#and this isn't even going into the lack of problem-solving and self-driven research when it comes to interacting with media

[schistcity]

the thing that gets me about the lack of technological literacy in a lot of young gen z and gen alpha (NOT ALL. JUST A LOT THAT I SEE.) isn't necessarily the knowledge gap so much as it's the lack of curiosity and self-determination when it comes to interacting with technology.

you have the knowledge gap side of things, obviously, which highlights issues related to the experience of using pieces of hardware/software becoming detached from the workings of the hardware/software itself. you start seeing people (so called "ipad kids") who are less and less familiar with the basics of these machines—like knowing how to explore file and system directories, knowing what parts of the system and programs will be using the most power and interacting with each other, knowing what basics like RAM and CPU are and what affects them etc. these aren't things you need to sink a lot of time into understanding, but they seem to be less and less understood as time has gone on.

and this lack of familiarity with the systems at work here feeds into the issue that bothers me a lot more, which is a lack of curiosity, self-determination, and problem solving when younger people use their technology.

i'm not a computer scientist. i'm not an engineer. i have an iphone for on-the-go use and i have a dinky 2017 macbook air i use almost daily. that's it! but i know how to pirate things and how to quality check torrented material. i know how to find things in my system directories. i know how to format an external hard drive for the specifications of my computer. i know how to troubleshoot issues like my computer running slowly, or my icloud not syncing, or more program-specific problems. this is NOT because i actually know a single thing about the ~intricacies~ of hardware or software design, but because i've taken time to practice and to explore my computer systems, and MOST IMPORTANTLY!! to google things i don't know and then test out the solutions i find!!!!

and that sounds obvious but it's so clear that its just not happening as much anymore. i watched a tiktok the other day where someone gave a tutorial on how to reach a spotify plugin by showing how to type its url in a phone's browser search bar, then said "i'll put the url in the comments so you guys can copy and paste it!!!!!" like ?????? can we not even use google on our own anymore?? what's happening???

this was a long post and it sounds so old of me but i hear this lack of literacy far too much and the defence is always that it's not necessary information to know or it's too much work but it is necessary for the longevity and health of your computers and the control you have over them and it ISN'T too much work at all to figure out how to troubleshoot system issues on your own. like PLEASE someone help.

[squadron-of-damned]

1/3) The book being praised for something you don't see in it (or isn't even there) doesn't mean that it's not a good book, you know that, right? It just means that people misinterpret it, which is kinda their problem. Not the problem of the book. I don't remember TP announcing "HEY LOOK EVERYONE THIS BOOK IS HERE TO PROMOTE FEMINISM! I AM THE SAVIOUR OF FEMINISIM IN FANTASY!!!".

This is long, so I’ll split this into points, okay? Okay. Here goes:

I cannot disagree that book being misinterpreted as something that it isn’t has no impact on the quality of that book. If my previous answer made it seem that I consider Monstrous Regiment lacking quality because of its interpretation by the readers, I apologize, that came out wrong.

Unrelated to any interpretations of it, I still don’t consider Monstrous Regiment a good book. (I read it way before I came into any sort of a Discworld community, so I know that other people interpretations don’t cloud my judgement here.) The handling of the plot, the narrative construction, the characters, and the development is simply weak. Jokes sadly don’t make a good literature.

That last sentence might come as hypocritical of me and it probably is, because if you have scrounged thorough my AO3, you have probably noticed that I stuff a lot of jokes into my stories. I acknowledge that it doesn’t make the stories a better piece of literature, but I aim to please here. I’m running a sort of a research on that and if a story has a bunch of jokes (their quality doesn’t matter much), more people read it and comment it. (I am deeply convinced that my best works are Cosette Chapeau, all the It’s Quiet In Basketville stories, Rain, if. and They Hadn’t Met at the End of the World.) OK, interruption over.

Tumblr is a hellsite and the overall approach here doesn’t help anything, true. Super annoying and super unhealthy this “Be Pure Or Be Not At All” attitude. I wish I knew where it came from. (No, I don’t really. But if I knew, I might be more focus-angry about it, now I have to be only vague-angry. Does that make sense?) While completely unrelated, the original post which has brought us here, however, was made in reaction on the Discworld Discord server. Although, that doesn’t belittle your point at all. Come to think about it, a lot of those people on the Discord server came there from Tumblr, most likely.

Back to point 2, but your ask comes to it again: It’s not well written, the character develpmont isn’t worth an old slipper if it happened at all, if you measure by something so subjective as relatableness, I can tell you I can’t relate to any single person there, and if the character development is worth an old slipper, the plot is worth, like, half a sole.

The most irking of all is the combination of being praised as the UwU Pure Perfect And The Best Book and actually being the boiled wilted spinach from refrigerator (You know the one, the one they made in your school canteen? The one which didn’t classify as goo only because there were bits in it? Like, it was edible and din’t have much of a taste, but it represented everything bad with the school canteen? No? My, what school canteen had you even? Can I see it, please?).

The fact that it isn’t a good book doesn’t make it a horrible book, though. I am saying it’s bad, but I’m picky. It’s just not good.

The fact that it isn’t a good book doesn’t mean you can’t enjoy it. You surely can. If you enjoy it, good for you. I’m glad you have fun.

Okay, book talk over, let’s look at the ladies.

Look at the characters of: Susan Sto Helin, Granny Weatherwax, Tiffany Aching. Just the main heroes, those show it the most. Or even Tiffany and Susan. You find out that basically all that they have different are the circumstances. Pratchett’s women are Strong Independent Ladies who take None Of Your Bullshit, and Aren’t Paid Enough To Solve Your Problems And Will Let You Know It but Will Solve It Anyway Because Someone Has To.

Their weakness is their pride and self-confidence.

It’s like those dress up games where you can change the hairstyles and clothes and that’s it. It might look a bit different, but the blueprint is the same. Once you notice this Independent Woman thing, you start seeing it everywhere. Ms. Cake, Angua, Cheery, Rosie Palm, Madam Meserole.

The characters which didn’t start as that evolve into it. In case of Cheery it was over the spawn of 1 book. Magrat took a bit longer, maybe. I mean, I haven’t really paid her much attention when I read about her when I was younger and then Lords and Ladies happened.

I give credits to Terry realizing that women aren’t just a romantic interest, but I would like to see the same amount of differences between female characters like he as among men. A Deciever like Lipwig is. someone selfishly-blind and sometimes blindly-stupid as Downey? Well meaning but quite useless as Verence? Good in theory but idiot in normal life like Stibbon? What about just simply driven by desire for material (and maybe emotional) security (that is Rincewind)?

Sybil Ramkin is quite the exception. Yes, she is also a Strong Independent woman, but she doesn’t rub it into everyone’s face just because. She shows her strength and independence only when there is no one to do it instead, or when she is asked to. But it’s not her job otherwise and she isn’t going to show off.

Okay, another exception is Nightshade in Shepherd’s Crown. Have read that book only once, but okay, this one had a lot of character development for one book.

There are surely some other exceptions, but the thing is that they are very very very very minor. You are more likely to find two basically same female characters than different ones.

(I am a bit salty about that because it gave me the wrong idea about what I was supposed to grow up into, but that’s more of a me-problem.)

If I wasn’t clear somewhere, let me know. My only problem is that I am not good at explaining things that come as obvious to me.