robertkeene

[robertkeene]

You, a fool, when characters state different or contradictory things about backstory events or how the world works: This is a plot hole!

Me, wise, enlightened: Not so, neophyte. Have you considered all the exhaustive possibilities in which one of these characters simply has no idea what they are talking about, or better yet, is a fucking liar?

[robertkeene]

One of my favorite tropes is character with a nasty toxic personality who tries very hard to do the right thing anyway

[robertkeene]

do you guys remember that hot second when people were sincerely arguing that em dashes arena telltale sign of ai writing because no human uses those. the em dash, my sweet lover the em dash? for whom I am in a perpetual state of copy paste yearning? the rambler's best friend? do you have any idea how many em dashes I have to cut out of my writing to stop it from being half the text? how on earth did THAT become the punctuation choice that anyone latched onto as the sign of inhuman activity.

[robertkeene]

"I can't believe [media] was actually about _____ the whole time!!!"

[one possible interpretation, yep]

[literally the main theme??]

[worst take you've seen in your life]

[robertkeene]

Hey, Tumblr. You like non-stereotypical depictions of autism? What about ✨ neurodivergent protagonists ✨ ? Yes? What about asexual neurodivergent protagonists that go on chapters-long rants about their special interests? You want gay characters that are important to the plot too? Then I've got the book for you! The author is gay!!! American Psycho, by Bret Easton Ellis, is

[robertkeene]

woop there it is

[robertkeene]

The Beast that Bothers

[robertkeene]

so a lot of fantasy settings do the thing where there’s one or two or maybe three human societies, all based on European cultures unless they’re bad guys, and then the non-human cultures are all based on non-European cultures, like orcs will be loosely based on Mongols and there’ll be an animal race with superficial Native American trappings.  And for many reasons this can get really annoying.

But what if we turn it around?  There’s an awful lot to explore if we stick a different angle on it.  I want to see a thing where the human kingdoms are based on, say, imperial Mali around the time of Mansa Musa and the Mughal empire, and then maybe the orcs are based on pre-Roman Gaul, and the marauding beastfolk raiders look like Polish winged hussars, and your secretive-and-xenophobic but wise-and-spiritual elves or whatever are based on all the most alien and unfamiliar bits of medieval Catholicism.

[robertkeene]

why would you do this to me

[robertkeene]

has anyone figured out how much art you need to make to make your mental illness go away

[robertkeene]

it's impossible to write cyberpunk fiction any more

[robertkeene]

[robertkeene]

there basically isn't a single established action archetype that you can't improve tenfold by making it a girl

[robertkeene]

Being told to stop using em dashes in my writing because ChatGPT uses them a lot and people might think it's written by AI...

[robertkeene]

Acespec Anomalocaris as companions to the heart Opabinias

Get you a little freak here:

Ace

Aro

Aroace

[robertkeene]

People still tend to lump JK Rowling in with the category of ~problematic artists~ and I need everyone to understand that is not the problem with her. She is not comparable to anyone who wrote a piece of fiction you hate, or someone who made rude comments in 2015 and has since learned better.

She is far more like Elon Musk. She is a radicalized person with an extreme amount of social and financial power, and for YEARS she has been using that power to try to influence her government into hurting vulnerable people, on purpose. And she has succeeded. THAT is the problem with her, and THAT is why spending money on her books is so dangerous, not because her books aged badly.

Critiquing her work is fine, of course (I personally was never a fan so I really don’t care) but you NEED to understand that fiction is not the main issue here. And I truly think acting like she’s the same as the rest of any giant list of ~problematic creators of the week~ waters down how dangerous she is.

[robertkeene]