiction fans” – stuff like “sci-fi / fantasy / mystery / romance / etc. fiction are what really provide the things people want out of fiction, and more ‘sophisticated/literary’ fiction is just highly valued because of a bunch of historical accidents”)
This kind of thinking works well in cases where the purpose of something is more straightforward and there is only one kind of “taste.” Say, if you’re buying power tools, the fact that a certain tool is the most bought and best-reviewed on Amazon doesn’t necessarily mean it’s good, but it’s informative evidence. And (I guess this is the analogy to fiction) if you found an alternative tool that only a few people used, and those people wrote all these highfalutin' essays about how good it was, and most of the Amazon reviews were like “I tried to use this and it would not drill a hole, I wanted to drill a hole, 1 star” … well, you’d be kind of skeptical.
I have a bunch of problems with this view when applied to art, the main one being that it just doesn’t take into account that people’s taste can change, and that people can develop new tastes. If something is hard to get into because it makes a lot of references, that limits its appeal to people who know the references, but it’s possible to become someone who knows the references by doing some background reading. People can acquire new tastes, get bored of old stuff and start to crave more variety, etc. Generally, there aren’t works of art that are literally inaccessible in the sense that, like, you’re not allowed to read the book unless you’re over 6 feet tall or something; there are barriers to entry, but individuals can often do things to overcome those barriers. (In the power tools analogy, it’s more like there being some really good tools out there that are not very intuitive to use. You’re free to learn to use them, it’s just that inevitably, fewer people do.)